ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

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ARME Bible Camp

Stephen Bohr

The Battle of Armageddon and how Ellen White Interprets Biblical Typology, Part 1

You know, so many things that we take for granted.

We just take for granted that we go to bed at night and in the morning we get up and get on with life.

But you know, each breath that we draw is a blessing from the throne of God.

And so we should be thankful for everything not only for the spectacular things that happen in our lives.

I had a few people come up and talk to me they were quite troubled by what I said last night as we ended our study about differing lengths of punishment.

And I'd just like to read a couple of statements from the Spirit of Prophecy before we get into studying the Battle of Armageddon so that you can argue with Ellen White instead of arguing with me.

When you really study it out, there is going to be anguish and agony.

And I don't think that the, we think of the suffering as burning in the fire.

And the fire, you know, that's what's really going to cause the pain and the suffering.

Listen, the spiritual anguish is going to be so great that the fire is immaterial.

In other words, it's more mental anguish than physical suffering.

It's kind of like Jesus when he was on the cross.

Ellen White says that his spiritual anguish was so great that he hardly could feel his physical pain.

So we don't need to dwell on the physical pain aspect.

And by the way, in Revelation, where it says that they will be tormented with fire and brimstone, The word torment there is basanizo, which means that.

You know, it's used, for example, of the woman who is having labor pains.

It has to do with pain, but not so much physical pain as with the realization that they're lost and that they could have had an eternity with God.

The first statement is found in early writings, page 291.

I'm going to go through it quickly because we do need to talk about the battle of Armageddon.

She says this, Then I saw thrones, and Jesus and the redeemed saints sat upon them, sat upon them, and the saints reigned as kings and priests unto God.

This is during the thousand years, right?

Christ in union with his people judged the wicked dead, comparing their acts with the statute book, the word of God, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body.

That's judgment according to their works.

Then, listen to this, then they meted out to the wicked the portion which they must suffer according to their works.

And it was written against their names in the book of death.

So 1 of the things we're going to do is not only determine that the wicked were lost but we're going to determine what their punishment will be.

Then she continues saying Satan also and his angels were judged by Jesus and the saints.

And listen to this, Satan's punishment was to be far greater than that of those whom he had deceived.

His suffering would so far exceed theirs as to bear no comparison with it.

After all those whom he had deceived had perished, Satan was still to live and suffer on much longer.

And then she says, after the judgment of the wicked dead had been finished, at the end of the 1, 000 years, Jesus left the city and the saints and a train of angelic hosts followed him.

Jesus descended upon a great mountain, which, and then it speaks about events concerning the millennium.

The 1 is, let me see, The second death is the 1 I'm going to read, second resurrection I'm going to read from now.

The first statement is the earth desolated.

The second statement is from the second resurrection.

Satan rushes into the midst of his followers and tries to stir up the multitude to action.

This is after the panorama has been seen.

But fire from God out of heaven is rained upon them and the great men and mighty men, the noble, the poor, and miserable are all consumed together.

I saw that some were quickly destroyed while others suffered longer.

They were punished according to the deeds done in the bodies.

The issue is that they're receiving the punishment according to their works.

And let me tell you, the Adventist view is much more benevolent than the view of Christians in general.

They say that God is going to burn people forever, no matter how wicked they were.

She continues saying, They were punished according to the deeds done in the body.

Some were many days consuming just as long as...

And then she says, Some were many days consuming, and just as long as there was a portion of them unconsumed, all the scents of suffering remained.

This is a different kind of fire than what we're used to.

All the sense of suffering remains, said the angel.

The worm of life shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, as long as there is the least particle for it to prey upon.

She says Satan bore not only the weight and punishment of his own sins which are many by the way, but also of the sins of the redeemed host which had been placed upon him, and he must also suffer for the ruin of souls which he had caused.

If some sinners suffer many days for their own individual sins.

So you know I can't say the exact amount of time, but it's going to be a long period of time.

And 1 verse that we don't like to read very much, you know, we love to quote Isaiah 66, 22 and 23 where it says that we'll go from 1 new moon to another and from 1 Sabbath to another to worship before the Lord.

You know we love to quote that but we never read verse 24 where it says and they shall go forth and they shall see the carcasses of those who sin against the Lord.

Their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched.

There's going to be a period of time while God's people are in the city that we're going to be watching this.

I think maybe God wants us to understand how grotesque and horrendous sin is.

However, after they're all consumed, Ellen White goes on to say that God will make a new heavens in the north where righteousness dwells and then the first things will not come to memory so we need to be careful you know the problem is these days God has been sanitized you know God is all love and mercy and you know he's never going to punish anyone because you know God cannot stand people suffering you know they make God so much love that they forget that his God is also a just God and you have to balance his love with his justice God is a loving father but God is also a judge.

So don't major on 1, if you're going to major on 1 major on God as father but don't forget the other dimension which is God's justice.

So anyway that's argue with Ellen White and with the Bible because the Bible does speak of a period of punishment, doesn't it?

OK, well, now we want to study the Battle of Armageddon.

And let me share with you, first of all, some principles.

I might have written down these principles after.

We want to notice, We're going to study 3 methods of studying prophecy this morning in our first presentation.

Number 1, we're going to study how to interpret biblical types.

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The Battle of Armageddon and how Ellen White Interprets Biblical Typology, Part 1

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