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          INTERMISSION : The time between the 2nd and 3rd. comming 

                                 REFERENCES:
                   White;  The Great Controversy pp657-674 
                          Early Writings  pp289-295 


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                     What is happening during this time,
                           from the perspective of:
                                 The SAINTS, 
                                 The WICKED, 
                                      &
                                  The DEVIL 
         

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        Our study today, covers a unique phase of Adventist theology, that
    makes us quite destinct.  It gives us an  opportunity  to  respond  to
    some of the more perverse concepts of what God does with the wicked. 

        We  study  specifically  the  events  that  take  place during the
    mellinium between the 2nd. and 3rd. comming of our Lord,  and  if  you
    have  had  a  chance  to  review the material suggested you will get a
    sweep of events at the comming of our Lord the wicked are consumed  by
    the  majesty  of  His presence; and for a thousand years Satan and his
    band of angels are confined to  this  earth,  which  is  in  a  rather
    chaotic  state.   In fact this state is very simmilar to the beginning
    when it was without form and void. 

        During this time the saints, among other things, are  judging  the
    wicked,  at  least on the surface this is what appears to be, and then
    with Christ endorsing what they do, they meet out the punishment  that
    is to be administered to the wicked. 

        At  the end of this thousand years, Christ comes and resurects the
    wicked, they behold His coronation, and then the judgement is executed
    upon them, and then this big barbeque in the sky. 

        We have some real problems here.  We have problems  first  of  all
    with  the way God deals with Satan, I think that you can find problems
    with the way that God deals with the saints during this time and  what
    He expects of them, and also with what He does with the wicked. 

        With  respect  to  Satan;  doesn't it seem rather strange that God
    would take the guy and rub his nose in the dirt? What could be  gained
    by  confining  him in such a state of missery for a thousand years? We
    have asked  this  question  before;  is  God  sadistic?  What  can  be
    accomplished?  Is  any-  one  going to change their mind? It certainly
    isn't going to be salutory for Satan  and  his  coleagues.    Are  the
    saints supposed to enjoy the missery that they see on this earth? 

        What  about  the  saints during this time; doesn't it seem strange
    that they would get some kind  of  satisfaction  in  meeting  out  the
    punishment  for  this  group?  Is  this now when they are going to get
    their pound of flesh? Is God  facil-  tating  some  kind  of  sadistic
    tendencies  in  the  saints?  And  then  horrors  of  all horrors, God
    resurrects the wicked, so that in a short time He can burn them.  What
    in the name of righteousness does this do for the knigdom of  God?  Is
    sin  such  that  God  has  to impose some kind of suffering to make it
    worse? 

        Seventhday Adventists have reacted against this eternal torment of
    the wicked.  They have pointed out over a number of years that  it  is
    incongrous with the nature of God for anyone to suffer eternally.  But
    we  really  haven't solved the problem.  We proclaim that God is not a
    sadistic person in causing people to suffer through-out eternity,  and
    this  eternal burning that some have described in very vivd terms; but
    have we really solved the problem if we say: "No God doesn't make them
    burn for eternity, just for several days! God is  just  a  little  bit
    sadistic, not a lot sadistic." 

         But  the  problem  is  still  there.   What can God accomplish by
    burning them at all? The Bible describes this burning in such horrible
    terms; Isaiah speaks about it,  Daniel,  and  Jerimiah,  and  we  have
    terrible descriptions in the book of Revelation.  It is hard to find a
    scripture  from Revelation without some of this comming in.  What kind
    of God is this; who rubs Satan's nose in the dirt,  and  requires  His
    people  to  decide  how  much  the  wicked  should  burn.  And then He
    resurrects them, and insteaed of letting sleeping Dogs lie,  He  makes
    them  uncomfortable  and  requires  them  to  burn,  although  not for
    eternity, but for awhile. 

        What does all this tell us about God?  And  so  we  are  going  to
    consider those three issues.  What do we learn about God as we see how
    He deals with the Saints, the Wicked, and with Satan? 

        I'd  like  to  start  with  the  wicked  first,  because there are
    elements in this issue which will help us to understand those  in  the
    other issues. 

                     Why does God resurrect the wicked? 
        Is  anything  to  be  gained  by  bringing  them into some furthur
    misery, and then watching them burn? Is ther any way that  the  saints
    could get delight from this? What kind of people would God's people be
    if  they  could  enjoy this? And what does it do for God? Doesn't this
    seem very strange? Everyone has made their choice, does God  some  how
    add some kind of horrible picture to sin that didn't already exist? 

        I  thought  the  Christ  depicted teh awefullness of sin.  What is
    going to be the advantage of this burning? If that is what makes it so
    horrible, and what the wicked are to fear, then we would have  to  say
    that  Christ didn't really suffer the full impact of sin.  We are told
    in of Him, that His mental anguish was so great that His physical pain
    was hardly felt.  What could God accomplish by this? 

        I think that sometimes we haven't gone far enough in our  thinking
    on  some  of  these  issues  that people are asking about because this
    period really looks bad for God. 

        Let me suggest that we have not taken seriously the gift that  God
    has  given  to  the entire human race; And that is the Gift of Eternal
    Life. 

        God has given, and He is going to stick to  His  promise,  eternal
    life  to  the  human race.  Now there are some who refuse it.  But, it
    doesnot always appear that the wicked have really  refused  it.    The
    cases  in  point that are partic- ularily troublesome, are cases where
    God has had to take some rather dramatic  action  to  cut  the  wicked
    short.  This is all through the Old Testemant, the most notable being:
    the Flood, Sodom and Gomorah, Kora, Dathum and Abiram, and the 185,000
    Assarians.    Even  starting  off in the New Testement we see a rather
    dramatic judgement from God in Annias & Saphira. 

        How do we square this with the statement  that  "God  destroys  no
    one."  I  think  that we can justify God's seemly harsh actions on the
    basis  that  if  God  is to sit back on His throne and do nothing, the
    world would be engulfed by selfishness; that is selfish persons  would
    take  over.   In order to maintain contact with the human race God has
    had to check sin, and sinners from taking  over  at  several  specific
    times in this earth's history.  If God is going to  be  a  responsible
    God,  he  cannot just sit back and let sin destroy His kingdom; if you
    think about it.  So God has had to take very strong and descive action
    at various times in this earth's history. 

        How does this square with the notion that God destroys  noone?  We
    could  argue  that God knows the choices that they have made, and that
    He recognizes that there is nothing more that He can do with them,  so
    He  would  be  justified  in  removeing them from the scene.  But they
    didn't have a choice, at least it doesn't seem that way.  They  didn't
    say: "God take back your eternal life, I don't want it." If God is not
    going   to  appear  arbitrary  and  if  God  is  not  going  to appear
    destructive, He must be very carefull that no  one  can  ever  surmise
    that  He  has  really destroyed them.  BUT noone is really dead.  They
    sleep, they are unconscious, but noone has really died in the  eternal
    sense,  at  least  of  human beings that have any accountability, they
    sleep.  Any action that God has taken to remove anyone from the  scene
    of  action  is  only putting them to sleep, He has not destroyed them.
    And thus God has an obligation to erstore them, to wake them up again.
    THe only way anyone will ever be lost, is if they, of their  own  free
    choice say God: "I don't want it." 

        The universe has not heard that testimony, so it  becomes
    very  important,  if  God  really  values  and  desires human
    freedom, they must have the last  word  about  their  future.
    That  goes  for  the  wicked as well as the righteous. 

            EVERY  FREE  MORAL  CREATURE  MUST  HAVE  THE
            FINAL  WORD  AS  TO HIS OR HER OWN FUTURE, IF
            THEY ARE REALLY GOING TO BE FREE! 

        So,  at  the  third  comming  He  wakes them up and in effect, the
    implication is that you can live as long as you want.  If you come  to
    a  moment  of  realization  that it is not worth living just with this
    shell, and without a context of love; A person gets to  the  point  of
    realization  that  the reall hell is to be alone, and to have noone to
    love you, and to have noone love you.  They will get to this point  of
    realization  where they say to God, "I would rather be anhialated than
    to go on this way." ANd if they ask for that and then at  that  moment
    God  exercise  mercy  and transform them from Matter back into Energy,
    noone will ever say that God was arbitrary or that God destroyed them.
    But now this can create another problem.  What kind of choice did they
    have if God is going after them with a  blow  torch.    Big  deal,  He
    raises  them  up  and He is going to waite for them to ask out, and He
    goes after them with a flame thrower, and when things get  hot  enough
    they  start  yelling.  What kind of show would this be, if when people
    start frying and sizzling and then they "God I want out!" 

        Here is where I  think  that  we  have  made  some  rather  tragic
    missunderstandings   about  the  nature  of  this  fire.   The classic
    statement that unlocks the particular  mystery  about  this  fire,  is
    Hebrews  12:29.    "Our God is a consuming fire." If we go through the
    Bible, we will collect numerous passages  that  describe  the  eternal
    nature  of  this fire.  There is a very good reason that it will never
    go out; because our God IS a consuming fire. 

        We need to depict, in this "Lake  of  Fire",  not  something  that
    simply  refers  to  the  lighting of a match, but to something that is
    quit more than and quit different from anything we know. 

        The Majesty of God, who really knows it? I suppose that  in  terms
    of  energy,  we  might  describe  some  parrallel  in  terms of atomic
    fission.  The fire that is spoken of is not something that is going to
    lick up fingernails and toenails in slow pieces; it  is  going  to  be
    something  that  is  literally  instantaneous.    When God unveils His
    Majesty, when He comes out of hiding, and He wants to do this, because
    His very nature is to communicate with His creatures.   And  so,  when
    God  does  come  out  of  hiding,  He will be, either to those who can
    receive Him their Sun and their shield.  This  energy  will  be  their
    very source of light to them, or if they are not ready to receive Him,
    because they are not like Him, they cannot see him as He is, then they
    will be comsumed, very quickly from matter back into energy. 

        This fire is not a punative punishing fire.  God is recreating the
    earth.    So,  what about all this awefull language that is describing
    all this activity? I would refer you back to the  comments  that  were
    made  when we discussed the Three Angels Messages; in a certain period
    of Israels' hist- ory, they had outside the walls of Jerusalem, a  man
    made  furnace, a great big garbage pit.  The Greeks refered to this as
    G'Henna,a another of the words transliterated from the  Hebrew.    And
    this  refered  to  hades, or hell.  What they did, was to throw all of
    their junk and refuse and everything that was  to  be  discarded  into
    this  great  big  pit.    To  those  who  never belonged to the Hebrew
    economy, or were thrown out of the Hebrew economy  for  their  crimes,
    such  as  leppers,  they  were  thrown without proper burial onto this
    garbage pile; this  g'henna,  this  hades.    You  might  imagine  the
    problems they had in regard to sanitation and stench, so they set it a
    fire, and kept this fire going night and day, and the prophets had all
    kinds  of descriptions of this burning, and likened it to this process
    at the end of time.  What was so horrible about it was not that it was
    inflicting some physical pain, but that for anyone of the children  of
    Israel  to  be thrown out onto this pit meant that they had lost their
    identity, they nolonger belonged.  They lost  their  individuality  as
    far as the kingdom of God was concerned, and nothing could be worse to
    a Jew.  Recall their interest in genealogies and in keeping their line
    intact;  nothing  could be worse than to be a nothing.  God has alowed
    the prophets to use  the  most  poignant  physical  language,  to  use
    physical  terms, to create such an aweful picture that it would depict
    the emotions that a Jew would experience when they thought of  loosing
    their  identity;  complete  anhialation,  no  proper burial, they were
    desicrated, they were relagated back to nothingness and nothing  could
    be  worse.    This  is  much of the language in the book of Revelation
    describing this lake of fire.  Taken from the  coloquialisms  of  that
    time, describing the horendous state that should occur. 

        This  should  not offend anyone if we take this symbolically, much
    of Revelation is symbolical. Surely the Chain by which Satan is  bound
    in  Revelation  20  is  not  literal;  we  refer to this as a chain of
    circumstance, and we have no problem with that.  I think  that  if  we
    are  going  to  be  consistant  we  have  to  recognize  the nature of
    language, and what it points to, and that all  the  descriptions  that
    are describing this process are more than just physical processes.  It
    is describing the worese thing that can ever happen to a person, to be
    completely  severed  from  God and Gods' people; complete anhialation,
    complete loss of identity, which is the very nature of being  made  in
    the  image  of  God,  having  individuality, having identity.  And now
    those who are not of the people of God are reduced to nothingness. 

        Now, What is God doing with the wicked.  I say first of  all  that
    God  has  awakened  them  so that they might have a choice as to their
    future.  Now God knows that by the  kinds  of  lives  that  they  have
    lived,  he  know what they will choose, but God does not expect anyone
    to take Him at His word, not  at  this  point.    He  desired  in  the
    beginning  that  the  human race should take Him at His word, but once
    they failed to trust Him, God could not ever allow the possibility  to
    ever  arise  that  He be missunderstood.  Everyone will have their own
    final word as to their future, the wicked included.  What God must do,
    is to arrange a setting which  is  the  natural  result,  the  natural
    consequences  of  what  they  had chosen.  What had the wicked chosen?
    Separatness, alianation, to do their own thing, to live by  their  own
    whims,  to be their own little island.  They will be like it is spoken
    of, as long ago as Judges, that every man did what was  right  in  his
    own eyes. 

        Now,  at  first when they are awakened, they are confused, because
    Satan walks among them and tells them that he is the great  prince  of
    righteousness,  and  that he has resurrected them, his thrown has been
    usurped, and that with them he is going to take over the  kingdom  and
    he  will  be their ruler.  Some of them probably have some missgivings
    as they will have remembered what happened under his direction  during
    the  seven  plagues.   But they are panicky, and under desperation and
    not really having any selfcontrol anyway, they have really lost  their
    freedom,  they  are  once  again sucked into the designs of Satan, and
    they chose to believe a lie. 

        So they prepare to take the city, and as they march  on  the  city
    their  progress  is  arrested and their attention grabbed by the scene
    that is spread out before them.  Christ takes His seat on  the  throne
    high  above  the  city,  and  all eyes are fastened upon Him, and this
    forward military movement is stopped.  Christ is  then  crowned  King,
    and  through  some  process  there is this great panorama; everyone is
    made to see all of the major  issues  of  the  Great  Contro-  versey.
    Everyone  sees  the part that they played, they see it just as it was.
    God has added nothing.  Then as they come to this horrible realization
    of what they have missed out on and what they have  lost;  living  for
    the  moment,  they  have sacrificed the most glorious long haul.  Then
    Satan, in one last frenetic effort moves among them and  says:  "Let's
    take  the  city!" But now he is completly unmasked, and they turn upon
    him, and they turn upon each other, and they would destroy  themselves
    on the spot, except that God steps in and saves them from themselves. 

        How does He do this?  He brings another dramatic event to  capture
    their  attention.   And that is the recreation of this earth; prepared
    for the righteous, God does something very simillar to what He did  in
    creation  week.  This serves to place all of the wicked in somewhat of
    a meditative  mood,  isolating  them  from  their  colleagues,   their
    partners in sin; and now they have complete aloneness, in the sense of
    alienation.  This is the most awefull thing that can ever happen. 

        The anguish that they are feeling, described figuratively that, as
    long  as  their skin is intact, they suffer.  But what do they suffer?
    Something approximating what our Lord sufferd in Gethsemene and on the
    cross; the realization of being separated, of being alone,  of  having
    noone  to  love  or  be  loved  by.  They obviously cann't be with the
    saints'; that wouldn't be fair to the saints.  And they cann't even be
    with themselves; how would it be to live with someone  who  would  try
    and  destroy  you?  The only thing that God can do is to isolate them,
    but this is really what they have chosen. 

        Now they watch God use His power, in a very constructive  way,  to
    recreate  the  earth,  and  they see this massive majesty, this power,
    this display, this God who is a consuming fire,  creatively  preparing
    the  abode of the righteous.  And the anguish gets to them like it has
    never gotten to anyone before.  God has added nothing, He has just let
    them be.  This is the wrath of God!  A  very  loving  thing;  God  has
    simply  accepted,  as  Paul  tells us in Romans 1, that when they have
    suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, when there  is  nothing  more
    that  He  can  do  for them, He must acknowledge that He must let them
    alone.