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Objection 1: It would seem that the fire of the final conflagration
is to follow the judgment. For Augustine (De Civ. Dei xx,
30) gives the following order of the things to take place at the
judgment, saying: "At this judgment we have learned that the
following things will occur. Elias the Thesbite will appear, the
Jews will believe, Antichrist will persecute, Christ will judge,
the dead shall rise again, the good shall be separated from the
wicked, the world shall be set on fire and shall be renewed."
Therefore the burning will follow the judgment.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xx,
16): "After the wicked have been judged, and cast into
everlasting fire, the figure of this world will perish in the furnace
of worldly flames." Therefore the same conclusion follows.
Objection 3: Further, when the Lord comes to judgment He will
find some men living, as appears from the words of 1 Thess.
4:16, where the Apostle speaking in their person says: "Then we
who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord." But it
would not be so, if the burning of the world were to come first, since
they would be destroyed by the fire. Therefore this fire will follow
the judgment.
Objection 4: Further, it is said that our Lord will come to judge
the earth by fire, and consequently the final conflagration would seem
to be the execution of the sentence of Divine judgment. Now execution
follows judgment. Therefore that fire will follow the judgment.
On the contrary, It is written (Ps. 96:3): "A fire shall
go before Him."
Further, the resurrection will precede the judgment, else every eye
would not see Christ judging. Now the burning of the world will
precede the resurrection, for the saints who will rise again will have
spiritual and impassible bodies, so that it will be impossible for the
fire to cleanse them, and yet the text (Sent. iv, D, 47)
quotes Augustine (De Civ. Dei xx, 18) as saying that
"whatever needs cleansing in any way shall be cleansed by that fire."
Therefore that fire will precede the judgment.
I answer that, The fire in question will in reality, as regards its
beginning, precede the judgment. This can clearly be gathered from
the fact that the resurrection of the dead will precede the judgment,
since according to 1 Thess. 4:13-16, those who have slept
"shall be taken up . . . in the clouds . . . into the air . .
. to meet Christ coming to judgment." Now the general resurrection
and the glorification of the bodies of the saints will happen at the
same time; for the saints in rising again will assume a glorified
body, as evidenced by 1 Cor. 15:43, "It is sown in
dishonor, it shall rise in glory": and at the same time as the
saints' bodies shall be glorified, all creatures shall be renewed,
each in its own way, as appears from the statement (Rm. 8:21)
that "the creature . . . itself shall be delivered from the
servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God." Since then the burning of the world is a disposition to the
aforesaid renewal, as stated above (Articles 1,4); it can
clearly be gathered that this burning, so far as it shall cleanse the
world, will precede the judgment, but as regards a certain action
thereof, whereby it will engulf the wicked, it will follow the
judgment.
Reply to Objection 1: Augustine is speaking not as one who decides
the point, but as expressing an opinion. This is clear from his
continuing thus: "That all these things are to happen is a matter of
faith, but how and in what order we shall learn more then by experience
of the things themselves than now by seeking a definite conclusion by
arguing about them. Methinks, however, they will occur in the order
I have given." Hence it is clear that he is speaking as offering his
opinion. The same answer applies to the Second Objection.
Reply to Objection 3: All men shall die and rise again: yet those
are said to be found alive who will live in the body until the time of
the conflagration.
Reply to Objection 4: That fire will not carry out the sentence of
the judge except as regards the engulfing of the wicked: in this
respect it will follow the judgment.
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