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Surprise Ending
Introduction
I am saddened to think of all the people who will come to read this for the primary purpose of discounting and disassembling what they find here. There is great pressure to maintain the status quo in the religious world and honest questioning of long-entrenched beliefs is always unwelcome. I am well aware of this mind set; I spent most of my life obediently learning and parroting the “party line” so to speak.
On the other side, I too weary of those who become so obsessed with challenging everything and everyone that they form themselves into a mold where they can never experience real peace or rest in confident assurance in the Salvation that God has provided for all of us. Ironically, I have also spent much of my life in this camp also.
What I have been learning over the past few years is what I have discovered to be a pattern in many areas of truth discovery; that truth is seldom a balance between the two well-known extremes on any given subject, but is instead a third alternative not even on the same scale. Repeatedly I have discovered this to be true to where I realize that it is far more important to be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to see things from a completely different perspective, than it is to bring immense mind power to a given subject and hammer out an iron-clad formula that henceforth will be the standard for any further discovery.
What I am slowly beginning to learn is that being aware of heart issues and having an open heart toward God and His children is far more productive for discovering “truth” than having all the literary and high education tools that are demanded by most scholars. Being in touch with one's heart is generally outside the realm of measurability by academic standards and is therefore generally rejected as a reliable means of advancement in truth. However, in even a surface but honest perusal of the Holy Bible one is confronted many times over with the call to face heart issues.
True obedience comes from the heart. We have heard that many times, but without a realistic comprehension of what or where our heart is inside of us we have simply substituted a different definition for the word so that it fits more neatly into our intellectual paradigm. How many times have we heard this expressed by preachers saying “when your read 'heart', just substitute 'mind', because they are really the same thing.” This kind of thinking has kept millions from entering in to the much deeper experience that God longs for us to experience with Him. Scholars and theologians have so thoroughly “left-brained” theology that many, if not most of them have missed the most important element in the Great Controversy, namely, the passion of God.
Passion is a heart condition and exercises itself primarily in the right side of the brain. This gets into areas that are not easily quantifiable or predictable and are therefore dismissed as not being very relevant to the exposition of truth. We have gone so far in this direction in conservative circles of religion that we have actually come to recreate God in our own image. The old saying really is true after all, “God created man in His image and then man turned around and returned the favor.” There is a constant penchant to impose our own feelings, beliefs and character onto our beliefs about what God is like. It is so subtle it is often overlooked, but nevertheless it has become pervasive in the thinking of all humanity.
Of course I can hear many saying, “we can't allow ourselves to be swept away by emotionalism.” That is very true. And it is true that in reaction to the stiff formalism and empty routines of religion many have gone to the other extreme and use their emotions as the last word for what they decide is true. This is equally dangerous and leads to deceptions and false pictures of God just as dry formal religion has done.
At this point in my learning I have come to believe that God desires a far deeper emotional intimacy with us than most are willing to believe. It is true that God intends for us to exercise both sides of our brains in our relationship to Him. But I have come to realize also that while the left brain may be an important error checking resource to keep us in tune with the source of objective truth, namely the Bible, I believe God created us primarily to experience His presence on an intimate, passionate level that few have ever dared to believe. Jesus said it best in John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
So what is the message I am trying to convey? It is simply this-- If you have come to look for heresy and religiously incorrect thinking, I would ask that you simply lay this down and not bother to read any further. I have lived for years in this hostile environment of toxic religious zealots keen on exposing what they consider to be dangerous beliefs and ruthlessly attacking all who do not cow-tow to their interpretations. I pray for you, but I no interest in arguing with you. I have seen the terrible effects and destructive fruit of this kind of religion and I want nothing to do with it whatsoever.
On the other hand, if you are hungry for something much deeper in your search for God, if you have come to realize that God created us emotional beings as well as intellectual and that He too has emotions that He wants to share with us on a level beyond our wildest imaginations; if you are willing to listen with your heart as much or more than you analyze with your mind, then I welcome you to the journey as a fellow explorer and friend.
It is always a temptation to explain truth by discounting error. And while some of this may be necessary to contrast current beliefs with what God is revealing, I would like to stay as much as possible with simply expressing what God is showing us in these last days. We hear many voices proclaiming that they have the most important message for these last days and compile enormous volumes of quotations to add weight to their claims.
Years ago I was given a simple device by my sister to test whether someone was worth listening to or not that has served me well. She said that if the messenger has a critical spirit, an agenda that attacks or tears down, then you don't need to waste your time listening to them no matter how many proof texts or quotations they line up in their support. I have found this little tool extremely helpful over the years but was also dismayed to find that many times I myself had a critical attitude when trying to present exciting truths that I was discovering. This of course undermined my own credibility and the effectiveness of the very things I was trying to share with others about God.
I cannot say that I am completely cured of this problem. I categorically am not. So if you detect a negative spirit in some of the things I say please to not respond with the same, that will not help me much. First, ask God for grace and love to see me through His eyes and then if He answers that prayer for you come to me as a friend and gently discuss your concerns with me. I admit it, I am a rather sensitive soul that is still in the deep throughs of healing. But in the healing over the past few years God has been showing me many exciting things about Himself that seemed to be unknown to the majority of the Christian world.
Since I have been learning these things, mostly from my own discovery in the Word led by the Spirit, I have begun hearing more people from around the world sounding the same truths. Some of them are held back from openly teaching these things for “fear of the Jews” so to speak. They fear lose in their positions or credibility or influence. That is very understandable. But God is using them anyway for His glory. Maybe, in that case, my own apparent disadvantage may be one of my greatest assets. I have no position in the church to protect, no important name to maintain, no agenda that I must be beholden to. I simply have a growing fire in my bones that is becoming more and more difficult to contain.
In my recent journey through some of these insights I have been blessed to have them reinforced by others after I discovered them myself. I realize God planned it that way so people could not accuse me of merely reflecting other people's thinking. Of course those who want to accuse will not let that stop them. But the honest in heart, which are the only ones that I really want to address anyway, will listen, observe, search, pray and rejoice in the beautiful tapestry of glory that He is assembling in these times right before our eyes.
I have come to realize how immensely important context is in understanding anything. Everyone wears filters in their mind to interpret and extract the meaning of life. They have to because our minds are simply too small to grasp the full context all at once. Our filters are constantly being modified or hardened, depending on what we believe about our use of filters. Many have come to worship their filters as their god. I don't believe we realize how much of a problem we have with the first and second commandments. One of the best resources I have been influenced by is the devotional book My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I have read this book every day now for a number of years and it constantly pricks my conscience to be careful to keep the focus of my life on God Himself, not on my beliefs about Him or my service for Him or anything else.
A number of others have been very helpful in deepening my understanding of many of the points in this book. Jean Sheldon has wonderful insights and views about our relationship to the face of God. Ty Gibson and James Rafferty initially stirred my mind to pursue these issues by stimulating questions in my mind about our typical interpretations of certain scriptures. Herb Montgomery has a passionate and clear portrayal of the real character of God like few others I have heard that has confirmed and expanded what I was already learning. Bill Liversidge through Bruce and Corrina Blum taught me the wonderful art of inductive Bible study that has totally transformed my study habits and ability to discover. Keith Stokes and Olive Dibble, my sister, and other friends have dialogged with me for years about these subjects constantly flushing out deeper concepts and connections in the Word of God.
One pitfall of putting understandings 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 to defend some of what was put in writing. Writing is a picture of a point in time progression, like taking a still photograph instead of a continuous never-ending movie picture. On the other hand, if nothing is every 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 feeling 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
Reality can only be perceived in the context of the large view of a correct understanding of the Great Controversy. When one takes everything we learn or observe and puts it back into this context it suddenly starts to make much more sense. And our penchant for fanaticism and unbalanced extremes are exposed when brought to the light of eternity and God's Word correctly understood.
Long, long ago and very far away before the creation of the earth, 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 some time in the making, they did not all just fall into place at once. One idea required another to support it and many objections had to be worked around. His plan had to be matured enough to appeal to other intelligent thoughtful angels and universe beings before he could implement any of it. But as Jean Sheldon has so aptly described it, his focus shifted from God's emphasis on internal value to an emphasis on externals and he became enamored with his own beauty. He came to believe that his value was based on his performance and abilities rather than totally derived from simply functioning as a created being from the hand of God.
He carefully crafted a theory that would inspire the same self-focus in others and draw them into these new emotions with him. He began to question and insinuate doubts about God's methods of relating to situations and suggesting that force would be a more effective means of government. He could never get the Son 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 element was now 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 deductions that there must also be different values based on observed differences. He became excited that he may have discovered a secret formula that had been hidden from sight since all things had been created, a formula that if exploited would 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, 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 deepen its roots inside Lucifer and he became more and more excited. But he had to remain very careful not to rush too quickly for he might be “misunderstood”, if you know what I mean.
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. Certain principles were key to 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 discomfort 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 of mind.
Freedom, in fact, became the buzzword of his scheme, the great banner around which he would gather all who would join him. And 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. It 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 very noble venture to be sure.
As he ran into opposition and roadblocks from both The Son and stubborn beings who just couldn't see things clearly from his viewpoint, Lucifer had to develop further schemes to promote his grand plans. Fear became a prominent and powerful ally that he found surprisingly effective, and shame and blame were close behind. He was surprised at the startling effects that these tools produced in some beings and quickly learned how to wield them to bring about compliance and submission. In fact, blame became his greatest defense to deflect imposing arguments against his plan. Mixing deception with blame on God he could effectively capture the minds and affections of millions of intelligent beings. The enormous and extreme feelings of pleasure and self-pride inside were growing exponentially and quickly erased the last residues of lingering doubts and feelings of guilt that he had initially struggled against. And as he saw the same effects replicated in other beings willing to embrace his methods and theories he was sure his plan could be successful.
However, as we know, things did not go smoothly for Lucifer. Tension and resentment toward The Son that had escalated for a long time inside 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. It was becoming apparent that The Son would be more effective in curbing “rebellion” if He would just adopt some of Lucifer's new tools. But the Son refused and instead kept always deferring to the Father every issue that came up. Lucifer pointed this out as a sign of weakness and urged this view on all who would listen. What God's government needed was more force, more rules and control, more discipline to maintain security and 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 be installed. What the universe needed was democracy and freedom so that everyone could explore their own unlimited potential without the restrictive confines of the law of God. Love was simply not a strong enough foundation to operate a government.
This raised a whole other 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 shocked that such a thing even existed, for from the beginning of their creation they had been unaware that there was a Law or any need for one. 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 developed rifts between them 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. When these symptoms were traced as emanating from Lucifer's work he quickly moved to blame the government of God for a 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. “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}
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 for Lucifer and his followers to live in harmony with other beings. The two sides had become completely incompatible and the damage to the universe had become irreversible. The issues were still not resolved in the minds of many, but they had chosen their allegiance to either the Son or to Lucifer's new ideas and a separation ensued. Many questions and doubts about both sides were deeply embedded in some minds that would take many centuries to resolve. But the lines were now drawn and Satan was cast out of heaven along with 1/3 of the angels who had come into sympathy with him.
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.
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. Quite possibly some angels whose position is was to oversee certain functions of the universe such as keeping stars on course, abandoned their posts in rebellion and, asserting their “right” to freedom joined Lucifer in spreading his propaganda. The resulting chaos of stars wandering out of their proper courses and even possibly crashing into each other may even be 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.
Before this final development however, Lucifer had become aware that the Godhead had been in deep and intimate counsel about plans for a new race of beings on a new world. Lucifer was not privy to these plans and his new ideas were apparently not taken into consideration for implementation. This deeply offended him. He felt that if he had been taken into 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-land of the universe.
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 and see what he could accomplish.
The issues were becoming more clear now to most of the players. Allegiance was now the major issue. Somehow if Lucifer, now become Satan, could solicit these new beings to give him allegiance he would have a grand opportunity to perfect his theories on a small scale. Then as he perfected and debugged them he could export them to more and more places in the universe and eventually accomplish what he was unable to do from 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 lure Adam and Eve to endorse his way of thinking he had to carefully integrate 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 to confirm and secure a switch of allegiance rooted in their hearts. Then to safeguard and seal their choice he would immediately need to overwhelm their emotions with guilt, fear, shame and finally blame to forever lock them into his control. They would now become reflectors of his own character and he could manipulate them like puppets to demonstrate the benefits of a land where selfishness would trump weakness, fear would outstrip love, and force would prevail over submissiveness to God. Sure enough, his deceptive plan succeeded and he was exultant that now he could prove out his theories for all the universe to see his superior wisdom.
As Mrs. White relays to us the musings in Lucifer's mind at the other end of the GC about this period of time we learn some important insights. “Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity, the peace and content that were his until he indulged in murmuring against God, and envy of Christ. His accusations, his rebellion, his deceptions to gain the sympathy and support of the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no effort for self-recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness --all come vividly before him.” {GC 669.2}
As the experiment progressed many things did not go as planned. God kept interfering and undermining his goals, but Satan simply pointed to God's interference as the source of all the problems and pain. This created continual confusion in the minds of many, even among the angels loyal to God, and the 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 Son remained unanswered. Strangely, none of the Godhead seemed eager to set things straight and confront the questions head-on. Was there inherent weaknesses in God's government that needed exposing and fixing? Were there times when force could 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 squelch the 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 been revealed 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 unspoken. 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 was not going to impose the answers.
God's answer to the charges brought on 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.” (NAS95) The Father allowed Himself to accept the position 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 be the chief Witnesses and would be in charge of orchestrating all the other witnesses in this great 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. There were many surprises to come 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 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 threat. The survival of his growing 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 that he had failed to accomplish in the first round of their duel.
In essence, God has challenged Satan to complete his counterfeit to its ultimate perfection while God works 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 pronounced by everyone in the universe, He plans to power up this new creature and turn on the switch to show the onlooking worlds, angels, demons and all the human race what He has in mind. He claims that this “body” will 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 lifted.
That veil has been descending over the face of God since the first moments of Lucifer's experiment. When Adam and Eve sinned God had to dramatically shield them from Himself to protect them from fatal damage. It is very much like the circuit boards that make up our computers today or other electrical appliances we use. If the wiring 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, God immediately had to insert a step-down transformer to protect sinful humans from frying their circuits with His presence. (Revelation 13:8) “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast-- all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (NIV)
God's current/currency is pure, selfless, passionate love. When humans adopted a counterfeit circuitry/currency of selfishness God's love became a foreign currency to them. Their computers could no longer understand His programs because their operating systems had been replaced with an inferior one. But God has a secret plan that He had already prepared long before this crisis and He put it into operation immediately. Humans could choose to accept a substitute operating system that would run parallel to the Satanic one they had adopted. 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 and 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 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 components of the amazing and beautiful new creature that God intends to unveil at the final showdown.
Meanwhile, Satan also has been given similar opportunity to assemble a composite “body”, a creature of his own reflection. All those who refuse the offer of God to accept a new OS become available for Satan to perfect his blueprint for a composite creature. And while he may have complained that he cannot successfully finish his creation because he keeps losing his subjects to death, he is nevertheless given 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 has already occurred. The Son showed up in human form to personally demonstrate what it would look like for a human to live as he was originally designed to. But He came with severe handicaps and limitations that went far beyond the limitations that Adam could have claimed. 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 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 didn't need Him. Now Jesus was demonstrating the very opposite assertion and all the universe looked on with intense interest.
Of course Satan had to take on the challenge. He also saw in it a wonderful opportunity to capture a shortcut to victory in the trial if he could in any way and at any point induce Jesus to adopt any part of his 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.
This situation 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 earn favor with God. Jesus came with the ultimate handicap – a natural tendency to do the right thing, access to unlimited power within himself to live a perfect life. He possessed a natural love for righteousness and an unconcealable disgust for sin. It becomes obvious to an unbiased observer very quickly who would be faced with more intense temptations to use their own strength to overcome: sinful humans who can never succeed on their own strength but think they can sometimes, or Jesus who could easily depend on His own natural strength but always chose not to avail Himself of that advantage.
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 capture his shortcut to victory and he desperately needed to get Jesus to utilize His own power to do something, anything, for His own benefit. This becomes obvious when Jesus comments to Peter in the garden, “Do you not realize that if I wanted I could call 12 legions of angels to rescue me if I wanted?” 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 a 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 career. In his blinded desperation to force Jesus to sin he only accomplished exposing more completely the bankruptcy of his own principles and at the same time became an unwilling accomplice in setting in place the key foundation in the salvation plan for mankind. While Satan was blindly 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 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 in the slightest amount. He submitted to allowing the Father to choose every detail of every moment for Him 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 physically 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 from Adam and usurped by Satan at the fall. Jesus laid claim to the title of proper representative of this world in the assemblies of heaven and rightful owner of everyone on planet earth. 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 and everyone in the universe as the jury.
The next phase of God' plan was called spreading the “gospel”. We must be very careful to search out the meaning of many of our 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 prescribe to and accept. In the context of God being on trial, 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 light that dispels the lies that Satan has amassed against God in all his false charges. Darkness cannot be expelled by exposure but it simply evaporates when light is introduced.
God is light in every conceivable sense of the idea. God is love with an intensity that goes far beyond anything we have been willing to admit up to now. God craves openness and intimacy with 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 on humanity. He has restrained and hidden His passion and His face for centuries and He eagerly longs for His confinement to come to an end. The plan of salvation has actually more to do with the salvation of God's reputation than is has to do with saving humans out of sin and pain.
Our narrow view of religion has horribly 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 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 to heaven. We are almost totally oblivious to the massive scandal perpetrated against God and His reputation. Jesus came to reveal the Father and the Holy Spirit's commission is to do the same through our lives as well. Everything is being orchestrated toward the great climax, the ultimate revealing that God has planned for His vindication. The vindication of God's ways of relating to His creation is what the whole trial is about and every prophecy and prophet and instrument of God is dedicated toward that end. For us to force scripture and prophecy to make the Second Coming the focal point of salvation is to terribly distort and misdirect the 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 GC. This is a time for minds to be presented with evidence and choose allegiance, but not so much on the basis of doctrines but on what they choose to believe about the accusations of Satan against God. “Keeping” the seventh 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 or health reform are not the core issues of the GC. They are very much 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 involved. When we center our religion and experience around the externals such as these doctrines we are in danger of falling into the very first deception that Lucifer fell into – emphasizing the externals over the internals. The trial is about God's character, not about ours. Our character only comes into play as we are examined to determine whether we are truthful or false witness in the trial, not as defendants.
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The Second Coming is also just a transition point in the trial of God, not the climax of all ages as we have so often been led to believe. And it too is not so much for our benefit as it is to finalize details for the final day of 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 chosen what side they will be loyal to in the trial. When all have made up their minds Jesus will come quickly to claim all of His witnesses and take them to heaven to begin the next phase of His plan.
The millennium is another very misunderstood concept primarily because of our self-focused emphasis and our lack of understanding of what the GC is really all about. It is not a time of lolling about in great comfort in heaven, playing with animals and trying out our new wings as we are often taught in juvenile Sabbath School. That is not why Jesus brings the saved to heaven primarily, though it well indeed may involve some of those things and much more. Think carefully about what may and may not be happening during this most strategic time in the trial leading up to the great Judgment day, the day of full revelation.
First of all, 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 I don't believe he will do it to humans either. Given that probable assumption, then what kind of collection of people are going to be gathered together for 1000 years away from planet earth? 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 and God knew they were safe and salvageable to be reliable witnesses in His trial.
And what will happen then? Well, personally I believe that initially He has 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 by God in bringing out many important insights about how God created our brains and how they function. For more very important information about this refer to his materials available from carepkg.org.) They will join together in feasting, fellowship, incredible choreography and moments of high drama and emotion that will create and strengthen healthy joy bonds interlocking and synchronizing their hearts not only to God but to each other. The dramatic meeting of Adam and Jesus described by Ellen White that can bring intense emotion and tears just reading about it, has to be an incredible moment of education as well as bonding for the millions of the Redeemed who know almost nothing about the great war and the issues of the GC.
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 needs priests to minister to Him 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 He can also receive comfort and joy from ministry to Him as well as for Him.
Another point that we don't really understand as I believe we could with more study, is what is involved in reigning with Him. Personally I believe that it may in part mean Jesus giving some of the more mature among the saved responsibility to educate and mentor and mature the ones who have less understanding and maturity.
Finally and most importantly, I would like to suggest that everyone, even some of the unfallen beings, will have unanswered questions that need to be examined in complete freedom and resolved completely 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 and doubts, the results would be catastrophic failure when the full power 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 everything 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 there must always be more than one witness. A witness has only a small bit of the giant puzzle to contribute. But every piece brought to the table and humbly surrendered to be interlocked in unity with all the other witnesses create a compelling and more accurate portrait of God to a skeptical world.
A witness testifies to his own experience and perspective. It is unique and different from anyone else but not antagonistic if it is truthful. If instead of exercising ourselves trying to force our perspective and understanding on everyone else, 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.
At the end of the millennium the stage for the final resolution of the GC is set. This is the last great transition point before the final showdown between Satan's form of governing and God's form of governing. All of Satan's resources are put at his disposal in the resurrection of the soon-to-be-lost. 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 creature, the “body of Christ”, that received its final tuning during the millennium, His body with all its circuits and systems in perfect synchronization with His own heart, sits waiting in the New Jerusalem with eager anticipation for the “revealing” or unveiling. Satan's creature tuned to reflect himself and synchronized with his principles of force, fear and intimidation stands ready to implement his plans to take the city by force of arms and capture its riches and enslave its submissive population.
What is very interesting is a little detail that happens at this point that speaks volumes about the principle of freedom by which God has always operated. Mrs. White says that this point in time the gates are 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 does not force anyone out of the city or block them from entrance as individuals. It is because they have so unfit themselves by their choices that they cannot stand the totally pervasive atmosphere of selfless service and love that fills every heart in that city. It is shear torture to them and, if they did happen to venture in, they 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. God closes the gates against the collective “body” assembled and controlled by Satan, not against individuals who wish to enter.
When both sides have perfected their “creatures” and fully possessed them, the final day of Judgment has arrived. Judgment simply means discerning, revealing, exposing what is real. The One on trial is the Father and Jesus sits as Judge. All the universe 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, every intelligent mind is riveted on the scene. Before everyone's astonished face the whole Great Controversy is revealed from beginning to end and every lie and the result of every choice is exposed in full. In every situation it is fully shown that God was completely fair and never used force, intimidation or any other of Satan's tools in the battle. Satan has consistently and repeatedly charged God with possessing the character that was really Satan's own. But now it is shown that Satan's plan was impossible to succeed. It's inherent flaw of separation from the only source of life is now seen clearly. Everything is laid bare for inspection.
“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.
Mrs. White portrays in gripping language the details of that event. This is the moment of the 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 difference is, the righteous have allowed themselves to be perfected into instruments of praise and worship by the Holy Spirit but the wicked have lost all capacity to return love and praise by rejecting and spurning His Spirit. The lost do fall down in worship and they may even desperately wish they could respond in love but they simply don't have the circuitry and capacity in their hearts available to them when they need it the most.
At this point there are no places for lies to hide anymore. Satan is fully unmasked simply by the revealing of truth, not by pointing out his faults. The wicked are disgusted and enraged and all the pent-up hatred and anger of all the ages are focused on their leaders and especially Satan. The beauty of God is beginning to be fully revealed and His glory, the passionate love that He has kept pent up for eons, is finally unleashed on 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” lights up like billions of brilliant suns in a stunning display of glory that we can't begin to imagine. But the same glory of passionate love that embraces the lost sinners with their malfunctioning circuits creates terrible fireworks when it meets their resistance causing smoke and meltdowns dependent in length on how many lies they cling to about this God of unrelenting love. It is not an angry God that strikes them dead in torturous flames, it is a passionate God whose heart is ripped out and torn apart in agony at losing so many of his children including Lucifer, one of the finest specimens of all His creation. Yes God is angry, very angry – but not at sinners. He is angry that sin itself has tragically forever torn from His very heart so many that He will forever miss.
Mal 3:6 "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. (NAS95)
The fire that destroys the wicked initially comes from within. They have built into their character the very essence of who they have become; resistance to love, which is God's current of power, and resistance produces heat. Just ask any engineer.
Take a look at the sanctuary system in the Old Testament which was given as a model of the Great Controversy. Do you ever read of a sacrifice being burned before it had died? NO! The cremating fire always came after the sacrifice was dead from the results of sin. It 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. Rev. 14:10 The stark contrast between their twisted characters and the perfection and beauty of the characters of heavenly beings literally produce mental and physical flames that eventually destroy their bodies and souls. (Ezekiel 18:20) “The soul that sins shall die.”(RSV) Then God's cleansing fire finishes cleaning up the mess created on this planet by melting down all the leftovers and residue back into the basic building elements that were here before creation week.
(1 Corinthians 15:20-28) “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.” (NAS95)
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. 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 opposing paradigm systems 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, tapes 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 when we come up short of what we need. His most comprehensive book to date is Living With Men. His materials can be purchased from carepkg.org (231) 745-4950.
