The infamous and blasphemer Robert Ingersoll said, “God cannot send to eternal pain a man who has done something toward improving the condition of his fellow-man. If he can, I had rather go to hell than to heaven and keep company with such a god.” He got his wish on July 21, 1889. On that day, like the rich man in Luke 16, he “died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments” (v. 23).
Like many today, Ingersoll was stubborn. He had his opinion about how we should live, and he would not let anyone, even God, tell him otherwise. But his idea of improving the condition of mankind was not God’s. Atheists and infidels do not improve the condition of mankind; they make it worse. They hurt the human race by telling people there is no God. They harm mankind by saying each person can and should decide for himself what is right or wrong. They make life dangerous by teaching and convincing some that man is just another animal.
In 1833 Noah Webster said our Creator knew that “human reason, left without a divine guide, would fill the world with disorder, crime, and misery.” Webster was right. Men have for centuries arrogantly claimed to know what is best for man. However, they always end up making life worse. David said, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps. 9:17). Men are too ignorant and selfish to give moral direction to the human race. “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).
God alone has the power to decide how men should live. He also has the sole right to decree who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
1The Best of Robert Ingersoll, Roger C. Greeley, ed., p. 37.
2Preface to the Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments in the Common Version, with Amendments of the Language, by Noah Webster.