Chapter 28—The Investigative Judgment
“I Beheld,” says the prophet Daniel, “till thrones were placed, and
One that was ancient of days did sit. His raiment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames,
and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came
forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the Judgment was
set, and the books were opened.” [
Daniel 7:9, 10
, Revised Version.]
Thus was presented to the prophet’s vision the great and solemn
day when the characters and the lives of men should pass in review
before the Judge of all the earth, and to every man should be rendered
“according to his works.” The Ancient of days is God the Father.
Says the psalmist, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever
thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to
everlasting, thou art God.” [
Psalm 90:2
.] It is he, the source of all
being, and the fountain of all law, that is to preside in the Judgment.
And holy angels, as ministers and witnesses, in number “ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,” attend this great
tribunal.
“And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near
before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away.”
[
Daniel 7:13, 14
.] The coming of Christ here described is not his
second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient of days in
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Heaven to receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, which will
be given him at the close of his work as a mediator. It is this coming,
and not his second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy
to take place at the termination of the 2300 days, in 1844. Attended by
heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies, and
there appears in the presence of God, to engage in the last acts of his
ministration in behalf of man,—to perform the work of investigative
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