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Re: How does God destroy?
#48398
03/29/06 03:33 AM
03/29/06 03:33 AM
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SDA
Charter Member
Active Member 2019
20000+ Member
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 22,256
Southwest USA
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Tom, I think I'll stick with the Bible and the SOP's descriptions quoted in my last post. She makes it clear that Jesus is the one orchestrating the plagues according to His will. I realize you disagree. You believe they are the result of what evil angels will do when Jesus permits.
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Re: How does God destroy?
#48399
03/29/06 06:37 PM
03/29/06 06:37 PM
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OP
Active Member 2012
14500+ Member
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 14,795
Lawrence, Kansas
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quote:
Tom, I think I'll stick with the Bible and the SOP's descriptions quoted in my last post. She makes it clear that Jesus is the one orchestrating the plagues according to His will. I realize you disagree. You believe they are the result of what evil angels will do when Jesus permits.
MM, you're not making any attempt to understand what the quotes are dealing with. Much of what you cited had nothing to do with the plagues, but is instead dealing with God's delieverance of the righteous. What I quoted in GC 614 is dealing with the plauges:
quote:
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 The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn.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)
This describes the mechanism. It is very clear:
a)The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn.
b)Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of earth into a great, final trouble.
She compares the event with the destruction of Jesusalem, where we can see the same principles at work:
quote:
he Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;" "for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over those who yield to his control. (GC 35, 36)
You seem reticent to accept these truths because, I think, you are afraid that it would lead to minimizing God's role in the punishment of sin. But you need not worry!
quote:
The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty. (GC 36)
There is not need to worry that "God will cut sin any slack," as you put it. Sin will be punished. "Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty."
It is good for us to understand how this punishment takes place. God destroys by withdrawing His Spirit.
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