The Order of Events in the Judgment.
By John Nevins Andrews
The reason why so vast a period as 1,000 years intervenes between the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked, is now made very apparent. The work committed to the saints, demands no less a period than that assigned it by the Holy Scriptures. It is that they examine the books of God's record to309determine the measure of guilt of each wicked man, and of every fallen angel. To this great exaltation the psalmist refers in these words :— Ps. 149 : 4-9 : “For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written; this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.”
The saints have no participation in the work of the judgment, until the coming of the Lord. 1 Cor. 4 : 5. The decision of every case is made by God the Father before he sends his Son to execute the judgment. Dan. 7 : 9-14, compared with Jude 14, 15. It is the execution of the judgment, therefore, that pertains to the Son. John 5 : 22, 27. And that work which is given to the Son, he shares with his saints. For when he sits in his own throne, all his saints shall sit down with him in it, as he once thus sat down with the Father. And that power which the Father gives him over the nations when he receives his own throne, he shares with his saints when he exalts them to his right hand to unite with him in the execution of the judgment. Compare Ps. 2 : 6-9; Rev. 2 : 26, 27. The most important part of this work is the determination of that measure of guilt which pertains to each individual of the lost. God the Father having pronounced them unworthy of eternal life, it is then the business of the saints to determine that measure of anguish which their respective lives of sin demand. This Psalm is worthy of careful study. 1. When the meek are beautified with salvation, it will be by the change to immortality. They will bear the image of the second Adam, as in this life they bear that of the first. 1 Cor. 15 : 47-49. Compare also Isa. 33 : 17, with 1 John 3 : 2. 2. This beautifying of the saints, and exalting them to glory precedes their participation in the judgment, mentioned in verses 7-9 of this Psalm. 3. The two-edged sword in their hand is doubtless the same as that which proceeded out of the mouth of Him whose name is called the word of God. Rev. 19 : 11-15. 4. And if we consider this Psalm from verse 6-9, we shall see that the work of the immortal saints in the judgment of the wicked is effected by the examination of the book of God, the sharp sword which they hold in their hands (Eph. 6 : 17; Heb. 4 : 12), and the written record of their evil deeds. So that the record of their lives will be compared with the rule given them to govern their conduct, and the measure of their guilt determined thus. A brief survey of Rev. 20 may now be in place. We understand the events of this chapter, as stated in verses 1-11, are given very nearly in strict chronological order; and that verses 12-15, cover the same ground, though they necessarily begin at a point somewhat earlier than the binding of the dragon, and the resurrection of the just. For there can be no doubt that the judgment scene of Rev. 20 : 12, is precisely identical with that of Dan. 7 : 9, 10. In the one case it is God the Father sitting in judgment with the books opened before him. In the other, it is the Ancient of days who takes the position of judge, and before whom the books are opened. It has already been shown that God the Father thus sits in judgment before the advent of Christ; and that at this tribunal our Lord acts as advocate for his people, and closes his priesthood with securing their acquittal, and the blotting out of their sins. He determines every case, deciding who shall have eternal life, and thus counting all others unworthy of it. Then he commits the execution of the judgment to the Son, who, in fulfillment of this work, makes his saints immortal, and associates them with himself in the judgment, of the wicked. When God thus commits the judgment to his Son, and the Son ceases forever his work of intercession, the words of Ps. 76 : 7-9, will be found true :— “Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.”
But the adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces; out of heaven will he thunder upon them (Rev. 16 : 18); he will render decision in strict justice in the case of all men, and then clothe his anointed King with strength to execute that decision. 1 Sam. 2 : 10. Indeed, it is because that the Son loves righteousness, and hates iniquity, that he is anointed to do this work. Ps. 45 : 7; 2 : 6-9. His arrows will be sharp in the heart of the King's enemies (Ps. 45 : 4, 5), and none will escape his just infliction of wrath. Rom. 2 : 6-9. The session of the judgment by God the Father, is to determine who shall have part in the resurrection of the just. Now it is of especial interest that the dead are represented as standing at this tribunal. The session of the Father's judgment being an event that precedes the advent of his Son, the dead have their cases brought into the judgment in the books which are brought forth, and in particular the righteous dead appear in the person of their Advocate. They do not personally stand as dead men at the Father's judgment-seat, for that is in the heavenly temple; but they are judged by the Father while dead, as if they were personally present at his bar; and all who have secured the services of the only Advocate in the court of heaven, by obeying the gospel while they lived, will have decision rendered, that the Spirit of God shall quicken them to immortality. 1 Pet. 4 : 6. This judgment work begins with the saints who render account through their High Priest; and if they are scarcely accounted worthy of eternal life when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, what will be the end of those who have no Advocate in the judgment, but who come up to it with all their sins standing against them in the book of God? 1 Pet. 4 : 17, 18. Verily, the ungodly will not stand in the judgment. Ps. 1 : 5. The judgment of God the Father, in Rev. 20 : 12, in which the cases of the dead are decided, must precede that event which is mentioned in verse 6 in these words : “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power.” Now it is this very session of the Father's judgment which determines who are worthy to have a part in this resurrection to immortality, and which leaves all the others to the second death at the resurrection of the unjust. The binding of Satan precedes the resurrection of the just. This seems plain enough from Rev. 20, but it is very plainly taught in our Lord's parable of binding the strong man, and spoiling his house. Matt. 12 : 29; Mark 3 : 27; Luke 11 : 21, 22. He is evidently bound before the complete slaughter of the wicked in the battle of the great day. Every mention of the bottomless pit, or deep, or abyss, both in the Old Testament and in the New, seems plainly to refer to our earth, or some part of it, in some form, or at some time. And in the most emphatic sense, after our earth has been turned upside down by the awful convulsions of the great day, and made utterly desolate, we understand it to be fully fitted to constitute the place of Satan's confinement, termed in this prophecy the bottomless pit. A strong confirmation of this view, is found in the fact that this expression is used in the Septuagint in Gen. 1 : 2, where the earth while yet without form and void, is spoken of as the deep; Greek, the bottomless pit. And the Hebrew original signifies the same. And it is predicted that our earth shall be reduced to this condition again. Jer. 4 : 23. This binding of the devil we understand to be at the very time when, as the antitypical scape-goat, he receives the sins of the righteous. Lev. 16. And our earth in its utter desolation is the land not inhabited, where he shall remain with this terrible load of guilt upon him, while the saints sit in judgment upon the fallen angels, and upon all the members of the human family who would go on still in their sins. J. N. A.