The Republican., 1944-05-18

al allNll' around WHICH were many
broken hammers. with this motto:
Hammer away. ye hostile bands;
Your hammer breaks. Gods anvil
stands"
The North American Review once
engaged DR.. Schedd to write an article
yindicating eternal punishment. and
also engaged Henry Ward Beecher to
answer it. The proof sheets Of Dr.
Schedd's article were sent to Beecher,
whereupon he telegraphed from Den
Yer to the Review; Cancel engage
ment. Schedd is too much for me.
half believe in eternal punishment my
self Get somebody else" The reply
was never written and Dr.. Schedd
remained unanswered.
The Nature of The Judgment
Concerning the nature of the iulg-
ment Of the after-world, the teaching
is clear that it is:
ta) A place of real torment 1t
matters not whether you take the
teaching of this torment as literal
or as tigurative. The only teaching
that could be taken from the writings
of Jesus and the Apostles is that:
sometime, somewhere, justice will be
meted out"
Two Greek words used in the New
Testament are translated Hell" in
our old version Of the Bible. One Of
them is "Hades." This is used to rep
resent place of the dead, without
any thought whether they be righteous
or wicked, and is generally used with
out reference whatsoever to either
punishment or reward The other, "Ge-
henna,' was the name of the valley
just north of Jerusalem. To the Jew
this valley signified everything loath-
some, letestable and bad Long wears
before it had been noted for its beauty.
In the days Of Aha2, Manassah and
Ammon, it was the seat of idol wor-
ship. The image Of the god Moloch was
there. Here, in their heather Wor-
ship, the children were brought and
made to pass thru the fire Some his
torlanS refer to it as a "hOlloW image
in which fires were built and babes
were brought and laid in the hot arms
Of Moloch, and there roasted alive as
an offering to that heather god In
after years the place was cleared of
IDOL worship. but was still detestable
to the jew. The refuse and waste of
the city were burned there in continual
fires which were kept to consume the
otfal. 70 the jew "Gehenna" was the
most gruesome figure that could be
used, No other word could have been
50 terrible in its description of the
Judgment, and Jesus used this word
twelve times to describe the final state
Of the wicked.
(b) Some hold that the wicked are
annihilated at death and thus then
punishment ends Annihlation fails
10 satisfy our inherent ideas Of justice
Furthermore, such a thought is never
mentioned in the Scripture. so we can
base no hope on theories contrary to
that teaching.
We dare not construct a theory and
then choose out disconnected parts of
Scripture to substantiate our view
but rather, let us take the great teach
ing Of the Bible and build up our faith
| according to that Word. Our choosing
one place or the other is the work of
9 lifetime as we fit ourselves for the
good of the redeemed, or for the lot
OF those who go their way. Faust
selling his soul to Mephistocles (the
GeViD and signing the contract with
his blood, was not a single act. but the
work Of a lifetime
(c) The Scriptures tell us further
that this place Of punishment is un-
ending, although Acts 3:21; Eff. 1.9-
49,; Phil. 2:10; Matthew 1928, and a
few other passages, seem to speak Of a
second chance for the unrighteous, vet.
they are at best obscure and Incapable
Of Interpretation, therefore they must
be understood in the light Of palmer
passages. many of which are clear in
their meaning
In the early writings we read: "If a
tree fall toward the south or towards
the North, in the place where the tree
falleth, there shall it be-" Gee. 11:3).
In the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus, Jesus makes it clear Luke
1929 when Abraham speaking to him
in the other world said, "Thou in thy
lifetime, which would imply that his
opportunity ended with death. "And
now is q great gulf fixed"
"And ye shall die in your sin; whith-
er | go ye cannot come. (John 8:2D .
"We must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day-the night
cometh when no man can work.. (John
9:4).
at is appointed unto men once to
die and after this (not second
chance) cometh Judgment. (Hebrews
9:27).
God would give us fifty trials if that
would do us any good, but the first ad-
verse decision of the soul makes it
ha.ln1 q Etaa. In a.:auLA Cl-.-..