THE QUESTION OF HELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 252, 23 October 1926, Page 18

THE QUESTION OF HELL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Owing to a busy week attending the session of Synod I have been unable until now to reply to "Questionnaire" and others. Apart from letters in the Press I have received a large number of communications asking for the interpretation of certain texts bearing upon the question of hell and future punishment for those, who, as I said in my sermon in St. Matthew's, "Do not or cannot believe." I said "cannot," for there are many who feel they cannot accept the doctrine of divine vengeance, and torture for the greater portion of God's creation, and when once the Church acknowledges she has misinterpreted the mind of God and the teaching of Jesus Christ in regard to future punishment, many will be brought into closer love and fellowship with Christ. In the first place it is an easy but a dangerous thing to take isolated texts apart from their context and local surroundings and to place upon them a literal interpretation. The result of this is seen in the large number of sects existing at the present time. Now Sheol, according to the Old Testament, was a place underground, whither all departed spirits went after death. Later when Greek had become the common tongue the word "Sheol" was translated "Hades," which in turn was translated "hell." The word "hell" in old English usage simply meant "to conceal," "to hide," "to cover," hence the "concealed," "hidden," or "covered" place. "Questionnaire" asks for my interpretation of Psalm ix, verse 17, "The Wicked Shall be Turned into Hell and all the Nations that Forget God." If we substitute the true meaning of the word "Sheol," our text will read, "The Wicked Shall Return to Sheol and all the Nations that Forget God," i.e., become as before they were born, incapable of doing harm. For to the ancient Hebrews, in Sheol there was neither good nor bad, nor worship, nor remembrance, but a shadowy, vague, harmless existence, where "The wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." This is a very different conception from that conveyed by our ordinary English version, as quoted by "Questionnaire." But the Jews iv the time of Our Lord understood the word "Hades" (Sheol) not as a place of torment, as has been the misinterpretation of our translators, but as an intermediate place, whither all must go. There are several Greek words, upon the interpretation of which depends our outlook upon the question of future punishment. "Krisis" (Judgment), i.e., the process of judging. In 41 passages in the New Testament it is so rendered, but in a few it is rendered "damnation." The word damnation is used to emphasise the translator's pre-conceived idea of an endless hell. "Gehenna" again is rendered hell in 12 passages of the New Testament. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated "The Valley of Hinnon.' This valley lay just outside the city of Jerusalem and served the purpose of sewer and garbage burner to that city. The offal and garbage were emptied there and fires were kept continually burning to consume utterly all things deposited therein, brimstone being added to assist combustion and ensure complete destruction. But a living thing was never cast into Gehenna. The Jews were never permitted to torture any creatures and had Jesus Christ even suggested such a thing, they would have been filled with indignation. When Our Lord uttered the words in Matthew xviii., verse 8, etc., no one for a moment supposes that He advised the people to mutilate their bodies by cutting off their limbs, or gouging out their eyes. The Jews knew the language of our Lord was figurative, and that Gehenna was also used in the same figurative sense to symbolise, not torture, but destruction (cf. Isaiah lxvi. 24). Again, "katakrinein" in several passages is rendered "damned" when its real meaning is "condemn." The word "aion," or its adjective, "aionios," has been translated "for ever and ever," "everlastingly," "eternal," and it isupon this rendering that the doctrine of everlasting punishment has been reared, e.g., "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath not forgiveness all through the (aiona), a period of time, but is in danger of jan age-long ("aionios") judgment j ("krisis"). I would ask those who ; disagree with mc to look up the followjing passages of Scripture and to read I them in the light of the above interpre- < tations: St. Matthew xviii., 8, St. Matthew xxv., 46, Mark iii., 29. Once again let us remember that God's purpose of saving mankind is declared by Scriptow to embrace the whole, and not merely a part of the human race—Mat- : thew xvm 1 ' Luke xv 4 John i-, i ?' J °^ n i^ i ' 47 .' Romans xiv., 11, etc etc. Not for c%e moment do I derire |to mmunise the effect of sin and the punishment that it will hrincr There must come the Judgment, There wm and there must be, retribution- «A?i man sows, so shall he also- rtL* But I believe that the Scriptures mK* us that such punishment shall be iu«t .remedial and terminable.— am, etc, 1 C. H, GRANT COWe£