“The Hour of His Judgment”
FOR many centuries the world has looked forward to a coming judgment. Thus the psalmist, after testifying that “Jehovah hath made known his salvation,” and that “all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God,” says: “Let the hills sing for joy together before Jehovah; for he cometh to judge the earth: he will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” Many of the messages given through the prophet Isaiah are based upon the idea of a court and a judicial trial. After stating in the first part of the first chapter the backslidden4condition of Israel, the prophet speaks these words from the Lord: “Come now, and let us reason together, said Jehovah,” or, “Come now, let us plead together.” And again the prophet says, “Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring them witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, said Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.” These are judgment scenes. The prophet Daniel saw in vision when “one that was ancient of days did sit,” and “the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” In his teaching Jesus often spoke of “the day of judgment.” He presented it as the time when just awards would be given, as men would be judged in righteousness, and not according to appearances. When addressing his pagan audience on Mars Hill, the apostle Paul declared, “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 in the man whom he hath ordained.” And the same apostle, in speaking before Felix, talked of “the judgment to come,” and wrote in the epistle to the Hebrews: “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment.” The revelator thus describes the judgment scenes as presented to him: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.” The appointed day of the settling of all human accounts was to be proclaimed to the world. A most solemn announcement was to be made that the Judge is at the door, and that the close of human probation was at hand. This would emphasize the call to repentance and the need of a preparation to stand in the final hour. And so the message must be given, “Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment is come.” The end of the long prophetic period of twenty-three hundred days (years) in 1844 marked the beginning of the judgment hour, and it was also the time of the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, concerning which we are told, “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets.” Thus the announcement of the arrival of the hour of God’s judgment is an integral part of the closing work of the gospel—a part of the message which is to be given in the last generation to prepare the way of the Lord. And this is the message which we are charged with giving. We are to make it clear by the words of the prophets that the time which they foretold has arrived; that even now the work of the judgment is in progress; and that soon the last case will be passed upon, and the decree will go forth, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” A more solemn time was never known in the world’s history, and yet it is just the time when the people of God are to lift up their heads, knowing that their redemption draweth nigh. The judgment-hour message will bring the close of the judgment hour, and usher in the glories of the eternal kingdom. Let the giving of this message be hastened, that we may speedily enter into the joy of our Lord.