That’s pretty slighting of His promise, if all we hope is a “chance” of “escaping His punishment.”
Those who hope in the “promise” of “gaining eternal reward” will see it richly. The former set is really being selfish.
Re: “That’s pretty slighting of His promise, if all we hope is a “chance” of “escaping His punishment.”
He wasn’t referring to the soul salvation of an individual, he was speaking to the United States as a nation - in other words, for our nation to have any hope of escaping God’s punishment, which as a nation we do deserve, we as a people need to truly repent of our national sins - abortion, materialistic idolatry, apathy, etc.