A QUESTION:
After reading the post on Armageddon...(https://4womaninthewilderness.blogspot.com/2018/01/armageddon.html),
...it does make sense that Armageddon would be symbolic, which is in keeping with our loving creator. However when discussing this with the family today, we wondered about times in the Hebrew Scriptures when God caused the destruction of many men, women and children, such as the flood, the final plague on the Egyptian's firstborn, Sodom and Gomorrah as well as all the Israelite wars against enemy nations while settling the promised land etc. How are we to reconcile these events?
- - - - - - -
MY REPLY:
Please consider what happened in Eden, because there we learn how God handles sin. Did God kill Adam and Eve? No. But He did warn them, that death would be the result of their wrong choice. How would that death come about? Well, first, they would choose to make Satan their father and god. How did that happen? We are told in the Bible, that we are slaves to whatever we obey (Rom.6:16-17)----
"16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance."
How does this scripture apply to what happened in Eden? When Adam and Eve turned to Satan for guidance, and obeyed that guidance, they became Satan's obedient slaves, much as a child would obey his father. By eating fruit from a forbidden source, they left off taking their guidance (and obedience) from God as their father. They became children of sin and death (John 8:34; Rom.5:12). How? Satan, is the father of both, sin and death (Heb.2:14; John 8:44; Rev.9:11; Isa.33:1).
If we become his children, we come under his dominion of both, sin and death. Rom.6:17 quoted above, tells us that when we loyally obey the "pattern of teaching" from God, we become His slaves, we are granted righteousness and life, rather than being slaves to sin and death.
Can you see from all this, that our choice to imitate and obey Satan as father, results in being under the power of his dominion (much as a child put into a household under Satan)? When under Satanic authority, we are subject to his decisions. What befalls those under Satanic authority and dominion? Do you see from the Bible, that the consignment and destination of those belonging to Satan, is destruction and death?
God cannot righteously protect and defend... those who have chosen of their own free will, to disobey God as Father... and have chosen Satan... the provider and enticer of deceptive and corrupt desires, that end in death (James 1:13,14,15; Gal.6:7).
If so, then we can return to your questions....
God is ultimately responsible for universal justice. Under that righteous umbrella of divine justice, God either chooses to act, or to not act... to protect, or not protect, to guard against the wicked one, or to surrender to the wicked one.
Whatever God's decision, it always respects our free will, just as in Eden. But after we have chosen our god and father, it is a righteous part of God's justice that we do, reap what we sow. We cannot change our mind, after we have "eaten the fruit" and acted out our sin.
As we learned by the accounts of Job and Jesus, even righteous ones can be subjected to Satanic test, and suffer his cruelty. But after proving loyal and faithful to God, God is justified in limiting what Satan can do. Not so, with those who have chosen Satan as father, who have rejected God's grace and guidance. In doing so, they have also forfeited God's protection.
So now, what of executions of death, that resulted from God's justice in BIble history? Did God deviate from what we have learned in the foregoing scriptures? Was it God Himself, that caused the deaths of the wicked?
There are two ways of answering this question.
Since God is the One who ultimately decides, what He allows to happen, then I suppose with that viewpoint... God is responsible for everything, isn't He?
But if we concur with God's righteous sense of Justice... we accept that some of the things God allows to befall the wicked, who have exercised their free will to choose rebellion, are deserved, and that it is an exercise of God's righteousness, in allowing them to reap what they have sown.
Again... what of Bible history, and it's accounts of the executions of the wicked. Was it God allowing people to reap destruction from their chosen father?... or was it God, robbing Satan of his children.... taking Satan's children away from Satan, and then killing them?
I will use, one of your chosen examples to shed light on the answer to that question... that of the execution of the firstborn in Egypt. ---
God told His people His decision. See if you agree that it was Justice.
God told His people, that if any desired God's protection, that they should paint the blood of a lamb on their doorposts.
As God said...
"13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." (Ex.12:13)
Although at the end of that verse, it sounds like God is doing the "striking"/destroying, could this mean that it is God, who is merely responsible for, allowing it?
Go down to verse 23---
"23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and **He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.**"
We learn from verse 23, that God is setting a limit, based upon a household's obedience to God's instructions. Do you see that?
Do you see, that it is "the destroyer" that enters a disobedient house, and does the "striking down"?
Do you see God's justice at work... and do you see the Devil at work?
It is crucial, that we discern the distinction between the works of God (protector of the obedient) and the works of the Devil (to destroy the unprotected).
God is candid and forthcoming. He does not shrink from His part, and often takes credit for the destruction of the wicked, ---because it is God who exercises His justice and power, when He decides in all righteousness, what each person should reap. He makes certain, that we reap what we have sown. His righteous justice will always dominate, because He is, a God of righteous justice, and deserves to be credited and praised for being such.
After reading the post on Armageddon...(https://4womaninthewilderness.blogspot.com/2018/01/armageddon.html),
...it does make sense that Armageddon would be symbolic, which is in keeping with our loving creator. However when discussing this with the family today, we wondered about times in the Hebrew Scriptures when God caused the destruction of many men, women and children, such as the flood, the final plague on the Egyptian's firstborn, Sodom and Gomorrah as well as all the Israelite wars against enemy nations while settling the promised land etc. How are we to reconcile these events?
- - - - - - -
MY REPLY:
Please consider what happened in Eden, because there we learn how God handles sin. Did God kill Adam and Eve? No. But He did warn them, that death would be the result of their wrong choice. How would that death come about? Well, first, they would choose to make Satan their father and god. How did that happen? We are told in the Bible, that we are slaves to whatever we obey (Rom.6:16-17)----
"16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance."
How does this scripture apply to what happened in Eden? When Adam and Eve turned to Satan for guidance, and obeyed that guidance, they became Satan's obedient slaves, much as a child would obey his father. By eating fruit from a forbidden source, they left off taking their guidance (and obedience) from God as their father. They became children of sin and death (John 8:34; Rom.5:12). How? Satan, is the father of both, sin and death (Heb.2:14; John 8:44; Rev.9:11; Isa.33:1).
If we become his children, we come under his dominion of both, sin and death. Rom.6:17 quoted above, tells us that when we loyally obey the "pattern of teaching" from God, we become His slaves, we are granted righteousness and life, rather than being slaves to sin and death.
Can you see from all this, that our choice to imitate and obey Satan as father, results in being under the power of his dominion (much as a child put into a household under Satan)? When under Satanic authority, we are subject to his decisions. What befalls those under Satanic authority and dominion? Do you see from the Bible, that the consignment and destination of those belonging to Satan, is destruction and death?
God cannot righteously protect and defend... those who have chosen of their own free will, to disobey God as Father... and have chosen Satan... the provider and enticer of deceptive and corrupt desires, that end in death (James 1:13,14,15; Gal.6:7).
If so, then we can return to your questions....
God is ultimately responsible for universal justice. Under that righteous umbrella of divine justice, God either chooses to act, or to not act... to protect, or not protect, to guard against the wicked one, or to surrender to the wicked one.
Whatever God's decision, it always respects our free will, just as in Eden. But after we have chosen our god and father, it is a righteous part of God's justice that we do, reap what we sow. We cannot change our mind, after we have "eaten the fruit" and acted out our sin.
As we learned by the accounts of Job and Jesus, even righteous ones can be subjected to Satanic test, and suffer his cruelty. But after proving loyal and faithful to God, God is justified in limiting what Satan can do. Not so, with those who have chosen Satan as father, who have rejected God's grace and guidance. In doing so, they have also forfeited God's protection.
So now, what of executions of death, that resulted from God's justice in BIble history? Did God deviate from what we have learned in the foregoing scriptures? Was it God Himself, that caused the deaths of the wicked?
There are two ways of answering this question.
Since God is the One who ultimately decides, what He allows to happen, then I suppose with that viewpoint... God is responsible for everything, isn't He?
But if we concur with God's righteous sense of Justice... we accept that some of the things God allows to befall the wicked, who have exercised their free will to choose rebellion, are deserved, and that it is an exercise of God's righteousness, in allowing them to reap what they have sown.
Again... what of Bible history, and it's accounts of the executions of the wicked. Was it God allowing people to reap destruction from their chosen father?... or was it God, robbing Satan of his children.... taking Satan's children away from Satan, and then killing them?
I will use, one of your chosen examples to shed light on the answer to that question... that of the execution of the firstborn in Egypt. ---
God told His people His decision. See if you agree that it was Justice.
God told His people, that if any desired God's protection, that they should paint the blood of a lamb on their doorposts.
As God said...
"13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." (Ex.12:13)
Although at the end of that verse, it sounds like God is doing the "striking"/destroying, could this mean that it is God, who is merely responsible for, allowing it?
Go down to verse 23---
"23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and **He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.**"
We learn from verse 23, that God is setting a limit, based upon a household's obedience to God's instructions. Do you see that?
Do you see, that it is "the destroyer" that enters a disobedient house, and does the "striking down"?
Do you see God's justice at work... and do you see the Devil at work?
It is crucial, that we discern the distinction between the works of God (protector of the obedient) and the works of the Devil (to destroy the unprotected).
God is candid and forthcoming. He does not shrink from His part, and often takes credit for the destruction of the wicked, ---because it is God who exercises His justice and power, when He decides in all righteousness, what each person should reap. He makes certain, that we reap what we have sown. His righteous justice will always dominate, because He is, a God of righteous justice, and deserves to be credited and praised for being such.
Yet God does not take pleasure in either sin, bad consequences, or death. He desires that we desist from doing bad, and secure for ourselves a better outcome.
(Gen.4:7; 2Pet.3:9; Eze.33:11; Isa.1:16,17,18,19,20; Jonah 3:8-9; Jer.26:13) (https://pearl-copingwithsin.blogspot.com)
To know God, is to understand His justice, and not to ascribe to Him or Jesus Christ the works of the Devil. Neither God nor Jesus, are murderers. They are Judges, and for this reason, we rightly fear them, and strive to gain their approval. If we abandon them as Fathers, we deserve the treatment meted out by the Destroyer...
(https://4womaninthewilderness.blogspot.com/2016/11/who-is-destroyer.html)
...whose dominion and household, we freely chose.
"7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. 8 The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." (Gal.6:7-8).
"10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
I am confident that you would benefit from reading this post:
https://4womaninthewilderness.blogspot.com/2013/08/two-trees.html
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Thanks Pearl.... It makes sense. If we warn our children NOT to do something that would cause them harm, and they decide to go ahead and ignore our our warning anyway, are we to blame for not constantly hovering over them to stop them? Would they not be angry with us for stopping them ...before ....they reap the bad results? (Later they might be angry with us for not forcefully stopping them after it's too late.) Sadly we all learn from our mistakes, and although we are pained at seeing our own children reap what they sow, we still love them and would do whatever we can to help them if they "turn around". We actually pray that they will wake up. God is love, and even though we reap bad results from our mistakes, he can fix things later. Death is the ultimate result of our state of being today. Jesus showed that God has the final power even over Death.
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