The Judgment Work by E. J. Hibbard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 26, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 26.

The Judgment Work

By E. J. Hibbard

“The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now He commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent; inasmuch as HE HATH APPOINTED A DAY IN WHICH HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD in righteousness by the Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” Acts 17:30, 31.

THIS, from Paul's sermon to the men of Athens, deals with the fact and time of God's judgment, and some of the reasons therefor.

God will judge the world. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge it by that Man whom He hath ordained. Full assurance of this is given in the fact of raising “that Man” from the dead.

The Day Appointed.

Moreover, God had before that time “appointed” the day of judgment; the judgment day, or time, being itself then future. God “hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world.”

The beginning of God's judgment has to do with “the house of God,” the people that profess His name; for, when “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7), and before that end has actually come, Peter says, “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?”

To them that obey not the Gospel of God there is also a time, a place, and a standard of judgment, the outcome of which we dread to contemplate: “What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” O, sinner, the heart of infinite love yearneth over thee. Turn from thy sins while mercy lingers.

The Judgment before the End of the World.

But we are considering the judgment of, God's final settlement with, them who profess to be His. It begins before the end of all things and when that end is “at hand.”

“I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was Ancient of Days did sit; His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him; thousands of thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10, R.V.

That this most solemn scene takes place while men on earth are about their ordinary affairs is apparent in the next verse: “I beheld at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given to be burned with fire.”

Previous studies have shown this “beast” to be a symbol of Rome; the “horn” a symbol of the Papacy. While, therefore, “the Ancient of Days” is solemnly judging all Christendom “at that time,” and just before the whole beast, both body and dominion is cast into the burning flame, he utters words so astounding that the prophet's attention is called from heavenly scenes to those of earth.

Probably the greatest, the most boastful claim ever made by the Papacy was that of the infallibility of the popes. Under Pius IX, in A.D. 1870, this most blasphemous assumption was made and heralded to the world.

Began in 1844.

The Ancient of Days began His judgment in 1844 A.D. This is apparent to any reasonable mind as he reads the articles on the sanctuary and the 2,300 days. We are now sixty-three years this side of that time.

But assuming that some honest soul could not at first comprehend this fact, the same must see that the limit of blasphemies is reached in the declaration of papal infallibility, and that God's Book says these “great words” will be spoken during the time of God's judgment.

Proclaimed thruout the World.

And yet further, the Book declares that when the time of God's judgment arrives, that fact will be heralded to every nation and people of the whole wide world. Could this be done unless Scripture somewhere and somehow revealed the time?—Certainly not.

These are the words: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 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.” Rev. 14:6, 7.

About ten or eleven years before 1844, men began to proclaim this event as coming about that time. Immediately after that date, other faithful Christians sought out the sanctuary truth as connected with the prophetic period ending in 1844. Thus, before and since that date the whole world has been told that Jehovah's judgment began with the house of God in the year of our Lord 1844.

Following this world-wide message, John, in Revelation 14:8-12, notes two other world-wide proclamations. Following the third in the series, our Lord appears in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth. Verse 14.

Probation in the Judgment Day.

The fact that a warning is given in each of the two messages which follow the announcement of the hour of God's judgment come, and that hope is given to all who heed the warning, is evidence sure and positive that probation's hours still linger until those announcements have done their work. So it is that while people are about their ordinary pursuits God calls a halt, “The hour of His judgment is come.”

Supreme Sentence! No Appeal.

From that judgment there is no appeal. The Judge can not be bribed; the witnesses are all reliable and true. Of these there are ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. The witnesses are angels (Compare Dan. 7:10 with Rev. 5:11). Even our Advocate, the Lord and Saviour, is also “the faithful and true Witness” (Rev. 3:14). And there is no possibility of escaping the issue.

Precious hope, however, is offered us in the fact that the hour of God's judgment come is proclaimed to be “the everlasting Gospel.” And, the Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16.

Note the fact: “The hour of His judgment is come.” That truth is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes it, and acts upon it. It must be so, else it is not the everlasting Gospel. But the scripture announcing it says it is the everlasting Gospel.

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” was the Gospel to that city, as proclaimed by Jonah. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth. . . . And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.” Jonah 3:5-10.

The Men of Nineveh.

Said Jesus, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.” Matt. 12:41.

Shall the men of Nineveh rise in judgment with this present generation, and condemn it also? Shall the array of evidence presented

to us in the absolute fulfilment of half a hundred lines of prophecy fail to convince us that the end of all things is at hand? that the hour of His judgment is come?

“The judgment was set and the books were opened” (Dan. 7: 10), “and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Rev. 20: 12.

Thus the men of Nineveh, the Jews who rejected the message for their day, and the dead of all the ages will come in review before God as the opened books reveal the records of their lives—even “every secret thing.” Eccl. 12:14. And, “As many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to My Gospel.” Rom. 2: 12-16. In Thy Father's judgment, Lord Jesus, plead our cause.