April 24, 1930

Last week we promised to try to write some more on this subject this week. In order to try to keep that promise we now try to write a few lines. The idea that a child of God may so apostatize or fall away as to be finally lost would necessarily involve the idea that such a one must cease to be a child of God and become a child of Satan, or that such a child of God goes to eternal torment, or to eternal perdition, which is absurd in the very extreme. No act of a child can possibly cause that child to cease to be a child of its parents and to become the child of another. If one is a child of God, that one has been born of God; born from above; born of the heavenly parentage. God's children may be rebellious and disobedient, which they often are, but that does not sever the relationship. If disobedience and rebellion on the part of the child could possibly sever the relationship existing between parent and child, they could not do so in the case of God's children, because God has sworn that they shall endure (live) forever. Let us read ((9:26) (Psalms 89:26-36): He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will  I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. In this text David is impersonating or representing Christ, the holy Son of God. God says He has sworn by His holiness that He will not lie unto David, or unto His Son; that His seed shall endure (live) forever. If a child of God, then, forsakes God's law, walks not in His judgments; if they break His statutes, and keep not His commandments-will they go to eternal torment on that account? They certainly will not, for God has sworn to His Son that they shall live forever, though they do thus rebel, and yet He will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. He has promised that He would chastise them for their disobedience; but He has sworn by His holiness that they shall endure, or live, forever. “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” -(Titus 1:2). Here we are told that God cannot lie. As He cannot lie, certainly He could not swear a lie. As He could neither lie nor swear a lie; and as He has promised His Son that His children shall live forever, and then confirmed that promise with an oath, swearing by His holiness, then it is impossible that one of  them ever be finally lost. They will certainly live with Him in eternal glory. If one of  the Lord's children should ever sink down to eternal night, or go to eternal perdition, it would necessarily follow that God made a promise to His Son which failed of fulfillment, and that He swore falsely. No one can possibly believe God swore truthfully and at the same time believe that a child of God goes to eternal torment. Both cannot be believed at the same time, for the two things are  diametrically opposed to each other. If one believes that a child of God may go to an eternal torment, he certainly does not believe the Bible. He may think he does, but he does not; for the Bible tells us that God has sworn that they shall live forever. Could a true and loving mother be satisfied and see her child suffering in torment here in this world? All know very well that she could not. A mother's love for her child is too strong and too tender and great for her to be satisfied and at the same time see her child suffer tortures and torment here. But God's love is greater and stronger than a mother's love. It is far beyond and far greater than any earthly tie. God's love is everlasting and as unchanging and enduring as Himself. God is love. Then how could the blessed Redeemer be satisfied and see one of His children, for whom He suffered, bled and died, suffering the tortures of an endless torment? Such a thought is but a thought that besmirches the very character of  that holy and lovely and heavenly Being. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” -((3:11) (Isaiah 53:11). Isaiah was here prophesying of the work of the Son of God, and tells us that He shall “see of the travail of His soul, and  shall be satisfied.”  As He could not be satisfied and see one of the objects of His eternal love suffering the torments of an endless hell, then they shall never sink down to that place of torment. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” -((3:6) (Isaiah 53:6). The iniquity of all those people who were His was laid on the Son of God. As all their iniquity was laid on Him, and He put away their sins by the sacrifice of Himself, then sin or iniquity cannot cause one of them to go to eternal torment. The Father certainly will not demand payment of a debt of them which has been paid for them by His holy and spotless Son.

What blessed assurances are to be found in the precious old Book for the Lord's dear children who are strangers and pilgrims here. There are troubles and trials and conflicts for them here in this low ground of sin and sorrow; but everlasting joy is in store for them when the troubles and distresses of this life are all over. These blessed assurances comfort and strengthen and encourage us here amidst all our trials and afflictions. We will try to write some more on this subject later on perhaps next week. C. H. C.