The foregoing is a picture of Dr. Torrey's hell, and represents the views of a large majority of so-called orthodox ministers and
evangelists. I use the term, "Dr. Torrey's hell," because he, like Billy Sunday, is among its greatest champions. If these men would read their Bibles and preach
what is found therein, the flags of hell would be half-masted and hell itself would be draped in the sable mantle of mourning. The complacency with which these men contemplate the millions whom they consign to a perpetual inferno, is enough to shock the religious
sensibilities of those who know God as a merciful heavenly Father. What can be said of ministers of the gospel (good news, glad tidings) who consign men to an endless hell of misery, without warrant of
Scripture, or by grossly distorting the Word of God, and then gloat over it, as the following from the pen of Dr. Torrey shows? He said: "If after men have sinned and God still offers mercy, and makes the tremendous sacrifice of His Son to save them. If they still despise that
mercy and trample God's Son underfoot. If then they are consigned to everlasting torment, I say: "Amen! Hallelujah!"—Torrey's What the Bible Teaches, Page 312. With the foregoing quotation before us it must be clear to all that a doctrine that can lead men to rejoice at suffering and to shout "Amen" and
"Hallelujah" at torture and distress, is soul-hardening, conscience searing and God dishonoring, and should be rejected by all who love the God of truth. I will quote again. This time from an article in a recent issue of a religious paper, as follows: "The silly, deluded devotees of such superstition, such idolatry, must all, in the end, unless they repent in sackcloth and ashes, make
their way down the slippery steps of time, and take their final leap at last into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the old devil will take special delight to wrap them around his
fingers, gouge their eyes out, and toss them like a rubber ball around the black walls of the dark, dismal pandemonium, the sport of demoniacal millions, while the ages of oncoming
eternities roll up from the dark realms below." Can the reader imagine what heaven would be like to these pious ( ?) souls when they think of the damned in endless torture, pain and suffering? Will
they still their golden harps while they lean over the battlements of glory and listen to the cries of the damned ? Will they strike a higher note on their harps and shout, as Dr. Torrey
says, "Amen"! "Hallelujah," at every cry of distress ? Is this religion? Is it Christian? Perish the thought. Love -- Not Fear Our God is a God of love, and desires such to worship Him who do so because they love Him. Fear of hell can never make a single Christian. Men who serve God only because they are afraid of hell are not Christians. They are the
worst kind of hypocrites. Remove the hell from their minds and they will soon expose their naked villainy. A Christian is moved by love, and knows no fear— "for fear hath torment" and "perfect love casteth out fear." A real Christian will do right because it is right. He will love God because He is so lovable; and if indeed a true Christian, he will not only
do right because it is right, but no amount of suffering, no,-nor hell itself, will be able to drive him from loving the blessed Father, who—"so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Meaning of the word "Hell" The English word hell comes from the same Teutonic root as heal, hall, hull, hold: It originally meant—to cover, conceal, make
whole, to restore to health, and no doubt when first used in connection with the wicked, it was intended to indicate their concealment; gradually, however, it lost its original
meaning as many other old English words, whose original meaning could hardly be recognized by their modern usage. The word hell is so ambiguous in its original meaning that it is hard to determine, from the word itself, what thought it was meant to convey or the
reason for its use. It is certain, however, that the word hell as used in our English Bibles is translated from words which do not have the same meaning at all. The fact that three
different words, having as many different meanings, are translated hell, should lead to honest inquiry, investigation and study. The word "hell" occurs fifty-three times in the Bible (King James version); thirty- one times in the Old Testament, and twenty-two times in the New
Testament. In every one of the thirty-one times that the word hell is found in the Old Testament, it is translated from the Hebrew word sheol, and means
the grave. The same Hebrew word sheol is also translated "grave" thirty-one times and "the pit" three times. Why the word sheol, which appears sixty-five times in Hebrew Old Testament, should be translated hell thirty-one times, or even once, is
beyond reason. In the New Testament the word hell is translated from the Greek words hades, ten times, ge-enna, eleven times, and from tartaroo
just once. The word hades is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word sheol, and for the English word grave. In every instance it means the
grave. The Greek word ge-enna means literally, the valley of Hinnom, and has reference to a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, which was
defiled by the worship of Molock, and afterwards used as a place to burn all kinds of filth and carcasses of animals, the bodies of criminals, and refuse generally. The Greek word tartaroo means darkness. Thus the reader can readily see that the word hell, with all that goes with it, is simply an invention, dating its origin long after the Bible was
written. If the words translated hell in the Bible were given their true meanings the English word hell would not appear in the Scriptures at
all. In the Revised Version of the Old Testament, the word hell has been retained in the prophetical books, and the Hebrew word sheol has been used
in the poetical books, except in three instances, (Deuteronomy 32 :22, Psalm 55 :15, and Psalm 86 :13) where it is translated pit. In the Revised Version of the New Testament the Greek word hades is used instead of hell in ten instances. The word hell is retained where
translated from the Greek words ge-enna and tartaroo. Nearly, if not all, of those engaged in translating the Bible, were believers in a literal burning inferno, hence the tenacity with which they
retained the word hell. It is enough for me to repeat that Bible writers had no word for hell; did not believe in what we call hell, and in the original language the word
hell, as defined to day, is not found. I challenge the world to produce one single instance where the word hell, as used today, is found. So much for the word itself. End of the Ungodly "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey
not the gospel of God?"—1 Peter 4:17. The fate of the wicked, is a question which without doubt has caused much more discussion than any other of a theological nature, and will continue
to do so as long as men are pleased to place their own constructions on the Bible. If ministers and people could be induced to study the Bible, the question suggested in the fore going text
would be one of the easiest to understand and would end every controversy on the punishment of the lost. Few present day theologians would ask the question, as Peter does, "What shall the end be ?" but on the contrary, "What shall the future life
be?" How often we hear the question asked—"Where will you spend eternity?" Before we can accept the teachings of modern theology concerning the
"future life," or "eternity" of the wicked, we must ask in all honesty: What did Peter mean by the word END in the text quoted? Our question involves two things as opposite as day and
night. First—If Peter was right, when he referred to "the end" of them that obey not the gospel of God, then modern theology is wrong, and
ministers who are teaching a future life or eternity of torment for the wicked are wrong. Second—If there is a literal burning hell, where the damned are suffering and will suffer throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, as
taught by so-called orthodox ministers, then, Peter was wrong, and the Bible either false or contradictory. The two foregoing propositions are entirely fair, and the reader may choose which he will believe, either the Word of God and an end of the wicked, or
modern theology and an eternity of living, suffering and torture. The discussion of this subject might end here if men would only believe the Bible. Answering Peter's question, "What shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God?" we might get our answer from the Apostle Paul, who said: "But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."—Hebrews 6:8. Burned, like thorns and briers, or literally burned up. But let us note another text by the same apostle. He said: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is
destruction."—Philippians 3:18-19. This text speaks of destruction, and destruction is not endless torture. Can anything be more clear than these statements? Do they not show that
modern theological thought and teaching is entirely out of harmony with the Word of God? Annihilation When these Bible texts are read, and the Biblical teaching on this subject expounded, we are called "materialists" and
"annihilationists." The overly wise men among them say, with an air of scientific superiority,— "You believe in annihilation, do you?", and then add, "Matter cannot be
annihilated, nothing can be destroyed or annihilated." This sort of argument is simply begging the question. Death is not annihilation. It is simply a cessation of life; and life is a force, still unknown
to man, a mystery, sealed in the mind of the infinite God. Dissolution of the body into its original elements,— "dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return," is not annihilation. Still, withal, I am not so foolish as to believe that God, who made all things, cannot, at His will, annihilate anything He made. The foolish notion
of the stability of matter is giving place to the more sensible and scientific Biblical view that "the things which are seen were not made out of things which do appear."—Hebrews
11:3. Since the discovery of the ultra-violet ray and the radiation emitted by the substance which we call radium, for want of a better name, the "ultimate
atom" has been shattered into countless electrons, which in the last analysis are proven to be disembodied electric charges, motion, force, or call them what you will. Where IS Hell? 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 its 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 a bottomless lake, somewhere on the outskirts of creation, where the sinners, throughout the ceaseless ages
of eternity will be writhing in agony—crying from the depths of their hearts, "How long, O Lord ?", only to be mocked by the echo of their own words answering, "eternity." It is useless to ask those who have for years believed in this literal, burning hell, to believe some simple texts of Scripture that clarify the
subject. Tradition, hoary tradition has so covered the truth, that men seem to fear the light on this subject. It is as if Milton had spoken to this generation, when he said: "Long is the way
And hard, that out of hell leads up to light." Theological Absurdities When we quote the Word of God,— "The soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4) and "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), do they believe these texts? O, No, they tell you it does not mean a literal death, or absence of life, but that this is the death that never
dies. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this. "A death that never dies" is just about as sensible as a life that never lives. Death is defined to be, "a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions; extinction of life." Men are driven to the most absurd reasoning when they try to avoid the force of a plain Bible text. In all the realm of thought, reason, and logic,
there is nothing quite so foolish as the deductions of theological systems which misconstrue the Word of God and build their faith on tradition. Even the hymnology of some churches is so
unthinkably silly that it is robbed of its seriousness. What could be more foolish than the sacred song, "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere"? or the old hymn sung by our mothers: "Beyond the bounds of time and space
Look forward to that heavenly place
The saints secure abode." Beyond the bounds of time is no time, and beyond the bounds of space is nowhere. It would certainly require a stretch of the
imagination to comprehend a heavenly place that is nowhere, to be attained at no time. It is all silly twaddle, too foolish for grown up men and women. Let us be reasonable in
our religion. Now read this stanza from a well known church hymn: "Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing Thy power to save
When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave." Question—How are we going to sing without tongues ? The foregoing is given to show the absurdities and incongruities of modern religious thought. Why not be sensible? God does not want us to be led
astray with foolish verbiage and imaginary ideas, couched in unthinkable terms. Let us believe the Bible. Believe just what it says— no quibbling—no dodging, for God does not address us in meaningless phrases. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
"The wages of sin is death." Believe these simple statements and you will know the truth about the fate of the wicked, and "the truth shall make you free" from the many errors and
deceptions that have no warrant or sanction in God's Word. Origin of the Modern Hell? The reason why people believe in a literal burning hell of endless torture is 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 a matter of fact, it is much harder to unlearn a thing so
instilled into our minds than to learn the truth when we have no preconceived opinions. This doctrine has been handed down from generation to generation until it has become so firmly rooted in the minds of some that it seems almost
sacrilegious to say there is no hell, and more so when we positively assert that it is not only not taught in the Bible, but that the Word of God is squarely against it. It is a God dishonoring doctrine, and was handed down to us by the heathen converts to Christianity in the early years of the third century.
These converts were anxious to reconcile their new faith with their former pagan systems. Through these so-called early church fathers many other errors entered the church until the whole
system of Christianity was corrupted. At first the hell fire doctrine was held by only a few, but as time went on it became quite popular with those who were only part Christian and part
heathen—men who wore the philosopher's garb to their dying day and who are responsible for all the errors that have disgraced the church from that time to the present. Tertullian, who wrote about 200 to 220 A.D., is said to be the first of the early Christian fathers who openly taught the doctrine of an eternal hell
of torture. He wrote thus: "How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult when I behold so many proud monarchs and fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss
of darkness; so many magistrates who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in
red-hot flames with their deluded scholars, so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians more tuneful in expression of their own
sufferings; so many dancers."—Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Vol. I Ch. 15, Page 537. Gibbon stops abruptly, and adds: "But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw the veil over the rest of the infernal description." The next writer of note to teach this doctrine was Augustine, and little by little it became a part of the religious teaching of the church during
the years of moral darkness that followed the third century. St. Augustine was a great lover of the Platonic system of philosophy and studied the Bible from a Platonic view. "Of all the fathers of the Latin church," says Villemain, "St. Augustine manifested the most imagination in theology." He was a poor Greek scholar and understood nothing of Hebrew but was quite a good scholar in Latin, and an eloquent speaker. He taught and wrote
during the most corrupt state of the church. The "mystery of iniquity," which Paul said was already working in his day, was now bearing fruit in the development of error and intolerance.
All sorts of pagan practices and doctrines were already incorporated into the so-called Christian church. Hell became the "shibboleth" of the priests—the "big stick" of a false
religion to drive men to a fallen church. The whole idea of hell as taught in our day can be traced to the old pagan systems of Greece and Rome. Even to the present day there are some who
quote St. Augustine as authority for this doctrine. Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, says: "So great a punishment says St. Augustine that no torment known to us can be compared with it." - Article Hell. St. Gregory Nazianzen believed that the punishment of sinners in the next world would not last forever; and St. Jerome believed and taught that all
sinners would suffer eternally, except those who had died in the Catholic faith. That the suffering of these might be mitigated by the prayers and good works of the faithful, was taught by
many early Catholic Saints. Even unbaptized infants are consigned to hell by some of these. They had a limbus infantum for the children, probably a little side show in hell itself.
The haste with which some send for a minister or priest to sprinkle a dying infant, is evidence of the fact that some churches still believe in the damnation of unbaptized children. The reader must reach a place where reason is enthroned instead of blind credulity, for as Milton says: "He who does not reason is a slave." The words of the poet are to the point here: "By education most have been misled
We so believe because we so are bred
The priest continues what the nurse began
And thus the boy imposes on the man." Three propositions against Hell To get right down to cold facts, let me give Bible proof against this God dishonoring doctrine of an endless hell. I will make several propositions,
and then proceed to sustain them by the Scriptures. First:—The wicked are not being punished now, and will not be until the day of judgment. Second:—The wicked will be punished on this earth. Third:—The punishment of the wicked will be eternal death and not eternal torture. Written by: E. E. Franke
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