Mark, a little I responded as follows:



I hope you respond, as I'm very interested in your idea as to what this process is.

In the parable of the 10 virgins, where should we put the judgment of the living for the unwise virgins? Where should we put it for the wise? Where should we put it for those who sounded the Loud Cry that woke the virgins up? Where for those besides the virgins who responded to the Loud Cry and, with the wise virgins, went into the wedding? For all of the above, was the door shut at the same time? If we say the judgment of the living is an event, then it appears to happen when the door is shut. If we say it includes a process, then it appears to happen at different times. For example, the unwise virgins are judged first, isn't it true? Even before the door is shut for others, they have no access into the wedding.

There have been a handful of other shut doors in sacred history, the most recent being the 'shut door' of 1844 that Adventism largly misunderstands. The 'shut doors' of sacred history are there to enlighten us on this topic, IMO. But, I'd like to know what you all think and why. Is the judgment of the living an event or does it include a process?

"Once to every man and nation,
Comes the moment to decide . . ."

It's getting late Tom. I'll try to dialogue more tomorrow. Not to keep you in suspence. The basic ideas I have on the process are here now. I'm comfortable in categorizing this process as being the crucial aspect of the judgment of the living because this is what I understand Christ to be saying about judgment in the passage I quoted above but didn't cite - the one where He says "This is the judgment . . ."

But, before I sign off let's beware of getting side tracked by symantics. For example, whether we agree that Ellen White is talking about the 'judgment of the living' in the following quote, I think we can all agree that she is saying our cases are, present tense, coming under review at this time. We can call that whatever we want. Let's not be distracted (myself included) by the label we prefer. The truth, the reality of the ongoing judgment is what matters my good friends.

Here's what you said earlier:



As I said before, I agree with this. I'm just interested in your fleshing out your thoughts a bit more, when you have time and aren't tired.

According to Peter, sins are blotted out at the times of refreshing:
And according to Ellen White, the shaking and sealing began not long after 1844. I believe that the latter rain began with the sealing/shaking message which is the message to “prophecy again", and to "Rise, measure the temple and those that worship there". It's a judgment message, whether you call it the "Judgment of the Living" or something else. It's a message that the hour of judgment has come.

There are two aspects to sins being blotted out. One is the record in heaven and the other is the root of sin in the character of the individual. The refreshing takes care of the latter – the root of sin - not the former – the record in heaven.

EJ Waggoner implies that the only true blotting out of sin is the latter. I agree that a sin is blotted out when the person has no propensity or inclination to do it any longer. But if the person abandons Christ, he no longer is covered and since his covering was always a matter of grace, when he abandons Christ the righteousness of Christ no longer covers him. That man, without the covering of Christ no longer has the righteous character of Christ. He is again in his sins.

But what about Ellen White’s statement to the effect that now is the time to be perfecting character, and that it’s a fatal mistake to wait for the latter rain to do that? Isn’t she saying that it will be too late for us to have our sins removed once the latter rain begins to fall? Yes and no. Her warnings apply to the latter rain that will fall on the whole world, believers and unbelievers close to the very end. But notice that for years she told us 1) that the latter rain had started for Adventists 2) that we live in the sealing time 3) that the shaking is underway for Adventists 4) that God is measuring us now, 5) that our cases are being reviewed now, today. All of the above confirm that we as a church and as individuals are living in the time Peter spoke of – the time of the refreshing, the time when sins are being blotted out.

But regarding the individual who abandon’s his walk and the upward path, Christ taught that the person who overcomes in one area but does not stay the course will find that he becomes the habitation of seven evil spirits more foul than the one he overcame.

I think this is all very, very easy to understand if we simply realize there's nothing artificial to any of this. What happens in heaven reflects the reality of what's happening on earth.

If a person's character is such that he is refusing the Holy Spirit, the books of heaven will reflect that. If the person responds to the Holy Spirit, the books of heaven will reflect that.

The latter rain comes in the form of a message. We know this from what happened in 1888. This was the beginning of the latter rain, which was halted by the unbelief of our forefathers. At sometime this process will be reinstated. For all we know, it could already have started. It's very, very difficult for us to know, as the statement in the GC about how the latter rain will be following around us, and we won't know, indicates.

If the latter rain is falling, then resisting the Holy Spirit is a more serious matter than normal. It's always a serious matter, but if the context is in the last message, clearly there isn't much time left before Christ comes again, so resistance to the Holy Spirit becomes an extremely serious matter. So it could be that a person thus resisting commits the unpardonable sin, because the Holy Spirit will be urging, "Respond now, while there's still time!!" and if the person still resists, he'll be lost, simply because there's nothing else the Holy Spirit can do. And the books of heaven will reflect this.

I don't know exactly how to answer this but, strictly speaking, the judgment is the blotting out of sins from the books, although, of course, this will be reflected in the lives of those who are judged.

It's interesting that Ellen White wrote in 1884:

We are living in the great antitypical day of atonement. Jesus is now in the heavenly sanctuary, making reconciliation for the sins of his people, and the judgment of the righteous dead has been going on almost forty years. How soon the cases of the living will come in review before this tribunal we know not; but we do know that we are living in the closing scenes of earth's history, standing, as it were, on the very borders of the eternal world. It is important that each of us inquire, How stands my case in the courts of Heaven? Will my sins be blotted out? {ST, May 29, 1884 par. 3}

In 1910, she wrote:

Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For more than sixty years this work has been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour's admonition, 'Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.' 'If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.' {GH, August 1, 1910 par. 6}

So, I don't believe that the judgment has already passed to the cases of the living. This, in my opinion, will happen when probation is about to end. But nobody knows when this will happen, or even when we are going to die, so the work of watching and letting Christ cleanse our souls from all sin must be continuous.

I also wouldn't risk saying that SDAs will be judged first, and then the rest of Christendom. Maybe that will be the case, maybe it won't.

It's the other way around, of course! The person's lives are examined, and if they have no sin, *then* there is a blotting out of sins from the books. The books in heaven reflect the reality of the person's lives (as opposed to the lives of the ones being judged reflecting what's in the books of heaven).

It's not the books in heaven which drive the character of the one being judged, but the character of the one being judged that drives the books in heaven.

I disagree, of course. The judgment is for the benefit of the unfallen worlds, whose inhabitants are not omniscient. There is no way to truly examine a life without examining thoughts and motives, and this can only be done through what is written in the books.