How Slow is God?
Ellen White taught that the judgment commenced on October 22, 1844, with Adam, and would proceed through every generation of the dead, and then after the cases of all the dead were decided, the investigation of the living would commence:
"In 1844 our great High Priest entered the most holy place of the heavenly Sanctuary, to begin the work of the investigative Judgment. The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before God. When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pronounced upon the living."19
By 1850 the investigative judgment was nearly completed. On July 29, 1850, Mrs. White said whilst in vision:
"Said the angel, Jesus' work is almost finished in the sanctuary."20
If Jesus was nearly finished in 1850, what has He been doing the last 170 years? Let us examine the time-line.
On Dec. 20, 1845, a mere 14 months after the Investigative Judgment commenced, Sister White said she saw Brothers Fitch and Stockman in heaven. We do not know the exact date of their deaths, but it appears they died in the early 1840s. Therefore, by the end of 1845 the Investigative Judgment had progressed to the point that all the people who died up until the year 1840 had been judged.
Assuming, for the sake of argument, that we have roughly 4,000 years of history before the birth of Christ, we can conclude that by 1845, 14 months after the Investigative Judgment is purported to have begun, 5,840 years of human history had been judged. The rate of judgment is over 5,000 years of actual history per year of Investigative Judgment. Then, there is apparently a dramatic slowdown, because the next case we hear being decided is that of Sister Hastings, who apparently died around 1850. That means that during the five years from 1845 to 1850, God only managed to investigate about 10 years of human history. Since 1850 there have been around 170 years of Investigative Judgment, and the rate has fallen to roughly one year of human history for every year of judgment. If this downward trend continues, the rate may soon fall below one, which means the Investigative Judgment will never end!