Assailing God's Character by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1911

Assailing God's Character

By F. M. W.

God is love. Every exercise of the divine power in behalf of his creatures is a manifestation of love. Understanding and comprehending this character of love, every intelligent being in the universe would be drawn to the divine Author. Knowing this, Satan has sought throughout his entire history to misrepresent God's character. The Creator has been made to appear arbitrary and exacting, tyrannical and vindictive. His words have been misconstrued, his purposes misrepresented. God has been represented as having such a character that it was deemed necessary to appease his wrath, to obtain his forgiveness through the intercession of intermediaries; and the exercise of his mercy, instead of being considered the outflowing of a heart of love, has been regarded only as the exercise of stern tolerance.

One of the greatest imputations against the character of God is found in the doctrine which at one time was earnestly taught in the Christian church, and is still theoretically regarded as an article of faith,—that of an everlasting, burning hell fire, in which the impenitent were punished throughout endless ages. It is but a few years since this doctrine was advocated from nearly every pulpit in the land. Clergymen of nearly every church made it a basis of appeal to sinners for repentance. It was held up in warning tones as a judgment which threatened all who would not make their peace with God. A quotation from the eminent Spurgeon, as given by Dr. J. H. Pettingell in his book, “The Unspeakable Gift,” page 327, affords an excellent example of the belief in this doctrine:—

Only conceive the poor wretch in the flames. See how his tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! How it excoriates and burns the roof of his mouth, as if it were a fire-brand! Behold him crying for a drop of water. I will not picture the scene. Suffice it for me to say that the hell of hells will be to be forever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God—and on it shall be written, Forever. When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, they shall say, Forever. We are sometimes accused, my brethren, of using language too harsh, too ghastly, too alarming, with regard to the world to come. But if we could speak thunderbolts, and our every look were a lightning flash, and our eyes dropped blood instead of tears, no tones, words, gestures, nor similitudes of dread could exaggerate the awful condition of a soul which has refused the gospel, and is delivered over to justice.

Jonathan Edwards, another eminent divine, has, in Volume VII, page 166, of his sermons, thus expressed his view of the doom of the finally impenitent:—

The world will probably be converted into a great lake or liquid globe of fire,—a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked shall be overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest, in which they shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day or night, vast waves or billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of which they shall forever be full of quick sense within and without: their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins, and their vitals shall forever be full of glowing, melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and elements; and also they shall eternally be full of the most quick and lively sense to feel the torments; not for one minute, nor for one day, nor for one age, nor for two ages, nor for a hundred years, nor for ten thousands of millions of ages, one after another, but forever and ever, without any end at all, and never, never to be delivered.

The preaching of this doctrine produced a natural revulsion of feeling on the part of many students of Scripture. It gave impetus to another doctrine, equally as pernicious and unscriptural; namely, that of universal salvation. One extreme created the other. From the belief that God in his wrath would burn men throughout the endless ages of eternity, some recoiled in horror, and contended that God was so merciful and loving that he would eventually save every one of his children.

The government of God is founded upon two great principles, love and justice. We use these terms in the sense that they are ordinarily understood. If the principle of love alone should be followed, as regarded by those who believe in universal salvation, the government of God would be weak and pusillanimous. If, on the other hand, God's government were built alone upon justice, as regarded by those who believe in the eternal torment of the impenitent, his government would be cruel and tyrannical.

We can not for a moment conceive of a compassionate, loving God taking men and women who have spent, in sin, lives of twenty-five, fifty, or one hundred years on this earth, and plunging them into a burning lake of fire to be punished throughout the endless cycles of

eternity. Nor can we believe that God will save all mankind irrespective of character.

How much more reasonable is the view of this question presented by the Scriptures of truth. Says the apostle Paul, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. Eternal life in the kingdom of God is the great reward set before the righteous. This reward they can never earn. Doing the best they can, they still fall short of infinite perfection; eternal life is bestowed upon them as the gracious gift of God's grace. But the wicked earn what they receive. Death is paid to them as wages. Failing to avail themselves of the provisions of God's grace, refusing to take the life revealed to them through the gospel by Jesus Christ, they are left to perish. They are deprived of the life which otherwise they would have shared.

The criminal in this world is incarcerated for his evil deeds; his punishment is in depriving him of the rights of free citizenship. It takes from him the liberty he would have enjoyed had he been a loyal citizen. Thus it is in God's great plan. By a brief probation which God has granted man in this world, the wicked demonstrate that if they should possess all eternity, they would squander eternity even as they squander time; hence God deprives them of that which they demonstrate their inability to use aright. Sin entails sorrow, suffering, and misery. Prolonging the life of the wicked would add to their suffering. Hence God's love is shown in depriving them of a life which has become a burden, of an existence fraught only with pain and suffering.

The agent of their punishment will be the fire of the last day, and through this agency they will become totally annihilated. By it they will be punished according to their deeds. Says the prophet Malachi, speaking of this visitation of divine judgment:—

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”

Their destruction will be complete. Says the prophet Obadiah: “They shall be as though they had not been.” God will purge out of his universe sin and all of its followers. His righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and from one end of his fair domain to the other there will not exist one foul blot or one remnant of earth's sin-cursed history. Then it is as declared by the revelator that every creature in heaven and in earth shall ascribe praise to the Majesty of heaven. Rev. 5:13. God will then have vindicated his character before all his children; he will have demonstrated that all his ways are wrought in righteousness; and in this righteous decision every intelligence throughout his universe will voluntarily and cheerfully acquiesce.

F. M. W.