OCCASION TO BLASPHEME by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1862

OCCASION TO BLASPHEME.

By Uriah Smith

If it could be said of one anciently, because he violated the morality of his religion and of the Bible, that he had given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, so it may be said of the popular theology of the present day, because it has departed from the teaching of the word of God, that it has given occasion to the enemies of the truth of these days to occupy the blasphemous and infidel positions that they do. There is nothing which puts a more potent weapon into the hands of infidelity against the Bible than the unscriptural dogma of eternal misery. To show the conclusions to which those are driven who hold that doctrine, we give the following which we find quoted in the conclusion of an infidel work, and over which infidels and the infidel press not unjustly hold carnival:

"The happiness of the elect in heaven will in part consist in witnessing the torments of the damned in hell; and among these may be their own children, parents, husbands, wives, and friends. Every time they look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God in making them so to differ.' One part of the business of the blessed is to celebrate the doctrine of reprobation. While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torments will be eternally ascending in view of the vessels of mercy, who, instead of taking the part of those miserable objects, will say, Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord."—Emmons' Sermons.

"The saints in glory will be far more sensible how dreadful the wrath of God is, and will understand how terrible the sufferings of the damned are; yet this will be no occasion of grief to them, but rejoicing. They will not be sorry for the damned; it will cause no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them; but, on the contrary, when they see this sight, it will occasion rejoicing and excite them to joyful praise."—Edwards' Practical Sermons.

Under this head we may also not inappropriately give the following "Gem from Spurgeon:"

"Our lost friends are lost forever; we recollect that there is no shadow of a hope for them; when the iron gate of hell is once closed upon them, it shall never be unbarred again, to give them free exit; when once shut up within those walls of sweltering flame which girdle the fiery gulf, there is no possibility of flight; we recollect that they have 'forever' stamped upon their chains, 'forever' carved in deep lines of despair upon their hearts. It is the hell of hell, that everything there lasts forever. Here, time wears away our griefs, and blunts the keen edge of our sorrow; but there time never mitigates the woe; hell grows more hellish, as eternity marches on with its mighty paces. The abyss becomes more dense and fiery—the sufferers grow more ghastly and wretched, as years, if there be such sad variety in that fixed state, roll their everlasting rounds. Here the sympathy of loving kindred, in the midst of sickness or suffering, can alleviate our pain; but there, the tortured ghosts are sport for fiends, and the mutual upbraidings and reproaches of fellow-sinners give fresh wings to torment too dread to be endured. Here, too, when nature's last palliative shall fail, to die may be a happy release; a man can count the weary hours till death shall give him rest: but, oh! remember there is no death in hell; death, which is a monster on earth, would be an angel in hell. If death could go there, all the damned would fall down and worship him; every tongue would sing, and every heart would praise; each cavern then would echo with a shout of triumph till all was still, and silence brood where terrors reigned."—Spurgeon's Gems, pp. 109, 161.

Every sentiment of humanity revolts at these pictures. Every principle of justice and mercy is outraged by them. And when it is believed and taught that the Bible supports such a doctrine as that, multitudes are not slow to reject and cast it away. Thus is christianity wounded in the house of its friends. Thus has the old serpent insidiously coiled himself in the very bosom of the church which all men will look up to as a representative of christianity, and is striking at its very vitals with his fatal sting. Let the true teaching of the Bible on this point be faithfully set forth. Let that destiny of the wicked which it declares, in which justice and mercy so beautifully blend, be maintained, and the Bible shielded from the aspersions to which by the popular doctrine it is so grievously exposed.