God punishes, destroys, and liquidates. (Excerps from Straub, "As He Is")
So the LORD said, “
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them (
Gen_6:7).
And, behold,
I Myself am bringing a floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die (
Gen_6:17).
Then
the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah,
from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (
Gen_19:24-25).
And
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt (
Exo_7:3)
And
He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said (
Exo_7:13).
And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor’” (
Exo_32:27).
It was to be impressed upon Israel that in the conquest of Canaan they were not to fight for themselves, but simply as instruments to execute the will of God; not to seek for riches or self-exaltation, but the glory of Jehovah their King
{PP 491}.
Like the men before the Flood, the Canaanites lived only to blaspheme Heaven and defile the earth. And both love and justice demanded the prompt execution of these rebels against God and foes to man
{PP 492}.
But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city (
Mat_22:7).
A careful reading of the whole parable of which this last verse is a part, and the commentary on it in
Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 307-309, will show that the king is God, the armies were those of the Romans, the murderers were the Jews, and the city was Jerusalem. The text was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Therefore, the text is really saying, “And when God heard thereof,
He was wroth: and God sent forth
His armies, the Romans, and God destroyed the Jews, and God burned up Jerusalem.”
They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them (
Rev_20:9).
These statements are more than sufficient to provide the examples needed to show that there are many such Scriptures that, when interpreted according to the way our minds have been accustomed to interpret them, leave one with no option but to believe that God does use force to liquidate those who have rebelled against Him.
There are many people today (I won't mention any names) who read these texts, interpret them according to long-accustomed methods, and are quite satisfied to believe that God behaves as an executioner to those who refuse to obey His laws. But in doing so they are ignoring several things. First, there are quite a number of statements that say the opposite from what these statements are interpreted to mean. Second, there are the great principles that are embodied in the constitution of God’s government. Third, there are the terrible implications of holding such beliefs about God.
Some counter examples:
The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works (
Psa_145:17).
Your testimonies [commandments or laws], which You have commanded, are righteous and very faithful (
Psa_119:138).
The Lord is righteous and the law is righteous. Therefore, God is what the law is. It is the “transcript of His own character”
{COL 315}, and that law declares that “thou shalt not kill” (
Exo_20:13, KJV). Therefore, if it is not in the law to kill, it is not in the character of God to kill. Let’s examine a number of other quotations.
God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have destroyed himself
{COL 84}.
God destroys no one
{5T 120}.
God does not stand toward the sinner as
an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but
He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan
{GC 36}.
Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to
permit Satan to accomplish
his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why?
The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the
earth is ripe for the harvest {6T 388, 389}.
This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit
the destroyer to work his will upon it
{7T 141}.
In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God … will say to the angels, “No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy. Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work
{RH, September 17, 1901}.
When Jesus was asked to destroy the Samaritans who had rejected Him, He replied to His disciples, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (
Luk_9:55-56). Consider these thoughts:
There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas
{DA 487}.
Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power
{DA 759}.
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
{DA 22}.
We know that God does nothing that is contrary to the principles of His government. Therefore, He does not use force. This principle is stated with certainty in
The Ministry of Healing: “Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer”
{DA 113}.
This second list we have an emphatic and clear assertion that God is not an executioner, punisher, or destroyer. When these and the first set are viewed side by side, there does not appear to be any way of reconciling the two.
Some take these statements and loose their faith in the Bible. Others simply ignore the words and are unable to unwilling to accept.
Quoting Straub:
True students of God’s Word will not make these mistakes. They will ignore no statements, no matter how they may seem to contradict others. They will candidly acknowledge that so far as their understanding has developed, these statements remain for them a flat contradiction of each other, though by faith, they know that in God’s Word there is no real contradiction.
Undisturbed by the clamor of voices around, they will move forward in quiet faith, patiently studying God’s Word, knowing that, under God’s tutelage, such revelations of the mysteries will come to them and will remove all contradictions, providing a perfect harmony where previously only confusion existed.
There will be those who will charge these careful students with twisting the Scriptures. They will accuse them of making the Word of God say what it does not. They will argue emphatically that the Bible says, “God destroyed them.” Then they will ask, “What could be written more plainly than that?”
One might counter by saying, “It also says, ‘God destroys no man.’” This will have no effect. Their minds have been programmed to accept only that which they have chosen to believe. No impression can be made by quoting contrary statements. They merely entrench themselves more firmly behind their list while, in growing indignation, they level the charge that the plainly written words of God are being rejected.
Two things must be established at this point. One is that this problem cannot be solved by simply countering statements with other statements. Second, it cannot be resolved by twisting or changing the statements to conform to our preferred ideas. In this study great care has been taken not to do this. Even so, we still expect that the opponents of the position taken in this book will level this accusation against us. We believe it will be found that the only interpretations given to the Scriptures will be those found in the Scriptures themselves, with no private interpretation being offered.
There has been the careful and frank quoting of the two different and seemingly contradictory compilations in order to demonstrate that there is a problem which needs solving. How can this problem be solved so as to bring the thoughtful, responsible student to an accurate knowledge of what the Word of God is teaching? That is the important question which we must now study.
Faith is a steadying factor in the problem. Faith says that there are no contradictions in God’s Word. Faith says that we must take both of these statements as they read. Faith says that in due time the God of heaven Himself will provide the answers if we trust Him and continue our careful, objective study.
Then we come to the flood. The implications of the standard view of what God did in the obliteration of the human race in Noah’s day are very serious indeed. The commonly accepted view of what God did suggests that He was forced to admit that righteousness was not able to withstand the crushing tide of evil, so God and Christ were obliged to step in, exercising Their own superior physical power to reverse the tide, erase the entire company of Satan’s followers, and preserve alive only Their own.
It would be as if there was a conversation between the Father and the Son along these lines: “In the beginning We determined to fight this great controversy on the basis that righteousness could stand on its own merits. But now it is clear that sin has reached such proportions that it is on the verge of a world takeover. At the moment We only have eight subjects remaining, and in a short time, these, too, will die or join Satan’s camp, thus making him the total victor in this struggle. So we must act now by coming to the rescue of righteousness. Let us step in with our limitless, infinite power and obliterate the entire side standing for Satan. We will preserve only our own people and thus make a complete, fresh start. Thereafter, We will maintain the use of force in appropriate places to ensure that Satan never again brings the world to this same crisis point.”
This implies that God had to
revise His method of dealing with the sin problem. It reveals Him as beginning in one way, but finding Himself later obliged to introduce measures not contemplated in the beginning. This makes God less than infinite, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. It means that He is not really God because God has perfect foreknowledge, needing no revisions, compromises, or changes as time goes by.
In this way we find a serious problem on our hands. Nothing can deny the clarity of the principles underlining God’s government or of His way of dealing with the sin problem. Yet, at the same time, the story of the flood seems to show a God who was later forced to introduce an element of compulsion and destruction.
Our attitude must be one of faith. We must believe implicitly that in the Word of God there are no contradictions. Those contradictions that appear as such are there only because of an inadequate understanding on our part. God will give light and understanding to those who humbly and sincerely seek it. There is a perfect reconciliation between God’s stated attitude to the sin problem and the story of the flood, as well as many other accounts of what God appears to have done in history.
Still quoting Straub:
This chapter has been devoted to the recognition that there is a very real problem to be solved because of the existence of
apparent contradictions in the Word of God. At the same time, we encourage each believer to realize that there are no real contradictions in God’s Word, that the Bible is written for man’s understanding, that these problems are therefore solvable, and that simple trusting faith in God will bring clear understandings in this connection. If we are prepared to adopt this attitude, then we are ready to proceed on to the study of the way in which the problem may be solved.
One should read the rest of what Straub has to say in his book, "As He Is". It is currently a featured book here:
http://www.teachservices.com/
