gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation hour is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided. Satan sees that his time is short. He has set all his agencies at work that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied, and entranced until the day of probation shall be ended and the door of mercy be forever shut. The closing of a door is the close of probation. Great Controversy 428. Now we discussed a little bit in our last presentation that judgment is a progressive thing. It begins with Adam or the first that died and it proceeds until it begins judging the living. And we looked at the text where we're told that judgment begins in the house of God. When the judgment of the living begins, it's going to begin in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And Sister White even says that it begins with the man in responsible positions. You could even theorize that when the judgment of the beginning and judgment of the living begins, that it may begin with the general conference president and work downward, but it's progressive. But so is the close of probation. The close of probation is going to begin with the Adventist Church and as they're purified by the Sunday Law test and they've all decided one way or another, the Lateran begins. And through that crisis time, they clarify the issue of Sabbath and Sunday for the people in Babylon. They begin to take their stand on the Sabbath-Sunday issue and their probation closes accordingly until finally probation closes for all mankind. So probation, as well as judgment, needs to be understood on a progressive timeline. And this here is identifying when it comes to its end for good, and this is the great controversy, 428. When the work of investigation shall be ended, when the cases of those who in all ages have professed to be followers of Christ have been examined and decided, then, and not till then, probation will close and the door of mercy will be shut. Thus, in one short sentence, they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. We are carried down through the Savior's final ministration to the time when the great work for man's salvation shall be completed. Notice how Sister White ties in the parable of the ten virgins with that. And she says the parable of the ten virgins illustrates the Advent experience. We go right down, brothers and sisters, to the close of human probation as the focus of God's information on the close of probation. In our next presentation, we