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and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matt. xxv, 31-46.)

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE JUDGMENT.

1. Remarkable circumstances shall precede the judgment. There will be many changes. Some of these have already occurred; others will occur before that great and notable day of the Lord. Wars and rumors of wars; peace and intervals of peace. Jesus shall reign among many nations; even now he has a wide inheritance. Some people will be watchful; others utterly careless. Men will be eating and drinking and marrying the same as ever; these are the essential accompaniments of life. But what surprises will occur, when in the midst of these things, shall be heard the blast of the resurrection and the trump of God! Mark the language of the Revelation: "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." (Rev. xi, 15–19.)

2. Wonderful circumstances shall accompany the judgment. The sun shall be darkened. If this is a figurative expression it may mean. that all glory of men shall pass away, lost, eclipsed by the higher and greater glory of God. If it be natural darkness, then the scene will be terrific. Nothing so terrifies the human heart as the darkening of the orb of day. Perhaps the spots of the sun will be enlarged until its brightness is utterly obscured. The inspired writer says it shall become "black as sackcloth of hair."

The moon shall show corresponding effects; it shall be red, as it were bloody, the decreasing light of the sun will obscure reflection, and appalling darkness shall settle down.

The stars shall fall. This may mean the elements surrounding the earth, such as meteors or falling stars. We see such things occasionally now, but in that day the elements shall be let loose, and natural phenomena shall be grouped into one tremendous but prolonged explosion. St. John, in his vision, saw the stars of heaven fall unto the earth, "even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."

The heavens shall pass away, depart "as a scroll when it is rolled together;" and every mountain and island shall show the effects of the terrific upheaval. By the "heavens" here we understand the atmosphere surrounding the earth. This is composed of gases, which, in the general tumult, will explode and set the earth on fire. It is well-known that there are elements of fire everywhere about us.

3. Glorious scenes shall be witnessed in the judgment assembly. (1.) The Judge. How grand his character, how glorious his vestments! "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." When Divinity shall reveal itself in the Eternal Judge, nothing natural shall stand before it.

(2.) The Assembly. The dead shall be there, small and great, the dead from the depths of the sea and the caverns and graves of the earth; the dead from hell and from the grasp of death itself. The angels shall be there-the fallen angels who have tempted us, and the guardian angels who have ministered unto us. We shall be there, to see and be seen amid the general consternation. We shall have our

memories and consciences in perfect exercise, and we shall then know that from our record there is no escape. We shall then behold our own characters just as they stand, and shall not deceive ourselves or deceive others. It will then appear plain to us that "a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and

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an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." The long account of our words and actions will then be reviewed. 'But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."

The books will be opened. The books of memory and the books of the law. God has a book of his own which he has kept under the various dispensations of his dealings with men, such as the patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian. We may also suppose that he has a book especially for those in whose hearts the laws alone were written, and who shall be judged according to the light they received. Then, there is "the book of life," which shall also be opened, and intense will be our anxiety to see whether our names are written there. Better to feel a measure of this anxiety now, and make sure that the recording angel enters our names ere it be too late, for whosoever is not found written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire.

(3.) The Public Awards. Punishment and reward shall terminate the eventful scene. The flaming messengers of God will separate the righteous from the wicked, and the two grand divisions will stand on either hand of the judge.

To the one on his right hand he will say: "Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." To the other, on his left, he will say: "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." What this awful sentence means we know not now, but it includes " a catastrophe which words were never invented to express, or finite minds formed to grasp."

HELL.

DERIVATION OF THE WORD.

The word "hell" is a translation of the Hebrew word sheol, which signifies a cavern, or cave, and hades, which means, strictly, what is out of sight. Both words were used to designate the place of departed spirits.

Homer, who knew no other place for dead men, whether good or bad, pronounced the place of the dead "a dark and comfortless abode," "with gates forever barred," and charges that the god who ruled there is "deaf to prayer, and never repents;" hence neither mercy nor escape can be hoped for.

But the Hebrews would admit of no such notions. They demanded hope for such as lived in virtue and believed in God. They allowed

that the guilty would find their place in sheol, the underworld or cavern. They said: "Sheol is open before him"-God-"and destruction hath no covering;" "Sheol and destruction are ever full." Hence they considered that whoever goes to sheol, the pit, goes to destruction. They insisted that "the wicked shall be turned into sheol." On the other hand, they said in behalf of virtue, that it should find a different lot. "Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."

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When our Lord came to earth he cleared up the teachings of the Hebrews respecting sheol, and spoke of it as "The gehenna of fire." This is described in fearful images, such as "outer darkness," an undying worm," "unquenchable fire," "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Language knows no imagery more terrible than that which escaped the lips of the tender Christ.

WHAT HELL IS.

I'll tell thee what is hell-thy memory
Still mountained up with records of the past,
Heap over heap, all accents and all forms,

Telling the tale of joy and innocence,

And hope and peace and love; recording, too,
With stern fidelity, the thousand wrongs
Worked upon weakness and defenselessness;
The blest occasions trifled o'er or spurned;

All that hath been, that ought not to have been,
That might have been so different, that now
Can not but be irrevocably past! (Starkey.)

Hell is the place of final punishment for the wicked. It was not made for man, but for the devil and his angels. Only those persons who have rejected Christ, persisted in sin, and refused to walk in the light given to them, are driven away under the frown of God into this place of torment.

The inmates of hell are, therefore, self-destroyed. God has no pleasure in their pain. They perish because they refuse the gift of life. They are punished because they deserve it, and because God's holy law which they have violated, and the interests of his eternal kingdom, require it.

REALITY OF HELL.

The doctrine of hell, like many other spiritual truths, is purely Biblical. We know only so much about it as God has revealed. There is no possibility of scientific proof, because all eschatological

truth lies outside the domain of science. Science deals with God's works. Theology deals with God's Word. But theology may be as true as science, and, as we believe, in respect to the fundamental, is a thousand times more accurate.

There is but one safe rule of Biblical interpretation, and that is to accept the statements of the Bible as literally true, unless there is clear evidence that they are figurative.

There is also indirect testimony: 2 Pet. iii, 9;

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What, then, is the testimony of the Bible as to the fact of hell? Read such passages as Prov. vii, 27; Prov. xv, 24; Matt. vii, 23; Luke xii, 5; Mark ix, 43; Psa. ix, 17. This is direct testimony as to hell, as a fact. 2 Thess. ii, 9, 10. Death: Psa. xxxiii, 18, 19; Rom. vi, 23. Ezek. x, 14. Damned: 2 Thess. ii, 11, 12; Mark xvi, 16. Damnation: Mark v, 28, 29; Mark xii, 40. Destroy: 1 Cor. iii, 17; Matt. x, 28. Destruction: 2 Pet. iii, 16; 1 Thess. v, 1, 3. Perdition: Heb. x, 39; 2 Pet. iii, 7. Punish: 2 Pet. iii, 9; 2 Thess. i, 7, 9. Punishment: Matt. xxv, 46; Heb. ix, 26, 31. If you wipe out these words, you wipe out the plan of salvation, and the gospel is an absurdity. What kind of a place is hell? Isa. xxxiii, 14; Rev. xiv, 10. It is either literal or figurative. If the latter, it is worse. xix, 20; Rev. xx, 14, 15; Matt. xiii, 41, 42.

DURATION OF HELL.

Rev.

Will future punishment ever have an end? This is the question. around which all controversy rages. Very few people refuse to accept the doctrine of hell, but there are some who affect to believe that its punishment is not eternal. Let us try to get at the truth. Let us glance at the teachings of the ages upon this point, and endeavor, without prejudice, to reach correct conclusions.

OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING.

Only two texts will be cited from the Old Testament, and these such as are accepted by the almost unanimous authority of the best English and German scholars, whether orthodox or liberal.

The first text is Isa. lxvi, 24: "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." Gesenius, Delitzsch, Cheyne-rationalist, conservative, and liberalagree that the punishment spoken of here is endless. Cheyne, in response to the question, whether God annihilates the wicked or

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