Dear MSDAOL Member,

Before you make a post, please answer this question: Did you read the 2T passage quoted at the end of page 10?

{1SG 217.1}
Satan rushes into the midst, and tries to stir up the multitude to action. But fire from God out of heaven is rained upon them, and the great men, and the mighty men, and the noble, and poor and miserable men, are all consumed together. I saw that some were quickly destroyed, while others suffered longer. They were punished according to the deeds done in the body. Some were many days consuming, and just as long as there was a portion of them unconsumed, all the sense of suffering was there. Said the angel, The worm of life shall not die; their fire shall not be quenched as long as there is the least particle for it to prey upon.

{GC 673.1}
The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. Proverbs 11:31. They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi 4:1. Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.

{GC 674.2}
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of His power." "Mighty to save," through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power.

{EW 294.1}
Satan rushes into the midst of his followers and tries to stir up the multitude to action. But fire from God out of heaven is rained upon them, and the great men, and mighty men, the noble, the poor and miserable, are all consumed together. I saw that some were quickly destroyed, while others suffered longer. They were punished according to the deeds done in the body. Some were many days consuming, and just as long as there was a portion of them unconsumed, all the sense of suffering remained. Said the angel, "The worm of life shall not die; their fire shall not be quenched as long as there is the least particle for it to prey upon."

{EW 294.2}
Satan and his angels suffered long. Satan bore not only the weight and punishment of his own sins, but also of the sins of the redeemed host, which had been placed upon him; and he must also suffer for the ruin of souls which he had caused. Then I saw that Satan and all the wicked host were consumed, and the justice of God was satisfied; and all the angelic host, and all the redeemed saints, with a loud voice said, "Amen!"

{GC 544.2}
But those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression--"the wages of sin." They suffer punishment varying in duration and intensity, "according to their works," but finally ending in the second death. Since it is impossible for God, consistently with His justice and mercy, to save the sinner in his sins, He deprives him of the existence which his transgressions have forfeited and of which he has proved himself unworthy. Says an inspired writer: "Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." And another declares: "They shall be as though they had not been." Psalm 37:10; Obadiah 16. Covered with infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion.

{GC 545.1}
Thus will be made an end of sin, with all the woe and ruin which have resulted from it. Says the psalmist: "Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end." Psalm 9:5, 6. John, in the Revelation, looking forward to the eternal state, hears a universal anthem of praise undisturbed by one note of discord. Every creature in heaven and earth was heard ascribing glory to God. Revelation 5:13. There will then be no lost souls to blaspheme God as they writhe in never-ending torment; no wretched beings in hell will mingle their shrieks with the songs of the saved.

Dear Mike and others

The correlation of the wrath of God (work of God) at the end of time and the death of the Savior is entirely amiss. Mike you cannot take what God will do at the end of time and say that he did it upon Christ. That is completely at cross-purposes. Nowhere does the scripture teach such a thought. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn him either. The work upon Christ at the cross was that of Satan. The work at the end of time upon the lost will be that of God.

The coming of the Messiah was not a saving from God and his wrath, but it was God saving his people from their sin.

Mike try and hear things that are somewhat different than your thoughts. The defeat of your thought is in your own quotations. I will answer them presently.

What a loving God did in the destruction of the wicked in the Lake of Fire, the Second Death, I thought I read somewhere as being God's strange act meaning that it was inconsistent of a loving God.

I picture God in tears over the destruction of the wicked just like Christ wept over Jerusalem while He was still on the earth.

I don't see anything to say amen about in the destruction of the wicked, however, there is a lot of amens to be said in the ending of sin.

When the Bible focuses on the destruction of the wicked, it does so in sadness, however, when the Bible focuses on the resulting wiping out of sin, there is a lot to be happy about. The resulting destruction of the wicked is the sad result of the happy wiping out of sin.

Daryl, which one of the following quotes gives you the impression the holy of heaven are not rejoicing over the punishment and destruction of sinners? And please provide the quote where it says the destruction of sinners, the strange act of God, is inconsistent with the love of God.

How can you have sympathy for those who despised the sacrifice of Jesus? How can you pity those who rejected the combined forces of heaven to serve the pleasures of sin for a season? How can you commiserate or show compassion for those who walked away from the beaten, bloody body of Jesus hanging on the cross of Calvary to pursue their own hedonistic selfish passions.

King David was reproved and reprimanded for mourning the death of Absalom. It was considered a capital offence, even treasonous, to mourn the loss of such an enemy of God. None of the following passages give any indication that the holy of heaven sympathize with the dying rejectors of God's golden grace. Would you lament the death of Osma bin Laden? or Saddam Hussien? Did you mourn the death of Hitler?

Revelation
14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Revelation
16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
16:7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous [are] thy judgments.

Revelation
18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her.

18:20 Rejoice over her, [thou] heaven, and [ye] holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

Revelation
19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
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.
19:3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.
19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

Daryl, which one of the above quotes lead you to believe the holy of heaven are weeping for the destruction of the wicked? To reject the sacrifice of Jesus is to reject God, to spit in His face, to ridicule HIm, to scoff at Him, to despise Him, to hate Him in His dying moments.

The Strange Act of God

{FLB 338.1}
For 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. Isa. 28:21.

{FLB 338.2}
With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps an account with all nations. While His mercy is tendered, with calls to repentance, this account will remain open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath commences. The account is closed. Divine patience ceases. There is no more pleading of mercy in their behalf.

{FLB 338.3}
The prophet, looking down the ages, had this time presented before his vision. The nations of this age have been the recipients of unprecedented mercies. . . . But increased pride, covetousness, idolatry, contempt of God, and base ingratitude are written against them. They are fast closing up their account with God. . . .

{FLB 338.4}
The crisis is fast approaching. The rapidly swelling figures show that the time for God's visitation has about come.

{FLB 338.5}
To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Eze. 33:11. . . . Yet He will "by no means clear the guilty." "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." Ex. 34:6, 7; Nahum 1:3. By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. The severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor may be judged by the Lord's reluctance to execute justice. The nation with which He bears long, and which He will not smite until it has filled up the measure of its iniquity in God's account, will finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed with mercy.

{FLB 338.6}
After God has done all that could be done to save men, if they still show by their lives that they slight offered mercy, death will be their portion; and it will be a dreadful death, for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross. They will then realize what they have lost--eternal life and the immortal inheritance.

John, in light of what Sister White wrote above how can you say there is no comparison between Christ on the cross and the second death of the unsaved?

{FLB 338.6}
After God has done all that could be done to save men, if they still show by their lives that they slight offered mercy, death will be their portion; and it will be a dreadful death, for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross.

Mike, I said there is no correlation between the work of God at the time of the Christ's suffering, and his work at the time of the end.

The comparison is in the fact that the guilt and darkness that Christ suffered at the hand of Satan, that same and worse (because they will not have the truth of God, which is of faith) will be visited on Satan and his followers at the time of the end. But each one according to their own measure. With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again!

Shalom

Mike,

You said it yourself when you posted, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Eze. 33:11.

He said that He has no pleaseure in the death of the wicked. How can there be honour and glory in something that HE doesn't have any pleasure doing?