Theo-Thanatopsis

I was young and had just been exposed to William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis.  (Thanatopsis meaning, "a view of death.") My teacher waxed on excitedly about the lines being iambic pentameter.  I didn't care much for the poem then, nor was I duly impressed with his iambic pentameter.  It just bugged me that the poem sounded so happy-slappy and everybody should be okay with death 'cause you're going to a better place sort of thing.  That may be true for those who die in Christ, I reasoned, but what about the other side of the equation?  I felt that a Theo-Thanatopsis (or "God's view of death") was needed.  I even invented a nine syllable line where (most of the time) the accent falls off at the end, indicating a loss of hope.  I only showed my parents once and then buried this.  Originally it was written in faux King James-style English.  I've changed that.  I've also adjust small word choices here and there; but beyond that, this is as I wrote it sometime around February 1978.

Death and the Damned

To all, no matter of race or creed;
To all, heeding not to one's prestige;
To everyone, be he young or old;
It comes with sudden, rapid quickness,
Gathering all, gleaning everyone—
It comes with sadness, horror and fear.

What happen when this body isn't?
Do we, past death, to the ground become
An infinitesimal lump of it?
The Great Equalizer benignly
Accommodates all who were and are
And will be on this earth—they soon aren't!

Is it merely a ceasing of life?
Separation from earthly pleasures?
Yes, is it this?—or something more?

Nevermore shall you walk on this earth;
Nevermore shall you do one thing more
Against or for God and fellow man.
The Books are opening—in Judgment.
The Balance is lacking—in Judgment.
The Almighty God banishes you
From Heaven's peaceful and timeless age.
To the Lake of Fire you are now heaved:
To eternal doom and damnation.
Amidst your torment your thoughts arise:
"Was there nothing that I could have done
While on earth while I still had being?
Why could I not to the Only God
Been reconciled—and thus saved from Hell?"

Yet across the vast gulf between you
And God, there comes an answer so plain;
Which in your troubled spirit raises
Anguish, torment and sorrow again.

"You deserve all that you have in Hell.
You did defy Me while yet on earth,
Thus I give now what belongs to you.
Think not of My chose, Blood-bought ones,
Who through My great mercy I have saved.
Think not that it is unfair to you
That some are saved yet not everyone.
Think rather, O wretched soul in Hell,
Of your plight had I not come to die
For the sake of my chosen elect:
Then you—and all—would have been here still.

"I, in My righteousness and My grace,
Have reached down through time and endless space
To save My chosen, who were and are,
Chosen from the foundations of time.

"And yet you have I not left alone:
I have given you time to repent,
To turn from your sin and rebellion;
But I foreknew that you would not.
'Why would I not?' you ask from deep woe.
It is because all are born sinners;
And if they were but allowed a chance,
They would try to kill Me—wretched souls.
And you in your deplorable sin
Are no exception in any way.

"Mine elect are saved through perfect grace,
But through grace which is not of their own.
I drew and wooed them by My Spirit
And not a single one shall be lost.
Since you have never had My Spirit
Draw you, etern'ly damned you remain!

"And now your troubled essence in Hell
Would cry out, 'Unfair, O God, unfair!'?
Remember you have what you have reaped
From your life and from what you have sown.
Mine elect yet would have been like this
Had it not been for My precious blood.

"Thus you shall weep and shall gnash your teeth
And chew your tongue merely for its pain;
For you on earth were a sinner born
And a damned sinner you did remain!"

- D. Benning