God with One Piercing Glance Looks Through
The work presents a stark vision of divine omniscience and judgment. It portrays a God who, with a single, penetrating glance, surveys the totality of creation—past, present, and future—with an unchanging perspective, revealing the interconnectedness of all time. The text warns that those who dare challenge divine authority or waste the opportunity for grace will face an inevitable day of doom, rendering all human pretensions and achievements futile. The narrative likens the arrival of divine retribution to natural inevitabilities—a laboring woman’s pangs or the sudden onset of a thief’s remorseful sleep—emphasizing that this reckoning is as unstoppable and certain as the ceaseless motion of time’s wheels. It proclaims that the divine judgment is imminent, heralded by the imagery of a trumpet and the prophetic arrival of a judge in the form of Jesus, signifying an end marked by fiery destruction. The destructive scene envisioned is one where all elements of the natural world—mountains, earth, air, and sea—succumb to overwhelming flames, symbolizing a universal and indiscriminate annihilation that spares no human accomplishment, no matter how celebrated. The transient nature of human works, be they feats of art, acts of pomp, or accumulations of treasure, is starkly underlined by their eventual consumption in a conflagration that spares nothing. In response to this impending doom, the work counsels a reorientation of hope and trust towards the divine realm. It urges its audience to seek a higher, eternal relationship with the divine by cultivating steadfast trust, obedience, and love. This invitation to align oneself with the divine is positioned as the sole refuge in the face of the inevitable collapse of the physical world. Overall, the text serves as both a warning and a call to moral reformation. It contrasts the ephemeral nature of worldly accomplishments with the absolute and eternal standards of divine justice, underscoring that only those who place their faith in the divine can hope to withstand the catastrophic final judgment that will leave no human endeavor unscathed.
By John Newton · First published 1779 · Genre: Religious Poetry, Apocalyptic Literature, Christian Literature · 288 words
First lines
I: God with one piercing glance looks through / Creation's wide-extended frame; / The past and future in his view, / And days and ages are the same.
II: Sinners who dare provoke his face, / Who on his patience long presume, / And trifle out his day of grace, / Will find he has a day of doom, / III: As pangs the labouring woman feels, / Or as the thief in midnight sleep, / So comes that day for which the wheels / Of time their ceaseless motion keep!
IV: Hark! from the sky the trump proclaims / Jesus the Judge approaching nigh!
See the creation wrapt in flames, / First kindled by his vengeful eye!
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God with One Piercing Glance Looks Through is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Newton, dated 1779 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Newton
- Date: 1779 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Religious Poetry, Apocalyptic Literature, Christian Literature, Theological Poetry, Didactic Poetry
- Length: 288 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for God with One Piercing Glance Looks Through by John Newton
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Religious Poetry — Utilizes biblical imagery and themes of divine judgment rendered in poetic form.
- Apocalyptic Literature — Features vivid end-time visions and catastrophic events reflective of apocalyptic narratives.
- Christian Literature — Embeds core Christian doctrines, emphasizing divine retribution and salvation.
- Theological Poetry — Intertwines complex theological ideas with poetic structure and language.
Tags
theology · redemption · salvation · spirituality · faith · grace · repentance · divinity · judgment · rebirth · inspiration · transformation