The Great Ribulation

168 THE CWEAT TRIBULATION
Kline concludes: %aptism, then, is concerned
with man in the presence of God’s judgment throne~
(p. 67). Baptism is a covenant sign, and it bears the
mark of the two-fold nature of covenant sanctions:
blessing and cursing. This system of dual covenant
sanctions will be manifested at the final judgment:
Again, when the Lord appears in the final
ordeal theophany as the Judge of the quick [living]
and the dead, taking fiery vengeance on
them that obey not the gospel, he will bring
before his judgment throne all who have been
within his church of the New Covenant. There
his declaration of the curse of the covenant will
fdl on the ears of some who in this world have
been within the community that formally owns
his covenant lordship, so that still in that day
they think to cry, “Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
cast out devils? and in thy name done many
wonderfhl works?~. . . There is, therefore, a
fulfillment of the covenant lordship of Christ
over his New Testament church unto condem- .
nation and death as well as unto justification
and life. In the execution of both verdicts,
whether unto life or unto death, the New Covenant
will be enforced and perfected (pp. 77-78).
Permanent Sanctions
The New covenant is q.forced andpet$ected in God’s
final judgment. That future judgment is as permanent
as the covenant itself. The sanctions of blessing