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Bible Threatenings Explained by J. W. Hanson, D.D. entered into electronic format April, 1997 by Audrey Cole

Bible Threatenings Explained;

or, Passages of Scripture Sometimes Quoted to Prove Endless Punishment

Shown to Teach Consequences of Limited Duration.

by J. W. Hanson, D.D.

INDEX OF TOPICS

Bible Threatenings Explained
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT OF HEATHEN ORIGIN
ADAM'S PUNISHMENT
TESTIMONY OF CRITICS
OLD TESTAMENT PUNISHMENTS
THE STRAIT GATE
THE BAD CAST AWAY
YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH
IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM
THE SIN UNTO DEATH
THE HYPOCRITE'S HOPE
AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY
THE WICKED DRIVEN AWAY
THE LIVING GOD FEARFUL
GOD LAUGHS AT MAN'S CALAMITY
YE SHALL NOT FIND ME
NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD
THE BARREN FIG TREE
GOD ANGRY EVERY DAY
THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY GHOST
THE WRATH OF GOD
THE WRATH TO COME
THE SPIRITS IN PRISON
"I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD"
THE RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY SAVED
WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES TO DESTRUCTION
NO MURDERER HATH ETERNAL LIFE
LET HIM BE ACCURSED
THE SECOND DEATH
THE FIRST RESURRECTION
LET HIM BE UNJUST STILL
ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION
SHALL NOT SEE LIFE
"AS THE TREE FALLS SO IT LIES"
THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST
THE HARVEST PAST AND WE NOT SAVED
FIRE
"OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE"
HE IS A "REFINER'S FIRE"
GOD'S JUDGMENTS LIKE FIRE
UNQUENCHABLE FIRE
FURNACE OF FIRE
ETERNAL FIRE
"WHEAT AND CHAFF," "AXE," ETC.
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
JUDGMENT
IT IS A JOYFUL OCCASION
IT IS IN THIS WORLD
IS IS NOT HEREAFTER
IT IS NOW
IT IS FOR EVERY ACT AND THOUGHT
JUDGMENT TO COME
THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
CHRIST, THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD
AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT
GNASHING OF TEETH
DAMNATION, ETC.
EATING AND DRINKING DAMNATION
THE UNBELIEVER DAMNED
THAT THEY ALL MIGHT BE DAMNED
THE RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION
THE CASE OF JUDAS
THE SON OF PERDITION, ETC.
THE GOSPEL HID
THE LOST SOUL
"ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL"
BETTER NEVER BEEN BORN
HIS OWN PLACE
WAS JUDAS A SUICIDE?
ETERNAL, ETC.
LEXICOGRAPHY
CLASSIC USAGE
THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE END OF AIONIAN THINGS
EVERLASTING CONTEMPT
EVERLASTING BURNINGS
JEWISH GREEK USAGE
THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE NOUN
THE ADJECTIVE
THE GREAT PROOF TEXT
THE LAST DAYS
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED
WORDS DENOTING ENDLESSNESS
ALL NATIONS NOT GATHERED THEN
ETERNAL JUDGMENT
EVERLASTING CHAIN
EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION
PRESENCE OF THE LORD
BANISHED FROM GOD'S PRESENCE
SMOKE OF TORMENT FOR EVER AND EVER
THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS
THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN
UNAVOIDABLE CONCLUSION
HELL
SHEOL AND HADEES
ONLY FIVE OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS ARE CLAIMED
SHEOL--HADEES RENDERED HELL
THE LOWEST HELL IS ON EARTH
IMPORTANT FACTS
THE OLD TESTAMENT REPUDIATES THE HEATHEN DOCTRINE
"ORTHODOX" AND HEATHEN VIEWS IDENTICAL
CONVINCING TESTIMONIES
JEWISH AND PAGAN OPINIONS
HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT--HADEES
MEANING OF HADEES
OPINIONS OF SCHOLARS
HEATHEN CORRUPTIONS
THRUST DOWN TO HADEES
THE GATES OF HADEES
HADEES IS ON EARTH
HADEES DESTROYED
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
TARTARUS
THE BOOK OF ENOCH
WHAT DID PETER MEAN?
GEHENNA
OPINIONS OF SCHOLARSV
JEWISH VIEWS OF GEHENNA
IMPORTANT FACTS
DANGER OF HELL-FIRE
CAST INTO HELL-FIRE
DESTROY SOUL AND BODY IN HELL
THE DAMNATION OF HELL
SET ON FIRE OF HELL
CONCLUSION

---

Preface

When one who has been reared in the Evangelical Church is favorably impressed with the doctrine of Universal Salvation, it frequently happens that the many texts he has heard quoted against it, operate as stumbling blocks in his way. The author of this book believes that no text of Scripture, properly understood, in any manner traverses the grand central truth of the Gospel: God's triumph over all his foes, converting them to himself; and he has arranged these expositions in a brief and popular style for the purpose of showing that the Threatenings of the Bible are perfectly harmonious with the Promises of Scripture; in fact, that the threatenings are given in order that the promises of Universal Redemption may be fulfilled.

He agrees with the Canon Farrar of the Episcopal Church, who says: "If the decision be made to turn solely on the literal meaning of the scriptures, I have no hesitation whatever in declaring my strong conviction that the Universalist and Annihilist theories have far more evidence of this sort for them than the popular view. It seems to me that if many passages of Scripture be taken quite literally, universal restoration is unequivocally taught, * * * * * * * * but that endless torments are nowhere clearly taught--the passages which appear to teach that doctrine being either obviously figurative or historically misunderstood."

If these pages shall assist any mind to remove obstacles that prevent it from beholding God as the Savior of the world, its purpose will be fulfilled.

Bible Threatenings Explained.

When considering the threatenings of the Bible, it must never be forgotten that they are always to be interpreted and understood in harmony with the great principles declared in the Scriptures, and more especially with the revealed character of God, and his promises to man. They must be so explained as to harmonize with the rest of the book that contains them. For instance, we read that "God is a spirit," and yet the same book speaks of the eye, hand, arm and ear of God. As an infinite spirit can have no such organs, we must not say either (1) that God is not a spirit, or (2) that one part of the book contradicts another part. Such passages must be interpreted so as to agree with the great central fact that God is a spirit.

Now we read that "God is Love"--is a "Father." And at the same time we are told that he will cast the wicked into hell--into everlasting fire--will punish them forever, etc. On the same principle we must not (1) deny that God is Love and a merciful Father, nor (2) believe that the Bible contradicts itself; but we must believe that the threatenings harmonize with the promises, and that no penalty can be accepted as taught in the Bible, that would prove God not a father, or destitute of love towards each and all of his children. In other words, we must shed the light of infinite, boundless, unending love on all threatened penalties, and interpret them in perfect accord with the Divine character. Believing that God is love, we must not only be prejudiced against believing that endless or any other cruel punishment is threatened in the Bible, but we must, with all the resistance of which our moral natures are capable, refuse to credit any statement that represents God as permitting any penalty to befall the sinner which will not result in his final welfare. The love of God, the Divine Paternity, is an efficient guaranty against the possibility that unending agony can be experienced by any human creature. So that, if the letter of Scripture seemed to teach endless punishment--which it does not, when properly understood--the light of the great central fact of revelation-God's Love--would dispel all darkness from the declaration as soon as the light of that truth should fall upon it. In this frame of mind we should consider the threatenings of the Bible.

ENDLESS PUNISHMENT OF HEATHEN ORIGIN

We should also bear another fact in mind. When the doctrine of endless punishment began to be taught in the Christian Church, it was not derived from the Scriptures, but from the heathen converts to Christianity, who accepted Christ, but who brought with them into their new church that doctrine which had for centuries been taught in heathen lands, but which neither Moses nor Christ accepted. And having received the idea from heathen tradition, it was natural that the early Christians should transfer it to the Bible, and seek to find it there.

That heathen invented this doctrine is undeniable.

Says Cicero" "It was on this account that the ancients invented those infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in this life, who without them, would have no dread of death itself."

Says Polbius, the Greek historian: "The multitude is ever fickle and capricious, full of lawless passions and irrational and violent resentments. There is no way left to keep them in order but by the terrors of future punishment, and all the pompous circumstances that attend such fiction! On which account the ancients acted, in my opinion, with great judgment and penetration, when they contrived to bring those notions of the gods and a future state into the popular belief."

Strabo, the Greek geographer and philosopher, says: "it is impossible to govern women and the gross body of the people, and to keep them pious, holy and virtuous, by the precepts of philosophy. This can only be done by the fear of the gods, which is raised and supported by ancient fictions and modern prodigies." And again he says: "The apparatus of the ancient mythologies was an engine which the legislators employed as bugbears to strike a terror into the childish imagination of the multitude."

This horrible heathen dogma sought entrance into the Christian church in vain for the first three centuries after Christ, and though here and there a heathenized Christian announced it, it did not become an accredited Christian doctrine till after more than five centuries. Dr. Edward Beecher candidly confesses that as late as three hundred years after Christ it had hardly obtained a foothold.

He says: "What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the Christian world in the age of Origen and some centuries after? It was, in brief, this: There were at least six theological schools in the church at large. Of these six schools, one, and ony one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punishment. One was in favor of the annihiliation of the wicked. Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia."

That is to say, here were four times as many Universalist theological schools, where clergymen were educated, as there were schools in which endless punishment was taught, even as late as A. D. 300. But from that time onward, as darkness increased, the heathen idea was more and more transferred to the sacred page, till it entirely overlaid and obscured the truth. and it was not until the light of the Reformation began to dawn that the profane inscriptions of heathen tradition were erased from the palimpsest of the Scriptures, so that the meaning of the inspired authors could be apprehended.

We propose in this volume to show that the texts quoted in behalf of the heathen error do not contain it; that none of the threatenings of the Bible teach endless punishment.

ADAM'S PUNISHMENT.

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."--Gen. ii : 16,17.

The penalty that God intended to threaten to Adam would certainly be found at the very promulgation of the consequences of his sin. But it is nowhere intimated in the account of the first human transgression that he had incurred endless torment.

Adam was told: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," or, as a literal translation would read, "Dying thou shalt die." Whatever death Adam died, it was in the day he sinned. What death did he die, in that day?

This threatened death is not (1) of the body, for physical dissolution was the natural result of physical organization, and the death threatened was to be "in the day he sinned." His body did not die in that day. (2) It was not eternal death for the same reason. He certainly went to no endless hell "in the day" of his transgression. It was (3) a moral, spiritual death, from which recovery is feasible. Paul describe it:

"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart."--Eph. iv:18. "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins."--Eph.ii:I

Jesus describes it in the parable of the Prodigal son: "It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this, thy brother, was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."--Luke xv:32

So does Moses: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."--Deut.xxx:15-19

Adam died this kind of death, and no other, "in the day" he sinned. This is apparent from the description of his fate subsequent to his transgression."

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."--Gen.iii:17-19

If the reader will carefully consult the accounts of the sin and punishment of Cain, the Antediluvians, the Diluvians, Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the transgressors whose sins are recorded for four thousand years, he will find not a whisper, not a hint, that any but a limited and temporal penalty was received. This is agreed by all scholars.

TESTIMONY OF CRITICS.

Warburton: In the Jewish Republic, both the rewards and punishments promised by heaven were temporal only: such as health, long life, peace, plenty, and dominion, etc.; diseases, premature death, war, famine, want, subjections, and captivity, etc. And in no one place of the Mosaic Institutes is there the least mention, or intelligible hint, of the rewards and punishments of another life.--Div Leg. vol.iii. Jahn: We have not authority, therefore, decidedly to say that any other motives were held out to the ancient Hebrews to pursue the good and avoid the evil, than those which were derived from the rewards and punishments of this life.--Archaeology, p.398. Milman: The lawgiver (Moses) maintains a profound silence on that fundamental article, if not of political, at least of religious legislation rewards and punishments in another life. He substituted temporal chastisements and temporal blessings. On the violation of the constitution followed inevitably blighted harvests, famine, pestilence, defeat, captivity; on its maintenance, abundance, health, fruitfulness, victory, independence. How wonderfully the event verified the prediction of the inspired legislator! How invariable apostasy led to adversity--repentance and reformation to prosperity!--Hist. Jews, vol.i. Dr. Campbell: It is plain that in the Old Testament the most profound silence is observed in regard to the state of the deceased, their joys and sorrows, happiness or misery.

The punishments, then threatened and received, are thus described:

OLD TESTAMENT PUNISHMENTS

"It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of the body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do. The Lord shall smite thee with consumption, and with a fever, with blasting and mildew; etc. In the morning thou shalt say: Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say: Would God it were morning!"--Deut.xxviii:15-29, 67.

Abimilech's is a case in point: "Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren."--Judges ix:56.

So with Ahithophel, the suicide: "And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed,he put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sephulchre of his father."--II.Sam.xvii:23.

Is it asked how this suicide was punished? Paul answers:

"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment.,"--I.Tim.v:24.

Hence Paul tells us that under the Law: "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward."--Heb.ii:2

Now for four thousand years every wicked act was fully punished in this life. "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward."

Would God have an endless hell and keep it a secret from the world for four thousand years? Would he keep sinners for four thousand years from a hell he had made, and then use it as a prison for other sinners no worse? No; the silence of God for forty centuries is a demonstration that he had no such place reserved for any of his children; and if not thence under the severe dispensation of Moses, it is impossible that it should be found in the milder message of the Gospel of the grace of God.

Before proceeding to consider the chief supports of the doctrine of endless torment, we will give brief expositions of several passages that are usually quoted in its defense.

THE STRAIT GATE

"The Strait Gate" and the "Few saved" are thought by many to indicate the final salvation of only a portion of the human family.

The question was asked by some one (Luke xiii:23 and Matt. vii:13,14): "Lord, are there few that be saved? and he answered: "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."

No intelligent reader suposes this language literal--that there is a gate at which men knock, after death, for admission into heaven. The Kingdom of God is Christ's reign on earth, and its gate signifies entrance into it. "The Kingdom of God," "Kingdom of Heaven," etc., is always in this world.

And every careful reader will see that the language is entirely confined to the present.

"Lord, are there few that be 'saved'?" The literal rendering is: "Are those being saved few?" The question relates entirely to the number then accepting Christianity. But inasmuch as all partialist Christians believe that the great mass--all but a small minority of mankind--will be finally saved, it is very inconsistent for any one thus believing to apply this language to man's final condition. "Are there few that are now being saved?" is the literal rendering of the question From what? Not from endless torment, but from certain evil consequences in this world.

And the answer to Jesus shows that the application was confined to those to whom he was speaking.

"Lord" (they say) "we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets."

The words apply entirely to those who had heard him speak in their streets, namely the Jews, whose advantages were about to be taken away, and given to the Gentiles, who were to enter the kingdom by faith, with faithful Abraham, while they were thrust out. The weeping and gnashing of teeth represents their chagrin and rage at their lot, despising the Gentiles as they did.

This same subject is thus treated in Matt. vii:13,14.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because, strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

As we just said, it is entirely inconsistent for any advocate of endless punishment to quote this language in support of that doctrine, inasmuch as all such believers now teach that the great majority of souls will be finally saved, while only the small minority will be forever lost. The Savior referred, by the Strait Gate, to the exacting nature of his religion. The road was narrow, and difficult to follow, and but few then followed it, while the many avoided it, and pursued the broad road of error and sin. The words have the same application today, well expressed by good Dr. Watts:

Broad is the road that leads to death,

And thousands walk together there,

But wisdom shows a narrow path,

With here and there a traveller.

The language teaches that only the few then walked in the narrow way marked out by Christ while the many chose the broader way of wrong.

If we refer the passage to the future world, we cannot excape the conclusion that heaven will only contain a few souls, while the great majority will be damned. It has no reference to the future world whatever, but denotes the few who in our Savior's day went right, while the great multitude went wrong. Dr. A. Clarke says: "Enter in through this strait gate--i.e., of doing to every one as you would he should do unto you; for this alone seems to be the strait gate."

The language in Luke has a more special application to the Jews than that in Matthew, which may be applied to every age since Christ, and to the present. It is as true now as at the time Jesus spoke, that the path of Christian goodness is a difficult one, followed by a comparative few, while the way of wickedness is broad and much travelled. But it will not always be so.

Whoever refers the language to the final condition of the human race must admit that only a few will ever be holy and happy, while the great multitude will be lost. It has no such application, but teaches that at the time Jesus spoke the many went wrong, while only the few chose the way of life.

THE BAD CAST AWAY

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.--Matt.xiii:47-50.

The "furnace of fire" and "gnashing of teeth" will be fully explained, as also the "end of the world," or age (aion) in subsequent parts of this book. The material universe, this world (kosmos) is never spoken of as ending, but it is always the aion, or age, the end of which is announced. "The field is the world," kosmos, v.38, but "the end of the world," when the harvest comes, v. 39, is aion. The age ends, but not the world.

The kingdom of heaven is Christ's rule among men, his church. It is a net which catches good and bad, and at the end of that age, so often referred to, when severe judgments were to come, the angels, or messengers to execute God's judgments, would separate Christians from others, and the bad were to suffer in the furnace of fire, the burning city, and perish in Gehenna.

Dr. Clark says: "It is very remarkable that not a single Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invaded the city; and had he persevered in the siege, he would have rendered himself master of it; but when he, unexpectedly and unaccountably, raised the siege, the Christians took that opportunity to escape."

This language has sole reference to the remarkable trials through which the early Christians were about to pass, when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Christian religion was fairly established on the ruins of the Jewish church. The "furnace of fire," the "wailing and gnashing of teeth," were when the awful calamities of those fearful days, so fully described in Matt. xxiv, were visited upon the people of Judea. These expressions will be more fully explained hereafter.

YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH.

"I tell you, nay; except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."--Luke xii : 3.

Many readers of the Bible suppose that the word perish always relates to the immortal soul, and that it means to suffer torment without end. And this passage has been quoted blindly, ignorantly, thousands of times to denote the final loss of the soul. But it is only necessary to consult the immediate context to perceive that Jesus was referring to nothing of the sort. He asks:

"Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

That is, perish in a manner similar to their death. "Except ye repent, ye shall all perish as they died." How was that? There were "some who told him of the Galilieans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices," and of a certain eighteen "upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them."

"Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."

That is, be slain as they were. No better explanation fo these words can be given than in the language of "orthodox" commentators.

Says Dr. Clarke: "ye shall all likewise perish. In a like way, in the same manner. This prediction of our lord was literally fulfilled. When the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, etc., who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood mingled with the blood of their victims; and multitudes were buried under the ruins of the walls, houses and temple."

Dr. Barnes (Presbyterian) observes: "You shall all be destroyed in a similar manner. * * This was remarkably fulfilled. Many of the jews were slain in the temple; many while offering sacrifice; thousands perished in a way very similar to the Galileans."

Whitby says: "I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, for the same cause, and many of you after the same manner."

IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."--Heb vi:4-6.

Any reader of the New Testament ought to see that this language is not to be understood as literal, when he remembers that Peter himself "fell away," and was "renewed again unto repentance." What Paul says is that it is difficult, not impossible, to renew those who have once tasted the heavenly gift.

The word here has the same force as in Matt. xix:26, where it is said to be impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In reply to the apostles' question, "who, then, can be saved?" Jesus said: "With men it is impossible, but with God everything is possible;" or, more exactly, "With men it is hard, but everything is easy with God."

Calmet says: "St. Paul by no means intended to exclude the baptism of tears and repentance, for the expiation of those sins which we commit after regeneration."

Rosenmuller, a celebrated German theologian, says: "Adunaton, in this place, does not mean absolutly impossible, but rather a thing so difficult that it may be nearly impossible; thus we are accustomed to say of very many things in common conversation."

Dr. Macknight observes: "The apostle does not mean that it is impossible for God to renew a second time, by repentance, an apsostate; but that it is impossible for the ministers of Christ to convert a second time, to the faith of the Gospel, one who, after being made acquainted with all the proofs by which God has thought fit to establish Christ's mission, shall allow himself to think him an impostor, and renounce the gospel. The apostle, knowing this, was anxious to give the Hebrews just views of the ancient oracles, in the hope that it would prevent them from apostatizing.

THE SIN UNTO DEATH

"If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin unto death.--I John v:16,17.

"The sin unto death" has often been supposed to be the "unpardonable sin," so called, as though any sin could be unpardonable by a God whose mercy is without limit and without end. The apostle was merely alluding to the various offences under the Jewish law, some of which were unto death, or capital offences, while others were less heinous. The latter were to be interceded for, but the former were to be regarded as beyond intercession. On this passage Bishop Horne correctly says:

"The Talmudical writers have distinguished the capital punishments of the Jews into lesser deaths and such as were more grievous; but there is no warrant in the Scriptures for these distinctions, neither are these writers agreed among themselves what particular punishments are to be referred to these two heads. A capital crime generally was termed a sin of death (deut. xvi:6); or a sin worthy of death (Deut. xxi:22), which mode of expression is adopted, or rather imitated, by the apostle John, who distinguishes between a sin unto death, and a sin not unto death (I John v:16). Criminals, or those who were deemed worthy of capital punishment, were called sons or men of death (I Sam. xv:32; xxxi:16; II Sam. xix:28, marginal reading), just as he who had incurred the punishment of scourging was designated a son of stripes (Deut.xxv:16; I Kings xiv:6). A similar phraseology was adopted by Jesus Christ, when he said to the Jews: "Ye shall die in your sins" (John viii:21-24). Eleven different sorts of capital punishment are mentioned in the sacred writings."

THE HYPOCRITE'S HOPE.

"And the hypocrite's hope shall perish."--Job viii:13

Why this passage was ever quoted in support of endless punishment, we have no conjecture. There is mothing in it to indicate that it has the remotest reference to anything beyond this life. Its meaning is that the wicked shall be disappointed; that the will not realize what they desire. It is exactly equivqalent to Prov. x:28: "The expectation of the wicked shall perish."

AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY

"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."--Matt. v:25,26.

The adversary here is a legal one, the language refers to those who were opposed to the disciples in some way, as is evident from the references to a "judge", an "officer" and a "prison." If God were the adversary, as is sometimes claimed, and the prison is after death, then limited punishment is certainly taught, for when "the uttermost farthing" is paid, then deliverance from the prison follows. But it has no such reference. The language has a local reference to the times of the disciples, and relates entirely to legal opponents.

THE WICKED DRIVEN AWAY.

"The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death."--Prov. xiv:32.

Solomon had not the most remote reference to post mortem suffering in this language. What he meant to say was that when the wicked is driven away to death in his wickedness, the righteous has hope. He expresses the same idea when he says: "I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive."--Ecc. iv:2. When the wicked die in their wickedness, the righteous have hope even in their death, is what Solomon says in this language.

THE LIVING GOD FEARFUL.

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."--Heb.x:31

To fall into the hands of God, the living God, is as when (I Sam. v:6) "the hand of the Lord was heavy," and "the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines."

It denotes the judgments of God falling on the sinful. It is fearful to merit and receive those penalties. God has a merciful purpose in them, but they are often fearful to experience. We are always in God's hands, but we are said to "fall into" his hands when we suffer the consequences of sinfulness. It is a fearful thng to merit and receive the results of wickedness, even though a beneficent purpose moulds them, just as an amputation is a fearful process to undergo, though it may save life and restore health.

GOD LAUGHS AT MAN'S CALAMITY.

"I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproofs. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."--Prov. i:24-26.

This language is sometimes wrongfully applied to God, who is represented as laughing at man's calamity, and mocking him when in future and final torment, whereas it is Wisdom that is personified as saying:

"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying: How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof! Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."

The idea of wresting this language from its application to Wisdom, and applying it to the merciful God and Father of all, is one of the many illustrations of the manner in which the advocates of endless torment have misapplied the language of the Bible to make it seem to sustain the horrible doctrine. Think of God mocking the sinner's groans, and laughing as he listens to his cries of torment! And why should he not, if he has, in infinite wisdom and love, created an endless hell for his abode?

YE SHALL NOT FIND ME

"Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am thither ye can not come."--John vii:34. "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come."---John viii:21.

These verses are usually misquoted thus: "If ye die in your sins, where God and Christ are ye never can come." But Jesus said just the same thng to his disciples in John xiii:33.

"Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you."

True, he said to his disciple Peter: "Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterward," and so he told the wicked Jews: "Ye shall not see me till ye shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. xxiii:39). In both instances he meant that he should not be followed at that time, but in neither case did he mean that they should be excluded from his presence forever.

NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."--Gal.v:19-21. "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."--Eph. v:5. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drundards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."--I Cor. vi:9,10.

The popular rendering of these passages is, that those who commit these sins in this life will never find heaven, unless they repent before they die; but that idea is not expressed nor implied. The kingdom of God, of heaven, is a condition of purity, and whoever is guilty of these sins shuts himself out from the enjoyment of the kingdom. No Christian sect teaches this doctrine more earnestly than do Universalists. All Christians teach that this language is not to be interpreted literally. All those thus guilty; may, by repentance, enter the kingdom.

THE BARREN FIG TREE

"Cut it down why cumbereth it the ground?"--Luke xiii:7. this language is parallel to that in Matt. iii:10: "and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire."

Man is compared to a fruitless tree, that is destroyed because barren. No point of the description is literal--neither the tree, the axe, the fruit, nor the fire. The nation, or the individual, that does not serve God, perishes; that is, passes through a process of decay, destruction, as the penalty of sinfulness. Not annihilation, nor ceaseless torment, but that moral condition for which the Scriptures have no better name than death.

GOD ANGRY EVERY DAY.

"God is angry with the wicked every day."--Psalm vii:11.

Anger, as the word is ordinarily used, is not a noble emotion; it is altogether unworthy of God, and he is incapable of it. The wise man says (Ecc. vii:9): "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools." Then God cannot be "angry every day," all the time. What is the meaning of these words?

Dr. Adam Clarke, the well known scholar and commentator, has examined the text with equal learning and candor, and he gives us the result of his investigation in the statement that a mistranslation of the language puts a false meaning on the words. He gives these as authorities:

The Vulgate:--"God is a judge, righteous, strong and patient. Will he be angry every day?" The Septuagint:--"God is a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering; not bringing forth his anger every day." The Arabic is the same. The Genevan version, printed in 1615:--"God judgeth the righteous, and him that contenmeth God, every day;" marginal note: "he doth continually call the wicked to repentance by some signs of his judgments."

Dr. Clarke says: "I have judged it of consequence to trace this verse through all the ancient version. in order to be able to ascertain what is the true reading, where the evidence on one side amounts to a positive affirmation, 'God is angry every day,.' and, on the other side, to as positive a negation, 'He is not angry every day.' The mass of evidence supports the latter reading. The Chaldee first corrupted the text by making the addition, 'with the wicked,' which our translators have followed, though they have put the words into italics, as not being in the Hebrew text. Several of the versions have rendered it in this way: 'God judgeth the righteous, and is not angry every day." The true sense may be restored thus; el with the vowel tsere signifies God; el, the same letters with the point pathach, signifies not. Several of the versions have read in this way: 'God judgeth the righteous, and is not angry every day.' He is not always chiding, nor is he daily punishing, notwithstanding the daily wickedness of man; hence the ideas of patience and long-suffering which several of the versions introduce."

It will be seen that David expressly says that God is not angry every day, though those who quote the text as found in our version to prove God petulant, wrathful and passionate, do not seem to reflect that it is no proof of endless punishment, for the same author and others declare (Micah vii:18; Psa. ciii:8,9; xxx:5) that "He retaineth not his anger forever." So that, if he were--as he is not--angry every day, the time would come when his anger would no longer exist.

It will enable the reader to understand the meaning of anger, as ascribed to God in the Scriptures, if he will consider how the word is used in the Bible. There are two kinds of anger. One is right, and is exhibited by God, good angels and good men, and the other is wrong and is an animal characteristic, of which God is incapable. Abstract anger is a disposition to combat, destroy, and its legitimate use is to remove obstacles. Employed by the good it never harms, but used by the evil, its work is mischief and woe.

The first sort is referred to in the passage we are considering, and is exercised by God, who is said to "hate all the workers of iniquity." And how does he exhibit his anger? Not against the sinner, but against the sin. Men, smarting under the penalties of sin, seeing only the stroke, and not realizing the love that impels it, say with Saul that God hates them, but it is Infinite Love that wields the rod, and that inflicts every stroke because it loves the sinner, and will destroy that in him that alienates him from his best friend, and ruins his best interests.

David says; "Thou shalt make the wicked as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them."--Psa. xxi:9. The prophet declares: "The Lord reserveth wrath for his enemies."--Nahum i:2,3. Paul affirms; "The wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." "The power and wrath of God is upon all them that forsake him."--Eph. v:6; Col. iii:6. Jesus says: "The wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not the Son."--John iii:36. He also says: "God is kind to the unthankful and evil."--Luke vi:35. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust."--Matt. v:48.

Now these are not contradictory statements. They are consistent with each other. What God is determined to destroy in the sinner is that which makes him a sinner, and he prodeeds towards him as a good parent must, to eradicate it by punishment. An angry mother--a true mother--punishes her wayward boy, just as God punishes the wicked, because she loves him. The boy may call it anger, but it is that kind which will not harm a hair of his head. It is indeed the highest love; it is determined on the child's welfare, and so will not shrink from inflicting pain. But it is temporary. This is evident when we remember that men are told to be like God, and yet they must not let the sun go down upon their wrath. We must love our enemies that we may be children of the highest. If God were angry every day, and we were like him, we should be cross, petulant, wrathful, vindictive and hateful all the time. But we can only be like God as we "put off anger" (Col. iii:8) and "put away all wrath, anger and malice," (Eph. iv:31) inasmuch as "a fool's wrath is presently known," (Prov. xii:16) while "he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding." (Prov. xivv:28)

"God is not angry with the wicked every day," is the correct reading of this passage, and it must be true of him who is Love, and who is unchangeable, that he never was, never is, and never will be--for he never can be--angry with any human being in any other sense than that his righteous indignation burns towards those traits that cause his children to sin, and that it will continue to burn until it destroys those traits, and transforms his enemies into friends. "The man who destroyed his enemies" transformed them to friends. God's anger will destroy the enmity of his enemies. He will always be kind to the unthankful and evil. He "is not angry with the wicked every day."

THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY GHOST

The passages that relate to this subject are in Matt. xii:31,32:"Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor the world to come." Mark iii:28-30: "all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation; because they said, he hath an unclean spirit." Luke xii:10: "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven."

What is this sin? It consisted in ascribing the power by which Jesus wrought his wonderful works to Satan. He was accused of being aided by Beelzebub, of having an unclean spirit, and of working his miracles by the power of an evil spirit. From this it follows that but very few persons are exposed to the doom here threatened, inasmuch as very few have ever committed this sin.

But if we take this language literally, we must hold that all other sinners, of every character and kind, will be saved, because just as positively as the Scripture declares that these blasphemeies shall never be forgiven, it declares that all others literally and absolutely shall be forgiven. "Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme." The sin against the Holy Ghost is the only sin that shall not be pardoned. All other sinners. thieves, liars, murderers, all except that very small number that accused Jesus of receiveing diabolical help, shall be forgiven. Does not this show that the terms of the passage are not to be taken literally? Does it not appear that men must either believe that all kinds of sinners, and all of them, except this small number, must be pardoned, or else that the rest of the language is not to be taken literally? It is asserted just as positively that all others shall be, as that these few shall not be forgiven.

If the "shall" and "shall not" are to be understood literally, then the number of the damned is entirely limited to the very few who actually saw Christ's miracles, and ascribed them to Beelzebub. No one since, and no one hereafter can be damned, for all other sin but that shall be forgiven. This saves all mankind except those few persons who said, "he [Christ] hath an unclean spirit." This reduces hell to a mere mote in the universe, and excludes all now living, or who hereafter shall live, from any exposure to it.

What does that language mean? Campbell says this is "a noted Hebraism;" that is, a term of speech common among the Jews, to teach that one event is more likely to occur than another, and not that either shall or shall not occur.

Dr. Newcome says: "It is a common figure of speech in the oriental languages, to say of two things that the one shall be and the other shall not be, when the meaning is that the one shall happen sooner, or more easily, than the other."

Grotius and Bishop Newton are to the same purport. For illustration, when Jesus says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," he does not mean that heaven and earth shall actually pass away, but they will sooner fail than his words. It is a strong method of asserting that his words shall be fulfilled. This is common in the Bible.

Prov. viii:10: "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold." Matt. vi::19,20: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Luke xiv:12,13:"Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind." John vi:27: "Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him hath God the father sealed."

The plain meaning is, all other sins are more easily forgiven than this. The words "never," "neither in this world nor the world to come," do not change the sense, but only strengthen and intensify the Savior's meaning that this is of all sins the worst.

The popular impression that 'the world to come" here means the life after death is an error.

Dr. Clarke well observes: "Though I follow the common translation, yet I am fully satisfied the meaning of the words is, neither in this dispensation, viz., the Jewish, nor in that which is to come. Olam ha-bo, the world to come, is a constant phrase for the times of the Messiah, in the Jewish writers."

Wakefield, Rosenmuller and Hammond also give the same opinion. And it should be added that the word "never" is no part of the original Greek. That is, not under either dispensation, or age (aion--mistranslated "world"), will this inexcusable sin be less than the greatest of transgressions.

Bishop Pearce declares: "This is a strong way of expressing how difficult a thing it was for such a sinner to obtain pardon. The Greek word aion seems to signify age here, as it often does in the New Testament (see Matt. xiii:40; xxiv 3; Col. i:26; Eph. iii:5,21) and according to its most proper signification. If this be so, then 'this age' means the Jewish one, and 'the age to come' (see Hebrews vi:5 and Eph. ii:7) means that under the Christian dispensation. The end of the world took place during the time of the apostles. 'Now once in the end of the world hath he [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.'--Heb. ix:26. 'Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.' I Cor. x:11."

Gilpin observes, "Nobody can suppose, considering the whole tenor of Christianity, that there can be any sin which, on repentance, may not be forgiven. This, therefore, seems only a strong way of expressing the difficuolty of such repentance, and the impossibility of forgiveness without it. Such an expression occurs Matt. xix:24: 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven;' that is, it is very difficult. That the Pharisees were not beyond the reach of forgiveness, on their repentance, seems to be plain from verse 41, where the repentance of Nineveh is held out to them for an example."

Clarke says: "Any penitent may find mercy through Christ Jesus; for through him any kind of sin may be forgiven to man, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, which I have proved no man can now commit."--Clarke on I. John v:16. And again: "No man who believes the divine mission of Jesus Christ, ever can commit this sin."

These are all "Orthodox" commentators, whose opinions were certainly not formed by prejudice in favor of our views of the passages in question. They agree with what seems the meaning of the Savior, that this sin is of all others most inexcusable. But that any sin is literally unpardonable, by a God and Father of infinite love and mercy, is nowhere expressed or implied in the Bible.

Mark's language "hath never forgiveness" should read "has not forgiveness to the age," but is liable to aionian judgment; that is, to an indefinite penalty. See the word aionios, explained in subsequent pages of this book.

THE WRATH OF GOD

Paul speaks (Col. iii:6) of "the wrath of God on the children of disobedience." We have shown that wrath is a reprehensible passion, unworthy of men and impossible to God. The word can only be applied to God in a figurative sense, to denote his disapproval of sin.

Macknight (Presbyterian) gives a lucid exposition of the subject: "Thus, many words of the primitive language of mankind must have a twofold significance. According to the one signification, they denote ideas of sense, and according to the other they denote ideas of intellect. So that although these words were the same in respect of their sound, they were really different in respect of their signification; and to mark that difference, after the nature of language came to be accurately investigated, the words which denoted the ideas of sense, when used to express the ideas of intellect, were called by the critics metaphors, from a Greek word which signifies to transfer; because these words, so used, were carried away from their original meaning to a different one, which, however, had some resemblance to it.

"Having in the Scriptures these and many other examples of bold metaphors, the natural effect of the poverty of the ancient language of the Hebrews, why should we be either surprised or offended with the bold figurative language in which the Hebrews expressed their conceptions of the Divine nature and government? Theirs was not a philosophical language, but the primitive speech of an uncultivated race of men, who, by words and phrases taken from objects of sense, endeavored to express their notions of matters which cannot be distinctly conceived by the human mind, and far less expressed in human language. Wherefore they injure the Hebrews who affirm that they believed the Deity to have a body, consisting of members of the human body, because in their sacred writings, the eyes, the ears, the hands and the feet of God are spoken of; and because he is represented as acting with these members after the manner of men.

"'The voice of the Lord walking in the garden.'--Gen. iii:8. 'The Lord is a man of war' 'Thy right hand O Lord, hath dashed,' etc.; 'The blast of thy nostrils.'--Exod. xv:3-6-8. 'Smoke out of his nostrils;' 'Fire out of his mouth;' 'Darkness under his feet;' 'He rode' and 'Did fly.'--Psa. xviii:8,9,10.

"In like manner they injure the Hebrews who affirm they thought God was moved by anger, jealousy, hatred, revenge, grief, and other human passions, because in their Scriptures it is said: 'It repented the Lord' 'It grieved him.'--Gen. vi:6. 'A jealous God.'--Ex.xx:5. 'The wrath of the Lord.'--Num. xi:33. 'I hate."--Prov. viii:13. 'The indignation of the Lord' 'His fury'--Isa. xxxiv:2. 'God is jealous' 'Revengeth and is furious' 'Will take vengeance' and 'He reserveth wrath.'--Nahum i:2.

"They also injure the Hebrews who affirm that they believe the Deity subject to human infirmity, because it is said: 'God rested.'--Gen. ii:2. 'The Lord smelled.'--Gen. viii:21. 'I will go down and see,' and 'if not, I will know.'--Gen. xviii:21. 'He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh' 'Shall have them in derision.'--Psa. ii:4. 'The Lord awaked,' etc.--Psa. lxxviii:65.