1 Peter 4:17: The Adventist Pioneers on this verse between 1846-1904 and until the Present

 

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

 

John N. Loughborough in (1854)

John N. Loughborough in 1854 wrote about 1 Peter 4 as follows in the context of 1844 calculation of Daniel 8:14: “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.”. . Verse 17 is then cited also in the context of 1844.[1]

James White (1857)

James White in 1857 wrote about 1 Peter 4:17 as follows: “This text we must regard as prophetic. That it applies to the last period of the church of Christ, seems evident from verses 5-7, 12, 13. In the judgment of the race of man, but two great classes are recognized – the righteous and the sinner, or ungodly. Each class has its time of judgment; and according to the text, the judgment of the house, or church of God comes first in order. ”Both classes will be judged before they are raised from the dead. The investigative judgment of house, or church of God will take place before the resurrection; so will the judgment of the wicked take place during the 1000 years of Rev. XX, and they will be raised at the close of that period.”[2]

 

John N. Loughborough (1869)

Loughborough in 1869 made it plain that there is not such a concept of a plurality of Judgment: “This judgment is not spoken of as a plurality of Judgments that are to sit, but ‘The ungodly shall not stand in the Judgment.’ Ps. i, 5, see also Ps. vii, 6; Acts xxiv, 25; Heb. X, 27; 1 Pet. iv, 17; 2 Pet. ii, 4; Jude 6; Rev. xiv, 7; Rev. xx, 12, 18”.[3] Loughborough in this writing discussed the theme whether there is a Judgment of the dead at death and he nullified this concept biblically.

 

John N. Andrews (1870)

John .N. Andrews wrote in 1870 in Review and Herald on 1 Peter 4:17 as follows: “”This judgment work begins with the saints who render account through their High Priest; and if they are scarcely accounted worthy of eternal life when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, what will be the end of those who have no Advocate in the judgment, but who come up to it with their sins standing against them in the book of God?”[4]

 

John O. Corliss (1880)

John O. Corliss wrote as follows on 1 Peter 4:17 in 1880: “Peter says that judgment begins at the house of God.” He said this in the context of 1844 with the Investigative Judgment commencing.[5]

 

D. A. Robinson (1884)

D. A. Robinson, “Bible Reading no. 1: The Sanctuary” in The Bible Reading Gazette: Containing One Hundred and Sixty-Two Bible-Readings on a Great Variety of Subjects, Doctrinal, Practical and Prophetical, Vol. 1 no. 1, January 1884, pages 1-7, especially page 2. Battle Creek, Review and Herald Ltd, downloaded on 28th of October 2017 at http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/BR1888.pdf, explained 1 Peter 4:17 in the context of the Investigative Judgment by Christ, starting with the faithful first. Uriah Smith and W. H. Littlejohn were also on the central committee of the Bible Reading Bureau. Littlejohn then made a shift from historicistic explanation by others in January of this year to a preteristic explanation by himself or was never fully convinced a historicist? Three months later, W. H. Littlejohn made a point in Review and Herald that contradicts what D. A. Robinson explained in a publication also under Littlejohn review earlier. W. H. Littlejohn, “Judgment at the house of God” Review and Herald 11 March 1884, 171 at no. 232 explained the passage in 1 Peter 4:17 as local persecution of Jews and Christians and not as the Investigative Judgment process in later history. This was a preteristic approach by Littlejohn. He remained in the central committee of the Bible Reading Bureau and can still be seen in December of that year in The Bible Reading Gazette, Vol. 1, no. 12. Despite his continuous expression after the expression of his own preteristic stance on the verse, others continued to express their link between the Investigative Judgment and 1 Peter 4:17 nevertheless. W. H. Littlejohn became the president of Battle Creek in Autumn of 1883 while the institution went through two “stormy” years of ideological and lifestyle problems. He tried to follow the blueprint of spiritual education with manual labor included. In Autumn of 1885 W. H. Littlejohn was succeeded by W. W. Prescott who was considered by historians a very able and spiritual man. Said Olsen of Littlejohn and Prescott compared: “Before that time there had been good individual teaching, but under his fostering care the work of the institution was unified and strengthened….” This puts Littlejohn on 1 Peter 4:17 in context.

 

Ellen White (1885)

Ellen White allocated the Judgment not to the Resurrection time, but to a future event related in her own time. "When we become children of God, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and they remain there until the time of the investigative judgment. Then the name of every individual will be called, and his record examined by Him who declares, 'I know thy works.' "—Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, Aug. 6, 1885.

 

Uriah Smith (1885)

Uriah Smith wrote in 1885 in Review and Herald as follows about 1 Peter 4:17: “It will be noticed that all this testimony which speaks of that portion of the Judgment which antedates the second advent, pertains to the righteous. This is the Judgment of which Peter speaks, that begins at the house of God, and he adds, “If it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Pet. 4:17. If we cannot pass this division of the Judgment which is, as it were, but the stepping or our feet into the brink of the waters, what shall we do in the swelling of Jordan?”[6]

 

Uriah Smith (1888)

In 1888 in Review and Herald, Uriah Smith cited 2 Peter 3:7 “’Day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men’ Thus the day of judgment embraces all these divisions. And there is order and consistency in the arrangement: First, the cases of the righteous are examined (judgment begins at the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17), and sentence is executed. Then the cases of the wicked are examined, and sentence is executed.” Smith investigated Peter’s understanding of judgment and shows here that when he used that word in his letters he is thinking of the judgment of the righteous first. Even in Acts 3:19-21 Smith found Peter talking about the blotting out of sins [thus from Books in Heaven in an Investigative Judgment context] before Christ comes or the times of refreshing comes.[7]

 

M. H. B. (1888)

M. H. B. “Bible Reading no. 12: Judgment” in The Bible Reading Gazette: Containing One Hundred and Sixty-Two Bible-Readings on a Great Variety of Subjects, Doctrinal, Practical and Prophetical, Battle Creek, Review and Herald Ltd, 1888, pages 36-37; downloaded on 28th of October 2017 at http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/BR1888.pdf, explained 1 Peter 4:17 in the context of the Investigative Judgment by Christ of the faithful first.

 

J. O. Corliss (1888)

J. O. Corliss “Bible Reading no. 121: The Judgment” in The Bible Reading Gazette: Containing One Hundred and Sixty-Two Bible-Readings on a Great Variety of Subjects, Doctrinal, Practical and Prophetical, Battle Creek, Review and Herald Ltd, 1888, pages 223-226; downloaded on 28th of October 2017 at http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/BR1888.pdf, did the same. However, in the same publication at Bible Reading no. 158 of the same publication, the author A. T. Robinson did not mention 1 Peter 4:17 in his discussion of the Judgment. He was involved in South African and Zimbabwian mission work.

 

Ellen White (1888)

Ellen White connected 1 Peter 4:17 explicitly with the Investigative Judgment as fulfillment of the Sanctuary typology of the Old Testament meant to be so in the Heavenly Day of Atonement time in God’s prophetic outline of history. "In the typical service, only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment, the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. '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?' "The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel, The judgment was set, and the books were opened.' The revelator, describing the same scene, adds, 'Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.' "—" The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, Mountain View, CA.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1888, p. 480.

 

K. Matteson (1895)

Karl Matteson Prophecies of Jesus Battle Creek, MI: International Tract Society, 1895 page 335 does mention that the Investigative Judgment before the Second Coming concerns the righteous only while the Investigative Judgment after the Second Coming concerns the unjust only, but he did not cite 1 Peter 4:17. One can assume that it is implicit. However, as teacher of O. A. Johnson, also Johnson did not mention it in his books later.

 

 

Sabbath School Quarterly (1895)

In the Sabbath School Quarterly on Sanctuary of the Bible 1895, Page 22: “6. -Upon what class will the work of the judgment begin? 1 Peter 4:17. Note 4.” “4, JUDGMENT will begin first upon the people of God, and their cases must be decided before Christ comes, because the saints are to judge the world after He comes. Dan. 7 : 22; 1 Cor. 6 : 7-3; 4: 5; Rev. 20 : 4.”

 

O. A. Johnson (1917)

The quietism of placing 1 Peter 4:17 in the discussion on the Judgment is also present in the Walla Walla professor’s work, O. A. Johnson in his revised edition page 234 dealing with Bible doctrines Lesson CXXVIII on the “The Investigative Judgment” in which he did not mention 1 Peter 4:17. O. A. Johnson, Bible Doctrines containing 150 lessons on creation, government of God, rebellion in heaven, fall of man, redemption, prophecies, millennium, end of sinners and Satan, paradise restored, etc., Walla Walla, W.A.: Press of Walla Walla College, 1917.

 

Sabbath School Quarterly (1918)

The Sabbath School Quarterly of 1918 Topical Bible Studies Number 91 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1918) dealt with the Sanctuary Message and on page 18 is listed also 1 Peter 4:17 connected to the Investigative Judgment since 1844. “12. What corresponding work of self-examination is in order in the time of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary? 1 Peter 4: 17; 2 Cor. 13: 5.”

 

W. H. Branson (1937)

In 1937 W. H. Branson dealt with the Bible Doctrines: The Sanctuary Number 5 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1937) in the Sabbath-School Quarterly and on page 22 he said: “10. With whom will the judgment begin? 1 Peter 4:17. NOTE.—"In the typical service, only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment, the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. '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?' "The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel, The judgment was set, and the books were opened.' The revelator, describing the same scene, adds, 'Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.' "—"The Great Controversy," p. 480.

 

E. A. Sawyer (1949)

Edith A. Sawyer in her presentation of “The Investigative Judgment” in Bible Instructor Part IV, edited by L. C. Kleuser, Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1949, 402-403 used 1 Peter 4:17 in the context of the Investigative Judgment preceding the Second Advent of the Messiah/Christ.

 

F. B. Jensen (1952)

In the Sabbath School Quarterly of 1952, page 16, F. B. Jensen unfortunately cited The Expositors’ Bible on 1 Peter 4:17 and the explanation is a 70-73 A.D. application that they heard the gospel but did not pay attention to it. Even though citing Ellen White’s passage from Great Controversy 480 indicating that the righteous will be dealt with in the Investigative Judgment in heaven but the wicked later after the Second Coming of Christ and the millennium, still he cited the preteristic commentary supporting his own view?

 

M. R. Thurber (1963)

M. R. Thurber, The Sanctuary Number Number 272 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1963), in the Sabbath-School Quarterly and on page 40 says: “7. What special book of register does God maintain in heaven, and with whom does judgment begin? Ex. 32:32; Phil. 4:3; 1 Peter 4:17. NOTE.—"When we become children of God, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and they remain there until the time of the investigative judgment. Then the name of every individual will be called, and his record examined by Him who declares, 'I know thy works.' "—Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, Aug. 6, 1885. "The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God."—The Great Controversy, page 480. "In the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. 'Judgment must begin at the house of God.' "—Ibid.

 

E. R. Thiele (1974)

E. R. Thiele, Extracts from a Letter to Elder Hatchitt on June 7, 1974: “Judgments begin with the house of God, and Peter in making this declaration states that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). If that is correct, the time for the first trumpet was almost at hand when Peter uttered these words. In Eze 9:6 the work of the judgment was to begin at God’s sanctuary, with the ancient men before the house.” Thiele does not connect Peter to the Investigative Judgment Theology of the Old and New Testament. Thiele ignore Ellen White’s stance on Peter.

 

Sabbath School Quarterly (1983)

In the Sabbath School Quarterly on 1 Peter in 1983, pages 27-28: “II. In the Judgment Hour. Verses 17-19. 1. To what solemn hour does this lesson apply? 2. What contrast is expressed regarding the righteous and wicked? 3. Who alone can keep us in such a time? 4. What should be our attitude toward God? NOTE. The Fiery Trial.—Our common version makes the "fiery trial" future, but the Revised Version makes it present. When the end is at hand (verse 7), when the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God (verse 17), then, "beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you." These are a part of our heritage; for "hereunto were ye called" (chap. 2: 21). The last days will be days of especial peril (2 Tim. 3 :1); every wind of doctrine will be blowing (Eph. 4: it); men will put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isa. 5:20); false prophets will do great signs and wonders, to deceive if possible the elect of God (Mark 13: 22); Satan himself will appear as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness (2 Cor. tt : 14, 15); persecution will break forth upon those who honor God's law in the gospel of Christ (Rev. : 17 ; 13 : 1.--17); Satan will work with all power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thess. 2: 9-12) ; in short, every delusion of the past, "every device of the devil adapted for the present, a very flood of iniquity and persecution, will roll in upon the world and the people of God in these days of peril (Isa. 59:19), culminating in the hour of temptation such as the world has never before seen (Rev. 3:10). These are the perils.”

 

E. Heppenstall (1983)

E. Heppenstall, “The Pre-Advent Judgment” Lecture Notes at Helderberg College extension school South Africa, 1983. He spent time saying that too much emphasis are placed on the Judgment in favor of the saints in 1844. He also mentioned that judgment against the wicked is done and God is vindicated. These three aspects. However, although he swings a wip on this lopsided emphasis, in the 1918 Sabbath-School book on the Sanctuary Message the judgment in favor of the saints are listed on page 18 with 1 Peter 4:17 but on page 27 (also 1918) it was listed again as judgment against the wicked. So Heppenstall’s wip is not always applicable in Adventist history. Heppenstall did not deny that Judgment was with the house of God although he did not list 1 Peter 4:17 explicitly. Implicitly he made a case for it.

 

G. Rice (1992)

George Rice, 1 Peter – A Living Hope (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1992) page 87 mentioned the following about 1 Peter 4:17: It is an echo of E. Thiele. In the heading: “Judgment of Professed Believers (1 Peter 4:17) he said: “Because Peter believed that Christ's death and resurrection introduced the last era of human history (1 Peter 1:20; 4:7), he was confident that the time of the judgment had also arrived. Throughout the Christian era God has determined who belong to Christ and who do not. This fact does not rule out the reality of the heavenly investigative judgment in the last days. Repenting Israelites were judged forgiven throughout the year (Lev. 4:26, 31, 35). But not until the Day of Atonement did the final judgment of the year occur, which involved cleansing of both sanctuary and people. (See Lev. 16:29-34; compare Dan. 7:9-14; 8:14.)” In answering the question of the beginning of the judgment, Rice said under the header: “Where does the judgment begin? 1 Peter 4:17; Eze. 9:4-11”: “In Ezekiel 9:5, 6, those who were sealed were judged worthy of life. Those who were slain at the sanctuary were in a state of incurable rebellion. (See Rev. 7:1-3.) In the pre-advent, investigative judgment, God's people are acquitted (Dan. 12:1; compare Rev. 3:5). Those who have rejected Christ's mercy are judged later. Rice did present 1 Peter 4:17 in the context of the Investigative Judgment, but does it seems as if he wants to make only the acquittal procedures at play in that time but that from the resurrection time judgment is taking place and that Peter thought it to be so in this passage? It would make Peter entertaining an error hermeneutics that is at loss with Daniel 8:14 and the Holy Spirit actually permitting it to be so by allowing Peter to bring misunderstanding together with truth, a problem we encounter regularly in the apocrypha? The New Testament scholars did not consider the role of Qumran texts with similar ideas as Peter in their investigations. This link in the specific text was not investigated in comparison with Qumran in Adventism, Reformed commentaries nor in Catholicism.

Rice pointed out that Ellen White sets 1 Peter 4:17 in the context of the pre-advent, investigative judgment on page 87 of his Sabbath School lesson Quarterly on Peter dealing with this passage in 1992: "In the typical service only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. '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?' 1 Peter 4:17”—The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, Mountain View, CA.: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1888, p. 480.

 

R. M. Johnston (1995)

R. M. Johnston, Peter and Jude, in The Abundant Life Bible Amplifier, Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1995, pages 108 applied it not to the investigative judgment but to the purification of the church by suffering and persecution. On page 116 a reference or source is suggested, namely G. Rice, A Living Hope, 114-117 for the typology involved in judgment. The quietism of placing 1 Peter 4:17 in the discussion on the Judgment is also present in the Walla Walla professor’s work, O A Johnson in his revised edition page 234 dealing with Bible doctrines Lesson CXXVIII on the “The Investigative Judgment” in which he did not mention 1 Peter 4:17.

 

R. McIver (2017)

R. McIver in his 2017 Sabbath School Quarterly on 1st and 2nd Peter at Wednesday 3rd of May kept the limits of application of 1 Peter 4:17 within the domain of the suffering of Peter’s readers and later suffering: “In all these passages, the process of judgment is portrayed as starting with the people of God. Peter even links the sufferings of his readers to the judgment of God. For him, the sufferings that his Christian readers are experiencing might be nothing less than the judgment of God, which begins with the household of God. “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (1 Pet. 4:19, NKJV).” R. McIver, Feed My Sheep First and Second Peter, Pacific Press, 2017. Downloaded on 29 October 2017 at http://www.absg.adventist.org.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion to the evidence of Reformed Theology inroads in Adventism after 1950’s listen to the email of a friend-scholar of mine whom I will not name:

“I will say that I wrote a paper years ago when I was at the seminary in 1987.  It tried to explain why 1 Pet 4:17 was removed from the list of texts in 1980 for the Fundamental Beliefs.  My research showed that the editorial committee made a bunch of changes in the Fundamental Beliefs after they were voted on the floor of the 1980 GC Session.  It includes the removal of 1 Pet 4:17 from the list of texts supporting our belief in the Investigative Judgment.  Nobody seems to care that the editorial committee changed the Fundamental Beliefs after the fact.  I have mentioned it to many people, and they are often disturbed to learn about it, but there has been no demand for a review of the actions of the editorial committee.” (28th of March 2017).



[1] John N. Loughborough, (1854, February 14). “The hour of His Judgment come,” Review and Herald, pp. 1-2, especially page 2. Keep in mind that in Preteristic circles of the Reformed Theology kind in the person of John Brown interpreted at the same time as Loughborough 1 Peter 4:17 not as eschatology but as New Testament ontology: “There seems here a reference to a particular judgment or trial, that the primitive Christians had reason to expect” (John Brown, (1855). Expository Discourses on the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter, New York, Robert Carter & Brothers, page 647. The concept of own or near time suffering of Christians rather than End-Time Heavenly Judgment as Loughborough’s exegesis indicates was thus present with this Presbyterian scholar.  

[2] James White, (1857, June 29). “The Judgment” Review and Herald, pp. 1-3, especially page 1.

[3] John N. Loughborough, (1869, August 24). “The Judgment,” Review and Herald, pp. 1-6, especially page 2.

[4] John N. Andrews, (1870, March, 15). “The Order of Events in the Judgment” Review and Herald, pp. 1-2, especially page 2.

[5] John O. Corliss, (1880, February 26). “The Twenty-Three Hundred Days,” Review and Herald, pp. 1-3, especially page 3.

[6] Uriah Smith, (1885, February 3). “The Judgment of the Great Day,” Review and Herald, pp. 1-3, especially page 2.

[7] Uriah Smith, (1888, May 22). “The Investigative Judgment,” Review and Herald, pp. 1-3, especially page 2. 

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