Sermon: Because Judgment Is Good News by Calvin Thomsen

Part 6: Why I’m an Adventist...

Pastoral Welcome: Joelle Reuer

Baptism: Irel Idrisalman - Tom Quishenberry

Children’s Feature: Jackie Bishop

Scripture Reading: Revelation 14:6–7, TNIV - Ehren Ngo 

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON We often think of God’s judgment as something he does to deprive people of something they want because of something they did. Sort of like getting sent to the principal’s office for talking in class when you really longed to go to recess. But there’s another way to look at it. Ellen White says that Satan would find the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven “supreme torture” (The Great Controversy, p.670). She also says that those who follow after him would be “miserable in heaven” (Signs of the Times, July 31, 1893). According to C.S. Lewis, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done”, and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done”. All that are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.” (The Great Divorce, ch. 9) The core point for both White and Lewis is that the people who would be happy in heaven will be there. And the people who miss out are those who would be miserable there. In this sense, we might think of judgment not as God’s arbitrary or punitive activity, but as his clarifying activity. He makes it clear that he respects the choices we have made and that every human story and every human destiny is testament to his love and mercy every bit as much as his justice.

Calvin Thomsen

Associate Pastor
Family Ministries

MEDITATION There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done", and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done". No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it." -The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis.

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