Judgement of the living

Ann Dorsey · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

We were talking in Sabbath School last week about when the judgement of the living begins. Some thought we cannot know, as per the statement in GC that says "none know how soon" it will go from the dead to the living. Others thought that we cannot know exactly when, but that it has to be when the Sunday law goes into effect. Anyone have evidence to share?

Sunrunner · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 26 Sep 2006 Posts: 9

Hello Ann,

Welcome to the forum.

I believe that the First Angel has gone out into the world with the message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water." Revelation 14:7. Truly, as you said, we cannot know when the judgment of the living will begin, though we know that judgment is taking place in the Heavenly Sanctuary at this time.

Unfortunately, I do not have the answer that you seek. I am not sure that we can discern when judgment passes to the living. I do know, however, that we are called to ready ourselves for Christ's coming at this very moment. We cannot let a moment of unrepentance go by when the fate of our soul is in the balance.

Perhaps someone else could better answer your question.

Dzien Dobry · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 26 May 2002 Posts: 70

What did Ellen White mean by the judgment of the living?

God has always judged professed believers in every generation.

Ellen G. White's remark in the Great Controversy, page 483, about the judgment beginning with those who first lived upon the earth and proceeding through each successive generation and closing with the living, is a clear reference to the investigative judgment. The chapter title is "Facing Life's Record." I have always thought that Ellen White was talking about the close of probation in that statement. I can't imagine what else the comment could mean.

In direct references to the close of probation, Ellen White wrote:

God has not revealed to us the time when this message will close or when probation will have an end. Those things that are revealed we shall accept for ourselves and for our children, but let us not seek to know that which has been kept secret in the councils of the Almighty. . . . Last Day Events, p. 227.

When probation ends, it will come suddenly, unexpectedly--at a time when we are least expecting it. But we can have a clean record in heaven today, and know that God accepts us.--7BC 989 (1906).

The righteous and the wicked will still be living upon the earth in their mortal state--men will be planting and building, eating and drinking, all unconscious that the final, irrevocable decision has been pronounced in the sanctuary above. Before the flood, after Noah entered the ark, God shut him in, and shut the ungodly out; but for seven days the people, knowing not that their doom was fixed, continued their careless, pleasure-loving life, and mocked the warnings of impending judgment. "So," says the Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, will come the decisive hour which marks the fixing of every man's destiny, the final withdrawal of mercy's offer to guilty men. Maranatha, p. 264.

When the irrevocable decision of the sanctuary has been pronounced, and the destiny of the world has been forever fixed, the inhabitants of the earth will know it not. The forms of religion will be continued by a people from whom the Spirit of God has been finally withdrawn, and the satanic zeal with which the prince of evil will inspire them for the accomplishment of his malignant designs, will bear the semblance of zeal for God.--GC 615 (1911).

Here I think is a very conclusive statement. Not even Satan will know.

As Satan influenced Esau to march against Jacob, so he will stir up the wicked to destroy God's people in the time of trouble. . . . He sees that holy angels are guarding them, and he infers that their sins have been pardoned, but he does not know that their cases have been decided in the sanctuary above.--GC 618 (1911).

Ann Dorsey · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

Thank you both for sharing thoughts, and sunrunner for your welcome! It has occurred to me that for SDA's, their judgement or personal probation could possibly occur BEFORE the Sunday law. i understand that each person will be granted light, and like a series of steps, if they take that step of reform, they will be granted more light, and if not, they will fall off into darkness. Therefore, God knowing our hearts, our probation could well be over and our fate fixed BEFORE the Sunday law.
Have been researching this, and have found a couple of statements that seemed to be helpful. Again thank you both for your input!

From my studies, it seems that as God's people allow Him to cleanse them from every defilement and every sin, they will be fitted to receive the refreshing of the Lord, and will give the Loud Cry. Some will be shaken out because they refuse to cleanse themselves, and come up to the standard of the Lord. As they leave God's people, others will take hold of the message and come in to take their place. Eventually those who are true will be crying night and day for deliverance and will be glorified because they have Christ's character, and then He will come.

The statement that was used in SS to say that the judgement of the living begins at the time of the Sunday law is printed below. I am not sure that it is definitive in proving that point however.

What do you think?

Now when the great work of judging the living is about to begin, shall we allow unsanctified ambition to take possession of the heart and lead us to neglect the education required to meet the needs in this day of peril?
In every case the great decision is to be made whether we shall receive the mark of the beast or his image, or the seal of the living God. And now, when we are on the borders of the eternal world, what can be of so much value to us as to be found loyal and true to the God of heaven? 6T130

Ann Dorsey · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

Hello Dzien Dobry,
I wanted to comment on your question, about what Ellen White meant about the judgement of the living.

Yes it is true that God has always judged His people, and from what I understand, if that person was walking in integrity, and abiding in Christ by faith, and walking in all the light they knew and doing the will of God as best they understood it, they will be saved in His Kingdom. However, if they were indulging sin, and not being true to Him, they won't be.

From my understanding of the sanctuary system, what is different in the day of atonement, and the judgement of the living, is that God has given all the light necessary in order to perfect a character like the Son of God.
And this very clearly, so that it cannot be misunderstood. For instance, Abraham, and David, and a lot of the patriarchs seemed to think that it was okay to have more than one wife. But as time has gone on, God has made it clearer and clearer as the generations go by, that this is not His will for His people. The path of the just is as a shining light, growing brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Now in the end of time, we have a great deal of light being shown upon the minutiae of daily life, so that we can know very plainly and without excuse what is the will of God in regard to how He wants us to live. Those who must live in the sight of a Holy God without a mediator have been instructed very carefully by God, so that there will be no sins of ignorance. In that way, the last generation will be different than any other generation that has lived upon the earth. If they were to sin, after Christ comes out of the sanctuary, there would be no sacrifice for sin, even sins of ignorance!