CHRISTIANITY - THE PENALTIES OF UNBELIEF

 

Let those who may be tempted to question the eternal reality of it all take warning from the fearful threat against unbelief which the chief apostle hurls at the incredulous:

          "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth." (2 Thess. 2.12)

The same dire fate is pronounced against him who even hesitates in his faith:

          "And he that doubteth is damned"' (Rom. 14.28)

This is that to which they are damned:

          "Are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude 7)

to which is added the Master's fearful admonition:

          "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10.28)

and the fulmination of the ex-persecutor of the faithful, persecutor now of the faithless:

          "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy: ... Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?" (Heb. 10.28, 29)

followed by the warning of the horrible example of the past:

          "The Lord, having saved the people out of the
land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." (Jude 6)

and the very pertinent warning for the future:

          "For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience." (Col. 3.6)

and the yet more terrifying threat in the gentle Jesus' own words:

          "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23.33

Paul again says:

          "For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." (1 Thess. 2.16)

and John:

          "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6.17)

This is augmented by the apostolic prophesy of yet more wrath to come:

          "But a certain fearful looking for of judgment ana fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb. 10.27)

The argument of terror and its efficiency is again urged by Paul, who admits he uses it for the moral suasion of converts:

          "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his      body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." (2 Cor. 5.10, 11)

and who brings it to this climax of terrorism:

          "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints." (2 Thess. 1.6-10)

All this tends to induce the mind to yield a very ready assent to the total truth of the same apostle's warning:

          "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10.31)

Many may well wonder how a kind and loving heavenly Father of us all should make such terrible threats or inflict such fearful penalties upon his human children for simply not believing things so contrary to the most godlike faculty he had endowed them with, divine reason―threats and penalties more consonant with the practices of savages than with the principles of a just and merciful God.

The truth is your Creator never imposed these threats on his children. They are merely the invention of Christianity ―false, lies, distortions―all designed to coerce and threaten people, out of fear, to leave God behind and follow their brand of paganism.

Torah, the Source Document for all mankind, is your guidebook. Know that Torah was not written in the King's English. So throw out those Christian bibles, get a Hebrew Bible and come to know your Creator.

Leave the lies, fear, threats and idolatry of Christianity far, far behind.

 


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