Do Not Rouse My GOD To Anger. Will You Count HIS Patience To Be Indifference?

It is HIS groans, HIS tears, HIS cries--
which  best tell what Hell means!

(Archibald Brown, "The Scriptural Doctrine of Hell!" 1878)

"For if GOD did not spare angels when they 
sinned, but sent them to Hell, putting them 
into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 
if HE did not spare the ancient world when 
HE brought the flood on its ungodly people; 
if HE condemned the cities of Sodom and 
Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and 
made them an example of what is going 
to happen to the ungodly--
if this is so, then the LORD knows 
how to hold the unrighteous for the day 
of judgment, while continuing their 
punishment!" 2 Peter 2:4-9

It is now customary to describe 
the views of future punishment held 
by most of us, as 'medieval', and to 
declare that our ideas are mainly gleaned 
from pictures to be found in old galleries. 

I suppose I have seen about as many 
of the old masters in the galleries 
of Europe as most--
but I must acknowledge I have never 
yet seen any picture from hand of a 
medieval artist half so dreadful as some 
of the descriptions that fell from 
our LORD'S lips!

'Medieval' is it, to speak about weeping 

and wailing and gnashing of teeth? 

These words came not from the lips 

of any mortal man. They fell from 

the same lips that said, 

"Come unto ME, all you who labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
(Matthew 11:28) 

Neither Paul, nor Peter, nor any 

of the apostles, ever uttered such 

words as leaped from the lips 

of the Man of Sorrows. 

CHRIST'S descriptions of Hell are 

the most fearful that we have! 

It is the lips of infinite love that speak 

of being cut asunder, and about burning 

with the fire that is never quenched!

O brethren, if you want to measure 

the deep horrors of the lost--

you must measure them by 

the cross of CHRIST! 

It is HIS groans, HIS tears, HIS cries--

which  best tell what Hell means! 

YOUR breaking heart, LORD JESUS--

YOUR flowing blood--

YOUR death-cry of 

"MY GOD, MY GOD, why have YOU 
forsaken ME?"--(Matthew 27:46)

these are the things that say to me 

more than anything else, 'There is a 

dreadful judgment to come upon 

the sinner for his sins!'

He who . . .
  hurled the angels from Heaven to Hell,
  and drowned the ancient world,
  and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah--
has still power to smite! 

Oh, do not rouse my GOD to anger. Will you 
count HIS patience to be indifference? 
Because He still lengthens out the time 
of grace, will you presume on it? 

'Escape for your life! 
Flee from the wrath to come!'

   ~  ~  ~  ~

You may want to read the whole of Archibald Brown's superb sermon, 
"The Scriptural Doctrine of Hell!"