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Re: does God punish?
[Re: APL]
#154199
07/17/13 02:58 AM
07/17/13 02:58 AM
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SDA Active Member 2020
5500+ Member
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,368
Western, USA
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Both sides, righteous and wicked, will understand fully God's justice in doing what He does before that final judgment is meted. All will acknowledge God's fairness and righteousness in it. APL will also understand at that time, whether he wishes to or not. Hopefully, he will be on the right side of the divide. Yes, all will understand the truth about God and the wrath of the LAMB. Follow the Lamb, where ever he goes. If Jesus does not look like a lamb, then your picture of God is wrong. Revelation 5:5-6 And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 And I beheld, and, see, in the middle of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the middle of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David - sounds very militaristic. But the LOOK - there is a lamb as it had been slain. Jesus is the LAMB. A lamb is a baby sheep! This is the representation of our God! This the revelation of Jesus. Follow the lamb!
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: dedication]
#154200
07/17/13 03:00 AM
07/17/13 03:00 AM
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SDA Active Member 2020
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,368
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A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when he permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere. {GC88 614.2} There are two sides to this equation -- APL's argument limits things to only one side. Revelation 7:1-3 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. How do these angels have power to harm? What do they do to cause harm?
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: APL]
#154201
07/17/13 03:09 AM
07/17/13 03:09 AM
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SDA Active Member 2020
5500+ Member
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Dedication - have you read back one paragraph in GC/GC88? Your math is wrong.
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: APL]
#154208
07/17/13 05:54 PM
07/17/13 05:54 PM
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Posts: 6,154
Brazil
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Is God the destroyer? Is that what you are saying? Have you read PP pages 278 and 279 (or course, read the whole chapter!) Have you read Deuteronomy 32 recently? WHO was bring on all the disaster spoken of? And how did it happen? The verse is very clear. Why did the Egyptians die in the Red Sea? It is the same reason! As I said previously, the reason for death is always sin. But who killed the Egyptians? The fact is, it wasn’t Satan who killed the Egyptians, because it was God who commanded Moses to close the sea, and of course Moses opened and closed the sea by God’s power. It wasn’t nature which killed the Egyptians, but an alteration in the normal course of nature made by God Himself. So, who killed the Egyptians? And by the way, Satan is the destroyer, but he is the destroyer of everything but sin. The only one who can destroy sin is God.
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: Rosangela]
#154209
07/17/13 06:27 PM
07/17/13 06:27 PM
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SDA Active Member 2020
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Perhaps you could study the imagery of Moses and his rod. What does it mean when Moses stretches out his rod? What does it mean when he lets go of the rod and it becomes what? What is the significance of this imagery?
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: Green Cochoa]
#154211
07/17/13 07:01 PM
07/17/13 07:01 PM
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SDA Active Member 2024
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Who inflicts suffering? God? NO. It is Satan! APL, Let me ask you a question. Who killed the Egyptians at the Red Sea? God withdrew His protection and the sea parted for them to enter it! (Oh...that's right, the Israelites entered it first...hmmm....) Blessings, Green Cochoa. Excellent point! God didn't withdraw His protection for the sea to part. He protected the Israelites on their way through but withdrew His protection when the defiant ones came. You know, the ones who kept pushing God away and did not want Him. So your point is well taken. God is a hedge around those who follow and allow Him, but He removes that hedge when He is not wanted. It took a force to maintain that sea in a parted condition. It required no force to let the laws of physics to put it back together.
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: Rosangela]
#154213
07/17/13 07:25 PM
07/17/13 07:25 PM
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SDA Active Member 2024
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because it was God who commanded Moses to close the sea, and of course Moses opened and closed the sea by God’s power.
Question: How much power does it take to "close the sea"? And by the way, Satan is the destroyer, but he is the destroyer of everything but sin. The only one who can destroy sin is God. Are you saying the Egyptians are sin? If so, then what part does "Satan is the destroyer" play anywhere in life?
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: kland]
#154218
07/17/13 10:22 PM
07/17/13 10:22 PM
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,154
Brazil
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Question: How much power does it take to "close the sea"? The power to control the forces of nature. The power to make cease the strong east wind which parted the sea. No matter how you slice it, the sea was being directly controlled by God - not by Moses, not by Satan. He could have waited for the Egyptians to go back (which EGW makes clear they had already begun to do). They were no longer pursuing the Israelites, but fleeing from them. “The Egyptians dared to venture in the path God had prepared for his people, and angels of God went through their host and removed their chariot wheels. They were plagued. Their progress was very slow, and they began to be troubled. They remembered the judgments that the God of the Hebrews had brought upon them in Egypt, to compel them to let Israel go, and they thought that God might deliver them all into the hands of the Israelites. They decided that God was fighting for the Israelites, and they were terribly afraid, and were turning about to flee from them, when ‘the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.’” {1SP 209.2} Are you saying the Egyptians are sin? I'm saying that, in special circumstances, the death of sinners is the only way to prevent sin from becoming an unchecked destructive force.
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: APL]
#154219
07/18/13 12:36 AM
07/18/13 12:36 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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Canada
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Dedication - have you read back one paragraph in GC/GC88? Your math is wrong. No,my math isn't wrong, just because the paragraph before it shows your preferred side of the equation doesn't do away with the two sided equation stated in the paragraph itself. When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. {GC 614.1} A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians and filled the land with mourning. ... The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere. {GC 614.2} When Christ leaves the sanctuary the evil angels are permitted to exercise all their powers. The evil angels still have angelic power, and EGW is comparing this power to holy angels. However, when God commanded His angel to destroy Egypt's first born, it was for the purpose of delivering His people and one angel was all that was needed. Just think what it will be like when the evil minded hordes of fallen angels whose delight is in destruction are unleashed! There is no question about the fact that satan and his angels, once the restraining influences is released, will cause trouble more terrible than anything that this world has seen yet. But while God will allow Satan full sway for a short time, He will not allow it to continue for long. If He did the world would self-destruct and there would be no one left alive when Christ comes, but it doesn't self destruct. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, rides forth from heaven with His army of holy angels (see Rev. 19). There comes a point where IT IS ENOUGH of this misery, pain, sickness terror, oppression, torture, abuse, of sin in its fully ripened condition. There will be people alive on earth to witness the deliverance, both the wicked and saved. For Christ comes to deliver HIS people, and execute judgment. John 5:22 For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son: 5:27 And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. But before that coming, God first allows satan and his followers to fully manifest what their agenda really is, (their agenda is the destruction of everything good and holy) they will plunge the world into horror and trouble as sin is allowed to fully ripen. God is not the destroyer as you seem to be trying to imply. He is longsuffering, not wanting ANYONE to perish but that all might find repentance. He has poured out all heaven for the salvation of mankind, that they NEED NOT die eternally. He allows sin to ripen so people can fully see and understand where the seemingly innocent rebellious deviations from His ways ultimately lead. But He will not allow it to continue, He will destroy sin and cleanse the universe. Sin will have fully disclosed it's ultimate horror. All sin -- every trace of it and anyone who refuses to let go of sin and come to LIFE will be destroyed. Sin will be no more. (see 2Peter 3:9-15) The urgent message is -- Turn oh my people, turn from sin and accept the cleansing and love of our Lord and Savior, for why would you die? God has no delight in the death of the wicked. (See Eze. 33:11)
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Re: does God punish?
[Re: dedication]
#154222
07/18/13 03:00 AM
07/18/13 03:00 AM
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SDA Active Member 2020
5500+ Member
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,368
Western, USA
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The urgent message is -- Turn oh my people, turn from sin and accept the cleansing and love of our Lord and Savior, for why would you die? God has no delight in the death of the wicked. (See Eze. 33:11) Please finish the statement, from your perspective!!! God had no delight in the death of the wicked, but He will kill you if you do not change. That really is what you are implying, right? Please tell me I'm wrong. Yes, the paragraph before 614.2 does support my view, you are correct. Here is what you read however when you read 614.2. "The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels in exactly the same way when He permits." The quotation does not say this. The destructive power of the Holy Angels is when they no longer restrain evil forces, or whatever cause, as the prior paragraph is explaining. The destruction comes for different means. God is not the destroyer as you seem to be trying to imply. THIS is an interesting statement. I am implying God is the destroyer? NO, YOU ARE. God is NOT the destroyer. Please read your statement, when God has had enough, He destroys, that is what you are saying. What I am saying, is that when God has determine there is nothing more that will change, He withdraws His mercy, and lets sin take its course. If you read Patriarchs and Prophets the first chapters, it is clear that if God had let the natural consequences of sin play out with Satan, the universe would not have understood that this was the inevitable consequences of sin. In the end, ALL will understand.
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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