Page 53 - Gods Plan of the Ages

in the death of the wicked," declares Yahweh God, "rather than that he should turn from
his ways and live?"

When God judges a people, we see a manifestation of His righteous wrath. However,
the wrath of Yahweh is always temporal. He does not remain perpetually angry at anyone.
There are certainly Scriptures that seem to contradict such a conclusion. There are
many Scriptures that speak of God cutting men off forever, of never showing them
forgiveness, even of blotting out entire nations from the earth. If we were to view these
Scriptures in isolation, we could certainly arrive at a doctrine of eternal damnation, or
possibly of annihilation. When the entire counsel of the Scriptures is considered, it is
revealed that the mercy of God will triumph over judgment in the end.
Following is one passage, if taken out of the larger context in which it is found, would
appear to prove the doctrine that says God will reject some men forever. After Moses had
delivered the Law of God to the Israelites, he then spoke of the punishment that would
accrue to that man who disregards the Law of God by spurning those curses and judgments
pronounced by the Law.

Deuteronomy 29:19-21
It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, "I have peace
though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with
the dry." Yahweh shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of Yahweh and
His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will
rest on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven. Then Yahweh will
single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the
covenant which are written in this book of the law.

Moses then proceeds to pronounce a similar judgment upon the entire nation of Israel
if they should forsake Yahweh and His law.

Deuteronomy 29:22-28
Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes
from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which
Yahweh has afflicted it, will say, "All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste,
unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and
Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in His anger and in His wrath."
All the nations will say, "Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? Why this great outburst
of anger?" Then men will say, "Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of
their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known
and whom He had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of Yahweh burned against
that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and Yahweh uprooted
them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another
land, as it is this day."

These judgments of God have actually been poured out. There were people, and even
an entire land, upon whom Yahweh brought the most severe judgment. Yahweh refused to
pass over the sins of His people. They did not find forgiveness. They were delivered into the
hands of their enemies. They experienced slaughter, famine, pestilence and disease. Their
wealth was looted, and those who remained were taken captive into foreign lands.