The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 544

were granted them, that they might form characters for heaven; but they
have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the
language of heaven, and now it is too late. A life of rebellion against God
has unfitted them for heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be
torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire. They would
long to flee from that holy place. They would welcome destruction, that
they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.
The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion
from heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the
part of God.
Like the waters of the Flood the fires of the great day declare God’s
verdict that the wicked are incurable. They have no disposition to submit
to divine authority. Their will has been exercised in revolt; and when life
is ended, it is too late to turn the current of their thoughts in the opposite
direction, too late to turn from transgression to obedience, from hatred
to love.
In sparing the life of Cain the murderer, God gave the world an
example of what would be the result of permitting the sinner to live
to continue a course of unbridled iniquity. Through the influence of
Cain’s teaching and example, multitudes of his descendants were led
into sin, until “the wickedness of man was great in the earth” and “every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence.” Genesis 6:5, 11.
In mercy to the world, God blotted out its wicked inhabitants in
Noah’s time. In mercy He destroyed the corrupt dwellers in Sodom.
Through the deceptive power of Satan the workers of iniquity obtain
sympathy and admiration, and are thus constantly leading others to
rebellion. It was so in Cain’s and in Noah’s day, and in the time of
Abraham and Lot; it is so in our time. It is in mercy to the universe that
God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace.

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