Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-05-10

thought in the next statement THE
pains OF he'll CAT hold upon me In,
modern language this would mean
pains Of death pains that indicated
the approach OF dissolution. Nothing
in this text has the slightest refer
ence to anything in future life.
Our Baptist friends. in their revised
translation of the Bible have chosen
for such passages as this. the express
sion the underworld. instead of the
word hell" Yet even here there is
danger of the average reader not
catching the true thought Far simpler
and far less liable to be misunder-
stood would. il have been had the
translators said the pains of the
tomb. The Revised Version of the
English Bible reads. 1.-THE pains OF
Sheol"
Every learned minister knows that
the Hebrew word Sheol really means
the grave, the pit, the state of death
Why do they hesitate to tell the
people the whole truth on the subject?
Why do they translate ii part of the
time. the grave" ard at another time
the underworld" Why do they use
the translation THE grave" in one
place and THE pit" in another, and
then refuse to translate at all in a
third instance, but give the word
Sheol? Was it their intention to con-
fuse the people? What is the motive?
We wish that some of these great
men would explain Would that our
one hundred thousand ministers could
get the proper focus upon this sub
jectl
The Reason for all This
We would like to have our minis
terial brethren state their reasons for
pursuing the course of hiding the
truth on the subject of hell Only
because they neglect to give the
reasons do we feel at liberty 10 sug-
gest. These ministers seem to be of
two classes, and their reasons are
therefore slightly different. All of
them seem to agree that it would
be dangerous to tell the people that
God is really a God of Love. and that
the doctrine of an eternity of torture
is entirely unscriptural, finding no
foundation whatever in the writings of
the Apostles. They fear to tell the
people that these doctrines were built
up during the Dark Age by the very
men who manifested SO little of the
Spirit of God, and so little knowL
edge of Gods will respecting His
people, that they burnt one another
at the stake.
Why should they fear to tell the
people the truth? Perhaps it is be-
cause the religion of our day is built
so largely upon man-worship, system
worship, creed-worshiD. and not upon
the Bible. Perhaps they fear that if
the creeds were thus discredited the
people would never again have con-
fidence in Their teachings, and that
thus the party walls of Christendom,
which for so long time have divided
the sheep, would fall We cannot
definitely know of their reasons, be-
cause they do not tell us. We can
only surmise
Others, very worldly-wise, have be-
come Higher Critics, and do not be-
lieve the Bible at all. But they do
not desire to advertise their unbelief, |
lest it should detract from their es-
SSNii -nAIOhSol 1HSy W
pose as believers, and to hope for the
time when all the wealthy and intelli-
gent will become unbelievers also
Then they will declare, 1--WE have not !
been believers for many years, but |
kept the matter secret, fearing to be
as opponents OF the |
best interests of society"
This latter class constitutes the |
greatest menace to law and order, and |
are the best agents Satan has in max |
ing void the Word of God and destroy
lg faith therein Robert Ingersoll's