Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-11-02

low after" q Tim.
othy Y, 24) He said.
fP1ST0P 0IISSFIm Gradually, as the
80 eyes Of our under
standing open to the true beauties o!
Gods Word, we find that the gross
errors Of the past have, indeed, some
foundation in the truth. Yet the two
are so different that they might pass
each other without recognition.
As Bible students are allowing the
Word of God to interpret itself they
are being blessed; their faith is being
strengthened rs they find that the real
teachings Of the Bible are beautiful
and harmonious and ~God.honoring and
acceptable to sanctihed common sense.
AS so much Of u confusion has been
connected with the subject Of future
punishment, 1t is only reasonable that
much of our blessing and e%nllghten.
ment should come from a better un
d%erstanding Of the Scriptures bearing
upon this subject. Our first lesson to
learn was the difference between the
Bible Hell and the hobgoblin torture
chambers Of our bewlldered fore.
fathers, who had not the Bible in their
possession and who, If they had pos
sessed 1t, lacked generally the educa.
ton necessary to read 1t,
When we found that the Hebrew
word Sheol is the only word translated
he'll during the Old Testament period
of four thousand years, we were not
surprised. But when we found that
that word signifies the tomb, the death
state, and that II Is translated grare In
our Common Version Bible more times
than 1t is translated heii, we were sur
priscd. And when further close in.
vestigatlon showed that the good, as
well as the bad. 60 to Sheol, and that
the Bible declares that all who go to
Sheol tCerG redeemed by Christ's death,
and that eventually He will destroy
Sheol and deliver all the prisoners Of
death from Sheol-then we began to
see what a serious blunder had been
made in the translation.
But when about to blame the trans
lators for decelving us, we found that
the trouble lay rather with a change
In the use Of language. All know that
all living languages are gradually
changing. And investigation shows
that in old English the word hell was
used as a synonym for hole or pit, or
something covered over. as the grave.
Thus an English farmer in olden times
might say, 1--WE helled FIVE hundred
bushels Of potatoes this fall" or, 1--WE
hellcd dhatched Il cottage"
The fault was not so much with the
translators rs with the wrong idea al.
ready firmly lmbedded in the human
miud-not the teaching Of the Bible
that God intends to punish in purga.
tory or eternal torture all except the
sanity few. From the FIRST Satan
seems to have e%ndeavored to deceive
humanity respecting the true charac.
ter Of the Creator; and his success is
shown by the warped and twisted in.
tcrpretations that we all gave to our
Heavenly Fathers Word,
Sheol Sometimes Used Figuratively.
In probably three or four texts out
OF seventy the Hebrew word SheoI
and It's Greek equivalent Hades are
used hguratively, rs, for instance, st
Paul refers to Uades, the tomb, under
the figure of a monster which has
been engorging itself with humanity
He represents II hguratively as yield
ing to the glorihed Messiah at His
Second Advent and dlsgorglng its prey
IN the resurrection. Looking forward
to the completion OF the resurrection
at the close OF the Millennium, he eX
claims, 20 Death, where is thy sting
q Uades, where Is thy victoryT
Similarly the Prophet David likeneC
the tomb TO a great monster about t
devour him, and likened the pains o
his sickness to the teeth Of the mons
ter, saying, 'rhe sorrows OF dealt
compassed me, and the pains Of Sheo
CAT hold upon me. So Then calleC
| upon the name Of the Lord = an,
He helped me" psalm cXvi, 3-W-th,
king was raised up from illness,
Again, the Lord through thu
Prophet, speaking Of the great gian
systems of this present time, declare,
that they win 20 down into Sheol, into
denth. and dguratiyely represents thel
meeting In death with the great op
presslve systems of the past, Qsaial
Xiv, p-l1l But there is no suggestion
of eternal torment connected with tn
word Sheol anywhere. And the FAC
that the Lord redeems II souls iron
Sheol. and win destroy Sheol eventual
ly by raising mankind from the stat
OF death, proves positively the gros
error under which we labored in NJ
49, ---S