26
Darkness Before Dawn
unutterable anguish and writhe in the eternal flames, their Creator
looks down upon them with satisfaction.
Satanic Cruelty vs. Divine Love
Thus the archfiend clothes with his own attributes the Creator and
Benefactor of mankind. Cruelty is satanic. God is love; and all that He
created was pure, holy, and lovely, until sin was brought in by the first
great rebel. Satan himself is the enemy who tempts man to sin, and
then destroys him if he can; and when he has made sure of his victim,
then he exults in the ruin he has wrought. If permitted, he would sweep
the entire race into his net. Were it not for the interposition of divine
power, not one son or daughter of Adam would escape.
Satan is seeking to overcome men today, as he overcame our
first parents, by shaking their confidence in their Creator and leading
them to doubt the wisdom of His government and the justice of His
laws. Satan and his emissaries represent God as even worse than
themselves, in order to justify their own malignity and rebellion. The
great deceiver endeavors to shift his own horrible cruelty of character
upon our heavenly Father, that he may cause himself to appear as
one greatly wronged by his expulsion from heaven because he would
not submit to so unjust a governor. He presents before the world the
liberty which they may enjoy under his mild sway, in contrast with the
bondage imposed by the stern decrees of Jehovah. Thus he succeeds
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in luring souls away from their allegiance to God.
How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to
our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented
with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of
a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live.
Yet this doctrine has been widely taught and is still embodied in many
of the creeds of Christendom....
A large class to whom the doctrine of eternal torment is revolting
are driven to the opposite error. They see that the Scriptures represent
God as a being of love and compassion, and they cannot believe that
He will consign His creatures to the fires of an eternally burning hell.
But holding that the soul is naturally immortal, they see no alternative
but to conclude that all mankind will finally be saved. Many regard
the threatenings of the Bible as designed merely to frighten men into