I. What is being confessed in this article?⤒🔗

Finally, all attention is focused on the day of Christ’s return when he will judge all men.

1. Because it is in God’s Word, we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will come back from heaven at the time appointed by God. No creature knows when that is, but the number of people God has chosen for salvation must first be reached. Then he will come in bodily form and be visible to all, just as he ascended into heaven earlier, gloriously and majestically. He will make himself known as judge both of the living and of the dead. And this old world he will purge with fire.
2. Then all people who ever lived — men, women, and children — will appear before this great judge in person. They will be summoned by the voice of a high-ranking angel and by the sound of a heavenly trumpet.
   For all dead people will rise from the earth and their souls will then be one again with their own body in which they once lived. Those who are still alive will no longer simply die, but will undergo such a change in one moment that they become imperishable.
3. Then the books will be opened, and the dead will be judged according to what they have done in this world, good or evil. Yes, people will even have to answer for every meaningless word, even if the world says it was only said in jest or to pass the time. All that people did in secret and what they feigned will then be openly exposed to all.
4. Therefore it is terrifying to the wicked to think of this judgment — and rightly so — but the believers gladly look forward to it and take comfort from it, for then they will be completely delivered and their labours will be rewarded. Everyone must then admit that the believers are innocent. They themselves will see how God avenges himself in a terrible way against the wicked who have persecuted, oppressed and tormented them in this world. In turn, these oppressors will be forced to admit their guilt, because their own conscience has spoken. They will exist forever, but only to be tormented in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
   The believers, on the other hand, will receive a crown of glory. The Son of God will call out their names before his Father and his chosen angels and openly declare that they belong to him, and God will dry all their tears. Thus it will be found that their cause is not heretical and evil, as many judges and magistrates have ruled, but that it is the cause of God’s own Son. As a reward, the Lord will graciously give his people such great glory as no one could even imagine.
5. Therefore we eagerly look forward to that day, for then we shall enjoy tothe full one hundred percent what God has promised us and what has been paid for by Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.

II. A definite judgment is coming←⤒🔗

1. In this concluding article the church reveals the secret of her strength that enables her to endure under the bitterest persecutions. This secret is that she is fighting for a victorious cause. She knows herself to be involved in the great struggle between Satan and Christ, which, however, has in fact already been won by the latter. In the middle of that battle she expects him back from heaven and that gives her courage and strength. Luther liked to speak of "the sweet final day" and Calvin of "the day of our redemption." After all, the injustices will finally be punished definitively, and the believers will be publicly vindicated.
2. This will be done through Christ, for he “will reveal himself as Judge of the living and the dead.” The Bible clearly teaches that God has given him the right or authority to judge (John 5:22, 27), and Peter says it is he whom God appointed to be judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). And Paul propounds to the philosophers of Athens, that God shall “judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
3. Moreover, he then “sets this old world on fire in order to purge it.” He is not out to destroy the world. God does not abandon his original creation to obliteration. It has a great future ahead. God does not give it over to the bunglers. The new earth of Revelation 21-22 is an extension of the world of Genesis 1 and 2, but also that of Genesis 3 and after. This means that our work today has lasting significance for the new earth (see Revelation 14:13; Matthew 25:14-30).
4. Jesus returns from heaven "bodily and visibly." After all, angels told his disciples immediately after his ascension that he would return in the same way as they saw him going to heaven (Acts 1:11). All men shall indeed "see his coming" (Matthew 24:30-31), “with great glory and majesty," which will be shown, among other things, in that he will send forth his angels with the sound of the trumpet of God (see also 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

III. When this judgment will take place←⤒🔗

1. According to our article, the date of the last day is “unknown to all creatures” (see also Mark 13:32). This may seem to be a loss, but it is not! For through that uncertainty and unawareness the church has been motivated all the ages of her existence to guard against sin and to live in such a way as to expect her Lord at any moment. A church that does not live in the expectation of his return will lose its preparedness and become drowsy. It will easily concentrate only on the "here and now" and thus become careless. In his wisdom, God deliberately never revealed the date and so he keeps the believers awake and watchful. Jesus himself makes this connection: “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come” (Mark 13:33).
2. Many argue that the New Testament does indeed leave us uncertain about the date, but that it did count on a very imminent return of Jesus—something in which it was badly mistaken. Jesus himself says that sprouting leaves will indicate that summer is near and so we too should know “that it is near, at the very gates” (Mark 13:29). And on the last page of the Bible Jesus says repeatedly that he is coming soon (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20). And Paul writes that “the appointed time has grown very short” (1 Corinthians 7:29, 31), and in 1 Corinthians 10:11, he writes that “the end of the ages has come” upon us.
   The expectation of Jesus himself and of the early church would not have come true, because afterwards it turned out that there was no question of a speedy return of Jesus. So the New Testament was somewhat ahead of itself. Is this view correct?
3. We are not going to discuss all the texts mentioned one by one. But one thing is certain: the New Testament also knows that we need to wait, and even expect a long waiting time for Jesus’ return. Think of the bridegroom’s delay in Matthew 25:5. These too are words of Jesus.
   The article itself does not speak directly about the hurry with which Jesus comes. It plainly says that it will be at “the time ordained by the Lord,” and that this time “is unknown to all creatures,” and that then “the number of the elect will be complete.” The latter clearly indicates that God did not arbitrarily choose the last day. His program is to be completed first. This already points to a possible longer term. And that is also reinforced by the biblical statements that preceded it:
   • the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12);
   • wars and rumours of them will take place, but the end is not yet (Mark 13:7);
   • a great apostasy will come first (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8);
   • perilous times will come (2 Timothy 3:1);
   • Satan will be released and will deceive the nations (Revelation 20:7-8);
   • first the gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world (Matthew 24:14).
     ​Both the older part of the New Testament (the gospels) and the later letters or books point in the same direction. Peter, for example, talks later on about scoffers who thought that Jesus would never return, seeing how long it took already (2 Peter 3:3-8) — but we do not find any disappointment with Peter, as if he was disillusioned as well.
4. All things being considered, we find that the Scriptures teach
    a) that the day in question will come soon;  and
    b) that the date is unknown; and
    c) that many things need to happen beforehand.
   Yet the Bible does not contradict itself. We can indicate the connection as follows: in the major developments (c) indicated above, we detect the hasty footsteps (a) of Jesus, who may appear at any moment (b).

IV. All people will appear before the Judge←⤒🔗

1.  According to this article Jesus is the "judge of the living and the dead” (see also 2 Timothy 4:1). None will escape from him. All people who ever lived — men, women, and children — will appear in person.
2. Those who had died before will arise out of the earth “with their own bodies in which they lived." Their resurrection bodies will be completely different from those they had earlier, and yet essentially the same. We already know something similar: that the body of someone who is presently eighty years old is essentially the same as when he was a child, despite the significant differences.
   Why does the article say so emphatically that everyone will appear before Christ with their own bodies in which they once lived? It is in order to indicate that each one remains fully responsible for all that he ever “has done in his body," (2 Corinthians 5:10), even if this were thousands of years ago . No one can say: “I was not like this”! Everyone’s identity is preserved.
   Our article does not mean that the people who appear before Christ will really look like men, women and children. Then there should also be babies and the elderly. Here the intention will be to state as emphatically as possible that no one will be left out because of one’s age or position and that everyone will be judged according to his age and position at the time.
3. It also states that the unbelievers will get their bodies back. Paul says that “there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15). See also Daniel 12:2, John 5:29; Revelation 20:12-13.
4. In 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Paul writes what happens to the believers who are still alive at Jesus’ coming: “They shall not sleep, but they shall be changed, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
   Anyone who claims that it is impossible for the earth to return a body that has been decomposed, forgets that God made the earth and that he has all the elements at his disposal. We cannot comprehend this, but there is more that we cannot grasp and yet we experience it today that a grain of wheat falls into the ground, dies, and... yields a new stalk of grain (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).

V. The dead are judged according to all that they have done←⤒🔗

1. In sober terms, the article nevertheless provides a shocking description of the final judgment. The books will be opened. Nothing appears to have been forgotten.
   All people will even have to “give account for every careless word they have spoken, which the world regards as mere jest and amusement.” This is based also on what Jesus said in Matthew 12:36. Even things that were done in secret will be “uncovered in the sight of all” (see Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:16). Literally all deeds are recorded and will be judged (Revelation 20:12).
2. The article talks about "the books" that will be opened. In earlier editions it was explained that  these are people’s consciences. That has now been omitted as something that could not be upheld exegetically. Revelation 20:12, which speaks of these books, aligns with Daniel 7:10, and there it is not about consciences, but about the recorded evidence in God’s judgment. Note, however, that the article does speak of people’s "own consciences" at the start of the last paragraph of this article.

VI. A horrible and dreadful judgment to the wicked←⤒🔗

1. To unbelieving people, “the thought of this judgment is horrible and dreadful." They will not be able to deny or defend their evil deeds. They will be brought to an acknowledgment of their guilt. This does not mean that they will arrive at a true repentance and conversion. But they will admit — think of Judas, for example — that they did wrong. The article says they come to this conviction “by the testimony of their own consciences.” Their admission of guilt is therefore more than a superficial one. We will have to think of a bitter remorse that will torment them.
2. And they will “become immortal, but only to be tormented in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 21:8). No doubt, then, that this is what will happen. Indeed, this is terrifying and dreadful, greater than the very worst thing that can happen to anyone on earth right now.
3. The church recognizes the wicked here not as mere dissenters, but as those who have “persecuted, oppressed, and tormented the believers in this world.” It was the time of bloody persecutions. That is why there is mention of “the terrible vengeance” that God will bring upon these wicked ones. However, this is not a vengeful terrorist group speaking. Here the church repeats the Word of God. And the Bible tells us that already the blood of the first martyr, Abel, cried out to God (Genesis 4:10), and that also in heaven prayers go up for God’s vengeance (Revelation 6:10). The vengeance of God is that of the righteous Judge, who thereby rights all wrongs.
4. Incidentally, we also need to remember that also the wicked who would not harm a fly are, in principle, enemies of Christ. They are saying no to his love and to his demand to be acknowledged. God will punish the oppressors more severely than those  who have rejected him in other ways (Matthew 11:22, 24). But after all there are only two groups, and all men belong to only one of them (Matthew 25:32-33). One can only be for or against Christ.

VII. Great joy and comfort through complete redemption←⤒🔗

1. The article elaborates extensively and clearly on how liberating this last judgment is for the believers. See also Section I, point 4, above.
2. It is true that Christians too have lived a life filled with sin. Is there then no reason at all for them to dread this day? Are they not to give an account of every idle word? Why then does the article speak of their "innocence"? This does not mean, however, that they were without sin, but that they chose Christ and that therefore “their cause... is recognized as the cause of the Son of God." And that is why they need not fear the judge. The Heidelberg Catechism states in q/a 52 that this judge is the very same person who previously bore God’s punishment for them. Also, Jesus himself says that he who believes in him shall not be condemned (John 3:18).
   The article expresses itself even more strongly when it even speaks of a "gracious reward" that the Lord will give on that day, namely the possession of eternal glory. This implies that choosing for Christ will be rewarded. The article also formulates the same idea: they will then receive the fruits of their labour. Note well: it speaks of a gracious reward: the receiving of these wages and fruits takes place within the framework and on the basis of God’s grace — not on man’s merits; see the article on Article 24, Section V.
   And we even read that the believers are “crowned with glory and honour."
3. “Therefore, we look forward to that great day with a great longing to enjoy to the full the promises of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” In this closing sentence there is not a trace of fear or worry because of that great day. On the contrary, words such as "looking forward" and "longing" and "enjoy to the full" testify to an unrestrained spontaneous desire for Jesus’ return: “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
   The certainty that this great day will bring us redemption is based on the absolutely solid “promises of God in Jesus Christ.” This means that he has paid with his blood for the realization of these promises. And so it contains the absolute divine guarantee that these will become reality.
   It is for that reason that the believers are not waiting in anxious suspense for an uncertain result and verdict of the heavenly judge. They possess God’s trustworthy promises and count on them, anticipating the full enjoyment of them.

Points to discuss←↰⤒🔗

1. Some have difficulty with the meaning or value of the final judgment, because after all, the final verdict is determined immediately after death. Then the believers may come to Christ, but the others may not; poor Lazarus is with Jesus, but not the rich man (Luke 16:22-23; see also John 3:18).
   Is the judgment of the last day then not a foregone conclusion? See also Revelation 6:10.
2. There is a belief that there will be a millennial messianic kingdom prior to the final return of Christ. This is mainly based on Revelation 20:1-4. Find out
   a) how in Revelation 20:4 it speaks of the souls; and
   b) that it says that they came to life again, but not that they rose physically.
   Dr. S. Greijdanus writes in his commentary: “This is not a matter of these souls regaining their bodies. There is no mention here of a bodily resurrection. What is mentioned here happens to the souls. Through death they enter into life: the true, eternal life. And so John saw them taking their seats on thrones in heaven, and reigning with the Lord Christ.”
   Show how this statement refutes the teaching of the thousand-year reign, as well as the richness of this verse.
3. According to the teaching of soul sleep, death rules not only the body but also the soul. For it is a pagan idea that body and soul could be separated. After his death, the whole man knows nothing; he does not become alive again until Christ’s return. The soul does not go to Christ at death.
   Discuss this teaching and refute it using the following texts, among others: Matthew 10:28 (there is a distinction between soul and body!); Luke 20:38; 23:43; John 11:25-26; Philippians 1:23; Revelation 20:4.
4. Is it certain that “Around the throne of God in heav’n thousands of children stand” (Trinity Hymnal #543)? See also Section IV, point 2, above. According to Revelation 20:12, “the great and the small are standing before the throne," by  whom are meant the prominent and the lowly.
5. Before Christ returns, the antichrist will appear. Generally this is thought to refer to one powerful person who will rule the earth. However, should it not be considered whether the antichrist refers to a certain type of person, similar to how we may speak of "modern man." Then one should think of the lawless person or people of the end time. Does not John also speak of antichrists (plural), and even of many (1 John 2:18)?
   In connection with this, is it possible that Christ would return tonight?