The fool-killer., 1919-10-01
A n OP EN- LETTER
To a Brother in Babylon

ever. But all evil is to be de-
stroyed, and DE-
STROYED, too, but not eter-
nally tormented.
Now let's look at the word
torment" According to my
Reference Bible the word "tor-
ment' occurs but four times in
the entire Scriptures, only two
of which could by any possible
means be made to support the
doctrine of eternal torment. The
first is the parable of the Rich
Man and Lazarus duke 1919
21). Notice that | say a PAR
ABLE, and why not a parable?
Did not Christ use many para
bles to illustrate His sermons?
Turn to the 18th chapter of
Luke and read on through the
18th and you will see that Jesus
is giving a whole string of para
bles all along together, and in
the Bird verse Of the 18th chap
ter it plainly SAYS that they
are parallels. Now what is a
parable? There is nothing like
the dictionary to straighten us
out sometimes, and it says a par
able is "a short religious allie
CORY, or an obscure teaching"
And turning to the word "alle-
CORY" we find it means anything
used merely to ILLUSTRATE a
truth. So it is just another
piece of guess-Work to say that
there was a real Rich Man and
Lazarus and a place of torment.
And even if that parable were
meant to teach that there is Tor
will beg a place of torment, /
want you to carefully notice that
it does not say a place of ETER-
NAL torment.
[ believe there will be a place
of punishment for the wicked.
At some time and at some place
every sinner will receive the full
punishment for his sins, and no
one doubts that that punish
ment will be torment while it
lasts. But though the duration
OF it may be according to what
he deserves, in no case have we
any proof here that IT will last
e%ternally.
Again, notice the parable does
not say the rich man was a bad
man, neither does it say the
poor beggar Lazarus was a good
man;so it is another piece of
guess-work to say they repre-
sented the bad and good people.
According to that theory every
rich man must certainly go to
hell, no matter how good he is,
and every beggar, no matter how
filthy and mean he is, will &c
right straight to heaven. That
would send Abraham and David
and Solomon to hell. Surely
there is nobody foolish enough
to believe that every rich man il
the world is a devil, OF that
every beggar is a saint. We al
know there are some rich me1
who are good, and lots of poo
men who are bad. So it is ;
self-evident fact that these tw'
men in the parable cannot b.
taken to represent the saved AM
the lost in eternity.
The only true and reasonbl
Interpretation of this parable i
that it is a dispensational pic
) ture of the Jews and the Gen
tiles. The rich man represent
the Jewish people while the.
were enjoying the special favo
of God and before they wer
least off," You know God sc
lected the Jews as His "chose
people," and His special favo
and blessing set them up in
position far superior to any ott
er people. They we're rich an
wore the purple and fine line
of royalty and were greatly ho1
ored in every way. The Ger
2 tiles, on the other hand, wei
l poor, pitiful, dependent ere;
5 lures. They were looked upo
as beggars, and even referred I
i as dogs. Jesus himself spoke
t the Gentiles as dogs. Don't yo
o remember where the Syrophen
S clan woman came to Jesus ar
. begged him to heal her daug]
t ter? See Mark 1853. Jul
: listen how Jesus answered tt
= woman: LET the childre
d (Jews) first be filled; for it
e not meet to take the children
o bread and to, cast it to tt
It dogs" (Gentiles.) That SCUM
q like the most unkind thing ]
e sus ever said, but he was usi1
a it to teach a lesson. The po
u old Gantilo woman was aeon