"IgLW theft B&M 'or the founding of a. CoUtgi ui this Calonf' • Y^LE«¥IM nvEiasinnr- - iLiiiBiaamr • Bought with the income of the Ann S. Farnam Fund ESCHATOLOGY: INDEXES DOGMATIC THEOLOGY BY FRANCIS J. HALL, D.D. A series of ten volumes, each complete in itself, designed to constitute a connected treatment of the entire range of Catholic Doctrine. Vol. I. Introduction to Dogmatic Theology. " II. Authority, Ecclesiastical and Biblical. " III. The Being and Attributes of God. " IV. The Trinity. " V. Creation and Man. " VI. The Incarnation. " VII. The Passion and Exaltation of Christ. " VIII. The Church and the Sacramental System. " IX. The Sacraments. " X. Eschatology. Indexes. By the Same Author The Kenotic Theory: Considered with particular reference to its Anglican forms and arguments: crown 8vo. Evolution and the Fall: Paddock Lectures, igoo-ioio: crown 8vo. Theological Outlines — Three Volumes, i2mo. Vol. I. The Doctrine op God Vol. II. The Doctrine of Man and or the God-Man Vol. III. The Doctrine of the Church and of Last Things The Historical Position of the Episcopal Church: paper covers. The Bible and Modern Criticism: i2mo, paper covers. ESCHATOLOGY INDEXES THE CONCLUDING VOLUME OF THE SERIES DOGMATIC THEOLOGY BY THE Rev. FRANCIS J. HALL, D.D. PROFESSOR OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY , NEW YORK CITY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1 ; Tt £ k H M- V-iC Made in the United States SDeBicatett AS COHPLETING THIS SERIES OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY TO THE BLESSED MEMORY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS THE GREATEST CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGIAN OF CHRISTIAN AGES PREFACE This volume completes the Series of Dogmatic Theology which the writer began to produce sixteen years since. The undertaking was planned, and the accumulation of material begun, in 1886. The length of time taken in completing the work has been due in part, of course, to its largeness; but also to the amount of unescapable routine duty which the writer's work as teacher has imposed upon him, and to his rather limited strength. This volume treats of matters of which our as sured knowledge is comparatively slight, but concern ing which for obvious reasons conjecture has always been busy. The writer has striven to distinguish cor rectly between Christian certainties and speculative opinions, and to confine unqualified affirmations of doctrine to the former. In conformity with the con structive and unifying aim of the whole Series, he has endeavoured, especially in the closing chapter, to link up the doctrine of human destiny with the whole- drama of creation and redemption. He has hoped thus also to bring into clear relief the practical bearing of the revealed faith, as affording the light in which alone men can intelligently pursue their chief and Godward end. viii PREFACE For the purpose of saving space the works most frequently referred to are designated by their authors' names only. The omitted titles are given in the bibliographical footnote at the commencement of the first chapter. CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Part I. Gentilic and Biblical page I i. Gentilic antecedents i § 2. Old Testament developments 3 § 3. Our Lord's teaching 7 § 4. Apostolic teaching 10 Part II. Immortality § 5. The natural arguments 15 § 6. What Christ brought to light 18 § 7. Re-incarnation and pre-existence 21 Part III. Christian Eschatology § 8. Based upon revelation. Spiritism suspicious 23 § 9. Revelation symbolical. Why 25 §10. Christian certainties summarized 28 §11. Cautions as to "pious opinions" 30 CHAPTER II death Part I. Both Natural and Penal \ 1. Is natural to man 33 \ 2. But was to have been obviated 36 5 3. Its non-prevention a penalty of sin 37 Part II. The Particular Judgment \ 4. Death brings irreversible decision for each 40 i 5. Opportunities go on. Even the faithful will need them 42 i 6. But death ends probation for all 44 ix x CONTENTS Part HI. Unrevealed Possibilities „.„_ PAGE § 7. Open doors of hope 47 § 8. Heathen probation and salvation 51 § 9. Election and diversity of future beatitudes 54 CHAPTER III the other world Part I. Receptacles of Souls § 1. In the Old Testament 58 § 2. Hades and Gehenna in the New Testament 60 § 3. Abraham's Bosom, Paradise and Heaven 62 § 4. Theological speculations 67 Part II. Conditions of the Departed § 5. Are they wholly disembodied? 69 § 6. The sleep theory wrong. Conscious activity 72 Part III. The Perfecting of Souls § 7. Genesis of purgatorial doctrine 77 § 8. Need of education, purging and growth 80 § 9. Is pain involved? 83 §10. If so, is it penal? 86 §11. Do perfected souls see God before the consumma tion? 89 CHAPTER IV THE communion of saints Part I. Catholic Doctrine § 1. Definition 93 § 2. Fellowship in the mystical Body 96 § 3. Eucharistic communion 98 § 4. Death merely modifies toi Part II. Communication with the Dead § 5. Lawful cases ID3 § 6. Spiritualism misleading and dangerous 106 CONTENTS xi Part III. Communion by Prayer „.„„ J J PAGE § 7. Prayer the normal method no § 8. Prayer for the departed 113 § 9. Prayer of the departed. Comprecation 117 §10. Invocation of saints 119 $ii. Honouring the saints 125 CHAPTER V THE DAY OF THE LORD Part I. The Second Advent § 1. Its certainty 129 § 2. The time and signs thereof 133 § 3. How and where He will come 135 § 4. The events of that day 137 Part H. Incidental Questions § 5. The millennium 140 § 6. Antichrist 143 § 7. Possibilities of progress in civilization 145 Part HI. The Resurrection of the Dead § 8. The Creeds and the New Testament 148 § 9. Identity of the resurrection body 152 §10. Its changed state 157 §11. Its fitness for the use of glorified spirits 158 CHAPTER VI THE GENERAL JUDGMENT Part I. The Judge § 1. Is divine and fully equipped 163 § 2. Is human, with experience of our difficulties 165 § 3. Just and fair 167 § 4. Merciful *7° xii CONTENTS Part II. Those Who are Judged pAGE § 5. All men and angels 173 § 6. According to their deeds 175 § 7. As building and revealing character 178 § 8. Christians and non-Christians, according to their light 180 Part III. Aspects and Results § 9. The decisive completion of all previous judgment. . 183 §10. Eternal validity and finality 186 §11. Twofold results 188 §12. Certain accretions of doctrine to be eliminated. ... 190 CHAPTER VII FUTURE PUNISHMENT Part I. Its Duration and Nature § 1. A just sense of sin needed for its consideration. ... 193 § 2. Ecclesiastical teaching and catholic consent 196 § 3. Biblical confirmation 198 § 4. Poena damni 201 § 5. Pcena sensus 204 § 6. Degrees and mitigations 208 Part II. Difficulties and Considerations § 7. Difficulties 211 §8. Practical considerations. Fear and love as motives . 219 Part III. Errors § 9. Restorationism 222 §10. "The wider hope." Eternal judgment 226 §11. Conditional immortality 228 §12. Theosophy and Christian Science antichristian ... . 231 CHAPTER VIII THE GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION Part I. Its General Nature § 1. The closing scene of the divine drama 234 § 2. A new temporal and spatial order 236 CONTENTS xiii PAGE § 3. The triumphant sovereignty of personal spirits 239 § 4. Establishment of the kingdom of right 241 Part IL The Mystery of Life § 5. Evolutionary adjustment 243 § 6. Christ's definition of life 246 § 7. Social aspect. The Church 248 § 8. The flowering of congeniality and love 250 Part HI. Heavenly Blessedness § 9. Heaven 253 §10. Happiness and blessedness 256 §11. Particulars of blessedness 259 §12. God all in all 262 Bibliographical Index 265 Subject Index 297 ESCHATOLOGY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION I. Gentilic and Biblical § i. Eschatology 1 has to do with the last things, death and after, whether of individuals, of man kind, or of the visible universe. It presupposes that men survive bodily death and that the end of this world is not the end of all things. Not all races have considered whether this world will come to an end and what, if any, events will 1 On Eschatology at large, see S. C. Gayford, Future State; R. E. Hutton, Soul in the Unseen World; Darwell Stone, Outlines of Christ. Dogma, ch. xiv; H. B. Swete, Life of the World to Come; E. Griffith- Jones, Faith and Immortality; H. R. Mackintosh, Immortality and the Future; Jos. A. Beet, The Last Things, 5th Ed.; Jas. Fife, The Hereafter; St. Thomas, Summa Theol., Suppl. brix-c; Jos. Pohle, Eschatology; Cath. Encyc, and Hastings, Encyc. of Relig., q.vv. Ex haustive bibliographies up to i860 in W. R. Alger, Crit. Hist, of the Doctr. of a Future Life. On its history, Ethnic, Jewish and Christian, see S. D. F. Salmond, Christ. Doctr. of Immortality, 4th Ed.; R. H. Charles, Crit. Hist, of the Doctr. of a Future Life; E. C. Dewick, Primitive Christ. Eschatology; W. O. E. Oesterley, The Doctr. of Last Things, Jewish and Christian; H. A. A. Kennedy, St- Paul's Con ceptions of the Last Things; J. A. Macculloch, in Hastings, Encyc. of Relig., s.v. "Eschatology"; and the Histories of Doctrine, passim. 2 INTRODUCTION follow. But belief in human survival after physical death has been practically universal from the earliest ages concerning which we have pertinent and trust worthy information.1 How such belief originated is disputed; but that men should in time have ac quired it was practically inevitable, in view of the universal non-satisfaction in this life of men's natural cravings for happiness and for a proper equation in the distribution of justice. Human instinct and reason have been unable to acquiesce in the notion that death ends all; and the lack of rational dem onstration of a future life has not prevented this belief from holding its own. But men's ideas concerning human conditions and destinies after death have varied greatly, often being very crude and even grotesque among backward races, and being determined in their development by the ruling ideas of God or of the gods, and by the prevailing ethical conceptions. Only as men have advanced towards monotheism, and an enlightened belief in divine power, providence and righteousness, have they acquired an eschatology that is susceptible of truly rational and moral defense. As will be shown in due course, it was Jesus Christ who first brought immortality to light in its true perspectives;2 and it is upon His teaching that we depend for the knowledge of the future upon which our assured hopes rest. The forms of thought and symbolical terms which Christ employed in His eschatological teaching were 1 S. D. F. Salmond, pp. 10-13. 2 Cf. pp. 18-19, below. GENTILIC AND BIBLICAL 3 largely those which had been gradually developed among the Hebrews under divine tutelage in the old covenant. But the Hebrews entered upon this school ing with conceptions of the future which were of the most uninspiring nature. As these conceptions in certain respects resemble those previously prevailing among the Babylonians, we are led to infer that Abraham brought them with him from his Chaldean birthplace. But none the less, under the influence of his acceptance of the true God, the eschatology which he transmitted to Israel, unethical and unin spiring though it was, had been relieved of various polytheistic and mythical elements which were patently inconsistent with true religion. This eschatology does not appear to have been modified or enriched by Israel's residence in Egypt; for Egyptian ideas, in important respects more ad vanced than those of the Hebrews, are conspicuously absent from early Old Testament documents. The eschatology with which the chosen people began their divinely guided development appears, there fore, to have been derived from an expurgated Baby lonian tradition. § 2. According to this eschatology, which is indi vidual in reference, men survive but cannot really be said to live after death. They abide in Sheol, • a cheerless region in which practically all that makes life worthy of the name is wanting. Sheol was also thought to lie outside the dominion of Jahveh; and as the pious Israelite came to find increasing joy 4 INTRODUCTION in communion with God, he likewise increasingly shrank from contemplating his personal future after death. He derived no hope from considering his present favour with Jahveh; for, according to this eschatology, the good and the evil, saints and sinners, share in Sheol the same fate, the same separation from God.1 This non-ethical and pagan conception cannot, of course, be regarded properly as the inspired teaching of the Old Testament, so much as a divinely permitted register in Scripture of earlier and as yet uncorrected ideas.2 The meaning of life had to be assimilated before the foundations of a true doctrine of immortality could be laid; and even then the Israelites had to become truly monotheistic, before they could rightly apprehend the presence and saving power of Jahveh in the region and shadow of death. When the chosen people learned that life meant life with God, they had taken a long step towards the true belief in im mortality. But so long as the Israelites regarded Jahveh primarily, perhaps wholly, as a national God among other deities, having a limited domain, one confined to this side of the grave, the immediate effect of their discovery of the meaning and joy of life was to make them cling to this world rather than advance to a higher idea of the other world. When, 1 Psa. vi. s; xxx. 9; lxxxviii. 5; Isa. xxxviii. 18-19. Ci. Isa. xiv. 9; Eccl. ix. 4-6. 2 A notable illustration of the futility of an undiscriminating appeal to proof-texts in doctrinal argument. GENTILIC AND BIBLICAL $ however, the all-embracing sovereignty of Jahveh came to be realized, and His loving care for the righteous was reflected on, a higher and ethical conception of the future began to emerge. This development was conditioned and facilitated by the then new emphasis placed by Jeremiah and Ezekiel upon the individual, his independent value in God's sight and exclusive responsibility for his own conduct.1 „ — __ In earlier ages the life and future of an individual Israelite were bound up with that of his family, of his tribe and of his people. His religion was social and corporate, and its individual aspect was subordinate. God's covenant was with the people corporately regarded, and the individual shared in its benefits only as member of the chosen race. Upon this basis the doctrine of the Kingdom of God began to be revealed, and became the organizing idea of Old Testament theology. The catholic conception of this Kingdom was at first far from Israel's thought. It was indeed latent in the promise to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed.2 But it was necessary that for a long time Israel should be separated from the Gentiles and be put to intensive training, before the Kingdom could be established in the catholic form that it was divinely intended to have. 1 Cf. Jerem. xxxi. 29-30; Ezek. xviii; Psa. xxxvii. 2 Gen. xii. 3; etc. Cf. Acts iii. 25; Gal. iii. 8. See The Church, pp. 39-41. 6 INTRODUCTION The prophets, indeed, were inspired to describe the world-embracing extent of the Kingdom, and to set forth with increasing determinateness the prom ise of a Messiah who should deliver Israel and rule forever, even over the Gentiles. They also gave intimations of the spiritual nature of the Messiah's rule, and of the persuasive power of righteousness in His Kingdom in all the nations. But when the time of fulfilment came the chief priests and scribes of Israel were dominated by political conceptions and did not recognize the Messiah. Only a small spiritual remnant was ready to undertake the high privilege of propagating His Kingdom among the Gentiles and of bringing to actualization its catholic form and triumph. "~So'long as the original and gloomy idea of death and Sheol prevailed, and it did not wholly give way in the Old Testament period, the Israelites looked to this world exclusively as the sphere within which their hopes for the future could be realized. Accord ingly, when they began to think of the individual, a doctrine of resurrection was developed in some circles, but one which at first meant merely a resto ration of righteous Israelites to this life, in order that they might enjoy the expected triumph of Israel in "the day of the Lord." But the succession of disasters which their nation underwent developed among the Jews in later days a darker view of this world, as unfit for the final fulfilment of God's purposes, either for His Kingdom GENTILIC AND BIBLICAL -7 or for righteous individuals. The thought of another and better world gained attention and expression. This was to be introduced by a judgment of the wicked, and by a great cataclysm, in which this world would be ended and a new one established.1 These expectations were embodied in apocalyptic imagery. The doctrine of the resurrection also underwent modification in harmony with this new outlook, and in a Christian direction. But these developments were not completed until after the close of the Canon, and were somewhat confused and mutually incon sistent in details. The resulting apocalyptic literature is of considerable importance, however, because it contains forms of thought, and pictorial symbols, which our Lord and His Apostles, after purging them of fanciful elements, employed in setting forth the true eschatological doctrine.2 § 3. Our Lord's eschatology3 has for its central and determinative elements the Kingdom of God and eternal life to be enjoyed therein. His public preaching began on the lines initiated by His fore- • On O. T. developments, see S. D. F. Salmond, Bk. II; E. C.;, Dewick, Pt. I; A. B. Davidson, Theol. of the O. T., XII; and hv Hastings, Die. of Bib., s.v. "Eschatology"; S. C. Gayford, ch. i. 2 On the later Jewish developments, see E. C. Dewick, Pt. II; W. Fairweather, in Hastings, Die. of Bib., extra vol., pp. 302-307; R. H. Charles, op. cit., and in Hastings, op. cit., s.v. "Eschatology of the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature"; S. C. Gayford, ch. ii. 3 On which, see S. D. F. Salmond, Bk. II; E. C. Dewick, Pt. Ill; Hastings, Die. of Christ, s.v. "Eschatology"; E. W. Winstanley, Jesus and the Future. 8 INTRODUCTION runner, St. John the Baptist, with a call to repentance and to belief in the Gospel because of the prophesied Kingdom of God being at hand.1 And on a certain occasion He summarized the purpose of His Incarna tion in the words, "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." 2 The Kingdom and eternal life were exhibited as beginning in this world — indeed as already present and available, because of His own coming into the world. And He claimed to be the promised Messiah, the King, and the source to all of life everlasting. In brief, the future of men was to be determined by their relation to Himself. But the consummation of the Kingdom and the full enjoyment of fife therein, according to His doctrine, lay in the future. It was to be initiated by a cataclysmic end of this world, when He was to come again in the clouds of heaven and judge all men, they being raised from the dead and either rewarded or punished, according to their deeds, either with unending life or with everlasting fire.3 Speaking as Son of Man, He disclaimed knowledge as to when this final cataclysm would occur;4 but is apparently represented in the Gospels as saying that it would take place before the then existing gen eration passed away — a prediction not verified by the event. In view of our Lord's Person we cannot » St. Mark i. 14-15, etc. Cf. St. Matt. iii. 1-2. 2 St. John x. 10. 3 The Church, pp. 101-104. 4 St. Mark xiii. 32. Cf. St. Matt. xxiv. 36. GENTILIC AND BIBLICAL 9 rationally infer that He erred in such a matter, nor is it the only available conclusion.1 He placed strong emphasis upon the suddenness of the end, and upon the need of watchful readiness at all times. From the prophetic standpoint time is foreshortened, and in view of death, after which repentance is impossible/the end of all things is truly "at hand" in determinative effect. This sufficiently justifies the interimsethic said to characterize our Lord's moral teaching. It requires no particular conviction as to when Christ will come to justify the view that for individuals this world affords only a brief probationary interim, external fortunes in which are important only as providential conditions of preparation for the world to come.2 Concerning the condition and place of the dead previously to the consummation our Lord gives no directly definite teaching, although the parable of the rich man and Lazarus 3 appears to throw indirect light on the intermediate state. Even if the picture there given is accommodated to current imagery and ought not to be pressed literally, we cannot rightly think that Christ would have committed Himself to a misleading portrayal, and certain con ditions after death are unmistakably taken for granted by Him in the parable — for example a sep- 1 See pp. 133-13S, below. 2 On Christ's interimsethic, see Incarnation, p. 274, n. 4; E. D. La Touche, Person of Christ in Modern Thought, pp. 163-167; C. W. Emmet, in The Expositor, Nov., 1912. 3 St. Luke xvi. 19-31. Cf. M. F. Sadler and Cornelius A. Lapide, in loc, and R. C. Trench, Parables, § 26. 10 INTRODUCTION aration between the righteous and the wicked, the former being comforted and the latter suffering, memory of the past, concern for the living and prayer even by the wicked for the salvation of those left behind. Both our Lord and His listeners were chiefly concerned with the final consummation, and the intermediate state did not in that age engage the large attention which it secured in later centuries. § 4. The entire outlook of the Apostles and other disciples of Christ was changed by His resurrection and ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit.1 Their eschatology, in particular, became wholly centred in Christ, and in the immortality which He had brought to light — an immortality determined by relations to Him, and grounded in belief that by His resurrection He has become "the Firstfruits of them that are asleep." 2 The future life was to be a resurrection life, in which man's whole nature, a&fia as well irvedfjia was to have share. St. Paul takes pains to say that our present flesh and blood lacks the power to inherit the King dom. But he proceeds to show that a change will occur at the last trump, which will enable this mortal and corruptible to put on immortality and incorrup- tion, and thus to overcome death. The change re ferred to will convert the caj/xa from its present psychic 1 On apostolic eschatology, see S. D. F. Salmond, Bks. IV-V; E. C. Dewick, Pt. IV; H. R. Mackintosh; H. A. A. Kennedy; E. Griffith-Jones, Pt. II. ch. iii; Hastings, Die. of Apos. Church, s.v. "Eschatology" (E. C. Dewick). 2 1 Cor. xv. 20. GENTILIC AND BIBLICAL n state into a pneumatic state, wherein the limitations now apparent in our bodies will be transcended in incorruption, power and glory. The manner of this change and the condition of the