Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Judgment on Babylon”. Sadly, at the end, there will be some who refuse to choose “Love”. For that is the demarcation between God and Satan. “Love” is the determining characteristic of those who choose God. Satan has developed quite a perversion of “Love” over the millennia, though. Satan’s version of “love” has some very attractive components to it, too. It is self-gratifying, it is founded on emotion and hence has great appeal, it seems to “scratch the itch” we humans crave because it appeals to the need we all have to love and be-loved in return. But because it is founded on “self”, Satan’s perversion is not “love” at all. It is merely self-aggrandizement disguised as “love”. Because it aims at self, and finds its fulfillment in self, it is not “love” at all but narcissism in disguise. We are all “con-men”, conning each other and conning ourselves. Inherently, we are like Satan, we are liars. We create a false-front in order to get what we want and need. If others really saw the evil latent in our hearts, the self-centeredness that lurks there, they would shun us. And so we hide, quietly manipulating others with our hypocritical exteriors.
Why do I bring this up? Because the events at the end, the events even now in each of our lives, are designed to reveal the truth about ourselves to ourselves. They are designed to “cleanse the sanctuary”… the soul sanctuary. Since 1844, we are living in the antitypical “Day of Atonement”. The “Day” when “the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state” (Daniel 8:14 NRSV)… in heaven and in YOU, too. A time when even our soul sanctuary is cleansed and restored. And everyone’s soul sanctuary must be restored because everyone’s soul sanctuary is so upside-down, so polluted with self, so far from God and so far from true “love”. We sinners are largely unaware of our true precarious position. We are in a “thou knowest not” condition. We “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). And so God must do whatever it takes to show us ourselves and our true condition.
In our “knowest not” condition, we are utterly incapable of true loving. We are sin-addicts of the worst kind, hell-bent on loving ourselves and our own way. And this sin-addiction of ours is keeping us incapable of loving! The end-time “Day of Atonement” is not just some heavenly bookkeeping adjustment. It is deadly serious work. Work inside the heart and mind of each person. And the Judgment of Babylon with “the angel coming down from heaven, having great authority” (Revelation 18:1) announcing this “judgment” is but Heaven’s last effort to show us our heart. God is voting for us and Satan is voting against us, it depends on our own vote which way the election goes. Those who choose Christ (I mean really choose Him as Lord of your life) will be enabled by His grace to be faithful to the end.
All addictions skew our reason and our logic. Every addiction takes first-place in our lives. As such, it is like having a demon that controls your every thought and action. Sin-addiction (self-addiction) is like that, too. We do not really “see” anyone else. We do not see people as God’s children. We see them as means to an end… our end-goals. We treat people as cattle, there to serve our needs. And then when we initially hear about God, we want Him to meet our end-goals, too. We treat God as cattle, a means to an end, too. A means of us saving our puny hides in an eternity of heavenly bliss. Shame on us for this gross interpretation and gross act toward our Father, our Savior, our Friend! But if we stay with God, it will enable Him to start cleansing our sanctuary… our soul sanctuary. He will reveal all the dark hidden spots in our character. He will reveal out true heart condition. And if we will, as He shows us each sin-blackened spot, we will say, “I want you, my Father, and not this vile trait I have”. This is the reason for His discipline. To show us ourselves and our black hearts.
This is the reason for all His actions or allowing’s. Love is the reason. Love for you. Love for me. And in the end, when the irreclaimably wicked experience the plagues that will never lead them to repentance, that too is love for them. If you knew positively that a certain thief was determined tonight to break into your house and secretly steal your goods, you would be very wise to hide yourself in the house and permit him to break-in, so that you could catch him in the very act. No one would ever doubt then that the thief is guilty. God has known for a long time that the wicked hate Him and are determined to make war against Him. During the time of the seven last plagues He simply gives them the opportunity to fulfill their evil purpose, and then catches them in the act. The universe will never doubt God’s justice or the full guilt of the wicked. It will be seen by all, that hardened sin-addicts who will never-ever repent. They are really and truly directly opposed to all that God is, all that “Love” is, and are unfit for heaven. The “addiction” to sin has destroyed them.
Are we incapable of loving? As sin-addicts, yes. But as sin-addicts who have repented and have come “home” to be healed, we can learn the lessons of love again. We can learn to love as we were created to love. May each of us see our true condition before it is too late. Before we have destroyed ourselves. God can easily heal all the damage sin has done to us. But we must choose. And each day lived to self makes it harder and harder to choose Him. “Sin not only shuts away from God, but destroys in the human soul both the desire and the capacity for knowing Him” (Prophets and Kings pg. 233). Let us return home before it is too late. Before there is nothing left in us capable of responding to the sovereignty of love. And when we’ve destroyed the desire and the capacity for responding to Him, there is nothing more God can do for us. Our minds and hearts are all scar-tissue. Utterly incapable of responding, of repenting, of loving. We toy with sin at our own peril. May we run Home to our Father… and stay Home is my prayer for us all.
With brotherly love,
Jim