Having examined the nature and purpose of God’s pre-Advent judgment in the context of salvation and God’s sanctuary, we are in a good position to answer some questions and objections regarding the judgment.
(1) Objection: The judgment is a legalistic teaching based on salvation by works, rather than justification by grace through faith alone, as the Bible teaches (Eph 2:8–9).
Answer: Legalism is use of the law for a purpose for which it is not intended, such as to earn salvation (Luke 18:9–14) and gain assurance of it by reaching a minimum standard (Matt 19:16–22) or wielding power over other people in order to coerce or condemn them (Matt 23:1–7). Legalism is not God’s law, which is based on love (Matt 22:37–40); obedience to God’s law, which shows loyalty to him by receiving his gift of love, and which frees us from slavery to sin and its destructive consequences (Rom 6:16–22); or seeking to learn more about God’s law (e.g., Ps 119:18–20, 24–40, 92–99, 124–131) in order to live in more loving harmony with him and other people.
Neither is God’s judgment legalistic because it confirms the salvation that we receive by grace through faith by vindicating God’s justice in giving us mercy, thereby completing the process of justification by faith (Rom 3:26; see above). The question in the judgment is: Have we accepted God’s free gift of salvation through faith in Christ’s sacrifice, with the moral transformation that comes with that faith as the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts the love (Rom 5:5) that brings us into harmony with God and his law as we cooperate with him? In short, do we have the Son (1 John 5:12)? The judgment is about our relationship to God through Christ.
The judgment is not about whether we have sinned or whether we have done enough good works to outweigh our guilt for sins of the past so that we merit salvation. We are not our own saviors. Only Christ is our Savior, who has borne our sins and buried them in his tomb. We cannot earn any part of our salvation (Ps 49:8–10 [Eng. vv. 7–9]). All the good works that we do to cooperate with God when our faith works through love (Gal 5:6), even if these works involve blood, toil, tears, sweat, and agonizing in prayer, are only ever part of our receiving God’s free gift. Paul encouraged Christians: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12–13; emphasis supplied). Our work is to accept God’s gift and his power in our lives.
As we have found, the reason why the judgment examines the works part of our faith is because the judgment is for the knowledge of God’s created beings, who cannot see our thoughts of faith. God demonstrates that he is fair and responsible in saving us, thereby showing grace to his unfallen beings by confirming their trust in him. When we rejoin their neighborhood, they want to know that it will be safe because we have chosen to live forever, by God’s grace and with his power, according to his principle of unselfish love. We have not arrived at the fullness of this love in the present life, even if God matures us to the point that we no longer commit sins (Eph 5:26–27; Rev 19:7–8; 22:11 of God’s people at Christ’s second coming)2 because our love will continue to grow for all eternity. But our lives show that this love is what we want.
(2) Objection: The teaching of a pre-Advent investigative judgment robs a Christian of assurance of salvation. The Bible says that when God forgives us, it’s over: he casts our sins “into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19) and as far away as the East is from the West (Ps 103:12). But if we then face the possibility of condemnation in a judgment, we have not been truly forgiven because we must be forgiven all over again. If that is so, God dredges our sins up from the bottom of the sea and pulls them in from the East and the West to hold them over our heads so that we will obey him from fear! How can we love such a God? It is true that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18), but perfect fear also casts out love.
Answer: Satan, not God, is the accuser (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10) who is trying to destroy our assurance. When God forgives our sins, there is no need for us to ever face those sins again as long as we maintain our relationship with him (Col 1:21–23; 1 John 5:11–13), although in the judgment he deals with his responsibility for having forgiven us.
The “Day of Atonement” judgment stage of expiation/atonement is not about forgiveness. No term for forgiveness is found in any Day of Atonement passage in the Bible (Lev 16; 23:26–32; Num 29:7–11) because the moral cleansing that people receive as a result of the cleansing of God’s sanctuary is beyond forgiveness (Lev 16:30),3 confirming the forgiveness that they have already received (4:20, 26, 31, 35). This confirmation is shown by the special purification offerings performed by the high priest on the Day of Atonement: he applied sacrificial blood, representing the blood of Christ, to some of the same places where purification offerings throughout the year had been applied to expiate sins, prerequisite to forgiveness by the Lord (16:16b, 18–19; Exod 30:10; cf. Lev 4:6–7, 17–18, 25, 30, 34).
When God forgives us, our sins are flushed down the drain and gone. As long as we have the Son (1 John 5:12), we have assurance that we are in a saved relationship with God, including through the time of the judgment (see above). John continues: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (v. 13). Jesus promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20), and “the end of the age” is after the judgment (e.g., Dan 7:9–12, 22, 26–27).
The only way we may face our sins again before the end of the judgment (“close of probation”) is if we choose to undo our relationship with our Forgiver (Heb 6:4–6). God allows this possibility because he respects our free choice. Compare the fact that if people boarded Noah’s ark, God did not force them to stay there. They could change their minds and get off the boat until the door was shut. If we want our sins back again, we can have them, just as a dog returns to its vomit (Prov 26:11; I won’t bring that up again!).
But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die (Ezek 18:24).
The notion of “once saved always saved” before the end of the judgment does not recognize God’s respect for our free choice, without which it would be impossible for us to love him or other people.4 Heaven would be hell for someone who prefers selfishness, so God does not force heaven on anyone.
We have been talking about forgiveness that people have genuinely received at some point, whether they hold onto it or not. Jesus illustrated the fact that not all forgiveness is genuinely received. He told of a servant who owed his master, a king, the astronomical sum of 10,000 talents (Matt 18:24). These talents “would be at least 204 metric tons of silver but probably reflect the fabulous sum of 60 million denarii.”5 Today this could be worth more than 185 million U.S. dollars!6 The king forgave him the monstrous debt, but then he went out and had no mercy on a fellow servant who owed him a mere 100 denarii. When the king found out, he unforgave the unforgiving servant (vv. 25–34). Jesus concluded his parable: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (v. 35). Forgiveness that is not passed on is not truly received.
Notice that the king had forgiven, but he had not forgotten. This illustrates why God keeps records (e.g., Dan 7:10) that can be reviewed in the judgment: in case someone does not genuinely receive forgiveness (Matt 18) or later rejects it (Ezek 18:24; see above). By the end of the judgment, such records will be eternally irrelevant, so that in this sense God will no longer remember the sins (cf. Jer 31:34). It is like when you drag a document icon to the Trash on your computer desktop. You can retrieve it from there if you want until you empty the Trash at a second stage. At the end of the judgment, God will empty the Trash.
(3) Question: Does the pre-Advent judgment consider only the cases of people who have already died in the past so that their life histories are finished, or does it also judge those who are living at the time when the judgment takes place?
Answer: There will be many people alive on earth when Jesus comes again, including both loyal ones who are saved (1 Thess 4:17) and disloyal ones who are lost (Rev 1:7; 6:15–17; 19:15, 17–21). The pre-Advent judgment will be completed before Jesus comes again because he will bring with him the rewards that already have been decided (Rev 22:12). So the judgment will conclude while the lives of many are still in progress. Therefore, the final part of the judgment must turn to consideration of people who are alive at the time. The Bible gives no indication as to when that will be. So our cases will come up in the judgment in heaven without us knowing about it. For a legalist, that is very frightening! An appointment for one’s time in court would give the opportunity to put on a good appearance, the moral equivalent of a suit and tie or a Sabbath dress.
However, the pre-Advent judgment is to reveal loyalty to God that is ongoing, not at a point of time when we put on a good show. If we have (not had) the Son (1 John 5:12) and “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel” (Col 1:23), it doesn’t matter when our cases come up. “Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come” (Mark 13:35).
God’s judgment will conclude when the final gospel message has gone to the world (Matt 24:14; Rev 14:6–12; 18:4) and when Christ has completed his work of cleansing, sanctifying, and maturing/perfecting his people (Eph 5:26–27; Rev 19:7–8) so that they will have settled into their lives of holiness and right-doing (Rev 22:11) in harmony with him. The judgment will not conclude before that. So even if the judgment of the living began now, it certainly would not end now because the gospel work has not been completed yet. The Lord “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Therefore, he will not condemn anyone before the end of the judgment (= “close of probation”) if he could save them by waiting longer. If we continue to be faithful to him and receive his gifts as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4), he will be faithful to accomplish for, in, and through us whatever needs to be done by the power of his Holy Spirit. God “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).
(4) Question: Does the pre-Advent judgment really involve God’s unfallen created beings in a process of actually deciding the eternal destinies of human beings, or is it like an audit that will only show them what God has already decided?
Answer: It is true that God is the Judge of human beings (Ps 7:12 [Eng. v. 11]; 50:6; 58:11; Eccl 3:17), and he knows everything, including human thoughts (1 Chr 28:9; Ps 139:23), although his foreknowledge of destinies does not override human choice. So God knows best whether a person is safe to save or not, and he “knows those who are his” (2 Tim 2:19), but he lays out evidence to his created beings so that they can see for themselves. The “books” that are opened to their view in the judgment (Dan 7:10) contain records, presumably including records of human works (cf. Eccl 12:14) that are relevant for deciding whether people should be saved or not.
The Bible does not tell us how the deliberations take place, but even though God is sovereign and knows the outcomes beforehand, decisions are not finalized until “the court shall sit in judgment” (Dan 7:26). Here it is the court, not only God, that renders verdicts. God and the “jury” of his unfallen created beings will agree with each other. Thus, God involves his created beings in a process of evaluating the responses of human beings to the salvation that he has lovingly provided. This deliberation and evaluation are more than just an audit of a final decision that he has previously made.7
Compare Rev 20:4, which describes an executive judgment in heaven during the millennium by redeemed human beings to whom “authority to judge” (Gr. krima) is given.8 This language indicates that saved people who will reign with Christ (cf. v. 6) will have real power to participate in making decisions in this phase of judgment, which will involve reviewing the cases of those who are lost and fixing their final penalties. If God entrusts this level of responsibility to humans after Christ’s second coming, it appears that he will actually involve his unfallen beings in the process of arriving at verdicts in the pre-Advent judgment, rather than merely showing them what he has already decided.
The fact that God submits his decisions to the scrutiny of his finite created beings shows humility on his part. Humility, along with justice and mercy, is an important part of love (cf. Mic 6:8), which Jesus supremely demonstrated through his incarnation, life on earth, and death (Phil 2:5–8).
Those who truly are in Christ, as shown by the conduct of their lives that naturally flows from their hearts of faith (cf. Gal 5:6; Jas 2:26), even if they are loyal to God’s principles without having the Bible or knowing the name of Christ (cf. Rom 2:14–16), have the assurance that they will be saved. So the judicial review of their lives demonstrates and confirms the saving relationship that they already have.9 On the other hand, the pre-Advent judgment also reveals those hypocrites whose relationship to Christ is in name only (cf. Matt 25:41–46) or those who have had a genuine saving relation- ship with Christ but have turned away from it (Heb 6:4–8).
Human beings themselves decide whether they are saved or lost, but real decisions are shown by trends of actions in life, not simply by words. Words are important (Matt 10:32–33; 12:36–37), but they need corresponding actions (Matt 7:21). Therefore, the judgment reviews the evidence for real decisions in the lives of people. As a result, the decisions of the heavenly court are in accord with the real decisions of humans. Do they really want to live forever, by free choice, in harmony with God’s principle of unselfish love, as provided by the free gift of Christ’s sacrifice, or not?
A great judgment in heaven before Christ’s second coming, which was prefigured by the ancient Israelite Day of Atonement, vindicates the justice of God as Judge in having forgiven guilty but repentant, transformed, and loyal people. The judgment also vindicates his justice in condemning those who are disloyal and, therefore, unsafe to save. God involves his created beings in the judgment process so that everyone in the universe will know that he is truly the God of love whom he claims to be, so they can fully trust him forever.
We are saved by grace through faith alone. But the pre-Advent judgment considers records of human works that naturally result from, express, and are inseparable from true, living faith within the life of faith that is regenerated and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is not because we are saved by works but because God’s created beings cannot see the thoughts part of our faith.
The judgment is a culminating part of the gospel because it vindicates the forgiveness that we have received, confirms our assurance of salvation, delivers us from oppression, and signifies that Christ is coming soon. We can rejoice, rather than be afraid of the judgment, because we have Christ on our side and as our Substitute. God has informed us when the end-time judgment begins so that we can participate by taking God’s final appeal and warning to the world, which calls for everyone to worship him, the Creator, and to keep God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus.
In light of all this, the judgment teaching is not at all legalistic, nor does it take away our assurance. If we continue in our transforming relationship with Christ, it does not matter when our cases will be considered in the judgment, so we do not need to know exactly when the judgment will begin to evaluate the lives of those who will be alive when Jesus comes.
Now, rather than cringing whenever God’s pre-Advent judgment is mentioned, we can shout with the Psalmist: “judge me, O Lord”! (Ps 7:9 [Eng. v. 8]).
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1. Ellen G. White repeatedly said that Christ already could have come if his people had been faithful: in 1883 (Evangelism [Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1946], 695–696); 1898 (The Desire of Ages [Oakland, CA: Pacific Press, 1898), 633–634); 1900 (Testimonies for the Church, 9 vols. [Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948], 6:450); and 1909 (Testimonies for the Church, 9:29).
2. Although our sinful natures in our mortal bodies continue until God changes us at Christ’s second coming (1 Cor 15:51–54).
3. The common but mistaken idea that the activities uniquely performed on the Day of Atonement provided forgiveness on a grand scale appears as early as the Temple Scroll 26:9–10. The Temple Scroll is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found near Qumran and likely dates to shortly before the time of Christ.
4. Cf. Rev 3:20—Christ, the Creator, stands outside the door (of our heart) and just knocks!
5. Marvin A. Powell, “Weights and Measures,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. D. N. Freedman, 6 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 6:907.
6. 1 metric ton = 2204.62 pounds x 16 = 35,273.92 ounces x $25.74 USD/ounce on 17 April 2022 = $907,950.70 x 204 metric tons = $185,221,942.80.
7. Cf. Sergio Celis, “Divine Governance and Judgment in History and in the Seventh-day Adventist Perspective of the Cosmic Conflict” (PhD diss., Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 2017), esp. 387–404; Miguel Patiño-Hernández, The Divine Judgment and the Role of Angels: An Evaluation of Conflicting Models Based on the Ontology of God (Lima, Perú: Alétheia, 2023). esp. 180–183, 203–206, 211; Roy E. Graf, The Principle of Articulation in Adventist Theology: An Evaluation of Current Interpretations and a Proposal, Adventist Theological Society Dissertation Series 11 (Berrien Springs, MI: Adventist Theological Society, 2019), 165–172 (esp. 170–171), 237–239, 245–246, 301. I am grateful to Joel Iparraguirre for bringing these dissertations to my attention. See also Ellen G. White’s description: “As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God… . Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected” (The Great Controversy, 483). This is not in agreement with Wallenkampf when he says, “Possibly the term investigative judgment is infelicitous since it may connote that decisions as to a person’s destiny are being made during it. But such is not the case. Probably it might more correctly be called an audit… . The audit is just confirmatory. The investigative judgment might therefore more appropriately be called the preadvent heavenly audit” (“Appendix C: Challengers,” 214; cf. 215–216). In light of the present discussion, I would modify what I wrote in my Who’s Afraid of the Judgment?, 20–22, to include the participation of God’s created beings in the process of making decisions, based on the facts of each case that God provides.
8. For this meaning of Greek krima, see Frederick W. Danker et al., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 567. Compare 1 Cor 6:2–3: “the saints will judge the world … we are to judge angels.”
9. “The overarching question concerns the decision we have made with respect to Jesus, the Saviour of the world. To have accepted His death on our behalf is to have passed already from death to life, from condemnation to salvation; to have rejected Him is to be self-condemned (John 3:17–18). So this end-time judgment at the close of the 2,300-day period reveals our relationship to Christ, disclosed in the totality of our decisions. It indicates the outworking of grace in our lives as we have responded to His gift of salvation; it shows that we belong to Him” (Sanctuary Review Committee, 1980, “Appendix E: Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary [Consensus Document],” in Holbrook, Doctrine of the Sanctuary, 232).