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GOD'S LOVE

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 7, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 37.

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GOD'S LOVE.

By Northwestern Christian Advocate

THERE is no such thing as punitive justice in God separate from love. It is impossible to formulate any tenable theory of future punishment from which the love of God is eliminated, for "God is love." Love is the regnant attribute by which all his other attributes are controlled. His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, mercy and truth are made the almoners of his love. Love prompts every act he does. Any conceivable punitive act of God not prompted by love, is not an act of justice, but of the veriest injustice. A god who ceases to love men while he is punishing them is not the God of love. Nor does this in any way conflict with the fact that God punishes sinners here and hereafter. Divine love is punitive when punishment is necessary. The tenderness of God is not more a dictate of his love than is his severity. That is not love, but a maudlin affectation of it, which will not administer deserved punishment.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.