By: Dr. Richard M. Nies - 1975 Transcribed (with permission), Edited, and Presented By: Haydn k. Piper - 1985
* * STUDY #10 - Part II * *
INTERMISSION : The time between the 2nd and 3rd. comming
REFERENCES:
White; The Great Controversy pp657-674
Early Writings pp289-295
* * * * *
What is happening during this time,
from the perspective of:
The SAINTS,
The WICKED,
&
The DEVIL
* * * * *
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.
If God has to add anything to this to make it worse, then sin
isn't so bad. But they get to the point where they real- ize two
things: that they don't fit, that they just wouldn't fit in to this
new earth that God has just prepared, nor would they be able to
survive with the rest of those who have chosen as they have; they are
horribly alone, and theyrecognize the undoneness of the situation.
They also recognize something else: That God is a wonderful person.
In this recognition, and without this recognition they would never ask
for mercy, they know that they can get it. When they get to that
moment of truth, they ask God for mercy, and He tells them that He
still loves them but there is nothing more He can do, their condition
is incurable. At the moment when they ask, God steps in and for that
individual God unveils His majesty, and they are completely
anhialated, matter is transformed back into energy.
Why do some take longer than others? For the simple reason that
their habits are moe entrenched; it takes some longer for some because
of their blindness, to come to their moment of truth. God must let
them be until they ask for mercy; they can have it any time they want,
they can live as long as they want. God would have to prepare
something special for them if they chose to live, but God knows that
they aren't going to want this. God is a very perceptive person. All
He has to do is to leave them alone, which is really what they have
chosen, that is always the ultimate end of selfishness. They have
what they have asked for, they cannot stand it, they ask for mercy,
and God does something that He did not even do for His own Son; He
cuts it short in righteousness. Remember when Christ got to the point
where He would have died Thursday night? The Father sends an angel to
strengthen Him, so that He might suffer on. Christ is the only person
who has ever lived, or will ever live, who suffered the full total
consequences of sin. God did not cut that short in righteousness; sin
exhausted itself in Christ.
God wanted the universe to see this in its totality, noonelse will
ever have to experience that, because if at any point where they ask
for mercy they will get it. Not so with Christ. When He asked, "If
it be possible this cup may pass from Me?" He didn't get the cup to
pass from Him. But the wicked are told, "When you have a full cup I
will take it from you." He didn't do that with Christ.
Some must live longer than others simply because of the more
deeply ingrained, or more indellible, are their habit patterns, the
entrenchness of their tendencies, Satan must live longer than the
others simply because it takes him longer to come to his moment of
truth before he realizes that "God you are a good person, and what I
have chosen for myself is total misery, won't you please help me, and
give me one final manifestation of your love." This is what elicits
this confession from from the wicked. They come to the point where
they recognize that God is this kind of person; they didn't see Him
that way before, and they didn't expect that they should have mercy.
This tells us something very significant about sin, and about God:
First of all it tells us that sin is so bad that God could not
anything to it; if anything He takes something away. When He gives
them mercy, He shortens their sentence. It would be horrible for God
to let them live past the point of their realization that this is
horrible. God adds noth- ing, He subtracts. This is important,
because if we have a concept that the wicked have to suffer something
that Christ didn't have to suffer, it raises too many problems.
Certain- ly if we consider, in the final process, something that is
simply physical, that somehow the flesh is consumed away, piece by
piece, rather than recognize the figurativeness of this language, then
we trivialize sin. We can say then that it really isn't so bad, God
has to show by His reaction, that it is so horrible, He has to add
something to it to make it worse. That isn't the case, if anything
God takes away from it because it is so awefull. He does this when He
exercises mercy to the wicked.
Secondly it tells us something about the love of God. God is not
sadistic, God is not resurrecting the wicked so that they can fry,
that's unlike God. Certainly the saints couldn't see any justice, any
mercy or love in this kind of a process. God is not doing this, and
we see God being consistent with Himself right up to the final
anhialation of teh wicked. You can admire and love that kind of a
God. And yet that does not in any sense trivialize the awefullness of
sin.
So why does God resurrect the wicked? Because God desires nothing
more, nothing higher than their freedom; they must have the final
word. God gave them eternal life, He will never take it away from
them, but they can refuse it, and it must be done in such a way that
it is patently evident to the universe that God has destroyed noone.
They have already destroyed themselves; there would be no point to let
them live on as just a shell of selfishness. They have the final
word. God respects His creatures and will respect their judgement,
and when they can see what choices they erally have, and in their
condition in which they have become endilliblized in selfishness, God
knows that they would never want to live beyond that moment of
realization of what it is really about; and so He must do this out of
respect for His creatures, and out of respect for the onlooking
universe, that they might realize the real nature of sin.
* * * *
What are the saints doing to judge in this process? Why do they
have to decide how long a person has to suffer? If you go back and
study this closely you would find this comment in Great Controversy
page 661, that they with Christ, and Christ endorsing what they are
doing. The implication is that they decide, according to their deeds
how long they are going to suffer. That might seem strange, but not
at all if you take it in the context that has just been described.
If God grants mercy too soon, before it represents the full choice
of the wicked, the controversy will always remain open, there ill
always be the possibility that they really didn't choose this result.
And so God trusts the saints to recognize as they go over the record,
as they understand the character of the wicked, that "God you must
hold off long enough for them to come to this realization; if you cut
it too short it might make it look like you have destroyed them."
I can imagine that God would like to get it over with and not have
to let them suffer, but the saints say: "god you must be carefull, not
too soon." God really knows at what point it is really wise to do
this, but here is God respecting the judgement of His creatures and it
is as if the saints are sying God you have to waite. We know you are
a loving God, we know it pains you to let them suffer," and what
loving parent will not suffer with their children, even when they are
bad. And God reflecting His own nature, wants to get this over with,
He does not want to see them suffer, that is why He sent the Flood, in
mercy to the suffering of even the wicked on this earth at that time.
The saintssay to God, as it were, "God you have to waite so long, and
it is going to take so-and-so this long to come to their moment of
truth, and someone else a little longer." Now, if they go too long,
then God is in the position of allowing unecessary suffering. Gos
wants everyone to understand that there is a right moment for Him to
step in and exercise mercy. And what is that point? It is according
to their deeds, it is according to the indellibleness of their deeds,
their habits, of their works, that the time is different. And the
saints pass judgement, not in the sense that they have to suffer so
long, but to recognize what God is doing, that God will not do it too
soon and He will not waite too long; He will do it just right for
every person. The saints validate what God is going to do before God
takes action. Nothing arbitrary about God, He exposes Himself to the
whole universe and accepts their judgement as to how He should
function.
There is also something else that the saints are going to be doing
during this time. They are also validating what God had done in their
own lives, not just with the wicked. We have this marvelous statement
in the Desire of Ages, that if we could see the end from the beginning
we would choose to have God lead us, just in the way He has led us.
God even says to us, "I'll give you the final word."
Have you ever felt that you would like to look back at your life
and see what God has done in your life, and say, "God that is exactly
what I would have done myself if I had known what you knew, and had
been in a position to understand." You would feel safe if you could
make that kind of statement; "you know that is exactly the way I would
have wanted it to be." That is exactly what God is going to do for
us.
It is really God that is being judged: how He dealt with the
wicked and how He dealt with the saints. The saints are going to be
able to look back through all these mysterious moments when it didn't
look like it made sense and they will be able to ask: "Why God, did
you do it this way?" And God says, "You take a look for yourselves,
and you tell me what you think." So during this thousand years the
saints will look at these times and they wiil get the understanding,
and will go back to God and say, "this is fantastic, that's exactly
what I would have done. You couldn't have done a better job by me;
infact it is even better than I would have done."
If everyone gets the final word on God, that should give everyone
encouragement, no one could complain. God must stand that kind of
inspection. Everywhere along the way, even when it seems a little
vague, and this is where we must trust God, God is doing nothing that
you wouldn't do yourself if you had a chance to know what He knows,
and if you were loving like Him so that you would want to do the right
thing, you would do exactly what God is doing now, to all of His
creatures.
So this time is a period to study and investigate how God has
dealt with the wicked and with you, and all of the questions that they
have had will be worked through and answered and understood, so that
they themselves will come to the conclusion that; "God you are a
fantastic person." The whole universe will recognize the wisdom and
the love and the graciousness of God. This thousand years permits
this kind of judgement.
* * * *
Well, what about the Devil? We haven't figured him out yet. What
the Devil, is he doing? It seems like God is rubbing his nose in the
dirt. Not really. According to their deeds. Satan, perhaps more
than any other being, has deceived himself in many respects. I think
that here in lies tha answer to the questions I have heard: "Why does
Satan go and do all these things, since he knows the scriptures and
trembles at the thought of Gods' might and power?" It is simply that
he has believed his own lies.
G.C. p.660 "Because of his unceas-
ing activity since his fall, he has
bannished reflection..."
An interesting statement: "... banished reflection ..."
How is Satan ever going to get to his moment of truth, when he has
been around for so long, and has been so malicious, has been so
selfcentered as to boggle the imagination; how can a person like this
ever come to his moment of truth? That is going to take a little more
time. So in part, the thousand years for Satan and his colleagues is
a conditioning process. He has bannished reflection, he has had
blinders on. And so now through the creation of these circumstance
God takes his selfimposed, blinders off.
After all, even Satan must have final word for himself, and it is
going to take a little longer for himand his. So God gives them the
opportunity, through this thousand years, to take the blinders off.
There is another interesting thing that I would like you to
consider during this time. in Revelation 21:1-3 where it speaks of
this "bottomless pit", the Greek word is abusos, we get our word
abbyss. In the Greek translation of the Old Testement, the
Septuagient, in Genesis 1 and 2, where it says that the earth was
without form and void, the stuff is there, but God hadn't formed it
yet. And darkness was on the face of the deep; that word "deep", is
abusos, the same word we get abbyss, or bottomless pit.
In the book Great Controversy we are told that the earth will be
brought back partially to the original state. And Satan has to live
in it. There is something very significant about that. In the
beginning Satan became jealous of Christ in terms of His role as
creator. We are told that Satan wanted to create, we are not told too
much about this, but in putting all of these passages together, and
looking at there is something that stands out like a neon sign. I'll
bet God gave him a chance; I'll bet He had this ball of mud, and there
is no evidence other than circumstantial and it is not inconsistent
with what we do have, and it does fill in the picture we do have as
you may see in just a minute.
Let's just assume for a moment that Satan wanted to be creative.
He really couldn't create, and in Patriarchs and Prophets it says
Satan wasn't consulted because he had nothing to offer; so God says:
"O.K. Satan do what you want."
What did it look like when he got through? It was without form and
void, darkness was on the face of the earth, it was an abbyss, it was
a mess. And Satan now charged God with holding back from His
creatures something; the ability to create. And what did God do? He
stepped in, artistic- ally, creatively, and I think that God even had
fun at creation week, delighting the whole universe, with ease, as He
fashioned this ugly, icky ball of mud into something that was
fantastically beautiful. The design an order that we see in creation
week is fantastic; the design and preparation of the first day
prepares for the fourth day, the second for the fifth day, and the
third day prepares for the sixth day. A very interesting design. And
ofcourse the seventh day is a grand celebration of what it was all
about. Before man ever started to work he had a date with God, let's
celebrate. The universe was exstatic. In Job it tells us that all
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy. They were jumping up and down with excitement. They had
probably had the opportunity to watch for eons to see what Satan could
do.
God took this ball of mud and turned it into something beautiful,
Satan couldn't hack it. Which brings up another point to the
mellinium; What if God gives Satan one last chance to create? And so
he has a thousand years, to do anything he wants; and what does he
have when he gets through? It is the same way, just like it was when
he left it the first time, an abbyss.
And what does the creator do again? He steps-in, our God who is a
consuming fire, His majesty, His power; God then recreates. He does
not destroy the elements, there is nothing wrong with the elements.
When the Bible says, "Behold, I make all things new." The Greek word
is kinos not ne'os; ne'os means something new that has never before
existed, that is not the word used, when God creates all things new,
it is kinos, new in quality. God does something very simillar to the
original week, the elements are O.K., they have been twisted up, and
so what does God have to do? He re-arranges them, restructures them,
"and the ellements shall melt with fervrent heat", and the earth is in
tremendous upheavel. God redesigns it just like He did in the first
place.
This is a very impressive scene for all of the righteous and
wicked as well. This has significance then in terms of what God is
doing with Satan. Satan gets another chance. He wants to build his
kingdom, he wants to restructure, he wants to be creative; and
ofcourse he cann't do it. This helps Satan to realize that he cann't
do it, he has never admitted it probably even to himself; because he
has bannished reflection, he cann't see what even he looks like,
because he has blocked reality.
God gives him one last shot at reality and another opportunity
to do what he has wanted to do all along, and he cann't do it. And
once again the creator steps in.
So we see, that with the wicked, with the saints, and even with
Satan; God is a very wonderful person. There is so much wisdom in the
way He has handled this controversy. God is not a vindictive, mean
tyrant, who is going to raise someone to sizzle. I think that we have
trivialized sin with such a conception; the language doesn't demand
it. If we would get in and really understand these expressions, and
in no sense are we trying to allegorize this.
I think this particular scheme makes a tremendous amount of sense,
I think it does justice to the language, and I think it gives us a
real picture of sin. More important than anything else, it indicates
the character of God. This is the glorious picture of God at work
during the mellinium.
* * * * * * *
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