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kootvanwyk1 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.
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