NO MORE CURSE by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 19, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 38.

NO MORE CURSE.

By G. B. Thompson

EVER since the fall of man the earth has been groaning beneath the curse of sin.

Every created thing on this planet,—the lost sheep in the family of worlds,—shows the marks of the terrible malady of sin. Death and decay are stamped upon everything. Man is born, but fleeth as a shadow. He continueth not. The grim reaper steps across the threshold and summons to the narrow home the father, mother, husband, wife, or child. The chair is vacant. They exist only in the memory, and the record made by the heavenly penman. Pain, sorrow, disappointment, weeping, death, mourning, misery, wretchedness, and poverty begging description, greet the eye at every turn. Man, made in the image of God, curses and swears and blasphemies the name of eternal God.

As we look upon the awful wreck sin has made, it is comforting to read of a time when the curse will be no more. "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him." Rev. 22 : 3.

On reading this blessed promise it occurs to the writer that if such a glorious time ever comes, when the curse is no more, there must of necessity come a time when men will stop cursing. It is impossible to conceive of such a thing as the curse being done away while sinners remain to curse. To this every person who thinks must assent.

Then if this is so, what becomes of the doctrine that those who are finally lost will curse and blaspheme God through all eternity? Surely if unnumbered myriads of the damned should be cursing and blaspheming and denouncing God with terrible oaths as long as God Himself should exist, there never could be a time when there would be "no more curse."

This horrible and God-dishonoring doctrine, so inseparably connected with the unscriptural idea of the natural immortality of man, has strengthened unbelief and hatred of God in the heart of many a poor struggling soul. I can remember when but a boy attending revival effort with my parents, and my young heart was moved as I saw the love of God manifested in the gift of Jesus, and the offer of a free pardon for all offenses. But frequently before the preacher closed he would give his audience what he termed a "peep into the bottomless pit." Then I was told that if I failed to repent, the God of love about whom I had been hearing would hurl me at last into hell fire, with millions of other lost souls, where, in a lurid flame, in agony no mortal tongue could portray, I would burn and curse in terrible torment as long as God should exist. I was told that when I had been weeping and wailing in this unspeakable torment as many million years as there are blades of grass and leaves of the forest, I would have just as long to burn and curse as ever. But my boyish mind revolted at the horrible thought, and it seemed to me that God must be a fiend to do this. As I grew to manhood with the thought of this awful doctrine before me, I could not see a God of love in it, and I was driven almost into infidelity and atheism. The preacher said it was in the Bible, and I, supposing he knew, took it for granted. So I had about concluded to discard the Bible. I shudder now at the thought.

But later on I learned that the Bible did not uphold such an awful dogma, but that God had said there would come a time when there would be "no more curse;" that sinners would be burned up, root and branch (Mal. 4 : 1), and cease to exist (Ps. 37 : 9, 10); that they would be devoured from off the earth (Rev. 20 : 9), until not a coal would finally be left at which to warm (Isa. 47 : 14); that the entire universe would be free from the curse of sin, and every creature be found praising God through the never-ending cycle of eternity. In this I can see the love and justice of God, and my soul longs for that glad time to come when there will be "no more curse."

G. B. THOMPSON.