LECTURE BY MR TROUP.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1008, 29 September 1903, Page 1

LECTURE BY MR TROUP.

A lecture was given in tbe Whataupoko Band hall on Sunday aftornoon by Mr J. M. Troup on “ Hell a place of rest, not torment,” in the course of which tho speaker contended that Hell as popularly taught, could not exist, because people are led to believe that Hell is a place where qo-called immortal souls which have no oodies are cast to suffer endless torments, and where they can curse God throughout tho ages of eternity, and those who teach thus have the presumption to tell you that the God who created thiß place his name is Love, but if there were such a place, then the maker’s name would be better called “ fiend.” But what says the Soriptures ? We find the word Hell in the Old Testament, and on looking over the context in tho chapters where tho word is, we find that instead of being a place of torment it is a place of rest. Ezekiah the Prophet says in the 32nd chapter, verse 27, that the dead went down to hell with their weapons of war. Surely no one would contend that this meant an immortal soul going to eternal torment with a literal sword; it was the manner in which the dead were buried who fought in the battles. The word in the Hebrew language that is translated Hell is Sheol, and in every case where it is used it means simply the receptacle of tho dead, or a covered place. See also the Prophet Jonah, 2-2, where, when Jonah was swallowed by a large •fish which God had prepared for the purpose, he says, “ Out of the belly of Hell Cried I, and the Lord heard me.” No one would contend that Jonah was in tKe hellfire torments of clerical teaching. No, he was in Sheol, or in the place of the unseen, until he was released by God. According to the popular teaching, Hell is a placo where so-called immortal souls go, but in these cases, according to the Bible, we find it is whole bodies that are thore, and in every case throughout the Old Testament, where the word Hell is, it simply means the grave or pit, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Turning to the New Testament, we find the word “ Hades ” chosen by the Greek writers, as the equivalent of Sheol in the Hebrew, and it also is translated Hell, and means tbe Grave, as will bo seen by referring to Paul’s epistle to the Ist Corinthians, 15, 55, where those who are made immortal are shown as singing the song of victory over Hell or the Grave ; the word here in the Greek is “ Hades,” translated grave in tho reading, and the interchangable meaning Hell is given in the margin, showing that Hades or Hell means the grave, otherwise why should the redeemed be represented as singing of victory over a place they were, according to popular teaching, never supposed to be in. Then, also in Revelations xx., 13, we read that Hell delivered up the dead that was in it. At that rate how can Hell be a place of torment, seeing according to Bible teaching it is tbe 11 dead ” that are in it, and not so-called immortal souls that have no bodies and cannot die. Taking tho whole of the Bible there is not one instance whore Hell from tho Greek “ Hades ” or the Hebrew “ Sheol ” means anything approaching the popular teaching of torment, but in every case the reverse, simply a place of rest.