The Universal Judgement is the title of a lengthy sermon preached by Samuel Davies, a sermon many consider to be one of the most vivid and biblically accurate presentations of God’s final judgement on mankind. Davies, an evangelist and Presbyterian minister, was one of the key contributors to American’s Great Awakening of the 18th Century along with Jonathan Edwards. He served as president of Princeton University, which was primarily a seminary at that time.
The Bible, particularly the New Testament, has many warnings of the certainty and suddenness of God’s final judgement, wherein the eternal destinies of all men and women who have ever lived since Adam and Eve will be determined with finality (Matthew 25:31-46) (Revelation 20:11-12) (Daniel 12:2) (Matthew 24:36-44) (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10).
Those destinies are either eternal life with God in a new heavens and new earth where we will know infinite joy, blessing and bliss forever (Psalm 16:11) (Revelation 21:1-4), or the second death, where we will reside with the devil and his angels in the lake of fire experiencing only eternal terror, torment and despair (Revelation 20:13-15) (Revelation 21:8).
That determination will be made by the one whom God has given a name that is above every other name, the Lord Jeus Christ (John 5:25-28) (Acts 17:31-32) (Romans 2:16) (Philippians 2:9-11).
The standard or basis for His determination is revealed in multiple scriptures (Romans 2:4-15) (2 Corinthians 5:10). However, the clearest and most succinct of these is revealed in 2 Corinthians 4:6 and Luke 10:25-28, wherein those who by faith come to see the glory of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and thus come to love Him with all of their heart, soul mind and strength, receive the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23), while those who do not, remain accursed, under the eternal judgement of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) (1 Corinthians 16:22).
What follows is an excerpt from Davies’ sermon.
“We are now come to the grand crisis, upon which the eternal states of all mankind turn! I mean the passing of the great decisive and final sentence.
Heaven and earth are all silence and attention, while the Judge, with smiles in his face, and a voice sweeter than heavenly music, turns to the glorious company on his RIGHT hand, and pours all the joys of heaven into their souls, in that transporting sentence, of which he has graciously left us a copy: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world!”
Every word is full of emphasis, full of heaven, and exactly agreeable to the desires of those to whom it is addressed. They desired, and longed, and languished to be near their Lord; and now their Lord invites them, “Come near me, and dwell with me forever!” There was nothing they desired as much as the blessing of God, nothing they feared so much as his curse—and now their fears are entirely removed, and their desires fully accomplished, for the supreme Judge pronounces them ‘blessed by his Father’. They were all poor in spirit, most of them poor in this world, and all sensible of their unworthiness. How agreeably then are they surprised, to hear themselves invited to a kingdom, invited to inherit a kingdom, as princes of the blood-royal, born to thrones and crowns! How will they be lost in wonder, joy, and praise—to find that the great God entertained thoughts of love towards them, before they had a being, or the world in which they dwelt had its foundation laid, and that he was preparing a kingdom for them—while they were nothing, unknown even in idea, except to himself?
O brethren! dare any of us expect this sentence will be passed upon us? Methinks the very thought would overwhelm us! Methinks our feeble frames would be unable to bear up under the ecstatic hope of such a weight of blessedness. Oh! if this is our sentence in that day, it does not matter what we suffer while in our short sojourn on earth. That sentence of eternal blessedness will compensate for all and annihilate the sufferings of ten thousand years.
But hearken! Another sentence breaks from the mouth of the angry Judge, like vengeful thunder! Nature gives a deep tremendous groan; the heavens lower and gather blackness, the earth trembles, and guilty millions sink with horror at the sound! And see, he whose words are works, whose mere creative fiat produces worlds out of nothing; he who could consign ten thousand worlds into nothing at a frown; he whose thunder quelled the insurrection of rebel angels in heaven, and hurled them headlong down, down, down, to the dungeon of hell; see, he turns to the guilty crowd on his LEFT hand; his angry countenance reveals the righteous indignation that glows in his heart. His countenance manifests that he is inexorable, and that there is now no room for prayers and tears.
Now, the sweet, mild, mediatorial hour is past—and nothing appears but the majesty and terror of the judge! Horror and darkness frown upon his brow, and vindictive lightnings flash from his eyes. And now, (Oh! who can bear the sound!) he speaks, “Depart from me, you who are cursed—into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!” Oh! the cutting emphasis of every word! Depart!
Depart from me—from me, the Author of all good, the Fountain of all good, the Fountain of all happiness. Depart, with all my heavy, all-consuming curse upon you! Depart into fire, into eternal fire—prepared, furnished with fuel, and blown up into rage prepared for the devil and his angels, once your companions in sin—and now the companions and executioners of your punishment!
Now the grand period has arrived in which the final, everlasting states of mankind are unchangeably fixed! From this all-important day—their happiness or misery runs on in one uniform, uninterrupted tenor! There is no change, no gradation—but from glory to glory—in the scale of heavenly perfection; or from gulf to gulf—in hell. This is the day in which all the schemes of Providence, carried on for thousands of years, terminate.
TIME was—but it is no more! Now all people enter upon a duration not to be measured by the revolutions of the sun, nor by days, and months, and years. Now eternity dawns—a ‘day’ that shall never see an ‘evening’. And this terribly illustrious morning, is solemnized with the execution of the sentence. No sooner is it passed than immediately the wicked “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life!” Matthew 25:46.
See the astonished, thunder-struck multitude on the LEFT hand, with sullen horror, and grief, and despair in their looks, writhing with agony, crying and wringing their hands, and glancing a wishful eye towards that heaven which they lost! See them, dragged away by devils to the place of execution! See, hell expands her voracious jaws, and swallows them up! And now an ‘eternal farewell’ to earth and all its enjoyments! Farewell to the cheerful light of the sun! Farewell to all ‘hope’, that sweet relief of affliction!”
Below is a link to the entire sermon. I would encourage – not just encourage but dare – not just dare – but double dog dare you to read it with great attentiveness and consideration. I do so because I believe it will do your soul immense good, as well as the souls of your loved ones whom I pray you will share it with.
Grace and Peace ×
thank you.