This overview is not a list of Scripture references but simply an overview of what I have learned from a prayerful, careful analysis of Scripture. However, I believe truth is revealed in Scripture. On this blog can be found large lists of Bible reference that may be examined along with considerable more in the Bible on this topi I have not included that provide clues related to this overview.
I have drawn included concepts from teachers that have provided better insight for me over the years from various sources including ancient cultural studies and Biblical research. The following are my beliefs about what is really going on in the larger conflict between the Creator God and His archenemy Satan, previously Lucifer, who at one time was the most prominent created being in the universe serving at the highest position over God's throne.
I have taken liberty to include ideas from my own imagination, not to distort but rather fill in could be possible details not explicitly in the Bible. For all seeking a broader context in which to view how we fit into this Great War, I pray that this will both be helpful and encouraging.
Introduction
The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is a foundational truth of reality and a familiar text from the Word of God. But how much do we really understand what it means and the far-reaching implications emanating from this text? There is a wide variety of opinions about death, about sin and about how the God of the Universe Who is over all things relates to us. Are we to understand from this text that if we sin God is going to kill us? Or worse yet maybe, like many believe and teach, He will not kill us after all but will torture us endlessly in excruciating agony in fires of damnation forever and ever – and all that just for not accepting His love and forgiveness. What is the real truth about “hell”? And even far more importantly behind that question, what is the truth about God and what is He really like? What does He plan to do with those who reject His offers of mercy and the sacrifice of His only beloved Son?
Here is another question to think about. Is God the angry Ruler of the Universe that has to be placated or appeased by the torture of His own Son in our place so that we can get off the hook? Looking back over the history of religion for the past few thousand years one might easily come to that conclusion. Are we to assume that the words prophesied in Revelation 6:16 are really a reflection of how God feels about us – “hide us from the wrath of the Lamb”? Is even Jesus, the Lamb of God, One to be afraid of and viewed as becoming so angry that He comes in anger to torture His enemies at the Second Coming? Does God desire for our obedience to Him to be based on fear – or more like terror – rooted primarily in our desires to avoid the violent judgments, threats and wrath of an offended God?
True obedience comes from the heart. Some may have heard that many times, but without a realistic comprehension of what the heart is or where to identify it inside of us, many have come to simply substitute a different definition for the word so that it fits more neatly into their intellectual paradigms. Sometimes I have heard this expressed by preachers who say “when your read the word 'heart' in the Bible, just substitute 'mind' because they are really the same thing.” Unfortunately though, this kind of logic has kept millions from entering in to a much deeper experience that God longs for us to experience through intimacy with Him. Through too much emphasis on left-brain, doctrine-driven theology, many people have missed the most important element in a saving knowledge of God, namely the passion of God.
Passion is a heart-based element and operates primarily in the right side of our brain. This takes us into issues that are not easily quantifiable or predictable and are therefore dismissed as not being very relevant to the understanding of truth. Many have gone so far in this direction within conservative circles of religion that they have actually tried to recreate God in the image of men. Sadly the old pun really has too much truth, “God created man in His image and then man turned around and returned the favor.” We all have a habit of projecting our own feelings, beliefs and character into our perceptions about what God is like. It is so subtle it is often overlooked, but nevertheless it has become pervasive and affects the thinking of all humanity and every religion.
In these presentations I would like to focus on what God is revealing about Himself based on the Word that He has provided as a reliable testimony what is true reality. Particularly I want to explore the ideas revolving around the subject of hell and the final punishment of the wicked and the condition of the saved. What I am discovering directly from the Bible has radically changed my own attitude toward God and I want to share my discoveries with anyone else who is open to taking another look at what God is really like.
One pitfall of putting thoughts like these into writing is akin to the problem faced in the computer industry. By the time you walk out of a store with a new computer it is often already obsolete. Likewise, before the ink is dry on the page our understanding has progressed, transformed, and changed so much that one soon becomes embarrassed when asked to defend some of what was previously put in writing. Writing is really like a picture of a point in time progression, like taking a still photograph instead of a continuous never-ending movie picture. But if nothing is ever expressed at a point in time it is not available for others to consider and compare with what God is showing them. So considering the above risks, I now plunge into the world of writing, exploring, dialog and discovery, maybe with a little of the emotion expressed by Martin Luther many decades ago, “Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God”.
The Great Controversy Overview
Before The Beginning...
The Separation
The New Base of Operations
The Hiding of God
The Second Adam
The Battle Shifts Pace
The Second Coming of Christ
The Millennium
Witnesses
The Final Revelation
The Real Truth About Hell
The Final Surrender
True Reality, that known to the rest of the beings in the universe, can only be perceived in knowing the context of the larger view of the Great Controversy – the very real war that has engulfed the whole universe from sometime before the creation of this earth. When one views everything we learn or observe – even our own lives and purpose for existence – in this context, it all suddenly starts to make much more sense. Fanaticism and unbalanced extremes are more easily exposed when brought to the light of eternity and God's Word correctly understood. So let's begin to unwrap the truth about this immense conflict. Let me take you through the story's beginning as it might have happened based on many clues I have gathered.
Long, long ago and very far away before the creation of this earth, the most magnificent created being in the universe named Lucifer evolved in his brilliant mind what he thought was a most excellent idea – an improvement on the way God ran the universe. The concepts and details were likely some time in the making, they would not all just fall into place at once. One idea required another to support it and many potential objections had to be worked around by developing rationalizations. His plan had to be matured enough to appeal to other intelligent thoughtful angels and other universe beings before he could implement any of it. But the essence of what happened was that his focus shifted from God's primary emphasis on internal values to an emphasis on his externals. He became enamored with his own beauty, wisdom and abilities. He came to believe that his value was based on his attractiveness, performance and skills rather than from simply his existence as a created being from the hand of God in harmony with all the rest of God's creation.
Over time he carefully crafted a compelling theory that would inspire the same self-focus in the thinking of others and draw them into these new beliefs and emotions with him. He began to question and insinuate doubts about God's ways and started suggesting that force would be a more effective means of governing intelligent beings. He could never get the Son of God, his apparent counterpart at the throne, to agree or come into sympathy with any of his new ideas. In fact, the Son seemed to be deeply troubled by these developments and kept cautioning Lucifer to abandon these plans before it was too late – whatever that was supposed to imply.
A new atmosphere began creeping into the universe that had never been noticed before – FEAR. As Lucifer became more observant of the differentiation apparent in created beings he began to make insinuations that there must also be different values based on these observed differences. He became excited as he believed he had discovered a secret formula that had been hidden since all things had been created, a formula that if exploited might provide him with potentially unlimited power. If he could crack the secret code, if he could harness this immense resource and place himself strategically at the top position of the whole universe, this would enable him to manipulate all the resources and intelligence of the universe for any outcome he might desire. Selfishness began to blossom and quickly deepened its roots inside Lucifer as he became more and more excited with his discoveries. But he still had to remain very careful not to rush too quickly with his long-range plans for he might be “misunderstood”, if you get the drift.
As he began to experiment with his theorems on a small scale and learn what might work and what backfired, he began to assemble a working thesis from which to operate effectively when he would move to the next phase on a much grander scale. He learned that certain principles seemed to be key for the effectiveness of his new plan of governing.
Even though it strangely bothered him at first, deception seemed to be the core ingredient necessary to the development of his master plan. But happily he found that his uneasiness over time was subsiding and he concluded that he must be on the right track and that eventually the uneasiness would disappear altogether and then he could operate with complete freedom and confidence to demonstrate his advanced plans.
Freedom, in fact, became the buzzword of his complex scheme, the great theme around which he would gather all who would join his grand scheme. Of course he would necessarily have to use deception initially to present the idea that God's ways were anti-freedom to make his philosophies more compelling. Deception seemed innocent enough at first and he saw no long-term ill-effects from this plan. He convinced himself that he simply wanted to improve on creation, a seemingly noble venture.
As he ran into opposition and resistance from both The Son and other intelligent beings who just couldn't see things from his viewpoint, Lucifer had to develop further schemes to perpetuate his grand plans. Fear became the prominent and powerful force that he found surprisingly effective, and shame and blame were close behind. He was surprised at the startling effects that these new elements could produce in some beings and quickly learned how to wield them to bring about compliance and cooperation. In fact, blame became his greatest defensive tactic to deflect overwhelming arguments against his plan. Mixing deception with blaming God for all the growing controversy he could effectively capture the minds and affections of millions of intelligent beings. The enormous and extreme feelings of pleasure and self-pride inside of Lucifer were intensifying exponentially and quickly erased the last residues of lingering doubt and feelings of guilt that he had initially struggled against. As he saw the same effects replicated in other beings willing to embrace his methods and theories he was sure his overall plan could be successful.
However, as we know from the history disclosed in the Bible, things did not go smoothly for Lucifer. Tension and resentment toward The Son that had escalated for a long time inside of him at last could not be hidden any longer. Criticism and contempt began to color his comments about The Son and His ways of dealing with the crisis. In fact, The Son's apparent passiveness in the face of the growing discontent only reinforced Lucifer's contention that God's methods were less effective than Lucifer's new ones. He could have asserted that The Son could be more effective in curbing “rebellion” if He would just adopt some of Lucifer's new suggestions for improvement while at the same time denying that this rebellion was due to his own suggestions and influence. But the Son refused to adopt any new methods and instead kept deferring to the Father every issue that came up. Lucifer pointed this out as a sign of weakness and urged this opinion on all who would listen. He declared that what God's government needed was more force, more rules and control, more discipline to maintain security and to keep things running smoothly. Lucifer refused to acknowledge that it was in fact his own ideas that were causing all the problems. He pointed the finger at God and at the Son and loudly proclaimed that a revolution was needed from the grass roots of the empire. The Son must be exposed to be seen as the real weakling that He was, and a more effective leader with skill, experience with the use of force, and with great “natural” abilities needed to replace Him. What the universe needed was democracy and freedom so that everyone could explore their own unlimited potential without the restrictive confines of the Laws of God. He declared that love was simply not a strong enough foundation upon which to operate a government. While many of his arguments were contradictory, Lucifer was so brilliant that he could always come up with a plausible explanation and shift the attention away from his inconsistencies.
This raised another issue that accelerated the controversy. When the Father publicly revealed that indeed there was a Law already in place that needed to be obeyed, most of the empire was greatly surprised. They were actually shocked that such a thing even existed, for from the beginning of their existence they had been unaware that there was a Law or any need for one. They had always naturally obeyed the principles by which the universe operated and had never thought about them in terms of some external definitions or list of restrictions. The arguments continued to heat up and polarization began to quickly develop among the angels. Strange feelings and sad developments ensued. Angels who had been close in heart for eons now developed rifts in their relationships which progressed to chasms. Sadness, another brand new emotion in the universe, became all too familiar. Fear, grief, anger, bitterness, hatred all began to emerge in a strange evolution of pain which were all brand new emotions and elements never experienced before. But when these symptoms were pointed out as emanating from Lucifer's work he quickly moved to blame the government of God as the faulty system that produced such results.
At the core of the controversy was Lucifer's constant and increasingly strident charges against the character of God. He became so known by his constant accusations against God that his name became Satan, which simply means accuser. What happened in heaven was very reflective of what he latter reproduced on this earth with humans. The following statements give us insight into the strategies that were the foundation of this new style of government.
In Isaiah's day the spiritual understanding of mankind was dark through misapprehension of God. Long had Satan sought to lead men to look upon their Creator as the author of sin and suffering and death. Those whom he had thus deceived, imagined that God was hard and exacting. They regarded Him as watching to denounce and condemn, unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there was a legal excuse for not helping him. The law of love by which heaven is ruled had been misrepresented by the archdeceiver as a restriction upon men's happiness, a burdensome yoke from which they should be glad to escape. He declared that its precepts could not be obeyed and that the penalties of transgression were bestowed arbitrarily. {PK 311.1}
In heaven itself this law was broken. Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.
The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, 'with healing in His wings.' Mal. 4:2. {DA 21,22}
Possibly somewhere around this time Lucifer had become aware that the Godhead had been in deep and intimate counsel with each other about plans for a new and very special race of beings on an undeveloped planet. Lucifer was not privy to these plans and knew that his revolutionary ideas were apparently not being taken into consideration for implementation. This deeply offended him. He felt that if he had been taken into their counsel and allowed to input some of his more “progressive” concepts in the formation of this new world that he might have been able to demonstrate the superior effectiveness of his new theories. He felt that his abilities and ideas were superior to that of the Son's and he could have been a more effective adviser on this project instead of One who always seemed to just rubber-stamp whatever the Father thought. His resentment grew and he freely shared it among his sympathizers accelerating the polarization that eventually precipitated his expulsion from the seat and center of the universe in heaven.
The polarization became so intense and the conflict so strident between the two sides that there finally came a time when there was no place that could be found in heaven that was acceptable or comfortable for Lucifer and his followers to live with other beings. The two sides had become completely incompatible and damage to the harmony and peace of the universe had become irreversible. The issues were still not resolved in the minds of many, but they had all finally chosen their allegiance to either the Son or to Lucifer's new program and a separation ensued. Many questions and doubts remained embedded in some minds that were still loyal to God and it would take many centuries to resolve them. But the lines were now drawn and Satan was cast out of heaven along with one third of the angels who had come into sympathy with him.
At first the shock of this sudden change of status and position and influence was overwhelming and even frightening for Lucifer. This was not all going as smoothly as he had hoped. For a brief time he considered the possibility of turning back the clock, of exploring how he could return to his previous honored position next to the throne of God through some sort of repentance. But when he spoke with the Son about the idea the Son, with intense grief and sadness, had to explain to him that he had gone so far in rebellion that he had destroyed his own ability to repent. That irrevocable internal damage prevented all possibility of him being able to function as a trustworthy, loyal subject in heaven; much less would he be able to return to the position of being the chief dispenser of God's blessings and an effective revealer of God's character to the whole universe as he previously had done. At this revelation Lucifer became very angry, hardened and incredibly bitter. He realized that there was only one direction to go from now on and he would stop at nothing to inflict all the damage possible to God's reputation and cause all the pain imaginable to the great Heart that he once was so eager to honor.
Jude 1:6, 12-13 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day... These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Personally I believe that one can see in the above reference possible insights into some of the events that may have happened during this period of time with far-reaching repercussions that still reverberate throughout the universe yet today. Quite possibly some of the angels whose positions were to oversee certain functions of the universe – such as keeping stars on course – abandoned their responsibilities during the rebellion and asserting their “right” to “freedom” joined Lucifer in spreading his propaganda and dissension. The resulting chaos of unguided stars wandering out of their proper courses and even possibly crashing into each other may be the cause of what some astronomers are observing today in awe. Chaos was being introduced into a system that up until this point had always functioned in perfect harmony and synchronization.
Strangely enough though, he found himself and his followers allowed access to the very place where the secret plans for the new race were to be carried out. And though not privy to the planning stage, he still might find opportunity to integrate his ideas into this new creation if he was careful. God was allowing him the very freedom that he had accused God of withholding. He would not waste the chance. He must study the situation quickly and carefully to see what he could accomplish.
The issues were becoming more clear now to all of the participants. Allegiance was now a major issue throughout the universe. Somehow if Lucifer, now known as Satan, could solicit these new beings to give him their allegiance he would have a grand opportunity to perfect his theories on a smaller scale. Then as he perfected and debugged them he could export them to more and more places throughout the universe and eventually accomplish what he was unable to do from his place in heaven. If he could not capture the seat of the universe directly, he could at least possibly capture the rest of the universe and work from there toward the center.
In crafting a plan to allure Adam and Eve to endorse his way of thinking he had to carefully integrate and camouflage the elements critical to the success of his plans. First he must use deception and plant seeds of doubt about God's character and motives just as he had done in heaven. Then he would need to solicit their will into taking action so as to confirm and secure their switch of allegiance and lock it into their hearts. Then to safeguard and seal their choice he would immediately need to overwhelm their emotions with guilt, fear, shame and blame (avoidance of personal responsibility) to forever lock them under his control. They would then become reflectors of his own character, puppets under his control, and he could manipulate them to demonstrate the “benefits” of a place where selfishness would trump weakness, fear would out-perform love, and force would prevail over submissiveness to God. Sure enough, his deceptive plan succeeded in securing their allegiance and he was exultant that now he could prove out his theories for all the universe to see his “superior wisdom”.
But as the experiment progressed, many things did not go as planned. God kept interfering and undermining his goals, but Satan could simply point to God's interference as the source of all the problems and pain multiplying on the earth. This created continual confusion in the minds of many and lingering doubts remained. Yes, it was obvious in some ways that many of Lucifer's ideas were not that great. But some of the questions, particularly about the Father's motives and about the integrity of the Son remained unanswered.
Strangely, none of the Godhead seemed eager to set things straight using forceful methods by confronting the questions head-on. Was there really inherent weaknesses in God's government that needed exposing and fixing? Was it true that there could be times when force might be a legitimate tool to regain control where control apparently had been lost? Where does true value come from? Why was there differentiation in the created order and did that imply differences in value? Why didn't God take a stronger position to stop the expanding damage before it got so out of hand? Why did perfect beings in a perfect universe need a law anyway? Yes, now that things were so messed up one could see how a law could be useful, but it had only recently been revealed in heaven that the law had always been in existence long before sin had ever been heard of. These and many other questions lingered in many hearts, unanswered and maybe often unexpressed. Fear, much or little, became an uncomfortable companion to many more than just the fallen beings. God's essence, His character and motives were in question and He apparently was not going to impose the answers.
But what God did do to answer the charges brought against Him by Lucifer amazed all the universe. The Father, as one accused in a legal system with abuse, deception and fraud before all His created beings, formally laid aside His privilege and responsibility as judge of the universe and installed His Son as judge. (John 5:22-23) “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” The Father allowed Himself to accept the role of the accused on trial and allowed proceedings to come into play whereby the verdict on Him and His government would be decided by a jury of His inferiors. He had been accused of crimes against not just humanity but against the good of the whole cosmos.
Since only a being who could understand his client sufficiently could function as a defense attorney, the Son also received that position as well. The Spirit and the Son would also be the chief Witnesses and would be in charge of orchestrating all the other witnesses in this greatest trial of the ages. Lucifer became the vicious prosecuting attorney determined to sooner or later take the position on the throne now occupied by Christ as he had long desired to do. There were many surprises to come as events unfolded and God had a secret plan that He would implement as each point in the trial was reached. Satan did not know where this was all going, but he was definitely nervous about what might develop in the unknown future.
As Satan looked on while God dealt with Adam and Eve's sin, he overheard promises that threatened to possibly undo all of what he had hoped to accomplish. This was a serious new threat. The survival of his growing evil empire was at stake and he could hold back nothing in his intense efforts to win this experiment. If he could affect enough witnesses and manipulate their testimony through intimidation, deceit, coercion, fear and any other scheme he could devise, he had the potential to sway the verdict against God and justify himself before the universe. In fact, God may have just put into place the very opportunity for Satan to accomplish that he had failed to do in the first round of their duel.
In essence, God had challenged Satan to complete his counterfeit to its ultimate perfection while God worked on perfecting His own plan. This plan involved taking all of the minds that would be submitted in loyalty to Him and creating out of the composite a new and heretofore unheard of “creature”. In the New Testament it is labeled the “Body of Christ”. It was and still is a mystery to the whole universe what exactly God is up to with this idea. But God has invested all of His resources into this plan and has staked the loyalty, even the existence of the whole universe on the outcome of His experiment.
At its grand climax on the last day of the trial when the verdict is to be announced by the jury made up of everyone in the universe, He plans to “power up” this new creature, “turn on the switch”, breath His own life and passion into it undiluted just like He did into Adam at his creation, to show the onlooking worlds, angels, demons, all the human race and every intelligent being what He has in mind. He claims that this “body” will more perfectly demonstrate and reflect what He is really like, something that has never been revealed since the beginning of creation. The Godhead is waiting with eager anticipation for that final exposé when the veil over God's face can finally be fully lifted.
That veil has been descending over the face of God since the first moments of Lucifer's experiment. Wherever there is sin – a will in opposition to the perfect ways and will of the Creator – there is potential for death if that being is exposed to closely to the presence of God's perfect, selfless love and passion. Part of the problem of sin is that it is resistance to God. And it is an immutable law of the universe, of creation itself, that when resistance and power meet there will be heat that can quickly spiral out of control. It is something like the proverbial question of what happens when an immovable object is met with an irresistible force.
Adam and Eve thrived in the presence of God before they made their tragic choice to sin. They were in perfect harmony with His desires for them and there was not a trace of resistance in their hearts. They could look on His face, the One in who's image they were created, and feel the passion from His heart supercharging their own hearts with love and joy. But when Adam and Eve sinned God had to dramatically shield them from Himself to protect them from fatal damage. In addition, something very tragic happened inside the minds of humans. A veil of lies about God was embedded deeply within their psyche that caused a separation between their own heart and mind internally and extended outward to affect all of their relationships with others. Sin became entrenched in a part of them that Paul would later call “the flesh” so that they no longer could obey God or live unselfishly and reflect His beauty “naturally”. They now had become reflectors of Satan's characteristics instead.
To use another analogy, it is very much like the circuit boards that make up our computers today or the wiring in other electrical appliances we use. If the wiring in place is correct and in good condition then proper amounts of power can flow through it safely and cause it to function as intended. But if the wiring or electrical components are faulty or damaged or mis-wired it is no longer safe for the full force of electrical current to flow through. To keep from causing irreparable damage and yet to keep life inside the human heart, God immediately had to insert something like a “step-down transformer” to protect sinful humans from frying their circuits with His over-powering presence. (Revelation 13:8)
To parallel two analogies, God's power current/monetary currency is pure, selfless, passionate love. When humans adopted a counterfeit circuitry/currency of selfishness God's love became a potentially dangerous force, a foreign currency to them. Their computers could no longer understand His programs because their operating systems had been replaced with an inferior, faulty one. But God has a secret plan that He had already prepared long before this crisis and He put it into operation immediately. Humans would be given the opportunity to accept a remedial operating system that would run parallel to the satanic one they had incurred. The two systems were incompatible, but if they would choose to be led by the Spirit of God and submit to His plans and His will, He would work inside of them to rework, rewire, reconnect, reprogram their hearts and minds and at the same time work to disconnect them from the faulty components they had gotten stuck with.
This was the work commissioned to the Holy Spirit. He was to prepare every human who chose to accept the new OS to become a reliable and truthful witness in the great trial of God. The Spirit was to reproduce within these willing humans a reflection of the truth about God. And while no human, other than Jesus Christ, is capable of being a full and complete reflection of God, collectively they were destined to become integrated components of the amazing and beautiful new “creature”, the body of Christ, that God intends to unveil and display at the final showdown.
Meanwhile, Satan also has been given similar opportunity to assemble a composite “body”, a creature designed with his own reflection. All those who refuse the offer of God to implant in their hearts a new OS are available for Satan to perfect his blueprint for assembling his composite creature. And while he may complain that he cannot successfully finish his creation because he keeps losing his subjects to death, he is nevertheless takes opportunity to perfect his principles in the lives and hearts of all his subjects. And eventually he will have full access to all of his subjects at one time to finalize his own morbid experiment.
A focal point occurred in this Great Controversy that has wondered and confused nearly everyone before and since it occurred. The Son showed up in human form and took upon Himself the liabilities of fallen humanity to personally demonstrate two things to the watching universe. First, He came to reveal through intimate interaction with other humans the real truth about what God is like and how He feels about them. And second, He also came to demonstrate what it would look like for a human to live in perfect balance as he was originally designed to live. But a complication of this plan was that He came with severe handicaps and limitations that went far beyond the limitations that Adam ever had. Jesus came to demonstrate the core principle that had been in place from the very beginning of the creation; that is, for souls to live in the universe as God originally designed it, they must live totally dependent on power from outside of themselves continuously. This exposed the very first false assumption that Lucifer had started with while he was still the covering cherub over the very throne of God. He had asserted that beings had capabilities and virtue in themselves independent of God and so didn't need Him to live and thrive on their own. Now Jesus was demonstrating the very opposite claim and all the universe looked on with intense interest.
Of course Satan had to take on the challenge. He also saw in it another opportunity to capture a shortcut to victory in the trial if he could in any way or at any point infect Jesus with a spirit virus. He tried everything possible to induce Jesus to adopt any part of his own satanic, counterfeit operating system into His thinking, even for a moment. Living as He was completely immersed in a world where nearly all of His sensory input and training and examples would be tainted with corrupt motives and faulty ideas, surely Satan could reprogram some small part of Jesus' brain to hiccup at some point and depend on His own power for self-preservation or even to further His Father's legitimate plans for Him. For the real issue in the life and example of Jesus was all about who He would trust in every situation, Himself or His Father.
This arrangement was far more dangerous for Jesus than most people even begin to comprehend. Contrary to popular religious thinking, Jesus was not fighting “sinful desires” and resisting “temptations” as we typically think of them, to show us how to be a “good” person and thereby earn favor with God. Jesus came with the ultimate handicap – a natural tendency toward doing the right thing and access to unlimited power within himself to live a perfect life. Unlike other humans, He possessed a natural love for righteousness and an unconcealable disgust for sin. When compared with the struggles that other human beings face in their human temptations, it becomes obvious to any unbiased observer very quickly who would be faced with more intense temptations. Think about it. Who would be more intensely tempted to use their own strength to overcome and resist sin: sinful humans who never have or even can succeed on their own strength but often think they can, or Jesus who could easily depend on His own natural strength and natural repulsion against every sin but always chose not to avail Himself of that advantage?
When this paradigm is understood in viewing the life of Jesus while on earth, it is much easier to understand the real nature of His temptations throughout His life. In fact, it was on this very point that the war came to its greatest intensity at the end of His life on earth. Satan was running out of time to secure his shortcut to victory and he desperately needed to induce Jesus into utilizing His own power to do something – anything – for His own benefit. This becomes a little more obvious in Jesus' comments to Peter in the garden, Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53 NRSV) One of the core issues in the trial of God is whether or not He made a mistake by creating beings that operate best by depending always on God, whether in a perfect heaven or in the “hell on earth” designed by Satan himself.
Finally in his desperate but unsuccessful attempt to induce Jesus to save himself, Satan inadvertently made one of the greatest mistakes of his long and tragic career. In his blinding desperation to force Jesus to sin he only accomplished exposing more completely the bankruptcy of his own theories and principles while at the same time becoming an unwilling accomplice in setting in place the key foundation in the salvation plan for mankind. While Satan was screaming in Jesus' face to “save Himself”, God was allowing Jesus to experience the actual and literal results of all the sins of all mankind to weigh upon His soul and torture Him with the despair of alienation from God that sin creates. Jesus took upon Himself the full pain that all humanity collectively would suffer both in their life on earth and at the second death, even if all of them were lost and none were saved. This is the actual pain that crushed out the life of Jesus and He had to choose not to sidestep it by tapping into His own power to reduce the pain and terror in the slightest amount. He submitted to allowing the Father to choose for Him in every detail of every moment and went through the horror of believing that He was eternally lost just as the wicked will feel at the second death. (More on this later.)
Many things happened in Jesus' life and death that we have not yet properly understood. A careful study of Ephesians and other of Paul's writings reveal that Jesus literally took into Himself the totality of humanity, just as in the physical sense humanity was in Adam and Eve and proceeded from them. In this way Jesus was able to reverse the switch of authority over this planet induced away from Adam and usurped by Satan at the fall in Eden. Jesus, by His death, now laid claim to the title of proper representative of this world in the assemblies of heaven and rightful owner of everyone on planet earth by way of redemption. After His resurrection He briefly ascended to the throne room of God to confirm His successful capture of this position of authority before proceeding any further. Then He returned to begin immediately implementing the next stage of Their plan. Remember, this is still all in the context of God's trial and Lucifer's accusations against God with everyone in the universe acting as the jury.
The next phase of God' plan was called spreading the “gospel”, which literally means “good news”. It is important to carefully explore the true meaning of many of familiar religious words and not just assume we know what they mean. The gospel is not a list of doctrines and beliefs that people need to subscribe to and accept. Nor is the gospel a free ticket to get us to heaven if we say a few “magic words” in a church or on our knees somewhere and pledge allegiance to God with our mind and our mouth. In the broader context of God being the One on trial, the essence of the gospel is a fresh revelation of the truth about who God really is, how he relates to His created beings, both fallen and unfallen. The gospel is the light of the truth about God, both an intellectual but more importantly a heart-based truth, that has a powerful affect to dispel the lies, both emotionally and intellectually, that Satan has amassed against God in all his false charges.
Darkness cannot be expelled by examining the darkness but it simply evaporates when light is introduced. God is light in every conceivable sense of the idea. God is love with a passionate intensity that goes far beyond anything we have been willing or even able to admit up to now. God craves openness and intimacy with all His created beings with a passion and desire that burns hotter than any fire known in the universe. And His intense desire is particularly focused now on humanity. He has restrained and hidden His passion and His face for centuries, but He eagerly longs for His confinement behind the veil to come to an end. The plan of salvation has actually as much to do with the salvation of God's reputation as it is has to do with saving humans out of sin and pain.
Because of our narrow views about God, religion has generally degenerated into a pitiful system of human-focused schemes that we believe God has put into place to simply rescue us from an uncomfortable world and set us up in a heaven full of pleasure for our benefit. Take an objective look at most sermons and teachings about salvation and the Second Coming and see if this is not true. We talk eagerly about the Second Coming of Jesus using language almost exclusively focused on getting our skin into heaven. But we are almost totally oblivious to the massive conspiracy that is scandalously being perpetrated against God and His reputation. Jesus came to reveal the truth about the Father, not only to us but to all the intelligent beings throughout the universe. And the Holy Spirit's commission on this earth is to do the same through our lives as well. All the events on earth and in heaven are being orchestrated toward the great climax, the ultimate revealing that God has planned for His vindication. This vindication is of God's ways of relating to His creation, for this is what the whole trial is about and every prophecy and messenger and instrument of God is focused toward that end. For us to force many scriptures and prophecies to make the Second Coming the focal point and centerpiece of salvation is to terribly distort and misunderstand the real emphasis in the trial proceedings. The Second Coming is important, yes, but for very different reasons and with possibly very different results than we have long been led to think.
What is happening on earth now may very well parallel what happened in heaven during the first phase of the Great War. This is a time for minds to be presented with evidence and choose allegiance, not so much on the basis of doctrines or theology but on what they choose to believe about the accusations of Satan against God. “Keeping” the correct day of the week “holy” is not at the heart of Satan's primary accusations about how God treats people. The state of the dead or tithing, baptism or even health reform are not the core issues of the Great Controversy. These things may be involved in the symptoms and outgrowth of those who are transformed by the Spirit into truthful witnesses in the trial of God, but they are only symptoms, not the core issues themselves. When we center our religion and experience around the externals of these doctrines or others like them, we are in danger of falling into the very first deception that Lucifer fell into – emphasizing the externals over the internals. The trial is first of all about God's character and reputation, not about ours. Our character only comes into play as we are cross-examined to determine whether we are truthful or false witness in the trial, not as the defendants.
The Second Coming of Christ is just a transition point leading up to the final climax of the trial of God, it is not the ultimate day of judgment of all ages as we have so often been led to believe. And the Second Coming is not just for our benefit but it is to finalize preparations for the final day of God's trial, the great day of Judgment. Rev. 14:7 “And he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.'” The Second Coming occurs when all humans have freely and finally chosen what side they will be loyal to in the trial, whether they will witness for or against the ways of God. When all have made up their minds Jesus will come quickly to claim all of His faithful witnesses and take them to heaven to begin the closing phases of His plan.
The millennium is another very misunderstood concept primarily because of the self-focused nature of our emphasis in religion and our lack of understanding of what the Great Controversy is really all about. It is not a time when God's people will be wielding power and force in an earthly kingdom that Christ imposes over the unrepentant of this world. Nor is it a time of lolling about in great comfort in heaven, playing with animals and trying out our new wings as we are sometimes taught in juvenile church classes. It can be seen from Bible prophecy that at the Second Coming Jesus plans to resurrect all those who have died who are safe to save and, along with all those who are alive on earth of the same sort will join them all together in a grand ascension to the city of God. This is the beginning of the period known as the Millennium, or a time span of one thousand years. Let's consider carefully what may or may not happen during this very strategic time in the trial leading up to the great Judgment day, the glorious Day of full revelation.
First of all, we must understand that God is not going to suddenly change the way He operates and impose on the minds of the saved a full understanding of all the issues and a complete erasure of all of our doubts and questions. If he wouldn't do it for the highly intelligent angels and other beings before the creation of man he will not do it for humans either. Given that, what sort of people are going to be gathered together for 1000 years away from planet earth (according to prophecies in Revelation)? There will be very many immature minds at all stages of development. There will be possibly millions who have never even heard of God or Jesus but who were saved because they followed the promptings of their conscience which was influenced by God's Spirit and God knows their hearts are salvageable and safe to be reliable and truthful witnesses in His trial.
And what will happen then? Well, personally I believe that initially He possibly may have a number of activities planned to build up their joy strength, that part of their brain that gives them capacity to endure stress effectively, to prepare them for what is to happen next. (Dr. Jim Wilder has been gifted to bring out many important insights about how God created our brains and how they function. For more information about this refer to his materials available from carepkg.org., especially the series called Joy Bonds) They will likely join together in feasting, fellowship, incredible choreography and moments of intense drama and intense exercises of their emotions that will create and strengthen healthy joy bonds interlocking and synchronizing their hearts not only to God but with each other. The dramatic meeting of Adam and Jesus described in the book The Great Controversy (see 648) has to be an incredible moment of education as well as bonding for the millions of the Redeemed who will know almost nothing about the great war and the issues at the core of the Conflict.
Beyond that, we are told in Rev. 20:6 “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” There is a lot to unpack in almost every word of that text.
First I would like to suggest that maybe God would welcome the idea of priests to minister to His heart as well as to His hurting people. God's feelings have been deeply wounded in this terrible war far worse than any of us and just maybe He can also receive comfort and joy from ministry to Him as His redeemed learn to reflect the attributes of His own heart of compassion and selfless love. Maybe that is going too far, but it is a thought to consider at least.
Another point that we don't really understand as I believe we could with more study is what it really means to reign with Him. Personally I believe that it may in part mean Jesus giving some of the more mature among the saved responsibilities to educate and mentor and mature the ones who have less understanding and maturity and knowledge.
Finally and most importantly, I would like to suggest that everyone, maybe even some of the unfallen beings, will have many unanswered questions that need to be examined in the atmosphere of absolute freedom and need to be resolved completely in their minds before the Day of full revealing. This resolution, this settling into the truth, is crucial to be finished before God can fully unveil His face. If there is anything not fully repaired, any circuit not fully rewired and tested, any components with any weakness at all from unanswered questions or the slightest doubts, the results would be catastrophic failure and meltdown when the full power of God's glory surges through the circuitry at the Great Revealing.
God has never instructed us to argue for Him. That is what attorneys do. We are not suited to argue for God because we have not the capacity to know enough about Him for one thing, and more importantly we misrepresent His attitude when we argue, for we adopt the techniques of His enemy, the spirit of Satan, when we indulge in argument and debate.
We are called to testify as witnesses. Witnesses do not know all the facts or have the complete picture. That is why God insisted in the Old Testament that there must always be more than one witness for truth to be established. A witness often has only a small bit of the giant puzzle to contribute. But every piece brought to the table and humbly submitted to be interlocked in unity with the testimony of all the other witnesses creates a compelling and more accurate portrait of God to a skeptical world and an onlooking universe.
At the end of the millenium God returns to this planet will all of the redeemed along with the New Jerusalem as foretold in the book of Revelation. At that point in time He also raises up all the lost who have ever lived throughout all of the history of this world and for a period of time everyone who has ever lived will all be alive at the same time and at the same place.
All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, "It is true." "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God. (Isaiah 43:9-12 NIV)
A witness testifies to his own experience and from his own perspective. God's true witnesses are unique and different from everyone else but not in conflict because they are all truthful. If even today, instead of exercising ourselves trying to force our narrow perspectives and understandings on others, we simply presented what God has been, and is now to us, we would see God's power and beauty emerge in a glorious way even today. We would experience far more success in seeing others embrace the real truths about our God and our Savior.
At the end of the millennium the stage for the final resolution of the Great War is set. This is the last great transition point before the final showdown between Satan's form of governing by force and control through fear-bonds, and God's form of “governing” by interlocking family bonds of selfless love. All of Satan's resources are put at his disposal after God resurrects those who have rejected His Spirit and rebelled against His ways. Satan is allowed as much time as he needs to assemble his counterfeit “body” and get it fine-tuned and working as much as it can. God's beautiful creature, the “body of Christ”, His bride that received her final beauty treatment during the millennium, this glorious composite body made up of all the saved with all its “circuits” and systems in perfect synchronization with His own heart, sits waiting in the New Jerusalem with eager anticipation for the moment of the “revealing” or unveiling of God's full glory.
Satan's creature is also tuned to reflect his character and synchronized with his principles of legalism, force, fear and intimidation and it finally stands ready to follow his commands. The wicked of all ages are ready to implement his plans to take the city of the saints by force of arms, with material weapons of destruction in their attempt to capture its riches and enslave its humble but glorious population.
What is very interesting is a little detail that happens at this point in the drama that speaks volumes about the principle of freedom by which God has always operated. A very insightful author says that at this point in time the gates will be closed. That means that they were open up to this point and any of the lost could just wander in and look around and stay – if they could stand it . God apparently never forces anyone to stay out of the city up to this point or blocks them from entrance as individuals. It is simply because they have so unfit themselves by their choices that have poisoned their minds and hearts against heaven that they cannot stand the totally pervasive atmosphere of selfless service, humility, joy and love that fills every heart in that city. This kind of atmosphere is sheer torture to them and, if they did happen to venture in, they would immediately flee in panic back to the camp of the wicked where they feel at home again among like-minded souls. This dispels another lie of Satan that God is arbitrary in choosing who is saved and who is lost. Accordingly, God only closes the gates against the collective “body” assembled and controlled by Satan, not against individuals who might curiously try to enter.
When both sides have perfected their “creatures” and fully possessed them with their own spirit, the final day of Judgment will have arrived. The word “judgment” really means discernment, revealing, exposing what is real and actual. The One who is really on trial is God the Father and His Son Jesus sits as Judge. All the universe, including the wicked and the saved, stands as jury and everything is ready for all the evidence to be presented in full. With not one being dead in the whole cosmos after the last resurrection, every intelligent mind is riveted on the scene.
Then, before everyone's astonished gaze the whole panorama of the Great Story – His-story – is revealed from beginning to end (you know, the long-play 3-D cinematic version with enhancements allowing you to even read the minds of every actor) with every lie and the result of every choice exposed in full. In every situation it is fully revealed to everyone's complete satisfaction that God was always totally fair and never used force, intimidation or any other of Satan's tools in the long battle for His own vindication. It will be seen that Satan has consistently and repeatedly falsely charged God with possessing the character that was really Satan's own. But now it is seen that Satan's plans were impossible to succeed. The inherent flaw of trying to live in separation from the only Source of life is now seen clearly. Everything in everyone's life is laid bare for inspection by everyone else.
“The aim of the great rebel has ever been to justify himself and to prove the divine government responsible for the rebellion. To this end he has bent all the power of his giant intellect. He has worked deliberately and systematically, and with marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to accept his version of the great controversy which has been so long in progress. For thousands of years this chief of conspiracy has palmed off falsehood for truth. But the time has now come when the rebellion is to be finally defeated and the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort to dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take possession of the City of God, the archdeceiver has been fully unmasked. Those who have united with him see the total failure of his cause. Christ's followers and the loyal angels behold the full extent of his machinations against the government of God. He is the object of universal abhorrence.” {GC 670.1} This is the first phase of the revealing – the revealing of the mystery of iniquity.
This author portrays in gripping language the details of that event. Now comes the moment of the greatest revealing – the revealing of God Himself – the mystery of Godliness. As it is unveiled and God's beauty is exposed, the saved are overcome with wonder and adoration and the lost are also overcome with the same. The only difference is, the righteous have allowed themselves to be perfected into instruments of praise and worship by the Holy Spirit and are now filled with absolute and perfect love. But the wicked through persistent resistance have lost all capacity to return love and praise by repeatedly rejecting and spurning His Spirit of love. The lost, just like the saved, fall down in spontaneous worship and they may even desperately wish they could respond in love like the saved, but they simply no longer have the circuitry or capacity necessary in their hearts when they need it the most.
At this point there are no places in all the cosmos for the lies and deceptions to hide anymore. Satan's lies and character are fully unmasked simply by the revealing of truth, not by attack or by pointing out his faults. The wicked are disgusted and enraged, and all the pent-up hatred and anger of all the ages is now focused on their leaders and especially toward Satan. The contrast becomes stunning. While the lost are mourning their inability to enjoy the beauties and joys of heaven and are filled with the rage of demons, the beauty of God is beginning to be fully revealed and His glory, His passionate love and affection that He has kept largely hidden for eons, is finally unveiled before both the righteous and the lost.
“The whole universe will have become witnesses to the nature and results of sin. And its utter extermination, which in the beginning would have brought fear to angels and dishonor to God, will now vindicate His love and establish His honor before the universe of beings who delight to do His will, and in whose heart is His law. Never will evil again be manifest. Says the word of God: "Affliction shall not rise up the second time." Nahum 1:9. The law of God, which Satan has reproached as the yoke of bondage, will be honored as the law of liberty. A tested and proved creation will never again be turned from allegiance to Him whose character has been fully manifested before them as fathomless love and infinite wisdom.” {GC 504.1}
When love that is like an immeasurable amount of electrical current is unleashed into the “circuitry” of both of the two assembled “creatures”, the “body of Christ” – His bride – lights up like billions of brilliant suns shining like diamonds in a stunning display of galactic glory and power that we can't begin to imagine. But while that same glory of passion and love embraces the lost sinners, with their malfunctioning circuits it only creates terrible fireworks when it comes in contact with their entrenched resistance. When the power and glory of love passes through resistant hearts, it causes literal meltdowns proportionate in effect to how many lies they have amassed in their minds and hearts about this God they have rejected. But surprisingly it is not an angry, vengeful God that strikes them with torturous flames in an outburst of anger, but it is a passionate God whose heart is ripped open and torn apart in agony at losing so many of his children – including Lucifer, one of the finest specimens of all His creation. Yes, in one way God is angry, very angry – but not at sinners. He is angry that sin itself has tragically torn from His very heart so many that He will forever miss.
For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. (Mal. 3:6)
The fire that destroys the wicked initially comes from within their own selves. They have built into their character the very essence of who they have become – resistance to love. But love is God's current of power, and resistance produces heat. (Just ask any engineer.)
I would like to make one more important observation about this sensitive issue of hell-fire. Take a look at the sanctuary system in the Old Testament which was given as a model of the Great Controversy and the plan of salvation. Do you ever read of an animal sacrifice being burned before it had died? NO! The cremating fire always came after the sacrifice was dead from the results of sin. The sacrifice was first killed by the sinner himself. So too, in the final day of retribution. The wicked are in torture in the presence of the Lamb and in the presence of angels. (see Rev. 14:10)
The stark contrast between their deformed characters and the perfection and beauty of the characters of heavenly beings literally produce mental and even physical flames that eventually destroy their bodies and souls forever. “The soul that sins shall die.”(Ezekiel 18:20 RSV) A merciful and loving God will never think of allowing souls to be tortured for endless ages as many have taught. All come to a complete end and finally go into permanent extinction. Then God's cleansing fire finishes cleaning up the mess created on this planet through sin by melting down all the leftovers and residue back into the basic building elements that were here before creation week.
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)
Once the effects of sin have been melted into oblivion the saved, now as the “body of Christ” get to watch, or possibly even participate in a new creation of the earth. The last few paragraphs of the book The Great Controversy by Ellen White explain it best.
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of His power." "Mighty to save," through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power....
There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 5:13.
The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love. (GC 675-678)
All creation is perfectly synchronized and one pulse of perfect harmony and love throb throughout all the universe. And the rest is history, as they say – His Story.
Resources:
Jean Sheldon, professor at PUC, has audio recordings explaining the two supernatural opposing paradigms and also very good insights about the veiling and unveiling of the face of God. These recordings can be purchased from Kirk & Deidre VanBuren (707) 965-2020 kirkdede@hotmail.com.
Jim Wilder has excellent books, CD's and videos explaining stages of maturity and incredible insights into how God designed our brains. This is also very helpful for understanding the symptoms of what happens in our lives when we fail to receive what we need to thrive. His most comprehensive book to date is Living With Men. His materials can be purchased from carepkg.org (231) 745-4950.
For further research there are also some excellent resources available at the website HeavenlySanctuary.com.
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