IX. When will this judgment take place?

The future judgment will take place at the end of time, or at the end of the world. The duration of the world consists of three periods; that before the law; that under the law; and that under Christ. The period which is under Christ is called the end of the world, the end of days, the last time, and the last hour, and comprehends that portion of the world’s history included between the first and second coming of Christ. This period will not be as long as that from the beginning of the world to the first coming of Christ; for we are in the last times, and daily see the signs which were foretold in relation to the judgment. “Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.” (1 John 2:18.) But the year, the month, the day, the hour, in which the final judgment will take is known by no one, not even the angels. Christ himself is ignorant of it as it respects his humanity, and his office as mediator, which does not require that he should declare unto us the time of the judgment. “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the an gels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32.)