In Defense of the Faith

The Law of the Judgment

Every judiciary must have a code by which the cases brought before the court are tried. Without this, trial would be a farce, and the decisions rendered, a travesty on justice. God must of necessity, therefore, have a law by which He will test men’s lives, a standard by, which they will be measured; and if so, surely in this solemn hour, when court week has actually begun and cases are already being tried, it behooves every man to inquire seriously what that standard, or code, is, and to take the necessary steps to bring his life into harmony with it before his name is called. DOF 303.4

We inquire, therefore, What is the standard of God’s judgment? What is the code that will be used by the Ancient of days? And the reply comes from the Sacred Book, clear as a voice from heaven: DOF 304.1

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14. DOF 304.2

And again:

“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:10-12. DOF 304.3

And the third time the answer is given:

“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14. DOF 304.4

Could God have made it plainer or more easily understood? The standard of the judgment will be God’s Ten Commandments that were spoken by His mighty voice from Sinai, of which, according to Christ’s sermon on the mount, not one jot or tittle has passed away. (See Matthew 5:18.) This law has ten distinct and definite points. James declares that a man may “keep the whole law” except just one point, and still be pronounced guilty in the judgment. Do not allow yourself to be deceived, therefore, into believing that nine points of the law will suffice, and the Sabbath point can be dropped out as nonessential. DOF 304.5

Mr. Canright’s “nine commandment law” which he tries to discover in the New Testament, which has no Sabbath, will not do. It is one point short. And that one point is just what James warns us about. We may keep the nine points faithfully, but that will not suffice. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. When our names are called before the tribunal of heaven, it will be a full, complete moral code, without the change of a jot or a tittle, by which we will be measured. If we are short on one point the sentence can be only, “Weighed in the balance, and found wanting.” DOF 304.6

“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he bath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10. “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, bath One that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12:48. DOF 305.1