Is God Fair?
One night in 1953 in many parts of England television screens momentarily blurred. Static filled the speakers. And then, cutting into the local program and surprising everyone came the call-sign of TV station KLEE in Houston, Texas. All this in 1953, before the days of communication satellites and transoceanic telecasting! When British broadcasting engineers advised KLEE in Houston of the unusual event, they received startling information: Station KLEE had been off the air for three years! No call signal had been beamed into the atmosphere since 1950 . . .
Where had that picture been for three years? On what other worlds had its message sounded? How did it get to England?
stones cry out
Sound is composed of vibrations—wave motion. Wave motion can fry an egg, drill an oil well, clean a suit or make an incision. Tune a gadget developed by Pennsylvania State College scientists to a frequency of 18,000 hertz, aim it at the family laundry, and even the greasiest overalls come out immaculate.
Perhaps the ancient prophet Habakkuk had the mysterious properties of sound in mind when he wrote: “The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it” (Habakkuk 2:11).
What did the prophet mean?
So enormous are the sins of Babylon, the prophet is saying, that if humans don’t condemn them, then the inanimate objects will! The “vibrations” that Babylon has projected are on record: “The stone of the wall shall replay them and the timbers, in stereophonic antiphony, shall answer.”
Today we know that a scientific basis could be argued for Habukuk’s revelation. Stones can cry out, beams of timber can answer. The words you speak leave delicate impressions, and somewhere they are waiting to be played back—all the sounds of Planet Earth.
solemn scene
There are books in which our deeds and even thoughts are registered. Even records of professed Christians are being examined.
“I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. . . . They . . . reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).
The thrones might be likened to the seats occupied by the judges of the Federal Court. Those who sit on them, at “God’s judgment seat” (Romans 14:10), are people from earth who “emigrated” to heaven with Jesus at His second coming. Among them are the “blessed and holy” from all ages, resurrected at Jesus’ coming in “the first resurrection”: “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).
The “rest of the dead” (Revelation 20:5)—the wicked—come to life in the “resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29, KJV) when the thousand years are ended. Thus the righteous sit with Christ in judgment during the intervening 1000 years, among other things, examining the records of humankind.
a sublime heaven
Based on Old Testament prophecy and Revelation 22:9-12, it is clear that another judgment—that of God, winnowing saints from sinners, in a sense—begins earlier, prior to Christ’s return. In it He determines who is to receive eternal life.
Now another stage of God’s handling of the problem of sin takes place. The righteous saints are given opportunity to review God’s fairness by examining the record of every human!
What could be more fair? The secrets of every life will be revealed. And when everyone is satisfied that justice has been done, the righteous will put their seal of approval on the proceedings and embark with Christ for Planet Earth.
a desolate earth
For 1000 years earth has been the Silent Planet. The Aceh earthquake, a nine on the Richter scale, was severe and devastating, but at the second advent of Christ, there is one so “severe,” so “tremendous,” that the Bible describes it as unlike any that “has ever occurred since man has been on earth.” And while islands off the north-west coast of Aceh moved some 30 metres, this one is so great that all “the cities of the nations [collapse]” and “every island [flees] away” (Revelation 16:18-20).
Only Satan survives to occupy the earth for the 1000 years. Says Peter: “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons [metaphorically speaking] to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).
John says, “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the thousand years were ended” (Revelation 20:2, 3).
the dragon chained
Satan is confined by circumstances: He has no-one to tempt, for the righteous are with Christ in heaven and the wicked are dead.
For thousands of years Satan has imprisoned God’s people, sent them to dungeon and executioner. And he would have held them captive forever if Christ had not broken his power and set the captives free. Now Satan is a prisoner.
an intergalactic procession
At the end of the 1000 years, with their judgment complete, via some space worm or time warp, past stars and their planets that have never known sin, the saints then accompany Jesus aboard spaceship “New Jerusalem.” From his vision of it, John describes it as a magnificent city—“the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” (in Revelation 21:2), coming from heaven to earth, where it alights on “the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:4).
Then are enacted the last scenes of the great conflict that has torn the universe.
First, the wicked are resurrected. Satan, as he sees the multitude of resurrected wicked, his hopes revive. Perhaps he persuades them that he is their redeemer, that he brought them from their graves, and that they must take the Holy City as their own. With miraculous power he prepares them for earth’s last great battle.
verdict pronounced
Satan’s vast army—like “the sand of the seashore”—advance on the city. For the last time light and darkness face each other. Lucifer, the fallen “lightbearer” who wished to be equal with God, looks again at his Creator, surrounded by the subjects of His kingdom. Seated on a “great white throne,” Christ appears to the view of His enemies. If His face were not veiled, the wicked would be immediately be consumed.
As the redeemed themselves view Satan and his vast army, they realise that nothing but God’s power could have delivered them, and they break into a song: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10). Then, in His final act of judgment, the King of Ages pronounces sentence upon Satan: Guilty of treason; sentenced to death by fire!
sentence passed
“I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it . . . ,” writes John. “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. . . . The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (Revelation 20: 11, 12).
Obviously this scene takes place after the second advent of Christ. The earth and its atmosphere have “fled away.” The description suggests terrible forces that have reduced the earth to a chaotic state.
As the books of judgment are opened, and the eyes of Jesus sweep the great multitude, the wicked see how far pride and rebellion have involved them in violation of the law of God. As they see the saved, the vigour of eternal youth on their faces; and as they see the great city, they cry out as one, acknowledging the fairness of God’s judgment on them (Revelation 15:3; 16:5, 7), saying, “All this might have been mine.”
As if entranced, the wicked have beheld the Son of God and the record of His love and fairness toward them; then they fall to their knees and acknowledge: “Great and marvellous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages” (Revelation 15:3)
But even now Satan’s rebellious nature cannot be curbed; he seeks to spur his followers to a last assault on the city. But no longer will they follow him.
As they turn their weapons upon him, the last terrible judgment is pronounced from the throne: “Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god . . . you will die a violent death. . . . You were anointed as a guardian cherub . . . blameless in your ways . . . till wickedness was found in you. . . .
“So I threw you to the earth. . . . I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. . . . You have come to a horrible end and will be no more” (Ezekiel 28:6, 8, 14, 15, 17-19).
Revelation says that both the devil and his army are cast into a lake of fire (20:9, 10), along with death itself (20:14), and thus ends sin. Forever.
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
