Many will say to me on that day, »`Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name expelled demons, and in Thy name performed many mighty works?'
He who sets me at naught and does not receive my teachings is not left without a judge: the Message which I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
For this is my Father's will, that every one who fixes his gaze on the Son of God and believes in Him should have the Life of the Ages, and I will raise him to life on the last day.«
seeing that He has appointed a day on which, before long, He will judge the world in righteousness, through the instrumentality of a man whom He has pre-destined to this work, and has made the fact certain to every one by raising Him from the dead.«
the true character of each individual's work will become manifest. For the day of Christ will disclose it, because that day is soon to come upon us clothed in fire, and as for the quality of every one's work– the fire is the thing which will test it.
not neglecting –as some habitually do– to meet together, but encouraging one another, and doing this all the more since you can see the day of Christ approaching.
He reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and condemned them to overthrow, making them an example to people who might in future be living godless lives.
Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the unrighteous under punishment in readiness for the Day of Judgement,
But the present heavens and the present earth are, by the command of the same God, kept stored up, reserved for fire in preparation for a day of judgement and of destruction for the ungodly.
Our love will be manifested in all its perfection by our having complete confidence on the day of the Judgement; because just what He is, we also are in the world.
And angels –those who did not keep the position originally assigned to them, but deserted their own proper abode– He reserves in everlasting bonds, in darkness, in preparation for the judgement of the great day.
So also Sodom and Gomorrah –and the neighboring towns in the same manner– having been guilty of gross fornication and having gone astray in pursuit of unnatural vice, are now before us as a specimen of the fire of the Ages in the punishment which they are undergoing.