Shall we think, then, that every man who believes a lie in regard to God’s will shall perish? We think not. If a blind man is guided by another blind man along a smooth road, where there is no ditch, neither of them will fall into a ditch. It is only when there is a ditch in the way that they will fall into it. So, if this young prophet had been told to do almost anything else than what he was told to do, we have no reason to think it would have been fatal. If, for example, the old proph­et had said, An angel sent me to tell you to get from under this tree and run for your life, and not to stop until you get home, the young man would have been scared, and would have run himself out of breath; but the lion would not have killed him.

In like manner, we can imag­ine a man believing some lies in religion, which, though they may injure him some (and there are very few that would not), might yet fall far short of proving fatal to him. We think that the doctrine of election as taught in the old creeds is false in the extreme; but many a man has believed it all his life, and then possibly gone on to be with God when he died. What, then, is the distinction? It is to be traced out by remembering that there is only one thing that can keep men out of heaven, or keep them estranged from God in this life. That one thing is sin (cf. Isa. 59:1-2). Nothing else does or can stand between God and any man. If the belief of a lie, then, leads a man to commit sin, it will prove fatal unless that sin shall be forgiven. It was thus with the young prophet. The lie that he believed led him to disobey God. His diso­bedience was the immediate cause, while the belief of a lie was only the remote cause of his death.