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Is God the Executioner?

firstly let a list be made of what some would call counter-statements. In reality they are not and cannot be counter-statements for there is...

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Wrath of God - The Second Death

Since finite creatures are absolutely dependent on the Infinite Creator for
existence, then the Infinite Creator would have to do everything necessary
to maintain the life and well-being of finite creatures. If the Infinite Creator
leaves His creatures alone they will perish; they must perish.

To think that God must use some other method than withdrawal to get rid of
sin is to insult His power, wisdom and love; it is because He is infinite and
creatures are finite that His creatures need Him and cannot survive without
Him.

So when people say that God must do something, other than withdraw, to get
rid of Satan, sinners and sin, they are insulting God and showing their
ignorance of the issues in the Great Conflict between right and wrong.
If God has to do anything at all to destroy the sinner other than leave the
sinner alone then His power is less than infinite, He is less than God. The
proof that He is God, and no one else, is that just by His doing nothing
everything else would perish!

"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall
perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a
garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be
changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."
Hebrews 1:10-12

"Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens
are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure:
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou
change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and
thy years shall have no end." Psalm 102:25-27.

The proof of the Infinite God is that He has to do everything to keep finite
creatures alive. If God should do nothing, i.e. withdraw his maintaining,
upholding power, creatures will perish, Col. 1:17. Since all things hold
together in Him when He lets go things fall apart. (Psalm 121)

To suggest that sinful creatures can survive when fully and ultimately
separated from God or that God has to do something else to destroy the
sinner other than complete separation is to suggest that creatures can survive
without God and that sin is harmless. This is a heresy as old as the Devil!
On the contrary God says:

"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that
hate me love death." Proverbs 8:36

The Wrath of God -The Second Death Part 1

Our God, YAHWEH or JEHOVAH, has made it abundantly clear that He is
the One and only true God and His way is the only way of perfect life. The
Godhead (The Father, His Son and their Holy Spirit) is infinite in power,
wisdom, righteousness, truth and Agapé love.

"I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Isaiah 45:5.

For any being to be God that being must be absolutely eternal (beginningless
and endless), self-existent and completely independent of anyone or anything
for life.

Now remember, YAHWEH God tells us there are no other Gods, He knows
of none.

"Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time,
and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God
beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any." Isaiah 44:8.

Satan claims that creatures can have their own way, in opposition to God's
way, and NOT die. In fact he claims that such persons will be as gods.
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis
3:4,5.

Whoever claims to be a god must (ultimately) be able to maintain himself
and his government without outside aid, must be able to have his own way,
must be able to maintain his freedom to assert his godhood and to prove his
godhood.

Satan contends that each creature can have his own way, the way of self, and
it will work.

When the creature's self becomes a god, the attitude is to reject the true God.
Job 22:15-18 (Notice verse 17).

Sin is putting one's own way before God's way, it is putting self before God.
Sin is the transgression of God's law, of God's way, 1John 3:4; Isaiah 53:6; 2
Cor. 5:15.

God has a very simple foolproof way of dealing with those who claim to be
gods, those who want their own way. Yes, He has a very simple way of
testing any so-called better way than His way. All He has to do is to leave
the person alone to his/her own way, and if they continue to exist on their
own, then that person would have to be a real god with a right way, but if
the person and the person's way collapse to destruction it would prove after
all, that the person was only a creature who needed God and God's way for
survival.

Will God Slay the Wicked?

Objective Number Eleven

Whatever may be the mechanism of destruction before the end of the world,
the final destruction will be personally inflicted by a direct act of God
because the Bible says that fire will come down from God out of heaven and
burn up Satan, his angels and all unrepentant sinners.

Answer

The state ment in Revelation 20:9 reads

"and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."

To conclude that this statement means a direct and personal act of God to
send fire from heaven, is to ignore correct principles of exegesis or analytical
interpretation.

The term "the fire of God fallen from heaven" is also found in Job 1:16 and
the mechanism by which God "sent" that fire from "heaven" was the removal
of His protective hedge and allowing the sin-perverted forces of nature to
breakout into a destructive holocaust. That fire was obviously a massive
storm of thunder and lightning which struck when God's restraint was
removed. In fact the Today's English Version translates it as "lightning"
Job 1:16 (TEV).

Now what about the final fires of Revelation. 20:9?

When the final fires "come down from God out of heaven" at the end of the
millennial 1000-year reign, God will be in the Holy City New Jerusalem on
earth. And no fire will come out of the Holy City. As a matter of fact the
Holy City with the Godhead, the angels and all the saints will be untouched
by the fire and will neither be the source nor the victim of the fiery
destruction!
According to Peter and Ezekiel the fire will have three (3) sources. Fire from
the skies (called heaven); fire from within the earth; and fire from within
Satan.

Not only will God's protection and restraint be withdrawn, His life sustaining
grace will also be withdrawn.

That will be the ultimate and total separation from God which sin, whenever
it is finished, causes and it will produce the irreversible destruction of sinners
in the second death.

"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water,
perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same
word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men... But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works th at are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." 2Peter
3:6,7,10,11

"Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine
iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a
fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee
to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."
Ezekiel 28:18

"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor branch." Malachi 4:1

There are other passages in the Bible which describe the final destruction.
"Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be
desolate." Psalm 34:21

"And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them
off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them
off." Psalm 94:23

"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that
hate me love death." Proverbs 8:36
(See also chapter 21).

By rejecting the righteousness of God in Christ, the unsaved will cut
themselves off from God Who is the only Source of Life.

(Dr. Elliot Douglin)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Wonderful Truths

 The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;" "for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the [BEGIN P.36] destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over those who yield to his control. {GC 35.3}

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy.


 Would that I could make plain to your beclouded senses, my brethren, the great peril you are in. Every action, good or bad, prepares the way for its repetition. How was it in the case of Pharaoh? The statement in Holy Writ is that God hardened his heart, and at every repetition of light in the manifestation of God's power the statement is repeated. Every time he refused to submit to God's will his heart became harder and less impressible by the Spirit of God. He sowed the seed of obstinacy, and God left it to vegetate. He might have prevented it by a miracle, but that was not His plan. He allowed it to grow and produce a harvest of its own kind, thus, proving the truthfulness of the scripture: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." When a man plants doubts, he will reap doubts. By rejecting the first light and every following ray, Pharaoh went from one degree of hardness of heart to another, until the cold, dead [BEGIN P.120] forms of the first-born only checked his unbelief and obstinacy for a moment. And then, determined not to yield to God's way, he continued his willful course until overwhelmed by the waters of the Red Sea. {5T 119.2}

This case is placed on record for our benefit. Just what took place in Pharaoh's heart will take place in every soul that neglects to cherish the light and walk promptly in its rays. God destroys no one. The sinner destroys himself by his own impenitence. When a person once neglects to heed the invitations, reproofs, and warnings of the Spirit of God, his conscience becomes seared, and the next time he is admonished, it will be more difficult to yield obedience than before. And thus with every repetition. Conscience is the voice of God, heard amid the conflict of human passions; when it is resisted, the Spirit of God is grieved. {5T 120.1}

We want all to understand how the soul is destroyed. It is not that God sends out a decree that man shall not be saved. He does not throw a darkness before the eyes which cannot be penetrated. But man at first resists a motion of the Spirit of God, and, having once resisted, it is less difficult to do so the second time, less the third, and far less the fourth. Then comes the harvest to be reaped from the seed of unbelief and resistance. Oh what a harvest of sinful indulgences is preparing for the sickle! {5T 120.2}


Thursday, December 8, 2011

God's Ways 2

These three are obvious alternatives, but there is another possibility
which is normally overlooked. Herein, the Lord recognizes
that He has failed to save them from taking the wrong turn,
and that therefore, the work calculated to save them from that is
now valueless. Because they have not yet tasted the bitter experience
of the consequences of their apostasy, they are not disposed
to come back. But they have not gone beyond the possibility of restoration.

So God, in His infinite love, will not abandon them and
thus cut off their opportunity to rectify their misdemeanors.
If no saving help is provided to draw them back from going into
the worst effects of their choice, then they would not survive
long enough to ever return to God. Therefore, the Lord works to
save them from those evil results both to make their sufferings
as mild as possible, and to extend the time in which they may

learn and repent. It is because this aspect of God's working has
not been understood that He has been so seriously misjudged in
the Old Testament.

God's Ways

When the Israelites took the sword, thus rejecting God's way
in favor of their own, the Lord was faced with several possible
courses.

Firstly, He could have simply abandoned them to their own devices.
This would have been perfectly just and righteous on His
part, though it would have been justice without mercy. The result
would have been the speedy disappearance of the household of Israel
from the face of the earth. Their enemies were multitudinous,
highly skilled, and well equipped in the business of war. Satan desired
nothing so much as the extermination of Israel, and he
would have quickly seized upon the opportunity.

Secondly, God had the physical power to force the Israelites to
continue in His way, but He could not do this from the moral point
of view. He had given them, along with the remainder of humanity,
the freedom to choose. Therefore, under no circumstances,
would He attempt to insist on His way in preference to theirs. It
was for them to choose how it would be, and when they made that
choice, God could do nothing except respect it, which He did.

Thirdly, God could have simply ignored the sin, pretended that
it did not exist. To do this would be to condone it, and this God
cannot do.