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 endeavours 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 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 . Said a learned doctor of divinity : " The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever . When they see others who are of the same nature and born under the same circumstances , plunged in such misery , and they so distinguished , it will make them sensible of how happy they are ." Another used these words : " While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath , the smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in view of the vessels of mercy , who , instead of taking the part of these miserable objects , will say , Amen , Alleluia ! praise ye the Lord !"
Where , in the pages of God ' s word , is such teaching to be found ? Will the redeemed in heaven be lost to all emotions of pity and compassion , and even to feelings of common humanity ? Are these to be exchanged for the indifference of the stoic or the cruelty of the savage ? No , no ; such is not the teaching of the Book of God . Those who present the views expressed in the quotations given above may be learned and even honest men , but they are deluded by the sophistry of Satan . He leads them to misconstrue strong expressions of Scripture , giving to the language the colouring of bitterness and malignity which pertains to himself , but not to our Creator . " As I live , saith the Lord God , I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye , turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die ?" Ezekiel 33:11 .
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