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The theme of war is impossible to overlook in the book of Revelation. So it is extremely vital to unpack just what war means as early as possible in the book before there is room for too much misinterpretation from presumptions and long-held traditions and cultural bias. If we don't see that this book is about methods and motives as well as messages, we will miss one of the main purposes this book was given to us. So this may be a good time to tackle this issue to get it clear about what is going on between the two contending powers duking it out in this war that is far beyond our capacity to even comprehend its immensity.
It is extremely important to be very clear about how Jesus makes war. If we allow any presumptions to confuse us on this point we will remain infected by the lies of the enemy that constitutes the poison of Satan's slander against God which is the very cause of the war.
I will begin by touching on some key passages from Revelation that explain this theme and then we need to examine the rest of Scripture to get it clear in our thinking how different God does warfare from what nearly everyone presumes about it. We will start by going to the very peak of the chiasm of the entire book at the center where we find the key to where this all started and some clues as to the nature of how the war is playing out.
There was war in [heaven] the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn't prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.(Revelation 12:7-9)
This war involves words, not physical altercations or assaults, though that certainly can later be an extension of how it plays out. The war that started in heaven is entirely over God's reputation and credibility that was cast in doubt by the angel Lucifer. Michael at last stood up to Lucifer to counter his insinuations that were undermining God's government of love that continues yet to this day.
I recently reread some of Ellen White's wonderful insights and descriptions of how this all began and find them extremely helpful for wrapping one's mind around the real issues. It is key that we understand the situation both before and after the rebellion began in order to better see why many things happen as they do later in the war. Otherwise it is easy to embrace wild speculations about why God does things the way He does or even why Satan's ideas seem so appealing. It would be well to review some of these quotations if we have time, to help set the stage going into a study of this book.
The first text I reference here is not directly about warfare but rather God's purpose and desired outcome and why He is fighting and how He wants us to respond to what He is doing.
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don't receive of her plagues, (Revelation 18:4)
The more we come to realize the difference in the fundamental view of reality between the two warring sides, the more we will be able to see new and different perceptions about what the war involves. One of the main core differences is how one views the concept of law. Satan insists that law involves commands that must be obeyed or their will be imposed punishments that are unavoidable because the power and authority of law is supreme. Yet this is really a counterfeit of God's original design, not based on arbitrary demands with attached threats or enticements of reward but rather on cause/effect principles that are inherently self-enforcing and have built within them that capacity to give life. To live out of harmony with the principles of life is to induce a curse or to experience pain, suffering and ultimately death. But all of this is a result of choosing to live out of harmony with life, not an inflicted imposition on the part of the law-giver as it is in Satan's kingdom.
In this verse from chapter 18 that comes immediately after the truth about God's real glory floods the entire world, the choice becomes clear and unmistakeable. This is the Elijah message that comes just before the appearance of the true Savior, a call to separate from the false matrix of the lies that permeates the enemy's seductive assertions so that we do not receive the negative effects of violating the true principles of reality that these teachings violate. Jesus is warring against the lies with the sword of truth that proceeds from His own mouth and calls all to move out from the system of confusing notions and assertions all rooted in the paradigm of balancing good and evil before it is too late to avoid the curse induced by ignoring and deliberately choosing to remain out of harmony with life.
This next reference is possibly the most clear statement about the nature of how the Hero of Revelation conducts warfare.
I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called "The Word of God." The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, "Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, and small and great." I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army. The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. (Revelation 19:11-20)
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, "This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of Armies." (Zechariah 4:6)
The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
(John 10:10-11)
It is becoming ever more clear as we work through these references that the side of truth and love is not conducting warfare like their opponents, like we normally do warfare here on earth. Jesus does not rely on the tactics of the enemy to defeat the enemy, and He warns us against doing so ourselves. We are not to overcome evil by trying to out-gun evil relying on its own weapons. We are told to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21) and our Leader sets the pace by always doing what He teaches.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;
(Romans 8:2-6)
What the distorted notion of law invented by Satan could not achieve was restoration of harmony, peace, joy and love through working to keep rules, laws, commands and demands through reliance on fear and intimidation or even enticements of rewards. This is flesh logic, imagining that somehow love can be commanded or that behavior is more important than character. This is the law of sin and death, threatening death as the means of stopping sin. It is all founded on motivation through fear, but fear simply cannot accomplish producing truly righteous people, only scared conformists who are losing their capacity to receive, enjoy and give love freely.
Only the principle (the original that law tries to imitate) of life empowered by the Spirit of Love itself has the real power to effectively restore us to the freedom enjoyed by true children of God. This is the essential nature of the war, not a war over behavior compliance but rather a titanic war over the very essence of how to effectively achieve order, harmony and peace.
but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
(2 Corinthians 6:4-7)
Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ; I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage toward you. Yes, I beg you that I may not, when present, show courage with the confidence with which I intend to be bold against some, who consider us to be walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:1-5)
This war, unlike earthly wars, is over what weapons are to be used and who to use them against. This war is over identification of the problem, identification of enemies and tactics for overcoming successfully. Yes, this war is over what it means to overcome, what it means to be a winner. Pretty much everything we take for granted is brought under scrutiny when it comes to this war, meaning that unless we are willing to have everything about how we perceive life and how reality functions challenged and reconsidered, it is unlikely we will be able to function effectively to fight on the Lamb's side of the war.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the spoken word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints: (Ephesians 6:12-18)
You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out [canceled] the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:13-15)
This war is so different than how we are accustomed to think of warfare that just learning how to fight and what to fight becomes a fight itself. The deeper we get into being aware of how the Lamb conducts the war the more startling are the discoveries and the more we question how much we really know about reality. What we have always assumed was to be the target of our war efforts suddenly becomes a shifting shadow as we discover that even the definitions for many of the words we have used all our life are suspect. The war we inherited from eons past has been so effective in deceiving the whole world that the very language we use and live by is riddled with false presumptions and twisted conclusions that have to be replaced with revelations of truth. This is why it is so vital to follow the lead of the Lamb at every step and never trust to our own understanding. Without familiarity with the words and disposition of our fearless Leader it is impossible to synchronize with His strategy to bring final victory in fulfilling God's salvation.
For instance, the verse above alerts us to the stunning implication that the charges leveled against humans since the first fall of our original parents is under serious question as to their validity. From God's perspective, the guilt, condemnation, shame and much of what we experience and perceive about sin is based on illegitimate accusations leveled by the father of lies. This does not mean sin is nothing but a mirage, but what it means is that much of what we assumed about ourselves and others related to guilt and condemnation is a mirage. Yet in believing the matrix of lies about sin that has for so long clouded our perceptions of God, the effects of sin has ruined countless lives throughout the history of the rebellion. This gives new meaning to the words of Jesus about taking an axe to the root of the tree.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)
Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
This is how Jesus does warfare. He fights against the lies of Satan to defeat his tyranny of fear, his reign of terror. Jesus steadfastly resists the presumptuous lies about God and about God's reflectors on earth, and He starts by becoming a human mirror in order to demonstrate what we are designed to look and act like as a perfect reflector of God's heart for all the universe to witness. This is why He is the champion of the war and the only leader safe and trustworthy that we are to follow. He alone is worthy to receive all the glory and honor, not because He can defeat His enemies by using superior power to crush them but because He demonstrates fully and for the first time, the real truth that has been so long obscured by the father of lies and the instigator of the rebellion that will be put down with love alone.
Why don't you understand my speech? Because you can't hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you don't believe me. (John 8:43-45)
The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (John 10:10)
Jesus summoned them, and said to them, "You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)
We see here a clear contrast between the methods and perceptions of importance between the world's way of organization and the way the Lamb and His followers are to relate to each other. In these words we find key insights as to the nature of the war the Lamb is conducting against evil. He is redefining what is important, what are the priorities of all who are brought back into harmony with God's design.
The very next verse here where we are in Revelation is key to appreciating how Jesus conducts warfare against the massive assault of lies from Satan designed to keep us in darkness and fear.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it. (Revelation 2:17)
In this we see inferences to concepts that relate both to things commonly practiced in Pergamum as well as how Jesus defeats the lies of Satan that keep us trapped in fear and dysfunction. Jesus says He will give hidden manna or bread to those who are overcomers. Jesus already identified Himself as the manna who came down from heaven, and the words that He spoke and His flesh are the bread that we must eat in order to live. So what is hidden about this manna and what does it do for us?
He who has ears to hear, let him hear." The disciples came, and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand.
In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: for this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.' "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them." (Matthew 13:9-17)
Notice the strong links between these two passages. This usually indicates an explanatory link from Revelation to elsewhere in Scripture to bring clarity to the unfolding story that Revelation is intended to unmask for us, the narrative of the back story here that gives context for all the rest of Scripture.
The hidden manna--the heavenly food of Israel, in contrast to the idol-meats (Rev 2:14). A pot of manna was laid up in the holy place "before the testimony." The allusion is here to this: probably also to the Lord's discourse (John 6:31-35). Translate, "the manna which is hidden." As the manna hidden in the sanctuary was by divine power preserved from corruption, so Christ in His incorruptible body has passed into the heavens, and is hidden there until the time of His appearing. Christ Himself is the manna "hidden" from the world, but revealed to the believer, so that he has already a foretaste of His preciousness. Compare as to Christ's own hidden food on earth, John 4:32,34; Job 23:12. The full manifestation shall be at His coming. Believers are now hidden, even as their meat is hidden. As the manna in the sanctuary, unlike the other manna, was incorruptible, so the spiritual feast offered to all who reject the world's dainties for Christ is everlasting: an incorruptible body and life for ever in Christ at the resurrection. ( JFB commentary)
I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
This stone is all about identity as the war is really over what we perceive and believe about both our identity and that of God. What we believe about our identity and where we get it from affects how we make every decision. In turn our choices direct the development of our character which determines whether we will be able to thrive in God's fiery presence or we will shrink back in terror when we encounter that intense power of love. This is the intense war over what we believe about identity.
The gracious Saviour also promised to give to every conqueror in this holy war “a white stone.” In those times, when any person accused of crimes against the state was tried by the suffrage of the citizens, they voted for his acquittal by a white stone, and for his condemnation by a black one: so that Christ, the sole Judge of his people, in promising to give them a white stone, assured them of their full justification at the great day of account, and of the present comfortable sense that they were pardoned and accepted in him. (Acts 26:10) The name written upon it is probable that of “children of God;” and it represents the inseparable connexion of adoption into his family with forgiveness of sins. This name would be, as it were, inscribed upon the pardon given them, and made legible to the soul by “the Spirit of adoption.” (Romans 8:14-17) But “no man knoweth it saving he that receiveth it;” for the ground of this knowledge is laid in his inward consciousness and experience; it is communicated to the lively Christian by “a witness in himself;” the world knoweth not the children of God; (1 John 3:1-2; 5:10) and even their brethren cannot exactly distinguish them, but sometimes suspect or condemn the upright, and think well of specious hypocrites. But when the Holy Spirit illuminates his worn work in the believer’s soul, this new name, and its real import, become legible and intelligible to him, and he knows himself to be a child and heir of God. (Thomas Scott commentary)
At the macro level of this war, God's name has been under attack from the very outset, and it is His reputation that will be judged and must cleared before the universe can be restored to its original design of love, truth and freedom alone. We are all caught in the crossfire of this war which is about our perceptions about identity, because we are all unavoidably reflectors of what we believe God is like.
When Satan seduced our first parents into accepting lies about God and themselves, all humanity became infected with the black lies that resulted in all the malfunctions of sin that have transpired ever since. Satan then insisted that because of our sins we deserve punishment and none of us should be pardoned or allowed to receive mercy, for that would violate justice. Yet this was all predicated on false presumptions inherent in Satan's invention of commerce, where earning and deserving dictate everything that happens and scales are used to determine an imaginary balance between good and evil. Thus Satan uses black stones to vote against every human being, insisting that because everyone has sinned, no one deserves mercy and so all should die. Otherwise, God cannot be just. This is all part of the war, for it is a war over the very definitions of sin, of justice and whether or not mercy and justice are even compatible.
Look carefully at the following quotes that help expose the real issues being fought over in this war.
In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; and if God should remit the punishment of sin, He would not be a God of truth and justice. When men broke the law of God, and defied His will, Satan exulted. It was proved, he declared, that the law could not be obeyed; man could not be forgiven. Because he, after his rebellion, had been banished from heaven, Satan claimed that the human race must be forever shut out from God’s favor. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner.{DA 761.4}
One of the first casualties in the war was the truth about the very nature of justice. We have lived so long under the darkness of Satan's lies about truth and justice that for many it comes as a stunning revelation that what we assume is justice is really a fraud and a distorted counterfeit relied on by most all the societies of earth. According to popular opinion, justice and mercy are in tension with each other, yet this is an artificial divide that is completely unfounded except in our fallen imagination that is reinforced by false religion. The war being conducted by the Lamb is out to expose this lie and defeat it by revealing the real truth that alone can set us free from the bondage created by lies.
The counterfeit justice that Satan advocates is abhorred by God. His censuring must not be imitated by any who are partakers of divine mercy and love. Guard your own soul, my brother, my sister; watch closely for the first jealous thought, the first suggestion to question or judge others. We must not be severe with the infirmities of others, but attend zealously to our own individual case.{SW September 25, 1906, par. 10}
Jesus was a fountain of healing mercy for the saving of the world; for by precept and example he represented the justice and love of God to men. When the nature of man is renewed by grace, he will be full of tenderness, sympathy, and love. Thus the character of God will be unfolded to the world as it is, and Satan will not be able to fasten the minds of all humanity in his snare, charging God with his own attributes, and misrepresenting his character.{ST November 28, 1892, par. 6}
The whole notion of earning and deserving along with motivation through reward and punishment has infected all of our thinking so deeply that it is impossible to appreciate the truth about God's love and grace without special intervention by the Holy Spirit to bring the light of truth into our soul. The only way our heart can believe in God's vote for us with a white stone and a new name on it, is to believe that God is only like Jesus and not like we have imagined Him to be for so long. Satan's arguments against us seem irrefutable until the Lamb brings the light of truth that exposes the scandal of Satan's slander as unfounded because he duped our first parents through deception originally. Ultimately it will be revealed that all humanity is not guilty as charged by Satan, because the original charges brought by Satan are fallacious as our choice to believe and follow Satan's suggestions were based on faulty information. This exposes Satan as being the real cause of all sin, not humans.
A little noticed truth is that in the end God will not merely pardon humans as religion touts, but God will cancel the original charges against humanity, meaning Satan will be exposed as the originator and cause of all evil, not humans. Canceled charges versus pardoning are vastly different outcomes for a trial, for cancelling charges reveals that the charges were illegitimate to start with and are disallowed.
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven [charizomai] us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Colossians 2:13-15 NAS95)
I want to address this issue of forgiving our transgressions which may seem to conflict with the idea of cancelled charges. But first we need to explore this cancellation a bit more and then come back to that.
The white stone with a new name on it shared secretly with each person represents the truth that our identity in Christ is alone the only one safe to trust and embrace. No other source is authorized or should be allowed to define who we are as being less than fully loved by God. All Satan's accusations are rooted in commerce logic and are illegitimate, because God does not support commerce or its balancing act of good and evil. The white stone is God's vote declaring that we are innocent due to the false premise presented by the accuser that led us to malfunction. All the charges of guilt against all humanity by the great accuser are thus disarmed and publicly exposed as fraudulent when that whole scandal was uncovered when Satan viciously attacked Jesus as an innocent victim on the cross.
This is how the death of Christ triumphs over all the accusers throughout history. His death was not an appeasement for an offended deity as religion has made it out to be. Rather His death exposes the very foundation of Satan's entire kingdom as based on false charges both against God and all humanity. By invoking the death sentence for a completely innocent and free man, Satan proved that his system of justice is a fraud and that all his charges are baseless. Thus all his decrees are canceled as null and void.
Now let's look at what it means that God forgave us all our transgressions. If forgiveness is necessary, doesn't that imply that there is a legitimate debt to be paid? Many want to challenge this, insisting that the reference in this passage to forgiving all our transgressions proves that God had to be satisfied with a payment for sin before He could forgive us. But this arises out of a common distortion of the very concept of forgiveness itself, which is a whole topic in itself. Let me just say that there are two main Greek terms translated as forgive in English that mean very different things in the original, which is why most people are in confusion about what forgiveness by God actually involves.
The word used here is charizomai and relates to what happens in God's heart, whereas the other word apheimi is about what needs to happen in our heart and mind in order to embrace the truth about what is already true in God's heart and mind. Charizomai involves an unconditional kind of forgiveness, a state of never holding onto any offense, never even taking offense to start with. Essentially forgiveness involves letting go of an offense. Yet if God never takes offense to start with, how can it be possible for Him to let it go? Understanding this is key, for if God cannot be offended and never holds a grudge or desire to pay offenders back with punishment for wrongs committed against Him, then our attempts to convince God to forgive us are largely misplaced. This is exactly what the misunderstanding is all about and relates to why God cancels the handwriting of debt that is against us.
This handwriting of debt or certificate of debt has roots in the false presumptions that we all have about how God feels towards those who commit offenses against Him. Because God never holds onto an offense there is never any need to change His mind about us because His love is everlasting; nothing can ever alter that in the slightest. Thus it is never His heart that needs changing but rather ours. This is why all reconciliation that needs to take place must all be in us, it is never needed in God. When we ask God to forgive us then, we need to understand that we are asking Him to remove our fears and misapprehensions about Him from our heart, not from His. This is apheimi forgiveness, what is called cleansing us of all sin. This is the forgiveness that we need to experience to become united with God.
The next logical question follows: If this is all true, then how could anyone be eternally lost? If the original charges of sin and rebellion deserving of death are all cancelled, why would anyone die as a result of sin? What could ever possibly cause anyone to choose death instead of eternal life with God? Some cannot imagine that anyone given the real truth about love, could ever even turn it down.
Part of the problem in unpacking this profound truth is affected by how deeply we are still infected with the paradigms of earning and deserving and false notions about justice and law enforcement. What needs to become clear as soon as possible in our study of Revelation is that the principles of commerce are all counterfeit and false. Never mind that they are the very foundation of all governments and design for societal order, they are not God's design but rather deadly imitations. God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are not like our way of reasoning based on tit for tat and vengeance desired for offenders. The ways of love are vastly different and defines true freedom in contrast to the system of imposed rewards and punishments based on fear. Yet why many will die in the end is vital to understand or this idea of cancelling charges will be viewed as a heresy we are warned to avoid.
God's laws are natural and self-enforcing while counterfeit law must be artificially enforced because it is not rooted in natural design or inherent cause and effect. This is a key that unlocks nearly everything when coming to appreciate the truth about salvation. God is not obligated to enforce His law because natural principles always enforce themselves unless overruled by God.
Yet Satan accuses God of breaking His own laws when God interferes with the natural outworking of His principles of cause and effect. This may be how Satan invented the idea that justice and mercy were somehow in tension with each other, yet in reality that has never been true except in our twisted perceptions. God has to meet us where we are in our distorted reasoning until He can lead us to embrace the underlying truths that cancel out our illogic and replaces it with true understanding. This is why spiritual things can only be discerned by spiritual thinking people inspired by God's Holy Spirit. All who resist the truth brought by God's Spirit become double-minded, making it impossible for them to receive wisdom from God. This is why plain truth can hide in plain sight, not because God is trying to hide it from us but because our prejudices and distorted reasoning blinds us to simple truths only because they don't fit into our demands for so-called justice that is based on commerce thinking.
So why will people suffer eternal extinction if the charges against them are all dropped, canceled, exposed as fraudulent? This is an extremely important question to unpack. Why so? Because this is all part of the ongoing war over how we see God and how we come to judge Him as being fair or arbitrary. Our very study of these key issues is how we are involved in the war described in Revelation. What we come to realize is that we are not merely observers or curious onlookers when we look into this book. Rather we find ourselves immediately caught up in the battle between light and darkness as we wrestle to decide what we will do with truth that the Spirit of the Lamb brings to our attention.
First of all, the lost will not die because God is compelled to punish them for their sins because the law demands it must be so. That kind of thinking is founded on Satan's system of imposed rewards and punishments but is foreign to how the kingdom of heaven operates.
So if the death of the lost is not punishment imposed by God, why would anyone die? This is the underlying question that motivates many to embrace universal salvation, insisting that no one will ultimately die, even Satan himself, but that all will sooner or later accept salvation and live happily in love for all eternity. I cannot find significant support for that doctrine, but I am assured that the death of the lost is not because God is obligated to kill them. Doing so would be a violation of their freedom to choose, as well as ignoring the central principle of character development and how its natural consequences play out from a lifetime of choices made for or against love.
This issue of cause and effect must ever remain central as one sorts through what all this means. Cause and effect must not, however, be insinuated to mean sin compels God to punish sinners. The effects of choosing selfishness and sin rather than dying to self to embrace our true identity as defined by Christ, develops a character incompatible with the glory of God's love. It is character that determines how each person reacts when encountering the full energy of the love of God when it will be released before the universe as never seen before. Our resistance to love is what unfits us for heaven, not some arbitrary decision on the part of God involving imposed rewards or punishments.
In the end, everyone will embrace what they have chosen to value most. It will be seen in the end that God never forced anything on anyone. This truth is central for vindicating God in order that sin may never again rise up even while everyone remains free of fear and uninhibited throughout all eternity. All who have allowed love to transform them to enjoy it will thrive in it to the extent their character has been developed to receive it. Likewise all who have sealed their hearts in resistance and unbelief against God's love find living in His presence intolerable and will sooner or later demand to be allowed to embrace extinction rather than continue to live in the torment that love elicits in their resistant heart.
The key difference between being saved or lost then is not God's determination but our own fitness or capacity to encounter the intensity of living in the rarified atmosphere of love. This atmosphere is defined by transparency, vulnerability, humility, kindness and is seen in selfless and passionate service for others, viewing them as more important than one's self. All who remain allergic to any of these things will find the atmosphere of heaven intolerable and will prefer death even while having full access to live as long as they wish. All who have allowed God's Spirit to transform and heal them to thrive in love will find fulfillment, joy and endless potential for growth. This is the nature of the war – who we will choose to serve now and allow to determine the shape of our character and destiny then.
Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts. For whoever finds me, finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:34-36)
If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh. The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; for Yahweh our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed; and Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land: therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God. Joshua said to the people, You can't serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that he has done you good. The people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve Yahweh. Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you Yahweh, to serve him. They said, We are witnesses. (Joshua 24:15-22)
See how the warfare over what God is like has been going on for a very long time with much confusion that must be clarified by focusing on the only trustworthy revelation, the Son of God.
Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people answered him not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, "I, even I only, am left a prophet of Yahweh; but Baal's prophets are four hundred fifty men." (1 Kings 18:21-22)
Religion styles the war as an issue of behavior and determined by obedience to arbitrary rules. If this is the case, then the active process in the war is determining who is to blame for the bad things that happen, assigning punishment and enforcing it.
But if the war is not about rewards and punishment and behavior, but rather about trustworthiness and whose ways are viable to maintaining harmony and peace in societies, then there must be a dramatic shift in focus from assigning blame to discerning integrity and truthfulness with character as the primary focus instead of labels and appearances.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven--not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things he said in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?"
But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. But there are some of you who don't believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn't believe, and who it was who would betray him. He said, "For this cause have I said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father." At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You don't also want to go away, do you?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:57-68)
Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
