Chapter 2 – Andrew
Jukes
Here are a few quotes from Andrew Jukes’ book “The
Restitution of All Things” to get you thinking about this subject.
Quote 1
When I think of God’s justice, which it is said inflicts, not only millions
of years of pain for each thought or word or act of sin during this short
life of seventy years, but a punishment which when millions of ages of judgment
have been inflicted for every moment man has lived on the earth is no nearer
its end than when it first commenced;
And all this for twenty, forty, or seventy years of sin in a world which
is itself a vale of sorrow; when I think of this, and then of man, his
nature, his weakness, all of his circumstances of his brief sojourn and trial
in this world; with temptations without, and a foolish heart within; with
his judgment weak, his passions strong, his conscience judging, not helping
him; with a tempter always near, with this world to hide a better;
when I remember that this creature, though fallen, was once God’s child,
and that God is not only just, but loving and long-suffering; I cannot say
my reason would conclude, that this creature, failing to avail itself of
the mercy here offered by a Savior, shall therefore find no mercy any more,
but be for ever punished with never-ending torments.
Can God ever have exposed His children to the risk of endless separation
from Him? All the reason God has given me says, God could not act thus;
and that if His children are for ever lost, He, even more than they, must
be miserable. But we have, thank God, a better guide than our reason,
even God’s blessed Word, with its “more sure” promise; and because that Word
declares man’s final restitution, and that God will seek His lost ones, “till
He finds them.”
Quote 2
It is indeed a solemn thing to differ with the Church, or like Paul to find
oneself in a “way which they call heresy,” simply by “believing,” not some
but, “all the things which are written in the law and the prophets.”
But the path is not a new one for the sons of God. All the prophets
perished in Jerusalem. And, above all, the Lord of prophets was judged
as a Deceiver, by those whom God had called to be His witnesses. The
Church’s judgment, therefore, cannot decide a point like this, if that judgment
be in opposition to the Word of God.
But is it possible that Christians should have been allowed to err on so
important a point as the doctrine of future judgment? Would our Lord
Himself have used, or permitted others to use, words which, if final restitution
be true, might be understood as teaching the very opposite. The doctrine
of endless torments is but another like misunderstanding; which not only directly
contradicts many other Scriptures, but practically denies and falsifies the
glorious revelation of Himself, which God has given us in the gospel, and
in the face of Jesus Christ. This shows us the state of the Church.
And though thousands of God’s children have held, not this only, but many
other errors, the fact, instead of approving their errors, only proves the
grace of Him, who spite such errors can yet bless and make His children a
blessing.
Quote 3
It is not for me to judge God’s saints who have gone before. Their
judgment is with the Lord, and their work with their God. But when I
think of the words, not of the carnal and profane, but even of some of God’s
dear children in that long night, when “the beast” which looked “like a lamb,
but spake as a dragon,” had dominion; when I find Augustine saying,
that “though infants departing from the body without baptism will be in the
mildest damnation of all, yet he greatly deceives and is deceived who preaches
that they will not be in damnation,” meaning thereby unending punishment;
or Thomas Aquinas, that “the bliss of the saved may please them more, and
they may render more abundant thanks to God for it, that they are permitted
to gaze on the punishment of the wicked;” or Peter Lombard, that “the elect,
while they see the unspeakable sufferings of the ungodly, shall not be affected
with grief, but rather satiated with joy at the sight, and give thanks to
God for their own salvation;” or Luther, that “it is the highest degree of
faith to believe that God is merciful, who saves so few and damns so many;
to believe Him just, who of His own will makes us necessarily damnable;”
when I remember that such men have said such things, and that words like
these have been approved by Christians, I can only fall down and pray that
such a night may not return, and that where it yet weighs on men’s hearts
the Lord may scatter it.
For it is not unbelievers only that are hurt by such teaching. Those
who believe it are even more injured. For our views of God re-act upon
ourselves. By an eternal law, we must more or less be changed
into the likeness of the God we worship. If we think Him hard, we become
hard. If we think Him careless of men’s bodies and souls, we shall be
careless also. If we think Him love, we shall reflect something of
His loving-kindness.
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