2 Thessalonians 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. "God is too good to damn anybody," so we hear some say nowadays. They are quite right. God does not damn anybody; but many damn themselves. Damnation is sin and suffering producing and perpetuating each other. We see suffering producing sin in this world, and sin producing suffering. Look at the low dens, with their diseased, poisoned, putrescent inmates, their depravity, their profligacy, their brutality, their bodily torture, their mental anguish. Is not that damnation? — sin and suffering acting and reacting. God does not damn men; He tries to prevent it. He moves heaven and earth to prevent it. Was not the crucifixion moving heaven and earth? The crucifixion was God's supreme effort to keep men from hell. How unreasonable to charge God with your death! Suppose I went, sick and suffering, through the stormy night, to hold a light for you at some dizzy chasm; suppose you struck down the light which I had brought with so much pains; suppose you lost your foothold and fell into the abyss below, could I be charged with your death? Well, then, did not God bring you light? Did He not with scarred hand hold that light over your pathway? If you reject it and fall, can you charge Him with your death? No! oh, no! (John 3:19). (R. S. Barrett.) Parallel Verses KJV: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.WEB: that they all might be judged who didn't believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. |
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