I explained what I meant but you chose to put your own spin on it and ignore what I actually said.

Sin itself, is not a person with the ability to kill satan and his followers, sin is an attitude of mind and character that results in destructive activities, thinking, emotions, and agendas. Beings can sin for years without dying -- but death comes none the less. That is the result of sin -- and without Christ that would be it -- no hope beyond.


But because of what Christ did ALL will live again -- some raised to everlasting life thanks to the wonderful plan of salvation, others to receive eternal death since they rejected salvation.

Christ BURST the portals of the tomb.
Till Christ's victory over death, the first death would have been the final death, but Christ was "the first begotten of the dead" (Rev. 1:5)
And because of Him -- we too will be resurrected.

Christ willingly laid down His life, no one took it from Him.

It was to atone for man's transgression of the law that Christ laid down His life. {COL 314.3}
"An earthquake marked the hour when Christ laid down His life, and another earthquake witnessed the moment when He took it up in triumph. {DA 780.1}

"Therefore doth my Father love me," said Christ, "because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 10:17, 18).


No sinner at the end of the 1000 years has that option. They have received the RESURRECTION that Christ's victory over death provided, but they cannot be given eternal life. They rejected that.

When Christ hung upon the cross, He experienced the wrath of God against sin -- and felt the sins of the world He bore were too great for Him to enter death and come out again a conqueror.

But He did triumph over the grave and thus turned the first death from "eternal death" to a sleep from which all will awake.

Those who die the second death will never live again.

Jesus did not die in a lake of fire - the second death. The Scapegoat, Satan, will die the second death with the sins of the saved in a lake of fire.

Revelation
20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

APL, it is curious you ignored this post:


"It is the wrath of God and the Lamb that causes the destruction or death of the wicked." You seem to think "causes" means "permits" - clearly it does not.

I just came across a list of publishing standards by a Christian press (non-Adventist, for those who must know). They base their publishing standards on Philippians 4:8, with a remark about what kind of content they would like to publish as pertains to each of the keywords in that verse. The "just" one was relevant to this thread.





Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Yeah - and God caused the serpents to bite the people.

Based on the Philippians 4:8 principle brought out by this Christian publisher, a corollary question could be asked with respect to this thread.

The question of this thread is: Does God punish?
Corollary question would be: Does God reward?

If God does not punish, perhaps He does not reward either. After all, how fair would it be to be one-sided; and isn't God fair? If God allows sin to bring about its own results, why not follow the same approach with respect to righteousness?

Of course, the Bible tells us that God will punish and reward. If God won't actually punish, then how can we trust the Bible to be correct when it says He will reward?

The devil just uses these "human wisdom" concepts to promote doubts in everyone's minds. It would be far better for us to accept God at His word. As Ellen White put it, "Who will say God will not do what He says He will do?"

Not me.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Yes, justice == righteousness. And what do the commandments of God say? Shall I quote the KJV?????

I believe MM would say that God directed those serpents to multiply and go to the exact path the Israelites were taking, lay in wait, and then directly and intentionally led them to and opened their mouths on to the people's ankles. It was completely according to plan!

Ge 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die.

For there's no harm in the fruit. If there will be any dying around here, it will be because God is doing the killing.

Ge 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

And He will be upset with you knowing as much as He does and therefore will kill you! Do you really want to obey such a dictator as that?

Ge 3:6 ¶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.

It is impossible to study with someone who completely ignores the contribution of contributing participants.