How our desires shape our judgments! What we want to see needs not spectacles. None are so blind as those that will not see. This is true regarding spiritual things, and molds our views more than we are willing to acknowledge.
Men WISH there were no God; so they SAY there is no God.
Men wish they had no conscience; so they ignore it, and it is seared to them as with a hot iron.
Men wish there were no divine law; so they fight against it and ignore its demands.
Men wish there were no hell; so they whiten its blackness, and shorten its duration to a transitory purgatory.
Men wish there were no devil; so they clothe him as an angel of light, or picture him as a phantom of the imagination.
Men wish there were no Bible, because it reveals all these to them very plainly. Therefore they deny its inspiration, ignore its authority, garland it with purple and gold, distort, mistranslate, misconstrue, laugh at its commands, and deride its object.
BUT FOR ALL THAT, GOD IS TRUE: YES, EVEN IF EVERY MAN BE PROVED A LIAR.
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."