Who is in charge of the Lake of Fire??

[Guest]

Ooooooooh I know what it is. Since you can't really change the words of the Bible, or Ellen White, you're just changing what the words mean. So it still says what it says, it just dosn't mean what it says. I see....

[BobRyan]

Interesting but this is mere human speculation.

The Lord has already revealed to us

sky

Agreed --

In Matt 10:28 God says that man has only the ability to kill the body -- not the soul. God says only God can "destroy BOTH body AND soul in fiery hell".

In Rev 20 it is God the rains fire down from heaven -- not man.

At the flood God does not say "I will allow man to flood the planet soon - so build a boat". God sits as king at the flood as well.

While there are plenty of examples in the Bible where God uses "other tools in the toolbox" to discipline or even anihilate ... somethings are God's "alone".

Annias and Saphira did not just-so-happen to "commit suicide when they took a look at Peter".

Hopefully all agree on that point at least.

And so it is not too surprising that we find Ellen White in full agreement with these Bible teachings.

Question -- just how "Strongly does Ellen White agree" with the Bible examples given here?

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Great Controversy - 673

Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10. The earth's surface seems one molten mass--a vast, seething 673

lake of fire. It is the time of the judgement and perdition of ungodly men--"the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." Isaiah 34:8. {GC 672.2}

Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished “according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit.

His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah. {GC 673.1}

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EW 294

The Second Death

Satan rushes into the midst of his followers and tries to stir up the multitude to action. But fire from God out of heaven is rained upon them, and the great men, and mighty men, the noble, the poor and miserable, are all consumed together.

I saw that some were quickly destroyed, while others suffered longer. They were punished according to the deeds done in the body. Some were many days consuming, and just as long as there was a portion of them unconsumed, all the sense of suffering remained. Said the angel, "The worm of life shall not die; their fire shall not be quenched as long as there is the least particle for it to prey upon." {EW 294.1}

Satan and his angels suffered long. Satan bore not only the weight and punishment of his own sins, but

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also of the sins of the redeemed host, which had been placed upon him; and he must also suffer for the ruin of souls which he had caused. Then I saw that Satan and all the wicked host were consumed, and the justice of God was satisfied; and all the angelic host, and all the redeemed saints, with a loud voice said, "Amen!"

{EW 294.2}

Said the angel, "Satan is the root, his children are the branches. They are now consumed root and branch. They have died an everlasting death. They are never to have a resurrection, and God will have a clean universe." I then looked and saw the fire which had consumed the wicked, burning up the rubbish and purifying the earth. Again I looked and saw the earth purified. There was not a single sign of the curse. The broken, uneven surface of the earth now looked like a level, extensive plain.

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From the detail that we see here - there can be no mistaking who is doing what God says He is doing.

in Christ,

Bob

[BobRyan]

1.When men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed.

2.God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.

3.The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner.

4.The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy.

Ellen White describes the fact that Satan causes world wide disaster once the earth is given by God into his hand.

But one truth cannot be used to abolish another truth.

God has many tools in the toolbox.

Neither Ellen White nor the Bible attribute the 7 last plagues to Satan. Nor does the Bible or Ellen White attribute the Ten plagues upon Egypt as being caused by Satan.

Neither does Ellen White or the Bible attribute the lake of fire to something Satan does to himself and to his followers.

Trying to paint all events in the Bible with a single brush simply does not work.

Some destruction is done by man.

Some is done by Satan.

And Some is done by God Himself.

And some is a natural result of living in a sinful and dangerous world -- where if God removes His protection harm results.

Impossible to bend all events into just one form. All of these forms exist.

in Christ,

Bob

[Guest]

Amen!

[Twilight]

Agreed.

The one shoe fits all, does not work. :-)