An examination of every text of Scripture in which
the word “hell” is found.
International Bible Students Association
BROOKLYN, LONDON, MELBOURNE, BARMEN,
COPENHAGEN, OREBRO, CHRISTIANIA, GENEVA
1915
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INTRODUCTORY
A correct understanding of the subject of this
booklet is almost a necessity to Christian steadfastness. For centuries it has been the
teaching of “orthodoxy” of all shades that God, before creating man, had created
a great abyss of fire and terrors, capable of containing all the billions of the human
family which he purposed to bring into being; that this abyss he had named
“hell”; and that all of the promises and threatenings of the Bible were designed
to deter as many as possible (a “little flock”) from such wrong-doing as would
make this awful place their perpetual home.
As knowledge increases and superstitions fade, this
monstrous view of the divine arrangements and character is losing its force; and thinking
people cannot but reject the Legend, which use to be illustrated on the church walls in
the highest degree of art and realism, samples of which are still to be seen in Europe.
Some now claim that the place is literal, but the fire symbolic, etc., etc., while others
repudiate the doctrine of “hell” in every sense and degree.
While glad to see superstitions fall, and truer ideas
of the great and wise, and just, and loving Creator prevail, we are alarmed to notice that
the tendency with all who abandon this long revered doctrine is toward doubt, skepticism,
infidelity. Why should this be the case, when the mind is merely being delivered from an
error—do you ask? Because Christian people have so long been taught that the
foundation for the awful blasphemy against God’s character and government is deep
laid, and firmly fixed, in the Word of God— the Bible—and, consequently, to
whatever degree their belief in “hell” is shaken, to the extent their faith in
the Bible, as the revelation of the true God, is shaken also;—so that those who have
dropped their belief in a “hell,” of some kind of endless torment, are often
open infidels, and scoff at God’s Word.
Guided by the Lord’s providence to a realization
that the Bible has been slandered, as well as its divine Author, and that, rightly
understood, it teaches nothing on this subject, derogatory to God’s character nor to
an intelligent reason, we have attempted in this booklet to lay bare the Scripture
teaching on this subject, that thereby faith in God and his Word may be reestablished, on
a better, a reasonable foundation. Indeed it is our opinion that whoever shall thereby
find that his false view rested upon human misconceptions and misinterpretations, will at
the same time, learn to trust hereafter less to his own and other men’s imaginings,
and by faith, to grasp more firmly the Word of God, which is able to make wise unto
salvation; and on this mission, under God’s providence, it is sent forth.
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WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES CONCERNING HELL?
HELL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT—HELL IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT—ALL TEXTS CONSIDERED—
WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH—PARABLE OF THE
RICH MAN AND LAZARUS—PARABLE OF
THE SHEEP AND GOATS—EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT OF
THE WICKED—THE WICKED SHALL BE
TURNED INTO HELL, AND ALL THE NATIONS THAT FORGET
GOD—THE LAKE OF FIRE AND
BRIMSTONE—JEWISH BELIEF ON TORMENT.
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak
not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”—Isaiah.
8:20.
“OH,” says one, on receiving this tract,
“that is a horrid theme. It has been like a night-mare to me all my life long. Do not
mention it; let me forget it!” “Yes,” says another, “let me forget it
and think and talk of the love of God; for when I consider how strait is the gate and
narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and how prone we all are to sin, I exceedingly
fear, and can never come to that `full assurance of faith’ which I so much
desire.”
Still another adds, “Oh, do not mention it! I
have children [or a husband, or a wife, or a friend] yet unsaved, and my soul is
overwhelmed with a burden of fear and anxiety for them.” And another, with streaming
eyes and faltering voice, adds, “O sir, if that doctrine be true—and it must be,
else all Christendom would not teach it—then some of my dear ones are past all hope,
and are now amidst the agonies of that awful place.”
Yes, we admit that the theme as generally represented
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and accepted is a horrid one, shutting out to a very
large extent the glorious vision of the love and power and wisdom of God, which his holy
Word presents. But, nevertheless, let us hear what say the Scriptures; for “therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (verse 18), and
“though hand join in hand [saying, ‘In union there is strength], the wicked
shall not be punished” (Prov.11:21); but the wrath of God is always just, and
tempered with mercy.— “His mercy endureth forever.”—Psa.106:1; 107:1;
118:1-4; 136.
That there is something radically wrong with the
generally accepted view of the doctrine of the punishment of the wicked is very manifest
from the standpoint of reason, in that, instead of revealing the righteousness of God, it
greatly misrepresents his glorious character of love and justice, wisdom and power. And
from a Scriptural standpoint we have no hesitancy in affirming what we are abundantly
prepared to prove, that it is far away from the truth, and that the position of its
advocate is wholly untenable.
That its advocates themselves have little or no faith
in it is very manifest from the fact it has no power over their course of action. While
all the denominations of Christendom prefer to believe the doctrine that eternal torment
and endless, hopeless despair will constitute the punishment of the wicked, they are all
quite at ease in allowing the wicked to take their course, while they pursue the even
tenor of their way. Chiming bells and pealing organs, artistic choirs, and costly
edifices, and upholstered pews, and polished oratory which more and more avoids any
reference to this alarming theme, afford rest and entertainment to the fashionable
congregations that gather on the Lord’s day and are known to the world as the
churches
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of Christ and the representatives of his doctrines.
But they seem little concerned about the eternal welfare of the multitudes, or even of
themselves and their own families, though one would naturally presume that with such awful
possibilities in view they would be almost frantic in their efforts to rescue the
perishing.
The plain inference is that they do not believe it.
The only class of people that to any degree show their faith in it by their works is the
Salvation Army; and these are the subjects of ridicule from almost all other Christians,
because they are somewhat consistent with their belief. Yet their peculiar, and often
absurd, methods, so strikingly in contrast with those of the Lord of whom it was written,
“He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street”
(Isa. 42:2), are very tame compared with what might be expected if they were fully
convinced of the doctrine. We cannot imagine how sincere believers of this terrible
doctrine go from day to day about ordinary affairs of life, or meet quietly in elegance
every Sunday to hear an essay from the pulpit on the peculiar subjects often advertised.
Could they do so while really believing all the time that fellow mortals are dying at the
rate of one hundred a minute, and entering
“That lone land of deep despair,”
where “No God regards their bitter prayer”?
If they really believed it few saints could
complacently sit there and think of those hurrying every moment into that awful state
described by that good well-meaning, but greatly deluded man, Isaac Watts (whose own heart
was immeasurably warmer and larger that that he ascribed to the great Jehovah), when he
wrote the hymn—
“Tempests of angry fire shall roll
To blast the rebel worm,
And beat upon the naked soul
In one eternal storm.”
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People often become frantic with grief when friends
have been caught in some terrible catastrophe, as a fire, or a wreck, though they know
they will soon be relieved by death; yet they pretend to believe that God is less loving
than themselves, and that he can look with indifference, if not with delight, at billions
of his creatures enduring an eternity of torture far more terrible, which he prepares for
them and prevents any escape from forever. Not only so, but they expect that they
will get literally into Abraham’s bosom, and will then look across the gulf and see
and hear the agonies of the multitudes (some of whom they now love and weep over); and
they imagine they will be so changed, and become so like their present idea of God, so
hardened against all pity, and so barren of love and sympathy, that they will delight in
such a God and in such a pain.
It is wonderful that otherwise sensible men and
women, who love their fellows, and who establish hospitals, orphanages, asylums, and
societies for the prevention of cruelty even to the brute creation, are so unbalanced
mentally that they can believe and subscribe to such a doctrine, and yet be so indifferent
about investigating the subject of “everlasting torture.”
Only one exception can we think of—those who
hold the ultra-calvinistic doctrine; who believe that God has decreed it thus, that all
the efforts they could put forth could not alter the results with a single person, and
that all the prayers they could offer would not change one iota of the awful plan they
believe God has marked out for his and their eternal pleasure.
These indeed could sit still, so far as effort for
their fellows is concerned, but why sing the praises of such a God and such a scheme for
the damnation of their neighbors whom God has told them to love as themselves?
Why not rather begin to doubt this “doctrine of
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devils,” this blasphemy against the great God,
hatched in the “dark ages,” when a crafty priesthood taught that it is right to
do evil that good may result?
The doctrine of eternal torment was introduced by
Papacy to induce pagans to join her system and support her priesthood. It flourished at
the same time that bull fights and gladiatorial contests were the public amusements most
enjoyed, when the Crusades were called “holy wars,” and when men and women were
often slaughtered for thinking or speaking contrary to the teachings of Papacy; at a time
when the sun of gospel truth was obscure, when the Word of God had fallen into disuse and
was prohibited to be read by any but the clergy, whose love of their neighbors was often
shown in torturing heretics to induce them to recant and deny their faith and their
Bibles—to save them, if possible, it was explained, from the more awful future of
heretics—eternal torture. They did not borrow this doctrine from the heathen; for no
heathen people in the world have a doctrine so cruel, so fiendish and so unjust. Find it,
whoever can, and show it up in all its blackness, that if possible it may be shown that
the essence of barbarism, malice, hate and ungodliness has not been exclusively
appropriated by those whom God has most highly favored with light from every quarter and
to whom he has committed the only oracle—his Word. Oh! the shame and confusion that
will cover the faces of many, even good men, who verily thought that they did God service
while propagating this blasphemous doctrine, when they awake in the resurrection, to learn
of the love and justice of God, and when they come to know that the Bible does not teach
this God-dishonoring, loveextinguishing, truth-beclouding, saint-hindering, sin-hardening,
“damnable heresy” of eternal torment.—2 Pet. 2:1.
But we repeat that, in the light and moral
development
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of this day, sensible people do not believe this
doctrine. However since they think that the Bible teaches it, every step they progress
in real intelligence and brotherly kindness, which hinders such belief, is in most cases a
step away from God’s Word, which they falsely accuse of this teaching. Hence this
second crop of evil fruit, which the devil’s engraftment of this error is producing.
The intelligent, honest thinkers are thus driven from the Bible into vain philosophies and
sciences, falsely so-called, and into skepticism. Nor do the “worldly” really
believe this doctrine, and it is no restraint to crime.
“But,” says one, “did the error
not do some good? Have not many brought into the churches by the preaching of “this
doctrine in the past?”
No error, we answer, ever did real good, but always
harm. Those whom error brings into a church, and whom the truth would not move, are an
injury to the church. The thousands terrorized, but not at heart converted, whom this
doctrine forced into Papacy, and who swelled her numbers and her wealth, diluted what
little truth was held before, and mingled it with their unholy sentiments and errors so
that, to meet the changed condition of things, the “clergy” found it needful to
add error to error, and to resort to methods, forms, etc., not taught in the Scriptures
and useless to the truly converted whom the truth controls. Among these were
pictures, images, beads, vestments, candles, grand cathedrals, altars, etc., to help the
unconverted heathen to a form of godliness more nearly corresponding to their
former heathen worship, but lacking all the power of vital godliness.
The heathen were not benefited; for they were still
heathen in God’s sight, but deluded into aping what they did not understand or do
from the heart. They were added tares to choke the wheat, without being
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profited themselves. The Lord tells who sowed the
seed of this enormous crop. (Matt.13:39)
The same is true of those who assume the name
“Christian” today, who are not really at heart converted by the truth, but
merely frightened by the error or allured by promised earthly advantages of a social or
business kind. Such add nothing to the true church: by their ideas and manners they become
stumbling-blocks to the truly consecrated, and by their inability to digest the truth, the
real food of the saints, they lead even the few true pastors to defraud the true sheep in
order to satisfy the demands of these goats for something pleasing to their unconverted
tastes. No: in no way has this error accomplished good except in the sense that God is
able to make even the wrath of man to praise him. So also he will overrule all things
eventually to serve his purposes.
Seeing, then the unreasonableness of man’s view,
let us lay aside human opinions and theories and come to the Word of God, the only
authority on the subject, remembering that.
“God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.”
HELL AN ENGLISH WORD
In the first place bear in mind that the Old
Testament Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language, and the New Testament in the
Greek. The word “hell” is an English word sometimes selected by the translators
of the English Bible to express the sense of the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek
words hades, tartaroo and gehenna. These same words are also sometimes
rendered “grave” and “pit.” The word “hell” in old English
usage, before the Papal theologians picked it up and gave it a new special significance to
suit their own purposes, simply meant to conceal, to hide, to cover; hence the concealed,
hidden, or covered place. The word hell was therefore properly
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used synonymously with the words “grave”
and “pit,” to translate the words “sheol” and “hades,”
as signifying the secret or hidden condition of death. But if the translators of the
Revised Version had been thoroughly disentangled from the Papal error, and thoroughly
honest, they would have done more to help the English student than merely to substitute
the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek word hades, as they have done. They
should have translated the words. But they were evidently afraid to tell the truth,
and ashamed to tell the lie, and so gave us sheol and hades untranslated,
and permitted the inference that these words mean the same as the word “hell.”
Their course, while it for a time shields themselves, dishonors God and the Bible, which
the people still suppose teaches a “hell” of torment in the words sheol and
hades. Yet anyone can see that if it was proper to translate the word sheol
thirty-one times “grave” and three times “pit,” it could not have been
improper to have so translated it in every other instance.
A peculiarity to be observed in comparing these
cases, as we will do shortly, is that in those texts where the torment idea would be an
absurdity the King James translators have used the words “grave” or
“pit”; while in all other cases they have used the word “hell”; and
the reader, long schooled in the Papal idea of torment, reads the word “hell”
and thinks of it as a place of torment, instead of the grave, the hidden or covered place
or condition. For example, compare Job 14:13 with Psa. 86:13.—The former
reads—“Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave [sheol],” etc.,
while the latter reads, “Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [sheol].”
The Hebrew word being the same in both cases, there is no reason why the same word
“grave” should not be used in both.
While the translators of the Reformation times are
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somewhat excusable for their mental bias in this
matter, as they were just breaking away from the old Papal system, our modern translators,
specially those of the recent Bible, are not entitled to any such consideration.
Theological professors and pastors of congregations consider that they are justified in
following the course of the revisers in not explaining the meaning of either the Hebrew or
Greek words sheol or hades; and by their use of the words they also give
their confiding flocks to understand that they mean a place of torture, a lake of fire.
While attributing to the ignorant only the best of motives, it is manifestly only
duplicity and cowardice which induces educated men, who know the truth on this subject, to
prefer to continue to infer the error.
But remember that not all ministers know of the
errors of the translators, and deliberately cover and hide those errors from the people.
Many, indeed, do not know, having merely accepted, without investigation, the theories of
their seminary professors. It is the professors and learned ones who are most
blame-worthy. These have kept back the truth about “hell” for several reasons.
First, there is evidently a sort of understanding or etiquette among them, that if they
wish to maintain their standing in the “profession” they “must not tell
tales out of school”; i.e., they must not divulge professional secrets to the
“common people,” the “laity.”
Second, they all fear that to let it be known that
they have been teaching an unscriptural doctrine for years would break down the popular
respect and reverence for the clergy, the denominations and the theological schools, and
unsettle confidence and reverence for men, when God’s Word is so generally ignored!
Third, they know that many of the members of their sect are not constrained by “the
love of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:14), but merely by
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the fear of hell, and they see clearly therefore that
to let the truth be known now would soon cut loose the names and the dollars of many in
their flocks; and this, to those who desire to make a fair show in the flesh. (Gal. 6:12),
would seem to be a great calamity.
But what will be the judgment of God, whose character
and plan are traduced by the blasphemous doctrine which these untranslated words help to
support? Will he command these unfaithful servants? Will he justify the course? Will the
Christ Shepherd call these his beloved friends, and make known unto them his further plans
(John 15:14), that they may misrepresent these also to preserve their own dignity and
reverence? Will he continue to send forth “things new and old,” “meat in
due season,” to the household of faith, by the hand of the unfaithful servants? No;
such shall not continue to be his mouthpieces or to shepherd his flock. (Ezek. 34:9, 10)
He will choose instead, as at the first advent, from among the laity— “the
common people”—mouth-pieces, and will give them words which none of the chief
priests shall be able to gainsay or resist. (Luke 21:15) And as foretold, “the wisdom
of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid.”—Isa. 29:9- 19).
“HELL” IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The word “hell” occurs thirty-one times in
the Old Testament, and in every instance it is sheol in the Hebrew. It does not
mean a lake of fire and brimstone, nor anything at all resembling that thought: not in
the slightest degree! Quite the reverse; instead of a place of blazing fire it is
described in the context as a state of “darkness” (Job 10:21); instead of a
place where shrieks and groans are heard, it is described in the
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context as a place of “silence” (Psa.
115:17); instead of representing in any sense pain and suffering, remorse, the
context describes it as one of forgetfulness. (Psa. 88:11, 12) “There is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, in the grave [sheol] whither thou
goest.”—Eccles. 9:10.
The meaning of sheol is, the hidden state, as
applied to man’s condition in death, in and beyond which all is hidden, except the
eye of faith; hence, by proper and close association, the word was often used in the sense
of grave—the tomb, the hidden place, or place beyond which only those
who have the enlightened eye of the understanding can see resurrection, restitution of
being. And be it particularly noted that this identical word sheol is translated
“pit” and “grave” thirty-four times in our common version by the same
translators—more times than it is translated “hell”; and twice where it
is translated “hell,” is seemed so absurd, according to the present accepted
meaning of the English word “hell” that, in the margin of modern Bibles, the
publishers explain that it means grave.(Isa. 14:9) and Jonah 2:2) In the latter
case the hidden state, or grave, was the belly of the fish in which Jonah was buried
alive, and from which he cried to God.
ALL TEXTS IN WHICH “SHEOL” IS TRANSLATED
“HELL.”
(1) Amos 9:2—“Though they dig into hell,
thence shall mine hand take them.” [A figurative expression; but certainly pits of
the earth are the only hells men can dig into.]
(2) Psa. 16:10.— “Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
[This refers to our Lord’s three days in the tomb.—Acts 2:31; 3:15.] (3, 4) Psa.
18:5 and 2 Sam. 22:6—margin .— “The cords of hell compassed me
about.” [A figure in which trouble is represented as hastening one to the tomb.]
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(5) Psa. 55:15.—“Let them go down quick
into hell”—margin, “the grave.”
(6) Psa. 9:17.—“The wicked shall be turned
into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
This text will be treated later, under a separate
heading.
(7) Psa. 86:13.—“Thou hast delivered my
soul from the lowest hell”—margin, “the grave.”
(8) Psa. 116:3.—“The sorrows of death
compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.” [Sickness and trouble
are the figurative hands of the grave to grasp us.]
(9) Psa. 139:8.—“If I make my bed in hell,
behold, thou art there.” [God’s power is unlimited: even over those in the tomb
he can and will exert it and bring forth all that are in the graves.—John 5:28.]
(10) Deut. 32:22.—“For a fire is kindled in
mine anger, and shall burn into the lowest hell.” [A figurative representation
of the destruction, the utter ruin of Israel as a nation— “wrath to the
uttermost,” as the Apostle called it, God’s anger burning that nation to the
“lowest deep,” as Leeser here translates the word sheol.—1
Thes.2:16.]
(11) Job 11:8,—“It [God’s wisdom] is
as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell [than any pit;] what canst
thou know?”
(12) Job 26:6.—“Hell [the tomb] is
naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”
(13) Prov. 5:5.—“Her feet go down to death;
her steps take hold on hell [i.e., lead to the grave].”
(14) Prov. 7:27.—“Her house is the way to hell
[the grave], going down to the chambers of death.”
(15) Prov. 9:18.—“He knoweth not that the
dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ [Here the
harlot’s guests represented as dead, diseased or dying, and many of the victims of
sensuality in premature graves from diseases which also hurry off their posterity to the
tomb.]
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(16) Prov. 15:11.—“Hell and
destruction are before the Lord.” [Here the grave is associated with destruction and
not with a life of torment.]
(17) Prov. 15:24.—“The path of life
(leadeth) upward for the wise, that he may depart from ‘hell beneath.”
[This illustrates the hope of resurrection from the tomb.]
(18) Prov. 23:14.—“Thou shalt beat him with
a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell” [i.e., wise correction
will save a child from vicious ways which lead to premature death, and may possibly also
prepare him to escape the “second death”]
(19) Prov. 27:20.—“Hell [the grave]
and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
(20) Isa. 5:14.—“Therefore hell hath
enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure.]
(21, 22) Isa. 14:9, 15.—“Hell [margin,
grave] from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming.” “Thou shalt
be brought down to hell” [the grave—so rendered in verse 11].
(23) Isa. 57:9.—“And didst debase thyself
even unto hell.” [Here figurative of deep degradation.]
(24, 25) Ezek. 31:15-17.—“In the day when
he went down to the grave,.¼I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall, when I
cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit. . . .They also went down
into hell with him, unto them that be slain with the sword.” [Figurative and
prophetic description of the fall of Babylon into destruction, silence, the grave.]
(26) Ezek. 32:21.—“The strong among the
mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him.”
[A continuation of the same figure, representing Egypt’s overthrow as a nation to
join Babylon in destruction.]
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(27) Ezek. 32:27.—“And they shall not lie
with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with
their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads; but their
iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the
land of the living.” [The grave is the only “hell” where fallen ones are
buried and lie with their weapons of war under their heads.]
(28) Hab. 2:5.—“Who enlargeth his desire as
hell [the grave] and as death, and cannot be satisfied.”
(29) Jonah 2: 1, 2.—“Then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly and said, I cried by reason of mine
affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and
thou heardest my voice.” [The belly of the fish was for a time his grave.] (30, 31)
Isa. 28:15-18.—“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and
with [the grave] are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it
shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves: Therefore saith the Lord, . . . Your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with hell [the grave] shall not stand.” [God thus declares
that the present prevalent idea, by which death and the grave are represented as friends
rather than enemies, shall cease; and men shall learn that death is the wages of sin now
that it is in Satan’s power (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 2:14), and not an angel sent by God.]
ALL OTHER TEXTS WHERE “SHEOL” OCCURS
—RENDERED “GRAVE” AND PIT.”
Gen. 37:35.—“I will go down into the grave
unto my son.”
Gen. 42:38.—“Then shall ye bring down my
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” [See also the same
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expression in 44:29, 31. The translators did not like
to send good old Jacob to hell simply because his sons were evil.]
1 Sam. 2:6.—“The Lord killeth, and maketh
alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.”
1 Kings 2:6, 9.—“Let not his hoar head go
down to the grave with peace.¼His hoar head bring thou down to the grave with
blood.”
Job 14:13.—“Oh, that thou wouldst hide me
in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou
wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me [resurrect me]!”
Job 17:13.—“If I wait, the grave is
mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” [Job waits for
resurrection—“in the morning.”]
Job 17:16.—“They shall go down to the bars
of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.”
Job 24:19, 20.—“Drought and heat consume
the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.” [All have sinned,
“death passed upon all men,” and all go down to the grave. But all have been
redeemed by “the precious blood of Christ”; hence all shall be awakened and come
forth again in God’s due time—“in the morning.”]
Psa. 6:5.—“In death there is no remembrance
of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
Psa. 30:3.—“Oh Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the
pit.” [This passage expresses gratitude for recovery from danger of death.]
Psa. 31:17.—“Let the wicked be ashamed; let
them be silent in the grave.”
Psa. 49:14, 15, margin.—“Like sheep they
are laid in
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the grave; death shall feed on them; and the
upright [the saints—Dan. 7:27] shall have dominion over them in the morning [the
Millennial morning]; and their beauty shall consume, the grave being in habitation
to every one of them. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,”
Psa. 88:3.—“My life draweth nigh unto the grave.”
Psa. 89:48.—Shall he deliver his soul from the
hand of the grave?”
Psa. 141:7.—“Our bones are scattered at the
grave’s mouth.”
Prov. 1:12.—“Let us swallow them up alive
as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit” [i.e., as
of an earthquake, as in Num. 16:30-33].
Prov. 30:15, 16.—“Four things say not, It
is enough: the grave,” etc.
Eccl. 9:10.—“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave, whither thou goest.”
Song of Solomon 8:6.—“Jealousy is cruel as
the grave.”
Isa. 14:11.—“Thy pomp is brought down to
the grave.”
Isa. 38:10.—“I shall go to the gates of the
grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
Isa. 38:18.—“The grave cannot praise
thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy
truth.”
Num. 16:30-33.—“If¼they go down quick into
the pit, then shall ye understand.¼The ground clave asunder that was under them,
and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men
that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them
went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished
from among the congregation.”
19 What Say the Scriptures?
Ezek. 31:15.—“In the day when he went down
to the grave.”
Hosea 13:14.—“I will ransom them from the
power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues;
O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine
eyes.” [The Lord did not ransom any from a place of fire and torment, for there is no
such place; but he did ransom all mankind from the grave, from death,
the penalty brought upon all by Adam’s sin, as this verse declares.]
The above list includes every instance of the use of
the English word “hell” and the Hebrew word sheol. From this examination
it must be evident to all readers that the Old Testament, God’s revelation for four
thousand years, contains a single hint of a “hell,” as the word is now
understood.
HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
In the New testament, the Greek words hades corresponds
exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. As proof see the quotations of the apostles from
the Old Testament, in which they render it hades. For instance Acts 2:27,
“Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades,” is a quotation from Psa. 16:10,
“Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol.” And in 1 Cor. 15:54, 55,
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hades],
where is thy victory?” is an allusion to Isa. 25:8, “He will swallow up death in
victory,” and to Hos. 13:14, “O Death, I will be thy plagues: O sheol, I
will be thy destruction.”
“HELL” FROM THE GREEK WORD
“HADES.”
Matt. 11:23.—“And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell”; Luke 10:15:
“shalt be thrust down to hell.” [In privileges of knowledge and
opportunity the city was highly
20 What Say the Scriptures?
favored or, figuratively, exalted to heaven; but
because of misuse of God’s favors, it would be debased, or, figuratively, cast down
to hades, overthrown, destroyed. It is now so thoroughly buried in oblivion that
even the site where it stood is a matter of dispute. Capernaum is certainly destroyed,
thrust down to hades.]
Luke 16:23.—“In hell he lifted up
his eyes, being in torments.” [A parabolic figure explained further on in this
pamphlet.]
Rev. 6:8.—“And behold a pale horse: and his
name that sat in him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” [Symbol of
destruction or the grave.]
Matt. 16:18.—“Upon this rock I will build
my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Although
bitter and relentless persecution, even unto death, should afflict the church during the
Gospel age, it should never prevail to her utter extermination; and eventually, by her
resurrection accomplished by her Lord the church will prevail over hades—the
tomb.
CHRIST IN “HELL” (HADES) AND RESURRECTED
FROM “HELL” (HADES).—ACTS 2:1, 14, 22-31.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully
come¼Peter¼lifted up his voice and said,¼Ye men of Israel, hear these words:—Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you,¼being delivered by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God [“He was delivered for our offenses”], ye have taken
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the
pains [or bands] of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it [for
the Word of Jehovah had previously declared his resurrection]; for David speaketh
concerning him [personating or speaking for him], I [Christ] foresaw the Lord [Jehovah]
always
21 What Say the Scriptures?
before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I
should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad: moreover also
my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades],
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou [Jehovah] hast made known
to me [Christ] the ways of life.” Here our Lord, as personified by the prophet David,
expresses his faith in Jehovah’s promise of a resurrection and in the full glorious
accomplishment of Jehovah’s plan through him, and rejoice in the prospect.
Peter then proceeds, saying, “Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and
his sepulcher is with us unto this day [so that this prophecy could not have referred to
himself personally; for his soul was left in “hell”— hades—and
his flesh did see corruption]: Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had
sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before [prophetically], spake of the
resurrection of Christ [out of “hell”—hades—to which he must go
for our offenses], that his soul was not left in hell [hades—the death
state], neither his flesh did see corruption.” Thus Peter presents a strong logical
argument based on the words of the prophet David, showing first, that Christ, who was
delivered by God for our offenses, went to “hell” the grave, the condition of
death, destruction (Psa, 16:10}; and, second, that according to promise he had been
delivered from “hell,” the grave, death, destruction, by a RESURRECTION—a
raising up to life, being created again, the same identical being, yet more glorious, and
exalted even to “the express image of the Father’s person.” (Heb. 1:3) And
now “this same Jesus” (Acts 2:36}, in his subsequent revelation to the Church,
declares—
22 What Say the Scriptures?
Rev. 1:18.—“I am he that liveth, and was
dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades,
the grave] and of death.” Amen! Amen! our hearts respond; for in his resurrection we
see the glorious outcome of the whole plan of Jehovah, to be accomplished through the
power of the Resurrected One, who now holds the keys of hell and of death, and in due time
will release all the prisoners, who are, therefore, called the “prisoners of
hope.” (Zech. 9:12) No craft or cunning can by any possible device wrest these
Scriptures entire and pervert them to the support of the monstrous and blasphemous
Papal tradition of eternal torment. Had that been our penalty, Christ, to be our vicarious
sacrifice, must still, and to all eternity endure it, which is not the case, as these
Scriptures affirm. But death was our penalty, and “he died for our sins,” and
“also for the sins of the whole world.”—1 Cor. 15:3; 1 John 2:2.
Rev. 20:13, 14.—“And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them:
and they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire: this is the second death.” [The lake of fire is the symbol
of final and everlasting destruction. Death and hell both go in it. There shall be no
more death.—Rev. 21:4.]
OTHER OCCURRENCES OF THE WORD “HELL.”
Having examined the word sheol, the original
and only word in the Old Testament for “hell,” and the word hades, most
frequently in the New Testament rendered “hell,” we now notice every remaining
instance in Scripture of the English word “hell.” In the New Testament two other
words are rendered “hell”; namely, gehenna and tartaroo, which we
will consider in the order named.
23 What Say the Scriptures?
“GEHENNA,” RENDERED “HELL.”
This word occurs in the following passages—in
all twelve times:—Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:128; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke
12:5; Jas.3:6. It is the Grecian mode of spelling Hebrew words which are translated
“the Valley of Hinnom.” This valley lay just outside the city of Jerusalem, and
served the purpose of sewer and garbage burner to that city. The offal, garbage, etc.,
were emptied there and fires were kept continually burning to consume utterly all
things deposited therein, brimstone being added to assist combustion and insure complete
destruction. But a living thing was never cast into gehenna. The Jews were not
permitted to torture any creature.
When we consider that in the people of Israel God was
giving us object lessons illustrating his dealings and plans, present and future, we
should expect that this Valley of Hinnom, or gehenna, would also play its part in
illustrating things future. We know that Israel’s priesthood and temple illustrated
the royal priesthood, the Christian church as it will be, the true temple of God; and we
know that their chief city was a figure of the New Jerusalem, the seat of kingdom power
and centre of authority, the city (government) of the great King, Immanuel. We remember,
too, that Christ’s government is represented in the book of Revelation (Rev.
21:10-27} under the figure of a city class permitted to enter the privileges and blessings
of that kingdom—the honorable and glorious, and all who have the right to the trees
of life—we find it also declared that there shall not enter into it anything
that defileth, or that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but only such as a Lamb shall
write as worthy of life. This city, representing the redeemed world in the end of the
Millennium, was typifi ed or represented in the earthly city, Jerusalem; and the defiling,
the abominable,
24 What Say the Scriptures?
etc,. the class unworthy of life, who do not enter
in, were represented by the refuse and the filthy, lifeless carcasses cast into gehenna
outside the city, for utter destruction. Accordingly, we find it stated that those not
found worthy of life are to be cast into the “lake of fire”
(Rev.20:15)—fire here, as everywhere, being used as a symbol of destruction,
and the symbol, lake of fire, being drawn from this same gehenna, or Valley of
Hinnom.
Therefore, while gehenna served a useful
purpose to the city of Jerusalem as a place for garbage burning, it, like the city itself,
was typical, and illustrated the future dealings of God in refusing and committing to
destruction all the impure elements, thus preventing them from defiling the holy city, the
New Jerusalem, after the trial of the Millennial age of judgment shall have fully proved
them and separated with unerring accuracy the “sheep” from the
“goats.”
So then, gehenna was a type or illustration of
the second death—final and complete destruction, from which there can be no recovery;
for after that, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,” but only
“fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”— Heb.10:26.
But remember that Israel, for the purpose of being as
types of God’s future dealing with the race, was typically treated as though the
ransom had been given before they left Egypt, though only a typical lamb had been slain.
When Jerusalem was built, and the Temple— representative of the true temple, the
church, and the true kingdom as it will be established by Christ in the
Millennium—that people typified the world in the Millennial age. Their priests
represented the glorified royal priesthood; and their law and its demands of perfect
obedience represented the law and conditions under the New Covenant, to be brought into
operation for the blessing of all the obedient,
25 What Say the Scriptures?
and for the condemnation of all who, when granted
fullest opportunity, will not heartily submit to the righteous ruling and laws of the
great King.
Seeing then, that Israel’s polity, condition,
etc., prefigured those of the world in the coming age, how appropriate that we should find
the valley of abyss, gehenna, a figure of the second death, the utter destruction
in the coming age of all that is unworthy of preservation; and how aptly, too, is the
symbol, “lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev. 19:20), drawn from this
same gehenna, or Valley of Hinnom, burning continually with brimstone, The
expression, “burning with brimstone,” adds force to the symbol, “fire,: to
express the utter and irrevocable destructiveness of the second death; for the latest
deductions of scientists are that burning brimstone is the most deadly agent known. How
reasonable too, to expect that Israel would have courts and judges resembling or
prefiguring such courts and judges in the next age; and that the sentence of those
(figurative) courts of that (figurative) people under those (figurative) laws, to that
(figurative) abyss, outside that (figurative) city, would largely correspond to the (real)
sentences of the (real) court and judges in the next age. If these points are kept in
mind, they will greatly assist us in understanding the words of our Lord in reference to gehenna;
for though the literal valley just at hand was named and referred to, yet his words carry
with them lessons concerning the future age and the antitypical gehenna—the
second death.
MATT. 5:21, 22.
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be amenable to the judges: But I
say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother [without a cause] shall [future—under
the regulations of the real kingdom]
26 What Say the Scriptures?
be amenable to the judges; and whosoever shall say to
his brother, Raca [villain], shall be in danger of the high council; but whosoever shall
say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [gehenna] fire.”
To understand these references to council and judges
and gehenna, all should know something of Jewish regulations. The “Court of
Judges” consisted of seven men (or twentythree— the number is in dispute) and
had power to judge some classes of crimes. The High Council, or Sanhedrim, consisted of
seventy-one men of recognized learning and ability. This constituted the highest court of
the Jews, and its supervision was over the gravest offenses.
The most serious sentence was death; but certain very
obnoxious criminals were subjected to an indignity after death, being refused burial and
cast with the carcasses of dogs, the city refuse, etc., into gehenna, there to be
consumed. The object of this burning in gehenna was to make the crime and the
criminal detestable in the eyes of the people, and signified that the culprit was a
hopeless case. It must be remembered that Israel hoped for a resurrection from the tomb,
and hence they were particular in caring for the corpses of their dead. Not realizing the
fulness of God’s power, they apparently thought he needed their assistance to that
extent.
(Exod. 13:19; Heb. 11:22; Acts 7:15, 16) Hence the
destruction of the body in gehenna after death implied to them the loss of hope of
future life by a destruction. Thus it represented the second death in the same figurative
way that they as a people represented or illustrated a future order of things under the
New Covenant.
Now notice that our Lord, in the above words, pointed
out to them that their construction of the law, severe though it was, was far below the
real import of that law, as it shall be interpreted under the real kingdom and judges,
which theirs only typified. He shows
27 What Say the Scriptures?
that the command of their law, “Thou shalt not
kill,” reached much farther than they supposed; and malicious anger and
vituperation “shall be” considered a violation of God’s law, under the New
Covenant; and that such as, will not reform so thoroughly as to fully observe God’s
law would be counted worthy of that which the gehenna near them typified— the
second death. However, the strict severity of that law will be enforced only in proportion
as the discipline, advantages and assistance of that age, enabling each to comply with its
laws, shall be disregarded.
The same thought is continued in
MATT. 5:22-30.
“Ye have heard,” etc., but I say unto you .
. . .it is better for thee to lose one of thy members than that thy whole body should be
cast into gehenna.”
Here again the operation of God’s law under the
New Covenant is contrasted with its operation under the Old or Jewish Covenant; and the
lesson of self-control is urged by the statement that it is far more profitable that men
should refuse to gratify depraved desires (though they be dear to them as a right eye, and
apparently indispensable, as a right hand) than that they should gratify these, and lose
in the second death the future life provided through the atonement for all who will return
to perfection, holiness and God.
These expressions of our Lord not only serve to show
us the perfection (Rom 7:12} of God’s law, and how fully it will be defined
and enforced in the Millennium, but they served as a lesson to the Jews also, who
previously saw through Moses’ commands only the crude exterior of the law of God.
Since they found it difficult in their fallen state to keep inviolate even the surface
significance of the law, they must
28 What Say the Scriptures?
now see the impossibility of their keeping the finer
meaning of the law revealed by Christ.
Had they understood and received his teaching fully,
they would have cried out, “Alas! if God judges us thus, by the very thoughts and
intents of the heart, we are all unclean, all undone, and can hope for naught but
condemnation to gehenna (to utter destruction, as brute beasts).”
They would have cried, “Show us a greater
priesthood than that of Aaron, a priest and teacher able fully to appreciate the
law, and able fully to appreciate and sympathize with our fallen state and inherited
weaknesses, and let him offer for us better sacrifices, and apply to us the needed greater
foregiveness of sin, and let him as a great physician heal us and restore us, so that we can
obey the perfect law of God from our hearts.” Then they would have found Christ.
But this lesson they did not learn, for the ears of
their understanding were “dull of hearing”; hence they knew not that God had
already prepared the very priest and sacrifice and teacher and physician they needed, who
in due time redeemed those under the typical law, as well as all not under
it, and who also “in due time,” shortly, will begin his restoring work,
restoring sight to the blind eyes of their understanding, and hearing to their deaf ears.
Then the “vail shall be taken away”—the vail of ignorance, pride and human
wisdom which Satan now uses to blind the world to God’s true law and true plan of
salvation in Christ.
And not only did our Lord’s teaching here show
the law of the New Covenant and teach the Jew a lesson, but it is of benefit to the Gospel
church also. In proportion as we learn the exactness of God’s law, and what would
constitute perfection under its requirements we see that our Redeemer was perfect,
and that we, totally unable to command ourselves to God as keepers of that law, can find
acceptance with the Father only in the merit of our Redeemer, while
29 What Say the Scriptures?
none can be of that “body,” covered by the
robe of his righteousness, except the consecrated who endeavor to do only those things
well pleasing to God, which includes the avoiding of sin to the extent of ability. Yet
their acceptability with God rests not in their perfection, but upon the perfection of
Christ, so long as they abide in him. These, nevertheless, are benefited by a clear
insight into the perfect law of God, even though they are not dependent on the perfect
keeping of it. They delight to do God’s will to the extent of their ability; and the
better they know his perfect law, the better they are able to rule themselves and to
conform to it. So, then, to us also the Lord’s words have a lesson of value.
The point, however, to be specially noticed here is
that the gehenna which the Jews knew, and of which our Lord spoke to them, was not
a lake of fire to be kept burning to all eternity, into which all would be cast who get
“angry with a brother” and call him a “fool.” No; the Jews gathered no
such extreme idea from the Lord’s words. The eternal torment theory was unknown to
them, as well as to all the heathen nations. It had no place in their theology, as will be
shown. It is a comparatively modern invention, coming down, as we have shown, from
Papacy—the great apostasy. The point is that gehenna symbolizes the second
death— utter, complete and everlasting destruction. This is clearly shown by its
being contrasted with life as its opposite. “It is better for thee to enter
into life halt or maimed than otherwise to be cast into gehenna.” It is
better that you should deny yourselves sinful gratifications than that you should lose all
future life, and perish in the second death.
MATT. 10:28; Luke 12:5.
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to
30 What Say the Scriptures?
destroy both soul and body in hell [gehenna].”
See also another account of the same discourse by Luke 12:4, 5.
Here our Lord pointed out to his followers the great
cause they had for courage and bravery under the most trying circumstances. They were to
expect persecution, and to have all manner of evil spoken against them falsely, for his
sake, and for the sake of the “good tidings” of which he made them the ministers
and heralds; yea, the time would come, that whosoever would kill them would think that he
did God a service. Their consolation or reward for this was to be received, not in the
present life, but in the life to come. They were assured, and they believed, that he had
come to give his life a ransom for many, and that all in their graves must in consequence,
in due time, hear the Deliverer’s voice and come forth, either to reward (if their
trial was passed in this life successfully), or to trial, as it must be to the great
majority who had not, in this present life, come to the necessary knowledge and
opportunity essential to a fair trial.
Under divine arrangement men are able to kill our bodies,
but nothing that they can do will affect our beings (souls),* which God has promised shall
be revived or restored by his power in the resurrection day—the Millennial age. Our
revived souls will have new bodies (spiritual or natural—“to each seed his own
[kind of] body); and then none will have liberty to kill. God alone has power to destroy
us utterly—soul and body. He alone, therefore, should be feared, if thereby we
gain divine approval. Our Lord’s bidding then is, Fear not them which can terminate
the present (dying) life in these poor dying bodies. Care little for it, its food, its
clothing, its pleasures, in comparison with that future existence or being which God has
provided for you and which, if
*—THE
WATCH TOWER, OCTOBER 15,1895.
31 What Say the Scriptures?
secured, may be your portion forever. Fear not the
threats, or looks, or acts of men, whose power can extend no farther than the present
existence; who can harm and kill these bodies, but can do no more. Rather have respect and
deference to God, with whom are the issues of life everlasting—fear him who is
able to destroy in gehenna, the second death, both the present dying
existence and all hope of the future existence.
Here it is conclusively shown that gehenna, as
a figure, represented the second death—the utter destruction which must ensue in the
case of all who, after having fully received the opportunities of a future being or
existence through our Lord’s sacrifice, prove themselves unworthy of God’s gift,
and refuse to accept it, by refusing obedience to God’s just requirements. For it
does not say that God will preserve soul or body in gehenna, but that in it
he can and will “destroy” both. Thus we are taught that any who are
condemned to the second death are hopelessly and forever blotted out of existence.
MATT. 18:8, 9; MARK 9:43-48.
[Since two passages refer to the same discourse, we
quote from Mark—suggesting that verses 44 and 46, and part of 45, are not found in
the older Greek MSS., through verse 48, which reads the same, is in all manuscripts. We
quote the text as found in these ancient and reliable MSS.] :If thy hand offend thee, cut
it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into gehenna,
into the fire that never shall be quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is
better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into gehenna.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the
kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into gehenna, where
the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.”
32 What Say the Scriptures?
After reading the above, all must agree with the
prophet that our Lord opened his mouth in figures and obscure sayings. (Psa. 78:2; Matt.
13:35) No one for a moment supposes that our Lord advised the people to mutilate their
bodies by cutting off their limbs or gouging out their eyes. Nor does he mean us to
understand that the injuries and disfigurements of the present life will continue beyond
the grave, when we shall “enter into life.” The Jews, whom the Lord addressed
having no conception of a place of everlasting torment, and knowing that the word gehenna
referred to the valley outside their city—which was not a place of torment, nor a
place where any living thing was cast, but a place for utter destruction of whatever might
be cast into it—and recognizing the Lord’s expression regarding limbs and eyes
to be figurative, knew that gehenna also was used in the same figurative sense to
symbolize destruction.
The Lord meant simply this: ‘The future life,
which God has provided for redeemed man, is of inestimable value, and it will richly pay
you to make any sacrifice to receive and enjoy that life. Should it even cost an eye, a
hand or a foot, so that to all eternity you would be obliges to endure the loss of these,
yet life would be cheap at even such a cost. That would be better far, than to retain your
members and lose all in gehenna.’ Doubtless, too, the hearers drew the lesson
as applicable to all the affairs of life, and understood the Master to mean that it would
richly repay them to deny themselves many comforts, pleasures and tastes, dear to them, as
a right hand, precious as an eye, and serviceable as a foot, rather than by gratification
to forfeit the life to come and be utterly destroyed in gehenna—the second
death.
But what about the undying worms and the unquenchable
fire?
We answer, In the literal gehenna, which is
the basis of our Lord’s illusion, the bodies of animals,
33 What Say the Scriptures?
etc., frequently fell upon ledges of rocks and not in
the fire kept burning below. Thus exposed, these would breed worms and be destroyed by
them, as completely and as surely as those which burned. No one was allowed to disturb the
contents of this valley; hence the worm and the fire together completed the work of
destruction—the fire was not quenched and the worms died not. This would not imply a
never-ending fire, nor everlasting worms . The thought is that the worms did not die off
and leave the carcasses there, but continued and completed the work of destruction.
So with the fire also; since it was not quenched, it burned on until all was consumed.
Just so if a house were on fire could not be controlled or quenched, but burned until the
building was destroyed, we might call it an “unquenchable fire.”
Our Lord wished to impress the thought of the completeness
and finality of the second death.
All who go into the second death will be thoroughly
and completely and forever destroyed; no ransom will ever again be given for any (Rom.
6:9); for none worthy of life will be cast into the second death, or lake of fire, but
only those who love unrighteousness after coming to the knowledge of the truth.
Not only in the above instances is the second death
pointedly illustrated by gehenna, but it is evident that the same Teacher used the
same figure to represent the same thing in the symbols of Revelation, though it is not
called gehenna, but a “lake of fire.”
The same valley was once before used as the basis of
a discourse by the Prophet Isaiah. (Isa. 66:24) Though he gives it no name, he describes
it; and all should notice that he speaks, not as some with false ideas might expect, of
billions alive in flames and torture, but of the carcasses of those who
transgressed against the Lord, who are thus represented as utterly destroyed in the second
death.
34 What Say the Scriptures?
The two preceding verses show the time when this
prophecy will be fulfilled, and it is in perfect harmony with the symbols of Revelation:
it is in the new dispensation, of the Millennium, in the “new heavens and new
earth” condition of things. Then all the righteous will see the justice as well as
the wisdom of the utter destruction of the incorrigible, wilful enemies of righteousness,
as it is written: “They shall be an abhorring unto the flesh.” MATT. 23:15, 33.
The class here addressed was not the heathen who had
no knowledge of the truth, nor the lowest and most ignorant of the Jewish nation, but it
was not the Scribes and Pharisees, outwardly the most religious, and the leaders and the
teachers of the people. To these our Lord said, “How can ye escape the judgment of gehenna?”
These men were hypocritical: they were not true to their convictions of the truth.
Abundant testimony of the truth had been borne to them, but they refused to accept it, and
endeavored to counteract its influence and to discourage the people from accepting it. And
in thus resisting the holy spirit of light and truth, they were hardening their
hearts against the very agency which God designed for their blessing. Hence they were
wickedly resisting his grace, and such a course, if pursued, must eventually end in
condemnation to the second death, gehenna. Every step in the direction of wilful
blindness and opposition to the truth makes return more difficult now, as then, and
makes the wrong-doer more and more of the character which God abhors, and which the second
death is intended to utterly destroy. The Scribes and Pharisees were progressing rapidly
in that course: hence the warning inquiry of our Lord, “How can ye escape””
etc. The sense is, Although you boast of your piety, you will surely be destroyed in gehenna,
unless you change your course.
35 What Say the Scriptures?
James 3:6.—“So [important] is the tongue,
among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of
nature, and [or when] it is set on fire or gehenna.”
Here, in strong symbolic language, the Apostle points
out the very bad influence of an evil tongue—a tongue set on fire (figuratively) by gehenna
(figurative). For a tongue to be set on fire of gehenna signifies that it is
set going in evil by a perverse disposition, self-willed, selfish, hateful, malicious, the
sort of disposition which, in spite of knowledge and opportunity, unless controlled and
reformed, will be counted worthy to be destroyed—the class for whom the “second
death” the real “lake of fire,” the real gehenna, is intended. One
in that attitude may by his tongue kindle a great fire, a destructive disturbance, which
wherever it has contact, will work evil in the entire course of nature. A few malicious
words often arouse all the evil passions of the speaker, engender the same in others and
react upon the first. And continuance is such an evil course finally corrupts the entire
man, and brings him under sentence as utterly unworthy of life.
“TARTAROO” RENDERED “HELL.”
The Greek word tartaroo occurs once in the New
Testament, and is translated hell. It is found in 2 Peter 2:4, which reads thus:
“God spared not the angels who sinned, but cast [them] down to hell [tartaroo],
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
Having examined all other words rendered
“hell,” in the Bible, and all the texts in which they occur, we conclude the
examination with this text, which is the only one in which the word tartaroo occurs
in the Scriptures. In the above text, all the words shown in
36 What Say the Scriptures?
Italic type are translated from the one Greek
word tartaroo. Evidently the translators were at a loss to know how to translate
the word, but concluded they knew where the evil angels ought to be, and so they made a
bold to put them into “hell,” though it took six words to twist the idea into
the shape they had predetermined it must take.
The word tartaroo, used by Peter, very closely
resembles tartarus, a word used in Grecian mythology as the name for a dark
abyss or prison. But the words tartaroo seems to refer more to an act than to a
place. The fall of the angels who sinned was from honor and dignity, into dishonor and
condemnation, and the thought seems to be: “God spared not the angels who sinned, but
degraded them, and delivered them into chains of darkness.”
This certainly agrees with the facts known to us
through the Scriptures; for these fallen spirits frequented the earth in the days of our
Lord and the apostles. Hence they were not down in some place, but “down” in the
sense of being degraded from former honor and liberty, and restrained under darkness, as
by a chain. Whenever these fallen spirits, in spiritualistic seances, manifest their
powers through mediums, pretending to be certain dead human beings, they must always do
their work in the dark, because darkness is the chain by which they are bound until the
great Millennial day of judgment. Whether this implies that in the immediate future they
will be able to materialize in daylight is difficult to determine. If so, it would greatly
increase Satan’s power to blind and deceive for a short season—until the Sun of
Righteousness has fully risen and Satan is fully bound.
Thus we close our investigation of the Bible use of
the word “hell.” Thank God, we find no such place of everlasting torture as the
creeds and hymn books, and many pulpits, erroneously teach. Yet we have
37 What Say the Scriptures?
found a “hell,” sheol, hades, to
which all our race were condemned on account of Adam’s sin, and from which all are
redeemed by our Lord’s death; and that “hell” is the tomb—the death
condition. And we find another “hell” (gehenna—the second death—utter
destruction) brought to our attention as the final penalty upon all who, after being
redeemed and brought to the full knowledge of the truth, and to full ability to
obey it, shall yet choose death by choosing a course of opposition to God and
righteousness. And our hearts say, “Amen. True and righteous are the ways, thou King
of nations. Who shall not venerate thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou art
entirely holy. And all nations shall come and worship before thee, because thy righteous
dealings are made manifest.”—Revelations 15:3, 4.
PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
—Luke 16:19-31—
The great difficulty with many in reading this
Scripture is that, though they regard it as a parable, they reason on it and draw
conclusions from it as though it were a literal statement.
To regard it as a literal statement involves several
absurdities; for instance, that the rich man went to “hell” because he had
enjoyed many earthly blessings and gave nothing but crumbs to Lazarus. Not a word is said
about his wickedness. Again, Lazarus was blessed, not because he was a sincere child of
God, full of faith and trust, not because he was good, but simply because he was poor
and sick. If this be interpreted literally, the only logical lesson to be drawn from
it is, that unless we are poor beggars full of sores, we shall never enter into future
bliss; and that if now we wear any fine linen and purple, and have plenty to eat every
day, we are sure of future torment! Again, the coveted place of favor is
“Abraham’s bosom”; and if
the whole statement be literal, the bosom mst
also be literal,
38 What Say the Scriptures?
and it surely would not hold very many of
earth’s millions of sick and poor.
But why consider absurdities? As a parable, it is
easy of interpretation. In a parable the thing said is never the thing meant. We know this
from our Lord’s own explanations of his parables. When he said “wheat,” he
meant “children of the kingdom”; when he said “tares,” he meant
“the children of the devil”; when he said “reapers,” his servants were
to be understood, etc. (Matt. 13) The same classes were represented by different symbols
in different parables. Thus the “wheat” of one parable correspond to the
“faithful servants” and the “wise virgins “ of others. So in this
parable the “rich man” represents a class, and Lazarus represents another class.
In attempting to expound a parable such as this, an
explanation of which the Lord does not furnish us, modesty in expressing our opinion
regarding it is certainly appropriate. We therefore offer the following explanation
without any attempt to force our views upon the reader, except so far as his own
truth-enlightened judgment may commend them as in accord with God’s Word and plan. To
our understanding Abraham represented God, and the “rich man” represented the
Jewish nation. At the time of the utterance of the parable, and for a long time previous,
the Jews had “fared sumptuously every day,” being the especial recipients of
God’s favors. As Paul says: “What advantage, then, hath the Jew? Much
every way: chiefly, because to them were committed the oracles of God [law and
prophecy].” The promises to Abraham and David invested that people with royalty, as
represented by the rich man’s “purple.” The typical sacrifices of
the law constituted them, in a typical sense, a holy (righteous) nation, represented by
the rich man’s “fine linen,” symbolic of righteousness.— Rev.
19:8.
39 What Say the Scriptures?
Lazarus represented the outcasts from divine favor
under the law, who though sin-sick, hungered and thirsted after righteousness. Although
these include “publicans and sinners” of Israel, in the main they were
Gentiles—all nations of the world aside from the Israelites.
These, at the time of the utterance of this parable,
were entirely destitute of those special divine blessings which Israel enjoyed. They lay
at the gate of the rich man. No rich promises of royalty were theirs; not even typically
were they cleansed; but, in moral sickness, pollution and sin, they were companions of
“dogs.” Dogs were regarded as detestable creatures in those days, and the
typically clean Jew called the outsiders “heathen” and “dogs,” and
would never eat with them, nor marry with them, nor have any dealings with them. (John
4:9) As to how these ate of the “crumbs” of divine favor which fell from
Israel’s table of bounties, the Lord’s words to the Syro-Phoenician woman give
us a key. He said to this Gentile woman—“It is not meet [proper] to take the
children’s [Israelites’] bread and to cast it to dogs [Gentiles]”; and she
answered, “Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their
master’s table.” (Matt. 5:26, 27) Jesus healed her daughter, thus giving the
desired crumb of favor. But there came a time (when as a nation they rejected and
crucified the Son of God) when their typical righteousness ceased—when the promise of
royalty ceased to be theirs, and the kingdom was taken from them to be given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof—the Gospel church, “a holy nation, a peculiar
people.” (Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:7, 9; Matt. 21:43) The “rich man” died to
all these special advantages and soon he (the Jewish nation) found himself in a cast-off
condition—in tribulation and affliction. In such condition that nation has suffered
from that day to this.
Lazarus also died. The condition of the humble
40 What Say the Scriptures?
Gentiles and the “outcasts” of Israel
underwent a change, and from them many were carried by the angels
(messengers—apostles, etc.) to Abraham’s bosom. Abraham is represented as the
father of the faithful, and receives all the children of faith, who are thus recognized as
the heirs of all the promises made to Abraham; for the children of the flesh are not the
children of God, “but the children of the promise are counted for the seed”
(children of Abraham); “which seed is Christ”; and “if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye [believers] Abraham’s seed [children], and heirs according to the
[Abrahamic] promise, (Gal, 3:29) Yes, the termination of the condition of things then
existing was well illustrated by the figure, death—the dissolution of the Jewish
polity and the withdrawal of the favors which Israel had so long enjoyed. There the Jews
were cast off and have since been shown “no favor,” while the poor Gentiles, who
before had been “aliens from the commonwealth [the polity] of Israel and strangers
from the covenant of promise [up to this time given to Israel only] having no hope and without
God in the world,” were then “made nigh by the blood of Christ” and
reconciled to God.—Eph. 2:12, 13.
To the symbolisms of death and burial used to
illustrate the dissolution of Israel and their burial or hiding among the other nations,
our Lord added a further figure: “In hell [hades, the grave] he lifted up his
eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off,” etc. The dead cannot lift up
their eyes, nor see either near or far, nor converse; for it is distinctly stated,
“There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave,”
and the dead are described as those who “go down into silence.” (Eccl.
9:10; Psa. 115:17) But the Lord wished to show that great sufferings or
“torments” would be added to the Jews as a nation after their national
dissolution and burial, and that they would plead in vain for release at the
41 What Say the Scriptures?
hand of the formerly despised Gentiles. And history
has borne out this parabolic prophecy.
For eighteen hundred years the Jews have not only
been in distress of mind over their casting out from the favor of God and the loss of
their temple and other necessaries to the offering of their sacrifices, but they have been
relentlessly persecuted by all classes, including professed Christians. It was from the
latter that the Jews have expected mercy, as expressed in the parable: “Send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.”
But the great gulf fixed between them hinders that.
Nevertheless, God still recognizes the relationship established in his covenant with them,
and addresses them as children of the covenant. (Verse 25) These “torments” have
been the penalties attached to the violation of their covenant, and were as certain to be
visited upon them as the blessings promised for obedience.—Lev. 26.
The “great gulf fixed” represents the wide
difference between the Gospel church and the Jew—the former enjoying free grace,
joy, comfort and peace, as true sons of God, and the latter holding to the law, which
condemns and torments him. Prejudice, pride and error, from the Jewish side, form the
bulwarks of this gulf which hinder the Jew from coming into the condition of true sons of
God by accepting Christ and the gospel of his grace. The bulwark of this gulf which
hinders true sons of God from going to the Jew, under the bondage of the law, is their
knowledge that by the deeds of the law none can be justified before God, and that if any
man keep the law (put himself under it to try to commend himself to God by reason
of obedience to it), Christ shall profit him nothing. (Gal. 5:2-4) So, then, we who are of
the Lazarus class should not attempt to mix the law and the Gospel, knowing that they
cannot be mixed, and that we can do no good to those who still cling to the law and
42 What Say the Scriptures?
reject the sacrifice for sins given by our
Lord. And they not seeing the change of dispensation which took place, argue that to deny
the law as power to save would be to deny all the past history of their race, and to deny
all of God’s special dealings with the “fathers” (promises and dealings
which through pride and selfishness they failed rightly to apprehend and use); hence they
cannot come over to the bosom of Abraham, into the true rest and peace—the portion of
all the true children of faith.—John 8:39; Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:29.
True, a few Jews probably came into the Christian
faith all the way down the Gospel age, but so few as to be ignored in a parable which
represented the Jewish people as a whole. As at the first, Dives represented the orthodox
Jews, and not the “outcasts of Israel,” so down to the close of the parable he
continues to represent a similar class, and hence does not represent such Jews as have
renounced the Law Covenant and embraced the Covenant of Grace, or such as have become
infidels.
The plea of the rich man for the sending of Lazarus
to his five brethren we interpret as follows: The people of Judea, at the time of
our Lord’s utterance if this parable were repeatedly referred to as
“Israel,” “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” “cities of
Israel,” etc., because all of the tribes were represented there; but actually the
majority of the people were of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, the masses of the ten
tribes not having returned from Babylon under Cyrus’ general permission. If the
nation of the Jews (chiefly two tribes) were represented in the one “rich
man,” it would be a harmony of numbers to understand the “five brethren” to
represent the ten tribes chiefly scattered abroad. The request relative to them was
doubtless introduced to show that all special favor of God ceased to the ten
tribes, as well as to the two more directly addressed. It seems
43 What Say the Scriptures?
to us evident that Israel only was meant, for no
other nation than Israel had “Moses and the prophets” as instructors. (Verse 29)
The ten tribes had so far disregarded Moses and the prophets that they did not return to
the land of promise, but preferred to dwell among idolaters, and hence it would be useless
to attempt further communication with them, even by one from the dead—the
figuratively dead, but now figuratively risen, Gentiles who receive Christ—Ephesians
2:5.
Though the parable mentions no abridging of this
“great gulf,” other portions of the Scripture indicate that it was to be
“fixed” only throughout the Gospel age, and that its close the “rich
man,” having received the measure of punishment for his sins,* will walk out of the
fiery troubles over the bridge of God’s mercies yet unfulfilled to that nation.
Though for centuries the Jews have been bitterly
persecuted by Pagans, Mohammedans and professed Christians, they are now gradually rising
to political freedom and influence; and as a people they will be very prominent among the
nations in the beginning of the Millennium. The vail of prejudice still exists, but it
will be gradually taken away as the light of the Millennial morning dawns; nor should we
be surprised to hear a great awakening among the Jews and many coming to acknowledge
Christ. They will thus leave their hadean state (national death) and torment, and
come, the first of the nations, to be blessed by the true seed of Abraham, which is
Christ, Head and body. Their bulwark of race prejudice and pride is falling in some
places, and the humble, the poor in spirit, are beginning already to look upon him whom
they have pierced, and to inquire, Is not this the Christ? And as they look the Lord pours
upon them the spirit of favor and supplication.
*—See Isa. 40:1, 2, margin, and Scripture Studies, Vol. No. II, page 227.
44 What Say the Scriptures?
(Zech. 12:10) Therefore, “Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished.”—Isa.
40:1, 2, margin.
In a word, this parable seems to teach precisely what
Paul explained in Rom. 11:19-32. Because of unbelief the natural branches were broken off,
and the wild branches grafted into the Abrahamic root-promise. The parable leaves the Jews
in their trouble, and does not refer to their final restoration to favor—doubtless
because it was not pertinent to the feature of the subject treated; but Paul assures us
that when the fulness of the Gentiles—the full number from among the Gentiles
necessary to make up the bride of Christ—is come in, “they [the Israelites]
shall obtain mercy through your [the church’s] mercy.” He assures us that this
is God’s covenant with fleshly Israel (who lost the higher, spiritual
promises, but who are still the possessors of certain earthly promises, to become the
chief nation of earth, etc.) In proof of this statement, he quotes from the prophets,
saying, “The deliverer shall come out of Zion [the glorified church], and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob [the fleshly seed].” “As concerning the
Gospel [high calling,] they are enemies [cast off] for your sakes; but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” “For God hath concluded
them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches, both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”—Rom. 11:26-33.
PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS.
MATT. 25:31-46.
“These shall go away into everlasting
punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.”
While the Scriptures, as we have shown, do not teach
the blasphemous doctrine of eternal torment, they do most emphatically teach the eternal
punishment of the wicked, the class represented in this parable
45 What Say the Scriptures?
as goats. Let us examine the parable, and then the
sentence pronounced at its close. It has been truly said that “Order is heaven’s
first law”; yet few, we think, have realized how emphatically this is true. In
glancing back over the plan of the ages, there is nothing which gives such conclusive
evidence of a Divine Director as the order observed in all its parts.
As we have seen, God has had definite and stated
times and seasons for every part of his work; and in the end of each of these seasons
there has been a finishing up of that work and a clearing off of the rubbish, preparatory
to the beginning of the new work of the dispensation to follow. Thus in the end of the
first dispensation (from creation to the flood) which, as we have seen, was placed under
the control of the angels, there was a finishing work, an exhortation through Noah to
forsake sin and turn to righteousness, and a warning of certain retribution, And when the end
of the time allotted for that dispensation had come, there was a selection and saving
of all that was worth saving, and a clean sweeping destruction of all the refuse; and with
that which remained a new dispensation began.
In the end of the Jewish age the same order is
observed—a harvesting and complete separation of the wheat class from the chaff, and
an entire rejection of the latter class from God’s favor. With the few judged worthy
in the end of that age, i.e., the Gospel age began; and now we find ourselves
amidst the closing scenes (the harvest) of this age. The wheat and the tares which have
grown together during this age are being separated. And with the former class, of which
our Lord Jesus is the Head, a new age is about to be inaugrated, and these are to reign as
kings and priests in the new dispensation, while the “tare” element is judged as
utterly unworthy of that favor..
46 What Say the Scriptures?
While observing this order with reference to the
dispensations past and the one just closing, our Lord informs us through the parable under
consideration that the same order will be observed with reference to the dispensation to
follow this Gospel age.
The harvest of the Jewish age was likened to the
separation of wheat from chaff; the harvest of this age to the separation of wheat from
the tares; and the harvest of the Millennial age to the separation of sheep from goats.
That the parable of the sheep and goats refers to the
Millennial age is clearly indicated in verses 31 and 32—“When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, THEN shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats (the church) goes
to make a part of that character which, in due time, will determine the final decision of
the Judge in our case, who will it be with the world (the nations”) in the age to
come. As in the present age the trial of the majority of the individual members is
reached, long before the end of the age (2 Tim. 4:7, 8), so under the Millennial reign the
decision of some individual cases will be reached long before the end of the age (Isa.
65:20}; but in each age there is a “harvest” or general separating time in the
end of the age.
In the dawn of the Millennial age, after the time or
trouble, “there will be a gathering of the living nations before Christ, and, in
their appointed time and order, the dead of all nations shall be called to appear before
the judgment seat of Christ—not to receive an immediate sentence, but to receive a
fair and impartial individual trial (Ezek. 18:2-4, 19, 20) under the most favorable
circumstances of the result of which
47 What Say the Scriptures?
trial will be a final sentence, as worthy or unworthy
of everlasting life.”
The scene of this parable therefore, is laid after
the time of trouble, when the nations shall have been subdued, Satan bound (Rev. 20:1, 2}
and the authority of Christ’s kingdom established. Ere this, the bride of Christ (the
overcoming church} will have been seated with him in his throne, and will have taken part
in executing the judgment of the great day of wrath. Then the Son of man appears (is made
manifest) to the world “in his glory,” and, together Jesus and his bride
“shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.”—Matt. 13:43.
Here is the New Jerusalem as John saw it (Rev.21),
“that the holy city [symbol of government]. . . coming down from God out of
heaven.” During the time of trouble it will be coming down, and before the end of the
city will have touched the earth. This is the stone cut out of the mountains without hands
(but by the power of God), and it will have become a great mountain (kingdom), filling the
whole earth (Dan. 21:35}, its coming having broken to pieces the evil kingdoms of the
prince of darkness.
Here is that glorious city (government), prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2), and early in the dawn of the Millennium
the nations begin to walk in the light of it. (Verse 24) These may bring their glory and
honor into it, but “there shall in no wise enter into it [or become a part of it]
anything that defileth,” etc. (Verse 27) Here, from the midst of the throne, proceeds
a pure river of water of life (truth unmixed with error), and the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come, and take it freely. (Rev. 22:17) Here begins the world’s probation, the
world’s great judgment day—a thousand years.
But even in this favored time of blessing and healing
of
48 What Say the Scriptures?
the nations, when Satan is bound, evil restrained,
when mankind is released from the grasp of death, and when the knowledge of the Lord fills
the earth, two classes will be developed, which our Lord here likens to sheep and goats.
These, he tells us, he will separate. The sheep class, those who are meek, teachable and
willing to be led—shall—during the age be gathered at the Judge’s right
hand—symbol of his approval; but the goat class, self-willed and stubborn, always
climbing on the rocks—seeking prominence and approval among men—and feeding on
miserable refuse, while the sheep graze in the rich pastures of the truth furnished by the
Good Shepherd—these are gathered to the Judge’s left hand, opposite the position
of favor, as subjects of his disfavor and condemnation.
This work of separating sheep and goats will require
all of the Millennial age for its accomplishment. During that age each individual, as he
comes gradually to a knowledge of God and of his will, takes his place at the right hand
of favor or the left hand of disfavor, according as he improves or
misimproves the opportunities of that golden age. By the end of that age, all the world
of mankind will have arranged themselves, as shown in the parable, into two classes.
The end of that age will be the end of the
world’s trial or judgment, and then final disposition will be made of the two
classes. The reward of this sheep class will be granted them because during the age of
trial and discipline, they cultivated and manifested the beautiful character of love,
which Paul describes as the fulfilling of the law of God. (Rom. 13:10) They will have
manifested it to each other in their times of sorest need; and what they will have done
unto him, counting them all as his brethren—children of God, though they will be of
the human nature, while he is of the divine.
The condemnation of the goat class is shown to be
49 What Say the Scriptures?
for the lack of this spirit love. Under the same
favorable circumstances as the sheep, they wilfully resist the moulding influence of the
Lord’s discipline, and harden their hearts. The goodness of God does not lead them to
true repentance; but, like Pharaoh, they take advantage of his goodness and do evil. The
goats, who will not have developed the element of love, the law of God’s being
and kingdom, will be counted unworthy of life, and will be destroyed; while the sheep, who
will have developed God-likeness (love) and who will have exhibited it in their
characters, are to be installed as the joint-rulers of earth for future ages.
In the end of the Millennial age, in the final
adjustment of human affairs, Christ thus addresses his sheep: “Come, ye blessed, . .
. inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
It is manifest the sheep here addressed at the close
of the Millennium, are not the sheep of the Gospel age, the Gospel church, but those
“other sheep” to whom the Lord referred in John 10:16. And the kingdom prepared
for them in the divine plan, from the foundation of the world, is not the kingdom prepared
for the Gospel church. The church will have received her kingdom at the beginning of the
Millennium; but this is the kingdom prepared for the sheep of the Millennial age. It is
the dominion of earth which was originally given to Adam, but which was lost through sin,
and which is again to be restored when man is brought to perfection, and so made fit to
receive and enjoy it. The dominion was not a dominion of some of the race over others, but
a joint dominion, in which every man will be a king, and all will have equal rights and
privileges in appropriating and enjoying every earthly good. It will be a sovereign
people—a great and grand republic on a basis of perfect righteousness, wherein the
rights of every man will be conserved; for the Golden Rule will be inscribed on every
heart, and
50 What Say the Scriptures?
every man will love his neighbor as himself. The
dominion of all will be over the whole earth, and all its rich and bountiful stores of
blessing. (Gen. 1:28; Psa. 8:5-8) The kingdom of the world, to be given to the perfected
and worthy ones of the redeemed race at the close of the Millennium, is clearly
distinguished from all others by being called the kingdom prepared for them “from the
foundation of the world,” the earth having been made to be the everlasting home and
kingdom of perfect men. But the kingdom bestowed upon Christ, of which the church, his
“bride,” becomes joint-heir, is a spiritual kingdom, “far above angels,
principalities and powers,” and it also shall “have no end”—the
Millennial kingdom, which will end, being merely a beginning of Christ’s power and
rule. This endless heavenly, spiritual kingdom was prepared long before the earth was
founded—its inception being recognized in Christ, “the beginning of the creation
of God.” It was purposed for Christ Jesus, the Firstbegotten; but even the church,
his bride and joint-heir, was chosen or designed also, in him, before the
foundation of the world.—Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thes:13.
This, then, is the kingdom that has been in
preparation for mankind from the foundation of the world. It was expedient that
man should suffer six thousand years under the dominion of evil, to learn its inevitable
results of misery and death, in order by contrast to prove the justice, wisdom and
goodness of God’s law of love. Then it will require the seventh thousand-years, under
the reign of Christ, to restore him from ruin and death, to the perfect condition, thereby
fitting him to inherit the kingdom prepared for him from the foundation of the world.
That kingdom, in which all will be kings, will be
one grand, universal republic, whose stability and blessed influence will be assured by
the perfection of
51 What Say the Scriptures?
its every citizen, a result now much desired, but an
impossibility because of sin. The kingdom of Christ during the Millennium will be on the
contrary, a theocracy, which will rule the world (during the period of its imperfection
and restoration) without regard to its consent or approval.
But the righteous inquire why they are crowned with
such glory, honor and dominion. And the Lord replies: “I was hungry, and you fed me;
thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you
clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me; in prison, and you came unto me.
“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
“Lord, when we saw thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When
saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee,
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The brethren of the Gospel church, then, are not the
only brethren of Christ. All who at that time will have been restored to perfection will
be recognized as sons of God—sons in the same sense that Adam was a son of God (Luke
3:38)—human sons. And all of God’s sons, whether on the human, the
angelic or the divine plane, are brethren. Our Lord’s love for these his human
brethren, is here expressed. As the world now has the opportunity to minister to those who
are shortly to be the divine sons of God, and brethren of Christ, so they will have
abundant opportunity during the age to come to minister to (each other) the human
brethren.
The dead nations when again brought into existence
will need food, raiment and shelter. However great may have been their possessions
in this life, death will have brought all to a common level. The
52 What Say the Scriptures?
infant and the man of mature years, the millionaire
and the pauper, the learned and the unlearned, the cultured and the ignorant and
degraded—all will have an abundant opportunity for the exercise of benevolence, and
thus they will be privileged to be co-workers with God.
We are here reminded of the illustration given in the
case of Lazarus: Jesus only awakened him from death, and then were the rejoicing friends
permitted to loose him from his grave clothes and to clothe and feed him.
Further, these are said to be “sick and in
prison” (more properly, under ward or watch). The grave is the great prison where the
millions of humanity have been held in unconscious captivity; but when released from the
grave, the restoration to perfection is not to be an instantaneous work. Being not yet
perfect, they may properly be termed sick and under ward.
They are not dead, neither are they perfect; and any
condition between those two is properly called sickness. And they will continue to be
under watch or ward until made well— physically, mentally and morally perfect. During
that time there will be abundant opportunity for mutual helpfulness, sympathy, instruction
and encouragement.
Since all mankind will not be raised at once, but
gradually, during the thousand years, each new group will find an army of helpers in those
who will have preceded it. The love and benevolence which men will then show to each other
(the brethren of Christ) the King will count as shown to him. No great deeds are assigned
as the ground for honors and favors conferred upon the righteous: they will have simply
come into harmony with God’s law of love and proved it by their works. “Love is
the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), and “God is love.” So, when man is
restored again to the image of God—“very good”—man also will be
a living expression of love.
53 What Say the Scriptures?
To the sheep it is said: “Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But though God gave it to man at
first, and designs restoring it to him when he has been prepared for the great trust, we
are not to suppose that God intends man to rule it, except as under, or in harmony with,
his supreme law. “Thy will be done in earth as in heaven,” must forever be the
principle of government.
Man thenceforth will rule his dominion in harmony,
with the law of heaven—delighting continually to do his will in whose favor is life,
and at whose “right hand [condition of favor] there are pleasures forevermore.”
(Psa. 16:11) Oh, who would not say, “Haste thee along, ages of glory,” and give
glory and honor to him whose loving plans are blossoming into such fulness of blessing!
Then follows the message to those on the left”
“Depart from me, ye cursed” (condemned)— condemned as unfit vessels for the
glory and honor of life, who would not yield to the moulding and shaping influences of
divine love. When these my brethren, were hungry and thirsty, or naked, sick, and in
prison, ye ministered not to their necessities, thus continually proving yourselves out of
harmony with the heavenly city (kingdom); for “there shall in no case enter into it
anything that defileth.” The decision or sentence regarding this class is—
“Depart from me into everlasting fire [symbol of destruction]. prepared for the devil
and his angels.” Elsewhere (Heb. 2:14) we read in plain language that Christ
“will destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.”
“And these [the goats] shall go away into
everlasting [Greek, aionios—lasting].” The punishment will be as lasting
as the reward. Both will be everlasting.
54 What Say the Scriptures?
EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT
The everlastingness of the punishment being thus
established, only one point is left open for discussion; namely, the nature of the
punishment. Take your Concordance and search out what saith the great Judge regarding the
punishment of wilful sinners who despise and reject all his blessed provisions for them,
through Christ. What do you find? Does God there say: “All sinners shall live in
torture forever”? We do not find a single text where life in any condition is
promised to that class.
God’s declaration assure us that he will have a
clean universe, free from the blight of sin and from sinners.
But while we do not find one verse of the Bible
saying that this class can have life in torment, or in any other condition,
we do find numerous passages teaching the reverse. Of these we give a few merely as
samples—“The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezek. 18:4, 20) “All the wicked will God destroy.”
(Psa. 145:20) The wicked shall “perish.” (Psa. 37:20) Thus God has told us
plainly the nature of the everlasting punishment of the wicked—that it will be death,
destruction, annihilation.
The false ideas of God’s plan of dealing with
the incorrigible, taught ever since the great “falling away,” which culminated
in Papacy, and instilled in our minds from childhood, are alone responsible for the view
generally held, that the punishment provided for wilful sinners is life of torment. This
view is held, notwithstanding the many clear statements of God’s Word that their
punishment is to be death. Here Paul states very explicity what the punishment is
to be. Speaking of the same Millennial day, and of the same class, who, despite all the
favorable opportunities and the fulness of knowledge then, will not
55 What Say the Scriptures?
come into harmony with Christ, and hence will
“know not God,” and obey not, he says: “Who shall be punished.? He
tells us how; They shall be punished with everlasting destruction [a destruction
from which there shall be no recovery, no redemption or resurrection—Heb. 10:26-29]
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.” (2 Thes. 1:9) This
destruction is represented in the parable as the everlasting fire prepared for the devil
and his angels: it is “the lake of fire and brimstone,” which is the second
death (Rev. 20:14), into which the goat class of this parable are sent.
Thus the meaning and reasonableness of this statement
concerning everlasting punishment are readily seen when looked at from the correct
standpoint. The fire of the parable, by which the punishment (destruction) is to be
accomplished, will not be literal fire, for the “fire,” is as much a symbol as
the “sheep” and “goats” are symbols. Fire here, as elsewhere,
symbolozes destruction, and not in any sense preservation.
We might well leave this subject here, and consider
that we have fully shown that the everlasting punishment of the goat class will be
destruction; but we would direct attention to one other point which clinches the truth
upon this subject. We refer to the Greek word kolasin, translated
“punishment,” in verse 46. This word has not the remotest idea of torment in it.
Its signification is to cut off, or prune, or lop off, as in the pruning of trees;
and a secondary meaning is to restrain. Illustrations of the use of kolasin can
easily be had from Greek classical writings. The Greek word for “torment” is basinos,
a word totally unrelated to the word kolasin.
Kolasin, the word used in Matt 25:46, occurs
in the one other place in the Bible, viz., 1 John 4:18, where it is improperly rendered
“torment” in the Common Version, whereas it should read, “Fear hath
restraint.”
56 What Say the Scriptures?
Those who possess a copy of Young’s
Analytical Concordance will see from it (page 995), that the definition of the word kolasis
is “pruning, restraining, restraint.” And the author of the Emphatic
Diaglott, after translating kolas in Matt. 25:46 by the words “cutting
off,” says in a footnote:
“The Common Version and many modern ones render kolas
aionion ‘everlasting punishment,’ conveying the idea, as generally
interpreted, of basinos, torment. Kolasin in its various forms occurs in
only three other places in the New Testament: Acts 4:21; 2 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 4:18. It is
derived from kolazoo, which signifies, 1. To cut off; as lopping off
branches of trees, to prune. 2. To restrain to repress. The Greeks write; ‘The
charioteer restrains [kalazei] his fiery steeds.’ 3. To chastise, to
punish. To cut off an individual from life, or from society, or even to restrain, is
esteemed as a punishment; hence has arisen this third metaphorical use of the word. The
primary signification has been adopted [in the Diaglott]; because it agrees better
with the second member of the sentence, thus preserving the force and beauty of the
antithesis. The righteous go to life, the wicked to the cutting off from
life—death.—2. Thes. 1:9.”
Now consider carefully the text, and note the
antithesis or contrast shown between the reward of the sheep and the goats, which the
correct idea of kolasin gives—the one class goes into everlasting life, while
the other is everlasting cut off from life, forever restrained in death.
And this exactly agrees with what the Scriptures
everywhere else declare concerning the wages or penalty of wilful sin.
Consider for the moment the words of verse 41: Depart
from me, ye cursed [once redeemed by Christ from the Adamic curse or condemnation of
death, but now condemned or cursed, as worthy of the second death, by the One who redeemed
them from the first curse], into everlasting fire [symbol of everlasting destruction],
prepared for the devil and his messengers [servants].”
57 What Say the Scriptures?
Remember that this is the final sentence at the close
of the final trial—at the close of the Millennium. And none will then be servants of
Satan ignorantly or unwillingly, as so many now are; for the great Deliverer, Christ, will
remove outside temptations, and provide assistance toward self-improvement, which will
enable all who will to overcome inherent weakness and to attain perfection.” These
“goats,” who love evil and serve Satan, are the messengers (“angels”)
of Satan. For these and Satan, and for no others, God has prepared the everlasting
destruction—the second death. Fire will come from God out of heaven and consume
them. Consuming fire and devouring fire all can appreciate, unless their eyes are
holden by false doctrine and prejudice. No one ever knew of a preserving fire; and
as fire never preserves, but always consumes, God uses it as a symbol of utter
destruction.
“THE LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, WHICH IS
THE SECOND DEATH.”
—REV. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8.—
“The lake of fire and brimstone” is several
times mentioned in the book of Revelation, which all Christians admit to be a book of
symbols. However, they generally think and speak of this particular symbol as a literal
statement, giving strong support to the torment doctrine, notwithstanding the fact that
the symbol is clearly defined as meaning the second death: “And death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death,” etc. (Rev. 20:14) it is
sometimes spoken as “a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:20), the
element brimstone being mentioned to intensify the symbol of destruction, the second
death, burning brimstone being one of the most deadly elements known. It is destructive to
all forms of life.
58 What Say the Scriptures?
The symbolism of this lake of fire is further shown
by the fact that the symbolic beast and the symbolic false prophet, and death and hell [hades],
as well as the devil and his followers, are destroyed in it.—Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14,
15; 21:8.
This destruction or death is called the second death
in contradistinction to the first or Adamic death, and not to signify that everything
which goes into it dies a second time. For instance death (the first or Adamic death), and
hades, the grave, are to be cast into it, which work will require the entire
Millennium to accomplish it; and in no sense will they ever have been destroyed before. So
also the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, will never have been destroyed before.
From the first, or Adamic death, a resurrection has
been provided. All that are in their graves shall come forth. The Revelator prophetically
declares: “The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell [hades, the
grave] gave up the dead which were in them. . . . And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God, and the books were opened.” (Rev. 20:13, 12) It was in view of
God’s plan for redeeming the race from that first death that in both the Old and New
Testaments it is called a “sleep.” In Isarael’s history of the good
and the wicked it is repeatedly stated that they “slept with their fathers.” The
apostles used the same symbol, and our Lord also. But no such symbol is used in reference
to the second death.
On the contrary, the strongest figures of total and
utter destruction are used to symbolize it; viz., “fire and brimstone”;
for that will be a destruction from which there will be no recovery.
Blessed thought! the Adamic death (which claimed the
whole race for the sin of their progenitor) shall be forever swallowed up, and shall cease
in this second death into which it is to be cast, by the great Redeemer, who
59 What Say the Scriptures?
bought the whole world with the sacrifice of himself.
Thus God tells us through the Prophet, “I will ransom them from the power of the
grave [sheol]. I will redeem them from death. . . . O grave [sheol]. I will
be thy destruction.” (Hos. 13:14) The first or Adamic death shall no longer have
liberty or power over men, as it has had for the past six thousand years; no longer shall
any die for Adam’s sin. {Rom.5:12; Jer 31:29, 30; Ezek. 18:2) Thenceforth the New
Covenant, sealed with the precious blood, shall be in force, and only wilful transgressions
will be counted as sin and punished with the wages of sin—death—the second
death. Thus will the first death be cast into and swallowed up by the second death. And hades
and sheol—the dark, secret condition, the grave, which in the present time
speaks to us of a hope of future life by God’s resurrection power in
Christ—shall be no more; for the second death will devour no being fit for
life—none for whom there remains a shadow of hope, but such only as, by the unerring
Judge, have been fully, impartially and individually found worthy of destruction. And
Satan, that lying tempter who deceived and ruined us all, and who, with persistent energy
and cunning, has sought continually to thwart the purpose of God for our salvation through
Christ, with all who are of his spirit, “his angels,” shall be destroyed, and
shall never awake from death to trouble the world again. Here he is said to be cast into
“the lake of fire,” the second death; and Paul in Heb. 2:14, referring to the
same thing, calls it destruction—“that he might destroy death, and him
that hath the power of death, that is the devil.” And “the beast and the false
prophet,” the great false systems which have long fettered and oppressed nominal
Christendom, shall never escape from it. These are said to be cast “alive” (that
is, while they are still organized and operative) into the lake of fire burning with
brimstone. (Rev. 19:20) The great trouble, the
60 What Say the Scriptures?
Lord’s judgment, which will utterly destroy
them, will undoubtedly cause a great social, financial and religious difficulty and pain
to all those identified with these deceived and deceiving systems, before they are utterly
destroyed. These systems will be cast in, destroyed at the beginning of the Millennium,
while Satan’s destruction is reserved until its close, when all the “goats”
shall have been separated from the “sheep,” and they shall perish with Satan in
the second death, as “his angels,” messengers or servants. None of those
abominable characters among men, who, knowing the truth, yet love
unrighteousness—none of “the fearful and unbelieving”—those who will
not trust God after all the manifestations of his grace afforded during the Millennial
reign of Christ; nor the abominable, who at heart are murderers and whoremongers and
sorcerers and idolaters and liars: none of these shall ever escape the second death, to
defile the earth again. All such after a full abundant opportunity for reformation, will
be judged unworthy of life, and will be forever cut off in the second death, symbolized by
the lake of fire and brimstone.
Several prophetic pen pictures of the Millennial age
and its work in chapters 20 and 21 of Revelation, clearly show the object and result of
that age of trial, in harmony with the remainder of the Scriptures already noted.
Chapter 20, verses 2, 4, 11, with verses 1, 2, 10, 11
of chapter 21, show the beginning of the age of judgment, and the restraining of blinding
errors and misleading systems. The “beast” and the “false prophet” are
the chief symbols, and represent the organizations of systems of error which together
constitute Babylon. This judgment against the “thrones” of the present time, and
against “the beast and the false prophet” systems, follows speedily upon
the introduction of this Millennial judgment reign. The thrones of present dominion of
earth will be “cast down,” and the dominion
61 What Say the Scriptures?
transferred to the great Prophet and judge,
“whose right it is.” (Compare Dan. 7:14,22; Ezek. 21:27) And the systems of
error will be speedily judged worthy of destruction, “the lake of fire,”
“the second death.”—Rev. 19:20.
Thus the second destruction (or death) begins
quite early in the new judgment: it begins with the false systems symbolized by the beast,
false prophet, etc. But the second death will not reach the world of mankind, as
individuals, until they have first had full trial, with full opportunity to choose life
and live forever, Chapters 20:12, 13, and 21:3-7, indicate the blessed, favorable trial in
which all, both dead and living (except the church, who with Jesus Christ are kings,
priests, joint-heirs and judges), will be brought to a full knowledge of the truth,
relieved from sorrow and pain, and freed from every blinding error and prejudice, and
tried “according to their works,”
The grand outcome of that trial will be a clean
universe. As the Revelator expresses it, “Every creature which is in heaven and on
the earth. . . heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.” But this result will be
accomplished in harmony with all God’s dealings past and present, which have always
recognized man’s freedom of will to choose good or evil, life or death.
We cannot doubt that when, in the close of the
Millennial age, God will again for a “little season” permit evil to triumph, in
order thereby to test his creatures (who will by that time have become thoroughly
acquainted with both good and evil, and the consequences of each, and will have had his
justice and love fully demonstrated to them), that those who finally prefer and choose
evil will be cut off—destroyed. Thus God will for all eternity remove all who do not
love righteousness and hate iniquity.
62 What Say the Scriptures?
We read, regarding that testing, that Satan will
endeavor to lead astray all mankind, whose numbers will then be as the sand of the
sea for multitude; but that many of them will choose evil and disobedience,
with past experience before them, and unhampered by present weakness and blinding
influences, we do not suppose. However, when God does not tell us either the number or the
proportion of these found worthy of life, and those judged worthy of death {the second
death), we may not dogmatize. Of one thing we may be confident, God willeth not the death
of the wicked, but would that all should turn to him and live; and no one will be
destroyed in that “lake of fire and brimstone” (figurative of utter destruction,
as gehenna) who is worthy of life, whose living longer would be a blessing to
himself or to others in harmony with righteousness.
That utter and hopeless destruction is intended only
for wilful doers, who like Satan, in pride of heart and rebellion against God, will
love and do evil notwithstanding their experience with its penalties. Seemingly the
goodness and love of God in the provision of a ransom, a restitution, and another
opportunity of life for man, instead of leading these to an abhorrence of sin, will lead
them to suppose that God is too loving to cut them off in the second death, or that if he
did so he would give them other, and yet other, future opportunities. Building thus upon a
supposed weakness in the divine character, these may be led to try to take advantage of
the grace (favor) of God, and to use it as a license for wilful sin. But they shall go no
further, for their folly shall be manifest. Their utter destruction will prove to the
righteous the harmony and perfect balance of justice, wisdom, love and power in the divine
Ruler, Such are called the “angels” (messengers, followers, servants) of Satan.
And for such, as well as for Satan, the utter destruction
63 What Say the Scriptures?
(the second death) is prepared by the wise, loving
and just Creator. And so, in the parable of the sheep and goats, the latter are called the
messengers or servants of Satan.
The true character of the goat class is portrayed in
Rev. 21:8. “The fearful and unbelieving [who will not trust God], the abominable,
murderers [brother-haters], whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters [such as misappropriate and
misuse divine favors, who give to self or any other creature or thing that service and
honor which belong to God], and all liars”— “whosoever loveth and maketh a
lie” [in a word, all who do not love the truth and seek it, and at any cost defend
and hold it] “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone
[gehenna symbol of utter destruction], which is the second death.” Such
company would be repulsive to any honest, upright beings. It is hard to tolerate them now,
when we can sympathize with them, knowing that such dispositions are now in great measure
the result of inherited weakness of the flesh. We are moved to a measure of sympathy by
the remembrance that in our own cases often, when we would do good, evil is present with
us. But in the close of the Millennial judgment, when the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
have given every advantage and opportunity to knowledge and ability, this class will be an
abhorrence and detestation to all in harmony with the King of Glory. And the
righteous will be glad when, the trial being ended, the gift of life, of which
these shall have proved themselves unworthy, shall be taken from them, and when the
corrupters of the earth, and all their work and influence, shall be destroyed.
Rev. 20:9 tells of the destruction of those
individuals who join with Satan in the last rebellion; and verse 15 tells of the same
destruction in other words, using the symbol “lake of fire.” They are devoured
or
64 What Say the Scriptures?
consumed in fire. This being the case, the
torment of verse 10 cannot refer to these human beings who are consumed, destroyed.
Hence the question narrows down to this, Will Satan and a false prophet and a beast be
tortured forever? and does this verse so teach?
We answer in God’s own words, “All
the wicked will he destroy.” Concerning Satan, the arch enemy of God and man, God
expressly advises us that he will be destroyed and not preserved in any sense or
condition.—Heb. 2:14.
The beast and the false prophet systems, which
during the Gospel age have deceived and led men astray, will be cast into a great,
consuming trouble in the close of this Gospel age. The torment of these systems will be aeionion;
i. e., LASTING. It will continue as long as they last, until they are utterly
consumed. So also the system of errors, which will suddenly manifest itself at the
end of the Millennial age and lead the “goats” to destruction, will be consumed.
(Rev. 20:7-10) That deceiving system (not specified as to kind, but merely called Satan,
after its instigator) will be cast into the same sort of trouble and destruction, in the end
of the Millennial age, as the beast and false prophet systems are now being cast into,
in the end of the Gospel age.
Rev. 19:3, speaking of one of these systems, says,
“Her smoke rose up forever and ever.” That is to say, the remembrance of
the destruction of these systems of deception and error will be lasting, the lesson
will never be forgotten—as smoke, which continues to ascend after a destructive fire,
is testimony that the fire has done its work.—See also Isa. 34:8-10.
Of Rev. 14:9-11 we remark, incidentally, that all
will at once concede that if a literal worshiping of a beast and image were meant
in verse 9, then few, if any, in civilized lands are liable to the penalty of verse 14;
and if the beast and his image and worship and
65 What Say the Scriptures?
wine and cup are symbols, so also are the torments
and smoke and fire and brimstone.
Rev. 20:14 says: “And death and hell
[hades—the tomb] were cast into the lake of fire [destruction]. This is the
second death, the lake of fire.” Sinaitic MS.
“Death and hell” [hades] is used
several times in this book as expressive of the Adamic death.
Hades is the state or condition of death, and is
sometimes translated the grave. It is called a great prison house, because those who enter
it, though actually extinct, are reckoned as not extinct, but merely confined
for a time, and to be brought forth to liberty and a new trial for life, by him who
ransomed them from the penalty of the first trial. It is in view of God’s purpose and
promise of a restitution of all, and a second trial , that the tomb is spoken of as a
great “prison house,” in which the captives of death (the Adamic or first death)
await deliverance. Though dissolved in death, the identity of each being is preserved in
the mind and power of God, and will be reproduced in due time by the resurrection power. Hades,
the prison, the tomb, is referred to by the prophets, the Master himself, and the
apostles. (Hos. 13:14; Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18; John 5:28; 1 Cor. 13:55) The grave is really
a memorial of hope; for we would not speak of it as a prison house were it not for our
hopes of resurrection. If we believed that death ended existence forever, all hope of the
release of the dead would vanish, and we would not think of them as in prison, nor
indicate our hope by a mound.
Apply this thought to the verse under consideration,
and it implies this: The Adamic death and the hopes of resurrection, which by God’s
favor, were attached to it, will pass away, or be utterly destroyed, in the second death.
Those who die the second death will not perish under the first sentence, because of
Adam’s sin, nor have a hope of resurrection from it. Hades is never associated
with the second death; for those
66 What Say the Scriptures?
who go into the second death are in no sense
“prisoners of hope”; they are utterly destroyed, extinct, without hope of any
deliverance by resurrection. Hence the propriety of hades being destroyed.
The destruction of the first death and hades commences
with the beginning of the Millennial reign and continues to its close. It is a gradual process
of casting into destruction. Hades (the grave), will be destroyed when all the dead
in it have heard the Lord’s voice and come forth.
(John 5:25) But “death” will still have
hold upon these, since every ache and pain and every mental and moral imperfection is a
part of the inherited Adamic penalty. The Lord’s words, “He that believeth
[accepteth] not is condemned already” (John 3:18), will be as true then as they are
now. The millions awakened will be still under condemnation, still in death; but the
opportunity then given them to accept perfect life under the New Covenant of God’s
grace will, if rejected, subject them to the second death as wilful sinners. In proportion
as they render obedience to the terms of the New Covenant, progress will be made toward
health, perfection and life. On the other hand, those who, after full knowledge, refuse to
accept and personally apply the merit of the sacrifice of Christ, will remain under
condemnation; because their wills consent to evil, they will make progress toward the
second death. In the case of the obedient, death will be swallowed up of life. In the case
of disobedient, death will be swallowed up of the second death. This is in harmony with
Paul’s explanation {1 Cor. 15:54, 55) of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Then [when
the little flock “we,” have been changed to the full divine nature and likeness
and have begun to reign and bless the world then] shall be brought to pass saying
that is written [Isa. 25:6-8], He will destroy [cast into destruction, or in symbol
“the lake of fire”] in this mountain [symbol of the “Kingdom of God”
or the “New Jerusalem”]
67 What Say the Scriptures?
the face of the covering cast over all people [death]
and the vail [ignorance] that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up [the Adamic]
death victoriously.”
So, then, the casting of death and the grave into
utter destruction, the second death, during the Millennial age, is a part of the utter
destruction which will include every improper, injurious and useless thing. (Isa.
11:9; Psa. 101:5-8) But the second death, the sentence of that individual trial, will be
final; it will never be destroyed. And let all the lovers of righteousness say, Amen; for
to destroy the second death, to remove the sentence of that just and impartial trial,
would be to let loose again not only Satan, but all who love and practice wrong and
deception, and who dishonor the Lord with their evil institutions—to oppose, offend
and endeavor to overthrow those who love and desire to serve him and enjoy his favor. We
rejoice that there is no danger of this, but that divine wisdom, love and power to bring
in everlasting righteousness on a permanent basis.
TURNED INTO HELL.
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all
the nations that forget God.”—Psa. 9:17.
This statement of the Lord recorded by the Psalmist
we find without any qualification whatever, and we must accept it as a positive fact. If
the claims of “Orthodoxy” were true, this would be, indeed, a fearful thought.
But let us substitute the true meaning of the word sheol,
and our text will read: “The wicked shall be turned into the condition of
death, and all the nations that forget God.” This we believe; but next, who are
the wicked? In one sense all men are wicked, in that all are violators of
God’s law; but in this fullest sense the wicked are those who, with full knowledge of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the remedy provided
68 What Say the Scriptures?
for their recovery from its baneful effects, wilfully
persist in sin.
As yet few—only consecrated believers—have
come to a knowledge of God. The world knows him not, and the nations cannot forget God
until they are first brought to a knowledge of him. The consecrated have been enlightened,
led of the Spirit through faith to understand the deep and hidden things of God, which
reveal the glory of God’s character, but which, though expressed in his Word, seem
foolishness to the world.
As we have hitherto seen, this will not be so in the
age to come, for then “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9) Much that we now receive by faith will then be
demonstrated to the world. When he who has ransomed man from the power of the grave (Hos.
13:14) begins to gather his purchased possessions back from the prison-house of death
(Isa. 61:10, when the sleepers are awakened under the genial rays of the Sun of
Righteousness, they will not be slow to realize the truth of the hitherto seemingly idle
tale, that “Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man.”
We have also seen that the gradual ascent of the
king’s highway of holiness in that age will be possible to all, and comparatively
easy, because all the stones—stumbling-blocks, errors, etc.—will have been
gathered out, and straight paths made for men’s feet. It is in that age that this
text applies. Those who ignore the favoring circumstances of that age, and will not be
obedient to the righteous Judge or Ruler—Christ—will truly be the wicked. And
every loyal subject of the kingdom of God will approve the righteous judgment which turns
such a one again into sheol—the condition of death. Such a one would be
unworthy of life; and were he permitted to live, his life would be a curse to himself and
to the rest of mankind, and a blemish on the work of God.
69 What Say the Scriptures?
This will be the second death, from which
there will be no resurrection. Having been ransomed from the grave (sheol) by the
sacrifice of Christ, if they die again on account of their own sin, “there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin.” (Heb. 10:26) “Christ dieth no more; death hath no
more dominion over him.” (Rom. 6:9) The second death should be dreaded and shunned by
all, since it is to be the end of existence to all those deemed unworthy of life. But in
it there can be no suffering. Like the first death, it is the extinction of life.
It is because through sin mankind had become subject
to death (sheol, hades) that Christ Jesus came to deliver us and save us from
death. (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14) Death is a cessation of existence, the absence of LIFE.
There is no difference between the conditions in the first and second death, but
there is hope of a release from the first, while from the second there will be no release,
no return to life. The first death sentence passed upon all on account of Adam’s sin,
while the second death can be incurred only by wilful, individual sin.
That the application of our text belongs to the
coming age is evident, for both saints and sinners go into sheol or hades now.
This scripture indicates that, in the time when it applies only the wicked shall go
there. And the nations that forget God must be nations that have known him, else they
could not forget him; and never yet have the nations been brought to that knowledge, nor
will they be until the coming time, when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole
earth, and none shall need to say unto his neighbor, Know thou the Lord, for all shall,
know him, from the least to the greatest of them.—Isa. 11:9; Jer. 31:34.
The Hebrew word goi, rendered
“nations” in this verse, is elsewhere used by the same writer and rendered
“heathen, “Gentiles” and “people.” The
70 What Say the Scriptures?
thought seems to be any who are not God’s
covenant people, even though they be not openly wicked. The nations (Gentiles, all who
under that full knowledge do not become Israelites indeed) who are forgetful or negligent
of God’s favors enjoyed, and of their duties and obligations to him, shall share the
fate of the wilfully “wicked,” an be cast into the second death.
In further proof of this, we find that the Hebrew
word shub, which in our text is translated “turned,” signifies turned
back, as to a previous place or condition. Those referred to in this text have been
either in sheol or liable to enter it, but, being redeemed by the precious blood of
Christ, will be brought out of sheol. If then they are wicked, they, and all
who forget God, shall be turned back or returned to sheol.
DID THE JEWS BELIEVE IN EVERLASTING TORMENT?
______
Noting that we teach that the doctrine of everlasting
torment was engrafted upon the doctrines of the Christian church during the period of the
apostasy, the great falling away which culminated in Papacy, some have inquired whether it
does not seem, according to the works of Josephus, that this doctrine was firmly held by
the Jews; and, if so, they ask, does it not seem evident that the early Christians, being
largely converts from Judaism, brought this doctrine with them, in the very outstart of
Christianity?
We answer, No, the doctrine of everlasting torment
sprang naturally from the doctrine of human immortality, which as a philosophic question
was first promulgated in anything like the present form by the Platonic school of Grecian
philosophy. These first affirmed that each man contained a fragment of deity, and that
this would prevent him from ever dying. This foundation laid, it was as easy to describe a
place
71 What Say the Scriptures?
for evil-doers as for well-doers. But to the credit
of those heathen philosophers be it recorded that they failed to develop, or at least to
manifest, that depth of degradation from benevolence and reason and pity, necessary to
paint, by word and pen and brush, such details of horrors and agonies as were soon
incorporated into their doctrine, and a belief thereof declared “necessary to
salvation” in the professed church of Christ.
To appreciate the case, it is necessary to remember
that, when the Christian church was established, Greece stood at the head of intelligence
and civilization. Alexander the Great had conquered the world, and had spread respect for
Greece everywhere; and though, from a military point of view, Rome had taken her place, it
was otherwise in literature. For centuries, Grecian philosophers and philosophies led the
intellectual world, and impregnated and effected everything. It became customary for
philosophers and teachers of other theories to claim that their systems and theories were nearly
the same as those of the Grecians, and to endeavor to remove differences between their
old theories and the popular Grecian views.
And some sought to make capital by claiming that
their system embraced all the good points of Platonism with orders which Plato did not
see.
Of this class were the teachers in the Christian
church in the second, third, and forth centuries.
Conceding the popularly accepted correctness of the
philosophers, they claimed that the same good features of philosophy were found in
Christ’s teachings, and that he was one of the greatest philosophers, etc. Thus a
bending of Platonism and Christianity took place. This became the more pronounced as kings
and emperors began to scrutinize religious teachings, and to favor those most likely to
awe the people and make them law-biding. While heathen teachers were truckling to such
imperial scrutiny, and teaching an everlasting punishment for those who violated the laws
72 What Say the Scriptures?
of the emperors (who ruled as divinely appointed), we
cannot suppose otherwise than that the ambitious characters in the church at that time,
who were seeking to displace heathenism and to become the dominant and religious power
instead, would make prominent such doctrines as would in the eyes of the emperors seem to
have an equal hold upon the fears and prejudices of the people. And that could be more to
the purpose than the doctrine of the endless torment of the refractory?
The same motives evidently operated with Josephus
when writing concerning the belief of the Jews. His works should be read as apologies for
Judiasm, and as efforts to exalt that nation in the eyes of Rome and the world. It should
be remembered that the Jews had the reputation of being a very rebellious people, very
unwilling to be ruled even by the Caesars. They were hoping, in harmony with God’s
promises, to become the chief nation. Many rebellious outbreaks had occurred among them,
and their peculiar religion, differing from all others, came in for its share of blame for
favoring too much the spirit of liberty.
Josephus had an object in writing his two principal
works, “Antiquities” and “Wars of the Jews.” He wrote them in the
Greek language while living at Rome, where he was the friend and guest successively of the
Roman emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, and where he was in constant contact with
the Grecian philosophers. These books were written for the purpose of showing off the
Jewish people, their courage, laws, ethics, etc., to the best advantage before the Grecian
philosophers and Roman dignitaries. This object is covertly admitted in his preface of his
“Antiquities,” in which he says: “I have undertaken the present work as
thinking it will appear to all the Greeks worthy of their study. . . . Those that read my
book may wonder that my discourse of laws and historical facts contains so much
73 What Say the Scriptures?
of philosophy . . .However those that have a
mind to know the reasons of everything may find here a curious philosophical theory.”
In a word, as a shrewd man who himself had become
imbued with the spirit of the Grecian philosophers then prevailing, Josephus drew from the
law and the prophets, and from the traditions of the elders and theories of the various
sects of the Jews, all he could find that in the most remote degree would tend to show.
First, that the Jewish religion was not far behind
popular Grecian philosophy; but that somewhat analogous theories had been drawn
from Moses’ law, and held by some Jews, long before the Grecian philosophers broached
them.
Secondly, that it was not their religious ideas
which made the Jews as a people hard to control or rebellious, as all liberty-lovers were
esteemed by the Caesars. Hence he attempts to prove, at a time when virtue was esteemed to
consist mainly in submission, that Moses’ law “taught first of all that God is
the Father and Lord of all things, and bestows a happy life upon those that follow him,
but plunges such as do not walk in the paths of virtue into inevitable miseries.” And
it is in support of this idea, and for such purposes, evidently, that Josephus, after
saying: “There are three philosophical sects among the Jews” first, the
Pharisees; second, the Sadducees, and third, the Essenes,” proceeds to give an
account of their three theories, especially detailing any features which resembled Grecian
philosophy. And because of the last and least, the Essenes, most resembled the doctrines
of the Stoics and leading Grecian theories, Josephus devotes nearly ten times as much
space of their views as to the views of both Sadducees and Pharisees combined. And yet the
Essenes were so insignificant a sect that the New testament does not mention them, while
Josephus himself admits they were few. Whatever
74 What Say the Scriptures?
views they held, therefore, on any subject cannot be
claimed as having Jewish sanction, when the vast majority of Jews held contrary
opinions. The very fact that our Lord and the apostles did not refer to them is good
evidence that the Essenes philosophy by no means represented the Jewish ideas. This small
sect probably grew up later and probably absorbed from Grecian philosophy its ideas
concerning immortality and the everlasting torment of the non-virtuous. It should be
remembered that Josephus was not born until three years after our Lord’s crucifixion,
and that he published his “Wars” A.D. 75 and “Antiquities” A.D.
93—at a time when he and other Jews, like all the rest of the world, were eagerly
swallowing Grecian philosophy and science falsely so called against which Paul warned the
church.—Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:20.
Josephus directed special attention to the Essenes
because it suited his object to do so. He admits that the Sadducees, next to the largest
body of Jewish people, did not believe in human immortality. And of the Pharisees’
views he makes a blind statement calculated to mislead, as follows: “They also
believe that souls have an immortal vigor in them [This might be understood to mean
that the Pharisees did not believe as the Sadducees that death ended all existence, but
believed in a vigor or life beyond the grave—by a resurrection of the dead],
and that under the earth there will be rewards and punishments, according as they have
lived virtuously in this life; and that the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison
[not tortured], but that the former [the virtuous] shall have power to revive and
live again.”
Is it not apparent that Josephus has whittled and
stretched the views of the Pharisees, as much as his elastic conscience would allow, to
show a harmony between them and the philosophies of Greece? Paul,
75 What Say the Scriptures?
who had been a Pharisee, contradicts Josephus. While
Josephus says they believed “that only the virtuous would revive and live again [Does
not this imply a resurrection, and imply also that the others would not live again,
but remain dead, in the great prison—the tomb?],” Paul, on the contrary,
says: “I have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be
a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”—Acts 24:15.
We have no hesitancy about accepting the testimony of
the inspired Apostle Paul, not only in regard to what the Jews believed, but also as to
what he and the early church believed; and we repeat, that the theory of the everlasting torment
of the wicked, based upon the theory that the human soul cannot die, is contrary to
both the Old and New Testament teachings, and was introduced among the Jews and Christians
by Grecian philosophers. Thank God for the purer philosophy of the Scriptures, which
teaches that the death of the soul (being) is the penalty of sin (Ezek. 18:20); that all
souls condemned through Adam’s sin were redeemed by Christ’s soul (Isa. 53:10);
and that only for wilful, individual sin will any die the second death—an
everlasting punishment, but not an everlasting torment!
CHOOSE LIFE THAT YE MAY LIVE.
“I have set before thee this day life and good,
death and evil.” “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”— Deut.
30:15, 19.
We come now to the consideration of other Scripture
statements in harmony with the conclusion set forth in the preceding articles.
The words here quoted are from Moses to Israel. To
appreciate them we must remember that Israel as a people, and all their covenants,
sacrifices, etc., had a typical significance.
76 What Say the Scriptures?
God knew that they could not obtain life by keeping
the law, no matter how much they would choose to do so, because they, like all
others of the fallen race, were weak, depraved through the effect of the sour grape of sin
which Adam had eaten, and which his children had continued to eat. (Jer. 31:29) Thus, as
Paul declares, the law given to Israel could not give them life because of the
weakness or depravity of their fallen nature.—Rom. 8:3; Heb. 7:19; 10:1-10.
Nevertheless, God foresaw a benefit to them from
even an unsuccessful attempt to live perfectly; namely, that it would develop them, as
well as show them the need of the better sacrifice (the ransom which our Lord Jesus
gave) and a greater deliverer than Moses. And with all this their trial furnished a
pattern or shadow of the individual trial insured to the whole world (which Israel
typified) and secured by the better sacrifices for sin, which were there prefigured; to be
accomplished by the great prophet of whom Moses was but a type.
Thus seeing that the trial for life or death
presented to Israel was but typical of the individual trial of the whole world, and its
issues of life and death (of eternal life or the second death), may help some to see that
the great thousand-year-day of trial, of which our Lord Jesus has been appointed the
Judge, contains the two issues, life and death. All will then be called upon to
decide, under that most favorable opportunity, for righteousness and life or sin and
death, and a choice must be made. And, although there will be rewards and
“stripes” according to the deeds of the present life, as well as according to
their conduct under that trial (John 3:19; Matt, 10:20-24), the verdict in the end will be
in harmony with the choice expressed by the conduct of each during that age of trial. Read
carefully the rules of coming age—Jer. 31: 29- 34; Ezek. 18:20-32. They prove
77 What Say the Scriptures?
to us, beyond a doubt, the sincerity and reality of
all God’s professions of love to men. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: Turn ye,
turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:11). When the man who
steals is required to refund the stolen property to its rightful owner, with the addition
of twenty per cent interests, and when the man who deceives, falsely accuses or otherwise
wrongs his neighbor is required to acknowledge his crimes and so far as possible to repair
damages, on peril of an eternal loss of life, will not this be retributive justice? Note
the clear statement of this in God’s typical dealings with “Israel, whom he made
to represent the world—1 Cor. 10:11; Lev. 6:1-7. See also Tabernacle Shadows, page 82.
The second trial, its sentence and its results, are
also shown in the words of Moses quoted by Peter (Acts 3:22, 23): “A Prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear in
all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul
[being] which will not hear [obey] that Prophet [and thus choose life] shall be destroyed
from among the people.” In few words this calls attention to the world’s
great trial, yet future. It shows the great Prophet or teacher raised up by God to give a
new judgment or trial to the condemned race which he has redeemed from the condemnation
which came upon it through it progenitor, Adam. It shows, too, the conditions of eternal
life to be righteous obedience, and that with the close of that trial some will be judged
worthy of that life, and some worthy of destruction—the second death.
Our Lord Jesus, having redeemed all by his perfect
and precious sacrifice, is the Head of this great Prophet; and during the Gospel age God
has been selecting
78 What Say the Scriptures?
the members of his body, who, with Christ Jesus shall
be God’s agents in judging the world.
Together they will be that Great Prophet or teacher
promised. “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?”—1 Cor.
6:2.
The Lord briefly presents the same matter in Matt.
25:31-46. There he shows the trial of the world (not the church, which as members of his
body are with him in glory during the Millennial reign—judging, ruling and blessing
the world), and concluding the illustration of that trial, he also shows the same two
classes noted above, and their opposite rewards. The one class, who obey and come into
harmony, with his arrangements, enter fully into the blessing of everlasting life, and are
therefore called “blessed.” The other class, who with every opportunity obey
not, experience the condemnation of death, the “second death,” and are thus
“cursed” or condemned again.
The first trial was of mankind only, and hence its
penalty or curse, the first death, was only upon man. But the second trial is to be much
more comprehensive. It will not only be the trial of fallen and imperfect mankind, but it
will include every other thing and principle and being out of harmony with Jehovah.
“God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing.”
The “judgment to come” will include the
judgment in condemnation of all false systems— civil, social and religious.
These will be judged, condemned and banished early in the Millennial day, the light of
truth causing them to come into disrepute and therefore to pass away. This judgment comes
first in order, that the trial of man may proceed unhindered by error, prejudice, etc. It
will include also the trial of the angels which sinned “—those angels
“which kept not their first estate” of purity and obedience to God. Thus it is
written by the Apostle of the members of the body of the great Prophet and High Priest,
who is
79 What Say the Scriptures?
to be Judge of all: “Know ye not that the saints
shall judge angels?”—1 Cor. 6:3.
This being the case the condemnation of the
Millennial trial (destruction, the second death) will cover a wider range of offenders
than the penalty or curse for the sin of Adam, which “passed upon all men.”
In a word, the destruction at the close of that trial will be the utter destruction of
every being and every thing which will not glorify God and be of use and
blessing to his general creation. Thus the second death will be to the perfect future age
what Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, was to the typical city and kingdom of Israel.
Thus seen, the Second death does not mean simply to
die or be destroyed a second time; for some things will be destroyed; for instance, Satan
never yet died, so it could not mean death a second time to him. So, too, some of the
systems of error which will be destroyed in that Gehenna, which in the second
death, were never before destroyed. Hence this second death in which they will be
destroyed cannot be considered as their destruction a second time. The second death, or
destruction, is the name of the destruction which will come upon every evil thing as
the result or verdict of the Millennial judgment, the “judgment to come.”
FUTURE RETRIBUTION
The mission of this booklet has been accomplished to
the reader if it has led him to see that the doctrine of “eternal torment” is
not taught in the Scriptures—the Bible. If his views of the divine character and
government have been enlarged and ennobled, he will want to know more; and by God’s
grace we are prepared to supply him with other helps in the study of God’s Word and
the divine plan for human salvation therein presented to the eye of obedient faith. We
offer to such, free, a copy of THE WATCH TOWER, containing a treatise on Venial
and Mortal Sins, Further Retribution, etc., showing that, while there will be no
“hell torment,” there will be a “just recompense” inflicted
upon “every soul of man that doeth evil.
