I cannot see a reference to the thought in Ezekiel, but to me it is a relevant Scripture too.

Eze 16:48-49
"As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as thou [Jerusalem] hast done, thou and thy daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Thx for reviving this important topic. Aren't we, so call "Christians", guilty of all those sins and more? Despite of the sins of S&G and ours, I believe God did not destroy S&G, nor for the reasons of sins. It was because of the reason of the accusations that was coming to him from the Accusator against S&G. Then God gave up S&G in the hands of the Destroyer, because the Accusator had many strongs evidence or "FACTS".

Look at this following quote found at another forum :

I think it's interesting that God did not even need to tell Abraham what He was going to do. I skipped a few verses for brevity, but if you look them up yourself, you will see that God does not tell Abraham what He's going to do. He only asks if He should hide what He will do from Abraham. Abraham senses, or knows, without God saying so, unless we are to conclude that the Bible has not recorded all of what God said.

Yet it is clear that Abraham and God have a conversation about whether or not God would destroy Sodom. We also have the record that:

"...the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah..." Genesis 13:10

We also have Jude telling us that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of God (eternal fire).

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Hi Green, I really don't want to open up a 100+ page discussion of "Does God Kill" debate here. You know how those goes on endlessly as we can find the "letter" saying one thing, then you find some "letter" saying another thing. We all know that Christ encourages us to read the Bible with the "Spirit". Right? So let's seek the Spirit here.

I have highlighted an important part in your Biblical quote below:



We all know that God knows all things, why does God say that He needs to see if it's true concerning this "Cry" that came to him. Who made that "Cry"? Isn't the same person who made a "Cry" against Job? Isn't it the Accusator? SATAN?



Tell me who killed the firstborns of Egypt?

Elle,

God did exactly what He told Abraham He would do. In spite of His knowledge of Sodom and Gomorrah, He actually tested them Himself one more time, before destroying them. Sure enough, the angels God sent there were treated despicably. So vile was the sin of Sodom that we like not to think of it. And God destroyed them.

Regarding the passage in Ezekiel, Ellen White highlights the fact that Ezekiel is speaking of the causes of Sodom's sin, and not so much the sin itself for which it was destroyed.


Further, Mrs. White tells us what we could have easily assumed from witnessing the conversation between God and Abraham which I highlighted in my previous post.



Will Satan rain fire upon his own head, to destroy himself in the end?




Though the Sodomites suffered God's vengeance, they did not suffer as much as Jesus did.


Elle,

If one accepts the Bible as truth, and if one accepts Mrs. White as bearing God's message to us, there is no other conclusion that one can come to other than that God Himself acted to destroy Sodom and the cities of the plain. The Bible says He did. Mrs. White says so as well. We cannot safely "spiritualize away" the message of the Bible by attributing to God's Enemy that which He himself has done. It is better to recognize that God will one day judge us, just as He has judged past generations upon this earth.



Instead of questioning whether or not God did destroy them, we should seek to understand why. If it seems incomprehensible to us that God would destroy, perhaps we need to re-evaluate our assumptions.

The Bible says Sodom was supposed to be an example to us. Yet if we deny the example, and say it wasn't so, what benefit have we received from it?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

You forgot to answer my question :

Tell me who killed the firstborns of Egypt?

I didn't answer that one because it is out of scope for this thread. I have answered that before in another thread. This topic is for Sodom and Gomorrah.

However, considering that Sodom and Gomorrah were to be an example for us, we should learn some lessons from them which we might apply in other places throughout the Bible, including the destructive plagues upon Egypt.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Interesting that it doesn't list homosexuality along with the other sins. Like Elle said, the sins listed above are very prevalent nowadays. Pretty sad, eh!

I think one of the most striking features of the thought in Ezekiel 16, is that Sodom was "more righteous" than Jerusalem. (Eze 16:52)

And if righteousness exalts a nation, then it appears that in the judgment, Sodom will be exalted above many of the Jews. It will be "more tolerable", and there will be comparatively "few stripes" [ultimately, shorter time in the lake of fire], for many of her people, compared to the people of Jerusalem.

When Jerusalem was confronted with the great siege, in which Solomon's Temple would be destroyed, a part of Jeremiah's lamentation was that,

"the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." (Lam 4:6)

Sodom's punishment was sudden, and all hands were lost "as in a moment". Jerusalem's "punishment" and suffering was far greater. Sodom's death was much easier... there was mercy in it.