20. And the Prophet, seeing that the change
of their solid substance into dust will deprive them of all share in
the boon of fruit to be bestowed upon the happy man in season by the
tree, has accordingly added: Therefore the ungodly shall not
rise again in the Judgment. The fact that they shall not rise
again does not convey sentence of annihilation upon these men, for
indeed they will exist as dust; it is the resurrection to Judgment that
is denied them. Non-existence will not enable them to miss the
pain of punishment; for while that which will be non-existent would
escape punishment, they, on the other hand, will exist to be punished,
for they will be dust. Now to become dust, whether by being dried
to dust or ground to dust, involves not loss of the state of existence,
but a change of state. But the fact that they will not rise again
to Judgment makes it clear that they have lost, not the power to rise,
but the privilege of rising to Judgment. Now what we are to
understand by the privilege of rising again and being judged is
declared by the Lord in the Gospels where He says: He that
believeth on Me is not judged: he that believeth not hath been
judged already. And this is the judgment, that the light is come
into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light St.
John iii. 18, 19..