“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.”
Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8). “But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
The first four texts were spoken by the Lord on earth. In the next three John sees in vision the coming execution of these awful threatening’s.
The last is the final solemn warning of Him who sits on the throne. It is the Lord, speaking from heaven.
Now reader, a word with you about these texts. Read them first in Martin Luther’s German Bible; then read them in the Douay (Catholic) version; then read them in our common English version; then read them in the Revised Version (1881), both English and American; then read them in Dean Alford’s version; and last of all, in Mr. Darby’s translation.
One thing will strike you; those awful words have passed unchanged through the hands of all these translators! And they were the picked scholars of Christendom. The English Revision of 1881 occupied twenty-seven men for ten and a half years. Favored by royalty, they had access, as men never had before, to all the old manuscripts. Every verse in the Bible was carefully examined by these men, several of whom died before the mighty task was done. It was their deliberate judgment that these passages are unquestionable. They have stood for centuries, like great black rocks on a storm beaten shore.
Honestly now, reader, what does the Lord teach in these texts? Is there a Hell?
Will the body suffer in it as well as the soul? Will it be everlasting?
Do not His solemn words compel us to say “Yes” to all these questions?
Bear in mind that the Greek word for hell in all these texts is Gehenna—the full, final, awful word—measuring the utterly hopeless and eternal misery of the wicked, body and soul...
Tartarus is a word worth studying. It is the heathen word for hell.
It shows that in the minds of millions, outside of both Judaism and Christianity, God has planted deep the solemn sanction of punishment for the wicked after death. It is far too deep for Russell to overthrow, though he may work havoc with you, my reader, if you are not careful.
O reader! “Beware of false prophets!” “Ye shall know-them by their fruits.” “Pastor Russell stands perhaps at the head of present day deniers of hell.
What if you should follow Russell, and find, when eternally too late, that Russell did not know, and that the Lord, who does know, spoke the truth?
But you need not perish. There is a way of escape. If you give due weight to our Lord’s soul-humbling words about coming judgment, you are ready for His tender and gracious words in John 5:24,24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment), but is passed from death unto life.” Hear and believe and your soul shall live.
W.D.C.