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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

Aron Crews

01 If God is Love... Why Suffering?

02 If God is Love... Why Satan?

03 If God is Love... Why the Bible?

04 If God is Love... Why the Sabbath?

05 If God is Love... Why the Rules

06 If God is Love... Why the Church?

07 If God is Love... Why Death?

09 If God is Love... Why Delay?

10 If God is Love... Why Judgment?

08 If God is Love... Why Hell?

Today's presentation is entitled, If God is Love, Why Judgment?

But as usual, we're going to have a brief review of what we went over this afternoon, which was, If God is Love, Why the Delay?

Jesus said in John chapter 14, and I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.

Well, it's been roughly 2, 000 years, right?

So we wanna ask the question, why the delay?

The answer is somewhat multifaceted, and we went into different reasons for that, but sort of the primary reason that's sort of the most obvious, most beautiful that testifies of God's love is found in 2 Peter chapter 3, where he says, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come mocking the truth.

They will say, what happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again?

And then Peter responds and says, "'The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise "'as some people think.

"'He does not want anyone to be destroyed, "'but wants everyone to repent.'" And so sometimes when we're like, man, God, why haven't you come back yet?

The delay is because God wants to save you.

But not just you, he wants to save everyone.

And remember, Peter goes on to say, our Lord's patience gives people time to be saved.

Because part of what needs to be accomplished before Jesus returns again, is in Matthew 24, we read that the gospel needs to be proclaimed as a witness to the whole world, and then the end will come.

Again, because God wants to give opportunity for everyone to be saved.

And we can be part of that proclamation of the good news that God has love to the whole world.

Furthermore, another reason for the delay is part of this cosmic conflict that there needs to be, even beyond the cross, a further development of the maturation of evil, So that evil can be seen as fully that, as part of God's master plan of restoration in dealing with the sin problem that we're gonna get into in how God deals with judgment here shortly.

So, but Paul also adds, he says, "'Let no 1 deceive you by any means, "'for the second coming will not come unless the falling away comes first.

So just like anyone who loves, if you really love someone you say, hey I'm gonna be gone for a while, you want to inform them about what's gonna be happening in between.

And prophecy fills in the gaps of what is gonna be happening between when Jesus left and when he says he's gonna come back.

We then looked at the prophecy of Daniel chapter 9, where there's actually an explicit prophecy that reveals not when Jesus would return, but when he came the first time, which is an important prophecy to help give us a context for his then second return, for his return the second time.

We looked and we set up the stage in Daniel chapter 8 where Daniel saw a vision of a ram and a goat, then he saw a little horn and then the question was asked, how long will the vision be?

The answer was given for 2, 300 days, that's how long the vision's gonna be.

Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed, which is actually judgment.

Then Daniel was left without understanding and Gabriel returned to him in Daniel chapter 9 and gave him a more complete understanding of the vision.

And he began to explain, saying, 70 weeks of years are cut off for you and for your holy people.

This would be the nation of Israel, the city of Jerusalem.

So here we have 490 years, 70 weeks times 7 is 490, is the beginning portion of this longer 2300 year prophecy.

We then broke this down and saw that the commencement of this vision happens with the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, and it culminates the 70 week period with the Messiah.

And we saw that as we went through the details, I'm not gonna put all the verses back on the screen here, we saw that after the 69 weeks, after 483 years, then Jesus, the Messiah, would come and be anointed.

Then 3 and a half years later, in the middle of the week, Jesus, the Messiah, would be cut off, not for himself, and bring an end to sacrifice and offering, becoming the once and for all sacrifice for sin.

Then 3 and a half years after that, Stephen was stoned and this sealed the fate of the Israelites in their job as doing postal service.

They were no longer qualified to deliver the message of Jesus being the Messiah because they didn't believe that.

And so then the gospel went to anyone who would accept and believe and follow that.

So furthermore in the prophecy, it says that because of the Messiah's rejection, the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed.

So when Jesus was going to see Jerusalem the final time before his crucifixion, whoa, my picture's there, I did not see that, wow.

That's an old 1 too, got my mustache now, Sorry.

So as he was going into Jerusalem, he mounts over the Mount of Olivet and he sees the city and he knows, he's reminded of the prophecy of Daniel 9 that because of his impending rejection and crucifixion, eventually the city and the people in it would be destroyed.

So he begins to weep over the city and he says, oh, that not 1 stone will be left upon another, but the Romans are going to come and level you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave in you 1 stone upon another.

Because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Jesus began his ministry by saying the time is fulfilled, but I guess not a lot of people really took that to heart and studied those prophecies.

So it would be very important for us, living in the delay of Jesus's second coming, to take the time to study all the prophecies that we can to make sure that we are as prepared as possible for his second coming so we don't miss him like many in his day when he came 2, 000 years ago did.

So we broke down this prophecy of the 490 years.

He died in the middle of the week, then the gospel went to the Gentiles.

So I know that's a lot, I packed it in this afternoon and I'm packing it even more in this review here.

But of course, if you wanna study this with Someone else, Advent Hope is here and they got your back.

So this is part of the broader 2300 year prophecy.

So that was the review of why the delay, and now we're gonna move on to why judgment.

If God is love, why does he judge people?

Well, I wanna introduce this with a helpful quote by a philosopher and Christian theologian, Miroslav Volf, who wrote the following in his book, Free of Charge.

He says, I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God.

And you can substitute wrath with judgment here.

God is love and God loves every person and every creature.

That's exactly why God is wrathful against some of them.

My last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of the war in former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come.

Actually, my heritage is from the former Yugoslavia as well.

According to some estimates, 200, 000 people were killed and over 3000000 people were displaced.

My villages and cities were destroyed, my people shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry.

Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century where 800, 000 people were hacked to death in 100 days.

By doting on the perpetrators in a grandparently fashion?

By refusing to condemn the bloodbath, but instead affirming the perpetrator's basic goodness?

Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God's wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn't wrathful at the sight of the world's evil.

God isn't wrathful in spite of being love.

So How is God dealing with the sin problem?

He deals with it in finality with the judgment.

And in the Bible, there is revealed 3 different judgments, primary and time judgments.

Now, throughout the Bible and throughout human history, there's been different kinds of judgments that God has done, but we're gonna be focusing more on the final judgments of how God wraps up this world of sin and brings judgment upon those who are wicked and lost.

There is the, what I call, the pre-advent judgment.

It's helpful because it shows us that there is a judgment that comes, that happens before the second advent of Jesus.

Sometimes it's called the investigative judgment, but frankly, all judgments are investigative in their nature.

So what's more helpful is it's the The chronological aspect and who it judges that we're gonna find out it is a judgment of all professed followers of Christ Then after the second coming there's this thousand year period discussed in Revelation chapter 20, that we call the millennium, right?

The millennial judgment, this thousand year period where there's said to be a judgment that takes place.

We're gonna discover that this is the judgment that evaluates and determines to what degree and to what severity those who are lost should experience punishment.

And then at the end of the thousand years, there's what we call the executive judgment.

This is the final, final judgment where the actual punishment is inflicted upon those who are lost.

These are the 3 main end time judgments of the Bible.

So in order to ultimately win the war against sin, Satan, and evil, God must not only do what is just, but also be seen and understood as doing what is just from beginning to end.

This is a key point in understanding the nature of how God judges.

God knows who's saved, God knows who's lost, God knows the right amount of punishment for everyone who's lost.

Series

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

10 If God is Love... Why Judgment?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Alistair Huong and Norman McNulty: The Book Of Revelation

Revelation 19&20 - Marriage of the Lamb and the 1000 Years

38m

Prophecies of Hope

15 Prophecy’s 1000 Years of Peace

55m

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

08 If God is Love... Why Hell?

55m

God is Love?

11-The Day the Devil Dies

1h

Keys of Revelation

16. The Day the Devil Dies

57m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Individual Conflict: Victory Over Sin

02-More Questions Angels Ask

1h

The Book Of Revelation

Revelation 15-20

49m

The Devil’s Dungeon

28m

Understanding Difficult Topics

3. The 1000 Years of Peace

1h 10m

Bible Boot Camp 2009

How to Give a Bible Study on The Millenium

46m

Babylon, America, and Bible Prophecy

16 Revelation’s Lake of Eternal Fire: The Good News on Hell

1h 19m

Sound Doctrine