v
Introduction

It is safe to say that three facts are common to us all.
The first is that we have, either consciously or subconsciously, a definite opinion about the character of God. Even though little direct thought or specific expression may have been given to the topic, it is true nonetheless.
The second is that our attitude toward God, our treatment of others, and our receptivity of truth are determined by these opinions.
The third is that all of us were born predispositioned to possess a false concept of God which in turn has been confirmed and extended by environmental educational influences. Unless delivered from this and initiated into a true knowledge of God, it will be impossible to enter into a full and perfect Christian experience, and the prospects of eternal life will be endangered.
If this seems to be saying too much, consider the proof of these words as provided in the history of the Jews of Christ’s day.
When Christ first appeared working amazing miracles, proclaiming the kingdom, and proving that He came at exactly the time specified in Daniel 9, He quickly became a very popular figure. Thousands followed Him, confident that He would re-establish the lost glory of Israel. The Jewish leaders studied the movement with increasing apprehension seeing in it the threat to their prestige and power. His following continued to swell until the feeding of the five thousand with the loaves and fishes Then when the enthusiasm of the people had reached its height and they were determined to crown Him king, the tide suddenly turned, the enthusiasm died away, and the crowds walked with Him no more. From that time every step led to the cross when those who had so ardently called for His crowning, screamed for His crucifixion.
What was the factor which caused this astonishing reversal?
The answer is not difficult to find.
They had a very definite but false concept of God’s character, shaped by the educational processes in their environment. This factor was so fixed and powerful that it influenced them to reject the Saviour because He did not perform as their concept of God’s character led them to expect and desire of Him. Thus the question of God’s character became the most critical element in the mission of Jesus and the fate of the Jews. Had they correctly understood this, the history of His work on earth would have been very different.
Any careful study of the mounting conflict between Christ and the people leaves no doubt of the veracity of the above assertions.
A great and significant event in His early ministry was the sermon on the mount. Everyone who attended came anticipating important

	vi				                    INTRODUCTION

announcements about the coming kingdom. The Pharisees “looked forward to the day when they should have dominion over the hated Romans, and possess the riches and splendor of the world’s great empire. The poor peasants and fishermen hoped to hear the assurance that their wretched hovels, the scanty food. the life of toil, and fear of want were to be exchanged for mansions of plenty and days of ease. In place of the one coarse garment which was their covering by day, and their blanket by night, they hoped that Christ would give them the rich and costly robes of their conquerors. All hearts thrilled with the proud hope that Israel was soon to be honored before the nations as the chosen of the Lord, and Jerusalem exalted as the head of a universal kingdom.” The Desire of Ages, 299.
Because the devil had done his work well, the people believed not only that the Messiah would exalt them in this way but that He would do it by the use of the sword. They saw God as the vengeful, destroying One of the Old Testament. Their concept of the God of the Old Testament led them to believe that the God of the New would behave in the same way. But because their understanding of God’s character was wrong, their expectations were to be disappointed.
“Christ disappointed the hope of worldly greatness. In the Sermon on the Mount He sought to undo the work that had been wrought by false education, and to give His hearers a right conception of His kingdom and of His own character.” ibid.
The people did not hear what they had come to hear in the sermon on the mount, but they did not reject the Saviour just then. He did not directly attack their errors, and they were left with the vague hope that somehow He would yet assert His power and use it according to their ideas of God’s character.
Their servitude to the Romans had placed that proud people in a desperate plight. They needed great help, and they knew it. Their understanding of the prophecies had led them to pin their entire hopes on the Messiah as the answer to this predicament. If He should fail them, they would have nowhere else to turn.
Christ had not come to fail them. He knew exactly what their true needs were, and He had fully purposed to supply those needs. But the answer did not lie in the use of the weapons of force. It lay in the changing of their characters into the likeness of His own. But so intent were they on their long cherished ambitions that there was no room to consider the alternative He offered.
The climax came at the feeding of the five thousand. Throughout the long day, He had thrilled their hearts with the wonder of His teachings. The sick had been healed and the multitude fed. As the day wore on . . . they said one to another, ‘This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.’
“All day the conviction had strengthened. That crowning act is assurance that the long-looked-for Deliverer is among them. The hopes of

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the people rise higher and higher. This is He who will make Judea an earthly paradise, a land flowing with milk and honey. He can satisfy every desire. He can break the power of the hated Romans. He can deliver Judah and Jerusalem. He can heal the soldiers who are wounded in baffle. He can supply whole armies with food. He can conquer the nations, and give to Israel the long-sought dominion.
“In their enthusiasm the people are ready at once to crown Him king. They see that He makes no effort to attract attention or secure honor to Himself. In this He is essentially different from the priests and rulers, and they fear that He will never urge His claim to David’s throne. Consulting together, they agree to take Him by force, and proclaim Him the king of Israel. The disciples unite with the multitude in declaring the throne of David the rightful inheritance of their Master. It is the modesty of Christ, they say, that causes Him to refuse such honor. Let the people exalt their Deliverer. Let the arrogant priests and rulers be forced to honor Him who comes clothed with the authority of God.” ibid., 377, 378.
They could see that Jesus loved them and that He had all the power necessary to give them all that they could desire. The only kind of character they knew and understood was the kind which used the possession of mighty power to achieve their selfish ambitions. They could not see and were unwilling to be taught that Christ did not have this kind of character. He loved the Romans as much as He loved the Jews, neither was it His way to use force to accomplish any desired objective. Therefore, in harmony with His character, He would not permit Himself to be made king by them, nor would He use His mighty powers to advantage one class of those whom He loved, above another. With an authority which none could disobey, He dismissed disciples and multitude alike.
The bitter complaint of the apostles against Him then was, “Why did not He who possessed such power reveal Himself in His true character, and make their way less painful?” ibid., 380.
The truth was that Christ was living out His character to perfection. It was because of what He was, that He did what He did. In their failure to understand His real character, they expected an altogether different line of behaviour. When He did not do what they believed that He should do, they felt cheated and betrayed.
So it was with the multitude. The next day after closely questioning Him, they came to see that He would never use His power as they expected Him to. For this reason they left Him forever. “If He would not devote His power and influence to obtaining their freedom from the Romans, they would have nothing to do with Him.” ibid., 391.
Thus it was that their misunderstanding of the character of God in Christ led them to expect from Him a complete deliverance from the Romans and their exaltation to the heights of material grandeur. He was a Jew like the were. He was sent as the Messiah to the chosen and favoured

INTRODUCTION 					                           viii

people. He had the power.	Therefore, they reasoned it was His duty to use that power to favour them. If He refused to do it, then He was nothing short of a traitor to His own. They found Him guilty of treason and determined to be revenged. Because they possessed the character which they believed He had, they did to Him with the power at their command, what they believed He should have done to the Romans. To accomplish this, they accused Him before the Romans of seeking to make Himself to be what they had actually tried to make Him—the king of the world. This was a totally false accusation which, though it enabled them to wreak vengeance on Him whom they believed had betrayed them, opened the floodgates of woe on the nation. Few people, if any, have suffered as the Jews have since that terrible time. Theirs is a fate which none would care to share.
If only they had understood the character of God so perfectly revealed in Christ, or at least been willing to be taught it, they would not have expected of Him what they did, nor would they have rejected and vengefully crucified Him. Thus the question of the character of God and Christ was the most critical element in His mission and in the fate of the Jews.
Contained in their history is a sober warning which none can treat lightly. The character of God is still the most critical issue in the mission of Christ. As were the Jews, so too have all of us been subjected to an erroneous education in respect to God’s character. But God will not leave us in this darkness without the opportunity to escape from it. When that light is presented to us, there is the terrible danger that we will repeat their history by rejecting the message because it does not conform to our already established ideas and does not suit our personal ambitions and dreams.
Let none repeat the fearful history of the Jews by rejecting God’s truth on this basis. The outworking of such decisions have implications too terrible, final, and eternal to contemplate. Rather let there be an earnest, prayerful pleading with the Lord to open the eyes of our spiritual understanding to see God as He really is.
May the message of this book be a mighty aid in knowing God, whom to know is life eternal.

“And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee
The only true God,
and Jesus Christ,
Whom Thou hast sent.
John 17:3.

			Contents

	1	An All Important Theme .................................................................	1
	2.	Avoid Speculative Theories  ...........................................................	7
	3.	The Character Of God In Relation To The Great Controversy  ......	 13
	4.	The Character Of God 
		   And The Ending Of The Great Controversy  ...............................	26
	5.	Isaiah’s Wonderful Prophecy  ........................................................	41
	6,	Approaching The Study Of God  ....................................................	48
	7.	The Constitution Of The Government Of God  ...............................	53
	8.	A Perfect Law  ................................................................................	69
	9.	God’s Principles Under Test  ..........................................................	87
	10.	A Summary   ...................................................................................	93
	11.	Contrasting Statements  ..................................................................	96
	12.	Statements And Principles  .............................................................	106
	13.	God Does Destroy—But How  .......................................................	119
	14.	The Supreme Revelation  ................................................................	134
	15.	Urged To Destroy  ..........................................................................	147
	16.	Magnifying The Law  .....................................................................	158
	17.	Go The Second Mile  ......................................................................	169
	18.	The Mystery Of Iniquity—Satan’s Masterpiece Of Deception  ......	 180
	19.	The Mystery-Unfolding Cross  .......................................................	192
	20.	The Way Of The Cross  ..................................................................	202
	21.	God’s Not A Criminal  ...................................................................	220
	22.	Rods And Serpents  ........................................................................	228
	23.	The Upraised Rod   .........................................................................	240
	24.	The Showing Of God’s Power  .......................................................	248
	25.	The Flood  .......................................................................................	259
	26.	Great Changes  ...............................................................................	275
	27.	Concepts Revised  ..........................................................................	281
	28.	Sodom And Gomorrah  ...................................................................	291
	29.	An Execution  .................................................................................	315
	30.	The Ever-Loving, Saving Father  ...................................................	328
	31.	God Goes The Second Mile  ............................................................	345
	32.	The Consistency Of God  ................................................................	356
	33.	The Wars Of Israel  ........................................................................	364
	34.	An Eye For An Eye   ......................................................................	373
	35.	Difficult Statements   ......................................................................	378
	36.	The Seven Last Plagues  .................................................................	391
	37.	The Brightness Of His Coming  ......................................................	396
	38.	The Final Showdown  .....................................................................	401
	39.	In Conclusion  .................................................................................	413

CHAPTER ONE

An All Important Theme

The study pursued throughout this book is not merely one of great importance. It is of the highest consequence involving issues of eternal life and death. It is very much the author’s burden that this be realized from the outset and perceived increasingly as the theme is developed.
Jesus said. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent” John 17:3
The full, forceful significance of this Scripture cannot be grasped by reading it in isolation. Other inspired statements must be read along with it so that the meaning becomes powerfully clear. When such comparisons are extensively and carefully made, it will be seen that the truth expressed in this verse is an equation. It is saying that life eternal is the knowledge of God; therefore the knowledge of God is life eternal.
The converse of this, then, is that the lack of a true knowledge of God is death eternal and, therefore, death eternal is the lack of a true knowledge of God.
The Amplified Bible renders this verse thus: “And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, Whom You have sent.” John 17:3.
This version presents a clearer rendition of the verse. It states that life eternal means a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, so without that knowledge, we can only know eternal death. This is confirmed by the following statements.
“The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will re-create the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine.” Testimonies 8:289.
Knowing God is life eternal, and life eternal is knowing God
This statement does not merely say that all who are saved would be well advised to have the knowledge of God. They must have it. It is essential, indispensable. Yet, the statement does more than emphasize the truth of this. It proceeds to reveal the reasons for its being so. In order to attain to eternal life, the character must be transformed and recreated into the image of God, while to the whole being must be imparted a power that is divine. Knowing that to come into possession of eternal life necessitates the acquisition of these blessings, it becomes the seeker’s prime interest to know by what means it can be received.

2						       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

The answer is not hidden.
It is “the knowledge of God as revealed in Christ.”
Therefore, it is truly spoken that the knowledge of God is life eternal, and life eternal is the knowledge of God.
The full force of these verses will not be appreciated unless there is a correct understanding of what the grace and peace of God are. Let each now be considered in turn.
God’s grace is not merely an attitude maintained on His part toward the undeserving sinner. Rather, it is “the regenerating, enlightening power of the Holy Spirit . . . .“ The Great Controversy, 393.
Therefore, the grace of God is God’s power working to regenerate and enlighten the willing and obedient. Defining the grace of God as being the power of God, sets it apart as the supreme force in the universe. It is the one element emanating from a creating and re-creating God which lifts the lost from damnation to glorification, and without which there would be no hope. Understandably then, the Holy Spirit spoke through the inspired Peter the desire that such grace should be multiplied to the believers. Assuredly, those who received such multiplied supplies of grace would be blessed with eternal life. Observe the media through which it would come to them. It would be theirs through the knowledge of God.
Likewise, the peace of God is much more than merely a mental persuasion on God’s part whereby He maintains a kindly or even indulgent attitude toward those who believe in Him. A careful comparison of Romans 8:7 and 5:1, considerably expands the concept of what the peace of God is. The former tells us that the carnal mind is enmity against God, while the latter confirms that to be justified is to have peace with God.
Therefore, both enmity against God, and peace with God are states of being. The presence of the carnal mind does not merely produce enmity, for it is enmity. By contrast, it is the presence of the very life of God within the person which is the peace of God. These two cannot co-exist. The former must be removed in order to make room for the latter. Only the mighty power of God can accomplish such splendid results.
The Holy Spirit through Peter, was concerned that the believers be filled with this peace for its presence in them was that of eternal life. As with the grace or power of God, it came to them through the knowledge of God. How earnestly and lovingly the Lord seeks to impress upon the dull, slow, human mind that it is through the revelation of the character of God that eternal life is made available to the needy.
To know what God will do for us is very important. But it will still not bring to us eternal life unless we understand how we can receive these blessings. Consequently, the following statement stresses the question and supplies the answer.
“By sin the image of God in man has been marred and well-nigh obliterated; it is the work of the gospel to restore that which has been lost

AN ALL IMPORTANT THEME					          	              3

we are to co-operate with the divine agency in this work. And how can :we into harmony with God, how shall we receive His likeness, unless obtain a knowledge of Him? It is this knowledge that Christ came into world to reveal unto us.” Testimonies 5:743.
Let careful note be taken of the question raised in this statement. “How we come into harmony with God, how shall we receive His likeness, ‘unless we obtain a knowledge of Him?”
No direct answer is provided for none is needed. The question admits one answer. Search for an alternative as he might, the reader will find e, the conviction being thus strengthened that it is impossible to come harmony with God and receive His likeness without obtaining a knowledge of Him.
To come into harmony with God and to receive His likeness is to be justified, because “being justified by faith, we have peace (or harmony) with L” Romans 5:1. To be justified is to have life eternal. But to achieve this is impossible without a true knowledge of God. He must be known as He is. more fully, intimately, and accurately He is known, the richer and more glorious will be the transformation into His likeness.
“Brethren and sisters, it is by beholding that we become changed. By dwelling upon the love of God and our Saviour, by contemplating the perfection of the divine character and claiming the righteousness of Christ ours by faith, we are to be transformed into the same image. Testimonies 5:744.
This chapter could be greatly extended by gathering and presenting all evidences available beyond those already given that emphasize the vital importance of having a true knowledge of the character of God and Christ, what has been given is evidence enough to make this point.
To know God is life eternal. Life eternal is to know God.
From this we must rightly conclude that there is a direct relationship between the extent of our knowledge of God, and the level, warmth, and power of our personal Christian experience. The better we know God, the e vital and effective our experience will be, while the more poorly and inaccurately we know Him, the feebler our witness will be.
Paul, in Romans 1:18-32, described the incredible depth of iniquity to :h the unbelieving world had sunk and more. He traced the situation to the reason for this condition.
To those people, adequate revelations of God had been provided, as I wrote.
‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them.”
‘For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19, 20. In the face of such a revelation of truth, what did these people do?

	4					    	       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

“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.”
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Verses 21, 22.
For men to glorify God as God, His character must be in them and be reflected from them. Men think that they glorify God today when they sing -hymns and thank Him for the blessings which they want Him to give them. Rut they glorify God as if He were a man like themselves, not as God. There was a time when original man was blessed with a true knowledge of the character of God, but he elected not to glorify God according to what He was. He substituted another view of God, a view according to his own vain imaginations. That constituted a first downward step toward ultimate ruin. Inevitably, worse was to follow. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Next, they “changed the glory [character] of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Verse 23.
Thus, the true revelation of God’s character was replaced by a false one, whereupon the deterioration in morality became most pronounced.
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
“Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful. proud. boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
“Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
“Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” Verses 24-32.
Human beings cannot enter into a worse state of wickedness than that described here. Let it be remembered that Paul by inspiration declares that

AN ALL IMPORTANT THEME				                        		5

all this is the outworking of the rejection of the knowledge of God. That reaction was the root. The unbelievable wickedness was the sure and certain fruit.
Thus it will ever be. Exactly to whatever degree a wrong or poor concept of God’s character is held, will the level of morality be. What was true in their experience is true in every age. Effect follows cause with predictable certainty.
“The meager views which so many have had of the exalted character and office of Christ have narrowed their religious experience and have greatly hindered their progress in the divine life. Personal religion among us is a people is at a low ebb. There is much form, much machinery, much tongue religion; but something deeper and more solid must be brought into our religious experience. With all our facilities, our publishing houses, our schools, our sanitariums, and many, many other advantages, we ought to ~e far in advance of our present position.” Testimonies 5:743.
The narrowed religious experience and seriously retarded progress in he divine life which was the sad lot of the Advent believers in the nineteenth century was directly attributable to “the meager views which so many” had “of the exalted character and office of Christ.” Problems are only solved by firstly determining the cause and then correcting that. Therefore, the adherents to the Advent faith of the last century could not possibly come into a rich and fulfilling religious experience without greatly enlarged and corrected views of the character and office of Christ.
Such a relating of cause and effect should instantly command the interested attention of all today who are aware that their experience is far from what it should be and who long for spiritual enrichment. At present, part from those who are miserable, poor, blind, naked, self-satisfied, Laodiceans, happy to believe that their experience is rich when it is poor, are there any true Christians who are truly satisfied with their character attainment and fellowship with God? While on the one hand there is a deep thankfulness for what God has done, there is a consciousness that much is yet to be achieved so that the Christian’s continual quest is for that character excellence which will bring him into communion with God and present his life as a telling witness for the divine.
How can this be?
It can only be by coming into a much clearer and deeper understanding of the character of God and Christ.
Such a knowledge is not acquired in a moment or by feeble intermittent efforts. Nor is the work all of a positive nature. It is a matter both of learning and unlearning.
Not only have the concepts of God’s character been meagre, dim, and uncertain, but in many respects, quite inaccurate. The inaccuracies have been so serious as to be exactly opposite from what God really is. More than we realize, the devil has clouded our minds with his false representa-

6					    	       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

tions. Never was he more successful than just before the first coming of Christ, and again during the Dark Ages. We have not yet fully escaped the effect of that midnight period. We have not yet come all the way out of Babylon.
So serious were the misrepresentations of God’s character which dominated the minds of men, that Jesus had to give a revelation of God exactly opposite from that which they had. “He presented to men that which was exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God     Fundamentals of Christian Education 177
As we again approach the midnight darkness of the last days, the same misrepresentations of God are held by mankind throughout the world. Tragically, they are shared to some extent even by God’s people.
What is needed, and must be given again for the final time, is a presentation to men which will be “exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God.”
Therefore, there is much unlearning to be done as well as learning. This book is designed to assist in both directions. Old concepts will be challenged. Many things will be presented about God which will be exactly opposite from what has been believed in the past. For some there will possibly be severe struggles. Old concepts will strive for the mastery. In too many cases they will win, and darkness will settle upon the defeated.
For those who patiently and prayerfully examine the evidences, there will come such a revelation of God’s character as will clear away the fog of the past, re-create the soul in the image of God, transform the believer into the likeness of God, and provide the fitness for a place in eternity.
All such will know that to know God is life eternal and life eternal is to know God.
Therefore, a clear, accurate, and comprehensive knowledge of the character of God is essential to those who would be saved. Never was this more needful than at this time when darkness is covering the earth and gross darkness the people.
Let this great theme of God’s character become the chief and all-absorbing subject of our attention, our meditation, our conversation, and our witness, for this is life eternal.

				       		7

CHAPTER TWO

Avoid Speculative Theories

In the study of this subject, there is danger as well as blessing. It is the same danger present in all searching for heavenly wisdom and understanding. The danger is in seeking a knowledge outside of what God has revealed.
In this area beyond revelation, all that men, untutored by God, can do in the absence of any information, is to conjecture, imagine, and speculate. Men do this. In doing it, they strive to understand the unrevealed things of God by the powers within themselves. Nothing could be more dangerous; nothing more certain to produce the greatest ignorance about God as He really is; and, nothing better designed to inflate human pride to the destruction of any semblance of God’s character within themselves.
Therefore, any attempt to explore into the unrevealed areas of divine knowledge will be strictly avoided in this book. It will be concerned only with the evidences which God has seen fit to give, and nothing else but that.
God, in His great love, has set down safe working limits for our study.
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29.
This Scripture clearly divides all knowledge into two parts—the things which are God’s great secrets, and those which He reveals to us.
It is not to be supposed that God is deliberately withholding these things from either men or angels. Rather, He is revealing them just as fully and quickly as He is able to do so. Paul testifies to this.
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
“How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
“Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
“Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
“That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel:
“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

8		                                  BEHOLD YOUR  GOD

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery [secret], which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
“According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 3:1-11.
Thus, there was a time for both angels and men when certain things were secrets still. To have attempted to search out those secrets then would have been dangerous, presumptuous, and speculative.
But not so in Paul’s day, for they had then passed from the category of the secret things to the revealed.
God is infinite. We are finite. Therefore, the time will never come, even in eternity, when there will be no secret things remaining. There will always be an infinity beyond our comprehension, despite the fact that “the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character.” The Great Controversy, 678.
Thus it will be eternally true that, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.” This will be so because of the absolute infinity of God, and because we, no matter how extensive our knowledge of God becomes, will still be short of infinite.
Because of the continual transfer of knowledge from the secret list to the open, that which once belonged to God alone, will come to belong to us and our children forever.
This is true of eternity. It is also true of this life, although the progress is slower here than it will be there.
“In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 127.
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Proverbs 4:18.
There have been periods when these secrets are revealed much more quickly than at other times. This is not due to any capricious decisions on God’s part, but to the delinquency of His people .God is willing and anxious to fully open to view the saving vistas of eternal truth, but He is frustrated in this by human blindness and selfishness.
Paul complained to the Hebrew Christians that they were but milk babies when they should have been capable of taking strong meat. There was much he desired to teach them but could not in regard to Melchizedek, “of whom,” he said, “we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

AVOID SPECULATIVE THEORIES						              9

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
“For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness:
for he is a babe.
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Hebrews 5:11-14.
“In eternity we shall learn that which, had we received the enlightenment it was possible to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths which Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. Through endless ages will the faithful Householder bring forth from His treasure things new and old.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 134.
No one will be content with poverty when great riches are within his reach, provided he knows it. This statement opens the mighty possibilities of advancement in divine illumination. It is an encouragement and invitation to enter into the revelations which the Lord delights to give His people, but it does not incite to attempted penetration into that which the Lord has not yet been able to open to our knowledge. There are some things which must remain hidden. Let them be. The concentration of study must be in those areas where the Lord has released the light. At all costs there must be the avoidance of any speculative theorizing.
“‘Those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever;’ but ‘the secret things belong unto the Lord our God.’ Deuteronomy 29:29. The revelation of Himself that God has given in His word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out in conjectures regarding the nature of God; but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. Let not finite man attempt to interpret Him. Let none indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.
“Even the angels were not permitted to share the counsels between the Father and the Son when the plan of salvation was laid. Those human beings who seek to intrude into the secrets of the Most High show their ignorance of spiritual and eternal things. Far better might they, while mercy’s voice is still heard, humble themselves in the dust and plead with God to teach them His ways.
“We are as ignorant of God as little children, but as little children we may love and obey Him. Instead of speculating in regard to His nature or His prerogatives, let us give heed to the word He has spoken: ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Psalm 46:10.

	10				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

Canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?
Deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.’	Job 11:7-9.

Where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The depth saith, It is not in me:
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls:
For the price of wisdom is above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Whence then cometh wisdom?
And where is the place of understanding? -
Destruction and death say,
We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
God understandeth the way thereof,
And He knoweth the place thereof.

For He looketh to the ends of the earth,
And seeth under the whole heaven.
When He made a decree for the rain,
And a way for the lightning of the thunder:
Then did He see it, and declare it;
He prepared It, yea, and searched it out.
And unto man He said,
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.’ Job 28:12-28.

“Neither by searching the recesses of the earth nor in vain endeavors to penetrate the mysteries of God’s being is wisdom found. It is found, rather, in humbly receiving the revelation that He has been pleased to give, and in conforming the life to His will.” Testimonies 8:279, 280.
“One of the greatest evils that attends the quest for knowledge, the investigations of science, is the disposition to exalt human reasoning above its true value and its proper sphere. Many attempt to judge of the Creator and His works by their own imperfect knowledge of science. They endeavor to determine the nature and attributes and prerogatives of God, and indulge in speculative theories concerning the Infinite One. Those who engage in this line of study are treading upon forbidden ground. Their research will yield no valuable results and can be pursued only at the peril of the soul.
“Our first parents were led into sin through indulging a desire for knowledge that God had withheld from them. In seeking to gain this

AVOID SPECULATIVE THEORIES				                                       11

knowledge, they lost all that was worth possessing. If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, God would have imparted to them knowledge—knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy. All that they gained by listening to the tempter was an acquaintance with sin and its results. By their disobedience, humanity was estranged from God and the earth was separated from heaven.
“The lesson is for us. The field into which Satan led our first parents is the same to which he is alluring men today. He is flooding the world with pleasing fables. By every device at his command he tempts men to speculate in regard to God. Thus he seeks to prevent them from obtaining that knowledge of God which is salvation.” The Ministry of Healing, 427, 428.
“Man cannot by searching find out God. Let none seek with presumptuous hand to lift the veil that conceals His glory. ‘Unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.’ Romans 11:33. It is a proof of His mercy that there is the hiding of His power; for to lift the veil that conceals the divine presence is death. No mortal mind can penetrate the secrecy in which the Mighty One dwells and works. Only that which He sees fit to reveal can we comprehend of Him. Reason must acknowledge an authority superior to itself. Heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM.” ibid., 438.
With such clear warnings as these before us, there can be no excuse for any indulgence in speculation about the character of God. Let that which is unrevealed be respected as the secret things which belong only to God. The sad experience of Adam and Eve, who sought a knowledge of God apart from the revelation of God, is a lesson to be thoroughly absorbed and obeyed. Therefore, this book will not in any sense deviate from the strict lessons and principles contained in these warnings and instructions. It will be concerned only with that which the Lord has revealed. These are the things which belong unto us and our children forever.
As surely as we fully receive that which has been revealed, so will the Lord transfer further secrets into the known. Therefore, this book can never be complete. It can only deal with what has been revealed at the time of its writing. Beyond its publication still more light will come through. The records of that must be the subjects of other books and, no doubt, other authors.
While, on one hand, there are those who would venture onto the fragile thinness of the treacherous ice of human speculation, others tend to the opposite extreme. Because God is so infinite, so distant, so deep and unsearchable, they take the stand that they should not study His character at all.
This is a mistake of equal gravity, completely fulfilling Satan’s desire that they know not God.

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“It is Satan’s constant study to keep the minds of men occupied with those things which will prevent them from obtaining the knowledge of God.” Testimonies 5:740.
We are to keep a careful balance in our relation to this theme. On one hand, we are to avoid the dangerous extreme of seeking knowledge by speculation, and on the other, the equally fatal mistake of neglecting the subject altogether.
The urgent counsels of God’s Word, some of which have been presented in the first chapter and will be further developed in the next, stress the absolute necessity of coming into a clearer and yet clearer knowledge of God and Christ.
Ever let it be remembered that there is a direct relationship between the knowledge of God and our level of righteous or unrighteous living. To know God is life eternal. To be ignorant of Him is eternal death.

13
CHAPTER THREE

The Character of God In Relation to the Great Controversy

It is not possible to savingly understand the character of God if the study of it is isolated from the great controversy between Christ and Satan. There is very good reason for this. The study of God’s character is not merely a theme related to the great controversy—it is the very subject of the great controversy.
The awful struggle commenced at that point where with pride-blinded eyes, Lucifer could no longer see God as He is, but, seeing a very different character in Him, committed himself to war against God. Pride had surfaced before, but the ripening of this into active rebellion did not occur until he firstly had a misconception of the character of God. Somehow, Satan recognized the direct connection between the distortion of the truth about God, and the seeding of rebellion. Therefore, to achieve his objective of leading the inhabitants of the universe into opposition to God, he worked at deceiving them into believing God was a liar and destroyer. Every angel who believed him joined his ranks.
The same policy resulted in the overthrow of man. Millions upon millions have continued to hold mistaken views of God ever since, directly resulting in the multiplication of iniquity and immorality and the deepening and extending of the great controversy.
It was exactly at that point where misunderstanding of God’s character firstly began to form, that the spirit of rebellion formed. Ever since, wherever those misconceptions have been continued, that rebellion has raged on. Therefore, only when those misconceptions have been completely cleared away will the rebellion end and permanent, universal peace return.
This does not mean that God is seeking a personal vindication of Himself. That would be the last thing He would do. He is seeking the vindication of that which will ensure the eternal life and happiness of every one of His creatures throughout the full immensity of the universe.
God well knows, and almost six thousand years of demonstration should have proved to us, that Satan’s lying representations of God’s character and government have brought only misery and death to the world. It is from this that God is seeking to save. He knows, and we must come to know, that this is only possible as His character is revealed for what it really is. Therefore, it is to save us and not Himself that God seeks the vindication of His own character.

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This can be better appreciated when it is seen that God’s law and government are an exact expression of His character. God does not have one code of behaviour for Himself, while His government of the people is based on other principles. This is so with earthly rulers, but not with God.
This truth is made clear by comparing the testimonies given of God’s character with those in regard to His government. As these texts are presented, bear in mind that they are statements of what God is. He is righteousness. It is a principle that one does what he does because of what he firstly is. God then, being firstly and only righteousness, does only righteousness.
“Righteous art Thou, 0 Lord, and upright are Thy judgments.
“Thy testimonies that Thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful .“
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth.” Psalms 119:137, 138, 142.
“The Lord is righteous.”
“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” Psalms 129:4, 145:17.
These are statements of what God is. They are declarations of His state of being, and of the very essence of His nature. In Him is the sum of all righteousness and there is nothing in Him apart from righteousness.
Therefore, nothing but righteousness proceeds from Him. It is for this reason that Daniel could testify “0 Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee.” Daniel 9:7.
Thus the words of God are righteousness. “I declare things that are right.” Isaiah 45:19. This being so, all the laws and commandments of God are also the expression of His righteous character. Because He is the righteous God that He is, He makes the laws He has made.
“Thy testimonies that Thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.”
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth.” Psalms 119:138, 142.
“Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” “Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face.” Psalms 97:2; 89:14.
Therefore, the “law is a transcript of His [God’s] own character.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 315.
There came the time when Lucifer could no longer see this. Instead, he saw the law as one thing and the character of God as something else. It was at this point that he committed himself to rebellion, and the great controversy began.
How did he come to this point?
Lucifer was the brightest and highest of all the angels. He was the covering cherub, perfect in all his ways till iniquity was found in him. Ezekiel 28:15
.
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The time came when God had to say of him, “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness:” Ezekiel 28:17.
Pride in himself developed in Lucifer. We do not know how long he had existed from the day of his creation until his fall. No revelation of this is given. However, it is certain that he must have lived a very long time, possibly millions of years. During that time, he had been constantly developing in all his talents and skills by the combination of the grace of God and his own diligent effort.
To some it may come as a strange thought that Lucifer grew in knowledge, wisdom, and skills during the entire period of his existence. But it is not to be imagined that God created him as a total being. Rather, he was created with the potential of limitless development. He was “educated and disciplined in the heavenly courts.” Fundamentals of Christian Education, 167.
Therefore, he developed according to the laws which govern all God’s creatures whether they be in heaven or on earth. God had made provision that each and all could grow in every faculty to the highest levels of achievement. This is accomplished by the exercise of “the grace of God and their own diligent effort.” The Great Controversy, 425. So it was with Lucifer, and marvellous was the progress made, until he became the brightest of all the creatures.

These exceeding riches which should have elicited only perpetual gratitude and loving service, instead served to undo him. The Scriptures describe this wealth as the abundance of his merchandise by which his soul was filled with violence.
“By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned:” Ezekiel 28:16.
The needless corruption of the covering cherub through the abundance of his merchandise, has repeatedly destroyed men. In those repetitions is to be clearly read the deterioration of the first sinner. When a people begin under the Lord’s personal leadership, they are small in number and poor in material wealth. Their sense of need is proportionately great, generating a strong sense of total dependency and faith. God’s liberal responses evoke gratitude and praise from them. This enrichment of spiritual and material wealth relieves them of the pressure of immediate necessity, but it introduces a danger against which a watchful guard must be established. That peril resides in the imperceptible but certain fading away of the positive sense of dependence on God. History verifies that most fail this test.
As the sense of dependence upon God wanes, material possessions come to be looked upon as the basis and guarantee of security. Thus it is an error to say that men lose faith. Instead they transfer it from the God who gave the gifts, to the gifts given by God. Increasingly, they become preoccupied with the accumulation of more of these material treasures until they

	16				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

are totally absorbed thereby. As they successfully add house to house and land to land, they develop a strong sense of self-sufficiency. They see themselves as being the sole arbiter of their fate. They make themselves god in the place of God and pride is the most distinguished aspect of their characters.
Every time a human being descends this path, he is but travelling the same way the original sinner trod. Thus Lucifer moved from the sincere, trusting, loving, and grateful child of God to the self-sufficient, proud devil. His life ceased to be centred on God and revolved instead, around himself. Thus he, and not God, became the standard by which he judged all things. Worse still, whereas in the days of his humility, he had been neither interested nor concerned in judging other individuals, now even the Son of God came under his critical measurement. That would have been serious enough, had it been possible for him to evaluate Christ, as He was, in contrast to himself, as he was, but so inflated had his view of himself become that he saw himself as being actually superior to the Divine One. Such a serious misjudgment was possible to that powerfully clear mind only because he had destroyed the power to think correctly by allowing pride to separate him from the source of all wisdom, as it is written, “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” Ezekiel 28:17.
Yet, to this point, no serious question had entered his mind in regard to God. For one thing, he had been far too pre-occupied with admiring his own beautiful self to have cared much about his Father. He had known God all his life as being totally just, impartial, and omniscient.
Therefore, he “knew” without question that God was “as aware” as he was of his “splendid greatness,” and that, accordingly, God would promptly elevate him into a position befitting his shining glory. So, he glowed with pride in his confident expectation of forthcoming honours.
However, even though sinful pride was already filling Lucifer’s life, no question regarding God’s character and government had yet been raised. That was still to come. Neither had Lucifer entered into active rebellion against God. The great controversy, as a controversy, had not yet begun as an actual confrontation between Satan and God. It had started in the sense that conditions were developing which would cause its outbreak.
A careful study of Patriarchs and Prophets, 35, 36, makes this point quite clear. On page 35, the progression of evil in Lucifer’s sinful character development is described thus. “Little by little, Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation . . .“ until “coveting the glory with which the infinite Father had invested His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone.”
Up to this stage there is no description of any contest taking place between Christ and Satan, nor does the next paragraph bring the story to this point. It likewise deals with developments leading to the opening of actual warfare.

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“Now the perfect harmony of heaven was broken. Lucifer’s disposition to serve himself instead of his Creator, aroused a feeling of apprehension when observed by those who considered that the glory of God should be supreme. In heavenly council the angels pleaded with Lucifer. The Son of God presented before him the greatness, the goodness, and the justice of the Creator, and the sacred, unchanging nature of His law. God Himself had established the order of heaven; and in departing from it, Lucifer would dishonor his Maker, and bring ruin upon himself. But the warning, given in infinite love and mercy, only aroused a spirit of resistance. Lucifer allowed his jealousy of Christ to prevail, and became the more determined.”
The efforts of the fellow angels to save Lucifer only aroused a spirit of resistance, which strengthened to the point where “To dispute the supremacy of the Son of God, thus impeaching the wisdom and love of the Creator, had become the purpose of this prince of angels. To this object he was about to bend the energies of that master-mind, which, next to Christ’s, was first among the host of God.” ibid., 36.
Now God, foreseeing that which none of His creatures could, stepped in to give all a clear warning of what would be the outworking of this rebellion. He did not wait until the battle began, but He did it “before the great contest should open.” As we read, “But He who would have the will of all His creatures free, left none unguarded to the bewildering sophistry by which rebellion would seek to justify itself. Before the great contest should open, all were to have a clear presentation of His will, whose wisdom and goodness were the spring of all their joy.” ibid., 36.
Consequently God convened a great assembly at which He presented the true position of His Son and the reasons of Christ’s occupying His exalted place in heaven. Lucifer almost yielded, but did not, and then the great battle began by his “leaving his place in the immediate presence of the Father,” and going “forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels.” Page 37.
This evidence shows that a great deal happened within Lucifer before he went out to war. The purpose of the line of thought being developed in this section is to show that it was when he lost the true knowledge of God’s character and replaced it with a false concept, that then, and not until then did he enter into warfare against God.
The substitution in Lucifer’s mind of the false for the true concept of God’s character came as the result of his incorrect evaluation of God’s behaviour. lie attributed to God a motive which in reality was non-existent.
During the time which elapsed between the first presence of pride in him and the committal to rebellion, Lucifer waited expectantly for God to elevate him to the position which, in his own mind, he judged as being rightly his. He could not see nor understand that God had no plans to pro-

	18				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

mote him. It was not that God would not. He could not because Lucifer could never occupy Christ’s place unless he was God as Christ was. He was not qualified and never would be.
When passing time did not bring Lucifer the fruition of his fond expectations, a stain of anxiety began to colour the brightness of his hopes. He began an anxious surveillance of God in an endeavour to detect any indications of preparation on His part for Lucifer’s grand elevation. But, study as he might, he could find nothing to even suggest it.
The longer he searched and waited, the more deeply compounded his problem became, for, while he correctly concluded that something was decidedly wrong, he utterly failed to comprehend where the error lay. The whole of the fault lay with himself. God had not changed but Lucifer had. He who had been the humble servant of God and his fellow creatures had become a proud self-server.
The understanding of Lucifer’s problem is simplified by its repetition in the lives of men ever since. To comprehend the development of evil in Lucifer, it is only necessary to observe the same process in man. Thereby it will be readily seen that when a person arrives at this point, the last thing he is inclined to do is recognize that the fault lies in himself. Everybody and everything else is to blame but never he.
So it was with Lucifer. He summarily rejected as unworthy of consideration any thought which might lead him to recognize that his evaluation of himself and the consequent assumption that he should be exalted to a position equal with Christ was the error. This left him with only one possible conclusion. It was that the fault lay wholly and solely with God.
Having arrived at this awful point, a radically new concept of God’s character thrived in Lucifer’s mind, intensified by the acute disappointment stemming from his realization that he would not be given the position which alone would satisfy his immediate cravings for power.
Heretofore, he had correctly understood God to be perfectly just, fair and impartial. He rightly knew that God assigned positions in direct relationship to each individual’s fitness to fulfil the responsibility. It was in harmony with those convictions that Lucifer had expected God to exalt him. Those hopes would have been realized if Lucifer’s evaluation of himself had been correct.
But, when denied the position, he erroneously concluded that God was with great partiality favouring His Son. Lucifer was incensed. Such a reaction should evoke no surprise. Further, if Lucifer had been correct in his assessment of the situation, then his response was justified. God declares that He “is no respecter of persons.” Acts 10:34. Yet, to Lucifer’s mind, God was showing great respect to one person. This could only mean that God was a liar, for He had represented Himself as following out one principle, while in fact He practised another.
Partiality in itself is serious enough for it is impossible to show favour to one person except it be at the expense of another. In this situation, Lucifer

IN RELATION TO THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            19
felt keenly that he was being called upon to pay a very large price in order that Christ might exclusively enjoy the special favours of God.
If God had stated that, while all the other creatures were to be elevated according to merit, Christ was in a class by Himself, and was consequently to be delegated a position which none of the others could have, then that would have been one thing. But to declare that Christ was not specially favoured and then, as it appeared to Lucifer though it was never so in fact, to be accorded the special position of a favoured Son, was indeed to make God a liar and a deceiver.
If Lucifer’s evaluation had been correct, then he had every right to be incensed and was justified in calling upon God to reform His ways into consistency with His stated principles. This needs to be clearly understood. The fact that Lucifer was entirely wrong in his conclusions is what removes the justification from his rebellion.
Lucifer fully believed that he had experienced a great awakening. He felt that he had thrown off the shackles of a terrible bondage. Strangely enough, he had not even known he was in such bondage till this point, but looking back he imagined that he could see wherein it had been true all along. He became hostile toward God and especially toward Christ for having, as he supposed, held them in deception for so long a time, and he determined to assert his rights and have the government of God reformed.
It was by these progressions that, for the first time ever, a misrepresentation of the character of God came into existence. At first it was entirely and only in Lucifer’s mind, but soon it would spread to others.
It was at this point where this false conception of God’s character became the fixed conviction in Lucifer’s mind, that he entered into active rebellion against God. The great controversy then began. Having thus begun in the heart of the first rebel, the mutiny extended to a section of the angels, and then to men as each in turn came to share the erroneous concepts of God’s character.
This is clearly stated in the following extracts.
“Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.” The Desire of Ages, 21, 22.
“By the same misrepresentation of the character of God as he had practised in heaven, causing Him to be regarded as severe and tyrannical Satan induced man to sin “ The Great Controversy, 500.

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“Adam believed the falsehood of Satan, and through his misrepresentation of the character of God, Adam’s life was changed and marred. He disobeyed the commandment of God, and did the very thing the Lord told him not to do. Through disobedience Adam fell; but had he endured the test, and been loyal to God, the floodgates of woe would not have been opened upon our world.
“Through belief in Satan’s misrepresentation of God, man’s character and destiny were changed, but if men will believe in the Word of God, they will be transformed in mind and character, and fitted for eternal life.”
Selected Messages 1:345, 346.
By these statements the truth is confirmed that Satan’s objective of enlisting others in rebellion was achieved through the use of a certain very successful method. That method was to persuade angels and men that God’s character was that of a deceiver, an oppressor and a liar. This was the method used and to whatever extent it was successful, rebellion followed. A tracing of the fall of man certifies this.
Satan’s first recorded words to Eve were, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1. With that question Satan began the development of his purpose firstly to fill Eve’s mind with a false understanding of the character of God and thereby to lead her into revolt. This first sentence therefore was a vital one. There had to be injected into it enough to make it effective as the opening sally of the contact. A.T. Jones outlines something of what Satan was actually saying in those words.
“But note the expression with which he opens the conversation. It is an expression which insinuates into her mind a whole world of suspicion. The common version translates it, ‘Yea, bath God said,’ etc. The Revised Version gives it the same. The Jews’ English version translates it, ‘Hath God indeed said,’ etc. But no translation can give it exactly. It cannot be exactly expressed in letters so as to form a word that would give it truly. Yet everybody in the world is familiar with the expression. It is that sneering grunt (expressed only through the nose) —c-ugh!—which conveys query, doubt, suspicion, and contempt, all at once. ‘C-ugh! bath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ And everybody knows that to this day among men there is nothing equal to this sneering grunt, to create doubt and suspicion; and no other expression is used so much by mankind for that purpose. And this is the origin of it.” Ecclesiastical Empires, 590.
591.
Thus Satan’s first words to Eve were designed to create suspicion and doubt of God. It was an idea which not only had never before been presented to Eve, but which under no circumstances had occurred to her. She had thought of God as being just, good, righteous, fatherly, and loving, but now it was strongly suggested to her that He was not what He had appeared to be.
	The idea was startling, though she had nothing in her own experienced knowledge of God to give it the slightest support. All that she knew of God

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positively denied it. Yet, like so many of her children since that time, she allowed the suspicion thus suggested to lodge in her thinking even though there was no visible foundation for it.
That she allowed doubt of God’s character to settle in her mind is evidenced by the way in which she mis-stated to Satan the words of God to them. Whereas God had said that if they ate of the tree they would surely die, Eve reported Him as saying that they were not to eat of it lest they die.
There is a decided difference between the two statements. The first declares the certainty of death, the second indicates only a possibility of it. What Eve really stated God as having said, was that they were not to eat of it in case they died. Thus Satan was immediately successful in having her turn the truth into a lie.
Now he could and did boldly take the next step, which was to present the living God in a different character from that which is truly His. Satan said, “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 a God (margin], knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4, 5.
Satan here presents his arguments as to why God had placed those restrictions upon them. His assertions were that while God had assured them that they were to have unlimited development, the real fact was that God was afraid that they would ascend to an equality with Him. Once this occurred, then He would have to share with them all the riches He now had reserved for His own pleasure. This, Satan declared, God wished to prevent at any cost. This involved preventing them from partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, whereby such exaltation would be immediately effected. Therefore, the devil continued, He was forced to lie to them in order to protect His own position.
Thus the evil one impugned the motives of God and falsified His character. This was, is, and ever will be his method. The tragedy is that it works only too well.
There was no truth in Satan’s charges. God had not denied them the free use of that tree from the motive of self-protection. Neither had He made any of His laws for this purpose. Those principles of life were a love gift from God to protect them, not Himself. God needs no protection from anyone, nor is it His character to restrict anyone else to His own advantage.
From a heart which overflowed with boundless love, He had given them the whole of the world in which they lived. Nothing had been withheld. Even the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a gift to them, for it was a school designed to teach that which would be a perpetual protection. As they multiplied upon the earth, all that they had would have to be shared with the increasing population. Unless the lesson of absolute respect for the property of another was deeply educated into their minds, contention, strife, confusion, and open war would develop as men sought to wrest from each other that which they desired.

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That they did not learn the lesson is well known, and the present awful situation in the world is a clear fulfilment of the prediction that if they partook of the tree they would surely die. Every death taking place today is the direct outworking of the violation of God’s counsels to them. They did not learn the lesson that the presence of the tree was designed to teach, and thus cast off the very protection which the Lord had desired to give them.
But this was not all. In electing to believe Satan’s lie, Adam and Eve transferred their allegiance from God to Satan. They put another god in the place of the true God. To do that was also to bring death upon themselves—practically instant death. They would certainly have died that very day had not Christ interposed.
“The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, ‘Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place. He shall have another chance’.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary 1:1085.
It is most important to understand why the setting of another god in place of the true God would bring swift and certain death. This will be far more fully developed later in this study, so reference to it will be brief at this point. Yet sufficient must be said so that it can be seen that Satan was misstating the character of God to Adam and Eve in the Garden.
In the beginning the Lord made the heavens and the earth. To every Christian this truth is well known. But not so fully known is the fact that the Lord, moment by moment, sustains these worlds in space and keeps them on their ordered way. He did not set the universe in motion to be left forever independent of His sustenance and guidance. Not only did He make it all, but He eternally maintains it all.
This dual activity of God as Creator and Sustainer is revealed clearly in the written word. “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds;
“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” Hebrews 1:1-3.
“The hand that sustains the worlds in space, the hand that holds in their orderly arrangement and tireless activity all things throughout the universe of God, is the hand that was nailed to the cross for us.” Education, 132.
“God is constantly employed in upholding and using as His servants the things that He has made. He works through the laws of nature, using them as His instruments. They are not self-acting. Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent presence and active agency of a Being who moves in all things according to His will.

IN RELATION TO THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            23

Forever, 0 Lord,
Thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They continue this day according to Thine ordinances:
For all are Thy servants.’

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He
In heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.’
‘He commanded, and they were created.
He hath also stablished them for ever and ever:
He hath made a decree which shall not pass.’
Psalms 119:89-91; 135:6; 148:5, 6.

“It is not by inherent power that year by year the earth yields its bounties and continues its march around the sun. The hand of the Infinite One is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God’s power continually exercised that keeps the earth in position in its rotation. It is God who causes the sun to rise in the heavens. He opens the windows of heaven and gives rain.

‘He giveth snow like wool:
He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.’

‘When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters
in the heavens,
And He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the
earth;
He maketh lightnings with rain,
And bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.
Psalm 147:16; Jeremiah 10:13.

“It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that every leaf appears, every flower blooms, every fruit develops.” Ministry of Healing,416.
Unquestionably, God is the only being with the power to make the world in the first case. Likewise, He is the only One Who can sustain it in its order and system. Therefore, if any one of His creatures in any part of the vast universe—except where the presence of a Saviour provides a delaying factor—puts another god in place of the real God, then the power of God as an upholder of the mighty forces of nature will have been removed from that place, and as surely, they will become uncontrolled forces of terrible destruction. In that very day, those who have made the fatal mistake will die, not because God will strike them down, but because they have placed themselves where life is impossible.
The only reason that such a cataclysm of destruction has not obliterated this earth is because of the merciful interposition of Jesus Christ. Therefore, God’s instruction to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden not to partake of the tree was given to protect them from destruction. In no sense was it given by God to protect Himself or His own position. There was no trace of self-interest in the work of God. Rightly understood, the “restriction” placed Upon the first couple was a true revelation of the perfectly righteous

	24				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

character of God. It was an act of kindness and mercy. It was the work of a Saviour, not that of a despot.
But this is not the way in which the devil represented God.
Instead, he craftily insinuated that God had a completely selfish motive in refusing them permission to touch the tree, that His purpose was to protect His own position, reserving it to Himself alone, so that He was assured of being the one who alone enjoyed the high honour of being supreme ruler. He claimed that the special tree constituted a threat to these divine determinations, for it was possessed of magical powers capable of elevating those who ate of it into a position of equality with God. He maintained that because God did not want that to happen, yet living in fear that it would, He had lyingly told them that to eat of the tree was to bring death upon themselves.
Thus Satan represented the God of love and selfless devotion to the good of His creatures, as being a self-seeking despot Who sought only His own good at the expense of His subjects. He represented the God of truth as a liar.
Eve believed that misrepresentation of God’s character.
When she believed it, then she rebelled against God and threw in her lot with the arch-rebel. She accepted another god in place of the real One and would have died that very day but for the fact that Jesus stepped in and said, “Let the punishment fall on Me. Man shall have another chance.”
The study of the appearance of sin in heaven and on this earth establishes the very close connection between the misrepresentation of the character of God and the appearance of rebellion. It was when Lucifer in heaven first formed an incorrect concept of the character of God, that his rebellion began. When in turn, he was able to convince a section of the angels of his new views of God, they joined him in his mutiny, while upon earth Adam and Eve threw In their lot with him when they, too, obtained these false views of the character of God.
This Is the way it began and this is the way in which it has been maintained throughout the sorrow-filled ages since that time.
“It is Satan’s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law, and gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God, so that they regard Him with fear and hate, rather than with love. The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator; it is embodied in systems of religion, and expressed in modes of worship. Thus the minds of men are blinded, and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God. By perverted conceptions of the divine attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices necessary to secure the favour of Deity; and horrible cruelties have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry.” The Great Controversy, 569.

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“Satan’s efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men to cherish a false conception of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with fear and hate rather than love; his endeavours to set aside the divine law, leading the people to think themselves free from its requirements; and his persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions, have been steadfastly pursued in all ages.” ibid., introduction, x.
Therefore, the subject of the character of God is not something apart from the great controversy. It is right at the very heart of it. It is impossible to understand the real issues being contested unless the characters of God and Satan are understood.
Inasmuch as the destiny of every soul hangs upon the position he occupies in the great controversy, it follows that the better he understands God’s true character then the more successfully will he enter into the battle against evil and at last find eternal life.
The truth of this must be seen when it is recognized that the particular weapon the devil uses to lead souls into rebellion against God is the misrepresentation of His character. The more he is able to convince men of these deceptions, the more they enter into unrighteousness and rebellion. This is the witness of the Word of God and of history. In the light of these facts, what study could be more important than the one here being pursued?

26

CHAPTER FOUR

The Character Of God
And The Ending
Of The Great Controversy

The evidences presented in the Scriptures confirm the truth that the great controversy began with the misrepresentation of the character of God. Furthermore, Satan’s extension and continuation of the struggle has been by the same means. Thus is revealed the cause and the effect—the cause being the establishment of an erroneous view of God, and the effect, the proliferation of iniquitous rebellion.
It is a sound principle that once the cause of a problem has been established, the remedy for it has been discovered. Therefore, as certainly as the dissemination of false concepts of God’s character is the cause for sinful revolt then as surely will the presentation of the truth in regard to God provide the remedy by reversing the result. Thus men are brought back from sin to righteousness, from mutiny to loyalty.
Therefore, only those who understand these facts possess the knowledge of where the solution is to be found. Naturally, any person who is a sincere child of God desires above all else to see the termination of the long dark misery, the end of revolt and alienation from God and in turn help others to walk in the same direction.
Thus, while it is the work of Satan and his followers to wrongfully represent God’s character so as to intensify the evil revolt against Him, it is the work of God and His children to correctly reveal God’s righteousness so as to terminate the insurgence and return the world to the peace and prosperity of full loyalty to God.
Pre-eminent in this work of divine restoration is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. When He came to the earth, He came, not merely to save man from the penalty of sin by sacrificing Himself, but to save him by revealing the character of God in contrast to Satan’s propositions. This Is not to say that Christ’s death upon the cross is unessential to our salvation. Full recognition is here given to the eternal truth that without the death of Christ none of us could be saved.
But emphasis must be given to the fact that Christ’s role as the Revealer of the true character of God was as necessary to ending the great controversy and the salvation of the lost as was that supreme sacrifice on the cross. Jesus came expressly to show God to angels and men exactly as He is.
He came to do this work at a time when “the earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan’s deceptive power was

THE ENDING OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            27

to be broken. This could not be done by force. the exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He Who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, ‘with healing in His wings.’ Malachi 4:2.” The Desire of Ages, 22.
“The Son of God came to this earth to reveal the character of the Father to men, that they might learn to worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Counsels to Teachers, 28.
It is also written that, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.
Therefore, Jesus came to this earth to reveal the character of God and to destroy the works of the devil. It is immediately apparent that these are not two separate works. They are the same work, for the devil’s work to lead men into rebellion, depends firstly on his deceiving them in respect to the nature of God. Therefore, to reveal God’s true nature so that the devil is no longer able to deceive angels and men is to destroy the devil’s works. It makes it impossible for him to operate.
Even for Christ to accomplish this, was no easy task. Satan’s deceptions had penetrated far more deeply and extensively than most suppose. Because we have failed to understand how far things had gone, we have likewise failed to appreciate the enormity of the task imposed upon God and Christ in their responsibility of delivering the universe from the power of Satan. Had it simply been a contest of force versus force, it would have been over In an instant. God is in the possession of infinite power against which Satan is able to muster but an infinitesimal force in comparison. But the question to be settled in the great controversy is not whether God is physically stronger than Satan. It is the question of the real nature of God’s character and government.
It is natural to suppose that the Word of God is the last and final authority in any dispute. How many times have people wished that the Lord would speak directly and audibly in a problem situation. It is firmly believed that that would settle the issue right there and then. But the witness of the ages reveals that the Word of God alone is not sufficient to settle these issues great and small. If it was, then there never would have been a great controversy.
Once there was only the Word of the living God in existence. There was no question or dispute over that Word. Then there came the time when that Word was challenged. As this dissension was developing. God called together the whole of the heavenly host and spelled out in the clearest terms the constitution of His government, explaining exactly why the situation was as it was. See Patriarchs and Prophets, 36.

	28				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

Thus the word of Satan was met by the Word of God. But it did not set-tie the question, as is proved by the even more determined antagonism of Satan and all who followed after him, because they neither believed nor accepted that Word. Therefore, time had to be given in which Satan could demonstrate the true nature of his claims while God and Christ, on the other hand, would unfold the real character of their position. It is for this purpose that the Lord has permitted the great conflict to continue through all these ages, and until that purpose has been fulfilled the controversy will continue.
That is, the struggle will go on, Christ shall not return, sin will not be ended and death will reign, until both angels and men see for themselves the real nature of God’s character and government in sharp contrast to that of Satan. When that point has been reached; when every question of truth and error is forever settled; then and only then will the end come. Nor will it tarry beyond that point. In that moment of time when the purpose has been accomplished, likewise will the termination come.
It is understood by many that the number of the angels whom Satan deceived was one third of the heavenly host. This is not what the Bible says. Rather, it states that it was this proportion which followed him. Carefully note what the Scriptures say. “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth “Revelation 12:3.
It was that third part of the stars of heaven, the angels of heaven, that Satan cast down to the earth. This means that this third followed him right into the fulness of his rebellion. “Satan in his rebellion took a third part of the angels. They turned from the Father and from His Son, and united with the instigator of rebellion.” “When Satan became disaffected in heaven, he did not lay his complaint before God and Christ; but he went among the angels who thought him perfect and represented that God had done him injustice in preferring Christ to himself. The result of this misrepresentation was that through their sympathy with him one third of the angels lost their innocence, their high estate, and their happy home.” Testimonies 3:115;
5:291.
In these statements no reference is made to the effect, if any, that Satan’s deceptions had upon the rest. These statements do make it clear that two thirds of the angels remained loyal to God, and it is naturally assumed that they therefore were not all influenced by the devil’s sophistries. We think this way because we tend to equate loyalty with absolute absence of any questions. It is true that loyalty is strengthened and perfected with the dismissal of all doubts and suspicions, but, conversely, their presence does not necessarily destroy loyalty, though it may weaken
it.
The real truth is that every one of the angels was affected at least in part by the delusions of the great enemy. Uncertainties about God, His character, and the principles of His government were generated in them to

THE ENDING OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            29

the point where a definite sympathy for Satan’s cause was present. Throughout the long centuries elapsing between the fall of Lucifer and the cross of Calvary that state of affairs continued. That period absorbed at least four thousand years of time and its activities, during which, while not casting aside their loyalty to God to join Satan’s forces, they served God with definite reservations and felt that Satan had something of a case to be argued.
“To the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, ‘It is finished,’ had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ’s victory.
“Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. The archapostate had so clothed himself with deception that even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion.
“It was a being of wonderful power and glory that had set himself against God. Of Lucifer the Lord says, ‘Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.’ Ezekiel 28:12. Lucifer had been the covering cherub. He had stood in the light of God’s presence. He had been the highest of all created beings, foremost in revealing God’s purposes to the universe. After he had sinned, his power to deceive was the more deceptive, and the unveiling of his character was the more difficult, because of the exalted position he had held with the Father.
“God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government, The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.
“It was God’s purpose to place things on an eternal basis of security, and in the councils of heaven it was decided that time must be given for Satan to develop the principles which were the foundation of his system of government. He had claimed that these were superior to God’s principles. Time was given for the working of Satan’s principles, that they might be seen by the heavenly universe.” The Desire of Ages, 758, 759.
Consider carefully certain salient points in this quotation.
“Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. . . . They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion.”
“. . .the unveiling of his character was the more difficult, because of the exalted position he had held with the Father.”
“Time was given for the working of Satan’s principles, that they might be seen by the heavenly universe.”

	30				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

Therefore, even the loyal angels and the inhabitants throughout the whole of the universe were deceived in part by the sophistries of the great deceiver. They were not sufficiently misled as to abandon their loyalty to God, but enough to have a definite sympathy with Satan. At the cross that last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.
“Could one sin have been found in Christ, had He in one particular yielded to Satan to escape the terrible torture, the enemy of God and man would have triumphed. Christ bowed His head and died, but He held fast His faith and His submission to God. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.’ Revelation
12:10.
“Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.” ibid., 761.
Think carefully upon the information contained here, especially in the last sentence. It was the link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world which ceased to exist at the cross of Calvary. It is one thing to have sympathy for a person, but it is something else to have sympathy between you and that person.
To have sympathy for the devil and nothing more than that, is to feel a very real sorrow for him in his inescapable predicament, but at the same time, giving no countenance to his philosophies, objectives, methods or behaviour. Every true Christian will feel that sympathy for Satan.
But when sympathy exists between us and the devil, then that is to allow that he is right at least in a measure. It is to believe, even though unconsciously, that he has a case, there is success in some of his methods, and that he ought not to be treated as sternly as he is being dealt with.
It would be impossible to give total allegiance to God while such a sympathy existed between us and Satan, though we might choose to remain loyal to God nonetheless. So it was with the loyal angels right down to the cross of Calvary for it was there, and not before then, that the last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.
But, when that last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken by their seeing the true nature of his lies against God, they then saw and understood the character of God as it truly was. Christ had destroyed the works of the devil in them and, for them, the purpose of
(PICTURE)
 	32				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

the great controversy had been achieved. Therefore, if only angels were involved in the struggle, Satan’s end would have come at the cross. But what had been done for angels had also to be done for men, for while angels saw the real nature of the character of God and of Satan at the cross, man certainly did not and still has not.
In fact, it will not be until the time of Jacob’s trouble that even the righteous people of God will lose their last link of sympathy with the devil. We may not know it today, but even those of us who walk nearest to God still have a measure of sympathy with Satan and his ways. Not until that final testing time will this at last be removed from us. “The time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christ-like characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations. The last conflict will reveal Satan to them in his true character, that of a cruel tyrant, and it will do I or them what nothing else could do, uproot him entirely from their affections. For to love and cherish sin, is to love and cherish its author, that deadly foe of Christ. When they excuse sin and cling to perversity of character, they give Satan a place in their affections, and pay him homage.” The Review and Herald, August 12, 1884. Also Our High Calling, 321.
Because this work has yet to be accomplished for human beings so that the purpose of the great controversy is fulfilled for them as it was for the angels, the battle was not terminated at the cross as it is written:
“Yet Satan was not then [at the time of the cross] destroyed. The angels did not even then understand all that was involved in the great controversy. The principles at stake were to be more fully revealed. And for the sake of man, Satan’s existence must be continued. Man as well as angels must see the contrast between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness. He must choose whom he will serve.” The Desire of Ages. 761.
Therefore, the Saviour took the work of ending the great controversy one giant step toward its completion when He revealed the character of God as it is to the angels and thus exposed Satan for what he is. The progressive development of this is clearly portrayed in Revelation 12. The original confrontation in heaven with the resulting removal of Satan from the celestial precincts is described in verses 7-9.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
“And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Note that it was at this time that Satan was cast out into the earth. The place from which he was cast out was heaven, but he still had the opportunity of accosting the angels as they moved to and from heaven and “before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of

THE ENDING OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            33

blackness and the defilement of sin.” The Desire of Ages, 761. But that activity was terminated when at the cross he was cast down. Firstly he had been cast out, and then he was cast down.
‘Christ bowed His head and died, but He held fast His faith and His submission to God. ‘And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.’ Revelation 12:10.” ibid.
This reference confirms that the devil lost tremendous ground through the victory accomplished by Christ during His life and by His death. The angels were set free from his power. His delusions no longer had any claim upon their thinking. Their loyalty to God became stronger and more intense. For these reasons there was indeed great gladness throughout the entire universe for the salvation which they had gained through the revelation of God’s character as given by Christ.
So it is written: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.” Revelation 12:12. It is to be noted that this call goes forth subsequent to the casting down of the old dragon at the cross of Calvary.
But the time for rejoicing in the unfallen universe is no time for joyous songs upon this earth for very good reason. Firstly, before the cross, the energies of Satan and his angels had been divided between his attacks on the angels and on man. But after the cross, he was left to devote all his power upon the children of men. They now have his undivided attention.
Secondly, his fearful losses sustained at the cross do not discourage but only madden him into a frenzy of desperate and determined activity, for he knows that his time is shortened and that he must work with a feverish madness to stave off the day of his final obliteration. All of that fury is directed to mankind. Therefore it is written to those who live upon this earth after the crucifixion, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12.
The crushing defeat suffered by our great adversary at Golgotha was likewise a resounding victory for the cause of righteousness. Ground was gained there which shall never again be lost, for the angels and the unfallen worlds are now eternally free from Satan’s deceptive arguments.
But while great gains were made, full recovery had not been achieved. Another great baffle must be fought wherein will be accomplished for man that which had been accomplished for the unfallen universe. The victory will be gained exactly as it was gained by Christ, for we are to overcome as He overcame.” See Revelation 3:21.
To understand how that last battle is to be fought and won, we have but to understand how Jesus gained His victory over the devil. Firstly, we must recognize that the most difficult person to expose is one who is a deceiver and an accuser. Counter-accusation is totally ineffective. At best, it only

	34				       BEHOLD YOUR GOD

serves to further confuse the issue, while at the worst it multiplies support for the initial accuser.
The use of force is likewise counterproductive for it generates sympathy for the one in rebellion through the natural tendency to take up the cause of the underdog.
There is only one way to reveal evil at its worst and that is for it to be exposed to righteousness at its best. God is righteousness. His very character is that, Therefore, the exposure of sin by the revelation of righteousness was the exposure of sin by the revelation of the character of God.
Throughout His lifetime upon this earth, this is precisely what Jesus revealed every day, all day. To look at Christ was to see the Father. He exemplified what the Father is and all that He is. He demonstrated how the Father relates Himself to the sin problem, to the sinful, and to those who are His worst enemies. He spelled it out both in His life and in His teaching.
So perfect and complete was the revelation of the Father as given by Christ that, to Philip’s inquiry, “Lord, shew us the Father,” He could reply, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” John 14:8, 9. “All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son.” Testimonies 8:286.
Extensive study will be given later to the work of Christ as the Revealer of God’s character. What is being established now is that by that revelation, Christ was able to signally defeat Satan to the point where the unfallen universe was completely and eternally delivered from the power of Satan’s deceptions.
Throughout His lifetime, Jesus revealed the character of God and as He did so, Satan mustered his forces to break that perfect revelation. But steadily and faithfully Jesus continued on His way so that Satan found it necessary to draw even more heavily on his armament in his desperate efforts to break the witness of God in Christ. At last, a still undefeated Christ came to the cross to give, in that ultimate sacrifice, the revelation of the righteous character of God at its glorious, undimmed best. Eternity will never again be able to provide so complete and clear a manifestation of God as He really is. It is the central and high point of history, past and future. It is the pinnacle of all divine achievement in the resplendent light of which all other is dimmed.
Such an unfolding of righteousness at its very best forced the devil to reveal his own sinful character at its worst. He had no choice. If he had not attacked Christ, if he had seen that to do so was to expose himself and had therefore withdrawn from the battle, he would have lost anyway. His only hope was to bring out everything in his onslaught and hope that he could break the witness of the Son of God and man. But he failed, and in that failure he salvaged nothing so far as the unfallen universe was concerned.

THE ENDING OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY						            35

They saw that full manifestation of divine light and satanic darkness simultaneously, and Satan’s cause was lost among them—eternally.
What Christ accomplished upon the cross never needs to be repeated. What Satan lost there he will never regain, so now he works desperately to retain what he still has—the minds of men which were not released from his power at the cross for the simple reason that they did not see either the fulness of the glory of God’s character or the depths of the satanic nature there displayed.
Thus, for man the purpose of the great controversy has not yet been fulfilled. Until it is, the struggle must and will go on, no matter how long that may take. There must again be exhibited such a complete and full revelation of the righteousness of God, which is the law and character of God, that Satan will again be forced to display the fulness of his iniquitous character to the point where even fallen men who have rejected God’s truth will see the difference and reject all allegiance to his satanic majesty.
But Christ is not returning to this earth to repeat the demonstration already given. He has other plans. This full and final display of the merciful, gracious, kind, good, and just character of God is to be given through His people. Christ will reveal through them exactly what He personally revealed while upon the earth.
Only as He is able to do this will the purpose of the controversy be finally achieved for men as it was for angels. Then the Saviour can and will return.
The Scriptures are very clear in stating that it will be the children of God who will give that final revelation of His character. This is a fact which every Christian must understand if he is to effectively occupy his appointed place in the concluding events of the long-standing war. Failure to comprehend this will result in an inadequate and misdirected preparation which will effectively disqualify such a person from fighting in that last army of the Lord.
It is because this is so that the following words of waning have been written: “In order to endure the trial before them, they [the people of God who will live through the final time of trouble and conflict] must understand the will of God as revealed in His word; they can honour Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government and purposes, and act in accordance with them.” The Great Controversy, 593.
This counsel does not say that we who live in these last times and face that final testing and task would merely be in a better position to have a right concept of God’s character, government, and purposes. It does not say this. If it did then it would be largely an optional matter whether we did or did not understand these things. Either way we could come through.
The statement warns that we do not have these options. Either we understand correctly the true nature of God’s character, government, and Purposes, and act in accordance with them, or we will not be able to endure

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the trial before us. To fail at this time and under these circumstances means that eternal life will never be ours. In the light of these considerations, the importance of having an accurate and thorough knowledge of God’s character, the nature of His government, and the scope of His purposes cannot be overstressed.
The final movement of people who will provide the Lord with the means of making that ultimate manifestation of His character is prophetically described in Revelation 18:1, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.”
Briefly, it needs to be established here that this is the final message to be given to the world. Before it, God will have sent many warnings, instructions, and entreaties, but beyond the dispatch of this there will be no other. This is plainly attested in the following quotations.
“Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, the church will have fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, and the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish its work.” The Great Controversy, 390.
A complete chapter in The Great Controversy, beginning on page 603, is devoted to describing the giving of this message of Revelation 18:1-4. The title of the chapter is “The Final Warning.” On page 604 we read, “These announcements [those of the Revelation 18 angel], uniting with the third angel’s message, constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth.”
The second point to establish is that the angel is a symbol. The angels themselves do not come to the earth and personally deliver these messages. This we understand clearly from the way in which the first three angels’ messages were given. The Scriptures declare that they are given by movements of people on this earth. So it will be with the last message as foretold in Revelation 18:1. This message will be given by a movement of people.
This is further certified by these words from The Great Controversy, 604. “Hence the movement symbolized by the angel coming down from heaven lightening the earth with his glory, and crying mightily with a strong voice, announcing the sins of Babylon.”
Next, the question must be raised, With whose glory will the earth be lightened?”
It is usual to receive the answer, “It will be the glory of God.” This is correct, but it is not what the verse says. It says, “. . . another angel came down from heaven, . . . and the earth was lightened with his glory.”
It is the glory of the angel which lightens the whole earth. It is true that this is also and primarily the glory of God for it is from God that this glory is

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acquired. But it has been so truly given to the angel that it has become his own and can be described as being his glory.
What is the glory of the angel and the glory of God?
As used in Scripture the word “glory,” especially in reference to God, has two meanings. To the human mind it is mostly associated with a dazzling display of physical splendour, and, without question, such an outshining of glory does surround the person and throne of God. Such a glory as this was witnessed by both Daniel and Isaiah. Daniel described what he saw in these words, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire.
“A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10.
Here is Isaiah’s description of the heavenly glory of the God of heaven.
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
‘And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.
“And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke,” Isaiah 6:1-4.
But there is a meaning to the word “glory” other than the outshining of radiant light and pulsing power. When Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory, the Lord revealed to Moses His character. Here is God’s response to his request. “And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Exodus 33:19.
At the appointed time the Lord did this, as it is written: “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood before him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord,
“And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
“Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7.
Moses specifically asked God to reveal His glory. The Lord did not refuse this request. However, in response, He did not show him the out-

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shining radiance of personal and physical splendour, but the wonder of His great and lovely character, From this we deduce that the glory of God is His character, The more the Word of God is studied, the more clearly this will be seen.
When Jesus came to this earth, He left behind al] that glory which was of a physical nature. Physically speaking, He was a very plain and unaftractive person as the prophecy of Isaiah 53:2 describes: ‘For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”
Yet despite the plainness of His outward appearance, He revealed the glory of God to those with the spiritual vision which would enable them to see it. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.
John testifies that he, along with others, saw the glory of the Father in Jesus Christ as He walked as a man among men. It is certain that the glory seen day by day was not a radiant outshining of dazzling light. What they saw was that other and more important glory, the character of God.
In Christ’s Object Lessons, 414, the word “glory” is directly equated with character in this way, “The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers.” These references clearly define this other meaning of the word as being a definition of the character of God. In truth this is His real glory, the one which He knows is the more important for men to know and emulate.
We are seeking these definitions of this word so as to better understand the meaning of Revelation 18:1. We desire to know the nature of the glory which shall lighten the whole earth in the last warning message.
Nowhere, in all the prophetic descriptions of the order of last day events, are we given any picture of God revealing Himself in shining brightness either personally or through His people on the earth. On the contrary, God is careful not to work in this way for He is anxious that people will accept the message of truth because it is the truth and not because of any spectacular displays. Therefore, it will be the other glory, the glory of character, which will lighten the earth at this time.
A summary of the message of Revelation 18:1, then, is as follows:
This is the final message to be given to the world;
The angel is the symbol of a movement of people;
The glory of the angel is the glory of the character of God;
It is the angel’s glory and therefore the character glory within the people of the movement which shall lighten the whole earth.
It is of value to take a text in which symbolic language is being used and substitute for the symbols the things being symbolized. This makes the text much clearer. By doing this Revelation 18:1 would read “And after these

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things I saw another movement of people come down from heaven Lnot in the physical sense], having great power; and the earth was lightened with the glory of the characters of those people.” That character is the character of God Himself, which has been formed in them through the saving ministry of Christ in the sanctuary above.
For some, real difficulty is experienced in believing that the character of God is actually reproduced within the believer, so that it becomes the believer’s character to the point where to look at one is to see the Other. Vet thisis the plain teaching of the Word of God. It is the teaching of Revelation 18:1 and is further expressed in these beautiful words: “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.
A reproduction is the same thing all over again.
A perfect reproduction repeats itself to the point where it is impossible to tell the difference between it and the original. When Christ was upon this earth, it was necessary to so reveal God’s character as to enable the unfallen worlds to see how great a lie Satan’s description of God was. That manifestation of God’s character in Christ had to be so complete and perfect that to see Christ was to see God. If Christ’s revelation of God’s character had been defective or incomplete in the least degree, then He could never have succeeded in delivering the unfallen universe from the grip of Satan’s deceptions.
That should not be so difficult to perceive, for all understand the perfection of Christ’s character. It is much more difficult to believe, as we look at ourselves with all our defectiveness, that Christ could so reproduce Himself within a human agent that to see that person is to see the very character and nature of God.
Yet, this is how it must be, for if it required a faultless manifestation of God’s character to deliver the sinless beings of heaven and the unfallen worlds and thus achieve the purpose of the great controversy for them, it will require nothing less than the same faultless and complete manifestation of God’s character to deliver mankind from Satan’s deceptive power and accomplish the purpose of the great controversy for fallen man. Nothing less than this will bring the finishing of the work, and this is why “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the man ifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.
So it will be that “The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is to appear in full and final display.” Testimonies to Ministers, 18.
Not until it is understood that the finishing of the work can only be accomplished by the manifestation of the very character of God as that character is, to the point where to look upon the true child of God in the last days is to look upon the character of Christ, will there be a true appreciation of the importance of this vital subject.

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Such an appreciation is essential to stimulate earnest searching into this great theme—a stimulus which will be enlivened as the wonderful beauty of God’s character opens before our astonished gaze and we find our lives being changed into the same image from glory to glory.
The closing scenes of the great controversy are right upon us. Soon its purpose will have been fulfilled for fallen man as it was for the angels and the unfallen worlds. In that final and finishing work the true understanding and manifestation of the character of God, as that character is, will play a role so vital that without it there would be no possibility of the work being finished. Let every true child of God then place this topic in its correct perspective of paramount importance in his study and in his own character development.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Isaiah’s Wonderful Prophecy

Revelation 18 clearly foretells the time when the glory of Gods character shall be revealed through His people as the final and finishing message to lost mankind. But the book of Revelation is not a book apart from the rest of the Bible. Rather, “In the Revelation all the books of the Bible meet and end.” Acts of the Apostles, 585. Therefore, the message of Revelation 18, showing a people who reveal the character of God as the last work on the earth, must also be found in the Old Testament. One such place is Isaiah 60. The entire chapter is worthy of the closest and most spiritual study, though here we will be concentrating mostly on the first three verses.
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
“And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3.
It is true that these verses do have an initial application to the work and ministry of Christ. Some therefore tend to limit the application to Him, but when it is understood that the people of the last church on earth have to reveal the character of God exactly as He did, to accomplish thereby for fallen man what Christ accomplished for the unfallen, it will be seen that the texts do have an equal application to God’s last movement on earth.
God sent Jesus Christ to reveal His character and set the angels free. He gave Him the light of truth and the full glory of His character. Then He said “Arise, shine; for Thy light is come, and the glory Lcharacterl of the Lord is risen upon Thee.”
In precisely the same way, God is calling for a people in these last days. To them He is giving the light of His truth and in them He is building the perfect reproduction of His character. As He said to Christ, so He will say to them, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory [character] of the Lord is risen upon thee.”
There in Christ’s Object Lessons, 415, it is written, ‘To His people He says, ‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen Upon thee.’ Isaiah 60:1.’
The picture of things prophesied here is one of greatest contrast. On one side it is the picture of gross darkness and on the other of glorious illumination. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, but by contrast and as an answer to it all, the Lord rises upon His people and then His glory—His character—shall be seen upon them.

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It would be impossible for God’s character to be seen upon them if it was not already there to be seen. Therefore this verse is repeating what has already been understood from Revelation 18:1 and Christ’s Object Lessons, 69. The character or righteousness of God is not something which is simply credited to the person but is his in fact. It is actually built into the person in reality. It becomes his own character, so that when others look upon him they will see the glory of God’s character just as if they were looking at the great original. There they will see the same love, justice, righteousness, peace, goodness, honesty; the same disposition to save and never to destroy.
In Christ’s Object Lessons where comment is made upon Isaiah 60:1, 2, the prophecy of the experience of the five wise virgins is drawn on as a further illustration of the truth revealed in Isaiah’s prophecy.
The parallel is immediately apparent. Both prophecies relate to the closing events, telling how things will be just before the coming of the Son of man. The same picture of darkness broken by clear light is presented, for the virgins are represented as sleeping until the midnight hour, which is the very darkest hour of the night. Then they arise with their lamps by which they light the way for the Bridegroom’s coming. Without the lighting of the path, the Bridegroom could not make His way. He is dependent upon that light to make His arrival possible.
In this book, emphasis has been placed on the concept that the righteousness of God must be formed within the human agent, as it was in the character of Christ and nothing less than this will suffice to finish the work. Note how that thought is further strengthened in these comments on the parable of the ten virgins.
“In the parable the wise virgins had oil in their vessels with their lamps. Their light burned with undimmed flame through the night of watching. It helped to swell the illumination for the bridegroom’s honor. Shining out in the darkness, it helped to illuminate the way to the home of the bridegroom, to the marriage feast.
“So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God’s word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God, The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers. Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the Bridegroom’s home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 414.
There can be no mistaking the message contained in these lines. Here it is shown how the Word of God becomes a light capable of dispelling the darkness around. To be such requires much more than merely understanding the theory of the truth and then preaching it to others. God’s Word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. This

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speaks of an Inner working by the transforming agency of the Holy Spirit. This is the changing of the person’s inward nature so that he in himself becomes formed into the likeness of God.
This is not a false interpretation of these words, as the next sentence, by giving further explanation, clearly shows. “By implanting in their hearts the principles of His Word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God.”
The attributes of God are His characteristics, His glory, His dispositions, His qualities, though not His great dynamic powers. Let no one assume that the implantation of the life and character of God within the believer gives him the power to impart life, creative power, God is the Father. We are the children. Just as parents have the power to reproduce themselves, while the children they bear do not have this power until they are themselves adults, so we, as children of God forever, do not have the power to reproduce spiritual life or to create. That is the power of the Father—God, Christ, arid the Holy Spirit.
The reproduction is in character, and these attributes which are in God are formed, in turn, in the believer himself so that he becomes like God in this sense, Pursuing this thought the pen of inspiration leaves no room for misunderstanding this important truth. Once the Holy Spirit has implanted the attributes of God in the person, then has come the time when those qualities can be seen. That is the message of the next sentence. “The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers.” Firstly it must be developed within. Then it shines forth.
Compare these three expressions to see how they all speak the same message in the clearest terms.
“. . . I saw another angel [movement of people] come down . . . and the earth was lightened with his [the people’s] glory.” Revelation 18:1.
“. . . the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:2.
‘The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 414.
“When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” ibid., 69.
The thought being developed and emphasized in the last chapter and this one is that it will be by the manifestation of God’s character through the human instrumentalities in the last phase of the great conflict which will bring the end. It is strongly stated that the purpose of the great controversy cannot be fulfilled unless that demonstration of God’s character is given. Any delay in this revelation of God will likewise delay the return of Jesus.
The paragraph under consideration from Christ’s Object Lessons, 414, develops this same concept. Let the development of the argument in this paragraph be quickly traced through again.
“Through the Holy Spirit, God’s word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver.

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“By implanting in their hearts the principles of His Word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God.
“The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers.
“Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the Bridegroom’s home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’
Could any teaching be plainer than this? Do you desire to know the way in which you can glorify God, to lighten the way to the Bridegroom’s home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb?
Then here is the answer.
It is not by becoming acquainted only with the theory of the truth, nor by attempting to wrap around yourself the cloak of Christ’s covering righteousness, nor by ceremonies or forms, nor loyalty to a code of religion. It is by none of these things, though some parts of all this may have a place.
It is by having the Holy Spirit form the very character of God, His attributes, His righteousness within the believer. This is the way in which He will hasten and then bring about the ending of the great controversy and will prepare the way for the coming of the Bridegroom. By exactly the same means through which the Saviour accomplished His mission, must the followers of Christ in the final conflict likewise fulfil their commission.
It was not the possession of mere theory that gave His work and teaching, power. It was because He was the living embodiment of that truth.
“What He taught, He lived. ‘I have given you an example,’ He said to His disciples; ‘that ye should do as I have done.’ ‘I have kept My Father’s commandments.’ John 13:15; 15:10. Thus in His life, Christ’s words had perfect illustration and support. And more than this; what He taught, He was. His words were the expression, not only of His own life experience, but of His own character. Not only did He teach the truth, but He was the truth. It was this that gave His teaching, power.” Education, 78, 79.
It will be this which will give our teaching power as well. “It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Christ. It is on the earth that His children are to reflect this love through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross, to behold the Lamb of God.” Acts of the Apostles, 334.
True and necessary as these principles have been in past history, they will be even more so in the coming darkest hour of all. “The coming of the bridegroom was at midnight—the darkest hour. So the coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of this earth’s history.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 414.
Though it may seem an unnecessary question, it is well worth the time to ask what the nature of this last-day darkness will be. The answer likely to come most quickly is that it will be a moral darkness wherein men and women will practise every iniquity imaginable. Such an answer is correct,

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though it will fail to give the full picture of that darkness. That it will be a time of the worst kind of moral darkness is stated in the next sentence, from the paragraph above. “The days of Noah and Lot pictured the condition of the world just before the coming of the Son of man.
But what men do is only the result of what they are. Therefore, this iniquity is the outworking of deeper problems. The next sentences in the same paragraph trace this further back still, toward the source of the trouble. Here it is revealed that there will be the darkness of Satan’s delusions, heresies and false teachings such as there never has been in the past until the great apostasy develops into darkness deep as midnight.
“The Scriptures pointing forward to this time declare that Satan will work with all power and ‘with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’ 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10. His working is plainly revealed by the rapidly increasing darkness, the multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions of these last days. Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair.”
It is because, firstly, there is the proliferation of the multitudinous errors of the devil and their acceptance by the vast majority, that the Iniquity will abound. The darkness of deception is the root cause of the darkness of behaviour.
Great as that darkness will be, it will not extinguish the light which instead will shine brighter. “To God’s people it will be a night of trial, a night of weeping, a night of persecution for the truth’s sake. But out of that night of darkness God’s light will shine.” ibid., 414, 415.
But we are not left to think of the nature of the darkness of those false teachings in merely general terms. Instead, we are told specifically what they are. It is as the exact nature of those delusions are unfolded, that we understand the real cause for the moral darkness in the world at the end.
“‘Behold,’ says the Scripture, ‘the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.’ Isaiah 60:2.
“It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of His character. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted.” ibid., 415.
This then is the darkness which shall cover the entire world in the last days. It is the misunderstanding of God’s character. Satan will still be using the same means in the end that he has used right through past history. He knows that rebellion against God is begun, developed and sustained by ignorance of God’s character, while the dispelling of that error will return men to allegiance to God. He knows that the great conflict can never be terminated until men are set free from erroneous ideas in respect to what God really is, so he puts forth superhuman efforts to lock man in the gross darkness of misapprehension of God.

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There is no such thing as the great controversies, only the one great controversy. The nature of the baffle does not change from age to age. Satan uses the same methods from generation to generation, and God’s answer to it is likewise ever the same. His answer in every age and dispensation is to reveal the truth in regard to His character and His righteousness.
We are now living in the very time when these prophecies of Isaiah 60. Revelation 18 and the parable of the ten virgins are to be fulfilled. Around us, darkness does cover the earth and gross darkness the people. The earth is filled with the most terrible ignorance of the true nature of God’s character and men are behaving in harmony with those misconceptions.
As surely, then, as we are living in this time of human history, so surely can we expect to see the Lord providing His answer to Satan’s deceptions. The time has come for the clearing away of the misconceptions in regard to God’s character so that He might be revealed as He is. The time has come for the proclamation of a message on the character of God and His righteousness.
It is not an idle expectation to anticipate this, for “At this time a message from God is to be proclaimed a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. His character is to be made known. Into the darkness of the world is to be shed the light of His glory, the light of His goodness, mercy, and truth.
“This is the work outlined by the prophet Isaiah in the words, ‘0 Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God.’ Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’ Isaiah 40:9, 10.
“Those who wait for the Bridegroom’s coming are to say to the people, ‘Behold your God.’ The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” ibid., 415,
416.
Could we but comprehend the magnitude and glory of the promise here given to us in the inspired Word, our hearts would burst with unlimited praise to God for His unspeakable provisions when they are most needed. “At this time,” the very time when the darkness of satanic delusion is overspreading the world, a message from God is to come.
Let us be so grateful that the message does not come from man or from the devil, but from God Himself. Thereby, it can only be the truth—saving, illuminating, uplifting and delivering truth.
Nor is it a message to be argued, debated or contested. It is a message to be proclaimed, not only by the lips but by the witness of the life itself; a witness made effective by the forming of the very character of God within so that when men look upon the messenger they see the character of God

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revealed. Then they come to know God as God is, as they see Him for themselves, reflected from the transformed hearts of the believers.
This message is the very last ever to be given to mortals. As the last warning and entreating words are given, they will be words proclaiming the character of God. “Behold your God,” will be the keynote and the entire orchestration. Thus and only thus, will the work be finished with the ultimate conquest of Satan and his hordes.
The coming of this message from God is no longer a prophetic expectation but a present reality. The truth has come bearing the divine credentials. It has been found to do just what God said it would do. “It is illuminating in its influence and saving in its power.”
This book is the presentation of this light on the character of God. The unfolding of the great evidences and truths herein has not come to light in a moment, but has been years in formation. With greater care than with any other theme, every concept has been carefully checked with the correct principles of Bible interpretation until a beautiful harmony has developed.
No knowledge of the prediction that such a message would come was possessed by us when the first light of this truth opened into a fuller understanding. Otherwise we might well have gone seeking a message of our own upon the character of God and sought to fulfil the prophecy out of our own inventions. Rather, first the light on the message came, and. then we discovered that it had come in fulfilment of Bible and Spirit of Prophecy predictions. How warmed and encouraged we were to find that the very things we had been taught, the Lord had foretold would be taught.
The message is from God. It is illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. It is the great light which alone can dispel the darkness with which the devil is filling the world. It is the one means whereby the work of the gospel can be finished, men be delivered from Satan’s sophistries. and the purpose of the great controversy be fulfilled so far as man is now concerned.
It is hoped prayerfully that each reader by this time will have gained some concept of the unutterable importance of this theme to the point where each will be inspired to search with great earnestness and intensity to understand and to possess that wonderful character.

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CHAPTER SIX

Approaching The Study Of God

Character is revealed by the way in which one acts, for the very simple reason that we do what we do because of what we are. Allowance must be made for the work of deception which sinful human beings practise, for some are very adept at making themselves appear to be what they are not. Nevertheless, the time comes when the masquerade is rent and the real person is seen for what he is.
With God there is no deception for He is the truth. Therefore, what He does, when rightly understood, is a true and accurate revelation of what He Is.
The doings of God may be divided into two general parts. Firstly, there was the revelation of God by what He did during the eternity of the past when there was no sin problem, and secondly, there is the revelation of His character by what He did in response to the appearance of sin.
In the natural way of things, it follows that the greater of these two revelations must be the one forthcoming during the great rebellion, for it is under the pressure of great testing and difficulty that the otherwise hidden depths of one’s nature and capabilities are revealed. Therefore, the fullest and clearest revelation of God’s character is afforded us because of the entrance of sin. This being so, there are some who have wickedly charged God with deliberately introducing sin so that He would be provided with the theatre in which to display such depths of Himself as would otherwise be impossible.
The enemy of God and man is the originator of these charges which the true child of God will treat with the utter disdain they deserve. Albeit, there are still the two situations in which the behaviour of God is the revelation of His character. The conditions prevailing in these two eras are as different as they can be, but God remains unchanged through it all. Sin’s appearance, problem, and pressure made far-reaching changes in angels, men, and nature, but it made absolutely no change in God. He is “the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. While this Scripture directly relates to Jesus Christ, it is equally true of the Father for, what can be said of the One, is equally true of the Other.
God is unchanged and unchangeable. He declares, “I am the Lord, I change not.’ Malachi 3:6. He is “. . . the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. He is “the uncorruptible God.” Romans 1:23.
These evidences confirm that God did not follow a certain line of behaviour before the entrance of sin and then, when sin appeared, engage in activities utterly unknown before the uprising of evil. Rather, the

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emergency of sin brought forth from God only more of the same things He had always done.
Because there was no occasion to punish, none have any difficulty in seeing that, before the fall, God never did such a thing. Subsequent to that sad day, however, an entirely different set of conditions demanded of God as the responsible Ruler of all, a satisfactory and permanent solution. Because most men understand only the use of force as such a solution, they cannot see God doing other than bearing down with terrible punishments on the guilty. This is the only way they know, resulting in their quickly interpreting all the reported actions of God in the Old Testament as being of this character. To such, the declaration that God did absolutely nothing after the fall that He did not do before, with all the implications thereof, will certainly be a startling statement, hard to accept.
But it has to be true nonetheless. Otherwise we are compelled to accept the thought that sin did make changes in God, forcing Him, after its appearance, to do things He had never done before. This cannot be and yet God remain as the unchangeable, incorruptible God.
Some may counter that this argument breaks down when it is considered that God did do something different in giving His Son as a sacrifice for the lost.
But, when Christ’s role in the eternity of the past is rightly understood, it will be seen that God had given His only-begotten Son to the created world for their blessing long before sin ever entered the universe. The incarnation of Christ into the human family was not something new for Him. It was a wonderful extension of the role He had eternally occupied and of the work which He had everlastingly done. From the eternity of the past, Christ has ever been God’s gift to His creatures even unto the death, for their salvation. Of this, more will be revealed as the study progresses.
As surely as this is true, then so surely has God done nothing new in the period when sin emerged to establish its pernicious corruption. Therefore, by studying what God did in the unmarred ages, we will study those revelations of His character which find confirmation in the greater display of those same things in the vastly more difficult era which has followed.
The study of what God did in the sunny days of universal innocence and harmony is the investigation of the constitution of the kingdom which He formed in such wondrous perfection. How God organized that government, how He related Himself to His subjects, what He provided for them and how He ruled them is a very clear and wonderful revelation of His character. He is a perfect God, has been and will be eternally so, and therefore the government which He formed is likewise as perfect. It is the only perfect rulership ever to exist. It is the pattern for all governments to copy and they can have perfect government only as they form theirs after the divine similitude.
Before we begin the study of that government, a necessary note of warning must be given. This is necessary because of the universal human

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tendency to form concepts of God’s government after the measure of human leadership. We are very familiar with the latter, from personal acquaintanceship. It is all that we really know, and so we tend to think of God and His kingdom as being the same.
But the Word of God warns of this danger and directs us to approach this study from a different standpoint. God states very clearly, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9.
In His efforts to reveal to men the principles of God’s kingdom, Christ was forever faced with the problem that there was nothing in this earth with which to compare it. Everything with which man was familiar served to give a wrong, instead of correct, concept of it. So Christ said: “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?” Mark 4:30.
“The government of the kingdom of Christ is like no earthly government. It is a representation of the characters of those who compose the kingdom. ‘Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?’ Christ asked. ‘or with what comparison shall we liken it?’ He could find nothing on earth that would serve as a perfect comparison. His court is one where holy love presides, and whose offices and appointments are graced by the exercise of charity. He charges His servants to bring pity and loving-kindness, His own attributes, into all their office work, and to find their happiness and satisfaction in reflecting the love and tender compassion of the divine nature on all with whom they associate.” Review and Herald, March 19, 1908.
“‘Whereunto,’ asked Christ, ‘shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?’ He could not employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society He found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished. This kingdom is to uplift and ennoble humanity. God’s church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts, and endowed with the Holy Spirit. The members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.
There was always the danger that the apostles might lose sight of the principles of the kingdom of righteousness. Jesus sought to teach them the great differences between that kingdom and the kingdom of men, as it is written:
“Lest the disciples should lose sight of the principles of the gospel, Christ related to them a parable illustrating the manner in which God deals with His servants, and the spirit in which He desires them to labor for Him.
‘The kingdom of heaven,’ He said, ‘is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his

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vineyard.’ It was the custom for men seeking employment to wait in the market places, and thither the employers went to find servants. The man in the parable is represented as going out at different hours to engage workmen. Those who are hired at the earliest hours agree to work for a stated sum; those hired later leave their wages to the discretion of the householder.
‘So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
“The householder’s dealing with the workers in his vineyard represents God’s dealing with the human family. It is contrary to the customs that prevail among men. In worldly business, compensation is given according to the work accomplished. The laborer expects to be paid only that which he earns. But in the parable, Christ was illustrating the principles of His kingdom—a kingdom not of this world. He is not controlled by any human standard. The Lord says, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. - . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’ Isaiah 55:8 9.’ Christ’s Object Lessons, 396, 397.
Thus, in His Word, the Lord has warned us not to think of the kingdom of God in terms of earthly kingdoms. It is impossible to learn of the heavenly from the earthly. It cannot be done. Anyone who attempts to do so either consciously or unconsciously, will certainly be led into incorrect understandings on the nature of God’s kingdom.
Few if any, conscious/y set out to learn of God’s government in this way. The student does not even question this approach because, throughout the lifetime, no other than earthly kingdoms have been known. He comes to the study of the heavenly with definite ideas already established in his mind of what a kingdom has to be. The Scriptures are read in the light of these understandings and the result is a view of God, which is opposite from reality.
Christ’s disciples took a long time to overcome this problem. From their earliest days they had heard their elders talk of the Messianic kingdom. No question was ever raised as to the constitution of that kingdom. It was taken for granted that it would be just like the kingdoms round about them, and as the Old Testament was read, every verse describing that kingdom was misread in the light of those misconceptions.
When the disciples joined the company of Christ, this misunderstanding of the true nature of the kingdom and therefore of God’s character, proved to be the greatest hindrance to their drawing into full intimacy with Christ in His divine mission. It caused Christ many unnecessary burdens.

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added sorrow and terrible heartache. Despite His continual effort on their behalf, they were not delivered from this false position until after the resurrection.
No lesson from the past should be learned with greater care than the one from the experience of these men. We are to fear greatly lest we, too, come to the study of God’s kingdom with the same pre-conceived ideas and notions in our minds. If we do, then we will certainly emerge with an erroneous view. This in turn will make it impossible to endure the trial which is before us, for of that last successful people it is written, “In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His Word; they can honour Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them” The Great Controversy, 593.
Therefore, the very beginning of the study of the constitution of God’s government is conversion to the realization that the kingdom of God is different. It is unique. There is nothing in this world that can be likened to it. Once this conviction is gained so that the tendency to refer to earthly conditions as a guideline to understanding the heavenly has been destroyed, we can approach the study with minds fresh and clean to receive the correct understanding of God’s character as revealed in the constitution of His kingdom.
Earthly kingdoms do have a reference value in the sense that they tell us what the kingdom of God is not. In other words, wherever we find ourselves seeing the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men to be the same in any respect, we can know that we have strayed from a true knowledge of God’s realm.
So with minds fresh and clear, let the approach to the study of God and His wonderful works begin. Let us not be among that class who “fail of a satisfactory understanding of the great problem of evil, from the fact that tradition and misinterpretation have obscured the teaching of the Bible concerning the character of God, the nature of His government, and the principles of His dealing with sin.” The Great Controversy, 492.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Constitution
Of The Government Of God

The full title of this chapter is “The Constitution of the Government of God As It Was Before the Entrance of Sin.” Such a study is an essential introduction to understanding God’s government as it was after the entrance of rebellion. While such an investigation is proceeding, continually keep in mind “that tradition and misinterpretation have obscured the teaching of the Bible concerning the character of God, the nature of His government, and the principles of His dealing with sin.” The Great Controversy. 492.
Every one of these traditions and misinterpretations of God have been authored by Satan. This explains why, when Christ came to the earth, the representation of God which He gave was totally opposite from that given by Satan, as it is written, “He presented to men that which was exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God. . . .” Fundamentals of Christian Education, 177.
Therefore, if we find the truth on this question as that truth is written in the Holy Scriptures, then we will find that which is exactly contrary to what is generally believed. This means we would enter into a set of wholly revised and reversed concepts of God’s government and character. At the same time, there would be the continual pressure of traditionally held theories seeking to drag the mind back to the old ways again—a pressure which must be consciously resisted in order to arrive at the pure truth.
The whole structure of God’s government is perfection. It cannot be improved and, to it, there is not a single alternative. God’s way is not the best way—it is the only way. While other ways have been proposed and have even existed for a time, they cannot be counted as a way of life for they shortly die by their own imperfections.
Essential in the structure of divine government is the existence of law. The necessity is there because of the provision of mighty powers without which life would be impossible, hut which have in them the potential for destruction. God’s law, as we shall heifer learn, is a love gift from Him to His creatures, perfectly designed to save them from destruction. That law is perfect as it is written:
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
“The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

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More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
‘Moreover by them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Psalms 19:7-11.
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7:12.
That perfect, holy, just, and righteous law is the very foundation of God’s government. “In the earthly temple the ark of the testimony took its name from the testimony—the Ten Commandments—which was put within it. These commandments the Lord Himself wrote with His own hand, and gave to Moses to deposit beneath the mercy-seat, above which the presence of the glory of God dwelt, between the cherubim. It is therefore evident that the ark of His testament in the heavenly temple takes its title also from the fact that therein, beneath the mercy-seat and the cherubim upon it, there is the original of the testimony of God—the Ten Commandments—of which that on earth was a copy. And as this holy law—the Ten Commandments—is but the expression in writing, a transcript, of the character of Him Who sits upon the throne, therefore it is written —
“ ‘The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble,
	He sitteth upon [above] the cherubim, let the earth be moved.’
‘Clouds and darkness are round about Him:
	Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. 
‘Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne:
	Mercy and truth go before Thy face.’ Psalms 99:1; 97:2; 89:14. Revised Version.” Ecclesiastical Empires, 571, 572, by A.T. Jones. 
The law of God being, as it is, the very foundation of His throne, the nature of that law and the relationship of God to it is a very important aspect of the study both of the character and government of God. Consider then what the law is in its sublime perfection. In that consideration we will find striking differences between the character of the laws of men and those of God.
In the statement above, A.T. Jones declared that the law of God is “the expression in writing, a transcript,” of the character of God. This truth is not merely his belief. It is found in the Word of God where it is written:—
	 “His law is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character. Christ’s Object Lessons, 315.
	“The law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 52.
“He has given in His holy law a transcript of His character.” Testimonies 8:63.
Here is a truth wherein lies something of the greatest importance. A transcription is the rewriting of the former in a new location. It does not

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matter whether you read the former or the latter, for the message will be the same. Therefore in reading the holy law as the transcript of God’s character, the character of God itself is being read. Inasmuch as God does what He does because of what He firstly is, then the law being what God is, s the guide to His behaviour. God will do nothing which is not in His character. Therefore, He will do nothing that is contrary to the law.
As surely as the understanding of the law will lead to a clearer understanding of God’s character, so. in turn, the better His character is understood, the greater will be the comprehension of the perfection of that law. It is impossible to separate one from the other and still remain in the truth.
Yet there is a most serious tendency to do this, It is so natural and easy to think of the law as something that God decreed as being His wishes for our deportment, but which has little or no bearing upon His own conduct.
We tend to think this way because of our familiarity with human law makers. Professedly, in modern democracies, the same laws made to control the behaviour of the citizenry, are to be obeyed by the rulers who make them. But ever more frequently of late the cover has been lifted to reveal that this is not so in fact. It is seen that the leaders are guilty of the worst kind of crimes—bribery, deceit, theft, murders, and invasion of individual privacy. The only mistake with them is not in doing it but in being found out. Yet even when they are, they do not suffer the penalties imposed upon the man in the street for the same crimes.
The more absolute the ruler is, the more open and obvious is this practice of making laws for the people which are not in any sense for the monarch.
This is not so in God’s government. His law is first of all His very own character. As such, it is the revelation of the way in which He will act under all circumstances. Then He simply calls upon us to behave as He does. He is righteous in all His works. He calls upon us to be and do the same. The same law is for God as for His people.
Therefore He says to us. “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy: for l am holy.” Leviticus 11:44.
“But as He which hath called you is holy. so be ye holy in all manner of conversation:
“Because it is written, Be ye holy; for l am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15 16.
The Revised Standard Version renders this as follows: “But as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’
““Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  Matthew 5:48.
“Throughout the Sermon on the Mount He [Christ] describes its fruits, and now in one sentence He points out its source and its nature: Be

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perfect as God is perfect. The law is but a transcript of the character of God, Behold in your heavenly Father a perfect manifestation of the principles which are the foundation of His government.
“He tells us to be perfect as He is, in the same manner.
“Jesus said, Be perfect as your Father is perfect. If you are the children of God you are partakers of His nature, and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God’s children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells ‘all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9) and the life of Jesus is made manifest ‘in our modal flesh’ (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him. Thus you will be in harmony with every precept of His law; for ‘the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.’ Psalm 19:7, margin. Through love ‘the righteousness of the law’ will be ‘fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’ Romans 8:4.” Mount of Blessing, 77, 78. Emphasis original.
Consider carefully the message of these words and their implications.
The law is the transcript of God’s character. He keeps that law not as something to which He is bound but because it is the natural expression of what He is and therefore it is not possible for Him to behave in any other way. A character which gives expression to a holy law is a holy character. God calls upon us to be holy as He is holy so that our behaviour will be as His behaviour is. Therefore, we are to receive His life, which is His character, which is the transcript of the law, so that the law is written on our hearts. Then that will “produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him.” thus there is to be no difference in essence or nature between the character of the Sovereign Father of the universe and the creatures whom He has created to fill that-universe.
The only difference lies in the fact that the same love, mercy, justice, goodness, power, tenderness, hatred of sin, and so on, which the true people of God have to a certain degree, God has to infinitude. This is in no sense of the word bringing God down to us but it is bringing us up to Him. He is the Father. We are the children. As such He provides us with the perfect example of how we are to live, asking of us nothing which He does not firstly do Himself.
As we look as best we are able through the revealed word into the eternity of the past we have no difficulty in seeing that never in all the time before sin appeared, did God ever behave out of harmony with His sacred law and character. It is inconceivable to think of God acting out of harmony. with some of the commandments at least, such as putting another god in His own place, setting up graven images for Himself to worship and such like. The areas where dispute in regard to God’s behaviour does exist is in respect to the commandments “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

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During all the eternity of the past, we know that death never made its appearance until sin entered and brought death with it. Therefore as certainly, God never once raised His powerful arm to take the life even of the minutest organism in His vast realm. Nor did He ever act deceitfully, or retrieve by force, or steal back that which He had given to any one of His creatures.
It may be protested that there was no necessity for the Lord to destroy the life of any creature during that time because none had rebelled against Him to incur the penalty of death. It was for this reason, it may be argued, that the Lord never terminated life prior to the fall of angels and then of men, but, when sin did enter, a situation arose different from an which had ever existed and this required the Lord to take decisive action to cut the sedition short and preserve the entire universe from corruption. After the fall, it is contended, the state of things, the absence of which before the festering of rebellion excluded any necessity for capital punishment loft God with no choice but to kill the insurgents.
Such an argument is not consistent with the truths laid down earlier in this chapter. Aware as we are of the existence of these contentions about the character of God and in anticipation of their appearing in the minds of those especially who have long held to the traditional views of God’s character, we laid out those clear evidences from the Inspired Word.
Those evidences are summed up in these words, “I am the Lord I change not.” “The same yesterday, today and forever,” “with Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Link with those words the truth that the law is the very expression of His character. So if the transcript of that character says “Thou shalt not kill,” then how could we possibly conceive of God taking life?
Certainly at this point there will run through the reader’s mind the many statements, especially in the Old Testament, where it appears that God did come down and, by the direct and personal exercise of His mighty power, destroy, sometimes with great cruelty, many thousands of people. We are equally aware of these references and later we will invite you to take another look at these incidents. They will be dealt with after we have studied the constitution of God’s character as it was before the admission of the great mutiny.
For now we wish to consider the nature of that character in the original kingdom and some of the implications of what we learn.
The Scriptures make it forever plain that the Lord has never changed. Therefore. He has done nothing this side of the fall that He did not do before, or will do in the eternity of bliss to be reinstated in the near future.
Therefore, it is impossible to believe the Scriptural truth that God changes not and, concurrently, hold the belief that He takes the lives of the disobedient, unless there is a willingness to be an inconsistent thinker. To recognize that God never destroyed before there was sin, and to accent the

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idea that He does destroy after its emergence, is to believe that He has changed. It is to admit that with Him, of Whom it is written that there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, there has been variation, a complete turning about. It is to believe that God respected the law in one way before iniquity arose, and then in a different and opposite way thereafter. It is to believe that when sin is finally ended, He will return to the original pattern of behaviour.
Just now the reader may feel disposed to discontinue the pursuance of the arguments here because they are so contrary to what he has formerly believed. We agree that they are contrary, for they are Christ’s teachings and He came to present “to men that which was exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God. . .”     Fundamentals of Christian Education, 177.
If, in the days of Christ, men had retained a correct knowledge of God’s character, then there would have been no need for the witness so contrary to their understanding which Christ gave of His Father, and if, in the intervening time, men had retained the picture of God as given by Christ, there would have been no need for producing this volume as an effort directed to turning the minds of all back to the divine pattern.
That which has so far been presented is only the barest beginning of the evidences to be tendered. It is important that all the evidences be considered before the conclusions herein are rejected.
Consideration must now be given to the way in which God keeps the law. He does not do it by reining Himself up to a code of behaviour which is foreign to His nature. He obeys it as a natural outworking of that which He Himself is. It is His pleasure to do righteousness and He has interest in no other course of action.
This is the only kind of obedience God wishes to receive from His creatures—that which springs from a personal conviction that His way is the only way, and from a heart created in the image of God and as a transcript of His holy law.
“Since the service of love can alone be acceptable to God the allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a conviction of His justice and benevolence.” The Great Controversy, 498.
“The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love,—homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.” ibid., 493, Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.
God recognizes that if obedience to His law has to be compelled, then He would have a form of government which was short of perfection. But He will have nothing that is anything less than the ideal. He is determined

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on this for He will be content with the provision only of the ultimate in happiness and prosperity for all His subjects. Therefore, in God’s kingdom, no force is ever employed to bring about allegiance to Him or to put down rebellion. We can be certain of this for it is plainly written that it is so.
“God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan's government. The Lord's principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God's government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.”  The Desire of Ages, 759.
“The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government: He desires only the service of love and love cannot be commanded it cannot be won by force or authority.” ibid., 22.
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.
“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.” The Desire of Ages, 466.
“God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart.” The Mount of Blessings, 77.
The message of these statements is very clear. They tell us that “Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government.” If compelling power or force is exclusive to Satan and his government then it is never found  under God’s government. It is foreign to Him. “The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government.” If there is one thing of which there is absolute certainty, it is that God does nothing that is contrary to His principles. Men do over and again, but God never. Therefore, it needs to be fixed in mind that because the exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God and His government, under no circumstances will He use force to solve any problem.
Certainly He never did in the eternity of the past before sin entered for clearly no situation arose to necessitate it. Perfect harmony pervaded the entire universe and not one being stepped out of line until the betrayal of God by Lucifer.
Since the fall, men and devils have continually exercised force in their efforts to solve their problems for this is the way of Satan and men. They are fully convinced that the circumstances in which they are placed make it impossible not to use force both for survival and for achieving their ambitions.
The words as quoted above are God’s positive assurances to us that He never resorts to the use of compelling power. What God says, is the truth,

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and His every action is consistent with that truth for, unlike sinful men and devils, He does not say one thing, then do another. Therefore, confidence should fill every child of God, that the use of force is never to be found with God. God affirms it Is so. Accordingly, let us simply and implicitly believe it to be so.
It is a principle of faith that belief in God’s words must be maintained in the face of evidences which declare the contrary is true. Thus in the Old Testament, God’s actions seem to say that He did use compelling power to achieve His righteous ends, that He did resort to force to put down rebellion, and that He did make an example of some by crushing them with terrible punishments that were often fatal.
The choice of belief between the declarations of God and the appearances of what God did in the human arena, is before every person. The greater proportion choose to believe what they think they see rather than what God has said. Therefore, the almost universal belief is that God does use force, that He exterminates whole nations who have utterly rejected Him, and that He relies on compelling power to put down rebellion.
But the true child of God will believe what God said despite any evidences which at least appear to be contrary. God said that He does not use force or compelling power, so he believes that, even though he cannot rightly understand what God really did in those Old Testament incidents. He will simply admit to the challenger of his faith that he does not yet understand just what God did, nor does he have to necessarily. In the meantime, he will assure the doubting questioner that he has the plain utterances of the Word of God, so that he can be assured that, even though he cannot explain it in detail, God does not do what He appears to do. This is the way faith works. It is based on the Word of God, not on appearances. In due time such a faithful one will discover, under God’s wise tutelage, just what God actually did in each varied incident. When he does, he will find that God did not once act contrary to His principles, but only in perfect harmony with them.
Thus each person today falls into one or the other of two categories. Either he is a believer in the Word of God or he builds his belief on the witness of sight and circumstances. It is simple to know which you are. If you believe God’s declaration that compelling power is found only under Satan’s government, that He never turns to the use of force, and never crushes to destruction those who do not serve Him, then you are a child of faith.
Otherwise, if you believe that God did find it necessary to use force to destroy His opponents, then you are an unbeliever, because you have allowed the witness of appearances to take precedence over the witness of God’s Word.
Without question, the witness of sight and circumstances is very powerful, When the Old Testament stories are read wherein It is reported that

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God rained fire and brimstone on the Sodomites; that He poured forth the waters of the flood until they were all drowned; and so on, it is easy and natural to believe that God was personally resorting to the weapons of force.
But that pure faith, the faith of Jesus, which clings unswervingly to the spoken word of God, recognizes that if this is so, then God is truly inconsistent. He has spoken one thing but does another. This is the charge which Satan laid against God in heaven and which the great controversy is designed to remove. If the Lord was to act contrary to His stated principles, then He would quickly and effectively give Satan the very evidences ho needed to prove the point he had sought to make up in heaven. It would have been much better for the Lord to have admitted inconsistency to Satan in the first case than to blatantly continue it where it could be openly seen by all. But, the very nature of the great controversy and the issues involved in that, demand that if the Lord is to triumph, He must be utterly consistent with Himself. He cannot say one thing and then do another. To do so, even for a single instance, would be to lose everything and give the victory to Satan and his angels.
It has been the false interpretations of God’s behaviour in the sin problem, imposed on men’s minds by Satan, which have made it appear that the Lord has been inconsistent. In verity, there has been no Inconsistency whatsoever. God has been impeccably faithful to His word. What Is more, when God’s actions are correctly evaluated, it will be confirmed that His ways are so perfect and Infallible that He experiences no need to turn to the use of force. There has been an aptness to conclude that there is only one possible interpretation of the Old Testament incidents. What is needed is a second and more educated investigation into those happenings. This research, conducted along the lines of correct principles of Scriptural interpretation, will bring the student to conclusions which will dismiss Ideas formed on the basis of what it seemed God did. It will be found that there are vital differences between what the Lord appeared to have done and what He really did. This will be undertaken later when time is given to studying the manifestation of God’s character In His dealing with the sin problem. For the present the study of His government as it was constituted before sin appeared, must be continued.
We now need to consider a most Important aspect of God’s relationship to His subjects. It Is a matter closely linked to, and consistent with, the fact that any use of force Is contrary to the principles of God’s government and to the purpose and nature of God’s law. Only as all three of these are studied together will it be possible to understand any one of them.
This vital aspect is the one of freedom, one of the most precious gifts ever given by God to His subjects. A little thought will show that as surely as God has no intention of using compelling power to enforce the observance of His law, then as certainly has He set His creatures absolutely free to serve

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Him or not to serve Him. The two are consistent with and inseparable from each other, As soon as all compelling power is removed from a person, then so soon is that person given complete freedom to choose not to serve if that is his wish and desire.
“God never compels the obedience of man He leaves all free to choose whom they will serve.” Prophets and Kings, 511.
“They [the angels told Adam and Eve that God would not compel them to obey—that He had not removed from them the power to go contrary to His will; that they were moral agents, free to obey or disobey.” The Story of Redemption. 30.
“Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrong-doing. God made them free moral agents capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 48.
The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love.—homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.” The Great Controversy, 493. Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.
This is not to be understood as stating that the Lord gave His creatures freedom to sin with impunity. There is a doctrine abroad which paints God as being so sweetly loving, that He will excuse and protect all sin and sinners rather than see anyone perish. That doctrine is not to be confused with the positions taken here. The sinner will die. The heavens and earth will be destroyed and the entire universe will be rendered clean from the stain of sin. But it will not be God Who wields the scourge of destruction to effect this Rather He will firstly have warned every created being of the terrible consequences attendant on choosing to take the path of disobedience. Then, when they do, He will expend every effort to save them from it, and, only when they reject His saving effort, will He finally leave them to perish.
Observe the relationship between rendering to God a service of love based upon an intelligent conviction of God’s justice and goodness and the granting to each of perfect and complete freedom to obey or to disobey as the individual himself shall choose. This connection is made particularly in the last statement quoted. Interestingly, the exercise of that freedom in the wrong direction immediately deprives a person of liberty, for sin is a cruel taskmaster which forces its subjects into service. It is not God Who deprives of this freedom. This is the work of sin and Satan.
But on the positive side, only where there is complete freedom of choice is it possible for an intelligent service of love to be rendered. Just so soon as any element of compulsion such as the threat of punishment, is in-

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troduced, then to that extent will there be a service motivated by fear. Cod’s subjects would then obey Him because they were afraid not to.
This, God can never accept. He knows that such a kingdom cannot be blessed with flawless happiness and fulness of joy. In His kingdom, each and every subject is so intelligent on the perfection of God’s ways that his admiration and love for his Sovereign spring spontaneously, naturally and joyously in devoted allegiance. Thus in the kingdom of God, perfectly and fully established, there is no question of the service rendered being real or feigned. It can only be genuine. Thus God will have in eternity’s coming perfection, what every earthly monarch through all time has craved—the total and loving loyalty of every one of His people. Such indeed would be a blessed kingdom in which perfect love and confidence would forever reign. Any ruler who had this, could and would walk among his people without fear. Of him it could not be said, “Uneasy lies the head which wears the crown.
No kingdom has ever been like this, though some have approached it. Earthly kingdoms always tend to servitude in one form or another and seek to hold the loyalty of their citizens with the threat of punishment for disobedience. No crime is considered worse than treason—disloyalty to the state.
But Jesus came to deliver men from all this, testifying of this mission in these words, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:32, 36.
Jesus Christ does not come to transfer the sinner from one form of bondage to another. God’s object in Christ is to restore the kingdom to its original perfection, the perfection of complete freedom to serve God. Accordingly, Jesus said that those whom the Son set free would be free indeed. Here Christ envisaged a total freedom for His children, That is the nature of God’s kingdom, the revelation of His purpose of beneficence and love toward every creature.
AT. Jones in Ecclesiastical Empires, 586-588, has set forth these principles with the greatest force and clarity.
“It may be further asked: Could not God have prevented it all, by making Lucifer and all others so that they could not sin? It is right and perfectly safe to answer. He could not! To have made creatures so that they could not sin, would have been really to make them so that they could not choose. To have no power of choice is not only to be not free to think hut to be unable to think. It is to be not intelligent, but only a mere machine Such could not possibly be of any use to themselves or their kind, nor be of any honor, praise, or glory to Him who made them.
“Freedom of choice is essential to intelligence. Freedom of thought is essential to freedom of choice. God has made angels and men intelligent. He has made them free to choose, and has left them perfectly free to choose. He made them free to think as they choose. God is the author of

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intelligence, of freedom of choice, and of freedom of thought. And He will forever respect that of which He is the author. He will never invade to a hair’s breadth the freedom of angel or man to choose for himself, nor to think as he chooses. And God is infinitely more honored in making intelligences free to choose such a course, and to think in such a way as to make themselves devils, than He could possibly be in making them so that they could not think nor choose, so that they would be not intelligent, but mere machines.
“It may be yet further queried: As God made angels and men free to sin if they should choose, did He not then have to provide against this possible choice before they were made—did He not have to provide for the possibility of sin, before ever a single creature was made?—Assuredly He had to make such provision. And He did so. And this provision is an essential part of that eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, which we are now studying.
“Let us go back to the time when there was no created thing; back to the eternal counsels of the Father and the Son. The existence of God is not a self-satisfied existence, His love is not self-love. His joy is not fulfilled in wrapping Himself within Himself, and sifting solitary and self-centered. His love is satisfied only in flowing out to those who will receive and enjoy it to the full. His joy is fulfilled only in carrying to an infinite universe full of blessed intelligences, the very fullness of eternal joy.
“Standing then, in thought, with Him before there was a single intelligent creature created, He desires that the universe shall be full of joyful intelligences enjoying His love to the full, In order to do this they must be free to choose not to serve Him, to choose not to enjoy His love. They must be free to choose Him or themselves, life or death. But this involves the possibility of the entrance of sin, the possibility that some will choose not to serve Him, will choose the way of sin. Shall He then refuse to create because, if He does, it must be with the possibility that sin may enter?—This would be but eternally to remain self-centered and solitary, More than this, such a shrinking would in itself cause Him to cease to be God. For what is a god, or what is he worth, who can not do what he desires? who can not fulfill his own will? Such a god would be worthless.
“Thank the Lord, such is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made all intelligences free to choose, and to think as they choose; and therefore free to sin if they choose. And at the same time, in His infinite love and eternal righteousness, He purposed to give Himself a sacrifice to redeem all who should sin; and give them even a second freedom to choose Him or themselves, to choose life or death. And those who the second time would choose death, let them have what they have chosen. And those who would choose life,—the universe full of them—let them enjoy to the full that which they have chosen,—even eternal life, the fullness of perfect love, and the dear delights of unalloyed joy forever.

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“This is God, the living God, the God of love, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully able to do whatsoever He will, and yet leave all His creatures free. This is He who from the days of eternity worketh ALL THINGS AFTER THE COUNSEL OF His own will.’ Ephesians 1:11. And this is ‘the mystery of His will. . . . which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.’ Ephesians 1:9, 10. This is ‘the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Ephesians 3:11.
‘The choice of self is sin, bondage, and death. The choice of Christ is righteousness, freedom, and life eternal in the realm and purpose of the eternal God.”
Let careful contemplation be given to the thoughts expressed in this statement and the implications thereof.
“Freedom of choice is essential to intelligence.” The proving ground of history provides evidence enough of the truth of this. It is the work of the gospel to set men free, and never was the gospel more gloriously and effectively preached than in the days of Pentecost and thereafter until the decline in the Christian Church. As the liberating influence of the truth was robbed of its power, the world was carried down into the Dark Ages. Freedom of choice was unknown, as the papal hierarchy ruled the world with an absolute despotism. Such a state of ignorance and corruption developed that the period was given the designation of the Dark Ages.
There can be no fair argument to the effect that that condition of things was due to something other than the deprivation of the freedom of the world. Against any such argument can be marshalled evidence upon evidence to show that wherever men are despoiled of their liberties they sink into a state of ignorance and darkness. Conversely, wherever the living gospel of Jesus Christ sets men free, there is the greatest advance in knowledge and intellectual development. It was the gospel preached in the Reformation which set men free. That work had far greater impact in some areas than in others. There were those cities and countries where the dominant influence was Protestant while others remained bastions of the papacy. Those areas today where the Reformation influence was the strongest are the places where the greatest advances have been made in every form of intellectual development. In fact, the great wave of increased knowledge came directly upon the heels of the Reformation. AT. Jones is wholly coned in his assertion that freedom of choice is essential to intelligence.
God could never be honoured or blessed by filling His kingdom with unintelligent creatures. His is a kingdom of light—not darkness. Therefore He made angels and men intelligent. He filled them with light and, in order to give that light the fullest scope for increase, He gave them, as He had to do to achieve this, freedom of choice.

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Therefore, “God is the author of intelligence, of freedom of choice, and of freedom of thought.” These are God’s gifts to His creatures which are inseparably and eternally associated with His dominion. They cannot be taken away from Him and His creatures without changing the whole nature of His character, government and law. This God will not do, for it would make perfection imperfect, and would limit to destruction the happiness and contentment of His creatures.
Therefore, “He will ever respect that of which He is the author. He will never invade to a hair’s breadth the freedom of angel or man to choose for himself, nor to think as he chooses.”
This is eternally true of God. He has given that freedom and never much as by a hair’s breadth will He ever violate the right of any of His creatures to choose the course they will pursue. This is the only way God would, and will, have it, and it is the only way which any enlightened child of God would have it too, Anything short of, or other than this, is less than perfection and therefore less than total happiness.
This granting of freedom because it was essential to fullness of development and happiness, possesses in itself terrible danger. It is the danger that, despite the overwhelming evidences that God’s way was free from the slightest stain of imperfection and had provided all with unspeakable joy and fulfilment, some, or even all, of His subjects would choose to go their own way, making themselves into demons of horror and destruction. But, even though God thoroughly understood the possibilities of there being a period when some or even all of His creatures would undertake a terrible experimentation with a supposed way of life other than His, He would not and did not, institute any safeguards involving the element of force. He would have nothing less for them than perfection wherein lay the unlimited possibilities of infinite development. That could not be if there was not the total freedom to serve God or to serve themselves as they themselves should choose.
What are the implications of these points in the heavenly constitution? To what extent did this determine how God would react to any of His subjects turning away from Him and choosing another way?
Put these two principles together again—the principle of no coercive force being used and the principle of granting absolute freedom to choose. As surely as these two things are combined in the constitution of God’s kingdom. then just so surely does God place Himself where He cannot punish those who do do what He said they could do, namely, choose another master if they wished.
This is a most difficult principle for man to understand because it is so foreign to his way of thinking. In human government there exists only lawmakers who firstly frame the legislation, then draft punishments for those who do not obey, and finally appoint enforcement machinery to administer the sentence. This is alt that is known to human experience in the

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framework of human justice. Because it is so hard to divorce the mind from this concept, it is difficult to conceive of God placing Himself where He cannot personally visit penalties upon the head of the evildoer.
Civil rulers do not grant to anyone, freedom of choice, Their mandate is Obey. or suffer at our hands.” Those who make the law are the ones who punish the lawbreaker, but it is not so in God’s kingdom.  He has spelled out the law as the expression of His own character but it is sin and death which enslave the transgressor.
if it is possible for the dismissal of the human concept from the mind so that the steps taken by God in putting together His empire can be viewed dispassionately and objectively, it will be seen that to totally reject the use of force and at the same time grant to all, freedom of will, Is to set up a situation wherein it would not be possible to administer punishment and death in order to correct the problem. It does not matter how it may appear that during the Old Testament period, for example, the Lord did administer punishments as earthly rulers do, the fact remains that a government constituted on the lines of total rejection of the use of force as a solution while at the same time giving freedom of choice to the subjects, simply cannot punish those who do choose to go another way. God pave them the right to make that choice and He cannot punish them for making the decision He Himself gave them the liberty to make.
All that He can do, prior to their making the wrong choice. is to work to save them from making it by revealing the certain results of choosing the other course. It is the same work as done by the mother who solemnly warns her child of the consequences of painful burns which will certainly follow if the child touches a hot stove.
When His subjects had entered into a course of sin, God did all He could to save them even then, if they would choose to be saved. He even went so far as to give His own life in the Person of His Son, so that men might have a second opportunity to choose life instead of death. Mans first choice was made from the side of righteousness and freedom which he left for bondage and death. His second choice is made from the opposite side from where he decides either to remain in bondage and under sentence of death, or to come back to the side of purity and eternal life. But the choice is just as free in the second stage as it was in the first. The one difference is that in making the second choice, man knows by experience the hurt of sin and so has first-hand evidence of the truth of God’s word.
If for the second time men choose to go the way without God, then He has no recourse but to leave them to that which they have chosen.  Note again the way this truth is expressed in the words of A.T. Jones, “He made all intelligences free to choose, and to think as they choose; and therefore free to sin if they choose. And at the same time, in His infinite love and eternal righteousness, He purposed to give Himself a sacrifice to redeem all who should sin; and give them even a second freedom to choose Him or

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themselves, to choose life or death.  And those who the second time would choose death, let them have what they have chosen. And those who would choose life—the universe full of them—let them enjoy to the full that which they have chosen—even eternal life, the fullness of perfect love, and the dear delights of unalloyed joy forever.” Ecclesiastical Empires, 588. Emphasis original.
Therefore, “God does not stand toward the sinner as the executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.” The Great Controversy, 36.
Before Lucifer arose, the sincerity of God’s gift of freedom to every creature remained untested. In those days when no one chose anything but faithful service to Him, it was a simple matter for God’s methods to work. No one even thought about the possible implications to the system.
It was when those powerful beings stood up under Lucifer’s leadership, determined to set up a rival dominion, that the first challenge to God’s promise was raised. Satan and his followers have pressed that challenge to the utmost limits, exploring, probing and searching for some weakness whereby they might gain a foothold and topple the divine organization. God had declared that His ways were perfection, not simply for the sunny, prosperous days, but for any possible circumstances from the best to the worst. Under this searching inquisition, this endless pressure, would those principles stand or would they prove to be faulty? That was the question to be decided in the great controversy. Would it be found that God had to make modifications and concessions, that He would after all be forced to acknowledge that He had gone too far in granting such complete freedom, and that He would have to withdraw it in order to rain punishments on the wrong-doer?
The darkness in which Satan has made God’s actions appear, contends that God and His ways did not survive the test, that He had to resort to force to punish those who exercised the freedom He gave them not to serve Him, and that He was not able to tolerate the exercise of the freedom of choice which enabled angels and men to establish a competing kingdom. The devil asserts that he has already won the debate, which claim would be entirely true if God had done what Satan charges Him with doing.
All too readily, men in general have subscribed to Satan’s lies.  This gives support to his cause. The time has come when a revised understanding of God’s actions is imperative.
Such will be offered as this study progresses but firstly consideration must be given to another factor—the workings of the law of God. As already stated, the rejection of force, the granting of perfect freedom of choice to all, and the nature and purpose of God’s law are three things so closely related that they must be studied in conjunction with each other for any or all of them to be adequately understood. Study has been given to the former two, so we must now consider the last.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

A Perfect Law

The perfection of God’s law stands in marked contrast to the imperfection of the laws framed by earthly legislators.
The faultiness and inadequacy of men’s laws are marked in two ways at least. Firstly, men are obliged to constantly enact new laws and to modify or repeal old ones. Things which the law forbids today, it will permit in the near future. Behaviour which is allowed in one country is strictly banned in another.
Secondly, when kings or congress pass their laws, in order to ensure that the people will respect the government and obey those laws, they formulate a list of punishments which they then administer.
But these things are not true of God’s law. It is so perfect and complete that there has been no modification or addition needed from the day it was first expressed. Its principles are so complete and all-embracing that, if perfectly obeyed, they are the flawless pattern for both divine and human behaviour in either the sinless heavenly environment or the iniquitous situation on earth.
The life of Christ amply demonstrated the truth of this for He kept His Father’s commandments in conditions so wicked that it was described as the time “when the transgressors” had “come to the full,” Daniel 8:23; the time when “The deception of sin had reached its height. All the agencies for depraving the souls of men had been put In operation. The Son of God, looking upon the world, beheld suffering and misery. With pity He saw how men had become victims of satanic cruelty. He looked with compassion upon those who were being corrupted, murdered, and lost. They had chosen a ruler who chained them to his car as captives. Bewildered and deceived, they were moving on in gloomy procession toward eternal ruin—to death in which is no hope of life, toward night to which comes no morning. Satanic agencies were incorporated with men. The bodies of human beings, made for the dwelling place of God, had become the habitation of demons. The senses, the nerves, the passions, the organs of men, were worked by supernatural agencies in the indulgence of the vilest lust The very stamp of demons was impressed upon the countenances of men. Human faces reflected the expression of the legions of evil with which they were possessed. Such was the prospect upon which the world’s Redeemer looked. What a spectacle for Infinite Purity to behold!
“Sin had become a science, and vice was consecrated as apart of religion. Rebellion had struck its roots deep into the heart and the hostility of man was most violent against heaven. It was demonstrated before the universe that, apart from God, humanity could not be uplifted. A new ele-

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-ment of life and power must be imparted by Him Who made the world." The Desire of Ages, 36, 37.
This was the condition of things when Christ came to this earth. Under those circumstances He demonstrated that God’s law was the only code of behaviour. To do this He kept that law to perfection thus proving that Satan lied when he declared the law of God was imperfect and needed tote modified to meet changing circumstances. In this perfect adherence to the righteous precept under these conditions, Christ not only proved to fallen man that the law was not too difficult for him to observe, but that it was the perfect guide and protection for all those who did keep it.
Consider now, the second factor in the difference between the law of God and that of man. This difference is that while men have to attach their own formulated penalties to the law, with God this is not necessary. In His system, breaking the law itself brings its own terrible fruitage in sorrow, and finally, destruction.
It is not to be concluded that God deliberately organized it this way. When it is understood why He formed and gave the law, it will be seen that this is the only way it could be. Essential to the successful accomplishment of the great aspirations within His creatures, is the possession of tremendous power. This power was designed for blessing and benefit only, but. unavoidably, it has in it the potential for destruction. Being the only way to safeguard against that other and destructive side of power, law became essential. While power is handled in strict accordance with law there is no problem. But let the law be disregarded and every kind of problem arises. Therefore, God did not formulate a law with a deliberately built-in system of punishments, but, instead, gave them a perfect protection from self-destruction. If they choose to set aside that protection then there is nothing to prevent the trouble from coming. First God gave the power and then the law to enable them to safely handle it.
Already it has been shown that compelling power, compulsion, the use of force and such, have no place in God’s work and are never found under His government but only under Satan’s. Likewise it has been seen that God, because He is interested only in voluntary obedience, gave to every one of His creatures “full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience.” Patriarchs and Prophets,, 48. It would be impossible to give full liberty to withhold obedience, and then punish a person for exercising the very freedom given to him. To punish under those conditions is to deny that full liberty had been given.
There are two ways in which God could have administered punishments upon those who chose to withhold obedience. The first method would be to decree what the punishment should be and then to it by His own direct action. This is what the majority believe God does.
The second method would be to skilfully and deliberately build into the law, punishments which would automatically fall upon the transgressor. In

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modern language this is called booby trapping. The farmer, for instance, has a patch of delicious melons growing and he knows that, despite the law forbidding theft, the young lads of the village will come at night for the feast. So he installs a trip wire attached to a high explosive. He has built into the law an automatic punishment which will reach out and strike the lawbreaker apart from the action of the law itself.
This is the course the Lord could have adopted to avoid the necessity of exercising His own power in any direct act of destruction.
Whether God punishes directly by His own action or indirectly by building destruction into the law, He would still be denying that He had, in reality, given His subjects “full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience.” He gave the liberty. Therefore He cannot punish any who exercise what He has given them.
If God used the first method, it would be a blatant denial of His claim to have given them full Liberty. If He used the second method, then He could well be charged with having adopted underhand means whereby He could claim that He had not directly denied their freedom, though in fact, indirectly He had.
God is not deceitful or underhanded. He is the God of truth. Therefore it needs to be clearly understood that He did not design a law with built-in punishments. Every one who is to have a part in the final presentations of the character of God must come to understand the real character of God’s law. The awful punishments which do fall upon the violators of God’s great principles are what the law was devised to protect man from, not what it was designed to bring upon him.
What must be understood with great clarity is that the law is in no sense God’s effort to protect His own position and authority. God is so completely outgoing, so utterly devoid of self-interest, self-justification or self-protectionism in any form, that He could never have formulated the law to save Himself. It is not something which He has “thought up” as His wish or pleasure whereby the people could be identified as His subjects, doing His will and obeying His commands. Far from it! That law is a masterpiece of protection for the people themselves. It is so wonderfully designed that obedience to it ensures absolute immunity from sickness, suffering, sorrow, fear, suspicion, robbery, violence, and death. On the other hand, violation of its principles guarantees the introduction of these things in their worst forms.
None of these things is God’s invention designed for infliction on the transgressor. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. It is a sound principle, universally practised, that the servant is always paid by the employer to whom he renders service. If a worker, having given a month of industrious labour to Mr. Jones, then went to Mr. Brown to receive his wages, he would be met with an indignant refusal.
“I am not responsible for the wages owed to you by Mr. Jones.” he would emphatically say. “I do not pay the money earned by service on your

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part to another employer. If you work for me then I will pay you but not otherwise.”
This reply is reasonable. It is equally reasonable that the same principles apply in the spiritual realm. Therein are two masters, God and Satan, or more correctly, righteousness and sin, Neither of these masters pays the wages earned in the service of the other.
The wages of sin is death and the gift of righteousness is life.
No one needs convincing that Satan never pays the gifts of God. All those who live the life of righteousness, know that they cannot look to the devil to pay even the smallest proportion of these. God alone can pay the gift of life. Satan has no part in this whatsoever.
If it is so easily seen that the devil never pays God’s gifts to the righteous, then it should be equally clear that the Lord never pays the wages owed by sin to its subjects. Sin and Satan alone pay those. God does, not traffic in death for He is the purveyor of life. That is His merchandise and He dispenses no other. He does not pay wages in the currency of death.
“Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.” The Ministry of Healing, 113.
As the Restorer “God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive to build up and restore us.” ibid.,112. The law, then, has not been formed as an instrument of destruction but of salvation. The unfortunate attitude of hostility toward the law will be swept away entirely when its true purpose and role are understood. Then with the Psalmist, the exclamation of praise will go forth, “0 how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97.
The Holy Spirit had certainly imparted to the writer of these words a very different view of the law from that generally possessed by man. He had come to see that the law was not designed for God’s exaltation and protection but for the protection and blessing of mankind.
This we need also to see. Accordingly our attention will now be directed to studying God’s law as the precious gift of God for man’s blessing and security.
Both the first part dealing with the relationship of man to God and the second part covering man to man, were designed along the same lines. Consideration will be given to the first part initially.
Statement number one in the decalogue is this: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3.
To the average person this suggests a picture of God concerned about His receiving the homage, respect, service, and worship which He felt was due to Him. To them, it is as if He were saying, “I am God and I do not intend that you shall forget that. I will tolerate no other god in My place for I will share My honour, position and glory with none. I want, and I demand, exclusive recognition of My sole authority from each of you. I shall be

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watching every one intently moment by moment with a vigilance which never slumbers nor sleeps. If I find any drifting away from Me, any rendering of homage or love to another, My anger shall become exceedingly great and I will come in My fury to punish you without mercy.
This is the view held by this earth’s majority. This is how they see God, because if they were in the same position with the same power, that is how they would relate themselves to their subjects. But, in fact, a more erroneous view of God’s intent could not be entertained. God had not thought of His honour, security and safety when He formed that commandment. He was entirely preoccupied with His subjects and their needs. He knew the danger in which they were, and to make them secure from it He gave them this and the other commands.
Difficult as it may be at first to understand, the truth is that it was not possible for God to create man without a very definite element of danger being involved. Vet, once careful consideration is given to the objectives of love in bringing the earth and its inhabitants into existence, it will be perceived that it was not possible to do this without that threat being in attendance.
It began with the divine purpose to give to man the precious love-gift of life. There was no obligation upon God to do it. Humanity should respond only with the deepest gratitude that God had elected to do this. But to give life was not sufficient. A home must be provided in which those possessed of this inimitable gift could enjoy such riches to the fullest: Without a home, existence would be an eternal drifting through super-cold space with nothing to see or do. This would convert what promised to be everlasting delight into perpetual horror.
Therefore, the creation of highly intelligent creatures necessitated the forming of a home in which they could develop and exercise the splendid powers given to them, achieving the highest aspirations of their active minds.
That was a wonderful provision but it was still insufficient. Both the individuals themselves and the world in which they lived must be equipped with suitable and sufficient powers to enable them to live their lives to the fullest potential. The infinitely wise and loving God saw this and without hesitation installed all those mighty powers in their proper place and balance. These powers may be grouped into two divisions, those within man and those outside him in the marvellous world of nature.
The powers in man may be listed as the power of thought, muscular power, the powers of speech, ambition, planning, reasoning, invention, love, joy, and so forth. The powers without in the world of nature are the powers of the sun, moon, gravity, wind, water, centrifugal and inertial forces, electricity, and many more.
All this seemingly, would provide the sum of all that could ever be needed to give every creature the fulness of happiness and joy. After all, what more could man desire or need?
	
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But it was still not enough.
It was not enough because power, though provided by God for only one purpose, the blessing and prosperity of all His creatures, inevitably possesses the potential of destruction, Enquiry may be made as to why the Lord did not provide powers that could not be subverted, but careful thought will show that this is impossible. Any power which is intended to do only. good can also be turned to an evil purpose.
Therefore, God needed to add one more gift to make the work of creation complete and secure. That gift was the law. It was something very necessary to man for without it he had no way of keeping those powers from becoming destroyers. This can readily be demonstrated by reference to the first commandment, the study of which, in the light of these principles, will prove that the law was not made by God for God but for man.
Any one of the great powers which God has invested in nature for man’s blessing can be chosen to develop this point. Accordingly the sun will be selected as the example.
Initially, the sun came into existence in response to the spoken creative word of God. This is the only way it could, for there is no other power in existence which can create anything let alone something of the magnitude and power of that flaming orb. Satan could not do it, neither can man. But, God’s work in respect to the sun and its role did not end with its creation for it cannot fulfil its mission unaided. It, like all other powers, is totally unintelligent, thus possessing no capacity to direct its ways. This must be done by a power outside of and greater than itself under the guidance of a suitable intelligence. The only power which can do this is the power which made it. That is God’s power directed by the intelligent mind of God. That creative power in turn is exercised through His Son, Christ, Who not only “made the worlds,” but is constantly upholding all things by the word of His power.” Hebrews 1:2, 3.
“God is constantly employed in upholding and using as His servants the things that He has made. He works through the laws of nature, using them as His instruments. They are not self-acting. Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent presence and active agency of a Being who moves in all things according to His will.” Ministry of Healing, 416.
“Many teach that matter possesses vital power--that certain properties are imparted to matter, and it is then left to act through its own inherent energy; and that the operations of nature are conducted in harmony with fixed laws, with which God Himself cannot interfere. This is false science, and is not sustained by the word of God. Nature is the servant of her Creator. God does not annul His laws or work contrary to them, but He is continually using them as His instruments. Nature testifies of an intelligence, a presence, an active energy, that works in and through her laws. There is in nature the continual working of the Father and the Son. Christ says, ‘My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.’ John 5:17.
(PICTURE)
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“The Levites, in their hymn recorded by Nehemiah, sung ‘Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things therein, . . and Thou preservest them all.’ Nehemiah 9:6. As regards this world, God’s work of creation is completed. For ‘the works were finished from the foundation of the world.’ Hebrews 4:3. But His energy is still exerted in upholding the objects of His creation. It is not because the mechanism that has once been set in motion continues to act by its own inherent energy, that the pulse beats, and breath follows breath; but every breath, every pulsation of the heart, is an evidence of the all-pervading care of Him In whom ‘we live, and move, and have our being.’ Acts 17:28. It is not because of inherent power that year by year the earth produces her bounties and continues her motion around the sun. The hand of God guides the planets and keeps them in position in their orderly march through the heavens. He ‘bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong In power; not one faileth.’ Isaiah 40:26 It is through His power that vegetation flourishes, that the leaves appear and the flowers bloom. He ‘maketh grass to grow upon the mountains,’ and by Him the valleys are made fruitful. All the beasts of the forest seek their meat from God, Psalms 147:8; 104:20, 21, and every living creature, from the smallest insect up to man, Is daily dependent upon His providential care. In the beautiful words of the psalmist. ‘These wait all upon Thee. . . That thou givest them they gather; Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good.’ Psalms 104:27, 28. His word controls the elements, He covers the heavens with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth, ‘He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.’ ‘When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh Iightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.’ Psalms 147:16; Jeremiah 10:13.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114, 115.
These statements teach the active presence of God as the Controller of all the powers He has Installed in the universe for the good of His creatures. But, why is it necessary for God to do this? Is it because He Is determined to keep personal control over all things? Or Is it because it must be so? Why could God not have set the whole complex machinery in motion and then left it to run of its own accord from the very beginning? Or why does He not delegate the work to other hands to leave Himself free from such things?
God does what He is doing because that is the only way it can be done and certainly not because of any desire on His part to reserve to Himself any special position. It was not possible for God to leave all these tremendous powers to themselves for it is the very nature of power to be unintelligent. The sun is a power of gigantic proportions, but it has no power to think or to direct its ways and even if it did, it would still need God to keep it supplied with energy.

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Think of all the various powers in existence—fire, wind, gravity, the tides, hydraulics, and so on, and it will be seen that not one of them is intelligence nor could be. Power and force are just that, while intelligence is designed to control and guide the powers. Even the physical powers in the human body are not intelligent. They depend upon the intelligence centred in the brain for control and guidance.
Therefore, the mighty sun must have a controller and guide to keep it exactly on its course and, at the same time, a source of energy to keep it forever fuelled and burning at a constant level. Should there be no such controlling power, then think of the possibilities. The sun could swing a little too far out and away from the earth with the consequence of such tremendous cooling on this planet that it would freeze solid. On the other hand it could swing in too close and destruction would come with blazing heat. Again, it might burn too dimly or too brightly or even explode with the same destructive results.
Far	more than we do, we need to appreciate how dependent we are upon that sun. If we were to carefully consider the effect of that power becoming either diminished then we would be far more grateful than we are for the Lord’s controlling and sustaining hand in the universe. The same facts and principles apply to all the mighty powers of heaven and earth.
Having, established the truth that the hand of a mighty controller and energy-supplier is indispensable for the continuation of our lives upon the earth, we can proceed to the next question. Why does God do this? Why does He not give it to one of His mighty creatures to look after, for Him?
The answer is because He cannot. It required a Creator’s power to set it up in the first case and it requires the same Creator’s power to maintain. Only He can do it. God gladly gives His creatures whatever He can, but this is one thing He cannot give, for there is not one of us, angel or man who can keep those mighty powers under perfect control.
Therefore, it is essential that no other god be placed in God’s position as the Controller, Guide and Sustainer of these mighty powers.  To do so would be to put there a being who would have no hope of keeping those things under control. They would swiftly break out of their course in a holocaust of destruction.
To help in understanding this extremely important point let the following illustration serve. One of the biggest commercial passenger aircraft is the Boeing 747. In order to control and direct that tremendous power, a man must have, through long practice and training, highly developed skills. The law says that on a flight no one must set another person who is unqualified in the pilot’s place. Suppose that during a flight across the Pacific from Sydney to Honolulu, a passenger who has never flown a plane before goes onto the flight deck, overpowers the crew, binds them up securely, and then attempts to fly the machine to a destination of his own choice.

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What is the inevitable result? That man has no hope of bringing the plane in successfully. He will not even know how to navigate it across the uncharted oceans and he will crash the plane, killing every person on board. No one should have any difficulty in seeing this, especially if he has ever had his untrained hands on the controls of even a simple light aircraft and tried to bring it in to land. A 747 is a complex of unintelligent but gigantic powers which must have a master mind to direct it. Should such a trained and skilled person be taken from the controls and another untrained one take his place, then certain disaster is the result.
This is exactly the situation with this earth and the mighty powers attendant upon it. God alone, has the power and skill to guide them accurately and safely on their courses. Should that guiding hand be removed and another attempt to fill its place, then inevitable desolations would follow. There would be no way to prevent it. Some may object that God could prevent it. Certainly He has the physical power to do so, but, in order for that power to be exercised to prevent that destruction, it has to be in the very place from which It has been dismissed. Once another god has been put in the place of the true God, then God can only save the situation by forcing Himself back into the place from which He has been sent away, and this God will never do. This would violate the freedom of choice which He Himself gave to His creatures and which He will never invade even to a hair’s breadth.
But how would it be possible for God to vacate the position of control? How could this be brought about? Surely, it may be argued, no one could take God’s position away from Him!
It can be done quite simply and very quickly. What is more, it has been done.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were the rulers and owners of this world in a kingdom which they held under God and for God. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.’ Genesis 1:26.
While they retained that dominion, God could and did maintain perfect control over the sun, the moon, and all the other mighty powers set in their places for the blessing and benefit of the human family. There was no problem, and the Edenic pair enjoyed perfect security, comfort and prosperity.
But the time came when they passed the kingdom into the devil’s hands and he became “the prince of this world.” John 14:30 While Adam and Eve had held dominion under God, Satan did not He had put himself in God’s place and when Adam and Eve turned to give their dominion to Satan, they placed another god in the place of the true God They directly, broke the first commandment and thus removed from themselves the pro-

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tection the first commandment was designed to give. Another god was in the place of the real God and this new god could not control the mighty powers of nature. Sudden and terrible destruction immediately threatened them.
It may be objected here that the whole argument is disproved by the fact that the threatened destruction did not fall upon them that day as God had said it would. This is true, but that does not make God a liar, nor does it disprove the argument. God’s word was fulfilled for they did die that very day. On the spiritual side of their natures the life of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, died out of them, to be replaced by another spirit, that of the devil.
They would have also died physically that day, had not the Lord interposed to introduce a delaying factor, designed in love, to give them a limited probationary period in which to reconsider their decision. In unquenchable love for the doomed, Christ stepped in to divert the punishment to Himself. He would take upon Himself, not that which God would administer to the sinner, but that which the sinner had brought upon himself.
Christ had to move swiftly for the Lord had warned that “in the day that” they ate of it they would surely die. Genesis 2:17. Christ had no time to lose if He would save them. So it is written, “The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, ‘Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place. He shall have another chance’.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary 1:1085.
Right there in the Garden of Eden all nature would have swung wildly out of its course with increasing ferocity had not Christ stepped in to give the world a period of probation in which to make a second choice either to serve God or to continue with another god—the god of death and destruction. When at last the time of probation is ended with every man, woman, and child having made their choice for eternity, this is just what will happen. Christ will step out from His place as Mediator and all nature will collapse in a cataclysm of destruction. Of this final destruction we shall study much more Later.
Now, let a summary be made of the facts just considered with particular emphasis being laid on the truth that the suffering and death which certainly follow the violation of the principles of the law, are not administered by God directly, nor are even a carefully built-in provision designed to automatically destroy the lawbreaker. The punishments are the unpreventable outworking of the removal by disobedience of the protections the laws are designed to give.
Here is that summary.
It would have been most unsatisfactory for the Lord to have made us without providing the supporting powers necessary to give us comfortable

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living and the opportunity to develop all the gifts within us. The sun is needed for light and heat, the forces of gravity for our equilibrium, electricity to open to us the thousand and one possibilities in communication, electronics and so on. Should we ponder upon a life without the many gracious provisions of God for our welfare and pleasure, we would be far more grateful to the Lord for what He has done.
But, it is impossible for power to exist without its being at the same time a potential for fearful and even total destruction. That is the very nature of power and it can be no other way. The greater the power, the greater the danger. Therefore, as surely as heaven is a place filled with the greatest of wonderful powers, it is therefore a potentially dangerous place.
God has no fear of introducing such peril for He knows that it is completely contained if the laws are faithfully obeyed. Under the control of laws faithfully obeyed, power can only be a blessing but let the laws be disobeyed and it ii nothing but a danger. The destruction which falls is not directed by God’s hands. It is the natural and unpreventable consequence of the violation of

These things must be meditated upon until the purposes and character of God in this are fully understood; until it is seen that God neither inflicts the punishment by His own hand nor has it as an inbuilt threat which reaches out to automatically destroy those who get out of line; until it is seen that the death and suffering is the direct and unpreventable result of the sin; and that the Lord does only one thing which is to work to save all from such disastrous results and guide them forever in those pathways which will ensure them perfect and complete happiness.
So it is with the violation of the first commandment. What is true of the results of its violation is true of all the rest. For instance, the second precept warns against bowing down to worship an image made of material things. There should be no difficulty in seeing that such an act of worship can only result in death to the worshipper on the following grounds. Every adoration of images as practiced by those who break the second commandment is on the basis of their believing that they can and will obtain all they need for life-support through the idol.
But they cannot believe that they will receive life through the idol and, at the same time, receive life from God, for, if they truly believed that God is the only source of life, then they would never have turned aside from Him to seek it from, and through, an idol. Therefore, the very fact that they do worship an idol is their declaration that they have no faith that God can care for them and that they have turned aside from seeking it from God to find it elsewhere.
What is the only possible outcome of such an action on their part? God is the only source of life. To turn aside from that life source and seek it where it does not exist, is to die. God will not kill such a person Such kill themselves. There is no fault with God, for He plainly warned them that

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they were not to place another god in His place. He is the only life-giver and life-sustainer.

To illustrate the point again, think of an aviator who has ascended to altitudes where the oxygen is too rare to support life so he has to plug his breathing apparatus into the outlet connected with the oxygen supply. He has received specific instructions as to which is the correct outlet, but he deliberately chooses to plug into another socket with no connection to the supply. What is going to happen to this foolish man? He will quickly die for want of the essential oxygen. He will die because he has failed to observe the law. His death will be the direct result of that, and not in any sense the act of God:
In precisely the same manner, the man who bows before  idol to seek life from this source has pronounced his own death sentence.  He cannot live, for, by his own choice, he cuts himself off from the channel of life. There is no fault with God. He provided the channel for life and warned that if man should discard that and seek life through an idol or an image, he would find none there and death would overtake him.
Accordingly, the second commandment forbidding the worship of images and idols, is perfectly designed to save God’s children from separating themselves from the source of life to thus bring upon themselves certain destruction.
To take God’s name in vain is to call one’s self a Christian or a child of God, a member of His family thus bearing His name, and yet at the same time to live out of harmony with the principles of the family. To do this is to separate from the family and the blessings which can only be obtained while in the family. Again this is but to bring death upon one’s self.
The breaking of the fourth commandment likewise, is removing the protection God has provided to sustain life. This precept has to do with the great principle of respect for that which is another’s. Its violation opens the door to every kind of trouble and sorrow. To understand this better let us turn to the second side of the decalogue and study the control of the powers which God has invested in man himself.
We will choose the command, “Thou shalt not steal.” This is an excellent place to begin for the commands, “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” are but extensions of this commandment. To kill is to steal the life of another from him, even though such theft does not give the thief the life thus stolen.. The committal of adultery robs a person of his or her life partner and the bearing of false witness robs a person of his reputation and credibility.
Now we will see how violation of the command, “Thou shalt not steal opens upon man the floodgates of woe. Consider the perfect society wherein stealing has never previously been known. The dwellers in this society have perfect trust in each other and without fear they leave their homes open at all times. Locks and bars are neither needed nor known.

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Then there comes the day when one person steps out of the way and steals the property of someone else in the village. In the depths of the night the householder is awakened by the stealthy movements of an intruder who, perceiving that his presence has been noted, flees, bearing a family treasure with him.
When the family realizes the extent of their loss and the way in which it was taken, they are surprised, numbed, horrified and fearful that if this can happen once it can happen again. The news swiftly spreads through the village and instantly a change comes over the whole place. The peace and happiness die beneath a cloud of suspicion and fear. No one knows who has done it so every one is suspect. Steps are soon taken to bar the openings and lock the doors so that protection may be obtained against a further visit from the thief.
In this, the innocent suffer with the guilty. A simple illustration from the travel world of today, will serve to show this. There was a time before anyone thought of hijacking an aircraft. In those days the passengers simply walked aboard and took their places. It was convenient and pleasant.
But then came the new era and everything changed. The wrongdoers in this connection are few in number, yet virtually every passenger who seeks to board an aircraft is now suspect. He must, even though innocent, undergo a thorough searching both of his hand baggage and his person. He suffers inconvenience and delay and longs for the return of the days of trust and good will. He is suffering punishment for the sins of another. But the punishment is not something which is being meted out by God. It is It is direct result of the crime.
Now let us return to our illustration of the village. Should more and more people follow the path of the lawbreaker and become thieves, then the problem will escalate into destructive proportions. Once the law has been cast aside and its protection removed, it is then only a matter of taking one step after another. The thief will not stop at taking merely property. He will take life and murder will worsen the situation. In order to defend themselves, the other thieves will resort to violence for self-protection. All this is precisely what has happened to bring the world to its present state of misery and woe.
As this is being written, Beirut in Lebanon is being torn to pieces with a murderous civil war, while in Northern Ireland, the Irish are slaying Irish with cold-blooded determination. What a fearfully unhappy situation in which to live. How far this is from the perfect plan God formulated for the well-being and happiness of man. Let it he emphasized that none of this woe and trouble comes upon man by any act of God, but by natural outworking of the law’s being broken. God designed and gave the law as a perfect protection from all this, but man has chosen of his own free will
cast aside that protection. Before us, we see the result, It is only because the Lord is still able to exercise some restraint over mankind that man survives

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at all. Should the law be totally cast aside and anarchy reign, the extermination of the race by its own hands would be the be the swift result.
We will not spend a lot of space considering this important fact for it is not necessary. It is self-evident that the breaking of the law governing man’s relationship to man brings its own terrible results upon the world. Consider the situation as it would be today if every man and woman never stole, never lied, never killed, and in fact, kept all the ten commandments. What a wonderfully happy and secure place the world would be, not because God had arbitrarily made if so, but because that is the way keeping the law would make it. This does not mean that God’s presence is unnecessary for such happiness. It is necessary for it is by His power that the law is kept. He is the fountain of all life and without Him there is no life.
Consider what the world would be like and how long mankind would survive if all law was done away with and every person was a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, a liar, and so on. It is impossible to think of a worse situation. Every man, so long as he managed to survive, would live in a state of perpetual tenor. There would be no stability and no security.
As this grim, totally undesirable picture develops before the mind, ponder and see that the terrible conditions would not in any sense be the inflictions of God, but the result of removing the protection afforded by law. Here is the revelation of the cause and effect, and no charge can be laid to God for any of it.
The final consideration to be made in this study of the outworking of violated law, is man’s relation to himself. The human body is a wonderfully designed and constructed mechanism. David, as he came to realize this, praised God in these words. “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalm 139:14.
With David, we should have a rich appreciation of God’s blessings in giving us a body and mind of such efficiency. Even after almost six thousand years of sins degradation, there is still mighty and wonderful power remaining. Such being so, what must it have been like in the beginning when the electrical energy in Adam’s brain was twenty times as great as it is now?
“God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct.” Testimonies 3:138, 139.

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It is impossible for a body to be made with such power and efficiency without being a finely balanced piece of complexity requiring obedience to law to keep it in perfect condition.
The laws which govern the care of this mechanism are referred to above as being natural laws and they are, but this does not mean that there is nothing in the moral law to cover this situation. He who abuses his body. thus lowering its efficiency, is robbing both God and others of the service which he would render had he the full powers of mind and body. Consider the enormous loss to the community through absenteeism from work because of sickness occasioned by careless disregard of the most simple laws of health.
More than this, the one who does not observe the laws of health and strength is destroying himself thereby breaking the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” Therefore, while the care of the body mechanism is conformity to natural law, the breaking of those laws is also breaking the moral law.
Much study could be devoted to the relation of health and longevity to obedience to natural and moral law. Such a study would be both interesting and profitable, but we desire only to make the point that it is not God, but disobedience to those laws which brings upon the disobedient, whether wittingly or unwittingly so, a sure retribution.
It is convincingly self-evident that the man who, for instance, smokes tobacco products and drinks alcohol, steadily reduces his physical capacities and brings upon himself destructive diseases.
So clear is this evidence that even people who have long disregarded the moral law, recognize the direct connection between prolonged cigarette smoking and the incidence of lung cancer and early heart failures. More than ever, men can see that to pursue a certain course of unhealthful living will certainly bring a harvest of suffering and untimely death.
It is not God who afflicts poor sufferers with these diseases. They are the unpreventable result of the sin itself. God cannot and will not, in justice. work a miracle to counteract these evil effects, but because of this He is not to be named as the One Who has deliberately sent these punishments upon the people. He has done all that He can to save them from such troubles. In the first place He gave man the best body mechanism it was possible to give, Then, recognizing that man could not get the best out of this gift except by giving it proper care, the Lord gave him laws to protect it from the effects of wrong living. Also, God gave man the freedom to choose whether he would cherish and care for the gift, or treat it with disdain and destroy It.
So whatever suffering should then come upon man is not the responsibility or work of God. It is the direct effect of man’s works. He has only himself to blame. No charge can ever be laid to God’s account for this.
Such then is the nature of God’s law. It is a marvellously perfect provision by Him to meet our need, not His. He has not formulated it to assert

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His authority or as an instrument whereby He is given the right to punish those who do not obey Him.
The sinners breaking of the law is his own act whereby he removes the divinely provided protection from death and destruction. Not only is it against God’s principles to exercise force to compel or punish people into obeying Him, but He does not need to, for the removal of sin is guaranteed by the mere fact that it is in its own nature, a way of death and destruction. There is only one life path and that is the one God has mapped out for His people.
This is true of our relation to God, in our relation to our fellow men and in relation to ourselves. When the nature of the law as it really is, is truly understood, then our obedience to it will be far more willing and successful.
Likewise, when the character and ways of God are genuinely comprehended and appreciated, something of the infinite love and kindness of God the eternal Father, will be perceived, generating sincere praise and gratitude for His love and wisdom. Then it will be known that God did not compose that law as the symbol of His authority, imposing it upon us as the obligation of service to Him, the medium whereby He could exact our service and homage. It will be realized that the law was made for the children of God, that perfect obedience to it was the complete saviour from death and destruction. The truth will be intelligently grasped that when Adam and Eve cast aside that saviour, then Christ gave Himself to be the Saviour to bring back the lost and perishing to the safe side of the law.
It will then be recognized that when men cast aside firstly the law and then Christ as their saviours, they will have exhausted all that heaven has and can do to save them. Beyond that limit, God can go no further, for that is the totality of His resources. This leaves Him with no choice but to grant to each apostate the total separation with its attendant annihilation which he has chosen. It will then be discerned with wonder and admiration that the only role filled by God is that of a Saviour so that men perish, not because He has reached out to destroy them, but because they have refused His saving efforts.
In summary then it is right to say that the law of God is the transcript of His character, God’s righteousness and the righteousness of the law are identical so that God’s behaviour is expressed in the precepts of that law. Therefore, His behaviour is not something to which He has reined Himself as a strict discipline contrary to His nature. It is the natural expression of the tenets of the decalogue.
Because this is the only kind of obedience in which He is interested, He made man in His own image “both in outward resemblance and in character.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 45. He writes that same law on our hearts so that it is also the transcript of our characters and we can and do obey the law as He obeys it—a natural outworking of our inner natures.

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Thus we are able to give the only kind of obedience the Lord can accept—an obedience that is based upon a personal “conviction of His justice and benevolence.” The Great Controversy, 498.
Because the Lord can accept only a willing obedience given because of our love for Him, He will never use force to secure our allegiance, but. in perfect consistency with these principles, gives to all the “full liberty to  main or to withhold obedience.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 48.
As surely as Lie gives full liberty to withhold obedience, He can never punish any one of His creatures for exercising the liberty which He Himself has given.
This means then, that the punishments which do come as a result of turning from God’s way are the fruit or result of our own course of action. not the administration of such things by the hand of God.
This is better understood when it is seen that God’s law is designed by Him to be a protection from the effects of powers which otherwise have ceased to be under proper control. Sin and sinners will be destroyed, but it will be the effect of their own course of action, not the outpouring of destruction by the hand of God.

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CHAPTER NINE

God’s Principles Under Test

Such then was the nature of the constitution of God’s government as it was in heaven before the entrance of sin. It was idealistic and realistic.
It was a system providing for the absolute happiness, security and fulfilment of the created ones both in heaven and throughout the universe. It placed at their disposal every needed power in infinite abundance together with full protection from any risk of those powers turning out of their appointed place of service to become agencies of destruction.
This system worked to perfection under the conditions which existed before rebellion began. Every one of God’s subjects served Him with undivided devotion because each had the inner conviction that God’s ways were the only ways of life. They understood that the law was not a code of bondage but a wonderful protection conceived for them in the heart of infinite love.
Thus no situation ever arose for which the use of force needed to be considered. No killing ever took place, no destruction was undertaken. Nothing arose to mar the perfect happiness of every created being.
It should not be difficult to see that God’s principles of government would and did work perfectly under those conditions. So far, our study has been of that sinless period.
Now the attention must be focused on the drastically changed conditions which developed after firstly angels and then men, exercised their God-given liberty to choose not to serve Him. With intense interest the entire universe looked on to see whether these principles could still operate without modification, addition, or any other changes. Would God find it necessary, after all, to personally execute punishments on those who had rebelled? Would He be compelled to solve the sin problem by exercising His infinite physical power to destroy the wrongdoers who had refused every overture of mercy?
As students and others have viewed history, they have been convinced that the entrance of sin has imposed on God the necessity to take actions He was never obliged to take before. They look at the flood, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues upon Egypt, the destruction of the rebels who worshipped the golden calf, the death of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, the liquidation of Sennacherib’s army, the stoning of the Sabbath breaker, the adulterer, and Achan, and many other such instances. They read the words used to describe God’s responses and conclude horn this that God did exercise force to put down rebellion, that He did punish by His own decision and decree, that He did destroy those who had rejected His last offers of mercy and that He does not therefore give all men full liberty to yield or withhold obedience.

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We recognize that it strongly appears that this is true, but, at the same time, we know that there is more than one way of understanding what happened. When the alternative views are considered, it will be seen that God did not behave as most have thought. It will be discerned that He neither introduced nor resorted to any measures subsequent to the fall, which He did not employ before it.
The point was developed in the last chapter that God designed His law as a protection to His creatures, not as the means of safeguarding His own position and authority. Therefore, it was emphasized, punishments were not the administration of God but natural outworking of casting aside the law’s protection through disobedience to it.
Yet, despite the inspired teachings as the true nature of the law there prevails in the world today the concept that the law was made for God’s personal exaltation. His invention to produce and maintain His position of undisputed authority. Therefore, it is seen as a device calculated to exalt One at the expense of the rest.
What is the origin of this teaching? Who was the first to introduce it see to seeing that it has no foundation in Scripture? Can the answer to this question be found?
The answer clearly written in the Scriptures wherein it is revealed when, where, and by whom these things were first taught in this world and what the result was of accepting those teachings. The origin and the effect of such teachings will be an infallible guide as to whether they are true or not.
Those representations of the character and purpose of God’s law were first taught on this earth by Satan in the Garden of Eden. He presented them to the original couple with the specific purpose of enlisting them in his rebellion against God and his method was successful. The result is that there has been opened upon this world the flood tide of every sin and iniquity which can be named.
A careful study of what took place in the Garden of Eden will reveal the truth of the above assertions.
God had made the earth, and equipped it with all the powerful life-support systems as a love gift to Adam and Eve. Because He was interested only in receiving from them a service motivated by love, He did not place them “beyond the possibility of wrong-doing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty yield to yield or to withhold obedience.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 48.
There is no point in saying that one has full liberty to withhold obedience if there is no opportunity to do so. Therefore, God provided them not only with the full liberty to withhold obedience but also the means to do so by placing the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden, That was the one tree the Lord did not give them. It was His

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property, not theirs. All He asked of them was to respect it as being His. If they could always do this, and teach their children the same principles, then there could never be unhappiness in the world. There could be only perfect trust and security.
If they could learn perfect respect for another’s property, there would never be any stealing, adultery, or murder. If they could respect the time belonging to another, there could never be a Sabbath breaker.
This is what the law is all about—respect for that which belongs to another. On the first table of the law is the area of respect for that which is God’s, and, on the second, for that which is man’s.
If Adam and Eve could not respect this tree which God had reserved for the express purpose of teaching them this lesson, then, with the principle of respect being discarded, there could only be murders, thefts, adulteries, and all such terrible outworkings in the lives of men and women upon this earth.
They were given the clearest warnings of this in the words, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17.
It is just as important to see what the text does not say, as to see what it says. It does not say that in the day when they ate of it the Lord would. destroy them. It says that they would die.  Granted, the text does not spell out the way they would die, and it could be interpreted to mean that they would die at God’s hands.
But Adam and Eve did not understand it that way and Satan knew this. He knew that they understood God’s words to mean that the destruction would be the result of their eating of that tree and not the act of God.
Therefore, Satan set to work to destroy their confidence in that interpretation of God’s Word and to substitute it with one of his own.
The certainty that Adam and Eve did understand God’s words to mean that their deaths would come because of their disobedience and not at the hand of a punishing God, is confirmed by Satan himself. This is deduced in the following way. Satan came, not to endorse God’s truth, but to overthrow it. Therefore, his interpretation of that Word was a false one designed to overthrow their faith in the real interpretation. There were only two possible ways of understanding God’s words. They either meant that God would personally kill them for disobeying Him, or they would die as a consequence of their wrong deeds. It is only necessary to ask which of the two Satan denied, to perceive which is the truth, and what he supported to know which is the error.
Throughout that conversation with Eve, Satan worked up to and stressed the idea that there was no danger in eating of the tree. That would not bring death. He insinuated that there was-another reason for God’s stipulations, a reason entirely motivated self-protectionism and self interest. Therefore, he implied, without directly saying it, that if there was

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any death at all it would be God’s directly administered at, not the outworking of broken law. He was too cunning to confront Eve with this counter-interpretation in the first moments of their contact. Firstly, he must inject just enough doubt into her mind to get her thoughts working in the desired direction. So he asked in an incredulous tone if it was really true that the Lord had denied to a creature so beautiful, intelligent and worthy as herself, the right to partake of the fruit of the tree. To give more power to the suggestion “. . . the serpent continued, in a musical voice, with subtle praise of her surpassing loveliness; and his words were not displeasing.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 54.
In her reply. Eve misquoted God’s words thus showing that doubt had begun to form. Whereas God had said, “Thou shalt surely die,” she quoted Him as saying. “Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Genesis 3:3
The word “lest”, denies the certainty and admits only a possibility. Her use of it transmitted to the serpent the information that her conviction of nature of God’s law was weakening.
Thus he was emboldened to make a direct attack on the law and the character of the One Who had made it. So he said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” Verse 4.
This is the attack on the law. God had said that disobedience to the law would bring death, but here Satan was saying that the law could be broken with impunity. He was arguing that there is nothing in the law which affords a protection from death. Such a claim is opposite from the truth expressed by God to Adam and Eve wherein He had said that breaking the law would bring death upon the transgressor. It is the very opposite from the truth expressed elsewhere in the Word of God and as outlined in the last chapter. Eve had the choice then of whether she would believe the truth as God told it, or Satan’s proposition. That choice is still ours today. We can either believe that the law is God’s loving provision to enable us to safely enjoy the wondrous blessings contained in the mighty powers He has given us, or we can believe Satan’s lie that the law itself is no protection is from death.
Having made the assault on the law, Satan follows it with an attack on God’s character. In order to sustain his statement that breaking the law would not bring death, he said that there was another purpose for God’s saying it would. Here are his words. “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened. and up shall be as God, (margin) knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4, 5.
He offered an altogether different reason for the framing of the law, from the purpose envisaged by God. He represented God as One Who was deeply concerned lest any of His creatures should ascend to a position of equality with Himself, so that the glory, honour, and power which he had previously enjoyed as His own special privilege, would have to be shared with others.

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While God had not told them, and for very good reason, Satan insinuated, there were in that tree certain magical properties which would project those who partook of it, into a gloriously superior station in the universe. While God had not revealed this to them, Satan continued, He certainly knew about it and was desperately afraid that they would partake of the tree and thus become equal with Himself. In order to be secure from such a terrible contingency, He had invented the device of puffing into them a fear of eating of the tree.
This was the base from which Satan would later develop the teaching that it is God Who destroys. There was no need to take this teaching all the way then, for he could accomplish the objective of the moment without doing so Having once established in Adam and Eve, the idea that God hat-I invented the teaching that disobedience to the law would bring depth in order to safeguard His own position, it was one more logical step to believe that God would destroy. In fact, it is illogical to think otherwise
If God was the kind of being who would stoop to inventing a lie in order to safeguard His own position, and should that lie be discovered and the people do the very thing He had commanded them not to do, then He would not quietly acquiesce to sharing His throne with them. He would naturally resort to other measures to accomplish the same purpose. The point is that a being of the character Satan represented God to be, would be unable to do anything else. Deception having failed, He would be driven to use the only other weapon available—force. He would enter into direct, physical conflict with those who sought to climb into His place and in the end when even that failed. He would have to liquidate them
In the Garden of Eden. Satan assumed the role of interpreter of God’s words. Adam and Eve accepted that interpretation and partook of the forbidden fruit. By this means they sought to make themselves equal with God. Instead they ushered the human race into the long and fearful history of suffering and death which has been the portion of sinful man. Throughout that dark period, God has been working constantly to restore the lost condition, but through it all, Satan has continued to offer himself as the interpreter of God’s actions and words to men.
The result is that men have come to see God as One Who is constantly seeking to preserve His position and power by physically going to war with man and destroying him if he will not yield to God’s authority. In this Satan has been extremely successful, for the vast majority of mankind both in and out of the churches, firmly believe that the destructions which have wasted this world are the handiwork of a God Who is determined to assert His authority and preserve His position.
It is from these errors that the truth of God is to deliver us and it is the purpose of this book to assist in such deliverance. Before us lies the choice as to which we shall believe—the truth of God which reveals that God’s law is His wonderful provision for the blessing of every one of His children, or
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Satan’s lie that it is a cunning device to serve the interests of God at the expense of His creatures.
Thus, from the sure Word of God, comes the revelation of the time and place where, for the first time upon this earth the idea was advanced that the law of God was a measure instituted to assure Him of His rights, and that, therefore, disregard of it would not bring death as a direct consequence.
That time was at the very commencement of human history and the place was the Garden of Eden.
Likewise, the instigator of these ideas is unmasked.
He is the devil, the enemy of God and man.
Furthermore. the sad outworking of the acceptance of those ideas has been witnessed with terrible clarity throughout human history. All the misery, frustrations, suffering, disease and death, are directly traceable to that teaching.
What more evidence than this is needed to reject such philosophies entirely and eternally? This is more than enough. Thus, in reality, it is made a simple mailer to decide what the real truth is on the subject. The author of this book together with those whose support made its production possible, emphatically reject Satan’s arguments. We see God in an altogether different light from that which the devil would have us view Him., That law is God’s love gift to us, wonderfully designed to protect and preserve and to make available to us the highest opportunities of progress  and development.
While we are now aware of who authored these rebellious ideas, we are to understand that this does not explain how God worked these principles out in every one of the difficult complications introduced by the sin problem. But a foundation has been laid upon which such comprehensions can be built. It will now be possible to approach every situation, knowing that the devil will continue attempting to cloud the mind with the erroneous view of what God did, exactly as he did in the Garden. There will now be the blessed tendency to reject such an interpretation and search further for the real one.
That foundation being laid, the time has come to study God’s behaviour as far as it can be understood, during the interlude of sin. May the Lord assist every reader to prayerfully and patiently wrestle with these deep problems until the truth is fully clarified in the mind unto righteousness.

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CHAPTER TEN

A Summary

So far, study has been mainly given to the constitution of God’s government as it was formed and operated under conditions where no sin existed. It was a perfectly idealistic situation which worked faultlessly to the unmarred happiness of every creature in the universe.
Condensed into summary form, the character of God as revealed in that constitution is as follows:
The laws of that kingdom are the transcript of God’s character. Inasmuch as God is a Saviour, His laws are also designed to be a protector and deliverer from the perils contained in the existence of power.
The character of the law and of God being one, the righteousness of God is purely and entirely a voluntary, spontaneous obedience which is in no way forced either by Himself or by circumstances.
This is the only kind of obedience He will accept from His creatures—a service which springs from an intelligent conviction of His goodness, impartial justice, and love. Therefore, He created them to be like Himself both in outward resemblance and in character so that they would be able to appreciate the wonderful nature of His law and the constitution of His government.
Because He could accept only this kind of service, God could not introduce any form of compulsion such as the threat of punishment, for this would stimulate within His children the disposition to obey because they were afraid not to. No kingdom can be truly happy when the subjects obey from fear no matter how slight that fear may be.
Therefore, God gave every one of His created beings the full liberty to either give or withhold obedience, together with the opportunity to do so either way. In doing so, He demonstrated His perfect justice by clearly outlining to them the dangers inherent in the mighty powers given for their blessing and service, the protective qualities in the law, and the sure effects of disregarding that law. Having done that He left them free to go whichever way they should choose.
Under these conditions of government, so different from those practised by sinful man, there can be no place for the raining of punishments and destructions upon those who do not see things God’s Way. That system was fully operational until certain beings exercised their God-given choice to go another way. During that time there was certainly no need to punish or destroy anyone for nobody had ever disobeyed the divine principles. Death and destruction were completely unknown.
This means that during all that period, the perfect system of government never came under any real test or challenge. Therefore, if there were

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any weaknesses in the system, there was nothing to develop them to where they would be clearly visible.
But with the advent of the rebellion of the covering cherub, Lucifer, who made himself to be the devil and Satan, such a challenge was raised against the constitution. Before us, in the Word of God and in the annals of human history, is the record of the testing of that constitution so far as that test has gone. The final pressure is yet to be brought upon it in the earth’s closing days.
It is God’s affirmation that every principle of His government is eternally perfect, requires no adjustment or modification, and is equally applicable in situations of sinfulness as well as sinlessness. He presents His law as the only standard of righteousness for the dwellers in the purity of heaven and for those who must dwell in the midst of a sin-cursed people.
If God is wholly correct in His assertions—and certainly the publishers of this book believe that He is—then He cannot introduce any actions to deal with the sin problem, different from what He did before it appeared. Therefore, as surely as He gave His creatures full liberty to withhold obedience before they fell, must He still give them the same liberty thereafter. The granting of that liberty places God where He can neither punish nor destroy those who exercise it.
Before the fall, motivated by a heart of wondrous love, God made all things to perfection and gave them freely and fully to His children. Then, to save them from the awful possibilities involved in power out of control He expressed His love further by giving them a law to save them from suffering and death. Thus, before the fall, God fulfilled the role of a Saviour. If His claims in regard to His kingdom and its rulership are correct, then after the fall He must still occupy the role of a Saviour.
Before the fall, the law which among other things lays down the maxim, “Thou shalt not kill,” was the direct expression of His character. Accordingly it was not in Him to kill. Since the fall, that law still declares, “Thou shalt not kill,” and continues to be the expression of His character. This being so, it is still not in His nature to kill and for this reason, He still cannot do it.
It is God’s declaration that He changes not, that He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” that He is the “uncorruptible God,” that with Him there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; Romans 1:23; James 1:17. Link this great truth with the principle that what we do is the result of what we are. Before the fall, God, in faithfully acting out His character, destroyed no one. Therefore, if after the fall, He did resort to destroying, His character must have changed in order to make this possible. But God has truthfully declared that He has not changed.
Pitted against God’s testimonies, are the devil’s charges. While fully admitting that before the rebellion, no destroying ever appeared in God’s activities, 

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Satan claims that the appearance of the sin problem has imposed upon God the necessity of dealing with this by liquidating those who will not serve Him.
Therefore, Satan accuses, the principles of God’s government are not perfect. This is proved, he assures all, because the Lord had to change His ways to do during the crisis what He had never done before. If Satan could verify these accusations, that which would make them so serious was the fact that God, Who bears witness that He knows all things, even the end from the beginning, had stated that His principles were so perfect that no matter what circumstances might arise, they would never require changing. If, on the other hand, the Lord had admitted that His system of government would only operate successfully with the full cooperation of every subject, requiring the introduction of death to defectors from it, then Satan would have had no case to argue. In fact, he would not have been there to argue for as a defector he would have been eliminated immediately.
Satan is as desperately anxious to win our allegiance today as he was in the Garden of Eden. Before us, then, is the task of deciding who is correct in this great controversy. Some have been taught to almost blindly have faith in God, but this is not sufficient, Our faith must be intelligent, for it to be effective. The area in which it must be truly intelligent is in this very field of the principles of the constitution of God’s government. Let the seriousness of the message of this statement be fully realized by all. “In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His word; they can honour Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government and purposes, and act in accordance with them.” The Great Controversy, 593.
The nature of God’s constitution as it was formed and operated before the entrance of iniquity, has been clearly laid out in the Word of God. It is not difficult to understand what and how it was.
The task before us now is the much more difficult one of searching out the operation of those principles during the period when it was under the fearful test imposed by Satan and wicked men. This is the area which this study now enters. It is a field in which men have already formed their ideas of the behaviour and character of God. Men under the tutelage of Satan, by his interpretations of the Bible, have gained a very definite picture of God. Such a picture can only be correct if the devil is correct in his assertions that God has had to resort to acts of destruction in order to solve the sin problem.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Contrasting Statements

Unquestionably. God’s infinite love was manifested in the aeons before the sin disaster intruded upon the unblemished happiness of the creatures throughout the universe, but the manifestation of that love is even more wonderfully revealed since sin’s entry.
Yet, while no one who has any understanding of God’s Word, would even consider that He punished or destroyed before the appearance of iniquity, the vast majority are strongly convinced that necessity has demanded such actions from God since the rebellion began.
There are at least two reasons for this thinking. Firstly, the human mind has long been educated to believe that the only way to overcome rebellion is by force, Therefore, because man is conscious of no other way than this, and because he is aware that the Lord does have a problem which must be solved, man, unless especially enlightened by God’s Word under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, cannot see that there can be any alternative but for the Lord to use force. But there is another way. Examinations will be made later, of incidents in Bible history to show that God’s actions can be viewed in a different light altogether.
A second reason is that the mind has been trained to read Scripture references according to a certain method of interpretation. When read according to that system there are many Scriptures which will be understood as saying that God punishes, destroys and liquidates.
Consider the following examples.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
“And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.
“And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7.
“And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. Genesis 6:17.
“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
“And He overthrew those cities and all the plains and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” Genesis 19:24, 25.
“And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the over-

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throw, when He overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.” Genesis 19:29.
And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have, put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people so. Exodus 4:21.
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. And He hardened Pharaoh’s heart that. he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Exodus 7:3, 13.
“And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God a Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. Exodus 32:27.
“The Lord is regarded as cruel by many in requiring his people to make war with other nations. They say that it is contrary to His benevolent character. But He Who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands. Man has no right to say to His Maker, Why doest Thou thus? There is no injustice in His character. He is the Ruler of the world, and a large portion of His subjects have rebelled against His authority, and have trampled upon His law. . . . He has used His people as instruments of His wrath, to punish wicked nations, who have vexed them, and seduced them into idolatry.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1117.
“It was to be impressed upon Israel that in the conquest of Canaan they were not to fight for themselves, but simply as instruments to execute the will of God; not to seek for riches or self-exaltation, but the glory of Jehovah their King.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 491.
“Like the men before the Flood, the Canaanites lived only to blaspheme Heaven and defile the earth. And both love and justice demanded the prompt execution of these rebels against God and foes to man. ibid., 492.
“And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.” Joshua 10:11.
“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” Matthew 22:7.
A careful reading of the whole parable of which this last verse is a part, and the commentary on it in Christ’s Object Lessons, 307-309 will show that the king is God, the armies were those of the Romans, the murder were the Jews and the city was Jerusalem. The text was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

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Therefore the text is really saying, “And when God heard thereof He was wroth: and God sent forth His armies, the Romans, and God destroyed the Jews and God burned up Jerusalem.”
“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” Revelation 20:9.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of statements of this nature. There is no special point in assembling every such quotation here. However, these are more than sufficient to provide the examples needed to show that there are many such Scriptures, which when interpreted according to the way our minds have been accustomed to interpret them, leave one with no option but to believe that God does use force to liquidate those who have rebelled against Him.
There are many folk today who read these texts, interpret them according to long-accustomed methods, and are quite satisfied to believe that God does behave as an executioner to those who refuse to obey His laws.
But in doing so they have to ignore several things. Firstly, there are quite a number of statements which say the opposite from what these statements are interpreted to mean. Secondly, there are the great principles which are embodied in the constitution of God’s government. Thirdly, there are the terrible implications of holding such beliefs about God.
These will be considered in turn as we proceed, but 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 no such thing as a contradiction in God’s Word.
Here are some examples of such statements:
“The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” “Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.” Psalms 145:17; 119: 138.
The Lord is righteous and the law is righteous. Therefore God is what the law is. It is the “transcript of His own character.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 315, and that law declares “Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13. Therefore, it is not in the law to kill, it is not in the character of God to kill.
So, “God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have destroyer himself.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 84.
“God destroys no one.” Testimonies 5:120.
“God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to the 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 Great Controversy, 36.

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“Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to permit Satan to accomplish his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why? The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the earth is ripe for the harvest.” Testimonies 6:388, 389.
“This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it.” Testimonies 7:141.
“God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Not a sparrow falls to the, ground without His notice. Those who work evil toward their fellow men, saying, How doth God know? will one day be called upon to meet Ions-deferred vengeance. In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which, shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God will show that He is indeed the living God. He will say to the angels, ‘No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy, Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one .degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work.” The Review and Herald, September 17, 1901.
When Jesus was asked to destroy the Samaritans who had rejected Him, He replied to His disciples, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are
of.	For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Luke 9:55, 56.
“There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas.” The Desire of Ages, 487.
 “Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy and love: and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.” ibid., 759.
“The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority.” ibid., 22.
We know that God does nothing that is contrary to the principles of His government. Therefore, He does not use force.
“Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.” The Ministry of Healing. 113.
Here is a compilation of statements, emphatic and clear, asserting that God is not an executioner, does not punish, and destroys no one. When

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these and the first set are viewed side by side, there appears no possibility of their being reconcilable. No attempt has been made to search out and copy every statement which exists for one side or the other. This is not necessary because any further quotations would only say that which is already quoted in these representative selections.
These apparent contradictions present the Bible student with a problem. For some, it is “solved” by simply discarding faith in the Word of God, charging it and its Author with duplicity and inconsistency. Others simply ignore the words which they are unable to understand or do not really desire to accept, while they carefully collect the opposite set. building their faith accordingly.
This was the course adopted by the Pharisees and Jews prior to and at the first advent. In the Old Testament there were many prophetic statements describing both the first and second coming of Christ. One set naturally spoke of His coming in obscurity, shame, ignominy, rejection and to final crucifixion. The other set described a coming in indescribable power, glory and triumph in which all His enemies would be totally annihilated. To the Jewish mind, especially as it lost the Spirit’s illumination, it was impossible to reconcile these seeming contradiction . Their solution was to ignore every statement which spoke of humility and obscurity and to dwell heavily on those which spoke of power and glory. Thus Satan trained their minds to reject the Saviour when He came. So clever was he, that he used the Scriptures themselves to accomplish this. Once they had embarked on that wrong principle of interpretation, then, the more they studied their Bibles, the more conditioned they became to reject the Saviour when He appeared. He came exactly as the Scriptures said He would but not as they had read the prophecies. Therefore, because He did not fulfil the set of prophecies they had gathered, they rejected Him and thus lost their eternal lives.
The story of their experience contains a lesson of the most solemn warning. While we understand the differences between the comings of Christ, we find ourselves confronted with other subjects about which two different sets of statements are written. The subject of God’s character has one set which states that He does not destroy and another which says He does. We can do what the Pharisees did by selecting the set which we prefer to believe, carefully gathering all the quotations supporting that view and discarding or ignoring the others. Should we do this we will emerge with a view of the subject as erroneous as that of the Pharisees in regard Christ’s coming. The consequences for us will be the same as for them—the, loss of eternal life.
The true student of God’s Word will not make this mistake. He will ignore no statements no matter how they may seem to contradict others. He will candidly acknowledge that so far as his understanding has now developed, these statements remain for him a flat contradiction of each

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other, though by faith, he knows that in God’s Word there is no real contradiction. Consequently, he will rest in the conviction that the problem is only apparent and not real. Confessing the weakness and frailty of the human mind, he will recognize that the difficulty lies in an inadequate depth of spiritual perception on his part. Undisturbed by the clamour of voices around, he will move forward in quiet faith, patiently studying God’s Word, knowing that, under God’s tutelage, such revelations of the mysteries will come to him as will remove all contradictions, providing instead, a perfect harmony, where previously only confusion existed.
As the spirit-enlightened student of God’s Word thus comes into possession of a harmonious system of truth, he will find that those who follow out the alternative system of interpretation, by carefully collecting only those statements supporting their own preferred view, will charge him with twisting the Scriptures. They will accuse him of making the Word of God say what it does not. They will argue emphatically that the Bible says ‘God destroyed them.” Then they will ask, “What could be written more plainly than that?
One might counter by saying, It also says, “God destroys no man.” this will have no effect. Their minds have been programmed to accept only that which they have chosen to believe. No impression can be made by quoting contrary statements. They merely entrench themselves more firmly behind their list. while in glowing indignation, they level the charge that the plainly written words of God are being rejected.
Two things must be established at this point. One is that this problem cannot be solved by simply countering statements with other statements. Secondly, it cannot be resolved by twisting or changing the statements to conform to our preferred ideas. In this study great care will be taken not to do this. Even so, we still expect that the opponents of the position taken in this publication will Level this accusation against us. We will strive to make our position so clear that such an accusation will in fact be groundless. We ask each objective, candid, and responsible reader to carefully check to see if in any way the Word of God is twisted to suit a personal or private view as these pages unfold. We believe it will be found that the only interpretations given to the Scriptures will be those found in the Scriptures themselves, with no private interpretation being offered. At the same time it will be perceived that all disharmony between the two sets of statements will disappear.
There has been the careful and frank quoting of the two different and seemingly contradictory compilations, in order to demonstrate that there is a problem which needs solving. How can this problem be solved so as to bring the thoughtful, responsible student to an accurate knowledge of what the Word of God is teaching? That is the important question which we must now study.
Our recollections go back to that time when without question we did believe that God destroys. We understood that after great patience and
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longsuffering, when God had sought to win the sinner, He was finally left with no recourse but to obliterate from the face of the earth, in an act of signal destruction, those who refused to repent and come into harmony with the principles of His government. For many years this idea remained unchallenged. Meanwhile, our understanding of God’s ways was becoming far more extensive as with careful, conscientious purpose we studied God’s Word. In so doing, we arrived finally at that point where other statements and principles began to unfold. These principles denied the position we already had in regard to God’s character. We could not honestly reject the new concepts and at the same time could not easily revoke the old. Yet, there was no solution as to how they could be reconciled.
Faith was a steadying factor in the problem. Faith said that there are no contradictions in God’s Word. Faith said that we must take both of these statements as they read. Faith said that in due time, the God of heaven Himself would provide the answers if we trusted Him and continued our careful, objective study.
In my own personal experience it came about as follows. As far back as 1952,1 had never doubted the way in which God dealt with the unrepentant. It was plain to me that He destroyed them in the lake of fire. In that year however, the Sabbath School lessons in the church of which I was a member, dealt with the origin of evil. We looked deeply and carefully into the nature of God’s government, the problems which arose in Lucifer’s mind, the issues of his challenge against God’s government and the way in which God would deal with that problem. It was not as clear then as it has been set out in the previous chapters, but we did gain a beautiful and wonderful grasp of the constitution of God’s government.
We saw how upon this earth, there was to be worked out in absolute fairness so far as God was concerned, the great struggle between good and evil. Good was to conquer upon its own merits without the assistance of an overpowering physical force. I shall never forget the soul-filled rejoicing with which I grasped these precious principles of truth. I possessed understandings of the great controversy the like of which I had never known before, but which have increased in depth since that day. Today I cannot recommend too strongly, the necessity of every soul making a deep and detailed study of the issues involved in the great controversy from its origin to its end.
A few weeks later my new found belief was to receive a serious challenge. The Sabbath School lessons moved on through the fall of Adam and Eve, the death of Abel and the proliferation of people upon the earth. Then we came to the flood.
The implications of the standard view of what God did in the obliteration of the human race in Noah’s day were very serious indeed. I saw that the commonly accepted view of what God did back there, meant that He was forced to admit that righteousness was not able to withstand the

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crushing tide of evil, so that God and Christ were obliged to step in, exercising Their own superior physical power to reverse the tide, erase the entire company of Satan’s followers, and preserve alive only Their own.
I imagined a conversation between the Father and the Son along these lines. “In the beginning We did undertake to fight this great controversy out on the basis that righteousness could stand on its own merits. But now it is clear that sin has reached such proportions that it is on the verge of a world take-over. At the moment We only have eight subjects remaining and in a short time, these too, will have died or passed into Satan’s camp thus making him the total victor in this struggle. So we must now act by coming to the rescue of righteousness. Let us step in with our limitless, infinite power, and obliterate the entire side standing for Satan. We will preserve only our own people and thus make a complete, fresh start. Thereafter, We will maintain the use of force in appropriate places to ensure that Satan never again brings the world to this same crisis point.”
This implied that God had to revise His method of dealing with the sin problem. It revealed Him as beginning in one way, but finding Himself later obliged to introduce measures not contemplated in the beginning. This made God less than infinite, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. It meant that He was not really God because God has perfect foreknowledge, and needs no revisions, compromises, or changes as time goes by.
In this way I found a serious problem on my hands. Nothing could deny the clarity of the principles underlining God’s government or of His way of dealing with the sin problem. Yet, at the same time, the story of the flood seemed to show a God who was later forced to introduce an element of compulsion and destruction. While, on one hand, I could not and would not deny the truths learned in the origin of evil, on the other, I was unable to see wherein the popular view of the flood was wrong. So, for the first time, a real challenge to long-held concepts and views was presented to me. At first I could not meet that challenge. There were no answers to it.
My attitude was one of faith. I made no attempt to twist or bend either side of the question to suit the other. I believed implicitly that in the Word of God there are no contradictions. Those contradictions which appear as such are there only because of an Inadequate understanding on our part. I likewise believed that God would give light and understanding to those who humbly and sincerely sought for it. So I studied, prayed and waited. The time came when further evidence began to accumulate and piece by piece the puzzle came together until I found a perfect reconciliation between God’s stated attitude to the sin problem and the story of the flood.
I recount this development in my own thinking to indicate the way in which we all may come to the saving truth of God’s Word. There are problems in understanding and in interpretation. At the same time there are clearly laid out rules In the Bible as to the way in which the problems can be solved. If we will learn to follow those Bible explanations of interpretation we cannot but arrive at the living truth of God.

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This chapter has been devoted to the recognition that there is a very real problem to be solved because of the existence of apparent contradictions in the Word of God. As there are statements which plainly say that God does destroy and others saying that He does not destroy, we strongly recommend that each reader face the fact that such a problem exists. At the same time we encourage each believer to realize that there are no real contradictions in God’s Word, that the Bible is written for man’s understanding, that these problems are therefore solvable and that simple trusting faith in God will bring clear understandings in this connection. If we are prepared to adopt this attitude then we are ready to proceed on to the study of the way in which the problem may be solved.

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CHAPTER TWELVE

Statements And Principles

The problem before us is obviously one of interpretation; of determining just what the words used in Scripture are intended to say. Today, multiplied versions of what the Scriptures are supposed to say are clear proof that there are many false interpretations of God’s Word, for only one interpretation can be correct. The false are many, the true is singular.
We depend for our understanding of God’s character, on the revelation of it as given in His Word. That Word represents the effort to reveal in the limited framework of human language, the height, the depth, the length and the breadth of the infinite. As such, it is a masterpiece of simplification, perfectly designed for the human mind to understand.
But, if we are to arrive at a correct, and therefore life-saving, knowledge of God’s character, we must firstly understand what the correct principles of Bible interpretation are. This is obviously important. To begin studying the Word of God with an incorrect principle of interpretation, is to end up far removed from the truth. In fact, the more intensely and enduringly the study is pursued, the further removed from truth one will be.
It is a common assertion for one who teaches error to solemnly protest that he has been studying in his subject directly from the Scriptures for many, many, years. “Is that not convincing proof” he asks. “that what I am presenting is the truth?”
To many, a claim of this nature is impressive, but, to the true student, it is no proof at all.  His mind probes with the question. “Has the person making this claim spent those years studying according to the correct principles of Bible interpretation or not?” If not, then the true child of God knows that those thirty years of study have removed that man just that much further from the truth. It would be better had he not studied at all.
In the early 1960’s, a man arose in the United States who began to proclaim that the second coming of Christ would take place in October, 1964. When challenged by Scripture evidences that this would not be so, he protested with great solemnity and authority that he had studied this matter for the past thirty years and, therefore, he knew with certainty that what he said was the truth and nothing but the truth.
Never learning, the man simply set another date when time proved his prophecy a delusion. When the second date failed, he set a third and a fourth. Finally he disappeared into obscurity.
How much wiser he would have been to have gone back and carefully checked his principles of Bible interpretation and methods of study.
The fact is that few people do approach the study of God’s Word with any real system of interpretation clearly laid out. They search through the

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Word and form their own opinions of what they think the passages mean. This is a haphazard and dangerous practice.
In our approach to the subject of God’s character, we dare not do this. We have before us a very real problem in the existence of two sets of statements which can and have been understood to say quite the opposite from each other. The only safe way to approach this difficulty is along the lines of correct Scriptural interpretation.
To use these principles, they must firstly be understood. Our task is to set them forth and, having done so, adhere to them strictly. Every view set forth here will be in accordance with these principles of interpretation. Therefore, any who seek to disprove this book’s message must firstly show wherein the principles of interpretation upon which it is developed are wrong, or wherein the principles being correct, the conclusions drawn are not in harmony with those principles. If neither of these can be shown, then the book’s message is correct.
It is from the Bible itself that we obtain the guidelines for its interpretation. Not only does the Bible give us the message of truth but it also informs us how those messages are to be comprehended. Our standing in this respect is the principle laid down in 2 Peter 1:20. “Knowing this first that no prophecy is of any private interpretation.”
Let the message of this verse be forever impressed upon the mind of every person approaching the study of God’s Word. It provides no room for private interpretation because no prophecy of the Scripture Is to be of private interpretation.
Some might tend to limit the application of this verse to those areas of Scripture presenting foretellings of future events because this is the most generally accepted definition of the word “prophecy.”
In a limited sense this is what the word “prophecy” means, but in its fuller and broader sense, “prophecy” applies to any revelations which come from the prophet. When this is understood, it will be recognized that every word in the Bible is prophecy. The prophets were not only foretellers. They were forthtellers, speaking forth whatever words God gave them, whether they be counsels, admonitions, revelations of the gospel or predictions of the future. Therefore this verse plainly lays down the rule that no prophecy—no word of the entire Scriptures—is to be of any private interpretation
We can now ask the question, “What is private interpretation as distinct from Scriptural interpretation?” Private interpretation is that which emanates from the mind of man as his considered opinion of what the divine revelations are intended to say.
He arrives at these conclusions according to the definitions of words already formed in his mind. His mind is a dictionary to which he makes reference whenever he reads a word. When he encounters a word not already stored in the limited compendium of the mind, he then turns to a

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comprehensive dictionary such as Oxford or Webster. Having obtained the meaning from there, he applies this word to the Scripture being read and develops therefrom an understanding of what the Scripture is supposed to say.
We may well define this method of Bible study. as definitions by the dictionary. It is one way of studying the Bible and we may be assured that if this method is used, then inevitably, certain views will be established.
For instance, when men read in the Scriptures that God sent the flood upon the earth and that He destroyed men by raining fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, they will without thought or question take the definitions of the key words, “sent,” “destroyed” and “rained”, as those words are already defined in their minds. Such definitions can only give them the picture of God personally and directly using His mighty power to lash out and liquidate His enemies.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that while this method of interpretation is used, no conclusion other than this can be drawn. Inevitably, all who use this method must believe that God is a grim executioner and that He is doing things after the fall that He never did before.
The limited, erroneous nature of this method is exposed when it is seen that it leaves its adherents with inexplicable contradictions. They are left with no explanation of the other set of statements and the great principles which undergird God’s character. They conveniently ignore those Scriptures, concentrating their study on the ones which support their chosen view. When confronted with the extracts contradicting their concepts, they find refuge in two devices. One is to try and warp the difficult declarations to fit their view. The other is to assert that their view is supported by the preponderance of evidence (as if the truths of God’s Word are determined by the weight of numbers).
Those who learn and adopt the Scriptural method of interpretation, do not have this problem. They find that the whole of God’s Word becomes one harmonious pattern of saving truth. They find that they can take those statements of Scripture, which to others are a contradiction, and see in them only perfect consistency.
Why then, is the method of defining by the dictionary, words describing the character and behaviour of God, so certain to lead to erroneous views of Scripture? Surely, it may he argued, the very purpose of the dictionary is to make clear what words mean? If we do not use the dictionary to define our terms then to what shall we turn? How will we ever know the meaning of anything?
These are excellent questions.
Within the dictionary are contained the definitions of words as those words describe human behaviour. This is the key point. In this field, the dictionary is the undisputed authority and is to be heeded. But the dictionary is compiled by men who do not understand or who are not even concerned

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with divine behaviour. If divine and human behaviour were the same, then the dictionary would serve both, but they are not the same. They are very different indeed. The Lord has unmistakably warned us of this.
God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than
thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8,9.
God’s ways are not our ways. They are different. They are as much higher than man’s ways as the heavens are above the earth. Any one who would arrive at a correct concept of God’s character must engrave this statement on his mind and continually refer to it as a guideline in his study. He should programme himself to test every assertion, every concept, and every idea forming in his mind, by the words of this statement. Whenever, as he reads the words of God he forms a picture of divine behaviour as being the same as human behaviour, then, in the light of this Scripture, he must know that the concept formed, is erroneous.
While it is correct to conclude that every view of God which holds that He behaves as man does is incorrect, it Is not necessarily right to assume that any view which attributes to God a different way from man is the truth for it is possible to propose procedures common neither to God nor man.
This necessitates having two different sets of definitions for the same key words. One set is already well known to us, being the dictionary and everyday usage of the words as they describe human behaviour. What needs to be developed in human understanding is that other definition which defines the words as they are used by God to describe His own behaviour. Reference is made here to such keywords as “destroy”, “justice,” “judgment,” “punish,” and such like.
Man destroys. We know that. We also know what man’s way of destruction is. We know how he goes about it and have no difficulty in defining this word as it applies to human behaviour.
The Bible says. “God destroys.” Therefore, it is the truth that God does destroy and no attempt will be made to deny that. But the Bible also says that God’s ways are not men’s ways. From this we can only conclude that God’s way of destroying is altogether different from man’s way. Between thorn there is no similarity
Therefore, the conclusion is drawn that when the Word declares that God does destroy, it is to be understood that this work is done in an altogether different manner from man’s way, while, when it declares that God does not destroy, the caution is being sounded that God does not do it according to the human method.
While this is the guideline of study offered to us in Isaiah 55:8, 9, the full confirmation of this principle will be found in the re-definition of these key words as they apply to the description of divine behaviour as distinct from the human. This Is the key to harmonizing the apparently contradic-
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tory statements Therefore, while the dictionary must be retained for determining the meaning of words used to describe human activity, it is to be discarded when the knowledge of God’s procedures is being sought.
Having determined that these alternate definitions are not written in the dictionary, question arises as to where they can be found. The Bible is to be used as its own dictionary. Only when we have learnt to use it as such can a correct comprehension of its messages be obtained.
God understood the problems facing the human being and because He intended His Word to be an understandable message to His people. He carefully incorporated within the Scriptures, means whereby a clear definition of the words as He uses them in describing His own behaviour can be found. Thus there is no excuse for anybody not obtaining the Scriptural definitions. They are there. God has provided them and it is our duty to search them out and, having found them to apply them to the study of God’s Word.
The great second Advent Movement was the mightiest spiritual undertaking this side of Pentecost. It was brought into existence by the revelation of truth and it was built upon a foundation of truth. That truth was arrived at by correct principles of Bible interpretation, giving us a tremendous endorsement of the system laid out in the above paragraphs. When the founding father of the Advent Movement first began the systematic study of the Bible, he did so, not according to dictionary interpretations of words, but according to Bible definitions of those words.
We turn now to the account of that man’s method of Bible study.
“Miller publicly professed his faith in the religion which he had despised. But his infidel associates were not slow to bring forward all those arguments which he himself had often urged against the divine authority of the Scriptures. He was not then prepared to answer them; but he reasoned that if the Bible is a revelation from God, it must be consistent with itself; and that as it was given for man’s instruction, it must be adapted to his understanding. He determined to study the Scriptures for himself, and ascertain if every apparent contradiction could not be harmonized.
“Endeavoring to lay aside all preconceived opinion, and dispensing with commentaries, he compared Scripture with Scripture by the aid of the marginal references and the concordance. He pursued his study in regular and methodical manner; beginning with Genesis, and reading verse by verse, he proceeded no faster than the meaning of the several passages so unfolded as to leave him free from all embarrassment. When he found anything obscure, it was his custom to compare it with every other text which seemed to have any reference to the matter under consideration. Every word was permitted to have its proper bearing upon the subject of the text, and if his view of it harmonized with every collateral passage, it ceased to be a difficulty. Thus whenever he met with a passage hard to be understood, he found an explanation in some other portion of the Scrip-

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tures. As he studied with earnest prayer for divine enlightenment, that which had before appeared dark to his understanding was made clear. He experienced the truth of the psalmist’s words, ‘The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.’ “ The Great Controversy, 319, 320.
Miller’s method of Bible study is strongly endorsed as being the correct one in two ways. Firstly, while the religious world of his day was using anything but this method of study, he alone, by using it, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit arrived at the great, timely, saving truth of the advent message. It is safe to say that if Miller had not used these methods of Bible study, he certainly would never have arrived at the truths he did. The second endorsement comes from the fact that here in The Great Controversy, the whole system is laid out as a guideline for all who will follow it.
Let notice now be taken of the main points in this system. Firstly there is the mental approach. Miller reasoned that the Bible, being a revelation from God, must be consistent with itself. The necessity on the student’s part of recognizing that there is no such thing as a contradiction in the Word of God cannot be over-emphasized, When this conviction is firmly established, no effort will be made to wrench or twist Scriptures to fit in with other Scripture. Rather, the student will study with care, patience, and perseverance until the principles are so well understood that the statements are brought into perfect harmony with each other.
Secondly, Miller recognized that inasmuch as the Bible is expressly written for man’s instruction, it must be adapted to his understanding. In other words, he was convinced that the Bible was not beyond the reach of man’s intellectual grasp. It was written for man, therefore it could be understood by man. Again, when a student has this conviction, he will not dismiss as impossible to comprehend, those aspects of Scripture which do not fit in with his initial concepts.
Thirdly, Miller endeavoured to lay aside all preconceived opinions, and, dispensing with commentaries, he compared Scripture with Scripture by the aid of the marginal references and the Concordance. There can hardly be a more serious barrier to arriving at saving truth than that provided by, preconceived opinions and ideas. There is no person alive today who is not to a larger or lesser degree, afflicted with this problem. During the entire span of our past lives, we have been absorbing concepts, ideas and information. We have come to think along certain lines and these thought processes have mostly been erroneous so far as our concept of God’s kingdom is concerned.
The outstanding example of this is found in the experience of Christ’s apostles. They were born into a Jewish world wherein the prevailing expectations for the coming of the Messiah was the advent of an all-conquering king. As those boys grew, they heard this conversation around them, It was

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preached to them in church and taught to them in school. The result was the building up of strong, preconceived notions of Christ’s work and ministry. When the real Saviour appeared. those ideas formed a fearful barrier which for a long time made it impossible for Christ to bring to them the truth regarding His ministry and mission. Only when He was finally able to sweep away those preconceived ideas could He teach them the truth.
So with us today. Every one of us should humbly recognize that we are not possessed of accurate wisdom, knowledge, concepts and ideas and that these erroneous thought patterns are indeed a great problem.
‘The stamps of minds are different. All do not understand expressions and statements alike. Some understand the statements of the Scriptures to suit their own particular minds and cases. Prepossessions, prejudices, and passions have a strong influence to darken the understanding and confuse the mind even in reading the words of Holy Writ.” Selected Messages 1:20.
‘The Scriptures are not to be adapted to meet the prejudice and jealousy of men. They can be understood only by those who are humbly seeking for a knowledge of the truth that they may obey it.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 112.
Some may feel that earnestness and sincerity compensate for accuracy. But Jesus plainly said. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32. It is the truth and not error which saves us. For this reason, God is continually seeking to send us clearer and more advanced revelations of His truth so we may correspondingly ascend into greater heights of religious experience. Many a person will fail to enter the kingdom of heaven because prejudice has barred the door to their receiving the truth.
Notice carefully the solemn warnings laid out in this next quotation, which begins with the question, What shall I do to be saved?” The answer provided is an unexpected and solemn one.
“Do you ask, What shall I do to be saved? You must lay your preconceived opinions, your hereditary and cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If you search the Scriptures to vindicate your own opinion, you will never reach the truth. Search in order to learn what the Lord says. If conviction comes as you search, if you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the truth, do not misinterpret the truth in order to suit your own belief but accept the light given. Open mind and heart that, you may behold wondrous things out of God’s Word.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 112.
There are a number of answers which could have been given to the question “What shall I do to be saved?” Elsewhere those answers are given, but here the point is made that our salvation does depend upon laying aside preconceived opinions, hereditary and cultivated ideas. William Miller did
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this and, because he did, arrived at saving truth. If we will do the same, we, likewise will arrive at saving truth.
Pains are being taken to emphasize this thought because in the field of knowledge dealing with the character of God, wrong concepts are prolific. Any emergence into this truth must be from a background of dark error and misconception. The whole world lies in ignorance of God as He really is, and we who have lived in that world have been unconsciously influenced by this atmosphere. There is no subject then, in which the need to lay aside preconceived ideas and opinions is more critical than this one.
We come now to a key point in William Miller’s approach to Bible study. As he proceeded from verse to verse, he came inevitably upon a Scripture which baffled his understanding and which in turn, appeared to contradict what he had already learned in other parts of the Word. How did he solve this problem? Discarding commentaries and dictionaries, he used the Bible as its own dictionary. “Thus whenever he met with a passage hard to be understood, he found an explanation in some other portion of the Scriptures.” The Great Controversy, 320.
He followed “his rule of making Scripture its own interpreter”. ibid., 324. By doing this, he avoided the perilous pitfall of private or human interpretations, which can only lead astray. The one thing which cannot be per-miffed in the quest for truth as God sees it, is the use of private or human interpretation of God’s revelations. It would be far better not to study the Bible at all, than to search it with the wrong method. Make the Scriptures their own dictionary, their own interpreter. Do this under the blessing and guidance of the Holy Spirit and the assurance is there of the certainty of arriving at an accurate, comprehensive and harmonious knowledge of saving truth.
This will take time so it is not to be expected that every error will be immediately swept away. While Miller arrived at tremendous concepts of saving truth, he did not live long enough to find deliverance from every preconceived error of the past. This does not deny for an instant the validity of his method of study. It only underlines the truth that it takes time, even with correct methods of study, to come to an accurate grasp of divine revelations. After all, God’s truth is the expression of the mind of the Infinite. Eternity will never exhaust it. Therefore, it is too much to expect that a person using perfect methods of study would emerge in a few short years from deep darkness to a correct understanding of the great verities. Appreciation should be felt for the tremendous progress Miller made in breaking away from the erroneous teachings of his day.
The sound and solid foundations laid down by William Miller were continued and developed by later Adventist expositors. To establish this point we could bring as evidence, the development of such truths as the two laws, the Sabbath question, and so on. Our choice falls upon the subject of the final punishment of the wicked. It is common understanding in worldly

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churches that the fires of final purification will unceasingly burn the unrepentant wicked who will suffer unending torture and torment within those unquenchable flames. The advent message denies this concept, teaching, rather, a short consumption of the lost to render them as though they had never been.
In the early days of Adventism, the truth on this subject had not been developed. It was not developed by William Miller but by the people who came after him. As the new idea was advanced, it met with serious objection and opposition. It is a difficult subject to present because there are certain Scriptures which make it appear that the wicked do burn forever and ever. Just as it is possible in the subjects of the two laws, the Sabbath, and the character of God, to gather two completely different sets of statements, with one apparently supporting one side, and the other seeming to present an opposite view, so it is in the question of the final punishment of the wicked.
It hardly seems necessary to quote the many statements from Scripture which tell us that the wicked will be as though they had not been, that we shall tread down their ashes, that they shall burn, leaving neither root nor branch. We know the Scriptures tell us that the dead know nothing, that their very thoughts are gone. This is one side of the question, but, on the other side are statements which clearly say that the wicked will burn forever. The most noteworthy reference of this nature is in Revelation 20:1O ”And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
As an exercise in the correct principles of Bible study, let this verse be taken and interpreted according to dictionary definitions of the key words to show us the wrong way of Bible interpretation.
The important key words in this particular verse are the words “for ever and ever.” In our minds there already exists a clear definition of this word which is in harmony with the written definition in the published dictionary reading as follows, “Forever means for a limitless time or endless ages, everlastingly, eternally, at all times, always, continually, incessantly.” If this dictionary definition of the word “forever” is taken and Revelation 20:10 understood according to it then the only possible understanding of this verse would be that the wicked suffer eternally. One could only believe that there would never come a time when their agonies would end. It is hoped that no one will miss the point that a certain method of interpretation will yield its corresponding idea of what the truth is.
Serious doubt of the validity of this method is gendered when it is seen that it brings this text into sharp contradiction with other Scriptures. Here are two examples.
‘For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.” Obadiah 16.

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“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 4:1i
It is obviously impossible for the wicked to be as though they had not been, and to be burned up leaving neither root nor branch, and yet, at the same time, exist eternally. That is a contradiction. which will exist in our minds and will continue to exist until the understanding of the messages of these verses is chanced wherever it needs to be changed. Let it be strongly emphasized that the Scriptures themselves must not be changed. It is the understanding of the Scriptures which must be changed until there is perfect harmony.
This is a very different approach to the problem from that employed by those who do use dictionary definitions for these words. Their procedure is to carefully collect all statements supporting their chosen side of the question, and as carefully, to ignore those which speak contrary to their accepted ideas. This is no way to study the Bible yet it is the most commonly accepted method.
The only safety lies in discarding dictionary definitions of words wherever those words are a problem and to seek for a revised understanding of the meaning of the statements. The only way to discover that other meaning is by making the Bible and the Bible only, its own dictionary and therefore its own interpreter. The Advent people, in determining the message of the verse, Revelation 20:10, which speaks of the wicked burning eternally, found it necessary to discover the Bible meaning of those words. They learned that, in Bible usage, the word has a different meaning from what it has in everyday usage. We quote now from the book Answers to Objections by F.D. Nichol, 360, 361.
“We read of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them. . .offering the vengeance of eternal [aionios] fire.’ Jude 7. Are those cities, set ablaze long ago as a divine judgment, still burning? No: their ruins are quite submerged by the Dead Sea. The Bible itself specifically states that God turned ‘the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes.’ 2 Peter 2:6. Now the fate of these cities is declared to be a warning to all wicked men of the fate that impends for them. Therefore if the “aionios fire” of that long ago judgment turned into ashes those upon whom it preyed, and then died down of itself, we may properly conclude that the “aionios fire” of the last day will do likewise.
When we turn to the Old Testament we discover that ‘everlasting’ and ‘for ever’ sometimes signify a very limited time. We shall quote texts in which these two terms are translated from the Hebrew word olam, because olam is the equivalent of the Greek aion.
“The Passover was to be kept ‘for ever [olam].’ Ex. 12:24. But it ended with the cross. (See Heb. 9:24-26.) Aaron and his sons were to offer in-

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cense ‘for ever [olam].’ (1 Chron. 23:13), and to have an ‘everlasting [olam] priesthood.’ Ex, 40:15. But this priesthood, with its offerings of incense, ended at the cross. (See Heb. 7:11-14.) A servant who desired to stay with his master, was to serve him ‘for ever [olam].’ (See Ex. 21:1-6.) How could a servant serve a master to endless time? Will there be masters and servants in the world to come? Jonah, describing his watery experience, said, ‘The earth with her bars was about me for ever [olam].’ Jonah 2:6. Yet this ‘for ever’ was only ‘three days and three nights’ long. Jonah 1:17. Rather a short ‘for ever.’ Because Gehazi practiced deceit, Elisha declared, ‘The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee [Gehazi], and unto thy seed for ever [olam].’ 2 Kings 5:27. Should we conclude, therefore, that Gehazi’s family would never end, and that thus leprosy would be perpetuated for all time to come?
“Thus by the acid test of actual usage we discover that in a number of cases aion, aionios, and olam have a very limited time value.”
Now that you have read the above statement from Nichol, it would be helpful to answer the following questions.
1. How much reference did F.D. Nichol make to standard dictionaries when seeking the definition of “everlasting,” and “for ever,” as those words are to be used In the Scriptures?
The answer is: No reference at all.
2. What then did he use as his dictionary when seeking the definition of those words as used in Scripture?
The answer is: The Word of God and that alone.
3. Did he find the words meant the same in Scripture usage as they do in everyday usage?
The answer is: No! The meanings are very different indeed. That means that “everlasting’ and “forever,” have one meaning when used in our everyday speech but a different meaning when used in the Scriptures.
4. What is the meaning in everyday speech and as found in the dictionary of “everlasting” and “for ever?”
The answer is: These words mean eternally; without ever ceasing at all.
5. What is the meaning when the same words are used in Scripture?
Answer: It signifies time in unbroken duration so long as the nature of the subject allows. Thus in the case of the wicked, their sinful human nature does not allow a very long time in the fire before they are reduced to ashes, but be assured that the fire will go on for ever, that is, in unbroken duration, until they are consumed. On the other hand the nature of God and of the redeemed is that they go on forever as long as their immortal natures allow and that will be eternally without ever ceasing at all.
It should now be clear that when the words “for ever and ever” are interpreted according to dictionary definitions, a certain understanding of that verse will emerge, while if the Bible is used to uncover its usage of the words, then a very different understanding will result. In other words, ac-

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cording to the system of interpretation used will the resulting conclusions be. Set the method right and the desired objective of knowing saving truth will be naturally forthcoming.
A sound test of the true method is that it removes impossible contradictions and replaces them with harmony and cohesion. There will be no need to ignore statements which otherwise do not fit.
Once the correct method has been found, it is to be applied with unfailing consistency throughout the entire study of the Bible. One system cannot be used in one area and a different one used in another. It has been astonishing to see people having no trouble in believing that the wicked do not burn forever and then rejecting the principle that God destroys only by to save. Yet exactly the same methods of interpretation used to arrive at the former were the only means of arriving at the latter.
This does not mean that every word will have other than a dictionary definition when used in the Scriptures. Many will have the same meaning, but there will always be key words which do not. They are readily recognized for whenever a word, when understood according to its common everyday usage, creates a serious problem, then it is time to search out its Scriptural meaning as against its common one.
Throughout this book, with strict consistency, we will adhere to the Scriptural method of interpretation. When we find ourselves confronted with two statements or more, which, on the surface, stand in sharp contradiction to each other, we shall follow this procedure.
•	Faith shall retain firm hold of the truth that there is no contradiction in the Word of God.
•	Every endeavour will be made to lay aside old preconceived ideas and opinions.
•	No reference will be made to the dictionary to solve the problem.
•	The Scriptures alone will be consulted for the answer as to what these words mean when they are used in them.
This line of approach will be continued until every disharmony of thought disappears and every statement tells the same message.
Therefore, for anyone to deny the message of this book, he will have to prove firstly that these methods of interpretation are false. If however, he should agree that they are true, then he will have to show wherein we have not adhered to these principles. We confidently challenge anyone to prove either or both if they can.
We believe that we stand upon solid ground in our approach to the subject and that what is written herein is a true statement of the character of God.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

God Does Destroy—But How?

The principles of interpretation laid out in the previous chapter can now be applied to the problem of reconciling otherwise contradicting statements. In this case the concern Is over the declarations that God does not destroy versus those which say He does. These principles properly applied, are guaranteed to establish a perfect harmony where confusion previously reigned.
This application is a practical exercise. Commencement can be made by selecting a Scripture which has frequently been offered as proof that God steps forth in almighty power and cuts down the rejectors of His mercy.
“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground “ Genesis 19:24, 25.
 Ponder now upon those words. Just what picture do they suggest to you? Ask the question, “What do these words tell me God did?”
The normal understanding is the view that God. after working with great love and patience to bring these rebels to repentance, finally laid aside the garments of mercy, took hold of the mighty power of fire and personally poured it out on their shelterless heads. The result was such total obliteration that no trace of those cites can be found today.
Certainly, if we were reading another book in which the actions of a powerful monarch were being described In the same words, this is how they would be correctly understood. In the old days of warfare, when the enemy invested walled cities, the defenders would pour fire on them from above. It was a purposeful act designed to burn those below. The amount of fire was minimal compared to God’s capabilities, for whereas they could only burn one or two individuals at a time, God could engulf whole cities. If the same interpretation is given to God’s actions as to man’s, then the only possible picture which could be formed would be of God pouring down fire as did the defenders on the wall, except that He would do it on a grander scale.
	But the Word of God expressly advises that God’s ways are entirely different from man’s. This difference is not in one point or another but Is completely so in every area. Because of this when Christ came to earth, “He
presented to men that which was exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God, . . .” Fundamentals of Christian Education, 177.

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As will be successfully demonstrated, Satan achieves his misrepresentation of God’s character, by having God’s actions viewed as being identical to man’s. The more he can make God appear to being like men, the better pleased he is. But Christ works in the opposite direction. The more He can show that the ways of God and sinful man are different the more successful He is in saving them from Satan’s deadly lies. His revelations of God were exactly contrary to those offered by the devil. As a result of Christ’s effective ministry, we can know that God’s ways and man’s are not merely different in many, but in all things.
That these vital truths are not generally understood and accepted is evidenced by the usual interpretation of the verses concerning the fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, wherein God is considered to have behaved as any earthly potentate would under the same circumstances.
Therefore, as surely as it is established that God’s ways are different from man’s, then so certainly must another explanation to these verses be sought. This alternative is not found by casting around in the human mind for other possibilities. The Bible, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, must be its own interpreter. When it is learned from there how such words are to be understood, the correct concept of God will be gained.
Within the Word of God  the same terminology is used consistently when describing God’s actions in the destruction of people and cities. God does not provide a careful explanation of what He means by these words in every case. But there are two or three places where He does and this is sufficient to inform us how every such expression is to be interpreted. Thus the truth is established in the “mouth of two or three witnesses.” Matthew 18:16.
Reference will now be made to three such witnesses to clarify from the Word itself how such statements are to be understood when used to describe God’s action. The method used in the Scriptures to make the meaning clear is to express the same truth in two different places in two different ways. In the first case, what God did will be clearly stated. Then the Lord Himself will use His own method of expressing or describing what He did. By putting these two together it will be clearly seen what God means when He says, “I destroyed them.”
Remember that it is not important what we think the Lord meant when He uses certain expressions. Our task is to be sure of what the Lord meant when He used those words.
The first reference to be considered is in regard to the death of Saul the first king of Israel.
“And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was wounded of the archers.
“Then said Saul to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.

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“And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword and died.
“So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his house died together.” I Chronicles 10:3-6.
This is a simple, and therefore easily understood, account of Saul’s death. There is a background to this event which is but the climax of that which went before. After a certain critical point in the king’s life he persistently rejected the appeals of mercy. By this means he took himself further and further outside the circle of God’s protection until it was impossible for the Lord to help him. This was not because the Lord would not, but only because He could not.
Thus, when he went forth to the final baffle, he went without the Lord’s protection and he knew it. It was for this reason Saul sought guidance from the witch at Endor. Without God’s presence, there was nothing to save him from the dreadful power of the Philistines with the result that his destruction was a predetermined thing. As Saul’s life is considered, it will be seen that he took himself away from God, placing himself where there was no defence from Satan’s power, and thus, in fact, destroyed himself.
Nowhere in Saul’s entire history is there anything to give us the idea that God raised His mighty hand and struck him down. The only actions we see on God’s part were to extend every possible effort to save him and then  when he would not be saved but only resisted with greater and greater vigour, the outreach of the Spirit, God had no choice but to withdraw from him. For God to have maintained a connection with Saul against his will, would have been to have forced His presence where it was not desired, and this the Lord cannot and will not do.
Having seen clearly, then, what the Lord did in respect to Saul’s destruction, we are now ready to see how He described what He did.
“So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
“And inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him. and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.” 1Chronicles 10:13,14.
God exerted all the influence of love and truth to save au, and when he would not be saved, then the Lord went away and left him to what he wanted—his own way. God did not raise His hand to slay Saul. He killed himself just in time to save the Philistines from doing it. The Scriptures. which are the very expression of God’s thought, described that in these words, “Therefore, He (the Lord God of Heaven) slew him.”
This is certainly not the way we would use the words. “He slew him “to describe human behaviour. If they were used to describe human behaviour, then we would have known that the slayer would have come to the victim, not moved away from him; that he would have carried the sword in his own hand, not been empty handed; and that he would have brought the sword down upon the head of the guilty person.

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So foreign is this form of expression to what we are accustomed to, that it is difficult initially, to think in this new terminology. Yet, In order to truthfully understand God’s thought as expressed in His word, the mind must be re-educated to think this way when reading about God’s ways as distinct from men’s ways. There certainly will be no difficulty in seeing that the way in which God uses words and the way in which we use them, are contrary to each other.
The presentation of one witness is never sufficient to establish the truth of the Bible. A second must be added.
As with Saul, so with the entire nation of Israel. Centuries of loving appeals had been spurned, the prophets had been persecuted and, in some cases, martyred. Eventually, the Son of God Himself, came with a personal message from the Father. But they rejected Him even more emphatically, underscoring the intensity of their feelings by seeking nothing less than the most torturous and humiliating death for Him that they could find.
The time came when Christ recognized that they had passed the point of no return. What did He say and do? He declared that Jerusalem was beyond hope and then, instead of launching fiery balls of destruction upon the city, He quietly left them to their fate. Again. He did not do this because He wanted to, but because there was nothing else He could do that was consistent with His character of love. Here are His sad words.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 
“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 
“For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  Matthew 23:37-39.
For the same reasons and in harmony with the same principles, God left Israel exactly as He had left Saul. Thus was removed from them the only effective defence from their many enemies. For centuries the devil had thirsted for the blood of the entire nation. Knowing that he could not touch them whilever the protection of God was about them, and knowing that while they were obedient it would always be there, he laboured with terrible success to lead them into disobedience.
So the time came when the Jews had caused God’s protection to be withdrawn from them and there was nothing to shield them from disaster. It came with ferocious savagery upon their unprotected heads. The full truth of this is clearly expressed in the following record.
“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 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.’

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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 destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his control.
“We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protect ion 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 rejecters 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. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.” The Great Controversy, 35, 36.
God’s actions in the destruction of Jerusalem are identical to His dealings with King Saul. The only difference in the two accounts is that in the fall of Jerusalem, we have a much more detailed account of what the Lord did. it is made transparently clear that they had not fallen by God’s hand buy by their own iniquity.
Of particular value is the reference made to the common interpretation of what was done there. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God.” In other words, this is the way in which most people view God’s actions in this incident: —
“With loving appeals the Lord seeks to woo and to win until the time comes when His patience is exhausted. Then, having passed judgment upon them, He personally decides what form of punishment He will send. Will it be a fearful earthquake, a fire, a volcanic eruption, or pestilence, or shall He send their enemies among them? In the case of Jerusalem, God decided that He would send the Romans. Having made this decree, He called them to the terrible office of being the personal executioners of His vengence on the Jews.”

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That is the view most people have of the judgments on the Jews in A.D. 70. This is the interpretation which comes of thinking that God’s behaviour is the same as man’s, and of defining Bible words according to dictionary meanings. While these methods are employed, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion.
When the statement is made, “Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God, . . .” there is no direct evaluation in the sentence itself attesting to its being a correct or incorrect assessment of Gods works. However, there is the inference that it is not in that it is rated as being the more commonly held representation. Knowing that the majority are deluded in this sphere it is correct to assess this as an incorrect evaluation. This is confirmed by the next sentence which directly charges it with being a device of Satanic origin designed to shift the blame from the devil to God. It is thus that the great deceiver seek to conceal his own work.”
So, not only is the above idea the result of wrong principles of Bible interpretation. it is also the very means employed by the devil to conceal the true nature of his own work, by attributing it to God, while to himself he credits the work and character of God. Therefore, it is to be rejected for what it is—a dangerous philosophy of Satan. While his view is entertained, it is impossible to form correct concepts of God’s character.
Further, we are informed that the Lord did not leave of His own choice. It was the Jews who “had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them,” thus permitting Satan to finally work his evil designs upon them.
Then there is laid down forever the precious truth that “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.” What befell the Jews was the natural outworking of their own course of action. It was not something brought upon them by . They had sown the seed; now they must gather the certain harvest.
We have before us a revelation of the course God pursued toward the Israelites which is the same as that with Saul. It is now necessary to find how God Himself described what He did.
In the death of Israel’s first king and the destruction of the nation in AD. 70, God consistently followed the same course, In both cases He worked with infinite love and patience to win them to the ways of righteousness and safety but they utterly rejected it, forcing Him to withdraw and leave them to the fate which lay nearest. For Saul it was the invasion of the Philistines, for Jerusalem the Roman onslaught.
God described what He did to Saul in words very different from the ones we would use to describe what He did. God said, “I destroyed him.” We would say, “He destroyed himself.”
Because God is consistent, it is to be expected that He would describe the same action in the fall of Jerusalem in the same language. Therefore, it

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(PICTURE)
must be anticipated that He would say, “I destroyed Jerusalem and killed those murderers.” This is just how He did describe that terrible destruction.
In Matthew 22. there is a parable which, in its initial application, sets out the two final calls given to the Jewish people and their rejections of those calls. When the second call is complete and as completely rejected, the king’s reaction is described in these words:
“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his,, armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” Matthew 22:7.
This verse is couched in symbolic language. God, the Father, was the king; the armies were the Romans under Titus; the murderers were the Jews who crucified Christ; and the city was Jerusalem. The fulfilment of this fearful prophecy came in AD. 70 as verified in Christ’s Object Lessons, 309. where this verse is quoted followed by the words: “The judgment pronounced came upon the Jews in the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the nation.”
If we substitute for the symbolic words, the things symbolized, the verse must read as follows: “But when God heard thereof, God was wroth: and God sent forth His armies. the Romans. and God destroyed the Jews and God burned up Jerusalem.”

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If these words are interpreted according to normal dictionary definitions the only possible picture of God would be identical to earthly despots. But, the inspired word quoted from The Great Controversy, confirms that an altogether different understanding is to be obtained from these verses. Therefore, the position adopted depends directly on the way In which the words are understood. The choice lies between accepting a meaning according to human or Scriptural language. The former is acquired by reference to a standard dictionary, the latter by the Scriptures themselves.
As in the case of King Saul so in this second witness, the same type of description is explained in an identical way. God is said to destroy the sinner when He accepts the sinner’s demands that he be left to himself. The fate which befalls him is not by either God’s election or administration. It is the inevitable outworking of the transgressor’s course.
The two witnesses already given are in perfect harmony. They support each other and go a long way toward confirming the truth of God’s Word. However, we will not rest with only two.
The third witness will also be drawn from Israel’s history. There was the occasion when the Israelites were travelling through the wilderness and once again murmured about God and Moses. Unknown to them, they were travelling through an area infested with deadly serpents and other terrors. Because of God’s protecting care, they had passed through this area unharmed until that time when they drove away His protection through their own ingratitude and sinfulness. The shield removed, there was nothing to hold back the invasion of those reptiles with the result that many of the people died a terrible death.
Here is the description of what happened and of what God did. It needs but little comment after the two already studied, for, once again it will be seen that the Lord simply left them to what they wanted. He did not decree the particular punishment. It was lurking there all the time only awaiting the opportunity to destroy them. Notice the consistent way in which God related Himself to the sinner in each case. In all three illustrations given, God is revealed as One with Whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
“As the Israelites indulged the spirit of discontent, they were disposed to find fault even with their blessings. And the people spake against God and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.’
“Moses faithfully set before the people their great sin. It was. God’s power alone that had preserved them in ‘that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water.’ Every day of their travels they had been kept by a miracle of divine mercy. In all the way of God’s leading, they had found water to refresh the thirsty bread from heaven to satisfy their hunger, and peace

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and safety under the shadowy cloud by day and the pillar of tire by night. Angels had ministered to them as they climbed the rocky heights or threaded the rugged paths of the wilderness. Notwithstanding the hardships they had endured, there was not a feeble one in all their ranks Their feet had not swollen in their lone journeys, neither had their clothes grown old. God
had subdued before them the fierce beasts of prey and the venomous reptiles of the forest and the desert. If with all these tokens of His love the people still continued to complaint the Lord would withdraw His protection until they should be led to appreciate His merciful care, and return to Him with repentance and humiliation.

Because they had been  shielded by divine power, they had not realized the countless dangers by which they were continually surrounded. In their ingratitude and unbelief they had anticipated death, and now the Lord permitted death to come upon them. The poisonous serpents that infested the wilderness were called fiery serpents, on account of the terrible. effects produced by their sting, it causing violent inflammation and speedy death. As the protecting hand of God was removed from Israel, great numbers of the people were attacked by these venomous creatures.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 428, 429.
As in the previous illustrations, a comparison will be made between what the Lord is described as doing, and His own statement of what He did. If God is consistent, and we know He is, then He will describe this in the same way as He spoke of the previous two. Again the consistency of God stands forth without variableness neither shadow of turning.
“And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” Numbers 21:6.
For those who want still further confirmation of the truths revealed in this use of the Bible as its own dictionary, referral is made to the experience of the patriarch Job. Satan demanded the right to destroy him. God withdrew and left him to the power of the devil with one restriction—that he could not take his life. Everything that happened to Job was at the hands of Satan, not God. The picture of God’s behaviour was the same as previously shown except for this difference. Whereas in each of the other cases, it was the sinfulness of the rejecters of His mercy which had driven God and His protection away, Job was “a perfect and an upright man. Therefore, God’s withdrawal from him was not the result of Job’s sinfulness.
On what grounds then could the Lord leave Job to suffer at the devils hands? This is a good question which finds its answer in the following principle. Every true child of God has given his life into God’s hands to be sacrificed in His cause if thereby the work will be advanced. This is a privilege and the Lord will never deny that privilege to any one of His of children when the hour comes. The hour came for Job and the Lord did not stand in the way of his offering.
Thus there are two ways in which the Lord will remove from a person and leave him to the destroyer. One is by man’s sinfulness driving off the

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Spirit of God and the other is by the individual offering himself as a sacrifice for the cause of truth, a thing which every child of God does.
When the Lord came down to personally describe what He had done to Job, He again used the same language as previously noted.  “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. Job 2:3.
Once again this is not the way we would use those words according to everyday usage. Our use of them would convey a meaning quite opposite from what God intended when He used those words.
It would be impossible to arrive at the meanings of the words according to God’s usage of them, without the guidance of the Word of God. Only from there could such an interpretation be obtained. That is, it is the only dictionary which does give this definition of these words.
It may take some time to train our minds to carry these double definitions for the same words. Conscious effort must be made until it is just as natural to think of the new definition as of the old, It must become second nature to ascribe one meaning to the words when they describe divine conduct and another when they deal with the human. Here is a comparison between the two.
When man destroys, he moves toward the victim with deliberate intention to kill.
When God destroys, He moves away from the subject with no intention of killing.
When man destroys, he carries the weapons of death in his hands.
When God destroys, He carries no weapons but lays down control of the destructive powers.
When man destroys, he guides the sword on to its target.
When God destroys, there is no personal administration of punishment. Whatever comes upon the sinner is the outworking of the forces of death which he himself has set in motion.
At this point two questions are apt to arise. The first is: After all, what is the essential difference between the direct act of destroying, or that of departing to leave the person to die? In both cases it is God’s action which brings about the destruction and therefore, in each case, He is a destroyer.
This would be true if God’s withdrawal was His own act, but it is not, The fact is that He is driven away. Think of the way in which Christ went to Calvary. He was taken there forcibly. This shows in its clearest terms man’s reaction toward the loving appeals of God. Man drives God away, depriving Him of an possibility of remaining unless He forces His presence, which the Lord will never do.
For those who are prepared to believe that God never puts forth His hands to destroy, yet consider that His act of withdrawing in the full

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knowledge of what that will mean, makes Him a destroyer just the same, the following illustration is given. This will show the distinct difference between merely-withdrawing and being forced to withdraw, It will show that even in His withdrawing it is not God who is responsible for the disasters which follow.
Let us suppose that there is an atomic plant located in the midst of a small township of two thousand people. The nature of this power plant is such that an operator must continually be in the control room to monitor the controls. Should this post be left unattended for several hours or more, the nuclear fission will run out of control and blossom into a holocaust of destruction.
The situation arises where every technician but one is taken away and the full responsibility rests upon this man. No one else in the whole area has the training, knowledge, or skill, to operate this volatile equipment.
This creates no special problem, for the man is healthy, very conscientious, and does his work with great faithfulness day and night. He is able to take sufficient rest between check times to enable him to carry on indefinitely.
But, there enters the area an arch-enemy of the technician who determines to run him out of town. To accomplish this, he circulates lying reports until a hate complex is generated among the villagers. They begin to persecute the technician in every imaginable way with increasing intensity. For a very long time he patiently endures the attacks in the hope that they will subside and with the realization that if he does forsake his post it will be disastrous for the village.
Finally his patience runs out. I have had enough of this,” he cries. “I have gone the second and the third mile. These people have shown that they do not deserve to live. I am leaving.”
Whereupon he walks out of the control room and drives far away. Several hours elapse and he is safe beyond the reach of the explosion when it occurs. The village and all in it are utterly destroyed.
While it is true that in a certain sense the villagers destroyed themselves, it is equally true that this technician destroyed them for he left them knowing that his departure would bring those sure and certain results. This is the picture which many have of God.
The situation faced by this man is the same as that faced by God. He is the great “Technician who is in charge of the power house of nature. When He lets go of those powers, there is no one else who can control them and keep them from exploding in a horror of destruction - An enemy has come in and a hate complex has been generated against God.
Many believe this truth and then see God coming to the end of His patience, as in our illustration, and voluntarily withdrawing to leave men to perish in the cataclysm of destruction which inevitably follows.
If this is the true picture of God, then, unquestionably, we would have to agree that He is, after all, a destroyer.

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But it is not. God is a very different person from this.
Let us retell the story as it would provide a true picture of God’s character.
Here is the same technician, the same control room, the same situation, the same village and the same enemy stirring up trouble.
This time the technician never thinks of leaving. No matter what they do to him, all he can see is their situation. He knows that if he leaves them, they will all be dead men so he stays on. His patience is not in question for he is not thinking of himself at all.
But the persecution becomes more and more intense until the people begin to demand that he go. He protests that if he does, they will perish and for their sakes, not his own, he desires to stay. They, in their hateful blindness, being ignorant of their real danger and over-confident of their own ability to handle the control room anyway, laugh derisively at him and shout for his departure.
With deepest concern for them he holds on and fulfils his work as faithfully as ever. Every time he thinks of them, a pang of fear and pain sweeps through him, and he considers most earnestly how he can win their love and confidence so that he might preserve them alive. Not one thought is for himself—every thought is for them and their need.
But every day they become more hateful and violent until they invade the control room and angrily shout at him to leave. They jostle him out through the door and down to his car. They put him into it and direct him to drive away. There is no choice left, Slowly, he drives out of the village and mounts the first hill beyond. He stops the car, climbs out and looks back toward the angry knot of people gathered to witness that he is truly gone. He spreads his hands in one last loving appeal. The instant response is agitated signals conveying to him their unchanged demand that he go.
What more can he do?
Nothing! Every possible source open to him to save those people is exhausted and with the heaviest of hearts he turns his car into the distance and is gone forever. Several hours pass and then the atomic fireball blasts the village and the villagers out of existence.
No one can say that this man is a destroyer. He acted out the character of a saviour only. He could not and did not save them because they would not let him.
This is the true picture of the character of God.
The truth of this is stated in a paragraph from Prophets and Kings, 176. “Christ will never abandon those or whom He has died. We may leave Him and be overwhelmed with temptation, but Christ can never turn from one for whom He has paid the ransom of His own life.”
In view of the fact that Christ died for all men, this statement is saying that it is impossible for Christ to turn away from anyone. Men turn away from God. God cannot turn away from men. That is impossible.

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The second question is this: If God does not in fact destroy, then why does He use this word to describe His actions? Does this not tend to make the Scriptures confusing?
Again this Is an excellent question, In answer to which it must be said that this is the right word to use in describing God’s actions, for there is a deep and important sense in which it is true that He does destroy.
As the evidences gathered here unfold, it will be seen that God comes to man in one role only, which is as a Saviour. But the effect of that effort is not always a saving one. With the majority, the effect is to harden them in rebellion and to cause them to withdraw themselves from the voice of loving entreaty. Thus God destroys by trying to save. The more He exerts His saving power, the more men are driven by their rejection of it to destruction. It is in this sense that He destroys.
This principle of truth is spelled out with great clarity in the statement “It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. Often the process is gradual, and almost imperceptible. Light comes to the soul through God's word, through His servants, or by the direct agency of His Spirit; but when one ray of light is disregarded, there is a partial benumbing of the spiritual perceptions, and the second revealing of light is less clearly discerned. So the darkness increases, until it is night in the soul. Thus it had been with these Jewish leaders. They were convinced that a divine power attended Christ, but in order to resist the truth, they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. In doing this they deliberately chose deception; they yielded themselves to Satan, and henceforth they were controlled by his power.” The Desire of Ages, 322, 323.
“It is not God that puts the blinder before the eyes of men or makes their hearts hard; it is the light which God sends to His people, to correct their errors, to lead them in safe paths, but which they refuse to accept,—it is this that blinds their minds and hardens their hearts.’ Review and Herald, October 21, 1890.
The outstanding example of this outworking is the history of Pharaoh of Egypt. The Scriptures say, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 7:3.
To harden is to destroy. It is not physical destruction but spiritual. This spiritual destruction is the prelude to the physical which must inevitably follow. The Scriptures plainly say that it was God who did it and He did, but every reference which throws light on what God did, shows that His action was to send spiritual light, and loving appeals to Pharaoh. These were designed to soften and save, not to harden him, but that which was sent to save, destroyed him instead, because he rejected it. Note carefully that it was not the light, but his rejection of it that hardened and destroyed him.

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Pharaoh saw the mighty working of the Spirit of God; he saw the miracles which the Lord performed by His servant; but he refused obedience to Gods command. The rebellious king had  proudly enquired. ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?   (Exodus 5:2).’ And as the judgments of God fell more and more heavily upon him, he persisted in stubborn resistance. By rejecting light from heaven, he became hard and unimpressible. The providence of God was revealing His power, and these manifestations, unacknowledged, were the means of hardening Pharaoh’s heart against greater light. Those who exalt their own ideas above the plainly specified will of God, are saying as did Pharaoh, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?’ Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus men find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1100.
“Every additional evidence of the power of God that the Egyptian monarch resisted, carried him onto a stronger and more persistent defiance of God. Thus the work went on, finite man warring against the expressed will of an infinite God. This case is a clear illustration of the sin against the Holy Ghost. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ Gradually the Lord withdrew His Spirit. Removing His restraining power, He gave the king into the hand of the worst of all tyrants.” The Review and Herald July 27, 1897.
“The Patience and long-suffering of God, which should soften and subdue the soul, has an altogether different influence upon the careless and sinful. It leads them to cast off restraint, and strengthens them in resistance. The Review and Herald, August 14, 1900.
The truth laid out in these statements is a very important one. When it is truly appreciated, there will be no careless attitude toward the revelations which are brought to us. There will be a conscious fear that a terrible mistake could be made by rejecting light which, because it touches our flesh or some preconceived idea and opinion, we desire to reject. There will be the dread of having the heart hardened and the spiritual sense benumbed. “Let ministers and people remember that gospel truth ruins it does not save. The soul that refuses to listen to the invitations of mercy from day to day can soon listen to the most urgent appeals without an emotion stirring his soul.” Testimonies 5:134.
We must clearly understand that the only effort God puts forth, is to save. That effort can and does produce two opposite effects. In the hearts and lives of those who accept God’s work, it achieves its intended result. It softens, changes, cleanses and restores. It is unto life eternal.
But in the lives of those who reject that saving ministry, there is a terrible work of destruction going forward. It is a destroying work which firstly breaks down every spiritual response within, then hardens the heart in

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rebellion, develops every sinful trait, and compels the Spirit of God to withdraw His presence and His protection. This leaves the individual to the choice he has made; to a position where there is no protection whatsoever from the destructive malice of Satan and sin.
God destroys, but not as man destroys. Every effort on God’s part is to but it has an altogether different result in the lives of those who reject that saving power. Therefore we can know that, in fact, God is a Saviour and a saviour only. He destroys by trying to save so that the more His saving power is manifest in the world and that power is rejected, the more swiftly and terribly are the rejecters destroyed by the simple outworkingof the forces involved.
This principle will come through with greater clarity and force as the individual cases of the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the crucifixion of Christ, the seven last plagues, and the final judgment, are studied. These will be taken up progressively. For now it is sufficient to establish the principle that the way in which the Lord destroys is by seeking to save. Thus His way of destroying is entirely different from man’s way. Once this is clearly comprehended, it will be possible to view all God’s actions in a new and enlightened way. As a result, the whole of the Scriptures will emerge as one great harmonious truth.

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Supreme Revelation

There is no contradictions in the Word of God; it must not be interpreted according to private or human methods; the Bible is its own dictionary and therefore its own interpreter; God’s ways and man’s way are entirely different from each other; and the only way in which God destroys is by trying to save; any destruction eventuating is because of rejection by man and not the action of God.
This established, the groundwork has been prepared for studying the various incidents of history in which God has played a part. Reference is made here to the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the execution of those who worshipped the golden calf, the stoning of the Sabbath breaker, the adulterer, the glutton, and Achan, the slaughter of the Canaanites, the obliteration of Sennacherib’s army, and I many other such events, right through to the concluding one—the final liquidation in the lake of fire.
The study of these happenings has left the majority with definite ideas of the character of God. He is viewed as a stern judge Who, ruling His kingdom like any earthly potentate, has visited deadly punishments upon those who do not obey Him. These concepts are formed because of the human tendency to think of God as being like themselves.
That such a mistake should be made is quite understandable, for it is natural for men to think in terms of the familiar. The only kind of kingdoms, kings, governments, laws, punishments and destruction known to men are in the context of this earth. They are familiar with the connection between possession of great power and despotism. In their own hearts they long for power so that they can rule over others rather than be ruled by them. They know that acquired power can only be maintained by the suppression or destruction of those who oppose them.
Thus, when they see God in a position of absolute rulership combined with infinite power, they cannot conceive of His using that in any other way than they would if they were in the same situation. So natural is this way of thinking to man that the standard view of God’s conduct in the Old Testament. is accepted without question. Not even a second thought is given to it. To them, God is simply acting in the accepted and expected way
a person situated as He is. How often as I have spoken to people about this, the response has been, “Well, I just never had any occasion to question whether God does or does not destroy. I have read that He does and that is as far as I have gone into it. After all, He is the Creator. He does have absolute power, and therefore He has the right to destroy us if we do not please Him. It seems as simple as that to me.”

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But to others, the Old Testament has presented serious problems. They shudder as they read the stories of Israel’s conquests wherein men, women, beautiful little girls and boys, together with tender infants in arms were ruthlessly put to the sword. That God should command such atrocities, projects a frightening rather than attractive picture of Him. It brings but scant comfort to the soul, and tends to produce a service of fear rather than love.
In her hospital bed, a woman, sick and despairing, turned to reading the Bible to find rest and comfort. She naturally began at the beginning and soon found herself wading through grim accounts of bloody slaughters. The picture was revolting and disturbing, causing her very shortly to lay the Book aside forever.
Her reaction is understandable when it is considered that her study was without an understanding of what God actually did in these situations. Had she seen God’s real character as it was truly revealed in those instances, then her love for Him would have been quickened, and her soul would have been rested with joy and hope. But tragically it was not so.
Evidence will now be presented to show that the Old Testament is not the place to begin searching out the character of God. The convincing argument for this is that not even the holy angels were able to understand God’s character as it was revealed in the Old Testament. Not until the advent of Christ, and especially until the demonstration of infinite love and justice given on Calvary, were they able to see God as He really is. At the same time, Satan was revealed in his true light. For the first time, the angels were truly convinced of the righteousness of God’s cause. The Scriptural evidences for this have already been quoted but it is appropriate to re-quote them here.
“Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. The archapostate had so clothed himself with deception that even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion.” The Desire of Ages, 758.
At the cross “Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.” ibid., 76).
There is a direct relationship between the misunderstanding of Satan’s character and the falsification of God’s. Therefore, to whatever extent the angels were not able to see the true nature of Satan and his work during the

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Old Testament era, then to that extent were they unable to correctly comprehend God’s principles of character and conduct. If holy angels, mighty in intellectual and spiritual power and personally participant in God’s workings in the Old Testament dispensation, still had clouded views of God, then it is impossible for human minds to understand God from these evidences alone.
When the revelations of God as given by Christ at the cross swept away the haze with which Satan had obscured God’s character, they were able to go back and review the past in a new light. In the glory streaming from Christ and Calvary, they found the mysteries solved and the dark spots illuminated. Perfect peace filled their souls as they rejoiced in eternal deliverance from the misconceptions of the past.
What was necessary for them, is even more so for earthbound travellers seeking the knowledge of God which is life eternal, This search must start with the finest and fullest existing revelation of Him—the life of Christ and the marvel of Calvary. Entering the study at this point will quickly impress on the searcher’s mind the necessity of penetrating beyond the commonly held view of the Old Testament God.
To too many for too long, the Old Testament revelation of God, compared with Christ’s unfolding of Him in the New, has provided an altogether contradictory picture. God is seen as a stern, exacting lawmaker Who will not permit His will to be thwarted, while Christ is viewed as a tender, benign, loving forgiver of all sins, To God is ascribed one character and to Christ another. This destroys the precious truth that Christ and the Father are one in authority, character, spirit, aims, and works. The belief is spawned that Christ is the Appeaser of the Father’s fury, influencing Him to act contrary to His real character by showing mercy when it is not in His heart or nature to do so.
The further men are steeped in the darkness of Satan’s misrepresentations of the Father and the Son, the more exaggerated this appeasement doctrine becomes. In its worst form it is found among those religionists who offer human sacrifices to the deities to placate their wrath. Consider how such a concept of God makes Him to be altogether such an one as ourselves.
Yet, strange as it may seem, the average professed child of God today is .prepared believe, on the one hand, that the Father and Son are one in character spirit, and power, while, on the other hand, holding to the view that the Father, as revealed in the Old Testament in particular, and the Son, as manifested in the New, are two very different characters.
It is grossly inconsistent to hold such a position and only possible if the two ideas are carefully compartmentalized into separate areas of the brain so that they are never thought of at the same time. Let them be brought together and the honest, thoughtful student will realize that one or the other has to go. Either Christ and the Father are one, or they are not.

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Solving this problem is not difficult for the Scriptures are emphatic that the Father and Son are one in every particular. Jesus testified to this repeatedly.
“I and My Father are one.’ John 10:30.
“If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.
“But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” John 10:37, 38.
“If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.
“Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.
“Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” John 14:7-11.
“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily. I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John
5:19.
By these words, Christ, on His Father’s behalf, denied that there was any difference whatsoever between Them in character and work. Both are joined in the most intimate way, in dedicated purpose to save the perishing. Christ does not have to appease the Father for He is doing exactly what the Father has commissioned Him to do.
Division is Satan’s objective, but God’s great purpose is to bring all things in heaven and earth into unity as it is written; “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He bath purposed in Himself:
“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.” Ephesians 1:9, 10.
Evidence was presented back in chapter three that the specific method employed by Satan to drive wedges between God and His creatures was the false presentation of God’s character.
“Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub desired to he first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a

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God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.” The Desire of Ages, 21,22.
 “By the same misrepresentation of the character of God as he had practised in heaven causing Him to be regarded as severe and tyrannical, Satan induced man to sin.” The Great Controversy, 500.
“Adam believed the falsehood of Satan, and through his misrepresentation of the character of God, Adam’s life was changed and marred. He disobeyed the commandment of God, and did the very thing the Lord told him not to do. Through disobedience Adam fell; but had he endured the test, and been loyal to God, the floodgates of woe would not have been opened upon our world.
“Through belief in Satan’s misrepresentation of God, man’s character and destiny were changed, but if men will believe in the Word of God, they will be transformed in mind and character, and fitted for eternal life.” Selected Messages 1345, 346.
Satan’s method of destroying the unity of the universe can only be countered by the restoration of the truth about God. That character was manifested in all God’s dealings with both loyal and rebellious individuals and nations between the fall and the first advent, but men, influenced and blinded by Satan, were not able to see the verities offered there.
Therefore, an incontrovertible revelation of God’s character had to be supplied to counteract Satan’s lies and make clear the real message of the Old Testament. There was only one being who could give such a demonstration and that was Christ, “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, . . .” (Hebrews 1:3) was commissioned by God to do so.
“The Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory [character] of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power.” The Desire of Ages, 664.
“Christ came to the earth to reveal to men the character of His Father and His life was filled with deeds of divine tenderness and compassion.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 469.
“. . . 	Jesus, the express image of the Father’s person, the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth was a living representative of the character of the law of God. In His life it is made manifest that heaven-born love, Christlike principles, underlie the laws of eternal rectitude.” God’s Amazing Grace, 102.
So total is the revelation of God’s character as given by Christ that “All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son.” Testimonies 8:286.

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There is not a single reason for doubting the veracity of this statement. Jesus confirmed the truth of it in His words to Philip, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” John 14:9.
Jesus is the Word of God. This is a most important and significant title whereby we are informed of Christ’s special mission to mankind. It is a serious mistake to limit Christ’s role to that of a sacrifice by which the penalty of sin was paid. He certainly came to pay that ransom and this aspect of His work must never be minimized or disparaged, but it is just as important to see the other tasks He came to prove that any human being who will permit Christ to take away the old nature and then make him a partaker of the divine nature can, by living faith, keep all the commandments to perfection.
But, great and essential as those works are, they are not sufficient to end the great controversy without the third work; that of revealing God’s righteous character to the point where Satan’s lies are shown for what they are.
As a description of this work, the title, “The Word of God,” is most appropriate. Falling from the lips of one who is entirely honest and truthful, words are an exact expression of the thinking and character of the speaker. Upon this earth, Jesus Christ was the word of God. That is, He did not speak His own words but those of the Father. He did not do His own deeds hut the deeds of the One Who had sent Him.
These great truths are not to be construed to mean that Christ did not have a mind or an individuality of His own. “In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” The Desire of Ages, 530. He could certainly have come to the earth to express His own mind, to do His own works, and to reveal His own character. But, He came with a commission other than that, He was sent to reveal the words, thoughts, character, and deeds of the Father of righteousness. With perfect faithfulness, He fulfilled that commission, thereby assuring all that God can be seen and understood, simply by looking to the life and teachings of His Son.
“He was the Word of God—God’s thought made audible.” The Desire of Ages, 19. Therefore, He declared of His mission, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10.
“Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught me, I speak those things.” John 8:28.
Therefore, great care should be taken to understand this aspect of Christ’s mission. The truth that Jesus was the very expression of the thought and character of God should hold so firm a place in the mind, that

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no matter what contradictory pictures of God may be presented, the only acceptable ones are those in harmony with Christ’s representations of God.
Already mentioned is the apparent difference between the image of God as seen through the history of the Old Testament and Christ’s revelation of Him. Many are convinced that they are faced with a choice of which picture of God they will accept, but, if the principle laid down above is grasped and followed, it will be seen that the contradictory view of God as gained from the incorrect understanding of the Old Testament, must be rejected. This is because it does not agree with the revelation of God as given by Jesus Christ. His presentation of God’s character is the clearest, the most convincing and the most easily understood.
In other words, those who wish to know what God is like, how He relates Himself to the sinner and to the righteous, have only to look at God in the face of Jesus Christ. Any ideas about God which find no reflection in Christ’s life and teachings must be unhesitatingly rejected as error. This can only mean that belief cannot be retained in both the popular view of God and Christ’s presentation of Him. One or the other has to go. God is utterly consistent and, therefore, His Word is consistent with itself. It cannot and certainly does not present a concept in one place and the opposite in another. This cannot be. Every searcher for truth must be convinced of this as a provision motivating him to reject any tendency to accept contradictory views of Scripture, while he searches with earnest perseverance for biblical solutions which will bring them into perfect harmony.
In the New Testament, Christ gave us the true picture of God. Let that truth be forever and without question established in the mind. As surely as the Lord is consistent, then the Old Testament presentation of Him must coincide with the New. The student must not rest until the two are harmonized.
In working to achieve that harmony, begin where the truth is clearest. This means that the starting point must be the life of Christ—not the history of the Old Testament. For four thousand years, both human and angelic minds failed to see the revelation of Himself which the Lord had sought to transmit throughout all His dealings. Having failed to penetrate the devils sophistries during that time, He sent Christ to accomplish what had before been impossible. It was impossible, not because of any shortcoming on God’s part, but because of the blindness and prejudice of men’s darkened minds and the sheer subtlety of Satan. It is much easier to spread a lie than to establish the truth. Raising a doubt, or insinuating an evil motive is a simple thing compared to the vindication of a righteous character.
Christ came, then, to settle forever the question of God’s character. He did it by bringing that which had been distant and obscure into the closest contact with the human race. So intimate is the proximity of that spotless life, that it is impossible not to see it as it is. There are none to argue that Christ possessed any other than an impeccable righteousness in which is
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embodied all that is most precious and desirable in any being, divine or human. It would be impossible to give a more convincing argument than that, What Christ came to accomplish, He was pre-eminently successful in doing. The question of what God is in character, is forever sealed.
To appreciate the full value of Christ’s matchless presentation of God’s character, it is necessary to recognize how all-encompassing it was. Did Christ come to present a partial view of God? Was it simply a shifting of emphasis? Did God, feeling that He had most satisfactorily convinced men in the Old Testament of the sterner and uncompromising side of His nature, leave Christ to emphasize the qualities of love, forgiveness, and mercy?
Such a view is adopted by many as a solution to what they feel would otherwise be a contradiction between the messages of the Old and New Testaments, but it is not the message of the Scriptures themselves. Therein, it is asserted that Christ’s manifestation of the Father was complete. It leaves nothing more to be shown. This is not saying that everything about God’s character can be understood in one contact with the Saviour, for it will take eternity to see all that Christ came to tell. What must be recognized and accepted as truth is that the revelation of God in the face of Christ is complete. Therefore it is written: “AU that man needs to know or con know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son.” Testimonies 8:286.
This statement is specific, comprehensive, and accurate. It leaves no space for the supposition that Christ revealed only a certain aspect of God’s character or even the larger part of it. It does not admit to the notion that Christ’s ministry provided a further stage in this revelation with final unfoldings to be given in the future. Rather, it confirms in language so simple that no doubt is left of its meaning, that Christ came to give a manifestation of God so complete that there is nothing more which can be shown. Nothing was overlooked or omitted. There is no inquiry about God which can be raised except it be answered in the life and teachings of the Saviour. The work Is complete. It has all been unfolded. All that remains is for the eager, spiritual child of God through earnest study and prayer to come into possession of this richest of all treasures. Some may counter that eternal life is the richest of treasures. This is true and in its truth establishes this point, for the knowledge of God is eternal life. “And this is life eternal that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:3.
Christ Himself declared the totality of His revelation of His Father.
“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise,” John 5:19.
This Scripture is a key in understanding Christ’s ministry as the Word of the living God. Let the precious truths contained therein be examined with thorough care.

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Christ testified that He did nothing of Himself. Thus He dented that any act of His during this earthly ministry was original with, or from, Himself. Unlike men, who feel they must do something that is distinctly themselves, Christ had come with only one great purpose in mind which was to do the works and will of His Father. He had not come to glorify Himself, but the Almighty God Who had sent Him.
Therefore, as certainly as His life, so filled with activity, contained nothing done of Himself or from Himself, so all that He did was of God and from God. It was the Father Who was acting out His life and character through the medium of His beloved Son. Therefore, in Christ’s every act, we see God at work and know thereby exactly what the Father does in relation to His subjects, be they sinful or righteous.
This is confirmed in Christ’s words, “For what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 6:19.
The witness of Christ here is not simply in these terms, “What things He doeth.” but “What things soever He doeth.” The addition of this word means that everything the Father does is included. This is a word which carries the idea of completeness, of infinitude. Therefore Christ is attesting that everything the Father does, without any exceptions, the Son does likewise.
The student must not fail to observe the insertion of the word, “likewise.” It adds significant meaning to the Saviour’s message. It is important that we believe that Christ did upon this earth, everything the Father did. It is equally essential for us to know that He did likewise as the Father did it. Not only did He do all the Father did, but He did it exactly as the Father did it.
Therefore, the revelation of God as given by Christ was not only complete but it was a facsimile. If the Father Himself had come down in place of Christ, the picture would have been so identical that it would have been impossible to tell them apart.
In a further attempt to argue that the revelation of God by Christ was incomplete, it may be claimed that during the earthly interval, Christ did not have a full knowledge of the works of God. Such an argument is stifled in the very next verse where Christ claimed complete knowledge of the ways and works of God.
“For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and He will shew Him greater works than these, that ye marvel.” John 5:20.
What Christ says, we believe, for He is Truth. By His testimony then we know that everything the Father does, the Son did in the same way precisely, and, inasmuch as there was nothing of His ways which the Father did not reveal to the Son, that revelation is complete.
What a challenge this is to the old ideas about God. Every idea in which God is seen as the destroyer of those who refuse His offers of mercy, can be sustained only if we find Christ doing the same thing. What citadels of error

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must collapse before the onslaught of this impregnable truth! What an entirely new and glorious structure of living verities about the Father must now arise from the wreckage of those edifices of lies!
Consider the time-honoured theories about God. He is viewed as One Who initially seeks the salvation of His creatures. From His position of supreme authority, He calls upon men to repent of their sins and obey His will. He demonstrates patience while men play with His appeals, but the time comes when that patience is exhausted. Then He arises to perform His “strange act.” With terrifying power, wielded in His own hands, He wipes the rebellious from the face of the earth, thus demonstrating that He is not a God to be scorned. He thus asserts His will by the naked use of destructive force, convincing men that they must obey Him or perish. This is the view of
Is this what God does? Is this a true picture of His patterns of behaviour? It is important to know the answer for, if it is not correct, then it is a lying representation of God designed by the devil to separate us from Him and to effect our destruction. Certainly, it is the time-honoured view of God and His ways, so that, if this were the determining factor, it would be the truth. But, the fact that a belief is hoary with the dignity of age and majority acceptance, does not make it correct.
There is another and altogether reliable means of testing the veracity, or otherwise, of these concepts. That proof is offered in the life of Christ. He came to show us exactly how God behaves in any situation. Therefore, if this long-standing and popular concept of God is correct, it is certain that it will be supported by Christ’s doing the same thing in the same way.
But where can this pattern of behaviour be found in His life upon this earth?
It cannot he found. Search as exhaustively as possible. Investigate every word and act. Listen to His inspired utterances. See Him dealing with those who had rejected His last appeals of mercy. Behold Him receiving abuse and mockery in return for love and mercy and never once can any suggestion be found of His even entertaining an idea of doing as men have understood God to do. Not even by a thought did He enter into any work whereby He would use the mighty power available to Him to destroy the impenitent.
Men have long seen God as having two faces. One of these is the forgiving, merciful face which He turns toward man during the pleading for their repentance, while the other is the face of thunder as He is about to destroy him. Christ exhibited no such duality. Throughout His life only one role was ever played by Him—that of a Saviour and a Saviour only Not once do we find Him lifting His hand to destroy anyone. He lived only to bless, to heal, to restore, and to save.
“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38.

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“Christ stood at the head of humanity in the garb of humanity. So full of sympathy and love was His attitude that the poorest was not afraid to come to Him. He was kind to all, easily approached by the most lowly. He went from house to house, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the distressed. . . . He came as an expression of the perfect love of God, not to crush, not to judge and condemn, but to heal every weak, defective character, to save men and women from Satan's power.” Welfare Ministry, 53, 54.
 “Constantly He went about doing good. By the good He accomplished, by His loving words and kindly deeds, He interpreted the gospel to men.” ibid., 56.
“Just as we trace the pathway of a stream of water by the line of living green it produces, so Christ could be seen in the deeds of mercy that marked His pathway at every step. Wherever He went, health sprang up, and happiness followed wherever He passed. The blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence. His words to the ignorant opened to them a fountain of life. He dispensed His blessings abundantly and continuously. They were the garnered treasures of eternity, given in Christ, the Lord’s rich gift to man. ibid., 57.
 “Christ, the outshining of the Father's glory, came to the world as its light. He came to represent God to men, and of Him it is written that He was anointed ‘with the Holy Ghost and with power,’ and ‘went about doing good.’ ” Christ’s Object Lessons, 416, 417.
This statement is very much to the point declaring that Christ came to this earth to represent God to man and then telling us that in order to do that. He went about doing good. How tragic that so many have failed to appreciate that Christ is the exact and complete revelation of the Father of lights. When this truth is seen as it should and must be. then it will be understood that God is committed to only one work—that of going about and doing good. He, together with Christ, is the great Healer, Restorer, Saviour, and Friend of all mankind. It is not His way to destroy them. They are destroyed only when they take themselves out of His care and beyond the limits of His circle of protection.
“The life of Christ was filled with words and acts of benevolence, sympathy, and love.” Early Writings, 160.
So it was. It was not partly, but overflowingly filled so that there was space for nothing else but that. The truth of the statements just quoted can be verified by studying the inspired records of His life. Such a study will fail to bring to light a single act of destruction or the administration of any punishment.
Some may raise the objection that Christ cursed and destroyed the barren fig tree and that He drove the money changers out of the temple on two occasions by using a whip to do so. Both these events will be studied in the next chapter. The presentation of Scriptural evidences will show that the

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wasting of the fig tree was not an act of destruction on Christ’s part. It will be shown that He related Himself to it exactly as He does to every sinner, by permitting His protection and life to be withdrawn from it. Likewise, it will be shown that it was not by personal, physical force that He was successful in clearing the temple of the money changers.
These are the only events which could be offered as an exception to the rule of Christ’s ministry. When it is successfully shown that they are not an exception, then it will be recognized that Christ did only good while upon this earth. He came as a Saviour only. ‘For God sent not His Son to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17.
This is the great and thrilling message from the life of Christ. It testifies that throughout all the ages before He came, men held to a serious misconception of God’s character. Christ had come to dispel that error, and by acting out the ways and works of His Father, declares, “Here is the correct view of My Father. This is what you are to believe that He is and does.”
At this point, some will be thinking that if they accept Christ’s life as the full and complete picture of what God is, then how will they ever understand God’s actions in the Old Testament?
Let all such be earnestly encouraged to take hold of Christ’s words by faith. Jesus said that He had come to do the works of His Father. He has told us that to see Him is to see the Father. Therefore, faith in those words assures us that the picture of the Father which Christ came to give is the truth in regard to the Father. Faith then comforts us with the happy thought that there is a better and more beautiful interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures than we have had in the past. Thus we are filled with eager anticipation as we return to the study of events prior to the first advent of the Word of God.
Later, many of the great happenings of that period will be re-examined. To the glad surprise of many of our readers, and we would hope all, it will be seen that God is a Saviour and a Saviour only.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Urged To Destroy

God provided in Christ’s life and teachings the complete and final means whereby every theory about Him can be tested. By this means, every interpretation of God’s behaviour can be infallibly categorized as true or false. Thus, for instance, the idea that God destroys those who defy Him, is classified as erroneous.
If faith can take firm hold upon the principle that Christ is the perfect and incontrovertible expression of all that God is, the groundwork has been thoroughly laid for revising the common interpretations of the Old Testament stories. Confidence will be established in the truth that there is an alternative version of what God actually did in those terrible situations.
To strengthen that confidence and expectation, further consideration will now be given to the testimony of Jesus. When, upon this earth, He showed no disposition to reach out in acts of punishment and destruction, it was not because He was afforded no opportunity or power to do so. He certainly had the power as was manifested in His miracles of healing, His command of the wild storms, and His ability to restrain the demoniacs.
There was no lack of occasion for the administration of punishment and destruction, for He was continually confronted with those who despised His offers of salvation, not only refusing to obey Him, but actually working in open rebellion against Him.
More than this, He was urged to raise His hand and rain fire upon those who had turned against Him.
“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
“And sent messengers before His face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him.
“And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem.
“And when His disciples. James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume even as Elias did?
“But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
 “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.” Luke 9:51-56.
The Samaritans could have offered no greater insult to the Son of God. The offer of hospitality to a stranger is regarded in the east as being an obligation on all, and to refuse this is to indicate rejection of the worst kind. If ever, from the human point of view, a sin needed to be punished to teach a lesson of warning to all others, then this was it.

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“James and John, Christ’s messengers, were greatly annoyed at the insult shown to their Lord. They were filled with indignation because He had been so rudely treated by the Samaritans whom He was honouring by His presence. They had recently been with Him on the mount of transfiguration, and had seen Him glorified by God, and honoured by Moses and Elijah. This manifest dishonour on the part of the Samaritans, should not, they thought, be passed over without marked punishment.
“Coming to Christ, they reported to Him the words of the people, telling Him that they had even refused to give Him a night’s lodging. They  thought that a grievous wrong had been done Him, and seeing Mount Carmel in the distance, where Elijah had slain the false prophets, they said, ‘Wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them. as Elias did?’ ” The Desire of Ages, 487.
Those men were familiar with Old Testament history and they thought they understood quite well the way in which God had dealt with similar of-fences in the past. Therefore, they believed that they were asking Christ to do just what they were sure God would have done under the circumstances. Their misunderstanding of His character led them to expect Christ to endorse their suggestion.
Like millions before and since, those men had a concept of God and His kingdom which differed in no way from earthly kings and their kingdoms. For this reason they held to the expectation that Christ would establish a kingdom by using force and compulsion. So firmly entrenched was this idea that Christ’s efforts to disillusion them proved fruitless. They came to the last Passover making no provision whatsoever for Christ’s rejection, a crown of thorns, and a crucifixion.
In order to understand the Samaritan incident, it is important to recognize that the apostles did have a very wrong concept of God’s character and that their request to Jesus was made in harmony with that erroneous idea. They looked upon God as a majestic Being of judgment and destruction who would miss no opportunity of asserting His authority making an example of the impenitent.
They believed that Christ was on the journey to His coronation in Jerusalem so that if there was ever a time when men should have a signal lesson of the peril of withholding homage, this was that moment. A few lives sacrificed now, would save many later.
If the disciples had been correct in their assessment of God’s character; if what they thought they understood Him as doing in the Old Testament, had been what He really had done, then, because Christ did only as and what the Father did, He would have called down fire from heaven there and then. This would have been opportunity for Christ to show forth the character of God as the executioner of those who rebelled against Hun Christ would have taken full advantage of such a splendid opportunity to show this aspect of God’s policies.

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But Christ would not even consider doing any such thing. Instead, He rebuked the disciples. “They were surprised to see that Jesus was pained by their words, and still more surprised as His rebuke fell upon their ears, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And He went to another village.” bid.
Christ did not use this opportunity to show forth the Father as an executioner because that is not God’s character. But this does not mean that He missed the chance of revealing the Father. Far from it. This was a golden opportunity to do so and He made the most of it.
He instructed His followers that the course they proposed sprang from a spirit foreign both to Him and His Father. Such a spirit and its fruit, not being found in the divine nature, found its source in Satan’s heart. It was his way, not God’s, to destroy those who failed to serve him.
Having denied identification with that spirit, Christ reiterated what He had come to do. Close attention should be paid to what He said with care taken not to read into it what He did not say. Explicitly, He declared, “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
He did not say, “The Son of man is come to save all who will be saved and then to destroy the remainder.”
But this is what the Saviour would have had to say if the accepted view of God’s ways is correct. Furthermore, He would have been obliged to demonstrate the veracity His words by destroying every Samaritan whose rejection of Him was final. But He neither spoke such words nor performed such actions.
Instead with great plainness, He said, ‘The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives . . .”
Men set out to achieve with the best of intentions and noble principles, only to find that they did not realize the complications which would arise. Too often, they then compromise their principles and modify their plans to meet the unexpected.
It is not so with God. At the outset, He is fully aware of every difficulty which will develop. In the fulness of that foreknowledge, He outlines the course He will pursue. With infallible consistency thereafter, He adheres to His stated principles. No pressure can be mounted sufficient to cause the least deviation.
When Christ said that He did not come to destroy men s lives, we can be assured of the absolute reliability of those words. Therefore, we can know that He did not destroy when He came. Further, inasmuch as He did only what the Father did, then we can know that the Father does not come to destroy us. Christ came only to save. Likewise, the Father comes to us as a Saviour and a Saviour only.
“It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan. and men actuated by his spirit, that seek to compel the conscience.

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Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederate with evil angels bring suffering upon their fellow men, in order to convert them to their ideas of religion; but Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win by the revealing of His love. He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service; but He desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love. There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas. ” ibid.
The Samaritans did not appreciate Christ’s work and they certainly acted contrary to His ideas. Had He shown the least disposition to hurt or destroy them, He would have given the strongest evidence that He possessed the spirit of Satan. It was because He did not possess that spirit that He did not show any such disposition.
If we project this principle back to the Father’s behaviour, the same conclusions must be maintained. Let the popular concept of God’s character be thus tested.
It is true that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah did not appreciate the works of God and they certainly acted contrary to His ideas. The longer they lived, the greater the depths of apostasy to which they carried this. In the meantime, they resisted wilfully and stubbornly every outreach of God to bring them back into appreciation of His works and to actions harmonizing with His ideas. Consequently, so popular theology declares, God destroyed them by raining fire upon them. In the light of the statement quoted above, if this is true, then God provided all with convincing evidence that He was actuated with the spirit of the devil.
There is no other conclusion which can be drawn but this. The only way to deny this is to prove the statement quoted to be false and this cannot be done for it is the inspired word of God.
When the implications of the popular belief stand thus exposed, it is evident that there is the need for another better informed and more spiritual investigation of God’s performance in that holocaust. It is certain that God does not possess the spirit of Satan. Therefore. it is equally certain that He
does not hurt nor destroy those who do not appreciate His work and act contrary to His ideas.
The stand made by Christ against His apostles in the matter of the Samaritans, is a valuable revelation of His utter refusal to be involved in any kind of punitive work of destruction. He made it quite clear that such had no part with Him and therefore no part with His Father in heaven. The life of Christ utterly denies the idea that God destroys anyone for any reason.
There are, of course, those two instances mentioned in the previous chapter which, on the surface, would seem to provide occasions when Christ did stretch forth His hands to use force and to destroy. They are the cursing of the fig tree and the expelling of the desecrators from the temple precincts.

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Let the case of the wasted fig tree be considered first.
This occurred very late in Christ’s ministry. A few days before the last Passover, He had ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem. This was an act of final appeal to the Jewish leaders, their rejection of which placed them beyond any further hope of deliverance.
He spent the night in Bethany and the next morning returned to the temple. “On the way He passed a fig orchard. He was hungry, ‘and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
“It was not the season for ripe figs, except in certain localities; and on the highlands about Jerusalem it might truly be said, ‘The time of figs was not yet.’ But in the orchard to which Jesus came, one tree appeared to be in advance of all the others. It was already covered with leaves. It is the nature of the fig tree that before the leaves open, the growing fruit appears. Therefore this tree in full leaf gave promise of well-developed fruit. But its appearance was deceptive. Upon searching its branches, from the lowest bough to the topmost twig, Jesus found ‘nothing but leaves.’ It was a mass of pretentious foliage, nothing more.
“Christ uttered against it a withering curse. ‘No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever,’ He said. The next morning, as the Saviour and His disciples were again on their way to the city, the blasted branches and drooping leaves attracted their attention. ‘Master,’ said Peter, ‘behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away.’ ” The Desire of Ages, 581, 582.
“Jesus looked upon the pretentious, fruitless fig tree, and with mournful reluctance pronounced the words of doom. And under the curse of an offended God the fig tree withered away. God help His people to make an application of this lesson while there is still time.” The Review and Herald, February 25, 1902.
The strong words in these statements are “uttered against it a withering curse,’ and “under the curse of an offended God.”
Now, pause and ponder what kind of picture these words call before your mind. Practically anyone will find that this is what they see. The. unabated spirit of rejection and apostasy on the part of the children of Israel had brought God to the point where He became offended indignant, infuriated, and judgmental. So He cursed the fig tree whose pretentious foliage was a symbol of the Jew’s hypocrisy. This act of cursing is seen as a direct sending forth of a stream of death from God to the tree. In other words, God thus appears as one who specifically decides what the fate of the tree will be and then administers judgment on the tree.
Having developed this picture, let another one now be projected. This time let the words be used in describing the actions of the witch-doctor. He utters against another man a withering curse and under the cures of the of-

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fended witch-doctor, the man withers away and dies This happens continually in the dark lands of heathenism, In Australian aboriginal land, the curse is transmitted by pointing the bone. The victim towards whom the bone is pointed invariably dies. The witch-doctor has decreed the death of his victim and now he exercises his power for the direct purpose of transmitting the curse of death to the man.
Except for fine details perhaps, there is no difference between these two pictures. Some will say that there is a large difference, pointing to the righteousness of God versus the sinister evilness of the witch-doctor’s character. This is to argue that God’s righteousness gives His actions a sanctity which the evil of the witch-doctor cannot give to the same actions.
But a good character produces good deeds. It cannot sanctify evil deeds. Here is where thousands are deceived by a false philosophy. If this mist is cleared away, and the actions of the witch-doctor, as such, are compared with those which God is purported to do as in the paragraph above, then it will be seen that there is no difference.
The Scriptures emphasize that God’s ways are different from the ways of men, and therefore, particularly of witch-doctors. So we need to take a deeper look at what Christ really did there at the fig tree, for we cannot be satisfied with the popular view.
In the Word of God we shall find a very different view of this than is common to men.
The disciples, even though they expected this of Christ, were surprised. “Christ's act in cursing the fig tree had astonished the disciples. It seemed to them unlike His ways and works. Often they had heard Him declare that He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. They remembered His words, ‘The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.’ Luke 9:56. His wonderful works had been done to restore, never to destroy. The disciples had known Him only as the Restorer, the Healer. This act stood alone. What was its purpose? they questioned.” The Desire of Ages, 582.
They were not then able to see and understand all things. The light on this was to shine through for them later, but we are blessed with words of inspiration beyond that which they had, so we are without excuse if we do not understand. The truth of what Christ did is spelled out in the following statement.
“God ‘delighteth in mercy.’ ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.’ Micah 7:18; Ezekiel 33:11. To Him the work of destruction and denunciation of judgment is a ‘strange work,’ Isaiah 28:21. But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to men the results of a course of sin.
“The cursing of the fig tree was an acted parable. That barren tree, flaunting its pretentious foliage in the very face of Christ, was a symbol of the Jewish nation. The Saviour desired to make plain to His disciples the

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cause and the certainty of Israel's doom. For this purpose He invested the tree with moral qualities, and made it the expositor of divine truth. The Jews stood forth distinct from all other nations, professing allegiance to God. They had been specially favored by Him, and they laid claim to righteousness above every other people. But they were corrupted by the love of the world and the greed of gain. They boasted of their knowledge, but they were ignorant of the requirements of God, and were full of hypocrisy. Like the barren tree, they spread their pretentious branches aloft, luxuriant in appearance, and beautiful to the eye, but they yielded "nothing but leaves." The Jewish religion, with its magnificent temple, its sacred altars, its mitered priests and impressive ceremonies, was indeed fair in outward appearance, but humility, love, and benevolence were lacking. 
All the trees in the fig orchard were destitute of fruit; but the leafless trees raised no expectation, and caused no disappointment. By these trees the Gentiles were represented. They were as destitute as were the Jews of godliness; but they had not professed to serve God. They made no boastful pretensions to goodness. They were blind to the works and ways of God. With them the time of figs was not yet. They were still waiting for a day which would bring them light and hope. The Jews, who had received greater blessings from God, were held accountable for their abuse of these gifts. The privileges of which they boasted only increased their guilt. 
Jesus had come to the fig tree hungry, to find food. So He had come to Israel, hungering to find in them the fruits of righteousness. He had lavished on them His gifts, that they might bear fruit for the blessing of the world. Every opportunity and privilege had been granted them, and in return He sought their sympathy and co-operation in His work of grace. He longed to see in them self-sacrifice and compassion, zeal for God, and a deep yearning of soul for the salvation of their fellow men. Had they kept the law of God, they would have done the same unselfish work that Christ did. But love to God and man was eclipsed by pride and self-sufficiency. They brought ruin upon themselves by refusing to minister to others. The treasures of truth which God had committed to them, they did not give to the world. In the barren tree they might read both their sin and its punishment. Withered beneath the Saviour's curse, standing forth sere and blasted, dried up by the roots, the fig tree showed what the Jewish people would be when the grace of God was removed from them. Refusing to impart blessing, they would no longer receive it. "O Israel," the Lord says, "thou hast destroyed thyself." Hosea 13:9.” ibid., 582, 583.
There are several key sentences in this statement which clarify Christ’s actions. “That barren tree . . . was a symbol of the Jewish nation. The Saviour desired to make plain to His disciples the cause and the certainty of Israel’s doom . . . In the barren fig tree they might read both their sin and its punishment. . . the fig tree showed what the Jewish people would be when the grace of God was removed from them.”

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Thus Christ’s act was a prophecy. He was declaring in advance just what was going to happen to the Jewish nation. In order for the prophecy to be accurate, Christ had to do to the fig tree exactly what He would later do to Jerusalem. Prophecy is valueless if it is not accurate.
It is a principle that a prophecy is never fully understood until it has been fulfilled. Jesus indicated this in these words, “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” John 14:29.
A careful study of the history of prophetic interpretation clarifies just what Christ meant when He uttered those words. The more distant the future prophecy stood, the less it was understood by God’s children. For instance, in the days following the apostolic era, the Christians of that day understood the rise and fall of the four great empires, expected the partition of the Roman Empire into ten great divisions, but did not understand the one thousand, two hundred and sixty days, the image of the beast, or the battle of Armageddon.
In like manner, while Luther, Knox, and their contemporaries saw that the little horn was the papacy, they did not understand what was to happen beyond that. But when the period of papal dominance was about to end, Bible scholars on both sides of the Atlantic were able to know the very year in which it would happen and said so just before it did. Immediately the interest turned to Daniel 8:14, but it was not until after the great disappointment that an understanding developed of the nature of the image of the beast.1
On the basis of the principle that the prophecy is never fully understood until it is fulfilled, there is an obvious advantage in that we have both the prophecy and the fulfilment of the parable of the cursed fig tree. The prophecy was made by Christ just prior to His crucifixion and the fulfilment took place in the fall of Jerusalem in AD. 70.
What took place in the fulfilment is very clear. As already noted from The Great Controversy, 35, 36, God did not personally decree the nature of the punishment which should and did befall the Israelites. Instead, He sorrowfully and reluctantly submitted to their insistent demands that He leave them to their own way, thus exposing them to whatever potential of destruction was nearest to them. It proved in this case to be the enraged Romans who, freed of any restriction imposed by God’s presence, were able to wreak their vengeance upon the shelterless Jews.
In order, then, for Christ to reveal in the prophecy what God would do in its fulfilment, He must do the same in the prophecy. Therefore, Christ simply withdrew His presence from the tree leaving it exposed to whatever plague, blight, or other destructive force was waiting to consume it. Some
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1These great truths may be studied in detail in The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers,, Vol. I-IV, by LeRoy Edwin Froom, published by The Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington D.C. 1950.

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may say that it must have been very convenient for a destructive power to have been overshadowing that particular tree so that it would serve Christ’s purpose when He withdrew His protective power from it.
Only those who do not appreciate the fact that a thousand unseen dangers are lurking over us and all of nature every moment of the day, would adopt such a view. It would not mailer from what point or quarter the Lord was to withdraw His protection. Destruction would come flooding in, in some form or the other. Were we better aware of this, we would maintain toward God a spirit of gratitude and dependence far in excess of that which we now display.
In this particular case the attack came at the roots of the tree for the Scriptures expressly say “And In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.” Mark 11:20.
Note also that it was not until the next day that the effects of the withdrawing of the Creator’s sustaining and protecting presence were apparent, whereas we would expect that if the Lord struck the free with His own direct power as so many suppose He did, then the free would have Instantly been blasted as if struck with lightning. But it was not so.
The argument that the fulfilment clarifies the prophecy, does not mean that the prophecy is wholly obscure. Rather, In the comments from The Desire of Ages where the prophecy is spelled out In more detail, it is stated quite clearly that” . . . the fig tree showed what the Jewish people would be when the grace of God was removed from them.”
Thus the evidence is clear for those who will dig a little deeper, that Christ did not strike the tree any more than He struck the Jews in the fall of Jerusalem, when the prophecy was fulfilled. Thus is removed any possible reference to this event as an example of Christ using force or engaging in an act of destruction.
Let an examination next be made of the driving out of the money changers and traffickers in the courtyard of the temple. Once again, the casual and superficial view of this incident is that Jesus drove these men out by force, but a careful study reveals another picture altogether.
Here is the Scripture record of it:
“And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, “And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
“And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the table!
“And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.
“And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” John 2:13-17.

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The natural human tendency is to interpret the words, “He drove them out,” in the same way as they would be understood if used to describe human behaviour. No greater mistake could be made, for the ways of God as revealed in Christ’s life are so different from men’s ways. Christ drove them out’ it is true, but not as man would do it by dependence on physical power or force. Let there be the continual reminder that “Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order.” The Desire of Ages, 759.
Therefore, compelling power or the use of physical force to achieve obedience is never found under God’s government. Inasmuch then, as Christ was fully under God’s government, even to being the perfect expression of that government, no physical force was ever used by Him to achieve obedience. So, Christ did not drive those men out as other men would drive them out. He did not do it by physical force at all.
A little thought would show the unfeasibility of His attempting to do it by physical force. He was only one man pitted against a considerable number of wily, hardened opponents. How many there were, we are not exactly told, but they could have numbered a hundred or more. While their number is not revealed, their characters are. They were men whose souls were calloused with the sinful traffic of extortion. They feared no man on earth and would think nothing of resorting to physical violence to preserve their treasured gains. For Christ to have attempted their expulsion by physical power would have been a very rash and foolish enterprise.
How did He do it?
Christ stood before them that day in the role of the eternal and righteous Judge. Those men knew that He was reading the closely guarded secrets of their lives. They were conscious that His eye was seeing beneath the pretentious garments of righteousness with which they had sought to cover the sickness of their sin-diseased souls.
Such the sinner cannot stand. One compelling desire fills him. He flees in abject terror from the presence of the Righteous One. They did it there in the temple courts and they will do it again when the Saviour returns in the clouds of heaven. Finally they will do it when they stand arraigned before the Judge of the heavens and the earth in the last and final day.
The truth of this is laid out in these words:
“And why did the priests flee from the temple? Why did they not stand their ground? He Who commanded them to go was a carpenter’s son, a poor Galleon, without earthly rank or power. Why did they not resist Him? Why did they leave the gain so ill acquired, and flee at the command of One Whose outward appearance was so humble?
“Christ spoke with the authority of a king, and in His appearance, and .in the tones of His voice, there was that which they had no power to resist. At the word of command they realized, as they had never realized before, their true position as hypocrites and robbers. When divinity flashed through

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humanity, not only did they see Indignation on Christ’s countenance; they realized the import of His words. They felt as if before the throng of the eternal Judge, with their sentence passed on them for time and for eternity.” The Desire of Ages, 162.
It was the awful power of burning condemnation that drove those men from the presence of Christ. They could not endure it. No man ever can. They will always flee in terror from the presence of the Almighty Judge of the earth. God does not need to raise a single finger of physical power to drive them away. When the time comes that He must stand before them in that role, they will do nothing else but flee.
Thus we need have no misgivings of the perfection of the revelation of God in Christ. Throughout His life Christ made no concessions whatsoever to the principles of Satan’s character. Flawlessly He showed that “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.” The Great Controversy, 36. He came to reveal God as a Saviour and a Saviour only and He did it to perfection. There is not a single instance in Christ’s life in which any other character but this is shown. That life gives the total lie to the long-held view that God does destroy the finally impenitent. He does not do this but rather leaves them to their own desires. This means that they stand without protection from the onslaught of the grim reaper.
If every person in the world could see God in Christ with the understanding that Christ gave a full and undimmed revelation of the Father: if they could know that “All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son.” Testimonies 8:286: they would reject every concept which sees God as One Who rises up and destroys those who are disobedient. They would see Him only as a Saviour, Who, while He cannot condone and support sin, will not destroy those who cherish it, but will accept their freedom to choose their own way and perish.
May the Lord open the eyes of every reader to see God as He is to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ, “the Word of God—God’s thought made audible.”

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Magnifying The Law

There is a direct and inseparable connection between Christ’s role as the Revelator of the Father’s character and as the Magnifier of God’s law. Scriptures have already been quoted which state that Christ came to show men the Eternal One as He really is. Now is presented this text in regard to the work of Christ and the law.
‘The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake: He will magnify’ the law, and make it honorable.”  Isaiah 42:21.
It would be a serious mistake to think of this as being a separate and different work from that of the unfolding of God’s character. “His law is t. transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character Christ’s Object Lessons 315. Thus is made plain the truth that the character of God is directly and accurately expressed in His law. To see one is to see the other, this means that God, Christ. and the law are three identical entities.  Between them there is no difference even though it is difficult to grasp them. There is the inclination to think of God as a Being of living power with infinite possibilities of exercising His will. We tend to see the law as being a much lesser thing, merely the spoken will of the supreme ruler and certainly not something which is the expression of Himself.
The mind must be re-educated away from such ideas. The law of God is to find its true level in the thinking of those through whom the Lord wilt finish His work. They are to understand that the law of God is as high, as great, as infinite and wonderful as Himself.
“The law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom.” “The broken law of God demanded the life of the sinner. In all the universe there was but One Who could. In behalf of man, satisfy its. claims Since the divine law is as sacred as Himself, only One equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could. redeem fallen man from the curse of the law and bring him again into harmony with Heaven.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 52, 6?.
“The law of God is as holy as He is holy, as perfect as He is perfect. It presents to men the righteousness of God.” Mount of Blessing. 54.
Therefore, to place God on a level of infinite greatness, while relegating the law to a lesser plane, is to hold a position of serious error. They must be thought of as being as holy, as great, as infinite, and as sacred as one another.
Likewise, the understanding that Jesus came to reveal the Father, is to comprehend that Christ came to magnify the law. These were not two separate tasks to be accomplished In turn or even in concert. They were

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one and the same work. The revealing of God’s character was the magnification of the law.
Great stress has been placed upon the truth that the last conflict will be over the law of God. This has not been overdone. Despite all the emphasis, there has not yet been conveyed the real significance of the place of the law in that final struggle. Generally, it is thought that the issue will simply be proving that the seventh day is the Sabbath, with the corresponding exposure of Sunday as being the day of the man of sin. But the issues will go vastly deeper than this. It is true that Sabbath versus Sunday will be the focal point of issue, but not at a merely technical level. Furthermore, the whole of the law will be contested. not just one point of it.
The deepest spiritual implications and ramifications of the law will be explored, presented, and controverted. Because the law is the very expression of the righteousness or character of God, the issue will involve the question of how God keeps that law. Does He kill, destroy, punish annihilate and execute? The time will have come for the final settlement of the great questions of the law and the character of God, to be made before the second advent.
“From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven, it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator: and though he was cast out of heaven, he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. Whether this be accomplished by casting aside the law altogether, or by rejecting one of its precepts, the result will ho ultimately the same. He that offends ‘in one point,’ manifests contempt for the whole law; his influence and example are on the side of transgressions he becomes ‘guilty of all.’
‘In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering.—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.” The Great Controversy, 582.
If every believer in the Word of God could understand how deep and extensive this controversy over God’s character and law will be, he would enter into a far more thorough and diligent preparation to take his place in that final and finishing battle.
But why should there be a controversy over the law of God? Surely the declarations of Scripture are clear enough! Surely there is need for nothing more than to prove that the ten commandments mean just what they say! The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, not the first or any other. Such

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The third is when an alien army invades the borders. Men regard it as being perfectly awful, necessary, and expedient to slaughter as many of the enemy as necessary to prevent the invasion from being successful.
Men of every nation on earth throughout human history accept these as working principles. To man’s mind, not only are they right, but they are the only solution to the problems involved in these situations. They firmly believe they can do it this way and still be keepers of the law. In fact, high honours are heaped upon those men in war who can destroy the most.
To ensure that men never weaken in these convictions, the whole educational system built up under Satan’s direction, is geared to systematically, continually and persistently reiterate these ideas. Never in history has Satan been better equipped to do so than in this age. Now he has at his command not just the verbal story teller, the limit of his facilities in the beginning, but the stupendous volume of cheap novels, the radio, the movie theatre and now most present and insistent of all teachers, the television screen.
As people sit before these media, they think that they are being harmlessly entertained, but in actual truth they are being thoroughly educated in Satan’s doctrines. With every appreciative viewing of the usual television story, the watcher is more firmly entrenched in erroneous notions of God’s character.
This is made apparent as soon as a candid analysis of the message of the movie is conducted. Here is the typical plot. It is found with minor variations in western, detective, police, military, espionage, and other tales. The message is always that the law must be broken in order to uphold It.
The film introduces the watcher to a segment of society. Maybe it is a ranch family or a small town as in the western, or a town or farmhouse in the case of a war story.
Care is taken to show this capsule of humanity as a clean, respectable, law-abiding group of people. There is love, trust, and co-operation between them. A little friction may intrude at times but that is purely incidental and designed to show that they are not super-humans but everyday folk just like the viewers. The onlooking audience has no difficulty in identifying with the people on the screen. A sense of fellowship and brotherhood is established.
Then the law-breaker is introduced. In the westerns, he appears as a dark man, clad in black clothes, riding a black horse, and armed with black guns. With him is a gang of men who look like their leader. They are hard-faced, tough, callous, and ruthless, with a total disregard for human life. Any who stand in their way, great or small, are simply gunned down. They achieve their ends by lying, stealing, and killing.
As they direct their attacks against the happy segment of society previously introduced, the audience is apprehensive and indignant, the more so as the victims are powerless to protect themselves from the

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desperadoes.	Every instinct and desire of the audience clamours for the punishment of the outlaws.
Up till this point the universal problem of man has been presented with truthful accuracy. The people of this world, generally speaking, are, on the surface, law-abiding people. They are good neighbours, help each other and are clean living. They are pictured in the film by the ranch or village as the case may be.
Just as those people are threatened by a desperado and his gang, so today, the world lies under the threat of Satan and his followers. Man is entirely unable to rescue himself from the power of the devil and his angels.
Thus Satan has presented the problem of the human family in a truly accurate form. As a problem requires a solution, one Is offered In every film presentation. In the western it is the arrival of a lone champion on a beautiful white horse. In contrast to the robber, he is dressed in white clothes, has a handsome, open face, carries white guns, and is stirred to the depths as he realizes the plight of the oppressed. Alone and unassisted, at any sacrifice even to life itself, he pledges to set them free and to relieve the earth forever from the scourge of the terrorist. For his services he seeks neither fame nor reward. He does it as a mission, his only motivation being that of dedicated service.
So far in the story there is the continued portrayal of the truth, for just as the solution to the film story is found in the advent of a champion of self-sacrificing spirit and character, so Jesus Christ came in that way to redeem mankind. Like the hero in the story, His soul was stirred with indignation as He beheld the predicament. of man and He resolved that He would save him, no matter what the cost. He would not do it for price nor reward, but only from the motivation of love and mercy.
It has long been an understood device of selling to have the customer agreeing with you as you move forward to the clinch. So Satan has the audience agreeing with him as he spells out that which is the truth at first. Then, when all are moving forward together, he craftily introduces the deviant lines of teaching. He is gleeful as he sees millions of people go right along with his philosophy to the end.
The great white hero with his pearl-handled guns rides forth on his white charger to deal with the liars, thieves, and murderers. But see how he does it! In order to outwit the liars, he lies; to catch the thieves, he steals, for if he suddenly needs a horse, saddle, or rifle, he will simply help himself to another person’s; and to end the murderous reign of the killers, he kills.
When he is finished, the law-breaking is ended. The law has been upheld. But, the message of the film story has been that in order to achieve this, the law had to be broken. Only by lying, stealing, and killing could lying, stealing, and killing be brought to an end. The law had to be broken in order to ensure that it was kept. This is Satan’s message. He does not say that the law is wholly bad and should be entirely done away with. He ad-

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(PICTURE)

SATAN’S CLASS IN SESSION
More	than mere entertainment 
This is Education

mits that under certain circumstances it is good and should be obeyed. But, he continues, that law is not perfect for there are situations where it must be disobeyed in order to solve the problems arising.
Both evil men and their master, the devil, want a law. They want it composed so that it protects them from other men but not other men from them. It is impossible to have such a law for every man. But it is possible for a privileged class to have it at the expense of the masses. Consider the despotic king of old time. If he coveted the lands, house, wife, slaves, horse or even the life of any one of his subjects, he took it, but let any of the subjects take a fish from the king’s pool or a brace of quail from his meadows, and he was punished with anything up to death. The law protected the king from the people but it did not protect the people from the king. This is the way the devil and man want it, but it is impossible to have it that way and yet provide equal justice and happiness for all.
Such then is the message contained in Satan’s educational program. In his classrooms there is no dissent. Study, if you have the opportunity, the faces and the feelings of the watchers before the flickering screens. As the villain lies, steals and murders, they are indignant and long to see him, punished. But, when the hero lies, steals and murders, they applaud. They honour him for what he has done and consider him very smart to use such weapons in his campaign.
Were you to propose to the viewers after the show is ended that, since they called for the punishment of the villain for lying, stealing and killing,

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should not the hero be punished in the same way for his lying, stealing and killing, the idea would be so novel to them that they might well regard you as being blighted with a questionable mental condition. Their reaction would show as ridicule or even hostility. To them the villain was, unlawfully lying, stealing and killing, whereas the hero was doing it lawfully. Therefore. the villain was a criminal, but the hero was not.
Why do men take such an attitude toward this problem? There is a very real psychological reason for it. As noted above, every man consciously or subconsciously longs to be in the position where he is protected by law but does not have to keep it himself. He identifies himself with the victims in the film story, and therefore obtains satisfaction from being vicariously in the situation where he is not bound by the law not to lie, steal, and kill. He is happy to have the experience where the villain is not protected by law from him.
The feeling is accentuated by the sense of impotent frustration felt by the average person as they live under the shadow of the massive government machinery which can hit them as hard as it wishes but against which they have no redress. They feel that the law protects the government from them but not them from the government. Now they are placed in the world of make-believe in a situation where this is reversed and they make the most of it. Furthermore, it gives them a sense of security, for they are assured as to what they would do if they faced such a situation in real life.
Such is Satan’s. and in turn, man’s, magnification of the law which states, “Thou shalt not kill, lie, or steal.” We know that it is of the devil because of the media through which it is promoted and because such a philosophy finds no place in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ We know that God has no part in the movie business. That is entirely the instrument of Satan who is not about to use his machinery to educate in the ways of God or to set forth the truth regarding His wonderful character. That is the last thing Satan would ever begin to do.
Having examined the magnification of the law as set forth by the devil, the time has come to consider its enlargement as presented by Jesus Christ. Without doubt or question, we know that whatever that will be, it will be the truth, for Christ is the very fountain of truth.
Jesus showed that there is no such thing as lawful and unlawful lying, stealing, and killing. He lived His whole life upon this earth devoted to ending all such. Yet, in order to accomplish that, He never once lied, stole, or killed. Never, never, never!
With no danger of losing, anyone can lay out the challenge to all and sundry to search Christ’s life through and through to find, if they can, one single instance where Jesus ever told a lie, ever stole the property of another or took anyone’s life. It will be impossible to uncover a single such instance. Under every circumstance, every possible pressure, threat or danger, Jesus told only the truth, respected the property of all and took the lives of none.

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In doing so He demonstrated forever how we are to keep that law anti how in turn the Father and He keep that law. He showed that when God said in a few simple words, “Thou shalt not lie, steal or kill,” He did not add provisos and exceptions. No matter what the circumstances, pressures, dangers, threats, needs, or any other seeming justification for breaking those commands might be, the words were still “Thou shalt not . . .” No distinction whatever, exists in God’s mind between lawful and unlawful killing. With God there is only unlawful killings.
God has spoken in His Word, saying, “The law of the Lord is perfect . . .” Psalm 19:7. It could, of course, be none other than this, seeing that it is the transcript of the character of the Eternal. He is perfection in the absolute sense. Therefore, His law is likewise perfect. Such perfection does not mean that it is the perfect answer for certain situations, but needs to be modified or even abrogated to suit other situations. On the contrary, it means that no matter what circumstance, situation or pressure may arise, that law is still the one and only code for perfect behaviour.
When any person claims that it is lawful to kill when the commandments so distinctly say, “Thou shalt not kill,” he is in that moment charging the law and the God of that law as being imperfect, less than infinite and therefore less than God. It is also to deny the whole witness of Christ’s ministry. It is to declare the truth of God a lie.
The point which the devil is bent on making is that the law must be broken in order for it to be maintained. The life and teachings of Christ deny this. So does the message of God in the Old Testament. There is the story of two people who adopted the policy of breaking the law in order to ensure that it should be kept. That no man might be mistaken as to God’s attitude about it, there is also appended the way in which God related Himself to their actions.
It is the story of Jacob and his mother in their quest for the promised birthright. Before the birth of the two children, God, forseeing with infinite accuracy the character of each, declared that Jacob should have the birthright instead of the elder son, Esau.
“And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. Genesis 25:23.
Rebekah clearly and correctly understood that the last sentence in this verse was a promise to Jacob that the birthright should be his, not Esau’s. “Rebekah remembered the words of the angel, and she read with clearer insight than did her husband the character of their sons. She was convinced that the heritage of divine promise was intended for Jacob. She repeated to Isaac the angel’s words; but the father’s affections were centred upon the elder son, and he was unshaken in his purpose.

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“Jacob had learned from his mother of the divine intimation that the birthright should fall to him, and he was filled with an unspeakable desire for the privileges which it would confer.” Patriarchs and Prophets. 178.
God’s selection of Jacob to inherit the birthright was not an arbitrary one. The directions given by God, were done so on the foreknowledge that Esau would disqualify himself from the right to its possession. Without question, Isaac should have accepted the decree made on this basis especially when Esau’s behaviour confirmed the rightness of God’s decision. The law stipulated that should a young man many among the heathen, then he automatically forfeited all right to the birthright. This Esau had done polygamously, to make matters worse. “And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Been the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
“Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah.” Genesis 26:34, 35.
Upon Esau’s doing this, Isaac, in strict obedience to the law, ought to have relinquished his paternal preferences for his elder son and prepared to confer the birthright blessing on Jacob. But he allowed his affections to overrule his conscience so that he chose his own way in preference to the clear will of God.
Rebekah exerted all the influence she could to dissuade him from his fixed determination to confer the birthright blessing on Esau. She pointed out the disinterest in, and disregard for the spiritual responsibilities involved in the birthright which marked Esau’s life. She reminded him of the prophecy made before the boys were born, and of Esau’s marriage to the heathen. She pointed to the contrasting spirit, attitude, and consecrated life of Jacob, but all her reasonings and pleadings were to no avail,
The only thing she did achieve was a deferment of the day when the blessing was to be bestowed. But as the infirmities of age advanced on Isaac, he realized that if he did not pronounce the blessing soon, it would be too late. He determined on a secret session rather than the joyous family affair which was the usual way. He called Esau and instructed him to take his weapons and catch his favourite venison. They would have a little feast together after which the son would receive the prized blessing. It is to be noted that Esau’s interest lay in the material blessing, for the spiritual had no attraction for him. Rebekah was listening in as the supposedly secret instructions were being given and with a chill in her heart she realized the implications of what her husband was about to do.
“Rebekah divined his purpose. She was confident that it was contrary to what God had revealed as His will. Isaac was in danger of incurring the divine displeasure and of debarring his younger son from the position to which God had called him. She had in vain tried the effect of reasoning with Isaac, and she determined to resort to stratagem.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 180.

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With great clarity she saw that Isaac was about to act in direct opposition to the stipulations of the law, and thereby incur the divine displeasure.
She saw that by so doing, Jacob would be deprived of the blessing which was rightfully his. Therefore, she reasoned, she must prevent Isaac from breaking the law both for his own good and for the good of Jacob.
She had worked hard for years to forestall such an action by appealing to Isaac. That had proved unsuccessful, so she must now use other means.
To what method did she turn?
In order to save Isaac from being a law-breaker, she became a lawbreaker herself and induced Jacob to become one with her They turned from God’s way to man’s way. They acted out the same principles or lack of them, as portrayed by the heroes of the silver screen, the novel, or any other form of fiction. It was an evil sowing which brought them only a bitter reaping. It is true that they did achieve their objective to a point. Jacob did obtain the spiritual blessing but the material wealth and power fell into Esau’s hands just the same
“Jacob and Rebekah succeeded in their purpose, but they gained only trouble and sorrow by their deception. God had declared that Jacob should receive the birthright, and His word would have been fulfilled in His own time had they waited in faith for Him to work for them. But like many now profess to be children of God, they were unwilling to leave the matter in His hands. Rebekah bitterly repented the wrong counsel she had given her son; it was the means of separating him from her, and she never saw hit face again. From the hour when he received the birthright, Jacob was weighed down with self-condemnation. He had sinned against his father his brother, his own soul, and against God. In one short hour he had made work for a lifelong repentance. This scene was vivid before him in afteryears, when the wicked course of his own sons oppressed his soul.” ibid.
Rebekah and Jacob broke the law., in order to keep it from being broken. They were wholly wrong in so doing, as is proved by the sad punishment they had to bear for their mistake. Let not their mistake and its consequent troubles be of no value to those of us facing the final confrontation over what the law really means. Let it be that we shall see with great clarity that the law cannot be upheld by its being broken.
Those words, “Thou shalt not bear false witness, steal, or kill,” set forth the pattern of behaviour no matter what the circumstances, pressures, threats, demands, necessities, advantages or whatever else it may be. In God’s kingdom and under His principles the end can never, never, never justify the means. Therefore, in every situation, the law, and not expedience, is to be consulted and obeyed. When God has a people who will stand by these principles and be guided in this way. He will have a people, whom He can trust to finish the work and it will then be finished.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Go The Second Mile

Christ did not confine His revelation of the Father to actions alone. He was not a silent performer. What He taught from day to day was an augmenting and confirming witness to the same effect. By His words, He magnified the Law as effectively as He did by His living.
His first great sermon was a clear statement of what the law really meant, alerting the people to know that that which “was said by them of old time,” was not the version He had come to bring them.
But the people who gathered to hear that wonderful sermon on the mount recorded in Matthew 5-7, came with erroneous concepts of the law and the kingdom of God. They had been raised up to know man’s way so that their expectation of the Messiah’s kingdom was quite different from what it would be in fact. Jesus knew He was confronting preconceived ideas and opinions to which He could make no concession. He knew what the people expected and wonted to hear, but He told them only what they needed to hear.
Knowing from the outset of His discourse that He was about to tell them differently from what they wished and expected to hear, He was aware that this would lead them to judge Him as casting aside the law. So, before He began to explain the law as He had given it and would Live it, He warned that, even though it might appear so to them, He had not come to do away with the law, but to establish it.
He said to them, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-20.
The scribes and Pharisees regarded themselves as being the greatest exponents of the law of God in existence. They believed that they taught it and lived it to perfection. They regarded themselves as being models of righteous behaviour. Their claim was not wholly untrue for their lives were as fine an example as can be found of living the law according to man’s interpretation of how it should be kept. It was to deliver men from their concept of law-keeping and to replace it with the true one, that Christ came to this earth.

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So, as He progressed through His sermon, repeatedly He swept aside the law us they understood it to read, and replaced it with the law as God intended that it should be read and obeyed. The hearers’ evaluation of Christ’s presentation and position would depend then on their having a spiritual perception of what He was saying.
If they were blinded to the reality of the living truth, then they could only see the law as interpreted and magnified by man. This would lead them to regard Christ as a law-breaker, even though He had warned them that He had come to establish the law.
On the other hand, if they could see what He was really trying to say, then they would understand that He had come as the one true Magnifier of the holy law. It would be a whole new field of thought. Time would be needed to make adjustment, but the beauty of its truth would be thrilling and vitalizing.
Great profit would be gained by studying every statement made by Christ in this sermon, but time and space will not be taken to do this here. A selection will be made of that passage which reveals as well, if not better than any of the others, the principles of the law as Christ espoused them.
Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
“But I say unto you . . .” Matthew 5:38, 39.
So Christ segregated the teaching of the past from His own. The old, He classified as their way, against which He set forth that which was His way. He made no attempt to compromise with the old teaching or to apologize for what He offered. It was the truth and, as such, it had to be accepted.
To many, Christ adopted a course here which laid Him open to the charge of denying the law as God in the Old Testament had taught it. It was not the writings or teachings of the heathen which Christ was disavowing here but, to all appearances, the word of God through Moses.
“And God spake all these words, saying, . . ..” Exodus 20:1.
Then follow the ten commandments, after which the people are terrified and plead with Moses to speak with them instead of God.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel . . .” Many directions follow until these verses are reached: “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
“Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” Exodus 20:22; 21:23-25.
God spoke these words to Moses with the direction that they be told to, and obeyed by, the people. The people did obey them, confident that in so doing they were following the Lord’s instructions. Then Jesus came and denied that that was His way, swept all that aside and gave the people a new code of behaviour.

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The appearances certainly point to Christ as being at variance with His Father on what the law was and how it should be kept. Small wonder then that the Pharisees who subscribed so vigorously to the old Mosaic law, should regard Christ as being the worst kind of lawbreaker. They saw Him as the killer of the law which said, “A life for a life.” Therefore, their minds were entirely satisfied that they were doing the justified thing in putting Him to death. He was killing the law. The law said a life for a life, so it was His life for the life of the law He had taken. His crucifixion, in their thinking, was a lawful killing. They believed that they were obeying the law exactly as it was written.
Another solution for the problem is to teach dispensationalism. Such a belief would see one law for the people before the advent of Christ, and another and more beautiful law for the people thereafter.
Such a resolution of the problem must be rejected because the perfect law is as unchangeable as the God Who gave it. If the Lord gave one law for the people in a given age and situation and subsequently changed this for later generations, then He is no better than changeable man who is forever modifying his laws to suit changing circumstances. Satan would then have the argument he needed to win the controversy. He would point to the changing of the law as clear proof that it was imperfect and needed to be changed. He left heaven contending this, against God’s claim that it was not so, and he has watched ever since for the slightest modification, concession or change on the part of God and His law.
There is yet another explanation which reveals the character of God in wonderful beauty, shows that Christ was not at variance with the Father, and establishes the truth that God has never changed His law in the slightest. It, together with its Author, is the “same, yesterday, today and forever.”
This explanation will be fully developed when we examine the various incidents of the Old Testament period. It will be seen that God has only one way for Himself and His people. But there comes a time when the people reject His way and turn to their own, yet still desire God to be with them. In great mercy, He provides directives effecting, if obeyed, the best conditions possible under man’s system. It will be shown when this point Is reached, that God acted out the role of a saviour exclusively, and that Christ’s sole objective was to bring them back from their own way to God’s. When this characteristic of behaviour on God’s part is seen, the last problems in understanding His character will disappear.
Having relegated the teaching, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” to the errors of man’s ways, Christ then set forth His amplification of the law.
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.

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And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” Matthew 5:39-42.
In the previous chapter, reference was made to fictitious books, plays, and films. These are among Satan’s principal means of promulgating his magnification of the law. Let it now be asked if the principles laid out by Christ in the verses quoted above, are portrayed in fiction? Where is man portrayed as offering the other cheek when he has been smitten violently on one? What film hero is seen meekly going the second mile, or giving his coat to the enemy who took his cloak?
These are not the patterns of behaviour advertised as ideal through this media. Rather it is the very opposite. If the villain steals the coat of the hero or anyone else, he is forced to pay back with compounded interest. The audience is not satisfied unless the desperado is made to suffer more than he has inflicted upon others.
During the bad man’s day of power, he strikes his victims mercilessly. They endure this because they have no option, but silently pray for the day when the position of power will be reversed. Then, with a vengeance, they will make the enemy regret what he did.
How completely opposite this is from the ways and teachings of Christ. Nothing could be more contrary. To the man of the world, there is no sense in Christ’s words. If the movie houses were to prepare films depicting these principles, no one would be interested in viewing them. They would be a financial failure,
The average man rejects the principles in Christ’s words because he sees in that way, the whole world taking advantage of him to the point where he would be divested of everything he had. To him there is a no more frightening prospect. Therefore, he has no disposition to surrender the security provided by his defending and protecting his rights and possessions- He prefers to work at being more powerful than his enemy so that he can hit back harder than he can be hit. He finds his safety in this doctrine of deterrence.
There are those who have interpreted Christ’s directions to turn the other cheek after the first has been struck in these terms: Christ did not say what to do after the second cheek has been struck, so this leaves liberty to hit back thereafter.
But this is not true. Jesus did spell out what was to be done, and it certainly was not to retaliate in kind. So that there might be no mistake in this respect, Christ continued His instruction in these words:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

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“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
‘For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
“And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48,
When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He placed no time limitation upon this stipulation. He did not say to love them as long as there was any hope of saving them, and then hate them to destruction. He simply said, “Love your enemies.” Therefore they are to be loved—forever. The time must never come when the child of God ceases to love his enemy, bless him and do him good. He is to know no other way.
The apostles sat nearest to Christ when He spoke these words, but they did not understand this message as is evident from the question Peter asked much later.
‘Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
“Jesus saith unto him, 1 say not unto thee. Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21, 22.
Seventy times seven is four hundred and ninety times. Did Christ mean that we are to carefully count till we reach this number and then stop forgiving? No. so it is therefore not the way these words are to be understood. Rather, Christ desired to convey the idea that there is no time when we are to cease forgiving. Anyone who carefully counted each forgiveness till he had reached the limit certainly would not have forgiven at all. Nobody with the true spirit of forgiveness and Godlike love would be concerned with how many times forgiveness had been extended.
“Peter had come to Christ with the question, ‘How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?’ The rabbis limited the exercise of forgiveness to three offences. Peter, carrying out, as he supposed, the teaching of Jesus, thought to extend it to seven, the number signifying perfection. But Christ taught that we are never to become weary of forgiving. Not ‘Until seven times,’ He said, ‘but. Until seventy times seven.’ “ Christ’s Object Lessons, 243.
According to this statement then, the expression, “Until seventy times seven” when used by Christ in this instance did not mean a limit of four hundred and ninety. He meant without limit, endlessly and unchangeably.
It is impossible to strike back at those who strike first, and at the same time manifest a forgiving spirit. As surely then as forgiveness is to be forever, the turning of the other cheek is likewise to be forever. Those who claim that Christ did not extend His instruction beyond what to do after the second cheek is struck, do not understand God’s message in the Scriptures.

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In this discourse, Christ is magnifying the law. He is explaining the way in which God desired His directives, “Thou shalt not kill, steal, and lie” to be understood, Consider the difference between man’s philosophy and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Man says that if your enemy strikes you, strike back—harder. If he kills yours, kill him. If he curses you, curse him in return; if he does you evil, return evil for it.
But Jesus said to return love for hate, blessing for cursing, and goodness for evil. If lies are told about you, do not lie in return; if they steal your goods, do not seek to steal them back again; if they seek your life, do not seek theirs. This is to say that the law is to be kept under all circumstances There is neither time nor place where the law is to be broken in order to assure that it is kept. That is man’s philosophy, but it is not the teaching of Christ or the practice of the Christian.
Having laid out these guidelines for human behaviour, Christ confirmed that this was the way in which His Father practised the law. He told His hearers that by so doing they would “be the children of’ their “Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45.
Jesus identified as the children of God those who obey the law in the way He declared it should be obeyed. They were such, He affirmed, because they were doing as the Father did, The evidence of this was all about them, The Lord sent the sunshine and the rain upon the most wicked person as well as the righteous, with equal impartiality. Even while the terrible hand of sin was destroying them, God’s blessings continued. No one, then, could deny that God blessed those who cursed Him, and did good to those who despitefully treated Him.
A distinguishing mark of God’s children is that they do turn the other cheek, do go the second mile, do love their enemies, and do bless and do good to those who return them only evil. The individual who returns evil for evil, does not turn the other cheek, nor goes the second mile, and does not bless those who despitefully use him, is not a child of God.
This identification of the children of God is powerfully meaningful. The relationship is spiritual for it is in this, and not the physical sense, that we are God’s children. It conveys the idea that there must first be the same character in the Christian as in the Father, before there can be the corresponding behaviour without. Those who are God’s children have the same character as He has. It is a character received by the process of spiritual regeneration. “By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude. This is what it means to live ‘by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ This is eating the Bread that comes down from heaven.” The Desire of Ages, 391.

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As surely as they have the same character, they will have the same behaviour. They will keep the law exactly as God, the King of Righteousness, keeps it. “Jesus said, Be perfect as your Father is perfect. If you are the children of God you are partakers of His nature, and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God’s children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells ‘all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest ‘in our mortal flesh’ (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him. Thus you will be in harmony with every precept of His law; for ‘the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.’ Psalm 19:7, margin. Through love ‘the righteousness of the law’ will be ‘fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’ Romans 8:4.” The Mount of Blessing, 77, 78.
In the sermon on the mount, Christ taught of a Father Who loves His enemies—forever;
blesses those who curse Him—forever;
does good to those who hate Him—forever;
and prays for those who despitefully use and persecute Him—forever.
The implications of such teaching are so extensive that it is difficult to believe they are really true. Some would rather believe that they are just a fine piece of rhetoric with no factual foundation.
But it was Christ, the Truth, Who testified these things of God. Therefore they are the truth in the strictest sense. God does love His enemies. When consideration is given to whom God’s enemies are, the truth of this becomes the more outstanding and humbling. Passing by all God’s lesser enemies, terrible as they be, the attention is focused on the arch-enemy of all, Satan.
Of all the beings who have ever existed, no one has ever hated God more fiercely, cursed Him more savagely, done evil to Him more extensively, or persecuted Him more relentlessly than Satan. Could it be possible that:
God loves Satan even to this very day; blesses him in return for his cursings;
does good to him who hates Him so much;
and prays for him who so despitefully uses and persecutes Him?
Christ answers that question, testifying that the Father does all this. The form of His testimony lays out what we are to be and do in order to reproduce the behaviour and character of the Father. In doing so, He makes no exception of the devil. He does not counsel us to love our enemies except for Satan. He simply says, “Love your enemies.” Therefore, any one who can be classified as an enemy is to be loved. Satan certainly comes into this classification for he is the arch-enemy.

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Therefore, if doing this makes us the children of God and thus the reproduction of Him, then God loves His enemies, including Satan. He blesses him as far as it is possible for the blessings to reach him, does him good where He can, and will continue to do so for as long as Satan exists. If He did not, then Christ bore a false witness of His Father.
To understand the attitude of genuine love which the Father has for His lost son, a distinction must be made between love together with fellowship, and love without it.
There were a trio of Christian sisters who worked in a factory among people of ungodly lives and interests. There developed between them and their worldly associates a spirit of hatred which they recognized as being unlike the Saviour. They had learned the power of acceptable confession1 whereby they asked the Lord to remove their hatred and to replace it with love, for they knew that God’s children love their enemies.
Their faith was rewarded and they found that all the hateful feelings were gone but they were troubled because they still did not find a warm bond of love between them and the worldlings. Their problem was that they were not differentiating between love with fellowship and love without it.
It was impossible for them to have a warm bond of communion with people whose interests found no common ground with theirs. They listened to different music; found their pleasures in the theatre, the dance hall, the beer parlours and the race track. Their conversation was on these things; and the principles which guided their lives were in direct conflict with those of the Christians. Therefore fellowship was impossible.
Of course, fellowship with love is beautiful and desirable. This is the ultimate objective while love without fellowship is painful.
God has no fellowship with the devil. They do not see each other, nor do they work together. Their interests and objectives are completely opposite. God does not support any of the devil’s activities, even though he is the recipient of God’s blessings just as the most wicked person receives the outflow of God’s life and love in the seedtime and harvest, the rain and the wind, and the continued protection from total and final disaster. The devil takes all these blessings and uses them to war against God, but for this God is not responsible. He gives the blessings for their good, but the perversion of them is the responsibility of those who misuse the gift.
Be assured on the strength of Christ’s witness of His Father, that God loves the devil and will therefore only bless and do him good. This means that God will never take Satan’s life but would reach out to save him if possible. This is love on an incredible scale. Many reason that God should destroy Satan. They argue that God’s position of custodian of the universe and His possession of omnipotent power make it His responsibility to cut Satan down so that he can hurt and injure no more. To argue this way is to
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1The subject of acceptable confession is covered in an effective and practical way In the publication by that name, Acceptable Confession, available from the publishers of this book.

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fall into the usual pitfall of making God to be just like man who follows the practice of destroying the lawbreaker to end his iniquity. This is to break the law to ensure that it is kept. But this is not God’s way. He is perfectly righteous His law is perfect and is never to be broken. Therefore, under no circumstances whatsoever will God lie, steal, or kill. He does not break that law in order to see that it is kept.
When Jesus bore this beautiful and truthful testimony of His Father, He knew all that God had done in the Old Testament. He was also familiar with the view which men took of what God had done. Men saw God pouring good upon the dwellers in Sodom and Gomorrah for a limited time, after which He exchanged the blessings for cursing, and the good for evil as He poured upon them the flood of fire and brimstone. They saw the same picture in the flood, the plagues of Egypt. the obliteration of the Canaanites, the death by night of Sennacherib’s army, and a thousand other instances.
If the view of those things as held by men then and now is correct, then Christ could never truthfully say what He said of His Father on the mount of blessing. Therefore, for Christ to say what He said from personal conviction, He must have held a very different view of what the Father did in the Old Testament from what men held then and since, for man’s view of God and the picture that Christ presented of Him are two altogether conflicting concepts.
Christ lived and taught the character of God. He presented God as the perfect lawkeeper. Christ neither knew nor presented a God Who had one law for Himself and another for the people. In the infinite superiority of God’s kingdom over that of all others, the law is kept with model fidelity by the Omnipotent One and with equal faithfulness by every loyal subject.
It is a situation unknown in earthly or satanic systems of government. In all such to a lesser or greater extent, there is one law for the rulers and another for the people. Should any citizen become subject to the government’s wrath, he will tremble in his impotence to protect himself. Earthly laws are so framed that they provide protection for the government against the people but not for the people against the government.
But it is not so in God’s kingdom. In the first place, He does not need any protection from His own creation for He is omnipotent and untouchable. He is in a position of power from which He can obliterate any opposition by a single word. Therefore, man might well tremble in dread before such a God if He were indeed altogether such an one as ourselves.
The law therefore was not given by God to protect Himself from man. It was God’s perfect love gift to man to protect him from himself and from the possibility of perverting the powers given to him for life and blessing, into a cataclysm of destruction. This aspect of the law has been studied earlier in chapter eight.
Serving man in these ways, the law is a wonderful thing indeed, but the greatest wonder of all is that it actually protects man from God. In setting

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out the principles of that law, God has declared what He is and what He will and will not do. He has stated that He will never lie, never steal, and never kill no matter what situation may arise to call for or to justify such things. The enunciation of the law of God is God’s own pledge that we are forever secure from His doing any such thing no matter how we may treat Him in return.
When God commits Himself to a pledge of that nature, there is absolute assurance that He will never vary from it in the slightest degree. We are familiar with the pledge made by God to man under the signature of the rainbow that the earth would never again perish beneath a flood of waters. From that day to this, that guarantee has never been violated despite the increasing defiance of man toward heaven. God’s word stands true and unchangeable.
By the misrepresentation of the testimony of God’s word, Satan has convinced man that, if ever God did make such a pledge, He certainly has not honoured it. Because this persuasion of man to Satan’s lies about God is so extensive and long-standing, it will be very difficult for the average person to accept that God has made and honoured such a commitment. The mind, long trained to see the workings of God in a certain light, will swiftly object that the great rebellion demanded that God arise to cleanse the universe of the curse by actively destroying the offenders. To the human mind, this is the only available solution to the problem. Men do not understand the wisdom and power of God as it will be employed to put down the great rebellion. They do not see that there is another and infinitely better way to deal with rebellion than counter-force.
Christ neither shared nor taught such a view. He presented a Father Who loved His enemies and Who would do them only blessing and goodness. That view He uncompromisingly presented in the very face of the other. As a lone voice, He announced the real truth about the Father even though every other person in the world saw it the other way at the time of His advent.
The view of God as held, taught, and lived by Christ is the one to be held. Any contrary view is error formulated for our destruction in Satan’s laboratories.
No ruler in human history is like unto our God. There is no king, governor, president, dictator, lord, prince, emperor, or any other kind of ruler who has pledged himself never to lie to, steal from, or kill any one of his subjects no matter how treasonous, rebellious, slanderous, insurrectionist, arsonist, murderous, thieving, cruel, activist, reactionary, or criminal that subject may become. Earthly potentates know only one way to deal with such elements in society and that is to meet force with force. There is no turning of the other cheek, no going the second mile, no love for their enemies, and no blessing of those who do them evil.

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But what no earthly ruler has ever done or ever will do, God has done. Truly, His ways are as much higher than our ways as the heavens are above the earth. When the real nature of God’s righteousness is understood and appreciated, it will call forth from the hearts of those who thus see it, a rapture of praise and adoration otherwise impossible. They will then begin to understand and testify with the words of the Bible writers:
“Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, 0 Lord; neither are there any works like unto Thy works.
“All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, 0 Lord; and shall glorify Thy name.
“For Thou art great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone.” Psalm 86:8-10.
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness.” Psalm 48:1.
Let it be clearly recognized that while God Himself pledged that He would never destroy the violators of His principles, He did not, because He could not, guarantee that sinners would not be destroyed. On the contrary, He warned that sin is the act of separating from God, so that there remains no protection from the destructive forces thus set in motion.
May every reader come to see God as Christ knew Him. Then, with the angels and the inspired writers there will be the pealing forth of praise and adoration for a god so great as our God. Such understanding and spontaneous praise will, in turn, mould the character into the same form until one great pulse of harmony will beat throughout the entire universe.

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Mystery Of Iniquity
Satan’s Masterpiece of Deception

The evidences accumulated in this study have now established that the life of Christ was a perfect mirror of the Father’s character and that His teachings reiterated and confirmed that revelation. Therefore, in responding to the divinely inspired directive to know the Father, we must look to the life and teachings of the Saviour. Any view of God not supported by that witness is false and to be rejected no matter how hoary with venerated age or universally accepted it may be.
Reference has been made to the works of fiction as presented by the story-teller, in the novel, and on the movie screen, as the specific media through which Satan has been educating an unwitting world in his misrepresentations of God’s character and law. This is an exceedingly effective means by which the whole world is converted to Satan’s sophistries.
But there is yet another medium through which Satan works with great effectiveness to achieve the same ends. This is the mystery of iniquity, otherwise known as Babylon, Babylon the Great, the man of sin, the son of perdition, and the antichrist. It has appeared in various forms during the ages. Its earliest champion subsequent to the flood was Nimrod and his followers, after which came the builders of the tower of Babel, the worshippers of Baal, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and the papacy. It will come to a full manifestation in apostate protestantism and finally in Babylon the Great in the very last days.
Here is Satan’s masterpiece of deception, the instrument through which more than any other he promulgates his lies about God.
“It is Satan’s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law, and gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God, so that they regard Him with fear and hate, rather than with love. The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator; it is embodied in systems of religion, and expressed in modes of worship. Thus the minds of men are blinded, and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God. By perverted conceptions of the divine attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices necessary to secure the favor of Deity; and horrible cruelties have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry.
The Roman Catholic Church, uniting the forms of paganism and Christianity, and, like paganism, misrepresenting the character of God, has

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resorted to practices no less cruel and revolting.” The Great Controversy, 569.
“Rome had misrepresented the character of God, and perverted His requirements . . . ibid., 281.
“The teachings of popes and priests had led men to look upon the character of God, and even of Christ, as stern, gloomy, and forbidding. The Saviour was represented as so far devoid of sympathy with man in his fallen state that the mediation of priests and saints must be invoked.” ibid., 73.
Already it has been shown that the world of fiction is a definite instrument by which the great antagonist portrays the picture of what God is not. But his masterpiece of deception in this work is Babylon, the mystery of iniquity, which predominately finds its manifestation in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches of today. It is Satan’s counter to the revelation of what God is through Jesus Christ.
Thus before everyone is the alternative. The representations of God and His law as given by Babylon can be taken or the choice can fall on Christ as the Revelation of God and His ways. It is impossible for both to represent the same thing, for one is Christ and the other is antichrist.
There is tremendous value in studying the life and teachings of Christ as the unfolding of what God is. There is also great advantage in looking at how Babylon presents God as He is not.
It Is a mistake to suppose that Babylon used only the weapons of force. So terrible and extensive was her use of the weapons of compulsion to persecute into submission those reluctant to obey her, that this is all that Is apt to be seen of her character and activities.
The real truth is that the use of oppressive measures was only the very last resort used by her, as it is with every false religion. It is only when every other means has failed that she turns to its use.
“Force Is the last resort of every false religion. At first it tries attraction, as the king of Babylon fried the power of music and outward show. If these attractions, invented by men inspired by Satan failed to make men worship the image, the hungry flames of the furnace were ready to consume them. So it will be now. The papacy has exercised her power to compel men to obey her, and she will continue to do so. We need the same spirit that was manifested by God’s servants In the conflict with paganism.” Signs of the Times, May 6, 1897. S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:976.
There was a time when I did not understand this. I thought only of Rome as effecting her objectives by coercion. But the study of history opened a new view showing that firstly the antichrist comes without a sword. Her first ambassadors are priests and missionaries who, with greatly affected humility and self-sacrifice, seek to win the populace to their theology by teaching, pleas, and argument. If this is successful, they are elated. But if the people will not submit to their religion, then the sword is
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unsheathed. At first the persecutions are relatively mild, but as time goes by and the desired objective is not achieved, they become increasingly severe until the death penalty is enforced rigorously.
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory determined to convert Great Britain to Catholicism. Accordingly, he sent forty-one missionaries in the summer of 597. They were led by Augustine who settled on Canterbury as the centre of his activities in Britain. The true Christian religion had preceded him. It was established among the original Britons but had not yet converted the Anglo-Saxon invaders from northern Europe and Scandinavia. To convert these Britons was the immediate objective. For this purpose Augustine convened a general assembly in 601. But “To no purpose did the archbishop lavish his arguments, prayers, censures, and miracles even; the Britons were firm.” The Reformation in England. Volume 1:38, by Merle d’Aubigne.
This council having failed, Augustine tried again with the same tactics of peaceful, persuasive approach, but again he failed. Perceiving that he would gain nothing by these means, he rose to his feet and said, “ ‘If you will not receive brethren who bring you peace, you shall receive enemies who will bring you war. If you will not unite with us in showing the Saxons the way of life, you shall receive from them the stroke of death.’ Having thus spoken, the haughty archbishop withdrew, and occupied his last days in preparing the accomplishment of his ill-omened prophecy. Argument had failed: now for the sword!” ibid., 39.
What took place there in the early history of Britain, has been repeated in every place where the papal shoe has rested. To millions, it is a familiar pattern.
Rome appears upon the scene acting peacefully and lovingly. She blesses those who will receive her blessings, seeking to win them to her creed. She manifests considerable long-suffering and patience in her work and her emissaries make great personal sacrifices for the cause.
But eventually she judges that any further endeavour along these peaceful lines will be fruitless. She then turns to the use of persecution which increases in severity until those who will not obey under any pressure are put to death.
In all this she is giving an impression of God, which, tragically, is the one accepted without question by the majority. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to compare the view of God as held by most, with the papal representations of Him.
Most see God looking down upon the unconverted as Pope Gregory looked upon the Britons. In His great love for the lost and the dying, they see God sending His personal ambassador, the Holy Spirit, Who works through self-sacrificing human agents to woo and to win the erring. They believe that during this period the Lord withholds His judgments and administers blessings as an incentive to the people to follow Him.

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But time goes by and the blessings received are turned into a curse as in the case of the Sodomites, the Egyptians, and the Israelites. What now happens, in reality, is that the people move away from God into that area where they make it impossible for Him to protect them from the threatening destructions poised above them. But men see in these calamities the hand of God trying to enforce an allegiance where persuasion has failed. When even this fails, they see God destroying the wicked from the face of the earth.
A comparison has been made in the paragraphs above, between the way of antichrist and the supposed manifestation of the character of God. We ask now, What difference is there between these two pictures? The answer is, none. The picture of God as men suppose Him to be and the picture of Him as presented by the papacy are the same in every respect.
Therefore, as surely as we know that Babylon’s representation of the Deity is a misrepresentation, it must be wholly rejected. A moment’s reflection will show that the representation of God given on the movie screen and that given by the papacy, are identical. In both cases the law is broken in order to bring about the keeping of the law. The papacy kills those who will not obey. By killing, she disobeys God’s commands in order to do away with those whom she judges are disobeying God’s commands.
Therefore, she is of the world, and not of God in any sense. Every principle of her character and behaviour is a denial of the revelations of the Deity mirrored in the life of Christ and espoused in His teachings. She fulfils most adequately Satan’s objectives in misrepresenting the character of God,
The existence of Babylon and her teachings versus the presence of Christ and His, provides for everyone the choice of which representation of God they will believe. It is impossible to consistently believe both. Babylon offers a picture of God as One Who loves His enemies, blesses them, does them good, and forgives them—for a time. Then His face changes and He arises to do to them the very things He has commanded them not to do. He firstly treats them cruelly, then finally kills them.
Christ offers a Father Who loves His enemies, blesses them, does them good, and forgives them—forever. He never rises to do that which He has instructed His children not to do. He is the God of righteousness.
The choice then is Christ or antichrist, God or the devil, the heavenly Jerusalem or Rome. There can be no difficulty in knowing which of these is the one to choose. Yet some will hesitate uncertain, even confused.
Let such open the history books and examine the outworking of Rome’s doctrines. In doing so care must be taken to see beyond the facade of piety and brilliance which Catholicism has erected to camouflage the real picture behind and beneath. Through the pages of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit has shown that He has neither overlooked her real character nor been deceived by her pretentious outward appearance
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“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.
“And upon her forehead, was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration,
“And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Revelation 17:4-6; 18:24.
In these, both the dazzling outer appearance and the inward corruption are revealed, Men tend to be impressed with great displays of wealth and power, all too often measuring the success and merit of a person or organization by such appearances. But the real value is the inner worth of character.
The last verse in this extract is worthy of special attention for the charge is laid by God that the blood of all men who have died is the work of the man of sin. Satan has sought to lay this blood to God’s charge. Men have been prepared to believe Satan at least to some extent, for, while it is clear at least to most that sin and the devil have taken the lives of millions, it is also believed that God has done His share of killing too. But this verse does not subscribe to such teaching. Here it is stated that all the blood of all the dead is attributable to the man of sin. This text then is a strong Bible witness to the truth that God does not destroy, for, if the man of sin has killed all who have been killed, then the Lord has killed none,
So let study be given to the outworking in history of Rome’s doctrines. See what the fruitage of those teachings about God’s character have been. If they have been productive of a great, warm, trusting love for God and one’s fellow-men; if they have brought peace and prosperity to the earth: if they have lifted oppression and set men free; if they have opened the doors to the advance of knowledge and skills, then we can know that they are a truthful presentation of the character of God. It must be so for God is righteousness and:
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
“He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.” Proverbs 14:34; 21:21.
“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” Isaiah 32:17.
If this is the record of Rome’s work, then her representation of the righteousness or character of God is truthful, accurate, and to be followed. But if the results are the opposite, then it is deceitful, inaccurate, and only to be shunned

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The records of history are clear. Wherever Rome has trodden, she has left behind her ignorance, immorality, strife, wars, bloodshed, murders, and finally, hatred and total rejection of God’s very existence. The fruitage of her work has been the exact opposite from that outlined in the verses above. It has not led to love and loyalty to God, but to fear and hatred of Him and finally to infidel rejection of His very existence.
“Rome had misrepresented the character of God, and perverted His requirements, and now men rejected both the Bible and its Author. She had required a blind faith in her dogmas, under the pretended sanction of the Scriptures. In the reaction, Voltaire and his associates cast aside God’s word altogether, and spread everywhere the poison of infidelity. Rome had ground down the people under her iron heel; and now the masses, degraded and brutalized, in their recoil from her tyranny, cast off all restraint. Enraged at the glittering cheat to which they had so long paid homage, they rejected truth and falsehood together; and mistaking license for liberty, the slaves of vice exulted in their imagined freedom.” The Great Controversy, 281, 282.
This paragraph was written as a comment on the French Revolution with direct reference to the cause of it. It was a reaction, a striking back by the oppressed against those who had for so long, held them in mental, physical, and spiritual bondage. No better revelation can be found of the effect of Rome’s character and practice, than this violent reaction. Everything that developed and transpired in that awful time was the direct fruitage of Catholic policies.
“It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was completing. The policy of Rome had wrought out those conditions, social, political, and religious, that were hurrying France on to ruin. Writers, in referring to the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are to be charged upon the throne and the church. In strict justice they are to be charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned the minds of kings against the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown, an element of discord that would be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation. It was the genius of Rome that by this means inspired the direst cruelty and the most galling oppression which proceeded from the throne.” The Great Controversy, 276, 277.
But, the revolution would never have been so cruel, bloodthirsty, and horrible; men would never have gone so far in their total rejection and hatred of God, if they had seen the papacy as being a representative of no more than itself. But she presented herself to the world as God’s direct agent and representative, and to millions she was the only picture of God that they knew. Therefore, they rejected not only the Roman Catholic Church, but also the God of that church. Because they believed that the God of heaven was the God represented by that church, they rejected Him in the most tragic and hateful way.

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That rejection found its most vocal and active expression in the French Revolution. Never has history afforded before or since so clear and convincing a picture of the inevitable outworking of the policies and practices of Romanism. The events have Long since been enacted and the memories have faded into the shadows of the past, but they are recorded in all their grim reality in the chronicles of history. Every student of God’s Word who rightfully desires to understand the outworking of the teaching of God’s character versus the outworking of Satan’s misrepresentations of that character, should study the anguished cry of human outrage in the France of 1789.
It is not a chronicle of love, confidence, trust, peace. kindness, and beauty. It is anything but that. “Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could greet his neighbors or say his prayers . . without danger of committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were filled as close as the holds of a slave ship; when the gutters ran foaming with blood into the Seine. . . . While the daily wagon-loads of victims were carried to their doom through the streets of Paris, the proconsuls, whom the sovereign committee had sent forth to the departments, reveled in an extravagance of cruelty unknown even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of captives were mowed down with grape-shot. Holes were made in the bottom of crowded barges. Lyons was turned into a desert. At Arras even the cruel mercy of a speedy death was denied to the prisoners. All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses, twined together in hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex or age. The number of young lads and of girls of seventeen who were murdered by that execrable government, is to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks.” The Great Controversy, 284.
None of this happened without a cause, which, if correctly and fully ascertained, provides a lesson of inestimable value. This will be true only if the whole of the cause is perceived. While it is true that the behaviour of the papacy was the factor which developed these results, that is not enough. It was her practices, as the misrepresentation of Gods character, which were the root.
Her behaviour in isolation from God, would have produced only a reaction against herself. The masses would merely have rejected that church. But when they were led to believe that she projected a true picture of God, then their reaction was most violent against both the church and God.
Nothing could have pleased Satan more, for he has worked through the papacy to achieve these results. With the masses he has been all too

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successful, yet the very devices he employs to misrepresent God, provide the spiritually enlightened with the proof that God is not as the world and the churches view Him. This is accomplished by tracing the results of papal teaching from its beginning to final culmination. Then will be recognized the connection between the Babylonian philosophies about God and the sure outworking of bloodshed, tortures, mistrust, hatred, violence, atheism, immorality, and multiplied other honors. Nobody desires these troubles to come upon them. Therefore, when it is understood that they result from those erroneous views of God, then they will likewise reject them, and there will be a turning toward those revelations of God which will breed love, joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, mercy, patience, and such.
The papal understanding is that God is a being above law. While God calls upon His people not to kill, lie, or steal, He is not bound by these things in His relation to them. The papists believe that the law is to protect God and the pope from the masses, but not the masses from them. Because the pope believed that he was God upon this earth, he acted out these principles in his dealing with the people.
The terrible anarchy and atheism of the French Revolution is the direct result of that teaching.
Who upon this earth would desire to see the peaceful atmosphere of their society shattered into conditions so awful?
No one!
Let all such, then, reject the teaching which is the root of this effect—the teaching that there is one law for God and another for the people. The great truth that the law is the very transcript of God’s character must be grasped instead.
It is the teaching and practice of Rome that God firstly entreats in mercy but in the end turns to destructive force to wipe out those who do not obey Him. Accordingly, she behaved in this way herself, believing and teaching that she was doing the very will of God and manifesting His character and ways. In this, she fulfilled the prophecy of Christ when He said, “. . . yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service,” John 16:2.
But men will not love and serve such a God. As surely as this concept of God’s character is projected, so surely will men reject such a God. The great reaction of the French Revolution proves that. The message which burst from the hearts and throats of the populace then was that if this was God they wanted none of Him at all—forever.
It may be countered that there are millions today who do believe that God mercifully entreats the people to repentance at first, but uses destructive force to kill them if they will not repent, and yet, while believing this, love and serve Him. It is true that for a time this is so. Think of the centuries during which the people of the Middle Ages continued to serve God as the Romanists represented Him to be, but it could not and did not go on

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forever. There came a time when the reaction set in and the rejection of that kind of God was total.
Once again, the earth is moving toward another such absolute rejection of God. When that time comes, all the honors of the French Revolution will be re-enacted, but not within the limited confines of national scale. It will be global. Not then will the rest of the world gaze in awed amazement at the death struggles of one nation, for they will be in the same death throes themselves.
In the coming and final conflict, every person on earth will be obliged to take his stand on one side or the other of the great controversy. The place where each stands today, the ideas being more deeply formulated in each mind, and the practices followed, are determining where each will stand in that day unless his position is revised while the option to do so remains.
Have you carefully, prayerfully, and honestly considered the implications of your present understanding of God’s character? It would be well for each to do so, for when this is understood, a change may well be seen to be imperative.
If you believe:
God does not concern Himself with personal law-keeping;
He does as He pleases in the sense that men do as they please;
The law is designed to protect Him from the people but not the people from Him;
Then you are on the side of the greatest agency of all time through which Satan has misrepresented the character of God.
If you believe:
God at first seeks to win by loving entreaty and merciful dealings; 
But in the end uses force to wipe out those who do not serve Him;
Then your position is no different from that of the Roman Catholic Church. You will be the devil’s delight, for his purposes in you are being achieved.
On the other hand, if these things have never occurred to you before, then the decision must be made sooner or later to either cling to these views or reject them in exchange for something better. If the right choice is made, then one more step will be taken out of Babylonian darkness.
To believe:
That God loves His enemies—for a time;
Does good to those who do Him evil—for a time;
Blesses those who curse Him—for a time; 
And then:
Hates His enemies;
Pours evil on those who do Him evil;
And curses those who curse Him;
Is to hold concepts which are papal and worldly.

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To retain such notions when the light on God’s character is presented, is to assure continuation in darkness and error. When the last great conflict comes, there will be the certain standing on the side of the great apostate, with no hope of being numbered among that throng which will walk the streets of gold.
Conversely, if it is believed that:
The law is the perfect transcript of God’s character;
It pleases Him to do only righteousness—perfect Law-keeping;
He has designed the law as a perfect protection not only from ourselves and our fellow-creatures, but also 				from Himself;
He loves His enemies of whom the devil is the greatest;
He blesses those who curse Him—forever;
He does good to those who hate Him—forever;
He never uses force as a last or any resort;
And He never administers destruction upon the heads of those who refuse to obey Him;
Then another mighty step has been taken out of Babylonian darkness; the truth has been found about the Father and the Son, and a right stand has been taken in the great conflict.
“To know God is to love Him.” The Desire of Ages, 22.
Such a statement can only mean that to know God as God is, is to love Him. Therefore to know God as God is not, is to hate and reject Him as is so clearly proved by the French Revolution.
Therefore, to know God as Christ revealed Him both by word and deed is to love Him, while to know Him as the world and the papacy present Him both by teaching and practise is to hate and reject Him.
The fruit of the first is faith; and that of the second is infidelity and atheism.
The ultimate happiness, fulfilment, and achievement is to love God as He loves us. Satan is determined to frustrate this. His weapon is the misrepresentation of God’s character, in the use of which he is all too successful. No one can say that happiness, fulfilment, and achievement reigned in France in those dreadful days of the revolution. Far from it.
To fill us with supreme joy and happiness, God unmasks Satan’s lies about His righteousness and gives to all a true knowledge of His character. As this is understood and then experienced, the believer will love God and his fellow men as he never thought possible. A great bond of unity will draw together every being in heaven above, with every true believer. Eternal life and joy will be the experience of all with never a shadow to mar the life of any.
May such glorious prospects be incentive enough to lead each and all to reject Satan’s teachings through the papacy and the world, and to accept both intellectually and in living, personal experience the truth of God’s righteousness.

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CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Mystery-unfolding Cross

“The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary, the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, ‘Our Father.’ The Great Controversy, 642.
The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries.
What a treasure the cross of Christ is to us! Here is a promise so precious, so saving, so full, as to overflow the heart with gratitude for what God has provided in that revelation, and security in the knowledge that in the cross every puzzling, frustrating mystery is explained.
It is impossible to understand the character of God as it really is until every mystery about it is taken to the light shining from Golgotha. Not even the angels could comprehend God’s character and be delivered from Satan’s devilish charges against the Omnipotent One, until Jesus cried, “It is finished,” Evidence to this effect has already been presented in chapter four. There it was shown that “Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds.” The Desire of Ages, 758.
Therefore, if the angels could not understand all of God’s workings in the Old Testament period until they saw them in the light of the cross, then we have no possibility of grasping those mysteries in any other way. In the light of these facts, every Christian should determine that he will draw no final conclusions on God’s character until he has assessed all problems in Calvary’s light.
“In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Saviour’s atonement. Those who study the Redeemer’s wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge.” The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1137.
This is quite a statement. It establishes that there is not a single Bible truth which can be rightly understood except in the light which streams from Calvary. No one, then, who studies the mysteries of God’s behaviour without reference to the sacrifice of all sacrifices, can come to a correct understanding of the Scripture truths. This means consequently, that it is impossible to know God as He is, impossible to rightly understand His character and the nature of His law, unless all this Is studied with continual reference to the cross of Calvary.

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In the light of these things, it comes as no surprise to find that those who insist that God does destroy, reject the cross as having any helpful or significant bearing on the question of God’s character. In all their arguments they make no appeal to it and expressly reject any witness from it which counters their fixed ideas of God’s behaviour.
Such an attitude is tragic, for there is no mightier revelation of His character than the cross of Calvary. Before it, all other arguments sink into insignificance and all errors are exposed for what they are.
‘If those who today are teaching the word of God, would uplift the cross of Christ higher and still higher, their ministry would be far more successful. If sinners can be led to give one earnest look at the cross, if they can obtain a full view of the crucified Saviour, they will realize the depth of God’s compassion and the sinfulness of sin.
‘Christ’s death proves God’s great love for man. It is our pledge of salvation. To remove the cross from the Christian would be like blotting the sun from the sky. The cross brings us near to God, reconciling us to Him. With the relenting compassion of a father’s love, Jehovah looks upon the suffering that His Son endured in order to save the race from eternal death, and accepts us in the Beloved.
‘Without the cross, man could have no union with the Father. On it depends our every hope. From it shines the light of the Saviour’s love; and when at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fulness of joy: for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.
“Through the cross we learn that the heavenly Father loves us with a love that is infinite. Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’? It is our privilege also to glory in the cross, our privilege to give ourselves wholly to Him who gave Himself for us. Then, with the light that streams from Calvary shining in our faces, we may go forth to reveal this light to those in darkness.” Acts of the Apostles, 209, 210.
“The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption—the Son of God uplifted on the cross. This is to be the foundation of every discourse given by our ministers.” Gospel Workers, 315.
“When we study the divine character in the light of the cross, we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice. We see in the midst of the throne One bearing in hands and feet and side the marks of the suffering endured to reconcile man to God. We see a Father,

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infinite, dwelling in light unapproachable, yet receiving us to Himself through the merits of His Son, The cloud of vengeance that threatened only misery and despair, in the light reflected from the cross reveals the writing of God: Live, sinners, live! ye penitent, believing souls, live! I have paid a ransom.
“In the contemplation of Christ, we linger on the shore of a love that is measureless. We endeavor to tell of this love, and language fails us. We consider His life on earth, His sacrifice for us, His work in heaven as our advocate, and the mansions He is preparing for those who love Him; and we can only exclaim, O the height and depth of the love of Christ! ‘Herein Is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.’
“In every true disciple, this love, like sacred fire, burns on the altar of the heart. It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Christ. It is on the earth that His children are to reflect this love through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross, to behold the Lamb of God.” Acts of the Apostles 333, 334.
“The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centres, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great centre of attraction; for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his original perfection. Yea, more, it was offered to give him an entire transformation of character, making him more than a conqueror.
“Those who in the strength of Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man, will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen.
“Christ declares, ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ If the cross does not find an influence in its favor, it creates an influence. Through generation succeeding generation, the truth for this time is revealed as present truth. Christ on the cross was the medium whereby mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. This is the means that is to move the world.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1113.
It was an awareness of and appreciation for these great truths which caused Paul to testify:
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14.
Therefore he said: “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2.
All these words are wonderful, inspiring, challenging, and uplifting. They provide the fullest encouragement to proceed into the study of God’s character with the assurance that when that theme is brought into the light flooding from the cross, every mystery will be solved.

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THE MYSTERY-UNFOLDING CROSS
The cross is the ultimate revelation of of God’s character. By it, 
every principle can be safely measure.

The particular problem before us concerns the way in which God deals with the unrepentant sinner. The emergence of sin imposed upon God the greatest test of character ever. Because it is the truth that the greater the test the greater the manifestation of the character present, the contemplation of the way in which God deals with the sinner reveals more of the wonder of God’s character than any other study could.
Previously in these pages, evidence and argument have been assembled to draw the contrast between the way in which God deals with the sinner and the way man does it. It has been shown that the Lord does not bless for a time and then turn with cursings and destructions upon the unrepentant even though it is widely supposed that He does. The evidences so far considered are overwhelmingly convincing. Let these be studied now in the light of the cross. They will either be confirmed or denied by that utterly reliable witness of God’s character.
The cross is God’s personal demonstration of the way in which He will deal with the finally impenitent. Christ took the sinner’s place and God dealt with Him there exactly as He will deal with every sinner throughout the annals of time. This is the point which must be clearly seen and accepted. God did not relate Himself to Christ any differently from what He does to the sinner. It is exactly the same. It must be, for if God should do otherwise, then Satan would be very quick to justly charge God with partiality.
Christ wholly took the sinner’s place. This was so real, so complete,

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that it was as if He were the sinner. It was thus that God saw Him in Gethsemane, and on the cross, and it was as a lost and condemned sinner that God treated Him. It was no make-believe substitution Had it not been absolutely real, all would have been lost, for, if Christ’s standing in the place of sinners came short in the least degree, then, to that degree the ransom was not fully paid.
This vital truth is spelled out with great clarity in these statements. Every encouragement is given to the student to concentrate his attention on the wording of these paragraphs so that the message may not be missed. Become immovably confirmed in the truth that Christ in no way received any “preferred son” treatment from His Father resulting in His being punished in a different way from that of the lost and unrepentant sinner. Look to the cross of Calvary for a clear view of the way God acted there, and then know exactly how God acts when a sinner has eternally refused the offer of repentance.
Back in the Garden of Eden, despite the warnings given them from God, Adam and Eve chose to go the way of transgression. That way incurs a punishment, the nature of which has already been discussed in chapter eight. Therein it was learned that God has given man life, a home, and mighty powers to enable him to live to full happiness and achievement in that home. But power with its capacity to maintain life on the best of levels also has the potentiality for doing away with it altogether.
To protect man from the latter eventuality, God gave him the law as a love gift from heaven. Obedience to it would perpetuate his eternal and perfect happiness, but disobedience would unleash all those powers in a destructive role. That destruction would in no way be the working of God’s personal retaliation against the sinner. It would be the inevitable outworking of his own course of action.
When the first pair sinned, they took another god in place of the real God, making it impossible for Him to continue as the Sustainer of all the powers of nature without His forcing His presence where it was not desired. Therefore, at the very moment in which they turned out of the pathway of righteousness, there were poised and ready to strike, mighty powers, which, though provided for their blessing, had been perverted to destroy. They would have died that very day as God had said, but for one contingency.
“The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying. ‘Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place. He shall have another chance.’ ” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1085.
The substitution of Christ in man’s place was complete. Christ bears the same punishment and stands in the same place to receive it. To determine the nature of the sentence to fall upon man, study need only be given to the way Christ died. There are two ways in which it could have happened.

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One is under the power of an offended God rising to vindicate His authority. The death would then be the result of God’s direct act. If this is the way the sinner was to die then Christ must die in an identical fashion. God cannot administer one sentence on the sinner and a different one on Christ, for, if He did, He would deny the truth that Christ took man’s punishment and stood in man’s place.
The other possibility is for God to leave the sinner to the fate which he has chosen, once he has rejected every possible effort on God’s part to save him. His death would then be the outworking of the broken law. If this is the way man is to die, then that is the way Christ died.
In short, the question is, does God kill the sinner or is it sin which destroys him? Whichever it was, destroyed Christ when the punishment fell upon Him.
The reading of individual statements would certainly give the impression that it was God who personally administered the punishment on the sinner according to His judgment of what it should be. Here is a sample of such a statement.
“There are limits even to the forbearance of God. The boundary of His long-suffering may be reached, and then He will surely punish. And when He does take up the case of the presumptuous sinner, He will not cease till He has made a full end.
“Very few realize the sinfulness of sin; they flatter themselves that God is too good to punish the offender. But the cases of Miriam, Aaron, David, and many others show that it is not a safe thing to sin against God indeed, in word, or even in thought. God is a being of infinite love and compassion, but He also declares Himself to be a ‘consuming fire, even a jealous God.’ ” Review and Herald, August 14, 1900.
Because we have been so long accustomed to interpret words such as these in the same way as we would if they were describing human behaviour, we see in them the description of God as the One Who, with patience exhausted, arises to personally punish those who have offended Him. But the witness of the cross does not support this interpretation.
“The death of Christ was to be the convincing, everlasting argument that the law of God is as unchangeable as His throne. The agonies of the Garden of Gethsemane, the insult, the mockery, and abuse heaped upon God’s dear Son, the horrors and ignominy of the crucifixion, furnish sufficient and thrilling demonstration that God’s justice, when it punishes, does the work thoroughly. The fact that His own Son, the Surety for man, was not spared, is an argument that will stand to all eternity before saint and sinner, before the universe of God, to testify that He will not excuse the transgressor of His law. Every offense against God’s law, however minute, is set down in the reckoning, and when the sword of justice is taken in hand, it will do the work for impenitent transgressors that was done to the divine Sufferer. Justice will strike; for God’s hatred of sin is intense and overwhelming.” S.D.A.. Bible Commentary 3:1166.

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Reference is made in this quotation to the working of Gods justice. A caution again needs to be sounded that God’s ways are not our ways and therefore God’s justice and man’s justice are not the same. More will be studied on this later.
This statement recognizes that there is a terrible punishment to fall upon those who have rejected the protection of righteous law. It also states that the same work to be done in destroying the impenitent. was done on Christ when He died. Therefore, His death is a revelation of the work of God in the death of the wicked. By this means we can understand the Bible meaning of how God punishes the sinner.
Before we do look at the cross to see just what the Father did there, let a further statement be studied to strengthen the point made in the one just quoted, namely that the death of Christ was exactly as the death of the sinner will be.
“It is a fearful thing for the unrepentant sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of the old world by a flood, by the record of the fire which fell from heaven and destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1103.
This is the first part of what is to be quoted here from this statement. From what has been read thus far, the impression will be formed that God is the destroyer. When we hear a human being speak of his enemy in these words, “If that man should ever fall into my hands we know that he purposes to use all his powers to personally crush and destroy that man. So we are apt to think of God in the same terms because of our familiarity with the earthly meaning of such an expression. But as the statement continues, it gives us again the guideline of the experience of God and Christ at the cross to enable us to understand the real meaning of those words.
“But never was this [the fearful thing of falling into the hands of the living God] proved to so great an extent as in the agony of Christ, the Son of the infinite God, when He bore the wrath of God for a sinful world.” ibid.
He then, who looks firstly and only at what he thinks he sees taking place at the flood and at Sodom and Gomorrah, will arrive at an incorrect view of what it does mean to fall into the hands of the living God. But, if he looks firstly at the death of Christ and understands from the revelation there, what it means to fall into the hands of the living God, then he will have the right view of the character and justice of God.
The revelation of this truth is strengthened as we read further in the paragraph. “It was in consequence of sin, the transgression of God’s law. that the Garden of Gethsemane has become pre-eminently the place of suffering to a sinful world. No sorrow, no agony, can measure with that which was endured by the Son of God.
“Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will never know the horror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear any comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell with

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overwhelming force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of test and trial. The finite can only endure the finite measure, and human nature succumbs; but the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering: for the human existed in the divine nature, and created a capacity for suffering to endure that which resulted from the sins of a lost world. 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.” ibid.
So Christ said, “Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place.”
This is what He did. God took Him completely at His word so that:
the	sword of justice did to Christ exactly what it would have done to sinful man and will do when the finally
	impenitent suffer their ultimate destruction;
He received the full outpouring of the wrath of God;
He fell into the hands of the living God;
and thus died as man will die if he remains in sin.
This being so, there remains only the need to study how Jesus died on the cross to understand how God will relate Himself to the sinner; to understand what the wrath of God is; and of what the punishment of sin consists.
On the cross of Calvary, Christ died the death of the sinner. It was a death which met tile full demands of God’s law. It was God’s punishment on sinners, but it was not at the hand of God that Christ died. The Father did not slay His Son.
It was sin which slew the Son of God. The Father simply withdrew from the Son and left Him to perish because there was nothing else He could do. Christ stood in the very position of the sinner who wants nothing of God and demands His withdrawal. With the withdrawal of the sustaining, life-protecting, life-giving power of God, there was nothing to save Christ from the awful, destructive power of sin. Its fearful weight crushed the life forces into extinction,
But it was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered ‘with a loud voice’ (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.” The Desire of Ages, 772.
There can be no mistaking the way in which Christ died, Accordingly, there is no difficulty in knowing how man will die at the destructive hands of sin. At the cross, when the full penalty which Christ undertook to bear in man’s place, was exacted, Christ did not find the Father waiting for Him

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there as an executioner to extinguish every ray of hope and element of life. It was sin which, in that role, awaited Him.
So men will never find God waiting as their executioner. Satan makes it appear that He does, but it is not so. The cross of Calvary proves that. Sin is the destroyer which awaits the condemned sinner. Man places himself under its obliterating power by his total rejection of God whom he replaces with another god who has no power to sustain and protect him.
With Christ, God’s withdrawal from Him was in fulfilment of the covenant made between the Father and the Son that the Saviour would stand in man’s place to receive the punishment man had incurred. This was a voluntary sacrifice made by both the Father and the Son. For God to accept that Christ stood in man’s place, He must separate Himself from Christ as He would from the guilty sinner, thus Leaving Him fully exposed to the destructive power of sin.
This is that to which man is left. This is how he perishes. The particular form in which the executioner awaits him varies according to place and circumstances. Thus some meet the grim reaper in the person of enraged enemies; others perish by the inroads of fearful diseases; some are cut down by nature out of control; while others perish in accidents and calamities. All these forces only await the opportunity to wreak havoc and death among the human family. They can only accomplish their missions of destruction when God is forced to withdraw and leave humans to the fate they have chosen.
Nothing can deny the truths presented by Christ on the cross. He took the punishment due to fall on man in the way in which it will eventually fall on him at the final reckoning. In this is given to us the most accurate picture of the nature of God’s wrath and the punishment of man which could ever be given.
It may be argued that in the end it will be an all-engulfing fire which will obliterate mankind and that this punishment did not fall on Christ. It is true that no literal fire consumed Christ upon the cross, but this creates no problem. The particular weapon used by sin to punish the sinner will vary according to the circumstances. Sometimes it is fire, as at Sodom and Gomorrah and at the end, or it is an earthquake, a tidal wave, a volcanic eruption, the fearful ravages of a disease, or the onslaught of other men. The particular means by which the punishment of sin is administered is not important. The important thing is that it comes by the sinner’s casting off the protecting and sustaining hand of God to release the pent up forces of destruction upon him.
This is how it was with Christ upon the cross and how it will be with every sinner who perishes either in this first life or in the resurrection of the unjust. The protecting presence of God is withdrawn Leaving the sinner exposed to all the destructive power of an evil conscience within and the unleashed forces of nature without.

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Those then, who would truly understand the way in which the punishment of sin will fall, how the justice of God will strike, and how the wrath of God descends upon the shelterless head of the guilty, must go to the wondrous sacrifice made upon the hill outside Jerusalem. This is the place to begin. Thereafter let every truth in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation be studied in the light which streams from that cross. Only then will the truth be comprehended.
God does not come to the sinner equipped with the weapons of destruction to execute His own decrees against the impenitent. This is not His way. That is the way of Satan and his followers.
God’s way was to give man the law in the first instance as a protection and a saviour from death. Then when men cast away that saviour, He gave Himself to save them. When, in turn, they reject this means of salvation, then there is nothing further the Lord can do. He has no option but to leave them to perish.

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CHAPTER TWENTY

The Way Of The Cross

The witness of the cross is not limited to proving that God does not destroy the rejecters of His mercy. To see nothing more in Calvary’s testimony than this, is to be handicapped with an imbalanced view of its wonderful light.
The revelations of God’s character and purposes as given at the cross are infinite in their scope. Therefore, they are inexhaustible. They are so utterly limitless, that it is impossible to ever come to the place where the edge or the end of them can be found. In heaven when we will have spent a hundred million years researching this unfolding of God’s character, there will still be an infinitude beyond. When one attempts to consider how much knowledge will be accumulated from one hundred million years of concentrated study, and yet still leave an infinitude to learn, one is quickly made aware of how little has yet been learnt by humanity, of the love and character of God.
The less we have learned of this today, the more difficult it will be to comprehend the truth of it. To some, it may even seem a discouraging prospect, whereas in fact, it should be a most reassuring one for if we were ever to come to the place where there was nothing more to learn, achieve, or accomplish, then the joy of heaven would die. Therefore, it is a comfort to know that such a point can never be reached by the finite mind. Eternity will never exhaust the beauty, the power, and the wonder of God’s character and, ever as we learn new delights of wisdom in the unfolding of that character, the more wonderful will be the joy and satisfaction which will pervade every soul.
“Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which ‘angels desire to look,’ and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song.” The Desire of Ages, 19, 20.
“All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the

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breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more. And it will be ours to realize the blessing which Paul desired for the Ephesian church when he prayed ‘that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.’ ” Testimonies 5:740.
The focal point of all that glory is the cross of Christ.
The beholding of the glory of that revelation will change us into the same image from glory to glory as it is written: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
This is the way to become like Christ. It is not by the threat of punishment or the offers of eternal riches that one is motivated to develop a fitness for heaven. It is by devoting the life to the intensive study of God’s wonderful character in response to the drawing power of infinite love, that one is changed into the very likeness of God. If the full implications of this truth could be grasped as they should be, there would be such an intensive study of the sacrifice of Christ as this world has never seen. Paul appreciated this so that he “determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2.
Paul did not deny that he had preached doctrine, prophecy, or the law. Research through his epistles proves that he did present those subjects. But, his declarations on these themes were always and only as they stood in the light which streams from the cross. He rightly saw that every word of Scripture was the revelation of Jesus Christ, whose finest manifestation centres in the cross. So it was, that when he preached doctrine, prophecy and law, he was still preaching nothing among them, “save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
In this, he set the example for every preacher for all time. The only truly effective gospel work is that which makes the cross the centre of all discourses. The commission given to Paul is the same as that given to every child of God. We are not sent to debate, or to deliver dissertations on this and that Bible subject. We are to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ with its great central point, the cross. Paul affirmed the truth of this for himself and us in the words: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” I Corinthians 1:17.

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When the Lord arrested Paul’s mad course of destruction and set him forth as a missionary to the Gentiles, He gave him this specific commission to go preach the gospel of the cross, but in doing so God only reiterated the great commission. Before He left this earth, Christ gathered His beloved followers around Him and solemnly outlined their mission to them. “Go ye into all the world,” He instructed them, “and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
Paul was in the most exacting sense, faithful to his calling. When the time drew near for his execution, he said with conviction under the inspiration of the Spirit of Truth.
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
For the faithful fulfilment of his commission, Paul had to know just what the preaching of the gospel really was. The master counterfeiter was as wide awake then as he is today. In this concluding era of human history, he has his spurious version of the preaching of the cross being vigorously advocated throughout the religious organizations under his control. So did he likewise in Paul’s time. Enlightened by the ministry of the Spirit, the inspired apostle was well able to detect the deception, while comprehending the wisdom and power resident in the true gospel of the genuine cross. Thus he was competent to present the saving cross as distinct from the false version.
Therefore, when he observed that “. . . the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God,” I Corinthians 1:18, he expected it to be understood that the cross about which he was speaking was not the cross as known and held by the Gentiles, but as presented in the life and death of Christ. The principles embodied in one are the direct and hostile opposite from those incorporated in the other. Never shall the two come into any kind of harmony or cooperation. Where one is upheld, the other is despised and rejected. On God’s side it is the symbol of the very spirit of self-denying, self-sacrificing, self-abnegating love. It is the ultimate declaration that God will never use the limitless powers at His command to compel any to follow and serve Him. On Satan’s side the cross is the revelation of the spirit of selfishness at its fully matured worst. It is the declaration that those who will not submit to the one in power, will be subjected to the cruellest torture and death.
So despised is the true cross by the unbelieving world that to the Gentile it was foolishness and to the Jew, a stumbling-block. Neither of them saw in it any beauty, power, or attractiveness.
“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.

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“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” I Corinthians 1:22-25.
It is not to be supposed that times have changed since Paul’s day. There are many who would argue that they have. The popular churches would ridicule any suggestion that to them the cross was either foolishness or a stumbling-block. To support their contention, they would point to the dominant place it holds in their literature, preaching, and worship, and its prolific use in the adornment of their religious houses and persons.
They would then enquire if this was not sufficient evidence to prove that, far from being foolishness to them, the cross was the very heart and life of their religion. This argument does seem to be conclusive, and it is the claim of modern evangelical Protestantism that they preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
It is an argument adequate to prove to the superficial thinker, that the cross is not foolishness to the adherents of modern religions, and that, therefore, the evaluation of the cross standing in Paul’s day was applicable to his time alone. But the careful, prayerful, thoughtful student of God’s Word will find that there is a deeper and more beautiful understanding to be gained. From this he will see that there has been no change, that the true cross of Christ is just as much foolishness today as it ever was in Paul’s day. He will come to see that the modern religionist is not worshipping the cross of Christ as he thinks he is and professes to be, but another cross altogether.
This means that there are two crosses—the cross of Christ and the Babylonian cross, usually referred to as the Christian cross. As already stated, the former is the revelation of God’s character, while the latter symbolizes the spirit which actuates the devil and his breed.
The enemy did not institute his cross when he took Christ to the hill of sacrifice. Neither the Jew nor the Greek beheld it then for the first time. That evil cross dated back to the setting up of the counterfeit kingdom shortly after the flood. There was a mighty hunter before the Lord” whose name was Nimrod and whose brief mention in Scripture appears in Genesis 10:8-11. The description of him as being before the Lord, is to be understood in the sense that he placed himself before God or in the place of God for whom he had neither respect nor regard.
His life ended in a violent and untimely death, which his wife, Semiramis, and others, upheld as a voluntary sacrifice on his part.1 It was taught that provided the Babylonians revered this noble offering, they would be preserved forever. As a fitting reward, Nimrod was given deification as the sun qod and the first day of the week was set aside as his day.
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1See The Two Babylons. 61, 62, by Alexander Hislop, published by S.W. Partridge and Co., 4-6, Soho Square, London W.1. 1957 Edition.

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Once the dead hero had been deified, then the secret mysteries of the Babylonian religion were set up. In due course, the licentious Semiramis bore an illegitimate son. Semiramis and the upholders of the secret mysteries, taught that this child was the reincarnation of the dead hero. Thus Nimrod was represented as being both the father and the son while the child was also declared to be both her husband and her son. The name Tammuz was given to the child, the significance being that this had been Nimrod’s name too. But, whereas a son is simply named after his father without in fact being the father himself, in this case the name was given because it was believed that the father had actually reappeared. It was not purported to be a birth in the normal sense. It was regarded as an incarnation.
It is immediately apparent that in all this, the mystery of God is remarkably counterfeited. Christ was to come and die a sacrificial death, the acceptance and recognition of which would restore eternal life. He was, in His incarnation, both the Father and the Son, while the Son of Mary was, in a certain sense, also her Husband. Let it be emphasized that we say this is true in a certain very special sense as the readers should well understand. This unique role of being both the Father and the Son was the subject of a difficult and, for them, unanswerable question put to the Pharisees by Christ.
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
“Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, the Son of David.
“He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying,
“The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
“If David call Him Lord, how is He his son?
“And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions.” Matthew 22:41-46.
The incontrovertible witness of the Scriptures was that the Messiah was the Lord or spiritual father of King David, yet at the same time, the Word testified that He would be David’s son. It is the mystery of God that the same being can be both the father and the son, and it is the mystery of iniquity to pretend that it is so in a created being apart from the only One Who could be such.
Tammuz then, as the supposedly reincarnated one, was exalted to the place of highest honour in the ancient mysteries and appeared under different names in various religious orders. The whole system was designed by Satan to assist him to more effectively war against God. While its structure held the appearance of being a reproduction of the divine mysteries, its every spirit and principle of operation was so far separated from, so hostile to, and so dedicated to war against the divine principles that there could be

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no real similarity between them. The deceptive appearance was skilfully crafted to ensnare to destruction the bodies, minds, and souls of men.
It is characteristic of every system of human devising to erect a visible symbol as a means of identification. Thus nations have their flags, armies their uniforms, organizations their badges, special groups their insignias, and so on. God, too, has His identifying signs, but they are not material things made of cloth, bronze, silver, or gold. They are spiritual in nature and cannot be discerned except with the enlightened eye.
Thus the secret mysteries needed a symbol to give them a distinguishing identification. Such a sign must centre in the being who, it was believed, had come back from the dead, Tammuz. Accordingly, the first letter of his name, which in its ancient form was in the shape of a cross thus, t became the insignia of that vast apostate and rebellious religious system. It was as fully important and sacred in that ancient system as it is in the papal orders today. Alexander Hislop has made this point very strongly in the following extract.
“In the Papal system, as is well known, the sign of the cross and the image of the cross are all in all. No prayer can be said, no worship engaged in, no step almost can be taken, without the frequent use of the sign of the cross. The cross is looked upon as the grand charm, as the great refuge in every season of danger, in every hour of temptation as the infallible preservative from all the powers of darkness. The cross is adored with all the homage due only to the Most High; and for any one to call it, in the hearing of a genuine Romanist, by the Scriptural term, ‘the accursed tree,’ is a mortal offence. To say that such superstitious feeling for the sign of the cross,

(PICTURE)
Fig. 43

such worship as Rome pays to a wooden or a metal cross, ever grew out of the saying of Paul, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’—that is, in the doctrine of Christ crucified—is a mere absurdity, a shallow subterfuge and pretence. The magic virtues attributed to the so-called sign of the cross, the worship bestowed on it, never came from such a source. The same sign of the cross that Rome now worships was used in the Babylonian Mysteries, was applied by Paganism to the same magic purposes, was honoured with the same honours. That which is now called the Christian cross was originally no Christian emblem at all, but was the mystic Tau of the Chaldeans and Egyptians—the true original form of the letter T—the initial of the name of Tammuz—which, in Hebrew, radically the same as ancient Chaldee, as found on coins, was formed as in No. 1 of the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 43); and in Etrurian and Coptic, as in Nos. 2 and 3. That mystic Tau was marked in baptism on the

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foreheads of those initiated in the Mysteries, and was used in every variety of way as a most sacred symbol. To identify Tammuz with the sun it was joined sometimes to the circle of the sun, as in No. 4; sometimes it was inserted in the circle, as in No. 5. Whether the Maltese cross, which the Romish bishops append to their names as a symbol of their episcopal dignity, is the letter T, may be doubtful; but there seems no reason to doubt that that Maltese cross is an express symbol of the sun; for Layard found it as a sacred symbol in Nineveh in such a connection as led him to identify it with the sun. The mystic Tau, as the symbol of the great divinity, was called ‘the sign of life;’ it was used as an amulet over the heart; it was marked on the official garments of the priests, as on the official garments of the priests of Rome; it was borne by kings in their hand, as a token of their dignity or divinely-conferred authority. The Vestal virgins of Pagan Rome wore it

(PICTURE)
Fig. 44
suspended from their necklaces, as the nuns do now.
“The Egyptians did the same, and many of the barbarous nations with whom they had intercourse, as the Egyptian monuments bear witness. In reference to the adorning of some of these tribes, Wilkinson thus writes:
‘The girdle was sometimes highly ornamented; men as well as women wore earrings; and they frequently had a small cross suspended to a necklace, or to the collar of their dress. The adoption of this last was not peculiar to them; it was also appended to, or figured upon, the robes of the Rot-n-no; and traces of it may be seen in the fancy ornaments of the Rebo, showing that it was already in use as early as the fifteenth century before the Christian era.’ (Fig. 44.) There is hardly a Pagan tribe where the cross has not been found.” The Two Babylons, 197-199.
Paul’s statement that the cross was foolishness to the Greek cannot be rightly understood except it be known that the cross was as much an integral and important part of Greek and Roman religion then, as it is of papal and Protestant religion today. Consequently, if Paul’s words had been reported to a Greek or Roman of that time, they would have ridiculed the

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idea as being utterly false, exactly as a modern religionist would, if it was suggested that the cross was foolishness to him. They would point to the dominant role of the cross in their religious rites and ceremonies, to its multiplied appearances in every church function, and on every person and building, offering these things as evidence that the cross is anything but foolishness; and that it is an object receiving the deepest reverence and continual adoration in their worship.
They would have contended that Paul’s assertion, not the cross, was the foolish thing.
Thus there existed the testimony of God’s Word through the inspired apostle versus the counter-claim by the Greek and Roman. The former taught that the cross was foolishness to the Greek, while the latter disclaimed such a charge. It must be conceded that the Greek would be entirely sincere in what he said, believing that he, and not Paul, spoke the truth.
The real fact is that both the Spirit of God and the Greek spoke the truth because they were speaking about two different crosses. The cross as Paul knew and taught it was utterly foolish to the Greek, while the cross as the Greek knew it was anything but that. Nothing has changed since that day. The cross of Christ with all it stands for is still foolishness to the world including the modern religionist, while the cross known and understood by the world is the epitome of human wisdom and ways.
The cross, be it that of Christ or of Babylon, is nothing in itself. It is merely two pieces of inanimate wood crossed and joined together. But it is highly symbolic. It is representative of the culture, learning, beliefs, and ways of the two great opposing powers. When that is comprehended, it will be seen just how the cross of Christ is foolishness to the Greek, the Roman, and to everyone but he who is vitally connected in spirit and principle to Christ.
Consider then the symbolism of the cross as it was known to the Babylonian, be he Greek, Roman, Jew, Papist, or Protestant. These powers are all highly religious in nature, but it is not to be supposed that the principles of their religion differ from their daily practices. Of course, there are some high pretensions in these faiths, which do not find matching behaviour in the life. With that there is no concern here. Rather, the interest is in the principles of the religion, what it really is, not what it pretends to be.
In short, while the cross as Paul knew, lived, and taught it, was the revelation of God’s character, it was the manifestation of the character of the man of sin, the son of perdition, as the Babylonians knew, lived, and taught it. Therefore, while the cross as a symbol did not appear till the days of Tammuz, that which it represents dates back to Lucifer’s defection, when the counter-philosophy was established.
The cross, as the conveyor of God’s message to the universe, is the expression of that spirit which seeks the blessing and salvation of others no mailer how much the cost may be to one’s self. As the symbol of Satan’s

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(PICTURE)

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way, it declares that character which seeks its own benefit, no matter what the cost to others.
Give careful consideration now to the development of the Babylonian’s character. The man of sin is not original. The first man was righteous. That is a self-evident truth for, in the beginning, the Lord made all things good. Therefore, the man of sin must be a perverted development of that original righteous man. Step by step, for this can never be the work of a moment, the deviation has matured until it is utterly at enmity with the God Who gave it its original perfect existence.
Its first appearance was in Lucifer, the bright and morning star, but what happened in him has been repeated in every subsequent departure from the living God and the cross of Christ.
The way of the living God is self-sacrificing, self-renouncing love. It is God’s infinite wisdom that there should be a circle of love reaching out from Him to the uttermost limits of the universe and returning to Him to flow out again in a transcendant glory of joy and praise. No one is to receive merely for his own gratification and advantage. Each is to be a channel so that everything received is passed on to those around, for them to administer the same blessing to still others and they to others yet beyond,
While that beautiful stream flowed in unbroken rhythm, no note of sadness or jarring discord broke the sweet harmonies of the universal kingdom. Lucifer, the covering cherub, was as happy as the rest as he faithfully fulfilled his appointed mission of service.
But the time came when his fidelity to this principle began to waver and then to break down. He was the brightest and therefore, most privileged, of all the angels. He held the highest position available to a creature. He had developed the most brilliant talents and his arrival at this pinnacle of power and glory was the result of the gifts showered upon him by his Creator, combined with his own diligent effort. At first, he felt only gratitude to God for His wonderful love, his heart daily responding to the life flowing from God to him. But the passing of time eventually brought him imperceptibly to the point where he came to be increasingly aware of himself and his brilliance and less aware of the God Who had given it all to him.
With marvellous perception, the Scriptures discern the cause of Lucifer’s fall from his lofty elevation.
“By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.” Ezekiel 28:16.
The nature of the merchandise which dethroned the beautiful one is not known to us. Earthly merchandise is salable goods from the commonest to the most valuable form. They are eagerly sought by the world, for possession of them assures freedom from want, and the assurance of security, comfort, and power.
Whatever form they took in heaven is not important. Merchandise meant for Lucifer the increase of personal possessions, power, and wealth.

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It had the same effect upon him as it has had upon earth-dwellers through all time, except for those rare exceptions, the individuals who have so taken hold of the spirit of self-sacrificing love that they escape that snare.
That effect was to cause Lucifer to gradually transfer his faith from the Giver of all good things to the gifts provided by the Giver. Lie began to realize that if he retained that which came into his possession, then he would accumulate so much more of these delightful things. Thus the already wealthy angel would become just that much wealthier.
All this is not so easily seen in Lucifer’s life as it is in the lives of men and women. The procedure has been repeated countless times since Satan came to Eve at the forbidden tree. It is most noticeable in the history of movements which have been raised up by God to effectively demonstrate His character and thus bring about the termination of sin and its attendant horrors.
Such movements are born out of times of great spiritual apostasy. The exodus movement from Egypt lifted the people out of the deep darkness of the long Egyptian night. So it was with the return to the promised land after the Babylonian captivity. Later the apostolic church emerged from the darkness of the long Jewish rejection of divine principles as did the reformation churches from the papal midnight.
Such returnings to God are championed initially by a lone voice pitted against overwhelming opposition from the ruling elite, aided by the superstition, fear, and ignorance of the general populace. The Lord’s chosen messenger sees with vivid clarity the human’s hopeless inadequacy to cope with these combined powers of darkness, but he cannot draw back. He is committed to his mission. Therefore, he is forced to flee to the Mighty One for strength.
As he pours out his confession of frailty and need and by faith makes a living connection with the Almighty, the windows of heaven are opened and light, power, and material aid are directed to him. lie hurries these gifts into the battle, and, as quickly as they are exhausted, he returns to receive more and still more. As others join him, they, with like consecration, throw all they have into the battle, looking to God and God alone for their guidance and support. The sense of need during this period is very great, resulting in a total absence of self-sufficiency.
As time goes by, great victories are achieved, numbers are added to the ranks, and the initial struggles are followed by a relatively quieter period. God continues to deliver His wonderful blessings to them for the purpose of their using them to reach out still further with the message of power.
But, like the Israelites of Joshua’s day, who did not push the battle to the utmost ends of the land but allowed pockets of rebellion to remain, so the believers do not follow the directive to go beyond Jerusalem and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. Privation, self-denial, and sacrifice are not attractive to the human nature which prefers rest from bat-

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tle, ease, pleasure, comfort, and above all, security. The temptation to turn aside, at least in part, from the heat of the battle is so attractive as to win little by little. More and more of God’s gifts are appropriated for personal security and comfort.
As a firm base of material security is formed, the intense sense of need which previously drew them to God as the Supplier of all good things diminishes, while the accent is placed more and more on the acquisition of the material and the visible. Soon, house is being added to house, and land to land, until the whole mission of the church is lost, the accumulation of personal wealth becoming the one great objective in life.
Inevitably this will produce changed conditions in the spirit and experience of those who had once been devoted only to the service of God and humanity. Their thoughts and interest will be less and less upon God, and more and more on merchandise. The increase in possessions will breed a growing feeling of security. The basis of their faith has become money, houses, land, and other visible life-support systems. Such have lost faith in God. But it is important to understand that they have not lost faith. Instead they have transferred it from the great Giver of all things to the gifts given by the Giver.
Increasing pride and personal satisfaction is taken in their enlarging prosperity. They view with gratification their industrious labour, their honest, faithful payment of accounts, and their scrupulous attention to their various obligations, as proof that they have gained their wealth blamelessly. They feel entitled to all that they have. They consider themselves blessed of heaven, possessors of no more than their just rights. This conviction develops in them the spirit of contention for those rights, so that, if anyone should threaten to relieve them of the least part of their gains, they will resist and even counter-attack to the limit of their powers.
The human tragedy is that the real nature of what they have done is hidden from them. That which they regard as being a perfectly legitimate course is in fact one of fraud and embezzlement, for they have misappropriated the goods entrusted to them, to a purpose other than that designated by the Giver.
This earth is not heaven. It is a wilderness of suffering and despair created by the entry of sin. A crisis situation exists which the Father and the heavenly ministers are devoted to ending as soon as possible. But it is impossible to accomplish this without the entire co-operation of the human family. God does not leave those who accept their responsibility, to do this work alone. He has made available every necessary facility. But, none of this is given to man to make this earth into a paradise for himself while the vast majority suffer want, disease, afflictions, and degradation. All these gifts are given for carrying forward the vast program of salvation. Some of it is needed to house, feed, and clothe the ones who are participant in the work just as a soldier in the field must be personally sustained. But, beyond

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what is strictly needed for this purpose, the facilities provided by the grace of God and the diligent industry of the believer are to be returned to the Lord with interest.
Jesus Christ provided the finest example of this, There was much which He received from His Father, day by day, but none of it was used for His own personal gratification. Everything entrusted to Him, He used as a faithful steward in the pursuance, with singleminded consecration, of the commission to preach the gospel of the cross.
Tragically, this peerless example is seldom understood and even less emulated by those who claim to be followers of the meek and lowly One. Instead of being strictly faithful stewards, they have misappropriated into other uses that which the Lord gave for specifically designated purposes, The charge of unfaithfulness will be laid against such. The stream of blessing intended by God to flow through them has stopped with them to become a Dead Sea.
This is only the early stages of human defection. The Scriptures tell us that in Lucifer’s case, the multitude of his merchandise filled the midst of him with violence. See Ezekiel 28:16. Therefore the decay is not complete until it develops into violence. This it will always do.
As man becomes obsessed with the drive to accumulate more and more material merchandise, he shows less and less consideration and regard for his fellow men. Should they stand in the way, he will oppress them. If they can be used to assist him in building his empire, he will not hesitate to exploit them.
While he retains a superior advantage, he will successfully rise in power and wealth by this means. Yet continually, there will be a growing resentment on the part of those being used which will eventually break out into open violence. Throughout earth’s history it is possible to find examples of this as long oppressed races rise against their overlords. Rivers of blood are shed, great changes are made in the political structure of the world, and the sceptre of power passes from one group to another.
The ruling elite’s development of a power structure through the heavy oppression of the masses had been achieved by the Jewish hierarchy at the time of Christ’s first advent. God had appointed the Jewish nation to carry the truth of His righteousness to the farthermost parts of the habitable globe. To them had been given every possible advantage and blessing as equipment for the speedy and complete execution of their calling. But they had turned from living by the law of self-renouncing service to others, to gathering power and glory to themselves. They had fully transferred their faith from God to the earthly, and, by the time Christ came, exhibited all the outworkings of such a course.
Every principle of operation among them was that of Babylon which declares that you either serve the powers that be as they want you to serve them, or you perish. This is the very heart and substance of Babylonian

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philosophy by which she seeks to justify her mass slaughter of those who dare refuse to subscribe to her philosophy. That is her religion; and her cross, dating back to Nimrod and Tammuz, is the symbol of it.
Into that darkness and sorrow Jesus came to shed forth the light of the opposite principles of self-serving and self-sacrificing love. The Pharisees and Sadducees found themselves confronted with a threat, the like of which they had never known before. The peril of losing their authority, power, wealth, and all else which they had so painstakingly and untiringly worked to achieve, suddenly became terribly imminent to them.
They had experienced throughout their quest for wealth and power, the continual danger of someone coming to wrest it from them, but this was by people devoted to the same principles as themselves. They could understand the workings of their minds for they were the same as their own. They knew how to cope with such supplanters and did so to the full extent of their powers.
But Jesus brought an entirely different method of working. He did not seek their power and wealth as a primary or any other objective. He came to implant in the hearts of all men a new principle which in reality is the oldest principle of all, for it had operated throughout the limitless eternity of the past. (The Pharisees’ principles had not existed till sin appeared.) That principle is the cross of Christ as distinct from the cross of Tammuz. It is the guideline for living in which “the love which ‘seeketh not her own’ has its source in the heart of God.” The Desire of Ages, 20.
Every word spoken by Christ taught these principles. Every act of His life was a living, practical demonstration of them, while the potency which flowed from God through Him as a stream of vibrant life, bequeathed upon those willing to receive its ministry, the same spirit of selfless service. Because of it, men and women were drawn to Him and longed to be recipients of His wonderful life. Its drawing power reached out to encircle even those who had devoted their entire lives to self-aggrandizement. For the most part, those proud and sensual minds, recognizing the call to an entire change in their attitudes and procedures, involving the surrender of that which they cherished as their rights, resisted with increasing vehemence the Saviour’s loving ministry.
The more earnestly Christ worked to save them, the more decidedly they entrenched themselves in their way and devised every means possible to prevent Him from reaching the minds of the people. They hoped that mild measures would intimidate and turn Him from His mission, but as this did not effect the desired objective, they went on under the command and leadership of Satan, their master, until they had Him nailed to the cross.
Before Christ began His public ministry the devil met Him on the mount of temptation. There he propositioned Christ by showing Him the kingdoms of the world with their glory and power, promising all this to Christ if He would but worship him.

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“Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8, 9.
Those kingdoms with their pomp and glory, had been put together by following the methods of serving self no matter what the cost might be to others. They could be maintained as such only by continuing those same procedures. Therefore, when Satan called upon Christ to bow down and worship him that He might receive the possession of all these earthly systems as His reward, he was, by implication, beseeching Christ to change from His principles of kingdom building to those of Satan and sinful man.
He was seeking to have Christ abandon the principle of self-sacrificing service for that of self-service no mailer what the cost might be to others. Satan well knew that if Christ should abandon those principles in favour of his, he would forever be the victor in the contest.
When Christ utterly rejected Satan’s offering, then the king of demons was left with no alternative but to live out fully, the spirit which motivated him. He would have his own way, serve his interests, ambitions, desires, and aspirations no matter what it might cost others. As day by day Christ pursued with unwavering fidelity the way of the cross to the cross, the devil mounted an ever-intensifying campaign against Him in which he strove to force Him to deviate from His chartered course by making His mission as costly as possible through personal inconvenience, suffering, pain, humiliation, rejection, deprivation of comfort, security, protection, and merchandise. One of the greatest possible tests which can be imposed on human nature, is to call upon it to serve others at its own expense.
When that expense calls for the supreme sacrifice, exacted under conditions of extreme torture and fearful mental suffering, then the test has achieved maximum intensity. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.
This was the service which Christ came to give, thereby demonstrating the very heart of the nature of God’s character. As that marvellous revelation of God is portrayed before the wondering gaze, it is to be known that thereby God through Christ has declared that He will serve even the creatures He has made, no matter what the cost to Himself. God had declared before sin ever entered, that this was what He would do as the outworking of His nature. When rebellion arose, then that declaration was tested to the uttermost. God in Christ demonstrated that God is true, that He is motivated by the principle of service to others no matter what the cost to Himself. If Calvary does not prove this, then it proves nothing.
Inasmuch as Satan understood that his principles could become the established way only by the dethronement of God’s way, he worked relentlessly to make Christ’s service as costly as possible, hoping the time would come when His humanity would protest to the point where He would proceed no further in paying the price for others.

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But no matter how Satan levied upon Him cost and added cost, the Saviour continued with undeviating consistency toward the moment of total sacrifice. Not only on Calvary, but at every step towards that pivotal point in eternity, Jesus lived out the principle of serving with no regard of the cost to Himself. Therefore, the crucifixion was nothing new to Him. It was but the ultimate confirmation of what He had been and lived eternally and would continue to live forevermore.
The revelation of God’s character as the One Who serves others irrespective of the cost to Himself, was only one side of the picture. On the other side, Satan’s continual exaction of the highest possible cost to the Son of God was revealing in him that character whereby he would gain his ends no matter how high the cost to be paid by others.
Likewise, Calvary was nothing new for Satan. It was the ultimate manifestation of his character of total selfishness. As we behold his behaviour there, we are given a glimpse of the nature of his principles and their ultimate outworking. It is seen that there is no length to which he will not go, no suffering he will not cause, no price that he will not exact even to taking the life of the very Being who gave him life and everything he ever had—the One who had given him only kindness, love, justice, mercy, and every other goodly thing.
Thus on Calvary’s hill, the cross on which the Saviour hung, was, in reality, two crosses. There was the Roman or Greek cross which antedated back to the initiation of satanic rebellion. It was the statement, in its most cogent expression, of Satan’s principles of operation. There Satan demonstrated to every creature in the universe what he would do to them if they did not pay the price whereby he could have the best for himself. Every person, system, and organization which has followed his leadership operates under the same principles to whatever extent they have the power to enforce their wills.
A graphic illustration of this is found in the behaviour of the war lords of Europe during the second world war. More than one cartoonist illustrated this with pen and brush depicting Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini piling the sacrifice of millions of human lives, hopes, and fortunes into a mountain high enough to permit them to view and seize the coveted prize of absolute world dominion. It was inconsequential to them how much others had to pay, provided they acquired what they desired.
There is nothing foolish to the Greek in this cross. He understands and accepts its message. That is the only way of life he understands, for to him it is the secret both of survival and access into the comforts and powers which the sinful human nature craves,
The greatest contra-distinction to this cross and its message is the cross of which Paul spoke so reverently and enthusiastically. This is the cross as Christ presented it to the universe both in His daily life and on the cross itself, This is the supreme testimony that it is God’s way to make any

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sacrifice—even of His own life if that should prove necessary—to serve others to the measure of their helpless need.
From that cross, the beautiful and touching submission of Christ to the demanding cost of our salvation calls every being within the farthermost outreaches of God’s kingdom, to take up his individual cross and follow where He has led the way. Hear His voice ringing down the ages from that day when He addressed His counsels to His beloved apostles.
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24.
This is no plea to take two pieces of wood and secure them in the form of a cross, or to hammer Into shape gold, silver, or other precious metals. These directives are not fulfilled by wearing a cross on a cord about the neck, or by fixing it on doors, walls, or any other part of our homes. This is an invitation to abandon forever the Babylonian, Greek, Roman, and heathen principle of making the service of self foremost no matter what the cost may be to others. It is a challenge to so utterly deny self, that service to the needs of others will be life’s first and greatest mission no matter how costly such a work may become.
Rightly understood and lived It will mean that,
when they smite you on one cheek, you will offer them the other also;
when they sue you at the law and take your coat, you will let them have your cloak as well;
when they compel you to go the first mile you will cheerfully go the second;
you will give to them that ask and will loan to those who would borrow;
you will love your enemies;.
will bless them that curse you;
do good to them that hate you;
and pray for them which despitefully use and persecute you. See Matthew 5:38-45.
To the unsanctified mind, the mind of the Greek, this is indeed foolishness. He can see no sense in it. But he can see much sense in the sacrifice of another on his behalf. Therefore, if the cross were no more than Christ giving His all for others, then it would not be foolishness to the Greek or anyone else. But when it calls on him to follow in the same pathway, to live as Jesus lived, to serve others no mailer how great the cost to himself, then that to the Greek is foolishness indeed. That is to lose all that would ever make life worth living. He can see himself becoming a slave, being exploited, used, humiliated, deprived, oppressed, despised, and finally discarded, and all this for nothing, while those to whom he gave himself In service, live fatly and comfortably, enjoying the best of living at his expense. Such a prospect makes this way only foolishness to the Greek.

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There are indeed heights and depths in the cross of Christ as distinct from the cross of Tammuz, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Greeks, and the heathen, which eternity itself can never exhaust. When it is truly seen, it constitutes the finest revelation of God’s character available. The Lord of glory and His righteousness will appear at their wondrous best while Satan and his unrighteousness stand forth at their very worst.
The cross does prove that God does not destroy as man does, for, should He do so in order to preserve His kingdom, then He would be serving Himself and His loyal subjects at terrible cost to others. That is not the way of the cross of Christ and it is not the way of God’s character. It is the principle of the kingdom of darkness.
But, while it proves this point, the cross Is vastly more of a message to God’s people than that, vitally important as that truth is.
Calvary challenges every individual in the universe to find and follow the way which received its most magnificent, explicit, and comprehensive exhibition on Golgotha’s hill. Look again, deeper and still deeper into its splendours. When the lessons to be learned at the foot of the cross are truly comprehended and daily and more deeply refreshed, there will walk this earth a transformed people through whom at last the finishing of the sin problem can be accomplished.
To the Greek, it was foolishness;
to the Jew it was a stumbling-block, But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
It is Christ,
the power of God,
and the wisdom of God. See I Corinthians 1:23, 24.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

God Is Not A Criminal

What has been studied so far of the revelation of God’s character as provided by Christ and the cross, is only the barest beginning of what may be learned of God through this means. Volumes could be written on Christ’s life as the unfolding of the Father’s character, and the temptation to write at much greater length on this aspect is very strong but must be curbed when consideration is given to the purpose and limited scope of one volume.
All that can be learned beyond what has already been presented is a deepening and expanding of it. There will be no necessity to abandon or revise the positions already laid down, or the great verities unfolded. There can be no mistaking the kind of Heavenly Father introduced to us by the Saviour in every act and word of His ministry. It is the picture of a God filled with love and compassion, Whose mercy endures forever, Who does not condemn or destroy but seeks only and ever to save. As a king, He is different from any earthly king. As a judge, there is no other like Him. No earthly ruler or empire provides us with an illustration of this great and wonderful God.
But this is not how we have viewed Him in the Old Testament. There we have seen Him as a stern God Who has maintained His authority by superiority of power and knowledge. We have seen Him as One Who spelled out His law as the symbol of His authority and called upon men to obey it as a test of their loyalty. Thus, even though unwittingly, we have seen Him as a self-centred God. We have failed entirely to see the provision of the law as a love gift to save us from destruction. Therefore, we have failed to see God as One in Whom there is no self-centredness.
Having seen the nature of the law in this light, it has been natural to conclude that when the plagues fell upon Egypt, the fire upon the Sodomites, the flood upon the world in Noah’s time, and every other such incident, God was demonstrating that He was not to be ignored, trifled with, or disobeyed. We looked upon God as personally upholding His position and authority. The utter destruction of the many or the few as the case may be, we have regarded as a just act on God’s part to terrify the remainder into obedience and thus into personal favour with God. Anyone who stops to think about it will quickly see that, unless he has been converted from it, this is the concept which he has held.
But it is not the view of God which Jesus held.
Nor is it the picture of God which Christ presented.
It was an altogether different God of Whom Jesus came to speak.
What then?

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Are we to hold two differing views of God, one as presented in the Old Testament and the other as proclaimed by Christ?
God forbids that. He sent His Son with the commission to reveal Him as He is and thus to sweep away the sad misconceptions developed prior to the appearance of Christ. Therefore, we cannot hold two conflicting views of God, justified by categorizing each different view as meet for different situations. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. Sin has not and cannot change Him. It could not change Him unless it should become part of Him. That it has never done and never will do. Lucifer, angels, and men never destroyed until sin entered. Sin changed them. Then, they became destroyers. When the religion of Christ truly takes hold of a man, he ceases to be a destroyer. It is as simple as that.
God has never sinned, therefore He has never destroyed.
If we cannot hold any other view of God than that presented by Christ, how are we to understand God’s actions in the Old Testament? The majority will object that the pictures in the Old Testament are so clear that it would be impossible to view God in any other than the traditional light.
This is exactly where the mistake has been made. There is more than one way of looking at God’s actions in the Old Testament. Viewed through the coloured lens of human preconceptions, it seems that there is only one way—the obvious way. But this is not so. Furthermore, when the implications of the standard view of God as held in the past are considered, then God is characterized in the worst possible light. The time has come therefore, to reconsider God’s ways in the O/d Testament. This time, His actions will be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary and which flowed from the life and lips of Christ.
A beginning might be made almost anywhere in the Old Testament wherein are recorded numerous incidents where God appeared as an actor in the human arena. The starting point chosen will be the story of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
The story is well known to Bible students. It has been told to us from our mother’s knee.
The mighty Pharaoh, in his day the greatest king in the world, stood defiantly athwart God’s purpose to release His people from Egyptian bondage. But, when a certain point of time was reached, the Lord called Moses and sent him with a message to the king. He was commanded to set the people free with the warning that should he refuse, plague after plague would descend upon the hapless Egyptians.
The king did refuse. The plagues came until the king’s power was broken and he was obliged to release the captives.
In studying this event, the average person sees God as the Almighty One Whose power is limitless. Backed by that power and the right to do so by virtue of His position as Creator and Ruler of the Universe, He rightly and justly orders Pharaoh to release the Israelites. But Pharaoh is defiant

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and is prepared to resist God’s power. This, it is generally accepted, leaves God with no option but to obtain by force what the king will not surrender willingly. People generally do not question either God’s justice or right in dealing with the monarch as they see Him doing.
The dreadful outpouring of destruction on Egypt and the king’s steady resistance of this pressure until the very end, is seen by most as being a contest of power between God and the king. They see it as physical power versus physical power. They do not doubt that God will win for He has the greater power, and, in the end, after a protracted struggle, He does.
In viewing this as a contest between two great powers, people see the plagues as direct instruments wielded in the hand of God against the hapless Egyptians. They see the flies, the lice, the frogs, the hail, the murrain, the darkness, the boils, etc., as God’s direct work. These things were sent upon the Egyptians, it is believed, because God decided that this was the way they should be humbled. Then, having decided it, the Lord specifically gathered these forces and directed them against His enemies.
Nor is this all. Because the Lord desired to really show the nations of the world that He was not One to be trifled with, He raised up a Pharaoh who was unusually tough, defiant, powerful, and resilient. Such a king, because he would fight doggedly to the very end, provided God with the opportunity to manifest how great He was, whereas a weaker king would have given in before the Lord had the chance to demonstrate the full range of His judgmental powers.
The same situation exists in the world of human contest and combat. A world champion boxer will not enter the ring with a novice or amateur. The man whom he fights must also be of championship class so that the champion can demonstrate his skill, strength, and endurance. If his opponent was so inexperienced and weak as to go down with the first blow, then the champion would be deprived of the opportunity to display the full extent of his skill and power.
Let the reader pause here and carefully consider the picture of the Egyptian episode as presented above. Such a check will certify that this is the way in which most people view God’s behaviour there. Furthermore, when the subject is brought up for further study, the average person will be surprised that it should, for he feels that the whole matter is settled, and no other verdict is possible.
That response is an instant revelation that he has simply accepted this view of God as being correct. To him that is unquestionably, just what the Scriptures say.
There is no denying that when interpreted in the usually accepted way, that is what the Scriptures can be understood to say. For instance, consider such verses as the following:
“And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

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“Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.
“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
“But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring forth Mine armies, and My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
“And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth Mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:1-5.
“And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up. for to shew in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth.” Exodus 9:16.
“For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Romans 9:17.
“The Lord would give the Egyptians an opportunity to see how vain was the wisdom of their mighty men, how feeble the power of their gods, when opposed to the commands of Jehovah. He would punish the people of Egypt for their idolatry, and silence their boasting of the blessings received from their senseless deities. God would glorify His own name, that other nations might hear of His power and tremble at His mighty acts, and that His people might be led to turn from their idolatry and render Him pure worship.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 263.
“Still the heart of Pharaoh grew harder. And now the Lord sent a message to him, declaring, ‘I will at this time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth . . . And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power.’ Not that God had given him an existence for this purpose; but His providence had overruled events to place him upon the throne at the very time appointed for Israel’s deliverance. Though this haughty tyrant had by his crimes forfeited the mercy of God, yet his life had been preserved that through his stubbornness the Lord might manifest His wonders in the land of Egypt. The disposing of events is of God’s providence. He could have placed upon the throne a more merciful king, who would not have dared to withstand the mighty manifestations of divine power. But in that case the Lord’s purposes would not have been accomplished. His people were permitted to experience the grinding cruelty of the Egyptians, that they might not be deceived concerning the debasing influence of idolatry. In His dealing with Pharaoh, the Lord manifested His hatred of idolatry, and His determination to punish cruelty and oppression.” ibid., 267, 268.
These are the references and statements to which people point as support for their view that God wielded the powers of force in His own

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almighty hands to compel Pharaoh to release the Israelites. To human minds trained for so long to think of God as doing things man’s way, the Scriptures provide weighty support to such arguments and views. The deeper and correct message of these writings totally escapes those whose interpretations of God’s Word are guided by this concept. It is hoped that what follows will correct such sad misconceptions of our Wonderful Father.
That which should alert every mind to the erroneous nature of such conclusions, is the extremely bad light into which God is placed by them. Such teachings, no matter how well meaning the teacher may be, nor how deeply sincere his professions of love for God, are declaring that the ways of God and of criminal organizations are identical.
Note the following comparison.
The agents of a large criminal organization come to a certain business man from whom they wish to obtain regular payments. The services they offer are “protection”
The businessman courageously refuses to make these “contributions” whereupon the syndicate resorts to a tried and proven method of obtaining their objective. They possess powers of force in the form of destructive weapons. These they now wield, though they do not, at first, go all the way. They begin by smashing his plate glass store windows and emptying the displays into the gutter.
This first blow is relatively mild, but as the owner continues to refuse, they hit him harder and harder until he is literally pounded into submission.
No decent citizen, no Christian, can approve of these tactics. All would fear to be subjected to them, yet, oddly enough, they accept it as perfectly right and just in God, for that is exactly how they regard His behaviour in Egypt.
Here is how the Almighty is understood to have solved the Egyptian problem. God desired the release of His people. He came to Pharaoh and demanded this, but the courageous king refused to obey. In God’s hands were mighty weapons of destruction and with these, He struck the Egyptian monarch a deadly blow. He did not unleash all He could have, so as to give opportunity for compliance with His demands.
When this was not forthcoming, God struck Egypt again and again until king and people were pounded into submission. Thus the nation did under compulsion what it would not do any other way.
Anyone who candidly thinks about the standard view of the Egyptian plagues will recognize that this is a correct analysis of how God is seen as behaving.
Immediately, it is evident that this places God in the same class as the crime syndicate. It means that the methods used by the world’s leading criminals to secure their ends are those used by God.
Once this realization comes, the question of how we shall relate to it arises. There should be a great awakening to the need of obtaining a reversed and corrected view of God’s activities in Egypt.

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But this is seldom so. Marvellous are the powers of the human mind to rationalize. As a sample of this I cite a conversation held with a highly educated person who mentioned that God does personally raise His righteous hand in which are held weapons of destruction, to destroy the disobedient. Specifically, the conversation turned to ancient Egypt.
He agreed that his view of the situation was that God desired and demanded of Pharaoh the release of His people.
The king refused.
God then struck a first blow to show that He was not speaking idly.
The king was not intimidated.
Therefore God struck blow after blow until Egypt was pounded into submission.
That is, God achieved His purpose by the direct use of force when all else had failed.
My friend immediately saw, with great clarity, that criminal organizations use the same methods.
They desire and demand.
The person involved refuses.
They strike the first blow to demonstrate that they mean their threats.
The subject continues to resist.
Therefore, they hit him again and again until he is forced to concede.
That is, they achieve by force that which they otherwise could never gain.
I was most encouraged to see how clearly this man recognized the nature of his beliefs about God and that he could see that the syndicate operated in the same way as he understood God did. I naturally expected him to admit that he had never quite realized this before and that he was startled to see the real implications of his belief.
Instead, I was given a demonstration of the power of the human mind to rationalize.
Unhesitatingly he said, “Of course God uses the same methods as criminals. What makes the difference is God’s intention. He does it with a good intention for the benefit of others. The criminal does it all for self.”
“In that case.” I replied, “you are saying that the end justifies the means used!”
He stoutly denied this, though the fact was inescapable that his argument was exactly that. Here it is in simple terms.
The means used by the criminal were unjustified because the end was selfish. The same means used by God were justified because the end was unselfish.
Once this line of reasoning has become established, any crime can be justified. During the Dark Ages millions of fine people were martyred on the basis of this rationale.
The end can never justify the means.

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Let every true child of God forever reject such a philosophy. There is no place for it in the ways, character, and government of God’s church. God has never worked like this and never will.
All His ways are ways of righteousness and peace.
Any belief that God and the criminal use the same methods must be forever denied by the testimony of God Himself, when He said, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8.
Do we believe God? Shall we hold to a plain, “Thus saith the Lord”?
Assuredly!
Then we must deny the long-held traditional view of God’s behaviour in Egypt because it makes God’s ways to be the ways of wicked men.
There is no issue in regard to God’s intentions versus the intentions of criminals. With few exceptions, every person would admit that God intends only good, while the motivation of wicked men is purely selfish and cruel. There is no question about this so much so that this book is not even involved with discussing or proving that the intentions of God and man are different. They are different. This we accept as a fact.
What this book is devoted to proving is that the methods of God and of men are different. It aims to develop the unshakable conviction that God’s words in Isaiah 55:8, 9, mean exactly what they say. It will demonstrate that the methods used by God when dealing with those who oppose Him are not different from man’s ways in only some respects: they are totally different. No resemblance between them can be found.
God is not a God of force. This is a weapon He never uses.
“God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.” The Desire of Ages, 759.
“The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority.” ibid., 22.
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.
“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.” The Desire of Ages, 466.

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“God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart.” The Mount of Blessing, 77.
The message of these statements is clear. The use of compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. Herein lies at least one great distinction between the way of God and the ways of Satan and men. The only course they know by which to build their kingdoms and achieve their ends is by employing force. If God builds His kingdom by using compelling power, as so many believe, then His and man’s ways are the same. But they are not. Man rules by compulsion. God does not employ this means at all. Therefore, the standard view of what God did in Egypt is a false one, needing to be replaced by another.
While it is sound Scriptural truth that God did not use force to obtain the release of the Israelites, or other objectives at any time in history, it cannot be concluded that He was neither present nor active in the Egyptian situation. He certainly was there, working with great intensity and purpose, but along very different lines from those generally supposed.
An entirely new and correct understanding is now needed of the role played by God that will harmonize with the following principles:
God must be seen as doing only that which Christ lived and taught.
He must not be seen relating to this problem as sinful man would relate to it, e.g., by using force to solve it.
Everything done must be in righteousness. As the law is the definition and limitation of righteousness, and, as God’s character is the transcript of the law, then all that God did must be within those principles. As the law says “Thou shalt not kill,” then God did not destroy or kill in the land of Egypt.
Any teaching or view which sees God as operating other than within these limits is erroneous, and must be rejected as such. It is not the teaching of Christ and is therefore of the devil.
The evidences argued here call for a re-study of the Egyptian incident. The long-closed case must be re-opened and a new verdict obtained—one which will indeed reveal God as He is— 
The Lord our righteousness.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Rods And Serpents

This chapter will be devoted to the study of what really happened in Egypt. Of necessity, it will be a radical departure from the traditionally accepted concept. But it will be in harmony with the life and teachings of Christ, the principles of God’s character, and God’s eternal upholding of His sacred law.
By sending Moses and Aaron to enact the parable of the rods and the serpents, God detailed before Pharaoh exactly what was about to transpire. The Lord would have spelt it out in words, but the monarch’s mind was so darkened by sin that it was necessary to tell it in the clearest possible way—in pictorial form.
Millions of other darkened minds since, have failed to read correctly the message God sent to the king that day. It has been almost universally read as the ultimatum of an all-powerful executioner, who had come to personally administer His judgments.
But, “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.” The Great Controversy, 36.
Correctly read, this was the message delivered to the haughty monarch. God had ever looked with saving love upon the land of Egypt. It was not alone for the salvation of Israel that Joseph had been kidnapped to the southern kingdom. It was that Egypt might also hear the tender voice of mercy.
Joseph was a type of Christ. Both were betrayed by their brethren, sold for thirty pieces of silver, had no record of sin written in the Bible against them, and, finally, were the saviours of their own nation.
‘The sin of the Egyptians was that they had refused the light which God had so graciously sent to them through Joseph.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1098.
Christ did not come to save Israel alone, but the whole world. Therefore, as a true type of Christ, Joseph’s mission was to bring salvation to the world, not just to his own family.
In the mysterious dreams given by God to the king and in the marvellous interpretations given by Joseph, the Egyptian ruler recognized the voice and power of God and obeyed the directions of the King of kings.
That obedience resulted in Egypt not only being saved from starvation, but also in her becoming the wealthiest nation on the face of the globe. They prospered beyond imagination.

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Such prosperity is the natural outworking of obedience to the laws of God’s kingdom. Any study of the church’s history will show that whenever the people of God obeyed Him, they were wonderfully blessed with prosperity in health, knowledge, power, and wealth. This is the outworking of following out the law of self-sacrificing service, the principle of receiving so that more can be given.
The continuing and despairing tragedy of mankind is the swift forgetfulness of the principles of righteousness which had elevated them in every way. Initially, the basis of their security lay in their complete faith in God. It was a faith so deep and firm that it enabled them to give all they had to meet the need of the moment, and know that God would provide for tomorrow.
No better illustration of this faith can be found than the widow of Sarepta. When Elijah came to her, she had only enough flour and oil to make a last cake for her son and herself. Beyond that, death was the only prospect. When the need of God’s cause was presented before her—and how essential to that cause the life of Elijah was—she unhesitatingly gave all the food to him, with simple confidence in the promise that her own need would be supplied.
This kind of faith is the basis of that self-sacrificing love which brings great prosperity to God’s people. But, as material possessions accumulate, little by little they displace faith in God as the basis of security. It is always so much easier to believe in money in the bank, a good solid house, and a prosperous farm or business which you can see, than in a distant God whom you cannot see.
It is not that faith has been lost. It has simply been transferred from the God of the gifts to the gifts from God. This is not an instantaneous thing. It is a slow metamorphosis, so gradual as to be imperceptible except to those on guard against it. But, in direct proportion to its development, is an increasing desire to amass wealth to strengthen this material security base, and the corresponding drying up of the spirit of self-sacrifice.
Increasingly, the gifts of God are devoted to selfish pleasure, until selfishness becomes the dominating force in the life. The person or movement which began so richly in God’s service, comes to deny the principles of righteousness. He, or it, as the years pass, will go on from this point to develop into the full stature of the man of sin. Step by step they thereby remove themselves from the protecting circle of God’s love until they stand fully exposed to Satan’s malice. So it was with the Egyptians.
While God was working only for their salvation, Satan masterminded a plot for their total destruction. He knew he could touch neither them nor the Israelites while they remained obedient to God.
So he worked with unflagging diligence to turn the eyes of Egypt to their marvellous, God-given prosperity, diverting their attention from the God who had blessed them to the blessing received from God. As usual, he

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was successful. Egypt became proud, self-confident, self-serving, and oppressive. To the people of God, the Israelites. through whom all the blessings had come, they now became taskmasters.
Thus Satan engineered a situation wherein the Israelites were not able to serve God fully except at the direct cost of their lives. The daily sacrificial system ceased, the Sabbath was hardly kept, if at all, and the people became degraded in sin.
This was just as Satan wanted it for he knew that once he had led Egypt into the full practice of self-service and therefore of utter rejection of God, they would move outside the circle of God’s mercy and would be in his destructive power.
As generation after generation of Egyptians descended more deeply into the mire of abandoned iniquity, Satan saw the day drawing nearer when there would be none of God’s protection left. He exulted in the increasing depravity of the Israelites, for this meant they had less and less of God’s protection also
Plotting every move with calculated care, he proposed to involve the land of Egypt in a destructive cataclysm of such proportions as to exterminate every Israelite, thus certifying that the Redeemer would never be born. If this necessitated obliterating every Egyptian as well, Satan would not hesitate.
It must be emphasized that, as the day of Egypt’s doom approached, God was not voluntarily withdrawing His protective presence from them. They were taking themselves outside it. They were making it impossible for God to remain.
Meanwhile Satan was marshalling destructive forces in an attack ring around the whole nation. All it needed now was for the Egyptians to make the final dismissal of God from His position as Protector, for the plagues to begin.
At this point, a quick review of the original creation and the intrusion of sin will clarify the situation which had developed.
As an act of infinite, inexpressible love, God purposed to give life to the human family. The equally infinite wisdom of God saw that life without a home in which to live would be misery, for no one could enjoy being perpetually suspended in super-cold, utterly dark space.
Thus wisdom and love gave birth to this beautiful planet. But it was not yet enough. No such home could be fully effective without the necessary powers of sun, gravity, electricity, and magnetism outside of man, and the wonderful powers inside man.
These are God’s mighty powers which He gave to His beloved children and they must be distinguished from the powers which are in Him as a Person.
But there is, by nature, a problem with these powers. While given only for blessing, they have in them the potential for destruction. To remove that possibility is to take away the power itself, so that then, was no solution.

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To solve the problem, God gave man the love gift of the law. While they related themselves to, and used those powers according to law, they lived in perfect safety, but the moment they cast aside the law as their saviour, those mighty powers God had put into nature were turned into a tenor of destruction.
It would be well if every person on the earth were to know that all nature, from the instant Adam and Eve rejected the law as their saviour, is deranged and poised to collapse into all-obliterating devastation.
The reason it has not done so is because “The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, ‘Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man’s place. He shall have another chance.’ ” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1085.
When man rejected the law as his saviour, then God gave Himself to be the Saviour. Ever since the fall in Eden, Christ by His personal power has been holding under control that fearsome wrath all around us.
Should sinful, defiant, desperate men during any period of history, make a total rejection of that Saviour, then they dismiss Christ from His post, His restraining power is removed, and the flood of death pours upon the unprotected. God, in it all, has gone the second mile and beyond. It is sinful man who finally leaves Him with nothing more that He can do.
If everyone upon this earth understood and believed the truth of these words, with what diligence would they return to God and watch with care that they remained under His pavilion of protection.
But the Egyptians neither understood nor believed this. They were unthankful, self-sufficient, self centred, self-reliant, and self-serving. They deemed they had no need of God and were even superior to Him. They had advanced from one depth of wickedness to even greater, and had come to the point of making the final dismissal of Christ from their world.
It was now that Moses and Aaron appeared with the rods. This was God’s last love message to the haughty king. It was a futile attempt to explain to him the principles laid out above. The message was given in the simplest possible form, pictorially, in an acted parable.
The symbols God used were Moses, the rods, and the serpents.
Moses was the representative and symbol of God. He portrayed before the monarch, God’s role in the coming time of terrible trouble. This is certified in God’s own words. “And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” Exodus 7:1.
Moses had not become God. By no means could this be true. He was still Moses, but he portrayed God’s role to Pharaoh. He demonstrated God’s behaviour and appealed to the rebel to recognize and accept the petition of love being presented to him.

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The rod in the hand of Aaron who held it on Moses’ behalf, was the symbol of the powers God had given to mankind for his blessing, which, because of sin, were poised to destroy, but which, because of Christ’s interposition, still remained in God’s hands and under His control. It is directly referred to as the “rod of power” which had been given him. See Patriarchs and Prophets, 396.
The importance of distinguishing between the powers which God had given to man and the powers of God Himself, was mentioned earlier. The distinction is well illustrated by this parable. Allowing the rod to symbolize the powers given by God to man, it is not difficult to distinguish between that and the powers in Aaron. The rod of power could be separated from him and pass out of his control and direction, but not so the powers within him. While he lived, they were inseparable from him.
So with God. The mighty powers given to mankind can and have passed out of His control, but the powers within Himself can never be separated from Him. This distinction must be clearly seen for the Egyptian incident to be correctly evaluated.
Finally, there was the serpent into which the rod turned. No one will have any difficulty in recognizing the serpent as a symbol of the destroyer.
The symbolism established, we return to the story.
“And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
“Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
“For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
“And He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.” Exodus 7:10-13.
As the brothers stood before the king, the rod was held firmly in Aaron’s hand and was under his personal control. While that rod remained thus, it never became a serpent. Only when it passed out of his hands and control did it change and that instantly so. As long as this situation remained, it continued to be a serpent, but the moment it returned to his hand it again became a rod. 1
With what simple and beautiful clarity, the Lord sought to communicate to Pharaoh the vital truth that at no time whatsoever, while the powers of nature are still in God’s hands and under His control, can they be agents of destruction. Only when out of His hands and control can they be such.
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1It is clear from the Scriptures that Aaron held, threw down, and recovered the rod as they stood before Pharaoh. Again it was he who stretched forth the rod over the Nile when it turned to blood, over the land when the frogs appeared, and so on. However, Aaron filled the office only of spokesman for Moses so in reality, it was Moses who did it. Aaron merely went through the motions for him. For this reason, we will refer to Moses rod rather than to Aaron’s in the following pages.

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This truth is not limited to those days or to that particular situation. The Lord does not change. Ever since man fell, till today and beyond to the final annihilation at the end of the thousand years, the truth revealed in the rods and the serpents is the same. Never while the powers of man and nature are in God’s hands and control, can they be destroyers. That is impossible.
This is beautifully illustrated in the experience of Elijah at Horeb. He had fled from Jezebel in fear and discouragement to take refuge in a cave.
“And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
“And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
“And He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
“And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice.
“And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” I Kings 19:9-12.
Had God been in the wind, that is, had those forces been in His hands and under His control, no storm would have been possible. There would have been only peace and blessing.
Likewise the earthquake and fire were manifestations of great natural forces turned into agencies of destruction, but they were not such under God’s control and direction, for He was not in the earthquake or the fire. Had He been in the mighty powers unleashed, there would have been an altogether different result. Firm ground would have been beneath Elijah instead of the earth rolling like the sea.
The truth that so long as the powers of nature are in God’s hands and under His control, they can never break into any form of destruction, needs to become forever settled in the minds of every child of God.
This is the message with which God sought to convict and convert the heart of the king of Egypt. As Moses and Aaron stood there in his presence, with the rod firmly held in their hands under their direct and complete control, they portrayed to the wicked ruler a picture of things as they then stood. This picture showed that, despite the many decades during which Egypt had sunk into deeper iniquity, the mighty powers of nature were still under God’s control and direction.

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RODS AND SERPENTS
(PICTURE)
The rod never became a serpent 
until it passed out of Moses’ hand and control.

But the time had come when, unless immediate steps were taken in repentance and obedience, the powers of nature would pass out of God’s hands and from His direct and complete control. Instantly, they would then become fearful scourges of destruction, even as the rod released from Aaron’s hand turned into a serpent. What those powers did to Egypt while out of God’s hands and control, were not God’s work or responsibility. He had exhausted every possible means to save them from coming to this point including warnings of such clarity as could not be misinterpreted.
The king’s response revealed the extent to which self-sufficiency had become his. He simply called in his magicians who threw down their rods. Satan, through witchcraft, made it appear that they were also turned into serpents.
“The magicians did not really cause their rods to become serpents; but by magic, aided by the great deceiver, they were able to produce this appearance. It was beyond the power of Satan to change the rods to living serpents. The prince of evil, though possessing all the wisdom and might of an angel fallen, has not power to create, or to give life; this is the prerogative of God alone. But all that was in Satan’s power to do, he did;

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he produced a counterfeit. To human sight the rods were changed to serpents. Such they were believed to be by Pharaoh and his court. There was nothing in their appearance to distinguish them from the serpent produced by Moses. Though the Lord caused the real serpent to swallow up the spurious ones, yet even this was regarded by Pharaoh, not as a work of God’s power, but as the result of a kind of magic superior to that of his servants.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 264.
This produced a situation where the serpent formed from the rod separated from the direction and control of God’s servants, was faced with quite a number of what appeared to be real serpents.
Here was Satan’s and, likewise, Pharaoh’s counter to God’s appeals. Just as God was saying something by producing that one serpent from the rod, so the apparent turning of many rods into serpents constituted a counter-message from the powers of darkness. Pharaoh may not have fully understood what he was saying, but the devil who inspired and motivated him certainly did. Instead of humbly accepting the warning which the Lord gave them, they answered by saying that they were not concerned if the Lord did lay down the. control of those mighty powers for they had more than sufficient forces to contain those plagues. Did not the king have multiplied serpents? What hope did one have against the many? So, let the Lord release His control. Pharaoh would not be intimidated into freeing his profitable slaves.
Thus the monarch displayed a terrible and dangerous ignorance of the extent and magnitude of the powers which had, to this point, been held under control by a merciful and loving God. Knowing nothing of the might of those powers, he was likewise ignorant of the strength of the God Who held them in check. Therefore, he had no fear, no realization of the awful danger he was in; no sense of need of God, and no trust in Him.
This is a revelation of self-sufficiency at its very worst. It had been developing in the king and his kingdom for a very long time until it had reached this state of maturity. Having rejected any sense of need of God, the king and his subjects were in effect, and in fact, rejecting all connection with, and dependence upon Him.
By this means they cut themselves off from God, placing Him in a position from where He could no longer hold the powers connected with the land of Egypt in His hands and under His control. While those forces were so held, they were only a blessing and benefit to the nation, but, when no longer in God’s charge, they could only turn into ravages of destruction.
Filled with an altogether false and grossly exaggerated view of his own powers, and a terribly deficient concept of the magnitude of the powers around him, the king was confident that he could easily handle anything God might release. The sight of his numerous serpents advancing against one, reinforced that conviction.

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It was not possible for the king to have a more misleading or dangerous self-assurance. His puny power could never withstand the onrush of the mighty forces of nature out of God’s hands, direction, and control. Such ignorant and foolish thinking in the face of this loving appeal from God, could only serve to separate him entirely from God and to place himself outside the circle of God’s protection.
Even though the king rejected God’s call, God did not abandon him to his errors but continued to seek to save him. To accomplish this the Lord demonstrated the futility of the king’s forces to contain the powers symbolized by the one serpent. Though to all appearances hopelessly outnumbered, the one serpent busily swallowed the rest. This was a message saying to the king, if he could only see it, that no mailer how great an effort he might put forth to hold in check and redirect the forces released against him, he would be unable to do it. He and his people would be consumed while the mighty powers remained as undiminished as if they had not been touched at all.
This was the message brought to him through the rods and the serpents. It was a message of love designed to soften and save.
Had the great ruler perceived both the message and the spirit of infinite love in which it was given, he would have quickly confessed his spirit of rebellion, and his utter helplessness to change his heart to one of obedience to God. Then, he would have pleaded with Moses to show him the way of salvation so that he could obey God and release the Israelites from slavery.
Instead, the king resisted the loving appeals of the Holy Spirit, Who was there to bring home God’s message with convicting power. By so doing, he took the final step, whereby he placed himself and his nation outside the limits of God’s protection. Having cast aside God’s law as his saviour, he now cast aside Christ, the Saviour, too.
There was no more God could do. The control of those assembled forces of destruction passed out of His hands and the plagues began. Yet, even so, God’s love for Egypt and His reluctance to see the people suffer was so great, that He only released His grip as far as He was compelled to. He could have taken Himself completely away and left the land to be swamped with all the plagues at once, but instead He went back only one step at a time, each move being forced upon Him by Pharaoh’s increasing stubbornness. Each successive withdrawal released from His hands another powerful element of nature to scourge the Egyptians. The Lord was enabled to leave them only one step at a time, because the nation was not as fully hardened against God as Pharaoh.
While Israel was the primary target of Satan’s wrath, the plagues did not consume them for the simple reason that, even though they were far from fully righteous, there were at least a goodly number among them who loved and served God the best they could under those circumstances, They had not cast aside either the law or Christ. Consequently Christ, Who will

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always remain Protector even of sinful, ungrateful men as long as possible, was able to shield the house of Israel from the successive pestilences.
In the acted parable of the rods and the serpents, God demonstrated His role in the coming catastrophies. If the king saw the truth of it, he certainly neither believed nor heeded it. His scorn and unbelief did not change the certainty that the mighty forces of sin-deranged nature would punish him and his people. Nor did his insulting attitude provoke God into taking those forces into His hands and using them as a personally directed scourge against the Egyptians.
That which devastated them were those forces out of the hands and control of God. Furthermore, they were taken from His grasp, not because He had chosen to release them, but because the Egyptians themselves had displaced Him from His position as their Protector.
Thus the plagues were not what God did to the Egyptians. They were altogether what they did to themselves.
So it will ever be.
God never changes. He does not do one thing to the sin-cursed Egyptians and something different to like rejecters of His mercy in another age or clime. When, at any time or place, nature in a state of implacable and merciless wrath, savages human life and lands, it is because those powers have passed out of God’s hands and control—never because they are instruments in His hands to destroy.
Therefore, whenever we are witness to the desolating march of plague, fire, earthquake, tempest, or pestilence across the land and are tempted to think God is at work, let us remember the message of the rods and the serpents. Then we will know the real truth of what is happening.

Why Not Before

To believe that God forcibly subdued the Egyptians in order to effect the release of His people, is to level, by implication, a terrible indictment against the Lord. It is to charge Him with deliberately and callously leaving the Jews to suffer for centuries when they could have been released long before they were.
He who in the possession of omnipotent power, uses it as the means of executing his will, can do what he wishes when he chooses. If this is God’s way as so many suppose, then every day that the Israelites continued in servitude, was because He chose not to release them. For centuries, they were ground down in brutal bondage, all the misery of which would have to be accounted to God for failing to exert His mighty power at any chosen time to set them free. God could not be a God of love and at the same time behave in this fashion.
The truth is, God has committed Himself never to solve problems by the use of force. Therefore, the timing for the Israelites’ release would be determined, not by God’s own personal choice, but by the effects of the

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Egyptians’ deepening apostasy. This brought about a separation from God which released destructive powers upon them until they had destroyed their capacity to hold their slaves. Then and only then, could the Israelites go free. When these principles are understood, no problem will be seen in their being left in servitude for so long.
God will not deviate from His ways for He knows that the use of force is self-defeating. Had it been His principle to rule by force, then He would have stamped rebellion out of existence as soon as it manifested itself initially. There would have been no long period of sin in this world.
But sin must be allowed to run its course until it ultimately destroys itself and all who cling to it. Then the Lord will be free to make the new heavens and the new earth with no danger of their defilement.

Christ and the Scourge

The same message which God sought to convey to the stubborn Egyptian ruler, Christ endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the traders in the temple when He cleansed it for the first time. Some study has already been given to this event in chapter fifteen, but we deferred the analysis now to be given until Moses’ rod had firstly been considered.
The declaration given by Christ when He held the scourge, is the exact counterpart in the New Testament of what Moses did in the Old when he held the rod in his hands. The symbolism is identical.
As has already been established, the rod Moses held symbolized God’s powers in nature still under His control and direction. As Moses gripped the rod, so Christ held the scourge, which likewise symbolized God’s powers in nature. Just as Moses’ rod could not, and did not, turn into a serpent while it remained in his hands, so the scourge could not and did not strike a single person while it was in Christ’s control.
The story can be as easily misinterpreted as was the Egyptian episode. Most would argue that, while it is true that Christ did not actually strike the offenders in the temple, He most certainly threatened to and would have done so if they had resisted Him. To adopt this view is to regard the character of Christ as being identical with that of men, while missing the message which the Saviour desired to convey.
He had come upon them while they were practising serious iniquity. This could only serve to separate them from the protection of God so that they would be left exposed to the terribly destructive forces surrounding them. Christ desired to save them from this, so He portrayed before them the situation which was developing. He wished them to understand that the usually mild and beneficient forces of nature, were being transformed into a punishing scourge. That they had not yet been smitten by this whip was due alone to the fact that Christ still held it under His control and would continue to do so until the period of their probation ended.
For them, that was still several years away. During the ensuing interval

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of time, God’s presence was progressively withdrawn from the land. Christ announced His eternal departure from the temple in the sad words, “Your house is left unto you desolate,” Matthew 23:38. This was just before His final sufferings and death. In A.D. 34, probation closed on the nation as a whole in accordance with the prophecy of Daniel 9, but the retribution still tarried, Christ still held the scourge in His hands, until in A.D. 70, He laid it down and the full fury of enraged nature in the form of the Roman soldiery burst upon the shelterless, unprotected heads of the Jews.
In the temple, Christ had as vividly warned them of their impending fate as Moses had warned the Egyptians of theirs. But, just as the ancient oppressors of Israel would pay no heed to God’s entreaties, neither would the Jews. This being their choice, there was nothing further the Lord could do to save either. The rod became a serpent, and the scourge left the control of Christ.
When the warning was given to each in turn, it was not too late to repent. This above all else the Lord desired them to do. Therefore, the demonstrations were given in infinite love and mercy. In no sense of the word, were they the expression of a spirit of vindictive anger and revenge. No matter how far they had gone, or how long they had persisted in rebellion, the Lord was still ready and anxious to save them. That they were not saved was entirely their own fault.
Some may argue that Christ did overturn the tables and scatter their money thereby establishing the fact, as they see it, that He would destroy their possessions. But, again, He was only giving them an object lesson of the real truth that all the earthly treasure in which they were putting their trust would be no support to them in the hour of trouble. Instead, it would be swept away, even as the coins were scattered in hopeless confusion across the pavement.
Rightly considered, Jesus Christ did exactly in the temple what He and His Father had done in the land of Egypt. He came to both with the offer of forgiveness, protection, and life. He showed each of them the terrible consequences of their continuing in their present course, in the hope that the realization of their need would prompt them to reach out for God’s solution to it.
In both of these situations, God and Christ were living out the maxim of their lives, in contrast to that of the devil who is the destroyer. Christ expressed the truth of this in these words:
“The thief cometh not,
but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life,
amid that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

His sad complaint is:
“And ye will not come to Me,
that ye might have life.” John 5:40.

240

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The Upraised Rod

By using the parable of the rod and the serpent, God communicated to Egypt’s proud ruler exactly how He would be acting in the coming devastations of the land. Thus He assured Pharaoh that the impending plagues would be neither by His decree nor by His administration. Their advent would be occasioned by His withdrawal from the scene, not His intrusion into it.
The message was clearly given, and the scourges followed inevitably because the warning went unheeded. Before each began, however, God instructed Moses, as His direct agent and representative, to perform an act with the same rod. Before the river turned to blood, Moses was directed to strike the water; before the frogs covered the land, Moses was to hold the upraised rod over the waters of Egypt, and so on, through each succeeding calamity. These actions could easily be interpreted to mean that God did very differently from what He said He would do, and usually they are interpreted that way.
In the initial demonstration, the rod was separated from Moses’ hand and control, indicating that the powers would descend on the hapless heads of the Egyptians because God no longer had command of them. But before each plague came, Moses held the rod firmly in his hands and control while he touched or indicated with it, the place where the trouble would come. This made it appear that God decided just where each should strike, what its nature would be, and then personally directed the blow. Here, for instance, is the inspired description of the coming of the first plague.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s head is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
“Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.
“And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.
“Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord:
behold, I will smite with the rod that is in Mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
“And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that

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they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
“And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
“And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
“And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.
“And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.
“And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
“And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.” Exodus 7:14-25.
There is a sharp contrast between the way the rod is used at this time and how it was handled in the king’s court when it turned into a serpent. Whereas on the former occasion it was separated from Aaron’s hand and control, here it remained firmly in his grasp, and, while under his control and direction, it descended upon the water. The moment the water was smitten, it turned into blood.
Without question, God was again communicating a message to Egypt’s leader, otherwise the whole drama would never have been deliberately enacted in his presence. God determined that he should be eye-witness to it. The matter is on record in the Scriptures as a message to us as well. God expects that we shall rightly understand what He was doing there and why.
That message may be interpreted in at least two different ways. There is the way common to the human mind which is so long accustomed to viewing God’s behaviour as being the same as man s.
There is also the interpretation seen by those who have become trained in correct principles of biblical research, and who measure all things by the witness of the life and teachings of Christ and the cross.
According to the former, God is seen carefully communicating to Pharaoh that he has incurred the wrath of an offended God, Who would therefore smite him with terrible consequences for his rebellion. So that this vital point would not be missed, the Lord had Moses strike the water which instantly turned to blood thereby declaring that, as Moses had smitten the water with a rod in his hands and under his control, so the Lord would smite Pharaoh with powers both in His hands and under His control.
This is how the average person reads the message of this demonstration. In doing so, it is felt that he is accepting the only possible explanation. He is fully convinced that no other interpretation exists.

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But a few moments consideration will show that a second explanation must exist and needs to be found. Here are some of the questions which need to be asked.
Does God announce on one day what He will do and then on the next do the very opposite? That is, does He on the first day declare that only when the powers of nature pass out of His control do they become destroyers, and then on the second proceed to take those powers and use them as instruments of devastation?
Is that consistency?
Is that the kind of God we serve?
Most certainly not!
When God declares what He will do, He most assuredly does what and as He said He will do it. Upon that we can rely with unshakable and unquestioning confidence.
Therefore, when God had Moses smite the water with the rod firmly held in his hands He was neither saying nor doing anything different that day, from what He had announced the previous day. Furthermore, He expects us to understand this. At first it may be difficult, but with earnest prayer and intense study, the problem will be resolved and perfect harmony will result.
Firstly, let reference again be made to the earlier discussion on the Bible being its own interpreter in which it was clearly shown how such expressions as “God sent fiery serpents,” “God sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city,” and “God slew Saul,” are to be understood.
By careful comparison of Scripture with Scripture, determined that the Bible should be its own dictionary and interpreter, it was learned that the Lord expects us to understand such pronouncements as meaning that He had been obliged to withdraw His protection and leave the sinner to his fate. Admittedly, this is the opposite meaning from what it would be if men were using those words to describe their activities. But, when the Lord indicates that this is how they are to be understood, then truth can be known only if His directions are followed unerringly.
The expression, . . the Lord had smitten the river,” is another such statement and must be understood in the same way, for the Bible is consistent in its use of language. Only confusion would result if certain word combinations were to be understood to convey one idea in one place and something different in another.
Unless the reader is thoroughly confirmed in the principle of the Bible being its own interpreter and has trained his mind accordingly, it is recommended that a thorough restudy of chapter twelve be undertaken at this point.
In that chapter, careful consideration was given as to how the words of Matthew 22:7 were to be understood. This verse reads:

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“But when the King [God] heard thereof, He [God] was wroth:
and He [God] sent forth His armies [the Romans], and destroyed those
murderers [the Jews], and burned up their city [Jerusalem].”
The matching with this verse of an inspired explanation of its meaning, plainly reveals how God expects it to be understood. That explanation is found in The Great Controversy, 35, 36.
“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 destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his control”
God’s own explanation of what He meant by Matthew 22:7, is opposite from what the human would expect of those words. It is made clear that the Lord was not present there, but that He had been obliged to depart, leaving them in the unmerciful hands of Satan and the Romans. In other words, the rod of power had passed out of God’s hands, direction, and control and had become a serpent of destruction. That is the way the Lord directs us to understand this Scripture.
Not only does He provide the explanation of this Scripture, but He supplies the key to how all such statements in Holy Writ are to be understood. If this is how God expresses Himself, then every time He uses such expressions, we can know that they are to be understood in the same way. It cannot be otherwise for God is utterly consistent. His use of words does not convey one idea in one place and something entirely different in another.
Therefore, the identical phraseology found in Exodus 7:25. “. . . the Lord had smitten the river,” is to be understood exactly as the Lord has shown how Matthew 22:7 is to be comprehended. That is, as surely as the words in Matthew 22:7, “. , the King [God] ... sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city,” mean that the Lord withdrew from them and left them exposed to the forces waiting to destroy them, so the words of Exodus 7:25, “. . . the Lord had smitten the river,” tell us that the Lord had released His grip upon the forces around Egypt and for this reason the Nile turned to blood.
Herein is demonstrated the importance of being established in correct principles of Bible interpretation. It is vital that the tendency to interpret these things according to our human senses be resisted, and the mind be disciplined to read them according to God’s directions. In this is complete safety.
Recently! had this lesson firmly impressed on my mind. I was engaged in a flight lesson. To simulate instrument conditions a hood was placed over my head shutting out the view of all but the instrument panel. I was instructed to hold a course due north. Soon I had the aircraft established on this heading. The compass indicated that we were flying straight forward,

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(PICTURE)

Instrument Panel Of A Light Aircraft
The pilot who does not learn to believe his Instruments 
in preference to his senses will kill himself sooner or later.

while other instruments showed correctly that we were climbing to an assigned altitude of three thousand feet.
But, in a very compelling way my senses to]d me that I was turning to the left while the compass assured me that I was flying straight ahead. Every instinct called on me to deny the instrument and fly by my feelings. It required a decided act of will to resist this deadly influence and fly by the instruments. It is a lesson which has to be thoroughly learned by every pilot. Many have gone to their deaths because they did not overcome their feelings in favour of the readings on the gauges.
Likewise, it is essential that every Bible student learn that he must ignore his feelings and instincts, and discipline his mind to accept only the methods of interpretation which the Lord has revealed as being the correct ones. It takes a little training to achieve this, but it can be mastered.
When this stand is positively taken! it will be recognized that there is no contradiction between the actions of Moses and Aaron in casting down the rod before Pharaoh and in using it to strike the water.
Yet, while God was showing the haughty ruler what He was about to do when He directed the rod and serpent demonstration, the next day, when the water was struck, He was saying something further. It was, when rightly understood, a continued outreach of love calculated even yet to persuade the king to bow to the truth, cease his resistance to God’s appeals and place himself and his people where the Lord could both protect and bless them.

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God had already gone further than can reasonably be required, by giving the warning contained in the rods and serpents. After that warning, the king had no further excuse, but the Lord is so possessed of yearning love that He will never stop short of doing all that possibly can be done.
It was important for the ruler’s own good that he should understand the connection between the withdrawal of the presence and protection of God and the onslaught of the plague which immediately followed. Therefore, God sent Moses to use the rod to designate the exact time and place from whence God would step back.
It was an impressive demonstration. There stood Aaron with the pointer in his hand. The river flowed on as usual with no indication of brooding trouble. Aaron brought the rod down to strike the surface of the waters, by so doing declaring to the king that the time had come and this was the place from whence the presence of God would be withdrawn. Horror blanched the defiant face of the royal observer as he saw the waters turn to the ghastly colour of blood. Thus he was deprived of any opportunity to rationalize and claim that all this was but a happenstance which had no connection with Moses’ predictions and would have happened anyway. It was love that directed the action, and it was love that the king spurned.
The succeeding plagues all came as did the first one, with God continuing to play His stipulated role. Once the first one is correctly understood, no problem should be encountered until the last one is reached. Then the question must arise as to why the last one was so selective. If God’s protection had been removed from every house but those upon whose doors the blood was sprinkled, why did only the first-born die? How did the rest escape?
God said, ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.” Exodus 12:12.
There is no problem now with the language of this verse for we have learned how God intends us to understand these words. The problem of selectivity remains.
First, let it be established that it was not God, the Saviour, but Satan, the destroyer, who took those lives.
Three times at least in Patriarchs and Prophets, 278-280, the one who slew the first-born is named. Here are the sentences. “All who failed to heed the Lord’s directions, would lose their first-born by the hand of the destroyer. - . . The sign of blood—the sign of a Saviour’s protection—was on their doors, and the destroyer entered not. . . . All the firstborn in the land, ‘from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle,’ had been smitten by the destroyer.”

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Who is the destroyer?
“Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to permit Satan to accomplish his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why? The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the earth is ripe for the harvest.” Testimonies 6:388, 389.
Therefore it was the destroyer, Satan, who slew the first-born. But why did he select only one in every family?
Satan had specifically purposed to wipe out every household in Israel. To do this he had organized some destructive pestilence which would flow through the whole land. Apparently it was beyond his ability to confine this silent death to Israel only. In order to make quite certain of their genocide, he must take the Egyptians too.
That the Israelites were directly threatened is certified by the fact that they had to provide themselves special protection by sprinkling the blood upon the door. Thus Satan could not touch Israel at all, even though he still attempted it despite the blood.
As the midnight hour arrived, the silent death flowed across the horror-stricken land, seeping in through doors and windows, striking in every unprotected house till the silence of the night was shredded with the mourners’ piercing wails.
The killer found a barrier of protection around all but the first-born. This could have been provided only by God. He would also have protected the first-born, but for some reason, they were situated where this had become impossible. What was it then, that had exposed the eldest child to the malice of the destroyer while the rest could not be touched by him?
No direct revelations in the Scriptures tell the answer, but there is information to strongly indicate what could have caused this to be so. From his earliest moment, the first child in the family was dedicated to Satan’s service. Following this dedication, he was continually trained to fill the office and role of the priesthood in his own family at least. Others of them went on to fill national positions. Thus, they were joined to Satan and separated from God more than any other persons in the land. As such they were definitely the ones who would be found without God’s protection even when He was still able to extend it to the rest, though marginally so.
Throughout the sad sequence of the plagues, God manifested Himself only as a God of love, though it is doubtful if, in their blindness, they could view Him as such. The unheeded entreaties of centuries did not discourage God’s endeavours to incline them to obedience. Sadly, the work designed in the wisdom of God to turn them to repentance only served to drive them farther and still farther away.

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Finally, those who had escaped the silent death which deprived them of their first-born, plunged with blind and senseless stupidity after the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea. Where the Israelites were, the power of God operated to withhold the tremendous forces of nature, but the rebellion and defiance of the Egyptians was so total that there was no possibility of their permitting the Holy Spirit to remain where they were. Thus they forced the powers of the waters out of the hand and control of God with only one possible result. Unmeasured tons of water rolled over, destroying them to the last man.
Pharaoh and his hosts never would learn the lesson of the rods and the serpents. Their disregard of the message sent to them in love did not change the lesson itself. Its truth stood, whatever their attitude to it might have been. They dared to depose God from His position of Saviour and Protector and the rods turned to devouring serpents of destruction.
The whole experience is a revelation, paid for at terrible cost by those idolaters, not of what God sent upon the Egyptians but of what they brought upon themselves despite God’s best efforts to preserve them from it. No blame can be laid to God Who emerged from the scene as impeccably perfect as ever:— 
A perfect lawkeeper;
Who did not break the law in order to preserve it;
A loving and complete Saviour;
Who was not the destroyer;
Nor the one who executed the impenitent.
He was exactly what Christ later revealed Him to be.

248

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Showing Of God’s Power

Before leaving the story of the plagues on the Nile valley, another aspect of the case should be considered. God saw and accepted the opportunity to salvage from the disaster, a saving blessing, expressed but rarely understood, in these words:
“And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. Exodus 9:16.
“Still the heart of Pharaoh grew harder. And now the Lord sent a message to him, declaring, ‘I will at this time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in the earth. , . . And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power.’ Not that God had given him an existence for this purpose, but His providence had overruled events to place him upon the throne at the very time appointed for Israel’s deliverance. Though this haughty tyrant had by his crimes forfeited the mercy of God, yet his life had been preserved that through his stubbornness the Lord might manifest His wonders in the land of Egypt. The disposing of events is of God’s providence. He could have placed upon the throne a more merciful king, who would not have dared to withstand the mighty manifestations of divine power. But in that case the Lord’s purposes would not have been accomplished. His people were permitted to experience the grinding cruelty of the Egyptians, that they might not be deceived concerning the debasing influence of idolatry. In His dealing with Pharaoh, the Lord manifested His hatred of idolatry, and His determination to punish cruelty and oppression.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 267, 268.
“He [Moses] was Informed that the monarch would not yield until God should visit judgments upon Egypt, and bring out Israel by the signal manifestation of His power. Before the infliction of each plague, Moses was to describe its nature and effects, that the king might save himself from it if he chose. Every punishment rejected would be followed by one more severe, until his proud heart would be humbled, and he would acknowledge the Maker of heaven and earth as the true and living God. The Lord would give the Egyptians an opportunity to see how vain was the wisdom of their mighty men, how feeble the power of their gods, when opposed to the commands of Jehovah. He would punish the people of Egypt for their idolatry, and silence their boasting of the blessings received from their senseless deities. God would glorify His own name, that other nations might hear of His power and tremble at His mighty acts, and that His people might be led to turn from their idolatry and render Him pure worship.” ibid., 263.

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These Scriptures inform us that God realized a purpose in His dealing with that rebellion. It was that Egypt, Israel, and the nations beyond, were given the opportunity of seeing something of the magnitude of God’s power, the corresponding futility of human resources to either control or contain what it had required God’s power to withhold, and therefore the utter necessity of human recognition of, and dependence upon, the arm of the Almighty. Implicit in all was the message that the protection of the all-powerful One was available only to the obedient.
But essential to the success of the divine plan was the presence upon the Egyptian throne of an extremely stubborn king. It was by God’s providence that just such a king was there at the very time when the hour for Israel’s deliverance had come. Alternatively, God could have placed upon the seat of power a more pliable ruler.
Once again, unless these words are read in the light which streams from the life and teachings of Christ in a spiritual depth exceeding the rather humanistic superficial study of the past, they will be misunderstood.
Therefore, these questions must be raised and correctly answered.
Why was God so anxious to give a demonstration of His power to the people of that day?
How was the revelation of power given?
In what way did God place the hardened monarch upon the throne just at that time?
Why did God wait so long before delivering His people?
There is more than one possible solution to these problems. The answer which correctly outlines what God did and why, will accurately reflect both His wisdom and character. Conversely, the incorrect responses will produce an erroneous view of God’s nature and His principles.
If God is obsessed, as earthly rulers generally are, with the demand that all men give unqualified acknowledgment of His position and authority as the absolute ruler of the universe, then His motivation in exhibiting His infinite power would be to instil respect, thus insuring that He be given the homage He feels is His due.
Thus His message to all nations would have been, “Take warning, people of the earth. lam making an example of the Egyptians so you will know howl treat those who do not give Me the respect I deem Mine. Dismiss any thought of resistance, for My power is such that none can contend with Me. This Pharaoh of Egypt was the greatest on earth. He was more hardened and stubborn than all of you. He dared to resist My will. See him now shattered and dead. Now serve Me, or I shall deal with you likewise. Know that I will brook no insubordination nor even the ignoring of My claims upon you.
Is this the message which the Lord sought to communicate through His activities in Egypt? The vast majority are convinced that it is. But in this situation at least, majority support is no confirmation of truth, especially when it is considered that so few of the world’s population even serve God.

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Careful reflection upon the implications of this assessment of God’s behaviour in Egypt quickly reveals that it cannot be true. For God to conduct His affairs as outlined above, would show Him to be self-centred, self-exalting, self-loving, and therefore totally unrighteous. God is love to the infinite degree. It is impossible for Him to be love and at the same time manifest any trace of self-love, self-protectionism, self-exaltation or self-centredness. Therefore, everyone must choose between believing that God is love or that He asserted His power in Egypt to intimidate the nations into respectful obedience. Both views cannot be held. The two positions are entirely incompatible and, in fact, hostile to each other.
To maintain the concept that God did act from self-interest in dealing with Israel’s bond-masters, is to think of Him as being exactly like the proud monarch with whom He dealt. It is to make Him like every Caesar, dictator, emperor, king, despot, potentate and, in short, every unconverted man. The further such depart from righteousness, the more acutely they exhibit this supreme concern for self, and its attendant preoccupation with demanding homage and respect from others. On the other hand, the nearer men approach to God and become like Him in character, the more this disposition diminishes.
Never was this more forcibly demonstrated than in the life of Jesus Christ who was, and ever will be, the express image of His Father. Never was a life more devoid of selfishness, giving no place for even the faintest suspicion that He had come to establish recognition of His position and authority for His own sake, Christ, as the revelation of the Father’s character, swept away forever any basis for the notion that God unveiled His power in Egypt to bring the world to heel.
Therefore, He is not burdened with any concern over His position or of the giving of recognition and obedience to Him for His own sake. Thought of Himself and His position never troubles Him.
But He is actually aware of the fearful peril in which every human being on the earth stands. He knows that in the Garden of Eden, man cast away the protection of the law and instituted in God’s place, one who could not control the powers surrounding this earth.
He knows that only because of the interposition of His Son are these perils held in control during the period of probation. He knows Christ cannot maintain His station as Protector of the people of the earth while their mounting attitude and spirit of self-sufficiency demand He vacate that role. Therefore, as a loving Father, He views with deepest distress, the developing self-centredness and foolish, self-destructive boldness which is edging His wayward children nearer and nearer to the abyss. As such a situation develops, He will do anything within the limitation of law to save them.
God knows the dreadful peril in which everyone lives daily, but men do not know it. They are unaware that since the fall, they have been living under a divinely supplied umbrella of protection, that puny man is utterly

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powerless to save himself, and that the continued provision of the canopy depends upon their having a sense of humble dependence upon the Saviour which will enable Him to remain. Men leave God out of their reckoning, confident instead that all the powers of nature have evolved to their present high state of efficiency with no danger of collapse. They cannot see the power of God at work and so remain in ignorance of it and what it is doing for them.
Therefore, for those who had not the eye of faith and so could not see God’s wondrous power, the revelation could only come by the power being withdrawn. Then, as storm, tempest, fire, earthquake or pestilence ravaged them, they could see by the might of what came, the measure of the power which had previously held it all back.
Keep in mind the rods and the serpents. Then there will be no danger of making the age-old mistake of thinking that the onslaught of great destruction is God at work. The devastating onslaught is not the revelation of what God is doing with His almighty power, but the making known of what His hand had previously held in perfect control.
This is not the way God desires His might to become known to humanity, for it exacts tremendous cost to life and land. Therefore, He labours with all the resources of heaven to prevent such a crisis developing. But He cannot compel men to obey. They must serve Him from love—intelligently, or not at all.
“The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love—homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.” The Great Controversy, 493.
“Since the service of love can alone be acceptable to God, the allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a conviction of His justice and benevolence.’ ibid., 498.
But, despite the utmost devisings of infinite love, humans such as the Egyptians, will press on in defiance of love and entreaty to that point where God’s power will be revealed by its withdrawal.
In all His efforts to save the castastrophe from coming, God has been motivated by consuming love for His endangered children. When, because of their blind and persistent refusal to receive that ministry of love, they force Him to remove His hand from the helm, He still continues to work from the same love. While the loss to life and property will be enormous, the Lord will work to salvage much from the wreckage.
Firstly, He will endeavour to arouse individuals from the very midst of the obdurate to an awareness of their need of that power which alone can withhold the fearful forces of nature and man. Likewise, He will seek to im-

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press upon the thinking of the onlookers near and far, the same saving truths, to encourage them not to act with rash irresponsibility.
God will never engineer these conditions in order to convey these lessons, but when they develop in spite of His best efforts to prevent them, then He will use them to fulfil a valuable service to the needy.
This work is not done in vain. For some, such as the proud despot and many of his people, it was, but many of the dwellers of the Nile Valley, recognizing how impotent were their own gods to take over the powers laid down by the Lord, turned instead to serving the true God. When the Israelites left Egypt, many of these folk went with them. In the meantime, when Moses announced the coming of the hail, a goodly number of the farmers revealed their newly formed convictions by hurrying their live stock into shelter. If those awesome scourges were what God’s power had been controlling, then what stupendous might was God’s! It required this to show it to them.
“He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses.” Exodus 9:20.
These were not the only people helped. It was a lesson to the Israelites while far away the Canaanites had cause to take a pause in their headlong rush into total iniquity and its attendant destruction, Their probation was undoubtedly extended by the events in Egypt. Thus God achieved a saving purpose through events which He had untiringly worked to prevent.
Naturally, the more intense, prolonged, and total the destruction; the more emphatic the lesson; the more God’s message was underscored. Such it could not be without the presence on the throne of a Pharaoh who was especially stubborn and rebellious. The Scriptures under study in this chapter declare that”... His providence had overruled events to place him upon the throne at the very time appointed for Israel’s deliverance. Though this haughty tyrant had by his crimes forfeited the mercy of God, yet his life had been preserved that through his stubbornness the Lord might manifest His wonders in the land of Egypt. The disposing of events is of God’s providence. He could have placed upon the throne a more merciful king, who would not have dared to withstand the mighty manifestations of divine power. But in that case the Lord’s purposes would not have been accomplished.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 267, 268.
The same truth is repeated in Daniel 4:17. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the Holy Ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
These Scriptures likewise call for a careful, thoughtful, and above all, prayerful consideration, for they can be seriously misunderstood.
If, for instance, it is to be drawn from these words that God personally determines who shall occupy positions of leadership over the nations and

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elects those men irrespective of the wills of the men and their nations, then serious questions about God’s character must assert themselves.
It would mean that in the great democracies when men cast their votes, they are merely puppets in God’s hand to execute His will, Worse still, some rulers only come to power through rigged elections, lobbying, threatenings, and many other unrighteous methods. Some rise to power along a path slippery with the blood of their opponents.
It is by these means that men rise to be heads of nations. Does God work through such measures as these to effect His election of this man or that? The answer must be a resounding, “No!”
Furthermore, if God purposefully arranged for men like Nero or Hitler to assume absolute authority, then the reigns of terror and the awful atrocities must be charged to God. He becomes responsible for the torture of innocent victims, mass executions, and even for heaping difficulties in the way of His own church.
This is not to argue that the words of this Scripture are false. It is to argue that what, to minds trained in the human processes of thinking, would appear to be the correct interpretation, is false. Once again a deeper, more spiritual and correct understanding must be gained.
Why then, did God set upon the throne a very tough and hardened king when He might have put a milder person there?
The answer lies in the way in which God sets up a ruler as distinct from the ways of men. When men set out to make a king, they firstly determine on who shall be that man. Then they bring to bear every pressure of force, bribery, or persuasion at their command to effect their wishes. The greater the power at their disposal, provided it is skilfully used, the more successful they are.
God is possessed of infinite power and wisdom. Therefore, if He was to operate in the human sphere as men do with their lesser power, then only those of God’s specific choice would ever occupy any positions. We would expect of God the very best choices from what is available; the selection of wise, strong, merciful, and just rulers. But, the annals of history reveal very few such men ever rising to the seat of power. Instead, most rulers have been despotic, unjust, and cruel. If men like Nero, Hitler, and Pharaoh were specifically chosen by God and exalted to rulership, then some serious questions must be asked in respect to God’s character.
The only occasions in history when God has made direct choices of individuals are when the church has been working in harmony with Him, or there is an individual He can use who has been totally submitted to His ways and will. Examples of these are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, the various prophets, John the Baptist, Paul, and many others. It is noteworthy that every one of these individuals had a character like unto that of God and was very different from the kings of the earth.

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The selling up of kings is all according to law, either used or misused, It is the result of the working out of all the powers God has invested in mankind, irrespective of whether those powers are rightly or wrongly, justly or unjustly used. As those powers are of God then in this sense it is God who sets up and takes down kings.
Examine the rising of all great empires of history. As they are coming up they are a very hard-working, self-sacrificing people. Before them is a mighty objective of conquest and acquisition to be achieved. Closely united and intensely loyal to each other and their leaders, they are strong.
God’s laws provide that abstemiousness, self-sacrifice, hard work, unity, and the mighty stimulus generated by the prospect of great achievements, will elevate and establish those who obey them. Therefore, those kings who obeyed these principles were certainly “set up.
As God is the One Who provided these blessings by which kings are set up, then, in this sense can it be said that He sets up kings and puts them down. The military campaign by which they ascend to the throne of power may be totally unjust and cruel, yet it is the outworking of these God-ordained principles which brings success. It should be noted that it is not the legitimate use but the misuse of these things.
God gave those powers to man, warned him of the tragic results of their misuse, but, in love, granted him the perfect freedom to use or misuse them as he chose.
Not only do God’s laws set up kings: they also bring them down. The conquest achieved, the riches of the world flow into the hands of the conquerors. A life of ease, luxury, and licentiousness takes the place of industry, hardship, and self-denial.
By God’s laws, the fruit of these is weakness, division, and internal strife. The weakness is not only physical and moral. It is also mental. Their wisdom is turned to corruption. Thus comes the period of decline, during which a neighbouring nation is on its way up. At a certain point the balance tips in favour of the rising power and the once proud lord of the earth is ground into the dust.
Thus by the outworking of law, the nations rise and fall. As those laws are of God, and as He forever upholds and maintains them, it is He who in this way sets up kings and puts them down. It is not a personal election on God’s part. It is the outworking of His will as expressed in that law.
These principles established, it is simple to understand how God placed upon the Egyptian throne a leader of exceptional stubbornness.
It must be remembered that the fulness of wickedness is developed in a man when the Spirit of God, through one of God’s chosen messengers, has appealed mightily to him, and he has chosen to reject that loving ministry. Under such a service of love, there is a powerful drawing toward God which, if unresisted, will certainly lead into harmony and fellowship with the heavenly family]y. To resist this pull requires a decided spiritual effort, just as

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to hold back from being drawn along by someone who is pulling your arm requires physical effort. Whether in the spiritual or physical world, such effort exercises and therefore strengthens the muscles used to resist. The greater the power resisted and the more energetically, the stronger the powers of resistance become. That is a reliable law simple to understand. Thus there is a hardening of the spiritual muscles.
Therefore, in order for Pharaoh to be as tough and hardened as he was, he must have been subjected to the strong wooing of the Spirit and persistently resisted it.
Is there evidence to show this?
There is!
Moses spent forty years in the land of Egypt before fleeing to Midian. He was placed there by God to bring a powerful and saving witness to the court. He was successor to the throne, yet, faithfully refusing to enter the priesthood, he stood as a pillar of light for God’s truth.
“By the laws of Egypt, all who occupied the throne of the Pharaohs must become members of the priestly caste; and Moses, as the heir apparent, was to be initiated into the mysteries of the national religion. This duty was committed to the priests. But while he was an ardent and untiring student, he could not be induced to participate in the worship of the gods. He was threatened with the loss of the crown, and warned that he would be disowned by the princess should he persist in his adherence to the Hebrew faith. But he was unshaken in his determination to render homage to none save the one God, the Maker of heaven and earth. He reasoned with priests and worshipers, showing the folly of their superstitious veneration of senseless objects. None could refute his arguments or change his purpose, yet for the time his firmness was tolerated, on account of his high position, and the favor with which he was regarded by both the king and the people.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 245.
‘The strength of Moses was his connection with the Source of all power, the Lord God of hosts. He rises grandly above every earthly inducement, and trusts himself wholly to God, He considered that he was the Lord’s. While he was connected with the official interests of the king of Egypt, he was constantly studying the laws of God’s government, and thus his faith grew. That faith was of value to him. It was deeply rooted in the soil of his earliest teachings, and the culture of his life was to prepare him for the great work of delivering Israel from bondage. He meditated on these things; he was constantly listening to his commission from God. After slaying the Egyptian, he saw that he had not understood God’s plan, and he fled from Egypt and became a shepherd. He was no longer planning to do a great work, but he became very humble; the mists that were beclouding his mind were expelled, and he disciplined his mind to seek after God as his refuge.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1098, 1099.

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When he fell from grace and fled to Midian, he vacated his prospects to another who was to be the Pharaoh when he returned with the rod of power in his hands. That other man, as the second in line to the throne, had inevitably been in close daily contact with Moses and therefore within the beautiful circle of spiritual influence which surrounded the servant of God. Through this heavenly radiance, the Lord’s designs were to soften and convert the hearts of the entire Egyptian court including the young man who would later be the Pharaoh in Moses’ place.’ But that which had been sent to save was resisted and rejected. The spiritual power in Moses must have been very great, for the resistance to it developed in that other prince a hardening of his heart to an exceptional degree. No doubt the burning demon of jealousy intensified the worsening condition in the man.
The placing of Moses in the court was a master-stroke of love on God’s part. Moses was God’s direct and personal messenger by which God offered to Egypt complete and saving conversion. Had this taken place, Moses would have been the leader of Egypt on the death of the existing ruler. Actually, so great was the wisdom and power from God in Moses, that he would have been the effective ruler long before the older man s death.
Placing Moses in Pharaoh’s court was not an arbitrary act on God’s part. It was not something which had to happen because He decreed it. God merely took advantage of the circumstances. He knew Pharaoh’s daughter came down to wash, that she was lonely for a baby and that this particular babe would touch her heart. So all He had to do was to instruct Amram and Jochebed to hide the child in the reeds and nature took care of the rest.
Tragically, the royal household did not accept God’s call of love. The result was a terrible hardening of heart, the development of a spirit of rebellion, self-sufficiency, and utter defiance against heaven. Any subsidence of such evils which may have occurred during the forty years of Moses’ absence, would have instantly been fanned into a more fierce intensity when the proud monarch found himself confronted again by the man whom he must have hated more than any other.
If placing a spirit-filled messenger in the royal court for forty years gave occasion for the development of a king so hard and stubborn, the failure to place Moses there would have produced a king of far less determined defiance.
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1 See S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Volume 1:493 for historical notes on the sequence of the Egyptian kings. It Is there indicated that Thutmose III, 1482-1450 B.C., was the ruler from whom Moses fled. “After Thutmose III, his son Amenhotep II came to the throne (1450-1426 B.C.). He began a reign of calculated frightfulness over his foreign possessions, and fits remarkably well into the role of the Pharaoh of the Exodus. For some reason, unmentioned in non-Biblical records, it was not the crown prince but another son of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV (1425-1412 B.C.). who followed him on the throne. The disappearance of the crown prince may have been due to the slaying of all first-born sons in the tenth plague of Egypt.”

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Thus God did place on Egypt’s throne an exceedingly wicked king by puffing Moses in the court. He could have had a much softer king by not puffing him there.
The principle of God giving two calls to a people but never a third as set out in Matthew 22:14 is clearly revealed in the history of that great nation.
In Joseph’s day, the word of God was obeyed. God’s servant, Joseph, was accorded a position of power and influence second only to the king, a position which he certainly used to establish the worship of the true God. To what extent he was successful we are not told. By the ministry of Joseph the nation was bidden to the spiritual marriage and to some extent they responded. Then followed the usual apostasy. This placed them in need of a call from God which He sent to them as soon as He had the messenger through whom it could be done. In Moses He found His opportunity. By life and word, during the years of his presence in the Egyptian court, Moses conveyed to those in authority, the love and justice of God. But the call was rejected.
There could remain only the second call which was again given through Moses when he returned with the rod that became a serpent. The call began when the rod was cast down, and continued to be sounded as plague after plague fell. But that second call was not heeded. From that day to this, the nation, as such, has never had another call sent to them, nor will they ever again.
Not until the second call had come and been refused, did God separate His people.
The period of servitude spanned several centuries. Why did God wait so long to free His people?
He had no other choice.
Firstly, He could not do it by force for ‘compelling power is found only under Satan’s government.”
‘Whereunto,’ asked Christ, ‘shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?’ Mark 4:30. He could not employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society He found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.
Secondly, He will not voluntarily withdraw His presence to unleash the deranged forces of nature to break the hold of the oppressor.
All God could do was to take every opportunity to save the Egyptians. He did this when Moses was born. Hopefully, they would repent, but if not, then they would come more speedily to that point where they would force the withdrawal of their canopy of protection.
They themselves would break their own power to hold the people of Israel, thus leaving God with perfect freedom to take His people out. Note how God waited till Pharaoh said, “Rise up, and get you forth from among

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my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.” Exodus 12:31.
The long servitude of the Israelites and God’s refusal to move them out until Pharaoh released them is clear proof that God does not use force and therefore, that the commonly understood views of what God did in Egypt are erroneous.
If God brought Israel out by force, then why did He not do it hundreds of years before? Anyone who is all-powerful can do what, when, and where, he wishes.
But, God is bound by the principles of righteousness to act only within the limitations of law. Therefore, He had to wait until the inevitable out-working of Egypt’s wickedness brought its own harvest of self-destruction and the consequent release of Israel.
This does not mean that God did nothing at all. He was ever there, working to save. Even though He did not get the desired response from the majority, there were those who did find salvation even among the Egyptians, while the rest came more speedily to their ruin.
It is recommended that the student now re-reads the Scriptures quoted at the beginning of this chapter. If the principles outlined in these pages have been grasped, they will be read in a new light altogether. A picture of God will be seen which is consistent with the life and teachings of Christ, thus establishing a perfect harmony between the Old and New Testament revelations of God.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The Flood

In no one place in Scripture does God unfold every aspect of His character. The evidences are given in various places, it being left to the student of the Word to bring them all together.
So, in one place we are told that there is no unrighteousness—lawbreaking—with God. “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” Romans 9:14.
In another, “His law is a transcript of His own character . . .” Christ’s Object Lessons, 315.
Yet again, “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.” The Great Controversy, 36.
In still other places, God is careful to give examples to show how He intends us to understand such expressions as “God destroyed them,” “God hardened,” “God sent.”
The life and all the teachings of Christ perfectly endorse, combine, and amplify these principles.
In the Egyptian episode, the rods and serpents supply us with God’s statement of how He would conduct His affairs. But a clear scientific explanation is not provided of how the water turned to blood, how each plague followed, and how the first-born of the land died. It would be of considerable help if it were, but such information is not essential to faith.
In the report on the flood, however, it is different. God has given us sufficient evidence in various parts of the Bible to establish the scientific way in which the flood did come. The study of this great cataclysm will be taken up from this angle.
When it is seen what caused the flood and how it came, powerful confirmation will be given to the truth that God does not execute the sinner nor destroy the earth. Far from actually sending the flood, God held it back as long as He could. It finally came because He could no longer prevent it without forcing His presence where it was no longer desired There is no difference between God’s behaviour during the flood and the decimation of Egypt.
Conditions before the flood were radically different from what they have been since. The key to that difference lies in the state of the sun and moon, the former having been seven times as hot as it now is and the latter having been equal to our present sun. This meant that eight times today’s heat and light was being beamed upon the earth before the flood.

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The Scriptural evidence is found in Isaiah 30:26.
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”
This is both a prophecy of the future and a description of the past. God is telling what He will do when He will bind up “the breach of His people,” and will heal “the stroke of their wound.’ This is restoration, the bringing back of that which was already there. If this involves increasing the sun to seven times its present intensity and the moon to equal the present sun, then this is how it was before “the breach of His people,” and the infliction of “the stroke of their wound.”
It will be when the Creator makes a new heavens and earth, that this restoration will be achieved. At that time, the sun and moon combined will be transmitting eight times the heat and light now being produced.
Modern man knows the moon as a dead satellite with no light or heat of its own. It is nothing more than a reflector of the sun’s rays. If, in the coming re-creation of the physical heavens and earth when the sun will be increased seven times, the moon was to continue as a reflector, then it would give only seven times today’s brightness. This would not make it equal with the present sun which gives off four four hundred and sixty-five thousand times the light reflected by the full moon.
Verification of this difference in intensity is found in this statement. The sun is about 465,000 times as bright as the moon, with an observational error of about 20%. A real variation in brightness of 20% results from the moon’s varying distance from the earth and sun.” The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 15:780. 1966 Edition.
Therefore, for the moon to increase in brightness four hundred and sixty-five thousand times while the sun increases but seven times it will have to become a self-luminous body. It will cease to be a reflector and will upgrade to a little sun. Being only two hundred and fifty thousand miles from the earth, it would not need to be as large as the sun in order to transmit as much heat. The intensity of heat and light diminish, not in direct proportion to its distance from the source, but in proportion to the square of the distance. The sun is stationed ninety-three million miles from the earth, a distance almost four hundred times as great as the moon’s position. This makes a very significant difference in the sizes required to generate the same amount of heat on the earth.
With these two orbs of fire jointly serving the new heavens and new earth, a vastly changed condition of things will prevail from what they do now. This would appear so drastic as to cause many to think that the Scripture predicting this has to be understood only figuratively. The words are to be understood literally however, as the following statement verifies.

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“All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving--the robe of Christ's righteousness. All nature, in its surpassing loveliness, will offer to God a tribute of praise and adoration. The world will be bathed in the light of heaven. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now. The years will move on in gladness. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death." My Life Today, 348. See also Ministry of Healing, 506, and The Review and Herald, November 6,1903.
The reason for querying whether this statement can be literally accepted, is on the expectation that eight times more heat would be unendurable. On an uncomfortably hot summer’s day the temperature will register 120 o F., or 48.88 o C. This is about as much heat as can be suffered, but let the temperature be increased by a mere fifty percent to become 180 o F., or 73.3 o C., and it would be impossible to survive. What hope then would anyone have if the temperature rose by eight times to 960 o F., or 586.56 o C? This is above the melting point of lead, 621.32 o F., or 327.4 o C., and almost the melting point of aluminium, 1220.4 o F., or 660.2 o C.
The human body is composed of almost 75% water which boils at 212 o F., or 100 o C. Long before 960 o F,, or 586.56 o C., is reached, human beings would have boiled to death in their own juices, and plant life would likewise have been destroyed. The earth would have become a hell rather than a home.
While this overheating is what we would expect, a perfect climate would, in fact, result, being achieved by the development of a state of equilibrium between the heat from those fiery giants and the suspension in the atmosphere of a curtain or mantle of water vapour. This protective covering would absorb all but the heat necessary to produce a perfect climate on the entire surface of the earth below.
If God were to recreate the sun and the moon to their original intensities, and then leave the eight-fold heat to elevate the water into the atmosphere again, some time would elapse before the transition was completed. This would be a period of intense discomfiture for the saints. In the first creation, it was not left to the sun and the moon. God lifted the water from the earth’s surface to the upper levels by His creative fiat. As the second creation will be an exact duplication of the first, this is how it will be done again, the only difference being that, whereas the human family did not exist when it was originally done, this time they will be interested spectators.
The conditions existing on this planet before God began to form it into a habitable home, were reproduced during Noah’s time. When the ark rode the stormy seas, the flooding was so complete that no dry land appeared. The record in Genesis 1 shows that it was the same in the beginning.

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“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
“And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis1:1,2.
Not one square inch of rock, sand, or soil penetrated the unbroken expanse of water. It was not until the third day that the dry land appeared.
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
“And the evening and the morning were the third day.” Genesis 1:9, 13.
These verses establish that the entire earth was submerged prior to the third day. What is of great interest now, are the events of the second day Thereon God took a tremendous quantity of water and elevated it above the surface of the earth where it remained in a state of suspension. Some concept of the volume of water thus raised is given by the story of its return to earth to produce Noah’s flood.
“And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis7:12.
This was no localized storm. It rained over every square inch of the earth’s surface for forty days and nights in an unbroken downpour the like of which has never been repeated.
We do not know how deep the flood was in the early creation days. We are told that even after the Lord had elevated an enormous amount of water, that which remained had to be gathered in one place in order, even then, for the dry land to appear. This would be achieved by reshaping the earth’s surface. Some parts must be heightened, others lowered. The water would then naturally gravitate to the lower areas thus forming seas.
This meant that a great deal of the land was higher than when the entire surface was flooded. Yet when, in Noah’s day, the waters which had been placed high above the earth on the second day of creation, returned to the earth, it was so vast in quantity that it flooded the world again. From these evidences it is established that an enormous volume of water was lifted into suspension on that second day.
“And God said. Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
“And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Genesis 1:6-8
The marginal reading for “firmament” is expanse. In due time God called it Heaven. Calling it thus did not designate this expanse as being His central dwelling place, the heaven of heavens. The word, “heaven,” has several applications. There is the heaven where God dwells, the starry

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heavens, and, finally, the atmospheric area around this earth where birds fly and clouds float. It is this last to which reference is made here.
Thus, in God’s creative organization, He left some water upon the earth, but the remainder, He stationed high above and completely around the world. In between there was an atmospheric heaven. How high that mantle was we do not know. No doubt a scientist could calculate it.
God made reference to it in His conversation with Job when He said, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
“When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it....” Job 38:4. 9.
Thus a deep, protective, insulating mantle of water vapour cocooned the earth, just as cloud partially and periodically does today. The height and thickness of this was precisely calculated by the Creator to produce the perfect climate upon earth.
Having positioned the water vapour, the Lord then commissioned the sun and moon to hold it there, as well as to give light to the earth,
“And God said. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
“And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.
“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
“And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
“And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” Genesis 1:14-19.
The sun and moon were not established in their appointed orbits to give only light to the earth. The Scripture clearly testifies that they were to “. . .give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.”
The purpose of giving light to the earth is easily understood, but more study needs to be given to the meaning of the phrase, “to rule over the day and over the night.” “To rule,” is to govern, to exercise a controlling influence of some nature or the other. In the light of Scripture evidences revealing the physical conditions existing at the time of creation, something of the nature of this rulership becomes apparent.
The sun and moon shared a responsibility beyond that of lighting the earth. An enormous amount of water had been elevated above the globe where it rode in suspension to form a complete mantle. To hold it there required a considerable supply of heat without which the pull of gravity would draw it down again. The sun and moon were placed in command of this 	

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situation. They were to rule over the moisture mantle, wrapped like swaddling clothes around the planet, preventing it from returning to the surface again and causing complete flooding. In order to have sufficient heat energy to accomplish this important task, the moon had to be as hot as the sun now is and the sun seven times moreso.
The arrangement was a masterpiece of balanced technology. The amount of heat produced from the two suns was calculated to keep just the correct volume of water vapour at the optimum altitude. The percentage of heat energy absorbed in this process left sufficient over to filter through, providing the needed heat to warm the earth and the dwellers thereon.
But, effective as the water mantle was in absorbing the greater part of the sun’s energy, and thus protecting the world below from its searing blast, God’s purpose for it did not end there. It served to conserve, distribute and equalize the warmth reaching the surface.
The sun’s rays do not heat the air as they pass through it. They heat the earth and the sea. The air coming in contact with these surfaces absorbs the energy and is warmed in turn. Thus the atmosphere directly in contact with land and sea is the warmest, while the further removed it is by altitude, the colder it becomes for the simple reason that it has no contact with sources which will transmit heat to it.
What heat does reach levels above the earth arrives there by the process of convection. Hot air rises while cold air sinks. As the air nearest the earth is warmed it begins to rise through the colder areas above. In so doing, it gives up its heat to the surrounding air, until, by the time it reaches a certain altitude (depending on its original temperature), it will be totally deprived of the energy with which it began.
If there is no cloud cover, there is no restriction on the levels to which the convecting air will ascend, so that the heat gathered by the earth from the sun will be lost out in space. The earth warms fairly quickly and also loses its stored heat quite rapidly. So as the sun sets, the earth and the air above it, quickly cools, especially if the night is clear. This is why clear, still, winter nights are cold and crisp while cloudy ones tend to be warmer.
Conversely, cloudy days are cooler, while the clear days are hotter especially if the weather is at full summer intensity. How often the sweating outdoor worker welcomes with relief the overclouding of the sun on a blistering day.
Whereas in these times, the cloud cover is never completely around this globe, it was in the original design. This resulted in there never being a loss of the accumulated warmth near the earth’s surface. There was a limit to the rise of the convection currents which obliged them to flow upwards and then outwards, generating breezes and gentle winds which evenly distributed the warmth from pole to pole. Thus there was a relatively uniform climate all over the planet, devoid of sweltering tropical regions and frozen polar zones. No more perfect conditions could be imagined.

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In effect, the earth was located within a giant green house, with the temperature inside being maintained at the best possible comfort level for man, animals, and plants. With no adjacent areas of great temperature differences there was nothing to generate storms, low and high pressure systems or any form of violent weather. Instead, there was a climatic pattern of perfect stability and reliability. Anyone could be a successful weather prophet in those days, with conditions so regular, consistent, and delightful.
There are no detailed eyewitness accounts of the antediluvian world, for understandably, any eyewitness testimonies other than those saved in the ark were destroyed with the witnesses themselves. Neither does the Bible provide detailed descriptions. Nevertheless, the Lord has not left us without evidences concerning that era as Alfred M. Rehwinkel has observed in his book, The Flood.
“Nor is it mere speculation to, speak of the first world as a ‘veritable paradise.’ For though there are but meager written records concerning this first world, there is another kind of record which God has preserved for us in His wisdom. This record is reliable and true and is written in large and legible letters in the very foundation rocks of our present world. The record I refer to are the fossil remains that have been found in great abundance in every part of the globe. These fossils may be called the mummified remains of an extinct world. Fossils do not lie. Just as the pyramids of and the monuments of Greece and Rome are an evidence of the greatness of the civilization that produced them, so these fossils speak an eloquent language of the glories of a world which has passed away. These fossils have been preserved by God for a purpose. They are, as it were, the inscription on a tombstone erected to that magnificent world and at the same time a warning to the world which was to follow. The fossils have stimulated the imagination of men ever since the early Greeks. The early church fathers were familiar with them. Tertullian mentions them and gives a fairly correct interpretation of them. Luther also knew of them and understood their

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meaning. Others since then have had very fantastic ideas about them, but to us their language is clear. A more detailed discussion of these fossils will follow in a later chapter. Here I merely wish to refer to them as evidence and conclusive proof that the physical condition of the world of Noah, the climate, animals, and plant life, was vastly different from that of our world today.
“With respect to climate, the fossils show that there was a uniformly mild climate in high and in low altitudes of both the northern and the southern hemisphere. That is, there was a perfectly uniform, non-zonal, mild, and springllke climate in every part of the globe. This does not mean that the climate was of necessity the same in all parts of the earth. There were differences, but not the present extremes. Sir Henry H. Howorth, a noted geologist and competent interpreter of these fossils, says: ‘The flora and fauna are virtually the only thermometer with which we can test the climate of any past period. Other evidence is always sophisticated by the fact that we may be attributing to climate what is due to other causes. But the biological evidence is unmistakable; cold-blooded reptiles cannot live in icy water; semitropical plants, or plants whose habit is the temperate zone, cannot ripen their seeds and sow themselves under arctic conditions.’
“Or another outstanding authority, Prof. Alfred R. Wallace says: ‘There. is but one climate known to the ancient fossiI world as revealed by the plants and animal entombed in the rocks, and the climate was a mantle of springlike loveliness which seems to have prevailed continuously over the whole globe. Just how the world could have thus been warmed all over may be a matter of conjecture; that it was so warmed effectively and continuously is a matter of fact. . . .’
“Or Prof. George McCready Price writes: ‘It would be quite useless to go through the whole fossiliferous series in order, for there is not a single system which does not have coral limestone or other evidence of a mild climate way up north, most systems having such rock in the lands which skirt the very pole itself. The limestone and coal beds of the carboniferous period are the nearest known rocks to the North Pole. They crop out all around the polar basis; and from the dip of these beds, they must underlie the polar sea itself. But it is needless to go through the systems one after another. for they ‘uniformly testify’ that a warm climate has in former times prevailed over the whole globe.’ The New Geology, 652.
“It is difficult for us today even to imagine a world as just described, a world in which there was neither arctic nor antarctic and no steaming jungles of the Equator. We know that our present climatic zones and seasons are the results of the changing relations of the earth to the sun, the source of the heat that warms our globe. It is, therefore, quite natural to ask at this point: How could these laws of nature have functioned in that world so as to produce conditions so different from those prevailing today, and what caused the change?

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“That our earth at one time in its history enjoyed a uniformly mild climate in all of its parts is a fact which can be demonstrated, as we have seen, and that a change came suddenly, in fact, very suddenly, and probably at a time of a universal flood, seems to be established beyond a doubt from the frozen mammoths found fully preserved in the flesh in the frozen tundras of northern Siberia, of which we shall hear more later.” The Flood, by Alfred M. Rehwinkel, 6-9.
The witness of the fossils is of great value in the search for information about the antediluvian world. They verify incontrovertibly that there was a uniform climate over the entire planet prior to the cataclysm which produced those fossils. In the frozen north are fossil remains originating from plant and animal forms which now are found only in the temperate regions further south. As these plants and animals are unable to grow in any other than temperate zones, it can only be concluded that those which are now frozen wastes were then beautiful, verdant, temperate climes.
Perhaps the most amazing finds of all are those of the mighty mastodons, which were the elephants of that antediluvian period. These have been discovered deep frozen in the icy wastes of Siberia in perfect condition. The evidence shows that they were overwhelmed by a most sudden catastrophe, for in the mouths of some, unchewed, were yellow butter-cups likewise perfectly preserved. Such vegetation does not grow in frigid regions, and its presence in the mouths of these great beasts testifies to two things. Firstly, the climate in that part of the world which is now frozen waste, was such as to support the vegetation and provide the animals with a climate in which they could live, and secondly, it proves that they were overwhelmed suddenly and disastrously.
The whole of the Arctic seems to be a vast treasure store of fossil remains. Obviously they are better preserved there than elsewhere because of the extreme cold and because these regions are least disturbed by passing civilizations. “Starting with the islands in the Arctic Ocean along the coast north of Siberia, Howorth says that every one of them contains in its strata abundant animal remains. There is a group of islands off the coast, in the Arctic Ocean, called New Siberia. Concerning one of these, the Island of Lachov, a small island about fifty miles square, Howorth said its soil is almost composed of fossil bones.’ The same is true of another of these islands called Kotelni, which is over a hundred miles long and fifty miles wide. Howorth quotes a visitor to this island named Hedenstrom, who said that so plentifully were elephants buried beneath its surface that, as he walked along on the island for half a mile, he counted ten elephant tusks sticking out of the ground. This general condition existed throughout the whole island. Besides the fossils of elephant, skulls and bones of rhinoceros, horse, bison, ox, and sheep were observed scattered over and imbedded in the earth of the island. Concerning still another island in this group, Howorth quotes Hedenstrom to this effect: ‘In one island is a lake with a high bank, which splits open in the summer when the sun melts the

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ice and discloses heaps of tusks, mammoth bones, bones of rhinoceroses and buffaloes. In other parts of the island bones and tusks are to be seen projecting from the ground.’ “ ibid., 243.
These are the animals which we associate with warm and even hot climates. We know that they would not have lived in the areas where their remains are now to be found if the climate was as it is now—frigid. Therefore at the time when they lived there, which was before the Noachian flood, the climate was mild and warm.
As clearly as the fossil remains from the flood indicate that there was an overall climate of temperate levels before the flood, they are not the only evidences to support this fact. Nor do we wish to turn this into a geological study to prove in great detail that this is so, interesting and enlightening as such a study would be.
However, mention can be made of certain other evidences such as the location of volcanoes. It was not until the flood came and buried the vast amounts of combustible material necessary to produce volcanic activity that they began.
“Before the flood there were immense forests. The trees were many times larger than any trees which we now see. They were of great durability. They would know nothing of decay for hundreds of years. At the time of the flood these forests were torn up or broken down and buried in the earth. In some places large quantities of these immense trees were thrown together and covered with stones and earth by the commotions of the flood. They have since petrified and become coal, which accounts for the large coal beds which are now found. This coal has produced oil. God causes large quantities of coal and oil to ignite and burn. Rocks are intensely heated, limestone is burned, and iron ore melted. Water and fire under the surface of the earth meet. The action of water upon the limestone adds fury to the intense heat, and causes earthquakes, volcanoes and fiery issues.” Spiritual Gifts 3:79.
If the cause of earthquakes is the ignition of vast amounts of combustible material in the form of giant trees buried at the time of the flood, then we must expect to find volcanoes today where such vast amounts of vegetation grew before the flood. If, in the days before the flood, the climate was as it is today, so that the greatest forests are found in the temperate and tropical areas, then it would be largely in these that we would find the active and extinct volcanoes of the present world.
On the other hand, if the world had a fairly equal climate over its whole surface so that these trees grew in profusion on the north and south poles as well as in between, with equal or nearly equal vigour, then we would expect to find volcanoes all over the earth.
This is correct. The entire surface of the earth has had its active volcanoes at one time or the other. The location of each, be it still active, dormant, or extinct, marks the place where huge forests were buried.

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Here is a statement showing the universality of the incidence of volcanoes on this earth. “Probably there is no part of the earth’s surface that has not, at some time in the past, been the site of volcanic activity. Indeed, some regions such as the British Isles that we would hardly think of today as volcanic have formerly experienced violent and long-continued volcanic activity. . . . Even ice-bound Antarctica has its active volcano, Mt. Erebus, on the edge of McMurdo sound.” Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1963 Edition, Volume 23:243A.
The very fact that there is a volcano in Antarctica still active after all these rriilleniums, is proof that a vast quantity of timber was buried there, in order to provide fuel for such an intense, long-lasting fire. This enormous supply of fuel certainly could not have been produced if the climate had always been the frigid one it now is. Here is the clearest proof that at one time the area was under the balmy influence of pleasant temperatures conducive to vigorous growth.

Coal and Oil

As the statement above indicates, the burial of trees at the time of the flood produced coal which in turn produced oil. Just as the distribution of volcanoes shows where vast forests once grew, so does the location of modern coal and oil fields. These are not confined only to those areas where the climate today is such as would produce mighty forests, but are also to be found in the frigid regions of the earth.
In the past few years. tremendous stores of crude oil have been discovered in the frozen wastes of northern Alaska, from where, despite the forbidding nature of the terrain and the present climate, men are determined to bring the oil out to the world. Likewise, there is a vast coal field in Antarctica, where ‘Coal has been found near Mawson and in many places in the Beacon group from Coats Land, the Horlick mountains, Queen Maud range, Beardmore glacier region and northward into Victoria Land.” The Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1963 Edition, Volume 2:4.
All these things tell their own story of what was there in the past, leaving no doubt that the overall climate of the earth was such as to produce vast forests which were not restricted to the temperate and tropical zones as we now know them. There are, of course, many more evidences from the world of fossils, coal, oil, volcanoes, and so forth which might be studied in this connection, but we believe that enough has been given here to establish the fact that there was an equalized climate over the entire face of the globe before the flood.
Already, evidence has been advanced to show that the moon was then a heat generator equivalent in power to our present sun. God carefully designed it to fulfil a specific and important role, which in the Scriptures is declared as being to rule the night while the sun ruled the day.

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There certainly have been far-reaching changes since Adam’s time, for not only has the moon been extinguished but it no longer occupies the night sky alone. At times it rides the daylight hours with the sun. Its original appointment was the night while the sun commanded the day. Each was faithful to its appointed sphere so that they never appeared at the same time.
The scientific necessity of this is readily discerned. During the day, the enormous heat energy from the sun kept the canopy of water vapour in place, but as the earth turned away, there would be a cooling of this mantle to the point where flooding rains would mar each night. A lesser light was required to give just enough heat to prevent the excessive cooling of the water vapour, and yet allow sufficient to effect some condensation to irrigate the vegetation. The moon, riding the night sky on station opposite the sun, provided exactly what was needed. Each night there was just sufficient cooling to produce a ground fog which bathed all the plant life with a gentle dew meeting the moisture requirements for the day.
“. . . for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
“But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.’ Genesis 2:5,6.
No more perfect system could have been devised. There were no pounding, wind-swept rains deluging one area at the expense of another, leaching the soil of its life-giving nutrients and eroding the land into the sea.
There were no severe contrasts of climate ranging from the blistering heat of today’s tropics to the super-cold of the polar regions. Everywhere there was a pleasant balmy climate and atmosphere which was delightful, invigorating, and congenial. Neither were there vast oceans as we have them today. All that water was suspended far above. The earth was almost entirely elevated land with only pleasant rivers and lakes well distributed by the perfect design of a marvellous Creator.
Thus the earth had the capacity for supporting billions upon billions of people without overcrowding and without any want. Some concept of what its potential population would have been can be gained by considering what this earth now supports when so much of it is drowned by oceans, and taken up by deserts, mountain ranges, and frozen regions impossible to inhabit, while the remainder has a very low fertility compared to the earth as it emerged direct from the Creator’s hand.
Any comparison between things as they then were and are now, immediately shows that very great changes have taken  place. The sun has been reduced to one seventh of its brightness and the moon has gone out.
The great water canopv is no longer suspended as a protective veil and insulating blanket above and around the earth. The moon and the sun no longer sustain the same relationship to each other.

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The climate has changed. Deserts dominate vast areas; huge, restless oceans occupy the greater part of the globe; great upthrusting mountain chains divide nations, control the weather, and create useless wastelands on their lee side; and the northern and southern caps are frozen. The earth is now watered by leaching rain in place of the gentle mist in Adam’s garden.
When and how did all these changes take place? Were they gradual, occupying centuries or milleniums of time, or were they climactic, happening in a few days or weeks?
God has not left this as a mafter of guesswork. The Scriptures plainly tell when and how it took place.
Certainly the changes did not take place to any significant degree prior to the flood. When Noah announced the coming of a deluge by a global rain storm to last for forty days and nights, the antediluvians scoffed at the idea. It had never rained during the one thousand, six hundred and fifty-six years before the flood came,
“In the days of Noah a double curse was resting upon the earth, in consequence of Adam’s transgression and of the murder committed by Cain. Vet this had not greatly changed the face of nature. There were evident tokens of decay, but the earth was still rich and beautiful in the gifts of God’s providence. The hills were crowned with majestic trees supporting the fruit-laden branches of the vine. The vast, garden-like plains were clothed with verdure, and sweet with the fragrance of a thousand flowers. The fruits of the earth were in great variety, and almost without limit. The trees far surpassed in size, beauty, and perfect proportion, any now to be found; their wood was of fine grain and hard substance, closely resembling stone, and hardly less enduring. Gold, silver, and precious stones existed in abundance.” Prytriarchs arid Prophets. 90.
Furthermore, the great, scientific minds of that day could prove mathematically that no rain was possible because of the continued generation of heat by the sun during the day and the moon by night. They also boldly declared, as scientists do today, that the sun would continue its radiation of heat energy for millions of years yet. Like the Pharaoh as yet unborn, they had lost sight of the essential knowledge that nature is not self-acting but requires the continued presence, control, and sustenance of God.
“The world before the flood reasoned that for centuries the laws of nature had been fixed. The recurring seasons had come in their order. Heretofore rain had never fallen; the earth had been watered by a mist or dew. The rivers had never yet passed their boundaries, but had borne their waters safely to the sea. Fixed decrees had kept the waters from overflowing their banks. But these reasoners did not recognize the hand of Him who had stayed the waters, saying. ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.’ Job 38;11.

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“As time passed on, with no apparent change in nature, men whose hearts had at times trembled with fear, began to be reassured. They reasoned, as many reason now, that nature is above the God of nature, and that her laws are so firmly established that God Himself could not change them. Reasoning that if the message of Noah were correct, nature would be turned out of her course, they made that message, in the minds of the world, a delusion--a grand deception. They manifested their contempt for the warning of God by doing just as they had done before the warning was given. They continued their festivities and their gluttonous feasts; they ate and drank, planted and builded, laying their plans in reference to advantages they hoped to gain in the future; and they went to greater lengths in wickedness, and in defiant disregard of God's requirements, to testify that they had no fear of the Infinite One. They asserted that if there were any truth in what Noah had said, the men of renown--the wise, the prudent, the great men--would understand the matter.” ibid., 96, 97.
For the first time ever, rain fell, beginning its torrential and incessant downpour seven days after the closing of the door, Thus the change came suddenly. Up to a certain day, it had never rained. With the advent of that day, it rained, not gently and then increasingly, but in an absolute deluge.
The water literally dropped out of the sky. At the same time, mighty underground supplies burst forth out of all control.
But this change could not occur unless firstly, changes had taken place in the sun and moon. There is only one way in which rain can come. Suspended water vapour must cool down to condensation point. Today this takes place when rain clouds drifting in from warmer areas either encounter a cold air front or are forced to rise to cross a mountain chain, In each case the saturated air is cooled. The water vapour turns to heavier-than-air water droplets and rain is the result.
But there were no great mountain barriers in Noah’s day nor was it possible for travelling saturated air to encounter a cold front, for there were no polar regions to generate them.
There was only one way for the water vapour in suspension above the earth to be chilled and that was for the moon and sun to begin to wane in heat production. This they did. The moon went out altogether and the sun faded to one seventh of its former brightness.
Suddenly, the vast volume of water vapour up there found itself deprived of seven-eighths of the heat it had been receiving. Rapidly the heat energy was exhausted in the work of keeping the vapour suspended. Chilling followed. Then came condensation. Practically all the water that had been taken from earth to sky by God’s direct power on the second day of creation, was returned through natural causes during those forty days and nights.

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So great is the power of God that He could speak into position a volume of water which took forty days and nights to return by its own power. The result was that for the second time the earth became cornp]etely flooded with water. Not a trace of dry land showed anywhere.
The first appearance of rain in Noah’s day is positive proof that it was then that the extinguishing of the moon and the diminishing of the sun took place. Confirmation of this is provided by both Isaiah and Peter. The evidence from Isaiah has already been quoted. Here it is again.
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isaiah 30:26.
This text supplies the proof that the sun was reduced in brightness and the moon went out at the time of the flood, for, the promise that the sun and the moon will be restored, will be fulfilled “ . . . in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”
A healing is the restoring to an original condition. If, in this healing work, the sun and moon are to be brought back to what they were, then it had to be at the making of the breach and the wounding that the sun and moon suffered their reductions. So it is only necessary to determine when the breach was made and the stroke administered, to know when the sun and moon were depleted of their powers.
There is only one point in time when a great stroke was delivered against mankind which produced a terrible breach on human population and that was at the flood. It was not when man sinned, for the punishment did not fall on him at that time due to the instant interposition of Christ. There is a distinction to be seen between committing the sin, and the punishment which comes long after, when the calls to repentance have been persistently rejected.
So great was the stroke and the resulting breach in the human family that total extermination almost resulted. God has promised to restore that which was lost but not those who were lost.
There have been many minor strokes made against sections of people, but none of these compare with the great flood and the damage it caused. The time is coming though, when that will be restored. The sun will come back to seven times its brightness and the moon will become as bright as the sun, thus re-establishing the earth to its pre-flood state.
From the evidences investigated so far, it is confirmed that the dimming of the sun and the extinguishing of the moon were the direct scientific and natural causes of the flood. What caused the sun and moon to lose their powers is a question yet to be determined, but the answer will come as we proceed. Firstly, some consideration must be given to New Testament evidences that great changes did take place at the flood.

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So great is the power of God that He could speak into position a volume of water which took forty days and nights to return by its own power. The result was that for the second time the earth became cornp]etely flooded with water. Not a trace of dry land showed anywhere.
The first appearance of rain in Noah’s day is positive proof that it was then that the extinguishing of the moon and the diminishing of the sun took place. Confirmation of this is provided by both Isaiah and Peter. The evidence from Isaiah has already been quoted. Here it is again.
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isaiah 30:26.
This text supplies the proof that the sun was reduced in brightness and the moon went out at the time of the flood, for, the promise that the sun and the moon will be restored, will be fulfilled “ . . . in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”
A healing is the restoring to an original condition. If, in this healing work, the sun and moon are to be brought back to what they were, then it had to be at the making of the breach and the wounding that the sun and moon suffered their reductions. So it is only necessary to determine when the breach was made and the stroke administered, to know when the sun and moon were depleted of their powers.
There is only one point in time when a great stroke was delivered against mankind which produced a terrible breach on human population and that was at the flood. It was not when man sinned, for the punishment did not fall on him at that time due to the instant interposition of Christ. There is a distinction to be seen between committing the sin, and the punishment which comes long after, when the calls to repentance have been persistently rejected.
So great was the stroke and the resulting breach in the human family that total extermination almost resulted. God has promised to restore that which was lost but not those who were lost.
There have been many minor strokes made against sections of people, but none of these compare with the great flood and the damage it caused. The time is coming though, when that will be restored. The sun will come back to seven times its brightness and the moon will become as bright as the sun, thus re-establishing the earth to its pre-flood state.
From the evidences investigated so far, it is confirmed that the dimming of the sun and the extinguishing of the moon were the direct scientific and natural causes of the flood. What caused the sun and moon to lose their powers is a question yet to be determined, but the answer will come as we proceed. Firstly, some consideration must be given to New Testament evidences that great changes did take place at the flood.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Great Changes

In the Old Testament it is Isaiah who provides the information that there was a great change at the time of the flood. In the New Testament it is Peter. In fact the latter writer is even more specific in that he names the flood as the great point of change.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
“And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
“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.” 2 Peter 3:3-7.
In these words, Peter divides history into two periods—antediluvian and post-diluvian. In doing so he uses the expression, “the world that then was,” to indicate the world as it was before the flood and which was destroyed by the flood. When referring to the world after that catastrophe, he speaks of “the heavens and the earth, which are now.
He does not speak only of the earth which is now, as being different from what it was before. He also includes the heavens in the change. The heavens referred to do not mean the starry heavens, nor the heaven of heavens where God dwells, for they have never been touched by sin and thus have never been changed. In actual fact, Peter does not define the particular heavens to which he is referring, but there is no need for any ignorance of this on our part. The information contained in the other Scriptures makes it clear that the heavens which changed at the time of the flood were those governed by the sun and the moon of this solar system.
Before the flood, the sun was seven times brighter and the moon was as bright as the sun. The sun ruled the day and the moon the night. There was a wonderful mantle of protective vapour around the earth and the climate from pole to pole was of pleasant, even temperatures. It never rained but a gentle mist rose each morning to water the earth- Storms, tidal waves, earthquakes, blizzards, hurricanes, and hail storms were completely unknown. That was the heavens and the earth which then were.

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But how different are the heavens and the earth which now are. The sun is dimmed to one seventh. The moon has gone out. The mantle of protection is not there. Wide diversity of climate covers the earth. Fierce storms, terrible earthquakes, destructive blizzards, pulverizing hailstorms, and a thousand other scourges blast the earth.
These are the great changes of which the wise men of today are ignorant, and wilfully so. It is not that they do not believe in the flood, for many of them do, but the deluge is seen as if it were no more than the same disasters which occur today on a lesser scale. They see the heavens and the earth before the flood as being essentially the same as the heavens and the earth after the flood. There simply came the time when an abnormally wet season flooded the entire earth. When the flood ended, as all floods do, the earth gradually returned to the same situation as before. This is the thinking of those who do recognize the flood, but fail to acknowledge the real changes which took place there.
We see from a more thorough and careful study of the Scriptures that the changes were much more far-reaching than that. It is needful that their full extent be understood, together with the causes namely, the dimming of the sun and the extinguishing of the moon.
When Noah emerged from the ark, God made a special promise and prophecy to him that there never would be a flood upon the earth again. That promise is repeated again in Isaiah. “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting.. light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.” Isaiah 60:20.
In what sense are these words to be understood?
Usually we refer to the sun or the moon “going down” when they appear to sink below the western horizon, but this is an erroneous expression, for neither the sun nor the moon go down in relation to the earth. They only appear to. The disappearance of these heavenly bodies behind the western mountains or plains, is caused by the rotation of the earth on its axis so that as the earth turns we are the ones who “go down”—not the sun and moon.
Because of its scientific inaccuracy this understanding of the expression, go down,” as used in the Scripture under consideration, must be highly suspect. That it is not the correct interpretation is made evident by certain facts revealed in the Word of God.
The first creation was perfect and the second will be a reproduction of it. There can be no differences between the second and the first because perfection cannot be improved, any modification being an admission that the first was imperfect and thus required improvement.
In the first creation, there was day and night occasioned by what we term the “going down” of the sun. If the promise of Isaiah 60:20 provided that the sun would never set in the western sky, then there would be no day and night as in the original, perfect creation. In fact, only one side of the

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earth would ever see the sun while the other would see only the moon, so it is easily seen that this is not the meaning of Isaiah 60:20.
Some may point to the reference in Revelation 22:5, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever,” and claim this teaches that there will not even be a sun in the new earth, for it will not be needed.
However, we are confident that most will recognize that this Scripture is not describing conditions in the new earth generally but as they will be in the new Jerusalem. Even then it does not say there will be no sun, but only that there will be no need of it for there will be the greater light streaming from the presence of God. So far as the rest of the earth is concerned it will have, as promised in Isaiah 30:26, a blazing sun and a brilliant moon. The earth will still rotate on its axis and each evening the sun will appear to “go down” behind the western horizon as it does today.
Furthermore, why should the Lord make a special promise that the sun would never go down again behind the western horizon each evening, then such an event was no trouble or problem? It is a perfectly normal and desirable occurrence, introducing the blessings of the night. Therefore, if this is all the Lord was offering in that Scripture, it could hardly be regarded as a precious promise.
The promise is made in respect to new earth dwellers who will again be enjoying perfect climatic conditions under the protective and insulating canopy supported by the sun and the moon as they will then be. They will know what happened when the sun went down in intensity and the moon withdrew itself in the days of Noah, To them, the promise that this will not happen again is a very valuable and precious one for by this means they are assured that never again will their beautiful home be flooded to destruction.
The guarantee offered in this Scripture is not merely that it will never happen, but that it will happen “no more.” “Thy sun shall no more go down. If it is to happen no more then must have happened already. The only occasion it could have been, was when the dimming of the sun and the extinguishing of the moon brought the deluge. Therefore, this verse along with Isaiah 30:26 and 2 Peter 3:3-7, is directly referring to the great changes which occurred in both the earth and the heavens when sun went down and the moon withdrew itself.  Consequently, the world “that then was,” was very different from the “heavens and the earth which are now.”
It is the utter failure by modern scientists to understand the full extent of these changes which has led them into erroneous conclusions in all matters of dating extending beyond existing historical records. While the earth is, in fact, not quite six thousand years of age, they date it in the hundreds of millions of years.

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Great excitement was experienced during the nineteen-forties when the radiocarbon method of dating was developed. Careful testing of the procedure with materials of known age proved its accuracy. Thereupon, the dating of materials of known age proved its accuracy.  Thereupon, the dating of materials of otherwise undetermined age was undertaken and, to the delight of the scientists, the readout agreed with established postulations of the age of the earth and life upon it. Whereas the Biblical record allows for only about six thousand years, they confirmed figures running into millions.
	At the time, faithful Bible students were perplexed to some extent by this, for the evolutionists felt that they had a sure upper-hand in the everlasting debate on the age of the earth. There seemed a real possibility that the Bible, after all, could be proved to be in error. Those of us, however, who understood, even back there, the full extent of the changes which did take place at the flood, recognized immediately the defect in their calibrations. The relaying of this information to the perplexed among God’s children quickly set their minds at rest.
“Radiocarbon age dating, developed in the late 1940’s at The University of Chicago, is an example of the application of one of the newest sciences (atomic energy) to one of the oldest (archaeology). The technique involves measuring the relative activities of radioactive carbon (C14) in (l) present-dayj living organic matter and (2) the sample under investigation, and multiplying the logarithm of this ratio by the rate at which the activity of (C14) decays with time. Careful measurements have shown that the activity of any given preparation of carbon- 14 is reduced by exactly one-half during each interval of 5,568 ±30 years. This value is called the half life of C14.
“Radiocarbon is produced in nature by an indirect process involving the interaction of cosmic rays from outer space with the nitrogen in the earth’s atmosphere. The competing processes of formation and of decay of C14 have been going on for so long that the equilibrium has been established, and the world inventory of C14 is estimated at about 70 metric tons. Radiocarbon therefore has been introduced into the biosphere, and all living matter contains a small quantity of radiocarbon which averages 15.3 ± 0.1 disintegrations per minute per gram of contained carbon. This activity remains constant throughout the life of the organic matter because of the above-mentioned equilibrium processes.
“However, at death the introduction of radiocarbon into the specimen ceases, while the normal decay of the contained radiocarbon continues according to the half life mentioned above. Therefore an archaeological specimen (for example, a mummy or a tree) which yields 7.65 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon instead of 15.3 is judged to be 5,568 ± 30 years old. If the material shows only one-fourth of the radiocarbon content of living matter, the age of the specimen is 11,136 ± 60 years. etc. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1963 Edition, Volume 18:904, 905.

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In less scientific terms the above may be re-stated as follows: There is a continual bombardment of this earth by cosmic rays from outer space. These, interacting with the nitrogen in the atmosphere cause all living organisms to absorb radiocarbon 14. This continues until the death of the living thing, be it plant, animal, or human. Thereafter the radiocarbon 14 breaks down at an accurately known rate. To determine how long since death took place, the residual radiocarbon in the specimen is measured. If half the original activity remains then it is known that the age of the subject is very close to 5,568 years.
As mentioned above, when the procedure was tested using samples with ages already established through other means, it always checked out accurately. It was natural to assume then, that it would be equally reliable in testing materials for which there was no definite way of determining age. Coal was an excellent example of this kind of matter.
When samples were tested, there was found to be a complete absence any radiocarbon 14. It was natural to conclude that it had been there in the usual strength in the original living trees, but these had been dead for so long that complete disintegration of the radioactive material had taken place. Knowing that this could happen only over an exceedingly long period of time, they dated the coal as being many hundreds of thousands of years old.
In doing so they did the very thing God, through Peter, foretold they would do. They denied that there had ever been a great change in the heavens and the earth and worked on the assumption that “ . . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 2 Peter 3:4.
Had they understood that the earth was mantled by that protective water vapour, they would have known that before the flood, cosmic rays could never have penetrated into our atmosphere as they do today.  Plants and animals did not absorb any radiocarbon 14 before the flood because the band of moisture filtered the rays out before they ever reached the nitrogen in the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore scientists found no radiocarbon clock in the coal—not because it had all disintegrated, but because it was never there originally. Thus the radiocarbon clock, far from denying the truth of the Bible, actually serves to confirm it.
Had the heavens and the earth been the same before the flood as they are now, with no better protection from cosmic ray penetration, then the trees would have absorbed it as they do today. When buried by the flood, the breakdown would have proceeded and the measuring instruments today would have shown the coal to be a little less than five thousand years old. We know how old the coal is without the help of a radiocarbon clock. We have the Word of God and from its utterly reliable source we know that the flood occurred about four thousand, four hundred years ago.
If the scientists were to allow for the great changes made in the heavens and the earth at the flood they would also make allowances for their dating

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techniques and would not propose such astronomical figures for the age of the earth. It is interesting to note that since the introduction of this system, it has been discovered that the method is by no means as reliable as first thought.
Some may question the effectiveness of the moisture mantle in screening out the cosmic radiation, but the fact is that even the limited presence of moisture and atmosphere around our earth today, is a protection from this problem. When supersonic jets traverse the oceans at altitudes which practically take them out of this earth’s atmosphere, it is necessary to keen a continual watch on solar flares. Should these break out while they are in flight, they must immediately return to a lower altitude top lace atmosphere between themselves and open space so as to obtain protection from this radiation.
This clearly shows how completely the protective mantle before the flood would screen out all these radiations from outer space. Therefore, any fossils of things living before the flood will always give a zero readout so far as radioactive carbon content is concerned. This is proof, not that they are so old that there has been a complete decay of this material, but that it was never there in the first place in order to break down. Its absence confirms the vastly different conditions existing in the heavens and the earth prior to the deluge.
Thus the Word of God offers us a great deal of information about conditions as they were before the flood, the scientific forces which maintained those conditions, and the changes in those forces which produced the flood. This information is of tremendous value in searching out the specific role the Lord played in that fearful stroke of their wound which made such an enormous breach upon the people. It does not seem that the same wealth of scientific information has been offered to us in the Bible, to explain how the plagues of Egypt fell. At least, such has not been found in the Scriptures though it might well be there, only waiting to be revealed to God’s children.
On the other hand, the revelation of the scientific causes of the flood, is a strong confirmation of the truth that God does not execute the sinner, but that the catastronhies which destroy mankind are the outworking of natural forces no longer under God’s control and supervision. While the Lord has not supplied the same detailed information about the scientific basis of the Egyptian plagues, faith is strengthened by the evidences of the flood to know that they had a scientific basis too.
Once these have been established then it is possible to understand just what God did in these situations.

281

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Concepts Revised

The Biblical evidences gathered so far, confirm the scientific nature of the flood. The perfect arrangement of balanced heat supply and protective mantle producing a mild and equalized climate over the earth, was critically dependent on the uniform production of heat from the sun and the moon. When that failed, the flood was inevitable.
The question now remaining is why the sun came to be dimmed and the moon extinguished. This problem solved, there will remain no difficulties in connection with God’s character as it was manifested in that catastrophe. If the dimming and the extinguishing of those two bodies was God’s deliberate act performed at a moment dictated by Him, then God certainly was an executioner of the sentence against transgression. He did not leave the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they had sown. He was a destroyer. Undeniably, He departed from His stated principles and resorted to measures foreign to Him and His kingdom prior to the entrance of sin.
This is, of course, the view generally adopted, together with its implications which unfortunately, are rarely considered. If men did but contemplate the full import of what they believe, they would heartily reject many errors.
Strengthening the tendency to adopt this position, is the awareness that God has full power to extinguish the moon and dim the sun, easily and instantly. There is no possibility, need, or intention of denying this. God is possessed of infinite power. Just as by commanding and it was done. God placed those blazing orbs in the day and nighttime sky, so He could as readily put them out again. There is no contention over God’s ability to be the executioner. He possessed all the power necessary and much more besides. It required Him only to speak and it would be done, to command and it would be destroyed.
The controversy is over whether He, who was in possession of such power, would use it in this way. Those who have grasped the principles laid down in this book, will understand that while God has the power to do it, He did not, because He is bound by immutable principles of righteousness not to use His might in that way. All such will praise the excellence of character which, equipped with infinite might while pressed under the severest provocation, does not retaliate. That is righteousness at its beautiful best.
The story of the flood is very significant and important to me, for it was this recital, which, twenty-six years ago in 1952, first exercised my mind on the problems of understanding God’s character. Prior to this I had simply

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accepted the traditional concepts of God’s character without question, but from that time forward they became subject to serious challenge. It happened as follows:
The Sabbath School lessons of that year took the students back to the beginning of the great controversy in heaven. I studied with fascinated interest, the rise of sin in Lucifer, his opposition to God, His government and law, and the divine response to this terrible spirit of rebellion.
From the outset of my study it became increasingly and sharply clear that the struggle was not a contest instituted to prove who was physically stronger, for there could be no doubt of God’s infinite superiority in this field. Neither Lucifer nor any other creature challenged this. Furthermore, had that been the issue then God could have resolved it with one overwhelming demonstration of His almighty power. It would not have been necessary to wait for almost two thousand years and then bring the flood to prove that He was physically stronger than Satan and his hosts.
I came to understand that the contest was over the respective merits of two opposing and irreconcilable systems of government, the one long established by God versus that newly espoused by Satan. God declared that His system was perfect, needed no modifications or improvements, and guaranteed for those who faithfully respected it, the permanence of eternal life, prosperity, and advancement. Satan counter-claimed that the divine order was not all it pretended to be, a point having been reached where it had ended its effective reign. Far from being a system designed for the universal good of all, he charged, it was a master plot formulated for the special exaltation of the Father and the Son. Because of this, he insinuated, an oppressive era was about to be introduced which would increase in severity as eternity dragged on. While he admitted that up till that time conditions could not have been better, he declared that the future would certainly reveal the defects in the divine system. He agitated that it was imperative that every member of the angelic hosts stand up for themselves before they were so circumscribed by bondage that they would be powerless to assert their rights.
Satan’s attack was upon the principles of God’s character and thus His government. The question was whether the established ways of God’s government could emerge impeccably from subjection to the most searching test Satan could give it, or whether defects would become evident.
God was confident that it could emerge immaculate and therefore, had no hesitation in submitting it to the ultimate test. Let the devil attack and counter-attack! Let him use all the weapons of force and deception! God knew that His system would come through vindicated and perfect.
So God entered into the great controversy for which this earth and its people became the testing ground, the arena, the theatre. I recognized back there the critical importance of understanding what was under test, what was at stake, and the limitations placed upon God by His own acceptance

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of this challenge. God did not permit the testing of His system of government to preserve His personal honour and word, for God is not self-centred. He did it for the salvation of the creatures in His universe
I perceived that a clear distinction must be seen between the principles of God’s government itself, and the personal power resident in God by which He could enforce the observance of His ways if He chose to use those methods. When this distinction is seen, it then follows that if God’s principles are under test then they must stand or fall on their own merits. If the Lord should find it necessary to introduce another factor, such as the use of omnipotent power, to settle the controversy, then this would depart from His original committal to leave the principles of righteousness to stand or fall on their own merits. It would also be an admission that they were defective and could not stand by virtue of their own intrinsic qualities. It would give Satan the whole argument, for this action would prove the adversary correct in his charges.
So I emerged from studying the beginnings of the great controversy clearly understanding its legal aspects, what it was all designed to prove, and assured that God had positioned Himself where He could not interpose His omnipotent personal power to ensure that the victory was His. He had not assumed this position for the first time just to meet the issue. Eternally, He had occupied that place, but under the pressure of the test, He reaffirmed this truth with a much more clearly defined statement of His eternal principles and purposes.
My only sources in this study were the inspired writings and I emerged from them thrilled with these discoveries of truth. I had come to see and know God as I had never seen Him before, and I was exceedingly happy with the revelation.
But a few weeks later, the Sabbath School lessons moved on to the flood. Naturally, up till that time, I had held the universally accepted view that the wickedness of man had become so great, the Lord was obliged to step in with His judgmental power and wipe them out as a stern warning of what all others would likewise receive if they pursued a similar course of defiance against God.
Now, however, I found this traditionally-held view in sharp conflict with the principles of God’s position in the great controversy. I was unable to reconcile the newly discovered truths revealing the legal basis of the great controversy with the view I had always unquestioningly held of God’s behaviour at the flood.
On one side I could see clearly that the Father and Son had allowed the conflict to play itself out upon the stage of this earth. They had declared that the victory for the cause of righteousness must and would come by the application of its own power and rightness—not because of the interposition of omnipotent power on God’s part being used to destroy the non-conforming.

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But, on the other hand it was clear that as time passed and men began to really multiply upon the face of the earth, things were going from bad to worse for God’s cause. Continually, in increasing numbers, the inhabitants of the earth were joining Satan, while God’s accounting finally showed only eight to His credit. Yet even among them, the loyalty was far from absolute, as demonstrated by Ham’s behaviour after the flood.
There are no records in Holy Writ showing just how many inhabitants the earth then supported, Yet to appreciate the minuteness of the minority in contrast to the majority, one has to consider the likely population of the earth at that time. In his book, The Flood, Alfred Rehwinkel estimates that the population might have been anywhere between two thousand million and twelve thousand million. Of course, it is impossible to gain an exact figure. As one reads this author’s arguments, one realizes that he is being very careful in his assessments. He is a responsible researcher, not a sensation raiser. Therefore, the population could have been well in excess of his estimates.
Today, the population of this earth is given at three billion, eight hundred and eighty-eight million and seven hundred and eighty-seven thousand, which is approaching four thousand million, or four billion. This is the figure quoted in the Encyclopedia Brittanica 1976 Year Book, page 566. This is twice the minimum figure suggested by Rehwinkel and one third of the maximum figure. These comparisons should give us some idea of the disparity between the forces gone over to Satan’s camp and the very few who remained loyal to God.
Every appearance then, suggested that Satan was about to emerge as the outright winner in the great controversy, that his ways were so superior to the ways of God that everyone on the earth was for them but for the eight. In time these few would either die or join anyway.
As I looked upon the whole problem back there, my thoughts ran along these lines. It was desperately important to God that the situation not be allowed to continue to the point where there was no one left on His side for, essential to the ultimate success of His plan, was the birth of the Redeemer through the righteous line. Should the righteous line be cut off, then God’s plan must fail. 
It must fail, not simply because the intention of God to save the human family would be frustrated, but because God would be deprived of the means of removing the cause of the rebellion. That cause as has been demonstrably proved earlier in this book was the misrepresentation of the character of God, firstly in the mind of Lucifer and later to the other creatures.
The only satisfactory and successful way to solve a problem is to remove the cause of it. Once the problem of sin, which is rebellion against the principles of God’s government, entered the universe, all the resources of heaven were devoted to its solution. It is a mistake to limit the solution to

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the cleansing of sin from those who will be saved, while the rest are simply left to their annihilation. The problem will not be solved until the cause has been removed from the mind of every creature who has ever come into existence including all those who will, in the end, be eternally lost.
Inasmuch as the cause of all the trouble is the misrepresentation of God’s character, whilever that misconception remains in the minds of angels and men, the rebellion must continue. Therefore, to end it, that misconception must be corrected. This cannot be done merely by declarations on God’s part or by the use of force. There is only one way to accomplish it. The character of God must be manifested by One Who was equal with God. Only Christ could do the work.
But it was impossible for Him to do it successfully in the perfect environment of heaven, It could be done there to a certain extent but not wholly. There is a very valid reason for this. In heaven, Satan had not developed the fulness of his attack against the character of God. It remained for him to do that on this earth. This imposed on Christ the necessity of coming right to the place where Satan was perpetrating the fulness of his lies against God and there, side by side with the character of Satan, provide the contrasting revelation of God’s character. Only as men and angels were able to see both of them side by side, could the revelation of God and Satan be so fully given that the cause of the struggle could be erased from angelic and human minds.
For Jesus Christ to come into this position, He must be born into the human family. He could and would not force any woman to be His mother. The one through whom He would enter the earthly arena must be absolutely willing to perform this office. We can be assured that no one who was on Satan’s side would undertake such a commission. Satan knew this. Therefore, he realized that one way to secure the victory in the contest was to either win every human being over to his side, or to win all he could and then use them to exterminate the rest.
Satan was terribly afraid that if Christ did appear on the earth, He would be successful in exposing the lies he had levelled against God, with the result that he would be rejected with loathing by all the creatures whose support he so desperately sought. He knew that everything depended on his successfully preventing such a demonstration from being given. Therefore he worked with fanatical and unsleeping zeal to win as many of the human family as possible to his side and to destroy the remainder. Success in so doing would deprive God of the means whereby Christ could enter the earthly arena of battle.
Victory for Satan would have been assured at any point of time before the first advent of Christ, where he could have destroyed the righteous line. It was vital to his cause that he achieve this, while for God it was equally vital that the righteous line be preserved. Had God lost every follower to the devil, He would have been unable to bring His Son into the world, provide

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thereby the necessary character demonstration, unmask the deceptions of the devil and thus, by removing the cause of the rebellion, bring it to its end. lnstead His kingdom would remain cursed with an ever widening and deepening scourge of rebellion.
Never did Satan come so close to absolute success in his determinations than just prior to the flood. God saw His forces of loyal followers dwindle down to a mere and doubtful eight while the devil numbered millions as his. It was all too obvious that but a short time would elapse before death and apostasy would win the balance totally in Satan’s favor.
With the future of the entire kingdom of God throughout the infinite reaches of His domains at stake, such a development placed enormous pressure upon God to step in and take direct and decisive action to save the situation from total and eternal disaster. If the traditional view of what God did at the flood is correct, then God succumbed to that pressure.
Back there in 1952, 1 saw a terrible conflict between the popular concept that God in personal judgment sent the flood upon the earth, and the truth that God has submitted His principles to stand on their own merits against the mightiest attacks the devil could make upon them. It was impossible for me to question the veracity of the truth that God and Christ had agreed to this utterly fair and proper contest between their principles and those the devil wished to introduce,
1 realized that if God and Christ had entered into such a plan, and then, sixteen centuries later, when things had moved to the brink of disaster for Them, They had organized the flood, They must have gone into conference and reasoned as follows: “In the beginning We agreed and announced that We would permit the principles of righteousness to be subjected to the severest tests the devil could place upon them. We went on record as testifying that those principles are so perfect and complete that they are immortal and cannot be destroyed. We averred that there was no need to introduce super-power weapons to force a conclusion favourable to Us. But things are turning so badly against Us that if We do not step in now with Our infinite power and curb the onrush of Satan and his people, all will be loss to Us and gain to him. Therefore the situation now developed demands that We arise and do something. What shall it be?”
Popular theology asserts that the Lord then stepped in with the flood to thoroughly curb the advancement of Satan’s cause. He wiped out Satan’s forces to the last individual and so savaged the earth that it was never the same again.
If this is what God did, then He made a complete farce of the original statement of willingness to submit the case to fair contest and of His expression of confidence that the principles of righteousness could survive such a test. It would appear that He started out in the hope that they would; viewed with growing dismay the turning of the tide against Him; held out till the last possible moment, and then found Himself obliged to resort to the use of His limitless powers to contain the rebellion within certain limits.

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I thought of a number of people who, year after year, entered the competition for the best front garden in town. One man of unusual skill took the prize time after time until he came to think it was his by right. Yet, each year, he put forth the utmost effort to ensure that none outclassed him. The time came when, to his consternation, a new face entered the contest and it became apparent as the months went by, that this newcomer was an exceptional gardener whose efforts showed every prospect of taking off the first prize.
The usual prize winner became convinced that unless something was done, he certainly would not be the number one man this year and perhaps never would be again. Desperately, he worked harder on his own plot but he was never able to outstrip the new man. He saw at last that he could not win the contest by fair means so he determined to win it otherwise. In the dead of night, he let loose some animals to rampage through the property of the other, with the result that the beautiful garden was destroyed. When the judges came the next day, he received the prize as usual. No one knew, of course, that he was responsible for the devastation of the real prizewinning garden and he was most careful not to reveal this for he knew with what indignation such an action would be viewed.
Furthermore, the revelation to all concerned of what he had done would have turned the judges against him. Not one of them would have awarded him the prize. They would have agreed that the man whose garden had been ravaged was the real prize winner.
Once it is clearly understood that the Lord had agreed to submit the principles of righteousness to any kind of test and declared that they would stand on their own merits without the interposition of arbitrary power, it will likewise be seen that should God at the last moment resort to the use of destructive power to wipe out the efforts of His competitor, then no one will believe in Him. He will be literally giving the case away to Satan
God would give His enemy every just right to charge Him with unfairness, duplicity and deception. Satan would ask how he could ever fairly demonstrate his claims, when the Lord lets him go until he is on the very brink of success and then, because He is the possessor of omnipotent power, uses that to wipe out all Satan has achieved. Satan could rightfully complain that he never would have any real chance of proving anything. God would have no defence against this argument and it would actually serve to increase the spirit of rebellion in the universe. No fair-minded person would stand on God’s side once these issues were clearly understood.
When I came to understand these things, I was thrown into quite a state of perplexity. Fortunately, my faith in the justice and honour of God’s character and the veracity of the Scriptures was such that I was well prepared to hold on till the problem was solved. I believed that the Lord would answer my earnest and honest searching. Frankly I recognized that I was confronted with two contradictory pictures and with equal strength of

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conviction I knew that there was no such thing as a contradiction in the Scriptures but only in our understanding of them.
For a number of days, little else but this problem weighed upon my mind. Every opportunity I had was devoted to studying the Bible and to prayer. I knew that there must be a solution which would fully reconcile what God did at the flood and the eternal principles to which He was committed.
I knew that the standard evaluation of God’s behaviour there could not be reconciled with the new truths I had learned about His character and law. Therefore, I became more and more doubtful of the popular view. I could not accept the idea that God, Who knows all things from the beginning, would commit Himself to a position which would later get completely out of hand, forcing Him to introduce methods He had originally declared would never be used. If God did this, He would have to be rated as an impractical idealist and we need a God superior to that.
When God committed all the resources of heaven to ending the great controversy, He knew already the coming numerical imbalance at the flood. It did not catch Him by surprise and He had made full provision to meet the emergency. Therefore, when He promised the ultimate triumph of truth and predicted Christ’s coming to the earth as an essential part of the plan, He was well aree how narrowly the sheme would come short of failure in Noah’s day. Knowing all this in advance, did not perturb Him in the slightest. He made no provisions for it outside of His eternal principles of truth. He still committed Himself to fair and open contest.
Yet, while the traditional view of God’s conduct at the flood had become suspect, I found at first, no alternative to take its place. Then suddenly, after several days of intense mental preoccupation, the solution came to my mind. All the things I had learned fell neatly and harmoniously into place and the problem was resolved. From that day to this, no argument raised by anyone has caused me to doubt what I saw that day.
I saw that God had not sent the flood to obliterate Satan’s forces. On the contrary, He had done His very best to keep the flood from coming for as long as He possibly could. When it finally came, it was not because He had sent it, but because He could no longer prevent it.
The key to the problem lay in the application of two principles, The first is that God will never force His presence where it is not desired, and the second is that every power in nature is directly and continually dependent on God’s creative power to  keep it on station fulfilling its appointed task. Therefore in the era leading up to the deluge, the sun and the moon, which were critical factors in the coming of the flood, were dependent on the presence of God’s power to keep them burning at exactly the correct heat level and stationed at the proper distance from the earth. Let the Lord’s hand be removed from the control and direction of those two orbs of fire, and the flood had to follow.

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Under Satan’s determined and relentless influence, men increasingly desired total separation from God. They wanted nothing of His ways or principles. God, knowing the dreadful consequences of such a course, sent message after message pleading with them to correct their drift, but they steadily insisted on His departure. Because He will never force His presence where it is not desired, He had no choice but to depart. In doing so, He gave them what they wanted, the control of the heavens and the earth. The moon, being nearer to the earth, was the first to feel the effect of God’s departure. It went out entirely. The sun, much further away from men and much larger than the moon took longer to diminish completely. Before it could do so, the wicked had perished and suddenly the situation was reversed. Whereas the majority had been against God, now the changed situation placed the majority on His side. They were only eight in number but still the majority.
These, of course, desired the Lord to fill His office and do His work of sustaining the powers of heaven and earth. Thus the returning Spirit of God was able to arrest any further decay in the sun and maintain it at the diminished level. It has remained that way ever since.
With the moon out and the sun at diminished output. there was neither the heat energy to return the water to its proper place nor the energy to maintain it there. Nor was it possible for the surviving remnant to live on a shoreless ocean. The water must be relocated to expose sufficient land to produce food for man and beast. This was accomplished by the violent up-thrusts of land masses forming the great mountain chains and peaks found in the Himalayas, Andes, Alps, Rockies, and so on. Additionally, enormous quantities of water were held in cold storage at the poles.
Artists’ representations of conditions experienced by the disembarking voyagers, give the impression that the water gently subsided and Noah and his family emerged to a scarred but peaceful earth. This has to be far from true. We have no concept of the titanic convulsions which all but tore this earth apart. There were no great mountain chains between the creation and the cataclysm. The earth was beautifully formed with pleasant, undulating land, low hills, verdant valleys, and slowly moving rivers. Think then, of the energy necessary to open up the almost bottomless ocean depths, and thrust those huge mountain chains into the air as high as twenty-nine thousand feet.
During the flood, unbelievable quantities of organic material were buried in the earth which quickly generated heat, This burst through to the surface in explosions and fiery issues. Volcanoes circled the globe. Most of them are extinct today, but then they belched forth smoke and fire incessantly.
Grim indeed was the view confronting the patriarch, his wife, and children, as they stepped out of their boat. The sky was filled with the pall of

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black smoke, the earth heaved and shook as earthquake tremors succeeded each other, It must have required some centuries before it settled down again.
But none of these terrible destructions were the work of God. Neither man nor Satan can justly charge God with the damages done. It was not His direct act by which the moon was extinguished and the sun dimmed. He laboured unceasingly to save man from stepping so far out of the ways of righteousness as to compel His retirement from control. If His efforts had been successful, there never would have been a flood. It came, not because God sent it, but because He could not stop it. Those who believe that there are two sides to the character of God—the loving side and “His strange act”—see the flood coming as a result of God’s changing from the former to the latter. The real truth is that the flood proved inevitable, not because God changed His tactics, but because He remained undeviatingly the same. With Him, the use of force has ever been excluded. Therefore, to have prevented the flood once His final appeals had been rejected would have required Him to change to forcing His presence where it was emphatically not desired. This He could not do thus leaving nothing to prevent the onset of disaster.
Satan and men had applied the greatest possible pressure upon God to force Him into changing His ways and introducing the weapons of force into His arsenal. But they failed. God had foreseen it from the beginning and simply went composedly on His way as the crisis developed, knowing that His principles would stand the test. They did.
Therefore, there is absolutely no difference between God’s conduct at the flood and His conduct during the falling of the plagues on Egypt. In both cases the rod of power slipped out of His grasp and became a serpent of destruction.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Sodom And Gomorrah

Noah and his family emerged from the ark to tread a shattered earth. The destruction was beyond description. They needed no convincing that the flood had come, but they did need a very real assurance that it would not happen again. This the Lord was able to give them.
“And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
“And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
“And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
“And I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood: neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
“And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
“I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.
“And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
“And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh: and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
“And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
“And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Genesis 9:8-17.
These words assure us that there will never again be a repetition of the deluge which twice before has covered the earth, firstly in the opening days of creation, and secondly, during Noah’s time.
The Noachic flood was none of God’s doing, it having come in spite of His efforts. Therefore, His statement that there would never again be a flood of water, was not an undertaking to restrain Himself, but a prediction of what the future held. Specifically, the prophecy is limited to a flood of water. It does not ensure against the deluge of fire by which the earth will finally consumed.

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For there to be another flood of water, the conditions necessary to produce it must exist. Before Noah’s time, they did, but today they no longer do, as the did then. The only way total flooding could reoccur would be for the polar caps to melt, the mountain chains levelled into the ocean depths and, in general, the land masses reduced to about the same elevation. All the water which covered the earth in the first days of creation and which returned to submerge it again, is still here. Therefore, it would cover the earth if it was evenly distributed over the surface again.
Should the Lord withdraw His sustaining presence from the earth, convulsions of this magnitude are not impossible. It happened before, to produce the ocean depths and the mountain heights, for neither of these existed between the creation and the flood.
But we are well informed in God’s Word that this is not the direction things will take when His presence is finally and fully withdrawn from the earth. Rather, a flood of fire, not water, will engulf the planet.
These floods, firstly of water and lastly of fire, are not disconnected. The former is the parent of the latter. This relationship should be clearly understood, and it will be the purpose of the evidences and arguments immediately following, to certify this.
It is not usual to think of water producing fire, for water is the most commonly used means of extinguishing a conflagration. However, it is easily proved that the waters of the flood were the direct cause of destructive fires which have burst forth from the earth ever since, and are the means whereby enormous amounts of fuel will be provided to fire that last great holocaust. More than this, it is desired to show that the flood, though itself long since over, Lives on in the form of offspring. Some roam the earth as storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, and tempests, others are confined to a single location such as volcanoes, and still others break forth in expected and unexpected spots as earthquakes and tidal waves. All are devoted to missions of destruction.
The flood marks the time division between original tranquillity and the aberrations of nature. Of every one of these deviations from God’s original scheme of things, the flood is also the parent. These disturbances may be divided into two categories: those found in the earth, and the others in the atmosphere.
The first of these include volcanic eruptions, thermal activities, earthquakes and tidal waves. In the latter are storms, tempests, hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, typhoons, floods, and droughts.
Problems arising within the earth were spawned when the flood waters buried vast forests whose timbers were of majestic and durable quality. Under the multiplied pressures of earth and rock beneath which they were entombed, they turned to coal which then produced oil. In some cases the generated heat ignites these materials which penetrate to the surface, forming volcanoes, thermal activities, and fiery fissures. There are situations

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where the opening earth admits tonnages of water which, contacting the molten rock, transforms into steam. Great pressures are built up causing underground explosions, the radiating shock waves of which trigger earthquakes. These are also caused by subsidence of the earth as the supporting material below is consumed. When an earthquake happens at sea, a tidal wave is launched.
Thus, the flood is truly the parent of all these troubles within the earth itself.
Weather as it is today, is the product of conditions brought about by the deluge. The redistribution of land and water masses, the location of mountains and flat lands, and the inequalities of climate, all formed by the flood, are the determining factors in producing atmospheric problems from their mildest to their wildest forms. There is not the space nor need in this volume to make a detailed study of weather, interesting and valuable as such would be. Those who do undertake such an investigation will be suitably impressed with the relationship between the weather and the conditions established by the flood.
One example will suffice. In November 1977, a severe snow storm ravaged South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin before crossing the border into Canada. A moisture-laden mass of warm air had flowed northward from the Gulf of Mexico until it met a southbound cold front originating in the Arctic zone. At the meeting point over the northern states, the warm, moist air was chilled and immediately precipitated in heavy snowfalls. Roads were closed, lives were lost, and extensive damage was done. It was days before life returned to normal.
This was possible only because of the geographical and climatic factors existing. Had there been another displacement of these elements, the northern states would never have had that storm. If, for instance the Rocky Mountains had lain east and west across southern Texas, the advancing warm air would have been forced upward to chillier elevations causing it to condense into rain which would have fallen on the coastal plains and run back to the sea again. There would never have been the confrontation between warm and cold fronts which produced the storms and losses in the north. Likewise, if the mountain chains had been lying east and west in Canada the cold front would never have come through to the south. It would have detoured off to the east or west.
Consideration of other possibilities would produce interesting results. Suppose that the Gulf of Mexico was dry land, that the mountain chains all lay east-west so that a plain stretched between them from the Pacific to the Atlantic, or that the United States was another shape. The weather pattern in each case would be very different.
What tremendous changes the flood set up, producing results which reach down to the end of time. The destruction initiated at the flood but halted before it had finally consumed all things, will then break forth to

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completion. Those fires by which the earth will be reduced to ashes, will also be the child of the flood, for the remaining deposits of coal and oil in the earth will fuel that last conflagration.1
In the meantime, drought and flood, tempest and earthquake, tidal wave and hurricane, volcano and fire, are that cataclysm’s troubled offspring which will plague earth dwellers till the end.
Not every area is afflicted with all these scourges. In fact, some parts are apparently free from them. This explains why some centres of sin pass unscathed year after year, while others seemingly less iniquitous, are struck down with shocking suddenness. Those cities located right where one of these children of the flood resides, need to be far more careful than those in positions more favoured. For years the giant of destruction will remain unseen or manifest itself only in mild forms, because the restraining power of God holds it in check while He seeks to woo men from their danger and while there remains in the city a faithful remnant for whose sake He will continue His restraint. But, during this time, the unwitting inhabitants continue to resist His appeals until finally He has no choice but to leave them to their desires.
The unfettered monster then bursts with unannounced fury upon the unprotected heads and homes of the abandoned sinners, whose destruction may be as total in the area where they are, as it was over the whole earth when the flood came.
Sodom and Gomorrah were a case in point.
The Scriptures report the devastation of those cities and their peoples in the same way that all the other destructions which fell upon abandoned sinners are described.
“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” Genesis 19:24, 25.
To millions of Bible readers, these words have pictured God as personally pouring great sheets of flame from His own hands upon the hapless victims below. But, those who have come to learn and accept the principles of God’s character as explored in this study and who have learned to use the Bible as its own dictionary, know that such an interpretation is wholly incorrect.
Rather, the truly Biblical interpretation of these words is that the Lord had no option but to withdraw and leave the wicked to the fate they had chosen. This He had done only when every means and appeal had been totally exhausted and there was nothing more He could do. Then, whatever potential of destruction was lurking in the area, was unleashed. The result was terminal.
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1 See Spiritual Gifts 3: 76, 89

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There is always great value in assessing the implications of a certain belief, so study will now be given to see in what image God is cast by the belief that He personally poured that fire down upon the dwellers on the plains. Only a certain kind of God would do this.
Death by fire is one of the cruellest and most-to-be-feared ways to die. On February 1, 1974, a fire started by an electrical short-circuit in an air-conditioner, engulfed the upper fourteen storeys of a newly constructed twenty-five storey bank building, trapping hundreds of workers as the flames fed on combustible interior-finish materials. Due to inadequate escape facilities, at least two hundred and twenty-seven persons lost their lives. Those in the higher floors above the fire level found themselves cut off. As the fire advanced upwards, many chose to die by leaping from the upper levels rather than face the hungry flames.
In the jungles and forests it is the thing most feared by the animal kingdom. Beasts and reptiles lose all fear of each other as they flee pell-mell from the roaring flames. There is good reason, for death by fire is a horrible death.
Think of yourself as facing the death penalty, the only consolation being that the choice of how you will die is given to you. The choices are firing squad, gassing, the electric chair, beheading, hanging, or being burned alive. None of these is a pleasant prospect, but when you sit and think of our body being roasted while you are still alive, you know that that is the very last choice you would make. It is not difficult to realize that this is the kind of death which a judge or king would impose upon a person whose death he wished to make as painful as possible.
Picture the scene back there when the consuming flames fell upon the cities of the plain. The Scriptures tell us that “when the morning arose,” Lot and his family were hurried out of the city and, as soon as they were clear, the destruction fell in flaming torrents. Therefore it was an early morning conflagration.

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The sun is beginning to mount in the heavens. The family is astir. Breakfast is on the table and the mother is busily bathing and dressing her young children of whom one is still but a nursling. Suddenly the ordinary noises coming from the street are exchanged for frantic cries of alarm and then of terrible agony. The golden glow of the morning is changed to fiery orange and red. The father and mother glance with fearful apprehension through the window and see an appalling spectacle outside. Fire is running like a river down the street engulfing victims in its path who fall writhing and twisting in searing agony. Their boy rushes into the house screaming while his clothes and hair burn like a torch. He flings his body into his mother’s recoiling arms scorching her and baby alike.
Within the house, there is protection for only a short time. The flames are consuming the timbers, licking in through doors and windows and reaching out for the trapped ones inside. They retreat to an inner room, but though it gives them a little longer to live, it makes the end more agonizing. Steadily, the temperature in the room rises while the flames batter at the walls without, until the room becomes an oven in which they are slowly but terribly baked alive. The temperature of their clothes rises above ignition point and bursts into flames. As they tear them off, their flesh comes away in great sheets and the stench of cooking human tissue chokes the air.
When the flames at last break through the walls they are already dead, lying naked of clothes and skin in twisted, bloated, horrible postures. The expressions frozen by death on their faces, express the extreme suffering of terror and pain through which they departed.
It is not a pleasant scene upon which to dwell. It would have been a far worse one to behold. Yet it must be visualized as realistically as possible so that it can be comprehended that no God of mercy, justice, and love, would ever behave in such a way to personally and deliberately inflict a death of this nature upon anyone.
The ability to do certain things reveals the disposition within the doer. It is not possible for any being in the universe, including God, to do everything. The truth of this statement is confined to the spiritual and ethical side of the person. Admittedly, God has the physical power by which He can do anything. But while He has the might, there are some things His character will never permit Him to do. Just as surely as Satan’s character will not allow him to love, so God’s character prevents Him from hating any other individual, no matter how much that person may have wronged Him.
Therefore, if God poured the fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, it could only be because it was in Him to do it. It had to be a part of His character. Therefore, God has within Him a spirit of cruelty by which He is motivated to select the cruellest possible death for those who have refused to obey Him. Without that, He could never have treated the Sodomites as He is accused of having done.

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But that is not God’s character. He is not cruel, sadistic, and revengeful. He would never select the worst conceivable punishment, and then administer it to those who did not appreciate His ways and acted contrary to His ideas.
Terrible are the implications of believing that God determined that the cities of the plain should be consumed by fire and then proceeded to do it. It is to equate Him with the papacy, whose constant practice was to burn to death those who refused to submit to her assumed authority. Something of the seriousness of this is manifested when it is recognized that the papacy is Satan’s masterpiece of misrepresentation of God’s character. If we wish to understand what God is not, then behold the principles and practices of the papacy. The way God is supposed to have behaved at Sodom and Gomorrah is exactly as the papacy would have behaved if she had been in God’s position. Therefore, how God is thought to have behaved is certainly not the way He conducted His affairs there.
The papacy went forth to convert the people to her religious beliefs and service. When her first efforts were unsuccessful, she began to exert pressure upon them until, when it was clear that the subjects of her ministrations had no mind to ever obey her, she cruelly destroyed them with fire. In doing this, she represented herself not only as administering the will of God but of doing it as she and Satan would have it believed God does it.
The very fact that this is the way of the papacy is certain denial of its being God’s way for, if anyone wishes to know what God is not, let him behold what the papacy is and what she does. Contrawise, if anyone wishes to know what God is, let him look at the life of Jesus Christ. Never will the two witnesses agree.
It is with horror and loathing that we read of the papal practice of burning victims to death. Yet we have looked with satisfaction upon God’s destroying by fire (as we imagined He did) those who would not obey Him. But careful thought will lead all to understand that if they do continue to believe that God personally decreed that the Sodomites should die by fire and then as personally administered the destruction, then our God is a cruel, revengeful, and therefore self-centred God. Of such a God the papacy is a fit symbol.
Evidence that would further help us to deny such teachings is found in the varying habits of men according to the influence Christianity has had over them. Those heathen races who have little or no Christian influence are the ones who will execute their victims with the greatest cruelty. They will devise means of bringing them to the very doors of death and then resuscitating them, so that they die over and over again as it were.
But those nations where the mighty influence of Protestantism has had its effect, dispatch their criminals and traitors in the most painless way possible. The hangman was required to study how to set the noose so that death

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would be instant from a broken neck rather than from strangulation, while the headsman was required to strike only one sure blow fairly on the exposed neck of the condemned.
The ultimate witness to the character of God is found in those who have drawn so near to Him as to possess His character. Such a people cannot be brought to take up any weapon of destruction against anyone, not even their very worst enemies. They would much rather die themselves than take the life of another. That is the example of the life of Christ. He would rather die Himself than require that the life of another be taken. This is the ultimate outliving of the injunction to turn the other cheek and go the second mile. A God who counselled this kind of behaviour as the reflection of His own, could never pour fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. He did there just what He did on every other occasion. He did not “stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He” left “the rejecters of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.” The Great Controversy, 36.
If the Lord of heaven did not act the part of an executioner and personally pour fire on those cities, how were they destroyed? Are we left with no scientific information to reveal the nature of that disaster?
There is a considerable amount of information available if careful search is made for it, though hampering the search is the relative uncertainty as to where these cities actually stood,
There are those scholars who have looked for the cities on the northern side of the Dead Sea, but “Other scholars seek these cities underneath the waters of the southern end of the Dead Sea. Arguments for this view are more numerous and weighty: (1) The ‘vale of Siddim’ in which these cities were located is identified with the ‘salt sea’ in Genesis 14:3. The northern two-thirds of the present Dead Sea reaches a depth of one thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight feet, and must have existed as early as Abraham’s time, but the depth of the southern part nowhere exceeds sixteen feet. Submerged trees show that part of this area was dry in relatively modern times, and accurate measurements have shown that the level of the sea has been steadily rising during the last century.
“(2) Asphalt is found at the southern end of the Dead Sea, while the Vale of Siddim is said to have been ‘full of slimepits,’ RSV ‘bitumen pits’ (Genesis 14:10). Bitumen, or asphalt, still erupts from the bottom of the southern part of the Dead Sea and floats to the shore.
“(3) Statements made by classical authors, Diodorus Siculus (ii. 48. 7-9), Strabo (Georgr. xvi. 2. 42-44), Tacitus (Hist. v. 6. 7), and Josephus (War iv. 8. 4), describe an area south of the Dead Sea (presumably now covered by its rising water) as scorched by a fiery catastrophe that destroyed several cities whose burned remains were still visible in their day. Foul gases are said to emerge from fissures of the ground. Compare Deuteronomy 29:23.

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“(4) Geologists have found oil and natural gases in the ground at the southern end of the Dead Sea, which is at the same time an area frequently disturbed by earthquakes, hence furnished all the conditions for the catastrophe described in the Bible, if God used natural means in the destruction of the cities (see above). Furthermore, Jebel Usdum, the ‘Mount of Sodom,’ at the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea, consists of 50 per cent rock salt. Some have conjectured that in an upheaval during the destruction of Sodom some of this salt may have been dislodged and may have buried Lot’s wife, piling over her to form a ‘pillar of salt’ (Genesis 19:26). (The place where the Israelis have a potash extraction plant, on the southwestern shore, has been named Sodom, but it has no connection with the ancient Sodom.)
“(5) A number of streams enter the southern part of the Dead Sea from the east, in a region that is still very fertile, and it is reasonable to believe that the whole valley now forming the southern-most part of the Dead Sea was once that exceptionally fertile plain, one fitting the Bible description which compares the land with the Garden of Eden and the Nile valley (ch 13:10).
“(6) Kyle and Albright, in their exploration of the region lying southeast of the Dead Sea, found no ancient ruins of cities, but discovered an elaborate place of worship on a hillside with remains dating from before 1800 B.C. This site, Bab edh-Dhra’, evidently was a place where the annual festivals of a large population were held. The cities in which this population once lived must have been in the area now covered by the waters of the Dead Sea.
“(7) Zoar. one of the 5 cities of the plain (Genesis 14:2), was at the southern end of the Dead Sea in the time of Christ.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary 8:1028, 1029.
This statement gives excellent reasons for concluding that the site of those ancient cities was at the southern end of the Dead Sea. But it also tells some further interesting facts about the area.

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“Bitumen, or asphalt, still erupts from the bottom of the southern part of the Dead Sea and floats to the shore. . . . Geologists have found oil and natural gases in the ground at the southern end of the Dead Sea, which is at the same time an area frequently disturbed by earthquakes.”
The Encyclopedia Brittanica 1975 Edition, Macropedia, Volume 14:165 states: “The Dead Sea was known in ancient times as Lake Asphaltites (from which is derived the term asphaltum) because of the semisolid petroleum washed up on its shores from underwater seepages.”
“Even today the southern region of the Dead Sea is rich in asphalt. Inflammable gases still escape from rock crevices in the area. Asphalt rising to the surface of the southern part of the Dead Sea gave to it the name Lake Asphaltitis in classical times. Massive lumps of asphalt floating on the surface are often of sufficient size to support several persons. Asphalt, sulphur, and other combustible materials have been reclaimed and exported from this region for years.” Seventh-day Adventist Commentary 1:335.
Asphalt, oil, natural and highly inflammable gases and earthquakes are not common to every part of the world, but they are a combination often found together. Where they are found indicates a spot where enormous amounts of vegetable material in the form of plants and frees together with animal and human carcases were buried at the flood. Where such materials are found there is the formation of coal, oil, gas, and petroleum which may or may not combust. If it does, then volcanic or thermal activity will result, usually accompanied by earthquakes and tremors.
“Before the flood there were immense forests. The trees were many times larger than any trees which we now see. They were of great durability. They would know nothing of decay for hundreds of years. At the time of the flood these forests were torn up or broken down and buried in the earth. In some places large quantities of these immense trees were thrown together and covered with stones and earth by the commotions of the flood. They have since petrified and become coal which accounts for the large coal beds which are now found. This coal has produced oil. God causes large quantities of coal and oil to ignite and burn. Rocks are intensely heated, limestone is burned, and iron ore melted. Water and fire under the surface of the earth meet. The action of water upon the limestone adds fury to the intense heat, and causes earthquakes, volcanoes and fiery issues. The action of fire and water upon the ledges of rocks and ore, causes loud explosions which sound like muffled thunder. These wonderful exhibitions will be more numerous and terrible just before the coming of Christ and the end of the world, as signs of its speedy destruction.
“Coal and oil are generally to be found where there are no burning mountains or fiery issues. When fire and water under the surface of the earth meet, the fiery issues cannot give sufficient vent to the heated elements beneath. The earth is convulsed—the ground trembles, heaves, and rises into swells or waves, and there are heavy sounds like thunder

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underground. The air is heated and suffocating. The earth quickly opens, and I saw villages, cities and burning mountains carried down together into the earth.” Spiritual Gifts 3:79, 80.
This makes it plain that wherever there is a spot on the earth where such enormous amounts of vegetation have been buried to petrify into coal and oil, there is the potential for volcanic eruptions and devastating earthquakes. The evidences still existing today show that Sodom and Gomorrah and their associated villages and towns were located over just such a spot.
They were in danger constantly, for they were living over a powder keg, a disaster which was only waiting to happen. But the Lord desired their salvation. He was as loathe to see them perish as He is to see anyone destroyed. So, He filled His usual role of protector of those wicked cities, while His Spirit pleaded with them to repent and escape the wrath to come. But they would not and the time came when finally the protecting Presence had to be withdrawn leaving no power to control the seething elements beneath the ground. Long held back, when released they exploded in one spectacular and all-consuming fireball of destruction that filled the heavens above where they stood and the earth where they rested.
It was not something which God sent in the sense that He decreed what should happen to them and then personally used His power to see that it happened. Rather it came, not because the Lord brought it, but because He could not hold it back any longer. There was no one the Sodomites could blame for their destruction but themselves.
The burning of the cities of the plain is not an event singular to them. There is a modern counterpart to this in the destruction of St. Pierre, on May 8, 1902.
“It was on May 8, 1902, that the town of St. Pierre, on the lush West Indies island of Martinique, abruptly died. At exactly 7:50 AM. on that disastrous morning, 4,583-foot Mont Pelee—a long-dormant volcano—blew its top in one of the world’s most cataclysmic explosions.
“The French-held island of Martinique shuddered like a stricken giant at the violent eruption. From the yawning mouth of the volcano, a huge black cloud of superheated air and gas emerged that rolled down the sloping side of the mountain like a monstrous tumbleweed. In its path, at the foot of the mountain, lay the harbor town of St. Pierre. Within seconds the cloud swept over the city. Street by street, buildings leaped into instant flame and people were turned into human torches. The hideous black ball—its core later estimated to have been at least 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit—quickly reduced St. Pierre to smoldering ashes. Only two people survived the fiery devastation, and the rest of the populace—more than 30,000—died.
“Elapsed time from the moment of eruption to extinction of the city was less than two minutes!” Nature at War,2 131, 132, by Hal Butler.
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2Copyright 1916. Published by Henry Regnery Company. 180 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60601

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The disaster did not come without warning. Mont Pelee dominated the island’s mountain chain, and, though long dormant, showed signs of considerable activity in the few days prior to the fatal outburst. However, the populace did not think in terms of an explosion but only of an eruption and considered the town to be at a safe distance of four miles.
Then on the night of May 2, six days before the end, and half an hour before midnight an awesome explosion shook the entire island, awakened the inhabitants and drove them in panic into the streets. “Even in the dark they could see dense black smoke issuing from the crown of Mont Pelee, smoke that was cut through by jagged streaks of lightning. Suddenly a second formidable explosion rocked the entire island, followed by several more. Then the loud detonations stopped and a shower of hot cinders fell on St. Pierre. When daylight came the people of the city looked at their town in amazement. It was no longer the bright colorful city it had been. It was now covered with a ghostly gray ash.” ibid., 136.
All during that day and night the volcano exploded at six-hour intervals but on the following day everything had quietened down. The wind changed direction and the ash was blown to the north where it fell on the cities there.
“But tragedy was building up in the crater known as Etang Sec. Boiling water had now reached its rim, and suddenly the side of the crater collapsed and an avalanche of hot water and mud cascaded down the side of the mountain joined the Riviere Blanche, and formed a fast-traveling torrent that swept everything before it. As it sped down the mountain the great slide gathered earth until it became a moving mountain of hot mud that rolled over anything and anyone in its path. It raced all the way to the mouth of the Riviere Blanche, where the Guerin sugarworks lay open and unprotected. Workers saw it coming and tried to flee, but the wall of mud rolled over them, killing M. Guerin, the owner, as well as the overseer and twenty-five employees. Nothing remained of the sugarworks except the smokestacks, still standing but bent to one side.
“At precisely the same time, in the roadstead of St. Pierre, the sea withdrew, stranding several anchored ships, then rushed back ferociously to flood the streets of the city. This was the first violence to hit the coastal area, and the people acted in curious ways. More refugees from the mountain-sides poured into St. Pierre, while others already in the city decided to leave—some by horseback to Fort-de-France and others by ships that were ready to depart for safer ports. The inflow and outflow left the population of St. Pierre about the same—some 30,000 frightened citizens.” ibid., 137, 138.
May 6 was a relatively quiet day. At four in the morning of the next day the volcano began to roar loudly but by the early morning of the fateful day, the eighth, the volcano was as quiet as it had been before all the fuss began.

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“The fatal day of May 8 was bright and sunny, with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was Ascension Day and the people awoke to the ringing of church bells. Most of the staunchly Catholic populace had risen early to attend eight o’clock mass.
“The night had passed with the usual internal growling from Mont Pelee, and the mercurial volcano was now emitting a grayish smoke that rose in a plume from its crater. Still, it was as quiet as it had been for some time, and the people hoped that Ascension Day would be an appropriate time for the Lord to deliver them from the wrath of Mont Pelee.
“Stores and shops were closed for the holiday. Only the churches were open, and by 7:30 in the morning they were filled with anxious worshipers thanking the Lord that Mont Pelee’s spasmodic eruptions had been no worse and praying that the mountain would now resume its placid ways.” ibid., 139.
“At 7:50 AM. the final, ferocious eruption of Mont Pelee took place. At 7:52 AM. the city of St. Pierre and its 30,000 inhabitants ceased to exist.
“It was a deafening explosion, one of the most devastating volcanic eruptions of all time. The top of Mont Pelee was literally torn apart, and from the innards of the earth a great black ball of heated air and gases shot into the sky. Within seconds the huge ball had blotted out the sky for fifty miles across. For an instant it clung to the top of the mountain, then rolled down the sloping sides directly toward St. Pierre. It swept over the city and out to sea, burning buildings, ships and people in its path.
‘There were a few eyewitnesses outside the area covered by the black ball who survived, a handful on land and a dozen or more on ships at sea. From these came the most graphic descriptions—in fact, the only descriptions—of the sudden catastrophe.
“An unidentified passenger on the Roraima described the destruction of St. Pierre this way:
‘I saw St. Pierre destroyed [he related]. It was blotted out by one great flash of fire. Thirty-thousand people were killed at once. Of eighteen vessels lying in the roads, only one, the British ship Roddam, escaped and she, I hear, lost more than half on board. It was a dying crew that took her out.
‘Our boat arrived at St. Pierre early Thursday morning. For hours before we entered the roadstead we could see flames and smoke rising from Mont Pelee. No one on board had any idea of danger. Captain 6.1. Muggah was on the bridge and all hands got on deck to see the show. The spectacle was magnificent. As we approached St. Pierre we could distinguish the rolling and leaping of the red flames that belched from the mountain in huge volumes and gushed high in the sky. Enormous clouds of black smoke hung over the volcano.
‘When we anchored at St. Pierre I noticed the cable steamship Grappler, the Roddam, three or four other steamers and a number of

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Italian and Norwegian barks. The flames were then spurting straight up in the air, now and then waving to one side or the other for a moment, and again leaping suddenly higher up. There was a constant muffled roar. It was like the biggest oil refinery in the world burning up on the mountain top.
‘There was a tremendous explosion soon after we got in. There was no warning. The side of the volcano was ripped out and there hurled straight toward us a solid wall of flame. It sounded like thousands of cannon.
Before the volcano burst the landings of St. Pierre were crowded with people. After the explosion not one living being was seen on land.’
“M. Albert, owner and manager of an estate near St. Pierre, witnessed the eruption from a position on land, and gave a vivid account of his experience:
‘Mont Pelee had given warning of the destruction that was to come [he said] but we who had looked upon the volcano as harmless did not believe that it would do more than spout fire and steam, as it had done on other occasions. It was a little before eight o’clock on the morning of May 8 that the end came. I was in one of the fields of my estate when the ground trembled under my feet, as if a terrible struggle was going on within the mountain . . . . As I stood still, Mont Pelee seemed to shudder and a moaning sound issued from its crater. It was quite dark, the sun being obscured by ashes and fine volcanic dust. The air was dead about me, so dead that the floating dust seemingly was not disturbed.
‘Then there was a rending, crashing, grinding noise, which I can only describe as sounding as though every bit of machinery in the world had suddenly broken down. It was deafening, and the flash of light that accompanied it was blinding, more so than any lightning I have ever seen. It was like a terrible hurricane, and where a fraction of a second before there had been a perfect calm I felt myself drawn into a vortex and I had to brace myself firmly. It was like a great express train rushing by, and I was drawn by its force.
‘The mysterious force leveled a row of strong frees, tearing them up by the roots and leaving a bare space of ground fifteen yards wide and more than one hundred yards long. Transfixed, I stood not knowing in what direction to flee. [looked toward Mont Pelee and above Its apex formed a great black cloud which reached high into the air. It literally fell upon the city of St. Pierre. It moved with a rapidity that made it impossible for anything to escape it. From the cloud came explosions that sounded as though all the navies of the world were in titanic combat. Lightning played in and out in broad forks, the result being that intense darkness was followed by light that seemed to be magnified in power. That St. Pierre was doomed I knew, but I was prevented from seeing the destruction by a spur of the hill that shut off my view of the city.

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‘When I recovered possession of my senses I ran to my house and collected the members of my family, all of whom were panic-stricken. I hurried them to the seashore where we boarded a small steamship to Fort-deFrance. As we drew out to sea in the steamship, Mont Pelee was in the throes of a terrible convulsion. New craters seemed to be opening all about the summit and lava was flowing in broad streams in every direction. My estate was ruined while we were still in sight of it.’
“One incident suffices to demonstrate the swiftness of St. Pierre’s complete destruction. The night shift telegrapher at St. Pierre had just transmitted to the operator in Fort-de-France the latest reports on the volcano. The transmission contained nothing new and mentioned no unusual developments during the night. When he was finished he clicked the key to signal the Fort-de-France operator to reply. The telegrapher in the capital city pressed down his key. The line was dead, No answer came from St. Pierre because the city had died in that split-second.
“Leon Compere-Leandre, the shoemaker who was sitting on the doorstep of his home trying to decide whether or not to leave St. Pierre, had his reverie shattered by Mont Pelee’s final eruption. The explosion was so violent that it shook the entire island, and Leon felt a shuddering spasm under his feet. He staggered upright and caught a glimpse of the darkening sky and the menacing black ball rolling down the side of the mountain toward the doomed city. Trembling with fear, he turned to enter the house, but a hot wind buffeted him and he felt his body burning as if tongues of flame already were licking at his flesh. With difficulty he made his way into the house and staggered to the table. Three men and a ten-year-old girl were in the tiny house, all of them screaming with pain as the heated air raged over them.
“Leon moved to a table and hung over it, wondering if the end was near for him. Then he saw the girl collapse and die in twisting agony, and the three men fled blindly from the room. For what seemed hours—actually about a minute—he held tightly to the table. Then, noticing that the strange hot wind had abated, Leon pushed himself erect and walked into the bedroom where the little girl’s father lay. He found the man dead in his bed, already burned to a crisp by the heat. Stumbling into the courtyard he discovered the three men on the ground, their inert bodies charred. The thought crossed his mind, How can I be alive when the others are all dead? Screaming, he ran back into the house, threw himself on a bed, and awaited death.
“But for some strange reason no one since has been able to explain, death did not come. Instead Leon became aware that the roof of the house was burning and once more he stumbled outside. He saw now that his legs and arms were severely burned and bleeding, but he managed to run six kilometers to the next town—Fonds-Saint-Denis. Once he looked back. All of St. Pierre was in flames. A strangled cry escaped him and he staggered

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as it aimed its deadly blow at St. Pierre. Two hours later, when he had left his family in a safe place, M. Clew went back to the city of St. Pierre. He found nothing but blackened corpses among the smoldering wreckage of the town. ‘All were dead,’ he reported later. ‘I knew I could do no good there, so 1 hastened back at the first opportunity and sent my family to Guadeioupe.’
“In the roadstead of St. Pierre, all but one of the seventeen ships at anchor sank or perished in the flames after the black cloud passed over them. Only the British ship Roddam, covered with seething volcanic debris, afire in a dozen places, and with 28 crewmen and most passengers dead, managed to escape. She got away because she happened to have steam up at the time and was ready to sail. Her captain, badly burned, personally took the wheel and guided the ship to the nearby island of St. Lucia. A port official, horrified at the battered condition of the ship and the blackened bodies strewn about the deck, said, My God, what happened to you?’
‘We just came from hell,’ the captain said.
“The full extent of St. Pierre’s fate was not known until a relief ship set out from Fort-de-France two days later, when Mont Pelee had once again quieted down and the burned city had cooled enough to permit exploration. Aboard was Vicar-General Parel, along with soldiers, policemen and priests. When the ship rounded an out-jutting of land and moved into the roadsteads of the stricken city, those aboard the ship saw the widespread destruction for the first time. Sixteen ships burned in the harbor, some of them overturned with only blackened hulls above the ash-covered waters. The French cruiser Suchet was already on duty, picking up badly injured seamen.
“The once-proud city of St. Pierre had disappeared; in its place was smoldering wreckage stretched for two miles along the coast. The Vicar-General turned his glass on the burning city, looking in vain for survivors. He laid the glass down, shaking his head.
‘Not a living soul,’ he said.
“Eventually, the Vicar-General and the police, soldiers and priests went ashore. In a letter written to Monseigneur de Cermont, Bishop of Martinique, who was in Paris, the Vicar-General described what he saw:
‘We disembark [he wrote] provided with disinfectants, on the Place Bertin, once so full of life and movement. We pick our way through the wreck. The Place is now nothing but a heap of confused ruins. Here and there are decaying bodies, horribly disfigured, and showing by the contraction of the limbs how awful must have been the death agony. Among the seared branches of a fallen tamarind tree, which proved inadequate to protect him, we find the body of a poor creature lying on his back, with his head raised, and his arms stretched to heaven in a gesture of supplication. The legs are drawn and twisted, the flesh has been torn away from the entrails.

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‘It was only with difficulty that we could reach the cathedral, it being impossible to recognize streets. In the interior of the houses, the walls of which are standing in places, there are still flaming and smoking braziers. Hot stones, iron, lime, cinders, materials of all sorts, scorched the soles of our feet. It was imprudent even to touch the charred walls, which crumbled at the slightest shock.
‘One of the square cathedral towers, with its four bells, is still upright; but it is riddled throughout, and we dare not approach it. The left tower has been thrown down, together with its great bell. The statue of the Virgin, belonging to the facade, seemed to me to be intact as it lay among the ruins of the cathedral. The walls, with the exception of a part of the apse, have disappeared. We made our way in through the Rue de College and saw several bodies in the ruins. Here, as elsewhere, most of the victims are buried under the piled-up masonry.
“Those aboard the Vice-General’s relief ship and others who followed had the unpleasant task of burning or burying 30,000 bodies that quickly putrified in the heat of the sun. They found many of the victims in casual repose, indicating that the black cloud had snuffed out their lives suddenly and painlessly. Others, however, were distorted in agony. Most of the victims caught outside their homes were naked, with their hair burned away and what had been clothing either torn or seared from their bodies; others, indoors, were still covered with their charred clothes. Every stone house in the city had collapsed, and most lay completely in fragments. The entire city was covered by a ghostly white ash that in some places was several feet deep.
“Even though the giant ball of volcanic horror had swept the city in less than two minutes, it had enough time to play capricious tricks along the way. In many cases solid objects were pulverized, while fragile articles were left untouched, Silver stored inside a safe had melted and adhered to the sides of the safe itself. Glass tumblers were fused together by the intense heat, while nearby crockery was not even cracked. In one place a carafe of wine was untouched, but the stems of wine glasses nearby were bent. Although the wall of the military hospital was completely leveled, one section containing the clock still stood. The hands of the timepiece had stopped at 7:52, marking the exact moment that St. Pierre had died.
“In all, the volcano’s devastation covered an area of about eight square miles. The focal point, of course, was St. Pierre, where there was complete destruction and loss of life. Along either side of the tumbling ball of death was a section where loss of life and damage was reduced. Still farther outside this zone was one where no loss of life occurred, no buildings were damaged, and only vegetation was burned off. On the slopes of the mountain, the rivers that had once flowed with pure water were now either dried up or choked with slowly flowing mud; one mud slide was later estimated to be 80 feet deep.

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“On May 20, cantankerous Mont Pelee erupted again. This time a violent explosion rent the air over the mountain at 5:15 in the afternoon. The Vicar-General, in Fort-de-France, stood on his balcony and watched the same amazing scene reenacted—a black ball of heated air and gases again tumbled down the slopes toward St. Pierre. After the eruption, the Vicar-General ordered the Suchet to investigate the situation. The report that came back was simply that the remains of St. Pierre had been ravaged again but, since there was little left of the town, the second black ball had failed to increase the damage.
“On a recent visit to Martinique we saw a few remaining walls standing in what had been St. Pierre. That was all, for the city that was once called the ‘Paris of the West’ was never rebuilt. Mont Pelee had not only destroyed a city of 30,000 people; it had ended a way of life.” ibid., 142-152.
We have no eyewitness accounts of the destruction of the ancient cities as we have here of the modern decimation of St. Pierre, only the terse Bible statement of what God did there.
Yet the similarities between the two situations are very obvious. Both were located in an area of intense volcanic and earthquake activity and both were suddenly overcome by the descent of fire upon them of such ferocity and intensity that the cities were obliterated, never to be rebuilt, and the population was exterminated but for very few survivors. In the case of Sodom, there were only three, Lot and his two daughters. In St. Pierre, only two in the city and the family who fled just in time, escaped death.
Like Sodom, St. Pierre was a place of abandoned wickedness. Here is the description of it as given in our source by Hal Butler:
“In 1902 St. Pierre, on the western coast of the island and only four miles from Mont Pelee, was Martinique’s major city. Twelve miles to the south was Fort-de-France, the capital of the island, but this was a small village that bore no resemblance to glittering St. Pierre. France was proud of St. Pierre; indeed, the French often referred to the city as the ‘little Paris’ or ‘the Paris of the West’ because of its sparkling social life.
“Both the city and its people were picturesque. The city stretched for two miles along the coast and, from an approaching ship, it looked like a welcome oasis. The houses, fashioned of stone and stucco, were alive with color. Most of them were painted yellow or bright orange and all had red-tiled roofs. Two main roads ran parallel to the coast, interlaced by cross streets that began at the sea and climbed upward toward the mountain slopes behind the city. With the green mountains as a backdrop, the city had the appeal of a glistening jewel embedded in a costly setting.
“In addition to being the social capital of the island, St. Pierre was also the commercial center. One of its major industries was the rum distillery, and its principal business street, Rue Victor Hugo, was lined with banks, stores and other commercial establishments. The ‘Paris of the West’ was also equipped to cater both to the welfare of the soul and the gratification of

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the flesh, for it boasted a stately Catholic cathedral and several parish churches, along with a theater where actors from France entertained, cafes, nightclubs and assorted emporiums designed specifically for uninhibited revelry.
“The French colonists, whose ancestors had settled on Martinique generations before, represented the elite of the island. They owned and supervised plantations producing tobacco, coffee, cacao and sugarcane. Most of them had built ostentatious villas in the mountains and spent much of their tI me either relaxing at these summer homes or sipping cognac in St. Pierre’s hotels and inns. This wealthy group of Pierrotins—as residents of St. Pierre were called—numbered about 7,000.
“Most of the city’s 23,000 other inhabitants were blacks. The men—usually bare-chested and dressed in canvas trousers and hats made of bamboo grass—were typically handsome; the women couched their natural beauty in colorful robes and turbans and strode the streets with frays and baskets of salable goods balanced on their heads. The waterfront was a scene of continuous activity as stevedores loaded and unloaded ships calling at what was one of the most profitable ports in the Caribbean.
“This was St. Pierre in 1902—a city that had every reason to believe in its future but a city that had no future at all.” ibid., 132-133.
Life in St. Pierre and Sodom followed a similar pattern. Sodom and Gomorrah were places where study was given to the development of every means whereby the desires of the flesh could be gratified and, from the description given here, so was St. Pierre. Thus the very things which caused the departure of the restraining and protecting Spirit of God in the ancient situation were also present in this fair city. In both cases, the balmy climate and abundant wealth tended to stimulate this pursuit for the licentious, until a fever pitch was reached.
It is not to be supposed that Sodom was irreligious, for in those days worship of the sun god was the devoted spiritual exercise of those peoples. Wherever this religious influence has been present, it has encouraged licentiousness and immorality of all kinds. The Roman Catholic religion which dominated the spiritual life of St. Pierre, is the modern counterpart of the ancient sun-worship3 and has demonstrated that it, likewise, is the spawning ground for every type of sin and wickedness. The same religious influences therefore, which brought Sodom and Gomorrah to the pitch of wickedness equated with total and unrestrained rejection of God, also brought the inhabitants of St. Pierre to that point.
St. Pierre, then, provides us with a splendid illustration of the death of Sodom and Gomorrah, God did the same thing in both the ancient and the modern situation for the same reason. He left the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they had sown and He did that because that
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3See The Two Bobylons. by Alexander Hislop, published by SW. Partridge and Co., 4,5. & 6. Soho Square, London, W.i.

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was what the people in each case demanded of Him. Because the cities concerned were sitting over a time-bomb just waiting to go off in the form of a volcanic eruption, that was the fate which overtook them. In other words, they died, not because God decreed that this was the way it should be, but because that was the potential destruction threat under which they lived.
A wide variety of destructions befall the wicked. There are those who, as in the cases of Sodom, Gomorrah, and St. Pierre. are wiped out by volcanic eruptions, while others are taken by flood, earthquake, hurricane, hailstorm, accidents by air, sea, and land, giant conflagrations in forests and buildings, famine, or by the savage outbursts of human wrath. The only consistent pattern through it all is that the disaster is according to the potential of destruction common to the area. This denies the charge that God personally takes hold of the powers of nature and manipulates them according to His design to punish sinners. God has the power to create any kind of destruction at will. He is not bound to the particular peril present in a given area. Being a God of utter justice and consistency would require Him to punish the same offences with the same punishments. But this is not so. The same offences are dealt with by widely varying punishments always according to the destructive potential of the place where the offenders reside.
There is as great a disparity in the severity of the judgments as in their type. Some of the sinful suffer lingering deaths tortured with intense suffering, while others die quickly and mercifully. This is unequal enough, but observation shows that those who live lives of great and unrestrained wickedness usually suffer much less than the relatively innocent. Consider the situation in wartime. Behind the titanic struggles are the warmongers, men burning with the lust for power who have no regard for the cost others must pay in order that they achieve their desires.. They are the truly guilty ones who deserve the greatest punishment of all.
Out on the farmlands, in the villages, up in the mountains and all over the land are the simple, honest folk whose lives are largely devoid of serious vices even though they cannot be called the children of God. When the baffles ravage the land, they are the sufferers. Their sons are killed, their houses levelled, their businesses ruined, their livestock destroyed, and their bodies are starved, mutilated, lamed, and finally killed.
Of the two classes, the warmongers are the ones upon whom the desolations should justly fall, but they grow fat and rich from the merchandise of blood. Justice is truly turned around. If this is the decree and work of God, then He is a strange God indeed. But we know that He is not that kind of God. He is absolutely just and strictly impartial. He never excuses one nor favours another, while dealing harshly with someone else less deserving. If God were the one administering the punishments then the penalty would be exacted according to the offence. The very fact that it is not, is clear proof that these situations are not the result of God’s handiwork.

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The same unequal discrimination is found in the fate of the earth’s large cities. To walk the streets of London in England, Frankfurt in Germany, Copenhagen in Denmark, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York in the United States, is to behold sin under direct and wilful cultivation, with study being given to the art of satisfying the most demanding desires of the flesh. Many, coming in from country areas to encounter these things for the first time, have been so appalled at the spectacle that they have felt that God should and would arise to wipe these cesspools from the face of the earth. But decade follows decade during which the corruption prospers. Seemingly it enjoys the patronage and protection of God Himself.
While this is going on, the judgments which one would expect to see fall on these cities, strike with merciless ferocity on other places where one would judge the state of iniquity to be mild by comparison.
The examples which might be cited are numerous. Here are two which are typical. In Guatemala, February 4, 1976, an earthquake which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, caused extensive damage and huge loss of life. It was estimated that the dead numbered twenty-three thousand and the injured, seventy-five thousand.
On December 25, 1974, a cyclone ripped through the quiet tropical city of Darwin in North West Australia, in what has been described as the worst natural disaster ever to strike in Australia. Ninety percent of the city was levelled and fifty people lost their lives
If an investigator was sent to find the most iniquitous city on earth, neither Darwin nor Guatemala would be first on the list. His thoughts would naturally turn to the cities listed above. Yet those places live on unscathed year after year while these quieter places are razed to the dust.
Why this disparity?
The answer is quite simple.
Firstly it must be obvious that it is not the work of God for it is far too partial and capricious to be His handiwork. If He was the destroyer then He would certainly visit the large cities filled with vice and sin before He touched the smaller ones where evil is not nurtured to anywhere near the same degree. He would administer the punishments with carefully calculated exactitude so that the guilty would receive their just desserts. Things would be very different from what they are
The nature and location of these catastrophes are clear proof that they are not the work of God. They occur because of the presence, in scattered areas of the earth, of pockets of potential destruction seeded at the time of the flood. Those who live in such areas need the protecting care of God more than do others who live where there is a lesser threat. But, by their impenitent living they grieve away the shield of omnipotence thereby exposing themselves to the terrible storms or earthquakes, fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, or whatever else is poised to obliterate them. Therefore they suffer the awful consequences of the withdrawal of God’s presence, as others in more favourable places do not.

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This does not infer that there are entirely safe places on earth for this is not true. As the withdrawal of God’s presence becomes more extensive, the uncaged powers of nature are reaching out to waste areas previously untouched. As we draw nearer to the end, this will become universal.
There is no problem in understanding what God did at Sodom, Gomorrah, and St. Pierre if care is taken to consider all the implications and, if the principles which govern God’s behaviour are carefully kept in mind.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

An Execution

The flood was the first occasion when nature out of God’s control broke with cataclysmic fury on men’s and demons’ shelterless heads. Powerless to control such stupendous forces, mankind suffered a breach of such magnitude as to all but obliterate him. That fearful stroke inflicted a wound so terrible that it was almost entirely fatal to the human generation. Even “Satan himself, who was compelled to remain in the midst of the warring elements, feared for his own existence.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 99.
But, while the flood was the first, it was certainly not the last. After the destruction of the tower of Babel by lightning bolt, the next incident of great note was the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah.
After this the list lengthens. There were the plagues upon Egypt, the returning waters of the Red Sea, various pestilences which smote the Israelites, the invasion of the fiery serpents, the swallowing of Korah, Uathan, and Abiram in the earthquake, the overthrow of the walls of Jericho, the great hailstorm in Joshua’s day, the expiration of Sennacherib’s army, the death of the children at the claws and jaws of the bears, the fire which consumed the men who came to take Elijah captive, and many more.
In our day, one disaster follows another in steady succession until each fresh one brings no surprise.
To examine each case would be repeating the same arguments already advanced In respect to the flood, the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the plagues of Egypt. Once the principle has been established it can then be applied to all other situations.
Sometimes it is possible to see a scientific explanation of the disaster but not always. Just what took the lives of Sennacherib’s men is not revealed. The withholding of this information simply provides an exercise in faith, testing the grip held upon the principles of righteousness revealed in the Scriptures. Because no revelation is given of how they died, the temptation is to revert to the idea that God personally executed them.
Such a temptation must be positively rejected. Cling to the simple belief that God does not execute the sinner but leaves him to himself to reap that which he has chosen. This is so emphatically revealed in God’s Word, that there is no excuse for losing sight of it.
The consumption of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram presents no problem. The earth opened up and swallowed them. What neither they, nor the rest of Israel knew, was that they were encamped over an earthquake which so far only the sustaining presence of God had held in check. In like manner, human beings today are unable to predict just where and when these disasters will strike.

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When those rebels sustained their defiance of God, they compelled Him to withdraw from where they were, leaving only one possible consequence. The earthquake so long restrained, was unleashed.
Once the understanding has grasped these principles, and faith determines that they shall never be relinquished, there is no incident when the rod of power passed out of God’s hands and control, that will cause any serious problem to the true child of God. He will see that it was not God, but deranged nature which destroyed the unrepentant. There will be times when it is possible to see how this actually happened, but other situations will be inexplicable. Faith will know that the same God acted in the same way whether it can be seen exactly how nature behaved or not.
But there are other occasions, in some respects different from those cited above, in which God’s actions are most difficult to understand. They have so perplexed earnest Christians for centuries, that some have been led to doubt the character of God and even to forsake His service. What God appears to have done, denies every principle discussed so far in this study.
These incidents are those in which God commanded the Israelites to take their weapons and slay utterly, men, women, children, infants, and all livestock. The execution of the defiant ones at the golden calf, the genocide of the Amalekites, and the extermination of the Canaanites were all accomplished in obedience to God’s directions. While God Himself did not carry out the slaughterings, they were administered at His command. Considering that, in the natural order of things he who orders the execution is the real executioner, it appears that God did fill the role of a destroyer in these instances at least.
More than any other, the biblical recital of these events provides those who cling to the view that God does inflict judgments on those who offend Him, with the justification for their stand. In any confrontation between them and those who see the true character of God, it will be observed that these are the statements to which they cling with great determination. To them they provide incontrovertible proof.
It cannot be denied that these are difficult to understand, but they are not beyond human comprehension provided it is taught of God and guided by the principles which underlie God’s character. When these incidents are correctly understood, it will be found that God has not subverted His codes to meet an emergency, but has acted with impeccable consistency. Not even in these situations has He been an executioner or destroyer.
It cannot be overstressed that success in uncovering the real truth of God’s part at the golden calf execution, the genocide of the Amalekites, the annihilation of the Canaanites and so forth, depends upon there being complete confidence in God’s consistency. There must be the unassailable conviction that there are no contradictions in the Word of God, that He does not make a declaration about His character and behaviour in one place, and then proceed to do the opposite in another. Unless the student is

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possessed of this, he will not arrive at any satisfactory solution to the problem, but if he does, then solid searching, combined with earnest prayer and the forsaking of sin, will repay rich dividends of spiritual truth. All disharmonies will disappear. That which firstly appeared as an unanswerable indictment against God’s character, will prove to be the strongest evidence in favour of it. What previously we hoped no one would mention, turns out instead, to be the best argument for the case.
To clarify the nature of the problem, three statements outlining God’s commitment never to use force will be quoted. These will be immediately followed by the records of the golden calf incident so it can be plainly seen that one set of statements appears to be directly contradicted by the other.
“Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.” The Desire of Ages, 759.
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” The Acts of the Apostles, 12.
“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.” The Great Controversy,36.
There is no ambiguity in these statements, but they do become a problem when brought into direct contact with a story such as the slaughter of the rebels at the golden calf. When these two are brought together it appears that God states one thing in one place and then proceeds to do the opposite in another. Compare the record which follows, with the statements quoted above.
“And he [Moses] said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
“And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
“For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.” Exodus 32:27-29.
“Those who performed this terrible work of judgment were acting by divine authority, executing the sentence of the King of heaven. Men are to beware how they, in their human blindness, judge and condemn their fellow-men; but when God commands them to execute His sentence upon iniquity, He is to be obeyed. Those who performed this painful act, thus

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When those rebels sustained their defiance of God, they compelled Him to withdraw from where they were, leaving only one possible consequence. The earthquake so long restrained, was unleashed.
Once the understanding has grasped these principles, and faith determines that they shall never be relinquished, there is no incident when the rod of power passed out of God’s hands and control, that will cause any serious problem to the true child of God. He will see that it was not God, but deranged nature which destroyed the unrepentant. There will be times when it is possible to see how this actually happened, but other situations will be inexplicable. Faith will know that the same God acted in the same way whether it can be seen exactly how nature behaved or not.
But there are other occasions, in some respects different from those cited above, in which God’s actions are most difficult to understand. They have so perplexed earnest Christians for centuries, that some have been led to doubt the character of God and even to forsake His service. What God appears to have done, denies every principle discussed so far in this study.
These incidents are those in which God commanded the Israelites to take their weapons and slay utterly, men, women, children, infants, and all livestock. The execution of the defiant ones at the golden calf, the genocide of the Amalekites, and the extermination of the Canaanites were all accomplished in obedience to God’s directions. While God Himself did not carry out the slaughterings, they were administered at His command. Considering that, in the natural order of things he who orders the execution is the real executioner, it appears that God did fill the role of a destroyer in these instances at least.
More than any other, the biblical recital of these events provides those who cling to the view that God does inflict judgments on those who offend Him, with the justification for their stand. In any confrontation between them and those who see the true character of God, it will be observed that these are the statements to which they cling with great determination. To them they provide incontrovertible proof.
It cannot be denied that these are difficult to understand, but they are not beyond human comprehension provided it is taught of God and guided by the principles which underlie God’s character. When these incidents are correctly understood, it will be found that God has not subverted His codes to meet an emergency, but has acted with impeccable consistency. Not even in these situations has He been an executioner or destroyer.
It cannot be overstressed that success in uncovering the real truth of God’s part at the golden calf execution, the genocide of the Amalekites, the annihilation of the Canaanites and so forth, depends upon there being complete confidence in God’s consistency. There must be the unassailable conviction that there are no contradictions in the Word of God, that He does not make a declaration about His character and behaviour in one place, and then proceed to do the opposite in another. Unless the student is

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possessed of this, he will not arrive at any satisfactory solution to the problem, but if he does, then solid searching, combined with earnest prayer and the forsaking of sin, will repay rich dividends of spiritual truth. All disharmonies will disappear. That which firstly appeared as an unanswerable indictment against God’s character, will prove to be the strongest evidence in favour of it. What previously we hoped no one would mention, turns out instead, to be the best argument for the case.
To clarify the nature of the problem, three statements outlining God’s commitment never to use force will be quoted. These will be immediately followed by the records of the golden calf incident so it can be plainly seen that one set of statements appears to be directly contradicted by the other.
“Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.” The Desire of Ages, 759.
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” The Acts of the Apostles, 12.
“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.” The Great Controversy,36.
There is no ambiguity in these statements, but they do become a problem when brought into direct contact with a story such as the slaughter of the rebels at the golden calf. When these two are brought together it appears that God states one thing in one place and then proceeds to do the opposite in another. Compare the record which follows, with the statements quoted above.
“And he [Moses] said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
“And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
“For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.” Exodus 32:27-29.
“Those who performed this terrible work of judgment were acting by divine authority, executing the sentence of the King of heaven. Men are to beware how they, in their human blindness, judge and condemn their fellow-men; but when God commands them to execute His sentence upon iniquity, He is to be obeyed. Those who performed this painful act, thus

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manifested their abhorrence of rebellion and idolatry, and consecrated themselves more fully to the service of the true God. The Lord honored their faithfulness by bestowing special distinction upon the tribe of Levi.
“The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits, and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained justice must be visited upon the traitors. Yet even here God’s mercy was displayed. While He maintained His law, He granted freedom of choice and opportunity for repentance to all. Only those were cut off who persisted in rebellion.
“It was necessary that this sin should be punished, as a testimony to surrounding nations of God’s displeasure against idolatry. By executing justice upon the guilty, Moses, as God’s instrument, must leave on record a solemn and public protest against their crime. As the Israelites should hereafter condemn the idolatry of the neighboring tribes, their enemies would throw back upon them the charge that the people who claimed Jehovah as their God had made a calf and worshiped it in Horeb. Then though compelled to acknowledge the disgraceful truth. Israel could point to the terrible fate of the transgressors, as evidence that their sin had not been sanctioned or excused.
“Love no less than justice demanded that for this sin judgment should be inflicted. God is the guardian as well as the sovereign of His people. He cuts off those who are determined upon rebellion, that they may not lead others to ruin. In sparing the life of Cain, God had demonstrated to the universe what would be the result of permitting sin to go unpunished. The influence exerted upon his descendants by his life and teaching led to the state of corruption that demanded the destruction of the whole world by a flood. The history of the antediluvians testifies that long life is not a blessing to the sinner; God’s great forbearance did not repress their wickedness. The longer men lived, the more corrupt they became,
“So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would again have been seen. The earth would have become as corrupt as in the days of Noah. Had these transgressors been spared, evils would have followed, greater than resulted from sparing the life of Cain. It was the mercy of God that thousands should suffer, to prevent the necessity of visiting judgments upon millions. In order to save the many, He must punish the few. Furthermore, as the people had cast off their allegiance to God, they had forfeited the divine protection, and, deprived of their defense, the whole nation was exposed to the power of their enemies. Had not the evil been promptly put away, they would soon have fallen a prey to their numerous and powerful foes. It was necessary for the good of Israel, and also as a lesson to all succeeding generations, that crime should be promptly punished. And it was no less a mercy to the sinners themselves that they should be cut short in their evil

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course. Had their life been spared, the same spirit that led them to rebel against God would have been manifested in hatred and strife among themselves, and they would eventually have destroyed one another. It was in love to the world, in love to Israel, and even to the transgressors, that crime was punished with swift and terrible severity.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 324-326.
The people’s behaviour can only be classified as rebellion. In the case of those who refused to repent of it, it was persistent and incurable. There is no possibility of viewing their course in any other light, and there is no point in attempting to. It must be recognized for what it was—rebellion.
With equal clarity it is to be seen that the insurrection was overcome by force. The Levites took their swords, and slaughtered the rebels. Thus, by force alone the rebellion was overcome.
What makes this critically different from the numerous other occasions when rebellion has been overcome by force is that God ordered this solution to be applied. The sinners were not left to themselves to reap that which they had sown. Rather, a direct sentence was formulated against them and summarily carried into effect,
Thus, at first observation, every step God is reported to have taken, denies what He laid out as His principles in the first three references quoted. God declared that it is not His way to overcome rebellion by force, yet He directed that it be done in just that way. He claims that He leaves the sinners to themselves to reap what they have sown, but He certainly did not do that here.
It is simple to see how quite a case can be built up against God by using this evidence. It is argued by those who believe God does execute, that the only way to deny this is to make the Bible read as we wish it to be read. Before this study is over, it will become evident that those who make this charge are, in fact, the ones who are guilty of doing this.
When rightly understood. Scriptural records will show that at the golden calf, God did nothing in violation of His stated principles. He will emerge from this examination as a Saviour only. His character will glow with a brighter radiance exciting the wonder, admiration and emulation of all who will respond to it.
How is it, though, that the vast majority have failed to rightly perceive the work of God at the base of the mountain? Why has He been viewed as the maker and executioner of the sentence? Why has no real difference been made between the behaviour of God and any earthly monarch?
It is because one vital factor, being completely overlooked, is never taken into consideration. When it is, it makes all the difference to understanding the case. Then the charges levelled against God will be redirected where they rightly belong.
That factor was Israel’s introduction of the sword into their lives. Undertaking this was an extremely serious and tragic step which placed them on a

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different relationship with their divine Leader. It amounted to the institution of mans procedures in the place of God’s. Because the choice of which was to be the established and recognized way, rested not with God but with Israel. Jehovah could not and therefore did not, compel them to discard it. All He could do was to labour to save them from the worst effects of what they had elected to do.
Their decision to take up weapons of coercion and destruction was not made in complete ignorance of God’s will. Their Heavenly Father had faithfully communicated to them that the sword was to find no place among them whatsoever.
They were named after their revered father Israel, whose history of victory over his foes was well known to them. God designed that this should be a witness to them of His ways. The lesson was especially pertinent for there was a distinct parallel existing between Israel’s situation and theirs. As he was a prisoner of his scheming uncle, Laban, and desired to depart for the promised land, so they were held in Egyptian bondage and longed to leave for Canaan’s land.
When the patriarch set forth on his journey he was pursued by Laban who was determined to bring his son-in-law back with him. It cost Laban seven days to overtake Jacob, seven days in which his temper had time to reach fever heat. When he found Jacob, “He was hot with anger, and bent on forcing them to return, which he doubted not he could do, since his band was much the stronger. The fugitives were indeed in great peril.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 193.
Jacob, knowing full well that he would be pursued, made every provision possible to prevent his being forced to return, But, in all his careful planning for the security of the ones he loved so dearly, he made no move to arm his servants with swords and spears. He put his entire trust in God as his Protector and so effectively did the Lord fill that commission, that not only did Jacob not go back to Laban’s home, but not one of his household was even so much as scratched.
This peril gone, with the pacified Laban returning to his place, Jacob pressed on to meet the greater peril of Esau who reportedly was coming to meet him with six hundred armed men. Esau had only one objective in mind—to ensure that Jacob could never dispossess him of their father’s wealth. The only way to assure this was to slaughter Jacob and his band. That would settle the question for all time.
As this deadly peril threatened Jacob, there were at least two different courses he could have adopted. The common human reaction is to turn to the power of weapons. Accordingly, Jacob could have chosen to divert from his course to spend time in arming and training his servants. He did not do this for he rightly understood that this was not God’s way. Instead, he continued without deviation, his entire confidence resting in the assurance that God would faithfully fulfil His responsibility of protecting him

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and his entourage. On the night before the encounter he turned aside to pray, his deep concern arising from the fear that unconfessed sin would obstruct God’s work and leave him exposed to his enemy. There was no lack of faith in God’s power to deliver him. His only fear was that his own spiritual condition would make that power unavailable. The long hours of agonized wrestling brought the victory.
God did not force Esau to leave his brother unmolested. Instead He sent an angel to reveal to him the true character of Jacob, his sufferings, his spirit, and his intentions. Thus Esau was led to view Jacob in a new tight. He realized that Jacob was not a threat to him and therefore did not need to be eliminated. His rage was replaced by sympathy, and the outcome again was that not a single one from Jacob’s households received so much as a scratch.
Here is a point worthy of emphasis. Whenever the children of Israel left to God the task of protecting them, not one of them lost their lives or suffered injury, but when they took the sword, there was nearly always loss of life which in some cases was very heavy.
From Jacob’s experience, the Israel of God from then to now has an everlasting message which should never be forgotten. It is the message reiterated by the psalmist. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
‘Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Psalms 46:1-3.
“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Psalm 34:7.
The great controversy is not between us and Satan, but between Christ and Satan. We do not have the power to overcome the enemy. God alone can do that and has undertaken to do so. Our task is to leave Him to do what He has promised. The victory is ours as a gift, which is demonstrated in the wonderful experience of Jacob. How much more wonderful it was for him to see the Lord’s salvation than to gain a victory by the sword at the cost of the lives of some of his dearly loved servants and sons.
Through this experience, God provided the Israelites with a perpetual testimony of the security available to them if they trustingly committed the keeping of their lives to Him, As a preparation for their departure from Egypt it was sufficient to assure them that they were to make no provision for acquiring and using swords. They were to entrust that task to God as fully as Jacob did, knowing they could expect the same results.
God, knowing that the success of the great venture depended on their strict adherence to these principles, reiterated the lesson repeatedly during the exodus and the period leading up to it.

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Moses had been thoroughly trained in the art of war and had proved himself on the baffle field to be a brilliant tactician. His ability as a military leader made him a favorite with the armies of Egypt, and he was generally regarded as a remarkable character.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 245.
Moses, therefore, naturally expected that the Lord would deliver them by force of arms and saw in his Egyptian education a divinely provided training for such a campaign. Had God purposed to do it this way, no better man than Moses could have been found anywhere in history. It is significant that God made no use of this ability in Moses at any time in his life for not once did Moses lead the armies of Israel into battle.
“The elders of Israel were taught by angels that the time for their deliverance was near, and that Moses was the man whom God would employ to accomplish this work. Angels instructed Moses also that Jehovah had chosen him to break the bondage of his people. He, supposing that they were to obtain their freedom by force of arms, expected to lead the Hebrew host against the armies of Egypt, and having this in view, he guarded his affections, lest in his attachment to his foster mother or to Pharaoh he would not be free to do the will of God.” ibid.
Thus Moses was dedicated to the divine purpose for himself and Israel and longed for the fulfilment of the plan. When he saw the Israelite being oppressed by the Egyptian, he slew the persecutor supposing that thereby he had initiated the armed struggle which would liberate the slave nation.
But, even though the Israelites were aware of God’s appointment of Moses, there was not a man inspired to rise with him. Instead, he was forced into precipitous flight to Midian. This unexpected development caused Moses a great deal of deep heart-searching, providing God with the needed opportunity to educate into him the realization that it was not by warfare that Israel was to be delivered.
Forty years later, he returned, clad, not in the shining armour of a military leader, but in the simple garb of an eastern shepherd with a staff in his hands. Before all Israel, God was proclaiming the way by which they would be taken out of bondage, and by which they were to be preserved forever from their enemies. It was a reminder to them of the same truth as revealed in God’s dealings with Jacob.
God did not introduce a temporary provision to be followed by changed procedures once the children of Israel, having gained their freedom, became competent in the art of warfare. God started the exodus upon principles which were to be forever preserved and maintained. At no time did He deviate from His established course of action. During the reign of sorrow as plague followed plague, the Israelites had no part to play other than merely standing by and letting the Lord handle everything.
When, just before their final departure, God impressed the Egyptians to liberally provide the travellers with everything they would ever need on their journey, He did not put it in the hearts of their former masters to give

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them weapons of war. It was a people for whom God had made every provision, who went out of  “. . . unarmed, and unaccustomed to war. . .” ibid., 282. If the Lord had intended a change from His fighting their battles, to their doing this work for themselves, then He certainly would have made sure that they were equipped for this role. The fact that He did not impress the Egyptians to arm them is clear proof that He never intended they should be. As the exodus began, so it was to continue.
Had the Israelites manifested living faith in God, they would have reasoned as follows: “The Lord knows exactly what we need to bring us to the promised land. From the vast storehouse of Egypt He has given us every necessity, but He has not drawn from its arsenals. Therefore this is the clearest endorsement of the message demonstrated in the experience of our father, Jacob, that we, like him, are to return to the promised land an unarmed people. We are to entrust the matter of our protection entirely to God.”
How much happier their subsequent history, if this had been how they had thought. There would have been no substitution of human, faithless methods in place of the infallible, divine procedures. God would never have commanded them to take their swords and slaughter men, women, and children. In every situation, He would have been their defence and deliverer.
So they came to the Red Sea where once more the Lord displayed before them the way in which the power of their enemies would be broken. There it was shown in the most vivid way, that the rejecters of God’s mercy were simply left to themselves to perish. As the Egyptians’ greatest act of rejection was to seek to destroy the people who were walking closely with God, the point where the Israelites seemed to be most endangered was, in fact, the moment closest to deliverance.
When Pharaoh led his army into the corridor between those standing walls of water, it was an act of terrible presumption on his part. The only way in which the Israelites could pass safely over was by remaining within the circle of God’s protection. But the Egyptians had deliberately and defiantly cast off that protection, and therefore the Spirit of the Lord could not maintain the waters in their position. As the army advanced, the Spirit of God had no choice but to retire before it. As that power was withdrawn, the waters simply rushed back to their original position, overwhelming the enemies of God and His people.
The Lord was very diligent in the education of His people. He knew that the day of decision was fast approaching when they must make the critical choice between continuing in God’s order or turning from it to their own. While He could train them to hold to the right course, He could not make the decision for them. There is no compulsion with God. He will never depart from this principle by so much as a hair’s breadth. Pharaoh had exercised that choice to his destruction. No blame for the outcome can

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be charged to God, for He had been more than fair in sending warnings to the proud ruler.
This right to choose was given to the human family in the persons of Adam and Eve when they were placed in possession of their inheritance. The angels imparted the information to them. “They told Adam and Eve that God would not compel them to obey—that He had not removed from them power to go contrary to His will; that they were moral agents, free to obey or disobey.” The Story of Redemption, 30.
The entrance of sin did not change this. When man exercised the gift of choice by turning aside from the principles of righteousness, God still did not intrude into this area. Men were not deprived of this freedom by Jehovah, although they lost it to sin and to other men.
God’s commitment of freedom of choice to them would be no more than empty words if there was no opportunity to choose another course. Accordingly, in order to give full support to His declared principles, the Lord must be careful not to deprive the people of the means whereby they could go in another direction if they wished.
So while the Lord had made it absolutely clear that they were not to carry the sword in their journeyings from Egypt, Lie did not make it impossible for them to do so. They had the same freedom to obey or disobey as did their first parents in Eden. The special opportunity for them to take the sword was afforded when the armour-clad bodies of the Egyptian soldiers were washed up at their feet. “As morning broke, it revealed to the multitudes of Israel all that remained of their mighty foes—the mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 287, 288.
Here was the great test for the men of Israel. Temptingly offered them was a veritable arsenal of weapons—swords, spears, helmets, shields, and breastplates. They could either rush down and take the spoils, thus equipping themselves to fight as other nations fought, or they could turn their backs upon it and leave their protection in the Lord’s hands.
The real issue involved God’s continuation as the sole Protector of His chosen versus their taking His work into their own hands. It was the question of implicit trust in God versus greater confidence in the power of their own fighting abilities. It was a critical point in their history for the sad decision made there, influenced the full span of their future. It was a departure from strict adherence to the only safe course. It determined their final failure and rejection as a people.
There are no direct records confirming that they did rush down and take the armour from the Egyptians. But all the evidence points strongly in that direction. Here are the facts. They approached, crossed, and emerged from the Red Sea without implements of war. Shortly after leaving the Red Sea, they engaged in warfare against the Amalekites in which they did not use sticks and stones. As there were no swordsmiths between the Red Sea and the location of this battle, the only way they could have become equipped was by salvaging the weaponry washed ashore.

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What makes the decision taken so significant are the circumstances under which it was made. God had just spoken to them in the most thrilling and convincing demonstration of His ability and willingness to cope with their enemies according to the principles of eternal righteousness. With a God like that, what need did they have of weapons? To seek military equipment under ordinary circumstances was bad enough, but to lay hands on it in the light shining from God as it did then, was totally inexcusable and highly irresponsible.
In taking up the sword at that point, Israel failed tragically. They introduced a new order into the camp, replacing the divine arrangement. Thus they prevented the nation from giving a true representation of God’s character and this eventually led to their final dismissal as the channel of God’s communication to the world.
Some would argue that this change was an inevitable development made necessary and possible as conditions changed. This line of reasoning views the children of Israel in Egypt as being both untrained and without equipment so that there was no recourse but for the Lord to fight for them, just as initially a parent does everything for the infant. But, as they moved out, the time came when the Lord could progressively turn over to them the care of their own needs and interests. Accordingly, He kindly caused the Egyptians to be washed up at their feet so that they were provided with the armour they needed. From then on, they became His appointed instruments in decimating the heathen.
This argument is not illogical but it is nonetheless false. If it were true, then the subjugation of Canaan as it did, in fact, take place, was in the order of God. That it was not, is proved by direct statements as well as by all the principles which undergird God’s character. “The Lord had never commanded them to ‘go up and fight.’ It was not His purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to His commands.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 392.
It was not God’s purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, for the important reason that that is not His method. The use of force is exclusive to Satan’s kingdom. It has no part in God’s order. They were to possess the promised land by strict obedience to His commands, one of which prohibits killing. The human mind finds great difficulty in understanding how a vigorous, warlike nation can be dispossessed without using force. This was the problem with Israel, even though they had witnessed the mighty manifestations of God’s methods in the plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.
All this had happened to the dwellers on the Nile because they had refused God’s every effort to save them. The same resistance among the Canaanites had brought them to the position where destruction was all that remained to them. But Israel could not see this, nor could they rest in the Lord’s promise that He would give them the land. Therefore, they determined that they would take it in the only way they understood—by force.

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It is true that they gained the land in this way but let it not be forgotten that they also lost it in the same manner. Their sad history confirms the truty of Christ’s words to the valiant and belligerent Peter, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matthew 26:52.
Jesus did not give these words a limited application in time. He was not saying, “From this time forward, all who take the sword will thereby perish.” What He stated is an eternal truth. It is a statement of the fact that the use of force engenders counter-force. While the individual or the nation may be strong enough today to occupy the top position, the time soon comes when another power will be stronger and will seize the opportunity to destroy those who have previously ascended the pathway of blood.
The veracity of Christ’s words as a universal application is adequately proved by six thousand years of human history, That period reveals that whenever a nation was built by the use of the sword, that power perished or will perish by the same means. The same is true of individuals. It may be argued that men of power rose by the sword and maintained that lead through their lifetimes to die unconquered rulers of the world. But let it not be forgotten that they live on in their children to whom they gave the legacy of conquest they had gained, and, in their children, they perished or will yet perish by the sword.
God, understanding perfectly that those who live by the sword will perish by it, knew that for Israel to have it was to ensure their destruction. God did not desire such an outcome. Therefore, from this motivation alone, it is certain that He never gave them the sword. More than this, if He had done so then He would be responsible for their destruction, for he who gives to another that which will assuredly effect his death must carry the blame for that demise.
It follows then that it was never in God’s purpose that Israel or anyone else should ever carry the sword. It has no place in His character and corresponding methods, and therefore is to find no acceptance in the character and behaviour of His people.
The recognition of this truth is essential in understanding the directives from God which sent the Israelites forth with the sword to utterly destroy the peoples who opposed them. The institution of this form of government was entirely the people’s work, the expression of their having more faith in themselves than in God. It was the establishment of human principles and procedures in place of the divine.
Therefore, in every instance where the Israelites went to war or executed the wrongdoers among themselves, their actions were not a revelation of the character of God. There has been a universal readiness to con-dude that they were, on the erroneous assumption that the people were simply doing as the Lord told them. If they had been a truly obedient people they would not have had the swords at all and therefore would never have gone forth with them to slay their enemies.

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Yet God did give directions to them. There is no denying this, nor any desire to do so, for the nature of those commands reveals a very wonderful and beautiful Father in Heaven ever reaching out to save and never to destroy. The tragic error is that He has been terribly misunderstood to the point where the actions designed to minimize the evil effects of the slaughtering to which they were committed, have been judged in an altogether different and wrong light.
The purpose here is to establish that it was in spite of God’s best efforts to the contrary that the sword became an establishment in the encampment of Israel. The recognition of this truth is essential to understanding the directives given to Israel, which have been viewed for too long as an indication that He was personally using them as executioners.
If God’s will had been respected, they would never have carried the sword, the Levites would never have executed those who worshipped the golden calf, nor would there have been the many bloody battles whereby they gained possession of the land. God would have been left free to do His work for them according to the eternal principles of righteousness.
The command given by God at various times in connection with these slayings makes it difficult for the average person to see this. It is argued that God was personally and directly involved, that He decided the particular sentence and then ordered its execution.
This certainly appears to be a watertight argument but it still leaves those terrible contradictions. God does not give orders contrary to the principles of eternal rectitude and righteousness. Therefore, more study is required to remove those seeming inconsistencies. This may be done with the sweet consciousness that there are no contradictions in the Word of God and that God’s character is perfectly consistent in all its behaviour.
It will be seen, as we proceed, that the commands given by God were to a people who had already chosen the way they would go and who, if left completely unguided, would use those weapons in the worst way. God’s commands were designed to minimize the evil effects of what they had chosen to do. In this, He was acting out the role of a Saviour, who, having failed to save them from the sword, would save them from its worst effects.

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CHAPTER THIRTY
 
The Ever-loving, Saving Father

When the Israelites took the sword, thus rejecting God’s way in favour 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.
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 turning, 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 misdemeanours.
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.
The following illustration will serve to clarify these alternatives and to identify the divine choice among them.
Picture a smallish town located in an area where wild animals, such as bear, deer, mountain sheep, and various big cats abounded. As is to be expected, the majority of men in the town were keen hunters never missing the opportunity to take their guns out and to track down the game.

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But one man was different. He had the love of God in his heart and to kill the beautiful dwellers in the forests and mountains was contrary to his nature. So he was never seen in company with the men trailing off to seek their adventures in the blood of others. For their part, they were troubled by this odd man out and never lost an occasion to persuade him, if possible, to join them. At one time, they even bought him a splendid hunting rifle for his birthday. With Christian graciousness, he gently declined the gift. This was naturally resented, causing those men to increase the pressure on him, but despife this, year after year, there was no change in him. The only equipment with which he would hunt was a good camera.
This man had a fine son whom he was most anxious to protect from the influence of the hunters around. He worked untiringly to instil into him the same love of the wildlife which he possessed, and was gratified to see that he was having good success in this direction. Thus the father was working to have the boy do things his way as distinct from the hunters’ way.
The father did not take away the boy’s freedom of choice. When he eventually reached later youth, he became answerable for himself and was no longer under the direct control and discipline of his father. He received an invitation to spend some weeks away from home and, eager to see new country, accepted the kindly offer. This was a clever plot by the huntsmen, who sent their sons along to invite the boy, once he was away from the father’s direct influence, to go hunting with them. They urged him to try it just once to see how he liked it. Feeling that no harm would be done by an on-the-spot personal appraisal of the hunting business, he went along.
His first reaction was unfavourable but, something about the challenge, thrill, and excitement, drew him back and soon he was an enthusiastic devotee. He went to the sports store, selected a beautifully engineered weapon, and in due time returned with it to his dismayed father. He had exercised his choice and now the father was confronted with a situation which required a response. How would he now relate himself to this turn of events? Clearly the young man had instituted in his life a course contrary to the ways of his father and of God.
For the father, as for God, the choice lay between several alternatives.
The first option was to disown the son, forbidding his entrance to the home and requiring he go his own separate way. The justification for this would have been the certainty that the principles of father and son could never harmonize.
Another course would have called for the use of force to coerce the lad’s surrender to his father’s wishes and ways. This was not the answer for two reasons. Firstly the youth had achieved the age of independence, so it would have been impossible for the father to achieve the desired result anyway. But, secondly, it was not in this father’s nature any more than it is in the character of God, to use force. To them, the only acceptable service is that which springs from an educated heart of love.

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A third alternative was to quietly ignore the change. pretend that the rifle had never been brought into the home, and ad as if all were well when, in fact, it was not. Again, this was no way out, for sin cannot be ignored. Neither love nor justice will permit it. Iniquity demands attention. A response to it will always be forthcoming whether it be the saving outreach of love or the vindictive reaction of destructive hate.
Having considered and rejected each of these possibilities, what would have been left for this godly man to do? What would God do in the same situation?
Firstly, the older man recognized that his son had placed himself, other people, domestic livestock, and wild animals, in a position of great danger. Being an inexperienced and untrained rifleman, he did not understand the necessity of looking beyond the target to ensure that there were no buildings, people, or farm animals in the line of fire. He needed to understand how to carry the weapon so that in climbing through fences, for instance, he did not, as so many have done, shoot himself or his friends. He must be made aware of the awful potential of the ricochet, when a bullet, glancing from rock or tree, will embed itself in a target far to the right or left of the original sighting. He must come close enough to the game to eliminate the possibility of only wounding the animal which would then drag itself away to suffer a lingering death. These and others things he could be taught in order to save himself and others from the worst effects of what he had chosen.
While the father could no longer save the youth from taking the gun, he could, if permitted, provide the instruction needed to save him from these serious consequences. Even the wild animals would benefit from this saving ministry, for, while they could not be saved from death, they could be delivered from a painful and lingering one.
As the response of God and those who walk with Him will always be the outreach of saving love, there is only one course among those suggested above that the Lord or this father would follow. God is by nature a saviour. So too was the father pictured in this illustration. When God is frustrated from saving people in one area, He will still exercise His saving power in whatever possibilities remain. Thus, when the boy’s father found that his long pursued objectives of saving the youth from taking up weapons had failed, he still recognized that there was much he could do to save the boy from the worst effects of what he had chosen.
So, sadly, but with tender dignity the father drew his son aside and spoke with him. He expressed disappointment that the younger man had chosen to go the way he had, but assured him that he would respect his decision fully. He gently suggested that there were dangers associated with the use of such a weapon, from which perils he could only be safeguarded by receiving and obeying a number of specific precautions. The father intimated that he was more than willing to carefully instruct the son in these

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things so that he would be saved from the worst results of what he had chosen.
The son, relieved that his parent was not launching against him a fiery denunciation of his ways, no longer braced himself to resist such pressure. Instead he expressed his willingness to learn. By so doing he exhibited the strange quirk of human behaviour which gives men an unwillingness to obey God where the higher levels of faith are concerned, but permits them to follow His counsel at lesser levels. Israel, for instance, was not prepared to trust God fully by leaving the sword alone, but they accepted and followed His counsels regarding the restrictions designed to minimize its evils. In like manner, the son who had abandoned his father’s principles regarding the total rejection of firearms, was prepared to respect his counsels in the use of them.
The father introduced the training session by emphasizing that nothing he was about to do or say indicated that he had changed In any way, even though it could be interpreted that way.
God, who has been placed in the same position by the determination of His children to take up weapons of destruction, has likewise solemnly warned that His effort to save them from the worst effects of what they have chosen does not indicate any change in Him, even though His actions could and have been interpreted otherwise.
“I am the Lord, I change not;” “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever;” “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17.
Despite the fact that men know that before sin entered God never destroyed, and despite these solemn declarations from God that no change has ever occurred in Him, men still look on His everlasting efforts to save and interpret them as being the actions of one who has become like man himself. The father in our story did not have to change his ways in order to instruct the son how to be a kind killer, neither did God have to change His ways to save Israel from being cruel users of the sword. Neither of them took life. They were only bent on saving it, or, if that were no longer possible, to save it from as much suffering as possible.
Now suppose that one of the villagers, the man who had most ardently sought to convert the father, had happened to come down the lane as this session was in progress. From a distance too great to hear all that has been said, he beheld the father instructing the son in the use of firearms.
What assumptions will this man make? What conclusions will he draw?
He never was possessed of the spirit of the father and therefore, could never understand it. Accordingly, there was no possibility of his correctly assessing what the father was doing. Instead, he would have interpreted what he saw as sure proof that the father had changed.
The onlooker would have lost no time in returning to his hunting companions to announce the father’s conversion. He would have told them that

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he was now one of them—a gunman. He would have offered as proof to his incredulous listeners, what he had seen of the father actually instructing the boy in gun-handling. The evidence he offered was factually true, for this is exactly what he had seen the father doing, but the conclusions drawn from those evidences were the opposite from the truth.
Even as that father was misjudged, so God has likewise been.
At the golden calf, God gave direct instructions through Moses for the Levites to take their swords and execute the unrepentant rebels. Men have taken these facts and from them have drawn their own conclusions. While the facts are correct, the conclusions drawn from them are wholly wrong. They have declared with great satisfaction that God has become one of them, one like them—a destroyer.
They could not be more mistaken.
Thankfully, God has not changed. He has not become like men; He is not a destroyer. Sin has not changed Him, neither have sinful men. When His character and work are correctly understood, it will be seen that He did nothing differently at the golden calf than He did when Adam and Eve elected to go their own way.
When they made that choice, God was faced with the same options which confronted the father when his son returned with the gun. Firstly, He could have separated from them and left them to go their own way. How thankful we can be that He did not do this. Very quickly they would have perished and we would have been deprived of existence and any opportunity for salvation.
The use of force was another alternative but this is unacceptable to God for the only obedience He will accept is that which comes from a willing heart. If force was the answer, then Lucifer would never have sinned in the first case, for God would have compelled him not to.
God could have chosen to ignore the sin, to simply pretend that it did not exist but this could not be, for its intrusion into the universe affected too much. It had to be dealt with. It refused to be ignored.
In His great love and mercy, God does not leave man to himself to reap the worst consequences of what he has sown. To whatever extent man will accept it, God provides him with counsels and blessing so that his life is less severe and painful.
In doing this, God makes Himself suspect of becoming participant in man s way, of having compromised His principles, and of having changed. What we are now striving to show from the clear evidences of God’s Word, is that the Lord does not change, compromise, or participate in the least degree, with man In his way. The illustration of the father who refused to become a hunter, yet instructed his son in the safe use of the gun, should greatly assist in making this principle clear. God is not a legalist. He is a very wonderful God and it takes deep spiritual insight on the Christian’s part to understand His character, to see how He can assist man in this way and yet not compromise Himself or His principles in the least.

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Even though He is misunderstood in doing these things, to the point where He is charged with becoming a destroyer, God does not deviate from principle. It is more important for Him to do the right thing than to be understood in the doing of it. In the end He will be understood, and when He is, the loyalty of every one of His true children will be assured forever. At the same time, those who have chosen a life of rebellion will be convinced of His righteousness and will confess it, even though it is too late for them to be saved.
From the very beginning, God has worked this way and He will do so to the last. Firstly, He does all in His power to save His creatures from going into sin. Then, when they do, He works equally hard to save them from the worst effects of what they have done. When they finally reject even this saving effort, there is nothing more He can do to save them, and they are left to perish.
The golden calf episode is not the easiest place in the biblical record to see this principle. There are others where it is more clearly revealed. Therefore it is better that they be studied first. Then a preparation will have been made for an enlightened reassessment of God’s part at the golden calf.
The outstanding example is God’s behaviour before and after the Israelites went into Babylonian captivity.
Never did a nation pursue a more provocative course toward God than did Israel in those years of apostasy, rebellion, and idolatry between the reigns of David and Hezekiah. After an excellent beginning in Joshua’s time, there had been the heart-breaking frustrations of Israel’s oscillations from good to bad during the period of the judges, but, in David’s day, the kingdom had reached its pinnacle of glory. The people were basking in the manifold blessings of the Lord, and everything was set for the most glorious reign of righteousness yet to be witnessed in the world. Instead, the people took the gifts of the Lord, transferred their trust from God to them, and entered into the worst period of their history up to that point. It had cost heaven a great deal to bring Israel to this hour of promise and opportunity, only to see it all thrown away so despitefully, selfishly, and irresponsibly.
Men, treated after this fashion, will reciprocate with destructive punishments. Such men, devoid of any true understanding of God’s character, expect Him to react in the same manner. From the human point of view, God would never have been more justified if He had done so when Israel pursued so heaven-daring and insulting a course as they did during that great apostasy.
But the Scriptures do not reveal any such disposition developing on God’s part as the fateful years dragged on. Instead they reveal Him in an entirely different attitude. He is shown as a compassionate Saviour, unmindful of the terrible defiance and ingratitude, seeing instead the dreadful, self-imposed plight of His people, working to deliver them from the power

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of the Babylonians and the sufferings which would follow their overthrow. Hear Him speaking through the prophet Jeremiah.
“Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
“Trust ye not in lying words, saying. The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
“For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
“If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
“Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.” Jeremiah 7:2-7.
As these words were spoken, a mighty nation darkened any bright hopes of the world’s future. Babylon was rising spectacularly in power, and nation after nation was succumbing. Israel, weakened by years of idol worship and sin, could not hope to resist the northern tide. If God had possessed even the slightest traces of the spirit men think He has, His attitude would have been very different at this time. He would have declared to Israel, “For centuries I have blessed, protected, and prospered you, and all I get in return is insult, disobedience, disrespect, and rejection. The might of Babylon is coming against you in the very near future. They will savage you and you will deserve all you get and more. I wash My hands of you and leave you to your fate.”
But we do not find such an attitude on God’s part. If we did then God’s love must be less than infinite. There would be a iimit to it. It would go so far and then stop, to be replaced by a spirit of revengeful reciprocation. Such is the changing nature of man’s love, but it is never the way of God’s infinite love. Nothing can change that.
Striking evidence of its unchangeable qualities is given in the history of Israel between the reigns of David and Zedekial-u Seldom, if ever, have a people who have received so much from God, done more to provoke Him. They turned their backs on the sanctuary and worshipped the gods of the heathen. BaaI became their lord. They offered their beautiful children as living sacrifices to Molech. They slaughtered each other, devoted their bodies to every species of licentiousness and debauchery, and robbed the poor, the widowed, and the fatherless. They did everything conceivable to offend and drive the Lord away. Theirs is indeed a sad, terrible, and provocative record.
But what a contrast is God’s behaviour. In the face of it all He could truthfully say, “For I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6. His relationship to them was the same at the end of this trying experience as it had been at the beginning. It is true

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that at the end they were not recipient of His blessings to the same extent as when their relationship with Him had been so good, but that was not because the Lord had retaliated by withdrawing those blessings. It was only because they had shut themselves away from them.
‘In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
“As the flower turns to the sun, that the bright beams may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven’s light may shine upon us, that our character may be developed into the likeness of Christ.” Steps to Christ, 68.
In these paragraphs, two illustrations of God’s provision for man’s physical needs are referred to—the air and the sun. Irrespective of man’s behaviour, these blessings are as abundant on any one day as another. They flow with unrestricted power to all. If men choose to shut themselves away from these life-giving agencies, then they will suffer, but the blame can never be laid on God. So, Israel had no justification for any charge they might level at God for cuffing off the blessings to themselves. They, alone, were responsible for puffing themselves where they could not receive those benefits.
It was for this reason that the impending invasion of the Babylonians was possible. The Israelites had placed themselves outside the circle of God’s protection thereby preventing Him from saving them. They were doing just what Pharaoh had done before them. As that proud ruler had teetered on the brink of self-destruction, God had sent Moses to plead with him to repent so that the calamities might be averted and he be saved from receiving the just punishment for his sins.
When Israel stood under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar’s power, they likewise were standing on the black edge of the abyss. God had not changed. For this reason He did for the Israelites what He had done for the Egyptians. He sent a prophet, Jeremiah, to plead with them and to assure them that if they would only repent, they could remain in their own land forever. They would entirely escape the terrible calamities which they fully deserved, and which were so imminent.
God did not call on them to endure appropriate punishments or a period of penance before they were reinstated in their land and in His favour. This is very difficult to accept, for man’s philosophy demands that if a man sins, he pays for it. Therefore, no matter how sincerely a man may repent, or be changed in nature, human justice requires that he endure an appropriate punishment for his sin. Only when he has done this can he be deemed to have ‘paid his debt to society.”
There is a double motivation behind this human disposition. One is the spirit of rendering evil for evil, the other is the impulse for self-protection

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and security. Accordingly, courts of justice seek to measure an evil to the man equal to the evil he has committed, thus demonstrating that the human way is .to render evil for evil. This satisfies the requirement for revenge. At the same time the penalty is administered in such a way that the public is aware of it, the example being made of the wrongdoer serving as a warning deterrent to other would be offenders. By this means the hope is entertained that security will be guaranteed.
But this is not God’s order. He does not mete out evil for evil. He returns good instead. Though this is the truth, it is exceedingly difficult for earthlings to grasp. So deeply engrained is the concept of meeting evil with evil, that it cannot be understood how God can operate on opposite principles.
Yet the case under study here verifies that this is His way. To prove otherwise will necessitate finding Scriptures which record God’s demands that they endure a series of punishments before they can regain His favour. But such references are not to be found. The only chastisements they would suffer were those they had brought upon themselves, but from which God had worked to save them.
If any doubt this beautiful attribute of Cod, let him study the story of the prodigal son which is expressly designed to teach this truth. In this parable, both the sons exhibited the same belief that appropriate punishments must be endured before there could be a restoration. The erring son asked for it and the other demanded it. The father, who directly represents God’s behaviour, would not hear of it. All he required was true repentance.
When the prodigal returned to his father, he asked only a place as the least of the servants. This, he felt, would be a humiliation so great as to be a punishment befitting his case. He was sure he was asking for his just desserts.
The elder brother was incensed when he heard of the complete restoration of the sinner to the place from which he had gone. He thought of the prodigal’s wasteful expenditure of health, money, time, and the father’s reputation. He did not mind the repentance and the return, but he did object to the reinstatement. If the younger brother had been compelled to live in the servants’ quarters and then scrub the floors for a year or two before being slowly elevated to the place of a son, he would have been satisfied, but for him to come back, to receive a royal welcome and to be accorded the same place as he had left, without being sentenced to an appropriate punishment, was too much for his human morality to accept.
The father accepted that boy back into the household as if he had never sinned. Exactly so, God receives the sinner back and accepts him as though he had never sinned. “If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” Steps to Christ, 62.

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“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1.
When the full beauty of that Scripture opens to the mind, it will be seen that it, too, is saying that when the sinner repents, the Lord really does treat him as though he had never sinned at all.
This is the truth expressed through Jeremiah to Israel when the Lord said that if they would repent, they would stay in their own land forever. In other words, He would treat them as though they had never sinned. No clearer view could be given of the unchanging nature of God. His blessings never cease to flow toward man, His attitude is always the same. When men turn away from Him, they place themselves out of touch with those blessings, but the moment they return, then they find themselves back in the same position they were in when they left.
In the great, original rebellion this truth is revealed with clarity and force. Lucifer had served God with unfailing devotion for what must have been a long period of time. Throughout, he received the fulness of God’s blessings and the joy of fellowship. Eventually, he lost his confidence in God and consequently entered into rebellion against Him. If he had gone no further it would have been bad enough, but he added greater offence by enlisting as many as possible in the same spirit of disaffection. A threat was thus directed against the entire kingdom. When this happens in an earthly dominion, the monarch speedily deals with the offender, making such an example of him as to effectively deter others from a like course.
But the ways of men are not God’s ways. Therefore, no greater mistake can be made than to expect God to employ the same measures to deal with a given situation. Consequently, God did not relate Himself to Lucifer by making an example of him, by administering disciplinary actions, or by changing in His relationship toward him in any way. Instead, all the loving agencies of heaven were put in motion to plead with him not to persist in a course which could only propel him into deadly ruin. “But the warning, given in infinite love and mercy, only aroused a spirit of resistance.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 36.
God did not even demote the covering cherub. He did not take this type of action no matter how far the bright one departed from Him. The initial vacating of his position and later of heaven itself, was Lucifer’s own action. It was never the work of God. The confirmation of this can be obtained by reading through the chapter from which the above statement is taken.
In a loving effort to save both Lucifer and the angels who were coming under his influence, ‘The King of the universe summoned the heavenly hosts before Him, that in their presence He might set forth the tue position of His Son, and show the relation He sustained to all created beings.” ibid. That was a marvellous sermon on the divine order and organization in which was revealed the love of God toward every one of His creatures.

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They were brought to see that the position occupied by Christ was one of great personal sacrifice, made for their good from a heart warmed by infinite love and wisdom.
Lucifer came close to sharing the adulation of the other angels but the strange, fierce conflict raged within him until self and pride obtained the mastery. It was then that he left his place in the throne room of God. God did not dismiss him and require his departure. Lucifer took himself away as it is written, “Leaving his place in the immediate presence of the Father, Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels.” ibid., 37.
Now the rebellion had really started, the corruption was solidly setting in and the endangering of God’s kingdom was well under way. This was no secret to God. He knew the very thoughts in Lucifer’s mind, how he was now totally committed to his course and that he would go on and on to perdition. The time had surely come for positive preventative action such as the extermination, or, at least, expulsion of the rebel. After all, it is sound policy to throw out the rotten apple to prevent corruption of the remainder. But God did not do this. It would have been a denial of the principle that He had given complete freedom to serve or not to serve Him. Therefore, He would not take any action requiring force. He would use only the outreach of saving love to draw His much-loved creature back from destruction.
“A compassionate Creator, in yearning pity for Lucifer and his followers, was seeking to draw them back from the abyss of ruin into which they were about to plunge.” ibid., 39. The result of this was that he came close to the point of yielding and coming back to God. Quite a time had elapsed and he had done a tremendous amount of damage in God’s kingdom. From the human point of view he deserved a great deal of punishment, but, “Though he had left his position as covering cherub, yet if he had been willing to return to God, acknowledging the Creator’s wisdom, and satisfied to fill the place appointed him in God’s great plan, he would have been reinstated in his office.” ibid.
In other words, he would have been accepted before God as though he had never sinned. He would have gone back to his place in God’s presence and would have continued there as if he had never left it. Lucifer was not required to suffer any punishments, endure penance, or pass through a period of probation before being readmitted to his place. He was not even called upon to accept a lowly position from which he could work his way back to the top.
Therefore, when Christ revealed His Father in the parable of the returning prodigal, He was not simply telling what the Father would do to the repentant. He was confirming what He had always done. What Jesus told of the father’s attitude toward the prodigal son is exactly how God related Himself to Lucifer. The only difference is that the prodigal son was repentant; Lucifer was not.

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The Bible requires two or three witnesses to confirm any truth as it is written, . . . in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Matthew 18:16. Here are the three needed witnesses to confirm this truth about God’s character. The case of Lucifer, the experience of the Israelites as they faced Babylonian oppression, and the parable of the prodigal son all confirm that God does not administer punishments to sinners but seeks to save them from the chastisements which they are about to inflict upon themselves. If they will only repent and return to the circle of His blessings, then they will be accepted back as if they had never sinned.
But those who do not really believe that God’s love is infinite and that He never changes by so much as a hair’s breadth, will argue that there was a limit to His patience and when that was exhausted with Lucifer, He turned to active warfare to run him out of heaven. Their proof text is Revelation 12:7-9.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
“And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
To millions, these words have pictured an intense physical struggle between the forces loyal to heaven and the rebels. It has been seen as a conflict involving the use of physical power versus physical power. Great artists have portrayed Christ at the head of hordes of shining angels standing with an unsheathed sword before which Lucifer is plunging downwards into the darkness of empty space.
But this is a superficial and inaccurate view of the nature of that struggle. It is a view consequent with the practice of seeing God’s behaviour as being identical to mans. There was war in heaven, it is true, but not war as men fight. Satan was cast out, but it was God’s way of doing it, not mans.
“God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.” The Desire of Ages, 759.
In that struggle then, God did not use force. This weapon is never found in His kingdom but only in that of Satan’s. Therefore, it was by another way that Satan was cast out of heaven, never to return. God fought with none other than the weapons consistent with His kingdom. It is difficult for sinful man to understand the nature of those weapons for they are so foreign to his experience and nature.

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The struggle in heaven was a very real one nonetheless. It was war—a total effort on Satan’s part to change the entire structure of heaven’s order and organization. In order to succeed, he needed to convert the angels’ allegiance away from God to himself. At that time the only sword Satan could use was that of deception, against which God used only the weapon of truth. The battle raged on over a considerable time span until the point was reached where the devil had penetrated as far as he could. Each angel had made his choice with sufficient numbers standing for the truth to enable God to maintain His position as Protector of the heavenly hosts. With God’s continued presence assured, there was no hope of the proposed new order being established. The old and proven order would remain. But Satan’s deformation had brought him into such disharmony with those principles that he found it impossible to remain where they continued to operate. To him, heaven had become a place that was foreign, unacceptable, and unendurable, and he could not leave it quickly enough.
It was the truth of God which drove him out, not the use of any kind of physical force. The same reason for Satan’s leaving heaven is the reason why the wicked would never be happy if they were to return there. They would not be able to tolerate the place and would want to leave it as soon as possible. They would be driven out by their sheer unfitness to remain.
“Could those whose lives have been spent in rebellion against God be suddenly transported to heaven, and witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever exists there—every soul filled with love, every countenance beaming with joy, enrapturing music in melodious strains rising in honor of God and the Lamb, and ceaseless streams of light flowing upon the redeemed from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne,—could those whose hears are filled with hatred of God, of truth and holiness, mingle with the heavenly throng and join their songs of praise? Could they endure the glory of God and the Lamb? No, no; years of probation were granted them, that they might form characters for heaven; but they have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the language of heaven, and now it is too late. A life of rebellion against God has unfitted them for heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire. They would long to flee from that holy place. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them. The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the part of God.” The Great Controversy, 542, 543.
Confirmation of this is already available. The worldly and ungodly today find that the society of true Christians engaged in devoted worship of God is Intolerable to them and they desire only to leave such society. They are happier elsewhere. In like manner, Satan’s rejection of the ways and principles of God in exchange for other pursuits so worked changes in him

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that he could no longer suffer its holy atmosphere. Being there was such torture to his deranged nature that he had to go and go he did. As Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by his continual resistance of God’s efforts to save him, so Lucifer’s whole being was warned by his fighting off God’s loving efforts to draw him and his followers back from the abyss into which their steps were surely taking them. This is how Satan was driven from heaven, not by God directly driving him out, but by His efforts to save him.
There is much more which could be written on Satan’s expulsion from Paradise. Many more proofs could be supplied from Scripture to enlarge the point made here, but for now we will pass on and leave further discussion of this until we come to the falling of the seven last plagues and the Baffle of Armageddon. That final struggle is simply the culmination of the war which began in heaven and has continued ever since. God and Satan will still be using the same weapons in the last confrontation as they did at the first and the outcome will be the same. Therefore, a clear understanding of what is to happen then will illuminate what took place in the past.
From God’s recorded behaviour toward Lucifer and apostate Israel and as further intimated in the parable of the prodigal son, it is obvious that God’s behaviour toward man is vastly different from man’s behaviour toward his fellowmen.
With man there must always be the exacting of a penalty; the enduring of a punishment no matter how penitent and changed the criminal may become. Men are not satisfied until the malefactor has “paid his debt to society.”
But if Lucifer had repented of his evil course he would have been reinstated in his office as if he had never sinned.
Likewise, if Israel had repented and turned away from idol worship and all the licentiousness and evil which goes with it, they would have been delivered from the Assyrians and the Babylonians as if they had never sinned. The certainty of this is contained in the Word of God when He told them through Jeremiah, already quoted in this chapter, that this is the way it would be.
That these were not mere words with God is proven by the fact that when He was given the opportunity to carry them out He surely did so. The mighty Sennacherib marched victoriously against the whole idol-worshipping world. The ten tribes of Israel fell before him and he intended to add Judah as a further prize to his conquests. But there was a king on the throne who believed God. Hezekiah came to power after a succession of very wicked and idolatrous rulers. The land had been filled with images and the sanctuary was in a sorry state.
Over the whole land loomed the dark shadow of Assyrian global conquest demanding that instant action be taken to meet the threat, Many a man would have concentrated on the formation of military preparedness by gathering, equipping, and training the largest army possible in the shortest

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time. The restoration of the sanctuary and the obliteration of the images could wait till a later date.
But not this king. Firstly he set to work to cleanse and restore the sanctuary and its services. With his whole heart he turned to the Lord and put his trust there. He claimed the promise that they would be protected and saved in their own land and they were. God dismissed the Assyrian threat with such totality that it never assailed Judah again. Study the story with care and see how the Lord did not demand that they pay their debt to Him. He did not require a long period of proving before He would act on their behalf. As soon as they repented, He stepped back into His rightful place as their Protector and Saviour and delivered them as if they had never sinned.
Had Zedekiah been a king of Hezekiah’s character, then Nebuchadnezzar would never have had any hope of overcoming the Israelites. But, despite the fact that the King of Heaven sent His prophet Jeremiah to him with the assurance that if he would repent, then the Lord would work for him as if he had never sinned at all, and despite the fact that the history of Judah’s deliverance from Sennacherib proved this, the king elected to reject God’s counsels and go his own way, thus frustrating any hope of God doing what His loving heart longed to do, namely, to save them from the cruel oppressor.
What the Lord would have done for Lucifer and Zedekiah, He did do for good king Hezekiah and for countless others who have believed the Lord. These experiences are the proof that the portrayal of God rendered in the parable of the prodigal son is the truth. Satan is desperate in his fear that men will become acquainted with such a God, for he knows they will then have confidence to come to Him for deliverance from his machinations. Therefore, he presents God as a being no different from sinful men—severe, exacting, and determined that the full measure of punishment for sin be borne before mercy can be extended. Then the devil leads the soul into sin so terrible that the victim knows he can never serve out the sentence and is thus discouraged from ever seeking God.
Let God’s wonderful willingness to forgive and restore Israel in the face of their sad and desperate apostasy, be to every man and woman an inspiring encouragement to come back to the God of mercy and light.
God says to the sinner, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Isaiah 44:22.
“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:34.
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7.
“In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” Jeremiah 50:20.

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“What assurance here, of God’s willingness to receive the repenting sinner! Have you, reader, chosen your own way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips? Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart but to which you would not listen comes to you distinct and clear, ‘Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.’ Micah 2:10. Return to your Father’s house. He invites you, saying, ‘Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.’ Isaiah 44:22.
“Do not listen to the enemy’s suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come. When Satan points to your filthy garments, repeat the promise of Jesus, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6:37. Tell the enemy that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. Make the prayer of David your own, ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7.
“Arise and go to your Father. He will meet you a great way off. If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love. His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him. Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the prayer is uttered or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 205, 206.
Those who rejoice in deliverance from the old Satan-inspired concepts of God will know Him as He is presented in the parable of the prodigal son. They will have the faith and courage to bring their sins for pardon and cleansing and to thus stand before Him as if they had never sinned. These are they in whom true love for God will be found, and from whom a stream of dedicated service will flow. Such will inhabit the universe throughout eternity to experience the fulness of eternal joys and pleasures. There is small wonder then that heaven will be a place of perfect bliss and security.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

God Goes The Second Mile

We are still seeking Bible evidence to throw sufficient light on the incident at the golden calf, to enable us to clearly see that God did not violate one principle of His character there. Because, for so long, we have viewed this in the wrong light, and, because we are so prone to interpret God’s ways as being the same as men’s, it is necessary to examine a lot of evidence to entirely clarify the point. When the light of the Word of God shines with force and clarity on the situation, it will be seen that not only was God still acting as a Saviour at the golden calf slaughter, but that He has also been seriously misunderstood in that role. That which was the revelation of Him as the Saviour, has been interpreted as the manifestation of Him as a destroyer or executioner.
The truth being developed here is that Israel elected to reject God’s way when they took up the sword. Not only had the Lord not given this weapon to them, but He had done all in His power short of direct compulsion to prevent them from taking it up. Despite those loving efforts to save them from that terrible fate, they had chosen it and the Lord could only respect that choice. He never makes the choice of how we shall act. He warns and teaches us, but the choice remains ours. There is no compulsion in God’s relation to His creatures.
Once they had made that choice, then by it they had instituted their way in place of God’s way. It is impossible for both the way of God and of man to operate within a society at the same time. It can be only one or the other, never both. So, when they elected to institute their way in place of Gods, then God’s methods could not be used in dealing with the rebellion at Sinai. Therefore, what happened at Mt. Sinai was not after the order of God. It was the application of the procedures which Israel had instituted by adding the sword to their way of life. The only part God filled was to apply some restraint and guidance to their use of it to minimize its evil effects.
What complicates the problem, making it difficult for many to understand God’s behaviour, is that Israel was still reckoned to be His people. Therefore, it is reasoned, if God was still their leader and, from that position, instructed them to execute the rebellious, then He was responsible for the slaughter. If this is correct reasoning, then it can only be concluded that this was the divinely instituted solution to the problem Rebellion, therefore, was to be overcome by force.
Such reasoning will satisfy the superficial thinker to whom serious, clashing contradictions in the Bible can be rationalized away, but it will not satisfy the truly spiritual student who knows that there can be no real contradictions therein. He will search with faith-filled, intensive dedication until the problem is resolved according to Bible principles.

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Firstly, the fact that the Israelites were Cod’s people only to whatever extent He was permitted by them to be their Sovereign, is overlooked. This is the sad tragedy of human history. Men and movements are prepared to go just so far with God, but not all the way. So it was with Israel. While in large areas they retained God as their leader, followed His ways and served Him fully, there were others where they took His work to themselves. For instance, they still followed the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; faithfully respected the Sabbath; were custodians of His law; and continued the services of the sanctuary according to the divine blueprint.
But, by taking up the sword, they had deprived the Lord of His position as their defender and protector from enemies within and without. While it is true that they expected God to assist them in this work, it does not alter the fact that they were doing it in His stead and according to their own human principles. Therefore, their actions as such, were not the revelation of God’s character but of their own. It was the manifestation of the outworking of such wicked unbelief as led them to have more confidence in their own power to protect themselves than in God’s.
Yet, God did something in this domain where they had taken the work to themselves. Inasmuch as His every act is a revelation of His character, God revealed Himself by what He did in directing the Levites to cut down the rebels. Unfortunately, the majority have seen His actions in a very different light from reality and consequently have retained an erroneous concept of His character.
It must be recognized that God is a Saviour. He had worked intensely to save them from taking the sword in the first place, but when they despitefully did so, then the best He could do was to give counsels designed to save them from the worst consequences of their choice. They were not compelled to obey those counsels, but they were well-advised to do so if they wished to save themselves from terrible evils, It is interesting to note the perversity of humanity which will refuse to obey God in some things and yet implicitly follow His guidance in others. Thus, while Israel did not have the faith to leave their protection to God, they were prepared to follow to the letter His directions in dealing with crime in the camp.
It is doubtful if a better illustration of this exists, than can be found in the relationship of God to the Israelites when they went into captivity. The evidence presented in the previous chapter shows that right up until Israel was carried into Babylon, the Lord did His best to save them from it. He sent messages of warning and entreaty. He assured them that if they would only repent, then, even at the last moment, they would be delivered as if they had never sinned and would be kept safely and prosperously in their own land. He did not show the least trace of vindictiveness or desire to retaliate. He did not demand that they serve out a sentence of punishment for their evil deeds.

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But they would neither heed nor repent. Because they would not, the Lord could not save them from that captivity. So they became captives. Their going into captivity effectively terminated God’s efforts to save them from it. But this did not mean that the Lord ceased to act as a Saviour to them. Certainly He could no longer act the role of a Saviour to save them from going into captivity, for that possibility, was past. They were now captives. But He could save them from the worst effects of that which they had chosen, and this is what He did. He acted exactly as the father did in the story told in an earlier chapter. When he could not save his son from taking the gun, he offered him instruction designed to save both the lad and the creatures he would hunt, from the worst effects of that choice.
The record of God’s doing this is beautifully recorded in the Scriptures. Not only is He revealed there as an unchanging and ever-loving Saviour, but, by contrast, the devil is shown in his work of destroying. The evil one had worked incessantly to deliver Israel into captivity and had succeeded. Then, when he got them there, he worked with equal frenzy to make that captivity as destructive to their physical and spiritual comfort and welfare as possible.
Thus we find God and Satan working in exactly opposite roles as in this statement, we have been informed that they do.
“The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man’s behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sustains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature’s agencies are set at work to restore soundness. But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from Him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him.
“Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.” The Ministry of Healing, 112, 113,
This truth is clearly portrayed in the inspired record of the way in which Satan and God related themselves to the people who had been carried captive into Babylon.
“Zedekiah at the beginning of his reign was trusted fully by the king of Babylon and had as a tried counselor the prophet Jeremiah. By pursuing an honorable course toward the Babylonians and by paying heed to the messages from the Lord through Jeremiah, he could have kept the rasped of many in high authority and have had opportunity to communicate to them a knowledge of the true God. Thus the captive exiles already in Babylon would have been placed on vantage ground and granted many liberties; the name of God would have been honored far and wide; and those that remained in the land of Judah would have been spared the terrible calamities that finally came upon them.

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 “Through Jeremiah, Zedekiah and all Judah, including those taken to Babylon, were counseled to submit quietly to the temporary rule of their conquerors. It was especially important that those in captivity should seek the peace of the land into which they had been carried. This, however, was contrary to the inclination of the human heart; and Satan, taking advantage of the circumstances, caused false prophets to arise among the people, both in Jerusalem and in Babylon, who declared that the yoke of bondage would soon be broken and the former prestige of the nation restored.
“The heeding of such flattering prophecies would have led to fatal moves on the part of the king and the exiles, and would have frustrated the merciful designs of God in their behalf. Lest an insurrection be incited and great suffering ensue, the Lord commanded Jeremiah to meet the crisis without delay, by warning the king of Judah of the sure consequence of rebellion. The captives also were admonished, by written communications, not to be deluded into believing their deliverance near. ‘Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you,’ he urged. Jeremiah 29:8. In this connection mention was made of the Lord’s purpose to restore Israel at the close of the seventy years of captivity foretold by His messengers.
“With what tender compassion did God inform His captive people of His plans for Israel! He knew that should they be persuaded by false prophets to look for a speedy deliverance, their position in Babylon would be made very difficult. Any demonstration or insurrection on their part would awaken the vigilance and severity of the Cha]dean authorities and would lead to a further restriction of their liberties. Suffering and disaster would result. He desired them to submit quietly to their fate and make their servitude as pleasant as possible; and His counsel to them was: ‘Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; . . . and seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.’ Verses 5-7. Prophets and Kings, 440-442.
How clearly and wonderfully God’s behaviour is revealed in this story, in contrast to Satan’s. By their stubborn rejection of God’s efforts to save them from captivity, the Israelites had brought themselves into subjection to Babylon. Satan was delighted, for this was just what he desired. But it was not all he determined to bring upon them. He planned their total subjugation and extermination so that there would be no possibility of the appearance of the royal seed, Jesus Christ.
He inspired false prophets to utter predictions which would cause a spirit of unrest, rebellion, and insurrection to be fostered among the captives. This could only madden the king of Babylon and particularly so as he had extended mercies to those under his now enlarged dominion. He would naturally expect a response of gratitude from those whom he had treated so well, but when they returned only conspiracy, rebellion, and

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strife in exchange for the good things he had afforded them, he was roused to anger. He was left with no choice but to deal very harshly with them.
Satan was greatly assisted in his planning by the natural inclination of the human heart. They wanted their freedom back. Foolishness had taken the place of wisdom, and rashness the place of discretion. In the end, despite God’s loving efforts to save them from going into still deeper troubles, the devil did succeed with the result that terrible calamities befell them at the hands of the Babylonians.
So, while Satan was working to make their captivity as unpleasant and terrible as possible, the Lord sent Jeremiah with messages to the people which, if heeded, would make their enforced stay in that foreign land “as pleasant as possible.” He also specifically warned them against taking heed of the messages from these professed prophets of the Lord. Thus, while Satan was working to effect the destruction of the deserving, the Lord was striving to deliver them.
Hardly a more beautiful revelation of God’s character can be given than this. Here was a people who for centuries had done everything possible to provoke God into bitter retaliation. Between the death of David and the Babylonian captivity almost four hundred years had passed by. They were years marked with the very worst in rebellious apostasy. The sanctuary had been desecrated, the daily taken away, the abomination of desolation set up, and the altars of Baal had been erected throughout the land. They had offered cakes to the queen of heaven, the pagan goddess; they had sacrificed their children in the hideous ceremony where babies were burned alive; they had resorted to witchcraft, wizards, and all kinds of spiritualism; they had taken every gift which the Lord had given them and turned it to abuse and misuse; they had been a depraved, insolent, and rebellious people who had turned from the God who had called and blessed them, to make a mockery of His word.
If ever a being was justified in taking vengeance on a people, God was. If He had risen up in terrible anger and destroyed them all, none would have blamed Him or been surprised at His doing it. The least we would expect Him to do would be to withdraw all further help so they would suffer as much as possible and thereby at last, hopefully learn their lesson.
But for God to have taken this course would have necessitated His changing from a being of infinite love to one with a spirit of revenge. This is not the God we serve. “For I am the Lord, I change not,” He testifies of Himself. “. . . therefore” He continued, “ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6. One thing must be abundantly clear from this story and it is that had the Lord changed in the least degree in His attitude and actions toward those deserving people, then they would most certainly have been consumed.
But there was no change.
Before they went into captivity, there was the Lord, the Saviour, doing

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all in His power to convince them of the folly of their course and seeking to draw them back from the pit into which they were sinking.
Then, when despite His wonderful efforts for them, they did descend into that pit, He did not stop being the Saviour. True, He could no longer save them from going into the pit for they had now gone in, but He could give them counsel that would save them while in that pit from the worst conditions which could befall them. This He now worked to do.
Thus the revelation of God’s works in this story is the revelation of an unchanging God who, at every step of the way, acted out only one role—that of the Saviour. The actual nature of the saving work done differed according to necessity, but the spirit and principle behind it were unchanging.
Once this view of God is grasped and understood, then the key has been obtained which will perfectly explain the true nature of the command to the Levites to go and destroy all those who worshipped at the golden calf.
However, before the application is fully made to the situation back there, let this story be developed a little further. Even though the Lord’s behaviour toward apostate Israel is sufficient evidence to make the point that God acts out only the role of a Saviour, yet even more evidence is provided. This time, though in the same story, it concerns other people outside the family of Israel. They were the people of Edom, Moab, Tyre, and other nations.
Of all the people in the ancient world, none had been more committed to an aggressive and hostile war against God and His cause than these people. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the Moabites of Lot, but leading encyclopedias such as The Brittanica, are unable to give any origin to the people of Tyre. However in Ezekiel 28, the wickedness of the king of Tyre was so great that he was spoken of as being the personification and direct instrument of the devil, so much so that no distinction is made between them.
While we may be able to accept the idea that God could retain some favour toward the Jew, yet we cannot think of any such thing being still available for the Moabites, Edomites, and the people of Tyre. We would not expect that God would act towards them as a Saviour too. Yet the Lord made no distinction between them and the Israelites. When they too were in great danger because of their willingness to listen to the voice of Satan and their own wretched human desires, God sent them the same message He had given to His own people. Through Jeremiah, He warned them not to resist the king of Babylon for their cause was hopeless, but to be discreet and co-operative so that they might be saved undue suffering and further loss.
God did not go so far as to send Jeremiah to those nations for they had long since made it clear that neither God nor His servants were welcome

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among them. But when ambassadors from those lands visited the king of Judah to discuss the possibility of combined revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, they then placed themselves where the Lord could give them a message. God seized the opportunity to stretch out a hand to save them.
“From the first, Jeremiah had followed a consistent course in counseling submission to the Babylonians. This counsel was given not only to Judah, but to many of the surrounding nations. In the earlier portion of Zedekiah’s reign, ambassadors from the rulers of Edom, Moab, Tyre, and other nations visited the king of Judah to learn whether in his judgment the time was opportune for a united revolt and whether he would join them in battling against the king of Babylon. While these ambassadors were awaiting a response, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah.’ Jeremiah 27:2, 3.
“Jeremiah was commanded to instruct the ambassadors to inform their rulers that God had given them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that they were to ‘serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come.’ Verse 7.
“The ambassadors were further instructed to declare to their rulers that if they refused to serve the Babylonian king they should be punished ‘with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence’ till they were consumed. Especially were they to turn from the teaching of false prophets who might counsel otherwise. ‘Hearken not ye to your prophets,’ the Lord declared, ‘nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.’ Verses 8-11. The lightest punishment that a merciful God could inflict upon so rebellious a people was submission to the rule of Babylon, but if they warred against this decree of servitude they were to feel the full rigor of His chastisement.
“The amazement of the assembled council of nations knew no bounds when Jeremiah, carrying the yoke of subjection about his neck, made known to them the will of God.
“Against determined opposition Jeremiah stood firmly for the policy of submission.” Prophets and Kings, 442-444.
Here is the revelation of God the Saviour at work. This story shows with great clarity the contrast between Satan’s work as the destroyer and God’s work as the restorer. It is a thing of beauty and wonder that the Lord

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would do this for Israel, but an even greater wonder that He would do it for the people of Tyre, Edom, and Moab.
Here it is shown that the behaviour of God and Christ is indeed identical. Jesus both taught and lived the principle of loving your enemies, going the second mile and of doing good forever to those who have done evil to you. God had gone the first mile by doing His very best to save them from going into captivity. Then, when they did, in spite of His efforts for them, He went the second mile by giving them guidance on how they could make their captivity as pleasant and short as possible.
But their rebellious hearts were no more prepared to accept God’s saving efforts when He went the second mile with them than when He was going the first. Thus they deprived God of any hope of saving them from their own foolish selves. The disasters which befell them were not from God, but from the natural reactions of those to whom they should have been subservient. They sowed the seed and they reaped the harvest. All that happened to them was the inevitable outworking of their own course of action. They provided the cause and the effect was determined.
The tragedy was that men did not understand God’s character. Instead of seeing in those loving efforts a strong work of salvation springing from a heart of infinite, unfathomable love, they saw God and Jeremiah as being in league with the Babylonian king and openly accused them of this.
If reference is made back to the story of the father, the son, and the huntsmen, it will be remembered that when the neighbour looked over the fence and saw the father acting out the role of a saviour to his son and all the wild creatures whom he would hunt, the neighbour completely misunderstood the father’s actions. He saw him as a hunter in spirit, just like the rest of them were, instead of seeing that he had not changed one whit.
This is just the problem with God in the Old Testament. Men have consistently misunderstood what He really did and see Him as doing something entirely different. This is why He has come to be looked upon as a God of terrible destruction.
But He is not. Back there, He behaved toward His people and others always and only as Christ did in the New Testament. He loved His enemies, blessed those who cursed and despitefully used Him, and went the second mile. He was ever and only the Saviour to all. When destruction came upon them, it was only because they had rejected His efforts to save them, leaving no alternative. Thus God never determined their punishment, and then personally exercised His power to administer it.
Now that this principle of God’s workings has been seen in the experience of Jeremiah with the last king of Judah and the ambassadors of the other nations, there should be no further problem in seeing what the Lord really did back in the days of the golden calf.
In that situation God went the second mile as surely as He did in Israel’s captivity to Babylon. But whereas the children of Israel and the surrounding

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nations would not accept God’s counsel during the second mile, the Israelites at Mount Sinai did. While neither heeded the efforts God expended during the first mile, the Levites did obey the second mile counsels, while Zedekiah and his contemporaries would not.
As has already been shown, God’s efforts during the first mile back in Moses’ day were directed at saving them from taking the sword. By upholding the illustrious witness of Jacob’s deliverance, God’s rebuke to Moses when he set out to deliver them by the sword, the care not to instruct the Egyptians to provide them with weapons, and then the marvellous deliverance at the Red Sea, the Lord told them as plainly as it could ever be told, that they not only should not take the sword, but that they would never need it while they walked in His ways.
While He could teach the truth of His way both by declaration and demonstration. He would not make the choice for them, neither would He deprive them of the opportunity to make it. Thus it was that on the farther shore of the Red Sea they saw displayed the armour-clad bodies of the Egyptians. School was ended for the moment and the examination had begun. How would they choose? Would the Lord’s saving efforts indeed prove the effective means of keeping them from taking up the sword?
We could well wish that this had been so, but the sad record of history is that they took up the sword. There is no direct statement to say that they did it right there on the shores of the Red Sea, but there are statements which prove that just before then they were still an unarmed people, while shortly after that we find them locked in physical combat with the Amalekites, with sword clashing against sword and spear against spear.
The exact point of time is not the most important item in this discussion. The vital factor is that after all God’s efforts to save them from taking the weapons of destruction, they did choose to take them. When they did that, they chose to institute man’s way in place of Gods. This fact is critical in understanding God’s character in this situation.
God did not institute an alternative to His first and best procedure. He does not operate after this fashion for His way is so perfect that it requires no provisions for failure. In fact, to supply any secondary system would be to admit that the first was faulty and therefore needed adjusting. Neither God nor His principles have ever failed or appeared in any way defective. The problem lies only in the refusal of some of His creatures to abide by them. Whenever this happens, they replace His perfect codes with their destructive ones. Therefore, on every occasion when the sword was used in Israel, it was man acting in man’s way, not the carrying out of an alternative which God was obliged to accept because His way of perfection had failed. Man was the destroyer. God had not compromised in the least. With undeviating consistency, He had continued His eternal role of being the Saviour.

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But what makes God appear to have changed is the misunderstanding of His action in going the second mile, the further work of salvation. That which in actuality was God’s continued effort to save, is viewed all too often as His turning into a destroyer. No greater misconstruction of God’s acts could be imagined.
When Israel took the sword, the Lord was left with three alternative courses of action. He could simply have said that He would walk with them no more. They were now on their own and what happened to them was entirely their own fault. This was the same course open to Him in the Garden of Eden. There, He could have argued that He had given them everything, including adequate warnings of the cost of disobedience. Having shown their ingratitude, they were undeserving of any further help from Him so He would have been entirely justified if He had left them to their fate. This is how He could have chosen to act.
Anyone who cares to reflect on the consequences to the human family of God’s having made that choice, can breathe a deep sigh of relief that He did not choose that way. Very speedily, the human family would have passed out of existence. There would have been no salvation for any of us.
Likewise, if the Lord had chosen this when Israel took the sword, how speedily that nation would have been destroyed. Firstly, they would have fought with their weapons among themselves. Secondly, they were no match for the highly trained and experienced Canaanites who, as Satan’s allies, longed for nothing so much as to remove Israel from the face of the earth. For God to have walked out on the Israelites would have committed them to certain death.
If the Israelites had elected to completely go their own way, then God would have had no choice but to leave them to themselves with all the consequences. But in many things they were still prepared to go God’s way. They accepted the Sabbath institution, the sanctuary service, the general leadership of God, the provision of their daily bread, and even His counsels on how to best use their swords.
Therefore, in the very nature of His character, God could not leave them because they had departed from His ways in one thing or even in a number of things. He would stay with them, as with any man, while there was still some place where He could bless and heal them. He will never leave nor forsake us. It is the human who leaves and forsakes God. God separated from humanity, is only such because humanity has gone away from Him, never He from them.
The second option was for God to simply ignore the people’s sin; to pretend that it had not happened. But He certainly could not do this. Sin demands attention. It imposes a situation which cannot be left unattended. To ignore sin is to condone it, or excuse it, or to admit that there is no answer to it. It is to suggest that if you pretend it is not there, the wretched nightmare will simply fade away.

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This leaves the third possibility. God would remain with His people to whatever extent they would have Him in their midst. He would lead, protect, forgive, bless, and teach them. In those areas where they had chosen their own way He would offer them counsels which, if received and obeyed, would save them from the worst effects of what they had chosen. In the meantime, they might be led to see the error of choosing their own course of action and return entirely to the Lord’s way.
This is what God did in the incident of the golden calf and in all the conquests and their attendant slaughters in the land of Canaan. What they did in all this was their doing not His. They had established their own codes and God had no choice but to let them have it thus. But He could and did counsel them on how they could operate in their own way without it being the worst of that way. This was love. This was returning good for evil. This is going the second mile.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The Consistency Of God

Having searched out the general principles which underlie God’s behaviour at the golden calf incident, the time has come to look at this and other specific incidents in detail.
One of the great characteristics which sets God apart from all others is His utter consistency and total reliability. He is . . . “The Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. With such a God there can be no capriciousness, no acting from the motivation of self-interest, no disregard of the principles involved in the law, no seeking to justify certain means because of a desired end result.
In the history of Israel and of mankind in general, there are two different kinds of situations in which sin develops. One is where God alone is in the position of leadership, so that the sole responsibility of dealing with the problem rests with Him. Should the sinners be unrepentant, then the Lord simply leaves them to themselves to reap that which they have sown. They then perish at the hands of whatever calamity is brooding over the situation, be it fire, earthquake, pestilence, invaders, or plagues. Examples of these are the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the overwhelming of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, the death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the attack by the serpents in the wilderness, the death of Sennacherib’s army, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD. 70, the coming plagues, and the final destruction of this solar system. None of these calamities befall the children of men until every possible avenue of divine mercy has been exhausted and there is nothing more that men will let God do for them.
Another situation exists when man has replaced God with himself as the determiner of his fate, the administrator of his own affairs, and has established himself as the investigator, judge, and executioner of those who sin against him. Because God has given the right of choice to His creatures, because He will never use compulsion, He has no choice other than to let them have their own way and manage their own institutions. However, He knows that man, left to himself, is a very foolish and cruel administrator who will unwisely adopt a course that brings fearful consequences. The Lord was in a position to see this and to offer counsels, which the Bible calls “commands,” which, if heeded, would enable man to take actions that would save him from the worst effects of his chosen course.
Examples of these are the golden calf, the conquest of Canaan, the wars of David and subsequent kings, the captivity in Babylon, and such like.
Let an examination now be made of these principles in respect to the golden calf incident. Israel had broken the law in the worst way. They had

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made another god in place of the true God, thus separating themselves from Him entirely. They had entered into the licentious practices of the heathen until they had become utterly debauched and depraved.
They could not so wantonly and defiantly break God’s law without sowing seeds which, in this case, would bring a very speedy harvest. The harvest would not be something the Lord imposed upon them. It would be the simple and natural outworking of the breaking of the law.
Those who, at the base of Sinai, worshipped at the golden calf, laid themselves open to terrible consequences. At first they joined in a unified revelry which they thoroughly enjoyed. It gave the wild stimulation, feverish excitement, and heady intoxication so loved by the human. But the more intense the involvement, the greater the reaction when the feeling was replaced by spent physical and emotional powers. Destitute of the restraining Spirit of God yet desperately in need of Him to quieten and control jaded nerves and ugly feelings, there was nothing to stop the outbreak of bitter strife in the camp. It is a characteristic of the heathen that their revelries are usually succeeded by intense conflicts among themselves.
As strife broke out, the swords would be unsheathed. One or more, would be killed. Then the relatives of the dead would engage in a vendetta of revenge. More would be slain, calling for still further retaliation until it would escalate into a destructive outburst so great as to threaten to wipe out the entire encampment. Their ever-vigilant enemies would recognize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the confused mass, and the nation would be decimated. In the meantime, as revenge was sought by this or that person, family, or faction, they would study the most cruel and prolonged ways of executing those unfortunate enough to fall under their power. The witness of history convincingly declares that the further a people move away from God, the more cruel they are in the treatment of their captives. On the other side, the closer they follow the Lord, the more humane they are.
Even if they had been spared from destruction by rallying to meet a common foe, the longer the unrepentant lived, the more deeply steeped in rebellion they would become. They would thus in turn, spread the same deadly poison to others so that the outgrowth of the sin at Sinai would have been terrible indeed. In the following paragraph is outlined something of the extent of these terrible outworkings.
“So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would again have been seen. The earth would have become as corrupt as in the days of Noah. Had these transgressors been spared, evils would have followed, greater than resulted from sparing the life of Cain. It was the mercy of God that thousands should suffer, to prevent the necessity of visiting judgments upon millions. In order to save the many, He must punish the few. Furthermore, as the people had cast off their allegiance to God, they had forfeited the divine protection,

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and, deprived of their defense, the whole nation was exposed to the power of their enemies. Had not the evil been promptly put away, they would soon have fallen a prey to their numerous and powerful foes. It was necessary for the good of Israel, and also as a lesson to all succeeding generations, that crime should be promptly punished. And it was no less a mercy to the sinners themselves that they should be cut short in their evil course. Had their life been spared, the same spirit that led them to rebel against God would have been manifested in hatred and strife among themselves, and they would eventually have destroyed one another. It was in love to the world, in love to Israel, and even to the transgressors, that crime was punished with swift and terrible severity.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 325, 326.
These then are the terrible things which would have come upon the transgressors themselves, the Israelites as a nation, and the world in general, if God had done nothing for them. The worst possible results would have eventuated.
The love of God, that marvellous, infinite, and unchangeable love, drove Him to tell them how they could save themselves from so terrible a fate. He could no longer do it for them for they had taken over the work themselves, but they could save themselves from the worst effects of their own choice provided they would listen to and follow His counsels.
Whether they followed those counsels or not was as much a matter of their own choice as when they were faced with the alternative of leaving the swords with the dead Egyptians or of appropriating them. There, they had elected to take the wrong course by which they had supplanted God as their Protector. But, while not prepared to obey Him in this area, they were not rendered incapable of accepting His guidance in other matters. They could, if they would, adhere to His directions outlining how they could minimize the evil they had chosen.
In effect, as they faced the crisis occasioned by the worshipping of the golden calf, they were confronted with two possibilities. If they did not take some action, millions would perish. If they followed the Lord’s suggestions, then only a few would die by comparison, and a great deal of tragedy would be averted. But, if anything was done at all, it had to be by them because they had deprived God of any opportunity to take appropriate action Himself.
Great care must be taken not to slide into the trap of supposing that because force was necessary to put down the rebellion, God compromised His principles on this occasion and resorted to force by using the righteous Levites as His direct instruments. God does not change His principles for anything or anybody. With Him, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. ‘The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government. ‘ The Desire of Ages, 22.
“Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order.” ibid., 759.

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“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power, but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.
Had the Israelites been careful never to take up the sword, while fully trusting the Lord to take care of their needs, the problem would have been speedily resolved in accordance with divine methods of working. By their utter refusal to repent, the rebels would have certified that they wanted no more of God. He would have respected this decision and left them to themselves to reap what they had sown. Then, whatever impending disaster was present, would have taken them as the earthquake took Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
But the situation was not such. Israel had taken the sword and thereby the responsibility of taking care of their own problems of defence against enemies within and without the camp. It was not possible for them to do this and for God, simultaneously, to still hold His position as their Protector. This could not be, for either they did that work or they trusted Him to do it.
But, because they had not entirely cast off their allegiance and respect for Him, He was afforded the opportunity of retaining the position of adviser to them. They did not have the wisdom to understand the results of one usage of the sword as distinct from another. He did. If they would listen and obey, He would teach them the differences, so that they could save themselves, and the world, from much unnecessary sorrow and loss. It was for this reason that He counselled them that it was better to destroy the incurably affected than to leave the cancer to contaminate millions more.
Exactly as the father in the hunting story knew that killings were inevitable once his son had taken the gun, so God knew that there was going to be unpreventable slaughterings. It was no longer a matter of attempting to prevent the killings. All that could now be done was to work to make them as merciful and minimal as possible. God worked here just as at the later time of the Babylonian conquest when He sought to direct Israel into a course which would enable them to “make their servitude as pleasant as possible. . . .Prophets ond Kings, 441. The unvarying consistency of God is truly remarkable.
It must be stressed that, while the Lord commanded the Levites to kill the rebels, and much later told Zedekiah, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the people of Tyre, and the other nations concerned, to submit quietly and co-operatively to the king of Babylon, He would not compel them to do it. The Levites chose to obey but the others did not. By so doing, the Levites saved themselves, the whole of Israel, and the world, from the most terrible consequences. By refusing to obey, Zedekiah and his contemporaries brought upon themselves dreadful reprisals.
Before the Levites there was a third course. They could there and then have repented of ever taking up the weapons of destruction. Had they truly

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done this, they would have cast away those swords, bowed before the Lord and confessed that they had erred. They would have given back to Him the sole responsibility of caring for them against enemies without and within the camp.
The Levites did not have sufficient understanding to do this, but they did know enough to obey the instructions God gave them and thus to avert the terrible consequences of not doing it. Unfortunately, by the time we come to the captivity in Babylon, the people were too blind to even follow the Lord’s counsels. They did suffer the terrible wrath of Babylon for their continued spirit of rebellion and insurrection. There were some who obeyed, however. Daniel and his companions gave a living demonstration of the honour and freedom to be enjoyed by those who were obedient to God’s command.
A question must arise here. Why were the people themselves left by God to destroy the rebels in the camp at the golden calf, but not so with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Then, the people were simply called upon to separate themselves from the rebels and watch them die at the hands of a terrible natural calamity. Why is there this difference? Israel still carried the sword so it would be expected that God would have to call upon them to slay the rebels.
At every point where a solution is found for the mysteries surrounding God’s actions, more questions appear. This is why each problem needs to be solved before the next one is faced. Many make the mistake of wanting every difficulty resolved at once and, when it cannot be, they cast the whole matter aside thereby depriving themselves of great and saving light.
So the problem now arises of what appears to be inconsistency in the ways the insurrectionists were dealt with. Sometimes it was one way and at other times, another.
Once the principle governing God’s actions in dealing with situations such as the rebellion at Sinai is learned, it would be expected that every disorder in the camp was resolved in the same way. It would be anticipated that, until Israel handed back to Him the position of full administrator of all their affairs, God would direct them to slay the rebels.
This is precisely what did happen on numerous occasions. Notable examples were the stoning of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, the adulterer and Achan who stole the Babylonian garment from Jericho, and the extermination of the Canaanites.
But it was not always done after this fashion. When Korah and his companions arose in defiance of God, when Miriam and Aaron rebelled, when the people murmured against Moses and God, the people were not commissioned to go out and strike down the offenders. They were taken by an earthquake, the infliction of leprosy, plagues, and the invasion of fiery serpents. In none of these punishments did the people have a part. Yet there had been no change in the situation of government. The people still

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carried the sword. So why was it done one way on certain occasions and differently on others? Is there an underlying principle which decides what it will be each time?
God is neither capricious nor inconsistent. There was an underlying principle which determined how each problem should be dealt with.
Within the structure of the camp, two different situations existed. One concerned the people in general, and the other, the position of Moses, God’s personal appointee.
The people had placed themselves under the protection of the sword. By doing this they had reconstituted their government accordingly, so that when any offences threatening that government were committed, they had to be dealt with by weapons of force wielded by the people. Those threats could be internal or external. In the case of worshipping the golden calf it was internal, but when the Amalekites came against them, it was external. Because they did not have faith to accept God as their protector, they were left with self-protection as their only recourse. They became still further entrenched in this when they chose to have a king like the kings round about them.
But there was another area in the encampment not under the jurisdiction of the people. This was the office of Moses. No one stood between him and God. God had appointed him his work so that he was answerable to the Lord and no one else. Furthermore. Moses had never joined with the people in taking up the sword. Even though he was the best trained military man of all, he had so learned the lessons of trust in God while in the wilderness of Midian that when the opportunity came to take up weapons, he had chosen not to. Not once do we read of him leading Israel into battle with a sword in his hand.
Therefore, when Moses himself sinned as he did at the striking of the rock, the people could not touch him. He was not under their government, in any sense. Only God could deal with him and He would do it according to His righteous procedures and principles.
In like manner, when the people sinned against Moses and against God, they transgressed in a realm which had not come under their jurisdiction, for the sovereignty of the sword did not reach that far. So whenever the people sinned in this area the punishment came by God’s departing from them and leaving them exposed to the surrounding perils.
Consider the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It was specifically a challenge to God’s appointment of Moses, as was the protest of Miriam and Aaron and Israel’s miserable complaints of which the following is typical: “And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.” Numbers 21:5. All of these were in the same category. They were outside the jurisdiction taken over by the people when they took up the sword.

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Therefore, God was free and unhampered in dealing with these problems. In every such case He worked in the same way. Korah and his supporters were swallowed up by the earthquake, Miriam was afflicted with leprosy, and Israel suffered from plagues and the invasion of fiery serpents.
The same principle applies in the case of David, When he committed adultery and murdered the husband to cover up the sin, he would have been stoned to death had he been an ordinary citizen. But the people had made him a king like the kings around him. This placed him above manmade law, for the kings of those days were exempt from obedience to that law. Therefore, he was outside the domain in which the people had taken authority to themselves, so they were not able to punish him for his crimes. He was thus placed in a position where his sin had separated him from God’s protection. The troubles which overtook him were the direct out-working of his departure from the paths of rectitude.
Thus, each situation in the camp was met in the way appropriate to it. When the people sinned within the area taken over by them when they acquired swords, they had to administer the punishment to assure their continued protection. God’s work was limited under these circumstances to offering them the counsel He was so capable of giving, whereby they would be delivered from the worst effects of their chosen order.
When they sinned outside this area of jurisdiction, the matter could not be settled by them for they had neither right nor power to deal with it. All God could do was to accept their insistence that He separate from them and they were thus left exposed to the perils continually threatening them, God did not depart from them prompted by a hurt or revengeful spirit. It was with infinite sorrow and only with the greatest reluctance when every saving effort had been rejected, that God accepted the necessity to withdraw. A careful study of the various incidents confirms that with the utmost consistency, God dealt with each situation according to its nature. How the Israelites perished depended on whether they fell into the hands of their own established governmental system, or whether they sinned outside of that and fell under the powers of nature released from God’s control and direction.
The question of God’s methods of dealing with such problems as the worshipping of the golden calf, has now been thoroughly explored. It is thus made evident that, when rightly understood, the Old Testament records do not reveal a different God from the One portrayed by Christ during His earthly sojourn. “Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” Deuteronomy 6:4.
He is not divided; He does not show one face in the Old Testament and another in the New. There is no inconsistency with Him nor does He at any time or under any circumstances, resort to force or compulsion to resolve any difficulty whatsoever. He is the Saviour while Satan is the destroyer. When men perish, it is only because they have rejected His say-

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ing efforts and have accordingly placed themselves under the devil’s dominion and power.
Indeed, the Lord our God is one Lord, but tragically, He has been sadly misunderstood and His actions grossly misinterpreted, both in the Old Testament days and through the intervening ages.

364

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

The Wars Of Israel

It would seem unnecessary now to discuss the wars of Israel after the considerations thus far given to God’s methods in situations where men had taken God’s work into their own hands. The truth of God’s relationship to Israel in these things should now be self-evident. However, some may find it difficult to make the connection, so space will be given to the problem.
The fact that Israel went to war and slaughtered their enemies, oft-times to the last man, woman, child, sheep, goat, ox, ass, and all other living things, is not the real problem. That arises when God “commanded” they do it. When they did, they received His approval, but when they did not, He reproved them strongly. For instance, when Saul did not utterly destroy the Amalekites, he received a very severe rebuke from God through the prophet, Samuel.
Whenever a conscientious objector to military service stands before a magistrate, and declares that he will not kill because of the law of God, the questions put to him always include references to the wars of Israel. Not only did Israel provide trouble for themselves by taking up the sword; they have made trouble for God’s children right down to the end of time.
Such problems only exist for those who do not understand God’s character and work. For those who do, the history of ancient Israel in their fightings provides strong proof for conscientious objection to military service.
Despite the Lord’s clear instructions, supported and illustrated by frequent demonstrations of His way of doing things, the Israelites showed a persisting disposition to take matters more and more into their own hands, thereby denying the manifestations of God’s character and ways,
It all began when they took the sword after crossing the Red Sea. Between that time and their arrival at Kadesh.barnea in readiness for the border crossing, there had not been a great deal of bloodshed. The two most notable incidents were the baffle with the Amalekites, and the slaughter of the golden calf worshippers.
Yet God had never intended that they should gain the land of promise through the use of the sword, He told them how it would be done and assured them that He would do it, not they. Long before they reached the promised land, it was all spelled out.
“I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
“And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

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“I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
“By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
“And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.” Exodus 23:27-31.
Thus the Lord emphasized that He would drive out the inhabitants of the land. Earlier, we have found that such expressions must be understood differently when describing God’s actions from when they describe men’s actions. Therefore, God’s driving them out would not have been by His using compelling power. Rather, as He came to them with His offerings of love, their resistance to and rejection of these, would place them outside God’s protective circle leaving nothing to save them from the destructive forces in the hands of the destroyer.
Unfortunately, we do not see the fulfilment of God’s promise, so we do not have the exact picture of what God would have done. This is not because there was any weakness in the promise, but because the people did not believe God’s word and were not prepared to let Him do what He had promised. They decided that this was something they could not leave to God. They must do it themselves.
This spirit really came to the fore when they reached Kadesh-barnea. God’s plan was to fulfil His promise to lead them directly into the land. Accordingly, as recalled by Moses, God told them to go on in under His leadership and possess it. Here are Moses’ words as he reminded their children of the event.
“And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea.
“And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.
“Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 1:19-21.
Had they had the spirit of trust in and submission to the Lord of heaven, they would have responded by following without doubt or question where the Lord led. The inhabitants of the land would have fearfully retreated or would have attacked them with a rashness born of desperation. Such an action would have been one of complete and final defiance against heaven, whereby their separation from God would have been so total as to remove all divine protection from them. Speedily they would have perished as did the Egyptians, Korah and his company, or the Israelites themselves when a plague broke out among them.

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But the Jews did not trust God, as is evident from their response to His directions. Here is their answer:
“And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said,
We will send men before us, 
and they shall search us out the land, 
and bring us word again
by what way we must go up, 
and into what cities we shall come.” Verse 22.
Here indeed was the substitution of man in place of God. Divine leadership was discarded in favour of the human.
How did God react to such a development? Was He offended? Did He demand His rights, insisting they do it His way?
Not for one moment. If that was the way they chose to go, then all He could do was respect their choice and bless them as far as remained possible, in their execution of it.
“Eleven days after leaving Mount Horeb, the Hebrew host encamped at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, which was not far from the borders of the promised land. Here it was proposed by the people that spies be sent up to survey the country. The matter was presented before the Lord by Moses, and permission was granted, with the direction that one of the rulers of each tribe should be selected for this purpose. The men were chosen as had been directed, and Moses bade them go and see the country, what it was, its situation and natural advantages; and the people that dwelt therein, whether they were strong or weak, few or many; also to observe the nature of the soil and its productiveness, and to bring of the fruit of the land.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 387.
Thus it was that “the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
“Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
“And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.” Numbers 13:1-3.
If the reference in Numbers was read without considering the other statements, it would appear that the whole idea was from God. But it was from the people, contrary to God’s plans. Yet it declares that Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent the twelve men. When the word, “commandment,” is used in connection with human behaviour, it indicates an authoritative statement which is given to be obeyed, irrespective of whether the recipient likes it or not. It becomes clear however, that when used by the Lord, it is more in the form of instruction or counsel with the choice of whether they will or will not obey being left with the people.
Thus the people took over their own leadership from God’s hands. This was a further step in the wrong direction. Taking the sword had given them

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their own government in place of God’s, but they had still followed that pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The time had now come when their self-confidence and their corresponding lack of faith in God led them to reject even that leadership. God was not offended. He behaved with perfect consistency. He had ever given them the liberty to choose whether they would leave Him to do His work while they did theirs.
If they wanted to send men in before them, they were free to do so. Of course, the situation could be worsened if poorly-suited men were to go. Once again, in His love for them, He gave directions which they were prepared to obey—that responsible men should be elected for the task.
But what a disaster it proved to be. It was a mistake which prevented that entire generation from entering the wonderland of promise. During the following forty years. everyone who had been above the age of twenty at the time, was to die in the wilderness, except, of course, for Caleb, Joshua, and members of the unnumbered tribe of Levi.
When they did finally follow the Lord into the land of Canaan, they did not send twelve spies first. It is true that Joshua sent out two spies, but the basis of their being sent was completely different from that of the previous experience. It had to be different for, whereas the people forty years before had placed their faith in themselves, Joshua had no confidence in himself. He placed his entire trust in God.
“Joshua was a wise general because God was his guide.” “This was the secret of Joshua’s victory. He made God his Guide.” S.D.A, Bible Commentary 2:993.
Whereas the people called for the spies to go forth at Kadesh-barnea, no such call came from them at Gilgal. This was from Joshua and it was not motivated from any distrust in the Lord’s leading. It is much more likely that the Spirit of God directed him to do it for the salvation of Rahab and her family. It gave her the opportunity to recognize God’s power as being supreme and to demonstrate her faith in that power by hiding the two men successfully. As a wonderful reward for that faith, she was accorded the high honour of being a mother in the direct line of the promised Messiah.
In sending those spies into the city, God demonstrated His character of wonderful, saving love. Inasmuch as Joshua had made the Lord his guide, then it was God Who had chosen to send the men in. He knew the heart of that woman and her household. He knew that she would respond to His call of salvation, but she was imprisoned within the walls of Jericho and by no means could she go out to the Israelites. Therefore, the Lord sent those two men to her. She responded to the divinely provided opportunity and showed where her faith was. Thus she became known to the Israelites so that, when the city was destroyed, she survived and was rescued.
Thus far we have traced Israel’s persistent tendency to replace the Lord’s leadership and management with their own. It is now to be shown that God, with loving regard for His erring people was trying to bring them

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back to the only safe path. That would involve laying down their swords, thus giving God His rightful place as Guide, Protector, and Provider for His people. Then they would not need to fight, to break the law, and to stand sadly by the graves of those slain in baffle.
When Israel crossed the Red Sea, they had behind them evidence after evidence that they never needed to take up the sword and that God never planned that they should. But they failed their test completely. As has been clearly shown from the annals of Bible history, the Lord did not abandon them, but sought to bring them back to the only safe and coned way.
As they crossed the Jordan and marched on to Jericho, the Lord spoke to them once more in a mighty demonstration designed to reveal His full capacity to fulfil His promises to give them the land. It was a hopeful attempt to so establish their faith in Him, that they would abandon all confidence in self, lay down the sword, and permit God to do His work in His own way. It was a reiteration of the same lessons which God had sought to teach their fathers as they left the land of Egypt.
As the waters of the Red Sea were opened to them by the miraculous power of God, so were the flooded waves of Jordan rolled back to make a safe path for the people. As the Egyptians had been prevented from coming near, so, in that crossing, the Canaanites made no approach to them. Yet, from the military point of view, it would have been an excellent time to attack. With half of Israel on one side and half on the other, their forces were divided. The enemy could have speedily reduced their army portion by portion. But they did not come near them.
Then the Lord commissioned the Israelites to march around that city once per day till the seventh day when they were to march around it seven times. Then the massive walls came crashing down.
It should have been enough. They had the mighty promises of God; they had the multiplied lessons of the past which are at all times easier to read and understand than those of the present; they had God’s clear instructions that the land was not to be taken by warfare; and now, once more, they had a personal demonstration of God’s tremendous power doing His promised work.
God gave them specific instructions for taking the city. In this He had a purpose. Desiring to deliver them from their own self-destructive ways, He organized an exercise in faith designed to develop in them the sense of utter distrust in human power and planning on one hand and of total committal to God’s leadership and instruction on the other. God had no disposition to assert His personal leadership of those people, for there is no seeking for self-exaltation with Him. He knew that for them it was the only successful way. Any alternative could only result in their loss and eventual destruction. The confirmation that it would is provided in their subsequent history, when, by choosing the wrong course, they did suffer the worst consequences.

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‘By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.’ The Captain of the Lord’s host communicated only with Joshua; He did not reveal Himself to all the congregation, and it rested with them to believe or doubt the words of Joshua, to obey the commands given by him in the name of the Lord, or to deny his authority. They could not see the host of angels who attended them under the leadership of the Son of God. They might have reasoned: What unmeaning movements are these, and how ridiculous the performance of marching daily around the walls of the city, blowing trumpets of rams’ horns. This can have no effect upon those towering fortifications.’ But the very plan of continuing this ceremony through so long a time prior to the final overthrow of the walls, afforded opportunity for the development of faith among the Israelites. It was to be impressed upon their minds that their strength was not in the wisdom of man, nor in his might, but only in the God of their salvation. They were thus to become accustomed to relying wholly upon their divine Leader.
“God will do great things for those who trust in Him. The reason why His professed people have no greater strength, is that they trust so much to their own wisdom, and do not give the Lord an opportunity to reveal His power in their behalf. He will help His believing children in every emergency, if they will place their entire confidence in Him, and faithfully obey Him.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 493.
Thus God’s whole design in this adventure was to call them back to a non-belligerent status. Through this means, “It was to be impressed upon their minds that their strength was not in the wisdom of man, nor in his might, but only in the God of their salvation. They were thus to become accustomed to relying wholly upon their divine leader.” ibid.
Indeed, it should have been enough.
Right there and then, they ought to have stripped off their armour, laid it in a great heap, confessed the sovereignty of God and expressed their complete trust in Him to give them the land He had promised in the way He had said He would.
But they did not do it. They rushed into the city and soon their swords were dripping with the shed blood of men, women, and children. What a terrible, scarring effect that must have had upon their souls! Such a work could not lift a man nearer to God. It would tend to brutalize him, to make him callous of life, and benumbed to the finest, most uplifting attributes of the divine character. With increasing clarity it must be seen that such actions on the people’s part were never intended by God.
But against every effort and good intention by God, those people did not see the implications of clinging to the sword which their fathers had taken up. They could not feel secure without it. They depended upon it to
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There are some statements in regard to the overthrow of the walls of Jericho which make it appear that God was a direct destroyer in this case. We will pass over them In this chapter but will take them up later when other difficult statements are discussed. See pages 383-389.

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protect them from their enemies. They would care for their own protection with the help of the Lord. Thus they basically made this their own work and responsibility while God was simply left as a helper in the situation.
They had taken the sword from their fathers and they would cling to it. As surely as they did, they came under the inexorable law which declares that all who take the sword will as surely perish with the sword. Their after-history gives the clearest vindication to this principle.
It may be argued that it was not taking the sword but their loss of faith in God which occasioned their destruction as a nation, for whenever they, with the sword in their hands, put their trust in the Lord, they were victorious. This is true, but what has to be seen is that the act of taking the sword was the fruit of their loss of faith in God. Only a people who did not wholly and totally trust God to be their protector, would take the sword. That first downward step into unbelief must inevitably be followed by others, especially as the practice of warfare would brutalize the warrior and make him still less receptive to the call and ways of God.
It was Jesus who declared that they who take the sword will perish with the sword and those words are true. Israel took the sword and they perished in the same way. There is not a nation on the face of the earth which has taken the weapons of force without perishing by them. This is the record of history. It is a witness which tells existing nations that the same fate is to be theirs.
The Israelites at Jericho came to a point of decision, a crossroads. The choice made there would determine how the conquest of Canaan would be achieved. If they had chosen to divest themselves of the implements of war and to pledge to obey all God’s commandments including the one which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” then the Lord would have been free to give them the land according to His ways and methods.
But if they should choose to retain the instruments of bloodshed, then the conquest must be made by them. The choice was entirely theirs. God could and did put forth great effort and power to persuade them of the right way, but He could not and did not compel them to follow it.
Tragically, they made the wrong choice—the one which was the fruit of unbelief. Consequently, they sallied forth to meet their foes with the sword in their own hands. Palestine was not conquered in harmony with God’s principles but according to man’s. Because they still retained His presence and leadership in some parts of their lives, a measure of His power remained among them so that they were the victorious armies. Apart from that, all He could do was to give them instructions for conducting the war mercifully. There was to be no torturing of their victims, and they were to obliterate those nations as thoroughly as it would have been done if they had left the whole matter in God’s hands.
Thus far in Israel’s history, we have seen a number of incidents in every one of which, to a larger or lesser extent, the Israelites chose to go the way

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of unbelief. There was that persistent tendency to cast off God’s leadership and ways, and to substitute their own.
Bad as those choices in the past had been, a worse step was yet to be taken. It was when the people came to Samuel and asked him to ask God to give them a king. This king was to judge them like all the nations. The people insisted on this, saying:
“Nay; but we will have a king over us;
‘That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” I Samuel 8:19, 20.
Again the people were making decisions, and again God must relate Himself to them in their decision-making. With unvarying consistency He did here what He had done in every other such situation. He gave them full liberty to make that choice. He made no moves to forcibly stop them. All Lie did was to outline in vivid terms what they were bringing upon themselves, but when, after that revelation of horror, they still stood by their decision, He gave them what they wanted.
God did not threaten them with personal punishments if they rejected Him. A careful reading of I Samuel 8:6-18, will show that the Lord outlined only the results of their taking that course. He told them that the king would do terrible things until they would wish that they had never taken the king to rule them.
“And He said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
“And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
“And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
“And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
“And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.” I Samuel 8:11-15.
This is the description of a heavy oppression indeed. The king would build up a court of great luxury and ease for himself, but it was the people who would be paying the accounts. Taxation would become increasingly severe until the people were poverty-stricken by it. All this did come to pass, but not by the imposition of God. They had brought it on themselves by their own waywardness.
The decision made there in Samuel’s day was a duplication of the step taken at Kadesh-barnea. It was a direct and specific replacement of the Lord as their leader, with men. In the first case, it had been a committee of twelve men, while, in the second, it was with the king. In both cases, it led to disastrous consequences. In the first, it led to their being unable to enter

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the promised land and thus being forced to wander for forty years in the wilderness.
In the second case, it was followed by still further departures from God. Soon, they were not only looking to man as their leader, but, worse still, to gods of wood and stone, brass, gold, and silver. The futility of such gods was demonstrated as they became the slaves of their enemies, captives in the land of Babylon.
But they would never learn. They persisted in their determination to rule themselves and go their own way until, in the end, they cried out their total rejection of God and His ways in these words, “We have no king but Caesar.” John 19:15. This was the final step in that long, long road of persistent and determined substitution of God’s ways with men’s. They had finally stepped outside the circle of God’s presence and protection. The fearful consequences were delayed only for the sake of those who, like Rahab in Jericho, were still open to hear the voice of entreaty and love. That accomplished, the destruction of the city, the temple, and the nation, was no longer preventable.
The history of that unfortunate nation rightly understood, places God in His true light. Whereas there has been the tendency in the past to see Him as being in total control of that nation so that what they did was the expression of His character and will, it becomes very evident that this was not so. Rather, they had stubbornly refused to allow Him His full and rightful place in their community. They had substituted their way in place of His way so that what they did in the slaughter of the wicked was anything but the expression of His character and methods.
Once they took these affairs under their own control, God could have left them to themselves to reap all the bitter consequences. But His infinite love would not allow it. Instead, it moved Him to do every saving work of love which was still possible. It is to be deeply regretted that this ministry has been as misunderstood as the effort of the father to save his boy from becoming a cruel hunter.
The pure actions of unspeakable love have been seen as the revelations of a destroyer.

373

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

An Eye For An Eye

An invaluable key to the problem of Israel’s use of the sword according to God’s instruction, is provided in God’s directions to Israel to exact only one eye for an eye, one tooth for a tooth, and one life for a life. This counsel was given shortly after the proclamation of the law from Mount Sinai and is recorded in Exodus 21:22-25.
“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
“And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 
“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 
“Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
This was the instruction of God to Israel. It was He Who gave these directions of how they should deal with these offences. This is verified by going back to Exodus 20:22, where the sequence of verses containing all these instructions begins with the words, “And the Lord said unto Moses. . .” Specifically, the Lord who spoke back there was Jesus Christ. He was the God Who appeared unto Moses and proclaimed the precepts of the decalogue to them.
“It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai.” The Mount of Blessing, 175.
Therefore, it was Christ who told them to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Yet when He came to this earth, He repudiated these words as any guideline for the kingdom which He had come to establish. He did this at His first great sermon to a large convocation of people. They had assembled on the mountain expecting to hear His pronouncements of the nature of the kingdom He had come to establish. At the very outset, He warned them that He had not come to do away with the law. He said, “. . . I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-20.
Having asserted that He had not come to do away with the law, He

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then appeared to do just that. In the Old Testament He had said to them, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” but now He says:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
“And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
“But I say unto you! Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
“And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:38-48.
Ever since these instructions had been delivered to Israel from Mt. Sinai, they had mistakenly regarded them as being exactly what God, in His heart, had planned for them. Like so many millions since, they had shown a sad ignorance of what God’s righteousness really is. They did not understand that these instructions were not the expression of His principles, but merely an improved version of their own chosen course.
God delivered such counsels only to those whose unbelief had caused them to depart from the pathway of faith, to self-protection dependent upon their utilizing the instruments of coercion. It was out of loving consideration for the victims of those in power, that He admonished them to limit the exaction of their ideas of justice to one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth. Well He knew how the spirit of revenge would not leave them content to impose a punishment equal to the offence committed. Their disposition would demand many eyes for an eye and many teeth for one tooth. This would place them at the opposite end of the scale from God, but in between, there was a situation which, though it still could not be God’s perfect plan, was considerably better than the one where they were left to their own devices.
The three positions were as follows:
Firstly, there is God’s perfect way. This Jesus lived and taught. It calls

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upon the manifestation of that love which never retaliates, always turns the other cheek, goes the second mike, loves all enemies and does good to those who do evil. The weapons of force have no use under these principles. This requires a real and abiding faith in God to successfully operate. The children of Israel lacked that faith and discarded these ideas as impracticable and dangerous. They were, in short, foolishness to them. They would not see how survival was possible under these conditions.
At the other end of the scale is the behaviour of those who have no regard for God and consequently pay no heed to His counsels. They are ruthless, cruel, and revengeful. They torture their enemies, extracting the utmost suffering to satisfy their revengeful passions. The death camps of Germany during the second world war, Auschwitz, Dachau, and Belsen, were demonstrations of this kind of spirit. Tremendous privation and suffering was experienced by those who fell into the terrible hands of the Third Reich. It was impossible for God to save them from this because the powers that were then, had no disposition to obey God in anything.
The intermediate situation operates because of two things. Firstly there is God’s compassion for the oppressed, leading Him to seek to minimize as far as possible their suffering and loss. Secondly, the people are willing to obey Him in this thing at least, So throughout the world, those nations and individuals who do respect God and profess to be His people, accept and follow these counsels even though they do not have the faith to trust Him implicitly as their Judge and Protector.
While Israel maintained some connection with God and was prepared to obey Him at least in some things, they did operate the principle of one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth. But when they departed from the Lord still further, then, to whatever extent they drifted, they also abandoned this principle.
Today, Israel has no further regard for these principles. Long ago they turned their backs on God when they declared they would have no king but Caesar. Over the past few years they have been involved in a war of survival against their Arab neighbours. More than once they have been hit by their enemies and have struck back with ruthless ferocity. Early in November, 1977, they had been troubled by terrorist incursions from Lebanon. Arming their warplanes, they struck with unrestrained fury across the border, killing soldiers and civilians—men, women, and little children.
There was a world outcry against this savagery. Israel protested that they had struck only military targets but found it difficult to maintain this claim in the light of photographs and reports received from the affected area. They certainly gave back much more than they had received which is not the principle of one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth.
A cartoonist gave his comment in the Boise, Idaho daily newspaper, The Statesman, November 16, 1977. The cartoon is reproduced on the opposite page and tells the story very graphically. This is exactly what the Lord was seeking to save them and their enemies from when they took up

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the weapons of destruction. Well would it be for the Lebanese if Israel was still governed by these principles at least. But how much better for both Israel and Lebanon if the Israelites were obedient to the principle of love for your enemies and returning good for evil, which Christ laid down in the sermon on the mount.
Thus there are three ways of relating to the problems around us; of dealing with those who hurt us and would do us injury.
Firstly there is God’s way which does not use force to put down rebellion, has no retaliation, no exacting of retributions, no violence, no use of the sword and therefore no killing.
There is only the perfect keeping of the law, the return of good for evil, going the second mile, and the unending effort to save those who are slipping toward the abyss of ruin, It is all summed up in the unchanging and unchangeable expression of infinite love. It is the work of the Saviour and Restorer, never that of the destroyer.
Christ outlined this way in the sermon on the mount, and then identified this alone as being God’s pattern of behaviour by advising that those who did likewise would be like His Father who is in heaven.
The third and worst way is man left entirely to himself. In this way the system is to love those who love you but to hit as hard as you can, those who first hurt you; to return multiplied evil for evil; to destroy your enemy as cruelly and as revengefully as possible; and to make sure that he adequately pays for the hurt he has administered to you. The objective is to hit him much harder than he hit you, to convince him permanently that it would be suicidal to launch any further assaults against you. Thus each seeks to guarantee his own security by the rule of fear.
When God was not able to hold them safely in the first, then He worked to save them from this last and worst. This is why the second or middle situation exists. What God is really saying in this situation is this. “Very well, you have made your decision to take the sword and thereby depart from My ways. I cannot change your decision. You made it and it stands. But I can save you from the worst effects of that choice if you will accept and respect the advice I now give you. Do not be wanton and revengeful killers. Exact only an equal payment for what has been taken from you. Let there be no more than one eye for one eye, and one tooth for one tooth. Meanwhile, I will ever seek to win you back to the way of faith and obedience, back to the pathway where there is no killing or revenge but only the manifestation of My character of love.”
If the relationship between these three ways can be clearly discerned, and if it can be recognized that only the first of them is God’s way, then it will be seen that there is not a single story in the Old Testament to prove that God destroys. Satan destroys and man destroys but never God. He is the Saviour Who is only working to restore and to heal. He knows no other work than that. The whole history of His dealings with ancient Israel, rightly understood, testifies to this.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Difficult Statements

The great truths of the Bible are not established by collecting a series of statements. They are built on solid foundational principles. Once these are ascertained, the superstructure can be accurately and safely constructed. When searching out the truth of God’s character, the guiding principles are found in the nature of His government, the purpose of the law, Christ’s revelation of His Father, and the role of the cross as the expression of God’s methods of dealing with the unrepenting sinner. The mighty witnesses of God contained in these, are more than sufficient to certify the loving, merciful, righteous, and just character of God. They effectively prove that He does not stand as an executioner toward the rejecters of His mercy.
But, as with every other Bible topic, certain statements seem to utterly contradict the witnesses mentioned above. These constitute a serious problem to many, who cannot feel at rest with the message until every statement has been explained. This is an unfortunate attitude to hold, as living faith does not wait till every problem has been solved before grasping precious truths.
To my mind, the life and teachings of Christ are the final, comprehensive declaration of what God is and does. His manifestation of the Father is so bright, so clear, and so total, that, for me, nothing more is needed. Therefore, it is the standard by which every argument about the Father’s character is tested. If the argument presented cannot find support in Jesus Christ, then, no matter how logical it may seem to be, or how convincing it may appear, I reject it entirely, even though I may have no explanation for it as yet. My faith grasps the reality of Christ’s mission as the outshining of the Father’s countenance. I believe that God sent His Son into the world for the express purpose of penetrating the mists of error and delusion which Satan had cast around His character of righteousness. The confirmation of that faith is expressed in the resolution to accept nothing about God except that which is in total agreement with the witness of the Father attested to by His Son.
Therefore, if anyone wishes to successfully convince me that God destroyed the sinner, offering as evidence the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, or any other punishments of the Old Testament era, then he must be able to bring proof that Christ, during His earthly mission, did the same thing. It is so impossible to do this that those who cling to the erroneous view that God does execute the sinner, claim that the revelation of God as given by Christ is only a partial manifestation of the Father which omits the sterner roles of judge and executioner, Texts and statements quoted earlier expose this as fallacious thinking, for the manifestation of

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God as given by Christ was as complete as Christ, the superlative One, could make it. Nothing was overlooked or omitted.
No stand is taken here that there are two different revelations of God, the one given in Old Testament times versus that given by Christ. Not a single contradiction exists in the Word of God. There are no statements, rightly understood, which contradict the eternal principles of truth. On the contrary, when comprehended, they move from a position of apparent denial of the eternal verities, to one of mighty endorsement. Thus the true Bible student is not afraid of difficult statements. He may have to admit for the moment, that their true meaning eludes him, but he knows that it will not be for long, as the teaching Holy Spirit leads each trusting student along the glorious corridors of unfolding light.
Not every statement that can be presented has as yet been resolved. There remains one or two for which the correct understanding is still pending, but the Lord will make them clear in time. The fact that they cannot be explained jus yet is no cause for fear or doubt. There is more than sufficient evidence in the great principles to establish beyond doubt, the truth of God’s character.
But most have been unravelled and, for the help of those still struggling with some of them, an examination of the most commonly quoted will be undertaken. No attempt must be made to twist the statements to fit a desired conclusion. They must be examined to see exactly what they say and, just as importantly, what they do not say. All too often, the problem of interpretation lies in a tendency to assume that a statement infers something it does not. If this inference can be cleared away, the words will then be left free to say what they were intended to.

The Same Powers

What I would rate as the most difficult is the one which reads:
“A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.” The Great Controversy, 614.
The portion of this statement causing the most difficulty is this, “The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits.”
When a person does not have a clear grasp of the principles underlying God’s character, it is easy to see how this statement could leave him with the conviction that holy angels destroy exactly as do evil angels. It would appear that the only difference is that holy angels destroy by God’s command while the evil do it with His permission.

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What happens is that everyone tends to read into this statement more than it actually says. Here is what the statement does not say:
“The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised in the same way by evil angels when He permits.”
These four words, “in the same way,” are not in the statement, neither are they inferred there. Furthermore, every principle of God’s character forbids their being there. Yet, despite multiplied evidences to this effect, this is exactly what people read into the reference. They make no distinction between the work of God and of Satan and therefore between the character of each. This is serious.
There is a decided contrast between the role of the good angels and the evil ones. It is the heaven-appointed work of the righteous angels to hold back the four winds of strife for as long as possible. They only release them when God judges that any further remaining on station will impose their presence where it is not desired. There are many Scriptures which teach this.
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” Revelation 7:1.
“There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth.” Testimonies 5:152.
“We are today under divine forbearance; but how long will the angels of God continue to hold the winds, that they shall not blow?” Testimonies 6:426.
“Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.” Education 179, 180.
“I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, ‘My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!’ Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, ‘Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.’
“I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed

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on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels, and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” Early Writings, 38.
“God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. Those who work evil toward their fellow men, saying, How doth God know? will one day be called upon to meet long-deferred vengeance. In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God will show that He is indeed the living God. He will say to the angels, ‘No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy. Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work.’ ” The Review and Herald, September 17, 1901.
“Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to permit Satan to accomplish his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why? The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the earth is ripe for the harvest.” Testimonies 6:388, 389.
Every one of these statements confirms that the angels’ role is to hold back those terrible powers which are only awaiting release to destroy the earth and the heavens. Angels are righteous. They have not instituted their ways in place of God’s. Accordingly, they do only what the Lord would have them do. As surely as the God of heaven never destroys by direct action, neither do the angels. Therefore, the way in which they exercise those powers is by the withdrawal of their restraint upon them. The released energies pass from an inactive state into one of intense activity and consequently, of exercise.
This is the way in which the powers are brought into active exercise by holy angels when God commands, but it is not the way evil angels exercise them when God permits. Satan and his followers have studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and the turbulent forces within man, until they know just how to activate them into destructive intensities. Thus, while God’s angels are working to hold back these fearful elements, Satan and his company are working in the opposite direction.
But, whether they are released into active exercise by the holy angels, or manipulated by evil angels, they are the same powers. This is the principal thought that the statement is intended to convey. It does not discuss

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the way in which those powers are exercised. When it is recognized that this is the subject matter of the statement, there will be no problem in understanding it.
Far from proving that good angels, at God’s command, sally forth and execute the unrighteous, this statement, by emphasizing that it is the same power in any case, verifies that they do not. If God undertook the work of executioner, He would not bother to use anything less than the greatest powers at His command. These certainly are not those in nature and in man. They are the almighty forces within Himself, forces so great that He merely has to speak and whole worlds appear and, in turn, disappear. Therefore, if God was the destroyer, it would not be the same powers as those used by the evil angels who have nothing of themselves but are dependent on what God has invested in nature and in man, to do their work of destruction. God does have almighty omnipotence and is not in any sense dependent on the relatively puny potentials He has given to this earth and its inhabitants. If these facts are kept in mind, then the statement presents no problem.

Doing as He Pleases

Here is another statement which has been a problem to some.
“Moses commanded the men of war to destroy the women and male children. Balaam had sold the children of Israel for a reward, and he perished with the people whose favour he had obtained at the sacrifice of twenty-four thousand of the Israelites. The Lord is regarded as cruel by many in requiring His people to make war with other nations. They say that it is contrary to His benevolent character. But He Who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands. Man has no right to say to his Maker, Why doest Thou thus? There is no injustice in His character. He is the Ruler of the world, and a large portion of His subjects have rebelled against His authority, and have trampled upon His law . . . He has used His people as instruments of His wrath, to punish wicked nations, who have vexed them, and seduced them into idolatry.” Spiritual Gifts 4:50, 51.
The main message of this statement is a warning that mankind is in no position to question the actions of God. If God does it, it is right and just. This rightness is not just because God is the Creator, but because His character is righteous and there is no injustice with Him.
What troubles people though, is the part which reads: “But He who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands.”
No problem would exist here if it were not for the persistent tendency of men to think of God as if He too, were a man. When men have the power to do as they please and what they please, then their behaviour becomes

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dependent on how they feel on a given day and what they want on that day. They do all things in reference to their own likes and dislikes and not according to unvarying principles. This is the behaviour pattern with which we are most familiar and we tend to think of the unknown and unfamiliar in God as if it were the same. So we see men sinning against God and His people. Whereupon, we visualize God as being highly incensed and angered by this so that it becomes His pleasure to exact a revenge against those who have treated Him so shabbily.
But, unlike man. God is never motivated by feeling. He finds no pleasure in unrighteousness in any form. Therefore, it does not please Him to kill, to lie, to steal, to bear false witness, or to break any other of the commandments which are the transcript of His wondrous character. We need never fear then, that the Lord will destroy us because He has the right to do “as He pleases, and what He pleases.” On the other hand, if we become subject to a human being with limitless power to do “what he pleases, and as he pleases,” we can know that, unless we are able to serve that person to his entire satisfaction alt the time, sooner or later, we are doomed.
In other words, the statement must be understood in the light of what it does please God to do, not in the light of what it would please man to do if he were in the same position.

Those Walls of Jericho

There are a number of statements in respect to the overthrow of the walls of Jericho, which, if understood in the way man naturally understands such words, would mean that God and His angels personally exercised the power of force to bring down those mighty battlements.
“How easily the armies of heaven brought down the walls that had seemed so formidable to the spies who brought the false report! The word of God was the only weapon used. The Mighty One of Israel had said: ‘I have given into thine hand Jericho.’ If a single warrior had brought his strength to bear against the walls, the glory of God would have been lessened and His will frustrated. But the work was left to the Almighty: and had the foundation of the battlements been laid in the centre of the earth, and their summits reached the arch of heaven, the result would have been the same when the Captain of the Lord’s host led His legions of angels to the attack.” Testimonies 4:161, 162.
“The city of Jericho was devoted to the most extravagant idolatry. The inhabitants were very wealthy, but all the riches that God had given them they counted as the gift of their gods. They had gold and silver in abundance: but, like the people before the Flood, they were corrupt and blasphemous, and insulted and provoked the God of heaven by their wicked works. God’s judgments were awakened against Jericho. It was a stronghold. But the Captain of the Lord’s host Himself came from heaven to lead the armies of heaven in an attack upon the city. Angels of God laid

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hold of the massive walls and brought them to the ground.” Testimonies 3:264.
“The Lord marshalled His armies about the doomed city; no human hand was raised against it; the hosts of heaven overthrew its walls, that God’s name alone might have the glory.” The Review and Herald, March 15, 1887.
The most significant sentence in these statements is the one which says: “Angels of God laid hold of the massive walls and brought them to the ground.”
It would seem that these words allow only one interpretation which is that the angels of God with Christ at their head took hold of those walls with their hands and literally threw them to the ground. In doing so they did more than tear down buttresses of stone. There were people on those high walls. See Patriarchs and Prophets, 491. It would have been impossible for there not to have been watchers, following every move the Israelites made. Such a singular performance as was being carried out by them could not help but command the attention and excite the curiosity of the people inside. No doubt the walls were crowded with people. Furthermore, there were people who actually lived in the wall as did Rahab who delivered the spies from her countrymen. See Joshua 2:15.
It follows that if the angels did in fact throw down those walls as we tend to understand those words as saying, then they took the lives of a great number of people.
If this is so, then we have finally found the long looked for evidence to prove that God did change because of sin and did become a destroyer of life. We have the proof that every principle gathered together in this book is nullified, for God cannot err on a single point. If Jesus, when He came to this earth, had by so much as a thought made a concession to sin, then the devil would have triumphed.
God had gone on record to say that He does not deal with the sin problem by the use of physical force. He does not stand toward the sinner as the executioner of the sentence against transgression, but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they have sown. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. God does not destroy. He destroys no man. From His kingdom, every weapon of coercion is banished.
If the Lord were to violate those principles in just one situation, it would be all that was necessary to give Satan the victory in the great controversy. Therefore, our understanding of the principles which govern God’s character compels us to look more deeply into the problem in an endeavour to see in what sense the angels laid hold of the walls and brought them to the ground.
However, if such a search for the moment at least, fails to bring to light exactly what the angels did do, then we do not lose faith in the great principles. We simply understand that this is but one of the hooks left to hang

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our doubts on if we want to do such. God always leaves some points unexplained to see if we will trust Him in the unknown for what we know of Him already.
The explanation for any difficult Scripture must be found in some other part of the same Scriptures. In a problem like this the most likely place to find such an explanation, is in a similar incident. Such is to be found in the fall of Jerusalem, which, like Jericho, had filled up the cup of iniquity. From it, the Spirit of God had also departed. Its walls were likewise torn to the ground with not one stone being left upon another. It is to be expected that the Lord would describe its destruction in the same language as in Jericho’s fall. Research quickly shows that He does.
“Men will continue to erect expensive buildings, costing millions of money; special attention will be called to their architectural beauty. and the firmness and solidity with which they are constructed; but the Lord has instructed me that despite the unusual firmness and expensive display, these buildings will share the fate of the temple in Jerusalem. That magnificent structure fell. Angels of God were sent to do the work of destruction, so that one stone was not left one upon another that was not thrown down.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1098, 1099.
Consider how explicitly it declares that “angels of God were sent to do the work of destruction so that not one stone was left upon another that was not thrown down.” Before He was crucified, Jesus solemnly declared that not one stone would be left upon another in the temple. Now it is declared that the angels were sent to do this work of destruction so that the fulfilment of Christ’s words was assured. Just as the language used in the fall of Jericho tends to give the picture of angels personally laying hold of the stones and throwing them down, so this statement tends to give the same impression as far as the fall of Jerusalem is concerned.
But a study of history shows that those stones were cast down by human hands. The Romans, once they had captured the temple, razed it and much of the city to the ground making certain that not one stone was left upon another. Perhaps the greatest authority on Jewish history is Josephus who was actually present at the fall of Jerusalem. See The Great Controversy, 33. His record of the event is as follows.
“Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other such work to be done,) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared. in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison; as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valour had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that

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dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.” Wars of the Jews, Book VII, Chapter one, paragraph one, by Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston.
This notable historian’s report is confirmed in The Great Controversy, 35. “Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was ‘plowed like a field.’ ”
Here we have two records of what took place back there. One declares that the angels did the work of destruction, while the other clearly shows that it was at Caesar’s orders and by the strength and activity of his soldiers that the city was razed.
This would be a hopeless contradiction if we had not studied the way in which the Bible is its own dictionary and the way in which God is said to destroy. Firstly, it is clear that the angels did not do the work of destruction. That is, they did not themselves take those stones and throw them to the ground. Yet, at the same time, it must be recognized that they did a work which resulted in those walls being thrown to the ground till not one single stone was left upon another. But, they certainly did not use the soldiers as direct servants at their personal direction and command, to tear down those mighty bastions.
So what did the angels do? How did they go about a mission of destruction?
As already shown by a number of earlier quotations, the angels’ role is to hold back the four winds of strife so that they might not blow on the earth, Let those winds be released and there is the terrible outbreaking of human anger and natural power. Those angels hold on to their work whilever God’s protection is called for because of the presence of some who trust in Him. But when the time comes when that is no longer necessary or possible, then angels are sent from heaven to instruct the holding angels to let go. In this way the angels come from heaven on a mission of destruction. Let it be emphasized once more that while this involves a judgment on God’s part, it is not His arbitrary act. He assesses the situation to be such that to remain any longer must be to force His presence where it is totally unwanted, and this He cannot do. The restraining angels feel this pressure on them to leave but they await God’s command before they do so. These instructions are conveyed to them by messenger angels, who, because of this responsibility, are called messengers of destruction, which in fact they are.
The picture of this holding and releasing by one body of angels upon receipt of a clearance to do so by other angels, is clearly shown in the Early Writings statement quoted on pages 380 and 381.
The chronicle of Jerusalem’s destruction bears out the facts recited above. The tearing down of that city into individual stones was the end

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result of a series of causes. The Romans did it as the expression of their white-hot anger and hatred for the Jews. That in turn, was the result of the behaviour of the Jews who had given the Romans so much trouble, had shown such a spirit of rebellion, and had been so ungrateful for the favours the Romans desired to show them. That spirit, consequently, was the result of the Jews’ persistent determination to institute their ways in the place of God’s, and of their continual rejection of the appeals of mercy to them.
For the apostasy of the Jew and the fury of the Roman to race away uncontrolled, the angels of God had to fully and totally withdraw their restraining power over the evil passions of men. This they did. That accomplished, the infuriated Roman soldiery were so totally uncontrolled that not even their officers, generals, or Titus himself, could control or restrain them. Titus had determined to preserve the temple and had given specific orders that it should not be burned, but his orders were flouted. Even though he rushed in among them, and demanded obedience, it was as if he were not even there. Here is part of Josephus’ account of the burning of the temple.
“And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent after the last battle; whereupon he rose up in great haste, and as he was, ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great clamour and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire; but they did not hear what he said, though he spake so loud, having their ears already dinned by a greater noise another way; nor did they attend to the signal he made with his right hand neither, as still some of them were distracted with fighting, and others with passion; but as for the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasions nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one’s own passion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding into the temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable way with those whom they had conquered: and when they were come near the holy house, they made as if they did not so much as hear Caesar’s orders to the contrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to set it on fire. As for the seditious they were in too great distress already to afford their assistance, [toward quenching the fire;] they were everywhere slain, and everywhere beaten; and as for a great pad of the people, they were weak and without arms, and had their throats cut wherever they were caught. Now, round about the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another; as at the steps going up to it ran a great quantity of their blood,

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whither also the dead bodies that were slain above [on the altar fell down.” Wars on the Jews, Book VI, Chapter four, paragraph six.
“The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction. But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without. In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting, ‘Ichabod!’—the glory is departed.
“Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it, and springing forth, again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the conflagration. The centurion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience with his staff of office; but even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious animosity against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the insatiable hope of plunder.” The Great Controversy, 33, 34.
When soldiers who have had instilled into them the strongest discipline of respect and obedience to the Emperor, are so totally maddened with rage that they completely ignore orders he has personally given, it is manifested that human passion is rioting in its most unrestrained form. Such outrage was possible only if the angels had vacated their positions as withholders of the winds of strife. They had no further influence over those men.
They never step down of their own volition, but only on the receipt of orders from on high. These are brought to them by messenger angels commissioned to fly swiftly with the advice that the time has come when men have chosen to reject God so utterly that He can no longer provide them with protection. The advent of these messengers at the outposts, heralds the unleashing of destructive forces, thus making them, in a certain sense, angels on a mission of destruction. The result was the full release of the Romans infuriated hostility toward the Jews, which would not be appeased even when, with their own hands, they had torn the city apart.
This casts great light on the fall of Jericho, teaching how the same descriptions are to be understood in the destruction of the Canaanite city.

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The only difference between the overthrow of Jericho as compared to Jerusalem is that, while in the latter it was the unleashing of the furies in men which did the work, at Jericho it was the release of the pent-up forces of nature. The role of the angels in both instances was the same. They acted only and entirely in harmony with the principles of God’s kingdom. Christ, Himself, led the messengers to the walls of Jericho to give the sad message that that people had forfeited all divine protection, leaving God with no option but to call away the restraining angels. Then the furies of nature, hitherto held under control, burst forth to flatten the proud metropolis. The walls were hurled to the ground. Yet, the word of God says that the angels did it. Surely, from the way in which Bible interprets itself, the time has come when it is understood in what sense the angels did this. They had a part to play, the result of which was that destruction. That part was to carry the message of doom to the restraining angels. Then the terror followed.
If careful comparison is made between the language used to describe the destructions of both Jericho and Jerusalem, all difficulties will disappear. Just what the angels did will be quite clear. Once more it will be confirmed that they did not act any differently from the revelation of God’s character as given by Christ when He came to the earth
.
The Wrath of God

The wrath of God is referred to frequently in the Scriptures. It is an expression describing the savage fury of men or nature, or both, in a rampage of destruction. The seven last plagues are referred to specifically as the wrath of God which is to be poured upon those who worship the beast and his image.
There is very real danger that God’s wrath will be understood to be exactly what man’s wrath is. Man’s wrath is the development within him of fury, anger, and a desire to retaliate against those who have hurt or offended him. But God’s wrath is different, for the ways of God are not the ways of men. Isaiah has made that forever sure.
God’s wrath is not the expression of His personal feelings, for, while His wrath is busily destroying man and the world, God is feeling anything but wrathful. He is pained with sorrow and distress to see His handiwork and children being committed to so terrible a fate. The wrath of God is an expression of the very opposite from what He is feeling.
Yet without question it is wrath. See the blasting might of the roaring hurricane, the thunder of a thousand falling buildings and opening crevasses as the earthquake strikes, the crackling roar of the blazing inferno, the shriek of the storm and the fiendish fury of man at war. This is wrath. It is the complete picture of anger and fury and these are the things which the Bible terms “the wrath of God.”

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From the message God gave through Moses’ rod, He plainly showed that when nature is in this state it has passed out of His control. Therefore it is not the expression of God’s feelings. Why then is it called “the wrath of God”? It is God’s wrath simply because every power which has gone into the state of wrath through God’s directing and controlling power being withdrawn, is of God. They are the powers of God in a wrathful state, therefore it could be called the wrath of the powers of God. Instead it is simply and more briefly called “the wrath of God.”
There will be no problem understanding this if it is ever kept in mind that man’s way and the ways of God are very different and, in fact, opposite from each other. There must be a perpetual guard set up in the human mind against the tendency to think of God and man as being the same.

Other Difficult Statements

Some who read this book may be aware of other statements which are a problem to them, It is reasonably safe to say that the most difficult ones have been discussed in this chapter. If the reader has thoroughly understood and accepted the principles of interpretation used here, then he will have little difficulty in understanding other problem verses or statements.
There will come times, as the Bible record is studied, when situations will confront us for which the Lord has not yet been able to reveal any specific explanation. Lacking that, it will seem we have no option but to believe that in this instance at least, the Lord did resort to the use of force. But true faith knows that the absence of the correct explanation does not compel us to accept the obvious one, even though it clamours for recognition. True faith rests in the knowledge that God does nothing out of character, and that we are to trust Him in the unknown because of what we have learned of Him in the known. In so many instances we have clear Scriptural revelations of what God did when confronted with the sin problem, rebellion, ingratitude, and idolatry. Every such revelation consistently reveals God as a saviour, lovingly seeking to save His created works. Therefore to the faith-filled person, absolute assurance is guaranteed that in the unknown it is the same.
One thing is certain: no true student of the Word of God will allow his faith in the great truths to be shattered simply because one or two statements or incidents cannot immediately be understood in harmony with what the rest of the Bible teaches. He will not forget that there were many more such in the past but time has produced wonderful clarifications of what initially appeared to be totally inexplicable. He remembers with what changed views he now sees many things which were dark and confusing before. So, he well knows, it will be with these statements which have not yet been transferred to the category of the clearly explained.

391

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The Seven Last Plagues

Thus far, study has been given only to events which are in the past. The attention is now directed to events which are yet future. Their coming is known through the prophetic revelations, while the nature of them is shown through the types of the past, of which they are the antitypes.
The greatest destruction yet to eventuate before the second coming of Christ will result from the outpouring of the seven last plagues. This will be the drinking by the finally impenitent “of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation .  . . Revelation 14:10.
Up till this time the judgments of God have always been mixed with mercy so that the wicked were shielded from the full penalty of their quilt.
“All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy.” The Great Controversy, 629.
The same language used in Scripture to describe the destructions on men in the past, is employed to portray this terrible future desolation. It is depicted as being “the wrath of God,” administered by destroying angels. The incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flooding of Noah’s world, the plaguing of the Egyptians, the serpents’ invasion into Israel’s encampment, Jericho’s, Nineveh’s, and Jerusalem’s overthrow, and many more such catastrophies are consistently detailed in the same terms employed to prophesy the coming seven last plagues.
Harmony of interpretation insists that the Scriptural portrayal of events yet future must be understood in the same way as the Word of God reveals that the description of events in the past be understood. The Bible abounds in explanations of how we are to interpret the declarations describing the punishment to befall the wicked. By this means we have no excuse for failing to understand that when God is said to destroy, the result of His efforts to save have resulted in the withdrawal of the impenitent from Him to the place where no protection from destruction remains to them. This is the way it has always been in the past. So it must yet be in the seven last plagues.
In studying the outpouring of the seven last plagues, it can be correctly expected then, that the Scriptures, rightly understood, will show that the restraining, protecting hand of God is to be removed from the rod of power, so that, freed from His directions and out of His control, the powers in men and nature will break loose in unfettered fury. Thus men will reap the harvest of their own sowing,

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We are greatly assisted in the study of the seven last plagues by two events in the past. The first is the plagues of Egypt and the second, the fall of Jerusalem. Scripture declares that each of these events was a preview of what is to happen in the final scourges.
‘When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel, were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God’s people.” The Great Controversy, 627, 628.
The similarity between the plagues upon Egypt and the seven last plagues is in their character. This indicates that the plagues on Egypt will not be duplicated by the seven last plagues and a quick check shows that this is true. In the seven last plagues there will be no frogs, lice, flies, or specific death of the first-born, and in Egypt there was no earthquake, drying up of the River, or scorching of men with great heat.
But while the seven last plagues will not be an exact repetition of the Egyptian scourges, they will be similar in character. The acquirement of character is the result of a moulding process, so that if the identical influences are exerted on like materials, the end product will be the same. The Egyptian devastations possessed the character they had because of the situation out of which they were born and by which they were shaped. The people’s continued determination to shut God out of their lives had brought them to the place where God was compelled to accept their desires and leave them to reap their harvest of pain and loss. God released His hold on the rod so that it passed out of His direction and control. Thus the character of the plagues was that they were natural forces possessed of the fury of destruction.
The same character will be manifested in the seven last plagues because they will be the offspring of exactly the same conditions. As the one nation of Egypt threw off all connection with God, so the people of the whole world will separate from God, rejecting every principle of righteousness and association with Him, The last appeals of mercy scorned, God is left with no option but to leave them alone. Once again, nature out of control will smite them until none remain.
The second preview of the seven last plagues is given in the destruction of Jerusalem.
“The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfilment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow, In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law.” The Great Controversy, 36.
Already the fate of Jerusalem has been studied. The Spirit of God, persistently rejected and abused, had at last no choice but to leave the people

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to themselves. With nothing to restrain the fierce passions of the Jews, the” rebelled so treacherously and seditiously against the Romans that they stirred up the worst spirit of retaliation in them. This brought the mighty power of Rome to bear upon the city of Jerusalem. With the continued resistance of the Jews and the prolonged attack by the Romans, the spirits of all became so intensified that in the final scenes, the powers in those people simply ran riot. The resulting slaughter and atrocities were worse than human language can picture. When the city had been conquered and there were no more to be slain, the Romans then systematically tore the city stone from stone till the destruction was virtually absolute.
In that fate the doom of the world is to be read. Exactly what befell Jerusalem will befall the whole earth. The time is coming when the sins of men will compel the Spirit of God to totally depart. With nothing to hold in check the deadly powers in nature and man, the earth will be plunged into a time of trouble such as never was. The seven last plagues will in no sense of the word be the manipulation of those powers by the hands of God. Instead, just as in Egypt and in Jerusalem, God will not even be there. Everything that happens will be because of His absence. not because of His presence. Once again the rod will have passed out of Moses’ hand.
These direct statements will verify the truth of the above principles and the conclusions drawn from them.
“When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.” The Great Controversy, 614.
“As Jesus moved out of the most holy place, I heard the tinkling of the bells upon His garment; and as He left, a cloud of darkness covered the inhabitants of the earth. There was then no mediator between guilty man and an offended God. While Jesus had been standing between God and guilty man, a restraint was upon the people; but when He stepped out from between man and the Father, the restraint was removed, and Satan had entire control of the finally impenitent. It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated in the sanctuary; but as His work there is finished, and His intercession closes, there is nothing to stay the wrath of God, and it breaks with fury upon the shelterless head of the guilty sinner, who has slighted salvation and hated reproof.” Early Writings, 280.

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This statement verifies the truth that it is the removal of God’s restraining power which releases the powers of men and nature into Satan’s hands. They then burst with destructive fury upon the shelterless heads of the wicked.
Let the expression, “there is nothing to stay the wrath of God “ be guarded from misunderstanding. Before the principles in regard to God’s character are understood, this would be taken to mean that God was personally angered and therefore anxious to smite the offenders, but is restrained by the intercession of His Son until Jesus finishes His work in the sanctuary,
If this interpretation is correct, then Christ and His Father are working against each other. God is longing to destroy man, while Christ is resisting Him. However, it is impossible to believe this and at the same time hold to the great and precious truth that Christ and the Father are one; that, far from working against each other, they are fully united in the task of saving man.
“ . . .God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself  . . .”   2 Corinthians 5:19.
There could be nothing closer than the unity of the Father and the Son in the work of salvation. God is not seeking the sinner’s destruction while the Son works to delay the unleashing of the Father’s fury They are working together to the limit of their resources to bring men back to eternal life, and only when men utterly reject those saving measures, do they jointly leave the rebellious to their chosen fate.
When it is truly understood that the wrath of God is not a personal feeling, but the perversion and derangement of the powers in men and nature into wrathful and destructive forces only awaiting the opportunity to embark on a rampage of devastation, then there will be no problem in understanding the unity of the Father and the Son.
“Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God will show that He is indeed the living God. He will say to the angels, ‘No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy. Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work.’
“This time is right upon us. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed,—in these things he delights, and thus he gathers irf his harvest. And so completely will men be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that

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the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be. And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men to believe this. They are guided by the enemy, and therefore they reach conclusions which are entirely false.” The Review and Herald, September 17, 1901.
“It is God that shields His creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth, and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law, and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favour and prosper some, in order to further his own designs; and he will bring trouble upon others, and lead men to believe that it is God Who is afflicting them.” The Great Controversy, 589.
“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. 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 Great Controversy, 36.
Thus the Lord makes it very plain how the seven last plagues will come. They will certainly not be the direct use by God, of the forces in man and nature. Instead, God will make a judgment or assessment that the wicked have fully and universally resolved to depose Him from their hearts, their affairs, and the world. Their decision being fully confirmed, leaves God no choice but to let them have all they want. So He leaves them, and Satan quickly seizes these powers, stirring them to even greater heights of frenzy and terror.
The wicked have sown the seed. The harvest is inevitable. But it is not the work of God. It is the work of men against themselves. They sowed the seed. They reap the harvest.

396

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

The Brightness Of His Coming

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8.
This Scripture has been usually understood to portray the picture of Christ descending the advent skies, while before Him precede great flowing sheets of devouring flame which reach out to consume whoever of the impenitent have somehow managed to survive the plagues.
Such an interpretation of this Scripture, obvious as it may appear, is out of harmony with the character of God and Christ. If fire emanating from Him kills the wicked, then there is a direct, destructive work associated with His presence and Person. Therefore, He would be an executioner after all. But He is not, nor ever will be. When He came the first time to this earth He testified that He had not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. The purpose of His advent does not change with His second coming. Once again, His intention is to deliver His people from an earth which has been so reduced by the final disasters as to be incapable of supporting life any longer. Certainly, He would save every individual who has ever been born if this were possible, but tragically, so few are prepared to accept His saving grace. He does nothing to them. He has not come for them. They have taken themselves out of the circle of His responsibility and their fate is entirely a matter of their own appointment.
There are statements which explain this text and which harmonize with this principle.
“Then shall they that obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and be destroyed with the brightness of His coming. Like Israel of old, the wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming fire.” The Great Controversy, 37.
That this statement is a direct explanation of the verse under study is clear from the fact that firstly the text is quoted, and then comment is made upon it. Therein, it is affirmed that the wicked destroy themselves. It is not the work of God but their own. They have sown the seed and they must reap the harvest.
Most significant, is the parallel drawn between the way in which Israel perished and the destruction in the last days. As the one perished, so will the other. This is to indicate that the Israelites were likewise destroyed with the brightness of His coming. This is true, for that is exactly how they did come to their end. It may be immediately objected that Jesus did not come

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with outshining glory at His first advent. Furthermore, He was far away in the distant heavens when the Jews met their fate, so there is no visible evidence of their having been consumed with the brightness of His glory. Such an interpretation depends on the understanding of what the brightness of His glory is and how humans are consumed by it. Defining that expression is the key to solving the problem.
The factor which above all others brought the Jews to their untimely end, was the manifestation of the brightness of God’s character-glory in Christ. Before Christ came, the Jews were in a serious state of apostasy, but, even so, were not totally separated from God, for they had not taken the final steps in rebellion. But, as the light of Christ’s glorious character shone on them, they were driven to desperate lengths of resistance until they were pushed to the extremes of apostasy. God did not intend that such be the result of this revelation, but once they determined on rejection of Him, it became the only possible outworking of that decision. They were destroyed, and it was by the brightness of His coming.
The sequence then was as follows:
The Jews were in a state of apostasy.
Christ shone on them the brightness of His coming, the glory of His character.
They rejected this influence and thus separated themselves from His protection.
The actual destruction was accomplished by the unleashed natural forces.
In the sacred writings, both of these forces are described. There we can read of Christ’s coming, of the Jews’ reaction, and of the separation of the Spirit of God from them.
Then we can read of the destructive work accomplished by the outrage of human passion no longer under divine restraint.
In exactly the same way, there is recorded the identical procedure which leads to the destruction of the wicked in the final overthrow of mankind.
They will be in a state of deep apostasy.
The brightness of His coming will be revealed to them in the loud cry.
Their rejection of this influence will drive them to separate themselves from God’s protection.
The actual destruction to befall them will be accomplished by the unleashing of the wild passions within them and by the unrestrained forces of nature.
Basically then, it is the brightness of His coming which destroys them but not in the sense that they are struck down by it. That is left to the unrestrained forces in man and nature, the destruction from which the brightness of His coming would have saved them if they had related to it correctly.

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Therefore, in studying the final demise of the wicked, both these factors must be kept in mind. The student must understand just what is accomplished by each, ever keeping the distinctions sharp and clear,
The sacred writings do not fail to mention them. When the fall of the wicked is described in The Great Controversy, it shows that they are to be obliterated by the furious outburst of their own fierce passions and by the outpouring of the seven last plagues. There immediately follows the statement that they will be consumed by the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His coming. Here is exactly how it appears on page 657.
“In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth,—priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. ‘And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shalt not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.’
“At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth, —consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants.”
Placing these two statements in this order side by side, perfectly expresses the destiny of the unrepentant. The immediate and seemingly obvious means of their destruction will be the terrible onslaught of maddened man and nature. But the deeper, underlying cause is not to be overlooked. Prior to the coming of the physical calamities, divine love will have sent the revelation of Christ’s character in the brightness of His soon coming. Their rejection of those saving provisions will place them where destruction is free to descend upon them.
Those who do not understand this but believe that the death of the wicked will be directly and physically accomplished by the flaming fire emanating from the person of Christ, would need to have the statement differently written. For them it should appear as follows:
“In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall” the larger proportion of ‘the wicked inhabitants of the earth—priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. ‘And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.’
“At the coming of Christ” the remainder of “the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth,—consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants,”
The second version provides for the theory that when Christ appears there will be such an outshining of flaming power that the wicked who

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manage to survive the seven last plagues and the bloody internecine warfare, will be consumed by it. If the statement was written in this way, those who believe that would have an incontrovertible proof for their belief.
But it is not written that way. Instead, we have the truth stated and then repeated in different words of just how the wicked will perish. They are parallel declarations, each saying the same thing in different words. To be slain by the brightness of His coming is to perish under the seven last plagues and the fierce battles they will fight.
From this reference it is evident that the death of those upon the earth at the second advent is not caused by searing fire emanating from Christ. The actual physical forces which crush out fragile life, will be the terrible scourges and the fighting between them.
Exactly as the Jews who perished by the physical instrument of the Roman armies, were destroyed by the brightness of His coming as already noted in this chapter, so the plagues will come upon the wicked in the same way. The brightness of Christ’s coming begins to shine long before He actually appears in the clouds of heaven. As the message of the loud cry goes forward, the brightness of that coming shines with increasing intensity, pressing upon the hearers throughout the length and breadth of the earth, to surrender their ways and accept the perfection of God’s righteousness.
Very few will respond to this powerful, drawing love. The balance will resist it with all the determination they can muster. The more effectively the truth of God, which shines with the brightness of His coming is offered to the people, the more rapidly and deeply will they enter into apostasy if they do not yield to it. This will separate them from God to the point where He will be forced to leave them entirely. Then will come upon them the full fury of the seven last plagues by which they will be destroyed. Thus they are destroyed by the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming.
The presentation of the gospel is the key factor in finishing the work. If the advent people had accepted and preached the gospel in its full power, the work would have been finished a hundred years ago. Much further back, it would likewise have ended if the apostolic church had lived true to all the light they had received. The only reason the earth has escaped destruction so long is because it has not been subjected to the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming. When it finally is, those things will either save or destroy it.
A further evidence to support the fact that it is not the pulsing forth of fire from the Person of Christ which destroys the wicked, is the final confrontation around the city of God. There the wicked come quite close to the presence of Christ Who is just as powerful then as when He returns the second time. But they are able to march against the city in which is the presence of God and of Christ. They are able to stand there right through the revelation of the mystery of Christ, and they are able to see all that God wants them to see without being consumed with physical fire from the presence of God and His son.

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As will be shown in the next chapter, even when they are destroyed, it will not be by fire which emanates from the person of God or Christ.
Therefore, if the fire surrounding Christ does not consume them at the end of the thousand years, why should it do so at the beginning, unless Christ personally decided that it should? If He did, then of course He would become a direct destroyer which, for Him, is impossible.
This does not mean that a human being can come directly into the power circle surrounding the person of God, and survive without special protection. When the drunken sons of Aaron—Nadab and Abihu—went into the sanctuary without the protection of the incense, they then entered into a circle of power which they could not endure. It is just as if a man comes into physical contact with a powerful electrical field without special protective clothing. He dies, Likewise, if a man enters into a fire he will certainly die.
But it will not be thus with the wicked either at the second advent or at the end of the thousand years. They do not come within a power circle and therefore are not consumed as were Nadab and Abihu.

401

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The Final Showdown

When Christ returns, the earth will have been for or six thousand years the proving ground for the validity, power, indestructibility, justice, and perfect righteousness of the principles upon which God’s kingdom is built. During that span of sixty centuries, Satan and his hosts will have mounted every possible assault in their desperate search for that one weakness or flaw needed to supply the evidence to prove that God’s ways are not perfect and need to be reformed. They have worked to provoke God to the point where He would arise and sweep mankind off the face of the earth. They have subjected Him to the greatest test which could ever come upon Him at their hands and devices.
This has been no light test for God. He is a being of infinite power and love. The witness of human history shows that the more power a person possesses, the greater the danger of his corruption. A great many have successfully endured privation and poverty, only to be destroyed by coming into possession of riches and power. Furthermore, the intense sensitivity of God’s nature and perceptions causes Him to view sin with a hatred and detestation which no human being could either know or understand. Throughout the entire period of the great controversy, God has been suffering intense anguish.
“Those who think of the result of hastening or hindering the gospel think of it in relation to themselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God, — subjugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death—it is said that ‘His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.’ ‘In all their affliction He was afflicted: . . . and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.’ Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9.
“His Spirit ‘maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ As the ‘whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together’ (Romans 8:26, 22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all.” Education, 263, 264.
“Christ feels the woes of every sufferer. When evil spirits rend a human

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frame, Christ feels the curse. When fever is burning up the life current, He feels the agony.” The Desire of Ages, 823.
“Jesus assures His disciples of God’s sympathy for them in their needs and weaknesses. Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father’s heart . . . In all our afflictions He is afflicted.” ibid., 356.
The depth of God’s continual suffering needs to be better realized and appreciated. There has been the inclination to think that Jesus came to this earth, suffered with increasing intensity for thirty-three years, and then returned to the perfect bliss and painlessness of heaven. This is anything but the truth. The Father and Son have suffered to a depth of which we have neither knowledge nor experience.
This personal pain is distasteful to God Who desires the end of all suffering more than we ever could. He has the power to end it in an instant by simply obliterating it. Yet He does not yield to the pressure of His own feelings and desires. He is prepared to suffer in order to maintain the principles of His government whereby will be assured eternally the happiness and security of all the universe. If we could enter into the full extent of God’s sufferings and, at the same time, possessed the power He has, then we would know something of the pressure exerted on Him throughout the great controversy.
If God, in all that time, had made the slightest move to save Himself from suffering by removing the cause of His anguish; had He by even so much as a thought made a concession to the devil’s arguments; should He so much as by a hair’s breadth have taken away from man his freedom to choose and to act as he chose; had He taken the life of one individual in order to lessen the suffering caused by sin; then Satan would have had the evidence needed to show that his arguments were valid after all.
But during all those ages of darkness and death, of temptation and suffering, God has never deviated from the stated and perfect principles of His government and kingdom. He has never violated the freedom given to any individual, has never taken a person’s life, has never destroyed, and He has never in the smallest particular, broken the law. He has been strictly impartial and just. He has been the Saviour. ever and only working to bless, heal, and restore. Satan has never gained a point over the Lord in the battle. From it all, God emerges as untouched by sin as if it had never entered the universe. He is immaculate.
For this, every redeemed soul shall be eternally grateful especially when he becomes fully conversant with the wonderful certainties of God’s behaviour.
But while God has been immaculately perfect in all His activities, He has not been seen as such. In the eyes of men, Satan has dressed the pure and holy God in his own evil garments. Millions and added millions have gone to their graves with a decidely reversed view of the true nature of righteousness and the God of righteousness. The great controversy cannot

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be settled until every one of those minds sees the true nature of our heavenly Father and confesses His perfect justice and righteousness.
God is not concerned about clearing His name for His own personal interest. He is not proud. He does not take personal offence. But He does understand that His character and the principles of righteousness are one and the same. Therefore, the justification of one assures the establishment of the other. He further knows that the eternal happiness and security of the universe depend on the vindication of those principles. Inasmuch as His everlasting and infinite love for all His children will not permit Him to provide anything less than the perfect best for them, He is determined not to permit the ultimate desecration of righteousness. He will establish it eternally.
Because of this, every person who has ever lived must be assembled for the final showdown in the great controversy. Every principle upon which the kingdom of God is built and operates must be revealed in sharply defined contrast to the principles of Satan’s government.
It follows then that if it was important for God never to violate the laws of His government during the six thousand years of active controversy, then it is of multiplied importance that He strictly adhere to them in the final showdown around the city after the thousand years have expired.
Some are prepared to believe that, during the six milleniums of the great controversy, God will have withheld His righteous hands from slaying anyone or destroying anything. But they are not prepared to go so far as to believe that He will continue this course at the final showdown. Then, they believe, He will arise to personally exterminate the wilfully unrepentant. They reason on this basis: During the six thousand years He restrains Himself to give the wicked opportunity to display before the universe their utter defiance and ingratitude. When the inhabitants of other systems see the full perversity of the human race, God will be free to cut them off without being regarded as cruel or unjust. Moreover, they will have become so incensed with this despicable behaviour that they will expect and even require God to destroy them. This is the position held by some.
This reasoning, if true, makes God a politician Whose policies are determined by public opinion. This is to belittle God; to reduce Him to the level of scheming men who study the temper of their fellow humans, and then formulate their policies and procedures accordingly.
But God is not like that. He is motivated by righteousness, not by the feelings of His creatures. Before the great controversy began, throughout all of its duration, and in its final resolution, God has and will act with unvarying consistency.
The reason for God’s willingness to enter into the great controversy with the devil, was to demonstrate that the principles of His government were perfect, and that, no matter what the pressure upon Him, He would act only in accordance with them. Accordingly, no mailer how wicked men have been in the past, how extensively their destructive ways have

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desolated the earth, or how violent their insolence against Heaven, God has not raised a finger to obliterate them. They have perished as the fruitage of their own evil seed-sowing.
To believe that God has never destroyed during the course of the great rebellion, but turns to do so in the end, is self-contradicting. It would mean that God, Who has spent seven thousand years demonstrating that He is not an executioner of the sentence against transgression, will undo all He has worked to establish by turning into an executioner for this final judgment. What a tragedy that would be! During the long defection, Satan and his hordes have worked with relentless determination to provoke God into raising His righteous hand to destroy the rebels, but He has passed every test without defect. In the last showdown He is afforded His final opportunity to confirm that He is not an executioner, that He has given to all, the freedom to choose what they want, and that He will not interfere with that choice. To make the least concession then, after so perfectly demonstrating the contrary over the previous milleniums, would nullify all that has been achieved. It would be as if a man spent a lifetime building a splendid edifice and then burned it to the ground. It is certain that this is not what God will do. There is no possibility of His having faithfully resisted every pressure to provocation for so long, only to give way to it at the last. The final eradication of the wicked will happen exactly as lesser decimations occurred in human history. As Jerusalem was overthrown by the Jews themselves, as Sodom and Gomorrah perished as a harvest of their own seed-sowing, as the flood came, not because God sent it, but because He could not prevent it without violating His righteous principles, so the final end will come. It will not be because God sent it, but because He cannot prevent it without taking away people’s freedom to choose what they want.
These principles are poorly understood by earth-dwellers, most of whom have gone to their dusty beds with distorted understandings of God’s character. This is not God’s fault for He has provided in nature, in His Word, and in the revelation given by Christ, all that is necessary for understanding His righteous principles. Therefore, in His great love and mercy, He will especially raise up every human being so that once more, they can be shown God’s workings and their own rejection of them. This time, they will have no arguments with which to counter the witness of God. Every person from Satan down will acknowledge that God has been just and that the loss of their own souls is their own doing.
After one thousand years during which there will not be a living soul upon this earth apart from the devil and his evil angels, the wicked of every generation will be raised up for this final showdown. They come up resuming “the current of their thoughts just where it ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell.” The Great Controversy, 664.
Satan is astir at once and marshalls the mighty hosts into the most 

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prodigious, prestigious army ever to tramp the earth, It will be a most impressive sight as they drill and train day after day. How long a time will be involved in this mammoth preparation we are not told. According to the principle of freedom which the Lord extends to all, they will be given as much time as they wish to take. Satan knows this and, while he is anxious to see the struggle over, at the same time he knows that it will be a titanic struggle. Therefore, he will direct that the preparations be as thorough as possible.
They do not intend to advance to the hoped-for conquest of the city with bare hands. “Skilful artisans construct implements of war.” ibid. Just how sophisticated those weapons will be, we are not told. It is possible that they will be as highly technical as the scientific men can assemble. The atomic scientists will be there, remembering all that they learned while still living on this earth. They will think in terms of conducting nuclear warfare against the city so that, if it is at all possible to prepare such tools of destruction, they certainly will do it. The advancing hordes will carry such weaponry with them as they move up to the snowy walls.
But no baffle ensues. It has been suggested that the baffle of Armageddon begins before Christ’s coming and is completed around the New Jerusalem. A little careful thought will show that there is no battle in the end. The struggle between God and His people on one side, and Satan and his on the other, will all end before Christ comes the second time. At the end of the thousand years, God will have at His command the revelations of the principles of righteousness as embodied in His character, which have been provided firstly by the life and teachings of Christ upon this earth and secondly by the witness of the translated saints as given during the time of Jacob’s trouble.
This witness will be unfolded before the multitudes who have been halted in their advance. As scene after scene passes before them, they will see the great controversy in its true light. They will realize just what God stands for. They will see the true nature of Satan’s rebellion against Him. They will recognize that His law was provided for them as a life-preserver; that disregard of the divine precepts did not bring them release from an arduous bondage, but opened the flood gates of woe upon them. They will understand at last, that every woe and trouble they have experienced has been the result of their own course of action. They will know that they have abused the gift of freedom to their own miserable hurt. See The Great Controversy, 666-668.
They will see things as they have never seen them before and as the devil was determined that they should never see them. As soon as they do, all intent to continue the rebellion against God is ended. The point was made on pages 19 and 20 that when a misrepresentation of God’s character begins, there, rebellion against God likewise begins. So when the character of God is fully revealed for what it is, rebellion against God then comes to its end.

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This is precisely why there is no war between evil men and God over the New Jerusalem. In the beginning of the great controversy, God did not have so clear a manifestation of His character as would settle the problem right there and then. But at the end of the thousand years, He will have such revelations, which He will use, not only to ensure that there is no war but to bring, from the least person to Satan himself, the frank and open confession that they have held wrong concepts of God, that they have been responsible for rejecting His salvation and that their doom is deserved.
The picture is so clear. The wicked see things exactly as they are and instead of rushing in to attack the city, they fall “prostrate” and “worship the Prince of life.” The Great Controversy, 669.
Satan also sees it all. His mind travels back over the full span of his life. He sees again those days when he was the covering cherub. He remembers the first thoughts of doubt and then the open rebellion. He surveys the long centuries in between, comparing the loving patience and forgiving power of the Eternal in contrast to his own mean, destructive spirit.
“Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfilled him for heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down, and confesses the justice of his sentence.” ibid., 670.
The great moment has come. There is not a single intelligent being in the universe whose mind has the slightest question remaining as to the perfect righteousness of God’s character. Even the arch-rebel himself has bowed down to acknowledge the truth of God’s ways and the falsity of every other system.
‘Who shall not fear Thee 0 Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.’ Revelation 15:4. Every question of truth and error in the longstanding controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan’s rule in contrast with the government of God, has been presented to the whole universe. Satan’s own works have condemned him. God’s wisdom, His justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of His people, and the good of all the worlds that He has created. ‘All Thy works shall praise Thee, 0 Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee.’ Psalm 145:10. The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that with the existence of God’s law is bound up the happiness of all the beings He has created. With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare, ‘Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.’ “ ibid., 670, 671.

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Once Satan and his followers have been brought to acknowledge the justice and righteousness of God, the stage is set for the final act of the drama—earth’s and heaven’s actual purification from the stain and presence of sin.
This will be accomplished by fire. The Scripture says, “. . . and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:9, 10, 14, 15.
“ ‘Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.’ ‘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 the slaughter.’ ‘Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.’ Isaiah 9:5; 34:2; Psalm 11:6 (margin). Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. [Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10.] The earth’s surface seems one molten mass,—a vast, seething lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men,—‘the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.’ Isaiah 34:8: Proverbs 11:31.
“The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. They ‘shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts.’ Malachi 4:1. Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished ‘according to their deeds.’ The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God’s people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch, —Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.” The Great Controversy, 672, 673.
These texts and statements are familiar to Bible students. Invariably they have given a picture of God personally pouring down fire upon the wicked and thus bringing about their final end. This is no problem to the

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average person for he considers that God has a perfect right to destroy those who have rebelled against Him. Furthermore, he knows of no other way whereby the problem can be solved. The criminal must be executed or he will go on making trouble forever. Of course this is man’s thinking but it is neither the thinking nor the way of God.
There is no difference in the language used in Revelation or The Great Controversy from that used in other parts of the Scriptures describing the outpouring of terrible judgments.
“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” Genesis 19:24.
“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 7:3.
“And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” Numbers 21:6.
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” I Samuel 16:14.
“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” Matthew 22:7.
We have already considered each of these statements from the Lord. It has been demonstrated that there must be a different definition of the terms and expressions used to describe the behaviour of men. Trouble is experienced in understanding these expressions in regard to God’s character when no distinction is made between man’s ways and God’s ways.
Those previous studies into these verses confirmed the truth that when God pours out fire, sends serpents, or such like, it is not something dispensed from His hands as a response to His personal decree. Rather, it happens only when He is obliged to depart from the scene thus leaving matters in the hands of men and devils. Then, being out of His control, the rod of power descends in merciless power upon the defenceless heads of the self-willed.
There is no reason to suppose that these verses in Revelation are to be understood any differently. What those expressions mean throughout the remainder of the Scriptures they must still mean at the end of them. Therefore, in the end, God does not decree that the wicked shall die by fire and then set about executing this decree by personally exercising His power. God does not decree what punishment shall befall the evildoer. He foresees what will happen and foretells it, but He neither chooses nor organizes it to be just that way.
In the light of all the truths learned so far in this study, consider the sequence of events in the drama of destruction outside the city. When the wicked are raised at the close of the millenium, it is only possible for them to live safely upon the earth by God’s holding firm hands on the rod of power. All the mighty forces of nature are thus held in restraint in order to afford to

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the lost, the opportunity of seeing the true nature of the great controversy. Thus, there is no outburst of fire and brimstone during the time that they make their preparations and advance upon the city.
But when the revelations of the mystery of God have been completed while simultaneously they have been convincingly shown where they have rejected the loving appeals of God, the time has come for the final settlement. Every one of these individuals has, during this life, made an irrevocable decision rejecting salvation in preference for Satan’s kingdom. Cod knows that once this point has been reached, the wicked will never change no matter what opportunity may be given to them. It is for this reason that Jesus solemnly intones as He Leaves the sanctuary, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Revelation 22:11.
This is the declaration of Jesus Christ in evaluating the condition of the wicked. It is not to be supposed that Christ says this because He and the Father have decided that probation can no longer be continued, and for this reason those who have not availed themselves of salvation during the designated time limit, are lost forever. It is because, no matter what revelations might be made to them or opportunities given, their decision is final.
But it is one thing for this to be so and for Christ to say it is so. It is something else for the believers to see it. How often in this life, have we looked upon a person who appears to be so sincere and honest, and yet who makes no evident move toward the message. We feel that if only this one had been given more opportunity to see it, he or she would have come to Christ. We find it difficult to accept the idea that when this person goes to the grave, he should remain unjust forever.
The declaration made by Christ will be vindicated by the demonstration of its truthfulness at the close of the millenium. Those whom we thought had gone down to their graves without the necessary chance to see the light, will then be afforded the most comprehensive, clear, and wonderful revelation of the truth. It will convince but not convert them. Their rejection of such light as came to them in this life, will have hardened them beyond any possibility of change.
Their conviction that God is right after all, will be expressed by their bowing before Him and saying so, but they do not plead His forgiveness nor ask to be accepted into His kingdom. All that, is foreign and distasteful to them. They still want to live but on their own terms. Knowing that this cannot be and that accordingly, they are eternally to be deprived of any life; they rise from their knees in a frenzy of disappointment and rage and turn upon him who has robbed them of everything.
In effect, at the climax of the revelation of the gospel to them, God will ask them to confirm their intentions. Hitherto they have reiterated their wish to live without God. The time will have come when they must either

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confirm or deny the plan to continue that way. If it was possible for them to relinquish every desire to be separate from God, then God would save them even then for “His mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 106:1.
But no person will be saved at this time for they will not show any disposition to change. Christ’s declaration will be proven correct. As God waits for their answer, they will confirm in the most emphatic terms that they want nothing to do with Him, but choose to be left entirely to their own way. They want the world and life under their own terms.
What can God do under the circumstances?
He has made it very plain that they have full liberty to choose what they want. If they prefer to go it alone without Him, then this is what they shall have. When Israel wanted their king, He gave them one; when they wanted flesh, He let them have it; and whenever men have wanted this or that, the Lord has never stood in their way, no matter what dire results might follow their foolish choosing.
At the end of the rnillenium He cannot change. So when they choose to go alone, He will simply say to them, “Then I respect your choice and set you completely free from My presence and control. All the earth and the mighty powers surrounding it are now in your hands. The rod of power is out of My hands and control.”
It will be as it was at the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, and the fall of Jerusalem, God, in each case, accepted their choice and turned the control over to them. So it will be at the end. The wicked will be given full possession of the earth and all the powers attendant upon it, but they will be unable to control the frenzied outburst of human, satanic, and natural wrath which has been building in intensity ever since the first sin was committed.
The first manifestations of this will be when the people turn on Satan himself. They see in him the cause of all their troubles. The weapons intended for the city will be directed against him and he will employ every evasive manoeuvre conceivable, to avoid them. Then the fires will start. Exactly how, we are not told. One thing is certain. Men never go to war without generating fire, especially when it is nuclear warfare. Thus, when they hurl their atomic and cosmic weapons at the devil, they will certainly start a mighty conflagration.
As in the flood of water when the fountains of the earth were broken up so that water rushed out from beneath the surface, so the stores of oil and coal still hidden from men in the bowels of the earth will burst forth in flaming torrents upon the surface.
“Those majestic trees which God had caused to grow upon the earth, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the old world, and which they had used to form into idols, and to corrupt themselves with, God has reserved in the earth, in the shape of coal and oil to use as agencies in their final destruction. As He called forth the waters in the earth at the time of the flood, as

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weapons from His arsenal to accomplish the destruction of the antediluvian race, so at the end of the one thousand years He will call forth the fires in the earth as His weapons which He has reserved for the final destruction, not only of successive generations since the flood, but the antediluvian race who perished by the flood.” Spiritual Gifts 3:87.
In the original flood, water also poured down from above. Likewise it is to be expected that fire will rain down from the heavens. The great source of this would be the sun, as from our study of the principles, we know that it does not come from God personally. When God’s presence was withdrawn from the earth in Noah’s day, both the sun and the moon were affected. Therefore, when God’s presence is again withdrawn in the same way at the close of the millenium, the sun will again be affected. In its final stages of decay resulting from the effects of sin in this earth, it could well erupt in great explosions, projecting streams of fire far out into the solar system and onto this earth. If this is to be so, then fire from above would mingle with the fire from beneath, exactly as the waters did when this earth was flooded. The whole earth will be enveloped in a sea of flame on which the Holy City will ride as did the ark. Within it, the ransomed will be safe and secure until the destruction is completed.
In this final annihilation, the wicked do not all take the same time to perish. There is a direct relationship between the extent to which they have sinned and the length of time they suffer.
“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; their fire shall not be quenched as long as there is the least particle for it to prey upon.’
“Satan and his angels suffered long. Satan bore not only the weight and punishment of his own sins, but also of the sins of the redeemed host, which had been placed upon him; and he must also suffer for the ruin of souls which he had caused. Then I saw that Satan and all the wicked host were consumed, and the justice of God was satisfied; and all the angelic host, and all the redeemed saints, with a loud voice said, ‘Amen!’ ”  Early Writings, 294, 295.
The question immediately arises as to how the wicked could suffer exactly according to their desserts unless some intelligence calculates the measure of their individual punishments and so controls events that they will be kept alive until the full punishment has been exacted. On the surface, this would seem to be impossible. Therefore it is considered that God, being the only one with the power to either estimate the deserved chastisement or to control its administration, must surely be the one who executes the sinners in the end.

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Anyone who understands and accepts the principles laid down so far, will recognize that there must be another answer. Perhaps it has not yet been revealed. This does not drive us to the conclusion that inasmuch as the real answer is wanting, we have to accept another. One thing must be very clear. It is that God does not execute the sinner, now, or in the past, or ever. It is sin which does that.
To understand how sin can do this and selectively punish one more than another, requires knowledge of laws which as yet are beyond our ken. One thing we do know however, is that the more sinful a person is, the more desperately he struggles to live in the face of death. The true child of God does not fight the Grim Reaper. He knows his time has come and that his life is safe in the hands of God. But not so with the rebel against God’s laws and government. He resists with all the power of his soul, and is able to prolong his life beyond its natural span.
No one has been so great a sinner as Satan, and no one will fight the inroads of death with greater determination than he. Thus he will prolong his life far beyond that point where he would have died if he had resigned himself to his fate. In so doing he will extend his suffering until he has suffered for all the sins he has committed and caused others to commit.
Finally it will be all over and the “. . . fire which had consumed the wicked, will burn “up the rubbish and” purify “the earth.” Early Writings, 295.
The deadly experiment will be ended and it will be demonstrated eternally that through it all, God did not change. When sin entered it changed angels, men, the animals, and the operations of nature, but it did not change God. Nothing was introduced into His ways after the coming of sin which was not there before. He never destroyed before sin entered, never executed, never punished, and never forced. The entry of sin did not cause Him to begin doing any of these things in order to solve the problems sin imposed upon Him.
Satan and evil angels did their utmost to provoke Him to anger and arise to sweep away the rebellious inhabitants of the earth, but He would not be provoked, angered, insulted, or hurt. He emerges from the whole miserable test as immaculate as He entered it. Satan has not been able to sustain a single point against Him and it is shown that the way of the cross—the power of self-sacrificing love, which serves, no matter what the cost to the server—is stronger than all the ways of force combined.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

In Conclusion

This book is not the last word on the character of God. No book written could ever be, either in this life or in the coming immortal era, for the knowledge of God, which is life eternal, will be unfolding without respite throughout eternity. God is infinite. There is no edge, no limit, no point where it can be said that there is no more. God has no beginning and He has no ending, not only in time but also in space.
The redeemed will spend the coming eternity studying into the wonderful depths, breadths, and heights of the character of the Infinite. The mental, physical, and spiritual energies and attendant capacities of these people will far surpass the capabilities of earth-bound students by at least twenty to one. In the original creation, Adam and his wife possessed twenty times the electrical energy possessed by us today.
“God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct.” Testimonies 3:138, 139.
In eternity, eager students will possess at least twenty times the vital energy possessed today and will be under the direct tutelage of Christ. It would be impossible to conceive of the enormous amount of light gathered by such in the first million years, for instance, of their celestial sojourn. That, in turn, will be but the beginning of what will be learned as successive millions of years roll by devoted to the continued contemplation of God’s character of love. In comparison with that, what a microscopic fragment of the knowledge of God is contained in this book. It is but cradle roll level at best. It is nothing more than a start, albeit, a very necessary and vital one.
It is important that this be realized by the hungry seeker after God, for thereby he will be encouraged to press on, ever reaching for the richer and more beautiful revelations of God yet to come. He will be impressed to immerse himself in the contemplation of the life of Jesus Christ, the complete and perfect revelation of the Infinite One, Every contact with the throbbing, spiritual vitality of that life, with its marvellous consistency, tenderness, saving power, and a thousand other blessed qualities, will motivate to even more intense thirsting to know and experience its elevating power. The things of this world will wane in interest and value until they have no drawing influence left.

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The benefit to be gained is not limited to acquiring information. Vital and basic as this is, it is but the doorway to a character development such as no other factor can produce. There is no possibility of coming in contact with God without being dramatically changed in nature. Consciously and unconsciously, the patterns of behaviour, the attitudes, the spirit, the motivation, the work, and every aspect of the life will be purified, ennobled, sanctified, vitalized, prolonged, and enriched. Contributions of loving, self-sacrificing service will be rendered which will initiate streams of blessing, the radiating influence of which will penetrate beyond the confines of this life into the eternity beyond. Neither men nor angels can reach to a higher attainment than to know God.
“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
“But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled the world and gloried in the power by which he did it. Other men have been unbelievably rich, possessing treasures, lands, and money beyond computation. This is their glory and honour, but all the power in which a man could ever find his boasted satisfaction, all the wealth, charging him with glowing pride, that this world could ever give, can never compare to the riches contained in knowing God. Search for this treasure. Dig deeply, earnestly, relentlessly, until the golden veins are opened wide and the greatest riches in the universe become your possession. Here is true value, which, if possessed, will bring all other treasures in its train. Those who have it are rich; the remainder are impoverished. This is a treasure available to all.
But, while on one hand, the searching out of God’s character is urged, on the other a warning must be sounded against certain dangers inherent in such a quest. There are a number of different ways in which study of the Scriptures can be undertaken, but only one of them is correct, Unless this method is understood and carefully adhered to, then the more time that is spent with the Word of God, the further the student will be from the real truth. Therefore, it would be better to do no study at all, than to conduct it along incorrect lines of interpretation.
This book purposes to set the learner on the right track; to clear away the tragic misconceptions of God which Satan has foisted on the human family to its hurt; to open to view God as He really is, and thus introduce the blessings which are awaiting those who dig deeply into the mines of truth.
It is stressed that this is only an introduction to the subject. Not all has been written which might have been. During its production, the temptation to write more had to be continually resisted lest the book become

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disproportionately large. Volumes could be written on the role of the cross as the revelation of our Heavenly Father’s character. Still more could and should be written on the life and teachings of Christ. demonstrating the perfection of each word and act as the manifestation of the Omnipotent One. As time goes by, no doubt other volumes will follow this one, taking up these precious themes.
No attempt has been made to examine every incident in the Bible where God has been involved in one way or another. There is no necessity to do so. Once the application of divine principles has been applied to typical cases, anyone who has thoroughly grasped them will have no difficulty in solving most problems. There will always be one or two which defy solution, the simple reason being that God will never remove the opportunity for doubt, for to do so would take away the right of choice, He desires our spiritual education to come to the place where we will learn to trust Him in the unknown on the basis of what we have learned in the known.
Learn to expect that seeming contradictions will manifest themselves as the study progresses. The solution of one problem only exposes another. This is a normal development. Some claim that they have never found a contradiction in the Bible, but this only admits that they have never really studied it. No one who has dug deeply, has failed to be confronted with what appeared to be insoluble problems. But, if aware that this is normal rather than abnormal, and, if faith has attended his research, he will rest in the comfort of knowing that there are no real contradictions in God’s Word, but only beautiful harmonies, even if they are not seen as such at the moment.
Train the mind not to think of God as if He were a man. Glaringly evident in every false concept of God’s character, is the disposition to see God operating on the same procedures as men. There is no greater stumbling-block than this in the way of a correct comprehension of God. It must firstly be recognized as such, after which it will take protracted effort in retraining the thinking to automatically recognize that God works along lines that are opposite from man’s way of working.
As a gift to every creature, there is nothing which God desires more, than for them to have the knowledge of His character of righteousness.
When consideration is given to the magnitude of the task of understanding the Infinite, discouragement might well possess the soul. But, be assured that there is nothing God is more anxious to supply than this knowledge, not only as a store of precious information, but, more importantly, as a personal experience. He longs that the same character which is in Him be also in every one of His creatures, for, only then is it possible for all to enter into the blessed fellowship which makes heaven to be heaven.
Therefore, the blessed assurance is to accompany the spiritual wayfarer every moment, that the full resources of heaven are devoted to unfolding these things to the eager mind. With pitying tenderness, God stoops low to

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unveil these mysteries to our dull human senses and is grieved when we learn so little so slowly. Before those who will press forward with unabated determination are possibilities beyond the outreach of our imaginations and aspirations. Higher and still higher, the Lord will personally elevate the mind until it is overwhelmed with the revelation of divine things. Sweeter and sweeter will be the love implanted within the head, more and more intense the spirit of se]f-sacrificing service, and more exalted and profound the response of praise and joy. Earthly things will appear in their true light, with lustre dimmed and attractiveness gone. Sin will no longer masquerade in garments of light, but will be exposed for what it is—a hideous, deceptive, and unwanted perversion of all things good and true. There will be no more glorying in power and riches but in the possession of the knowledge of God, the greatest power and riches of all.
When God has a people upon this earth equipped with this, then He will have the instrumentalities whereby He will move the world. It is for this reason that the loud cry under the power of the latter rain cannot come until such qualifications are possessed by a living church. God desires to dispense to that church the very best gifts heaven can bestow, that its members, in turn, may render the finest saving service possible to the desperately needy and perishing millions of earth’s population.
God’s people have long professed to desire nothing more than the outpouring of the latter rain whereby the work can be finished and the way prepared for Christ’s return. To such, then, comes the challenge of the truth that this can never be accomplished until the knowledge of God’s character firstly fills them and subsequently, lightens the whole earth with its glory. It is the failure of God’s church to know by text and by experience the truth of His character, which is retarding the finishing of God’s work in the earth today. While His children enjoy the comforts of this life, making little real effort to penetrate the mysteries of infinite love which have been revealed and are for them to understand, sin continues to trample the oppressed on its missions of death and destruction,
Men of God, it is time to arise to the full stature of God’s plan, to measure up to the exacting demands of this climactic hour. God offers the equipment. It is for each to accept and use it. For six thousand years now, our loving Heavenly Father has been earnestly entreating His people to learn of Him that they might embark on their appointed mission and the earth be delivered from its oppression.
The question before this generation is whether they will respond by going all the way, or will they, having made a good beginning, fall short as have all the other movements which have gone before.
It is a question to be faced and answered by each.
If this volume achieves nothing more than to alert enough people to the realization of these issues and stir them to a profound and total consecration of every faculty and power to the devoted study and experience of the character of God, then its writing will have been worthwhile.

Erratum:	On the diagram page 264, it should read. “The sun was then seven times as bright as it now is.” instead of eight times. It was the combined heat of the sun and the moon which added up to eight times the heat now levelled at the earth.