The Hour of His Judgment Come.
By J. N. Loughborough
[We shall be pardoned for inserting the following in the REVIEW, though not written for publication; as it meets inquiries which have been presented to us.] I shall dissent from the view taken by some, that the judgment referred to here, is the session of judgment on Papacy; and for so doing I will assign my reasons. 1. The three messages of Rev. xiv, are warnings of great events. God's order is to give the warning before the event comes; if it is not so in this instance then we have one inconsistent exception to the great general rule, and that exception one of the most important warnings this world was ever to hear, inasmuch as it heralded the great event which was to seal the destiny of thousands: "The hour of judgment come." If the judgment referred to, is the deadly wounding of the Papacy, then that message we see must necessarily have gone forth prior to 1798; for that is the point where the deadly wound was given. But we find upon close investigation, that the first angel's message could not go while the book was sealed, which that message was founded on, which was to be sealed until the time of the end, 1798. See Dan. xi; xii.30Again: If we should take the position that the first angel's message was to be given prior to 1798, when we look for its fulfillment we find no such message given there. Some of the Advent people have tried to claim that the reformers gave that message; but they gave no such message. The first angel's message is a definite one. Take the definiteness from it, and it would herald no new idea, but would only be "Fear God, . . . for the judgment is coming." Neither Luther, Wesley, or any of the reformers gave a definite proclamation in regard to the judgment. Said Martin Luther, "The judgment is not far off. I am persuaded the Lord will not be absent above 300 years longer." Let us see if he gave it.—"Fear God;" for the judgment is coming in 300 years. Is that the message? No. "The hour of his judgment is come." Wesley thought the Lord would come about 1836: not in his day. He did not give that message; neither did any one give it until the Advent proclamation of 1843-4 came out, claiming that the Lord was coming at the end of the 2300 days. Although they made a mistake in the event for which they looked, yet they gave that message. They supposed that judgment did not set until Jesus' second advent; and they preached that his second advent would take place in 1844. They gave a definite message. Not long since I was talking with an Adventist who said, "The first angel's message was only the agitation of the subject of the judgment, by the reformers." I asked, Was not that to be a definite message? He said no more on that point. According to Paul, [2 Thess. ii, 3,] Christ's coming could not be until the man of sin had performed his work; and they were charged to let no man deceive them. Then if any man should come while Papacy was working and say, "The hour of God's judgment (or Jesus' coming) had come," it would be a deception, for Papacy was performing its work. But these are only incidental arguments. I will now try and come to the point. What is meant by the hour of God's judgment? (first angel's message.) In order to ascertain this point, I shall claim that the Advent proclamation was the true first angel's message, and inquire, What great event was truly heralded by that proclamation? The foundation stone which gave definiteness to that message, was the 2300 days, the great prophetic period of Dan. viii, which period ended 1844, as all just and true reckoning will show; and the event which took place at the end of that period was the cleansing of the Sanctuary, which was to be cleansed at the end of 2300 days from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, 457 B. C., the seventh of Artaxerxes. The Sanctuary to be cleansed we at once see is not the earth, but the one that our great High Priest ministers in. In the type the priest did not work 364 days in the first apartment of the Sanctuary, and then go off 1000 miles and clear the rubbish off of some patch of ground, (which would have been a type, we should think of cleansing the earth, if anything,) but he goes into the same building he has performed his 364 days' service in, and performs the work called cleansing. But our Advent brethren all admit that our great High Priest has been performing his ministerial office since he entered heaven: but when the time comes to cleanse the Sanctuary, he must leave heaven and come to this dark, sublunary globe, to cleanse the earth. Nay, verily, he will cleanse the Sanctuary he ministers in, if he carries out the type. O well, says the brother, it needs no cleansing. Strange wisdom, whence is it. Paul says, [Heb. ix, 23.] "It was necessary that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified" or cleansed. It is strange that the patterns need cleansing, if the original does not. Yes; but Paul says they were to be cleansed with better sacrifices. Then it is necessary that the heavenly Sanctuary should be cleansed; and we proceed to inquire, What was that work of cleansing? Is the work of cleansing the Sanctuary fitly heralded by the first angel's message? In other words, Is it a work of judgment? For light on this subject, we shall be obliged to go to the type. Let us look at the type. See the high priest preparing himself to cleanse the Sanctuary; almost the first thing he did was to gird upon him the breast plate of judgment. For what does he put that on? It certainly looks as though he was going to do a judgment work. Again: his work was an atonement for the blotting out of sins. I often use the expression, "It is not common to blot out accounts until they are settled;" so our sins are not blotted out until the time of refreshing comes, which is when Jesus leaves the Sanctuary, and lays the blotted-out sins on the head of the scape-goat. Again: it was a day of decision. On the morning of the day of atonement the trumpet was sounded which called the attention of the people to the sanctuary. They were required to gather around the sanctuary and afflict their souls; every one that afflicted his soul received the blessing of the high priest when he came out: those who did not afflict themselves, were to be put to death. The antitypical day of atonement has come. The third angel is commissioned to perform his work of measuring the temple of God and them that worship in it. His golden reed is the commandments of God, "better than gold, yea, more to be desired than much fine gold." As it was in the type, so now. Every one that did not heed the call on the day of atonement must die. So it is now: every one that hears distinctly the call and does not obey, there is no more mercy for them. In the type, men were not condemned because they were not around the sanctuary on the sixth or eighth days of the seventh month, because the time had not come. So in the antitypical work: we are not condemned for not having the light of the third angel's message, before that message comes; but when it comes, if we do not heed it, we must suffer the consequences. Again: it was said to Daniel that he should "rest and stand in his lot at the end of the days," or prophetic periods. I can find none that extend beyond 1844. The periods of 1290 and 1335 days commence at the downfall of Paganism, 508: adding the 1290 years, they carry us to 1798, and 1335 full years would carry us to 1844, the last period. I know of no period that can be so reckoned as to come this side of 1844; so that the time Daniel was to stand in his lot at the end of the days was 1844. The word which is rendered lot, does not signify his redeemed state, but, chance. Daniel should stand his chance. Why? Because his sins had been confessed, and on the day of atonement those sins which have been confessed are opened before-hand to judgment. Now read 1 Pet. iv. Verse 5 declares that Christ is ready to judge the quick and the dead. Verse 7. "But the end of all things is at hand." Verse 11. "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God." (Oracles—ten commandments. See Acts vii, 38.) Why speak as the oracles of God? Because the oracles are the duty brought out by the third angel's message. Verse 17. "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." Verse 19. Commit the keeping of your souls to God. 1 Tim. v, 24. "Some men's sins are open before-hand going before to judgment." We see by this what the judgment is that the first angel of Rev. xiv, refers to.