The Order of Events in the Judgment.
By John Nevins Andrews
When Paul says in Rom. 2:6, that God "will render to every man according to his deeds," he adds in the next verse this important statement: "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor and immortality, eternal life." Now it is manifest that this work of rendering to every man according to his deeds can only be wrought after the examination of those deeds in the judgment. It must be in consequence of the decision of the judgment that the things promised are rendered to men. It is also evident that the gift of immortality is one of the things thus rendered. As the righteous receive this gift in the very act of being resurrected from the grave, it is certain that the decision of the judgment passes upon them before the voice of the archangel and the trump of God awaken them to immortal life. This part of the judgment work takes place where our Lord finishes his priesthood; for his last work as priest is to secure the acquittal of his people, and to obtain the decision that their sins shall be blotted out. We have learned from the Scriptures that the heavenly temple has two holy places. A further examination will evince the fact that there are two parts to the ministration of Christ; and that his last work is at the tribunal of his Father, in the tabernacle of the testimony, where it is determined who shall receive immortality. The Levitical priests served "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." Heb. 8:5. The most important part of the service pertaining to the earthly sanctuary was that which was performed within the second apartment on the tenth day of the seventh month. Lev. 16. This is generally considered as typifying the events of the whole gospel dispensation. But we think the evidence conclusive that this chapter is a typical representation of that part of our Lord's work which is embraced in the hour of God's judgment, or in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he begins to sound. The sixteenth chapter of Leviticus is devoted solely to the work of finishing the yearly round of service in the earthly sanctuary. This was wrought on the great day of atonement, and was of the most impressive character. First, the high priest was solemnly admonished that he was such only in a typical sense and not such in reality. For on this day, which was by far the most impressive of all, and when he entered the most holy place of the sanctuary, he must put on the plainest and humblest dress, laying aside that splendid dress which the law prescribed for him to wear on other occasions. Lev. 16:4, compared with Ex. 28. He was also to make a public acknowledgment of his own sinfulness by proceeding to offer a sin-offering for himself. Lev. 16:3, 6, 11-14. No part of this can be typical of our Lord's work, for it was expressly designed to impress upon the mind the infirmity and sinfulness of the high priest. But this being accomplished, the high priest entered upon that work which directly shadowed forth the work of atonement. He took from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin-offering. Lev. 16:5. On these two goats he was to cast lots; one lot was for the goat to be sacrificed, and one for the scape-goat. Then he slew the goat upon which the lot fell for a sacrifice, and with his blood he entered into the second apartment of the sanctuary. This blood he sprinkled before the mercy-seat and upon it. He did this for two purposes: 1. To make atonement for the people; 2. To cleanse the sanctuary by removing from it the sins of the people of God. Then the high priest returned into the first apartment and cleansed the altar from the sins of the people. The sanctuary being cleansed, the high priest comes out of the door of the building and having caused the live goat to be brought, he lays both his hands upon his head and confesses over him all the transgressions of the children of Israel in all their sins. These he puts upon the head of the goat and sends him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat thus sent bears away all their iniquities into a land not inhabited. Lev. 16:7-10, 15-22. The work of the high priest on the day of atonement was not his whole work in putting away sin. While the ministration was confined to the first apartment which was for the whole period of the year but this day, the priest offered the blood of sin-offering in that apartment to make reconciliation, i. e., to begin the work of atonement. Lev. 4. It was by this very work that the sins were transferred to the sanctuary through the blood of sin-offering. The high priest on the day of atonement takes up this unfinished work and completes it. The business of the day is to finish the great work of atonement for the people of God, and to remove their sins from the sanctuary, and place them upon the head of the scape-goat. The work in the second apartment of the earthly sanctuary does not therefore represent the whole gospel dispensation, but simply that part of it devoted to the finishing of the mystery of God in the days of the seventh angel's voice when he begins to sound; in other words, it is the work embraced in that period of time denominated the hour of God's judgment. There was a period in "the example and shadow of heavenly things" devoted to the finishing of the high priest's work. There is such a period devoted to the finishing of the work of Christ in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, at the conclusion of the gospel dispensation. That work in the "shadow of good things to come," was accomplished in the second apartment of the earthly sanctuary. This work in like manner is wrought in the second apartment of the sanctuary in heaven. It is a remarkable fact that the opening of the second apartment of the temple in heaven is an event located under the seventh angel's voice, i. e., in the very time when the work of probation is to be finished. Rev. 10:7; 11:15-19. The opening of the second apartment of the heavenly temple is with manifest reference to the accomplishment of the events which transpire in the finishing of the mystery of God. These are, 1. The session of the judgment by the Ancient of Days. Dan. 7:9-14; Rev. 11:18; 14:6, 7. 2. The conclusion of the priesthood of Christ at this tribunal in the blotting out of sins. Acts 3:19, 20. 3. The coronation of Christ. Rev. 11:15-17; Dan. 7:13, 14; Ps. 2:6-9. 4. Then the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God. Rev. 11:18; 15; 16. The Saviour's priesthood terminates in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. But the very occasion on which it terminates is that of the blotting out of the sins of his people, when the Father sits in judgment. Again, the blotting out of the sins of the people of God is the very counterpart of that work in the holiest of the earthly sanctuary, whereby the sins were removed from the sanctuary to be placed upon the head of the scape-goat. The session of the investigative judgment must therefore take place in that apartment of the heavenly temple which witnesses the conclusion of our Lord's priesthood. And hence we understand that the opening of that apartment of the temple in heaven which contains the ark of the testament is for the session of the judgment described in Dan. 7. The position of the Father during this session of the investigative judgment in the second apartment of the "greater and more perfect tabernacle," is evidently alluded to in the following texts:— Zech. 2:13: "Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation." Hab. 2:20: "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." The Father enters the second apartment that he may sit in judgment. Dan. 7. The Son presents himself at his tribunal that he may finish, as high priest, his great work of atonement for the dead and the living. While the judgment of the righteous dead is going forward probation remains to the righteous living. And hence it is that after the hour of God's judgment has come, the third angel proclaims the latest message of mercy to the world of mankind. But when the sins of the righteous dead have been blotted out, and the righteous living have been prepared for the close of their probation by the work of the third angel, the Son of God terminates his priesthood, and takes his place as king upon the great white cloud. Rev. 14:6-14.