The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-01
is NO LITERAL
BURNING IN HELL
INTO GULF OF AWFUL DESPAIR
THE INPENITENT ARE CAST, SAYS
REV. DIR. JOHN ID. JORDAN.

Hope-Each Chooses His own Des-
tiuy-Fhe Punishment of the LOST
l. Eternal. Extending Through /
Time without observation-disclosures |
Must he CO-ENiStent With Life of |
the SouI-The Grounds for BeIiet |
That Punishment Is Not Eternal.
! Reasons such Position Is Upheld |
and Defended.
1 Rev. Dr. John D. Jordan discussed |
eternal punishment and it's character |
/ last night, He took a position, in dis |
cussing its character. against a hell of |
/ literal and material burning. In dis |
GUESSING the subject Or. Jordan said, !
among other things:
Does not the Bible declare in no
ambiguous terms that the punishment
OF lost souls VIII be eternal or ever
lasting? II does And these-the lost
shall 60 away into eternal punish
ment, but the righteous into eternal
/ life Here the punishments Of the lost
is made co-exteusive i'm duration with
the life Of the righteous. If the pun
ishment Of the one should cease, then
the life of the other would cease.
"The word here translated eternal
means 'age-long' and expresses the
longest possible age or duration of
the thing to which it re-
fers is capable. Here the
reference is to the soul and the limit
of the condition can he measured only
by the limit of the existence of the
soul. The soul is immortal, hence the
condition is eternal.
The eternal hills means as long as
| the hills exist. The eternal King
/ God'-means as long as God shall last.
! Gods eternal purpose means as long
as His purpose shall last Eternal
punishment Of the soul means as long
as the soul shall last
Two 'age-lOug' periods are common
! ~ referred to in the Bible, the one
/ that now is, meaning till the general
/ judgment-and the one that is to come
meaning ever after the Judgment. The
/ period ever after the judgment marks
the duration Of eternal punishment
Is Not New Trial.
Eternal judgment means fixing
| things for all durations after the
| Judgment. There is only one judgment.
hence a new trial is impossible. The
| decision for both the saved and the
| lost at that judgment means just what
! the Scripture calls 1t, eternal life or
| eternal damnation'
The doctrine is made as clear in
| the Bible as the Greek language viii
permit. The duration, of God, Christ,
/ the Holy Spirit. the soul. the life of
the saints, and the punishment of the
wicked is taught in the same terms
and by the same words. If one is
! rejected, why believe in the other
! IF one sinner may be saved after
/ the Judgment then all may he saved.
! hut, says the Scripture, 'Whosoever
shall bhspheme against the Holy
| Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is
guilty of eternal sin
Grounds for Rejection.
What grounds are there for the not
lmcou mon belief that the punishment
! viii not be forever? There are three
! grounds upon which this unbelief rests
They are lack of Information. ig
norance: transformation. Scriptures
/ misunderstood. and conscience trying
To escape guilt. the coward which sin
makes Of the soul
| We are not 10 question the sincerity
Of those who thus believe any more
| than we are to question the sincerity
of the heathen-mother who throws
| her babe into "a river as an act of
! worship or the Chuaman who wor-
| ships his idol
Some of those who thus believe and
| teach are good and intelligent per-
| that they are set for the defense Of
God and the vindication Of his Charac-
ter They feel that there is a redec-
tiou against the love, goodness. jus
tice. and mercy of God. when indeed
! these are the very things that require
the distinctions between the righteous
| and the unriGhteous
There are degrees in punishment
and none will get more than their
deserts. Is not this both good and
JUST
NJ Literal Burning.
"Wiu the punishment be with burn
| ing hre or by remorse the pangs of a
guilty conscience and mental suffer-
ing? ] do not believe that there viii
be "A literal tire and "a material burn
ing, for life after death is spiritual and
the suffering must be in the realm of
the spirit and mind.
outside the city OF Jerusalem was
a pit for garbage or refuse, where the
| waste material being thrown was con-
tinually burning-or gehenna The i'm
penitent are represented as garbagem
| waste or useless matter. cast away
from the presence of God. Punishment
| from God and without hope is hell or
I punishment.
For this Punishment God is respon-
sihle only TN that he permits intelI-
gent free agents, who reject His free
grace to gravitate to their own level.
20 their own chosen place in the moral
and spiritual realms of the future
! For every one shall 20 to his own
place, his own by choice desert. and
nature. as no other place would fit him
IF the future punishment were Moth
ing more than gulf of despair with
out CLEAN of hope fixed and eternal
| and this is the mldest form TO be
imagined consistent with truth and
/ reason-eNen then its unfortunate vic