Mr. Roberts tells us that there is no hell. By hell we mean "the lake of fire," the place where the wicked shall endure the everlasting judgment of God. Our Lord warns His hearers of hell again and again. Twelve times in the New Testament have we the word for hell, Gehenna. Eleven times out of twelve does the word fall from the lips of the Son of God. But Mr. Roberts contends that He alludes to the valley of Hinnom, a gorge in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the garbage was burned, where the fire was being ever fed by the refuse of the city, and the worms ever fattened upon their putrid food.
The Lord never spoke of Gehenna, the place outside Jerusalem, save as in a symbolical sense as indicating the place of judgment for the lost in the next world, " the lake of fire." One verse of Scripture will prove this abundantly. The Lord said, " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna]" (Matthew 10:2828And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)). This verse is a disastrous one for Mr. Roberts' theories. Notice, man can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, proving that the soul survives the death of the body. But God can destroy, that is bring down into ruin, body and soul in hell [Gehenna]. Did God ever ruin, much less annihilate, bodies and souls in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem? There the garbage of the city was burned. There was no question of any living person being immolated there. The Jew hearing our Lord's words would not make the mistake that Mr. Roberts has made of imagining that our Lord referred to the actual gorge outside Jerusalem, but that He spoke of the dread place of judgment in the next world.