The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-06-16

Holy. holy. holy. Lord God Almighty;
the whole earth shall be filled with
thy glory" Revelation iv. g.. the speak
er said
Three General Views.
There may be said to be three differ
ent theories prevalent In C%hristendom
On the subject. All three of these
views declare that the Almighty. with
full power to have done otherwise, so
created humanity that a child once
born into the world can never die
must live somewhere increasingly
either in pain or in pleasure. BY what
authority any make these declarations
we have never ascertained.
Our Catholic friends tell US that by
Divine arrangement, terrible purga.
torial experiences await practically
every member Of our race. in the hope
that. II rightly exercised thereby, after
centuries of torture. an eternity Of
bliss will be gained. Is not this also
a blasphemy against the Holy Name?
Who could deny It? Surely such a
theory is blasphemous. horrible.
Worse and Wor-e-Predestinated.
1s 1t any wonder that. In early life
our childish hearts were filled with
fear rather than with love toward our
Creator and toward His Revelation.
the Bible? Is 1t any wonder that it
required all kinds Of fighting with our
common sense to believe. as we were
taught we should. that God lovingly
predestinated that all human families
should suffer %eternally except a sanity
handful-because He was pleased to
have it so-because He foreordained
that 1t must be so-because He had
made a great place called he'll before
He made the earth. and made it large
enough to hold the entire human fam
ily-because He created fre-proof de-
mons to inflict tortures upon the poor
unfortunates who were shapen' in in
EQUITY. in sin conceived by their moth
ers.
Still Another Blasphemy.
A considerable proportion Of think
ing Christian people will join with US
in saying. All. surely Brother Calvin
/ %grievously erred and grievously mis-
represented the God of love when he
taught the doctrine of the predestina-
ton of the wicked TO eternal torture.
All. say these Christian friends. our
hearts rebel against that theory Of Di-
vine predestination. We claim that
| the Almighty is Love itself-that He
is sympathetic with His creatures, and
is using every effort to avert the great
calamity Of eternal torture for the
great majority of the race.
All. my friends. is not this still an
other form Of blasphemy? II some Of
us blasphemed the Holy Name In repre-.
senting our Heavenly Father as merci-
less. loveless. have we not In another
way b~lasphemed that same Holy
Name In declaring that he lacks the
power and the wisdom to do the good
which His loving heart would prompt?
! Do we worship a stupid and impotent
God. one who blundered In the crea-
ton Of our race. and who. for six thou
sand years. has been striving to rec
tify that error and all the while has
been allowing thousands of millions Of
His creatures whom be loves to go
down to ar eternity Of torture? Alas.
1t would be nearly as easy to worship
an all-powerful and loveless God as
to worship an ALLOWING but unwise
and impotent God who foolishly. sin
fully. brought thousands of millions
of intelligent beings into existence only
to suffer an eternity Of agony through
His incompetence.
"heiy. Holy, Holy, Lord God"
We come now to our text 1t de-
clares that the time Is coming when
the whole earth shall be full of Gods