Let me ask it another way. Which moves you more, the thunders of Sinai (Exodus 19:16-19) or the still small voice of truth (1 Kings 19:11-12)? Satan is going to bring great thunder and fire from heaven in the sight of men; miracles and wonders (2 Thess 2:8-10; Rev 13:13-14). If that is what moves us, then we are very vulnerable. We’re still babes in the truth. God has used those methods with babes, but He waits for us to grow up. The one thing that the Devil cannot produce is the still small voice of truth, for the truth is not with him. We must be ready to recognize truth as the supreme authority.

Do you obey because God has told you to, and He has the power to reward and destroy? That’s the obedience of a little child. Do you obey because God has told you to, and you love Him and want to please Him? Is that the only reason why you don’t murder your enemies? Because it upsets Him and you’d rather please Him? That’s sweet, but still the faith of a little child. Or do you do what is right, because it is right? Do we offer God the intelligent, agreeing obedience of free, grown-up children? That is what pleases Him the most. With mature obedience like that, we are ready for the days to come.

Are we still preoccupied with our own salvation, with what God has done for us? Or do we see the plan of salvation in its larger perspective, a plan that involves the whole universe? In the great controversy view, Jesus Christ died on the cross to demonstrate the truth about our heavenly Father that will establish this universe safe and free for all eternity. It is that truth which also saves us, but there was a far larger purpose in the plan of salvation than just to save you and me.

Do you still demand vengeance on your enemies–tit for tat, an eye for an eye? Of course, you wouldn’t call it that. You would call it justice. But is that really what it is? Do you demand that your enemies suffer all that they deserve in the final fires of the End, or you will not be satisfied? Would you lose respect for a God who would do anything less? Do you demand that wicked people get precisely what they deserve, or you will not be satisfied?

Or are you ready to join our heavenly Father as He cries, watching His rebellious children reap the consequences of their own rebellious choices? God does not turn His back on His sinful children. He watches them as they die. He is not torturing them to death. He leaves them to reap the consequences of their own choices. I would dare suggest that if you still desire vengeance at the End, though you may call it justice, you are acting like a little child.