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Show IMMORTAL WORMS 3- yjf 4 and 5 -I- UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. v w :- "Where their worm dleth not nnd 4 ft 4 their lire Is not quenched." v j jS' .- Mailt lx., 44 t "y Tlie-30 words from tho Hps of our Mas- m tor, the Great Teacher, have liocn grlev-ously grlev-ously misunderstood. Tho teaching of our Protestnnt childhood was to Hie effect ' that only the saintly elect would go to M heaven and that others would not only w loso heaven, but gain an eternal life In wf tormcnL Thus our text was understood i M 10 portray what practically iho whole 6 world of mankind would ho compelled to M endure. This hell was pictured to our W. childhood minds from outside the BHilo I K . as heated to a while heat. If wc cx-'M cx-'M pressed wonder or surprise that any hu- man creature could onduro such cojidi-jr' cojidi-jr' tions so long, thn answer w.us that God would exercise His omnipotent power to m. nialco us fireproof and paln-sensltivc. Jf .Some theologians of the Thomas a Kcmp- is scliool of thought went so far as to 55 picture the poor creatures In their suffer-w suffer-w Ings and to show thai tho heat would form a kind of an asbestos covering ' which would shield them from a measure: of its Intensity. But those deluded ihco- t logians proceeded to explain that these , , outer coverings would crack and shell i 1 off every little while, leaving the poor , ) victim freshly lender that his suffering r thIkIiI be the more Intense. Of course, these theologians of Ihc past . ; had their difllculty in dealing with tho I' worms. They could imagine "ovlls who would oversee the torture as being made Immune to pain by the chief torturer, the. Almighty God. riut Just how to imagine the worm getting along In so rf great a heat, and how Ihoy would In any wise Increase tho torture of the poor sufferers, was to many a pcrplexltv. Hut patient thoughlfuliiess along these cruel and devilish lines enabled some to formulate formu-late the theory that the worms would" be ilery ones, living in fire, delighting In lire worms that would bore through the Incrustations and add still further to the horrible sufferings of the world of mankind. man-kind. Was This What Jesus Meant? . M- Old the Great Teacher intend thai such conclusions should be drawn from I ; ! i"s langungo? And did He stop short f of the description from reasons of sym- i s pathy or modesty or shame? Is this the ' general teacnlng or God's Word, or has "mi- fJ groat and terrible mistake been made? r And have wc mistaken a figure of speech ; and treated it us literal? We erred. Wo jJJ misunderstood. The Great Teacher Who ' rebuked Tils disciples, James and John, 3 i : when they desired to call fire from Z i ! heaven upon the city of Samaria. le-tl le-tl ' cause the people thereof refused to sell 1 t them food for the blaster the sympa-3 sympa-3 ' luetic One who said to them, "Ye know 5 ' "ot what manner of spirit ve are of; the ; :;on ' Ia came not to dostrov men's i ) . i'1)- ,u,1 10 Bavc them" could that Son ? of Man In any wise Intend to tell us that ' '.'i"' Sroat Heavenly father had less of i ; ' tj'o spirit of love and righteousness than - tho two Impetuous disciples? Did He mean to Intlmato that while the dis- F i-iples impetuously might have been wlll-m wlll-m ! L"" to destroy the earthly life of the fil 1 Samaritans, the Heavenlv Father, of still mW more demoniacal disposition, woufd treat Sim. practically all mankind ten million times worse than that and use divine power I I, 10 n" olernlty to perpetuate the suffer-III suffer-III J' inKS of ,r,s cart lily creatures which His III E' "onl declares were born In sin, HI ; fhapeii In iniquity. In sin did their II Jfe. mothers conceive them? earthly crea- II kV lures, too. whose environment was un-IJPt un-IJPt favorable and whoso adversary, the devil ?V -'0fi "cither destroyed nor bound? WlW 'Such an interpretation, my dear licar- S' ,s lrot enpposablc. Wo must look llr fo1' somc explanation of the Master's IIP words more consistent with his own char- wWlW aetcr and with the heavcnlv Father's IIhP' haracter. and most consistent, with our ItfT conception of what a Just, loving, wise HCT ancl "ow'7r,ul creator would do. Jt does llfl not 'answer (he purpose to saw as so ti many do "nosh, do not discuss such a IIHr ma Her. Nobody now believes such things!" This one scripture repudiated V. would shake our confidence In tho whole vm " 'ible. But rightly explained and under-y under-y stood. 11 would scltlo and increase our H faith in the scriptures as a Divine mes- Wf- agc. This. then, must bo our object MS not merely to cast from us the devilish Cy" Interpretation of the dark ages. but. to as- corlaln the true Interpretation to get the true lesson from the words of the Great II Teacher. Thousands aro drifting off into ! K' 1'iore or less open Infidelity simply bc-il bc-il la c n;se of the irrational interpretation IS'Bf- given by this text and two or three olh- ers. And theso errors havo becomo so fastened In our minds from childhood days that they have becomo part and parcel of our very lives, so that many of us would have been Inclined at ono time to dispute the very existence of a God as much as to dispute such slanderous misrepresentations of his glorious character. char-acter. Entering Into Life. Let us go back to Josus'u day and In mind place ourselves with those wlv? heard him utter tho words of our text and context. Tho Teacher had Just said. "If thy hand offend theo. cut It off it is bettor for thee to enter into life maimed, than, having two hands, to go Into hell, into the fire that nevpr shall be quenched, where their worm dleth not and their flro Is not quenched." Ho said tho same in the following verses respecting respect-ing the foot and the eye. Was he speaking speak-ing literally or figuratively? Does any sano person suppose today that Jesus advised ad-vised a literal cutting of a hand or a foot or the plucking out of an oyo7 As-surcdlv As-surcdlv not. And tho person who would follow" his counsel in that way would be considered unbalanced in mind. Wo all recognize what ho did mean, namely, that If any who desired to havo eternal life found that they had hindrances of ap-octllo ap-octllo or plcasuro or what not, as dear to them as an eye. foot, hand, these precious, but disqualifying sins or wrons-dolngs. wrons-dolngs. should he put away no matter how highly esteemed. By way .of contrast con-trast the Master suggested that if the retaining of these things would hinder them from entering into life they could n'ol afrord to retain them that even It they were to curry tho figure further and suppose that In the future life they would be deprived to the extent of being maimed to all eternity. It still would be Preferable Prefer-able to them to practice the sclf-dcnlal now nnd to enter into life. Be it noted that the reward here nd catcd is In the entering into Ife, a. d t be Intimation is that those who la v, not have life at all that they will fan to attain life; that they win havo no eternal life, cither in pain or in pleasunt Lot us examine our text further and sec this. Gehenna Typed tho Second Death. The word hell in our text Is from the Greek word gehenmi, which. In turn, was a. corruption of the Hebrew word geh-hinnon, geh-hinnon, which dignifies valley of dcatli-There dcatli-There are two other words in the .ew Testament Greek translated bel J. 0,lr common version. One of these, tartarus, lias no reference to humanity whatovei, but merely slgnillcs our earths utmos-pherc utmos-pherc the place where Satan and the lallen nngels are restrained in chains of darkness (U Peter II, l). The othet Greek word rendered hell In the lso Testament is hades, which corresponds cxacllv to tho word rendered hell in the Old Testament, namely sheol. And all scholars know that both of these words signify the same thing. They are used Interchangeably In the Scriptures to designate des-ignate the slate or condition of death the tomb. No person, of even slight education, ed-ucation, would for a moment attempt to claim that eternal torment Is taught by school, hades or tartarus. The great stress of all who teach eternal torment falls therefore, upon the word hell found in our text In the original Greek, ge-lienna. ge-lienna. What wo have to say respecting it will undoubtedly bo news to but few of this congregation. 33ut since this sermon will bo reported In more than seven hundred newspapers of the land, our explanation will probablv eventually reach ten million people, to whom the truth on the subject will be new. What we have to say Is not new to educated ministers, however, and why. as pastors, they have kept the shei-p of their Hook In the dark on the subject Is for them to explain. They certainly cer-tainly cannot plead ignorance. At very most they can apologize that they hoped (hat the misunderstanding would do more good than the truth. They seem to forgot for-got entirely that this terrible misunderstanding misunder-standing is not only wrecking the faith of thousands, but dishonoring our Creatorblaspheming Crea-torblaspheming His holy name Tils holy' character, by misrepresenting it and the divine plan. Valley Outsido Jerusalem. J wi&b that those of you who hac modern Bibles with maps at the back would turn to the map of tho city of Jerusalem and there notice on the southwest south-west side of the city, just outside I he wall, it ht Valley of Jilnnom. That is the vallev that In brief was called Gch-hln-non, the Greek of which Is gchenna. A". of our Lord's uses of l)vi word gchenna stand related to that valley. For lb take of my larger congregation It will be worth while for us to take a glance backward at the history of that valley during many centuries before Jcaus s day. The first mention of this valley hi the Bible is found In Joshua (vx. S), whcie It is given as one of the boundaries or the tribe- of Jtidah, according to tho lol ! cast by Joshua in the division of the land that hud come Into possession of , the Israelites. Jt Is again mentioned sini- ilarly in Joshua xvlil. HI. The next ref-! ref-! erence lo this valley is found In II Kings i x.nIII, 10. There wc read of how .foslah. ', the good king of Judah, instituted a great, reform In the nation find abolished Idolatry, one of the most heinous forms of the idolatry having been practiced In this Valley of Jllniioni, which had gotten a new name, namely Tophoth. History tells us that Ihc Israolltea built In this Tophoth? the Valley of liinuom. a great braes image to the heathen god Molorh In various places they had groves in which a licentious form if worship was enacted and then they resorted to Ibis Valley of Hinnoni to offer sacrifice of a 'most revolting kind to the heathen dolly. .Sometime it was a. boy and sometimes It was a Klrl that was placed naked In the arms of the meat Imago after it bad been llrcd to a red heat, with fuel piled underneath under-neath Ihc imago and passing through It as a Hue. The cries of these infants so horribly sacrificed were, drowned by the eheein of the worshippers and various musical Instruments. All nf this. Indeed, everything akin to suffering, was strictly forbidden by the divine law given to Israel. And they luu-been luu-been specially warned ;ignliist this very form of Idolatry (Leviticus xvill, '.'l: lieu, lerononiy xvil. I'D. It l.s a gloss mistake and slander of the divine character and law to suppose that it owr saui'tlmiod torture. And il Is : still worse sland.-r upon God to suppose that lit- would ITim-i-elf flo, and that for all eternity, what Ho condemned In Ills fallen creatures. The Lord declares all this through the. Prophol Jeremiah (vii. :U-:mi. Here God particularly forewarned the Israelites that tholr wrong eouie would eventuate in the terrible tlnio of trouble which cant'-upon cant'-upon Jerusalem In the year A. D. 70. when It was estimated that over a million mil-lion died at tho slego of Jerusalem, in fulfillment of this prophocy the Jewn east the dead bodies over the wall of Jerusalem Into this very valley. Thus we read. "Behold, the day hi come, saltli the Lord, that It shall no more be callef Tophoth, nor, tho Valley of the Sou if liinuom. but. tho Valley of Slaughter for they shall bury In Tophoth till there be no place. And thn (yircauiics of this people shall bo meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of tho earth.' After the reformation made by IClng Joslah tho Valley of Hlnnom was desecrated dese-crated to the Intent, that It might never afterward be considered lit for any kind of religious worship, sacrlilco or ceremony. cere-mony. It bcamc thn valley of deillo-mont. deillo-mont. It was used at certain times for the bumlnc of the offal and rubbish of the city. It became tho dumping place of dead cats and dogs. etc. If anv of thoso fell upon tho ledges of the rock no ono thought worth while to lutet-fcro, lutet-fcro, and the maggots nnd worms destroyed de-stroyed them. Fires also were light' occasionally to burn the combust Iblo rubbish, rub-bish, and brimstone was uddod so thni the fumes might destroy anv malarial tendency, In the interest of the health of tho city. IiOsson Jesus Taught. Wo have before our minds now the gohennn flro which no ono ever attempted attempt-ed lo quench, but which was dcsltriuil lo conaump utterly everything cast 'into It. Wo havo In mind also the worms of which ho spake worms which were permitted to feed on tho carcasses undisturbed un-disturbed until tho carcasses woro consumed con-sumed and tho worms themselves died. Another item her should bo noticed, namely, that a saying amongst tho Jews was. Whosoever commits such a misdemeanor misde-meanor will bo In danger of going from bad to worse until ho will bo brought bc-foro bc-foro tho tribunal of tho Sanhcdrln, a culprit. cul-prit. Jesus took tho samo lino of proverbs pro-verbs and declared that anyono violating tho Golden Rule to the extent of calling his brother a fool would be In danger eventually of such digression from righteousness right-eousness as to bring him under sentence of tho greater tribunal of Messiah's kingdom, and. "Whosoever shall say unto his brother, Thou art a fool, shall bg in danger of gchenna fire" (Matthow v., 22). What tho Great Teacher meant waa that tho earthly Jerusalem was a plcturo or type of tho heavenly Jerusalem, wldch represents the DIvIno government or kingdom the New Jerusalem which, by and by. will come down to earth when God's will shall be done on earth as It is done in heaven. As gchenna lay outside of the wall of Jerusalem, so our Lord intimated thore would bo an antltypleal gchenna outside the New Jerusalem. As the trash and offal of tho typical city were consumed in tho Valley of llinnom, so the offal and trash of humanity who will refuse all of God's favors, mercies, blessings and opportunities, op-portunities, will bo treated as disgraceful disgrace-ful wretches and be consumed, destroyed, in the antl typical gchenna which is the second death. Concerning this antltypleal antltypl-eal gchenna. the second death, we are definitely Informed of tho characters which will there be destroyed utterly, as Peter says, "as natural brute boasts," Wc have a description of this symbolical sym-bolical New Jerusalem or Divine kingdom king-dom (Revelation xxl.), composed primarily pri-marily of the church, and secondarily of all from the world who. during Messiah's Mes-siah's reign, will enter In through its gates and enjoy tho blessings of Divine favor and life eternal. And then wc read, verse S. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, unbe-lieving, and the abominable, and murderers, mur-derers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in tho lake which burnetii with flro and brimstone, which is the second death." Note that this lake of fire and brimstone into which all tho offscour-Ing offscour-Ing of humanity will be cast Is a symbol sym-bol and the meaning of tho symbol is plainly slated in the words. "Which is the second death." The first death passed upon all mankind on account of father Adam's disobedience. Our Lord Jesus was appointed the Savior of Adam and his race and gave his life a ransom for all. to rescue all from death, to give to each and every member of Adam's race ono full, fair opportunity for a test of loyalty to God and righteousness and to secure life eternal in tho New Jerusalem. Contrariwise all who will reject that full opportunity will die the second death, from which there will be no redemption, no rcssurection, no recovery of any kind. |
