OU ALWAYS HOPED for a reasonable hearing when your name came up in the judgment. Perhaps a couple of hours at least for argument and counterargument. After all, the verdict has eternal consequences. You want to be fairly and accurately evaluated.

You will, but probably not in the manner you expected. For if each of the 6 billion inhabitants of today's world were granted the same privilege, the judgment would take more than a million years from start to finish! Proportionately speaking, over the years since 1844, you would have only one second or less! Count "one . . ."--and it's over!

Of course this is not a problem to God, who can bring any dimension to time He requires. But if we insist on applying human understandings to heavenly affairs, then we must follow our assumptions to their logical end.

The same applies to the matter of the books. If we think of our records as written down on regular sheets of paper, with one page per day for an average bad report, then our personal book of record would be 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) thick--a lot to examine in less than a second!

It Can't Be by Works
Of greater concern in regard to God's standard in the judgment are concepts surrounding the criteria upon which judicial determinations will be made. If we believe judgment to be based on our personal good works, then millions from other religions will have an equal place with Christians, if not better.

Consider, for example, the following: "True loyalty" in Confucianism consisted of a willingness to be put to death rather than do wrong. Even today, some countries under the Confucian influence have less street crime than do Christian countries. Buddhist monks have 227 rules of conduct, and nuns 311. Nonmilitant Islamic adherents have a piety and daily devotional regime that outdo those of the most devout Christian. Then there is Aunt Natasha. She was the most gracious, the most respected, the most loved person in her community. No one could recall her ever saying a nasty word against anyone. Children flocked to her house at will, and adults went to her for advice, sympathy, or counsel. She was one of those persons against whom no fault could be found. A good Christian? No. Natasha, a native of Russia, was an atheist!

There are untold thousands of Natashas in this world whose natural compassion and decency exist apart from Christianity. If such goodness is the passport to heaven, then God is duty-bound to let these people through.

So how are those issues resolved, and how does the judgment really operate? Let's examine what Scripture and our church in its statement of fundamental beliefs have to say on the subject.

Centrality of Calvary
One's understanding of the atonement will determine one's concept of judgment. Daniel 9:24 provides the focal point of this event: "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness."*

Calvary was the grand culmination to which the whole sacrificial system pointed. Ellen White tells us: "Christ's sacrifice in behalf of man was full and complete. The condition of the atonement had been fulfilled. The work for which He had come to this world had been accomplished" (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 29). In this she is echoing Paul in Romans 3:25: "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement." (See also Rom. 5:25; 2 Cor. 5:18, 19; 1 John 2:2.)

The Adventist Church in its statements of fundamental beliefs also echoes this same concept: "In Christ's life of perfect obedience to God's will, His suffering, death and resurrection, God provided the only means of atonement for human sin, so that those who by faith accept this atonement may have eternal life." It is, the statement says, a "perfect atonement" ("Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists," belief no. 9). And again, in its sanctuary reference (belief no. 23) it affirms that "in [the sanctuary] Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross."

The writer of Hebrews addresses the issue and gives a very essential step in the atonement process: "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven" (Heb. 1:3). He goes on in chapter 9 to detail Christ's great salvation act: "Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year [referring to the annual Day of Atonement] with blood that is not his own. . . . But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself" (verses 25, 26).

If we agree that a perfect atonement was made at Calvary, then it stands to reason that this included the whole process and not just a part of it. Otherwise it would not be the "perfect atonement," as our belief statement affirms. So does our church really believe that Christ entered the Most Holy Place at His ascension? Indeed. In Ministry, the church's official ministerial journal (October 1980), we read: "There is basic agreement that Christ at His ascension entered into the very presence of God, as symbolized by the earthly high priest's entrance on the Day of Atonement" (p. 21).

Understanding 1844
So if atonement was made at Calvary, what did happen in 1844? More accurately, we should ask: "What didn't happen in 1844?" And the reply would be "Certainly not the making of sacrificial atonement," for that is clearly a Calvary event. But we will let the Adventist statement of beliefs answer the question: "In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, [Christ] entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment" (belief no. 23). The statement then goes on to further define this judgment as revelatory rather than determinative: "[This judgment] reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation" (italics supplied).

It's About Calvary--Not Judgment
Atonement-based judgment tells me that though we must all appear before the judgment bar, there is no judgment (that is, no condemnation) for those "in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1); that the person to whom God credits His righteousness will not have sin counted against him or her (Rom. 4:6-8); that "whoever hears [Christ's] word and believes him . . . has eternal life and will not be condemned; [for] he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24); that we are saved "not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:5); that "both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ" (The Desire of Ages, p. 300); that "we are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but about what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute" (Selected Messages, book 2, pp. 32, 33).

The gateway to heaven is not via the judgment, but through Calvary. By His blood and through His body we enter right within the veil into the very holiest of heaven (Heb. 10:19). Then as faith waits for reality, the transforming influences of His righteousness begin to impact on our daily lives as His laws are written upon our hearts (verse 16).

The judgment hour message we are commissioned to take to the world is the message of Calvary atonement. It's the message humanity most needs to hear in this crucial time.

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*All Bible texts are from the New International Version.

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Kevin Ferris, a company CEO, writes from Queensland, Australia, where he is a member of the Springwood Adventist Church.