MR TROUP’S LECTURE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1012, 3 October 1903, Page 1

MR TROUP’S LECTURE.

:(To the 'Editor. Gisborne Times.)' (Advt.)

Sir, —A correspondent signing himself “ Believer in the Bible,” states that to describe Hell as a place of rest is singularly at variance with the Scriptures. I may here state that he mustbe very ignorant of said Scriptures to make the statement, for I challenge him to produce one proof of the word “ Sheol ” that is translated Hell in the Old Testament ever meaning a place of torment. The prophet Ezekiel (chapter 32, 25-27) said the dead were in it. David, in Psalms 49-15, hoped that God would redeem him from Hell or the grave, “Sheol,” and Psalms 55,15, he prayed that his enemies might go down quick into Hell, “ Sheol,” or the grave; it was the place of dead bodies, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, and not a place of so-called immortal souls that have no existence. Then your correspondent refers to Isaiah 33, 14, as much as to say that the prophet teaches it. The prophet asks the question, who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? In the 15th and 16th verses he has the answer to the question, of who will stand, or the righteous, and in Isaiah, 26th chapter, verse 14, he has the answer of the end (of the wicked thus: They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise, which corroborates Paul in Homans 6, 23, that the wages of sin is death, not torment; and if plainer language is needed as to the final and complete extinction of the wicked, we have it by the Prophet Malachi (chapter 4, 1-3)); the wicked shall be ashes under your feet; surely ashes don’t feel torment? David, a man after God’s own heart, said that the wicked should consume into smoke; surely smoke does not feel torment ? but why multiply texts to show the final extinction of the wicked? for as the Prophet Isaiah says, chapter 43, verse . 17: They shall not rise, they are extinct, they are quenched as tow, in fact nothing in the Hebrew Scriptures i could be set forth plainer than the complete destruction of the wicked, and not their existence in torment. Then I am referred to Mark 9, in this chapter the word (mis-translated) Hell is Gehenna, it was a literal valley on the east of Jerusalem, where the rubbish of the city was thrown, also the dead bodies of executed criminals, ‘ not immortal souls,’ were cast and burnt up ; the words ‘ never shall be quenched’ are referred to by your correspondent as though they meant that it would last through all eternity; such is not the case. Jude, in verse 7, gives an example of Sodom and Gomorrah suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, but they are not now burning, the dead sea has taken their place, but being burnt up, the result, and not the operation is eternal, and the same applies to Mark 9, 43, the fire shall not bo quenched until the result is attained, and the worm shall not dio until all corruption is gone for it to feed on. Otherwise your correspondent brings God down to the level of giving to a worm everlasting life. In the other cases cited, they refer to bodies being cast into fire, and the ultimate end, death, which corroborates Paul in Homans, 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment. David says in the Psalms, God’s mercy endureth for ever, and also God retaineth not his anger for ever,. because He delights in mercy. This is the God of the Bible, backed up by His word, which reveals him in all cases as a God of mercy, who consigns, man on account of sin to death in Sheol, Hell, or the grave, where the wicked cease from troubling, and not to a place of torment. —I am, etc., Johjj M, Tkoup,