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. THE DIVINE WARNING. "Better that many now living should be lost, than that the Law God has set before them should be despised! God has given clear instructions for all men when they come into this world, telling them how to attain life and how to escape punishment. But the unGodly have refused to obey Him; they have set up their own empty ideas, and planned deceit and wickedness; they have even denied the existence of the Most High and have not acknowledged His ways. They have rejected His Law and refused His promises, have neither put faith in His decrees nor done what He commands." (2 Esdras 7:20-24 NEB). "It was with conscious knowledge
that the people of this world sinned, and that is why torment
awaits them; they have received the commandments
but did not keep them, they accepted the Law but violated it. What
defence will they be able to make at the Judgement, what answer at the last day?
How patient the Most High has been with the men of this world, and for how long!" (From 2 Esdras 7:72 "Ask no more questions,
therefore, about the many who are lost. For they
were given freedom and used it to despise the Most High, to treat His Law with
contempt and abandon His ways. Yes, and they trampled on His just servants;
they said to themselves, "There is no God", though well aware that they must
die. Yours, then, will be the joys I have predicted;
theirs the thirst and torments which are prepared. It is not
that the Most High has wanted any man to be lost, but that those He created
have themselves brought dishonour on their Creator's Name, and shown ingratitude
to the One who had put life within their reach."
(2 Esdras 8:55
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