John the Baptist, preaching Christ to the people, declares to them this great judgment, which no one will pretend to say Christ executed in the natural world:
"Whose fan is in his hand, and He will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Christ himself declares that He was fulfilling this great mission of the Divine Truth:
"Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out."
"The prince of this world is judged."
"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
This clearing of the world of spirits by a grand process of judgment or separation, was absolutely necessary to the successful preaching and conquests of the new gospel. It was an essential part of the mission of Jesus in his incarnation. It was the primal cause why the old order of thought and life perished; why the oracles became dumb; why paganism disappeared; why the Roman empire declined; why the ancient languages and literature became extinct. It was indeed the pivotal and turning-point in human history; and the philosophy of history can never be truly understood
