GOD is not vindictive. He is the only merciful God. All other gods are represented by their votaries as terrorists; but of our God we know that "His mercy endureth forever." Sin, misery, death, destruction, never were in His plan; but He foresaw all these as obstacles that would temporarily confront His eternal purpose, and was prepared for any emergency. His declaration to Adam, that if he should eat of the forbidden tree he would surely die, was not a threat, but a merciful warning. Death is not primarily a punishment, but a consequence. The decree that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," is based on the fact that, in the very nature of things, it could not be otherwise. God in His mercy, had cut off the sinner from the tree of life. While a curse came upon the earth because of sin, that curse would surely become much more intolerable to all concerned if it should be perpetuated forever. That was demonstrated in the age before the Deluge. With the long life enjoyed by that people, in a comparatively short time it became manifest that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Corruption comes into the world through the lust of sinful men, who disregard the law of God, and corruption naturally ends in destruction. So death is not God's arbitrary decree, for He has "no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." Eze. 18:32.
Sin being "the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), it is the direct result of the lust, or inordinate desires, of the "carnal mind," which is "enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). "And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. Thus God can not be blamed for the terrible consequences that sinners bring upon themselves. They have the choice of life or death plainly set before them, and are responsible themselves, and "without excuse" if they choose the way of death.
Some will ask, Does not God say that the wicked shall be cast into the lake of fire and burned up? Is that necessary to their death? Yes, but all that is the result of their attaching themselves to sin, and having all their belongings attached to the earth. In the eternal purpose of God to have a clean universe, it becomes necessary for Him to purify this sin-cursed earth and renew it, or make it new and pure, as it was in the beginning.
During this process, those who have heeded the Gospel warning, and have attached themselves to a mighty, merciful Saviour, will be preserved unto eternal life in the new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness." See 2 Peter 3:9-13. But all who have rejected the way of salvation, the only means of escape, will have to bide the inevitable result of their choice. "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." Mal. 4:1.
God is "long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." "God is love," and His every act is an act of love, having in view the eternal5welfare of the universe. But every creature that deliberately stands in the way of His progressive righteous purpose will be caught and destroyed in the purifying fires of the final judgment, just as surely as the puny arm attempting to stay the oncoming cyclone would be carried on with the general crash. Therefore the merciful Father has made a great sacrifice in order to prepare a way of escape and a place of refuge from the impending doom, from the sure result of choosing a life of sin. And His assurance is, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in nowise cast out."
From every point of view justified by reason and revelation, God is love, is merciful, and is just; and is moreover able to perform all of His great eternal purpose. "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy [margin, merciful] in all His works." Ps. 145:17.