of each person, according as that condition is by his own choice. Just what he is
at the moment when the crisis of the decision in his case is reached, that he
forever remains. If he is righteous, the judgment recognizes it, and pronounces
the word, "Let him be righteous still." And this word is so pronounced at that
moment simply because he was already what this says that he shall be "still." If
he is unjust, then the word of the judgment is, "Let him be unjust still;" and this is
so said simply because that is what he is at the moment, whether the judgment
were pronounced or not; and the judgment, coming to his case just at that
moment, finds it so, and recognizes it, and says, "Let him be unjust still."
And why should it not be thus? Here is a message of God proclaimed to
every nation and kindred, and tongue and people, saying to all, "Fear God, and
give glory to him," especially because "the hour of his judgment is come." On one
hand, here are the people who have received the message. That message has in
it all the divine power of the everlasting gospel fully to fit them for the judgment;
and their very acceptance of the message is a confession that they recognize the
fact that "the hour of his judgment is come," and that they are in this "hour." And
if, in spite of this, any of them lives as if he were not in "the hour of his judgment,"
and so shall be unprepared for the blessed word to be pronounced, "Let him be
righteous still," and is prepared for the awful word, "Let him be unjust still," surely
none but himself can be in any wise to blame for that. The decision is as it is
because of his disregard of the very thing that he professed to hold, and the very
thing that had called him to the profession which he holds.
On the other hand, here is a message, proclaimed to all the world,–to every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people,–saying, with a loud voice: "Fear God, and
give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." And here are vast
multitudes of people who refuse to believe that there is any truth in the statement
that "the hour of his judgment is come." They, therefore, go on in their way, utterly
regardless of the truth that they are in the presence of the judgment. Then, when
the case of any individual among these is reached, and the word must be, "He
that is unjust, let him be unjust still," this also is simiply because of his own
decision: the judgment pronounced is simply a recognition of the condition in
which he is, and which he himself has fixed by his disregard of the message that
would have altogether changed his condition, and fitted him for that other word,
"He that is righteous, let him be righteous still."
A number of letters have been received at this Office, within the last few
weeks, asking whether it is true that word had come by the Spirit of Prophecy
that the judgment has already begun upon the living. As to that, we know of no
word that has expressly said so. But why should any believer of the Third Angel's
Message be asking any such question? Does not the very message itself–the
message which he professes to believe–say to him plainly, as plainly as the Lord
can speak, "The hour of his judgment is come"? Has not this message said the
same thing to every Seventh-day Adventist from the day that he first heard it?
This being so, is it possible that any Seventh-day Adventist has not yet
learned that "the hour of his judgment is come," when that very word is what he
heard, and has professed to believe from the day he heard it? And if any
professed believer of the Third Angel's Message does not believe this word of
God, which, all this time, he has professed to believe, when it tells him that the
hour of God's judgment is come, then would he believe it if the Lord should tell
him again? Is it possible that any one has lived under a profession of belief of this
message, even for a day, and yet has not placed himself in the presence of the
judgment, and has not subjected himself to all the searching tests of the
judgment? Is it possible that any one of these professing to believe the word that
"the hour of his judgment is come," has not believed it at all, and has been acting
all the time as he would not act if he did believe in reality that "the hour of his
judgment is come"?
So far as concerns every believer of the Third Angel's Message, each
individual has fixed it that, with himself, the judgment has begun upon the living;
for he is alive, and has accepted a message from God which declares to him that
the hour of God's judgment is come. Being alive, and having accepted such a
message from God, by the very force of his profession, simply by the virtue of his
belief, he enters alive, hourly, into the judgment. He lives in the presence of the
judgment. He opens his life to all the searching tests of the judgment. And this
being so with him, he will never have any inquiry to make as to whether any word
has come that the judgment has begun upon the living.
There will be yet more on this; for this is the Third Angel's Message.
"The Millennium" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 3 , pp. 40,
41.
WE have found by the word of the Lord that the Millennium begins at the
coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the righteous; that at that time all the
righteous are taken away from the earth, and all the wicked are slain upon the
earth, and that thus the earth is left desolate; and that, as the righteous reign as
kings and priests with Christ a thousand years before returning to the earth, and
the wicked "lived not again until the thousand years were finished," the earth is
left desolate during the Millennium.
This is abundantly confirmed by other scriptures and other considerations.
1. The Millennium is in "the day of the Lord." And the day of the Lord begins in
connection with the second coming of the Lord; for the prophet Joel, in
proclaiming and describing the coming of the Lord, the same coming that is
described in Rev. 19:11-21, says: "The Lord shall utter his voice before his army:
for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of
the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" Joel 2:11.
And, again, after declaring that the Lord of Hosts would rise up against
Babylon and "cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and
nephew," "make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water," and "sweep it
with the besom of destruction," he says: "This is the purpose that is purposed
upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the
nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his
hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" Isa. 14:22-27.
And Jeremiah says: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void;
and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and
all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a
wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the
Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall
be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the
heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will
not repent, neither will I turn back from it. The whole city shall flee for the noise of
the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the
rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein." Jer. 4:23-29.
Accordingly, Joel proclaims the coming of this "day of the Lord," and
describes it thus: "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy
mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord
cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of
clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great
people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more
after it, even to the years of many generations." Joel 2:1, 2.
This clause, "as the morning spread upon the mountains," is very expressive.
It is description of a dark and gloomy morning, in which fogs and mists rest upon
the earth, in dismal weirdness, as if there were no atmosphere. And this is
precisely the condition of things in the Millennium; for when the Lord comes, the
atmospheric heaven departs "as a scroll when it is rolled together" (Rev. 6:14); it
passes away "with a great noise." 2 Peter 3:20. And when the atmosphere shall
have thus passed away, there is nothing left to cause the mists and fogs to float;
and so they settle upon the earth, in dismal darkness and gloom, just as it was
when first the world was spoken into existence. Before the atmosphere was
created, "the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face
of the deep;" even as described by Jeremiah in the day of the Lord: "I beheld the
earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no
light."
2. This desolation of the earth is further confirmed by the teaching concerning
the sabbatic year
41
of the old dispensation. It is stated in 2 Chron. 36:21 that, by the people's being
carried captive to Babylon, the land was left desolate, that she might enjoy her
sabbaths. And the land lay desolate for seventy years, "until the land had enjoyed
her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore
and ten years." That is, Israel for four hundred and ninety years had failed
to observe the sabbatic year in giving the whole land the rest that God had
provided for it in that year, and now they have to go into captivity, and the land
must lie desolate, until all the Sabbaths of which they had robbed the land in
those four hundred and ninety years, which made seventy years, should be
made up.
And in this all men are taught definitely by the word of the Lord that since the
whole earth has been obliged to pass along for six thousand years without any
rest at all, it having been robbed of all the sabbatical years in this whole time,–
until the curse has "devoured the earth," and it is "utterly broken down" (see Isa.
24:4-6, 19, 20),–the whole earth–must lie desolate one thousand years, to make
up the sabbaths of which the earth has been robbed in these six thousand years
under the weight of the curse that has been heaped upon it by the sins of men.
Accordingly Isaiah says: "The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly
spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." Isa. 24:3. And Zephaniah says, "I
will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. . . . Hold thy peace
at the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord
hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests [Rev. 19:17, 18]. . . . The great
day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of
the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day
of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness
and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness: . . . the whole land shall be
devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of
all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:2-18.
And that is the Millennium, though there is even yet more to say upon it.
"Studies in Galatians. Gal. 3:16, 17" Advent Review and Sabbath
Herald, 77, 3 , p. 41.
