“Hier ist kein warum” (“Here there is no why”) [##1|Irving Howe, “Writing and the Holocaust,” The New Republic, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 27.##].
So observed a Nazi guard to Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish chemist, following the latter’s arrival at the Auschwitz death camp on February 21, 1944. (Levi would go on to survive his internment and to write prolifically concerning it, before his controversial death in 1987 [2].) One wonders what prompted the guard to speak in this fashion. Disgust at the obviously horrific deed he was committing? Resignation to reality? Perhaps a fleeting glimmer of conscience? Only God knows.
But however tangentially, whatever his motive, this nameless cog in the wheel of one of history’s greatest atrocities identified by his words the most vexing challenge to Christian theology—the problem of senseless evil.
Perhaps Levi, like a fellow countryman three thousand years before, found himself wondering at “the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:3). While Asaph never witnessed anything close to the horrors of the Holocaust, both he and Levi understood the reality of evildoers whom “pride compasseth…about as a chain,” and “violence covereth them as a garment” (verse 6). After describing at length how the wicked seemed to be getting away with so much (verses 4-15), Asaph declared:
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end (verses 16-17).
We can be sure Primo Levi, far more than Asaph, understood emotional and intellectual pain. But Asaph’s lyrics direct us to the ultimate, eternal answer to this otherwise unsolved problem, and where that answer is to be found.
The classic Adventist sanctuary doctrine, culminating in the antitypical Day of Atonement and the investigative judgment, lies at the heart of what has come to be known in recent times as Last Generation Theology. This helps us understand how the perfecting of character demanded by this judgment provokes so much tension among critics of Last Generation Theology with this core doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But these twin constructs explain why Asaph, so many centuries ago, was able to perceive the coming obliteration of sin and the ultimate drying of its trail of tears. The yearly ceremony by which sin was purged from both the edifice of worship and the hearts of worshipers (Lev. 16:2-30), culminating in the exile and death of the scapegoat (verses 20-22), made plain to this tortured soul that while evil and its perpetrators may seem for now to prosper, their ultimate end is certain.
As the book of Daniel closes, the ancient prophet is told that following the great time of trouble, “Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Dan. 12:1). This calls our attention to the great judgment scene in Daniel 7, the only other place in Daniel where heavenly books are mentioned (verse 10). The first Biblical reference to books in heaven is in Moses’ plea with God on Israel’s behalf following the golden calf apostasy:
Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book (Ex. 32:32-33).
That leaves us with a problem, of course, as the Bible declares that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23; 5:12). How, then, can any of us escape being blotted out of God’s book? The book of Revelation tells us:
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels (Rev. 3:5).
This too calls our minds to the judgment in Daniel 7, where Jesus comes before the assembled universe to investigate His professed followers, acquit the victorious, and receive His kingdom (verses 13-14,22). As He alone knows the hearts of His creatures (1 Kings 8:39), God in total transparency opens the books of record to heaven’s inhabitants, revealing the hidden motives and purposes of every erstwhile, now purified sinner, thus assuring His wondering subjects of the irrevocable conquest of rebellion in the hearts of those to be redeemed from earth.
As in the ancient Day of Atonement, where God’s true followers were made “clean from all [their] sins before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30), those whose names are ultimately retained in the book of life are the overcomers (Rev. 3:5), those “purified and made white” through God’s forgiving and transforming grace (Dan. 12:10). The unfallen worlds can thus be certain that those from this planet who go to heaven won’t start another revolution.
Ellen White on Christian Perfection and the Security of the Universe
A recent critic of Last Generation Theology claims that “it is Jesus (and not the last generation saints) who…secures eternity for the entire universe” [##3|Jiri Moskala and John C. Peckham (eds.(, God’s Character and the Last Generation (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Assn, 2018), p. 207.##]. But Ellen White directly ties the perfecting of God’s people to securing the universe against another rebellion, as the following statements bear witness:
God, in His wisdom and mercy, tests men and women here, to see if they will obey His voice and respect His law, or rebel as Satan did. If they choose the side of Satan, putting his way above God’s, it would not be safe to admit them into heaven; for they would cause another revolt against the government of God in the heavenly courts. He who fulfills the law in every respect, demonstrates that perfect obedience is possible [##4|Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, July 21, 1891.##].
God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Halfhearted, sinful, professing Christians would spoil heaven, were they permitted to enter. They would stir up a second rebellion there [##5|——The Upward Look, p. 197.##].
Without perfection of character no one can enter the pearly gates of the city of God, for if, with all our imperfections, we were permitted to enter that city, there would soon be in heaven a second rebellion. We must first be tried and chosen, and found faithful and true. Upon the purification of our character rests our only hope of eternal life [##6|——Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, p. 294.##].
Unless we understand the terms of our salvation, and are willing to be wholly obedient to the word of God, we can never be admitted to the city of God. Could this be possible, and those who refuse to comply with the conditions of salvation be admitted to the home of the redeemed, they would introduce their own unsanctified ideas into the heavenly family, and a second rebellion would be created [##7|——Manuscript Releases, vol. 10, p. 147.##].
Without Christ, it is impossible for [man] to render perfect obedience to the law of God; and heaven can never be gained by an imperfect obedience, for this would place all heaven in jeopardy and make possible a second rebellion [##8|——Signs of the Times, Dec. 30, 1889.##].
Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven, that he would not rebel [##9|——That I May Know Him, p. 292.##].
Notice how man is to show “by his obedience” that he won’t start another rebellion in heaven. The universe is not secured against another revolt because the saved experience the blotting out of their sinful natures at the second coming. Some seem to forget that sin got started in a place where no one had a sinful nature. (One thinks of those who seek to discredit Adventism by reminding us that David Koresh and the Branch Davidians came out of our denomination. The best response is, “Yes, and the devil came out of heaven.”) It is the will that causes free beings to sin, not the presence of disobedient urges in an inherited fallen nature.
Some may ask why the perfecting of character on the part of the Last Generation is so important if in fact all who enter heaven must demonstrate on earth, through the perfecting of godly character, that they won’t start another rebellion. It is true that all who receive the eternal inheritance of the saved will by God’s grace have demonstrated their fitness for the heavenly society. God knows every heart (1 Kings 8:39); thus He knows that those living up to all the light they have, but who die sinning ignorantly, can be trusted to fully adhere to His will in His eternal kingdom
Such Bible luminaries as Abel and Enoch showed by their consecrated lives that Satan’s charges against God’s law were false [##10|——Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 77; The Upward Look, p. 228.##], and such as Joseph and Daniel likewise revealed the character of Christ through their resistance of temptation [##11|——From the Heart, p. 268; Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 43; Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 332.##]. In every age God has had His faithful, chosen ones, whose commitment to His grace and power set them apart from both the larger world and the nominal community of believers.
But it can’t be stated often enough that the Last Generation saints will give such a demonstration in the darkest hour of time and eternity, in the absence of a heavenly Mediator, and thus in the absence of all sins of ignorance. We must bear in mind the modern prophet’s admonition that ignorant sins require handling by the heavenly Mediator [##12|——Early Writings, p. 254.##], and that because of this, before the Mediator’s work ceases, “everything that is imperfect in us will have been seen and put away” [##13|——Selected Messages, vol. 3, p. 427.##]. Moreover, Ellen White is clear that at Jesus’ second coming, “the Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation” [##14|——Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 355.##].
Thus the demonstration the Last Generation gives, through the strength and power of their Lord, will offer the most powerful and conclusive contrast ever to the principles of Satan’s kingdom, forever settling the controversy between good and evil and ultimately ensuring that rebellion will never again mar God’s universe.
Conclusion
More than any other construct in the universe of Christian thought, Last Generation Theology gives the answer to the problem of evil. It goes further than any other suggestion or system in explaining why suffering and tragedy have persisted through the ages with the awareness and consent of a loving God. Ellen White tells us why Satan was not destroyed at Calvary—because neither angels nor humans had yet seen the ultimate contrast between righteousness and sin. In her words:
Yet Satan was not then destroyed. The angels did not even then understand all that was involved in the great controversy. The principles at stake were to be more fully revealed. And for the sake of man, Satan’s existence must be continued. Man as well as angels must see the contrast between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness. He must choose whom he will serve [##15|——The Desire of Ages, p. 761.##].
Time, in other words, has lingered through Inquisition and genocide, racial animus and economic injustice, gulags and global warming, calamities natural and unnatural, because this ultimate contrast between the two contending kingdoms in God’s universe remains to be demonstrated, ensuring once and for all the just and final extinction of rebels and rebellion.
REFERENCES
1. Irving Howe, “Writing and the Holocaust,” The New Republic, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 27.
2. “Primo Levi,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi.
3. Jiri Moskala and John C. Peckham (eds.), God’s Character and the Last Generation (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Assn, 2018), p. 207.
4. Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, July 21, 1891.
5. ----The Upward Look, p. 197.
6. ----Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, p. 294.
7. ----Manuscript Releases, vol. 10, p. 147.
8. ----Signs of the Times, Dec. 30, 1889.
9. ----That I May Know Him, p. 292.
10. ----Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 77; The Upward Look, p. 228.
11. ----From the Heart, p. 268; Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 43; Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 332.
12. ----Early Writings, p. 254.
13. ----Selected Messages, vol. 3, p. 427.
14. ----Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 355.
15. ----The Desire of Ages, p. 761.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan