p. 252 | THE WRATH OF GOD

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 24, 1868

THE WRATH OF GOD.

A CORRESPONDENT writes: Rev. xv, 1, reads: “For in them [the seven last plagues] is filled up the wrath of God.” Question: Do those on whom the plagues fall, and the wrath of God is filled up, come up in the second resurrection with the rest of the dead?

We answer yes; for it is not possible that the cessation of this present life at any time, or in any manner, should pay the penalty for personal transgression on the part of any of the human race, since the fall of Adam and the introduction of the plan of salvation. The cessation of this life, or the first death, comes upon all alike, the righteous and wicked, as the result of the original Adamic sin, not as the penalty for personal transgressions since that time. True there have been such aggravated cases of crime and rebellion against God that he has found it necessary to his honor to arrest the criminals in their guilty career, and bring upon them the Adamic penalty sooner than they would otherwise have experienced it; but this, as it only brought them to a condition to which, in a few years, they would have come in the natural course of events, could in no sense meet the demands of justice against them as transgressors of the law of God.

But when the wrath of God is “filled up” in the destruction of any individuals, can there be in their cases a manifestation of further wrath, or a resurrection to a second death? Why not? What is meant by the expression, “filled up?” The plagues are represented under the figure of vials filled to the brim with some deadly fluid. Verse 7 of Rev. xv, says, “Seven golden vials full of the wrath of God.” If the vessel was not full of that mixture which is taken to represent wrath, it would imply that there was room for some other ingredient; in other words that with the wrath there might be mingled mercy. The vials being full to the brim shows that there is in them wrath, and wrath only. Chapter xiv, 10, brings to view the same thing, when it speaks of the “wrath of God poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.” These expressions then signify that no mercy mingles with these manifestations of God’s wrath against the sinner. But could not God more than once manifest wrath without mercy against the incorrigible? We see no reason why he could not cause them to drink again and again from a cup filled to overflowing with his indignation.

There is another expression which all will doubtless be ready to acknowledge is the full equivalent of those we have been considering. We refer to the language of the apostle where he speaks of wrath to the uttermost coming upon certain ones. “Wrath to the uttermost” must denote the fullest extent of wrath that it is possible to inflict upon man in his present state. But upon whom has wrath been inflicted to the uttermost? Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.” 1 Thess. ii, 14–16.

This is spoken in reference to the Jews, in anticipation of the dreadful calamities that were soon to dispossess them of their land, and destroy them as a nation. How signally was it fulfilled when at the destruction of Jerusalem hundreds of thousands of them miserably perished by famine, sword, and flame, when they who had cried in reference to the Son of God, “His blood be on us and our children,” felt the full signification of that fearful imprecation, when they saw crosses erected all around Jerusalem till, as Josephus says, room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies which were devoted to the dreadful torture.

And now, since “wrath to the uttermost,” an unmixed cup, thus came upon them, have they any further account to settle at the bar of God? We are expressly told that they have. Those who had the unsurpassed benefit of Christ’s personal ministry, and yet refused to repent, were told that they should one day see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust out. Luke xiii, 28. Paul, in the passage quoted from Thessalonians, speaks of those who had killed the Lord Jesus; and the Lord told the priests and council, who condemned him, that they should yet see him sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Matt. xxvi, 63, 64; and John saw that when he should thus appear, they also who pierced him, should behold him, and join with those who, unprepared for his coming, shall wail because of him.

Hence, these persons, though they have once suffered “wrath to the uttermost,” shall meet again their Lord and their sins in the day of Judgment; and so, too, those who drink of the unmingled vials of God’s wrath in the seven last plagues, shall arise to be judged out of the things written in the book, Rev. xx, 12, and receive the full complement of their reward in the second death.