Ecclesiastes 12:14

"For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." A more positive statement of the Biblical doctrine of the Eternal Judgment is to be found nowhere else in the Old Testament. The fact of God's eventual judgment of the whole world is a cardinal principle of Christianity, one of the fundamentals (Hebrews 6:2). This announcement of it at the end of Solomon's book makes it a climax. It could very well have been that his conviction of this certainty was the very thing that finally brought him to his senses. Delitzsch agreed with this. "This certainty of the final judgment at last was that which finally brought Solomon out of the labyrinth of his skepticism."[52] It will also do the same thing for every honest and intelligent man who will contemplate it.

As Hendry wrote, "The resolution of the discord" (the making of all things right: the just assignment of rewards for the righteous and punishments for the wicked, which shall take place only in the world to come) - "All this shall await the time when faith will give place to sight and every hidden thing will be revealed; so we may say of these last words of Ecclesiastes, that they foreshadow the resurrection."[53]

"Solomon's conclusion is that true religion is the only way to true happiness."[54] Man may chase the rainbows in any direction that he chooses, but apart from the love and service of God, only the rottenness of a grave awaits him. The verdict of God's truth against any other way but the true one is `vanity of vanities.' Why should anyone doubt it and throw his life away in the pursuit of life's beckoning butterflies, all of which can only disappoint and destroy him?

For a more extensive discussion of The Judgment regarding (1) its place in the Bible, (2) the necessity for it, (3) the occasion of it, (4) its importance as a foundational doctrine of Jesus Christ, (5) the reasons for its being a day of terror and sorrow for "all the tribes of the earth,,' etc., see Vol. 10 (Hebrews) of our New Testament Commentaries, pp. 115,116.

Our study of this amazingly powerful chapter of God's Word would not be complete without a summary of the great doctrines of Christianity that are either expressly declared, necessarily implied, or both, in these verses. Here they are:

The Existence and Power of God

God is the Creator

God is the creator of Man

Immortality of the Soul

The Resurrection of the Dead

God is the Shepherd of Israel

The Existence of Moses' Law

God's Commands Available in that Law

That Law a Divine Revelation

Man's Accountability to God

The Eternal Judgment (Heaven and Hell)

Rewards and Punishments

It would be difficult indeed to find another chapter in the whole Bible with a more impressive constellation of stellar Christian doctrines than that which appears here. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen!