We are still seeking Bible evidence to throw sufficient light on the inci­dent at the golden calf, to enable us to clearly see that God did not violate one principle of His character there. Because, for so long, we have viewed this in the wrong light, and, because we are so prone to interpret God’s ways as being the same as men’s, it is necessary to examine a lot of evidence to entirely clarify the point. When the light of the Word of God shines with force and clarity on the situation, it will be seen that not only was God still acting as a Saviour at the golden calf slaughter, but that He has also been seriously misunderstood in that role. That which was the revelation of Him as the Saviour, has been interpreted as the manifestation of Him as a destroyer or executioner.

The truth being developed here is that Israel elected to reject God’s way when they took up the sword. Not only had the Lord not given this weapon to them, but He had done all in His power short of direct compulsion to prevent them from taking it up. Despite those loving efforts to save them from that terrible fate, they had chosen it and the Lord could only respect that choice. He never makes the choice of how we shall act. He warns and teaches us, but the choice remains ours. There is no compulsion in God’s relation to His creatures.

Once they had made that choice, then by it they had instituted their way in place of God’s way. It is impossible for both the way of God and of man to operate within a society at the same time. It can be only one or the other, never both. So, when they elected to institute their way in place of Gods, then God’s methods could not be used in dealing with the rebellion at Sinai. Therefore, what happened at Mt. Sinai was not after the order of God. It was the application of the procedures which Israel had instituted by adding the sword to their way of life. The only part God filled was to apply some restraint and guidance to their use of it to minimize its evil effects.

What complicates the problem, making it difficult for many to under­stand God’s behaviour, is that Israel was still reckoned to be His people. Therefore, it is reasoned, if God was still their leader and, from that posi­tion, instructed them to execute the rebellious, then He was responsible for the slaughter. If this is correct reasoning, then it can only be concluded that this was the divinely instituted solution to the problem Rebellion, therefore, was to be overcome by force.

Such reasoning will satisfy the superficial thinker to whom serious, clashing contradictions in the Bible can be rationalized away, but it will not satisfy the truly spiritual student who knows that there can be no real con­tradictions therein. He will search with faith-filled, intensive dedication until the problem is resolved according to Bible principles. 

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Firstly, the fact that the Israelites were Cod’s people only to whatever extent He was permitted by them to be their Sovereign, is overlooked. This is the sad tragedy of human history. Men and movements are prepared to go just so far with God, but not all the way. So it was with Israel. While in large areas they retained God as their leader, followed His ways and served Him fully, there were others where they took His work to themselves. For instance, they still followed the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; faithfully respected the Sabbath; were custodians of His law; and continued the services of the sanctuary according to the divine blueprint.

But, by taking up the sword, they had deprived the Lord of His position as their defender and protector from enemies within and without. While it is true that they expected God to assist them in this work, it does not alter the fact that they were doing it in His stead and according to their own human principles. Therefore, their actions as such, were not the revelation of God’s character but of their own. It was the manifestation of the outworking of such wicked unbelief as led them to have more confidence in their own power to protect themselves than in God’s.

Yet, God did something in this domain where they had taken the work to themselves. Inasmuch as His every act is a revelation of His character, God revealed Himself by what He did in directing the Levites to cut down the rebels. Unfortunately, the majority have seen His actions in a very dif­ferent light from reality and consequently have retained an erroneous con­cept of His character.

It must be recognized that God is a Saviour. He had worked intensely to save them from taking the sword in the first place, but when they despitefully did so, then the best He could do was to give counsels designed to save them from the worst consequences of their choice. They were not compelled to obey those counsels, but they were well-advised to do so if they wished to save themselves from terrible evils, It is interesting to note the perversity of humanity which will refuse to obey God in some things and yet implicitly follow His guidance in others. Thus, while Israel did not have the faith to leave their protection to God, they were prepared to follow to the letter His directions in dealing with crime in the camp.

It is doubtful if a better illustration of this exists, than can be found in the relationship of God to the Israelites when they went into captivity. The evidence presented in the previous chapter shows that right up until Israel was carried into Babylon, the Lord did His best to save them from it. He sent messages of warning and entreaty. He assured them that if they would only repent, then, even at the last moment, they would be delivered as if they had never sinned and would be kept safely and prosperously in their own land. He did not show the least trace of vindictiveness or desire to retaliate. He did not demand that they serve out a sentence of punishment for their evil deeds. 

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But they would neither heed nor repent. Because they would not, the Lord could not save them from that captivity. So they became captives. Their going into captivity effectively terminated God’s efforts to save them from it. But this did not mean that the Lord ceased to act as a Saviour to them. Certainly He could no longer act the role of a Saviour to save them from going into captivity, for that possibility, was past. They were now cap­tives. But He could save them from the worst effects of that which they had chosen, and this is what He did. He acted exactly as the father did in the story told in an earlier chapter. When he could not save his son from taking the gun, he offered him instruction designed to save both the lad and the creatures he would hunt, from the worst effects of that choice.

The record of God’s doing this is beautifully recorded in the Scriptures. Not only is He revealed there as an unchanging and ever-loving Saviour, but, by contrast, the devil is shown in his work of destroying. The evil one had worked incessantly to deliver Israel into captivity and had succeeded. Then, when he got them there, he worked with equal frenzy to make that captivity as destructive to their physical and spiritual comfort and welfare as possible.

Thus we find God and Satan working in exactly opposite roles as in this statement, we have been informed that they do.

“The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man’s behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sus­tains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature’s agencies are set at work to restore soundness. But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from Him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him.

“Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.” The Ministry of Healing, 112, 113,

This truth is clearly portrayed in the inspired record of the way in which Satan and God related themselves to the people who had been carried cap­tive into Babylon.

“Zedekiah at the beginning of his reign was trusted fully by the king of Babylon and had as a tried counselor the prophet Jeremiah. By pursuing an honorable course toward the Babylonians and by paying heed to the messages from the Lord through Jeremiah, he could have kept the rasped of many in high authority and have had opportunity to communicate to them a knowledge of the true God. Thus the captive exiles already in Babylon would have been placed on vantage ground and granted many liberties; the name of God would have been honored far and wide; and those that remained in the land of Judah would have been spared the terri­ble calamities that finally came upon them. 

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 “Through Jeremiah, Zedekiah and all Judah, including those taken to Babylon, were counseled to submit quietly to the temporary rule of their conquerors. It was especially important that those in captivity should seek the peace of the land into which they had been carried. This, however, was contrary to the inclination of the human heart; and Satan, taking advantage of the circumstances, caused false prophets to arise among the people, both in Jerusalem and in Babylon, who declared that the yoke of bondage would soon be broken and the former prestige of the nation restored.

“The heeding of such flattering prophecies would have led to fatal moves on the part of the king and the exiles, and would have frustrated the merciful designs of God in their behalf. Lest an insurrection be incited and great suffering ensue, the Lord commanded Jeremiah to meet the crisis without delay, by warning the king of Judah of the sure consequence of rebellion. The captives also were admonished, by written communications, not to be deluded into believing their deliverance near. ‘Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you,’ he urged. Jeremiah 29:8. In this connection mention was made of the Lord’s purpose to restore Israel at the close of the seventy years of captivity foretold by His messengers.

“With what tender compassion did God inform His captive people of His plans for Israel! He knew that should they be persuaded by false prophets to look for a speedy deliverance, their position in Babylon would be made very difficult. Any demonstration or insurrection on their part would awaken the vigilance and severity of the Cha]dean authorities and would lead to a further restriction of their liberties. Suffering and disaster would result. He desired them to submit quietly to their fate and make their servitude as pleasant as possible; and His counsel to them was: ‘Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; . . . and seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.’ Verses 5-7. Prophets and Kings, 440-442.

How clearly and wonderfully God’s behaviour is revealed in this story, in contrast to Satan’s. By their stubborn rejection of God’s efforts to save them from captivity, the Israelites had brought themselves into subjection to Babylon. Satan was delighted, for this was just what he desired. But it was not all he determined to bring upon them. He planned their total subjuga­tion and extermination so that there would be no possibility of the ap­pearance of the royal seed, Jesus Christ.

He inspired false prophets to utter predictions which would cause a spirit of unrest, rebellion, and insurrection to be fostered among the cap­tives. This could only madden the king of Babylon and particularly so as he had extended mercies to those under his now enlarged dominion. He would naturally expect a response of gratitude from those whom he had treated so well, but when they returned only conspiracy, rebellion, and 

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strife in exchange for the good things he had afforded them, he was roused to anger. He was left with no choice but to deal very harshly with them.

Satan was greatly assisted in his planning by the natural inclination of the human heart. They wanted their freedom back. Foolishness had taken the place of wisdom, and rashness the place of discretion. In the end, despite God’s loving efforts to save them from going into still deeper troubles, the devil did succeed with the result that terrible calamities befell them at the hands of the Babylonians.

So, while Satan was working to make their captivity as unpleasant and terrible as possible, the Lord sent Jeremiah with messages to the people which, if heeded, would make their enforced stay in that foreign land “as pleasant as possible.” He also specifically warned them against taking heed of the messages from these professed prophets of the Lord. Thus, while Satan was working to effect the destruction of the deserving, the Lord was striving to deliver them.

Hardly a more beautiful revelation of God’s character can be given than this. Here was a people who for centuries had done everything possible to provoke God into bitter retaliation. Between the death of David and the Babylonian captivity almost four hundred years had passed by. They were years marked with the very worst in rebellious apostasy. The sanctuary had been desecrated, the daily taken away, the abomination of desolation set up, and the altars of Baal had been erected throughout the land. They had offered cakes to the queen of heaven, the pagan goddess; they had sacrificed their children in the hideous ceremony where babies were burned alive; they had resorted to witchcraft, wizards, and all kinds of spiritualism; they had taken every gift which the Lord had given them and turned it to abuse and misuse; they had been a depraved, insolent, and rebellious peo­ple who had turned from the God who had called and blessed them, to make a mockery of His word.

If ever a being was justified in taking vengeance on a people, God was. If He had risen up in terrible anger and destroyed them all, none would have blamed Him or been surprised at His doing it. The least we would ex­pect Him to do would be to withdraw all further help so they would suffer as much as possible and thereby at last, hopefully learn their lesson.

But for God to have taken this course would have necessitated His changing from a being of infinite love to one with a spirit of revenge. This is not the God we serve. “For I am the Lord, I change not,” He testifies of Himself. “. . . therefore” He continued, “ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6. One thing must be abundantly clear from this story and it is that had the Lord changed in the least degree in His attitude and actions toward those deserving people, then they would most certainly have been consumed.

But there was no change.

Before they went into captivity, there was the Lord, the Saviour, doing 

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all in His power to convince them of the folly of their course and seeking to draw them back from the pit into which they were sinking.

Then, when despite His wonderful efforts for them, they did descend into that pit, He did not stop being the Saviour. True, He could no longer save them from going into the pit for they had now gone in, but He could give them counsel that would save them while in that pit from the worst conditions which could befall them. This He now worked to do.

Thus the revelation of God’s works in this story is the revelation of an unchanging God who, at every step of the way, acted out only one role—that of the Saviour. The actual nature of the saving work done dif­fered according to necessity, but the spirit and principle behind it were unchanging.

Once this view of God is grasped and understood, then the key has been obtained which will perfectly explain the true nature of the command to the Levites to go and destroy all those who worshipped at the golden calf.

However, before the application is fully made to the situation back there, let this story be developed a little further. Even though the Lord’s behaviour toward apostate Israel is sufficient evidence to make the point that God acts out only the role of a Saviour, yet even more evidence is pro­vided. This time, though in the same story, it concerns other people outside the family of Israel. They were the people of Edom, Moab, Tyre, and other nations.

Of all the people in the ancient world, none had been more committed to an aggressive and hostile war against God and His cause than these peo­ple. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the Moabites of Lot, but leading encyclopedias such as The Brittanica, are unable to give any origin to the people of Tyre. However in Ezekiel 28, the wickedness of the king of Tyre was so great that he was spoken of as being the personification and direct instrument of the devil, so much so that no distinction is made be­tween them.

While we may be able to accept the idea that God could retain some favour toward the Jew, yet we cannot think of any such thing being still available for the Moabites, Edomites, and the people of Tyre. We would not expect that God would act towards them as a Saviour too. Yet the Lord made no distinction between them and the Israelites. When they too were in great danger because of their willingness to listen to the voice of Satan and their own wretched human desires, God sent them the same message He had given to His own people. Through Jeremiah, He warned them not to resist the king of Babylon for their cause was hopeless, but to be discreet and co-operative so that they might be saved undue suffering and further loss.

God did not go so far as to send Jeremiah to those nations for they had long since made it clear that neither God nor His servants were welcome 

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among them. But when ambassadors from those lands visited the king of Judah to discuss the possibility of combined revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, they then placed themselves where the Lord could give them a message. God seized the opportunity to stretch out a hand to save them.

“From the first, Jeremiah had followed a consistent course in counsel­ing submission to the Babylonians. This counsel was given not only to Judah, but to many of the surrounding nations. In the earlier portion of Zedekiah’s reign, ambassadors from the rulers of Edom, Moab, Tyre, and other nations visited the king of Judah to learn whether in his judgment the time was opportune for a united revolt and whether he would join them in battling against the king of Babylon. While these ambassadors were awaiting a response, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah.’ Jeremiah 27:2, 3.

“Jeremiah was commanded to instruct the ambassadors to inform their rulers that God had given them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that they were to ‘serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come.’ Verse 7.

“The ambassadors were further instructed to declare to their rulers that if they refused to serve the Babylonian king they should be punished ‘with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence’ till they were con­sumed. Especially were they to turn from the teaching of false prophets who might counsel otherwise. ‘Hearken not ye to your prophets,’ the Lord declared, ‘nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your en­chanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.’ Verses 8-11. The lightest punish­ment that a merciful God could inflict upon so rebellious a people was submission to the rule of Babylon, but if they warred against this decree of servitude they were to feel the full rigor of His chastisement.

“The amazement of the assembled council of nations knew no bounds when Jeremiah, carrying the yoke of subjection about his neck, made known to them the will of God.

“Against determined opposition Jeremiah stood firmly for the policy of submission.” Prophets and Kings, 442-444.

Here is the revelation of God the Saviour at work. This story shows with great clarity the contrast between Satan’s work as the destroyer and God’s work as the restorer. It is a thing of beauty and wonder that the Lord 

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would do this for Israel, but an even greater wonder that He would do it for the people of Tyre, Edom, and Moab.

Here it is shown that the behaviour of God and Christ is indeed iden­tical. Jesus both taught and lived the principle of loving your enemies, go­ing the second mile and of doing good forever to those who have done evil to you. God had gone the first mile by doing His very best to save them from going into captivity. Then, when they did, in spite of His efforts for them, He went the second mile by giving them guidance on how they could make their captivity as pleasant and short as possible.

But their rebellious hearts were no more prepared to accept God’s sav­ing efforts when He went the second mile with them than when He was go­ing the first. Thus they deprived God of any hope of saving them from their own foolish selves. The disasters which befell them were not from God, but from the natural reactions of those to whom they should have been subser­vient. They sowed the seed and they reaped the harvest. All that happened to them was the inevitable outworking of their own course of action. They provided the cause and the effect was determined.

The tragedy was that men did not understand God’s character. Instead of seeing in those loving efforts a strong work of salvation springing from a heart of infinite, unfathomable love, they saw God and Jeremiah as being in league with the Babylonian king and openly accused them of this.

If reference is made back to the story of the father, the son, and the huntsmen, it will be remembered that when the neighbour looked over the fence and saw the father acting out the role of a saviour to his son and all the wild creatures whom he would hunt, the neighbour completely misunderstood the father’s actions. He saw him as a hunter in spirit, just like the rest of them were, instead of seeing that he had not changed one whit.

This is just the problem with God in the Old Testament. Men have con­sistently misunderstood what He really did and see Him as doing something entirely different. This is why He has come to be looked upon as a God of terrible destruction.

But He is not. Back there, He behaved toward His people and others always and only as Christ did in the New Testament. He loved His enemies, blessed those who cursed and despitefully used Him, and went the second mile. He was ever and only the Saviour to all. When destruction came upon them, it was only because they had rejected His efforts to save them, leaving no alternative. Thus God never determined their punish­ment, and then personally exercised His power to administer it.

Now that this principle of God’s workings has been seen in the ex­perience of Jeremiah with the last king of Judah and the ambassadors of the other nations, there should be no further problem in seeing what the Lord really did back in the days of the golden calf.

In that situation God went the second mile as surely as He did in Israel’s captivity to Babylon. But whereas the children of Israel and the surrounding 

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nations would not accept God’s counsel during the second mile, the Israelites at Mount Sinai did. While neither heeded the efforts God ex­pended during the first mile, the Levites did obey the second mile counsels, while Zedekiah and his contemporaries would not.

As has already been shown, God’s efforts during the first mile back in Moses’ day were directed at saving them from taking the sword. By upholding the illustrious witness of Jacob’s deliverance, God’s rebuke to Moses when he set out to deliver them by the sword, the care not to instruct the Egyptians to provide them with weapons, and then the marvellous deliverance at the Red Sea, the Lord told them as plainly as it could ever be told, that they not only should not take the sword, but that they would never need it while they walked in His ways.

While He could teach the truth of His way both by declaration and demonstration. He would not make the choice for them, neither would He deprive them of the opportunity to make it. Thus it was that on the farther shore of the Red Sea they saw displayed the armour-clad bodies of the Egyptians. School was ended for the moment and the examination had begun. How would they choose? Would the Lord’s saving efforts indeed prove the effective means of keeping them from taking up the sword?

We could well wish that this had been so, but the sad record of history is that they took up the sword. There is no direct statement to say that they did it right there on the shores of the Red Sea, but there are statements which prove that just before then they were still an unarmed people, while shortly after that we find them locked in physical combat with the Amalekites, with sword clashing against sword and spear against spear.

The exact point of time is not the most important item in this discussion. The vital factor is that after all God’s efforts to save them from taking the weapons of destruction, they did choose to take them. When they did that, they chose to institute man’s way in place of Gods. This fact is critical in understanding God’s character in this situation.

God did not institute an alternative to His first and best procedure. He does not operate after this fashion for His way is so perfect that it requires no provisions for failure. In fact, to supply any secondary system would be to admit that the first was faulty and therefore needed adjusting. Neither God nor His principles have ever failed or appeared in any way defective. The problem lies only in the refusal of some of His creatures to abide by them. Whenever this happens, they replace His perfect codes with their destructive ones. Therefore, on every occasion when the sword was used in Israel, it was man acting in man’s way, not the carrying out of an alter­native which God was obliged to accept because His way of perfection had failed. Man was the destroyer. God had not compromised in the least. With undeviating consistency, He had continued His eternal role of being the Saviour. 

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But what makes God appear to have changed is the misunderstanding of His action in going the second mile, the further work of salvation. That which in actuality was God’s continued effort to save, is viewed all too often as His turning into a destroyer. No greater misconstruction of God’s acts could be imagined.

When Israel took the sword, the Lord was left with three alternative courses of action. He could simply have said that He would walk with them no more. They were now on their own and what happened to them was entirely their own fault. This was the same course open to Him in the Garden of Eden. There, He could have argued that He had given them everything, including adequate warnings of the cost of disobedience. Hav­ing shown their ingratitude, they were undeserving of any further help from Him so He would have been entirely justified if He had left them to their fate. This is how He could have chosen to act.

Anyone who cares to reflect on the consequences to the human family of God’s having made that choice, can breathe a deep sigh of relief that He did not choose that way. Very speedily, the human family would have passed out of existence. There would have been no salvation for any of us.

Likewise, if the Lord had chosen this when Israel took the sword, how speedily that nation would have been destroyed. Firstly, they would have fought with their weapons among themselves. Secondly, they were no match for the highly trained and experienced Canaanites who, as Satan’s allies, longed for nothing so much as to remove Israel from the face of the earth. For God to have walked out on the Israelites would have committed them to certain death.

If the Israelites had elected to completely go their own way, then God would have had no choice but to leave them to themselves with all the con­sequences. But in many things they were still prepared to go God’s way. They accepted the Sabbath institution, the sanctuary service, the general leadership of God, the provision of their daily bread, and even His counsels on how to best use their swords.

Therefore, in the very nature of His character, God could not leave them because they had departed from His ways in one thing or even in a number of things. He would stay with them, as with any man, while there was still some place where He could bless and heal them. He will never leave nor forsake us. It is the human who leaves and forsakes God. God separated from humanity, is only such because humanity has gone away from Him, never He from them.

The second option was for God to simply ignore the people’s sin; to pretend that it had not happened. But He certainly could not do this. Sin demands attention. It imposes a situation which cannot be left unattended. To ignore sin is to condone it, or excuse it, or to admit that there is no answer to it. It is to suggest that if you pretend it is not there, the wretched nightmare will simply fade away. 

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This leaves the third possibility. God would remain with His people to whatever extent they would have Him in their midst. He would lead, pro­tect, forgive, bless, and teach them. In those areas where they had chosen their own way He would offer them counsels which, if received and obeyed, would save them from the worst effects of what they had chosen. In the meantime, they might be led to see the error of choosing their own course of action and return entirely to the Lord’s way.

This is what God did in the incident of the golden calf and in all the con­quests and their attendant slaughters in the land of Canaan. What they did in all this was their doing not His. They had established their own codes and God had no choice but to let them have it thus. But He could and did counsel them on how they could operate in their own way without it being the worst of that way. This was love. This was returning good for evil. This is going the second mile.

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Having searched out the general principles which underlie God’s behaviour at the golden calf incident, the time has come to look at this and other specific incidents in detail.

One of the great characteristics which sets God apart from all others is His utter consistency and total reliability. He is . . . “The Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. With such a God there can be no capriciousness, no acting from the motivation of self-interest, no disregard of the principles involved in the law, no seeking to justify certain means because of a desired end result.

In the history of Israel and of mankind in general, there are two dif­ferent kinds of situations in which sin develops. One is where God alone is in the position of leadership, so that the sole responsibility of dealing with the problem rests with Him. Should the sinners be unrepentant, then the Lord simply leaves them to themselves to reap that which they have sown. They then perish at the hands of whatever calamity is brooding over the situation, be it fire, earthquake, pestilence, invaders, or plagues. Examples of these are the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the overwhelming of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, the death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the attack by the serpents in the wilderness, the death of Sennacherib’s army, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD. 70, the coming plagues, and the final destruction of this solar system. None of these calamities befall the children of men until every possible avenue of divine mercy has been exhausted and there is nothing more that men will let God do for them.

Another situation exists when man has replaced God with himself as the determiner of his fate, the administrator of his own affairs, and has established himself as the investigator, judge, and executioner of those who sin against him. Because God has given the right of choice to His creatures, because He will never use compulsion, He has no choice other than to let them have their own way and manage their own institutions. However, He knows that man, left to himself, is a very foolish and cruel administrator who will unwisely adopt a course that brings fearful consequences. The Lord was in a position to see this and to offer counsels, which the Bible calls “commands,” which, if heeded, would enable man to take actions that would save him from the worst effects of his chosen course.

Examples of these are the golden calf, the conquest of Canaan, the wars of David and subsequent kings, the captivity in Babylon, and such like.

Let an examination now be made of these principles in respect to the golden calf incident. Israel had broken the law in the worst way. They had 

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made another god in place of the true God, thus separating themselves from Him entirely. They had entered into the licentious practices of the heathen until they had become utterly debauched and depraved.

They could not so wantonly and defiantly break God’s law without sow­ing seeds which, in this case, would bring a very speedy harvest. The harvest would not be something the Lord imposed upon them. It would be the simple and natural outworking of the breaking of the law.

Those who, at the base of Sinai, worshipped at the golden calf, laid themselves open to terrible consequences. At first they joined in a unified revelry which they thoroughly enjoyed. It gave the wild stimulation, feverish excitement, and heady intoxication so loved by the human. But the more intense the involvement, the greater the reaction when the feeling was replaced by spent physical and emotional powers. Destitute of the restraining Spirit of God yet desperately in need of Him to quieten and con­trol jaded nerves and ugly feelings, there was nothing to stop the outbreak of bitter strife in the camp. It is a characteristic of the heathen that their revelries are usually succeeded by intense conflicts among themselves.

As strife broke out, the swords would be unsheathed. One or more, would be killed. Then the relatives of the dead would engage in a vendetta of revenge. More would be slain, calling for still further retaliation until it would escalate into a destructive outburst so great as to threaten to wipe out the entire encampment. Their ever-vigilant enemies would recognize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the confused mass, and the na­tion would be decimated. In the meantime, as revenge was sought by this or that person, family, or faction, they would study the most cruel and pro­longed ways of executing those unfortunate enough to fall under their power. The witness of history convincingly declares that the further a peo­ple move away from God, the more cruel they are in the treatment of their captives. On the other side, the closer they follow the Lord, the more humane they are.

Even if they had been spared from destruction by rallying to meet a common foe, the longer the unrepentant lived, the more deeply steeped in rebellion they would become. They would thus in turn, spread the same deadly poison to others so that the outgrowth of the sin at Sinai would have been terrible indeed. In the following paragraph is outlined something of the extent of these terrible outworkings.

“So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would again have been seen. The earth would have become as corrupt as in the days of Noah. Had these transgressors been spared, evils would have followed, greater than resulted from sparing the life of Cain. It was the mercy of God that thousands should suffer, to prevent the necessity of visiting judgments upon millions. In order to save the many, He must punish the few. Furthermore, as the people had cast off their allegiance to God, they had forfeited the divine protection, 

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and, deprived of their defense, the whole nation was exposed to the power of their enemies. Had not the evil been promptly put away, they would soon have fallen a prey to their numerous and powerful foes. It was necessary for the good of Israel, and also as a lesson to all succeeding generations, that crime should be promptly punished. And it was no less a mercy to the sinners themselves that they should be cut short in their evil course. Had their life been spared, the same spirit that led them to rebel against God would have been manifested in hatred and strife among themselves, and they would eventually have destroyed one another. It was in love to the world, in love to Israel, and even to the transgressors, that crime was punished with swift and terrible severity.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 325, 326.

These then are the terrible things which would have come upon the transgressors themselves, the Israelites as a nation, and the world in general, if God had done nothing for them. The worst possible results would have eventuated.

The love of God, that marvellous, infinite, and unchangeable love, drove Him to tell them how they could save themselves from so terrible a fate. He could no longer do it for them for they had taken over the work themselves, but they could save themselves from the worst effects of their own choice provided they would listen to and follow His counsels.

Whether they followed those counsels or not was as much a matter of their own choice as when they were faced with the alternative of leaving the swords with the dead Egyptians or of appropriating them. There, they had elected to take the wrong course by which they had supplanted God as their Protector. But, while not prepared to obey Him in this area, they were not rendered incapable of accepting His guidance in other matters. They could, if they would, adhere to His directions outlining how they could minimize the evil they had chosen.

In effect, as they faced the crisis occasioned by the worshipping of the golden calf, they were confronted with two possibilities. If they did not take some action, millions would perish. If they followed the Lord’s suggestions, then only a few would die by comparison, and a great deal of tragedy would be averted. But, if anything was done at all, it had to be by them because they had deprived God of any opportunity to take appropriate action Himself.

Great care must be taken not to slide into the trap of supposing that because force was necessary to put down the rebellion, God compromised His principles on this occasion and resorted to force by using the righteous Levites as His direct instruments. God does not change His principles for anything or anybody. With Him, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. ‘The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government. ‘ The Desire of Ages, 22.

“Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order.” ibid., 759. 

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“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power, but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished.” Acts of the Apostles, 12.

Had the Israelites been careful never to take up the sword, while fully trusting the Lord to take care of their needs, the problem would have been speedily resolved in accordance with divine methods of working. By their utter refusal to repent, the rebels would have certified that they wanted no more of God. He would have respected this decision and left them to themselves to reap what they had sown. Then, whatever impending disaster was present, would have taken them as the earthquake took Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

But the situation was not such. Israel had taken the sword and thereby the responsibility of taking care of their own problems of defence against enemies within and without the camp. It was not possible for them to do this and for God, simultaneously, to still hold His position as their Protector. This could not be, for either they did that work or they trusted Him to do it.

But, because they had not entirely cast off their allegiance and respect for Him, He was afforded the opportunity of retaining the position of ad­viser to them. They did not have the wisdom to understand the results of one usage of the sword as distinct from another. He did. If they would listen and obey, He would teach them the differences, so that they could save themselves, and the world, from much unnecessary sorrow and loss. It was for this reason that He counselled them that it was better to destroy the in­curably affected than to leave the cancer to contaminate millions more.

Exactly as the father in the hunting story knew that killings were in­evitable once his son had taken the gun, so God knew that there was going to be unpreventable slaughterings. It was no longer a matter of attempting to prevent the killings. All that could now be done was to work to make them as merciful and minimal as possible. God worked here just as at the later time of the Babylonian conquest when He sought to direct Israel into a course which would enable them to “make their servitude as pleasant as possible. . . .Prophets ond Kings, 441. The unvarying consistency of God is truly remarkable.

It must be stressed that, while the Lord commanded the Levites to kill the rebels, and much later told Zedekiah, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the people of Tyre, and the other nations concerned, to submit quietly and co-operatively to the king of Babylon, He would not compel them to do it. The Levites chose to obey but the others did not. By so doing, the Levites saved themselves, the whole of Israel, and the world, from the most terrible consequences. By refusing to obey, Zedekiah and his contemporaries brought upon themselves dreadful reprisals.

Before the Levites there was a third course. They could there and then have repented of ever taking up the weapons of destruction. Had they truly  

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done this, they would have cast away those swords, bowed before the Lord and confessed that they had erred. They would have given back to Him the sole responsibility of caring for them against enemies without and within the camp.

The Levites did not have sufficient understanding to do this, but they did know enough to obey the instructions God gave them and thus to avert the terrible consequences of not doing it. Unfortunately, by the time we come to the captivity in Babylon, the people were too blind to even follow the Lord’s counsels. They did suffer the terrible wrath of Babylon for their continued spirit of rebellion and insurrection. There were some who obeyed, however. Daniel and his companions gave a living demonstration of the honour and freedom to be enjoyed by those who were obedient to God’s command.

A question must arise here. Why were the people themselves left by God to destroy the rebels in the camp at the golden calf, but not so with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Then, the people were simply called upon to separate themselves from the rebels and watch them die at the hands of a terrible natural calamity. Why is there this difference? Israel still carried the sword so it would be expected that God would have to call upon them to slay the rebels.

At every point where a solution is found for the mysteries surrounding God’s actions, more questions appear. This is why each problem needs to be solved before the next one is faced. Many make the mistake of wanting every difficulty resolved at once and, when it cannot be, they cast the whole matter aside thereby depriving themselves of great and saving light.

So the problem now arises of what appears to be inconsistency in the ways the insurrectionists were dealt with. Sometimes it was one way and at other times, another.

Once the principle governing God’s actions in dealing with situations such as the rebellion at Sinai is learned, it would be expected that every disorder in the camp was resolved in the same way. It would be anticipated that, until Israel handed back to Him the position of full administrator of all their affairs, God would direct them to slay the rebels.

This is precisely what did happen on numerous occasions. Notable ex­amples were the stoning of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, the adulterer and Achan who stole the Babylonian garment from Jericho, and the extermination of the Canaanites.

But it was not always done after this fashion. When Korah and his com­panions arose in defiance of God, when Miriam and Aaron rebelled, when the people murmured against Moses and God, the people were not com­missioned to go out and strike down the offenders. They were taken by an earthquake, the infliction of leprosy, plagues, and the invasion of fiery serpents. In none of these punishments did the people have a part. Yet there had been no change in the situation of government. The people still 

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carried the sword. So why was it done one way on certain occasions and differently on others? Is there an underlying principle which decides what it will be each time?

God is neither capricious nor inconsistent. There was an underlying principle which determined how each problem should be dealt with.

Within the structure of the camp, two different situations existed. One concerned the people in general, and the other, the position of Moses, God’s personal appointee.

The people had placed themselves under the protection of the sword. By doing this they had reconstituted their government accordingly, so that when any offences threatening that government were committed, they had to be dealt with by weapons of force wielded by the people. Those threats could be internal or external. In the case of worshipping the golden calf it was internal, but when the Amalekites came against them, it was external. Because they did not have faith to accept God as their protector, they were left with self-protection as their only recourse. They became still further en­trenched in this when they chose to have a king like the kings round about them.

But there was another area in the encampment not under the jurisdic­tion of the people. This was the office of Moses. No one stood between him and God. God had appointed him his work so that he was answerable to the Lord and no one else. Furthermore. Moses had never joined with the people in taking up the sword. Even though he was the best trained military man of all, he had so learned the lessons of trust in God while in the wilderness of Midian that when the opportunity came to take up weapons, he had chosen not to. Not once do we read of him leading Israel into battle with a sword in his hand.

Therefore, when Moses himself sinned as he did at the striking of the rock, the people could not touch him. He was not under their government, in any sense. Only God could deal with him and He would do it according to His righteous procedures and principles.

In like manner, when the people sinned against Moses and against God, they transgressed in a realm which had not come under their jurisdic­tion, for the sovereignty of the sword did not reach that far. So whenever the people sinned in this area the punishment came by God’s departing from them and leaving them exposed to the surrounding perils.

Consider the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It was specifical­ly a challenge to God’s appointment of Moses, as was the protest of Miriam and Aaron and Israel’s miserable complaints of which the following is typical: “And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.” Numbers 21:5. All of these were in the same category. They were outside the jurisdiction taken over by the people when they took up the sword. 

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Therefore, God was free and unhampered in dealing with these problems. In every such case He worked in the same way. Korah and his supporters were swallowed up by the earthquake, Miriam was afflicted with leprosy, and Israel suffered from plagues and the invasion of fiery serpents.

The same principle applies in the case of David, When he committed adultery and murdered the husband to cover up the sin, he would have been stoned to death had he been an ordinary citizen. But the people had made him a king like the kings around him. This placed him above man­made law, for the kings of those days were exempt from obedience to that law. Therefore, he was outside the domain in which the people had taken authority to themselves, so they were not able to punish him for his crimes. He was thus placed in a position where his sin had separated him from God’s protection. The troubles which overtook him were the direct out-working of his departure from the paths of rectitude.

Thus, each situation in the camp was met in the way appropriate to it. When the people sinned within the area taken over by them when they ac­quired swords, they had to administer the punishment to assure their con­tinued protection. God’s work was limited under these circumstances to of­fering them the counsel He was so capable of giving, whereby they would be delivered from the worst effects of their chosen order.

When they sinned outside this area of jurisdiction, the matter could not be settled by them for they had neither right nor power to deal with it. All God could do was to accept their insistence that He separate from them and they were thus left exposed to the perils continually threatening them, God did not depart from them prompted by a hurt or revengeful spirit. It was with infinite sorrow and only with the greatest reluctance when every saving effort had been rejected, that God accepted the necessity to withdraw. A careful study of the various incidents confirms that with the ut­most consistency, God dealt with each situation according to its nature. How the Israelites perished depended on whether they fell into the hands of their own established governmental system, or whether they sinned outside of that and fell under the powers of nature released from God’s control and direction.

The question of God’s methods of dealing with such problems as the worshipping of the golden calf, has now been thoroughly explored. It is thus made evident that, when rightly understood, the Old Testament records do not reveal a different God from the One portrayed by Christ dur­ing His earthly sojourn. “Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” Deuteronomy 6:4.

He is not divided; He does not show one face in the Old Testament and another in the New. There is no inconsistency with Him nor does He at any time or under any circumstances, resort to force or compulsion to resolve any difficulty whatsoever. He is the Saviour while Satan is the destroyer. When men perish, it is only because they have rejected His say- 

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ing efforts and have accordingly placed themselves under the devil’s dominion and power.

Indeed, the Lord our God is one Lord, but tragically, He has been sadly misunderstood and His actions grossly misinterpreted, both in the Old Testament days and through the intervening ages.

364

It would seem unnecessary now to discuss the wars of Israel after the considerations thus far given to God’s methods in situations where men had taken God’s work into their own hands. The truth of God’s relationship to Israel in these things should now be self-evident. However, some may find it difficult to make the connection, so space will be given to the problem.

The fact that Israel went to war and slaughtered their enemies, oft-times to the last man, woman, child, sheep, goat, ox, ass, and all other living things, is not the real problem. That arises when God “commanded” they do it. When they did, they received His approval, but when they did not, He reproved them strongly. For instance, when Saul did not utterly destroy the Amalekites, he received a very severe rebuke from God through the prophet, Samuel.

Whenever a conscientious objector to military service stands before a magistrate, and declares that he will not kill because of the law of God, the questions put to him always include references to the wars of Israel. Not only did Israel provide trouble for themselves by taking up the sword; they have made trouble for God’s children right down to the end of time.

Such problems only exist for those who do not understand God’s character and work. For those who do, the history of ancient Israel in their fightings provides strong proof for conscientious objection to military service.

Despite the Lord’s clear instructions, supported and illustrated by fre­quent demonstrations of His way of doing things, the Israelites showed a persisting disposition to take matters more and more into their own hands, thereby denying the manifestations of God’s character and ways,

It all began when they took the sword after crossing the Red Sea. Between that time and their arrival at Kadesh.barnea in readiness for the border crossing, there had not been a great deal of bloodshed. The two most notable incidents were the baffle with the Amalekites, and the slaughter of the golden calf worshippers.

Yet God had never intended that they should gain the land of promise through the use of the sword, He told them how it would be done and assured them that He would do it, not they. Long before they reached the promised land, it was all spelled out.

“I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

“And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 

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“I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

“By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

“And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the in­habitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.” Exodus 23:27-31.

Thus the Lord emphasized that He would drive out the inhabitants of the land. Earlier, we have found that such expressions must be understood differently when describing God’s actions from when they describe men’s actions. Therefore, God’s driving them out would not have been by His using compelling power. Rather, as He came to them with His offerings of love, their resistance to and rejection of these, would place them outside God’s protective circle leaving nothing to save them from the destructive forces in the hands of the destroyer.

Unfortunately, we do not see the fulfilment of God’s promise, so we do not have the exact picture of what God would have done. This is not because there was any weakness in the promise, but because the people did not believe God’s word and were not prepared to let Him do what He had promised. They decided that this was something they could not leave to God. They must do it themselves.

This spirit really came to the fore when they reached Kadesh-barnea. God’s plan was to fulfil His promise to lead them directly into the land. Accordingly, as recalled by Moses, God told them to go on in under His leadership and possess it. Here are Moses’ words as he reminded their children of the event.

“And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh­barnea.

“And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.

“Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 1:19-21.

Had they had the spirit of trust in and submission to the Lord of heaven, they would have responded by following without doubt or ques­tion where the Lord led. The inhabitants of the land would have fearfully retreated or would have attacked them with a rashness born of desperation. Such an action would have been one of complete and final defiance against heaven, whereby their separation from God would have been so total as to remove all divine protection from them. Speedily they would have perished as did the Egyptians, Korah and his company, or the Israelites themselves when a plague broke out among them. 

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But the Jews did not trust God, as is evident from their response to His directions. Here is their answer:

“And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said,

We will send men before us,

and they shall search us out the land,

and bring us word again

by what way we must go up,

and into what cities we shall come.” Verse 22.

Here indeed was the substitution of man in place of God. Divine leader­ship was discarded in favour of the human.

How did God react to such a development? Was He offended? Did He demand His rights, insisting they do it His way?

Not for one moment. If that was the way they chose to go, then all He could do was respect their choice and bless them as far as remained possi­ble, in their execution of it.

“Eleven days after leaving Mount Horeb, the Hebrew host encamped at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, which was not far from the borders of the promised land. Here it was proposed by the people that spies be sent up to survey the country. The matter was presented before the Lord by Moses, and permission was granted, with the direction that one of the rulers of each tribe should be selected for this purpose. The men were chosen as had been directed, and Moses bade them go and see the country, what it was, its situation and natural advantages; and the people that dwelt therein, whether they were strong or weak, few or many; also to observe the nature of the soil and its productiveness, and to bring of the fruit of the land.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 387.

Thus it was that “the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

“Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

“And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.” Numbers 13:1-3.

If the reference in Numbers was read without considering the other statements, it would appear that the whole idea was from God. But it was from the people, contrary to God’s plans. Yet it declares that Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent the twelve men. When the word, “com­mandment,” is used in connection with human behaviour, it indicates an authoritative statement which is given to be obeyed, irrespective of whether the recipient likes it or not. It becomes clear however, that when used by the Lord, it is more in the form of instruction or counsel with the choice of whether they will or will not obey being left with the people.

Thus the people took over their own leadership from God’s hands. This was a further step in the wrong direction. Taking the sword had given them 

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their own government in place of God’s, but they had still followed that pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The time had now come when their self-confidence and their corresponding lack of faith in God led them to reject even that leadership. God was not offended. He behaved with perfect consistency. He had ever given them the liberty to choose whether they would leave Him to do His work while they did theirs.

If they wanted to send men in before them, they were free to do so. Of course, the situation could be worsened if poorly-suited men were to go. Once again, in His love for them, He gave directions which they were prepared to obey—that responsible men should be elected for the task.

But what a disaster it proved to be. It was a mistake which prevented that entire generation from entering the wonderland of promise. During the following forty years. everyone who had been above the age of twenty at the time, was to die in the wilderness, except, of course, for Caleb, Joshua, and members of the unnumbered tribe of Levi.

When they did finally follow the Lord into the land of Canaan, they did not send twelve spies first. It is true that Joshua sent out two spies, but the basis of their being sent was completely different from that of the previous experience. It had to be different for, whereas the people forty years before had placed their faith in themselves, Joshua had no confidence in himself. He placed his entire trust in God.

“Joshua was a wise general because God was his guide.” “This was the secret of Joshua’s victory. He made God his Guide.” S.D.A, Bible Com­mentary 2:993.

Whereas the people called for the spies to go forth at Kadesh-barnea, no such call came from them at Gilgal. This was from Joshua and it was not motivated from any distrust in the Lord’s leading. It is much more likely that the Spirit of God directed him to do it for the salvation of Rahab and her family. It gave her the opportunity to recognize God’s power as being supreme and to demonstrate her faith in that power by hiding the two men successfully. As a wonderful reward for that faith, she was accorded the high honour of being a mother in the direct line of the promised Messiah.

In sending those spies into the city, God demonstrated His character of wonderful, saving love. Inasmuch as Joshua had made the Lord his guide, then it was God Who had chosen to send the men in. He knew the heart of that woman and her household. He knew that she would respond to His call of salvation, but she was imprisoned within the walls of Jericho and by no means could she go out to the Israelites. Therefore, the Lord sent those two men to her. She responded to the divinely provided opportunity and showed where her faith was. Thus she became known to the Israelites so that, when the city was destroyed, she survived and was rescued.

Thus far we have traced Israel’s persistent tendency to replace the Lord’s leadership and management with their own. It is now to be shown that God, with loving regard for His erring people was trying to bring them 

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back to the only safe path. That would involve laying down their swords, thus giving God His rightful place as Guide, Protector, and Provider for His people. Then they would not need to fight, to break the law, and to stand sadly by the graves of those slain in baffle.

When Israel crossed the Red Sea, they had behind them evidence after evidence that they never needed to take up the sword and that God never planned that they should. But they failed their test completely. As has been clearly shown from the annals of Bible history, the Lord did not abandon them, but sought to bring them back to the only safe and coned way.

As they crossed the Jordan and marched on to Jericho, the Lord spoke to them once more in a mighty demonstration designed to reveal His full capacity to fulfil His promises to give them the land. It was a hopeful at­tempt to so establish their faith in Him, that they would abandon all con­fidence in self, lay down the sword, and permit God to do His work in His own way. It was a reiteration of the same lessons which God had sought to teach their fathers as they left the land of Egypt.

As the waters of the Red Sea were opened to them by the miraculous power of God, so were the flooded waves of Jordan rolled back to make a safe path for the people. As the Egyptians had been prevented from coming near, so, in that crossing, the Canaanites made no approach to them. Yet, from the military point of view, it would have been an excellent time to attack. With half of Israel on one side and half on the other, their forces were divided. The enemy could have speedily reduced their army portion by portion. But they did not come near them.

Then the Lord commissioned the Israelites to march around that city once per day till the seventh day when they were to march around it seven times. Then the massive walls came crashing down.

It should have been enough. They had the mighty promises of God; they had the multiplied lessons of the past which are at all times easier to read and understand than those of the present; they had God’s clear in­structions that the land was not to be taken by warfare; and now, once more, they had a personal demonstration of God’s tremendous power do­ing His promised work.

God gave them specific instructions for taking the city. In this He had a purpose. Desiring to deliver them from their own self-destructive ways, He organized an exercise in faith designed to develop in them the sense of utter distrust in human power and planning on one hand and of total committal to God’s leadership and instruction on the other. God had no disposition to assert His personal leadership of those people, for there is no seeking for self-exaltation with Him. He knew that for them it was the only successful way. Any alternative could only result in their loss and eventual destruc­tion. The confirmation that it would is provided in their subsequent history, when, by choosing the wrong course, they did suffer the worst consequences. 

THE WARS OF ISRAEL 369

‘By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.’ The Captain of the Lord’s host communicated only with Joshua; He did not reveal Himself to all the congregation, and it rested with them to believe or doubt the words of Joshua, to obey the commands given by him in the name of the Lord, or to deny his authority. They could not see the host of angels who attended them under the leadership of the Son of God. They might have reasoned: What unmeaning movements are these, and how ridiculous the per­formance of marching daily around the walls of the city, blowing trumpets of rams’ horns. This can have no effect upon those towering fortifications.’ But the very plan of continuing this ceremony through so long a time prior to the final overthrow of the walls, afforded opportunity for the develop­ment of faith among the Israelites. It was to be impressed upon their minds that their strength was not in the wisdom of man, nor in his might, but only in the God of their salvation. They were thus to become accustomed to relying wholly upon their divine Leader.

“God will do great things for those who trust in Him. The reason why His professed people have no greater strength, is that they trust so much to their own wisdom, and do not give the Lord an opportunity to reveal His power in their behalf. He will help His believing children in every emergen­cy, if they will place their entire confidence in Him, and faithfully obey Him.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 493.

Thus God’s whole design in this adventure was to call them back to a non-belligerent status. Through this means, “It was to be impressed upon their minds that their strength was not in the wisdom of man, nor in his might, but only in the God of their salvation. They were thus to become ac­customed to relying wholly upon their divine leader.” ibid.

Indeed, it should have been enough.

Right there and then, they ought to have stripped off their armour, laid it in a great heap, confessed the sovereignty of God and expressed their complete trust in Him to give them the land He had promised in the way He had said He would.

But they did not do it. They rushed into the city and soon their swords were dripping with the shed blood of men, women, and children. What a terrible, scarring effect that must have had upon their souls! Such a work could not lift a man nearer to God. It would tend to brutalize him, to make him callous of life, and benumbed to the finest, most uplifting attributes of the divine character. With increasing clarity it must be seen that such actions on the people’s part were never intended by God.

But against every effort and good intention by God, those people did not see the implications of clinging to the sword which their fathers had taken up. They could not feel secure without it. They depended upon it to

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There are some statements in regard to the overthrow of the walls of Jericho which make it appear that God was a direct destroyer in this case. We will pass over them in this chapter but will take them up later when other difficult statements are discussed. See pages 383-389. 

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protect them from their enemies. They would care for their own protection with the help of the Lord. Thus they basically made this their own work and responsibility while God was simply left as a helper in the situation.

They had taken the sword from their fathers and they would cling to it. As surely as they did, they came under the inexorable law which declares that all who take the sword will as surely perish with the sword. Their after-history gives the clearest vindication to this principle.

It may be argued that it was not taking the sword but their loss of faith in God which occasioned their destruction as a nation, for whenever they, with the sword in their hands, put their trust in the Lord, they were vic­torious. This is true, but what has to be seen is that the act of taking the sword was the fruit of their loss of faith in God. Only a people who did not wholly and totally trust God to be their protector, would take the sword. That first downward step into unbelief must inevitably be followed by others, especially as the practice of warfare would brutalize the warrior and make him still less receptive to the call and ways of God.

It was Jesus who declared that they who take the sword will perish with the sword and those words are true. Israel took the sword and they perished in the same way. There is not a nation on the face of the earth which has taken the weapons of force without perishing by them. This is the record of history. It is a witness which tells existing nations that the same fate is to be theirs.

The Israelites at Jericho came to a point of decision, a crossroads. The choice made there would determine how the conquest of Canaan would be achieved. If they had chosen to divest themselves of the implements of war and to pledge to obey all God’s commandments including the one which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” then the Lord would have been free to give them the land according to His ways and methods.

But if they should choose to retain the instruments of bloodshed, then the conquest must be made by them. The choice was entirely theirs. God could and did put forth great effort and power to persuade them of the right way, but He could not and did not compel them to follow it.

Tragically, they made the wrong choice—the one which was the fruit of unbelief. Consequently, they sallied forth to meet their foes with the sword in their own hands. Palestine was not conquered in harmony with God’s principles but according to man’s. Because they still retained His presence and leadership in some parts of their lives, a measure of His power re­mained among them so that they were the victorious armies. Apart from that, all He could do was to give them instructions for conducting the war mercifully. There was to be no torturing of their victims, and they were to obliterate those nations as thoroughly as it would have been done if they had left the whole matter in God’s hands.

Thus far in Israel’s history, we have seen a number of incidents in every one of which, to a larger or lesser extent, the Israelites chose to go the way 

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of unbelief. There was that persistent tendency to cast off God’s leadership and ways, and to substitute their own.

Bad as those choices in the past had been, a worse step was yet to be taken. It was when the people came to Samuel and asked him to ask God to give them a king. This king was to judge them like all the nations. The people insisted on this, saying:

“Nay; but we will have a king over us;

‘That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” I Samuel 8:19, 20.

Again the people were making decisions, and again God must relate Himself to them in their decision-making. With unvarying consistency He did here what He had done in every other such situation. He gave them full liberty to make that choice. He made no moves to forcibly stop them. All Lie did was to outline in vivid terms what they were bringing upon themselves, but when, after that revelation of horror, they still stood by their decision, He gave them what they wanted.

God did not threaten them with personal punishments if they rejected Him. A careful reading of I Samuel 8:6-18, will show that the Lord out­lined only the results of their taking that course. He told them that the king would do terrible things until they would wish that they had never taken the king to rule them.

“And He said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

“And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

“And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

“And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

“And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.” I Samuel 8:11-15.

This is the description of a heavy oppression indeed. The king would build up a court of great luxury and ease for himself, but it was the people who would be paying the accounts. Taxation would become increasingly severe until the people were poverty-stricken by it. All this did come to pass, but not by the imposition of God. They had brought it on themselves by their own waywardness.

The decision made there in Samuel’s day was a duplication of the step taken at Kadesh-barnea. It was a direct and specific replacement of the Lord as their leader, with men. In the first case, it had been a committee of twelve men, while, in the second, it was with the king. In both cases, it led to disastrous consequences. In the first, it led to their being unable to enter 

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the promised land and thus being forced to wander for forty years in the wilderness.

In the second case, it was followed by still further departures from God. Soon, they were not only looking to man as their leader, but, worse still, to gods of wood and stone, brass, gold, and silver. The futility of such gods was demonstrated as they became the slaves of their enemies, captives in the land of Babylon.

But they would never learn. They persisted in their determination to rule themselves and go their own way until, in the end, they cried out their total rejection of God and His ways in these words, “We have no king but Caesar.” John 19:15. This was the final step in that long, long road of per­sistent and determined substitution of God’s ways with men’s. They had finally stepped outside the circle of God’s presence and protection. The fearful consequences were delayed only for the sake of those who, like Rahab in Jericho, were still open to hear the voice of entreaty and love. That accomplished, the destruction of the city, the temple, and the nation, was no longer preventable.

The history of that unfortunate nation rightly understood, places God in His true light. Whereas there has been the tendency in the past to see Him as being in total control of that nation so that what they did was the ex­pression of His character and will, it becomes very evident that this was not so. Rather, they had stubbornly refused to allow Him His full and rightful place in their community. They had substituted their way in place of His way so that what they did in the slaughter of the wicked was anything but the expression of His character and methods.

Once they took these affairs under their own control, God could have left them to themselves to reap all the bitter consequences. But His infinite love would not allow it. Instead, it moved Him to do every saving work of love which was still possible. It is to be deeply regretted that this ministry has been as misunderstood as the effort of the father to save his boy from becoming a cruel hunter.

The pure actions of unspeakable love have been seen as the revelations of a destroyer.

373

An invaluable key to the problem of Israel’s use of the sword according to God’s instruction, is provided in God’s directions to Israel to exact only one eye for an eye, one tooth for a tooth, and one life for a life. This counsel was given shortly after the proclamation of the law from Mount Sinai and is recorded in Exodus 21:22-25.

“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

“And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

“Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

This was the instruction of God to Israel. It was He Who gave these directions of how they should deal with these offences. This is verified by going back to Exodus 20:22, where the sequence of verses containing all these instructions begins with the words, “And the Lord said unto Moses. . .” Specifically, the Lord who spoke back there was Jesus Christ. He was the God Who appeared unto Moses and proclaimed the precepts of the decalogue to them.

“It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai.” The Mount of Blessing, 175.

Therefore, it was Christ who told them to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Yet when He came to this earth, He repudiated these words as any guideline for the kingdom which He had come to establish. He did this at His first great sermon to a large convocation of people. They had assembled on the mountain expecting to hear His pronouncements of the nature of the kingdom He had come to establish. At the very outset, He warned them that He had not come to do away with the law. He said, “. . . I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-20.

Having asserted that He had not come to do away with the law, He 

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then appeared to do just that. In the Old Testament He had said to them, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” but now He says:

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.

“And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

“But I say unto you! Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

“And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:38-48.

Ever since these instructions had been delivered to Israel from Mt. Sinai, they had mistakenly regarded them as being exactly what God, in His heart, had planned for them. Like so many millions since, they had shown a sad ignorance of what God’s righteousness really is. They did not understand that these instructions were not the expression of His principles, but merely an improved version of their own chosen course.

God delivered such counsels only to those whose unbelief had caused them to depart from the pathway of faith, to self-protection dependent upon their utilizing the instruments of coercion. It was out of loving con­sideration for the victims of those in power, that He admonished them to limit the exaction of their ideas of justice to one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth. Well He knew how the spirit of revenge would not leave them content to impose a punishment equal to the offence committed. Their disposition would demand many eyes for an eye and many teeth for one tooth. This would place them at the opposite end of the scale from God, but in between, there was a situation which, though it still could not be God’s perfect plan, was considerably better than the one where they were left to their own devices.

The three positions were as follows:

Firstly, there is God’s perfect way. This Jesus lived and taught. It calls 

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upon the manifestation of that love which never retaliates, always turns the other cheek, goes the second mike, loves all enemies and does good to those who do evil. The weapons of force have no use under these prin­ciples. This requires a real and abiding faith in God to successfully operate. The children of Israel lacked that faith and discarded these ideas as imprac­ticable and dangerous. They were, in short, foolishness to them. They would not see how survival was possible under these conditions.

At the other end of the scale is the behaviour of those who have no regard for God and consequently pay no heed to His counsels. They are ruthless, cruel, and revengeful. They torture their enemies, extracting the utmost suffering to satisfy their revengeful passions. The death camps of Germany during the second world war, Auschwitz, Dachau, and Belsen, were demonstrations of this kind of spirit. Tremendous privation and suffer­ing was experienced by those who fell into the terrible hands of the Third Reich. It was impossible for God to save them from this because the powers that were then, had no disposition to obey God in anything.

The intermediate situation operates because of two things. Firstly there is God’s compassion for the oppressed, leading Him to seek to minimize as far as possible their suffering and loss. Secondly, the people are willing to obey Him in this thing at least, So throughout the world, those nations and individuals who do respect God and profess to be His people, accept and follow these counsels even though they do not have the faith to trust Him implicitly as their Judge and Protector.

While Israel maintained some connection with God and was prepared to obey Him at least in some things, they did operate the principle of one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth. But when they departed from the Lord still further, then, to whatever extent they drifted, they also aban­doned this principle.

Today, Israel has no further regard for these principles. Long ago they turned their backs on God when they declared they would have no king but Caesar. Over the past few years they have been involved in a war of sur­vival against their Arab neighbours. More than once they have been hit by their enemies and have struck back with ruthless ferocity. Early in November, 1977, they had been troubled by terrorist incursions from Lebanon. Arming their warplanes, they struck with unrestrained fury across the border, killing soldiers and civilians—men, women, and little children.

There was a world outcry against this savagery. Israel protested that they had struck only military targets but found it difficult to maintain this claim in the light of photographs and reports received from the affected area. They certainly gave back much more than they had received which is not the principle of one eye for an eye and one tooth for a tooth.

A cartoonist gave his comment in the Boise, Idaho daily newspaper, The Statesman, November 16, 1977. The cartoon is reproduced on the opposite page and tells the story very graphically. This is exactly what the Lord was seeking to save them and their enemies from when they took up 

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the weapons of destruction. Well would it be for the Lebanese if Israel was still governed by these principles at least. But how much better for both Israel and Lebanon if the Israelites were obedient to the principle of love for your enemies and returning good for evil, which Christ laid down in the ser­mon on the mount.

Thus there are three ways of relating to the problems around us; of dealing with those who hurt us and would do us injury.

Firstly there is God’s way which does not use force to put down rebellion, has no retaliation, no exacting of retributions, no violence, no use of the sword and therefore no killing.

There is only the perfect keeping of the law, the return of good for evil, going the second mile, and the unending effort to save those who are slipping toward the abyss of ruin, It is all summed up in the unchanging and unchangeable expression of infinite love. It is the work of the Saviour and Restorer, never that of the destroyer.

Christ outlined this way in the sermon on the mount, and then iden­tified this alone as being God’s pattern of behaviour by advising that those who did likewise would be like His Father who is in heaven.

The third and worst way is man left entirely to himself. In this way the system is to love those who love you but to hit as hard as you can, those who first hurt you; to return multiplied evil for evil; to destroy your enemy as cruelly and as revengefully as possible; and to make sure that he ade­quately pays for the hurt he has administered to you. The objective is to hit him much harder than he hit you, to convince him permanently that it would be suicidal to launch any further assaults against you. Thus each seeks to guarantee his own security by the rule of fear.

When God was not able to hold them safely in the first, then He worked to save them from this last and worst. This is why the second or middle situation exists. What God is really saying in this situation is this. “Very well, you have made your decision to take the sword and thereby depart from My ways. I cannot change your decision. You made it and it stands. But I can save you from the worst effects of that choice if you will accept and respect the advice I now give you. Do not be wanton and revengeful killers. Exact only an equal payment for what has been taken from you. Let there be no more than one eye for one eye, and one tooth for one tooth. Mean­while, I will ever seek to win you back to the way of faith and obedience, back to the pathway where there is no killing or revenge but only the manifestation of My character of love.”

If the relationship between these three ways can be clearly discerned, and if it can be recognized that only the first of them is God’s way, then it will be seen that there is not a single story in the Old Testament to prove that God destroys. Satan destroys and man destroys but never God. He is the Saviour Who is only working to restore and to heal. He knows no other work than that. The whole history of His dealings with ancient Israel, rightly understood, testifies to this.

378

The great truths of the Bible are not established by collecting a series of statements. They are built on solid foundational principles. Once these are ascertained, the superstructure can be accurately and safely constructed. When searching out the truth of God’s character, the guiding principles are found in the nature of His government, the purpose of the law, Christ’s revelation of His Father, and the role of the cross as the expression of God’s methods of dealing with the unrepenting sinner. The mighty witnesses of God contained in these, are more than sufficient to certify the loving, mer­ciful, righteous, and just character of God. They effectively prove that He does not stand as an executioner toward the rejecters of His mercy.

But, as with every other Bible topic, certain statements seem to utterly contradict the witnesses mentioned above. These constitute a serious problem to many, who cannot feel at rest with the message until every statement has been explained. This is an unfortunate attitude to hold, as living faith does not wait till every problem has been solved before grasping precious truths.

To my mind, the life and teachings of Christ are the final, comprehen­sive declaration of what God is and does. His manifestation of the Father is so bright, so clear, and so total, that, for me, nothing more is needed. Therefore, it is the standard by which every argument about the Father’s character is tested. If the argument presented cannot find support in Jesus Christ, then, no matter how logical it may seem to be, or how convincing it may appear, I reject it entirely, even though I may have no explanation for it as yet. My faith grasps the reality of Christ’s mission as the outshining of the Father’s countenance. I believe that God sent His Son into the world for the express purpose of penetrating the mists of error and delusion which Satan had cast around His character of righteousness. The confirmation of that faith is expressed in the resolution to accept nothing about God except that which is in total agreement with the witness of the Father attested to by His Son.

Therefore, if anyone wishes to successfully convince me that God destroyed the sinner, offering as evidence the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, or any other punishments of the Old Testament era, then he must be able to bring proof that Christ, during His earthly mission, did the same thing. It is so impossible to do this that those who cling to the erroneous view that God does execute the sinner, claim that the revelation of God as given by Christ is only a partial manifestation of the Father which omits the sterner roles of judge and executioner, Texts and statements quoted earlier expose this as fallacious thinking, for the manifestation of 

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God as given by Christ was as complete as Christ, the superlative One, could make it. Nothing was overlooked or omitted.

No stand is taken here that there are two different revelations of God, the one given in Old Testament times versus that given by Christ. Not a single contradiction exists in the Word of God. There are no statements, rightly understood, which contradict the eternal principles of truth. On the contrary, when comprehended, they move from a position of apparent denial of the eternal verities, to one of mighty endorsement. Thus the true Bible student is not afraid of difficult statements. He may have to admit for the moment, that their true meaning eludes him, but he knows that it will not be for long, as the teaching Holy Spirit leads each trusting student along the glorious corridors of unfolding light.

Not every statement that can be presented has as yet been resolved. There remains one or two for which the correct understanding is still pending, but the Lord will make them clear in time. The fact that they cannot be explained jus yet is no cause for fear or doubt. There is more than sufficient evidence in the great principles to establish beyond doubt, the truth of God’s character.

But most have been unravelled and, for the help of those still struggling with some of them, an examination of the most commonly quoted will be undertaken. No attempt must be made to twist the statements to fit a desired conclusion. They must be examined to see exactly what they say and, just as importantly, what they do not say. All too often, the problem of interpretation lies in a tendency to assume that a statement infers something it does not. If this inference can be cleared away, the words will then be left free to say what they were intended to. 

The Same Powers 

What I would rate as the most difficult is the one which reads:

“A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desola­tion everywhere.” The Great Controversy, 614.

The portion of this statement causing the most difficulty is this, “The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits.”

When a person does not have a clear grasp of the principles underlying God’s character, it is easy to see how this statement could leave him with the conviction that holy angels destroy exactly as do evil angels. It would appear that the only difference is that holy angels destroy by God’s com­mand while the evil do it with His permission. 

380 BEHOLD YOUR GOD 

What happens is that everyone tends to read into this statement more than it actually says. Here is what the statement does not say:

“The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God com­mands, will be exercised in the same way by evil angels when He permits.”

These four words, “in the same way,” are not in the statement, neither are they inferred there. Furthermore, every principle of God’s character for­bids their being there. Yet, despite multiplied evidences to this effect, this is exactly what people read into the reference. They make no distinction be­tween the work of God and of Satan and therefore between the character of each. This is serious.

There is a decided contrast between the role of the good angels and the evil ones. It is the heaven-appointed work of the righteous angels to hold back the four winds of strife for as long as possible. They only release them when God judges that any further remaining on station will impose their presence where it is not desired. There are many Scriptures which teach this.

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” Revelation 7:1.

“There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth.” Testimonies 5:152.

“We are today under divine forbearance; but how long will the angels of God continue to hold the winds, that they shall not blow?” Testimonies 6:426.

“Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.” Education 179, 180.

“I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, ‘My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!’ Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commis­sion from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, ‘Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.’

“I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosen­ing, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed 

DIFFICULT STATEMENTS 381 

on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels, and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” Early Writings, 38.

“God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. Those who work evil toward their fellow men, saying, How doth God know? will one day be called upon to meet long-deferred vengeance. 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 show that He is indeed the living God. He 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.’ ” The Review and Herald, September 17, 1901.

“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.” Testimonies 6:388, 389.

Every one of these statements confirms that the angels’ role is to hold back those terrible powers which are only awaiting release to destroy the earth and the heavens. Angels are righteous. They have not instituted their ways in place of God’s. Accordingly, they do only what the Lord would have them do. As surely as the God of heaven never destroys by direct action, neither do the angels. Therefore, the way in which they exercise those powers is by the withdrawal of their restraint upon them. The re­leased energies pass from an inactive state into one of intense activity and consequently, of exercise.

This is the way in which the powers are brought into active exercise by holy angels when God commands, but it is not the way evil angels exercise them when God permits. Satan and his followers have studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and the turbulent forces within man, until they know just how to activate them into destructive intensities. Thus, while God’s angels are working to hold back these fearful elements, Satan and his company are working in the opposite direction.

But, whether they are released into active exercise by the holy angels, or manipulated by evil angels, they are the same powers. This is the prin­cipal thought that the statement is intended to convey. It does not discuss 

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the way in which those powers are exercised. When it is recognized that this is the subject matter of the statement, there will be no problem in understanding it.

Far from proving that good angels, at God’s command, sally forth and execute the unrighteous, this statement, by emphasizing that it is the same power in any case, verifies that they do not. If God undertook the work of executioner, He would not bother to use anything less than the greatest powers at His command. These certainly are not those in nature and in man. They are the almighty forces within Himself, forces so great that He merely has to speak and whole worlds appear and, in turn, disappear. Therefore, if God was the destroyer, it would not be the same powers as those used by the evil angels who have nothing of themselves but are dependent on what God has invested in nature and in man, to do their work of destruction. God does have almighty omnipotence and is not in any sense dependent on the relatively puny potentials He has given to this earth and its inhabitants. If these facts are kept in mind, then the statement presents no problem. 

Doing as He Pleases 

Here is another statement which has been a problem to some.

“Moses commanded the men of war to destroy the women and male children. Balaam had sold the children of Israel for a reward, and he perished with the people whose favour he had obtained at the sacrifice of twenty-four thousand of the Israelites. The Lord is regarded as cruel by many in requiring His people to make war with other nations. They say that it is contrary to His benevolent character. But He Who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands. Man has no right to say to his Maker, Why doest Thou thus? There is no injustice in His character. He is the Ruler of the world, and a large portion of His subjects have rebelled against His authority, and have trampled upon His law . . . He has used His people as instruments of His wrath, to punish wicked nations, who have vexed them, and seduced them into idolatry.” Spiritual Gifts 4:50, 51.

The main message of this statement is a warning that mankind is in no position to question the actions of God. If God does it, it is right and just. This rightness is not just because God is the Creator, but because His character is righteous and there is no injustice with Him.

What troubles people though, is the part which reads: “But He who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands.”

No problem would exist here if it were not for the persistent tendency of men to think of God as if He too, were a man. When men have the power to do as they please and what they please, then their behaviour becomes 

DIFFICULT STATEMENTS 383 

dependent on how they feel on a given day and what they want on that day. They do all things in reference to their own likes and dislikes and not according to unvarying principles. This is the behaviour pattern with which we are most familiar and we tend to think of the unknown and unfamiliar in God as if it were the same. So we see men sinning against God and His people. Whereupon, we visualize God as being highly incensed and angered by this so that it becomes His pleasure to exact a revenge against those who have treated Him so shabbily.

But, unlike man. God is never motivated by feeling. He finds no pleasure in unrighteousness in any form. Therefore, it does not please Him to kill, to lie, to steal, to bear false witness, or to break any other of the commandments which are the transcript of His wondrous character. We need never fear then, that the Lord will destroy us because He has the right to do “as He pleases, and what He pleases.” On the other hand, if we become subject to a human being with limitless power to do “what he pleases, and as he pleases,” we can know that, unless we are able to serve that person to his entire satisfaction alt the time, sooner or later, we are doomed.

In other words, the statement must be understood in the light of what it does please God to do, not in the light of what it would please man to do if he were in the same position. 

Those Walls of Jericho 

There are a number of statements in respect to the overthrow of the walls of Jericho, which, if understood in the way man naturally understands such words, would mean that God and His angels personally exercised the power of force to bring down those mighty battlements.

“How easily the armies of heaven brought down the walls that had seemed so formidable to the spies who brought the false report! The word of God was the only weapon used. The Mighty One of Israel had said: ‘I have given into thine hand Jericho.’ If a single warrior had brought his strength to bear against the walls, the glory of God would have been lessened and His will frustrated. But the work was left to the Almighty: and had the foundation of the battlements been laid in the centre of the earth, and their summits reached the arch of heaven, the result would have been the same when the Captain of the Lord’s host led His legions of angels to the attack.” Testimonies 4:161, 162.

“The city of Jericho was devoted to the most extravagant idolatry. The inhabitants were very wealthy, but all the riches that God had given them they counted as the gift of their gods. They had gold and silver in abun­dance: but, like the people before the Flood, they were corrupt and blasphemous, and insulted and provoked the God of heaven by their wicked works. God’s judgments were awakened against Jericho. It was a stronghold. But the Captain of the Lord’s host Himself came from heaven to lead the armies of heaven in an attack upon the city. Angels of God laid 

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hold of the massive walls and brought them to the ground.” Testimonies 3:264.

“The Lord marshalled His armies about the doomed city; no human hand was raised against it; the hosts of heaven overthrew its walls, that God’s name alone might have the glory.” The Review and Herald, March 15, 1887.

The most significant sentence in these statements is the one which says: “Angels of God laid hold of the massive walls and brought them to the ground.”

It would seem that these words allow only one interpretation which is that the angels of God with Christ at their head took hold of those walls with their hands and literally threw them to the ground. In doing so they did more than tear down buttresses of stone. There were people on those high walls. See Patriarchs and Prophets, 491. It would have been impossible for there not to have been watchers, following every move the Israelites made. Such a singular performance as was being carried out by them could not help but command the attention and excite the curiosity of the people in­side. No doubt the walls were crowded with people. Furthermore, there were people who actually lived in the wall as did Rahab who delivered the spies from her countrymen. See Joshua 2:15.

It follows that if the angels did in fact throw down those walls as we tend to understand those words as saying, then they took the lives of a great number of people.

If this is so, then we have finally found the long looked for evidence to prove that God did change because of sin and did become a destroyer of life. We have the proof that every principle gathered together in this book is nullified, for God cannot err on a single point. If Jesus, when He came to this earth, had by so much as a thought made a concession to sin, then the devil would have triumphed.

God had gone on record to say that He does not deal with the sin problem by the use of physical force. He does not stand toward the sinner as the executioner of the sentence against transgression, but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy to themselves to reap that which they have sown. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. God does not destroy. He destroys no man. From His kingdom, every weapon of coercion is banished.

If the Lord were to violate those principles in just one situation, it would be all that was necessary to give Satan the victory in the great controversy. Therefore, our understanding of the principles which govern God’s character compels us to look more deeply into the problem in an endeavour to see in what sense the angels laid hold of the walls and brought them to the ground.

However, if such a search for the moment at least, fails to bring to light exactly what the angels did do, then we do not lose faith in the great prin­ciples. We simply understand that this is but one of the hooks left to hang 

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our doubts on if we want to do such. God always leaves some points unex­plained to see if we will trust Him in the unknown for what we know of Him already.

The explanation for any difficult Scripture must be found in some other part of the same Scriptures. In a problem like this the most likely place to find such an explanation, is in a similar incident. Such is to be found in the fall of Jerusalem, which, like Jericho, had filled up the cup of iniquity. From it, the Spirit of God had also departed. Its walls were likewise torn to the ground with not one stone being left upon another. It is to be expected that the Lord would describe its destruction in the same language as in Jericho’s fall. Research quickly shows that He does.

“Men will continue to erect expensive buildings, costing millions of money; special attention will be called to their architectural beauty. and the firmness and solidity with which they are constructed; but the Lord has in­structed me that despite the unusual firmness and expensive display, these buildings will share the fate of the temple in Jerusalem. That magnificent structure fell. Angels of God were sent to do the work of destruction, so that one stone was not left one upon another that was not thrown down.” S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1098, 1099.

Consider how explicitly it declares that “angels of God were sent to do the work of destruction so that not one stone was left upon another that was not thrown down.” Before He was crucified, Jesus solemnly declared that not one stone would be left upon another in the temple. Now it is declared that the angels were sent to do this work of destruction so that the fulfilment of Christ’s words was assured. Just as the language used in the fall of Jericho tends to give the picture of angels personally laying hold of the stones and throwing them down, so this statement tends to give the same impression as far as the fall of Jerusalem is concerned.

But a study of history shows that those stones were cast down by human hands. The Romans, once they had captured the temple, razed it and much of the city to the ground making certain that not one stone was left upon another. Perhaps the greatest authority on Jewish history is Josephus who was actually present at the fall of Jerusalem. See The Great Controversy, 33. His record of the event is as follows.

“Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other such work to be done,) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and tem­ple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared. in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison; as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valour had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that 

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dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.” Wars of the Jews, Book VII, Chapter one, paragraph one, by Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston.

This notable historian’s report is confirmed in The Great Controversy, 35. “Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was ‘plowed like a field.’ ”

Here we have two records of what took place back there. One declares that the angels did the work of destruction, while the other clearly shows that it was at Caesar’s orders and by the strength and activity of his soldiers that the city was razed.

This would be a hopeless contradiction if we had not studied the way in which the Bible is its own dictionary and the way in which God is said to destroy. Firstly, it is clear that the angels did not do the work of destruction. That is, they did not themselves take those stones and throw them to the ground. Yet, at the same time, it must be recognized that they did a work which resulted in those walls being thrown to the ground till not one single stone was left upon another. But, they certainly did not use the soldiers as direct servants at their personal direction and command, to tear down those mighty bastions.

So what did the angels do? How did they go about a mission of destruction?

As already shown by a number of earlier quotations, the angels’ role is to hold back the four winds of strife so that they might not blow on the earth, Let those winds be released and there is the terrible outbreaking of human anger and natural power. Those angels hold on to their work whilever God’s protection is called for because of the presence of some who trust in Him. But when the time comes when that is no longer necessary or possible, then angels are sent from heaven to instruct the holding angels to let go. In this way the angels come from heaven on a mission of destruc­tion. Let it be emphasized once more that while this involves a judgment on God’s part, it is not His arbitrary act. He assesses the situation to be such that to remain any longer must be to force His presence where it is totally unwanted, and this He cannot do. The restraining angels feel this pressure on them to leave but they await God’s command before they do so. These instructions are conveyed to them by messenger angels, who, because of this responsibility, are called messengers of destruction, which in fact they are.

The picture of this holding and releasing by one body of angels upon receipt of a clearance to do so by other angels, is clearly shown in the Early Writings statement quoted on pages 380 and 381.

The chronicle of Jerusalem’s destruction bears out the facts recited above. The tearing down of that city into individual stones was the end 

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result of a series of causes. The Romans did it as the expression of their white-hot anger and hatred for the Jews. That in turn, was the result of the behaviour of the Jews who had given the Romans so much trouble, had shown such a spirit of rebellion, and had been so ungrateful for the favours the Romans desired to show them. That spirit, consequently, was the result of the Jews’ persistent determination to institute their ways in the place of God’s, and of their continual rejection of the appeals of mercy to them.

For the apostasy of the Jew and the fury of the Roman to race away un­controlled, the angels of God had to fully and totally withdraw their restraining power over the evil passions of men. This they did. That ac­complished, the infuriated Roman soldiery were so totally uncontrolled that not even their officers, generals, or Titus himself, could control or restrain them. Titus had determined to preserve the temple and had given specific orders that it should not be burned, but his orders were flouted. Even though he rushed in among them, and demanded obedience, it was as if he were not even there. Here is part of Josephus’ account of the burning of the temple.

“And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent after the last battle; whereupon he rose up in great haste, and as he was, ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great clamour and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire; but they did not hear what he said, though he spake so loud, having their ears already dinned by a greater noise another way; nor did they attend to the signal he made with his right hand neither, as still some of them were distracted with fighting, and others with passion; but as for the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasions nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one’s own passion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding into the temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable way with those whom they had conquered: and when they were come near the holy house, they made as if they did not so much as hear Caesar’s orders to the contrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to set it on fire. As for the seditious they were in too great distress already to afford their assistance, [toward quenching the fire;] they were everywhere slain, and everywhere beaten; and as for a great pad of the people, they were weak and without arms, and had their throats cut wherever they were caught. Now, round about the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another; as at the steps going up to it ran a great quantity of their blood, 

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whither also the dead bodies that were slain above [on the altar fell down.” Wars on the Jews, Book VI, Chapter four, paragraph six.

“The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction. But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without. In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting, ‘Ichabod!’—the glory is departed.

“Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The splen­dor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it, and springing forth, again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the conflagration. The cen­turion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience with his staff of office; but even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious animosity against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the insatiable hope of plunder.” The Great Controversy, 33, 34.

When soldiers who have had instilled into them the strongest discipline of respect and obedience to the Emperor, are so totally maddened with rage that they completely ignore orders he has personally given, it is manifested that human passion is rioting in its most unrestrained form. Such outrage was possible only if the angels had vacated their positions as withholders of the winds of strife. They had no further influence over those men.

They never step down of their own volition, but only on the receipt of orders from on high. These are brought to them by messenger angels com­missioned to fly swiftly with the advice that the time has come when men have chosen to reject God so utterly that He can no longer provide them with protection. The advent of these messengers at the outposts, heralds the unleashing of destructive forces, thus making them, in a certain sense, angels on a mission of destruction. The result was the full release of the Romans infuriated hostility toward the Jews, which would not be appeased even when, with their own hands, they had torn the city apart.

This casts great light on the fall of Jericho, teaching how the same descriptions are to be understood in the destruction of the Canaanite city. 

DIFFICULT STATEMENTS 389 

The only difference between the overthrow of Jericho as compared to Jerusalem is that, while in the latter it was the unleashing of the furies in men which did the work, at Jericho it was the release of the pent-up forces of nature. The role of the angels in both instances was the same. They acted only and entirely in harmony with the principles of God’s kingdom. Christ, Himself, led the messengers to the walls of Jericho to give the sad message that that people had forfeited all divine protection, leaving God with no option but to call away the restraining angels. Then the furies of nature, hitherto held under control, burst forth to flatten the proud metropolis. The walls were hurled to the ground. Yet, the word of God says that the angels did it. Surely, from the way in which Bible interprets itself, the time has come when it is understood in what sense the angels did this. They had a part to play, the result of which was that destruction. That part was to carry the message of doom to the restraining angels. Then the terror followed.

If careful comparison is made between the language used to describe the destructions of both Jericho and Jerusalem, all difficulties will disap­pear. Just what the angels did will be quite clear. Once more it will be con­firmed that they did not act any differently from the revelation of God’s character as given by Christ when He came to the earth.

The Wrath of God 

The wrath of God is referred to frequently in the Scriptures. It is an ex­pression describing the savage fury of men or nature, or both, in a rampage of destruction. The seven last plagues are referred to specifically as the wrath of God which is to be poured upon those who worship the beast and his image.

There is very real danger that God’s wrath will be understood to be ex­actly what man’s wrath is. Man’s wrath is the development within him of fury, anger, and a desire to retaliate against those who have hurt or offend­ed him. But God’s wrath is different, for the ways of God are not the ways of men. Isaiah has made that forever sure.

God’s wrath is not the expression of His personal feelings, for, while His wrath is busily destroying man and the world, God is feeling anything but wrathful. He is pained with sorrow and distress to see His handiwork and children being committed to so terrible a fate. The wrath of God is an ex­pression of the very opposite from what He is feeling.

Yet without question it is wrath. See the blasting might of the roaring hurricane, the thunder of a thousand falling buildings and opening crevasses as the earthquake strikes, the crackling roar of the blazing inferno, the shriek of the storm and the fiendish fury of man at war. This is wrath. It is the complete picture of anger and fury and these are the things which the Bible terms “the wrath of God.” 

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From the message God gave through Moses’ rod, He plainly showed that when nature is in this state it has passed out of His control. Therefore it is not the expression of God’s feelings. Why then is it called “the wrath of God”? It is God’s wrath simply because every power which has gone into the state of wrath through God’s directing and controlling power being withdrawn, is of God. They are the powers of God in a wrathful state, therefore it could be called the wrath of the powers of God. Instead it is simply and more briefly called “the wrath of God.”

There will be no problem understanding this if it is ever kept in mind that man’s way and the ways of God are very different and, in fact, op­posite from each other. There must be a perpetual guard set up in the human mind against the tendency to think of God and man as being the same. 

Other Difficult Statements 

Some who read this book may be aware of other statements which are a problem to them, It is reasonably safe to say that the most difficult ones have been discussed in this chapter. If the reader has thoroughly understood and accepted the principles of interpretation used here, then he will have little difficulty in understanding other problem verses or statements.

There will come times, as the Bible record is studied, when situations will confront us for which the Lord has not yet been able to reveal any specific explanation. Lacking that, it will seem we have no option but to believe that in this instance at least, the Lord did resort to the use of force. But true faith knows that the absence of the correct explanation does not compel us to accept the obvious one, even though it clamours for recogni­tion. True faith rests in the knowledge that God does nothing out of character, and that we are to trust Him in the unknown because of what we have learned of Him in the known. In so many instances we have clear Scriptural revelations of what God did when confronted with the sin problem, rebellion, ingratitude, and idolatry. Every such revelation con­sistently reveals God as a saviour, lovingly seeking to save His created works. Therefore to the faith-filled person, absolute assurance is guaranteed that in the unknown it is the same.

One thing is certain: no true student of the Word of God will allow his faith in the great truths to be shattered simply because one or two statements or incidents cannot immediately be understood in harmony with what the rest of the Bible teaches. He will not forget that there were many more such in the past but time has produced wonderful clarifications of what initially appeared to be totally inexplicable. He remembers with what changed views he now sees many things which were dark and confusing before. So, he well knows, it will be with these statements which have not yet been transferred to the category of the clearly explained.

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Thus far, study has been given only to events which are in the past. The attention is now directed to events which are yet future. Their coming is known through the prophetic revelations, while the nature of them is shown through the types of the past, of which they are the antitypes.

The greatest destruction yet to eventuate before the second coming of Christ will result from the outpouring of the seven last plagues. This will be the drinking by the finally impenitent “of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation .  . . Revelation 14:10.

Up till this time the judgments of God have always been mixed with mercy so that the wicked were shielded from the full penalty of their quilt.

“All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy.” The Great Controversy, 629.

The same language used in Scripture to describe the destructions on men in the past, is employed to portray this terrible future desolation. It is depicted as being “the wrath of God,” administered by destroying angels. The incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flooding of Noah’s world, the plaguing of the Egyptians, the serpents’ invasion into Israel’s encamp­ment, Jericho’s, Nineveh’s, and Jerusalem’s overthrow, and many more such catastrophies are consistently detailed in the same terms employed to prophesy the coming seven last plagues.

Harmony of interpretation insists that the Scriptural portrayal of events yet future must be understood in the same way as the Word of God reveals that the description of events in the past be understood. The Bible abounds in explanations of how we are to interpret the declarations describing the punishment to befall the wicked. By this means we have no excuse for fail­ing to understand that when God is said to destroy, the result of His efforts to save have resulted in the withdrawal of the impenitent from Him to the place where no protection from destruction remains to them. This is the way it has always been in the past. So it must yet be in the seven last plagues.

In studying the outpouring of the seven last plagues, it can be correctly expected then, that the Scriptures, rightly understood, will show that the restraining, protecting hand of God is to be removed from the rod of power, so that, freed from His directions and out of His control, the powers in men and nature will break loose in unfettered fury. Thus men will reap the harvest of their own sowing, 

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We are greatly assisted in the study of the seven last plagues by two events in the past. The first is the plagues of Egypt and the second, the fall of Jerusalem. Scripture declares that each of these events was a preview of what is to happen in the final scourges.

‘When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel, were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God’s people.” The Great Controversy, 627, 628.

The similarity between the plagues upon Egypt and the seven last plagues is in their character. This indicates that the plagues on Egypt will not be duplicated by the seven last plagues and a quick check shows that this is true. In the seven last plagues there will be no frogs, lice, flies, or specific death of the first-born, and in Egypt there was no earthquake, dry­ing up of the River, or scorching of men with great heat.

But while the seven last plagues will not be an exact repetition of the Egyptian scourges, they will be similar in character. The acquirement of character is the result of a moulding process, so that if the identical in­fluences are exerted on like materials, the end product will be the same. The Egyptian devastations possessed the character they had because of the situation out of which they were born and by which they were shaped. The people’s continued determination to shut God out of their lives had brought them to the place where God was compelled to accept their desires and leave them to reap their harvest of pain and loss. God released His hold on the rod so that it passed out of His direction and control. Thus the character of the plagues was that they were natural forces possessed of the fury of destruction.

The same character will be manifested in the seven last plagues because they will be the offspring of exactly the same conditions. As the one nation of Egypt threw off all connection with God, so the people of the whole world will separate from God, rejecting every principle of righteousness and association with Him, The last appeals of mercy scorned, God is left with no option but to leave them alone. Once again, nature out of control will smite them until none remain.

The second preview of the seven last plagues is given in the destruction of Jerusalem.

“The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfilment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow, In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law.” The Great Controversy, 36.

Already the fate of Jerusalem has been studied. The Spirit of God, per­sistently rejected and abused, had at last no choice but to leave the people 

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to themselves. With nothing to restrain the fierce passions of the Jews, the” rebelled so treacherously and seditiously against the Romans that they stirred up the worst spirit of retaliation in them. This brought the mighty power of Rome to bear upon the city of Jerusalem. With the continued resistance of the Jews and the prolonged attack by the Romans, the spirits of all became so intensified that in the final scenes, the powers in those peo­ple simply ran riot. The resulting slaughter and atrocities were worse than human language can picture. When the city had been conquered and there were no more to be slain, the Romans then systematically tore the city stone from stone till the destruction was virtually absolute.

In that fate the doom of the world is to be read. Exactly what befell Jerusalem will befall the whole earth. The time is coming when the sins of men will compel the Spirit of God to totally depart. With nothing to hold in check the deadly powers in nature and man, the earth will be plunged into a time of trouble such as never was. The seven last plagues will in no sense of the word be the manipulation of those powers by the hands of God. In­stead, just as in Egypt and in Jerusalem, God will not even be there. Everything that happens will be because of His absence. not because of His presence. Once again the rod will have passed out of Moses’ hand.

These direct statements will verify the truth of the above principles and the conclusions drawn from them.

“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.” The Great Controversy, 614.

“As Jesus moved out of the most holy place, I heard the tinkling of the bells upon His garment; and as He left, a cloud of darkness covered the in­habitants of the earth. There was then no mediator between guilty man and an offended God. While Jesus had been standing between God and guilty man, a restraint was upon the people; but when He stepped out from be­tween man and the Father, the restraint was removed, and Satan had en­tire control of the finally impenitent. It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated in the sanctuary; but as His work there is finished, and His intercession closes, there is nothing to stay the wrath of God, and it breaks with fury upon the shelterless head of the guilty sinner, who has slighted salvation and hated reproof.” Early Writings, 280. 

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This statement verifies the truth that it is the removal of God’s restraining power which releases the powers of men and nature into Satan’s hands. They then burst with destructive fury upon the shelterless heads of the wicked.

Let the expression, “there is nothing to stay the wrath of God “ be guarded from misunderstanding. Before the principles in regard to God’s character are understood, this would be taken to mean that God was personally angered and therefore anxious to smite the offenders, but is restrained by the intercession of His Son until Jesus finishes His work in the sanctuary,

If this interpretation is correct, then Christ and His Father are working against each other. God is longing to destroy man, while Christ is resisting Him. However, it is impossible to believe this and at the same time hold to the great and precious truth that Christ and the Father are one; that, far from working against each other, they are fully united in the task of saving man.

“ . . .God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself  . . .”   2 Cor­inthians 5:19.

There could be nothing closer than the unity of the Father and the Son in the work of salvation. God is not seeking the sinner’s destruction while the Son works to delay the unleashing of the Father’s fury They are work­ing together to the limit of their resources to bring men back to eternal life, and only when men utterly reject those saving measures, do they jointly leave the rebellious to their chosen fate.

When it is truly understood that the wrath of God is not a personal feeling, but the perversion and derangement of the powers in men and nature into wrathful and destructive forces only awaiting the opportunity to em­bark on a rampage of devastation, then there will be no problem in understanding the unity of the Father and the Son.

“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 show that He is indeed the living God. He 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.’

“This time is right upon us. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed,—in these things he delights, and thus he gathers irf his harvest. And so completely will men be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that 

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the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be. And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men to believe this. They are guided by the enemy, and therefore they reach conclusions which are entirely false.” The Review and Herald, September 17, 1901.

“It is God that shields His creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth, and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law, and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favour and prosper some, in order to further his own designs; and he will bring trouble upon others, and lead men to believe that it is God Who is afflicting them.” The Great Controversy, 589.

“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.” The Great Controversy, 36.

Thus the Lord makes it very plain how the seven last plagues will come. They will certainly not be the direct use by God, of the forces in man and nature. Instead, God will make a judgment or assessment that the wicked have fully and universally resolved to depose Him from their hearts, their affairs, and the world. Their decision being fully confirmed, leaves God no choice but to let them have all they want. So He leaves them, and Satan quickly seizes these powers, stirring them to even greater heights of frenzy and terror.

The wicked have sown the seed. The harvest is inevitable. But it is not the work of God. It is the work of men against themselves. They sowed the seed. They reap the harvest.

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“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con­sume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8.

This Scripture has been usually understood to portray the picture of Christ descending the advent skies, while before Him precede great flowing sheets of devouring flame which reach out to consume whoever of the im­penitent have somehow managed to survive the plagues.

Such an interpretation of this Scripture, obvious as it may appear, is out of harmony with the character of God and Christ. If fire emanating from Him kills the wicked, then there is a direct, destructive work associated with His presence and Person. Therefore, He would be an executioner after all. But He is not, nor ever will be. When He came the first time to this earth He testified that He had not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. The purpose of His advent does not change with His second coming. Once again, His intention is to deliver His people from an earth which has been so reduced by the final disasters as to be incapable of supporting life any longer. Certainly, He would save every individual who has ever been born if this were possible, but tragically, so few are prepared to accept His saving grace. He does nothing to them. He has not come for them. They have taken themselves out of the circle of His responsibility and their fate is en­tirely a matter of their own appointment.

There are statements which explain this text and which harmonize with this principle.

“Then shall they that obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and be destroyed with the brightness of His coming. Like Israel of old, the wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming fire.” The Great Controversy, 37.

That this statement is a direct explanation of the verse under study is clear from the fact that firstly the text is quoted, and then comment is made upon it. Therein, it is affirmed that the wicked destroy themselves. It is not the work of God but their own. They have sown the seed and they must reap the harvest.

Most significant, is the parallel drawn between the way in which Israel perished and the destruction in the last days. As the one perished, so will the other. This is to indicate that the Israelites were likewise destroyed with the brightness of His coming. This is true, for that is exactly how they did come to their end. It may be immediately objected that Jesus did not come 

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with outshining glory at His first advent. Furthermore, He was far away in the distant heavens when the Jews met their fate, so there is no visible evidence of their having been consumed with the brightness of His glory. Such an interpretation depends on the understanding of what the brightness of His glory is and how humans are consumed by it. Defining that expression is the key to solving the problem.

The factor which above all others brought the Jews to their untimely end, was the manifestation of the brightness of God’s character-glory in Christ. Before Christ came, the Jews were in a serious state of apostasy, but, even so, were not totally separated from God, for they had not taken the final steps in rebellion. But, as the light of Christ’s glorious character shone on them, they were driven to desperate lengths of resistance until they were pushed to the extremes of apostasy. God did not intend that such be the result of this revelation, but once they determined on rejection of Him, it became the only possible outworking of that decision. They were destroyed, and it was by the brightness of His coming.

The sequence then was as follows:

The Jews were in a state of apostasy.

Christ shone on them the brightness of His coming, the glory of His character.

They rejected this influence and thus separated themselves from His protection.

The actual destruction was accomplished by the unleashed natural forces.

In the sacred writings, both of these forces are described. There we can read of Christ’s coming, of the Jews’ reaction, and of the separation of the Spirit of God from them.

Then we can read of the destructive work accomplished by the outrage of human passion no longer under divine restraint.

In exactly the same way, there is recorded the identical procedure which leads to the destruction of the wicked in the final overthrow of mankind.

They will be in a state of deep apostasy.

The brightness of His coming will be revealed to them in the loud cry.

Their rejection of this influence will drive them to separate themselves from God’s protection.

The actual destruction to befall them will be accomplished by the unleashing of the wild passions within them and by the unrestrained forces of nature.

Basically then, it is the brightness of His coming which destroys them but not in the sense that they are struck down by it. That is left to the unrestrained forces in man and nature, the destruction from which the brightness of His coming would have saved them if they had related to it correctly. 

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Therefore, in studying the final demise of the wicked, both these factors must be kept in mind. The student must understand just what is ac­complished by each, ever keeping the distinctions sharp and clear,

The sacred writings do not fail to mention them. When the fall of the wicked is described in The Great Controversy, it shows that they are to be obliterated by the furious outburst of their own fierce passions and by the outpouring of the seven last plagues. There immediately follows the state­ment that they will be consumed by the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His coming. Here is exactly how it appears on page 657.

“In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth,—priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. ‘And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shalt not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.’

“At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth, —consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants.”

Placing these two statements in this order side by side, perfectly ex­presses the destiny of the unrepentant. The immediate and seemingly ob­vious means of their destruction will be the terrible onslaught of maddened man and nature. But the deeper, underlying cause is not to be overlooked. Prior to the coming of the physical calamities, divine love will have sent the revelation of Christ’s character in the brightness of His soon coming. Their rejection of those saving provisions will place them where destruction is free to descend upon them.

Those who do not understand this but believe that the death of the wicked will be directly and physically accomplished by the flaming fire emanating from the person of Christ, would need to have the statement dif­ferently written. For them it should appear as follows:

“In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful out­pouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall” the larger proportion of ‘the wicked inhabitants of the earth—priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. ‘And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.’

“At the coming of Christ” the remainder of “the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth,—consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants,”

The second version provides for the theory that when Christ appears there will be such an outshining of flaming power that the wicked who 

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manage to survive the seven last plagues and the bloody internecine war­fare, will be consumed by it. If the statement was written in this way, those who believe that would have an incontrovertible proof for their belief.

But it is not written that way. Instead, we have the truth stated and then repeated in different words of just how the wicked will perish. They are parallel declarations, each saying the same thing in different words. To be slain by the brightness of His coming is to perish under the seven last plagues and the fierce battles they will fight.

From this reference it is evident that the death of those upon the earth at the second advent is not caused by searing fire emanating from Christ. The actual physical forces which crush out fragile life, will be the terrible scourges and the fighting between them.

Exactly as the Jews who perished by the physical instrument of the Roman armies, were destroyed by the brightness of His coming as already noted in this chapter, so the plagues will come upon the wicked in the same way. The brightness of Christ’s coming begins to shine long before He ac­tually appears in the clouds of heaven. As the message of the loud cry goes forward, the brightness of that coming shines with increasing intensity, pressing upon the hearers throughout the length and breadth of the earth, to surrender their ways and accept the perfection of God’s righteousness.

Very few will respond to this powerful, drawing love. The balance will resist it with all the determination they can muster. The more effectively the truth of God, which shines with the brightness of His coming is offered to the people, the more rapidly and deeply will they enter into apostasy if they do not yield to it. This will separate them from God to the point where He will be forced to leave them entirely. Then will come upon them the full fury of the seven last plagues by which they will be destroyed. Thus they are destroyed by the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming.

The presentation of the gospel is the key factor in finishing the work. If the advent people had accepted and preached the gospel in its full power, the work would have been finished a hundred years ago. Much further back, it would likewise have ended if the apostolic church had lived true to all the light they had received. The only reason the earth has escaped destruction so long is because it has not been subjected to the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming. When it finally is, those things will either save or destroy it.

A further evidence to support the fact that it is not the pulsing forth of fire from the Person of Christ which destroys the wicked, is the final con­frontation around the city of God. There the wicked come quite close to the presence of Christ Who is just as powerful then as when He returns the second time. But they are able to march against the city in which is the presence of God and of Christ. They are able to stand there right through the revelation of the mystery of Christ, and they are able to see all that God wants them to see without being consumed with physical fire from the presence of God and His son. 

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As will be shown in the next chapter, even when they are destroyed, it will not be by fire which emanates from the person of God or Christ.

Therefore, if the fire surrounding Christ does not consume them at the end of the thousand years, why should it do so at the beginning, unless Christ personally decided that it should? If He did, then of course He would become a direct destroyer which, for Him, is impossible.

This does not mean that a human being can come directly into the power circle surrounding the person of God, and survive without special protection. When the drunken sons of Aaron—Nadab and Abihu—went into the sanctuary without the protection of the incense, they then entered into a circle of power which they could not endure. It is just as if a man comes into physical contact with a powerful electrical field without special protective clothing. He dies, Likewise, if a man enters into a fire he will certainly die.

But it will not be thus with the wicked either at the second advent or at the end of the thousand years. They do not come within a power circle and therefore are not consumed as were Nadab and Abihu.

401

When Christ returns, the earth will have been for or six thousand years the proving ground for the validity, power, indestructibility, justice, and perfect righteousness of the principles upon which God’s kingdom is built. During that span of sixty centuries, Satan and his hosts will have mounted every possible assault in their desperate search for that one weakness or flaw needed to supply the evidence to prove that God’s ways are not perfect and need to be reformed. They have worked to provoke God to the point where He would arise and sweep mankind off the face of the earth. They have subjected Him to the greatest test which could ever come upon Him at their hands and devices.

This has been no light test for God. He is a being of infinite power and love. The witness of human history shows that the more power a person possesses, the greater the danger of his corruption. A great many have suc­cessfully endured privation and poverty, only to be destroyed by coming into possession of riches and power. Furthermore, the intense sensitivity of God’s nature and perceptions causes Him to view sin with a hatred and detestation which no human being could either know or understand. Throughout the entire period of the great controversy, God has been suf­fering intense anguish.

“Those who think of the result of hastening or hindering the gospel think of it in relation to themselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God, — sub­jugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death—it is said that ‘His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.’ ‘In all their affliction He was afflicted: . . . and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.’ Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9.

“His Spirit ‘maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ As the ‘whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together’ (Romans 8:26, 22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all.” Education, 263, 264.

“Christ feels the woes of every sufferer. When evil spirits rend a human 

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frame, Christ feels the curse. When fever is burning up the life current, He feels the agony.” The Desire of Ages, 823.

“Jesus assures His disciples of God’s sympathy for them in their needs and weaknesses. Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father’s heart . . . In all our afflictions He is afflicted.” ibid., 356.

The depth of God’s continual suffering needs to be better realized and appreciated. There has been the inclination to think that Jesus came to this earth, suffered with increasing intensity for thirty-three years, and then returned to the perfect bliss and painlessness of heaven. This is anything but the truth. The Father and Son have suffered to a depth of which we have neither knowledge nor experience.

This personal pain is distasteful to God Who desires the end of all suf­fering more than we ever could. He has the power to end it in an instant by simply obliterating it. Yet He does not yield to the pressure of His own feel­ings and desires. He is prepared to suffer in order to maintain the principles of His government whereby will be assured eternally the happiness and security of all the universe. If we could enter into the full extent of God’s sufferings and, at the same time, possessed the power He has, then we would know something of the pressure exerted on Him throughout the great controversy.

If God, in all that time, had made the slightest move to save Himself from suffering by removing the cause of His anguish; had He by even so much as a thought made a concession to the devil’s arguments; should He so much as by a hair’s breadth have taken away from man his freedom to choose and to act as he chose; had He taken the life of one individual in order to lessen the suffering caused by sin; then Satan would have had the evidence needed to show that his arguments were valid after all.

But during all those ages of darkness and death, of temptation and suf­fering, God has never deviated from the stated and perfect principles of His government and kingdom. He has never violated the freedom given to any individual, has never taken a person’s life, has never destroyed, and He has never in the smallest particular, broken the law. He has been strictly impar­tial and just. He has been the Saviour. ever and only working to bless, heal, and restore. Satan has never gained a point over the Lord in the battle. From it all, God emerges as untouched by sin as if it had never entered the universe. He is immaculate.

For this, every redeemed soul shall be eternally grateful especially when he becomes fully conversant with the wonderful certainties of God’s behaviour.

But while God has been immaculately perfect in all His activities, He has not been seen as such. In the eyes of men, Satan has dressed the pure and holy God in his own evil garments. Millions and added millions have gone to their graves with a decidely reversed view of the true nature of righteousness and the God of righteousness. The great controversy cannot 

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be settled until every one of those minds sees the true nature of our heaven­ly Father and confesses His perfect justice and righteousness.

God is not concerned about clearing His name for His own personal in­terest. He is not proud. He does not take personal offence. But He does understand that His character and the principles of righteousness are one and the same. Therefore, the justification of one assures the establishment of the other. He further knows that the eternal happiness and security of the universe depend on the vindication of those principles. Inasmuch as His everlasting and infinite love for all His children will not permit Him to pro­vide anything less than the perfect best for them, He is determined not to permit the ultimate desecration of righteousness. He will establish it eternally.

Because of this, every person who has ever lived must be assembled for the final showdown in the great controversy. Every principle upon which the kingdom of God is built and operates must be revealed in sharply defined contrast to the principles of Satan’s government.

It follows then that if it was important for God never to violate the laws of His government during the six thousand years of active controversy, then it is of multiplied importance that He strictly adhere to them in the final showdown around the city after the thousand years have expired.

Some are prepared to believe that, during the six milleniums of the great controversy, God will have withheld His righteous hands from slaying anyone or destroying anything. But they are not prepared to go so far as to believe that He will continue this course at the final showdown. Then, they believe, He will arise to personally exterminate the wilfully unrepentant. They reason on this basis: During the six thousand years He restrains Himself to give the wicked opportunity to display before the universe their utter defiance and ingratitude. When the inhabitants of other systems see the full perversity of the human race, God will be free to cut them off without being regarded as cruel or unjust. Moreover, they will have become so incensed with this despicable behaviour that they will expect and even require God to destroy them. This is the position held by some.

This reasoning, if true, makes God a politician Whose policies are determined by public opinion. This is to belittle God; to reduce Him to the level of scheming men who study the temper of their fellow humans, and then formulate their policies and procedures accordingly.

But God is not like that. He is motivated by righteousness, not by the feelings of His creatures. Before the great controversy began, throughout all of its duration, and in its final resolution, God has and will act with un­varying consistency.

The reason for God’s willingness to enter into the great controversy with the devil, was to demonstrate that the principles of His government were perfect, and that, no matter what the pressure upon Him, He would act only in accordance with them. Accordingly, no mailer how wicked men have been in the past, how extensively their destructive ways have 

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desolated the earth, or how violent their insolence against Heaven, God has not raised a finger to obliterate them. They have perished as the fruitage of their own evil seed-sowing.

To believe that God has never destroyed during the course of the great rebellion, but turns to do so in the end, is self-contradicting. It would mean that God, Who has spent seven thousand years demonstrating that He is not an executioner of the sentence against transgression, will undo all He has worked to establish by turning into an executioner for this final judg­ment. What a tragedy that would be! During the long defection, Satan and his hordes have worked with relentless determination to provoke God into raising His righteous hand to destroy the rebels, but He has passed every test without defect. In the last showdown He is afforded His final opportuni­ty to confirm that He is not an executioner, that He has given to all, the freedom to choose what they want, and that He will not interfere with that choice. To make the least concession then, after so perfectly demonstrating the contrary over the previous milleniums, would nullify all that has been achieved. It would be as if a man spent a lifetime building a splendid edifice and then burned it to the ground. It is certain that this is not what God will do. There is no possibility of His having faithfully resisted every pressure to provocation for so long, only to give way to it at the last. The final eradica­tion of the wicked will happen exactly as lesser decimations occurred in human history. As Jerusalem was overthrown by the Jews themselves, as Sodom and Gomorrah perished as a harvest of their own seed-sowing, as the flood came, not because God sent it, but because He could not prevent it without violating His righteous principles, so the final end will come. It will not be because God sent it, but because He cannot prevent it without taking away people’s freedom to choose what they want.

These principles are poorly understood by earth-dwellers, most of whom have gone to their dusty beds with distorted understandings of God’s character. This is not God’s fault for He has provided in nature, in His Word, and in the revelation given by Christ, all that is necessary for understanding His righteous principles. Therefore, in His great love and mercy, He will especially raise up every human being so that once more, they can be shown God’s workings and their own rejection of them. This time, they will have no arguments with which to counter the witness of God. Every person from Satan down will acknowledge that God has been just and that the loss of their own souls is their own doing.

After one thousand years during which there will not be a living soul upon this earth apart from the devil and his evil angels, the wicked of every generation will be raised up for this final showdown. They come up resum­ing “the current of their thoughts just where it ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell.” The Great Controversy, 664.

Satan is astir at once and marshalls the mighty hosts into the most 

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prodigious, prestigious army ever to tramp the earth, It will be a most im­pressive sight as they drill and train day after day. How long a time will be involved in this mammoth preparation we are not told. According to the principle of freedom which the Lord extends to all, they will be given as much time as they wish to take. Satan knows this and, while he is anxious to see the struggle over, at the same time he knows that it will be a titanic struggle. Therefore, he will direct that the preparations be as thorough as possible.

They do not intend to advance to the hoped-for conquest of the city with bare hands. “Skilful artisans construct implements of war.” ibid. Just how sophisticated those weapons will be, we are not told. It is possible that they will be as highly technical as the scientific men can assemble. The atomic scientists will be there, remembering all that they learned while still living on this earth. They will think in terms of conducting nuclear warfare against the city so that, if it is at all possible to prepare such tools of destruc­tion, they certainly will do it. The advancing hordes will carry such weaponry with them as they move up to the snowy walls.

But no baffle ensues. It has been suggested that the baffle of Armaged­don begins before Christ’s coming and is completed around the New Jerusalem. A little careful thought will show that there is no battle in the end. The struggle between God and His people on one side, and Satan and his on the other, will all end before Christ comes the second time. At the end of the thousand years, God will have at His command the revelations of the principles of righteousness as embodied in His character, which have been provided firstly by the life and teachings of Christ upon this earth and secondly by the witness of the translated saints as given during the time of Jacob’s trouble.

This witness will be unfolded before the multitudes who have been halted in their advance. As scene after scene passes before them, they will see the great controversy in its true light. They will realize just what God stands for. They will see the true nature of Satan’s rebellion against Him. They will recognize that His law was provided for them as a life-preserver; that disregard of the divine precepts did not bring them release from an ar­duous bondage, but opened the flood gates of woe upon them. They will understand at last, that every woe and trouble they have experienced has been the result of their own course of action. They will know that they have abused the gift of freedom to their own miserable hurt. See The Great Con­troversy, 666-668.

They will see things as they have never seen them before and as the devil was determined that they should never see them. As soon as they do, all intent to continue the rebellion against God is ended. The point was made on pages 19 and 20 that when a misrepresentation of God’s character begins, there, rebellion against God likewise begins. So when the character of God is fully revealed for what it is, rebellion against God then comes to its end.  

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This is precisely why there is no war between evil men and God over the New Jerusalem. In the beginning of the great controversy, God did not have so clear a manifestation of His character as would settle the problem right there and then. But at the end of the thousand years, He will have such revelations, which He will use, not only to ensure that there is no war but to bring, from the least person to Satan himself, the frank and open confession that they have held wrong concepts of God, that they have been responsible for rejecting His salvation and that their doom is deserved.

The picture is so clear. The wicked see things exactly as they are and in­stead of rushing in to attack the city, they fall “prostrate” and “worship the Prince of life.” The Great Controversy, 669.

Satan also sees it all. His mind travels back over the full span of his life. He sees again those days when he was the covering cherub. He remembers the first thoughts of doubt and then the open rebellion. He surveys the long centuries in between, comparing the loving patience and forgiving power of the Eternal in contrast to his own mean, destructive spirit.

“Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfilled him for heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down, and confesses the justice of his sentence.” ibid., 670.

The great moment has come. There is not a single intelligent being in the universe whose mind has the slightest question remaining as to the perfect righteousness of God’s character. Even the arch-rebel himself has bowed down to acknowledge the truth of God’s ways and the falsity of every other system.

‘Who shall not fear Thee 0 Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.’ Revelation 15:4. Every question of truth and error in the longstanding controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan’s rule in contrast with the government of God, has been presented to the whole universe. Satan’s own works have condemned him. God’s wisdom, His justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of His people, and the good of all the worlds that He has created. ‘All Thy works shall praise Thee, 0 Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee.’ Psalm 145:10. The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that with the existence of God’s law is bound up the happiness of all the be­ings He has created. With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare, ‘Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.’ “ ibid., 670, 671. 

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Once Satan and his followers have been brought to acknowledge the justice and righteousness of God, the stage is set for the final act of the drama—earth’s and heaven’s actual purification from the stain and presence of sin.

This will be accomplished by fire. The Scripture says, “. . . and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:9, 10, 14, 15.

“ ‘Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.’ ‘The indigna­tion of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter.’ ‘Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.’ Isaiah 9:5; 34:2; Psalm 11:6 (margin). Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. [Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10.] The earth’s surface seems one molten mass,—a vast, seething lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdi­tion of ungodly men,—‘the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.’ Isaiah 34:8: Proverbs 11:31.

“The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. 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.” The Great Controversy, 672, 673.

These texts and statements are familiar to Bible students. Invariably they have given a picture of God personally pouring down fire upon the wicked and thus bringing about their final end. This is no problem to the 

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average person for he considers that God has a perfect right to destroy those who have rebelled against Him. Furthermore, he knows of no other way whereby the problem can be solved. The criminal must be executed or he will go on making trouble forever. Of course this is man’s thinking but it is neither the thinking nor the way of God.

There is no difference in the language used in Revelation or The Great Controversy from that used in other parts of the Scriptures describing the outpouring of terrible judgments.

“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” Genesis 19:24.

“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 7:3.

“And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” Numbers 21:6.

“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” I Samuel 16:14.

“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” Matthew 22:7.

We have already considered each of these statements from the Lord. It has been demonstrated that there must be a different definition of the terms and expressions used to describe the behaviour of men. Trouble is ex­perienced in understanding these expressions in regard to God’s character when no distinction is made between man’s ways and God’s ways.

Those previous studies into these verses confirmed the truth that when God pours out fire, sends serpents, or such like, it is not something dispensed from His hands as a response to His personal decree. Rather, it happens only when He is obliged to depart from the scene thus leaving matters in the hands of men and devils. Then, being out of His control, the rod of power descends in merciless power upon the defenceless heads of the self-willed.

There is no reason to suppose that these verses in Revelation are to be understood any differently. What those expressions mean throughout the remainder of the Scriptures they must still mean at the end of them. Therefore, in the end, God does not decree that the wicked shall die by fire and then set about executing this decree by personally exercising His power. God does not decree what punishment shall befall the evildoer. He foresees what will happen and foretells it, but He neither chooses nor organizes it to be just that way.

In the light of all the truths learned so far in this study, consider the se­quence of events in the drama of destruction outside the city. When the wicked are raised at the close of the millenium, it is only possible for them to live safely upon the earth by God’s holding firm hands on the rod of power. All the mighty forces of nature are thus held in restraint in order to afford to 

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the lost, the opportunity of seeing the true nature of the great controversy. Thus, there is no outburst of fire and brimstone during the time that they make their preparations and advance upon the city.

But when the revelations of the mystery of God have been completed while simultaneously they have been convincingly shown where they have rejected the loving appeals of God, the time has come for the final settle­ment. Every one of these individuals has, during this life, made an ir­revocable decision rejecting salvation in preference for Satan’s kingdom. Cod knows that once this point has been reached, the wicked will never change no matter what opportunity may be given to them. It is for this reason that Jesus solemnly intones as He Leaves the sanctuary, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Revelation 22:11.

This is the declaration of Jesus Christ in evaluating the condition of the wicked. It is not to be supposed that Christ says this because He and the Father have decided that probation can no longer be continued, and for this reason those who have not availed themselves of salvation during the designated time limit, are lost forever. It is because, no matter what revela­tions might be made to them or opportunities given, their decision is final.

But it is one thing for this to be so and for Christ to say it is so. It is something else for the believers to see it. How often in this life, have we looked upon a person who appears to be so sincere and honest, and yet who makes no evident move toward the message. We feel that if only this one had been given more opportunity to see it, he or she would have come to Christ. We find it difficult to accept the idea that when this person goes to the grave, he should remain unjust forever.

The declaration made by Christ will be vindicated by the demonstration of its truthfulness at the close of the millenium. Those whom we thought had gone down to their graves without the necessary chance to see the light, will then be afforded the most comprehensive, clear, and wonderful revelation of the truth. It will convince but not convert them. Their rejection of such light as came to them in this life, will have hardened them beyond any possibility of change.

Their conviction that God is right after all, will be expressed by their bowing before Him and saying so, but they do not plead His forgiveness nor ask to be accepted into His kingdom. All that, is foreign and distasteful to them. They still want to live but on their own terms. Knowing that this cannot be and that accordingly, they are eternally to be deprived of any life; they rise from their knees in a frenzy of disappointment and rage and turn upon him who has robbed them of everything.

In effect, at the climax of the revelation of the gospel to them, God will ask them to confirm their intentions. Hitherto they have reiterated their wish to live without God. The time will have come when they must either 

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confirm or deny the plan to continue that way. If it was possible for them to relinquish every desire to be separate from God, then God would save them even then for “His mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 106:1.

But no person will be saved at this time for they will not show any disposition to change. Christ’s declaration will be proven correct. As God waits for their answer, they will confirm in the most emphatic terms that they want nothing to do with Him, but choose to be left entirely to their own way. They want the world and life under their own terms.

What can God do under the circumstances?

He has made it very plain that they have full liberty to choose what they want. If they prefer to go it alone without Him, then this is what they shall have. When Israel wanted their king, He gave them one; when they wanted flesh, He let them have it; and whenever men have wanted this or that, the Lord has never stood in their way, no matter what dire results might follow their foolish choosing.

At the end of the rnillenium He cannot change. So when they choose to go alone, He will simply say to them, “Then I respect your choice and set you completely free from My presence and control. All the earth and the mighty powers surrounding it are now in your hands. The rod of power is out of My hands and control.”

It will be as it was at the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, and the fall of Jerusalem, God, in each case, accepted their choice and turned the control over to them. So it will be at the end. The wicked will be given full possession of the earth and all the powers attendant upon it, but they will be unable to control the frenzied outburst of human, satanic, and natural wrath which has been building in intensity ever since the first sin was committed.

The first manifestations of this will be when the people turn on Satan himself. They see in him the cause of all their troubles. The weapons in­tended for the city will be directed against him and he will employ every evasive manoeuvre conceivable, to avoid them. Then the fires will start. Exactly how, we are not told. One thing is certain. Men never go to war without generating fire, especially when it is nuclear warfare. Thus, when they hurl their atomic and cosmic weapons at the devil, they will certainly start a mighty conflagration.

As in the flood of water when the fountains of the earth were broken up so that water rushed out from beneath the surface, so the stores of oil and coal still hidden from men in the bowels of the earth will burst forth in flaming torrents upon the surface.

“Those majestic trees which God had caused to grow upon the earth, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the old world, and which they had used to form into idols, and to corrupt themselves with, God has reserved in the earth, in the shape of coal and oil to use as agencies in their final destruc­tion. As He called forth the waters in the earth at the time of the flood, as 

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weapons from His arsenal to accomplish the destruction of the antediluvian race, so at the end of the one thousand years He will call forth the fires in the earth as His weapons which He has reserved for the final destruction, not only of successive generations since the flood, but the antediluvian race who perished by the flood.” Spiritual Gifts 3:87.

In the original flood, water also poured down from above. Likewise it is to be expected that fire will rain down from the heavens. The great source of this would be the sun, as from our study of the principles, we know that it does not come from God personally. When God’s presence was withdrawn from the earth in Noah’s day, both the sun and the moon were affected. Therefore, when God’s presence is again withdrawn in the same way at the close of the millenium, the sun will again be affected. In its final stages of decay resulting from the effects of sin in this earth, it could well erupt in great explosions, projecting streams of fire far out into the solar system and onto this earth. If this is to be so, then fire from above would mingle with the fire from beneath, exactly as the waters did when this earth was flooded. The whole earth will be enveloped in a sea of flame on which the Holy City will ride as did the ark. Within it, the ransomed will be safe and secure until the destruction is completed.

In this final annihilation, the wicked do not all take the same time to perish. There is a direct relationship between the extent to which they have sinned and the length of time they suffer.

“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.’

“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!’ ”  Early Writings, 294, 295.

The question immediately arises as to how the wicked could suffer ex­actly according to their desserts unless some intelligence calculates the measure of their individual punishments and so controls events that they will be kept alive until the full punishment has been exacted. On the sur­face, this would seem to be impossible. Therefore it is considered that God, being the only one with the power to either estimate the deserved chastise­ment or to control its administration, must surely be the one who executes the sinners in the end. 

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Anyone who understands and accepts the principles laid down so far, will recognize that there must be another answer. Perhaps it has not yet been revealed. This does not drive us to the conclusion that inasmuch as the real answer is wanting, we have to accept another. One thing must be very clear. It is that God does not execute the sinner, now, or in the past, or ever. It is sin which does that.

To understand how sin can do this and selectively punish one more than another, requires knowledge of laws which as yet are beyond our ken. One thing we do know however, is that the more sinful a person is, the more desperately he struggles to live in the face of death. The true child of God does not fight the Grim Reaper. He knows his time has come and that his life is safe in the hands of God. But not so with the rebel against God’s laws and government. He resists with all the power of his soul, and is able to prolong his life beyond its natural span.

No one has been so great a sinner as Satan, and no one will fight the in­roads of death with greater determination than he. Thus he will prolong his life far beyond that point where he would have died if he had resigned himself to his fate. In so doing he will extend his suffering until he has suf­fered for all the sins he has committed and caused others to commit.

Finally it will be all over and the “. . . fire which had consumed the wicked, will burn “up the rubbish and” purify “the earth.” Early Writings, 295.

The deadly experiment will be ended and it will be demonstrated eter­nally that through it all, God did not change. When sin entered it changed angels, men, the animals, and the operations of nature, but it did not change God. Nothing was introduced into His ways after the coming of sin which was not there before. He never destroyed before sin entered, never executed, never punished, and never forced. The entry of sin did not cause Him to begin doing any of these things in order to solve the problems sin imposed upon Him.

Satan and evil angels did their utmost to provoke Him to anger and arise to sweep away the rebellious inhabitants of the earth, but He would not be provoked, angered, insulted, or hurt. He emerges from the whole miserable test as immaculate as He entered it. Satan has not been able to sustain a single point against Him and it is shown that the way of the cross—the power of self-sacrificing love, which serves, no matter what the cost to the server—is stronger than all the ways of force combined.

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This book is not the last word on the character of God. No book written could ever be, either in this life or in the coming immortal era, for the knowledge of God, which is life eternal, will be unfolding without respite throughout eternity. God is infinite. There is no edge, no limit, no point where it can be said that there is no more. God has no beginning and He has no ending, not only in time but also in space.

The redeemed will spend the coming eternity studying into the wonder­ful depths, breadths, and heights of the character of the Infinite. The men­tal, physical, and spiritual energies and attendant capacities of these people will far surpass the capabilities of earth-bound students by at least twenty to one. In the original creation, Adam and his wife possessed twenty times the electrical energy possessed by us today.

“God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct.” Testimonies 3:138, 139.

In eternity, eager students will possess at least twenty times the vital energy possessed today and will be under the direct tutelage of Christ. It would be impossible to conceive of the enormous amount of light gathered by such in the first million years, for instance, of their celestial sojourn. That, in turn, will be but the beginning of what will be learned as successive millions of years roll by devoted to the continued contemplation of God’s character of love. In comparison with that, what a microscopic fragment of the knowledge of God is contained in this book. It is but cradle roll level at best. It is nothing more than a start, albeit, a very necessary and vital one.

It is important that this be realized by the hungry seeker after God, for thereby he will be encouraged to press on, ever reaching for the richer and more beautiful revelations of God yet to come. He will be impressed to im­merse himself in the contemplation of the life of Jesus Christ, the complete and perfect revelation of the Infinite One, Every contact with the throbbing, spiritual vitality of that life, with its marvellous consistency, tenderness, sav­ing power, and a thousand other blessed qualities, will motivate to even more intense thirsting to know and experience its elevating power. The things of this world will wane in interest and value until they have no draw­ing influence left. 

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The benefit to be gained is not limited to acquiring information. Vital and basic as this is, it is but the doorway to a character development such as no other factor can produce. There is no possibility of coming in contact with God without being dramatically changed in nature. Consciously and unconsciously, the patterns of behaviour, the attitudes, the spirit, the motivation, the work, and every aspect of the life will be purified, ennobled, sanctified, vitalized, prolonged, and enriched. Contributions of loving, self-sacrificing service will be rendered which will initiate streams of blessing, the radiating influence of which will penetrate beyond the confines of this life into the eternity beyond. Neither men nor angels can reach to a higher attainment than to know God.

“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

“But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23, 24.

Nebuchadnezzar ruled the world and gloried in the power by which he did it. Other men have been unbelievably rich, possessing treasures, lands, and money beyond computation. This is their glory and honour, but all the power in which a man could ever find his boasted satisfaction, all the wealth, charging him with glowing pride, that this world could ever give, can never compare to the riches contained in knowing God. Search for this treasure. Dig deeply, earnestly, relentlessly, until the golden veins are opened wide and the greatest riches in the universe become your posses­sion. Here is true value, which, if possessed, will bring all other treasures in its train. Those who have it are rich; the remainder are impoverished. This is a treasure available to all.

But, while on one hand, the searching out of God’s character is urged, on the other a warning must be sounded against certain dangers inherent in such a quest. There are a number of different ways in which study of the Scriptures can be undertaken, but only one of them is correct, Unless this method is understood and carefully adhered to, then the more time that is spent with the Word of God, the further the student will be from the real truth. Therefore, it would be better to do no study at all, than to conduct it along incorrect lines of interpretation.

This book purposes to set the learner on the right track; to clear away the tragic misconceptions of God which Satan has foisted on the human family to its hurt; to open to view God as He really is, and thus introduce the blessings which are awaiting those who dig deeply into the mines of truth.

It is stressed that this is only an introduction to the subject. Not all has been written which might have been. During its production, the temptation to write more had to be continually resisted lest the book become 

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disproportionately large. Volumes could be written on the role of the cross as the revelation of our Heavenly Father’s character. Still more could and should be written on the life and teachings of Christ. demonstrating the perfection of each word and act as the manifestation of the Omnipotent One. As time goes by, no doubt other volumes will follow this one, taking up these precious themes.

No attempt has been made to examine every incident in the Bible where God has been involved in one way or another. There is no necessity to do so. Once the application of divine principles has been applied to typical cases, anyone who has thoroughly grasped them will have no dif­ficulty in solving most problems. There will always be one or two which defy solution, the simple reason being that God will never remove the opportunity for doubt, for to do so would take away the right of choice, He desires our spiritual education to come to the place where we will learn to trust Him in the unknown on the basis of what we have learned in the known.

Learn to expect that seeming contradictions will manifest themselves as the study progresses. The solution of one problem only exposes another. This is a normal development. Some claim that they have never found a contradiction in the Bible, but this only admits that they have never really studied it. No one who has dug deeply, has failed to be confronted with what appeared to be insoluble problems. But, if aware that this is normal rather than abnormal, and, if faith has attended his research, he will rest in the comfort of knowing that there are no real contradictions in God’s Word, but only beautiful harmonies, even if they are not seen as such at the moment.

Train the mind not to think of God as if He were a man. Glaringly evi­dent in every false concept of God’s character, is the disposition to see God operating on the same procedures as men. There is no greater stumbling-block than this in the way of a correct comprehension of God. It must firstly be recognized as such, after which it will take protracted effort in retraining the thinking to automatically recognize that God works along lines that are opposite from man’s way of working.

As a gift to every creature, there is nothing which God desires more, than for them to have the knowledge of His character of righteousness.

When consideration is given to the magnitude of the task of under­standing the Infinite, discouragement might well possess the soul. But, be assured that there is nothing God is more anxious to supply than this knowledge, not only as a store of precious information, but, more impor­tantly, as a personal experience. He longs that the same character which is in Him be also in every one of His creatures, for, only then is it possible for all to enter into the blessed fellowship which makes heaven to be heaven.

Therefore, the blessed assurance is to accompany the spiritual wayfarer every moment, that the full resources of heaven are devoted to unfolding these things to the eager mind. With pitying tenderness, God stoops low to 

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unveil these mysteries to our dull human senses and is grieved when we learn so little so slowly. Before those who will press forward with unabated determination are possibilities beyond the outreach of our imaginations and aspirations. Higher and still higher, the Lord will personally elevate the mind until it is overwhelmed with the revelation of divine things. Sweeter and sweeter will be the love implanted within the head, more and more in­tense the spirit of se]f-sacrificing service, and more exalted and profound the response of praise and joy. Earthly things will appear in their true light, with lustre dimmed and attractiveness gone. Sin will no longer masquerade in garments of light, but will be exposed for what it is—a hideous, decep­tive, and unwanted perversion of all things good and true. There will be no more glorying in power and riches but in the possession of the knowledge of God, the greatest power and riches of all.

When God has a people upon this earth equipped with this, then He will have the instrumentalities whereby He will move the world. It is for this reason that the loud cry under the power of the latter rain cannot come until such qualifications are possessed by a living church. God desires to dispense to that church the very best gifts heaven can bestow, that its members, in turn, may render the finest saving service possible to the desperately needy and perishing millions of earth’s population.

God’s people have long professed to desire nothing more than the out­pouring of the latter rain whereby the work can be finished and the way prepared for Christ’s return. To such, then, comes the challenge of the truth that this can never be accomplished until the knowledge of God’s character firstly fills them and subsequently, lightens the whole earth with its glory. It is the failure of God’s church to know by text and by experience the truth of His character, which is retarding the finishing of God’s work in the earth today. While His children enjoy the comforts of this life, making little real effort to penetrate the mysteries of infinite love which have been revealed and are for them to understand, sin continues to trample the op­pressed on its missions of death and destruction,

Men of God, it is time to arise to the full stature of God’s plan, to measure up to the exacting demands of this climactic hour. God offers the equipment. It is for each to accept and use it. For six thousand years now, our loving Heavenly Father has been earnestly entreating His people to learn of Him that they might embark on their appointed mission and the earth be delivered from its oppression.

The question before this generation is whether they will respond by go­ing all the way, or will they, having made a good beginning, fall short as have all the other movements which have gone before.

It is a question to be faced and answered by each.

If this volume achieves nothing more than to alert enough people to the realization of these issues and stir them to a profound and total consecration of every faculty and power to the devoted study and experience of the character of God, then its writing will have been worthwhile.