Sabbath Afternoon - April 22
Memory Text:
“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” KJV — Revelation 14:7
Though it is the crowning work of our salvation and of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ upon earth, yet the “investigative judgment” is one of the least understood and most mystified and confused Bible subjects of the age. Were it not essential to our salvation, the enemy would not have expended every possible effort to envelop it in darkness. Imperative, then, is the unremitting need to search the Scriptures “as for hidden treasure,” and to beseech God for the guidance of His Spirit in order rightly to understand this all-important subject. In vain though, any search for truth unless the motive be to learn and to do the will of God. Hence, “if any man,” says Jesus, “will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” John 7:17.
Sunday - April 23
The Significance of the Judgment
What does the “everlasting gospel” have to do with God’s judgment?
“To William Miller and his colaborers it was given to preach the warning in America. This country became the center of the great advent movement. It was here that the prophecy of the first angel's message had its most direct fulfillment. The writings of Miller and his associates were carried to distant lands. Wherever missionaries had penetrated in all the world, were sent the glad tidings of Christ's speedy return. Far and wide spread the message of the everlasting gospel: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.’” GC 368.1
“Everywhere the searching testimony was heard, warning sinners, both worldlings and church members, to flee from the wrath to come. Like John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the preachers laid the ax at the root of the tree and urged all to bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Their stirring appeals were in marked contrast to the assurances of peace and safety that were heard from popular pulpits; and wherever the message was given, it moved the people. The simple, direct testimony of the Scriptures, set home by the power of the Holy Spirit, brought a weight of conviction which few were able wholly to resist. Professors of religion were roused from their false security. They saw their backslidings, their worldliness and unbelief, their pride and selfishness. Many sought the Lord with repentance and humiliation. The affections that had so long clung to earthly things they now fixed upon heaven. The Spirit of God rested upon them, and with hearts softened and subdued they joined to sound the cry: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.’” GC 369.1
Monday - April 24
God’s Mercy and Judgment
Read Revelation 20:12. How are we judged? What relationship do our good works have to our salvation?
The dead, “small and great,” who do not rise in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), John saw figuratively “stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Rev. 20:12. --
Zech. 3:1-4 – “And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.”
The first one to be given the garment is Joshua, the high priest, the highest official in the church. If he has not the garment, then no one else has it either. From this we see that the genuine revival and reformation starts at the head, not at the feet, and that before one is given the right to put the garment on, his iniquity is taken away – he repents of his sins, and the Lord blots them out. Satan, though, is right there to resist and accuse him; but, thanks be to God that the Lord is also there to rebuke the enemy. Do you catch the lesson, Brother, Sister? While you are getting the garment you will have to meet strong opposition. But what of it? Is it too much to stand firmly for Truth and righteousness when the majority forsake? And how else shall you become a hero for God? (Read Matthew 5:10-12.)
The apostles and the prophets not only withstood opposition from their own brethren, but they even gladly died for their white garment. You, though, are not now asked to give up your life, but to save it. The “tables” are now reversed. The Lord will not permit you to be consumed by the flame. He is to rescue you as a “brand plucked out of the fire.”
Tuesday - April 25
A Magnificent Scene
Read Daniel 7:9, 10, 13 and describe what Daniel saw in these verses. What, too, is the final result of this judgment? See Daniel 7:14, 26, 27.
From a comparison of Daniel 7:9, 10, 13, with Revelation 4:2 and 5:1, 11, the fact is clear that both visions are of the same event – the judgment. The one reveals it occurring in the period of the non-descript beast’s second stage, after its horn which had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things had blasphemed (after the reign of Ecclesiastical Rome), and before the beast was slain and his body given to the burning flame (Dan. 7:11) before Rome’s destruction. And the other vision reveals it taking place sometime in the Christian period, and within probationary time.
Daniel saw thrones cast down, and the “Ancient of days,” the Judge, sit, showing that neither He nor the thrones were there beforehand. Evidently on the rest of the thrones, “seats,” sat the twenty-four elders. And finally, he saw the “Son of man,” Christ, the Advocate, brought before the “Ancient of days.” Accordingly, both Daniel and John saw “the judgment…set, and the books…opened.
And as John saw the 144,000 standing on Mount Sion with the Lamb after the judgment was set and before it was closed, the event consequently comes neither before nor after the judgment, but during it.
And now remember that John’s vision of the “Lamb standing on Mount Sion” (Rev. 14:1) reveals Christ as a Saviour, whereas his vision of “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” standing before the judgment reveals Him as a King. Correlated, they show that while He is then the Saviour, He is at the same time the King of kings.
The only difference, you see, is that Daniel was shown the Judgment being set up, whereas John saw it in full session.
The Revelation, moreover, in the following verses again and again endeavors to make us see that the event there portrayed is the Judgment in session:
“Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.”
“And I saw thrones,” John declares, “and judgment was given unto them.” Rev. 20:4.
John truly penned it as a prophecy, but when it actually takes place then God’s agency on earth, the Spirit of Prophecy in the Church is to proclaim that the event has actually taken place.
Since the records of both the dead and the living must be reviewed by the Judicial Tribunal, the First Angel’s Message (Rev. 14:6), must be proclaimed in both periods, in the period of the judgment of the dead, and by a loud cry in the period of the judgment of the living. The direct application of the First Angel’s Message, therefore, also the call to come out of Babylon, are actually made in the day the earth is lightened with the glory of the angel. (See Rev. 18:1-4). The Revelation, therefore, is to be more fully understood during the judgment of the living.
Wednesday - April 26
A Glimpse of Heaven
Read Revelation 4:2–4. What similarities can you see here with the judgment scene in Daniel 7?
Here is brought to view a twofold scene. On the one hand, before the throne are the “seven lamps burning” and the “Lamb as it had been slain,” showing that the throne was “set” there to serve in time of probation. The light from the candlestick represents the light of truth in the church while the blood of the Lamb is atoning for sinful beings. On the other hand, upon the throne sits the Ancient of days, the Judge, surrounded by the jury of twenty-four elders plus the angelic witnesses, “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” of them, plus the four beasts (who, being “redeemed” “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” – Rev. 5:8, 9, – are therefore symbolical of the saints,– all those whose sins will be blotted from the books of records, – just as the beasts of Daniel 7 are symbolical of all the kingdoms which will perish in their sins), with the Lamb, our Advocate, in the midst. All this shows a combined mediatorial-judicial work.
Now so far, we see that when John in vision beheld the door – the veil – as it opened to the Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, he was permitted to look within, and that the things which he saw, were to take place “hereafter” from his time; showing thereby that at the time of his vision (about 96 A.D.) the Most Holy apartment was closed. In addition to this, we shall now see from Daniel’s prophecy that the judgment throne was set up in the Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary after the “little horn” of Daniel 7 came up.
“I considered the horns,” says the seer, “and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:8-10.
These verses reveal that after “the judgment was set, and the books were opened,” “the Son of man,” Christ, was then “brought” to a position, not at “the right hand of God,” “the Ancient of days,” but “near before” Him (Dan. 7:8-10, 13).
Both John’s and Daniel’s visions reveal that the throne in the sanctuary was not there from the beginning of the creation of God; or from the days of Moses; or yet from the hour that Christ ascended on high; or even from the days of pagan Rome; that, indeed, it was not “set up” until after the fall of pagan Rome, when the “little horn” of the non-descript beast came up – in the days of Ecclesiastical Rome (Dan. 7:7-12, 21, 22). Elsewhere than in the sanctuary, therefore, is---God’s Eternal Throne Room.
Because the sanctuary throne was not in existence in the days of the early Christian church, therefore the throne upon which Stephen saw Christ at the “right hand of God” (Acts 7:56) could not have been in the sanctuary, wherein is the “sea of glass,” but rather in Paradise, whence flows the “river of water of life,” and on either side of which is “the tree of life.” Rev. 22:1, 2. Very obviously, therefore, the throne which Stephen saw is “the throne of God and of the Lamb,” the throne permanent and eternal. Round about this glory-seat are no beasts, no witnesses, no jury, and before it is “no candle,” and no blood to be offered. In short, it stands, not in the sin-laden sanctuary, but in Paradise. It is the sovereign administrative throne, from which the Infinite eternally governs His immortal sinless beings!
To this throne, then, which is from everlasting to everlasting, Christ ascended and thereat sat down at the right hand of His Father until the time came when, in fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy and of John’s revelation, sometime after the little-horn power came into existence, both He and His Father moved to the sanctuary throne. Upon the latter He does not sit as a king at the right hand of God; but rather before it does He stand both as a sacrificial lamb (Rev. 5:6), and as an intercessor (Dan. 7:13) pleading for sinful human beings. Hence, His mediatorial work began---First In The Holy,Then In The Most Holy.
Thursday - April 27
Jesus is Worthy
Read Revelation 5:8–12. How does all of heaven respond to the announcement that Jesus is worthy to open the scroll of judgment and redeem us?
As to the book sealed with seven seals, the only book that “no man in heaven, nor in earth…was able to open…neither to look thereon,” save the Lion of the tribe of Juda, it unquestionably is the book in which the deeds of mankind are chronicled, as the seals themselves disclose.
This fact Inspiration again confirms: “Thus the Jewish leaders made their choice. Their decision was registered in the book which John saw in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, the book which no man could open. In all its vindictiveness this decision will appear before them in the day when this book is unsealed by the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” – Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 294.
What the book contains, now becomes exceedingly clear: It contains the history of the world and the deeds of all mankind. And, of course, logic rules that with the opening of the book, the Judicial investigation of the deeds of the professed people of God should begin, as The Revelation itself discloses. Moreover, since both the wording and the symbolism of The Revelation refute any interpretation other than the one herein made, the truth of these things now stands fast and sure.
The sanctuary (the church), the place which harbors the people of God, is therefore the one to be cleansed. Eventually, though, as a foreshown, all mankind, even the heathen must come before the Judgment bar of God, before “the Great White Throne.”
Thus, the event was actually to be “hereafter” from John’s time, the time in which were to be investigated the things which took place before John’s time, and the things which were to take place after his time (Rev. 1:19) – the deeds of all mankind from the beginning to the end.
Prophetically, the Judgment was set and the books were opened, but no one in the whole vast universe of God was worthy to open the sealed book, or even to look therein, save the Lamb – the Saviour of the world, the King of kings, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our King and Advocate, Creation’s Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Thus it is that, as our only Defender, the One Who has lived among us, He is the only one who can through personal experience understandingly and sympathetically lay open the secrets of the past, of the present, and of the future – the only one worthy to open the book and to defend fallen humanity.
Friday - April 28
Further Thought
Fundamental to a correct concept of the judgment, is a correct understanding of the nature of it and of the reason for the books. As to the latter John the Revelator says:
“And I saw the dead, small and great stand be fore God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.” Rev 20:12.
Unquestionably, therefore, the books contain both the names and the records of all who are to be judged. And naturally these names and record were entered while each person was living “Thine eyes,” says the Psalmist, “did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Ps. 139:16. “The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.” Ps. 87:6.
Thus does Inspiration reveal that each one’s deeds are chronicled with terrible exactness in the books of heaven, and that in the reason for the books inheres the---Reason For The Judgment.
That not every name that has been entered in the Lamb’s books will be retained there, is born out with sad conclusiveness by the following scriptures:
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Who, soever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.” Ex. 32:33. “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Rev. 22:19.
Accordingly, the books contain the names of a mixed multitude, – both those who stood firmly in the faith and continued patiently to the end, and those who did not. Said Christ: “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matt. 24:13. But those who do not endure shall be lost.
“And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with gladness; and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word’s sake, immediately they are offended.” Mark 4:16,17.
“O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” Jer. 17:13.
So, there must come a day of reckoning, a day when the names of those who are found unworthy of eternal life will be blotted out of the Lamb’s Book of Life – a proceeding for which the only correct term can be, “investigative judgment.”
And now that the “time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…,” “thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3), for “if it [the judgment] first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Pet. 4:17.