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THE NEW THEOLOGY AND HELL
Third of series of sermons dealing, Ivith different
phases of teaching of the Nelo Religion.
Text, Luke 12:5, “But I will warn ye whom ye
shall fear: Fear Him, who after he hath killed, hath
power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him.”
F
ROM the earliest dawn of the Christian
religion to the present time there have
been teachers standing against every
essential doctrine of the old book. They
change now and then their method of
attack but it is the same enemy. Some
times they come from outside the
church in the form of straight out
infidelity; at other times they come
from within the church in the form of advanced
scholarship. But never mind the source from which
they come nor the form of their coming, it is the
same enemy every time trying to weaken and if
possible destroy the foundation of our Christian
religion and finally our Christian civilization.
For the present these enemies come from within
the church and too, for the most part from the pulpit
or the theological seminary. Some weeks ago I was
present at a meeting of ministers in New England
and the question was asked, “How are we to meet
the theological unbelief in our churches?”. “Cleanse
the pulpit,” was the answer “For there is practically
no theological unbelief outside the pulpit.” I think
the reply was given in words of wisdom. These men
who are attacking the old foundations, many of
them, are good and clever, affable, courteous gentle
men. But in their high ambition to be great
scholars they have lost control of the steering gear
and their ship has gone to pieces. Some of them are
scholars; many of them are not. A scholar, what
ever else may be said of him, is one who can and
who does, state his propositions with simplicity and
clearness and this the vast majority of them can’t
do to save their lives. For example, I have average
intelligence, and I have tried to comprehend with
all my might what Professor Foster, of Chicago
University, means in his last two books, especially
the last, which caused such a row where his Baptist
brethren of the Chicago Baptist Ministers Conference
trid to put him out and I am frank to say if Professor
Foster is a scholar, then lam a fool. The only clear
point that stands out in his book is that he is a
straight out atheist of a much more dangerous type
than Bob Ingersol and others of his class. There is,
however, one really helpful sign about these so-called
scholars, and that is that they are not agreed among
themselves. Practically the only point upon which
they are agreed is that there is no such doctrine as
hell and that the word with all that it stands for
should be dropped from our modern theology; and
this is what I want us to consider at the present
time. I once heard Booker T. Washington say, in an
address, “The New Theology people have taken hell
out of the old Bible but they have not destroyed the
place and it is the place we dread, not the word.”
That is a very concise and simple way of stating a
great and fundamental principle.
Now, what does the Bible teach about hell?
These “New Religion” folks have tried to explain
away the plain Bible teaching concerning hell, but
we who believe our Bibles will go straight to the
old Book for there alone we can get at the whole
truth. In getting an answer to this question I have
tried to go through the Scriptures and study them
with all the light and help that I could get from our
translations and from the original language. Hence,
I do not hesitate to say that the conclusions that I
have reached are such as to claim the honest care
ful consideration of tnose who may be inclined to
differ with me. If I desired to, I could give you
scores of texts, ranging from Genesis to Revelation,
proving the existence of a hell or place of punish
ment after death. Time, however, will not permit
of this, and I desire simply to bring you two verses,
and consider them with you. These two verses
contain the gist of the whole Bible teaching con
cerning hell, and if you, as Christians, believe your
Bible, you can not but accept the teaching as feund
The Golden Age for November 11, 1909.
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G Rroughton, ( D. *D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
in these two verses. The first is taken from the
Book of Matthew; Matt. 25:46 “These shall go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal.” The second is taken from Luke;
Luke 16: 25: “Now he is comforted, but thou art tor
mented.” Now these words fell from the lips of our
Master, and no other. By the teachers of the “new
religion” they are considered simply as myths; the
outcome of an ingrained superstition. If they had
come from another source, we could not refute the
critics, but they fell from our Lord’s own lips, and
how can any one who confesses Him as Lord and
Master deny them?
IT APPEALS TO REASON.
As I see it, it is perfectly reasonable that there
should be a place of future torment; this is just as
reasonable as that there should be a place of future
happiness and blessing. Practically none will be
found today who do not believe that there is a state
of future blessedness; man’s very nature revolts
against the thought that he is to die like a dog; that
his soul is no more immortal that that. Then, if this
is true if the soul can not die, would it be in accord
ance with reason to think that the souls of the
good and the bad would be in the same place? Why,
the good and the bad can not live together in this
life. I can imagine nothing more uncomfortable or
more disagreeable to either than to place two people,
one good and the other corrupt, in a close relation
ship. It would be equally disagreeable to each.
The bad would not enjoy the purity of the other any
more than his own corruptness would be enjoyed
by the one who was serving God and man. We all
must know, if we have thought upon the subject at
all, that there are two distinct forces at work in
this world, the forces of good and evil; the forces of
purity and corruption; God and the devil pitted
against each other in their desire, one for the
elevation and the purifying of mankind, the other
for his corruption and ruin.
When we stop to think upon this subject we
know that this must be so; the trouble with us is, we
do not think deeply and sincerely about it, hence
we are in a receptive attitude to every sort of
heresy and false teaching that comes; they appeal
to our fancy; they appeal to us because we want
to believe that way. Indeed, it "would be far more
comfortable for many if we could be convinced that
hell is a fallacy.
The world would be far better if its wild and reck
less thinking could be pinned down every now and
then to solid, serious, silent meditation upon the
awful fact. Some time ago I was travelling with one
of the most distinguished jurists of our state and
in course of our conversation I said “Judge, can
you tell me why crime is on the increase in our
country?” For, I continued, “I feel sure that you
will admit that crime is on the increase.”
“Yes,” said he, “I am free to admit that that is
true. My pastor tries every now and then to con
vince me that the world is getting better, but I can not
see it that way. I see that it is getting better in
many ways and worse in others. Certainly crime is
on tue increase, in spite of our advanced civilization.”
“Well” said I, “How do you account for it? We
have more churches, more schools more laws for
man’s development and protection than we ever
had, and how is it that these things are not checking
crime?”
“Well,” said he, “I think I'can answer that question
in a single sentence. It is because the people have
lost toe consciousness of God.” Then he turned and
pointed his finger in my face and said, “And you
preachers are responsible for it. You have failed
to preach God as ever present with us tc bless and
judge us in our daily lives, and too,” continued he,
“in failing to preach God and get a grip on the
consciences of men with the fact of God, you have
failed to impress His law of justice and punishment.”
I believe that the thing needed today is not so
much more statutory law but more of the gripping
of the consciences of men and women with the law
of God. We need to be made to feel that God is
with us, that He is right by us every day and every
hour; that His pure and Holy eye sees our every
action; that He knows our every thought; if we are
true to Him, He knows it, no matter what men may
say. If in our thoughts we play traitor to Him, He
knows it, no matter how good and how religious we
may appear to men. It is a good thing that men can
not read each other’s thoughts; they would be
fighting half the time. But, praise His name, He can
read our thoughts; He knows just where we stand;
He knows how true to Him we are, or how untrue.
Oh, my friends, if we could live in a realization of
this, what different lives many of us would lead.
MENTAL, PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL TORMENT.
But somebody says, “This punishment after death
is only one of conscience.” This is said to mitigate
the suffering; but even if it is true who can imagine
anything worse than the eternal burning of one’s
conscience? Some years ago a man was employed to
keep the switch at a siding near a. river. One day
an excursion train loaded with over a thousand
people was coming down the track at a rapid speed.
The switchman had neglected to change his switch,
while he had been giving his attention to another
matter. He never realized it until the engine,
whirling by, took the siding. Then he sprang to the
switch as if to change it. Onward rushed the great
engine with its dozen or more cars loaded with
passengers who were being carried to an awful death.
When all was over there stood at the switch work
ing the crank the poor switchman, wild and frantic.
The consciousness of what had happened by his
neglect had unbalanced his mind, and today he is in
a lunatic asylum; he is confined in a padded cell, in
order to keep him from dashing his brains out in
his frenzy.
It is so with the punishment of the soul in heli.
Take every thought of physical suffering out of it
and the haunting of an awful conscience would be
hell enough. Think of the wailing chorus, that
shall ring out, coming from the souls of the unnum
bered millions through the gruesome corridors of
that awful pit! There is a father conscious of the
fact that he is forever and ever there, surrounded
by this company of wailing spirits, while his loved
ones are yonder, and he can not see them, never,
no never. A mother, conscious of the fact that her
life and example has landed her children with her
in the place of torment. A friend there with his
companions that he might have influenced other
wise. Could there be anything worse than this?
Oh, man! you who may be solacing yourself with
the thought that hell is only a place of disembodied
spirits, where conscience simply serves to punish,
see the force even of your own teaching. But hell is
more than the remorse of conscience. It is that, but
it is more. Any one looking into the Scriptures as
I have quoted them will see that it is a fixed place,
they do not tell us where, but just as heaven is
a place, so is hell a place prepared for the devil and
his angels, it is a place of mental, physical and
spiritual punishment.
Dives said of himself, “I am tormented in these
flames.” Jesus describes it as, “Everlasting fire
where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched.” John, banished upon the Isle of Patmos,
with his eyes touched by the finger of inspiration
and the curtain between him and future worlds
removed, described it as a lake of fire and brimstone.
We must remember that the resurrection of the
body is as much for the wicked as for the saved. It
is true that they are not raised at the same time.
The saved are raised at the coming of Jesus Christ
and the unsaved at the final culmination of time
when the millenium has spent itself and the final
judgment is at hand but the unsaved dead will be
resurrected and their resurected bodies will suffer
throughout eternity, just as the bodies of the
saved will rejoice.
This teaching may seem fogy, and some will, of
course, relegate me to a place in the backwoods for
preaching it but before God I can not see anything
else to teach. The Bible teaches it. Call It figura
tive if you will, but remember that the figure only
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