[75]The doctrine of eternal torture is unjust, because God is just.  Justice is the foundation of his throne.  God plainly told man that if he sinned he would die.  If thereafter he put him into eternal torment, then he increased the penalty after man had violated the law, and this is contrary to every principle of justice.  All of Adam’s children were born imperfect.  “There is none that doeth good, no, not one,” (Psalm 14:3) Every child is born imperfect.  It would be very unjust for Jehovah to permit such a one to be born under conditions over which he had no control and then, because he could not obey perfectly, to put him into eternal torture.  Man’s sense of justice is shocked at the thought of torture of any creature.  The justice that man possesses is a God-given quality.  The more Godlike a man is the more just he is.  We must know, then, that God deals justly with all of his creatures.

[76]The doctrine of eternal torment is devoid of the attribute of love.  Every good father loves his children and children love their father.  The mother loves the children and the children love the mother.  When the children are disobedient, it becomes necessary for the father or the mother to discipline them; and sometimes by using the rod.  But no loving parent would for a moment think of torturing his or her child.  Just punishment is always for the purpose of doing ultimate good, and where the parents are compelled to punish or discipline their children they do it because they love them.  The apostle Paul, discussing the discipline by earthly parents and by God said:  “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence:  shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”—­Hebrews 12:9,10.

[77]Only a wicked fiend would want to torment anybody, such a one as loves dark and wicked things.

[78]Our great God is love. (1 John 4:16) “God is light and in him is no darkness at all,” (1 John 1:5) Everything that Jehovah does is good.  God created the first man Adam and gave him the power to transmit life to his offspring.  All the human race are the children of Adam.  Only by God’s permission could these children have come into existence.  Adam was God’s son and all the human race descend from Adam; and thus they bear relationship to Jehovah.

[79]None of Adam’s children were born perfect.  Some were born under very depraved conditions.  God’s love, then, for the human race is so great that he made provision for the redemption and ultimate blessing of all, and it would be wholly inconsistent with his attribute of love to arrange to torture any of them at any time.  The doctrine of eternal torment is a libel upon the great and loving name of God, and Satan is responsible for it.  But in God’s due time he will make it clear to all that he is love; and that all of his dealings with the human race are for their good.