SDA Sabbath School Lessons
Thursday July 25, 1996


Why Is the Pre-Advent Judgment Important to You?
Revelation 3:5

According to the following passages, what is the spiritual significance to us of the pre-advent judgment?

The Lord will not remove the names of overcomers from the book of life (Rev. 3:5). The names of those who do not overcome will be removed. The book of life is edited in the pre-advent judgment (Dan. 7:10; 12:1). During the time of judgment (1844 to the coming of Jesus), the Lord is calling us to depend totally upon Him.

The blood of the martyrs mentioned in Revelation 6:9 is crying out from the ground for vindication. This is precisely the work of the pre-advent judgment (Dan. 7:22). Revelation 6:11 may be translated: "And there was given to each of them a white robe, and it was said to them that they should rest a little longer, until their fellow servants and their brethren, who are about to be killed as they were, might be made complete (perfect)." Those who at death were right with Christ are vindicated in the pre-advent judgment. Their living brethren are made complete in Christ prior to receiving the end-time seal of God (Rev. 7:1-3). God's seal is given to those who live in close union with Christ. The seal is "his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1, RSV). Christ's name and the Father's name are symbols of their character. (See Christ's Object Lessons, p. 330.) Those who are sealed before the second coming of Jesus will be spiritually "spotless" (Rev. 14:5, RSV). They will wear the white robe of Christ's righteousness and will reflect His character in all they do (Rev. 19:7; compare 1John 2:29; 3:7).

"Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. [Rev. 3:18 quoted] ... This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us." - Christ's Object Lessons, p. 311.