The
For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven… and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Malachi 4:1-2, 2 Peter 3:12
“If any man worship the beast
and his image... the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which
shall be poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the lamb: And the
smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day
nor night.”[1]
The message of the third angel is
paramount in Seventh-day Adventist theology. It is the final message of mercy
to be given to the world, in which we see ourselves playing a major role.
We often apply our private denominational
synonyms to the third angel’s message, calling it Righteousness by faith, Salvation, the Gospel, etc. But the message of the third angel as it reads in Scripture mentions only the final end of sinners.
Webster or the Bible?
We go to great lengths to ensure that
others understand that “forever and ever” in the Bible is not the common,
dictionary definition; we explain that we must compare Scripture with Scripture
to arrive at the Biblical definition. In order to interpret any Bible
symbol, we must use the Bible itself to define it. Human conjecture will give a false definition. “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation.”[2]
Practically everyone understands that the
book of Revelation is highly symbolic. When we study Revelation 14:9-11 with
others, we carefully explain the meaning of “the
beast,” “his image,” “his mark,” the “forehead,”
“hand,” and “forever and ever,” yet
assume (or even assert) that “wrath,”
“torment,” “fire” and “brimstone” are
literal. This is inconsistent and not in harmony with an unbiased
interpretation of Scripture.
If we are going to give the third angel’s
message to the world, we must understand the message ourselves, and be able to
explain the meaning of the text. If
we are going to be true to the text, the
message must necessarily be primarily about the final end of sinners and God’s
role in their destruction.[3]
God has allowed more than 6,000 years of woe
to ensure freedom in His universe, because only the worship and obedience of
love are acceptable to Him—not that coerced by force, fear, manipulation and
intimidation. It would be just as wrong for God to throw those who will not
worship him into a burning, fiery furnace as it was for Nebuchadnezzar to do
it.
“There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt or
destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our
ideas.”[4] “God is love,”[5] and “love never insists on having its own way.”[6]
Jesus taught us, “Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”[7] He
would not say one thing and do another. Since Jesus came to show us what God is
like, the Father also loves his enemies and does good to those who hate him.[8] How could
he tell us to love our enemies if he hurt and killed his enemies?
With a casual or superficial examination
of the issue, it seems impossible to reconcile the painful destruction of the
wicked with the picture of a righteous, loving Father. But when dealing with
spiritual topics, most people are willing to accept such apparent
contradictions as “unexplainable” or as something we cannot understand. Others
Baptize the concept by calling it “justice” rather than “vengeance,” since “God
is doing it—it must be right.” It is absurd to say that raising the Sodomites,
who already burned, to be tortured a little longer is “the righteous and loving
thing to do.” Any dictionary or unbiased
person would call burning those for whom there is no hope by its right name—torture.
The Bible does speak of God personally destroying sin and sinners in
the end. “Upon the wicked he shall rain quick burning
coals, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion
of their cup.”[9]
The Bible also says God personally killed
Jesus.[10]
Inspiration does not contradict itself; yet at first glance, we are faced with
a contradiction—“The LORD... shall destroy the sinners”[11] vs. “God destroys no one.”[12] As
always, however, careful study will show us that there is no paradox,
contradiction or confusion.[13]
The Bible says, “Happy
is the man who... takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!”[14]
“There went up smoke out of his [God’s] nostrils, and fire out of his mouth
devoured”[15]
“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that
be of heavy hearts. Let him drink”[16]
“Take the tithe, buy strong drink, and rejoice before the LORD.”[17]
When we read such stunning things in the Scriptures,
or even statements as plain and simple as “I am the
door,”[18] and
“if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off,”[19] we
must ask, “What is the meaning?” What was the Spirit’s intention when He
inspired this passage? What message was He trying to get across,
portray, dramatize? We must do this with all Scripture, or, as has been
demonstrated time and again, anything
can be taught from the Bible.
To most people, including Seventh-day
Adventists, the wrath of God is understood as being equivalent to uncontrolled
human anger, a time when mercy and grace are exhausted and God's ire is
aroused. They see God's immense love and forgiveness come to an end and turn
into infinite rage and retaliation.
This schizophrenic behavior is
inconsistent with the unconditional love demonstrated by Jesus Christ, and is
totally out of harmony with the benevolent character of God. It is the behavior
of the “love” of the fallen nature: “I
love you—as long as you do what I want you to do, as long as you fill my needs
and purposes."
Jesus revealed God as “the Father of lights, with
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."[20] “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”[21]
God has had to use human language to
communicate with us, and like anything human, human language is imperfect. Our
minds have deteriorated vastly from the high capacity of Adam to understand his
God. The Bible tells us that a full comparison cannot be made between us and
God.[22] As
different as his love is from ours, his
wrath is different than ours.
In order to understand the wrath of God,
we must see how God has defined and explained the term and how it is used in
all 66 books of the Bible.
Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed—made plain, demonstrated—in the way he
has treated the worst of sinners, and then goes on to give specific examples:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness... Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened... wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness... For this cause, God gave them up unto vile
affections... God gave them over to a reprobate mind..."[23]
The wrath of God is a description of God's
reaction to the “unpardonable sin—"[24] when
there is absolutely no hope for someone, when the Almighty says, “Even I can't
help them," God finally gives up—not because He is tired or fed up, but
because more time and mercy would be
futile. God will never force our will or choices; when someone makes their
final choice, God lets them go and turns them over to sin and its results:
“My people would not listen to me;
“Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.”[26]
“Sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death.”[27]
Sin is inherently fatal. The
Bible often pictures the sinner’s own transgression rising to crush and destroy
him.[28] “Sin pays its servants—the wage is death."[29]
If we were to ask Jesus to explain the
wrath of God, he might invite us to come to
In the same letter to the Romans where he
describes the wrath of God, Paul tells us that Christ was "delivered for our offences."[35] The
Greek word translated delivered is
the exact same word used 3 times in chapter 1 to describe the wrath of God: given
up. The apostle clearly wrote that God gave up his Son as he
poured out his wrath on Jesus, as he will the finally impenitent.[36]
Isaiah 28:21 is often quoted to show that
God will destroy sinners, something
“strange” for a God of love to do. However, God’s
“strange act” cannot be an action out of harmony with His character, for
God does not change[37]—not even
for a little while. He is the same “yesterday, today,
and forever.”[38]
“The LORD’s compassions fail
not; they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.”[39]
God is the source of all life. From him,
the Fountain of life, we receive our life.[40] We cannot
have life apart from him.[41] In the
Garden (and Lucifer and his companions in Heaven) Adam and Eve separated
themselves from the Source of life by sin.[42] They
should have died immediately,[43] but God
stepped in and gave them “artificial life-support.” “By
choosing sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the
channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.”[44]
Therefore, God does not have to kill sinners to get rid of them; all he has to do is stop giving them life. But
his nature is to give and protect life. God is the Lifegiver;
Satan is the Destroyer.[45] The natural
thing for God is to protect his children.[46] He has
shielded sinners from receiving the natural consequences of sin. When God finally steps back and allows us to
receive our due, this is God’s strange act—even letting his children
receive their foolish choice is foreign to him.[47]
But if all God is doing is giving sinners
up and letting them die, why does the Bible[48]
graphically describe in no uncertain terms that the lost will be tormented
with fire? It also tells us
that fire will destroy the wicked, and that by fire, the earth will be purified.
This fire is described as being so hot
that it shall melt the very elements.[49] We have
therefore always logically assumed that this fire is literal combustion,
because symbolic flames do not
literally burn flesh and bone, much less wood, metal, or “the elements.”
Following is study of the “fire” in the
No human being could survive a temperature
of 1000 degrees, much less the thousands or millions of degrees it will take to
melt “the heavenly bodies and earth.”[50] Most
people who die in fires are not often burned
to death, but rather die of smoke inhalation. Just a few lung-fulls of
super-heated air would kill the strongest man, if the shock didn’t do it first.
Recall the incidence of the men who threw Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah into
the burning, fiery furnace; they died instantly from the heat alone.[51] The fires
at the end will be much hotter than Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace.
The question must rise as to how the wicked could suffer
exactly as much as they deserve, some longer than others, unless some
intelligence had pre-calculated the measure of their individual punishment, and
artificially and supernaturally kept them alive in the flames, until the full
sentence has been exacted. Since God is the only one with the power to either
estimate the deserved length of punishment or to control its administration, we
logically assume that He must surely be the one who painfully executes sinners
in the end by personally pouring down fire upon them.
Therefore, if we take this argument to its
logical conclusion,[52] God will
not only execute those who chose not
to love him and love others,[53] but supernaturally keep them from dying, to
inflict a suitable amount of pain on them prior to death. If this is true, this would support Satan’s
charge that God is vengeful more than anything else.
Love Me, or...
In the Garden, God told Adam and Eve that that
if they sinned, they would die. He did not tell them how they would die—only
that they surely would. We had to wait until
The question before us then, is: “What
exactly is this fire? Is it literal, or
symbolic?” And in our question
lies the difficulty. One is reminded of the opposing positions of the
Jehovah’s Witnesses and mainline Christianity—Jehovah’s Witnesses arguing from
the Bible that we will live with Christ on
the earth, Protestants affirming from Scripture that we will live with
Christ in heaven. The solution is
clear and simple to Seventh-day Adventists, for they are both correct!
And the solution to our confusion over the
nature of the fire is just as simple—for they are both right. There
is more than one fire in the end.
God will use fire to both destroy sin and to purify the earth. Sin is
intangible; it is not physical in nature, but spiritual. In order to burn
something spiritual, spiritual fire
must be used. In order to burn something physical (i.e. dead bodies, debris,
etc.), physical fire must be used.
Thus we see the need for more than one type of fire in the end. There is literal fire, and there are several
symbolic fires involved.
When the Bible speaks of fire, it does not necessarily mean literal flames.
Even today, we use this idiom when we say, “He was burning with anger,” “He
was on fire,” “She has a hot head,” or, “He burns me up,” yet we do not say
this to necessarily indicate a rise in temperature.
Although the Biblical descriptions of “the
coming of the LORD”[54] rarely
qualify them as “First advent,” “second advent,” or “third advent,” (3 separate
events, all called the coming or day of the LORD[55]),
careful Bible study enables one to separate the 3 events. We will attempt to do
the same for the seven “fires” in the
end.
The Bible defines fire as:
1) the Law,[56]
2) Love and righteousness,[57]
3) the saints,[58]
4) grief,[59]
5) hate, wrath and anger (sin),[60]
6) God and his physical glory,[61] and, of
course,
7) literal flames, combustion.
Passion,[62] lust,[63] jealousy,[64] trials,[65] the
tongue,[66] and many
other things are definitions of fire in the Bible; the above 7 are mentioned
because they are particularly involved in the 3 events at the end of sin and
sinners. All these fires make up “the
lake of fire.” We shall concentrate on three particular works of the
combined fires.
Work #1—They Shall be
Tormented (Fires 1,2,3,4 & 5)
The fact that the wicked will be
tormented is not in question. The question is, “How and why?” To fully
understand this first work of the “fires” in the end, we must review the events
at the third advent, after the New Jerusalem comes to earth with all the saints
in it, and the wicked are raised to life.
As Satan gathers them to attack the city,
they are stopped in mid-step by the largest, most spectacular and lavishly
produced “drive-in movie” in history. Above the city, in panoramic, 3-D,
virtual reality, the history of the Great Controversy is shown.[67]
“The heavens [will] declare
His righteousness, and all the people [shall] see His glory [character]. Confounded
[will] be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols...
Thou, o LORD, art high above
all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the LORD, hate evil! He delivereth them out of the
hand [power] of the wicked.”[68]
“The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself.”[69]
Jesus told us that this panoramic view of history is the judgment.[70]
Every person will see the part they played
in the drama of the ages, and condemn
themselves:
“Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of
the nations... that set up the wood
of their graven images and pray unto a God that cannot save...take counsel
together... there is no god else beside me, a just God and Saviour... the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return,
that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear.”[71] “As
I live, saith the LORD, every knee shall
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God... every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”[72]
“The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his
subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each actor
recalls the part which he performed... All behold the enormity of their guilt. They
vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance...”[73]
“It is now evident to all that
the wages of sin is not noble independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin
and death. The wicked see what they have forfeited by their life of rebellion.
The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory was despised when offered
them, but how desirable it now appears! ‘All this,’ cries the lost soul, ‘I
might have had; but I chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange
infatuation! I have exchanged peace, happiness and honor for wretchedness,
infamy, and despair!’ All see that their
exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives they have declared: ‘We will not
have this Man [Jesus] to reign over us.’
“As if entranced, the wicked
have looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the statutes
which they have despised and transgressed. They witness the outburst of wonder,
rapture, and adoration from the saved;
and as the wave of melody sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with
one voice exclaim, ‘Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just
and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints’ (Revelation 15:30); and, falling
prostrate, they worship the Prince of life.
“Satan seems paralyzed as he
beholds the glory and majesty of
Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A
shining seraph, ‘son of the morning’; how changed, how degraded! From the
council where once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another now
standing near to the Father, veiling His glory. He has seen the crown placed
upon the head of Christ by an angel of lofty stature and majestic presence, and
he knows that the exalted position of this angel might have been his.
“Memory recalls the home of
his innocence and purity, the peace and content that were his until he
indulged in murmuring against God, and
envy of Christ. His accusations, his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the sympathy
and support of the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no effort for
self-recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness—all come vividly
before him. He reviews his work among men and its results—enmity of man towards
his fellow man, the terrible destruction of life, the rise and fall of
kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the long succession of tumults,
conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls
his constant efforts to oppose the work of Christ and to sink man lower and
lower. He sees that his hellish plots have been powerless to destroy those who
have put their trust in Jesus. As Satan looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of
his toil, he sees only failure and ruin.”[74]
“So you should not pass
judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment must wait until
the Lord comes; he will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden
purposes of peoples' minds. And then everyone will receive from God the praise
he deserves.”[75]
This is as fire, tormenting the
wicked; they behold the law of
self-sacrificing love, which is a fire [fire
#1]:
“Is not my word like fire, says the LORD.”[76]
“From his right hand went a fiery law for them.”[77]
“The law... a flaming fire.”[78] “I
will make my words in my mouth fire.”[79] “Against every evildoer God’s law utters condemnation. He may seek to
drown its warning, but in vain. It follows him. It makes itself heard. It
destroys his peace. If unheeded, it pursues him to the grave. It bears witness
against him at the judgment. A quenchless
fire, it consumes at last soul and body.”[80]
The lost see the love and righteousness
of God, which is as fire to them [fire #2]. The character of God is
fully reproduced in His people—the people that they shunned, despised, ignored
and hated in their earthly life are now glorified, yet bear only the marks of
genuine love on their faces. “They see the holy, happy
company whom they have despised, clothed with glory, honour, immortality and
eternal life, while they are outside of the city...”[81]
This is why Scripture also describes Christ’s saints destroying the
wicked,[82] because
they will reveal, not only in character, but even physically, the glory of God[83] [fire #3]. “And
the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the
house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them, and
there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau...”[84] The
wicked “shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence
of the
Lamb.”[85]
The presence of the righteous, the self-sacrificing love[86] of God
and His saints is torment to them. When Christ met the demon-possessed men at
Gadarenes, he did not burn them up nor even taunt them; He simply stood there
calmly. The response of the demons is significant: “
‘What do you want with us, Son of God?’ they shouted. ‘Have you come here to torment us before the appointed
time?’ ”[87]
The mere presence of Christ was torment to them. Even today, the ungodly are often uncomfortable
around spiritual people. In the end, the lost, who find themselves in the
presence of those giving glory and honor to the Creator, will be in
torment.
“The vast multitude behold the
glorious company on the walls of the city. And as they witness the glittering
splendor of their glittering crowns, and see their faces radiant with glory,
expressing the image of Jesus,... the sense of the treasure and glory which
they have lost rushes upon them, and they have a realizing sense that the wages
of sin is death.”[88]
The reason the wicked are tormented
is because of their sins. When
suffering first and second degree burns, I have not necessarily felt tormented
because of my misdeeds, although I was in pain. I don’t expect that if I
writhed in agony in the final fires, I would freely get on my knees and say,
“God is love—just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints! Jesus is Lord!”
Yet we known that this is what the wicked, including Satan, will admit. We must
further analyze this aspect of their torment.
“The sinner’s own
thoughts are his accusers; and there can be no torture keener than the stings
of a guilty conscience, which give him no
rest day nor night.”[89]
“When the records of heaven
shall be opened, the Judge will not in words declare to man his guilt, but will
cast one penetrating, convicting glance, and every deed, every transaction of
life, will be vividly impressed upon the memory of the wrongdoer. The person
will not... need to be hunted [out],... but his own lips will confess his
shame. The sins hidden from the knowledge of man will be proclaimed to the
whole world.”[90]
“As soon as the books of
record are opened, and the eyes of Jesus look upon the wicked, they are
conscious of every sin which they have ever committed. They see just where
their feet diverged from the path of purity and holiness, just how far pride
and rebellion have carried them in violation of the law of God. The seductive
temptations which they encouraged by indulgence to sin, the blessings
perverted, the messengers of God despised, the warnings rejected, the waves of
mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepentant heart—all appear as if written in letters of fire.”*[91]
They will grieve more than ever
before in their lives, for they see they have lost the most wonderful thing a
person has—his life, salvation. And emotional
and mental anguish is more painful than physical pain. It will be so
painful, that they will “weep and gnash their teeth.”[92]
Some of us have already tasted a small portion of this already in this earthly
life. For example, when Samuel grieved
all night when Saul was lost, the Hebrew text says he “burned” (chaw rah) in his heart[93] [fire #4].
“We read of chains of darkness
for the transgressor of God’s law. We read of the worm that dieth not and of the
fire that is not quenched. Thus is represented the experience of
everyone that has permitted himself to be grafted into the stalk of Satan, who
has cherished sinful attributes. When too late he will see that sin is the
transgression of God’s law. He will realize that because of transgression, his
soul is cut off from God, and that God’s
wrath abides upon him. This is fire
unquenchable. Thus the soul and body of every unrepentant sinner will be
destroyed.”[94]
When
Christ consented to die the death of sinners, he demonstrated the cause (and in
part, the manner) of the final destruction of the wicked. He took our sins upon
himself, the sins of the whole world.[95] In other
words, the Father was going to treat him as though he had committed every
wicked and evil deed the whole human race has perpetrated.[96]
There were signal differences between the
death of Christ and that of the wicked in the end. When the lost die, they will
die as rebels who don’t want anything to do with God. Jesus did not die as a
rebel. The great test for Christ came when Satan tempted him to believe that he
would be separated from his Father forever. This thought filled Christ with
fear.[97] The wicked,
on the contrary, are glad to be
separated from God.[98]
Still, in order for his death to
accurately represent the “fiery” destruction of the wicked, it had to have some
elemental similarities. To give us an understanding of how Christ did indeed
“burn” as the wicked will burn, the Holy Spirit likened the day of the LORD as
the day when “the hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth.”[99] In
Psalm 68:1, 2, the fiery torment and destruction of the wicked is described in
identical language: “Let God arise, let his enemies be
scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven
away, do drive them away: as wax melteth before fire, so let the
wicked perish at the presence of God.”
Psalm
22 is a “Messianic prophecy” describing the agonies of the crucifixion. In
verse 14, the mental anguish Christ
went through is described in the same language set forth in Psalms 68 and 97: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of
joint: my heart is like wax; it
is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
“The agony which Christ endured broadens, deepens, and gives a more
extended conception of the character of sin, and the character of the retribution
which God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ to the repenting, believing sinner.”[100]
“Christ felt the anguish which
the sinner will feel when
mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin,
bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He
drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.”[101]
“Christ felt much as sinners
will feel when the vials of God’s wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black
despair like a pall of death will gather about their guilty souls, and then
they will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of sin.”[102]
“God’s Spirit will not always
be grieved. It will depart if grieved a little longer. After all has been done that
God could do to save men, if they show by their lives that they slight Jesus’
offered mercy, death will be their portion, and it will be dearly purchased. It
will be a dreadful death; for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt
upon the cross to purchase for
them the redemption which they have refused. And they will then realize
what they have lost—eternal life and the immortal inheritance.”[103]
Albeit
for different reasons, Christ suffered fire #4, which the wicked will
suffer—the unspeakable grief and mental anguish.
A Fire from Within Thee
At this point in time, fire #5 is manifested. This is
portrayed in Ezekiel 28. “I ask our people to study
the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel. A faithful study of this chapter should
lead those who are seeking for the truth. To walk in all the light that God has
given to his people, lest they be deceived by the deceptions of these last
days... The representation here... is not to one being [Satan], but a general movement is described, and one
that we shall witness.”[104]
“Therefore thus saith the LORD; because thou hast set thine heart as the
heart of God; behold, therefore, I will
bring forth strangers upon thee, and the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against
the beauty of thy wisdom, and they
shall defile thy brightness. They shall
bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are
slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee,
I am a god? But thou shalt be as a man, and no god, in the hand of him that
slayeth thee. I will 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.”[105]
In Psalm 83:12, David comments on the
wicked in the end, “who said, let us take to ourselves
the houses of God [New Jerusalem] in possession.” His prayer is, “Do unto them as unto the
midianites...”[106] Judges
“He [Satan] has led the
multitudes to believe that the City of
“The aim of the great rebel
has ever been to justify himself and to prove the divine government responsible
for the rebellion. To this end he has bent all the power of his great
intellect. He has worked deliberately and systematically, and with marvelous
success, leading vast multitudes to accept his version of the great controversy
which has been so long in progress. For thousands of years this chief of
conspiracy has palmed off falsehood for truth. But the time has now come when
the rebellion is to be finally defeated and the history and character of Satan
disclosed. In his last great effort to dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and
take possession of the City of
“The wicked are filled with
the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is hopeless,
that they cannot prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled against Satan
and those who have been his agents in deception. With the fury of demons they
turn upon them, and there follows a scene
of universal strife.”[108]
Some Burn Longer
Inspiration minces no words when it states
that, “Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others
suffer many days. All are punished ‘according to their deeds’... Satan... is
made to suffer... his punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom
he deceived.”[109]
Even more graphic is the following: “I saw that
some were quickly destroyed, while others suffered longer. They were punished
according to the deeds done in the body. Some were many days consuming, and
just as long as there was a portion of them unconsumed, all the sense of
suffering remained. Said the angel, ‘The worm of life shall not die; the fire
shall not be quenched as long as there is the least particle for it to prey
upon.’ ”[110]
We must not pick-and-choose the texts or quotations we like or only
those that fit our belief or understanding. Speaking of the Spirit of Prophecy,
sister White said “Either this work is of God, or it
is not.”[111]
We accept everything she wrote. (The same goes double for the Bible.)
It also says, “God
does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against
transgression; but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves, to reap
that which they have sown.”[112] How
is it, then, that they shall suffer for varying lengths and intensities?
“Then the end will come. God
will vindicate His law and deliver His people. Satan and all who have joined
him in rebellion will be cut off.... This is not an act of arbitrary power on
the part of God. The rejecters of His mercy reap that which they have sown. God
is the fountain of life; and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates
from God, and thus cuts himself off from life.... they receive the results of
their own choice.”[113] “Be not deceived; God is not mocked—for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap.”[114] “Sin pays its servants—the wage is
death.”[115]
“And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together,
and they that forsake the LORD shall be
consumed.... And the strong shall be as tow [straw], and the maker of it as spark, and they shall both burn
together, and none shall quench them.”[116]
“Just as straw is set on fire by a spark, so
powerful men will be destroyed by their
own evil deeds....”[117]
“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks:
walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This
shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”[118]
“All of you that plot to destroy others will be destroyed by your own plots.”[119]
A study of the Scriptures as a whole, in
the setting of the Great Controversy, indicate that the death of the wicked in
the end is the natural consequence of
sin, not an imposed penalty. But the fact that some burn longer than others,
Satan burning the longest, has often “stumped” people in their efforts to
explain the destruction of the wicked as the natural consequences of sin. Not
knowing the nature of the fire made it seem, again, as though God himself was
doing this.
If the first work of the fire is the torment due to their guilt and sorrow,
then the
fuel is their sins. The more and saturated with fuel, the hotter
and longer
they will burn.[120] As “he who has been forgiven much loves much,”[121]
so he who has sinned more has more to be guilty for, and sees that he has that much
more shut himself out from life and peace. This is pointed to in the writing of
Ellen White as “each suffer according to their works.”
Since Satan is most guilty, since his mind is more full of sin than anyone
else, it is only logical that he suffers more—not by God’s doing, but by his
own struggle against love and righteousness.
Prior to this time, God has shielded
everyone from receiving the full measure of the natural consequences of their
guilt. “It is by the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because
his compassions fail not.”[122]
“Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve.”[123] “The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the
full measure of his guilt.”[124] When
God finally steps back and stops interfering, sinners will receive “the full
measure of their guilt.”[125] The
measure of his guilt is in measure
with his sins, “the deeds done in the body.”
Work #2—The Slain of the LORD
It is conceivable that grief could
possibly take the life of a person, especially the intense grief that the
wicked shall endure. However, this is not what will finally end the lives of
the lost—we are specifically told that God’s
glory will consume the wicked.
While God’s symbolic glory (his character
of self-sacrificing love[126]) is what
has tormented the wicked, it is God’s physical
glory that finally “destroys” the wicked, much as the sun kills germs.
When God created this world, it was bathed
in light. Adam and Eve shone with the brightness of the stars. When we sinned,
God had to veil his glory, lest he destroy us. His object in the
6,000-year-long Great Controversy has been to restore peace and harmony to his
universe, to return things to normal. At the end of the millennium, God will
restore the world to the way he originally made it.[127] It is as
if he were saying, “It is not fair to my children to continue to have this
world in darkness.”
“ ‘I will destroy thee, o
covering cherub.’... This is not an act of arbitrary power on the part of God.
The rejecters of His mercy reap that which they have sown. God is the fountain
of life; and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates from God, and
thus cuts himself off from life. He is ‘alienated from the life of God.’ Christ says, ‘All they that hate Me love
death.’ Ephesians 4:18, Proverbs 8:36. God gives them existence for a time that
they may develop their character and reveal their principles. This
accomplished, they receive the results of their own choice. By a life of
rebellion, Satan and all who unite with him place themselves so out of harmony
with God that His very presence is
to them a consuming fire. The glory
of Him who is love will destroy them.”[128]
[fire #6] “The light of the glory of God, which imparts
life to the righteous, will slay the wicked.”[129]
Again, we need to inquire as to the nature of even God’s physical glory.
While the Bible describes it as fire,[130] careful
thought demands that we question how much heat, if any, is emanated.
This “fire,” although physical and
visible, is not what Webster defines as fire. If it were literal fire,
everywhere the LORD walked would be consumed. Since he will live and
walk on our earth for eternity, we must concede that it is not the same type of
fire that consumes combustible material. (It is true that sin has changed our
world and us dramatically, but it hasn’t changed that much. While we will be glorified, we will still be physical
creatures living in a physical universe. We will not be “asbestos-men,” that
can survive any heat.) Regardless of the
nature of the fire, it is going to ultimately slay the wicked. How can the fire
determine who to kill and who to spare? It does not have intelligence; how can
it distinguish between saint and sinner? Is God going to expose some to deadly
radiation and shield others?
Lucifer,[131] Adam
(before sin), Moses,[132] and
sinless Jesus[133]
all walked in this fire, and were unharmed. To say that God is arbitrarily preserving the saints in the city and slaying those without by an act of His
will is, again, echoing Satan’s charge that God is arbitrary. The law of God’s
universe is you reap what you sow.
Righteousness ultimately results in life, and sin ultimately results in death.[134] The Proverbs are full of this principle.
The difference is not in God—the
difference is in us. This is demonstrated by the way each group reacts to his
appearing.[135]
The sun does not choose to give life to plants and kill germs, but
simply goes about its business of being the sun, oblivious (obviously, as an
inanimate object) to what it is doing to things on the earth millions of miles
away.
So the “Sun of
Righteousness” will “arise with healing
in His wings” to the righteous, but “burn as an
oven” to the wicked.[136] He is a “consuming fire”[137] to
the wicked, but a “sun and shield” to the
righteous.[138]
Sinners will be afraid, but the righteous will live in the “eternal
burnings” of God’s glory—unharmed[139]—not
because God chooses, but depending on whether they chose to be a germ
or a plant![140]
The fact that even this fire which will
“consume” the wicked is not regular fire is seen when it was actually
implemented in the Biblical record. When Nadab and Abihu sinned in the
tabernacle, “there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died
before the LORD.”[141]
“The LORD sent fire,
and it burned them to death there in the
presence of the LORD.”[142]
It is evident that this is the same “fire”
that will “devour” the wicked. From a casual reading of the text, it sounds
pretty hot. However, verses 4 and 5 say that Moses told the sons of Uzziel, “carry your cousins’ bodies away from the sacred tent
and put them outside the camp. So they came and took hold of the clothing on the corpses and carried
them outside the camp.”[143] Evidently,
although “burned to death,” their bodies and even their clothing were unsinged!
There is much room for confusion here, in
the fact that God does not suddenly burst forth in glory to the wicked. The unveiling of his glory is gradual, a
process. Even in descending to the earth, the New Jerusalem is resplendant with
light and “glory.”
“All are seeking to hide in the rocks, and shield themselves from the
terrible glory of Him whom they have
despised.”[144]
“All are overwhelmed and pained with his majesty and his exceeding glory...As they witness the splendor... and see their faces radiant with glory... and the
unsurpassed glory of the King of
kings...”[145]
“The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the eternal Father... the brightness of His presence fills the
city of God and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance.”[146]
“Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory
and majesty of Christ.”[147]
However, this is necessarily a veiled
glory:
“Satan seems
paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of Christ. He who was once a
covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, "son of
the morning;" how changed, how degraded! From the council where once he
was honored, he is forever excluded. He
sees another now standing near to the Father, veiling His glory.”[148]
Were God’s glory not veiled, the wicked
would cease to exist in an instant. Only holiness can exist in the direct
presence of the Almighty. This is established in the fact that even Moses could
not (at that point in time) see God’s unveiled glory.[149] The
presence of even an angel has a
dramatic effect on us in our present state.[150] When
Nadab and Abihu died after being exposed to this “fire,” they did not “suffer
many days,” but died instantly. This was no indication as to the measure of
their guilt, but rather to the degree or
strength of God’s glory poured upon
them. (This tells us even more about God’s graciousness, because He “bore long”
with Satan and his cohorts in Heaven.[151] They should
have immediately died, but God protected them from the natural consequences. He
did the same for Adam and Eve; this is why He is called, “the Lamb that was slain from
the foundation of the world.”[152])
As the sun rises gradually, so the Sun of
Righteousness “returns things to normal” gradually. The wicked die off, one by
one—those strongest in sin and more defiant in their struggle to survive their
terminal condition survive the longest. Satan has struggled against God longer
than anyone else in the universe; and as he struggles in his last efforts to
survive, not giving up, he is the last to die.
Work #3—The Earth Made New
At this point in time, the earth will not
be a pretty sight. Total chaos and shambles from the terrors of the days before
the second coming, the earth lying desolate for 1,000 years, the billions of
lost from all ages dead—it will be an awful sight. “For
the indignation of the LORD is upon all
nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he
hath delivered them to slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their
stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall melt with
their blood.”[153]
“The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were from one end of it to
the other.”[154]
“they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have
transgressed against Me.”[155]
Rather than organize a long and toilsome
“work bee” to clean up and restore the earth, the Lord will then send the most potent antiseptic
known to clean up and remove all traces of sin, disease, and the works of man:
fire. “They shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have
transgressed against Me; for their
worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an
abhorring to all flesh.”[156] (This
is the text Jesus referred to when the wicked would be cast into “hell,”[157]
referring to the garbage dump outside of
“Then I saw that Satan, and all the wicked host, were consumed...
God will have a clean universe. I then looked, and saw the fire which had consumed
the wicked, burning up the rubbish and purifying the earth.”[160]
“In the cleansing flames, the wicked
are at last destroyed.”[161] This
is the fire that will literally melt and dissolve everything we now see [fire #7].
“I saw the earth
purified. There was not a single sign of
the curse.... God’s entire universe was clean, and the Great Controversy was
forever ended. Every where we looked, every thing the eye rested upon, was
beautiful and holy.... The beautiful new earth, with all its glory, was the
eternal inheritance of the saints.”[162]
And when the LORD
recreates our paradise world again, the righteous will, for all eternity, live
in his eternal fire of love.
©2002 Midnight Cry Ministries
Based
on the work of Craig Ashton, Jr. & Craig Ashton, Sr.
God’s
Glory
Whenever God is described in the
Scriptures, he is pictured with an outshining of radiant light and pulsating
power. This is an actual description of the physical presence of Deity— they
are not just little gas jets around the throne to impress the angels.
If you go through the Bible and see how it
describes light, love, righteousness
and glory, you will discover that it
is all the same,[163] and they
are used interchangeably.
This leads us to believe that God’s
physical appearance has a direct relationship to his spiritual nature/person.
In like manner, the redeemed will physically manifest the nature of
their character (resulting in the “garments of light”).
When Moses asked the LORD to
show him his glory, the LORD revealed to him his
character. “He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name[164]
of the LORD before thee.”[165]
Moses specifically asked God to reveal his
glory. The LORD did
not refuse this request. While he explained to Moses that he could not see
his unveiled physical glory;[166] but he did
proclaim the wonder of his great and lovely character.[167]
When Jesus came to earth, he left behind
all the glory of his physical nature. Physically speaking, he was plain and
unattractive.[168]
He wanted nothing of a physical nature—beauty, wealth, position—to draw men to
him. Yet despite the plainness of His outward appearance, John testified that
he, along with others, saw the glory of the Father in Jesus as he walked among
men.[169]
Jesus’ own testimony was, “I have glorified Thee on the earth... I have manifested Thy
name [character] unto men.”[170]
The very word “glory” in Hebrew (kabod) and the Greek word (doxa) means self-revelation, character, and one’s
honour—that which draws attention to the
person.
God’s glory is both his outward appearance
and his character. In the final scenes of the cosmic conflict, God’s physical
glory will be revealed, but it is not this radiant power that will make them
bow the knee, but the revelation of the truth about his character. When his
true character is known, they will acknowledge him as Lord. The Great Controversy is not over power, but
over character.
[1] Revelation 14:9-11
[2] 2 Peter 1:20
[3] The
wrath of God is also involved in the Loud Cry/final harvest from
[4] Desire of Ages 487
[5] I John 4:16
[6] I Corinthians 13:5 RSV
[7] Luke 6:27
[8] See Matthew 5:44-45
[9] Psalm 11:6, margin
[10] Isaiah 53:10
[11] Isaiah 13:9
[12] 5 Testimonies 120, Luke 9:56, Hosea 13:9
[13] I Corinthians 14:33
[14] Psalm 137:8,9 TEV
[15] Psalm 18:8
[16] Proverbs 31:6-7
[17] Deuteronomy 14:22-26
[18] John 10:7
[19] Matthew 5:30
[20] James 1:17
[21] Jeremiah 31:3
[22] Isaiah 40:8; Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 55:8-9
[23] Romans 1:18, 21, 24, 26, 28
[24] Matthew 12:31
[25] Psalm 81:11-12 TEV
[26] Hosea 4:17
[27] James 1:14-15
[28]
Jeremiah 1:14-15; Proverbs
[29] Romans
[30] That I May Know Him 64
[31] Isaiah 53:4-5; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ezekiel 25:14
[32] Matthew 27:46
[33] 3 Spirit of Prophecy 185
[34] Phillips
[35] Romans 4:25
[36] See the section Our Sin Bearer
[37] Malachi 3:6
[38] Hebrews 13:8
[39] Lamentations 3:22
[40] Psalm 36:9
[41] I John 5:12
[42] Isaiah 59:2
[43] Story of Redemption
[44] 1 Selected Messages 235
[45] 6 Testimonies 388; Revelation 9:12—Greek destroyer; John 8:44
[46] Matthew 23:37
[47] Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 9:54-55
[48] As well as the writings of Ellen White
[49] 2 Peter
[50] 2 Peter
[51] Daniel 3
[52] If we don’t do it, our enemies will.
[53] This is what it means to obey the Law—Romans 13:8
[54] Compare Isaiah 61:2, 2 Peter 3:12, Jude 14:5
[55] Not “rightly dividing” these Scripture references caused the confusion of the Jewish people regarding Messiah’s 1st, 2nd, & 3rd advents. In a similar manner, Jesus’ 2nd and 3rd coming are similarly amalgamated by most Christians today.
[56] Deuteronomy 33:2
[57] Romans 12:9-21; Acts 28:2; Isaiah 62:1
[58] Obadiah 1:15-18
[59] I Samuel 15:11
[60] Hosea 7:16; Psalm 38:3; Isaiah 9:18
[61] Hebrews 12:29; Zechariah 2:5
[62] I Corinthians 7:9
[63] Romans 1:27
[64] Song of Solomon 8:6, Psalm 79:5
[65] I Peter 4:12
[66] James 3:5-6; Proverbs 16:27; Proverbs 29:8; Isaiah 30:27
[67] Isaiah 52:9-10; Psalm 49:4-7. Psalm 21:11-12 describes how their futile plan to destroy God’s people backfires (see verses 8-10). Psalms 7 and 9 also describe these events.
[68] Psalm 97:6-10
[69] Psalm 50:6
[70] John 12:47-48
[71] Isaiah
45:20-24. See also Philippians 2:10, Psalm
[72] Romans 14:11-12
[73] Great Controversy 667
[74] Great Controversy 669-670
[75] I Corinthians 4:5 TEV
[76] Jeremiah 23:29
[77] Deuteronomy 33:2
[78] Amplified Bible
[79] Jeremiah 5:14
[80] Education 144-145
[81] Spiritual Gifts 217
[82] Zechariah 14:14; Psalm 149:4-9; Ezekiel 25:14
[83] Matthew 13:43; Daniel 12:3
[84] Obadiah 1:15-18
[85] Revelation 14:10
[86] The Lamb and blood particularly represent the self-sacrificing love of Christ
[87] Matthew 8:29
[88] 1 Spiritual Gifts 217
[89] Desire of Ages 223
[90] Patriarchs & Prophets 498
[91] Great Controversy 666
[92] Matthew 8:12, Luke 13:28, etc.
[93] I Samuel 15:11
[94] Signs
of the Times
[95] I Peter 2:24, Hebrews 9:28, I John 2:2
[96] Signs
of the Times
[97] Desire of Ages 753
[98] Revelation 6:16
[99] Psalm 97:5
[100] 5 Bible Commentary 1103
[101] Desire of Ages 753
[102] 2 Testimonies 210
[103] I Testimonies 124
[104] 7A Bible Commentary 1162 (on Ezekiel 28)
[105] Ezekiel 28:6-9, 18
[106] Verse 9
[107] Great Controversy 668-670
[108] Story of Redemption 428
[109] Great Controversy 673
[110] Early Writings 294
[111] 4 Testimonies 229
[112] Great Controversy 36
[113] Desire of Ages 764
[114] Galatians 6:7
[115]
Romans
[116] Isaiah 1:28, 31
[117] TEV
[118] Isaiah 50:11
[119] TEV
[120] Isaiah 9:18-19
[121] Luke 7:47
[122] Lamentations 3:22
[123] Ezra 9:13. See also Psalm 103:10
[124] Great Controversy 629
[125] See Romans 1:24, 27
[127] Micah 4:8; Joel 2:25
[128] Desire of Ages 764
[129] Desire of Ages 108. See Hosea 13:9
[130] Ezekiel 1:4, 27-28; Daniel 7:9-10; Exodus 19:18; Deuteronomy 5:23-27
[131] Ezekiel 28:14
[132] Exodus 19:20-22
[133] Mark 9:2-3; Luke 9:28-36; Matthew 17:2
[134] The process was slowed dramatically by God in order to save us; the moment Lucifer and Adam & Eve separated themselves from the Source of life, they should have died.
[135] Revelation 6:16-17; Isaiah 25:9
[136] Malachi 4:1-2
[137] Hebrews 12:29
[138] I Peter 2:9, Psalm 84:11
[139] Isaiah 33:14-17
[140] Deuteronomy 30:19; Proverbs 8:36
[141] Leviticus 10:2
[142] TEV
[143] TEV
[144] 1 Spiritual Gifts 215
[145] 1 Spiritual Gifts 217
[146] Story of Redemption 421
[147] Story of Redemption 427
[148] Great Controversy 669
[149] Exodus 33
[150] Matthew 28:2-4; Daniel 10:17
[151] The Faith I Live By 70
[152] Revelation 13:8; I Peter 1:19-20
[153] Isaiah 34:2-3
[154] Early Writings 290
[155] Isaiah 66:24
[156] Isaiah 66:24
[157]
Greek gehenna
[158] Malachi 4:1
[159] Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17
[160] 1 Spiritual Gifts 218
[161] Great Controversy 673
[162] 1 Spiritual Gifts 218-219
[163] See Psalm 62:1 for example
[164] again, name in Hebrew ideology is indicative of character.
[165] Exodus 33:19
[166] Exodus 33:20-23
[167] Exodus 34:5-8
[168] See Isaiah 53:2
[169] John 1:14
[170] John 17:4, 6