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God's wrath of love Let’s be utmost in the reality of truth as is the baseness of man. We were made from the dust of the earth. Let truth be brought from there. Biblically there was no ethnicity in humanity. There was humanness. No sign was needed as the reflection was of the image of God. Then there was Cain. A mark was needed to declare something adverse to God. A mark that would indicate displeasure to God. A mark that was indicative of Esau’s relation to God’s way as was the mark of Cain. That mark was whiteness! Don’t get personal…retain reasonableness as a working attitude to come to truth. Whiteness divides. Separation is the goal of whiteness, and completely antithetical to the Gospel. From Genesis to Revelation, we see God reconciling all facets of the relational ecosystem that is creation to each other and to the Divine in Christ. Jesus summed up all scripture saying, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Love and segregation are incompatible; as are love and black-body racism. The scandal of Jesus’ words is that love is always located in the real. Love is particular. It is needful of the other; it’s relational and proximate; never ideological, or theological, or even religious. May each of us move through this study circumspectly for there will be some pain to endure. Let us pray for the presence of the Comforter that we not accept the lowliness of personal reasoning verses the height of spiritual vision. My emerging sense is that we cannot separate love of self from love of neighbor or from love of God. These three loves are interpenetrating, interanimating, inseparable… perichoretic, maybe? That means referring to the relationship of the three persons of the triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to one another. If you were to really love your neighbor, you would be loving God and yourself. If you were to really love God, you would be loving yourself and your neighbor. Moreover, if you were truly able to love yourself, you would already be loving God and loving your neighbor, so… “who is your neighbor? We will learn how we all flow in Christ as purposed. We will learn some of the essence of differences that will serve as a shockwave to the human senses. Pray for strength to endure. So much more needs to be said than will be said here; even more needs to be done and undone. Jesus Christ necessitates a way of holistically loving God by loving our neighbor as ourself while together discovering how to reconfigure life spiritually. Humanly speaking, it may seem impossible. “But with God…” Our intenseness…what must we do to inherit eternal life. We may want to interrogate our motives as well as our supposed privileges before we start to follow Christ. Here is a statement that must be applied generally, yet can be personally applicable. All Israel will be saved, but not all are of Israel. Not all Black or White people are of Israel. I tell you the truth, it will be impossible for a Black or White person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven based upon color. Take pause…the proof will be found in the tasting of the fruit as the amount of evil done in the name of race is staggering and beyond calculation. Yet with God all things are possible…even the salvation of compliant slaves and unremitting masters. Let nothing undercut your faith. The cross means there never can be a claim to the superiority of any people group. Salvation finds no basis in color or race and God’s love and wrath is not measured with any human quality. The most highest and commonest factor for God is that we were each…all created by Him. How we understand God’s wrath is foundational to how we perceive the atonement, the end of sin and sinners, Jesus’ intercession, and the other teachings of truth. If God is anger be kindled toward sin and sinners, ready to penalize sinners, and if in His holy antagonism against sin, He must be reconciled, then the atonement necessarily involves appeasement of His anger. If on the other hand, we are the ones who are hostile, angry, and fearful of God, and God is wholly love itself, then atonement is about God winning back our love and trust. And in the latter scenario, then, what is the nature of God’s wrath of love? God’s love for us is strong as death. Christ’s love broke through death itself. Think that our love is to be like so. Making us dead to everything else except God. Even parts between soul and body as the spirit sours with devout affection upwards though it be clothed in flesh. Was the atonement sufficient for all? Available to all, on the condition of faith? If the atonement is definite, is it intended by God to be effective for the elect? Consider this in light of the truth of election. Election granted, the question may be framed in this way: when God sent His Son to die, did He think of the effect of the cross with respect to His elect differently from the way He thought of the effect of the cross with respect to all others? The definiteness of the atonement turns on God's intent in Christ's work on the cross. For God so loved the world…yet all Israel shall be saved. I John 2:2,15-29 We are to let nothing lessen the truth, alter our vision of God, nor distort the purpose of God. God has a peculiar and effective love toward His election. Thus definite atonement is exonerated. God, with perfect knowledge of the elect, saw Christ's death with respect to the election differently from the way He saw Christ's death with respect to everyone else. We are never to introduce disjunctions where God Himself has not introduced them. The atonement is sufficient for all, yet effective for the election. God loves the world. But His election are not to love the world. That would be to remain under God’s wrath. God's love for the world is commendable because it manifests itself in awesome self-sacrifice; our love for the world is repulsive when it lusts for evil participation. God's love for the world is praiseworthy because it brings the transforming gospel to it; our love for the world is ugly because we seek to be conformed to the world. God's love for the world issues in certain individuals being called out from the world and into the family of Christ's followers; our love for the world is sickening where we wish to be absorbed into the world. But clearly the elect are to love the world in the sense that we are to go into every part of it and bring the glorious truth of the gospel to every creature. In this sense we imitate the wholly praiseworthy love of God for the world. Concerning the stage of America. Let’s hear how the testimony worded concern for our understanding of knowledge. People of Other Cultures Those close to Christ are lifted above color or caste—He who is closely connected with Christ is lifted above the prejudice of color or caste. His faith takes hold of eternal realities. The divine Author of truth is to be up lifted. Our hearts are to be filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The work of the good Samaritan is the example that we are to follow.— Testimonies for the Church 9:209. PaM 93.1 When the Holy Spirit moves, all prejudice will be melted away and we will approach God as one brotherhood—When the Holy Spirit moves upon human minds, all petty complaints and accusations between man and his fellow man will be put away. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will shine into the chambers of the mind and heart. In our worship of God there will be no distinction between rich and poor, white and black. All prejudice will be melted away. When we approach God, it will be as one brotherhood. We are pilgrims and strangers, bound for a better country, even a heavenly. There all pride, all accusation, all self- deception, will forever have an end. Every mask will be laid aside, and we shall “see Him as He is.” There our songs will catch the inspiring theme, and praise and thanksgiving will go up to God.—The Review and Herald, October 24, 1899. PaM 93.2 Societal distinctions should become contemptible—The cross of Calvary should make the distinctions of society fade away and become contemptible. If the Lord is so gracious as to accept sinners from the white race, and forgive their sins, holding out to them the assurance of the higher life, the hope of a place in the redeemed family when he comes in the clouds of heaven, and the righteous dead rise from their grave to meet Him, will he not accept sinners from the black race, and will He not forgive their sins? Does He not hold out to them the same hope that He holds out to the white race? Will He not, if they believe on Him, receive them as His sons and daughters? Will He not raise them from ignorance and degradation by the working out of His plan? Does He not, through the instrumentality of the more favored white race, who claim to be children of the same Father, wish to uplift and ennoble them?—Manuscript 70, 1902. (Quoted in Spalding and Magan Collection, 220, 221.) PaM 93.3 Racial separation is not permanent—Walls of separation have been built up between the whites and the blacks. These walls of prejudice will tumble down of themselves, as did the walls of Jericho, when Christians obey the Word of God, which enjoins on them supreme love to their Maker and impartial love to their neighbors.... Let every church whose members claim to believe the truth for this time, look at this neglected, downtrodden race, that as a result of slavery have been deprived of the privilege of thinking and acting for themselves.—The Review and Herald, December 17, 1895. PaM 93.4 We dare not ignore existing racial prejudice—I am burdened, heavily burdened, for the work among the colored people. The gospel is to be presented to the downtrodden Negro race. But great caution will have to be shown in the efforts put forth for the uplifting of this people. Among the white people in many places there exists a strong prejudice against the Negro race. We may desire to ignore this prejudice, but we cannot do it. If we were to act as if this prejudice did not exist we could not get the light before the white people. We must meet the situation as it is and deal with it wisely and intelligently.—Testimonies for the Church 9:204. PaM 94.1 The work must not be hindered through prejudice caused by national customs—There must be a firm determination on the part of our laborers to break with the established customs of the people whenever it is essential to the advancement of the work of God. The work might be much farther advanced in Europe if some of those who have embraced the truth were not so wedded to the habits and customs of nationalities. They plead that the efforts of our ministers must be made to conform to these customs and prejudices, or nothing will be accomplished. This has had a binding influence upon the work from its commencement. The effort that has been made to conform to English customs, to eat and drink English, to dress and sleep English, has circumscribed the work, and it is now years behind what it might have been. The effort to keep bound about by French customs and ideas has hindered the work in France. My heart aches as I hear our brethren say, Such an one does not understand how to labor for these nationalities. Does not God know what the people need? and will He not direct His servants? Is not the truth one? Are not the teachings of the Bible one? Let God give His messengers the word to speak, and His blessing will not fail to attend their labors.—The Review and Herald, December 8, 1885. PaM 94.2 We must not build up separate interests between different nationalities—I felt urged by the Spirit of God throughout the meetings to impress upon all the importance of cultivating love and unity. I tried to present the danger of building up separate interests between different nationalities.—The Review and Herald, November 3, As a forenote to the knowledge that is intended to further our faith in the word and purposes of God please consider receiving this plate of offering in its fullness. It will be your choice to break away momentarily to verify what is written here…but please read Revelation 22:18 and 19, that your consideration may be founded in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This forenote is not intended to preempt any purposes of God for He alone determines all things. There was and may still be effective a “theophobia” introduced into the world by a people not chosen. Ironically, the intention of this introduction was for instilling the fear of God’s wrath into a people called. Now if you are on the path where both lamp and light are valued, you may do the “google” thing and research “The Commonwealth Bible” compiled in 1807. If you are one of the few who study to show themselves approved of God you will note the very specific peculiarities of the entirety of the texts. Why are chapters 4 and 5 removed from Genesis? And why is the book of Obadiah taken away? And The Revelation? Curious for thought or reasoned for wisdom… Too many will have this thought…I know God is love and He gives me choice. So if I choose to deny Him why would He not allow me in heaven? Conscious and hardened resistance to the truth leads man away from humility and repentance, and without repentance, there can be no forgiveness. That is why “the sin” cannot be forgiven since one who does not acknowledge his sin does not seek to have it forgiven. That is why Lucifer fell! Jesus makes clear that denying Him is a serious problem. Confess Him before men, He will confess you before his Father. Deny Him… The relationship with God is affected. Turning the love that belongs to Him alone and pointing it inward toward ourselves is the ultimate consequence of sin, this rejection of God and rebellion against Him, is death. Oh, I will ask now that we pause and read the entirety of Psalms 107. We shall be altogether astonished at the superiority of the bible. The bible to us is quite infinitely wiser than every source brought forth by man, on this matter, as on others, it is so much more straight forward, and yet so much more deep; so much more rational also, and so much more true: agreeing so much more with the facts which we see happen round us: agreeing so much more with our own reason, experience, inward conscience, about what is just and unjust. God will punish sin. To reason with God is to discover that the truth of punishment is not to torment but to reform. But then the thought would come - why, after all, should God, if He be just and merciful, punish my sin by pain and misery? How can it profit God, how can it please God, to give me pain? Because it satisfies His justice? How can it do that? It would not satisfy mine. God has no passioned pleasure in the death of man. God rathers that man turn from wickedness and live. The thought would come into the mind of a wise and serious man is that because God loves me, He desires that I may be a partaker of His holiness. As soon as that blessed thought rises in any man's mind, by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, all the world would begin to look bright and clear and full of hope. This earth, with all its sorrows and sufferings, is the blessed purpose of God to show forth His love for the deliverance of His people. God goes on to those who have brought themselves into poverty and shame, who sit bound in misery. This is man’s falling. We have brought it on ourselves by rebelling against the word of the Lord, and lightly regarding the counsel of the Most Highest. But God does not hate us. God is not going to leave us to the net which we have spread for our own feet. When we cry unto the Lord in our troubles, He hears us in our distress. God Himself, by strange and unexpected ways, will deliver us from our darkness of ignorance and sin, and from the danger and misery which we have brought upon ourselves. Then He goes on to those who have injured their health by their own foolishness, till their soul abhors all manner of reckoning with the word of God, and they are even hard at death's door. Neither does God hate them. They, too, are in God's school-house. And when they cry to the Lord in their trouble, He will deliver them, too, out of their distress, and send His word, and heal them, and save them from destruction. Then He goes on to men who are exposed to danger, and terror, and death in their lawful calling; and his instance is the seamen, the airmen, those in foreign lands, those who go on to the sea in ships, move in the skies, and occupy their business in desert places who do the services for homebound. The storms come up, they know not when or how: but they are not the sport of a blind chance; they are not the victims of the wrath of God. The wild sea, turbulent winds, dry grounds too, are His school-house. And wonder with those who have been blessed to wander in the heights of the second heaven, to view by sight purposed to give eyes to their faith as they look upon the circle of the earth from ships in the space of darkness where they are to see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the depth of understanding; and so, by strange dangers and strange deliverances, learn, as many of us have seen times of learning, needing a courage and endurance, a faith, a resignation, which puts those in comfortable places to shame. Then He goes on to even a deeper matter -- to those terrible changes in nature, so common today, in which whole territories, by earthquake, flood, or drought, are rendered worthless and barren. They too, he says, are God's lessons, though sharp ones enough. 'He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Again, He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs. And there He maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.' Lastly, He goes on to political changes, which bring a whole nation low, into oppression and misery. 'They are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving- kindness of the Lord.' And so, in all the changes of this mortal life, he sees no real chance, no real change, but the orderly education of a just and loving Father, whose mercy endureth for ever; who chastens men as a father chastens his children, for their profit, that they may be partakers of his holiness, in which alone is life and joy, health and wealth. Surely, here is the gospel, good news; news so good, that it turns what seems to the superstitious the worst of news, into the very best. For it seems at first sight the worst of news that tells us, that our original sin, in every person born into this world, deserves God's wrath and damnation. And so, it would be the worst of news, if God were merely a judge, inflicting so much pain and misery for so much sin, without any bidding to mend us and save us. But if we remember only the blessed message of this psalm; if we will remember that God is our Father; that God is educating us; that God hath neither parts nor passions; and that, therefore, God's wrath is not different or contrary to His love, but that God's wrath is His love in another shape, punishing men just because He loves men; -- then the word always will bring us the very best of news. We shall see that it is the best thing that can possibly befall us, that our sin deserves God's wrath and damnation, and that it would have been the worst thing which could possibly have befallen us, if our sin had not deserved God's wrath and damnation. For if our sin had not deserved God's anger, then He would not have been angry with it; and then He would have left it alone, instead of condemning it, and dooming it to everlasting destruction as He has done purposefully; and then, if our sin had been left alone, we should have been left alone to sin and sin on, growing continually more wicked, till our sin became the ruin which untold numbers will see. But now God hates our sin, and loves us; and therefore He desires above all things to deliver us from sin, and burn our sin up in the heat of His truth. This unquenchable fire of truth is not a passive act. If we be not spiritually assertive then we ourselves may be burned up therein. For if our sins live, we shall surely die: but if our sins die, then, and then only, shall we live. Do these words seem strange to some of you? I doubt not that they will: but if they do, that will be only a fresh proof to me, that the word of God is inspired by the Holy Ghost. Yes, nothing shows me how wide, how deep, how wise, how heavenly the bible is, as to see how far average persons are behind the bible in their way of thinking; how the salvation which it offers is too free for them, the love which it proclaims too wide for them, the God whom it reveals too good for them: so that they shrink from taking the word and trusting the author, in the fulness that is therein; and are perpetually falling back on heathen notions -- the very old heathen notions from which this psalm delivers us -- concerning what God's anger means, and what God's punishment means; because they are afraid of taking the words of scripture literally and fully spiritual, and believing honestly the blessed truth, that God is Love. They try to make God's ways as their ways, and God's thoughts as their thoughts. But do not you do so. Receive the word in its fulness. Believe that it tells you infinitely more of God's character and dealings, than you can ever tell yourselves; that God's ways are not as your ways, nor God's thoughts as your thoughts, even at their best: but that God's ways are always wider and deeper than yours, were you the most learned of men; God's thoughts are always more loving and just than yours, were you the most holy of men, and that when you have learned all that you can learn, or that any man can learn, out of the bible, there will be still left behind treasures beside, which you have not yet found out. For the riches of Christ are unsearchable; like the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whose only-begotten son, and perfect likeness, he is; and the man who reads the scripture with a single eye, and an humble heart, will see that the more he finds in the word, the more he has yet to find; and that if he studied it to all eternity, he would have fresh and fresh cause for ever to cry - oh give thanks to the Lord! Both God’s love and God’s wrath are proclaimed in the truth of the word. The truth does not lie in one or the other, not does the truth lie between them, with each moderating the other. Both are proclaimed absolutely by God. We find God’s love and God’s wrath in the teachings of Christ. Matthew 5:22, 29,30;10:28; 11:23 Luke 12:5; 10:15 Matt 18:8,9; 23:15, 23 Mark 9:43-49 We should fear God as judge and trust him as Father. God is both just and loving: God judges those who turn from him, and he cares for those who turn to him. The better revelation is that where God is Judge, He is also Savior. We must be most attentive to the word and not drift away. Because God is holy, and he so loves us that he sends his holy Son to die in our place and take the punishment, judgement and wrath as our substitute; to sanctify and make holy his people. He makes a holy covenant with us, and indwells us by his Holy Spirit. This is astonishing and essential! If we are in Christ we are holy in him—with his holiness. If we are not in Christ, we are not holy. If we are in Christ, we are with God. If we are not in Christ, we are without God. The Father and Son are both wrathful toward sin, and both loving toward sinners. The fact that we were reconciled through Christ’s death must not be understood as if his Son reconciled us to him that he might now begin to love those whom he had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to him who loves us, with whom we were purposed electionally. Father, Son, and Spirit are one God with an undivided nature. They share the same holy wrath and same gracious love. There is a day of shocking depiction that is about to happen. A day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone. Too many people are passing judgment on God’s character. Grace and mercy, forgiveness and salvation, wrath and vengeance, are not understood to be personal attributes or dispositions in the character of God. Wrath may well be ordained and controlled by God, but is clearly no part of him…so they think. Divine wrath is righteous antagonism toward all that is unholy. It is the revulsion of God's character to that which is a violation of God's will. Indeed, some know of divine wrath as a function of divine love. For God's wrath is his love for holiness and truth and justice. It is because God passionately loves purity and peace and perfection that his anger is kindled toward anything and anyone who defiles them. Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as He did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not know of the adversity of evil in His world be morally perfect? Surely not. But it is precisely this determined response to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the bible has in view when it speaks of God's wrath. Think about this for just a moment. If you and I do not deserve to suffer divine wrath for our sins, we empty God’s forgiveness of its meaning. If there is no such thing as judgment, God ought to overlook our sin. Forgiveness is real and meaningful only when we believe that our sin has put us into a situation where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious consequences for our unbelief and immoral behavior. When a situation demands that God should take action against sinful people in judgment and instead he takes action for them, the word grace actually means something. But if there is no such thing as the judgment of God’s wrath for sin and unbelief, grace loses all meaning and significance. With spiritual reasoning considering the Creator of the universe and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, if our knowledge does not include a healthy confession that he is holy and righteous and will pour out wrath and judgment on those who persist in their rejection of him, it is unbiblical and unrealistic knowledge. In fact, it is an unloving understanding. For if we communicate to non-believers that they should repent and believe the gospel, but if they don’t, “aw, don’t worry about it, God will figure out a way to embrace you in spite of your unbelief,” we are treating that person with contempt. We are leaving them vulnerable to eternal damnation with the false hope of a God who is too loving ever to consign anyone to hell. The love of God provides escape from the wrath of God by sacrificing the Son of God to vindicate the glory of God in forgiving sinners. That's the gospel truth. But for those who spurn the provision of God’s love in Christ there is only a fearful expectation of the wrath of the judgment of God. We have no apology for God’s wrath. We are not embarrassed by God’s wrath. If the God of the bible is unmoved by and indifferent toward racism and perversion and rape and dishonesty, he’s not worthy of anyone’s praise. Righteous anger against sin is absolutely essential to God being God. Judgment against human wickedness and wrath poured out on unrepentant rebels is part of what it means to be holy. God’s faithful chosen will not ignore or tip-toe around what the word says on this matter in order not to offend people. The God of the Bible, the only true God, is indescribably patient and kind and compassionate and loving and gracious and merciful. God is holy and righteous and just. The wrath and righteous anger of God is filled with descriptions of God’s compassion and longsuffering and mercy and tender- hearted ways. We thank God for his wrath. Else the unrepentant might never be called to account for their deeds and never face the judgment that reconciles God’s creation to His purposed eternal plan. We must always praise and glorify God for his amazing grace that has made it possible for us to be spared this wrath. His wrath has been poured out on Jesus and altogether satisfied for those who put their trust in him as Lord and Savior. We are among the perpetrators of evil and abuse and wickedness in the earth, but if we look to God’s mercy for us in the death of Jesus we will find forgiveness. God’s wrath wasn’t set aside or ignored when it comes to the sins of world. It was revealed from heaven. It was fully and finally and forever poured out on his Son, who endured for us what we otherwise would have suffered. That’s love abounding. That’s the true love of the Lord. It is not the absence of His judgment or wrath. It is the many opportunities He gives us to choose Him—to choose eternity in heaven. The love and wrath of God can be reasoned with this thought…God gives His wrath by weight, but His mercy without measure. God is so God that His love is the incomparable conjunction of love and wrath. It sounds the truth of o’death, where is thy sting? It is the wonder of the mystery of the commingling of the Father's love and wrath in His dealings with the Son on the cross. Never can be visioned the wrath of love as is God’s until you see Jesus losing the infinite love of the Father out of His infinite love for us. It will melt your hardness. But for those of us who are of the faith of Jesus, we are not disheartened. We have this strong focus on the simultaneity of the manifestation of the Father's eternal love and divine wrath directed to the Son when He hung on the cross. The Father loved the Son with infinite and immutable love because he did not cease to be the only begotten Son, and the infinite love necessarily flowed out from the very relationship that he essentially and immutably sustained to God his Father. We must distinguish between the two kinds of love that the Father has for the Son. The first is that immutable, infinite love that flows out from the Father to the Son because of the intrinsic relationship that they sustain to one another. The second is the love of complacency that flowed out with increasing intensity to the Son because of His fulfillment of the Father's commission. This second kind of love that the Father had for the Son is captured in the words of Christ; therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. From this, we must conclude that the Father loved the Son incarnate the most, precisely at the moment when he was voluntarily laying down His life in connection with the command of His Father in the counsels of eternity. Every detail of the suffering endured by the Son constrained the love and delight of God the Father because it was all endured by the Son in obedience to the Father's will and - in the performance of the Father's will - the Son committed no sin. This is that which is the incomparable conjunction at the cross - an unheard of conjunction: infinite love and divine wrath. The Son becomes the object of the commingling of the love of the Father and the unmitigated wrath of the Father. The essence of sin's curse and judgment, is the wrath of God. So, if Jesus bore sin and if he bore our curse and if he was made sin, then the vicarious fearing of the wrath of God belongs to the very essence of his atoning accomplishment. Here we see that the doctrine of propitiation is of the very essence of the truth of the Worded Gospel of truth. The truth is that it is just because the Son was the object of this immutable, infinite, and unique love that he could at the same time be the subject of the wrath of God... It was only because the Son was the object of the Father's unique and immutable love that He could be thus abandoned. No other would be equal to it. Those who will be lost in perdition will be abandoned eternally, but not one of them will be able to of have occasion to say, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The abandonment of Christ on Calvary's tree was abandonment in pursuance of the commission given him by the Father in the Determinate Counsel of purpose by election, and it was abandonment with the unparalleled effect of ending that abandonment. And because it was abandonment with this result, it was abandonment with inimitable agony and reality. The determinate purpose of the Father's love was the explanation for the spectacle of the Son's death. But the love that the Father bore to the Son did not diminish the severity of the ordeal that creates this spectacle - the ordeal of the cross and the abandonment vicariously born. The Father's love for those for whom the Son bears His wrath is set against the background of this wondrous conjunction of the Father's love and wrath directed to the Son. The Father loved His people with such invincible love and purpose that he executed the full toll, the full stroke, of our condemnation upon His own Son. That is the Father's love! This revelation of the reality of the Determinate Counsel’s reasoning should cause us amazement…the amazement of believing this adoring wonder. When we come to understand that the Father loved the Son the most while making the Son the object of His full and unfettered wrath - as He stood in our place as our substitutionary sacrifice - our hard hearts are smelted by the refiner. It is the "incomparable conjunction" of the Father's love and wrath directed to the Son that enables believers to grasp something of the greatness of the love that the Father has for us. The wrath of God is His displeasure against sin and evil. It is God’s just and righteous response of judgment against sin, apostasy, unfairness, and injustice both within and without the community of God’s people. In the end, God is just and the justifier of those who have faith. Of what is the significance of divine wrath? This is the time in which the existence of sin is often denied. This is rendered by the exclusion of the truth of God to accommodate people in their spiritual deception. The real tragedy is that nearly all have lost much of the knowledge of God, against whom we have sinned. Most do not even feel that they have much to repent of, because they’re not always sure about just how much they have offended God with their sins. They want grace without the cross, forgiveness without repentance. Herein justifies God’s anger…without anger, even we would watch abuse and fail to understand the seriousness of what was happening. Divine wrath is when divine love becomes angry. For divine love doesn’t dismiss sin, but deals with it in judgment. It must be remembered that God’s purpose in executing judgment is redemptive. While in judgment sin is punished, in His holy love judgment seeks to eradicate sin and establish holiness. God’s wrath is holiness’ response to sin. Holiness is repulsed at sin and must deal with it. Judgment is God’s holiness in opposition to sin. God’s love redeems in the midst of judgment to establish his holiness. Divine wrath is anchored in holy-love. His love is so great He at the cross dealt with sin in his Son. At the cross we see judgment upon sin and the redemptive love of God from sin. The judgment of God is an aspect of His love. God’s judgment and love are not opposed to one another, for there can exist no true love without judgment on sin. God is not passive in the face of sin, but is actively opposed to evil. God’s wrath against sin arises out of His nature of holy-love. Found in the character of God is the expression of wrath. Man was placed in a perfect environment, walked in harmony with his holy and loving Creator. By his own choice, man deviated from God’s moral order and sin entered the world. All creation was thrown out of balance. When that balance was violated the fall of man and a fallen creation resulted, and it threw our existence on earth out of kilter with God in its highest effect and the resounding collision within every aspect of our relations with nature, especially with the varieties of cultures that resulted in the perverted, distorted, and aberrant behavior among those whom are to be considered human. The widespread effect of the fallenness of humanity, results in the expression of God’s “wrath” being manifest against “fallenness.” How is God’s wrath expressed in love? Wrath as cause and effect of violating of God’s holiness and moral order was met with mercy and forgiveness. Wrath in the character and nature of God who actively opposes sin was wrapped in the flesh of Christ. Wrath in Christ’s great work on the cross offered redemption to all. And wrath as the consuming outpouring of God’s judgment upon unrepentant sin and sinners will see His chosen saved. It is the insight of a deeper sense of the solemn holiness of the love of God that meets us to understand that God’s wrath is a right and necessary reaction to evil. It reveals to us that right and wrong objectively exists, and points us to the consequences of our actions and need of repentance. God brings about situations through circumstances in order to bring men to repentance. In this is God’s act of love to persuade men to repent of their sin which separates them from the His grace and mercy. God can and does use situations in order to bring wayward sinners unto Himself and bring about purposes which are beyond our finite minds to grasp. God’s wrath is a present reality. It is the steadfast opposition against all sin. In that is His extending love in restoring holiness and order to a fallen world. We are to study God’s judgments as a foretaste of events more horrific to come as revealed. The judgments should arouse and alert our hearts to look for the remedy of sin in Christ Jesus. On the cross we see both God’s love and God’s wrath. On the cross our sin was dealt with, and grace is extended to all who will come and kneel before the finished work of Christ and receive God’s redemptive provision. It is at the cross we grasp the horror of our sin and holiness’ judgment against sin, but in worshipful thanksgiving we see demonstrated the vastness of God’s loving grace in His provision for our sin. The many, due to lack of reasoning, will find it difficult to reconcile God’s divine wrath and divine love. But we affirm the doctrine of God’s wrath, for if we do not, we strip God’s love of its biblical balance and power. When sin and divine wrath are taken seriously, highlighted is the enormous cost God’s love paid to secure our redemption. Understanding and acknowledging these contrasting solutions of divine love and wrath results in our exclaiming, what a Savior!” God’s love is so deeply woven into the fabric of truth, that if human love toward God and for one another were our response the bible story would be completed. Whereas God’s love is comprehensive, that which we can muster up is but a sketch. God is not a God of human emotions or human actions. God’s perspective views the perfectness of all things accountable to Him for being. God is righteous, not irrational. Weigh His patience with us to come to Him. Measure His foremost mercy in sustaining us. Notice how He prefers to chastise rather than punish. Unrighteousness has consequences. And though it is the love of God that is the power of His sovereignty, He is so loving that He permits our sin to judge us. The bible speaks of the wrath of God in high-intensity language. The bible includes some of the most violent expressions of God's wrath found in all literature. When biblical evidence is ignored people will tumble into fresh errors that touch the very holiness of God. Love is a perfection of God. Wrath is a function of God’s perfect love. Divine wrath is the right and righteous response of God to sin. Put positively, wrath, in perfect harmony with all of God’s divine attributes, is God's holy action of retribution towards those whose actions deserve reckoning. Love is always…it is God. Wrath results from sin…it will cease. Where God in His holiness confronts His image-bearers in their rebellion, there must be wrath. Otherwise, God is not the jealous God He claims to be, and His holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing God's holiness. We must never lessen any truth of God. God has nothing but hate for sin, but this cannot be said with respect to how God sees the sinner as he stands. Though we be of all who have sinned, God hatest the workers of iniquity. For this the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Please do not be caught up in cliches – cleanliness is next to godliness…God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Those are false faces. The wrath of God rests on both the sin and the sinner. Romans 1:18-23; 1:24-32; 2:5 John 3:36 God’s wrath is an entirely reasonable and willed response to offenses against His holiness. At the same time His love wells up amidst His perfections and is not generated by the loveliness of the loved. Thus, there is nothing impossible about wrath and love being directed toward the same individual or people at once. God in His perfections must be wrathful against His rebel image-bearers, for they have offended Him; God in His perfections must be loving toward His rebel image-bearers, for He is that kind of God. Both the fulness of God’s love and the fulness of God’s wrath will come to a resounding climax as at the cross in the last day. God loved us so much that He sent His Son. Perfectly mirroring His Father's words and deeds, the Son stood over against us in wrath displaying vividly when sinners will call for rocks to fall and hide them "from the wrath of the Lamb," and yet He was obedient to His Father's commission, offering Himself on the cross. He did this out of love both for His Father, whom He obeys, and for us, whom He redeems. Thus, God is necessarily both the subject and the object of propitiation. He provides the propitiating sacrifice, He is the subject, and He Himself is propitiated, He is the object. That is the glory of the Cross. Love and justice, goodness and holiness, grace and wrath are not opposites. They are complementary. Ultimately, they are interdependent. Love without justice is mere sentimentalism. Justice without love is sheer vindictiveness. In God, however, steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Love seeks justice for those loved. Justice protects, avenges, and vindicates those loved. The cross of Christ is the perfect expression of both the love of God who saves unworthy sinners and the justice of God who requires that a just price for salvation be paid. There is a perfect harmony between the attributes of God. He is spirit, undivided, triunely singular, uncompounded. He is One, without body, parts, or passions. However man refers to God’s attributes they are but the Divine Essence of God…inseparable. Reasoning the essential unity of the divine attributes, what we can say about the relationship between what we perceive to be the softer and harsher expressions of His character, between love and wrath, between mercy and justice is this – God is love! Now reason this – God is love, yet more than love. Why? Because the equation cannot be reversed. So we can see God’s wrath of love. The God who is love is also “faithful” and “just”. Though God is infinitely benevolent, infinite benevolence is not all of God. God’s love is a just love, and His justice is a loving justice. We must not allow one attribute to overwhelm and nullify the rest. God is as severely just as if He had no love, and yet as intensely loving as if He had no justice. God’s love is not and cannot be blind and indulgent. God’s expression of love is more revealing of His inclination, or the direction of His nature, more a manifestation of His preference, than is the expression of His wrath. What we say of God’s attributes should always be expressed with humility. However much we have voiced, there is always more to be said. The finite cannot know the infinite comprehensively or exhaustively. Yet we can know God truthfully, and we can speak where the bible speaks, as it reveals a God who is both love and just, the monument to which we have at Calvary. We consider the whole weight of scripture. God has a strange act, yet He will in no way clear the guilty. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

to the law and the testimony The testimony is the self revelation of God. It represents God’s heart desire, which is also God’s requirement - or we may say, God’s standard. His standard reveals Himself, showing us what a God He is. When this testimony comes to man, it becomes law. On God’s side, it is testimony, but on the human side, it is law. The Lord Jesus comes to bear witness to the Father; the Holy Spirit comes to bear witness to Christ; we are to maintain the testimony of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The witnessing of Christ is none other than telling people who God is in Christ and what Christ is. It behooves us not to sin against this testimony. God’s people are to speak from the place of their purpose. It is in this light that we speak as God calls us to come up hither and He will show us what we are to say. The purpose must be in the power and the knowledge of God. The words spoken are to be in accord with our calling. We speak the truth of God’s word by faith. Faith is not about feeling comfortable, it is speaking God’s word authentically. What it commands, what it asks, what it directs. Not just the soothing and the pleasant and the peaceful, but also the warning, the revealing, the specific...diminishing not a word. The only truth to be spoken is God’s truth. That’s why it’s so important to always search the scriptures and ask God to continually give us wisdom according to His will. And it helps to learn through conversations with believers in our search for understanding. When we speak, we are to provide a comprehensive vision to the reality of God. Our words are to offer suggesting answers to the questions that arise in the course of examination as others enquire for detailed evidence of the things of heaven. Our speaking is to call forth an investigation into every expression of God allowing those who hear to search for the explanation of the nature of the connection between the heavenly and the earthly realities. Our speaking is not just the utterance of words. It is the approaching of the Holy Spirit advancing the desires of God that our vocal performance is far deeper than the natural. Our spirit within us, begotten by the Holy Ghost, discerns and communes with Him, and receives from Him answers of peace. It is a spiritual business from beginning to end. When we speak to the law its’ aim and object end is not with man, but to reach to God Himself. In order to such testimony, the work of the Holy Ghost Himself is needed. The testimony is the solemn declaration as by a witness under oath. We are to be the firsthand, outward sign of authentication of the truth of God. If testimony were of the lips alone, we should only need breath in our nostrils to speak. If testimony were of desires alone, many excellent desires are easily felt, even by natural men. But when it is the spiritual desire and thes piritual fellowship of the human spirit with the Spirit of God, then the Holy Ghost Himself must be present all through it, to help infirmity, and give life and power, or else true testimony will never be presented, but the thing offered to God will wear the name and have the form, but the inner life of the truth of testimony will be far from it. The interposition of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential to the light that brightens the law and the testimony. Through this crucified and risen person the veil is entirely taken away and we are shut in with the living God. To the law and to the testimony, without the Savior, our words are an insult to Deity. Our speaking is to be intended and offered as an acceptable sacrifice to God. We are purposed to take these words and handle them as God shall give us ability. Our text speaks of a throne - the throne of grace. According to the law and the testimony we are reminded that our Father is infinitely greater than ourselves. In our speaking we remember that the mercy seat is the throne. In our speaking we are claiming the promises of God. It is God’s word in our mouths. God’s law and testimony are not dated. They are forever present. Without the living guidance of His Word, we can’t move an inch in the direction of God. It is the light of the law and the testimony whereby we can understand and fulfil all God’s divine purposes. The word is carried from God to us to others. And it comes with God’s own creative power. When we speak the truth of the law and the words of the testimony they contain all the power needed for its own fulfilment. It is God speaking, and it is done! God’s word does not exist independently from God. It is alive and incorruptible. It can never be destroyed or defeated because it possesses all the qualities of God Himself. Our recourse must be always to speak directly in every case. We must make good use of our bible. We are counseled as to what is required of us according to the law and the testimony. We must make this our standard, conform to it, take advice from it, make our appeals to it, and in everything be overruled and determined by it. If there be any of the word of God not concurred with, evinces that there is no light in the one who speaks. They do not understand themselves. To reject, to not accept any of the divine revelation through reasoning is followed by a spiritual darkness. When we speak the law, the testimony, we receive the very life of God as He plants the seed of His Word inside us. Everything in His plan and purpose for our life comes within our reach. The light, that is by the law and the testimony, is that creative life spoken by God when He said let there be...today, by exactly the same power, God keeps on sustaining all things, and accomplishing His eternal will of salvation in His people who speak accordingly. When understanding the law and the testimony we understand God purposing His will. The Word declares it - speaking out the Father’s purpose. The Spirit performs the Father’s will by working out every detail of His plan. It is futile for people to attempt to resist God, for He always fulfils His will. This is the awesome experience of God’s people. Letting the word work in us by giving it access to the deepest parts of our being. This means allowing God to search our heart and to expose those things which displease Him. It is an awesome experience. We accept with all humbling of self the infallible authority of the word of God. This renders an ever-increasing effectiveness of our faith. The light emitted from the law and the testimony will fulfil His word to us. All His promises will be given us. He will accomplish His good-and-perfect will in our life. The goodness of the law and the testimony gives abundance to our spirit as it moves us beyond the thoughts and inclinations, ideas and opinions of the world. We are grounded in the endurance of the truth by faith. It is with the law and the testimony whereby all devices and attacks of the enemy will be thwarted. Every word of the law from God, every word of the testimony of God which we truly receive in our spirit begins to reveal itself in our thoughts, our deeds and our words as the light that is the life to those who receive and confess Christ. Speaking the law and the testimony means that our minds, our hearts, our mouths, our spirits are in full agreement with God’s word. This is the working of the conviction of our faith. By this faith, we enter deeply into the marvelous presence of God. The Holy Spirit – God’s covenant gift for all believers – both grants us access to God and begins to inspire us so that God’s words become our words, His law our law, His testimony our purposed reality. Our speaking to the law and the testimony furthers our faith declarations in the utterances of our amens in the spirit-inspired agreement to the truth of God’s word; our hallelujahs in the highest form of spirit directed joy; and our maranathas in the witness we share with the Spirit to the hope of Jesus’ return. That which is gifted to us swells up in the praise, the hope, the confidence in God. Our obedient actions to the law, our declarations of faith to the testimony fulfills the related needs in our life to justify the calling of God purposefully as His election. We are so made able to offer scriptural truth to impregnate the spirit of others with the seed of His word. This is the light that is life. If the spirit does not agree with the word of God, it is a dark spirit, unbalanced with the truth. A dark spirit presents chaos and destruction from the inside. Such depravity is God-dishonoring, Christ-denying, man- exalting doctrines. It is exempt from the understandings associated with the heavenly realms. It is what actually happened when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis. Adam, being wrong at the fall, was wrong of all. The law of God was iniquitously disclaimed. And so we thank God for the law and the testimony that gives light. This truth provides the exception for all to be saved through the representative act of the last Adam – the Lord Jesus Christ. Through one came transgression. Through one came justification. We are exhorted to keep God’s testimonies in the same way as we are required to keep His word, precepts, law, statutes and commandments. It may sound a little strange to our ears when we say we must keep God’s testimonies. But we find in the bible that His testimonies are of the same nature as are His word, precepts, law, statutes and commandments. The two tables of stone on which His law was inscribed are called the two tables of the testimony. The testimony bears witness to the kind of God we have as over against the sort of life we humans live. When it is placed in our heart, such a testimony convicts us of our unrighteousness, our falling short of the divine standard. But while it remains in the Lord’s hand, it reveals what a God He is. Testimony, therefore, is the self-revelation of God. It is God’s speaking concerning Himself. It is not our giving testimony. We must profess assertively that this testimony is a spiritual reality, that which is ultimately reality. Whoever fails to touch the ultimate reality does not touch the testimony. Strictly speaking, no one can bear witness for God save Jesus Christ, since from eternity to eternity the divine testimony is given by God Himself. God, His Son, and the Spirit alone can tell us what He is. But in the law, in the testimony we bear witness to our Jesus...whom is the Light. To testify for God requires of man that we touch God Himself so as to be able to speak the words which God asks us to say. Man can speak only after God is known, seen and revealed to us. Only when we have touched this ultimate reality are we able to speak the testimony. And so, we know why we are given by God the revelation of Jesus Christ. Thank God that our witness does not rely upon man’s word or doctrine or teaching, because it is Christ himself who has come forth to show us God. A testimony may become a doctrine, but a doctrine can never become a testimony. When testimony is given, commandment may come upon us to obey; yet this commandment is not the testimony. For this testimony is, but more than a matter of experience. It is touching the Lord Himself. Manward, yes testimony is indeed experience; nonetheless, the term experience is far too inadequate when discussing testimony. Because testimony is a matter of touching the Lord, He alone can testify for himself. Since there is none greater than God, He is the only One who can bear witness for Himself. Read Psalms 119. Testimony is of such immensity that it is not easily comprehended by our mind, because it is God Himself speaking, and by which He reveals Himself and also His demand. Whoever touches this divine testimony has in reality touched God Himself. To the law and to the testimony...Hear this intense truth... whatever touches the character or the way of God touches His testimony. God will have His absolute character manifested. And that which misrepresents His character sins against His testimony. Whenever God’s testimony is involved, He will not overlook the full event; the motive, the thought, the words, the deed, the situation, the consequences. Whatever defames or falsely represents Him, He will immediately deal with it, since it affects His character, His position, even His very self. When we speak according to the law and the testimony, we are speaking more than simply receiving the resurrection life; it also speaks of the working of the cross in men’s lives. The cross is a great subtraction, in that the old creation must all be taken away. How can the testimony of God be maintained if the rod fails to bud, if the rock is struck twice with wrath and the old creation does not fade away? And so, we may say that God opens just one door by which we may enter in. All who do not come in through that door must die. We must preserve the law and the testimony. God does not want Himself misunderstood. Our faith must be so Christ-like that our belief in God is to be such that we know He is the “I Am” to be sanctified in the eyes of all Israel. We must not complicate God since to sanctify God denotes to set Him apart, to display the characteristics of God. Moses’ loss of control over his temper this one time affected God Himself. God’s displeasure with Moses was as though the Lord were saying, “in your action you have drawn Me into your disobedience; you have not sanctified Me and honored Me with My rightful place.” While His servant was angered God was at the very same time still working. He caused the water to come forth from the Rock. Moses spoke not to the law and the testimony. His action confused the people about the situation. Moses had definitely dragged God into this awful mess, with the result that the Israelites might have thought that the Lord was a God who, like Moses, lost control of His temper. God was therefore complicated by Moses. Whatever we do that involves the power of God is to conclude to the people that God is God. We are to do nothing against His character, His testimony. The consequences of this are far too serious to be overlooked. Moses was not allowed to enter Canaan. Oh, do let us learn a lesson before the Lord. There are many things which we must let God work out. Those who do not know Him deeply enough often try to help Him. Were we to spend a little time considering the end of those people in the past, shown for our admonition, we would notice a great principle, which is, that we cannot afford to sin against the testimony of the Lord. Whenever anyone does a thing which sins against God’s character, God’s authority, God’s way, God’s plan or God’s testimony, he will be chastened by God. For He is never careless about His testimony. He will ever and always vindicate Himself as the holy, mighty and living One. Because of this, may we tremble with fear before Him and never attempt anything frivolously. We must ponder over the fact that when God chastens us to vindicate Himself, Satan can no longer accuse? In chastisement God shows the enemy that He, who is our Father, our God, has no part in the matter, thus preserving His holiness. For this reason, our first reaction under chastisement should not be asking for relief but asking for help to sanctify God. Each time we come under chastisement of this nature, we may tell brothers and sisters that this is due to our offending God in a certain matter. Our word may sound simple, but our doing this will uphold the fact that the Lord has had no part in the matter. Why cry? Because the discipline is too severe? Because there is hardship? These are not for crying. We ought to see that God’s chastisement, as severe and hard as it may be, is His vindication of Himself. Since His name is upon us, He can easily be complicated by us. And hence He has to extricate Himself from any adverse involvement which our actions may bring about. During the time of such chastisement let us bow our heads and worship God, saying: I will gladly accept such discipline; I will gladly stand on such ground. The more we submit ourselves under God’s disciplinary hand the more He is vindicated, and therefore the quicker discipline of this kind will pass away. This is as the prophecy of our gathering is purposed. Leviticus 26:40, 41 The import of the law and the testimony spoken in the word that gives light is part of the Lord’s way, the learning of which will enable Him to be glorified in our doings. May the blood cover our words, for they touch upon a most serious theme. The testimony of Jesus Christ concerning himself together with the word, “Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Why did they not accept this testimony given by the Lord Jesus? What was their secret thought? They had no intention of reasoning whether or not He was truly the Son of God because they considered His confession of being the Son of God to be one of guilt. Their aim was not at proving a fact according to the word, it was instead one of finding an excuse for condemning. Hence immediately after the Lord Jesus acknowledged himself to be the Son of God, they judged His word as blasphemy and condemned Him. This showed they had no intention of finding out whether this Man was truly the Son of God; their sole concern was to kill Him on the ground of whatever He said which could be used against Him. They knew not the law, neither the testimony of God. They were children in the blindness of the darkened minds. The Lord Jesus was condemned because of this testimony. He was sentenced to death not because of what He was but because of what He testified as to himself. According to the opinion of the council, truth should not be attested to. They tried every means to overthrow this testimony, and finally they resorted to human power to put the Lord Jesus to death. We are to give an excellent testimony to the truth when our person and service are called into question. Ours is an uncommon path if we are to be seated at the right hand of Power. All who follow Him must pay attention to His testimony. Who Jesus is – this is the foundation of the testimony. The first aspect of the testimony of Jesus Christ is concerned with His Person. He is the central theme of the bible. He is the mystery of godliness. Christ has done things which exceed any power of man and that are impossible to him. He is God, therefore He acts like God. However, Christ does all things for man. He joins himself to man by becoming flesh. He becomes one of us, therefore He can be our Representative. His life, His work, His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, and His present position and work in heaven are all representative in nature. And hence the testimony of Jesus Christ includes His relationship with man in whatever He represents both now and before. This is the light of men. That we know his relationship to God’s eternal purpose. From Genesis to Revelation, today, the testimony of Jesus Christ is deposited in a vessel which is called the election, the body of Christ. And it is deposited in the following fashion: first, this testimony is the sum of all the revealed truth; and second, this testimony is the power of the truth as incorporated in the true people of God. For this testimony of Jesus Christ as set down in the servant of God is the same truth which the Holy Spirit has wrought out in Jesus Christ. It is therefore not a kind of objective truth for the mind to comprehend but is that truth becoming our life, our nature and our experience through the working of the Holy Spirit in us. And thus the testimony is deposited in that vessel which is the election. The Holy Spirit reveals and incorporates this testimony in the people of God, which is the body of Christ. And we who have believed in Jesus are members of this body. The Lord Jesus is our Representative at the right hand of God. There He represents us in all which God may require of us, be it moral or spiritual perfection. We are perfect and complete in Christ before God. God has already found a perfect man in the manhood of Jesus Christ. He has reckoned the Lord’s perfection to be ours, He has put the Lord’s perfection into our accounts. He has no more need to find a perfect man, because He has already obtained that Man. It is now the work of the Holy Spirit to impart that Man’s perfection to us. Through our faith and obedience the Holy Spirit is able to impart Christ to us. And thus Christ becomes a part of us. This requires the work of the Holy Spirit’s revelation and incorporation. Not an ideal, nor a theory, neither a creed. We will perceive the difference if we have really seen. We therefore insist on the need for the Holy Spirit’s revelation and incorporation by the law and the testimony. Concerning what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross, it too needs the revelation of the Holy Spirit to make it our portion. We must see that the Lord Jesus not only died for us but also died as us. Has the Spirit of God given us such revelation that we know that when Christ died we too died, that when He was buried we too were buried, that when He was resurrected we reappeared in Him? On resurrection ground the judgment is over, and there is no more condemnation. This is the law...this is the testimony...this is that light that we speak! The law and the testimony are of a supernatural element. God actually superintended the production of the Book. Its unity is the unity of a Divine plan and its harmony the harmony of a Supreme Intelligence. In speaking the truth of the whole law and testimony and in arranging the precepts by reason, we can understand how Moses' grand anthem of creation glided into Isaiah's oratory of the Messiah; that by and by sinks into Jeremiah's plaintive wail, which swells into Ezekiel's awesome chorus, and changes into Daniel's rapturous harmony; and closes with John's full choir of saints and angels. One presiding mind planned the whole of the law and of the testimony. And this Mind purposed the workmen and the work that would see that there was agreement with what went before, and what should come after as the carrying out of the grand plan. Everything in agreement with everything else, because the whole word was formed in the thought of God. Herein is the law and the testimony expressed. The whole bible is the history of the kingdom of God. Israel represents that kingdom. All centers about the Hebrew nationality. With our origin and progress as a peculiar people of God being the main historical portion. Prophecy, which is history anticipated, takes up the broken thread, and gives us the outline of our day when the true Israel shall take its place among the nations to speak the law and the testimony in the time of the final warning to issue forth to the world. In this warning is increased light; the decline of spiritual life; the unity between the beast, its image, and the world; a civilization that is wholly worldly; parallel development of good and evil; apostasy on the part of God's people; and the concluding judgment. To the law and to the testimony, when we speak this word it is so elastic and flexible as to contract itself to the narrowness of ignorance, and yet expand itself to the dimensions of knowledge. None will have excuse for lack of understanding. The word of God has select terms which hold hidden truths that shall disclose the inner meaning to accommodate reality, that would be the best solution to give understanding to the most difficult problem. Who was Jeremiah's teacher in astronomy?...the law and the testimony. Not one of the books of the bible could be lost without maiming the body of truth herein contained. Every word fills a place. None can be omitted. Every word is the most complete exhibition of the providence of God. It teaches a divine hand behind human affairs; unbiased freedom of resolution and action as consistent with God's overruling sovereignty; and all things working together to produce grand results. The word exhibits God's providence and is meant to teach us of the power that, though unseen, moves and controls all things. The word is full of illustrations of grace. The sinner has run away from God and robbed Him besides. The law allows him no right of asylum, but grace concedes him the privilege of appeal. Let us hear the context of the law and the testimony. Daniel fits into the Revelation as bone fits socket. Leviticus explains, and is explained by, the epistle to the Hebrews. The Psalms express the highest morality and spirituality of the Old Testament; they link the Mosaic code with the divine ethics of the gospels and the epistles. The passover foreshadows the Lord's supper, and the Lord's supper interprets and fulfills the passover. Even the little book of Jonah makes more complete the sublime gospel according to John; and Ruth and Esther prophetically hint the Acts of the Apostle. When we come to the last chapters of Revelation, we find ourself mysteriously touching the first chapters of Genesis; and as we survey the whole track of our thought, we find we have been following the perimeter of a golden ring; the extremities actually bend around, touching, and blending. We read in the first of Genesis of the first creation; in the last of the Revelation, of the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth; there, of the river that watered the garden; here, of the pure river of the water of life; there, of the Tree of Life in the first Eden; here, of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God; there, of the God who came down to walk with and talk with man; here, we read that the Tabernacle of God is with men; there, we read of the curse that came by sin, here, we read: "And there shall be no more curse." To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. The life of God is in His word. It is a seed hiding the vitality of God. Is it a sword? Yes, but a sword that omnisciently discerns and omnipotently pierces the human heart. Hold it reverently; for we have the living word in our life. We speak to the Word, and it will answer us. We hear the heart of God. The creatures of darkness will assault this Word, and vainly seek to put out its eternal light. We are to hold forth as the Word of Life and the Light of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Love and law are closely connected. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Love is about acting in a way that is consistent with the commandments of the law. The word counsels God’s people in our diligence in obeying the commandments..."love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and to "love your neighbor as yourself". This kind of love, called agape love, is self-sacrificing, deliberate, and active, and it's directed toward everyone, including enemies. It's not based on emotions, but rather an act of the will, and it's about promoting the best interests of others and working to bring them good. Love includes justice, and biblical love never falls short of what justice requires. Because God is love, love is over law. We do immeasurably more because we love. That moves the motive for obedience from “doing” to “being”. Love is a choice in a relationship. The real strength of love is compatibility and communication. The word of God says, “speak the truth in love”. To the law and to the testimony we share difficult truths with others in a loving way. The word says we are to love in deed and truth. Take seriously all truth. It is the light that illumines the law and the testimony. The great testimony to the world is God’s love...for He so loved the world and while we were still sinners, His Son died for us. Faith in God's love is central to our faith. It’s a confidence that goes beyond our circumstances. Why we speak the law and the testimony? So that others who doubt and have questions can experience true, God-designed love and come to faith. Studying God's word can help people understand this connection and how to live it. And then the testimony of the love of God begins to reveal itself in a most specific way. They learn of an everlasting love that draws them with lovingkindness. God is never deterred by circumstances or the confrontation by His enemy and ours, from seeking the lost, and bringing all believers into a deep relationship, and knowledge of His love. How could it be otherwise, since the believer’s highest good is Christ Himself? To know and experience this love of God, though we are limited in our capacity to fully grasp and understand it, is God’s greatest testimonial expression in drawing us to Himself. How then do we know that He loves us? To the law and the testimony He works to draw us to Himself, working through circumstances to create a thirst, and hunger, that can only be met by Presence. The thirst and hunger that He gives is the demonstration of love with its first and foremost objective being to save the soul. This is why Christ’s life is that light spoken in the law, in the testimony. The magnitude of this love is as deep as Christ’s desire and resolve to bring us into fellowship with Himself that we may have salvation. It is by this love that we proclaim the testimony. It is the very word of God. The grace and truth of the law. The manifestation of God in the flesh. The show of love at the cross. Redemption, freedom, justification, atonement. It is the confidence that God performs the work for us while transforming us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is no reliance upon self in proclaiming the law and the testimony. It is a power that comes from God. That we are not to stumble or fall, God binds up the testimony and seals the law among His faithful people that we not lose our attachment to it. We are speakers for God. The ministry of intercession shows that our Savior is constantly performing for us. He has given us his word and we are sanctified through the truth of that word. The repetition of the testimony and the law in Isaiah suggests an aspect of God’s revelation. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. God's testimonies instruct us what to believe, and His law instructs us how to behave. God secures His word in the hearts of His people, and God now calls us to attend to that authoritative standard for doing the law and faithfully expressing the testimony of God’s holy justice and free grace. Those who abandon the authority of the scriptures condemn themselves to wander in darkness. The law and the testimony are not an unknown thing. It may not be well understood. Every human being in the world, every child in our family, every person that we work with, everybody in our neighborhood has an inborn knowledge of God, according to Romans, and an inborn knowledge of the moral law of God. This means, among other things — the implications are many — that when we are speaking to the law and to the testimony to people about faith and about why we live the way we live and what God expects of us, we are not starting from scratch with people. There are profound things already in their hearts that God may make use of to help them see what we are saying. There comes a time when we understand the principles of our creation and who we are. Suddenly these things are illuminated to us and the cords of our hearts do vibrate. This is the time when testimony enters into our very souls and we know beyond a question of a doubt that God is our father - that He lives, that He is a reality, that we are literally His children. Those who will strive to do God’s will and keep His commandments will receive personal revelation as to the divinity of the Lord’s work in bearing testimony of the Father. The law of God has fallen on hard times. More accurately, it has fallen on hard hearts. Misunderstanding about what the law does is the cause. Not knowing God is not understanding the permanence of His law. The testimony speaks to the source of God’s law, the uniqueness of God’s law, the goodness of God’s law. It is the light of the law and the testimony that is not only showing the truth of life, but it is also the light that is searching for the fugitive sinner. This law, this testimony exposes sin and its uncomfortable results. But this light most surely cast a powerful radiance upon the place of refuge where the guilty conscience can be cleared. That place is Jesus Christ. When the light of the law casts its glare upon Christ, all it sees there is His perfection, perfection freely and fully given to sinners who trust in Him. The law of God, the works of which are written upon the hearts of men, functions to restrain iniquity and order life. This is how the Holy Spirit operates in “common grace”. We are to help others to gain that testimony which is most vital in their preparation to know truth as it is in the word of God. The word of God is enough for both what is done in the law and what is believed in the Testimony. It provides a standard for judging any teaching or claim, stating that if someone doesn't speak in accordance with the Word of God, it's because they lack light. From where to you get your wisdom? Go to the scripture. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

while we are gone The concept of a final desolation of the earth during the thousand-year period described in Scripture presents a sweeping and sobering vision of the end of human civilization as it is presently known. Drawing primarily from Revelation, alongside the prophetic imagery found in Jeremiah and Isaiah, this period, often called the Millennium in certain theological interpretations, is portrayed not as a flourishing earthly kingdom populated by humanity, but rather as a silent, emptied world in which the consequences of human rebellion have reached their full and devastating conclusion. When examined carefully, these passages suggest a total collapse that affects every dimension of existence: technological, environmental, social, political, and spiritual. The binding of Satan, as described in Revelation, marks the beginning of this period. An angel descends, lays hold upon the adversary, and confines him to the bottomless pit so that he may deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are fulfilled. This detail is significant not only for its spiritual implication, but also for what it reveals about the condition of the nations themselves. If there are no nations left to deceive, then the systems, structures, and populations that once defined global civilization have already been brought to ruin. This aligns closely with the language of Isaiah, which declares that the earth is utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, and that the Lord has spoken this word. The destruction is not partial, nor is it symbolic of mere political upheaval; it is comprehensive and physical, touching the entire globe. In considering the technological achievements of humanity, such as space exploration, the implications are profound. Humanity’s ventures beyond the earth, once seen as the pinnacle of scientific advancement and ambition, would come to a complete halt. Satellites would drift aimlessly in orbit, no longer maintained or guided by ground control systems. Space stations, once inhabited by astronauts conducting research and observation, would become silent relics, eventually succumbing to decay or orbital collapse. Rockets, launch facilities, and research centers would stand abandoned, their purpose rendered meaningless in a world devoid of human life. The ambition to explore the cosmos, rooted in curiosity and dominion, would be extinguished in the stillness of a desolate earth. Military organizations, which have historically been among the most structured and resource-intensive institutions of human society, would likewise cease to exist. Armies, navies, and air forces depend upon command structures, communication networks, and logistical support, all of which require human participation. In the absence of humanity, weapons systems would fall silent. Tanks would rust in place, aircraft would remain grounded or crash without maintenance, and naval fleets would drift or sink. The immense infrastructure dedicated to defense and warfare would become useless, overtaken by time and the elements. The prophetic description of the earth being without form and void suggests not only a lack of population, but also a dismantling of the organized systems that once governed human conflict. Modes of travel would also be profoundly affected. Automobiles, once symbols of personal freedom and mobility, would be left scattered across highways and streets. Without maintenance, fuel, or operators, they would gradually deteriorate. Roads would crack and become overgrown, bridges would weaken and collapse, and the intricate networks of transportation that connected cities and nations would dissolve. Air travel would cease entirely, with airports abandoned and aircraft left to decay. Rail systems, dependent on precise coordination and energy supply, would grind to a halt, their tracks eventually reclaimed by the earth. Sea and ocean mobility would follow a similar fate; ships would drift without crews, ports would fall into disrepair, and the vast systems of global trade conducted across maritime routes would vanish. Housing and urban environments would undergo a dramatic transformation. Cities, once vibrant centers of human activity, would become empty shells. Skyscrapers, homes, and public buildings would stand as silent monuments to a vanished population. Without maintenance, structural integrity would weaken over time. Weather and natural forces would gradually reclaim these spaces. Jeremiah’s vision of cities being broken down at the presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger underscores the extent of this destruction. It is not merely abandonment, but an active dismantling brought about by divine judgment and natural decay. ** Under the level of devastation described in biblical passages, widespread, healthy vegetation reclaiming cities in the usual sense is not possible in any stable or recognizable way throughout the period. If the conditions outlined in Revelation sixteen, Isaiah twenty-four, and Jeremiah four are taken together, the environment is not merely abandoned but profoundly altered. Water systems are corrupted, extreme heat scorches the earth, and later the physical structure of the land is violently disrupted. Seasons are destabilized, and light itself is at times diminished or distorted. Under such circumstances, the basic requirements for plant life—reliable water, moderate temperatures, stable soil, and predictable cycles of light— are severely compromised. In the immediate aftermath of these events, most existing plant life would certainly perish. Crops would fail first, followed by more resilient vegetation. Forests could be burned, uprooted, or unable to regenerate due to erratic climate conditions. The imagery in Jeremiah of a land that is “without form and void” and devoid of birds strongly suggests ecological collapse, not gradual overgrowth. There would be no coordinated ecosystems, no forests reclaiming cities in a balanced sense, and no agricultural cycles tied to seasons. So, the more precise way to describe it is this: the earth would not be actively “reclaimed” by thriving plant life as we often imagine in post human scenarios. Instead, it would exist in a largely barren, unstable state, with zero biological survival. There would be nothing to restore order or beauty within this broken environment. This aligns closely with the tone of the prophetic descriptions. The emphasis is not on nature healing and flourishing in humanity’s absence, but on a world brought low, stripped of its productivity, and left in a condition that reflects judgment rather than renewal. Second Peter is one of the strongest passages describing the intensity of the final judgment: the day of the Lord comes suddenly, the heavens pass away with great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, leaving the earth and its works exposed or burned up. It emphasizes total dissolution of the present order rather than partial damage. When you place that alongside Revelation, where Satan is bound, and the desolation imagery in Jeremiah, it does support the idea of a world emptied of normal life. The only “life forms” present would be Satan and his angels. The texts clearly describe the removal of human society and the collapse of the systems that sustain life as we know it. Jeremiah’s language—no man, no birds, fruitful places turned wilderness—strongly points toward ecological devastation. Second Peter intensifies that by describing a kind of elemental unmaking. Taken at face value, that leans toward total extinction of earthly life. However, Scripture distinguishes between physical life and spiritual beings. Satan and his angels are not dependent on the earth’s environment in the way humans, animals, or plants are. Revelation shows Satan bound in the abyss, not roaming freely across the earth interacting with a physical environment in the normal sense. That detail matters. It suggests confinement and restriction, active observation of a ruined biosphere. So, the idea that Satan and his angels would be left to “walk the earth” contemplating the devastation is directly stated. Satan is restrained from deceiving, effectively cut off from influence over nations because there are none functioning. His condition is one of limitation and isolation, no longer dominion over a silent planet. Reflection of rebellion in the absence of anything left to corrupt lines up thematically with the passage. The thousand-year binding is understood as an imposed inactivity. With no nations to deceive and no systems to manipulate, the consequences of rebellion are fully exposed. There is nothing left to distort or control. In that sense, the desolation itself becomes a testimony. The trajectory of the descriptions points toward a world that is functionally lifeless. The earth is a stage of ruin. The passages support a condition where human life and organized ecosystems are gone, Satan is bound and unable to act, and the earth stands in a state of profound desolation. The notion of Satan and his angels existing as the only conscious beings connected to that scene fits within a theological interpretation, but the key emphasis of the text is not their observation of the ruin—it is their restraint and the finality of the judgment that produced it. Second Peter uses language that is deliberately forceful: the heavens pass away with a great noise, the elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its works are burned up or laid bare. To understand what is being described, it helps to slow down and consider what is meant by “elements,” what kind of “burning” is in view, and how this fits with the broader prophetic picture developing. The word translated as “elements” points to the most basic components of the created order. In the ancient world, that included what we would call the fundamental building blocks of the physical universe—earth, air, fire, and water—but the intent goes deeper than a simple list of materials. It conveys the idea of the underlying structure of the world itself. In modern terms, one might think of the very fabric of matter: the substances, forces, and bonds that hold everything together. So when the passage speaks of the elements melting, it is not describing a surface fire that consumes objects while leaving the planet intact; it is pointing toward a dissolution at the most basic level of the physical order. The phrase “melt with fervent heat” reinforces this. Melting implies that solid, stable forms lose their structure. What was fixed becomes fluid, what was dependable becomes unstable. If applied on a global scale, this suggests a breakdown of the earth’s integrity: rocks, metals, and the crust itself losing cohesion. The idea is not merely that cities burn, but that the ground beneath them is fundamentally altered. Mountains, which are often used in Scripture as symbols of permanence, would not withstand such conditions. This connects closely with other prophetic descriptions where mountains are leveled, islands disappear, and the surface of the earth is violently reshaped. The statement that “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” extends the scope beyond natural structures to everything humanity has built. Every work—cities, machines, monuments, infrastructure—would be consumed. But the wording suggests more than destruction by flames; it implies exposure and removal. We might consider the rendering as “laid bare,” which carries the sense that nothing remains hidden or preserved. The accumulated achievements of humanity, whether technological, cultural, or economic, are stripped away entirely. When we place this alongside the earlier discussion of the seven last plagues, the progression becomes clearer. The plagues dismantle life systems—health, water, climate, political order—while this final burning addresses the physical framework itself. It is as though the judgment moves from the surface of human experience down into the very structure of creation. What was already uninhabitable becomes, at least for a time, fundamentally unfit to sustain life at all. This has important implications for the condition of the earth during the thousand-year period referenced. If the elements themselves have been affected to this degree, then the earth is not simply abandoned; it is altered at its core. The instability would explain why no organized life—human, animal, or plant—could function in any normal way. Even the cycles that depend on stable physical conditions, such as weather patterns and seasons, would be describing the collapse of the physical order that makes environment possible. In scientific language, life, weather, seasons, and the periodic table all depend on stable physical laws: matter, energy, time, and predictable interactions between elements. Once God removes all known elements, we are not just talking about removing substances—we are seeing the removal of the entire chemistry of existence. Without elements, there is no hydrogen or oxygen for water, no carbon for organic life, no nitrogen for atmosphere, and no iron or silicon for planetary structure. At that point, we are no longer describing a planet with conditions—we are describing the absence of the building blocks of physical reality as we understand it. Similarly, weather and seasons are not independent phenomena. They are expressions of atmospheric chemistry, solar energy, axial tilt, and planetary rotation. If those underlying systems are removed or rendered nonfunctional, then weather does not “fail” in the usual sense—it ceases to be a meaningful concept because there is no atmosphere to behave dynamically, and no stable system in which change can occur. So the most accurate way to phrase what we are describing is something like this: It is a condition in which the physical framework of creation has been fully dismantled, leaving no stable matter, no active atmospheric system, no cyclical time-based processes such as seasons, and no chemical basis for life or interaction. In such a state, the earth is not simply lifeless; it is functionally unstructured, lacking the necessary components for nature itself to operate as a system. Another way to express it, more succinctly, would be: A world in which matter has lost its organized form, natural laws no longer produce observable cycles, and the conditions required for life, weather, and planetary processes have ceased to function. One important clarification, though: this kind of description moves beyond what physical science or even most interpretive readings of II Peter strictly require. The passage uses dramatic, cosmic language, explicitly defining the annihilation of all elements and the elimination of physical law itself. So what we are constructing here is a maximal conceptual extension of the imagery— useful as a theological picture. The earth would exist, but not as a balanced, life-supporting system. At the same time, it is worth noting that the passage in II Peter continues beyond destruction to renewal. It speaks of looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That context matters, because it shows that the melting and burning are not an end in themselves. They serve as a clearing away of the present corrupted order in preparation for something entirely reconstituted. The language of dissolution is therefore paired with the idea of re-creation. So, when taken seriously, the imagery of elements melting and the earth being burned up points to a comprehensive unmaking. It is not only limited to visible destruction but reaches into the fundamental nature of the physical world. Everything that once provided stability—matter, structure, environment, and human achievement—is undone. What remains is not a functioning ecosystem or civilization, but a world reduced to a state that reflects the full consequence of judgment, awaiting whatever form of restoration follows. If II Peter is taken in the strongest literal sense—where the present physical order is fundamentally dissolved, the “elements” lose stability, and the earth and its works are fully burned up or exposed—then the question of what life could exist becomes very narrow. Under ordinary natural conditions, life depends on stability: consistent chemistry, usable water, breathable atmosphere, and predictable energy from the sun. If those baseline structures are significantly disrupted, then complex life forms—humans, animals, and plants—would not be able to persist in any way. Even microorganisms, which are far more resilient than larger organisms, will chemically and environmentally be rendered non- existent under such conditions. So if the passage is understood as describing a collapse of the normal created order rather than simply widespread surface destruction, then natural life would be reduced to one of two possibilities: First, no independent biological life at all. That is the most direct implication if “elements melting” is taken to mean a breakdown of the physical systems that support organized matter. In that scenario, even microbial ecosystems would fail because the conditions that allow structured chemistry would no longer hold in a stable way. The earth would exist in a state of judgment and transition rather than ongoing biological activity. Second, the limited survival of life is isolated or divinely sustained. Scripture does not describe mechanisms, but it does repeatedly affirm that the life of angels ultimately depend on divine preservation. If anything were to persist, it would not be because the environment naturally supports it, but because it is specifically upheld. That would not resemble ecosystems or biological continuity as we understand them; it would be exceptional and constrained. What is important in the biblical framing is that the emphasis is not on what life can biologically endure, but on the theological point: the present order is not permanent. II Peter uses cosmic language to strip away the assumption that matter, stability, and natural law are ultimate. Everything that appears fixed is portrayed as temporary and subject to dissolution. This also means that the passage is not primarily trying to map out a detailed scientific state of survivable life during that period. Its focus is on judgment and replacement—what exists is not the continuation of creation in altered form, but the removal of the present order in preparation for a renewed one. So, in strict terms aligned with our reading: apart from direct divine preservation, there is no clear basis in the text for stable, self-sustaining life continuing under those conditions. Any remaining life would be exceptional rather than systemic, and the dominant picture is one of cessation of normal biological existence rather than adaptation to it. The earth is left desolate and undone, stripped of all order that once upheld creation, stripped of the ordered substance that once sustained it. All that once held creation together has been undone, so that matter itself no longer serves as a stable foundation. There is no living thing to mark the passage of time, no breath of life to witness the passing of moments, and no movement of nature to signal change or renewal. There is no life to mark its passing, no voice of nature, and no witness of movement or breath. The heavens yield no weather, for the systems of air and water have ceased their appointed course. The seasons no longer turn, for time itself no longer speaks through growth or decay. There is no spring to awaken, no summer to increase, no autumn to wither, and no winter to still. The appointed order of times and seasons has fallen silent, and the earth no longer moves through its appointed course. There is no atmosphere to gather wind or form cloud or bring rain. The skies do not shift or stir, for the cycles that once governed them have ceased. There is no storm, no calm, no warmth, no cold—only an unchanging absence where motion once existed. All that once composed the substance of the world has fallen away from stability, so that the elements no longer hold their form. What remains is not a living earth in ruin, but a creation emptied of its structure, silent in its vast absence, awaiting the appointed renewal beyond judgment. What remains is not a living world in ruin, but a world that has been emptied of the very principles that once allowed it to exist as a functioning creation. The environmental impact of this period would be both destructive and restorative in different respects. Isaiah’s description of the earth being turned upside down and emptied suggests catastrophic events that disrupt ecosystems on a global scale. Fresh waters of lakes and rivers could become polluted or altered due to the collapse of infrastructure and possible preceding judgments. Dams will fail, flooding regions, while other areas could experience drought. Without human management, agricultural systems would collapse, leading to widespread elimination of vegetation patterns. Nature, in its totality, would become resistant to reasserting itself. All conditions are of chaos rather than harmony. Animal life would also be deeply affected. Domesticated animals, dependent on human care, would face extinction or drastic population decline. Wild animals might initially expand into areas once occupied by humans, but the broader environmental upheaval could lead to instability in food chains and habitats. Sea dwelling creatures would not be immune; if the prophetic judgments include the pollution or destruction of oceans, as suggested elsewhere in Revelation, marine ecosystems will suffer massive die-offs. The balance of life, both on land and in water, would be disrupted in ways that reflect the overall desolation described in Scripture. The atmosphere itself will undergo significant transformation, as implied by the prophetic language of cosmic disturbance found throughout biblical texts. Darkened skies, altered climate patterns, and the lingering effects of divine judgments will render the environment hostile. This would further reinforce the uninhabitable nature of the earth during this period. The absence of human activity would eliminate pollution from industry and transportation, yet the preceding destruction might leave long-lasting scars on the planet’s systems. Spiritually, this period represents a profound pause in the narrative of human redemption. With Satan bound and humanity absent, the usual dynamics of temptation, repentance, and faith are suspended. Religious groups, institutions, and practices would no longer exist in their earthly form. Churches, temples, and places of worship stand empty in patience for their destruction. Their purpose fulfilled or rendered obsolete in light of the completed phase of divine judgment. The awareness of God’s sovereignty would be absolute, yet not mediated through human experience during this time on earth. On a global scale, nations as political entities would cease to function. Borders, governments, and economies would disappear along with their populations. The distinctions that once defined humanity—cultural, linguistic, and national—would no longer have any practical meaning. The prophetic vision of the earth being utterly emptied emphasizes the universality of this condition; no region or people group is exempt excepting God’s election. The world, once characterized by diversity and activity, becomes a unified landscape of silence and ruin. The thousand-year period described in these biblical passages presents a comprehensive picture of desolation that touches every aspect of existence. From the heights of technological achievement to the depths of natural ecosystems, nothing remains unaffected. Human civilization, in all its complexity and ambition, is brought to a complete cessation. The earth itself becomes a testimony to the consequences of sin and the certainty of divine judgment. Yet within this stark portrayal lies an implicit promise: that this period is not the conclusion, but a prelude to a final restoration and renewal that follows in the unfolding of the biblical narrative. The concept of a final desolation of the earth during the thousand-year period described in Scripture presents a sweeping and sobering vision of the end of human civilization as it is presently known. Drawing primarily from Revelation chapter twenty, verses one through three, alongside the prophetic imagery found in Jeremiah chapter four and Isaiah chapter twenty-four, this period, often called the Millennium in certain theological interpretations, is portrayed not as a flourishing earthly kingdom populated by humanity, but rather as a silent, emptied world in which the consequences of human rebellion have reached their full and devastating conclusion. When examined carefully, these passages suggest a total collapse that affects every dimension of existence: technological, environmental, social, political, and spiritual, extending even to the ordered rhythms of time that govern the seasons of the earth. The binding of Satan, as described in Revelation, marks the beginning of this period. An angel descends, lays hold upon the adversary, and confines him so that he may deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are fulfilled. This detail reveals not only a spiritual restraint, but also implies the absence of active nations and peoples. Isaiah’s declaration that the earth is utterly emptied and utterly spoiled reinforces the idea that the systems sustaining human life have ceased. In such a condition, the regular cycles that humanity depends upon, including the predictable sequence of seasons, would no longer serve their former purpose. The earth continues to exist, but its ordered productivity and its role as a habitation for humanity are fundamentally altered. Considering the technological achievements of humanity, such as space exploration, the implications remain profound. Satellites, space stations, and exploratory probes would persist only as remnants of a former age, no longer maintained or directed. Without human oversight, their orbits would eventually decay or drift. The same principle extends to earthly systems. Military organizations would dissolve, and all modes of travel—automobile, air, rail, and sea—would come to a standstill. The infrastructure that once depended upon seasonal patterns for scheduling, agriculture, and commerce would become irrelevant. The seasons, once closely tied to planting, harvesting, and travel conditions, would be diminished entirely in their capacity, their significance profoundly undone. Housing and cities would reflect this abandonment. Structures built with careful consideration of seasonal weather patterns—insulation for winter, ventilation for summer, drainage for rains—would await their demise. Over time, exposure to the elements would accelerate their decay. Jeremiah’s vision of a land without man and cities broken down suggests not only immediate destruction, but also ongoing deterioration under the influence of natural cycles that continue without restraint or maintenance. The seasons themselves, however, may not remain stable or familiar. The prophetic language found in Isaiah, describing the earth being turned upside down and its inhabitants scattered, suggests a disruption that could extend to the very mechanisms governing climate and seasonal change. If the earth experiences axial disturbance, atmospheric alteration, or divine judgment affecting the sun, moon, and stars—as is described in various prophetic passages—then the regularity of spring, summer, autumn, and winter could be thrown into disarray. Seasonal transitions might become extreme, irregular, or even indistinguishable. Periods of prolonged darkness or light, unseasonal temperatures, and unpredictable weather patterns could dominate the landscape, contributing to the overall desolation. These things will occur before the end. The environmental consequences of such disruption would be immense. Fresh waters of lakes and rivers, already affected by the collapse of human systems, would further suffer from lack of precipitation and temperature shifts. Earth’s upheaval will create floods without warning, followed by extended droughts. The absence of stable seasons would prevent the normal regeneration of ecosystems. Forests fail to cycle through growth and dormancy, and plant life perishes in unstable conditions. Animal life is forced to face extinction. Many species depend on seasonal cues for migration, reproduction, and survival. Birds that rely on changing daylight to guide migration would become disoriented. Mammals that hibernate based on temperature cycles fail to enter or emerge from hibernation at appropriate times. Marine life, influenced by ocean temperatures and seasonal currents, would also be affected, leading to widespread collapse of aquatic ecosystems. The disruption of seasons would therefore compound the already severe impact of a humanless world. Atmospheric conditions would likely reflect this instability. Without the moderating influence of stable seasonal cycles, weather systems could become more volatile. Storms might increase in intensity or frequency, while other regions experience prolonged stagnation. The skies themselves, as described in prophetic imagery, could appear darkened or altered, reinforcing the sense of a world removed from its former order. The interplay between sunlight, temperature, and atmospheric circulation—key drivers of seasons—would no longer operate in a life-sustaining manner. Spiritually, religious observance would vanish. The earth would persist in a state where time continues, but history, as shaped by human action, is ended. In conclusion, the inclusion of the seasons within this prophetic vision deepens the understanding of the totality of desolation described in Scripture. Not only are human systems brought to an end, but even the natural rhythms that once sustained life are either rendered meaningless or fundamentally disrupted. The cycle of seasons, once a symbol of continuity and renewal, becomes either a silent repetition without purpose or a broken pattern reflecting the upheaval of the earth itself. This reinforces the overarching message of these passages: that the final judgment encompasses all aspects of existence, leaving the earth in a condition that awaits eventual restoration beyond this thousand-year period. When the seven last plagues described in Revelation chapter sixteen are considered alongside the already desolate condition drawn from Revelation twenty, Jeremiah four, and Isaiah twenty-four, the picture does not merely intensify—it becomes absolute in its completeness. These plagues represent the final outpouring of divine wrath prior to the condition described, and they function as the direct cause of that global collapse. In other words, the desolation is not an isolated state; it is the outcome of a sequence of judgments that systematically dismantle every remaining support of life and civilization. The first plague, grievous sores upon those aligned against God, signals the breakdown of human health on a massive scale. This is not simply disease as we understand it, but a targeted affliction that resists remedy. Modern medicine, already rendered ineffective by the collapse of infrastructure, would offer no relief. Hospitals, research facilities, and pharmaceutical systems would be overwhelmed or abandoned entirely. The suffering would contribute to widespread death, accelerating the depopulation that leads into the empty earth described in earlier passages. The second and third plagues strike the seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, turning them to blood. This imagery, whether understood literally or as a symbol of total contamination, points to the complete destruction of the planet’s water systems. Oceans, which sustain vast ecosystems and regulate climate, would become inhospitable to life. Marine creatures would perish in unimaginable numbers. Rivers and freshwater sources, essential for drinking, agriculture, and sanitation, would no longer support life. This alone would bring human civilization to the brink of extinction. The environmental consequences would extend far beyond humanity, collapsing entire biological networks and leaving the earth in a state that aligns with Jeremiah’s vision of no birds and no fruitful place remaining. The fourth plague, in which the sun scorches humanity with intense heat, suggests a dramatic alteration of the atmosphere and the earth’s relationship to solar radiation. The delicate balance that governs temperature and seasons would be shattered. Instead of the predictable cycle of warming and cooling, there would be extreme, destructive heat. Crops would fail instantly, ecosystems would burn or wither, and any remaining human populations would face unbearable conditions. This would further destabilize what little remained of seasonal order, reinforcing the idea that the natural rhythms of the earth are no longer functioning in a life-sustaining way. The fifth plague brings darkness upon the seat of the beast, a darkness so profound that it causes anguish. This is not ordinary night, but a suffocating absence of light that disrupts both physical and psychological stability. Energy systems, already failing, would collapse completely in such conditions. Solar power would cease, and even basic visibility would be lost. The alternation between day and night, a fundamental aspect of timekeeping and seasonal experience, would be thrown into confusion. The world would oscillate between extremes—scorching heat and oppressive darkness— without the moderating patterns that once defined the seasons. The sixth plague, involving the drying up of a great river and the gathering of the nations to a final conflict, marks the ultimate collapse of organized human resistance. Water scarcity would reach its peak, and whatever remains of political or military structures would converge in a final confrontation. This moment effectively ends human governance altogether. The great systems of nations, alliances, and wars dissolve into a final act of defiance that is swiftly overcome. The seventh plague culminates in a cataclysm of unparalleled magnitude: a great voice declares completion, followed by earthquakes, lightning, and the fall of cities. Islands flee, mountains are leveled, and massive hail falls upon the earth. This is the point at which the physical structure of the planet itself is violently reshaped. Urban centers are obliterated, geological features are altered, and the surface of the earth is left broken and unstable. This directly corresponds with the language of Isaiah and Jeremiah, where the earth is described as empty, broken down, and without form in a functional sense. When these seven plagues are viewed collectively, their consequence is total. They dismantle human health, destroy water systems, destabilize the atmosphere, disrupt light and darkness, eliminate political order, and physically restructure the earth. By the time the thousand-year period begins, there is nothing left to sustain human life. The seasons, already destabilized by earlier judgments, would no longer operate in any recognizable or beneficial pattern. Environmental systems would be in ruin, and the earth would exist in a state of chaotic stillness. Spiritually, the plagues serve as the final demonstration of divine justice. They expose the complete inability of humanity to sustain itself apart from divine order. The silence that follows—the bound adversary, the empty nations, the desolate land—is not merely absence, but consequence. Every system that once supported life has been removed or destroyed, leaving the earth as a stark witness to the end of human rebellion and the certainty of judgment. In this way, the seven last plagues do not simply add to the devastation; they complete it. They are the direct pathway to the condition of total desolation described in the prophetic texts, ensuring that when the thousand years begin, the earth is exactly as depicted: empty, broken, and awaiting whatever comes next in the unfolding of the divine plan. 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

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