Yes, that's very good.

Im a little confused about this. Is the memory removed from the brain when probation closes?

I'm not sure how it's going to work, but we are told it will happen.

Waggoner has a very good explanation of the blotting out of sin:



This brings out the real point here. It's not that God does something unilaterally to affect the memory (this has ominous implications), but "their iniquity may be sought for, but it will not be found."

Often Scripture speaks of things not being remembered which has nothing to do with a faulty memory.

I also believe Christians do not say, "Wow, I can't even remember the last time I sinned." Simultaneously feeling they are like and unlike Jesus is not an indication they are guilty of sinning. People will feel this way throughout eternity. I am familiar with the evolution model of sanctification you describe above. In fact, it's what I believed for the first 13 years of my walk with Jesus.

One day a friend challenged me to prove it from the Bible. I thought it would be easy. However, I was unable to do it. The Bible never describes believers gradually evolving from sinning to not sinning. I was unable to support the idea that believers sin less and less often over time until they cease sinning.

Instead, I found that 1) while abiding in Jesus, 2) while partaking of the divine nature, and 3) while walking in the Spirit and mind of the new man - believers do not and cannot sin. It doesn't mean they are incapable of sinning, it's just that under these circumstances they do not and cannot sin.

To sin, therefore, they must neglect to do the things mentioned above, and then all they can do is sin. To cease sinning they must exercise the gift of repentance, and then God empowers them to resume doing those things that enable them to not sin and to mature in the fruits of the Spirit.

Do you see what I mean?

Regarding remembering specific sins after they are blotted out:

Those who have delayed a preparation for the day of God cannot obtain it in the time of trouble, or at any future period. The righteous will not cease their earnest agonizing cries for deliverance. They cannot bring to mind any particular sins, but in their whole life they can see but little good. Their sins had gone beforehand to judgment, and pardon had been written. Their sins had been borne away into the land of forgetfulness, and they could not bring them to remembrance. Certain destruction threatens them, and like Jacob they will not suffer their faith to grow weak, because their prayers are not immediately answered. Though suffering the pangs of hunger, they will not cease their intercessions. They lay hold of the strength of God as Jacob laid hold of the angel, and the language of their soul is, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." The saints at length prevail like Jacob, and are gloriously delivered by the voice of God. {3SG 134.2}

It may be true that they do not think of sin/sinning any more, but that is not what the GC quote says. She says they cannot recall the sins.

EGW: They cannot bring to mind any particular sins, they cannot bring them to remembrance

Waggoner: they may be able to recall the fact that they have committed certain sins

She is not saying their memory is faulty. She is not saying they don't remember what they did. She is saying they can't bring to remembrance sins that need to be confessed. That's because they're aren't any!



They "have no concealed wrongs to reveal." They can't bring any concealed wrong (i.e. unconfessed sins) to remembrance to confess, because they're aren't any. They've already been confessed (they have gone beforehand to judgment).

When considering an interpretation, especially what might be an over literal one, it is prudent to consider the implications of the interpretation being considered. For example, consider a person who is 50 years old, and was recently converted, has become part of the 144,000, and is going through the processing being described, trying to bring to memory sins to be confessed. Now if what she means is that they literally cannot remember anything they did which was sin, then the entirety of their memory would be erased! The first 47, 48, 49 years or so (until the person was converted) was nothing but sin. So he would have no memory of his childhood, youth, or adulthood, other than the last number of months from the time he was converted.

Waggoner's idea fits. It seems clear he had the EGW quote in mind. He offers an interpretation which fits the common sense test.

The Bible says that God will remember our sins no more. Do you think this means He can't remember what we did?

All of Jesus' disciples, with the exception of Judas, believed in Christ, which is to say, they were born again. We seem them learning in their experience as they were with Christ. This is an object lesson for us! The same prejudices, mistakes, lack of faith, in their lives are present in ours. We miss much of the blessing Jesus wished to impart to us if we cut off their experience from ours, as if it weren't relevant to us, because they weren't converted.

Did you read the quote MM posted?


The plain meaning of the text is that they could not bring the sins they had committed, which have been pardoned, to remembrance.


You are doing some serious violence to the text. In the phrase, "they cannot bring them to remembrance," what is the antecedent of "them"? It is sins that have been blotted out.

You say that they cannot remember because there's nothing to remember. Your interpretation would have her saying that these nonexistent sins were blotted out. That makes a mockery of the judgment and the Judge.


Do you believe that the life of an unconverted person is one long, continuous sin? That if he cannot remember his sins, then he will not remember anything? I don't think so.

But you seem to have difficulty grasping the possibility that God can make you forget something. How about the disciples? They didn't recognize Jesus, even after the years of labor together.

God is resourceful and powerful. Don't underestimate what He can do, even if it goes against your current belief system. Especially if a prophet says He's going to do it.

If I filtered everything I read by what I already believe, I would never learn anything significantly new, and neither would I detect any of my errors.


No. It means He will not take it into account when dealing with sinners.