Article 7: The Law Keeper’s Decision

All intelligent races in existence likely stand within one or more of these states

• *Primordial
• –Made New and Blameless
• -Corrupted and Afflicted: 
  • Recipients of Passive Wrath
  • Promised and Waiting
  • Justified or Judged
  • Made Blameless Anew
• -Maturing and Blameless
• -Authoritative and Blameless 
• -Mutually Interactive

For the next four articles, we will be dealing with the subcategories of Corrupted and Afflicted. The reason why I consider these categories as “sub” isn’t because they are less important than the other categories. All of the other categories have clear beginning and ending points for the race as a whole. Made New and Blameless begins with sentience and ends with the gaining of the ‘knowledge of good and evil’. Maturing and Blameless begins with a divinely appointed gaining of the knowledge of good and evil, and ends with becoming Mutually Interactive (more on that in future articles). Although Corrupted and Afflicted begin with a breaking of relationship with God, the subcategories are more loosely applied. While an entire race might find itself collectively in one of the four, they don’t need to all be there together. Angels, for instance, would be in the Mutually Interactive category, but the angels who followed Satan, the demons, are in Corrupted and Afflicted. For the purposes of the Firmament, I consider this to be such a massive departure that they can hardly be considered the same race anymore and never will be again. As to the subcategories; Persons, peoples, and nations might experience any and all of these four states differently from one another until reaching the next full category, collectively or apart. Indeed, they can, and do so, simultaneously.

Recipients of Passive Wrath

When Jesus wants to explain something he often does so in parables. Coming to his same conclusion, I too try to use analogy and allegory to explain things that are hard on their own to comprehend. It is much of what, and why, I write. Bearing this in mind, I want to enter into the subcategories with a story, one I hope will give context to more than just this category.

Say a man walking down the city street stops at the entrance of an ally to tie his shoes. While there a teenage boy comes from the hidden depths of the alley and pulls him out of the public eye. The man is beaten with a club, robbed, and left alone to tend to himself while the attacker runs off. What is not known to the attacker is that his victim was an off-duty police officer. Sometime after, the policeman is on duty and catches sight of his attacker. As he watches, the teen purchases a large quantity of heroin with the money he stole. Then, deal done, the teen climbs into a nearby abandoned building to shoot up. The officer recognizes the dealer, a lowlife well known for tempting and tricking kids into the world of drugs as mules, addicts, and dealers.

Let’s pause here and explore Passive Wrath conceptually for a moment, so we can see what choices are before the officer. Passive Wrath is a theological concept, though the implications are such that we might all be familiar with it given the right context. Those attempting to explain it might say it is allowing one to braid enough rope to hang themselves, or else buying a shovel to dig their graves. Passive wrath is allowing someone to make choices out of their own Will, despite the apparent self-harm they cause. But Passive Wrath is also indicative of God’s patience. When a race has a broken relationship, when they have set themselves against God, there might be a point where they find themselves as Recipients of Passive Wrath. From their perspective, it might look like they have been given free rein over their lives. Many will undergo entire lifetimes ignorant of their evil. Theologically, Passive Wrath is when God puts a stay of judgment, allowing the person to suffer the consequences of their choices. In addition, it might take place when God patiently awaits the fullness of his timing before action. For the purposes of this rule, Recipients of Passive Wrath are when God does the same for a group. 

So let us examine the options before this officer. Active Wrath is obvious. He could call for backup and have both arrested, processed, and tried. This would be, of course, in accordance with the law. In addition to the purchase and possession of drugs, the teen could also be held to account for his assault and theft of the officer. However, an equally ‘Just’ choice might be Passive Wrath. The officer might allow the teen to continue to destroy his life, to leave him to his addiction. After all, in only a few years he will be tried as an adult and receive a far worse sentence for future crimes. By doing nothing the officer can allow the teen the freedom to destroy his life forever. As a victim of the teen’s choices, this could be a fair judgment. After all, he owes the teen no amount of kindness, such as an active intervention might provide. He could also show Passive Wrath to the dealer. Allowing him to continue his trade, not because it isn’t vile, but because as a result of his actions, he will slowly reveal higher-ranking gang contacts. In this way, the dealer is not spared judgment, but rather judgment is withheld until such a time as it is applied to all of his kind. The officer chooses to show Passive Wrath to the dealer for such a reason. The dealer may think he is getting away with his crimes, but judgment will surely come, only not that day. 

Although the example of Passive Wrath ends here, the story does not. In the story of humanity, the officer climbs into the abandoned building and approaches the teen. The teen is on the floor twitching violently in overdose. Rather than leave him to his just desserts, the officer saves his attacker’s life. Later, while the teen recovers in the hospital, the officer tells him that if he gets clean, if he leaves that life behind him, then the officer will not press charges for the mugging. The teen cries and says that he doesn’t know how to get clean, he doesn’t even know how to live any other kind of life. No one has ever shown him. Seeing this as true, the officer tells him that the young man, though guilty, is a victim of the drug dealer as well. Out of grace (that is, out of undeserved kindness), the officer chooses to pay for the rehab, and when the young man completes the program, gives the teen a spare room and sets him up with a job. The young man’s struggles are not over, but relying on the good advice and kindness of the officer he is able to slowly learn how to stand on his own. And on the day when the drug dealer is brought to court, the once-addicted young man is able to stand and give an account of his deeds, and that of the dealer. On this day both justice and mercy are parted out. And with the officer not only an instrument of justice but as a personal victim of the crimes, who of us can stand in disagreement with his decisions? For now, the young man can not only see but also understand them both with open eyes of gratitude, knowing well that without the intervention of his victim, he too would be headed to the same punishment.

Now let us return to the sub-category at hand. The largest and most obvious stage of Passive Wrath for humanity is the 1,600 or so year period between leaving the Garden of Eden and the flood in the days of Noah. Left to our own devices and devoid of active judgment, we ended up in *Genesis 6:5 where “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that the every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (emphasis added). And while I will not dive deeply into it here, know that the Flood was a just judgment of those who were in complete rebellion. The wondrous twist of the story is that, like the officer, God uses grace for Noah alongside the flood to show that not only is a final judgment fair, but that God is not bound solely to justice, but defined also by undeserved mercy. Both existing wholly under his fuller nature, that of love.

Now the example we have of a race in Passive Wrath outside our own would be the race we think of as Angels. I say “we think of” because the term angel means “messenger”. It is possible that multiple species might fall under this category in the universe, and indeed may in the Firmament. In terms of my articles, however, know that when I refer to Angels now I mean the species that split, whose one-third was led by Satan in rebellion and cast out of heaven. The third which remains on earth is the demons who torment, tempt, and battle without rest. In this way, you might see that while part of the same species, the Passive Wrath is only applied to this splinter group, which we might rightly think of as a different race altogether at this point. The “why” of this I will cover in another category, but I will cover it.

So now a big question looms. Why are Satan and the demons receiving Passive Wrath, and not Active Wrath? That is, why is God allowing them to continue in their evil right now instead of judging them as he has promised in Revelations 20:10?** It is a worthy question to attempt an answer for. As a writer, I am allowed my answer for my universe. But I am confident I have a good answer nonetheless, and certainly a plausible one. Whether you choose to agree with it is a matter of prayer and study on your part, as my answer has been for me. Theirs is of course the story of our corrupting drug dealer. Among God’s reasons (for there might well be many) it is out of love for us. As I have said, we are not merely transgressors. Both us and demons are guilty, but unlike them, we are victims as well. And God, as a being of perfect justice, has taken this into account when assigning punishment.

Because of the actions of Satan and his demons, they will be judged in accordance with their crime given the context of the state in which they committed it. That is to say, because they evidently had some concept of what was in or out of God’s will and rejected him not from a place of deception but active rebellion, this must be factored in. The difference is the same as involuntary manslaughter and outright murder. Further, Their stay of execution is granted not for their benefit, but ours and all’s. It may be assumed that this is so that we might see not only the results of their choices but as the victims see the judgment met out. And not only met out but met out when we are at last mature enough to understand it. Biblically speaking, the judgment won’t be fully enacted until after what is known as the Millennial Kingdom. Not until we have lived a thousand years with God’s full and active rule. A thousand years before we are even capable of understanding Satan’s, our attackers, final judgment. Those of humanity who choose rebellion then (and we have been promised some shall) will do so just as Satan did long ago, in full knowledge of their choice. And they will of course share in his final judgment, in both placement and severity, out of their own will.

*https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206&version=ESV

**https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2020&version=ESV

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save