Hey
@ByTheWaves
Thanks for this thread. I am a slave to the gospel.
I am certain that the most important subject is the fact of intense disclosure of character at the end of time. As metaphor, one of many examples of this is the object lesson
travail as of a woman in birth pangs. Jeremiah 30:5-7 is a good example. At the end of time, the faithful undergo this experience two times. The first accomplishes perfection of character as well as the sealing, a settling of grace so intense that they will never choose sin again. This is represented by Christ's 40 day wilderness experience. The second is full disclosure and is represented by 3 days, including Christ's psychological torment that ended just prior to His physical death.
For Christ, the venue was strictly sinful flesh. For the righteous at the end, the venue for the first is character and for the second, sinful flesh. The righteous will perceive themselves to be altogether evil and will bear maximum levels of the wages of sin - feelings like guilt, shame, and embarrassment. They will survive. They achieve resurrection by faith.
The cup then passes to the lost. They will see themselves and will actually be defeated well before full disclosure.
Finally, it is demonstrated that an evil morality is not viable. The only reason folks can survive while having sin is that their characters are concealed from them. The Day declares otherwise. It is also demonstrated that there is so much survival innate to holiness of character that it can endure the full load of the wages of sin and survive.
The Daniel text informs us that the lost are not even inside the furnace and cannot survive, but what of the faithful? Notice the furnace is made seven times hotter. Seven, completeness.
Daniel 3:19-25
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22 Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Luke 6:46-49
46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
1 Corinthians 3:12-13
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is
