The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-05-20
PULPIT.
PASTOR RUSSELL
IN LONDON
THEREAFTER
There Shall BE No More Death, Neither
Sorrow Nor Crying Neither Shall There Be
Any More Pam; For the Former Things
Are Passed Away" Revcauon XII. y.
Doctrines Of Demons"

doctrines OF Demons"
The truth about this matter is severe
enough; ii shows forth Divine Justice,
intcrtwined with Divine Mercy and
Love. We admit our present un.
grateful for proposed assistance
through Christ, but our great Adver.
sary, operating through ignorance, and
superstition and fear, seized the op-
portunity to deceive us and misrcpre-
sent our Creator by bringing in what
st. Paul designated, doctrines of
demons" Il Timothy iv, II. These have
been promulgated, not merely in heath
en- lands, but amongst the civilized.
These false doctrines have tended to
ALLEVIATE the hearts and minds OF hui
mainly from God and his revelation;
they have put Il barrier between God
and his creatures.
These doctrines OF demons" are pre-.
scented from various standpoints, but
they are alike in one respect; namely,
they all teach that God deceived our
first parents when he told them that
lllt wages VI sill IL utulU. lntSe
doctrines of demons" assert the CON
trary. that man cannot die, but must
1--WE somewhere to all eternity. Thus
on the basis of mans fears, this doc
trine that God thrust Immortality upon
his creatures, the demons built up for
us theory so horrible as to be nau-
seating and terrifying to every sane
and healthy mind. These doctrines
OF demons" have been promulgated far
and near, and with various cOlorings,
but in essence they are all the same
They have come down from the dark
ages" represented in all our creeds
Catholic and Protestant.
Our Catholic friends have developed
this thought to Il nicely. They tell us
that of those who die, only a mere
handful are fit for heaven and go
there Immediately. They tell us that
the most rcprehcnsible class, heretical
rejectors of Divine Truth, will be sent
to hell of eternal torture where they
will never die. They assure us, how
ever that the number who will re-
ceive this extreme punishment is small
in comparison with the race as a
whole. They tell us that the majority,
Catholics and Professionals, civilized
and heather, are unfit for heaven at
death, and likewise not deserving of
eternal torture, and that thus the great
mass of mankind, nine out Of every
ten, go at death to Purgatory, there to
suffer for centuries or for thousands
of years in eXpiation of sins, and for
publication of their souls, that they
may be eventually fit for Heaven and
its blessings. Our hearts rebel at such
a view of the hereafter" While CIV
ing our Catholic friends, and our own
forefatherS who We're Catholics credit
for being as sincere as ourselves, we
conclude that the light of our day, and
the light of our intelligence, will not
permit us to believe and rejoice in
such a view OF the "herea fter' as this.
We say to ourselves, Surely the Great
God has something nobler than this in
reservation for his creatures.
Protestant Views Worse.
What shall we say of the Here
after from the standpoint OF our
Protestant creedS? How do these COM
pare with the Catholic views fore
going-how much worse? When our
forefathers thought they had found
something erroneous in the teachings
Of Papacy, when they concluded that
Purgatory was not to be found in the
Bible, they heroically determined to
cast it out of their Creeds. But alas!
When discarding it, they did not re-
aliZe that they were making a bad
matter worse. They held on to the
doctrine of demons that God had
created man SO that he could not die,
and could not be destroyed. and so
they proceeded to interpret matters
along that line. Realizing the Scrip
turalness of the proposition that only
the sanity We're fit for heaven, and re-
jecting the theory of PurgatOry, they
, logically consigned all except the saint
| ly thereafter to eternal torture. Alas.
| How inconsistent it is: how strange
that we ever thought Divine Fore
knowledge, Wisdom. Justice Mercy,
Love and Power should have created
man to the number of thousands Of
millions, with the foreknowledge and
fOre-intention and desire that they
should suffer an eternity of torture.
Parting of tho Ways.
Thus, my dear hearers, you with my
self and others of the intelligent peo-
pie of the world, find ourselves today
In most trying position. Our hearts
have repudiated the doctrine of eter-
nal torture as being Christ-like, I'M
worthy even of devil. We can be-
lieve neither in PurgatOry of centu-
ries, nor in eternal torture as a conse-
quence or penalty for Adams disobedi-
pnce in eating Of the forbidden fruit,
nor as penalty upon his children for
not living perfect lives when they
were born in sin and shapen in iniqui-
ty" and prone to sin as the sparks to
| fly upward" Our hearts cry out for
the living God and the true light upon
his dealings.
Under this awakening intelligence
thousands Of noble men and women