The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-05-17
consideration to obtain their full
meaning

meaning.
81 have a new cure for infidel-
ity." declared Mr.. Ritchic. 'To
prescribe the remedy we must find
the cause, which / believe is the in
ability of the people to understand
how God of all love and wisdom
and justice, and having all power.
could permit present conditions and
conduct human affairs as proclaim
ed by the dominent creeds of Chris
tendon. Unbelievers choke at the
idea of the great Creator providing
an eternity of any kind Of torture
for His own creatures, especially if
He was gifted with the foreknow-
ledge that most of the human fam
lily would 60 there, and that He had
all wisdom to plan otherwise, and
all power to do as he pleased. Tru-
ly the general religious teachings
on this line is foe to reason and
the mother of doubt.
"1he Bible, taken as whole,
presents no such idea of our blessed
heavenly Father, but praises, glori-
fes and exalts His holy character.
And, when understood, it will be as
natura, for average human beings
to emulate, love and praise God as
it has been in all human history for
them to worship as leaders and he
roes those who have shown great
ness Of character. either in power
or wisdom or benevolence. When
rightly shown the character of our
God will compel the admiration and
loyalty of the masses infinitely more
than the character of a Caesar, or a
Napoleon, or an Edison, or Bryan,
or Roosevelt. What is the reason
that the character of God is so little
reverenced, that the holy name Of
Himself and the Savior are made
the commonest 'cuss' words? We
answer that it is because His char
acter is blasphemed by the erron-
eous Hell teaching Of deceived
Christianity. Well did Pastor Rus
sell, of the Brooklyn, N. Y, taber-
ANGLE say: If the Bible does not
teach that eternal torture is the
fate of all except the saints, it
should De preached, yea. Numbered,
weekly, daily, hourly! If it does
not SO teach, the fact should be
made known. and the foul stain dis
honoring Gods holy name remov-
ed understand a free copy of
his pamphlet, Food for Thinking
Christians which examines every
mention of hell in the Bible, can be
had by addressing him.
Every body goes to hell. Why?
Because hell is the grave, or death
condition, to which good and bad
alike go to remain until the blessed
time of resurrection, judgment and
! restoration to perfection of all the
obedient. The Hebrew word "sheol'
is positively the only hell word in
the old testam ent. It's Hebrew de-
finition is the unseen state, or place
IF the dead 1t occurs sixty-five
times and nowhere is the word fire
associated with it.
Solomon said: There is no work
nor device. nor knowledge, nor wis
dom in sheol, and he adds. whittier
thou goest.' Why? Because all in hell
are dead. Referring to the resur-
rection, the Revelator says: Death
and hell marginal reference reads
or the grave.') delivered up its
dead (not the living) which We're
in them. Sheol is translated twen-
ty-nine times as hell three times
as pit. and thirty-three as grave
in the revised version 'sheol is
translated as hell ony about TWEEN
| ty times Of the sixty-five times. and
its Greek equivalent, 'hades, occur
ing eleven times in the new testa-
ment, is not translated as hell at all,
but is left untranslated, because
the Bible revisers knew it did not
mean eternal torment.
"Only sixteen out of the sixty-six
books use the word hell in the
Eng lish translation. St. Paul wrote
fourteen books of the new testa-
ment. but never mentioned hell
fire. John never mentioned it in
his gospel, nor in his three epistles;
nor did Peter in his two epistles,
nor Ruth. Ezra. Nehemiah, Esther,
jeremiah, Daniel. Hosea. Joel,
Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephan-
iah, Hagar, Zachariah, or Malachi.
Strange that all these holy apostles
and prophets did not harp upon the
dangers of falling into that lake of
fire. which is supposed to be the
doom of billions of humanity!
mo wonder that men turn away
lin disgust, full of fear and doubt!