The
Hour
of
His
Judgment
is
Come
Alonzo T. Jones
1901
Reprinted for the author by
Revelation Messengers Publishing
www.revelationmessengers.com
May
2011
Alonzo Trevier Jones
1850–1923
Alonzo T. Jones was a deep Bible student and loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was born in Rock Hill, Ohio in 1850, and at the age of 20 joined the
U.S. Army, where he served until 1873. Following his baptism in 1874,
Jones acquired his knowledge of the Bible through personal study. He
became assistant minister to Isaac Van Horn shortly after, and the
two ministers moved to northwestern Oregon where they held
evangelistic meetings and organized churches. Jones later moved
northward to Washington where he continued this same work and, in
1884, moved to California where he became editor of a Christian
periodical. In 1889, Jones spoke before the U.S. Congress in
opposition to a bill that would require national Sunday observance.
The arguments used and set forth by Jones in the hearing he later
published in book form titled, The
National Sunday Law.
Thus he became known as a prominent speaker on religious freedom.
Among his studies, Jones familiarized himself with world history, as
well as Biblical, and the prophecies contained in the Bible, and this
lead to the authorship of many written works on the subject of Bible
prophecy and their fulfillment as demonstrated in history. Jones
believed that the Bible should be “preeminent” among
those books studied by Christians, stating: “Nothing that is
not Christian can ever properly be brought into the education of a
Christian, any more than can anything that is not Christian be
properly brought into any other phase of the life of the Christian.
Therefore, the Book of Christianity, the Bible, must be the standard
of Christian education.”
Publisher
All
that is proposed to be accomplished by this great threefold message
is in view of the fact that “the hour” of God’s
“judgment is come.” Therefore the one great object of the
Third Angel’s Message is to prepare the world for the judgment:
to prepare to stand in
the judgment all who receive
the message; and to ripen the world for
the judgment in all who, by refusing
the message which will prepare them to stand in the judgment, subject
themselves to the judgment itself, in all its terror.
The
word of this Message itself is that “the hour of His judgment
is come;” not that it will
come, but that it “IS come.” To everyone, therefore, who
receives this message, the judgment of God becomes an ever-present
reality. All these stand always before the judgment seat, and put
themselves voluntarily under all the tests of the judgment. This is
so in the very nature of belief of the message; for when a message of
God declares that “the hour of His judgment is come,”
what can such a message amount to in the belief of a person to whom
it is not a present reality that “the hour of His judgment is
come”? And when it is held by the professed believer that it is
the truth that “the hour of His judgment is
come,” what can such a belief amount to if that person does not
place himself in the very judgment itself, as a present thing, and
does not willingly subject himself to all the searching realities of
that judgment?
This
is emphasized by the further fact that this message is to make ready
a people prepared to meet the Lord when He comes in the clouds of
heaven,—a people who will be alive on the earth when the Lord
comes, and who will be translated without seeing death. Rev. 14:4;
15:2, 3; 1 Thess. 4:15-17. And all those who will be ready must be
“accounted worthy to escape” all the evils that come upon
the earth, and “to stand before the Son of man.” Luke
21:36. They must be accounted worthy before
that coming occurs, or else they will not be worthy at
His coming, and, therefore, can not be saved by Him at His coming.
And in this counting of each person worthy, or otherwise, the
decisive word is, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:
and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him
be holy still.” Rev. 22:11.
Thus,
by the very nature of the decision of the judgment in the cases of
these living ones, in the time of the message that “the hour of
His judgment is come,” it is evident that there is no long
process of examination and of balancing of accounts one against
another; but that it is simply the recognition of the condition of
each person, according as that condition is
by his own choice. Just what he is
at the moment when the crisis of the decision in his case is reached,
that
he forever remains.
If he is righteous,
the judgment recognizes it, and pronounces the word, “Let him
be righteous still.” And this word is so pronounced at that
moment simply because he already is
what this says that he shall be “still.” If he is unjust,
then the word of the judgment is, “Let him be unjust still.”
And this is so said simply because that is what he is at the moment,
whether the judgment were pronounced or not; and the crisis of the
judgment, coming to his case just at that moment, finds it so,
recognizes it, and says, “Let him be unjust still.”
And
why should it not be thus? Here is a message of God, proclaimed to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying to all,
“Fear God, and give glory to Him,” especially because
“the hour of His judgment is come.” On one hand, here are
the people who have received the message. That message has in it all
the divine power of the everlasting gospel, fully to fit them for the
judgment; and their very acceptance of the message is a confession
that they recognize the fact that “the hour of His judgment is
come,” and that they are in this “hour.” And if, in
spite of this, any of them lives as if he were not in “the hour
of God’s judgment,” and so shall be unprepared
for the blessed word to be pronounced, “Let him be righteous
still,” and is
prepared for the awful word, “Let him be unjust still,”
surely, none but himself can be in any wise to blame for that. The
decision is as it is because of his disregard of the very thing that
he professed to hold, and the very thing that had called him to the
profession which he holds.
On
the other hand, here is a message, proclaimed to all the world,—to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud
voice: “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His
judgment is
come.” And here are vast multitudes of people who refuse to
believe that there is any truth in the statement that “the hour
of His judgment is come.” They, therefore, go on in their way,
utterly regardless of the truth that they are in the presence of the
judgment. Then, when the case of any individual among these is
reached, and the word must be, “He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still,” this also is simply because of his own decision;
the judgment pronounced is simply a recognition of the condition in
which he is,
and which he himself has fixed by his disregard of the message that
would have altogether changed his condition, and fitted him for that
other word, “He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.”
Often,
people ask, Shall we know when the time of the judgment shall have
come? Shall we be able to know when the judgment shall have come to
the
living?
The great threefold message—the Third Angel’s
Message—gives the answer. Does not that very message itself say
plainly, as plainly as the Lord can speak, “The hour of His
judgment is
come”? Has not this message said the same thing to every man
who has ever heard it? And has not that message continued to say this
to him from the day that he first heard it?
This
being so, is it possible that anyone who has heard that message, and
above all anyone who professes to believe that message, has not yet
learned that “the hour of his judgment is
come,” when that very word is what he heard, and what he has
professed to believe, from the day he heard it? And if any professed
believer of the Third Angel’s Message does not believe this
word of God, which, all this time, he has professed to believe, when
it tells him that the hour of God’s judgment is
come, then would he believe it if the Lord should tell him again? Is
it possible that anyone has lived under a profession of belief of
this message, even for a day, and yet has not placed himself in the
presence of the judgment, and has not subjected himself to all the
searching tests of the judgment? Is it possible that any one of these
professing to believe the word that “the hour of His judgment
is
come,” has not believed it at all, and has been acting all the
time as he would not act if he did believe in reality that “the
hour of His judgment is come”?
So
far as concerns every believer of the Third Angel’s Message,
each individual has fixed it that, with
himself,
the judgment has begun upon the living; for he is alive, and has
accepted a message from God which declares to him that the hour of
God’s judgment is
come. Being alive, and having accepted such a message from God by the
very force of his profession, simply by the virtue of his belief, he
enters alive, hourly
into the judgment. He lives in presence of the judgment. He opens his
life to all the searching tests of the judgment. And this being so
with him, to him the question is answered, Shall we be able to know
when the judgment has begun upon the living?
The Third Angel’s Message—this great threefold message—is
in every feature present
truth. And when in its own words it is shown that this message is
given in view of the fact that the hour of God’s judgment “is
come,” and knowing that now
is the time of that message, it is only present truth thoroughly to
believe that in very truth, “the hour of His judgment is
come.”
Indeed, that this message were ever given at all would be evidence
in itself that the hour of His judgment is come; for no message of
God can ever be given before the time. Therefore whenever this
message shall be found sounding to the world, it will be then
true that the hour of God’s judgment is come. And the word
of the message that says so will be only the announcement of the fact
that the hour of His judgment is
come. And everyone believing the message will believe that this is
the fact: he will have to believe it, to be a believer of the
message; because the very word of the message that he professes to
believe says that this is so. And as certainly as he believes this,
he will enter hourly into God’s judgment, and will constantly
hold himself subject to all the tests of that judgment.
That message is now
due in the world. It is being given to the world. For years this has
been so. Therefore for years it has been, and it now is, present
truth that the hour of God’s judgment is
come. Thousands upon thousands of persons profess to believe that
message. Therefore the principle
is that this whole people of that message are entered hourly into
God’s judgment, and, as constantly as they live, do subject
themselves to all the searching tests of that judgment. All these,
therefore, know that as
for themselves,
each individually, the judgment has begun upon the living; for they
are living.
To them the message of God has come that “the hour of His
judgment is
come;” they have accepted that message, and accordingly have
entered into that judgment, and so they live
constantly in the presence of that awful fact. Consequently we say
again that with these
there is no room for any such question as to “whether the judgment has begun upon the living.”
And if there be any who profess to believe this message, and yet are
living as they would not live if they knew that the judgment had
come; and would make a revolution in their lives if only they knew
that the judgment had
come upon the living, but would not
make this revolution if they could be certain that the judgment had
not
come; then to what purpose to
them
could be a message, even if it were sent directly from heaven to them
personally, that the judgment had begun upon the living? In such
case, any change that would be sought or made, would have no virtue
whatever; and these persons would be no more prepared for the
decision of the judgment than if they had heard nothing about it. The
only change that would be made in such a life would be altogether out
of fear
of the consequences,
and not out of any love
of
righteousness.
Therefore, in the nature of things, in such a case the word could not
be, His is righteous, “let him be righteous still;”
because he is not righteous: he has not in his heart any love of
righteousness. This is demonstrated by the fact that, under the very
profession of this judgment-message, he lived without regard to the
judgment: he indulged evil things in his life,—things which he
knew could not pass the judgment,—and he continued to indulge
them until the startling word came to him personally that the
judgment was come to
him.
Then, all at once, and only
that
he may pass the judgment,
and escape
the consequences of the evil things that,
in
spite of
righteousness,
he
has indulged,
he sets forth to make a grand revolution in his life!
But no such thing as that will ever work in the judgment of God. Whoever
will pass in righteousness the judgment of God, will do so only
because he has “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity,”
whether
the judgment
was
begun upon him or not.
He loves righteousness because it is righteousness, and he hates
iniquity because it is iniquity; and he will no more indulge iniquity
in his life with the judgment a thousand years away than with the
judgment only a minute away.
There is, therefore, no room whatever for any professed believer of the
Third Angel’s Message, ever to ask whether the judgment has
begun upon the living. Every true believer of the Third Angel’s
Message KNOWS, because the Word of God says it, and has said it for
years, that “the hour of His judgment is
come.”
And to whomsoever in all the world this message shall come, even though
he believe it not, to him it will be true, and he may know it, that
the time of judgment has come to him. Whether he will recognize it or
ignore it, is for him alone to say; but to him it will be the truth
that the hour of God’s judgment “is
come.”
“Thou hour of His judgment is
come.” It is here: it is a present thing as certainly as the
world is here. And, knowing this, every true believer of this message
lives accordingly: he puts himself alive into the judgment; he reins
himself up hourly before the judgment seat; because “the hour
of His judgment is come.” To the true believer of the Third
Angel’s Message this is a fact; it is living truth.
And how shall he ever give this message to the world otherwise?
Can he, with any force of truth at all, preach to another man that
the hour of God’s judgment “is come,” when he
himself does not believe at all that it “is come,” but
only that it will
come?
Who is there in the world that does not believe that God’s
judgment will
come? But the Third Angel’s Message is not
that the judgment will
come; but that the very time, the “hour, of His judgment IS
COME.”
Since this judgment, in its decision when pronounced, is but a recognition
and declaration of a condition that already exists, and is,
therefore, practically instantaneous, it follows that the means of
preparation for this awful decision shall be such that it shall be
able to effect that preparation also instantaneously. And precisely
this provision is that which is offered by the Lord in this great,
glorious Third Angel’s Message; for it carries the “everlasting
gospel
to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people.” And this everlasting gospel
is “the power
of God
unto salvation
to every one that believeth.” “For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.”
Those who are thus made righteous live righteously; because they “live
by faith.” This power of God is creative, and is, therefore,
instantaneous in its action. For “He spake,
and it
was.”
Ps. 33:9. When the leper said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean.” He answered, “I will; be thou clean. And
as soon as He had spoken, immediately
the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.” Mark
1:40-42. And any soul loving and longing for righteousness, and
hating and desiring to escape iniquity, who hears this message of the
everlasting gospel, announcing that the hour of God’s judgment
is come, and enters into the judgment in this hour, can in
this very
minute—“immediately”—be
by that everlasting gospel prepared for the judgment. And while he
holds himself in the presence of the judgment, subject to all its
searching tests, and holds fast this everlasting gospel,—its
power to save, and the righteousness that it reveals,—he is
ready for the crisis of that judgment at any moment in the “hour;”
because, when comes the critical moment in which his name is reached,
he is righteous by the “power of God” and the
righteousness of God which that gospel has given to him; and most
gladly will the Judge speak the joyous words, “Let him be
righteous still.”
“God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether
it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:14. And because
God will
bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, all people
are exhorted to “fear God, and keep His commandments.”
Verse 13.
This word in Ecclesiastes is complemented and emphasized in the word of
this great threefold message, in which the everlasting gospel is
preached to them that dwell on the earth,—to every nation and
kindred and tongue and people,—saying, with a loud voice, “Fear
God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is
come….Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the
faith of Jesus.”
They that have sinned in the law, that is, with a knowledge of the law of
God, “shall be judged by
the law,
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ
according to my gospel.” And since now
the “hour of His judgment is
come,” and since all to whom this message comes will be judged
by the law of God, it is certain that all who accept the message will
set their whole lives in the light of that law, that every secret
thing that is out of harmony with that holy law may be searched out
and put away.
For
that law does reach the most secret things, the very thoughts and
intents of the heart. “Ye have heard that it was said to them
of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca [vain fellow],
shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” “Ye have heard
that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the
law of liberty.” Matt. 5:21, 22, 27, 28; James 2:12.
Therefore with all who accept this message in sincerity, the prayer will
constantly be, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me,
and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps. 139:23, 24. Everyone who
prays thus, everyone who thus opens the life to God, and invites Him
in to search and see if there be any wicked way there,—every
such one will be prepared for the crisis of the judgment whenever it
may come. For then God will search the heart and purify the life, and
will make it all that it must be to be holy before God. And all such
will be led by the Lord in the way everlasting.
And why should it ever be otherwise? And of all times, now, in the hour
of His judgment, why should it ever be otherwise? For does not God
see all the life anyhow? Are not all things “naked and opened
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do”? Can anything be
hidden from Him? Are not our secret sins set in the light of His
countenance? Ps. 90:8. Has He not searched us and known us? Does He
not know our very thought “afar off,” long before we
think it?
Since all this is true every moment of every life anyhow, what kind of
person must he be who will pass along day after day and year after
year as if it were not so at all? And since it is all true every
moment of every life; and since we are now in the time when it is
especially true in the fact that the hour of His judgment is come;
what kind of person would he be who would professedly accept this
message that the hour of His judgment is
come, and then
would pass along a
single day
as if it were not so?
No, no; no such thing as that can ever be, with the people of this
judgment message. It comes to them as the judgment message; they
accept it as the judgment message; and accordingly they enter hourly
into the judgment. Since He has
set our secret sins in the light of His countenance, we ourselves
will set our secret sins in the light of His countenance. Since He
has
searched us and known us, we will hourly say unto Him, “Search
me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see
if there be any wicked way in me.” Since all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, we
ourselves will constantly hold all things naked and opened unto the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Then God will occupy all the life, and will cleanse and purify it by His
own presence, making it a fit habitation for Himself to dwell in.
Then He will clothe us with the garments of His own salvation, and
will put upon us the robe of His own righteousness. Isa. 61:10. And
then, when to each individual the crisis in the judgment comes, with
Christ thus presenting us faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy (Jude 24), the glad word will thrill each soul, He
“is righteous, let him be righteous still.” He “is
holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my
reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
Thank the Lord for such a precious message of faithful warning. Praise God
for such a glorious message of justification, sanctification, and
redemption.
The Third Angel’s Message embraces Zion and Calvary;
the law of God and the gospel of Christ; God the Father and God the Son.
The Third Angel’s Message is the embodiment of the very gospel of
Christ, wherein “is the righteousness of God revealed from
faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
Rom. 1:16, 17.
In Christ, by faith of Christ, the believer in Jesus finds the keeping
of the commandments of God, which is the righteousness of God. Thus
the keeping of the commandments of God is the gift of God: it is the
“free gift” of the righteousness of God “which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”
And this is the Third Angel’s Message: “Here are they
that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
When the Third Angel’s Message shall be finished, then the mystery
of God—the gospel—shall be finished; and this in the days
of the voice of the Seventh Trumpet angel, as He hath declared to His
servants the prophets.
Those who truly obey the Third Angel’s Message will get the victory
over the Beast and over his Image, and over his mark, and over the
number of his name; they will, at the last, stand on the sea of
glass, having the harps of God; and they will be without fault before
the throne of God. And it will all be through “Him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Unto Him be
glory and dominion forever and ever.
We thank God for the message which calls upon all men to “keep the
commandments of God,
and
the faith of Jesus;”
that, in this time when “all that dwell upon the earth shall
worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of
the Lamb,” they may have the victory over the Beast and over
his Image and over his mark and over the number of his name.
We thank God for the Third Angel’s Message, which to-day calls all
men to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,
that they may be delivered in the “time of trouble such as
never was since there was a nation” that is impending
THE GREAT NATIONS OF TO-DAY.
This article was
taken out of the book, The
Great Nations of To-day,
written in 1901 by Alonzo T. Jones. It can be found in the last
chapter of that book, chapter 23, under the same original title: “The
Hour of His Judgment is Come.”
The entire chapter, including original grammatical emphasis and
paragraph breaks, has been republished in this booklet.
Additional Study Materials Available
The New Covenant and The Law
The Spirit of God
The Importance of Understanding and Keeping God’s Commandments
(According to the
Scriptures)*
Enter His Rest
Sunday (the first day) in the New Testament*
A treatise on God’s Sabbath
The Law before Sinai
The True Israel of God**
The Rusty Woomer Story (Bill Stringfellow)*
What Denomination Should I join? (Lynnford Beachy)
Christ Reflected (Alonzo T. Jones)
The Faith of Jesus (Alonzo T. Jones)
What Must I Do To Be Saved…?
Changed By The Spirit
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
A Need For Heavenly Enlightenment
The Dangers of the Cares of Life
Living for Christ and Keeping His Work
An Investigation of the Scriptures on Truth and its Importance
Anathema Maranatha
The God of Our Fathers
Hidden Truth
Take Your Stand and Fight
By Beholding We Become Changed
Baalmass and Pagan Easter (L.B. Brunk)
Christ In You (Lynnford Beachy)
*Available
in Polish **Available in Spanish
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Holy Spirit. The law cannot save; it only condemns those who
transgress it (Rom. 7:7). Salvation is only through faith in Christ.
Conversion means change. Christian reform means to repent, abandon
errors, false doctrines & traditions, and embrace and live
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