In the days just before the coming of Christ, three messages are described in Revelation 14 which are to be given to all the people of earth. The first of these gives the admonition to “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and fountains of waters.”  (Rev. 14:6)  It’s clear that this is a solemn call to return to the worship of the one true God of heaven, the Creator of all things, but what is meant by “the hour of His judgment“? Who is really on trial here? Below is an amazing excerpt from a series of studies called “The Gospel in Isaiah,” published in a Christian magazine in 1899, which sheds much-needed light on this important question.

“The Great Case in Court”

E.J. Waggoner
The Present Truth, October 5, 1899

“Isaiah 41:1 “Keep silence before Me, O islands; and let the peoples renew their strength; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to Judgment.”

Isaiah 41:21-22 “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob: Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.”

Isaiah 43:9-12 “Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, it is truth. Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know, and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no god formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”

Romans 3:4 “Let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason [literally, “go into court”] together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Isaiah 43:25, 26 “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put Me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.”

[…]

The whole book of Isaiah is devoted to one great purpose, namely, that of showing who God is. Recall the opening words of the prophecy, where God contrasts His people with the brutes, who know their lord, while His people do not know Him. Since the prophet is sent to those who, through lack of consideration, do not know the Lord, it is self-evident that he must be commissioned to make God known to them in the clearest possible manner, and to bring forward the most striking evidences of His existence and character. Let the student take special notice of the frequent occurrence of the statement, “I am God,” and the continual contrasts between the true God and the gods of the heathen.

The book of Isaiah, more than any other in the Bible, is based on the idea of a case in court. When one has learned the fact that the whole universe is a great court, in which a case is continually being tried, and God, the angels both good and bad, and all mankind, are concerned in it, the prophecy of Isaiah, and indeed the whole Bible, can be read with a great deal more pleasure and profit than before.

By most persons the Judgment is doubtless regarded as the time when the Lord determines who are, and who are not, worthy to enter heaven. They imagine all the people of earth gathered about the throne, where an examination is held, and the characters of all men are passed upon. But such an idea as that does very slight justice to the omniscience of God. He does not need to study character in order to discern one’s disposition. It is not necessary for Him to study anything. He does not need to make inquiry into a case, and to examine witnesses, as men do, in order to know the facts.

Proverbs 15:3 “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

When Jesus was here on earth, “He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man.” (John 2:24, 25) The Lord, therefore, does not need, as man does, a time in which to cast up His accounts; for with Him the account is always kept. The exact status of every person living, and every act and every thought of every person who has at any time lived on this earth, could at any moment be set forth by the Lord, who inhabits eternity, and who fills heaven and earth. Therefore it is evident that the Judgment of the last day is not for the purpose of helping God to a decision as to the worthiness or unworthiness of any person. It will not reveal to the Lord a single thing that He did not know before. Indeed, it will be the Lord Himself who will reveal the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart.

Instead of being for the purpose of revealing all the details of the lives of men to God, as so many seem to suppose, the Judgment is for the purpose of revealing to men their own selves, and to make known to them the details of the life of God. Two texts […] will help to make this appear.

Psalm 51:3, 4 “I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight; that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.”

Romans 3:4 “Let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”

In the first instance it is stated that God will be justified when He speaks, and be clear when He judges. In the second, which is a citation of the first, it is stated that He will be justified in His sayings, and will overcome when He is judged. Since the last is but a repetition of the first, and that too by the Spirit, we may be sure that both texts mean exactly the same thing. Therefore we learn that when God judges He Himself is judged. The result will be that He will win the case and be justified.

That last word, “justified,” turns our attention to the points in the case. From the very beginning the character of God has been called in question. Satan and his followers have sought to justify their rebellion against God by charging Him with injustice, indifference to the welfare of His subjects, cruelty, and harsh despotism. We see all this set forth in the temptation with which Satan induced Eve to take the forbidden fruit. The Hebrew of the words rendered in Genesis 3:1, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” is not by any means fully expressed by that rendering. The serpent’s question is accompanied by a covert sneer, a contemptuous sniff, as he says, “Is it so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” The tempter affects to doubt that even God should be capable of doing so mean a thing as that, thus artfully implanting in the mind of Eve the idea that she has been unjustly dealt with. Then when she repeats the prohibition, the serpent comes out boldly, and says,

Genesis 3:4-5 “… Ye shall not surely die; for God knoweth that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He made her believe that God had deceived them in telling them that they should die if they ate of that tree, and that He had told them that story merely to frighten them away from it, because He knew that if they should eat from it they would be equal to Himself, and thus He would lose His prestige and authority over them. By insinuating that God was exalting Himself at their expense, the adversary caused her to feel that she was abused, and to imagine that she had found in the serpent a friend who would help her to secure her rights. From that day to this God has been maligned and willfully misunderstood. Satan’s charge of injustice has been repeated by men, and his insinuations have sunk so deeply into the minds of the world, that it does not seem so fearful a thing even for professed followers of the Lord to question His dealings with them. Every doubt is but the echo of the words with which Satan tempted our first parents to sin.

Who has not heard God charged with all the sin and misery in the world? Because God is all-powerful, men say that He is responsible for all the wretchedness; or else, if it be claimed that He is not responsible for it, they say that then He is weak; and in any case they make the presence of sins and misery the fault of God. The spirit of Satan, the prince of the power of the air, works in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2), and it is one of the most difficult things in the world to convince anybody that God is love. Absolute trust in God as a tender, loving Father, is a very rare thing, so much so that those who trust Him fully in every detail of life are accounted mildly insane, and unfitted for practical life.

The character of God is therefore on trial. God calls upon men to come into court and prove their charges against Him, and His only defense is the revelation of Himself to them, the setting forth of His whole life before them. In Isaiah 1:18, where we have, “Come now, and let us reason together,” the Hebrew literally rendered is, “Come now, and let us go into court together, saith the Lord.” He has been charged with unrighteousness, and His people take up this charge as an excuse for turning away from Him; but God rests His case upon the fact that He forgives sin, and cleanses from all unrighteousness. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and this He will do though they be as scarlet. “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5) He never committed a sin, and is not responsible for sin, yet He takes it upon Himself in order that it and all its consequences may for ever be removed. The Judgment is for the purpose of making this clear before every being in the universe; and when that is done, every mouth will be stopped (Rom. 3:19).

The trial is now progressing; the Judgment will be merely the summing up. The Judgment will reveal no new feature that all men may not learn now, or else it would then appear that all men had not had a fair chance. In this present time, while the case is before the jury, which is composed of all creatures, God makes a perfect and complete revelation of Himself and His character, manifesting Himself in all the things that He has made for the benefit of mankind, but chiefly in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. There is no need for anybody to be ignorant of the true character of God. Even the most degraded heathen are “without excuse.” (Rom. 1:18-20) When in the Judgment men are made to see that to which they have so long willfully shut their eyes; when everything that has been done by men, and by God for men, since the creation, and even God’s tender provision for men before the creation of the world, and also the underlying motive of all the acts that have been committed, are set forth before the universe, there will not be found a soul, no matter how malicious and hateful, who can open his mouth to say another word against the love and justice of the Creator and Redeemer. Every one will be compelled by evidence that cannot be evaded, to confess to God, and to bow the knee in token of His right to rule. Even Satan himself will at last be forced by the power of love to acknowledge that “the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” (Psalm 145:17)

Some one will here ask, “Will everybody then be saved?” Not at all; the confession of the wicked will come too late to be counted to them for righteousness. Those who then for the first time confess the love and righteousness of God will not be moved by faith. Although they will acknowledge that God is good, they will have no love for Him. If their probation were continued, they would still go on in the same course of sin. They love sin more than God, or else they would yield to the tender mercy of God while it is now revealed in Christ. Their confession will be only to the effect that the punishment about to be inflicted upon them is just, and but the natural fruit of their own deeds; that they are but receiving the wages for which they have worked all their lives.

We have read that in the Judgment God will be justified in His sayings, that is, in the sentence which He announces. Every word and act of His life will be justified. But we must remember that this Judgment is preceded by a trial, in which there are witnesses. God calls upon all men to be witnesses for Him, and He has a just claim upon their testimony. But Satan is active with his bribes, and he steals away many of God’s witnesses. All the world are now taking sides either for or against the Lord. “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.” (Matt. 12:30) Men are now identifying themselves either with the Lord or with the great adversary. It is evident, therefore, that so surely as God is justified will all those be justified who have cast in their lot with Him, and those who have rejected Him, and have challenged His right to rule, declaring that He should not rule over them, must necessarily take themselves out of His dominions when the controversy is ended. But since “His kingdom ruleth over all,” it follows that for those who reject God no place in the universe will be found.

This is the time for the friends of God to declare themselves. It is true that in some things appearances are against the Lord, but that is only because of our short and distorted vision. We are not wise enough to understand all the workings of God, and we have not exercised ourselves in divine things sufficiently to have our minds toned up to their proper capacity; but enough is made plain to us to enable us to form an opinion. If we declare ourselves on the side of the Lord, even though we cannot explain everything, we are truly His friends. Enemies may fling their accusations against Him, but we will say, “I do not know all the circumstances, and therefore I cannot give you an explanation of this transaction, but this one thing I do know, that God is just and good, and that if we knew all about this thing of which you accuse Him, you yourself would be compelled to acknowledge that it reveals only the tenderest love and goodness.” Such a friend is appreciated by the Lord, and will be acknowledged by Him before the world and angels, at the last day; while those who are ready to doubt the goodness of God at every step, eagerly seizing upon every insinuation which the devil whispers in their ears, thereby shut themselves off from all connection with Him. Character will not be formed, but only declared, in the Judgment.

… This court trial is the greatest affair in the universe … If we all can but realize that we are involved in this case that is now being tried, it would transform our lives. If we but place ourselves close to the throne of grace and view the case as it progresses, it will make clear to us every question that vexes the world.”