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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)
Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full. "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. (John 15:9-12)
This is part of the practical application of acting on Jesus' invitation to eat His flesh as the manna we must have in order to experience the life of knowing God intimately. The joy is experienced in the sweet fellowship of intimacy for which our heart was created, and without which it will never be satisfied with any substitute.
With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don't let me wander from your commandments. I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes. With my lips, I have declared all the ordinances of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, and consider your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. (Psalms 119:10-16)
What is the purpose of hiding the manna of God in our heart? How can we ingest the words of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus? It involves both His words as well as what was communicated in His body language as He related to everyone around Him. So what is most needed change in our perceptions to get us unstuck from spinning our wheels but making very little progress in our spiritual growth?
We are coming to see that one of the core issues being fought over in this war is the truth about identity. God's identity and trustworthiness is at the very center of the controversy, but also caught up in this is the identity of every human being who by design are reflectors of God's identity. Without addressing the condition of the reflectors of God, the reputation and credibility of God cannot be effectively vindicated. Thus how we perceive our own identity is intimately linked to the salvation of our God.
New Name/Identity
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 why the war is 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 finally judged and must be vindicated before the universe can be restored to its original design of functioning while relying on love, truth and freedom alone. We are all caught in the crossfire of this war which involves our perceptions and beliefs about identity. This is because we are all inescapably reflectors of what we believe God is like at our heart level.
When Satan seduced our first parents into accepting lies about God and themselves, all humanity became infected with his dark lies resulting in all the malfunctions that sin produces 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 what he claimed to be justice. Yet this was predicated on false presumptions inherent in Satan's invention of commerce that distorts the truth about God, a system of living where earning and deserving dictates everything that happens, where imaginary scales are used to determine an presumed need for balance of good and evil and a system of debts and credits must always be restored to balance to cancel each other out. Thus Satan uses black stones and votes against every human being, insisting that because everyone has sinned, no one deserves mercy so all should die the punishment deserved. Otherwise, he insists, God cannot be just. This is all part of the war, for it involves a war over the very definition of sin, of justice and whether or not mercy and justice are even compatible.
Look carefully at the following quotes that help to 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, a distorted counterfeit relied on by most all societies on 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 reinforced by false religions. The war being conducted by the Lamb is out to expose this lie and defeat it by revealing the 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, debits and credits along with motivation through enticements of reward and threats of punishment has infected all of our thinking so thoroughly that it makes it extremely difficult to appreciate the truth about God's love and grace without 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 exposing the scandal of Satan's slander as being unfounded. It was unchallenged presumptions hidden within insinuations about God by which he duped our first parents originally.
Ultimately it will be revealed that all humanity is not guilty as charged by Satan, because the original charges brought against us by Satan are fallacious and fraudulent. It will be exposed that our choices to believe and follow Satan's temptations were rooted in faulty information. This exposes Satan as being the real cause of all our sin, not humans.
This truth frightens many people who assume if we don't keep the blame on sinners, they will not have incentive to scare them into repenting to turn to God. Yet this is part of Satan's scheme, for it presumes that God relies on the laws of commerce rather than relying on the principles of cause and effect. Reward and punishment is a counterfeit of cause and effect, and this needs to be plain in order to expose the nature of the subtle deceptions that keep us in slavery to fear.
This is not to suggest that there are no consequences to rebellion and sin. The undergirding principle of cause and effect that is designed into every other principle that govern creation makes this unavoidable. What must be clarified is the source of the bad effects of sin. It is not God inflicting punishments as Satan asserts, but rather the natural outcome of violations of principles designed to bring life. This distinction is vital to appreciate, for anything other explanation infects us with lies that keep us afraid and distrustful of God's heart, which is the very seed of sin itself.
Pardon versus Cancelled
In the end God will not merely pardon some humans as religion often claims, but God will cancel the original charges against all humanity, meaning Satan will be exposed as the originator and cause of all evil, not humans. Canceled charges versus pardoning result in vastly different outcomes in a trial; cancelling charges reveals that the charges were illegitimate to start with and are disallowed, while pardon presumes the charges were valid but exemption from punishment is granted.
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 cancellation a bit more and then come back to that.
The white stone with a new name on it shared privately with each person represents the truth that our identity in Christ alone is safe to trust and embrace. No other source should ever 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 rely on commerce or endorse its balancing 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 system was exposed by Satan viciously attacking Jesus as an innocent victim on the cross. In doing so, Satan's insistence that his system of justice was right was defeated by his own actions. In killing the Prince of heaven, Satan destroyed the last vestiges of doubt about his lack of integrity and erased all lingering sympathy by heavenly inhabitants for his insinuations about God's ways and motives. This was the major turning point in the war, but not the end of battles. All creation has yet to be brought to see the real truth and acknowledge that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
The death of Christ triumphs over all accusers in history. His death was not an appeasement of an offended deity as religion makes it out to be. No, His death exposes the very foundation of Satan's kingdom as rooted in false charges against God and humanity. By killing the innocent Son, Satan proved his system of justice to be a fraud and all his charges baseless. His decrees based on his abhorrent justice claims are canceled as null and void.
Charizomai
Now let's look at what it means to say 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 raise this challenge, insisting that reference here to forgiving all our transgressions proves that God had to be satisfied with a payment for sin before He could forgive us. Yet this arises out of a common distortion of the very concept of forgiveness itself, which is a whole other topic of discussion. Let me just say that there are two primary Greek words 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. In essence, 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 never holds a grudge or desires to pay offenders back with punishment for wrongs committed against Him, then all attempts to convince God to forgive us in this way are misplaced, even rooted in unbelief. This is why we misunderstand how and 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 hold 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 are asking Him to remove our fears and misapprehensions about Him from our hearts, not change His mind about us. Apheimi forgiveness is the cleansing of us from all sin. This is the forgiveness that we need to experience to be reconciled and united with God.
The next logical question follows: If this is all true, 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 lead anyone to choose death instead of eternal life with God? Some cannot imagine that anyone given enough truth about love, would 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. While they are the very foundation of all governments and used 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 define 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 should 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 many things when coming to understand 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 explain why Satan asserted that justice and mercy were in opposition to each other, yet in reality this has never been true except in our twisted perceptions. Yet God has to meet us where we are in our distorted reasoning until He can lead us to embrace underlying truths that expose our illogic, replacing it with true understanding. This is why spiritual things can only be discerned by spiritual 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 because they don't meet our demands for so-called justice that is based on commerce thinking. Remember what we just read?
The counterfeit justice that Satan advocates is abhorred by God.
So why will people experience eternal extinction if the charges against them have all been dropped, canceled, exposed as fraudulent? This is an extremely important question to look at seriously. Why so? Because this is all part of the war over how we see God and directly affects how we will come to judge Him as fair or arbitrary. Our current study of these key issues is how we are participating in the war described in Revelation. We must come to realize that we are not merely observers or curious onlookers as we look into this book. Rather we find ourselves immediately caught up in the thick of the battle between light and darkness as we wrestle to decide what we will do with truth that the Spirit of the Lamb is bringing to our attention.
First of all, the lost will not die because God is compelled to punish them for their sins or because the law demands satisfaction in this way. That thinking is rooted in Satan's counterfeit 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, but more importantly it ignores a central principle of character development and how natural consequences play out from a lifetime of choices made for or against love.
This principle 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 into the universe as never witnessed 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 directly forced anything on anyone. This truth is central for vindicating and exonerating God in order to ensure that sin will never again rise up. Yet at the same time, everyone will always remain free to chose love or to turn away from it while also free of fear throughout all eternity. It is those who have allowed love to transform them so as to enjoy it who will thrive in it, proportional to the extent their character has been developed to receive it. In contrast, all who have seared 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.
God has given to men a declaration of His character and of His method of dealing with sin. “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Ex 34:6,7. “All the wicked will He destroy.” “The transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.” Ps 145:20; 37:38. The power and authority of the divine government will be employed to put down rebellion; yet all the manifestations of retributive justice will be perfectly consistent with the character of God as a merciful, long-suffering, benevolent being.
God does not force the will or judgment of any. He takes no pleasure in a slavish obedience. He desires that the creatures of His hands shall love Him because He is worthy of love. He would have them obey Him because they have an intelligent appreciation of His wisdom, justice, and benevolence. And all who have a just conception of these qualities will love Him because they are drawn toward Him in admiration of His attributes.
The principles of kindness, mercy, and love, taught and exemplified by our Saviour, are a transcript of the will and character of God. Christ declared that He taught nothing except that which He had received from His Father. The principles of the divine government are in perfect harmony with the Saviour's precept, “Love your enemies.” God executes justice upon the wicked, for the good of the universe, and even for the good of those upon whom His judgments are visited. He would make them happy if He could do so in accordance with the laws of His government and the justice of His character. He surrounds them with the tokens of His love, He grants them a knowledge of His law, and follows them with the offers of His mercy; but they despise His love, make void His law, and reject His mercy. While constantly receiving His gifts, they dishonor the Giver; they hate God because they know that He abhors their sins. The Lord bears long with their perversity; but the decisive hour will come at last, when their destiny is to be decided. Will He then chain these rebels to His side? Will He force them to do His will?
Those who have chosen Satan as their leader and have been controlled by his power are not prepared to enter the presence of God. Pride, deception, licentiousness, cruelty, have become fixed in their characters. Can they enter heaven to dwell forever with those whom they despised and hated on earth? Truth will never be agreeable to a liar; meekness will not satisfy self-esteem and pride; purity is not acceptable to the corrupt; disinterested love does not appear attractive to the selfish. What source of enjoyment could heaven offer to those who are wholly absorbed in earthly and selfish interests?
Could those whose lives have been spent in rebellion against God be suddenly transported to heaven and witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever exists there,—every soul filled with love, every countenance beaming with joy, enrapturing music in melodious strains rising in honor of God and the Lamb, and ceaseless streams of light flowing upon the redeemed from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne,—could those whose hearts are filled with hatred of God, of truth and holiness, mingle with the heavenly throng and join their songs of praise? Could they endure the glory of God and the Lamb? No, no; years of probation were granted them, that they might form characters for heaven; but they have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the language of heaven, and now it is too late. A life of rebellion against God has unfitted them for heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire. They would long to flee from that holy place. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them. The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the part of God. (GC 541-542)
The key difference between being saved or lost then is not God's determination but our own fitness and 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.
On the other hand, all who have allowed God's Spirit to transform and heal them to thrive in love find fulfillment, joy, satisfaction and endless potential for growth. This is the essence of the war – who we will choose to serve now and who will 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)
We begin to see better how the warfare over what God is like has been going on for a very long time, with much confusion from the enemy that must be clarified. This can only happen by focusing on the only trustworthy revelation of the real truth about God, 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)
Counterfeit religion insists the war is all about behavior and is won only through strict obedience to arbitrary rules, either our perfect obedience of the obedience of Christ as our substitute. If this was the case, then the primary focus of the war would be determining who is to blame for all the bad things that happen, and then assigning punishments and enforcing them. This is what most people assume, and because of this they treat others in the same way, relying on the blame game to try to shift responsibility to someone else to avoid being condemned, shamed or punished themselves.
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)
Once we come to see that the war is about the condition of our spirit more than about the strictness of our behavior, we can learn how to overcome like the Lamb overcame. Overcoming happens in the spirit, for the heart and the spirit are inextricably connected and God is after our heart. He is not interested in slavish obedience but in open hearts bonded in love to each other. This is the difference between identity based on flesh labeling and identity rooted in God's love for us in Christ.
For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can't please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. (Romans 8:6-9)
