Then follows a reference to the "Mental Bias" of the early translators,
as accounting for their erroneous translations, because they were just
breaking away from the old papal system. Then the later translators are
scathed for what the author calls "duplicity and cowardice" in
continuing such errors.
Consider, too, that we are God's own children. This is no mere figure of
speech. We are as truly God's children as our children are our own. If
our children are evil, it is our glory to reclaim them. No matter how
bad they are, we could not bear the thought of even one of them being in
torment. But according to some, God can bear the thought, can even
exult in it--that myriads of His children are in torment of the most
horrible kind, and that for ever and ever. And it is conceived that this
is so, notwithstanding the story of the Prodigal Son!
More than that, we hear the Father sighing out of His heart the broken
words, "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end!" Yes, and we see Christ weeping over
the doomed city, and we hear His pathetic words. "If thou hadst known--O
if thou hadst only known the things that belong to thy peace!" And yet
God is conceived of as contemplating with equanimity the everlasting
torment of His own children.
Happily, however, men do not really believe in eternal torment. They may
try to do so; it may seem orthodox; they may profess their faith in it;
but their heart is often better than their head, and they do not really
believe it. On this point, I will transcribe a paragraph from Rev.
Arthur Chambers. It is so true, and so well expressed, that it will
commend itself to every candid mind. He says:
"Thank God for the happiness of humanity! Man's intuitive instincts are
better than his formulated creeds. The hope is secretly cherished that
the grace of God, because it is the grace of an infinite Being, must and
will operate beyond the limits defined by a narrow theology. No
Christian, however staunch to the pitiless teaching of the school to
which he belongs, ever brings himself really to think that any one
beloved by him in the World Beyond is irretrievably lost. His creed,
perhaps gives him no hope in regard to that one who dies without
religion; but his own heart refuses to surrender its hope; and so he
keeps his reason, and his faith in God."
I know there are those who accept the doctrine of Restoration, who yet
think it an unsafe position to take in the case of some. They cite the
case of parties who having accepted the larger view, drift into
infidelity. The reason given is, that the doctrine of endless torment
has been so long identified with orthodoxy that when that doctrine is
surrendered, the vital doctrines of Christianity are in danger of going
along with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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