Imagine newlyweds. The husband takes his bride in his arms and say, I have great plans for you. I will treat you as a queen and give you everything you ever wanted. I will cherish you and lavish my love upon you. I only ask you to love me. As long as you love me, all these things I will do for you. But,....

(Always that "but")

....But, if you give any indication that you do not love me, I will beat you to a pulp, making sure that you suffer. I've done it to my past wives, but only as long as I felt they deserve. Then I end their life. I will have the same mercy on you. Now won't you love me forever?

The bride trembling ever so barely noticeably looks him in the eye and stammers as confidently as she can muster, Ya-Yes, of course.



Do you think she really loves him? Could she really love him? Ever, as long as she believes he holds that view or capacity?

kland - you make me thing of a quotation,

"The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, "with healing in His wings." Malachi 4:2. {DA 22.1} "

Wow, this is so very revealing in your emotional state.

I find it so interesting that you used this analogy to make your point, because you sound more like a psychologist than an evangelist here.

The bible uses the exact same idea that God is the husband and His wife is the church.

"The unfaithfulness of the church to Christ in permitting her confidence and affection to be turned from Him, and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened to the violation of the marriage vow. The sin of Israel in departing from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of God which they thus despised is touchingly portrayed: “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine.” “And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee.... But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown.” “As a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord;” “as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!” Ezekiel 16:8, 13-15, 32; Jeremiah 3:20. {GC 381.3}

So what happened to Israel because of her unfaithfulness when she ABUSED her husband?

Do you know what happened to Jerusalem in 70 AD? They were HORRIBLY starved, crucified, and burned to death by Rome. God withdrew his affection for them because they did not repent for ABUSING HIM through His prophets and His Son!

What does scripture say the whore of Babylon will suffer?

Revelation 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

DID God destroy Jerusalem? NOPE. What happened to Jerusalem is very instructive and should be studied and understood.

Yep, that is so true.

So true again.

Could "judgment" here mean the same as the judgment of Israel?

I see APL responded first. Looks like the same message.

Deuteronomy
30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
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:
30:20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

"Thou shalt love". "These things I command you, that ye love".

Mark
12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.
12:31 And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

John
13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

1 John
3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

2 John
1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

Galatians 6:7-9 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

MM - was EGW wrong when she said, "love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority."