The record-union., 1894-01-22
is THERE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT /?
A Unitarian Contends That the Bible
Has Been Misconstrued.
Rev. Mr.. Horner Gives His Views ON
the Question of Never-Ending
He'll for Sinners.

In his discourse at Unity Hall last
evening Rev. 7. j. Horner said the doc
trine of eternal punishment was the
darkest cloud that any religion had ever
spread over the future of a human soul
The idea, he said, of never ending tor
ment, from which there is no escape, is
the most horrible thought that ever found
lodgment in the human mind. And,
strange to say, we owe it to Christianity
which came in the name of love. Love
IS the very cornerstone of the Christian
religion.
How, then, did this monstrous per-
version OF love-this contradiction of all
that is lovable in the thought of God
enter into Christianity and rise before the
human soul, like horrible fate, to darken
the future with its somber hues?
First, let me say that L do not find it
necessary to believe that the Scriptures
teach this doctrine, nor do | find it neces-
sary to believe that Jesus taught it, If
we have TO take His words literally, it
only proves Him creature of His time,
believing what was common to the peo-
pie of His day and nation.
But let US examine into the matter
little. The Gehenna, or hell, of the early
Hebrew means literally Tho Valley Of
Hinnom.' In the earliest days the Mo-
ZACH worshipers used it as a place for
burning infants TO appeaSe their God.
Then, as Jerusalem grew into a great
city, it became the place where the gar
bage of the city was destroyed by fire, the
fire of course burning everything that
was 'combustible. New fuel being added
from day to day, this of course caused
the fires to burn continually.
"Then, in tigurative language, after
Persian doctrines had entered Jewish
theology it was said that the punishme at
of the wicked was like the fires of Gehen-
ma; symbolical language TO express a
spiritual law-namely, that the torment
OF remorse never dies until the cause, sin,
is destroyed.
"The Bible nowhere teaches that there
is no end to the punishment of the
wicked. When John the Baptist used
the word 'unquenchable' he was speak
ing of the chatf OF the harvest, but he
knew, as we do. that the fire that burned
the chatf lasted but few hours. 1t was
unquenchable only SO long as there was
charf to burn.
Jesus uses the term translated. ever
laSting.' So the Bible calls the mills
everlasting,' though they are all to be
worn away by erosion.
Everlasting priesthood, but it continued
only 1,500 years. The temple had ever
lasting DOORS which were destroyed six
centuries before Christ.
The term eternal often used in the
New Testament, has more reference to
quality than to duration Of time. 'Eter-
nal life does not mean immortal life.
Jesus took that for granted, but eternal
life in his mind meant kind of life
about which the cbaff Of sin did not accu-
mulate. In Motifs judgment scene,
where the term everlasting is used, the
quality of the punishment is undoubt-
edIy meant. which popularity means
spiritual misery, privation, etc., which
will last until the cause is destroyed.
the law is everlasting-na that
sin produces misery, but when sin is de-
Stroyed there will be no cause for its op-
Grafton.
but what about the smoke that as
cends forever and ever? In reply. |
might ask, What about the heathen who
were to be the 'bondmen' of the Jews
forever and ever? The land OF Canaan
was to be an everlasting possession
which they were to hold forever and
ever The simple truth IS that these
were all figuratIve terms and were used
by an Oriental people in a symbolical
manner.
How did the doctrine become a part
of the Christian system? Christianity,
as we understand it. is system Of
thought which did not have its origin in
the mind of Jesus, but in the mind of
Paul, long after Jesus was dead. Paul
carried it to Greece and Rome, where
finally it became the prevailing system.
and the occidental mind took literally ali
that to the oriental was spoken in SYM
bol. The poetry Of the Orient became
fact and history to the Occident.
Unreasonable punishment is unrea-
sonable unless it has an end in reforlna-
ton. We cry out against our prison sys-
tenn because criminals come out untamed
and unreformed. If Gods punishments
have no result in goodness, that fact is an
impeachment Of His wisdom. The doc
trine of eternal misery, if meant literally,
confesses that the design of it is not
reformation, but simply satisfaction of
divine wrath.
"Our conception of the divine goodness
must then include an idea of punishment
from which no good is to result forever
and ever. And if human soul can sin
and resist the purifying influence of love
forever and ever-a condition which
would make the punishment eternal
then man is the equal of God. because
God cannot overcome him. This would
be to limit divinity, which is again un-
reasonable. Both conscience and reason
cry out against the old doctrine as 'hor-
rible.'"