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Last Day Events
God by themselves. They reason as to how they would act under the
circumstances and decide God would do as they imagine they would
do....
In no kingdom or government is it left to the lawbreakers to say
what punishment is to be executed against those who have broken the
law. All we have, all the bounties of His grace which we possess,
we owe to God. The aggravating character of sin against such a God
cannot be estimated any more than the heavens can be measured with a
span. God is a moral governor as well as a Father. He is the Lawgiver.
He makes and executes His laws. Law that has no penalty is of no
force.
The plea may be made that a loving Father would not see His
children suffering the punishment of God by fire while He had the
power to relieve them. But God would, for the good of His subjects and
for their safety, punish the transgressor. God does not work on the plan
of man. He can do infinite justice that man has no right to do before
his fellow man. Noah would have displeased God to have drowned
one of the scoffers and mockers that harassed him, but God drowned
the vast world. Lot would have had no right to inflict punishment on
his sons-in-law, but God would do it in strict justice.
Who will say God will not do what He says He will do?—
Manuscript Releases 12:207-209
;
Manuscript Releases 10:265
(1876).
[242]
Judgments Come When God Removes His Protection
I was shown that the judgments of God would not come directly
out from the Lord upon them, but in this way: They place themselves
beyond His protection. He warns, corrects, reproves, and points out
the only path of safety; then, if those who have been the objects of His
special care will follow their own course, independent of the Spirit
of God, after repeated warnings, if they choose their own way, then
He does not commission His angels to prevent Satan’s decided attacks
upon them.
It is Satan’s power that is at work at sea and on land, bringing
calamity and distress and sweeping off multitudes to make sure of his
prey.—
Manuscript Releases 14:3
(1883).
God will use His enemies as instruments to punish those who have
followed their own pernicious ways whereby the truth of God has been