Show IS THERE A HELL I 1 the international bible students dents held a midsummer mid summer con V e in Wi washington ington and passed the following resolution which is is being 0 variously commented upon both pub publicly liel and privately and after reading uie the same ir if any of our local preach c ci 1 8 or laymen have decided views rc regarding ardium the question the columns of the record are at their disposal tile the resolutions follows I 1 I 1 RESOLVE D that it iris is the sense of the international bible students delegates here ashcan assam bled that we do not findt lic bible to teach the doctrine of a literal hellfire hell fire or place of fire and brimstone for tile the punishment of the wicked but that secular history of the formation of tire the creed of tile the middle ages reveals the fact that for various reasons either wisely or unwisely unwise ay iy the doctrine of torilia torment nt in hellfire hell fire was added to fro the gospel as taught by jesus and the twelve apostles necessitating many ridiculous tint interpretations er ions of tire the lords parables we therefore ore now unreservedly repudiate as is thoro thoroughly lin unscriptural scriptural crip tural the teaching caching of a place state or condition of a literal lake of fire and brimstone for the torment of the wicked and further we believe from many personal testimonials that the vast majority mijo rity of ministers of 0 ill all protestant dc nomination shave privately abed the have for supposedly good reasons hesitated to fully inform their congregations gregat ions and further we believe on this account s and perhaps tens of thousands are being driven into skepticism or infidelity therefore it jg is further RESOLVED that we appeal to every minister in the united states to publish in his local newspaper over his own signature a statement declaring cheth er or not he believes the bible to teach doctrine the of a literal lake of fire and brimstone as a place state or condition for the eternal punishment of the dand that every editor of a newspaper in the united states be requested to invite the ministers of his constituency to avail themselves of his columns for their statements we believe that in in this one act they can just now serve their readers better than in any other way the present general repudiation of the hellfire theory by the clergy of the evan c acala aliane e will n no 0 doubt be e considered considered onside red by the public as a startling admission and is in striking contrast with the opinion still held by ninety per cent of the people who were reared under and taught I 1 by these same clergy the impressions gained in childhood from the ministers that the bible was the authority for the fire and brimstone hell will be hard to erase it is acknowledged that seventy five per cent of the people reared under sectarian instruction when arri arriving vi ing at the age of discretion discard as unchristian and unreasonable the hellfire hell fire mythology of the middle ages and as they believe the bible responsible for the doctrine they lose respect the bible and for the church and discard both and join the big congregation composed of detached I 1 christians christian and skeptics |