Jesus, as well as many other Bible writers, used the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha as examples of the destruction of the wicked in the last day. As Joanna and I memorized the Sermon on the Mount, I noticed that Jesus talked quite a bit about the fires of the last days. We just don't think of it because most Christians today speak of love as if it has no sense of justice. Remember one of Christ's shortest statements on judgment, "Remember Lot's wife." Well, most people are not remembering this story today. Often Christians, especially Adventist these days, are only thinking of one aspect that prepares the wicked for destruction: the daily choices and rebellion of the wicked against the authority of their Creator. EGW writes of this in COL 84: "God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have destroyed himself." Our choices fix our destiny, but this is not the whole story. See COL 85: Pharaoh could have been part of the mixed multitude that crossed the Red Sea on dry land, but the Lord covered him and his troops who were bent on destroying His people. COL 177-180 points out that God will avenge His own in the last days as well.
There is another aspect of God's character that seems out of character for Him, His justice. Read about Jesus cursing the fig tree in DA 580-588. Restudy the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha: PP 90-104, 156-169. Then to put it in perspective for our day, read GC 539-545, 662-673.
I have an Adventist uncle who has gone the way of "God does not kill." He is at ease over his son who led me down the path of rebellion. Because his son is so kind and courteous, he dreams that God will save him as he is, saying that he is more Christ-like than most Christians, but the Bible does not teach this type of doctrine. (Jude 14-23; Rev ch 17-20; 2 Peter 3; 2 Thess 2) I pray for my cousin, and I have attempted to talk with him about spiritual matters. He reacts as if I am a little child and he the grand wise man, patting me on the head for believing such silly superstitions as he believes are found in the Bible. May God have mercy upon him and wake him up before it is too late.
From Me in Response:
Love does have justice. I am not eating off the plate where love is without justifiable killing--emergency events to keep the timeline of human existence or Christ's return in place for the benefit of our universe and all who inhabit it. I will read the pages you've assigned. I will prayerfully debate from a place on the theological compass that Christ and the Father showed at the cross what kills in the end of times--not who, and not for punishment--but because it is the essence of sin. Now by God's grace I say, It will be sin's mental anguish in each sinner caused by a broken heart of the sinners who realize what they missed out on and that God's government was just all along. God will allow the death of sinners to happen, sin will extinguish itself, and, it is "just" that it will be allowed, because it will show the universe what the result of free will opposing God's government of freedom and love does. God protected his children from extinction during the flood. He honored his children's free will not trampling on it to have their way and nothing to do with Him...including his power over nature. It was not a punishment. It was a display to the universe what happens to created beings and worlds when they want nothing to do with their Creator and leave themselves to themselves. God killed Pharaoh, to take him out of the "game," --the great controversy story,-- to keep His people from being extinguished. 
For Pharaoh and his army it was not a punishment- it was an emergency act to protect and free God's people, so that Jesus could come down the Jewish line in the future. The great controversy story had to continue. And when He came, Jesus had to die so we could be see what kills, not who kills, in the end, so that we could understand God in a way never seen before and see our predicament in a way we'd never understood before. Romans 6:23 John 17:1-6. Finally, even though the end result of sin is death, God does not trample on the free choice of the sinner. He allows the sin to take its inevitable course. He does not force His loyal to agree with Him by having them watch Him--in this "Theater of the Universe,"-- use His power to kill those who disagree with Him like some mob boss. Thus, as with all terminal malignancies and cancers, sin extinguishes itself and its hosts and justice is payed the only way it could be. |
| My wonderful cat, Buster. |
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