Norwich bulletin., 1920-10-05
Brooklyn, N. Y, Sept. 2s, 1920.
Heu-where Is 1tg What Is 1tq

Mir. Editor: What and where is this hell we hear so much about? Some of the so-called early church fathers who shaped its doctrine when the church was in it's most corrupt period held that hell was in the center of the earth, and some modern religionists still hold this view Most Protestant writers speak of hell as Q bottomless lake, somewhere on the out skirts of creation, where the sinners, throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, will be writhing in agony. crying from 1 the depths of their hearts How long 0 1 Lord?" only to be mocl1ed by the echo of l-their own words answering "Eternity 1 It is useless to ask those who have for l years believed in this literal burning hell i to believe some simple texts of scripture 1 that .clarify the subject Tradition. hoary | tradition, has SC covered the truth that men seem to fear the light on this sub 1 ject. MT. Milton has said on this point i Long is the way and hard, that out of l hell leads up to light"
 | When we quote the word of God, "The soul that sinneth it shall die" (Eze IS i: | 4) and "The wages of sin is death" (Rom i 6: 23), do they believe these texts? On, no, they tell you it does not mean a lit eral death, or absence of life, o ye 1 heavens, at this. "A death that never l dies is just about as sensible as life
 
 "a total and permanent cessation of all 1 the vital functions--extinction of life.' I Men are driven to the most absurd req 1 soning when they try to avoid the force of a plain Bible text. In all the realm of I thought, reason and logic there is noth- l ing quite so foolish as the deductions of l theological system which msconstrue the /, Word of God and build their faith on tra- 1 dition. Let us believe the Bible Believe l dodging, for God does not address us in 1 meaningless phrases. "The soul that | sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is I ,leath"
 .l The reason why people believe in a lit T eral burning hell of endless torture is ,i because they were taught it in their youth probably by their parents They were taught it in the Sunday schools, and have heard the sinner threatened with eternal torture by ministers everywhere. As matter of fact, it is much harder to I unlearn thing so instilled into our minds than to learn the truth when we have no preconceived opinions This doc Urine has been handed down from genera tion to generation until it has become so firmly rooted in the minds of some that It seems almost saerilegious to say there as no he'll and more so when we posi- lively assert that it is not only not taught
 
 Tquarely against it.
 Il It is a God dishonoring doctrine and was handed down to us by the heather converts to Christianity in the earIy years of the third century
 At first the hell fire doctrine was helG by only few, but as time went on i became quite popular with those wht were only part Christian and par heathen-nen who wore the philosopher s garb to their dying day and who are re e sponsible for all the errors that hay,
 disgraced the church from that time t
 the present. Tertullian, who wrote abou 6 zoo to 220 A.. D., is said to be the frs . of the early Christian fathers who openl taught the doctrine of an eternal hell Q
 torture. Gibbons Decline and Fall, vo
 1, ch. Is, page 537.
 Respectfully,
 > FRANK J. WENISCH. h Willimantic, Oct. 3, 1920.