This is the Biblical way all through out the Bible! It is everywhere!

Deuteronomy 32:22-30
22 My anger will flame up like fire and burn everything on earth. It will reach to the world below and consume the roots of the mountains.
23 " 'I will bring on them endless disasters and use all my arrows against them.
24 They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.
25 War will bring death in the streets; terrors will strike in the homes. Young men and young women will die; neither babies nor old people will be spared.
26 I would have destroyed them completely, so that no one would remember them.
27 But I could not let their enemies boast that they had defeated my people, when it was I myself who had crushed them.'
28 "Israel is a nation without sense; they have no wisdom at all.
29 They fail to see why they were defeated; they cannot understand what happened.
30 Why were a thousand defeated by one, and ten thousand by only two? The LORD, their God, had abandoned them; their mighty God had given them up.


How many examples would you like?

Through Maxwell the idea was popularized that the wrath of God is giving a person over to the result of their choice.

This notion is completely wrong. The wrath of God is precisely that – wrath; that is, indignation.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men.

God’s wrath is directed towards sin, not towards people. When the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, He may give individuals over to the results of their choice, but this is not at all the definition of God’s wrath. God’s wrath is the manifestation of His displeasure against sin. This causes a separation between the sinner and God.

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. ... The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt. ... Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God. {DA 753.1, 2}

The penalty or punishment for sin, the essence of the second death, is complete separation from God. And it was this which killed Christ on the cross.

On the cross, Christ’s sense of the wrath of God against sin, and the resulting separation from God, killed Him.

“In surrendering his spotless soul a living sacrifice, Jesus was bearing the sin of the world; he was enduring the curse of the law; he was vindicating the justice of God. Separation from his Father, the punishment for transgression, was to fall upon him, in order to magnify God's law and testify to its immutability. ... The Son of God endured the wrath of God against sin.” {ST, December 9, 1897 par. 6}

Sin is an evil which affects the whole universe, and as such it cannot just be ignored - it must be judged. However, when it is judged by God, it must obviously be condemned. The problem is that the condemnation of sin causes in the sinner such a weight of guilt that it separates him completely from God and crushes him. That's why the penalty of the law is death.

God permits His Son to be delivered up for our offenses. He Himself assumes toward the Sin Bearer the character of a judge, divesting Himself of the endearing qualities of a father. {TM 245.2}

As man's substitute and surety, the iniquity of men was laid upon Christ; He was counted a transgressor that He might redeem them from the curse of the law. . . . He, the Sin-Bearer, endures judicial punishment for iniquity and becomes sin itself for man. {FLB 104.5}

God has been tolerating sin for some time, because He loves us and wishes to give us the opportunity to have sin removed from our lives. But God will destroy sin, and in the day He does so, if men are identified with sin, if sin is inside them, the glory of God, which destroys sin, will destroy them.

It is interesting that you speak against the idea of the wrath of God being God giving people up, then go on to quote references which support it. Very interesting. How about the scripture references above which also support that which you deny? And have you put your quotes along side where EGW says God is NOT the executioner, and then reconcile them to make sense? Just wondering...

Have you watched the series by Sigve Tonstad on Revelation which was posted here last week?

APL,

Your opinion is clear. The trouble is, it is not appealing to those who have a broader view. You restrict your thoughts to a narrow portion of the truth. God can, and will, certainly abandon the wicked. This act, however, does not preclude further actions against them. You seem to believe the happenings against them are by a "being" called "Sin," or perhaps by "Satan" or some other "God-enemy" that has nothing to do with God Himself. He tells us, however, that He Himself will be involved.

You choose to reinterpret His words. That is on your conscience. May the good Lord have mercy on all of us for where we have erred in sincerity. I have many errors myself, no doubt. But on this point, I cannot err as do you. I have an understanding that encompasses both your viewpoint and additional truths that you leave out.

God is merciful. God is not a destroyer. God has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. These are facts. I do not argue with any of these. God wants to save people from sin and from death.

But what is sin? Sin is transgression of the law. On this point you have begun your erroneous position. You have added to the definition of sin. You have made sin to have a physical form, such as DNA, in your mind. This leads away from a pure truth. Mrs. White is clear that there is no other definition for sin given in the Bible other than its being transgression of the law.



DNA, therefore, cannot be sin, for it is not an a "transgression of the law." Noah's ark was not a "transgression of the law" either, and likewise could not have been sin, even though it was made because of sin. Our DNA may be imperfect because of sin, but this does not make it equal to sin. The result and the cause are two different things, just as a noun and a verb are two different things.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

APL,

Why did God destroy the antediluvians? Was it not to save the few righteous who were left?



In fact, have you ever seen a rainbow? Did you know what it was supposed to tell us?



God will also destroy those who do not take care of their body temples.



Consider this: God's promises are true. He does what He says He will do.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Originally Posted By: green

In fact, have you ever seen a rainbow? Did you know what it was supposed to tell us?

HOW does God destroy? What is God's wrath? Are we saved from God or saved from sin?

Originally Posted By: EGW

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.

Yes, this even applies to the antediluvians.

Originally Posted By: green

God will also destroy those who do not take care of their body temples.

Hm, ok so if I smoke and get lung cancer, then God has to come down and torture me, burn me, but not any longer than I deserve because I wreaked havoc on my body be smoking. Really? God cannot protect me if I continue to participate in sinful practices. This is how God will destroy those that abuse their body. EGW repeatedly calls this "cause and effect". All healing is from God. But God will not work a miracle for those that will not change their ways. This is how God will destroy those who do not take care of their body.

Originally Posted By: EGW

God is greatly dishonored by the way in which man treats his organs, and He will not work a miracle to counteract a perverse violation of the laws of health. The Lord Jesus purchased man, paying for him the infinite price of His own life. Man should estimate himself by the price which has been paid for him. When he places this value upon himself, he will not knowingly abuse one of his physical or mental faculties. It is an insult to the God of heaven for man to abuse his precious powers, by placing himself under the control of Satanic agencies, and besotting himself by indulging in that which is ruinous to health, to piety and spirituality. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." {SpM 43.5}

It is God allowing the natural consquences to happen that destroys the sinner, it is not God having to apply an external force. And if you read 2 paragraphs further in the above quote, you will find this: "Satan is the destroyer; and God is the restorer."

An EXECUTIONER is someone whose main activity is to put people to death (like a hangman, for instance). He is used to this task. God definitely is not like that. Ellen White says:

“The Lord does not delight in vengeance, though he executes judgment upon the transgressors of his law. He is forced to do this, to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from utter depravity and ruin. In order to save some, he must cut off those who have become hardened in sin. Says the prophet Isaiah: ‘The Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act.’ The work of wrath and destruction is indeed a strange, unwelcome work for Him who is infinite in love. {ST, August 24, 1882}

An executioner is ANYONE to performs an execution. God is not an executioner. Executing judgment is not the act of execution, it is judgment. EGW: "God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown."

Yes, God makes the judgment that a sinner has rejected His mercy. He then lets the sinner have the choice that they have made. This is EXACTLY what happened in the desert when the people rejected God and He "sent fiery serpents" to bite the people. God did not send them as a miraculous act, but he withdrew His protection which was miraculously there all the time. The people died, but not as an execution by God.

Of course not. "Executioner" is someone whose profession is to execute people, whose main activity is to execute people.
God is not an executioner, but He will be forced to do a work of destruction for the good of the universe, and this is a strange and unwelcome work for Him. He will bring sinners before His glory, knowing that His glory will kill them. As I said previously, it's the same as putting someone into a gas chamber; others can discuss if you are killing the person with the gas or delivering up the person to be killed by the gas, but one thing is clear - you had the option to not put the person into the gas chamber. God's judgment will kill the wicked, and He had the option to not judge them in person (once they have already been judged during the millennium and everybod in the universe is convinced that they can't be saved). Of course I know God has His reasons - wise and valid reasons. But the argument that God will simply withdraw His protection, or cease to sustain their lives, doesn't explain at all what will happen at the final judgment.