The punishments recorded in Scripture ought to make us fear Hell
2 min • Digitized on April 11, 2024
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 111
By Venerable Louis of Granada
This truth is still more apparent in the terrible chastisements inflicted by God which are related in Scripture.
Witness the punishment of Dathan and Abiron, who, with all their accomplices, were swallowed alive into the earth and thrust into the depths of hell for rebelling against their superiors.
Who can read unmoved the threats against transgressors recorded in Deuteronomy? Among others equally terrible, here is one which the sacred writer puts in the mouth of God: “Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck till he consume thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.”
We can scarcely imagine punishments more dreadful than these; yet they, as well as all the sufferings of this life, are but a shadow when compared to the terrible torments of the life to come.
If His justice be so rigorous in this world, though always tempered by His love, what will it be in eternity when exercised without mercy? For the sinner who has despised God’s mercies in this life will feel only the effects of His justice in the life to come.