I believe the law of sin and death is based on promises - not an irrational, arbitrary decree.

Fixed laws? Who fixed them? and why? based on what criteria? The reason the wages of sin is death is because God ordained it. It's what He promised. It makes sense to Him. Either way, God is in control. He established and maintains the laws. He is the author of life and death.

If the wicked die the second death because God chooses to destroy them with fire or by exposing them to His exceeding brightness, or both, the results are the same - they die because of God. They are alive because of God, and they die because of God.

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Please, someone explain to me in a nutshell how the blood of Jesus "washes" away my sin?

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It was ordained by God. If, by faith, we accept His eternal death, then, through faith, we have eternal life. Why? That's just the way it is. It makes sense to God. So, don't worry, be happy.

I believe in View 2. I have tried to express what you believe in View 1. If I'm off, please correct it to reflect your thoughts. Thank you.

Quoted from Tom Ewall post.

Deuteronomy 33:39
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

Isaiah 46:7
I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.

Lamentations 3:38
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

John 1:3
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

Hope these verses might light up in you that it is not the view 2 you must believe but view 1.

ALL THINGS were made by him, does this include death? Yes, and it is justified by the verses above.

Life and death is God creation, but not sin, because God creatures who created sin. But sin could not create death, the wages of sin, is death.

Do you think that by creating the death and kill sinners in order to abolish sin and sinners forever from his universe, God become a cruel and savage God? Yes if he didn’t save us back from the death through Christ redemption.

God knew that one of his creation before he created him would create sin and is the source of sin. And he knew that he must abolish this sinner with death, otherwise sin and sinners would live forever in this universe. God must abolish Lucifer when he sinned, but this would cause fear in heaven and all other holy angels would worship him in fear and not in love. But God would abolish Satan one day and all his followers.

If there is no death as God creation, if God does not kill, there is no death, Satan would live forever.

But by killing Satan and his followers when sin is revealed to its utmost and God had shown his love, credibility and integrity, would it effect God image, and is the universe judging him as a cruel and savage God? No, far from it, they will worship him with love, they understand now what love really is, and they love God not because they were created in his love or recreated in his love, but because they knew the meaning of love, they experienced his love, they knew what is good and what is evil.

In His love

James S

What is good and what is evil? Does God become bad when he created good and evil?
What is life and what is death? Does God become bad when he created death?

The man who knows to do good, but do it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17).
The man who knows to do evil, but do it not, he is a good man (my own).

So, there is nothing bad with evil, it is just a force, jus like good. But when an action is taken using this force, there would be a goodness or evilness.

So, if God created life, automatically there must be death as his creation. But remember, that he created angels and man to live forever, and not for to die. His creation choose the death them selves.

Deuteronomy 30:15.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.

Deuteronomy 30:19.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Is this not the same as once it was announce from Eden? “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

God does not become bad, cruel and savage by creating life and death and exercising the death (executing) upon sinners who choose the way of death.

Death is the wages of sin and the executioner of death is God, the Creator of death.

In His love

James S.

Tom, nice one. But do you really think I'm using the word "author" in the same sense Sister White did?

Yes, I think you are using the expression "God is the author of death" the way she was describing.

Satan is the author of death. Sin is his invention.

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I think it is obvious that God is responsible for creating a situation where sin and death was inevitable.

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To say "God is the author of death" is logically consistent with what you wrote above. This is, in my opinion, exactly the way Satan wants us to think. He wants us to think that sin does not cause death (his invention) but instead that God does. That way He can blame God for what he did. Satan always likes to do that.

In the DA 764 quote, EGW points out that had God allowed Satan to suffer the consequences of sin the angels would not have understood what had happened. They would have thought God was responsible for Satan's death instead of sin. So God allowed Satan's existence to continue so that the principles of his government could be seen.

God allowed Christ to die on the cross so all could see the consequences of sin, that it causes death, and that the death which sin causes was not caused by Him. When the universe saw what sin really does, it became safe for God to allow those who had rejected Him to suffer the results of their choice because those witnessing that death would know, thanks to the cross, that He was not doing it. Had He not waited, "evil seeds of doubt" would have sprung up, but because He waited, they won't.

It's ironic that the whole purpose for God waiting was to show that He was not responsible for death, but you would have Him doing that which the waiting was designed to show He was not doing.

Yes, God created a situation, by creating free moral agents, who were capable of sinning and dying, and who, according to His foreknowledge, were destined to sin and die, but it does not mean that God forced them to sin. Jesus did not die on the cross on account of sin, rather, by His God-given power and authority, Jesus laid down His own life, but not until He consumed and conquered sin and the second death, on our behalf.

Giving Satan the credit for creating sin and death robs God of His power and authority and His sovereignty. Blaming Satan for the existence of sin and death assumes Satan, and not God, is in control of sin and death. Sin and death were not possible until after God created beings capable of sinning and dying. Since God is responsible for creating beings, who He knew would sin, the responsibility for eliminating sin and death, therefore, rests with God, and God alone.

Not only must sin and death be eliminated, sinners must also be punished for refusing to embrace Jesus, for refusing to crucify their sinful habits. God cannot entrust this awesome and important responsibility to anyone else other than Himself, especially not to Satan. Throughout eternity we will praise God for punishing sinners and destroying them in the lake of fire, knowing that it was handled properly and by the right Person, the only One capable of doing it right and righteously.