p. 280 | THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT DAY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · May 5, 1885

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 18

THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT DAY.

(Concluded.)

What a historical study will be the work of the thousand years! Then every plan, purpose, and act of rebellion against God, from the beginning of the defection in heaven by the apostasy of Satan, to the last acts of wicked men at the close of time, will come under review; and the record will contain no imperfections through the lack of data, forgetfulness, or misjudgment, on the part of the historians; but all the records will be full to the minutest act, and absolutely true, just as each scene transpired; and everything will appear in its true light.

The work of examining the records contained in the books of God’s remembrance, will solve to the minds of the saints many providences which have seemed to them dark and mysterious. For God will then lay open the hidden springs of human conduct, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart. 1 Cor. 4:5. Then will such scriptures as Matt. 12:41 and Luke 11:31, 32, have their application. For the course of those who have diligently used the comparatively small measure of light which has been granted them, will come up to condemn those who have been favored with greater light and rejected it. And so, likewise, the course of those who have been cut off in their sins, but who would have repented had as great light been given them as was granted to those who lived at a later time, will come up in this examination to condemn most fearfully those who have had the example of their fate, and had seen greater light than they, and yet have not repented. Matt. 11:21, 23; Luke 10:12. But notwithstanding wicked men have been cut off in their sins, and have lived ungodly, they will come up in the Judgment just the same, for the complete punishment of their own sins. But their cases will be more tolerable in the Judgment than that of those who have had the example of their punishment before their eyes, and have had far greater light than they were favored with, and yet refused to repent. Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24; Luke 10:12, 14. Thus even the mitigating circumstances are taken into the account of the Judgment of the wicked as certainly as are those of an aggravating character. Thus will God show himself to be in the highest sense just and righteous.

The thousand years at length expire, the examination of the records of the actions of all evil doers is completed, and sentence written according to their deeds. It now remains that the sentence be executed. To accomplish this, it appears that just before the thousand years expire, the holy city with its immortal inhabitants descends to our earth, and rests upon a place prepared for it. See Zech. 14:4, 5; Rev. 21:2. And when the thousand years reach their full termination, the wicked dead hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth from their graves. John 5:28, 29. It is then that the “unjust” have their “resurrection.” Acts 24:15. Then the “rest of the dead” live “again.” Rev. 20:5. They come forth from the depths of the ocean, and from the caverns of the earth; for the sea gives up the dead which are in it, and hades gives them up also; and they come forth alive, for death itself gives them up. Rev. 20:13.

This resurrection of the unnumbered hosts of the wicked, removes from Satan the restrictions under which he has labored during the thousand years, while the wicked have all been in their graves, and the righteous all in heaven, so that he has had no one to practice his deceptions upon. The coming forth of the wicked to be again for a “little season” under his influence, constitutes the “loosing” of Satan; for he now has opportunity to work again among his deceived followers. And he commences just where he left off when he was bound and cast into the bottomless pit—that is, was confined to this desolated earth—at the beginning of the thousand years. He had then gathered the nations to the battle of the great day; but in the midst of the commotion he was suddenly taken, and his followers were destroyed. This was indeed the beginning of the end with them; but the great battle could not then go on to the complete destruction of Satan and all his children; for the measure of their punishment had not then been determined. Hence the destruction is confined simply to the living wicked, and consists in depriving them only of this present life. A lake of fire sufficient for the purpose is made the instrument of this destruction, foreshadowing what will follow at the end of the thousand years. But right at this point the battle is suspended, and the work of the lake of fire is arrested, that the depth of guilt and the consequent measure of punishment belonging to every guilty being may be determined before his final destruction; and for this purpose the thousand years’ Judgment by Christ and the saints is now thrown in.

At the end of the thousand years, the wicked, having been “many days” in the “prison”—the grave—are now “visited,” that is, are brought forth to their destruction. Isa. 24:21, 22; Eze. 38:8, 9. This making alive again of the wicked is embraced in the statement made by the apostle Paul that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22. It was a necessary part of the great plan of salvation, which Christ in engaging to carry out, pledged himself to perform, that all men should be made alive again from the Adamic death, that they might give account of themselves to God, and then pass to a destiny determined, not by Adam’s sin, but by their own actions.

Satan, perhaps causing them to believe that he is the one who has given them their new life, true to his nature, begins to deceive them again. He incites them to come up around the “camp of the saints” (the city of God, the New Jerusalem which has then come down from heaven), for the purpose of its capture. Thus by the direct action of Satan, all the wicked, with himself at their head, stand in the presence of Christ, for the execution of the Judgment.

Paul assures us that all men will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ, to receive for the deeds done in the body both good and evil; and as the righteous stand in his presence immediately after they are made immortal, and receive according to their labor, it follows—that those who stand before him to receive recompense for their evil deeds, must be the wicked who thus appear before him in the second resurrection.

And now for the first time all the members of the human family are congregated together in one vast assembly. The wicked see the righteous within the city—the kingdom of God—and realize that they themselves are thrust out (Luke 13:28); and when they come to comprehend in some degree the mercy which they have slighted, and the infinite sacrifice made for their salvation in the death of God’s only Son, and remember their persistent continuance in sin till he could bear with them no longer, every knee will bow in deepest abasement, acknowledging that God is just, and that their ruin was caused by themselves alone, while the throne of God is forever clear.

We may safely conclude that in this company will be many who have gone down to their graves self-deceived, who will come up in the second resurrection, really expecting to be saved, and all unaware that it is the resurrection of the unjust; and to this class doubtless our Lord’s words have reference: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23.

Both classes, the righteous and the wicked, now behold the final results of faithful obedience, and of persistent sin—the one crowned with everlasting life, the other ready to perish forever; and as they comprehend the situation they will with one mind and voice declare, “Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.” Ps. 58:11. The terrible moment for them has now come when they must hear the Son of God pronounce the sentence, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:41.

As the whole human family are there assembled, so every sin which has ever been committed is there represented also, the wicked and evil angels bearing their own sins, and Satan bearing his own and all the sins of the righteous also. And now, according to the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. Gen. 19:24–28; 2 Pet. 2:6; 3:7; Rev. 20:9. The lake of fire again appears as at the beginning of the thousand years, more potent and wide-spread, now enveloping the whole earth, and seizing even the elements themselves. This is the “perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Pet. 3:7. And thus the earth itself becomes the “gehenna”—hell—of the second death. This is the lake of fire in which they will suffer the second death.

The furnace fires fed by the breath of the Almighty, “like a stream of brimstone” (Isa. 30:33), glow hotter and more fiercely. The elements themselves melt with fervent heat. 2 Pet. 3:10. The earth becomes a molten liquid mass; and the New Jerusalem rides upon the glowing waves of that fiery sea, as once it rode upon the angry waves of the flood, when the world was destroyed by water. Then the prophetic question can be answered: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly.” Isa. 33:14, 15. Yes, the righteous can endure the scene. There is safety in the city; and the saints can then, according to another declaration of the prophet, go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against the Lord, “where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched.” Isa. 66:24.

Meanwhile the fury of the fiery storm increases till the earth itself is reduced to a gaseous condition, and thus becoming invisible, seems to flee away from the face of Him who sits upon the great white throne, who is doubtless God the Father. Rev. 20:11. The city will seem for a time to be suspended in heaven, with no visible resting place. But He that sitteth upon the throne utters the glorious promise, “BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!” Rev. 21:5. And then these purified elements, with the last traces of sin and the curse purged out of them, are brought by God’s re-creating power together again, and earth assumes its renewed form of more than pristine majesty and glory. The New Jerusalem takes its place as the metropolis of the new earth; and the glory of God shall fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. The saints shall bear the glorious image of the second Adam, and live through endless ages. Throughout all the universe, from planet to planet, from sun to sun, from the center to the utmost limits of the creative works, peace and righteousness and beauty and life and joy shall then reign supreme. And there shall be no discordant note in the “music of the spheres.” And then shall be heard that anthem which John declares shall ascend from every intelligence, of “blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”

Sin being thus destroyed, and all the agents of sin from first to last, from highest to lowest, being swept out of existence, this evil principle shall never rise again to mar the handiwork of God. Its terrible history shall drift away, a little speck upon the illimitable past, the remembrance and the lesson of it remaining. And the universe shall be as clean and pure as it was before sin’s polluting presence found lodgment in the mind of Satan. Then in its full glory will the reward prepared for the saints be entered upon: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Then will our Lord and Saviour take the throne of David to reign over Israel forever and GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL.