EGW God Leaving and Withdrawing Protection
Introduction
This page contains a collection of statements from Ellen White’s writings that show the same pattern as documented on this site for the Bible. That pattern is:
- when man sins
- God, in “wrath,” or “anger“
- accommodates (allows the sinner his choices, removes protection, does not restrain etc.)
- then the trouble comes
This section starts with some important statements and then lists further ones in order of the publication titles (disregarding the word “the”).
God leaving man to the consequences of his actions and choices is what amounts to Biblical “punishment.” Christ voluntarily took on Himself the burden of our sinfulness and “He was treated as we deserve to be treated.” (Selected Messages, vol. 3, p172)
Indeed it is the same way the punishment that fell upon Christ (which will be dealt with in more detail on a coming page) is expressed in these first two statements:
“It was not bodily suffering which so quickly ended the life of Christ upon the cross. It was the crushing weight of the sins of the world, and a sense of His Father’s wrath. The Father’s glory and sustaining presence had left Him, and despair pressed its crushing weight of darkness upon Him and forced from His pale and quivering lips the anguished cry: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p209, 1869)
“A sense of His Father’s wrath” – His Father’s wrath was sensed how? It was not the pain of physical burning. The weight of the sins of the world (so something like guilt) was felt but it was what that resulted in that had the most effect – the sense of the withdrawal of the Father’s presence. The “weight of darkness” could be equated with the absence of God Who is light.
“The sins of men weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God’s wrath against sin was crushing out His life.Behold Him contemplating the price to be paid for the human soul. In His agony He clings to the cold ground, as if to prevent Himself from being drawn farther from God.” (The Desire of Ages, p687)
On October 23, 1879 Ellen White had one of her more important visions – this one shedding light on the judgment. She was shown that God’s judgments come when He does not restrain the destroyer (Satan). Notice especially the following important passage, written four years later but referring back to that vision:
“I was shown in the vision given me [four years earlier] of the Judgment, that God would send warnings, counsels, and reproof. … I was shown that the time was in the near future that these whom God had warned and reproved and given great light but they would not correct their ways and follow the light, He would remove from them that heavenly protection which had preserved them from Satan’s cruel power; the Lord would surely leave them to themselves to follow the judgment and counsels of their own wisdom; they would be simply left to themselves, and the protection of God be withdrawn from them, and they would not be shielded from the workings of Satan; that none of finite judgment and foresight can have any power to conceive of the care God has exercised through His angels over the children of men in their travels, in their own houses, in their eating and drinking. Wherever they are, His eye is upon them. They are preserved from a thousand dangers, all to them unseen. Satan has laid snares, but the Lord is constantly at work to save His people from them.
But [from] those who have no sense of the goodness and mercy of God, [those] who refuse His merciful warnings, who reject His counsels to reach the highest standard of Bible requirements, who do despite to the Spirit of grace, the Lord would remove His protecting power. I was shown that Satan would entangle and then destroy, if he could, the souls he had tempted. God will bear long, but there is a bound to His mercy, a line which marks His mercy and His justice.
“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. And storm and tempest both by sea and land will be, for Satan has come down in great wrath. He is at work. He knows his time is short and, if he is not restrained, we shall see more terrible manifestations of his power than we have ever dreamed of.” (Letter 14, 1883, also, Manuscript Releases 14, p1-3)
In her Adventist Supplement to Light Through the Darkness A Vindication of God, Marilyn Campbell wrote the following regarding the quotation above:
“It appears that in the ‘vision of the judgment’ God also clarified the dynamics by which the wicked are destroyed. In testing this hypothesis I have been unable to find strong statements damaging to the COG written after 1879, nor do I find clear statements in support of the COG message before that time.”
It seems that 1879 may have been a turning point in Ellen White’s understanding of aspects of the judgment in relation to the character of God. All the light was not revealed to her at once. We should allow for her to have grown in this area and take that into account in reading her statements.
Further Statements
Following are further statements showing the same pattern. Notice though, that in the Ellen White statements, the wrath of God is mentioned less frequently than in the equivalent biblical passages. In most cases, only the words related to God withdrawing, removing His protection etc. (in blue) and any references to His wrath (in red) will be highlighted. Some cases will include the sins (in green) and the resulting trouble (in orange). Occasional comments are added.
“God is the fountain of life and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates from God, and thus cuts himself off from life…God gives them existence for a time that they may develop their character and reveal their principles. Thus accomplished, they receive the results of their own choice.” (The Desire of Ages, p764)
“We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God’s mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but he leaves the rejecters of his mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown, which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God’s hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.
The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon his law.” (The Great Controversy, p36-37)
Notice: “visitation of judgments.” The destruction involved in those judgments were Satan’s work. “Is to have another fulfillment,” in context, is speaking of the end of the world.
“The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in their stubborn impenitence. In their hatred and cruelty toward the disciples of Jesus, they rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God withdrew his protection from them, and removed his restraining power from Satan and his angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she had chosen.” (The Great Controversy 1888 edition, p28)
“The people of Israel were at this time loyal to God; and so long as they continued in obedience to His law, no power in earth or hell could prevail against them. But the curse which Balaam had not been permitted to pronounce against God’s people, he finally succeeded in bringing upon them by seducing them into sin. When they transgressed God’s commandments, then they separated themselves from Him, and they were left to feel the power of the destroyer.” (The Great Controversy, p529)
“Cruelty is satanic. God is love; and all that He created was pure, holy, and lovely, until sin was brought in by the first great rebel. Satan himself is the enemy who tempts man to sin, and then destroys him if he can; and when he has made sure of his victim, then he exults in the ruin he has wrought. If permitted, he would sweep the entire race into his net. Were it not for the interposition of divine power, not one son or daughter of Adam would escape.” (The Great Controversy, p534)
“Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields his creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what he has declared that he would, he will withdraw his blessings from the earth, and remove his protecting care from those who are rebelling against his law, and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some, in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others, and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.” (The Great Controversy, p589)
Man has been lead to believe that God directly afflicts (punishes, destroys) those who rebel against Him and His law. I say “directly” because God is said to destroy and punish but it is by removing His presence/protection from those who don’t want it thus allowing the destroyer to afflict.
“When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law.The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one.” (The Great Controversy, p 614, 1911)
“I have been shown that the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth. God’s keeping power will soon be refused to all who continue to disregard His commandments.” (Letter 258, 1907)
“The vials of God’s wrath and the sprinkling of them are already coming. … The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. You hear of calamities by land and sea, and they are constantly increasing. What is the matter? –the Spirit of God is taken away from those who have the lives of men in their hands, and Satan is coming in to control them because they give themselves to his control.” (Manuscript 1, Feb. 1, 1890)
“The enemy has worked, and he is working still. He is come down in great power, and the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. God has withdrawn His hand. We have only to look at the Johnstown [Pennsylvania] flood. He did not prevent the devil from wiping that whole city out of existence. And these very things will increase until the very close of this earth’s history” (Manuscript 5, Jun. 19, 1889)
“He will at last permit the destructive agencies of Satan to bear sway to destroy.” (Manuscript 17, 1906)
“Christ, as our Mediator, at the right hand of the Father, ever keeps us in view, for it is as necessary that He should keep us by His intercessions as that He should redeem us with His blood. If He lets go His hold of us for one moment, Satan stands ready to destroy. Those purchased by His blood, He now keeps by His intercession.” (Manuscript 73, 1893)
“The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break the covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath, accepting in its place a spurious rest day. …The plagues of God are already falling upon the earth … God permits them to come that the world may take heed …” (Manuscript 99, p12-13, 1902)
“When God’s restraining hand is removed, the destroyer begins his work. … The Lord puts constraint upon His own attributes. Omnipotence is exerted over Omnipotence Himself… Ere long there will be a sudden change in God’s dealings … God’s Spirit will not always strive with men” (Manuscript 127, Nov. 22, 1897)
“Already the Spirit of God, insulted, refused, abused, is being withdrawn from the earth. Just as fast as God’s Spirit is taken away, Satan’s cruel work will be done upon land and sea.” (Manuscript 134, 1898)
“What mean the awful calamities by sea—vessels hurled into eternity without a moment’s warning? What mean the accidents by land—fire consuming the riches that men have hoarded, much of which has been accumulated by oppression of the poor? The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath, accepting in its place a spurious rest day.
The plagues of God are already falling upon the earth, sweeping away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven. Will not these judgments bring professing Christians to their senses? God permits them to come that the world may take heed, that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him.” (Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, p311, 1902)
Notice the word “interfere.” Evidently, God would consider Himself to be interfering to work on behalf of those who reject Him. This He will not do. Also, God permits destructive judgments rather than personally sending them.
“Famines will increase. Pestilences will sweep away thousands. Dangers are all around us from the powers without and satanic workings within, but the restraining power of God? is now being exercised.” (Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, p382, 1897)
“David had neglected the duty of punishing the crime of Amnon, and because of the unfaithfulness of the king and father and the impenitence of the son, the Lord permitted events to take their natural course, and did not restrain Absalom. When parents or rulers neglect the duty of punishing iniquity, God Himself will take the case in hand. His restraining power will be in a measure removed from the agencies of evil, so that a train of circumstances will arise which will punish sin with sin.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p728)
This statement is an example where even “punishment” results from an action of God removing His restraint.
“Every day of their travels they had been kept by a miracle of divine mercy. In all the way of God’s leading they had found water to refresh the thirsty, bread from heaven to satisfy their hunger, and peace and safety under the shadowy cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Angels had ministered to them as they climbed the rocky heights or threaded the rugged paths of the wilderness. Notwithstanding the hardships they had endured, there was not a feeble one in all their ranks. Their feet had not swollen in their long journeys, neither had their clothes grown old. God had subdued before them the fierce beasts of prey and the venomous reptiles of the forest and the desert. If with all these tokens of His love the people still continued to complain, the Lord would withdraw His protection until they should be led to appreciate His merciful care, and return to Him with repentance and humiliation.
Because they had been shielded by divine power they had not realized the countless dangers by which they were continually surrounded. In their ingratitude and unbelief they had anticipated death, and now the Lord permitted death to come upon them. The poisonous serpents that infested the wilderness were called fiery serpents, on account of the terrible effects produced by their sting, it causing violent inflammation and speedy death. As the protecting hand of God was removed from Israel, great numbers of the people were attacked by these venomous creatures.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p428-429)
“God will use His enemies as instruments to punish those who have followed their own pernicious ways whereby the truth of God has been misrepresented, misjudged, and dishonored.” (The Paulson Collection of Ellen G. White Letters, p136, 1894)
“Had Israel heeded the messages of the prophets, they would have been spared the humiliation that followed. It was because they had persisted in turning aside from His law that God was compelled to let them go into captivity. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” was His message to them through Hosea. “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee: … seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God.” Hosea 4:6.” (Prophets and Kings, p297)
“He cannot uphold and guard a people who reject His counsel and despise His reproofs.” (Prophets and Kings, p426)
“Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they may not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid his angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of his avenging wrath as no pen can picture.” (Review and Herald, Jan. 11, 1887)
“As we looked upon the desolation of Williamsport, we thought of the time when the world was deluged by the flood. In our imagination we could behold dimly the scenes of the terrible destruction in the days of Noah. We thought of the burning of wicked Sodom, when the earth was defiled under its inhabitants, and we remembered that we were living in a time similar to the time preceding the judgments which fell upon the old world. The Spirit of God is now withdrawing from the people of the earth.” (Review and Herald, Aug. 13, 1889)
“I could but think of the greater disasters that are yet to come upon the world. As the restraining power of the Holy Spirit shall be withdrawn, because of the impenitence and ingratitude of men, terrible things will be witnessed in the earth.” (Review and Herald, Sep. 3, 1889)
“Already he is sending his judgments upon the earth. Terrible plagues are visiting our world, in famines, in floods, in calamities by sea and land, in earthquakes in divers places. And because of men’s wickedness the Lord does not restrain the destroying power.” (Review and Herald, Dec. 8, 1896)
Notice that “his judgments” go along with no longer restraining the destroying power.
“The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side, as from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in obedience. As received in Christ, it works in us the purity of character that will bring joy to us through eternal ages. To the obedient it is a wall of protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness, seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression.
We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, p235)
The quote above is interesting in that it says that the sinners actions “bring the sure result” and that “sure result is ruin and death.” The paragraph before says that God is trying to shield from the results of transgression which are evil. Surely, it is not God who is the source of those evil results – which He is trying to shield them from. That would make no sense.
“Satan is working in the atmosphere; he is poisoning the atmosphere, and here we are dependent upon God for our lives—our present and eternal lives.” (Selected Messages, vol. 2, p52, 1890)
Suggests it is God’s restraint of Satan’s efforts to destroy that keeps us alive.
“Already sprinklings from the vials of God’s wrath have been let fall upon land and sea, affecting the elements of the air. The causes of these unusual conditions are being search for, but in vain.
God has not restrained the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma. Not only is vegetable life affected, but man suffers from pestilence … These things are the result of drops from the vials of God’s wrath being sprinkled on the earth …” (Selected Messages, vol. 3, p391)
“I saw the Lord turn to such in anger, in wrath, and repeat these words: ‘Go to now, ye rich men.’ He has called, but you would not hear. Love of this world has drowned His voice. Now He has no use for you, and lets you go, bidding you: ‘Go to now, ye rich men.’
“Oh, I saw it was an awful thing to be thus forsaken by the Lord.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p175, 1857)
“There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p152)
“Those who have been regarded as worthy and righteous prove to be ring-leaders in apostasy and examples in indifference and in the abuse of God’s mercies. Their wicked course He will tolerate no longer, and in His wrath He deals with them without mercy.
It is with reluctance that the Lord withdraws His presence from those who have been blessed with great light and who have felt the power of the word in ministering to others. They were once His faithful servants, favored with His presence and guidance; but they departed from Him and led others into error, and therefore are brought under the divine displeasure.
The day of God’s vengeance is just upon us. The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. Those who link in sympathy with the world are eating and drinking with the drunken and will surely be destroyed with the workers of iniquity.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p212)
“By their transgression of God’s law the people of Judah had forfeited His protection, and the Assyrian forces were about to come against the kingdom of Judah. … By their apostasy and rebellion they were inviting the judgments of God.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p749, 1889)
The “judgments of God,” in this case, was to be the attack of the Assyrian forces whom the people of Judah were no longer protected from.
“With these words of light and truth before them, how dare men neglect so plain a duty? How dare they disobey God when obedience to His requirements means His blessing in both temporal and spiritual things, and disobedience means the curse of God? Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to permit Satan to accomplish his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why? The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the earth is ripe for the harvest.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p388-89, 1900)
Notice that she mentions that disobedience leads to “the curse of God” and what is then described as happening is that God withdraws His restraining power allowing Satan to destroy. That is what the curse of God is, in reality.
“God bears long with the rebellion and apostasy of His subjects. Even when His mercy is despised and His love scorned and derided, He bears with men until the last resource for leading them to repentance is exhausted. But there are limits to His forbearance. From those who to the end continue in obstinate rebellion, He removes His protecting care. Providence will no longer shield them from Satan’s power. They will have sinned away their day of grace.
God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. Those who work evil toward their fellow men, saying, How doth God know? will one day be called upon to meet long-deferred vengeance. In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God will show that He is indeed the living God. He will say to the angels, “No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy. Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work.
This time is right upon us. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth.
When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed,—in these things he delights, and thus he gathers in his harvest. And so completely will men be deceived by him that [thinking the disasters are sent by God] they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be. And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men to believe this [because they already believe that God directly punishes]. They are guided by the enemy, and therefore they reach conclusions which are entirely false.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p498; Review and Herald, Sep. 17, 1901)
Notice, in this quote, the reference to “long-deferred vengeance.” When the “boundary of mercy” is passed the vengeance happens as a result of God no longer restraining Satan.
The misunderstanding of God’s character and attributing to Him acts of destruction plays an important part in Satan’s promotion of the Sunday law. If people could rightly understand the true character of God they would be less likely to accept Satan’s lie about desecration of the first day of the week.
“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man shall be revealed. The Lord is removing His restrictions from the earth, and soon there will be death and destruction, increasing crime, and cruel, evil working against the rich who have exalted themselves against the poor. Those who are without God’s protection will find no safety in any place or position. Human agents are being trained and are using their inventive power to put in operation the most powerful machinery to wound and to kill.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p50)
Those “restrictions,” of course, could be the angels holding the four winds (Rev 7:1).
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