The Hour of His Judgment is Come.
By Uriah Smith
THIS will be true when the message of Rev. 14:6, 7, is fulfilled; for so it declares: "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." Whenever God's word announces anything concerning the judgment, every mind should give attention, every ear should listen. This is something which concerns all mankind. Other subjects may not interest, because they may treat of things with which we have no especial connection. Not so the judgment. All are concerned here. For between us and the future world, the searching ordeal of the judgment inevitably lies. None can escape it. Every member of the human family must pass its trying test, and receive from its decisions a sentence that will determine his or her condition for all that period covered by the fearful word—Eternity! Let us then, not carelessly nor irreverently, inquire what, and when, the judgment is, to which we are brought by the message before us. This judgment is a part of the gospel; for the everlasting gospel is what the angel was sent to preach, and all that the prophecy brings to view of his preaching is this appeal to all the people to fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. In the gospel scheme, then, where does the judgment have a place? and what is it? The gospel is the good news of pardon and salvation through Jesus Christ. And this salvation is secured to us by the following acts on the part of Christ:— - Coming down to earth to establish, as prophet and teacher, the new covenant with his people.
- Dying as our sacrifice.
- Ministering before the Father, as our priest and mediator, during the gospel age.
- Coming again in the clouds of heaven to raise the righteous dead and change the righteous living.
- Clothing them with immortality, and giving them positions of surpassing glory in the kingdom which he shall establish, which shall never end.
But the great event which determines for us all the momentous question who shall be the subjects of Christ's eternal kingdom, is the judgment of the great day. This fixes the destiny of every one. Paul says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad. 2 Cor. 5:10. And he told the Athenians that God had appointed a day in the which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained, whereof he had given assurance unto all men in that he had raised him from the dead. Acts 17:31. And when John, in prophetic vision, saw a great white throne, and One sitting thereon before the glory of whose face the earth and heavens dissolved and disappeared, he saw the dead stand in the presence of that Being, and receive judgment according to the things written in the books. Among the great events of the gospel, the judgment thus holds an important and prominent place. It transpires at the conclusion of human probation. It declares the result of the working of the plan of salvation for 6,000 years. The gospel is one gospel, but it embraces distinct and separate truths, which, at different times, become leading themes of its proclamation. Thus, in the first years of what is known as the gospel dispensation, the burden of evangelical preaching was a crucified and risen Saviour; or the fact that Christ had appeared in the flesh as a sacrifice for men. In the days of the great Reformation, it was, Justification through Christ, without the intervention of a human priesthood. As we draw near the end, when the judgment is impending, and the ever-lasting kingdom of Christ is to be established, taking such only among the living as are ready to enter therein, this fact, as a matter of course, and from the very nature of the case, rises into prominence, and becomes the leading idea to be urged upon the attention of the people. So in Matt. 24:14, when the kingdom is about to be established, it is called, "This gospel of the kingdom;" the same gospel as at the beginning, only bringing out more prominently the establishment of the kingdom which the gospel embraces, and which is then soon to be set up. And in the passage before us in Revelation, it is the everlasting gospel; but it here brings to view especially the judgment, which is the great event impending when this message is given. By the expression "everlasting gospel," we are not to understand a gospel which is to be preached everlastingly, and never end, but one, the work and results of which are everlasting, being accomplished once for all. The proclamation of Rev. 14:6, 7, is therefore a second advent proclamation, and can be in order only when the second coming of Christ and the judgment are near at hand. This consideration alone effectually bars all attempts to apply this message to any movement in generations past. But as some, in obedience to a prevailing impulse which inclines people to locate all important events "not in your day or mine," attempt to find this message in past ages, even going as far back as the days of the apostles, we inquire if anything transpired in those ages which can be urged as a fulfullment of this prophecy. The apostles did not proclaim the hour of God's judgment come. It would not have been true if they had proclaimed it. Instead of this, they pointed to the future for that event. Paul reasoned before Felix of a judgment, not come, but to come, sometime in the future. Acts 24:25. And he told the men of his generation, not that a day had come, but that one was appointed still in the future, for that purpose. Acts 17:31. He also expressly wrote to the believers in Thessalonica, that Christians should not expect that day till after the long period of papal apostasy. 2 Thess. 2:3. The temporary preaching of the millennium near the close of the 10th century did not fulfill the prophecy. For those engaged in that work did not proclaim the hour of God's judgment come. It would not have been true if they had proclaimed it. And, moreover, that movement was based on a mistaken application of the prophecies respecting the thousand years. The reformers did not fulfill this prophecy. Martin Luther held and taught that the judgment would not come for 300 years from his day. The "Fifth Monarchy Men" of Cromwell's time did not fulfill it. For that movement was unscriptural and fanatical, limited in extent, and brief in duration. But we come to our time and find a movement which shook the churches of all Christendom. We find men moved as if by a divine impulse, giving utterance to a definite and specific proclamation through Europe, Asia, and Africa; while a thousand ministers took up the themes in the more enlightened lands of England and America. We find them sending forth the tidings to every missionary station on the globe. And what was it? The announcement of the advent near; the proclamation of the soon coming of Christ, and the end of the present dispensation. The great advent movement of the last 33 years cannot be ignored. Many may affect to regard it as a very insignificant affair, and reserve their heartiest terms of contempt for occasions of its mention. But it matters not that multitudes are blind to the importance and significance of this movement. The scribes and Pharisees saw in Christ himself only a malefactor worthy of death. But the sound has gone forth, and who has not heard it? This is enough. Those who were engaged in preaching the soon coming of Christ between the years 1840 and 1844, claimed to be giving the first message of Rev. 14. And the movement answers to the prophecy in every particular. - It answers to it in time; for it has come forth at the very time when all prophecy and all signs show that the end is at hand.
- It answers to it in the nature of the message proclaimed; for it points to the judgment.
- It answers to it in extent; for it has gone to all the world.
Now, no movement ever took place at the very time when such a movement was predicted to occur, and accomplish the very work specified in the prophecy, without being a fulfillment of that prophecy. In the great Advent movement of the present generation, therefore, we have a fulfillment of the first message of Rev. 14, which announces the hour of God's judgment come. U. S.