As He Is: Issues in the Character of God Controversy

Chapter Sixteen: Magnifying the Law

2009-12-30T19:47:00.051-07:00

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 a 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 this. 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 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, 63.

"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 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.

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!

Surprising as it may seem, the simple commandments, "Thou shalt not steal, bear false witness or kill," have one meaning in the Bible, and another in the philosophy of man. This erroneous concept has its origin in Satan who has systematically inculcated these ideas into human minds for the express purpose of undermining faith in the law and of thereby fostering disobedience to it.

It was to correct this distorted understanding of God's law that Christ came to magnify the law and to make it honorable.

So, in the Old Testament, there is found the direct word of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill, steal, or bear false witness." Of those words there are two separate and opposed magnifications. There is the one provided by Satan and generally accepted by man. It is a magnification as misshapen as that produced by a lens warped out of normal symmetry. No one can possibly understand the real truth of the law and character of God through this medium.

Then there is another magnification as provided by Jesus Christ. This magnification is so powerful that every detail is brought to view leaving no remaining questions. It brings us to the position where "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. The magnification has been provided. Christ is the microscope.

Let a comparative consideration be given to the magnification of the law as it exists on one hand in the minds and practices of men and on the other in the life of Christ, the Word of God.

Man actually injects another word into the Scriptures. He says that the law really means, "Thou shalt not lie, steal, or kill—unlawfully." Or he will express it in these words, "Thou shalt commit no murder," a distinction in meaning being made between the words kill and murder. Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines "murder" in this way: "To kill (a human being) unlawfully and with premeditated malice or willfully, deliberately, and unlawfully."

In human minds there is a distinction between lawful and unlawful killing.

There are three situations at least in which men regard it as being lawful to kill another human being.

At any time if the slayer can prove that he was forced to kill his attacker in order to save his own life, he will be judged a killer within the bounds of the law and will be set free.

The second situation in which killing is judged to be lawful is when a person has been tried and found guilty of taking human life. The State then claims every right to take his life in return. This, they say, is lawful killing.

The third is when an alien army invades the borders. Men regard it as being perfectly lawful, 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 honors 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 cooperation 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 lawbreaker 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 desperadoes. Every instinct and desire of the audience clamors 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 neighbors, 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.

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 lawbreaking 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 admits 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.

Such, then, is the message contained in Satan's educational program. In his classrooms there is no dissent. When the hero lies, steals, and murders, the viewers applaud. They honor him for what he has done and consider him very smart to use such weapons in his campaign.

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.

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.

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.

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. In doing so He demonstrated forever how we are to keep that law and 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 killing.

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 behavior.

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. It is the story of Jacob and his mother in their quest for the promised birthright. Before the birth of the two children, God, foreseeing 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 centered upon the elder son, and he was unshaken in his purpose.

"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 behavior confirmed the rightness of God's decision. The law stipulated that should a young man marry 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 favorite 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.

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 lawbreaker, 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 who 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 his 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 after-years, 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 behavior 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.

Chapter Fifteen: Urged to Destroy

2009-07-28T20:37:00.010-06:00

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 behavior can be infallibly categorized as true or false. Thus, for instance, the idea that God destroys those who defy Him, is classified as erroneous.

When upon this earth, Jesus showed no disposition to reach out in acts of punishment and destruction. This fact is shown not only through the consistency of His life and ministry, but even more pointedly in the instance wherein He was urged by His disciples 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 them, 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.

James and John were familiar with Old Testament history and they thought they understood quite well the way in which God had dealt with similar offences 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.

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 a splendid opportunity for Christ to show forth the character of God as the executioner of those who rebelled against Him. Christ would have taken full advantage of such a splendid opportunity to show this aspect of God's policies.

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." The Desire of Ages, 487.

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 of 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 . . . "

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. 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 behavior, 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. 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 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.
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, wrathful, 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.

The Scriptures emphasize that God's ways are different from the ways of men. 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.

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.

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 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. . . .

"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. . . . 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.

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.

Knowing this, we find that there is an obvious advantage in that we have both the prophecy and the fulfillment of the parable of the cursed fig tree. The prophecy was made by Christ just prior to His crucifixion, and the fulfillment took place in the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

What took place in the fulfillment 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 fulfillment, 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 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 matter 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 tree with His own direct power, as so many suppose He did, then the tree would have instantly been blasted as if struck with lightning. But it was not so.

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 tables;

"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.

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 behavior. 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 infeasibility of His attempting to do it by physical force. He was only one man pitted against a considerable number of wily, hardened opponents. 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.

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.

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 Galilean, 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 humanity, not only did they see indignation on Christ's countenance; they realized the import of His words. They felt as if before the throne 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. 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.

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.

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”

Chapter Fourteen: The Supreme Revelation

2009-06-07T21:41:00.025-06:00

There are 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 many other such events, right through to the concluding one—the final liquidation in the lake of fire.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

"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.

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.

There is not a single reason for doubting the veracity of these statements. Jesus confirmed the truth of it in His words to Philip, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet halt 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.

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 but the deeds of the One Who had sent Him.

"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 no matter what contradictory pictures of God may be presented, the only acceptable ones are those in harmony with Christ's representations of God. 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.

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: "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.

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 unfolding to be given in the future. 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.

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 5:19.

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 it 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.

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 may marvel." John 5:20.

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 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-honored 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 the white-haired traditionalist.

Is this what God does? Is this a true picture of His patterns of behavior? 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-honored 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.

But where can this pattern of behavior be found in . . . Christ’s life upon this earth?

It cannot be 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 period of 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

"Christ stood at the head of humanity in the garb of humanity. So full of sympathy and love was His attitude that the poorest were 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.

"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.

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 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.

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 reexamined. 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.

Chapter Thirteen: God Does Destroy - But How?

2008-05-29T22:37:00.003-06:00

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;

“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.

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 cities can be found today.

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.

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 actions. 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 armorbearer, 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.

“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.” 1 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 battle, 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 defense from Satan’s power, and thus, in fact, destroyed himself.

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.” 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14.

But we know that 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 behavior. If they were used to describe human behavior, then we would have known that the slayer would have come to the victim, not moved away from him; that he would have brought the sword down upon the head of the guilty person.

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.

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 defense from their many enemies. . . .

“The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet, ‘O Israel; thou hast destroyed thyself;’ ‘for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.’ 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.

“. . . when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint [placed upon Satan] 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. . . . 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 . . . [regarding] the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.” The Great Controversy, 35, 36.

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 vengeance on the Jews.”

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 behavior 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.

Again, we read “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.” The Great Controversy, 36.

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 God. 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 A.D. 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
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 fulfillment of this fearful prophecy came in A.D. 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.”

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.

The third witness will also be drawn from Israel’s history. There was the occasion when the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness and once again murmured about God and Moses. Unknown to them, they were traveling 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.

“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 and safety under the shadowy cloud by day and the pillar of fire 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 long 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 complain, 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 behavior 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 devil’s 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 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 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.

The truth of this is stated in a paragraph from Prophets and Kings, 176.
“Christ will never abandon those for 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.

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.

“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 on to 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 hands 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 the dread of having the heart hardened and the spiritual sense benumbed. “Let ministers and people remember that gospel truth ruins if 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 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 save, 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 outworking of 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.

Chapter Twelve: Statements and Principles

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We depend for our understanding of God's character, on the revelation of it as given in His Word. But, if we are to arrive at a correct, and, therefore, lifesaving 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.

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 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.

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 of Scripture is of any private interpretation."

Some might tend to limit the application of this verse to those areas of Scripture presenting foretelling 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. 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

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. 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.

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.

Why then, is the method of defining by the dictionary, words describing the character and behavior of God, so certain to lead to erroneous views of Scripture? If we do not use the dictionary to define our terms then to what shall we turn?

These are excellent questions.

Within the dictionary are contained the definitions of words as those words describe human behavior. 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 with divine behavior. If divine and human behavior were the same, then the dictionary would serve both, but they are not the same. 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 your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8, 9.

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 program 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 behavior as being the same as human behavior, then, in the light of this Scripture, he must know that the concept formed, is erroneous.

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 behavior. 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 behavior. Reference is made here to such key words as "destroy," "wrath," "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 behavior.

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 them, there is no similarity.

Having determined that these alternate definitions are not written in the dictionary, the question arises as to where they can be found. The Bible is to be used as its own dictionary. Only when we have learned to use it as such can a correct comprehension of its messages be obtained.

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.

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 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 opinions, 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.

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.

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. 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.

It is common understanding in worldly 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.

It is a difficult subject to present because there are certain Scriptures which make it appear that the wicked do burn forever and ever.

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 20:10. "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.

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

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.

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.

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 ... suffering 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 'forever [olam].' Exodus 12:24. But it ended with the cross. (See Heb. 9:24-26.) Aaron and his sons were to offer incense '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."

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.

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 trying 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.

Chapter Eleven: Contrasting Statements

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The vast majority are strongly convinced that necessity has demanded a punishing, destroying 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. 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 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 plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Genesis 19:24, 25.

"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 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 neighbor." Exodus 32:27.

"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.

"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 murderers were the Jews, and the city was Jerusalem. The text was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

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 [commandments or laws] 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, if 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 destroyed 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 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.

"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.

"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 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 these and the first set are viewed side by side, there appears no possibility of their being reconcilable.

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.

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 other, though by faith, he knows that in God's Word there is no real contradiction.

Undisturbed by the clamor 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 and will remove all contradictions, providing instead, a perfect harmony, where previously only confusion existed.

There will be those who will charge this careful student 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 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.

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.

Faith is a steadying factor in the problem. Faith says that there are no contradictions in God's Word. Faith says that we must take both of these statements as they read. Faith says that in due time, the God of heaven Himself will provide the answers if we trust Him and continue our careful, objective study.

Then we come to the flood.

The implications of the standard view of what God did in the obliteration of the human race in Noah's day are very serious indeed. The commonly accepted view of what God did back there, means that He was forced to admit that righteousness was not able to withstand the 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 imagine 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 takeover. 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 implies that God had to revise His method of dealing with the sin problem. It reveals Him as beginning in one way, but finding Himself later obliged to introduce measures not contemplated in the beginning. This makes God less than infinite, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. It means 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 we find a serious problem on our hands. Nothing can 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 seems to show a God who was later forced to introduce an element of compulsion and destruction.

Our attitude must be one of faith. We must believe 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. God will give light and understanding to those who humbly and sincerely seek for it. There is a perfect reconciliation between God's stated attitude to the sin problem and the story of the flood, as well as many other accounts of what God apparently did in history.

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. 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.

Chapter Ten: A Summary

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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.

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.

But with the advent of the rebellion of the covering cherub, Lucifer, who made himself to be the devil and Satan, raised a challenge 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 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 today, and forever.” Malachi 3:6. 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 ac‑
tivities, 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. If 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 honor 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 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.

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.

Chapter Nine: God's Principles Under Test

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God's principles of government worked perfectly under perfect 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 to solve the sin problem by exercising His infinite physical power to destroy the wrongdoers?

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 from 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.

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.

There prevails in the world today the concept that the law was made for God's personal exaltation, that it is 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? The answer to this question is an infallible guide as to whether it is true or not. A careful study of what took place in the Garden of Eden reveals the truth.

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 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 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.

When God instructed them regarding His tree, they were given the clearest warnings 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. 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 by self-protectionism and self-interest. Therefore, he implied, without directly saying it, that if there was any death at all it would be God's directly administered act, 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 the 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. Eve had the choice then of whether she would believe the truth as God told it, or Satan's proposition.

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 ye shall be as God, (margin) knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4, 5.

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.

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 putting 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.

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.

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.

The time has come to study God's behaviour as far as it can be understood, during the interlude of sin.

Chapter Eight: A Perfect Law

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The perfection of God’s law stands in marked contrast to the imperfection of the laws framed by earthly legislators. Men are obliged to constantly enact new laws and to modify or repeal old ones. Behaviour allowed in one country is strictly banned in another. Further, in order to ensure respect and obedience to the government and its laws, a list of punishments is formulated.

God’s law, being perfect and complete, has required no modifications. It has stood as 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 demonstrates this truth in that 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.

Regarding the second factor in the difference between the law of God and that of man, consider 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.

But let us not conclude that God deliberately or arbitrarily organized it thus. 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.

God is only interested in voluntary obedience. It would therefore be impossible to give full liberty to a person to withhold obedience and then mete punishment 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 execute it by His own direct actions. This is what the majority believe God does.

The second method would be to skillfully and deliberately build into the law, punishments which would automatically fall upon the transgressor. In modern language this is called booby trapping.

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 withhold obedience.

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.

“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. There 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. Satan never pays the gifts of God. God alone pays the gift of life. 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.

The law was given that it might be a protection and blessing to mankind. Obedience to it ensures absolute immunity from sickness, suffering, sorrow, fear, suspicion, robbery, violence, and death. Violation of its principles guarantees the introduction of these things in their worst forms.

The first command 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. This perception of God is such that God is seen as demanding that we acquiesce to His position of sole and ultimate authority and He is thought to be saying “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.” 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.

God gave the precious love-gift of life. But to give life was not sufficient. A home must be provided. Without this, what would life be but a horror of eternal drifting through cold and vast empty space with nothing to see or do. Rather, He gave them a home in which they could develop and achieve the highest aspirations of their active minds. But life and a home was not enough. It was necessary that God bestow powers that would enable all of these things.

These powers may be grouped into two divisions, those within man and those outside him in the marvelous 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.

But giving of life, home, and all the powers was still not enough. The bestowal of the powers, while intended for the blessing and prosperity of all His creatures, inevitably possesses the potential of destruction. Therefore, God needed to add one more gift to make the work of creation complete and secure. That gift was the law.

Returning to the example of the first commandment, we can demonstrate that the law was not made by God for God but for man. The sun in the heavens will serve as one example. God spoke it into existence and His work in respect to it did not end there. The sun cannot fulfil its mission unaided. It must be directed by another power. The only power which can do this is the power which made it. The Son of God is the One 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.

“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.

It is not because of inherent energy our hearts continue to beat and we continue to draw breath, but rather these things are evidence of the all-pervading care of Him in whom “we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. Nor is it by inherent power that the heavenly bodies continue in their way, for the hand of God “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.

These and many other 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 this is not because God must be personally in control of all things in that He is power hungry or anxious to reserve to Himself any special position. The fact is that this is the only way it can be done. It was not possible to leave all these tremendous powers to themselves for it is the very nature of power to be unintelligent. Power and force are just what they are, while intelligence is designed to control and guide the powers.

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 controlling power, the possibilities are fearsome to contemplate.

God cannot merely appoint one of His mighty creatures to look after guiding the sun or other such tasks, for it required His own power to create it and set it up and it requires the same power to maintain 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. 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.

When Adam and Eve placed another god in place of the True, they removed from themselves the protection the first commandment was designed to give. Sudden and terrible destruction immediately threatened them. Now, it may be objected here that the whole argument is disproved by the fact that sudden destruction did not befall them as God had said it would. But God is not a liar. His word was fulfilled in that the spiritual side of their natures, the life of God in 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. Christ stepped in to divert the punishment to Himself.

“The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, . . . 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 the god of death and destruction. When at last the time of probation is ended and all have made their choice for eternity, this is just what will happen. Christ will step out of His place as Mediator and all nature will collapse in a cataclysm of destruction. These “punishments” are the unpreventable outworking of the removal by disobedience of the protections the laws are designed to give.

These things must be meditated upon until the purposes and character of God 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.

A quick examination of the violation of the command, “Thou shalt not steal” will show us how it opens upon man the floodgates of woe. In a perfect society there would be no need for gates and locks. But suppose that there comes one day into this society one person who steps out of the way in the village and steals the property of another. As news of the event spreads through the village the peace and happiness dies under a cloud of fear and suspicion. 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. One look at airline travel today, with all of its security measures, is sufficient to illustrate this point.

Should more and more people follow the path of the lawbreaker and become thieves, then the problem will escalate into destructive proportions. As one step leads to another, there now arise occasions of brutalities and murders.

It is only because the Lord is still able to exercise some restraint over mankind that man survives at all. Should the law be totally cast aside and anarchy reign, the extermination of the race by its own hands would be the swift result. It is self-evident that the breaking of the law governing man’s relationship to man brings its own terrible results upon the world.

What kind of a world would it be if all law was done away with and every person to become a thief, a murderer, a liar, an adulterer, and so on? As this grim picture, wherein there is no stability or security, develops in 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.

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.

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, it will be known that He did not compose the 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. It will 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.

The law is a transcript of His character. His own behaviour is expressed therein and is not something to which He has reined Himself as a strict discipline contrary to His own nature. His promise is that He writes the same law on our hearts so that it is also a transcript of our characters and we can and do obey the law as He obeys it – a natural outworking of our inner natures.

As we have seen, we have “full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 48. As surely as God 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.

Chapter Seven: The Constitution of the Government of God

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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.

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 there is not a single alternative to it. 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, but which have in them the potential for destruction. God’s law is a love gift from Him to His creatures, perfectly designed to save them from destruction.

The law of God “is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 315. 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 matter whether you read the former or the latter, for the message will be the same. Inasmuch as God does what He does because of what He firstly is, then the law being what God is, is 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.

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. Then, when they are found out, they do not suffer the same 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.

“For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.

“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 . . . as it did in Him.” Mount of Blessing, 77, 78.

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.”

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.

But it is contended that the fall brought about a circumstance which required that the Lord take decisive action to cut the sedition short and preserve the entire universe from corruption.

Most have no problem with the idea that the natural consequence of the rebellion against His word was that it introduced decay and death through separation from the source of Life. Yet surely it 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 will later deal with many of these incidents. For now we wish to consider the nature of His character in the original kingdom and what this implies.

To recognize that God never destroyed before there was sin, and to accept the 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, there has been a variation. It is to believe that God respected the law in one way before iniquity arose, and then in a different and opposite way thereafter, and when sin is ended that He will return to the original pattern.

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.

But we implore you to bear with us until all the evidences have been considered; do not prematurely reject the conclusions.

Consideration must now be given to the way in which God keeps the law. 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 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. . . 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.” 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.

It needs to be fixed in our minds 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.

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.

Without question, the witness of sight and circumstances is very powerful. When the Old Testament stories are read wherein it is reported that 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.

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. It will then be found that there are vital differences between what the Lord appeared to have done and what He really did. We will take up some of these studies at the appropriate point.

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 Him or not to serve Him. The two are consistent with and inseparable from each other.

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.

“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 sprins from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a force allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.” The Great Controversy, 493. Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.

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 not. 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 the freedom, but it is the work of sin and Satan.

Just so soon as any element of compulsion such as the threat of punishment, is introduced, then to that extent will there be a service motivated by fear. God’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 fullness of joy.

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. No kingdom has ever been like this. 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.

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.

Let us for a moment pick some gems of thought from A. T. Jones’ Ecclesiastical Empires, 586-588:

“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. . . .

“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. . . . But this involves the possibility . . . that some will choose not to serve Him . . . . Shall He then refuse to create because . . . 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 desired? Who can not fulfill his own will? Such a god would be worthless.

“ . . . 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.

“This is God, the living God, the God of love, the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully able to do whatsoever He will, and yet leave al 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.”

Even though God thoroughly understood the possibilities of there being a period when some or even all His creatures would undertake a terrible experimentation with a supposed way of life other than His, He would no 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.

(Under restricted freedoms there can be no such thing as infinite development, for “freedom of choice is essential to intelligence.” This theme is explored in the pages of the Waggoner quote, above. Wright underscores this by exploring how the freedoms brought by the Reformation resulted in great advances in intellectual development. Where freedoms are restricted there tends to be in general shorter, more toilsome lives of ignorance, poverty and disease.)

The following statements closing this chapter should be read, re-read, and pondered with the proper quality and quantity of mental taxation!

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. 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.

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 gave them the right to make that choice and He cannot punish them for making the decision He Himself gave them the liberty to make.

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.

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 sincerity in His promise of freedom under His government 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 to far in granting such complete freedom, and that He would have to withdraw it in order to rain punishments on the wrong-doer?

Satan contends that God had to resort to force to punish those who exercised the freedom He gave them not to serve Him. All too readily, men in general have subscribed to Satan’s lies. The time is now here 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.

Chapter Six: Approaching the Study of God

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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. Character is especially revealed in times of great stress, under the pressures arising out of times of testing and difficulty.

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. 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.

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.

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. His is the only perfect rulership to ever exist.

Before continuing, it bears warning that there is a tendency to form concepts of God’s government after the measure of human leadership. It is all that we know, so we tend to think of God and His kingdom as being the same. But the Word of God states, “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. So it was also that Christ said: “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?” Mark 4:30.

“In society He found nothing with which to compare it. 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.

Jesus told a story, in the parable of the householder, of workers who were hired at the late hour of the day who were paid the same as those who had been hired earlier and had toiled all day.

“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. Christ’s Object Lessons, 396, 397.

It is impossible to learn of the heavenly kingdom from the earthly. Few, if any, consciously 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. When they joined the company of Christ, this misunderstanding of the true nature of the kingdom proved to be the greatest hindrance to their drawing into full intimacy with Christ in His divine mission. Despite His continual effort on their behalf, they were not delivered from this false position until after the resurrection.

We must take heed, lest we also come to the study of God’s kingdom with the same pre-conceived ideas.

Earthly kingdoms do have a reference value only in the sense that they tell us what the kingdom of God is not. 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.

Chapter Five: Isaiah's Wonderful Prophecy

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Revelation 18 clearly foretells the time when the glory of God’s character shall be revealed through His people as the final and finishing message to lost mankind. This message is also found in the Old Testament. One such place is Isaiah 60.

“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.

“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.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 415.

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.

The parable of the ten virgins parallels the teaching found in Isaiah 60. 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.

“. . . 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 said 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.

To be such a light 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 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.” Of course, these attributes are to be understood as His characteristics, His glory, His dispositions, His qualities, though not His great dynamic powers to impart life, creative power.

The purpose of the great controversy cannot be fulfilled unless this demonstration of God’s character is given. Read again the quotation from COL 414, above. 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?

It is not by intellectual understanding of the theory of truth, nor by attempting wrap Christ’s covering around us, ourselves, nor by ceremonies, forms, nor adherence to codes and practices 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. By exactly the same means through which the Saviour accomplished His mission, must the followers of Christ in the final conflict likewise fulfill their commission.

“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.

There will be deep darkness brought by Satan’s delusions, heresies and false teachings such as there never has been in the past. 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. “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 great darkness that shall blanket the world in the last days, as depicted in Isaiah 60:2. It is the misunderstanding of God’s character. Satan knows that rebellion against God is begun, developed and sustained by this means. He knows also 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 the misapprehension of God.

As surely, then, as we are living in this time of human history, so surely we can expect to see the Lord providing His answer to Satan’s deceptions. The time has come for the proclamation of a message on the character of God and His righteousness.

It is not an idle expectation, 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, ‘O 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.

This is not 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 revealed. Then they come to know God as God is, as they see Him for themselves, reflected from the transformed hearts of the believers.

The coming of this message from God is no longer a prophetic expectation but a present reality. It is a reality in your life, dear reader. As these chapters unfold the great evidences and truths in your hearing, know that they have been years in formation. With great care, 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 fulfill the prophecy out of our own inventions. Rather, first the light on the message came, and then we discovered that it had come in fulfillment of Bible and Spirit of Prophecy predictions.

It is hoped that by this time each reader will have gained some concept of the vital importance of this theme to the point of earnest, intense desire to understand and to possess the wonderful character of God.

Chapter Four: The Character of God and the Ending of the Great Controversy

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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, the reversal of rebellion can be accomplished by the presentation of the truth in regard to God.

Pre-eminent in this work of divine restoration is Jesus Christ. When He came to earth, He came not only 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.

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.

“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.” 1John 3:8.

This was no easy task. Had it simply been a contest of force versus force, it would have been over in an instant. The question is not over physical strength, but of the real nature of God’s character and government.

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 upon a time there was only the Word of God. That Word came under challenge. God explained the situation to the heavenly host in detail. See Patriarchs and Prophets, 36. Thus the word of Satan was met by the Word of God. But it did not settle the question, for it was not accepted by Satan and his followers. 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 is reached, the termination will come.

While Satan’s arguments drew a third of the angels to his side, there were left two thirds that remained loyal to God. It is naturally assumed that they therefore were not all influenced by the devil’s sophistries. 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 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. During this period the holy angels served God with definite reservations and felt that Satan had something of a case to be argued.

“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.

“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.

At the cross the last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken. “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.

It was then that the angels 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 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.

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 the final time of testing 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 for 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. . . . 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.” Desire of Ages, 761.

The progressive development in the controversy God has with Satan is 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: Micahel 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 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 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.

So it is written: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.” Revelation 12:12a. But the time for rejoicing in the unfallen universe is no time for joyous songs upon the earth. For now, Satan’s attention is focused only on one group: the children of men. In addition, his fearful losses sustained at the cross do not discourage but only madden him into a frenzy of desperate and determined activity. Verse 12 concludes by saying “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.”

Now comes the time to discuss the achievement of the full recovery. Another great battle must be fought wherein will be accomplished for man that which had been accomplished for the unfallen universe. This victory will be gained exactly as it was gained by Christ, for we are to overcome “as He overcame.” See Revelation 3:21.

How is this last battle fought and won? Counter-accusation is unproductive, becoming a contest of confusing words. The use of force often will generate sympathy for the rebel through the natural tendency to take up the cause of the underdog.

There is only one way to reveal evil and that is to expose it to righteousness. This is what Jesus did throughout His lifetime on earth. His sojourn here 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. But for man the purpose of the great controversy has not yet been fulfilled.

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. 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.

“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.

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.” Let it be established that the message of the angel is given by a movement of people, not a literal angel. “. . .the movement symbolized by the angel coming down from heaven, lightening the earth with his glory, and crying mightily with a strong voice. . .[announces] the sins of Babylon.” The Great Controversy, 604.

With whose glory will the earth be lightened? To be sure, it is the glory of God, but that 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 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? Is it merely a physical manifestation of brightness? There are numerous Scripture references to this kind of glory as an attribute of God, 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 hid Moses in a crack in the rocks and covered him in protection, while revealing in passing only His “back,” not His face, in order that the physical glory not overpower him and cause him harm. But this is not the glory God was eager to share with Moses. 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.

The Lord did not show Moses the outward splendor of His being, but the wonder of His great and lovely character. From this we deduce that the glory of God is His character.

When Jesus came to this earth, He left behind all the physical glory. “He hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isaiah 53:2. Yet despite the plainness of His outward appearance, He revealed the glory of God to those with the spiritual vision which would enable them 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.

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.”

Back to the message of Revelation 18:1, which is summarized 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.

“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.

It is 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 manifestation 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.

It therefore is of paramount concern that we appreciate the gravity of the matter. In the final and finishing work the true understanding and manifestation of the character of God will play a vital role. Let every true child of God move forward, making this topic a priority not only in study but in the living work of putting on the character of Christ and making His righteousness our own.

Chapter Three: The Character of God in Relation to The Great Controversy

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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 in this controversy came in at the 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 ripened into active rebellion once he settled into his misconception of the character of God. He understood also that in order to seed the rebellion successfully, he would have to represent God as a liar and a destroyer. Every angel who believed him joined his ranks and this same policy was used to deceive man also.

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 knows that Satan’s lying representations of God’s character and government have brought only misery and death to this world. Therefore, it is to save us and not Himself that God seeks the vindication of His own character.

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.

It is necessary, at this point, to comment further on the development of pride within the heart of Lucifer. As this leader of all the angels lived, he grew in wisdom and abilities, according to the laws which govern all God’s creatures. Marvellous was the progress made by this creature, 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.

“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.

So, as Lucifer descended this path, his life became increasingly self centered and self-sufficient. Thus he, and not God, became the standard by which he judged all things. Now even the Son of God came under his critical measurement. So inflated had his view of himself become that he saw himself as being actually superior to the Divine One, as it is written, “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” Ezekiel 28:17

After an unknown amount of time, during which Lucifer developed his ideas and attempted to rouse sympathy amongst the angels, 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.” Patriarchs and Prophets 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. He attributed to God a motive which in reality was non-existent. It developed in the following way.

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 promote 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 could be.

The longer he waited, the deeper became his anxiety. He correctly concluded that something was deeply wrong, but failed utterly to comprehend that the error lay in himself and not in God. 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.

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. The only possible conclusion left to him, in his darkened reasoning, was that the fault lay with God. Having arrived at this awful point, a radically new concept of God’s character thrived in his mind. 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 fulfill 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. Partiality in itself is serious enough for it is impossible to show favour to one person except it be at the expense of another. However, charges of partiality cannot be entered against God in this case, because Christ was not in any way upon the same level of existence as Lucifer, being Himself Deity and not a created being. Lucifer had taken upon himself the work of inciting doubt regarding the supremacy of Christ. In so doing, he set about to convince everyone that God was a liar and a deceiver in that He claimed impartiality, yet here He favoured One above the rest.

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.

At this point the great controversy began and mutiny ensued first with the angels and then with men, as each in turn came to share the same erroneous concepts of God’s character.

Lucifer misrepresented God by “attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. . . . He led [the angels and men] 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.” The Desire of Ages 21, 22.

“By the same misrepresentation of the character of God as he had practiced in heaven, causing Him to be regarded as severe and tyrannical, Satan induced man to sin.” The Great Controversy, 500.

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.

In the tempting of Eve, Satan asserted 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.

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.

Even the tree 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.

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, . . . 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 the Lord that keeps all things; He sustains the heavenly bodies and systems down to the minutest atom of matter. It is the Creator of all things who maintains their proper function and place.

“God, . . .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.

“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 window of heaven and gives rain. . . 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.

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 to protect Himself or His own position. Rightly understood, the “restriction” placed upon the first couple was a true revelation of the perfectly righteous character of God. It was an act of kindness and mercy. It was the work of a Saviour, not that of a despot.

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 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.

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. 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 light of these facts, what study could be more important than the one here being pursued?

Chapter Two: Avoid Speculative Theories

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Chapter Two
Avoid Speculative Theories

In the study of the subject of God’s character, there is the danger that comes with seeking a knowledge outside of what God has revealed. Therefore, any attempt to explore into the unrevealed areas of divine knowledge will be strictly avoided in this study. It will be concerned only with the evidences which God has seen fit to give, and nothing else but that.

A reading of Ephesians 3:1-11 teaches us that 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, even though eternity “will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ.” The Great Controversy, 678.

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.

“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

“In eternity we shall learn that which, had we received the enlightenment it was possible to obtain here, would have opened our understanding.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 134. 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.

Yet it must be stressed that there are things that remain hidden and our concentration of study must be in those areas where the Lord has released the light. At all costs there must be the avoidance of speculative theorizing.

“Our first parents were led into sin through indulging a desire for knowledge that God had withheld from them. In seeking to gain this knowledge, they lost all that was worth possessing. . . 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.

With such clear warnings as these before us, there can be no excuse for any indulgence in speculation about the character of God. Therefore, this study 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.

While, on the 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.

“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. 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.

Chapter One: An All Important Theme

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“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 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. The essential and indispensable nature of being in possession of the knowledge of God is that knowing Him as He is is the power of the gospel to transform the character and recreate us into the image of God. Therefore, it becomes the seeker’s prime interest to know by what means this Knowing can be received.

The answer is not hidden.

It is “the knowledge of God as revealed in Christ.”

The full force of this truth will not be appreciated unless there is a correct understanding of what the grace and peace of God are. Let us consider each 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.

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.

Observe the media through which it will come to us: “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2.
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. Paul advises the Romans that the carnal mind is enmity against God and that being justified is to have peace with God (Rom. 8:7 and 5:1).

Therefore, both enmity against God, and peace with God are states of being. These two cannot coexist. The former must be removed in order to make room for the latter. Only the mighty power of God can accomplish such splendid results.

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.

“. . . how can we come into harmony with God, how shall we receive His likeness, unless we obtain a knowledge of Him? It is this knowledge that Christ came into the world to reveal to unto us.” Testimonies 5:743.

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 God.” 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. The more fully, intimately, and accurately He is known, the richer and more glorious will be the transformation into His likeness. There is a direct relationship between the extent of our knowledge of God, and the level, warmth, and power of our personal Christian experience.

For men to glorify God as God, His character must be in them and be reflected from them. Sadly, this is not what is seen by the professed people of God. They have substituted another view of God, a view according to their own vain imaginations. Romans 1 tells the sad story. They changed the “truth of God into a lie” and “did not like to retain God in their knowledge” and so descended into the depths of depravity and immorality as God was rejected and subsequently forced to retreat from them in order that they might have their own chosen way.

Human beings cannot enter a worse state of wickedness than that described in Romans 1. Remember that Paul states by inspiration that all this is the outworking of the rejection of the knowledge of God. That rejection is the root and the unbelievable wickedness is 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.

“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.” Testimonies 5:743

God’s people ought to be “far in advance of our present position.” Ibid. 743. So, if the cause of a narrow religious experience and hindered progress in the divine life is the holding of “meager views” of the character of Christ/God, then we know the starting point for remediation of the situation.

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.

Only by coming into a much clearer and deeper understanding of the character of God and Christ can we advance in the truth. 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 of both learning and unlearning.

Not only have the concepts of God’s character been meager, dim, and uncertain, but in many respects, quite inaccurate. In fact, calling them inaccuracies does not portray the reality of their being exactly opposite from what God really is. The devil has clouded our minds with his false representations. 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. There is much unlearning to do as well as learning and the following chapters are designed to assist in both directions. Old concepts will be challenged and many things will be presented about God which will be exactly opposite from what has been believed in the past. The old concepts will strive for the mastery and will not go down easily, but 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.

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.

Introduction

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Truth

Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past. Maurice Maeterlinck

Contempt, prior to complete investigation, enslaves men to ignorance. Dr. John Whitman Ray

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell

If you want to make someone angry, tell him a lie; if you want to make him furious, tell him the truth. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer Philosopher, 1788-1860

As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. J. Billings

Don’t confuse your opinion with the truth. W. Erhart

The power to fit in with one’s social peers can be irresistible. To a human lemming, the logic behind an opinion doesn’t count as much as the power and popularity behind an opinion. Norman Livergood

Accept it or reject it; you have to know it. Mrs. McKay, RYCI Geology teacher.

Preface

The time has come for me to share with you some vital information that has come to me in the form of a book entitled “Behold Your God,” by F. T. Wright. I borrowed a ragged copy from a friend and had several copies made of it. What will follow will be a summary of the teaching contained in this book, chapter by chapter. There will be very little of my own commentary, as there is not much I could bring to this topic that has not already been revealed. Yet it is my fervent hope and prayer that I will have the spiritual eyesight to go even further and deeper than this 1979 study, now that the groundwork has been laid in my heart.

As I took note of Christian beliefs about God, in general, there seemed to be a contradiction between our understanding of God and God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Additionally, as I read the Scriptures, on the face of them, there seemed to be a distortion of God as One who destroys those who reject Him or, at best, One who ultimately destroys those who injure His children. In other words, His role as Protector of the faithful justifies His alleged destructive behavior toward those who would bring harm and ruin to future societies of righteous beings throughout all of Creation; allows him to break the law in order to uphold the law.

This awakening to the reality of Who God Is has taken time to grow roots in my understanding and thinking. It has not been easy to adopt these glorious truths as the deceptions have been ingrained from childhood. It did not come without struggle, discussion, prayer and personal study. At last, we have to own what we believe about God. It has to come to a settling of mind that will not move, for it is upon this very subject that the Great Controversy opened and it is upon this subject that it will close.

God’s ways are not man’s ways. I have now a much better grasp of what this actually means to us. For me, this corrected vision of God has become a milestone in my journey toward personal sealing into Christ and the Kingdom. I hope and pray that for every honest seeker who embarks on this same journey the end result will be the same.

Kevin Straub

“Perfect love casts out all fear.”

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Note: In the following chapter summaries, I will sometimes quote and sometimes paraphrase, without indication, but when speaking from my own self, the words will be italicized.

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Introduction

There are three facts common to us all.

1. We have a definite opinion about God’s character.

2. Our attitude toward God, our treatment toward others, and our receptivity of truth are determined by these opinions.

3. All of us were born predisposed 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 at risk.

When Christ came working miracles and proclaiming the kingdom he quickly rose to great popularity, as the masses perceived that this would be the One to restore the lost glory that was theirs. His following continued to swell until the feeding of the five thousand, when the enthusiasm of the people had reached such a height that they were willing to make Him king by force. When He refused, 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.

They had a very definite concept of God’s character, shaped by the educational processes in their environment. 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.

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.” 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 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.

“In their enthusiasm the people are ready at once to crown Him king. . . . Consulting together, they agree to take Him by force, and proclaim Him the king of Israel.” ibid., 377-8.

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.

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. 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 they were. He was sent as the Messiah to the chosen and favoured 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.

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.

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 there be an earnest, prayerful pleading with the Lord to open the eyes of our spiritual understanding to see God as He really is.

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