Mark, I base my opinion on Ellen's explanation of the investigative judgment of the dead and of the living. I don't trust my ability to arrive at truth without the supernatural aid and guidance of the SOP.

Glen, I agree with your insights. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to learning more from you.

I used to puzzle a lot over the sequencing of end-time events, including the judgment of the living. I was especially troubled by the various uses of the "sealing" idea. They seemed to conflict with each other.

I gradually realized that sealing means a variety of things, and that a sealing sequence is defined in the Bible and EGW. It may be helpful to look at the sequence a bit, and then apply it. I will include some of the core Bible/EGW references.

1. New believers are sealed (2 Corinthians 1:22).

2. There is a sealing before the shaking (4BC 1161). The basic idea here seems to be one of being rooted in spiritual things. In Bible terms, one illustration of this idea is found in the commissioning of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 1, Ezekiel 3). These men needed to be on board in a basic way to be useful to God.

3. If you look at the bottom of EW 270, EGW says that just after the shaking, there is a group of people clothed with armor from their head to their feet, and they move in exact order. This also seems to be a sealing. The Bible parallel of this might be some of the stories in the latter part of the Old Testament, where groups of God's people are working together in the face of stiff opposition. Daniel's friends and Zechariah / Joshua / Zerubbabel are examples of this.

4. The fourth stage of sealing is exemplified on 7BC 976, where EGW says that God's people must go through the Sunday law test before being sealed. This appears to occur just before the general close of probation and the great time of trouble. The Bible parallel may again be individuals who are brought to the ultimate test, where they are facing death if they refuse to go along with false worship or some other tyranny. Esther is an example.

I consider both the sealing and the judgment of the living to be best understood primarily as ongoing processes rather than discrete events. I'm not sure it's meaningful to say that a person's name comes up at a fixed moment like July 29 2017, without any regard for what has happened before or after.

As best I can tell, the judgment of the living corresponds to the latter stages of sealing. I would put the sealing of Ezekiel 9 and Revelation 7 at around the third stage described above.

If we look at EW 271, it talks about how those clothed with the armor go out and proclaim the truth with great power. EGW says that this is the latter rain, and presumably the start of the loud cry.

The overall model of sealing, and of the judgment of the living, seems to be one where God sets apart certain people, who are basically rooted in Him, and asks them to work for Him, and uses their experiences to further refine them and purify them and draw them ever closer to Him. Some people drop off along the way.

This model is illustrated in passages like 1T 187 and 5T 216.

Good food for thought, very good. I gather you think the measuring/two witnesses fit in the third stage more or less. Is that right?

Yes, I would say so.

Revelation 11 is a tough nut to crack. I am familiar with its application to the French Revolution, and also familiar with what EGW says about applying it to things yet to happen in the cities (21MR 91), and how the temple is being measured even today (7BC 972).

Also, if one looks at the obvious cross references for 11:3-6, they appear to be the stories of Moses and Elijah, and both these men point to the end-time remnant and 144,000 (Malachi 4:4-6).

If I had to make a wild guess based on the data, I would say that Revelation 11 applies twice. The first time is in the abstract or symbolic form, where the witnesses are the Old/New Testaments and the "city" is atheism or humanism. The second time is yet future, and concrete, and the two witnesses are real people going into real cities and taking it on the chin.

This fits in with a "recapitulation" model that we already know to be generally true. In other words, it's possible to show that there was an abomination of desolation in Christ's time (AD 70), an abomination of desolation during the Dark Ages (538-1798), and another one yet future (5T 464).

There's an interesting EGW quote about the witnessing of the 144,000 at the end of time:

That's my understanding.

If and when you're able, I'd be grateful if you'd explain more about the sealing because it does link directly to this topic IMO.

There's a couple of ways of further considering what sealing is. One approach is to look at an example, and another to consider the theology (next post).

Let's look at the life of Elijah, relative to the sealing process.

1. We know that during Elijah's initial public ministry, he had sufficient courage to appear before Ahab, and enough faith to be able to heal the widow's son (1 Kings 17). These actions suggest that Elijah was basically rooted in his walk with God.

2. We know also that Elijah was deeply concerned about Israel's spiritual decline (PK 119). In terms of how Ezekiel says it, Elijah was "sighing and crying" (Ezekiel 9:4). By contrast, some of the leaders of Israel in Ezekiel's time were sun worshippers (Ezekiel 8:16).

Now, being rooted in a basic way, and sighing and crying, may not seem like much, but they are necessary preconditions to being used of God. Note for example this quote:



3. During the 3 1/2 years before the showdown on Carmel, Elijah went through a period of intense shaking. For example, we know that his own country hunted him like a wild animal (EW 162).

4. Elijah learned to depend ever more deeply on God during this time, and such dependence was responsible for the great triumph on Carmel.

5. However, Elijah's world fell apart just after this, and he fled from Jezebel. He had learned a lot, but still lacked total dependence on God (1 Kings 19, PK 167).

6. At a later time, when Elijah was being prepared for translation, God moved him around, so that he wouldn't settle down and get comfortable (GW 269).

In this example, I think we can define the sealing process in terms of (a) choosing God's way instead of the world, and (b) learning to depend ever more deeply on God over time.

What about the theology of sealing?

The way I would define it is this: The sealing process consists of us learning to depend on and cooperate with Christ our great High Priest as He cleanses us from all sin.

Such a definition implies that the sealing process is deeply intertwined with the sanctuary doctrine.

There are a couple of EGW quotes that talk about sealing in relation to the antitypical Day of Atonement. For example:



Our cooperation and dependence on Christ are not automatic things. We may simply choose to not cooperate, and hold on to some of our cherished sins. Or we may try to do it all ourselves, or go to the other extreme and assume that Christ will magically change us while we passively stand by.

There's another quote that touches on some of these points:



There's a final quote that links together sealing in a spiritual context with sealing as physical protection:



I believe that the judgment of the living occurs during the final stages of sealing, and is an evaluation of whether a person has learned to cooperate with and trust in Christ.

Not everyone passes the test. For example, EGW talks various places about people who recant (GC 608), and those who once believed but end up worshipping at the saints' feet (WLF 12).

Any comments on Moses' example? David's? Since he respresents the Branch?

Also what's your view of the relationship between the 'measuring' and the sealing?