Hell Torments a Fallacy, a Failure and a Fraud

A LECTURE DELIVERED IN MASSY HALL, TORONTO, WEDNESDAY NIGHT, JANUARY 31, 1906, BY THOMAS WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO

The rank hell torment preaching during a revival meeting in Massey Hall, by The Evangelist, Dr. Torrey was the immediate cause of this lecture being given at this time. Dr. Torrey was first challenged to meet Mr. Williams in public discussion on the question: "Do the Scriptures Teach the Doctrine of Unending Hell Torment?"

Upon his refusal, arrangements were made for the lecture. The audience consisted of about five thousand people, and with the exception of a few interruptions during the first part of the lecture, good attention was given, great interest manifested, and hearty acceptance, by many, declared.

The chair was occupied by Mr. E. H. Chart, of Toronto, who opened the meeting with the following appropriate remarks:

Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of the Christadelphians of Toronto I extend to one and all a sincere and hearty welcome here tonight.

The assembling together of this vast audience is a practical demonstration of your sympathy with that bulwark of British institutions—freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and, above all, an open Bible.

Much has been said in this city during the past thirty days upon the doctrine of unending torment; the Christadelphians believing that theory to be contrary to Christianity, Science and Sense, and a gross libel upon the Bible, which they believe to be Holy and divinely inspired, challenged Dr. Torrey to a public debate with Mr. Williams of Chicago, author, publisher and lecturer, to be held in this city, the metropolis of Ontario, that the searchlights of Divine Truth might be turned upon a question that has baffled so many and has been held up to the dissecting eye of an inquiring public.

Dr. Torrey refused, declaring that he had no time—no time, my friends, time to proclaim for four weeks in your midst the terrible doctrine of Hell Torments, yet no time to defend it. If Dr. Torrey has no time, Mr. Williams has time, and has come from Chicago to acquit God of the blasphemous charge that has been made against Him and His Holy Word; and to demonstrate to you the scriptural teaching of the wicked and the state of the dead.

Beloved friends, we have no outstretched hand for your money, but we have this favor to ask of you, and that is, that you lay aside all prejudices and give the lecturer a fair and impartial hearing.

Mr. Chart then read the 14th Chap. of Job and called upon Mr. Williams to come forward and deliver his lecture—"Hell Torments a Fallacy, a Failure and a Fraud.”

Williams was received with applause.

THE LECTURE

Esteemed and Respected Friends—Perhaps to many of you I may add, fellow countrymen, for although a resident of the United States of America for many years, Britain, the beautiful Isles of the sea, is the country of my nativity.

It is the thought that I am to address an audience of Britons tonight that gives me confidence that I shall be allowed a fair hearing, or given, as President Roosevelt terms it, "a square deal," at your hands.

To Britain, more than to any other nation, are we indebted for the liberty of the Press and the freedom of the Platform; and I must believe that this vast audience of intelligent, educated people, will respect and honor the inestimable principles which belong to every freeman as a legacy from the greatest nation upon the face of the earth today.

Moreover, to Britain we are indebted for an open Bible, that glorious Book, which alone is a guide through the darkness and confusion of an evil world into the gladness and glory of the world to come.

It is upon this book we all depend for a knowledge of the truth upon the important subject we are to consider tonight. No man, from the pope of Rome to a Dr. Torrey, can know anything about the future punishment, of the wicked apart from what is revealed in the Bible; and the Bible is a book we all have in our possessions, God, in His providence, having given it to the world in almost every known language upon the face of the earth, and to us in our own mother-tongue.

Now we open this book Divine, and we read its first words:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That is a simple declaration of a fact. We behold the heavens above that declare the glory of God, and the earth beneath shows forth His handy work. But do we read, “In the beginning God created hell?” We are clearly told of things that God did create – the heaven and the earth, the firmament, the waters, the creatures of the earth, the sea and the sky; and we are told of the formation of man; but we read not a word about the creation of hell. Why? We have a right to ask.

Heaven is a created thing, earth is a created thing, all the things and the creatures named are created things; and if there is a hell it must be a created thing—where, I ask again, is there a word in the Scriptures about the creation of hell? It is supposed by a perverted Christianity that heaven was intended to be the eternal abode of the righteous. Its creation was worth mentioning in the Divine Revelation. If, as is supposed by Dr. Torrey and his fellows and followers, hell was intended to be the eternal abode of the wicked—of course I mean Dr. Torrey's hell— why was there not the same reason for recording, "in the beginning God created hell” as there was for recording, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"?

The Scriptures teach the existence of a greater number of savages, heathen and wicked people, than of righteous ones, and the facts of history and of our own times make this quite manifest. The population of Dr. Torrey's hell, therefore, must always be far greater than the population of heaven; hell, therefore, should be a much larger place than heaven. On this hypothesis, it surely deserved mention among created things, if it ever was created, and in view of the importance that Dr. Torrey and his fellow-advocates attach to it, and in view of its alleged horror and its great danger to mankind, the fact that no mention is made of its creation cannot be ignored upon the plea that it was too insignificant to be a matter of record when a record was being made of all created things.

Now, I am not going to be technical, and limit my challenge to the fact that the creation of hell is not mentioned in the account of creation, but if its creation can be found further along in the Bible, I am willing to admit that there is some ground for the theory. But where is it? I press the question. Where is there any account in the Word of God of the creation of hell? Where?

I will show you presently where the fable and the fraud originated, but now I am going to be bold enough to pass from the negative side to the affirmative side of the question, and to show that we can be sure and certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was no hell created, that there was no hell in existence when God created the heaven and the earth, the creatures of the earth, the sea and the sky. I call God to witness against the horrible delusion; listen to His words:

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good"—Gen 1. 31.

If there was such a hell there as Dr. Torrey has been trying to frighten you with, do you think God would have declared that "every thing was very good"? Was Moses inspired to tell the truth, the whole truth, and yet did his inspired pen write that "every thing was very good," when there was such a horrible place of lurid flame inhabited by a monstrous devil and his victims waiting to engulf earth's millions to roast them throughout the countless ages of eternity—could, I ask, "every thing be very good" and yet such a hell form part of the "every thing"? Let God be true, though it make men liars.

THE ORIGIN OF HELL TORMENTS

Now as to the origin of the blasphemous doctrine of hell torments, its revolting horror, and its savage, insatiable vindictiveness are evidences that it never originated in the mind of Him who is a God of love and justice—yes, and a God of law and order. You may be sure that it forms no part of the plan of Him who is order and harmony to absolute perfection. Can you see order, can you see harmony, can you see sense, in a theory that sends Abel to heaven and Cain to hell, the one to bask in bliss and the other to writhe in indescribable torture for six thousand years, and that after that they and all of their kind are to be brought to judgment? Judge millions who have for ages been tortured! ! In the world! In the name of common sense I ask you, my friends, I plead with you to think, to reflect, and as intelligent men and women, I ask you what in the name of common sense are such poor creatures to be judged for? With such flagrant confusion as this, with God so libeled and His book so slandered by the Dr. Torrey’s of the pulpits, do you wonder that there are infidels? If there were a God such as the popular fiction pictures, do you think sensible people and people who have hearts of love could devoutly worship him? They might cringe and crawl like the slave under the whip of the slave driver, but worship and love would be impossible, and, let me add, creatures upon whom the terrors of hell torments would have any effect in the way of intimidating or frightening them are those whose existence is the result of that part of the curse which sin brought in the multiplication of "sorrow and conception," and these are so degenerate that they cannot look up into the heavens and behold the face of Him who is the perfection of justice and love. To preserve millions of such creatures in hell torment would be to add a thousand fold to the curse, and to perpetuate evil instead of accomplishing "the restitution of all things spoken of by the prophets.” The hell torments fiction was not intended for decent, civilized and educated people; it was invented as a "pious fraud" to frighten creatures who could not otherwise be kept from committing revolting crimes. Hence, as the famous historian Gibbon says, "With the masses it was equally true, with the philosophers it was equally false, and with the magistrates it was equally necessary." Plato, the Grecian author of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, declared it advisable to deceive the masses as a means of checking their lustful passions, and the silver tongued Cicero, upon the authority of Plato, declared that "not to deceive for the public good was a wickedness." Based upon the serpent's lie in the garden of Eden the mysteries of Egyptian darkness cherished and nourished the offspring of the first false-hood and delivered it over to Plato, from whom the pulpits have received it under the name, "The Platonic doctrine of the immortality of the soul." Hence the heathen theories of transmigration of souls, the Elisian fields, and the fires of Tartarus have been given Bible names and these counterfeits have been passed as if they were pure coins from heaven. To the savage heart of heathenism, therefore, is due the origin of the blasphemous doctrine of hell torments; and, to the shame of the clergy, bishops, D. Ds. and Reverents be it said, thousands of ignorant people and innocent little children have been frightened out of their wits by so-called revival meetings, and their fright has been called "conversion," and thus reports of so many "converts made tonight" are advertised by various devices in order to give prestige to professional "Evangelists."

So far as real conversion is concerned, hell torments is a failure, and to use it as it is used in so-called revivals is as much a "pious fraud" today as it was in the days of Plato and other heathen, so-called philosophers.

Now I will read to you what a Bishop Hopkins has said about hell torments, and leave you to judge whether it was a compliment to the intelligence of Toronto for Dr. Torrey to flaunt the flames of such a hell in your faces. Listen to this, "The smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed for ever and over"—"in the sight of the blessed,” mark you! so that parents are to be in sight of their children, and children in sight of their parent, and friends in sight of friends—what do you think, you mothers whose hearts throb with an unquenchable love for your children. What do you think of the prospect of spending eternity in sight of the writhing tortures and within hearing of the moans and groans of your children? Do you think you could be happy? Could even the bliss of heaven make you happy with such a spectacle before your eyes? Could you be happy in this life in view of prolonged suffering of those you love—yea, of those you do not love? If you could not be happy in this life in view of the sufferings of your fellow creatures are you willing to believe that transportation to heaven roots out every spark of a mother's love from your hearts, and that you become such fiends as to be able to spend untold millions of years within visible distance of the unspeakable torture of countless numbers of your fellow beings? I am sure you cannot entertain the shocking thought for a moment, and I cannot think that men of Dr. Torrey's character can really believe it. But Bishop Hopkins has not yet finished his flaming picture of hell torments. Listen: "The smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed for ever and ever, and serve, as a most clear glass always before their eyes, to give them a constant, and most affecting view. * * * * This display of the divine character''—“of the divine character"; O dear, is it not marvelous that God’s mercy can allow His character to be so shamefully defamed! —"This display of the divine character and glory will be in favor of the redeemed, and most entertaining, and GIVE THE HIGHEST PLEASURE TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD, AND RAISE THEIR HAPPINESS TO INEFFABLE HEIGHTS. Should this eternal punishment cease, and this fire be extinguished it would in a great measure obscure the light of heaven and put an end to a great part of the happiness and glory of the blessed." What do you think of that for a bishop? Could the pen of man do more to blaspheme God, disgrace heaven and outrage reason?

I see from the newspaper reports—and perhaps we can depend more upon the Toronto papers for truthfulness than we can upon some of those of Chicago—Your newspapers report Dr. Torrey as having spoken of hell torments in all its various forms as a place of literal fire, and as a condition of mental torture and an endless gnawing of conscience. But if the wicked are to be in such a condition endlessly, there must be a place in which the condition will subsist. So that it would seem that Bishop Hopkins' hell is not too horrible, fearful and shocking as it is in the light of reason and Scripture.

Dr. Torrey says his hell is the hospital for the wicked of this world. A hospital! Do you send your unfortunate ones to hospitals to be tortured? Do they go there to be tortured without hope? How quickly would your newspapers arouse the wrath of the people were it to be discovered that even one afflicted inmate of a hospital were subjected to unnecessary suffering under the surgeon’s knife or otherwise. A hospital, indeed! Do you not think that was a strange comparison for Dr. Torrey to make?

But the doctor makes a better comparison when he says that hell is the insane asylum of the world. Yes, indeed, if there is such a place, a, mad-house it is sure enough. What else can it be? How long do you suppose a sane person could exist in such a place before he would become a raving maniac? During the great Chicago fire, people were running through the streets carrying heavy loads of useless things, when their valuables were left to be devoured by the flames. If a conflagration of that sort would drive men and women into temporary insanity, what, think you, would the ceaseless flames or the unrelenting gnawing conscious of hell torment do? But an "insane asylum for the world" is it? What! torment millions of mad men throughout eternity! Occasionally reports come of cruel treatment in insane asylums, and society is all aflame, and cry, shame, shame; and demand the just punishment of the culprit. But in Dr. Torrey's hell—and I do not wish to make him a scapegoat for all of his class; for he is but frankly confessing the creed of the popular churches, while some, not so frank, are trying to hide the hideous thing from decent society. Dr. Torrey's hell is the hell of the popular creeds; and in that hell we are asked to believe millions of madmen are treated with indescribable cruelty while the poor creatures know not what their torture is for.

Look at this picture, by a "Rev. J. Furness." I quote from "The Bible Vindicated," a compilation by the late Mr. Gunn, of Walkerton, Ont.: "Listen to the tremendous, the horrible uproar of millions and millions of tormented creatures, mad with the fury of hell. Oh, the screams of fear, the groanings of horror, the yells of rage, the cries of pain, the shouts of agony, the shrieks of despair, from millions on millions. There you hear them roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, howling like dogs, and wailing like dragons. There you hear the gnashing of teeth, and the fearful blasphemies of the devils. Above all you hear the roarings of the thunders of God's anger, which shake hell to its foundations. But there is another sound. There is in hell a sound like that of many waters; it is as if all the rivers and oceans in the world were pouring themselves with a great splash down on the floor of hell. Is it, then, really the sound of waters? It is. Are the rivers and oceans of earth pouring themselves into hell? No. What is it, then? It is the sound of oceans of tears running down from countless millions of eyes. They cry for ever and ever. They cry because the sulphurous smoke torments their eyes. They cry because of darkness. They cry because they have lost the beautiful heaven."—What do men "mad with the fury of hell" know about "the beautiful heaven?—"They cry because the sharp fire burns them."

My dear friends, you will recognize the fact that I am giving you those revolting pictures just as they have been given to the world by the Dr. Torrey class. They are written upon the pages of the books of popular churches, and until the books are committed to the flames, and the scandal is wiped completely out, and God's justice vindicated and the Bible defended, the horrible doctrine must shroud the pulpits in the blackness of the libel and of the shameful slander.

Suppose one of your citizens had a dog that became vicious and bit his master's children and endangered the safety of the neighbors. And suppose the owner of that dog discovered a chemical which, when injected into the veins and arteries of the dog, would make it impossible for him to die. Then suppose the owner kindled a fire in his yard and put the dog into that fire, and then, with folded arms, complacently looked on, beholding day after day, the writhings of the tortured creature, and happily listening to his groans and moans and to its constant howling. What would you think of such a man? How long could you endure such a sight? What would you do with that suffering dog? ["Shoot him,” cried a voice.] Yes, indeed, you would make haste to put the creature out of existence; and now are we to believe that God is more heartless than men? To worship a god that will endlessly torture millions of creatures with no possibility of remedy—if worship were possible in such a case—is to worship a being a thousand times more cruel than the most cruel among men. I may appear to be speaking irreverently, and I am, but not of God, glory be to His name; but of an invention, the offspring of the savage heart of heathenism, and for such a god I have no reverence, but the utmost contempt.

There may be a few people in Toronto who are so degenerate as to require the fear of the flames of an invented hell to "convert" them. If there are, perhaps the "pious fraud" of Plato's times is "equally necessary," but for Dr. Torrey to preach his hell torment to the people generally is nothing short of an insult. Some years ago I delivered a lecture in Hamilton on the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked. At the close of the lecture a man came to me and said, "If there is no hell torment, what is there to keep me from thrusting a knife to your heart." I was shocked for a moment, but asked the man, "Is it your fear of hell torments that keeps you from thrusting a knife to the heart of your fellow man"? He did appear somewhat ashamed, and made no reply. "My good man," I said, "If it is the fear of hell that keeps you from such a crime, I would not change your mind for the world. It was for just such as you the fraud was invented."

But for an enlightened, educated, gentleman, a D. D. to travel about teaching hell torment to intelligent people is another matter. Let me again suppose. Suppose there never was such a man and such a dog as I have supposed, and suppose some one falsely reported that one of your respectable citizens had so treated a dog what would you do with such a slanderer? ["Shut him up," came from the audience.] Well, the God of the Bible is not a vindictive monster. He is a God of love and justice, and every man that preaches hell torment a thousand times more outrageously slanders Him than would the falsifier we have supposed slander one of our fellow citizens. Here is what one of our Revs. says—the "Rev." J. Furness, in a further description of this heathen hell:

"The roof is red hot, the walls are red, the floor is like a thick sheet of red hot iron. See! On the middle of that floor stands a girl—she looks about sixteen years old." Mark you, this youthful girl, only about sixteen years old. She had not lived long enough to have committed a multitude of sins, and was of such a tender age that we could hardly think she could have degraded herself greatly, and if she had been a degenerate by inheritance, that would surely be an extenuating circumstance. But even suppose she had lived three score years and ten, and had been a sinner during the years of her accountability, you shall judge when I have read this extract whether the punishment is consistent with the crime. When I was young I heard the eternity of hell torture illustrated by supposing one were to count every grain of sand upon the seashore; then count over again, one grain at a time, then again, and even then there had not been a beginning to count the number of ages during which the inhabitants of hell are to be tortured. Remember, this illustration did not come from a savage either, but from a "clergyman," and now let me continue the story of the "Rev." J. "Furness and his red-hot furnace for tender girls sixteen years old: "Her feet are bare; she has neither shoes nor stockings on her feet; her bare feet stand on the red-hot burning floor. The door of this room has never been opened since she first set her foot on the red-hot floor. Now she sees that the door is opening. She rushes forward. She has gone down on her knees on the red-hot, floor. Listen! She speaks. She says: “I have been standing with my bare feet on this red-hot floor for years. Day and night my only standing place has been this red-hot floor. Sleep never came on for a moment, that I might forget this horrible burning floor. Look, she says, at my burnt and bleeding feet. Let me go off this burning-floor for one moment, only for one moment,"—My dear friends, I can hardly read this; I could not if I did not know that it is a clerical fiction and a palpable fraud. He continues: "'Oh! that in this endless eternity of years I might forget the pain only for one single moment! The devil answers her question. 'Do you ask for one moment to forget your pain? No! not for one single moment, during the never ending eternity of years shall you ever leave this red-hot floor.’"

If there is a devil that has charge of hell, whose business it is to so torture young girls and old people, he must receive his authority and power from God; for He only is the source of all power and authority. The very principle of hell torment theorists is that the punishment, is divine retribution. The pagans did believe that Good and Evil were two antagonistic gods, wrestling with each other for the prey; and therefore the torture inflicted by the devil was in spite of the good imaginary god. But the heathen theory when transmitted into so-called Christianity represents the devil as God's agent to inflict the torture. Yes, and a Dr. Benson, a Methodist commentator, says that "God is Himself in hell, exercising all his divine attributes to make the pains of the damned cut intolerably deep."

Now, I think it is time for us to leave this outrageous libel with those who think they can believe the lie to be the truth, and it will be our duty to examine the Scriptures as to what they really do teach.

The word "hell" is in the Bible. "What does it mean? Here I take pleasure in complimenting Dr. Torrey. A very good little book of his (in some respects) on how to read the Scriptures has been kindly loaned me. Therein Dr. Torrey warns his readers against trusting dictionaries on the meaning of Bible words; and he rightly says that the only safe way is to compare the use of words in the Scriptures and thus the Bible will be its own interpreter. Dr. Torrey has here struck a Christadelphian way of studying the Bible, as their works will show. But if he had practiced in his study of unending hell torment what he has preached in this advice, he would not have left his Toronto audiences under the delusion that the word "hell” in the Bible stood for the lurid flames of that horrible fiction of heathen invention. As a Bible student, a teacher and scholar, he should have told you the facts concerning the word "hell" in the Bible, the original words of which it is supposed to be a translation, and the use of those original words, rendered, as they are, by other words in the English Bible. Dr. Torrey must be supposed to have studied this subject philologically, and with a knowledge of the facts it is deceiving to quote the word "'hell" without regard to what original word it is translated from.

You are, no doubt, aware that the Old Testament was nearly all written in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek. The word translated "hell” in the Old Testament is Sheol, while in the New Testament there are two words for which the translation of the authorized version have made the word "hell" do service, namely, Gehenna and Hades. By following Dr. Torrey's advice, but not his example, by comparing the use of these words we can arrive at their Scripture meaning, and there is no danger of the Bible leading us into the belief of the pulpit theory of hell torments.

By the use of a good concordance, one that gives the original words as well as those of the English translation, it will be found that the word sheol is not always translated by the word "hell." In many cases it is rendered "grave”; and this is one important fact which Dr. Torrey should have disclosed to his Toronto audience. The word stands for the death state, the state of unconsciousness. The translators rendered it "hell" when the English reading would suit the theory they believed in; and when to do so would manifest a glaring inconsistency, they rendered it "grave” leaving the casual English reader in the dark as to what the original word was. The cruel perversions which have taken advantage of this have had their day, and we live in times of research, when it is the duty of teachers to reveal facts. For instance, Job in his sufferings cried out, "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me."—Job xiv. 13. The word "grave" here is from "Sheol" in the Hebrew and the translators have acknowledged the true meaning by translating it "grave." Suppose, "hell” meant the popular —or rather now becoming unpopular— meaning that is attached to it, that of a place of endless torture; and suppose the word used by Job, "Sheol," had been translated “hell" here, it would have represented poor, suffering Job as crying out, "O that thou wouldest hide me in hell.” It is clear that relief from his sufferings was what the patriarch was praying for, but if Sheol means Dr. Torrey's hell, then he was praying for torment incomparably worse than that which called forth his prayer. The Bible is its own dictionary here, you see, because in this passage, like many others, we are surrounded by facts which will allow only that Job was praying to be hidden in the grave until Jehovah's wrath should be removed from a sinful world, and his desire was to be remembered at the appointed time of the resurrection of the dead, when, he says, in answering the question, “If a man die, shall he live again?" (verse 14.) "Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." That this was his hope, resurrection from Sheol, or the grave, is further evident when he says: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."—Chap. xix. 25, 26. In sheol, the grave, "worms destroy the body,” and from this sheol or if translated as elsewhere, from this "hell" he hoped to be redeemed in the appointed day of resurrection. Another case illustrative of this Scripture meaning of the Hebrew word, Sheol, is that of Jacob, who mourned the death of his beloved son, Joseph, "and when his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him"—l am quoting from Gen. xxxvii. 35—"he refused to be comforted; and he said, "For I will go down into the grave—sheol—unto my son mourning." Fancy Jacob declaring that he would go down to hell-—the kind of hell Dr. Torrey says is a place or a condition of endless torture.

In the forty-ninth Psalm, it said of those who are in honor and understood not, that "they are like the beasts that perish.” Verse 14 says: "Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them." Death feeds upon those in sheol, because sheol is the death state, and not a place where life is perpetuated for no other purpose but to torture. With the popular view how strange it would sound to say, "Like sheep they are laid in hell." Yet, even with a proper understanding of the meaning of the word "hell," which, we "will presently explain, there would be no incongruity. It is the pagan fiction that has been so inexcusably associated with the word that has caused the confusion. Where the translators of the authorized version have employed "hell" for sheol, it is only the perverted mind that reads with the passages the idea of endless torture. For instance, the words of the Psalmist, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God." Keep in view the proper meaning of sheol, as shown in those passages where it is rendered grave, and the thought is that all the wicked will finally end in death, the grave—in oblivion, rather than that they will be the subjects of preservation for fuel for endless flames. This aspect of the question has been helped by the Revisers, who have in some cases transferred the word sheol instead of translating it; and in some cases they have rendered it "pit"—the "pit of corruption," which is the grave.

Let me give two more passages from the Old Testament to show the true meaning of sheol, the Old Testament "hell," and then we will go to the New Testament. In Ezek. xxxi. 16 we read: "I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall (the Assyrian), when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit." To go down to hell was to go with them that descend into the pit, into death, into the grave. In the next chapter and the 27th verse this is made quite clear, "but notice verse 18, "unto the nether parts of the earth,” "unto the pit." Verse 22, "his graves are about him;" verse 23, "whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and so on in verse 24, 25 and 26. Then in the 27th verse we read; "And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads." Are we to suppose that warriors take their swords with them to the popular hell? How absurd to apply the word to such a fiction, when the facts are so clearly before us. For the "mighty" to go down to hell and for their swords to be laid under their heads was for them to be buried, and, according to the custom of those times, to have their swords placed in the tomb with them. This "hell," this sheol, is the grave, and not a seething caldron of endless torturing fire. The popular hell is as foreign to the Old Testament as it is to reason and common sense. God has given us reasoning faculties to use, and He condescends to say to us, "Come, let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” There are things that are thinkable and there are things that are not thinkable and the horrors of "hell torment” are not really thinkable. They are blindly imagined, and the reason refuses to try to explain the vicious theory upon any known or revealed principle of Justice. The Old Testament leaves Dr. Torrey and all those of his class without the shadow of an excuse for teaching a doctrine which is an insult to reason, an outrage against justice and a slander upon the character of God.

About two hundred and fifty years before Christ there was produced a Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint. The word employed in this Greek translation for the Hebrew word sheol is hades. Therefore if we can find the proper meaning of hades, we shall be still further helped to the understanding of sheol. Let me give a simple illustration. In the Psalms we have those familiar words of hope, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption." For the word "hell" here we have in the Old Testament —the Hebrew—sheol. Now the Apostle Peter quotes those words from the Psalm in the Greek tongue; and for sheol he used the Greek word, hades. You will find this in Acts ii. 31. Now it happens that the authorized version translates this word hades by "grave" in I Cor. xv. 55. The Apostle Paul is here speaking of the resurrection, putting as it were, upon the tongues of those who will have triumphed over death and the grave by a glorious resurrection, the exulting exclamation, "O death, where is thy sting; O grave—hades—where is thy victory?" This is again a case where the Bible is its own dictionary, and where literal language is employed, it surrounds each case with facts and truths which allow of only one meaning for the word—the true meaning, with no possibility of reading the popular tradition into it.

Dr. Adam Clarke, the great Methodist Commentator, whose scholarship no one will question, and in some instances whose frankness conflicts with his creed, gives the following as the meaning of the word hades:

"The original word hades, from a, not, and iden, to see—the invisible receptacle or mansion of the dead, answering to sheol in Hebrew. The word hell, used in the common translation, conveys now an improper meaning of the original word, because hell is only used to signify the place of the damned. But as the word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon helon, to cover or to hide, hence the thing or slating of a house in some parts of England (particularly Cornwall), heling to this day, and the covers of books (in Lancashire), by the same name, so the literal import of the word hades was formerly well expressed by it." "The gates of hades," says Parkhurst, "may always be allusive to the form of the Jewish sepulchers, which were large caves with a narrow mouth, or entrance."

Now all this makes clear what I promised I would show—that the word "hell" properly understood, is a good English word for the Hebrew word sheol; and hades, in the Greek, being the equivalent of sheol in the Hebrew, "hell" is, of course, a word that properly stands for hades—remember, I am not speaking of the traditional “hell," for it is a gross perversion of the word to apply it to a place of fire and torture, such as preached by Dr. Torrey. I am not forgetting the parable of Dives, and I shall hope to have time yet, in one of my lectures to show you the real meaning of that parable.

Now, my friends, it so happens that all this is further confirmed by the Revised Version, where the Greek word hades has been transferred, the Revisers seeming to have realized what Dr. Adam Clarke says, that to translate hades by hell, with the modern sadly perverted view of hell would be to perpetuate the false theory of hell torments. Dr. Torrey knew all this, and it was his duty to tell the people the facts, and not play upon the ignorance of "converts" to frighten them.

It so happens that I can personally confirm this as the true meaning of the word hell. It is possible, yea probable, that there are some here tonight who can testify to the truth of what I am about to say as to the use of the word "hell." In the peninsula of Gower, Glamorganshire, South Wales, let us suppose ourselves near a farm house. We are in the company of a Gowerian, and here is one of the workmen of the farm coming with a shovel on his shoulder. As he approaches, our Gowerian companion asks, "Where art gwain boy?" The answer is, "I'm gwain down to this vield to helly patatas." There you have the verb "helly." Now what is the noun form of this verb? After the "patatas" are hellied, where are they? They are in hell, of course; and that means that they are buried, put out of sight; and the essence of the word "hell" is invisibility. Light is absent from the place or state represented by the Saxon word "hell." Those who are there cannot see or be seen. To show that a time is coming when there will be no more death, and, consequently no more burying in sheol, hades, hell, or the grave a vivid picture is presented in that wonderful book of symbols, or pictorial representations, Revelation, "death and hell"—hades—are represented as being cast into the "lake of fire." This would be a strange picture, to see, hell cast into a lake of fire if hell itself is a lake of fire. The picture, however, means that death, man's great enemy, and the insatiable grave shall have no more victims, for death shall be no more, and God shall wipe away the tears from all faces. It never is used in the scriptures for a region away from this earth.

Let me read to you from the Emphatic Diaglott, and Dr. Torrey and his hell torment advocates will not dare to question the truth of this.

GEHENNA

"Gehenna, the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs twelve times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated, 'The Valley of Hinnom.’ This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts and unburied bodies of criminals, who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these" not to preserve them, notice—'"Samacherib's army of 185,000 men were slain there in one night. Here children were burnt to death in sacrifice to Moloch. Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death, and utter destruction, but in no place symbolizes a place of eternal torment."

Gehenna is the other word for which "hell” in the New Testament is given erroneously as a translation. This word is the Greek form of the name in the Old Testament of The Valley of the Sons of Hinnom.

"Tophet" means a drum, and its application to the valley of Hinnom is in the fact that the beating of drums was kept up to drown the cries of the children sacrificed in the idolatrous fires kept burning in the valley. Josiah, in order to put a stop to this idol worship, caused the valley to be defiled, as we read in II Kings xxiii: 10, "and he defiled Tophet which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch." This frightful valley became the horror of the Jews, after the captivity, and the fear of being cast therein and deprived a burial was the a most dreadful thought; but instead of being a place in which to preserve in torture, it was literally, and came to figuratively represent, utter destruction.

Hence our Lord says, in Matt. v:22, "But I say, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of Gehenna fire." Leaving his "converts” in ignorance of the fact that the original word is Gehenna, and emphasizing the word—a mistranslation— "hell," well knowing the perverted idea of the people as to the meaning of "hell," it is easy for Dr. Torrey to frighten rather than instruct his followers; but it is a "pious-fraud" nevertheless. This word Gehenna occurs and is translated' "hell" in twelve instances, but they are so similar that an explanation of one or two will be an explanation of all of them. The one already quoted refers to the three courts among the Jews—the highest of which only had the authority to condemn a criminal to be cast into Gehenna. To be "two-fold more the child of Gehenna" was to be that much more deserving of this worst of condemnations and punishments known to the Jews. The word having such a dread, it became a figure of the future and utter and final destruction of the wicked.

In Matt. v:29, and in the corresponding passage in Mark xxviii:9, the Savior says: "It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into Gehenna.” You will notice that it is a question of life on the one hand, and Gehenna on the other, which means life or death, preservation in life eternal, or destruction, death eternal, not eternal life in torture. Gehenna never was a symbol of continued torture, but of sure and certain annihilation of the being, yes, of it Jesus says that "God will destroy both body and soul in Gehenna." But, you will ask, what about the ''worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched?" In the loathsome valley of Gehenna, the refuse and carcasses thrown therein bred worms, and to prevent pestilence from unwholesome vapors, fires were kept burning up the rubbish thrown therein. But who with common sense would construe the words "The worm dieth not" to mean the preservation of the victim upon which the worm preys? Or who would conclude that because fire is "not quenched" its victims are preserved instead of devoured? The fact that the devouring worm dieth not is positive evidence that it will devour its victim; and the fact that the fire is not quenched is proof that it will destroy whatever it is burning. Suppose this beautiful hall were to take fire, and we had to rush out on the street; we meet the men of the fire department coming in great haste, and we say, "It is of no use trying to quench that fearful fire; it cannot be quenched." Would that mean to you, to the firemen, or to any man of sense that the building would be always burning, but never burned? How absurd! A pagan delusion of hell torments is responsible for such an absurdity. The thought represented by the "worm that dieth not," and the "fire that is not quenched" is expressed in the words, "Whose fan is in his hand; and he will thoroughly purge his flour, and gather the wheat into the garner; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire." Chaff, is it possible that the wicked in their punishment are compared to chaff? Do yon think chaff, "fat of lambs," "stubble," and such combustibles are fitting symbols of indestructible beings always burning, and never burned? Do you think chaff would suit Dr. Torrey as an illustration of the preservation of millions in his “hell torments?” Chaff! The bare idea of such a thing. Asbestos would be a much better and more consistent illustration.

But you see, my friends, the "chaff" is "'burned up" in this “unquenchable fire," and that is what unquenchable fire always does—burn up, burn up, not preserve. Taking Dr. Torrey's advice in allowing the Bible to be its own dictionary, we read in Jer. xvii: 27, that, God would "kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, and it shall not be quenched." That fire was kindled by the Roman armies, A. D. 70, and it did devour the palaces thereof, but is there any one foolish enough to believe that it is still burning, and must continue to burn because it is said "it shall not be quenched?" Thus we see that scripture explains scripture; and it is by forcing scripture language to do service in giving expression to pagan fictions that true Christianity has been perverted, God blasphemed, and His Word slandered; and for this outrage the pulpits are responsible—although, let me say, many preachers have become so ashamed of hell torments that they are protesting against Dr. Torrey evangelizing by the power of the lurid flames of a hell, which they well know has no existence except in the imagination of heathen, and heated revivalists.

Now I think I have said enough on the three words, sheol, hades and Gehenna; and now it is my duty to deal with that passage so much harped upon: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal"—Matt. xxv., 46. Now here is a passage that a scholar, if he has no respect for his scholarship or for the true meaning of things, may misuse in frightening ignorant people; because the words employed in the authorized version, with the meanings in the minds of many people seem, superficially viewed, to convey the idea of unending punishment—"torture," rather, in the common mind. The same word, the people are rightly told, in the Greek stands for the two words in the passage, "everlasting" and "eternal," on this a plausible argument is built to prove that the duration of the punishment of the wicked is equal to that of the life of the righteous. But even this ought to suggest the question, do the wicked, as well as the righteous, go into "everlasting life," the difference only being in the condition of life? Would it not fairly seem that of the everlasting life is in contrast with "eternal punishment," the latter must be eternal death, and not eternal life in misery? Again let the Bible be its own dictionary, and let the Apostle Paul tell us what the "eternal punishment" is—“who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power''—11 Thess. i:9. "Everlasting destruction" cannot mean everlasting preservation, can it? Their punishment is destruction from which there is no return to life; and therefore it is a destruction that is complete and irrevocable.

But it was Dr. Torrey's duty to tell the people that the word in the Greek, for "everlasting" is aeonian, and scholars by the hundreds say that this word as to duration, must be governed by the context, endlessness not being an intrinsic meaning of the word. But again the Bible is its own dictionary and does not leave us to depend upon scholastic philology. The word in the noun form aeon, is rendered for ever. In Exod. xxi: 6, we read of them boring the servant’s ear with an aul, and he was to be the servant of the master for ever, that is, for his age, or as long as he lived. Here, as in many other places, aeon means age. In the adjective form, we have it declared that the Aaronic priesthood—I refer to Numb. xxv:13, should be an "everlasting priesthood." Yet Paul says in Heb., vii: 12, "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law," and the "everlasting priesthood" of Aaron gave place to Him who was a "priest" after the order of Melchisedec." The real meaning is, the priesthood of the age—the Mosaic age. So in the passage in dispute, it is the "life of the age—to come—and the punishment of the age—that age during which "The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and' obey not the gospel; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, or the destruction of the age. "The fire of the age," too, as in another place.

Now suppose we ask as to the first clause of the verse. What is the “life of the age?" What kind of life? not depending upon the word "everlasting," or aeonian to determine the duration of the life, except as we may be able to discover what kind of life is to be peculiar to that age as the reward of the righteous. The Bible as its own dictionary will help us again; for Paul says "this mortal shall put on immortality." Therefore we now know that the righteous will have immortal life as a reward. Will the wicked have immortality, think you? If they are to endure hell torments endlessly they must be immortal; and not only the soul, but as Paul is speaking of the resurrection, he must refer to the immortalization of the body, when they triumphantly exclaim, O death where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy victory? Now if the supposed immortal souls of the wicked are to re-enter their resurrected bodies to be judged, yes, to be judged, after years of torture; then if the body is to go to Dr. Torrey's endless hell torment, it must be made immortal as well as the bodies of the righteous. So God, according to this absurdity, will impart His own immortal nature to the wicked in order to make them fire-proof—asbestos, sure enough. Away with such perversion as the pulpits preach! To return to the passage, the second clause would read, "These shall go away into the punishment of the age." What is the punishment of that age? Death, destruction, as we shall presently show.

Now I fear I have not left sufficient time to do justice to the question as to what the literal language of scripture says on the punishment of the wicked. But to save time, I will read a number of passages from my little book, "The Great Salvation," where I have them collated, giving you chapter and verse. This will save the time of turning over the Bible as our time tonight is precious.

Rom. vi:23. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. To suit Dr. Torrey's theory, this should read, the wages of sin is everlasting life in misery, but let God be true, my friends.

"Ezek. xviii: 4. "Behold all souls are mine, … The soul that sinneth it shall die” not, "it shall live in torment." I am aware that some try to evade this by saying that it is "spiritual death," but since the wicked are "spiritually dead" before the punishment is inflicted, and this is the very reason why it is inflicted, how absurd to talk of inflicting "spiritual death" upon those who are already "spiritually dead?"

Prov. xvi: 25, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The end is death, not life in torture.

Psalm xxxvii:10-20. "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be"—Mark that, friends. Do you preserve that which is a nuisance to you? Do you think God will preserve endlessly millions of beings who will curse and blaspheme Him day after day throughout untold ages? While he permits evil for a time, and allows man to exercise free volition; do you not think—does not reason, does not scripture tell you that He will reach a time when He will not have a single enemy in existence? Will that not be a glorious finish to the career of the race? Just wait, then, "a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." There will be no room in God's creation for any wicked when this time, this "little while," shall come. What a glorious triumph over evil! Here is a God you can worship, love and adore. This verse should be changed to suit Dr. Torrey, and made to read, "The wicked shall always be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place (hell, it is claimed), and it shall always be." If the wicked "shall not be," what will become of them? Listen, and, see if you can harmonize this with endless torture in hell: "But the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; INTO SMOKE SHALL THEY CONSUME away? Do you see endless torment in that, my friends? What use have the advocates of that abominable doctrine for such clear declarations of divine truth as these?

Mal. iv: 1,3. "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be, stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch … And they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet."

Matt. xiii: 40. "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world." Every passage, you see, makes such comparisons as are impossible to understand if endless hell torment is the fate of the wicked. Just imagine one preaching this revolting doctrine, and in support of it, quoting the Savior’s words we have just read. You would consider him devoid of any appreciation of the Illness of things. But again, and here is the passage we have already alluded to when explaining the meaning of "unquenchable fire."

Matt. iii:12. "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his flour and, gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Job xx: 5-8. "The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite, but for a moment. He shall perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found, yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night."

Psa. xxxvii: 38, "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off."

Psa. cxlv: 30. "The Lord preserveth all them that love him"—yes and all them that hate him, too, if endless hell torment is true. But what saith the Lord?—"but all the wicked will he destroy."

Now, dear friends, if time allowed I could keep you for hours listening to scripture testimony of this sort; but I must press on to a conclusion.

We began with this Adamic world without a hell, without sin, sorrow or death; with every thing "very good." Had man never sinned, he would not have been consigned to return to dust, and there would never have been any use for the grave. We have seen that "hell" in the scripture stands for the grave, translated in the Old Testament from sheol which is frequently rendered grave; and, in the New Testament, from hades, which also rightly signifies the grave, and is so rendered in the passage, "O grave where is thy victory?" Man would never have gone into sheol, to hades, to the grave—to this "hell" had he not sinned and brought death upon himself. So now we may say the cause of this "hell" is man himself; and therefore it was not created—not among the created things, when, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Now as to the word "hell" being made to stand for Gehenna, that is a shameful misuse of the word; but supposing we allow its application, the valley of Gehenna, was part of the earth when God declared everything very good." The fact that it became a "hell" was due to sin and idolatry, and the abominable practices in the valley polluted that part of the earth, which by creation was "very good." So again this "hell" is a state due to man's corruption of the handy work of God. But do you think God, who is all powerful, wise and good, will allow either of these '''hells"—the grave or Gehenna—to last eternally. Is He obligated to continue perpetually the evils which man has caused by breaking the divine laws? When death is removed from this earth, there will be no use for the grave, and since only the righteous will finally survive, "The gates of hell"—hades, the grave—shall not prevail against them. So a time will come when not a single individual will be liable to go into the grave. Therefore this "hell" will be no more and "every thing will be very good" again. The valley of Gehenna before sinful men devoted it to the abominations of idolatry was as pure as any other part of the earth; afterwards, it became the "valley of dead bodies." But do you think it will still be a polluted place when God fulfills His promise "As truly as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory?" This "hell" will also have ended then—and, indeed, of this very place the prophet says: "And the whole valley of dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook Kedron, unto the corner of the horse gate, toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord." (Jer. xxxi: 40).

When this time comes, the two “hells" will be gone and there will be no more hell than in the beginning when "every thing was very good." Now, friends, let us follow Dr. Torrey's plan of God's dealings with mankind for a moment. Even he must admit that God gave man a "very good" start; but shortly, a few began to go to heaven, and many began to go to hell. This goes on for, let us suppose, six thousand years, when the day of judgment arrives, then the bodies of all in heaven and all of hell are to be raised, and, of course, those in heaven are to be disturbed for a time, and must forsake their blissful abode to re-enter their resurrected bodies in order that they may be judged!—we will leave Dr. Torrey to say what they are to be judged for. Then the inhabitants of hell will be given a respite, and leave their torment for a while to re-enter their resurrected bodies to be judged!!—again we will leave Dr. Torrey to say what the wretches, poor creatures, are to be judged for. After all this the "end of the world" comes, supposed to be the burning up of the earth; and the good are to return, with their bodies this time, to the eternal bliss of heaven; while the millions of bad ones are to return to hell. Now where are we? A few, comparatively, in heaven, the earth made a bonfire of, and untold millions groaning and moaning, writhing in indescribable torture and destined to so remain; cursing God as long as eternal ages roll. Do you not think Dr. Torrey, with all his fellow preachers of hell torment, has landed us at the end of the world's voyage in a state ten thousand times worse than the first? In the beginning God had not one enemy—no one was suffering; but upon this fearfully blasphemous hypothesis, in the end He has millions upon millions of enemies who insult, blaspheme and curse Him, and this to know no end. "Now are you not ready to relegate this damnable doctrine of endless hell torment to the blackness of the savage heart of heathenism, and lift up your voices in loud and ceaseless protest against any and every pulpit that will teach it to the disgrace of civilization, the outraging of reason, and the slander of the God of all power, wisdom and goodness."

On the other hand, we begin with "every thing very good." Might we not, think you, expect to finish with every thing at least as good as at the beginning? What saith the scriptures? "For he must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet." He gave man a good start; man threw his world out of equilibrium and almost every thing became bad; but God seems to say. Do not fret. My plan is not frustrated. I will permit you for a time to wander in this valley of the shadow of death into which sin has led you; but, listen, listen to the voice of God. Let His glorious words echo and re-echo, let them reverberate throughout the ages and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Listen, "AS TRULY AS I LIVE THE WHOLE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD." If Christ reigns till he hath put down all enemies; and if he is to destroy the last enemy, will there be a single enemy in existence after the last is destroyed? God began without an enemy, but there were no redeemed ones of Adam's race to honor and praise His holy name and to bask in the bliss of a glorious immortality. God will finish His plan with not a single enemy, and with an innumerable host of redeemed ones to bless and praise and honor Him and adore His Son their Redeemer. And now when this triumphant glorious and unspeakable grand end is reached, man's habitation, this fair earth of ours, that for ages has groaned under the load of sin, sorrow and death, will have readied a time when majestically she shall revolve upon her axis bearing upon her throbbing bosom of love divine, a countless host of redeemed and happy people who shall ascribe glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever and forever; and now, “God shall be all in all. Man is blessed and God through Christ has gloriously triumphed, and the last state is ten thousand times better than the first. May God speed the glorious day. [Loud applause.]

(The applause was kept up throughout the lecture and helped the speaker to realize that he had sympathetic listeners, but we have omitted the record in this report, as unnecessary.)