Mexico weekly ledger., 1890-05-01
THE = 4 n.
Another Correspondent Believes In no Exist
anes Aftsr Death for tbs Wicked, and
Consequently Thinks There
il NJ He'll.

MEXICO, NO., April 28.-Your
Saturdays paper contained. two
answers to your inquiry about hell
and the devil, in which affirmative
ground was boldly assumed. These
gentlemen oughtto know what they
are saying. because they claim to
be teachers in Israel. hope they
may not prove to be ''blind lead
ing the blind" Let US see, first,
about hell: There are two Greek
words translated by the word hell
in the English version of the New
Testament-frst, Gehenna; second,
Hades. Benjamin Wilson, in the
Emphatic D~iaglott, in the ap-
pendix, says: "The word Gehenna,
translated hell in the common
version, occurs twelve times. It Is
the Grecian mode of spelling the
Hebrew words, which are trans
lated aThe Valley of Hinnom.t'
This valley was also called Tophet,
a detestation, an a~bomination. In
to this place were cast all kinds of
filth, with the cafcasses of beasts
and the unbur1ed bodies of GRIM
inals who had been executed. Com
tinual fires were kept to consume
these. Sennacherib's army of 1885,
600 men was stain here in one
night. Here children were also
burnt to death in sacrifice to
Moloch. Gehenna, then, in the
New Testament ~symbolizes death
and utter destruction, but in no
place signifies a place of "eternal
torment" So much for the word
Gehenna. The same authority
says of hades: ''It occurs eleven
times in the Greek New Testament
and is improperly translated ten
times by the word hell. 1t is the
word used in the Septuagint as a
translation Of the Hebrew word
sheol, denoting the abode or world
of the dead, and means, literally,
that which IS in darkness, hidden,
invisible or obscure. As the word
hades did not come to the He
brews from any classical source
or with any classical meaning,
but through the Septuagint as a
translation of their word sheol,
which, in the Septuagint, is trans
lated 60 out of 63 times by the
word hades, and may signify the
grave as the common receptacle
of the dead ; yet it has the more
general meaning of death. To
translate hades by the word hell,
as it is done ten times out of eleven
in the New Testament, is very inn
proper, unless it has the Saxon
meaning of s'to cover up" The
primitive signifcation of hell, only
denoting what was secret or con-
cealed. perfectly corresponds with
the Greek term hades and its He
brew equivalent sheol; but the
theological definition given to it
at the present day by nc means
expresses it."
From which we conclude that
the hades of the New Testament is
the grave, and the Gehenna of the
same book is the vale of Hinnom,
| where all the filth of Jerusalem was
cremated, and this would pretty
effectually eliminate the New
Testament of all modern or ancient
theological thunder and lightning
about a place where men and wo-
men may be burned through the
ceaseless cycles of eternity without
consuming them. No, gentlemen,
| the book don't teach it. Preach
ers all say hell is a bottomless pit;
then certainly there IS ne standing
room there, and if the laws of at
traction and gravitation are II
force there, the miserable by.
| pocrites who take the leap will
have a long uninterrupted jump
! Sam Patch at Niagara was not 9
"patchin'.,
Paul says "The wicked shall be
punished with everlasting ddsss:r1e
ton from the presence of God and
the glory of Hi power" This
means total humiliation to the
wicked and nothing less or more
and will be instantaneous. He
wiped out the antidiluvians ir
short order after Noah's boat wal
finished, and in like manner He
will do a short work on the wicked
after the final judgment. If you
are sentenced you will go up al
quickly as a cook wrings the head
off OF a chicken in the back yard.
We advise you, as a friend, to stand
from under. Lastly, about the
devil: Preachers represent him al
chief executive officer of the bot,
tomIess pit. His abode has nc
hoor-uo bottom. He must, then,
rest "on tifeless wing" This
proves too much and by a rule Of
logic proves nothing. Benjamin
Wilson also says devil, from
diabolos, occurs some thirty times
and means q slanderer, traducer,
false accuser. Paul used the wore
in the plural number three times
first, Tim. Bill; second, Tim. 3:3
Titus 2: 8, and applies it to both
males and females. This CORES
ponds with our idea exactly tina
there are numbers of devils nov
on the earth, both male and fe
male, IF devil means q slanderer
tradueor false anc1aer then thS