Boston, Mass.
My Dear:—You ask, "Could there not be another power beside God which God has control over, and uses to punish people?"
In the first place, the Bible tells us that God is Good, that all He made is Good and is like Himself. Then it tells us that man was made by God and in His image and likeness. Now if all God made was Good could there be anything to punish, and would there be any necessity for making another power to punish man? Is it reasonable to suppose that God would have any occasion to punish His own image and likeness, His own idea, reflecting love and goodness? That expression, "image and likeness," means just what it says, and could anything made in God's own image sin or do evil, do anything, in fact, that would subject it to punishment? Can you think of man as the likeness of God stealing or committing murder? Can you imagine love envying or backbiting?
