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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
25. Part 2, Section 25: Of the Second Coming of Christ
He also will come again to judge the living and the dead, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
His first appearance is past, and his second will also take place. The first was in humiliation, the second shall be in glory. The first was in mercy, the second will be in terrors; for in the first the Son of man came to save the world, but in the second he cometh to judge the world. In regard to this, we have the testimony of eternal truth. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations;” Matth. xxv. 31, 32.
The design of the second coming of Christ is to fulfil the demands of the inviolable justice of God, “to give unto every one according to his works,” and thus completely to finish the work of our salvation; for the blessedness which is purchased by the death of Christ, we expect not on earth; but it is reserved for us in heaven. “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels;” 2 Thes. i. 6, 7. Consequently, this judgment day will be terrible only to unbelieving and unrepenting sinners; but to the faithful, and to such as have continued stedfast unto death in the ways of godliness, it is supremely desirable and joyful. Those will tremble, when they feel the cup of the wrath of God poured out upon them; while these shall rejoice at the reception of the unutterable reward for their constancy in the faith; when they shall be united unto Christ, whose love had burned in their hearts throughout their whole lives.
In what manner shall this awful and impartial judgment take place? There shall be an unexpected shaking of the earth, the sun and moon shall be darkened, the stars will fall from the firmament, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; then the Archangel shall sound the trump, and in the twinkling of an eye the dead shall all arise out of their graves; they shall appear before God in the clouds, and shall await the divine sentence concerning them. At these awful changes in nature, the nations of the earth shall wail and be overcome with grief, such as never was felt from the foundation of the world, and never will be again; they shall be appalled with terror of that which is to come upon all, when there will be no hope from any quarter, except from that faith alone, the sincerity of which is proved by good works.
After these signs, a throne shall be placed for the Son of man, the books shall be opened, in which the state of every one’s conscience shall be made manifest, and then shall the Son of man be seen coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, like the lightning which having illumined the east, in a moment darteth to the west. Then immediately the separation shall be made between the righteous and the wicked, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and the chosen shall be placed on the right hand, and sinners on the left. At this tribunal there will be neither accusers nor witnesses, nor any farther examination. The Judge himself is the searcher of hearts, from whom nothing can be concealed. He shall look upon his chosen sons, the sons of the resurrection, with an eye of ineffable kindness and love; shall call them his faithful servants, friends, children, blessed; and making known unto them his joy at their having remained stedfast in the faith, shall thank them for having fulfilled his will, and for their beneficent deeds, which they shewed to himself in the persons of the poor. Then, as a reward for all this, he shall introduce them into a state of eternal joy, and put them in possession of blessedness, such as “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.”
But, on the contrary, he shall behold the wicked with looks of indignation: shall call them ungrateful, hardened, and accursed creatures; shall accuse them of unbelief and obduracy; reproach them with their injurious and unmerciful conduct towards the helpless, by which they grieved himself. Afterwards, as a just punishment for all their evil deeds, they shall be driven from his presence into a state of the most exquisite torments, into a place of endless wailing and gnashing of teeth, into a place of utter darkness, to be companions of devils. This sentence being passed, the fulfilment of it shall immediately take place; for heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of God cannot pass away. But we shall treat more fully afterwards of the blessedness of the righteous, as well as of the punishment of the wicked.
When this awful event of the judgment-day shall take place, the holy word has kept secret, and has not revealed the exact time, in order that we might always be ready. Notwithstanding, there are very clear signs mentioned in Scripture, from which we may know when the judgment is approaching, or rather is at hand. Amongst other signs, the Holy Scriptures consider this as one of the chief and most undoubted, when we shall behold an evident despising of the faith, and the utmost corruption of manners. They farther inform us, that nearly at the time of Christ’s appearance, “iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold;” Matt. xxiv. 12. Faith shall be despised, and even the Saviour of the world himself shall be forsaken; for, according to the reasonings of Paul, “The day of Christ shall not come, except there come a falling away first;” 2 Thess. ii. 3: and this falling away he also reckons to be a departure from the faith. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith;” 1 Tim. iv. 1.
This same apostle farther declares, that when the judgment-day is approaching, there shall be the utmost corruption of manners, and a disregard of virtue, yea that men’s chief object shall be to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” These are genuine signs of the coming of Christ. And indeed, when the world is filled with the wickedness of man, what then remains to be done, but only that divine justice should begin to act. What more striking examples can we have of its operation, than are to be found in the cases of the deluge, of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of that of the Amorites. We, who reflect on this important point of Christian doctrine, ought, according to the admonition of the apostle, to provoke one another unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching;” Heb. x. 24, 25.