Of the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead

Finally, we believe that the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Prophet, Priest and King, will visibly, as He ascended, come down from heaven, in the clouds, and all the holy angels of God with Him, with power and great glory, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, which will be heard everywhere. Then all people who have lived on earth and have died, good and evil, just and unjust, will rise from the dead, in incorruption, with their own body, in which they have lived; but those who are still alive on that day, and have not tasted death, will be changed, in the twinkling of an eye, to incorruption, at the last sound of the last trumpet. Acts 1, verse 11; Revelation 1, verse 7; Second Thessalonians 1, verse 7; First Thessalonians 4, verse 16; Matthew 24, verse 50; Zephaniah 1, verse 16; Matthew 25, verse 7; Second Corinthians 5, verse 10; Romans 14, verse 11; Jeremiah 5, verse 29; Acts 24, verse 15; First Corinthians 15, verse 42; Jeremiah 26, verse 19; First Corinthians 15, verses 38 and 52. [n43-1]

Thus the whole human family will be placed before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive in his body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad. For the Lord Jesus Christ will then, as a shepherd, separate the sheep from the goats. Those who have done good He will set on His right hand, but those who have done evil on the left; and there He will pronounce the eternal, irrevocable sentence. Second Corinthians 5, verse 10; Matthew 25, verses 32, 33, and 46; Jude, verse 14.

To the true believers, who through faith have done works of love and mercy, He will say: "Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." These will be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord, who will take them away with Him into life eternal, in the heavenly glory and splendor, where they will forever be with the Lord, in the countless company of the holy angels, in the society of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the pious, with great, unspeakable joy and gladness. Second Peter 1, verse 5; Matthew 25, verse 35; Luke 16, verse 9; Second Peter 1, verse 11; First Thessalonians 4, verses 17 and 14; John 14, verse 3; 17, verse 24; Daniel 12, verse 12; First Peter 1, verses 8 and 9.

But the unrighteous, who have not known God, nor obeyed the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and have done no works of love or mercy, will then be sentenced to everlasting fire, in these grievous and unbearable words: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." First Corinthians 6, verse 9; Second Thessalonians 1, verse 8; Romans 2, verse 9; Matthew 25, verse 41; 22, verse 13.

These will go where their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. There will come upon them tribulation and anguish, displeasure, wrath, and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. Isaiah 66, verse 24; Mark 9, verse 46; Malachi 4, verse 1; Romans 2, verse 9; Second Thessalonians 1, verse 9; Fourth Esdras 9, verse 10; Luke 16, verse 24.

May the God of grace and mercy preserve us, through Jesus Christ, His dear and beloved Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, from this dreadful punishment of the ungodly, and grant us His grace, that we may live holy lives here on earth, and die happy, to a glad resurrection and joyful appearance in the presence of His glory. Amen.

Here follow two other questions and the answers to them, which we could bring forward, but we think it unnecessary, since the treatise given contains the substance, or whole sum, of the confession of saving faith, if it is only well understood.

Added was also a letter, as a preparation for peace, and signed by various persons (elders and teachers).

Given at Amsterdam, the 26th of September, 1627.