Yes, sometimes the consequences of sinning are natural in this lifetime. No doubt about it. Take drugs and the mind is wasted. Smoke and the lungs suffer. Break the Sabbath and miss out on sacred rest. But the lake of fire is punishment. Not arbitrarily imposed. It is a promise. You sin, you suffer and die in the lake of fire.

So, natural consequences were not allowed to proceed, right? - for the reasons of fully understanding the great controversy, indeed.

There are many issues behind your point, here, of course. God is just and also merciful, and we see generations of mercy while probation lasts with only a small sampling of justice, eg. Sodom..., and Babylonian captivity.

Sin is in principle separation from the life giver; grace in principle and practice reconciles us with the law giver. God delays natural consequences for reasons of ending the great controversy for all eternity, since he is love.

Really, we shouldn't question his motives, for he is the potter and we are the clay.

Indeed, natural consequences were withheld. We do have a glimpse of what happens with God withdraws His had of protection in Sodom and the Babylonian captivity. The destruction of Jerusalem is a prime example of what happens when God withdraws. When I read what you have written, it seems to me that the end result of sin is not a natural consequence, but an imposed penalty. Am I reading you right or wrong?

As to questioning God, do you really think we are not to understand His motives? Really? God said, "come let us reason together" Isaiah 1:18. And this is eternal life, "that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Jeremiah 9:23-24 Thus said the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, said the LORD.

The Lord asks us, and invites us to question and understand His motives.

The following quote is from Friday, November 23rd in our Lesson Study Material:

http://www.ssnet.org/lessons/12d/less08.html#fri

This is a stern warning against any one person exercising dominion over his church members, be it local churches, local conferences, unions, divisions, etc. EGW goes so far to say that such a person, be it a pastor or a local elder, etc., should be removed.

". . . it is character alone that God values.” Amen!

I will bring this out in my next sermon where I use Philippians 2 with special emphasis on verse 5, "Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus."

"Mind" froneite - or mindset which shapes your thoughts and actions.

Your character should be the one of Jesus Christ, the only thing that God values about you, not your own, but the mind of Jesus Christ.