Hi. Brent;

 

I posed this question in class last week and asked them as to when " God's strange Act would happen in the end time prophecy?

Naturally the said after the millenium, I used to think that also but I could not see the reason for His strange act, when I believed that God did not kill the wicked at that time.

 

God’s Strange Act

For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim: He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon—that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act Isa. 28;21

Adventists have believed and taught that "God’s strange work" is the final destruction of the wicked following the millennium, and we have granted our holy God the right to do this, since He created the lives in the first place A careful study of the Bible and the SP does not support this view.

God’s strange work is, in fact, an act of destruction, similar to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

To Him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgment is a "strange work." Isa. 28:21. But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to men the results of a course of sin. {DA 582.3}

The cursing of the fig tree was an acted parable. That barren tree, flaunting its pretentious foliage in the very face of Christ, was a symbol of the Jewish nation. The Saviour desired to make plain to His disciples the cause and the certainty of Israel's doom. For this purpose He invested the tree with moral qualities, and made it the expositor of divine truth. {DA 582.4}

Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself Hosea 13;9 God acted in the OT the same as He did in the NT

DA pp 580-588 and GC pp17-38 describe the dynamics involved in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. When the people made an unchangeable commitment to continue in sin, so natural to the human heart, they were unconscious that it swung them eternally into the destroyer’s camp. Under the terms of the GC, the choice of humans determines who shall be their master; if they refuse to repudiate sin, then God, who can no longer reach them anyway, has to back off. It is the power of God through the Spirit that restrains the power of the enemy in our world. Without the abiding presence of the HS, humans are vulnerable to destruction and desolation. Thus it was with Jerusalem. Thus it will be with the world.

God’s strange work is also depicted to us on Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon.

How are these incidents similar? Because God’s strange work of destruction will occur in a similar way.

Mount Perazim. David versus the Phillistines [2 Sam. 5;17-20]

The valley of Gibeon. Joshua versus Amorites [Joshua 10;12-19]

In each case the Lord delivered up the Canaanites for destruction, because The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord would no longer bear with them. His defense being removed from them, they would fall an easy prey to the Hebrews. {4T 151.2}

God’s strange work is the handing over of the unrepentant to their enemies.

Who knows whether God will not give you up to the deceptions you love?….When God shall work His strange work on the earth… woe will be upon the people [5T p77]

The SP also states the precise point in time when God will do His strange actEvery century of profligacy has treasured up wrath against the day of wrath; and when the time comes, and the iniquity is full, then God will do His strange work. It will be found a terrible thing to have worn out the divine patience; for the wrath of God will fall so signally and strongly that it is presented as being unmixed with mercy; and the very earth will be desolated. It is at the time of the national apostasy, when, acting on the policy of Satan, the rulers of the land will rank themselves on the side of the man of sin--it is then the measure of guilt is full; the national apostasy is the signal for national ruin. {2SM 372.3}

Then there will be a law against the Sabbath of God's creation, and then it is that God will do His "strange work" in the earth. He has borne long with the perversity of the race; He has tried to win them to Himself. But the time will come when they shall have filled their measure of iniquity; and then it is that God will work. This time is almost reached. God keeps a record with the nations: the figures are swelling against them in the books of heaven; and when it shall have become a law that the transgression of the first day of the week shall be met with punishment, then their cup will be full (RH March 9, 1886)

To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Eze. 33:11. . . . Yet He will "by no means clear the guilty." "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." Ex. 34:6, 7; Nahum 1:3. By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. The severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor may be judged by the Lord's reluctance to execute justice. The nation with which He bears long, and which He will not smite until it has filled up the measure of its iniquity in God's account, will finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed with mercy. {FLB 338.5}

After God has done all that could be done to save men, if they still show by their lives that they slight offered mercy, death will be their portion; and it will be a dreadful death, for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross. They will then realize what they have lost--eternal life and the immortal inheritance. {FLB 338.6}

"God's great and strange work is to redeem and save, and thus repair the ruin that sin has made. {RH, June 21, 1898 par. 25}

It seems to me that God’s strange act if there will be one after the millennium, would be for God to let go of all those who refuse to accept Him, or give them over to be slaughtered by their enemies.No where do I find that God personally destroys any one.

Jack