judgement day i

8/12/2019 Judgement Day I

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Mr. Shippey's translation and notes are taken from his book Poems of Wisdom and

Learning in Old English.It is going to happen: the sea will rise in flood over the world,

life will be over for every single person. Anyone who wants to

can often ponder this truth in his own mind.

Our Lord has fixed the time when he will come here, on that

greatest day, as highest king of power; then the ruler of

mankind will burn the land with fire. That will not be a small

convocation to hold! A blaze will be kindled, once fire has

seized the earth's surface, the burning flame has taken the

bright creation. All this wide world will be full of coals and cruel

firebrands - this world ruled now by hardhearted men who

hoard ostentatiously and provide their Lord with ridicule - until

those who should keep watch against their sins betray them, so

that they have to go down to hell with the crowd, fly off with the

devils. They are for the fire, torment in obscurity, where daynever shines brightly in the sky, but it stays shut up for ever,

once the soul's dreadful sentence is pronounced. It is cramped

above, and hot inside; that is no splendid mansion, but the

greatest of terrors there, no home to be looked forward to, but

down there the abyss of hell, a miserable journey for the man

who so often disturbs the peace with his words. He has no

knowledge of the dark side of creation, how it stands ready

eternally and endlessly for the man who is thrown down there

for his sins, and then endures his fate for ever. Who then has a

mind wise enough, or possesses so much knowledge that he can

ever describe the height of heaven, or the amount of good

things in it as thoroughly as they are, standing ready for allpure souls,, for all those who are prepared to feel fear at this

utterance of its profundity? The day shall come when we bring

forward each of our sins, our thoughts and our behaviour. That

will be a stern assembly, a fierce army to face.

The heat will have grown cold. Then there will be nothing in this

world except the noise of the water, the home of the fish will

flow over the world (?). Here there will be neither bone nor

blood, but every child ever born will have to ask what is the

reward for his soul and his body of everything we have ever

done on earth, good or bad. No greater terror can ever take

place in the world - and this will be known by many! The starswill not be visible to us here any more, but earthly prosperity

and distinction will have gone. So I mean to teach people all the

time that they should praise the glory of God on high, and live

their lives faithfully, hoping for heaven, and should always gain

the Lord's love by their actions in this world, before that day of

splendour announces with trumpets the burning heat of the fire,

the overpowering terror.

No nobleman can keep his distinction in this life any longer, not

once the guardian of light has sent fire across the entire face of

the world. His army blazes in the sky, the flame sweeps on,


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bright and burning, it is announced to many that they must

shed their blood, as punishment from the king of power; all the

bright creation quakes, the firebrands will leap on that vital day,

heaven above will ring. When men and women leave the world

and earth's miseries behind, they will see then what they have

earned in eternity. Then it will be shown who have lived their

lives in purity; their reward will be waiting. There has always

been a hope of having that in heaven, ever since our Saviour,

the Ruler of the world, was fastened tightly on the dark tree

with a painful clamp; for Christ knows of all good deeds. But thesinful soul will have no cause to take pride in being bound for

heaven, since it so often despises holy instruction, brings it into

contempt. He is not aware of the terror he will be allotted, he

has no perception of evil, till the moment it strikes him. Then he

realises it, when the calamity is on him, announcing to many a

man throughout the world that in the division he will be put with

the crowd on the left-hand side, worse for him than if he were

allowed to turn to the right, set free from his sins. The man who

can enjoy what he wants, who can be cheerful over his wine and

sit feasting licentiously, without worrying about his last journey,

he thinks little about how things may turn out for him once this

world is over.

Then after that event the Lord of souls, the Prince of glory, will

give everything that he wants to the man who now meditates in

misery upon his sins, enduring great anxiety in his mind; the

Ruler of life and Guardian of heaven will then repay him

beneficently, after he has left this world, for having been so

melancholy, so sorry for his sins. The man who wants to live

with God must not be too slow, not too apathetic about the

things I am teaching here, if he wants to live in the mansion

which our Father in glory is preparing for us, the Prince of souls.

It is the Lord of victory who will decorate that hall, who will

build it with splendour. The pure will go to it, those who are freeof vice, as the Ruler has said, King of all kings. So everyone

alive must listen to the Lord, if he thinks deeply, if he wants to

rise to heaven in the heights.

Yet it will happen, that although the body is covered with earth

and clay, it will receive life, will draw breath after lying in the

ground. The people will be summoned, all Adam's children

called to convocation; then souls and their bony houses will be

brought together, united for their journeys. That will make the

truth known, when on that greatest day we men assemble

beneath the cross; then many truths will be told, everything

that has happened beneath the sky, whether hot or cold, good

or evil. The highest King of heaven listens attentively to what

men have done. Never has horn been sounded or trumpet blown

so loud that his clear voice will not be louder to men across the

whole world, the Ruler's words. The continents will shake at the

message he has in mind for us all.

Now repeat what this says: it will become obvious that I

cannot prevent that event beneath the sky, but it will have to

happen like this to everybody, with burning fire over all the

bright homes of men. Then, after the fire, life will be made

permanent; the man who thinks the right way now will have


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happiness in heaven.

judgement day i

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