But illuminated sinners and Sardian saints are obnoxious to a perdition arrived at in different ways. These are they "who obey not the Gospel of the Deity" (i Pet. iv. 17), or disgrace it; and who come forth to anastasis of judicial condemnation. These two classes are punished on the principle that "it is better not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (2 Pet. ii. 21). In the apostolic age, this holy commandment was delivered with power descending from heaven; but now, there is no such sanction confirming a faithful teacher's exposition of the word. Nevertheless, if a sinner come to the understanding of the truth, the result being the same, he is held accountable. An enlightened sinner cannot evade the consequences of his illumination. I have known some of this class flatter themselves that they would not be called forth to judgment; but would perish as the beasts, if they did not come under law to Christ. Such reasoning, however, is simply "the deceitfulness of sin." When Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to this class in Israel, among them were the self-righteous Scribes, Pharisees, lawyers, and priests, he told them that, in the judgment, He will say to all workers of iniquity, "Depart from me!" And then he added, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when Ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of the Deity, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of the Deity. And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last "(Luke xiii. 28). This evidently teaches their anastasis kriseos, or coming forth from sheol, for judicial condemnation and punishment, contemporarily with the establishment of the kingdom in the Holy Land.
But whatever the details of their punishment may be, the evils befalling ungodly Sardian saints will be more intense. Both classes will "of the flesh reap corruption"; but the post-resurrectional antecedents of the one leading to this common fate, will be "sorer" than those of the other. So Paul teaches in Heb. x. 26, saying, "If we sin wilfully after that we have the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment (κρισις) and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of the Deity, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite
