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the good news
(البشارة) of God's mercy and love and of the way of salvation through the atonement,
becomes desirous of salvation, God Most Merciful will produce repentance and faith, will bestow on
that man the redemption which Christ has accomplished for him, and will make him heir of eternal
life and everlasting bliss and holiness. For the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has summed up the essence
of the whole Gospel
(البشارة) in one verse: 'God 1 so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.' And
elsewhere it is written: 'The wages 2 of sin is death; but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
Repentance and faith, therefore, are the work of God.. Unbelief is not produced by God, but is
man's own work, or that of Satan. For, as the holy Scriptures above quoted assure us, God Most
Merciful has not fated any one to unbelief and destruction, nor has He created any one for hell
fire. To entertain any such notion is opposed to both the justice and the mercy of God. But, since
the Creator has rendered man a free agent and bestowed on him freedom of will, man has the power to
drive away from himself that guiding influence and that inward movement which the Most Merciful God
by means of His Holy Spirit exerts and arouses in his heart. Man can also prevent the upspringing of
repentance
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and faith which God wishes to produce within him, and can so harden his heart that the soft and
gracious influence of God's Holy Spirit does not make any impression on it. For God does not draw
men to repentance and faith by violence and against their will. Hence, if any one remain in unbelief
and consequently perish everlastingly and incur the punishment of hell, it will be entirely his own
fault. This is clear from the New Testament. For example, it is written in St. John's Gospel: 'This 1
is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light; for their works were evil.' The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said to the Jews: 'Ye 2
will not come to me, that ye may have life.' And, addressing Jerusalem
(مدينة
اْلقُدس), by which is meant the
Jewish nation, He said: 'O 3 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and
stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even has
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' So also Stephen said to the Jews
just before his martyrdom: 'Ye 4 stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.' Hence it is evident that it is his own
fault if a man fall into perdition and incur the punishment of hell; it is not through an arbitrary
decree of God, through what men call fate.
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