First Great Deception
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life. Many have been led by this belief to put an end to their existence.
When overwhelmed with trouble, perplexity, and disappointment, it
seems an easy thing to break the brittle thread of life and soar away
into the bliss of the eternal world.
God has given in His word decisive evidence that He will punish
the transgressors of His law. Those who flatter themselves that He is
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too merciful to execute justice upon the sinner, have only to look to
the cross of Calvary. The death of the spotless Son of God testifies
that “the wages of sin is death,” that every violation of God’s law must
receive its just retribution. Christ the sinless became sin for man. He
bore the guilt of transgression, and the hiding of His Father’s face,
until His heart was broken and His life crushed out. All this sacrifice
was made that sinners might be redeemed. In no other way could man
be freed from the penalty of sin. And every soul that refuses to become
a partaker of the atonement provided at such a cost must bear in his
own person the guilt and punishment of transgression.
Let us consider what the Bible teaches further concerning the
ungodly and unrepentant, whom the Universalist places in heaven as
holy, happy angels.
“I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of
life freely.”
Revelation 21:6
. This promise is only to those that thirst.
None but those who feel their need of the water of life, and seek it at
the loss of all things else, will be supplied. “He that overcometh shall
inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.”
Verse
7
. Here, also, conditions are specified. In order to inherit all things,
we must resist and overcome sin.
The Lord declares by the prophet Isaiah: “Say ye to the righteous,
that it shall be well with him.” “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill
with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.”
Isaiah 3:10,
11
. “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times,” says the wise man,
“and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with
them that fear God, which fear before Him: but it shall not be well
with the wicked.”
Ecclesiastes 8:12, 13
. And Paul testifies that the
sinner is treasuring up unto himself “wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render
to every man according to his deeds;” “tribulation and anguish upon
every soul of man that doeth evil.”
Romans 2:5, 6, 9
.
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