Old Theology Quarterly—1896

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Old Theology

Quarterly

No. 32— What Say the Scriptures About Hell?

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What Say The Scriptures About Hell?

An examination of every text of Scripture in which the word “hell” is found.

International Bible Students Association BROOKLYN, LONDON, MELBOURNE, BARMEN, COPENHAGEN, OREBRO, CHRISTIANIA, GENEVA

INTRODUCTORY

A correct understanding of the subject of this booklet is almost a necessity to Christian steadfastness. For centuries it has been the teaching of “orthodoxy” of all shades that God, before creating man, had created a great abyss of fire and terrors, capable of containing all the billions of the human family which he purposed to bring into being; that this abyss he had named “hell”; and that all of the promises and threatenings of the Bible were designed to deter as many as possible (a “little flock”) from such wrong-doing as would make this awful place their perpetual home.

As knowledge increases and superstitions fade, this monstrous view of the divine arrangements and character is losing its force; and thinking people cannot but reject the Legend, which use to be illustrated on the church walls in the highest degree of art and realism, samples of which are still to be seen in Europe. Some now claim that the place is literal, but the fire symbolic, etc., etc., while others repudiate the doctrine of “hell” in every sense and degree.

While glad to see superstitions fall, and truer ideas of the great and wise, and just, and loving Creator prevail, we are alarmed to notice that the tendency with all who abandon this long revered doctrine is toward doubt, skepticism, infidelity. Why should this be the case, when the mind is merely being delivered from an error—do you ask? Because Christian people have so long been taught that the foundation for the awful blasphemy against God’s character and government is deep laid, and firmly fixed, in the Word of God— the Bible—and, consequently, to whatever degree their belief in “hell” is shaken, to the extent their faith in the Bible, as the revelation of the true God, is shaken also;—so that those who have dropped their belief in a “hell,” of some kind of endless torment, are often open infidels, and scoff at God’s Word.

Guided by the Lord’s providence to a realization that the Bible has been slandered, as well as its divine Author, and that, rightly understood, it teaches nothing on this subject, derogatory to God’s character nor to an intelligent reason, we have attempted in this booklet to lay bare the Scripture teaching on this subject, that thereby faith in God and his Word may be reestablished, on a better, a reasonable foundation. Indeed it is our opinion that whoever shall thereby find that his false view rested upon human misconceptions and misinterpretations, will at the same time, learn to trust hereafter less to his own and other men’s imaginings, and by faith, to grasp more firmly the Word of God, which is able to make wise unto salvation; and on this mission, under God’s providence, it is sent forth.

WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES CONCERNING HELL?

HELL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT—HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT—ALL TEXTS CONSIDERED— WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH—PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS—PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS—EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED—THE WICKED SHALL BE TURNED INTO HELL, AND ALL THE NATIONS THAT FORGET GOD—THE LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE—JEWISH BELIEF ON TORMENT.

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”—Isaiah. 8:20.

“OH,” says one, on receiving this tract, “that is a horrid theme. It has been like a night-mare to me all my life long. Do not mention it; let me forget it!” “Yes,” says another, “let me forget it and think and talk of the love of God; for when I consider how strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and how prone we all are to sin, I exceedingly fear, and can never come to that 'full assurance of faith’ which I so much desire.”

Still another adds, “Oh, do not mention it! I have children [or a husband, or a wife, or a friend] yet unsaved, and my soul is overwhelmed with a burden of fear and anxiety for them.” And another, with streaming eyes and faltering voice, adds, “O sir, if that doctrine be true—and it must be, else all Christendom would not teach it—then some of my dear ones are past all hope, and are now amidst the agonies of that awful place.”

Yes, we admit that the theme as generally represented and accepted is a horrid one, shutting out to a very large extent the glorious vision of the love and power and wisdom of God, which his holy Word presents. But, nevertheless, let us hear what say the Scriptures; for “therein is the righteousness of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (verse 18), and “though hand join in hand [saying, ‘In union there is strength], the wicked shall not be punished” (Prov.11:21); but the wrath of God is always just, and tempered with mercy.— “His mercy endureth forever.”—Psa.106:1; 107:1; 118:1-4; 136.

That there is something radically wrong with the generally accepted view of the doctrine of the punishment of the wicked is very manifest from the standpoint of reason, in that, instead of revealing the righteousness of God, it greatly misrepresents his glorious character of love and justice, wisdom and power. And from a Scriptural standpoint we have no hesitancy in affirming what we are abundantly prepared to prove, that it is far away from the truth, and that the position of its advocate is wholly untenable.

That its advocates themselves have little or no faith in it is very manifest from the fact it has no power over their course of action. While all the denominations of Christendom prefer to believe the doctrine that eternal torment and endless, hopeless despair will constitute the punishment of the wicked, they are all quite at ease in allowing the wicked to take their course, while they pursue the even tenor of their way. Chiming bells and pealing organs, artistic choirs, and costly edifices, and upholstered pews, and polished oratory which more and more avoids any reference to this alarming theme, afford rest and entertainment to the fashionable congregations that gather on the Lord’s day and are known to the world as the churches

of Christ and the representatives of his doctrines. But they seem little concerned about the eternal welfare of the multitudes, or even of themselves and their own families, though one would naturally presume that with such awful possibilities in view they would be almost frantic in their efforts to rescue the perishing.

The plain inference is that they do not believe it. The only class of people that to any degree show their faith in it by their works is the Salvation Army; and these are the subjects of ridicule from almost all other Christians, because they are somewhat consistent with their belief. Yet their peculiar, and often absurd, methods, so strikingly in contrast with those of the Lord of whom it was written, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street” (Isa. 42:2), are very tame compared with what might be expected if they were fully convinced of the doctrine. We cannot imagine how sincere believers of this terrible doctrine go from day to day about ordinary affairs of life, or meet quietly in elegance every Sunday to hear an essay from the pulpit on the peculiar subjects often advertised. Could they do so while really believing all the time that fellow mortals are dying at the rate of one hundred a minute, and entering

“That lone land of deep despair,” where “No God regards their bitter prayer”?

If they really believed it few saints could complacently sit there and think of those hurrying every moment into that awful state described by that good well-meaning, but greatly deluded man, Isaac Watts (whose own heart was immeasurably warmer and larger that that he ascribed to the great Jehovah), when he wrote the hymn—

“Tempests of angry fire shall roll To blast the rebel worm, And beat upon the naked soul In one eternal storm.”

People often become frantic with grief when friends have been caught in some terrible catastrophe, as a fire, or a wreck, though they know they will soon be relieved by death; yet they pretend to believe that God is less loving than themselves, and that he can look with indifference, if not with delight, at billions of his creatures enduring an eternity of torture far more terrible, which he prepares for them and prevents any escape from forever. Not only so, but they expect that they will get literally into Abraham’s bosom, and will then look across the gulf and see and hear the agonies of the multitudes (some of whom they now love and weep over); and they imagine they will be so changed, and become so like their present idea of God, so hardened against all pity, and so barren of love and sympathy, that they will delight in such a God and in such a pain.

It is wonderful that otherwise sensible men and women, who love their fellows, and who establish hospitals, orphanages, asylums, and societies for the prevention of cruelty even to the brute creation, are so unbalanced mentally that they can believe and subscribe to such a doctrine, and yet be so indifferent about investigating the subject of “everlasting torture.”

Only one exception can we think of—those who hold the ultra-calvinistic doctrine; who believe that God has decreed it thus, that all the efforts they could put forth could not alter the results with a single person, and that all the prayers they could offer would not change one iota of the awful plan they believe God has marked out for his and their eternal pleasure. These indeed could sit still, so far as effort for their fellows is concerned, but why sing the praises of such a God and such a scheme for the damnation of their neighbors whom God has told them to love as themselves?

Why not rather begin to doubt this “doctrine of devils,” this blasphemy against the great

God, hatched in the “dark ages,” when a crafty priesthood taught that it is right to do evil that good may result?

The doctrine of eternal torment was introduced by Papacy to induce pagans to join her system and support her priesthood. It flourished at the same time that bull fights and gladiatorial contests were the public amusements most enjoyed, when the Crusades were called “holy wars,” and when men and women were often slaughtered for thinking or speaking contrary to the teachings of Papacy; at a time when the sun of gospel truth was obscure, when the Word of God had fallen into disuse and was prohibited to be read by any but the clergy, whose love of their neighbors was often shown in torturing heretics to induce them to recant and deny their faith and their Bibles—to save them, if possible, it was explained, from the more awful future of heretics—eternal torture. They did not borrow this doctrine from the heathen; for no heathen people in the world have a doctrine so cruel, so fiendish and so unjust. Find it, whoever can,

and show it up in all its blackness, that if possible it may be shown that the essence of barbarism, malice, hate and ungodliness has not been exclusively appropriated by those whom God has most highly favored with light from every quarter and to whom he has committed the only oracle—his Word. Oh! the shame and confusion that will cover the faces of many, even good men, who verily thought that they did God service while propagating this blasphemous doctrine, when they awake in the resurrection, to learn of the love and justice of God, and when they come to know that the Bible does not teach this Goddishonoring, love-extinguishing, truthbeclouding, saint-hindering, sin-hardening, “damnable heresy” of eternal torment.—2 Pet. 2:1.

But we repeat that, in the light and moral development

of this day, sensible people do not believe this doctrine. However since they think that the Bible teaches it, every step they progress in real intelligence and brotherly kindness, which

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hinders such belief, is in most cases a step away from God’s Word, which they falsely accuse of this teaching. Hence this second crop of evil fruit, which the devil’s engraftment of this error is producing. The intelligent, honest thinkers are thus driven from the Bible into vain philosophies and sciences, falsely so-called, and into skepticism. Nor do the “worldly” really believe this doctrine, and it is no restraint to crime.

“But,” says one, “did the error not do some good? Have not many brought into the churches by the preaching of “this doctrine in the past?”

No error, we answer, ever did real good, but always harm. Those whom error brings into a church, and whom the truth would not move, are an injury to the church. The thousands terrorized, but not at heart converted, whom this doctrine forced into Papacy, and who swelled her numbers and her wealth, diluted what little truth was held before, and mingled it with their unholy sentiments and errors so that, to meet the changed condition of things, the “clergy” found it needful to add error to error, and to resort to methods, forms, etc., not taught in the Scriptures and useless to the truly converted whom the truth controls. Among these were pictures, images, beads, vestments, candles, grand cathedrals, altars, etc., to help the unconverted heathen to a form of godliness more nearly corresponding to their former heathen worship, but lacking all the power of vital godliness.

The heathen were not benefited; for they were still heathen in God’s sight, but deluded into aping what they did not understand or do from the heart. They were added tares to choke the wheat, without being profited themselves. The Lord tells who sowed the seed of this enormous crop. (Matt.13:39) The same is true of those who assume the name “Christian” today, who are not really at heart converted by the truth, but merely frightened by the error or allured by promised earthly advantages of a social or business kind. Such add nothing to the true church: by their ideas and manners they become stumbling-blocks to the truly consecrated, and by their inability to digest the truth, the real food of the saints, they lead even the few true pastors to defraud the true sheep in order to satisfy the demands of these goats for something pleasing to their unconverted tastes. No: in no way has this error accomplished good except in the sense that God is able to make even the wrath of man to praise him. So also he will overrule all things eventually to serve his purposes.

Seeing, then the unreasonableness of man’s view, let us lay aside human opinions and theories and come to the Word of God, the only authority on the subject, remembering that.

“God is his own interpreter,

And he will make it plain.”

HELL AN ENGLISH WORD

In the first place bear in mind that the Old Testament Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language, and the New Testament in the Greek. The word “hell” is an English word sometimes selected by the translators of the

English Bible to express the sense of the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek words hades, tartaroo and gehenna. These same words are also sometimes rendered “grave” and “pit.” The word “hell” in old English usage, before the Papal theologians picked it up and gave it a new special significance to suit their own purposes, simply meant to conceal, to hide, to cover; hence the concealed, hidden, or covered place. The word hell was therefore properly

used synonymously with the words “grave” and “pit,” to translate the words “sheol” and “hades,” as signifying the secret or hidden condition of death. But if the translators of the Revised Version had been thoroughly disentangled from the Papal error, and thoroughly honest, they would have done more to help the English student than merely to substitute the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek word hades, as they have done. They should have translated the words. But they were evidently afraid to tell the truth, and ashamed to tell the lie, and so gave us sheol and hades untranslated, and permitted the inference that these words mean the same as the word “hell.” Their course, while it for a time shields themselves, dishonors God and the Bible, which the people still suppose teaches a “hell” of torment in the words sheol and hades. Yet anyone can see that if it was proper to translate the word sheol thirty-one times “grave” and three times “pit,” it could not have been improper to have so translated it in every other instance.

A peculiarity to be observed in comparing these cases, as we will do shortly, is that in those texts where the torment idea would be an absurdity the King James translators have used the words “grave” or “pit”; while in all other cases they have used the word “hell”; and the reader, long schooled in the Papal idea of torment, reads the word “hell” and thinks of it as a place of torment, instead of the grave, the hidden or covered place or condition. For example, compare Job 14:13 with Psa. 86:13.— The former reads—“Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave [sheol],” etc., while the latter reads, “Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [sheol].” The Hebrew word being the same in both cases, there is no reason why the same word “grave” should not be used in both.

While the translators of the Reformation times are somewhat excusable for their mental bias in this matter, as they were just breaking away from the old Papal system, our modern translators, specially those of the recent Bible, are not entitled to any such consideration. Theological professors and pastors of congregations consider that they are justified in following the course of the revisers in not explaining the meaning of either the Hebrew or Greek words sheol or hades; and by their use of the words they also give their confiding flocks to understand that they mean a place of torture, a lake of fire. While attributing to the ignorant only the best of motives, it is manifestly only duplicity and cowardice which induces educated men, who know the truth on this subject, to prefer to continue to infer the error.

But remember that not all ministers know of the errors of the translators, and deliberately cover and hide those errors from the people. Many, indeed, do not know, having merely accepted, without investigation, the theories of their seminary professors. It is the professors and learned ones who are most blame-worthy. These have kept back the truth about “hell” for several reasons. First, there is evidently a sort of understanding or etiquette among them, that if they wish to maintain their standing in the “profession” they “must not tell tales out of school”; i.e., they must not divulge professional secrets to the “common people,” the “laity.” Second, they all fear that to let it be known that they have been teaching an unscriptural doctrine for years would break down the popular respect and reverence for the clergy, the denominations and the theological schools, and unsettle confidence and reverence for men, when God’s Word is so generally ignored! Third, they know that many of the members of their sect are not constrained by “the love of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:14), but merely by the fear of hell, and they see clearly therefore that to let the truth be known now would soon cut loose the names and the dollars of many in their flocks; and this, to those who desire to make a fair show in the flesh. (Gal. 6:12), would seem to be a great calamity.

But what will be the judgment of God, whose character and plan are traduced by the blasphemous doctrine which these untranslated words help to support? Will he command these unfaithful servants? Will he justify the course? Will the Christ Shepherd call these his beloved friends, and make known unto them his further plans (John 15:14), that they may misrepresent these also to preserve their own dignity and reverence? Will he continue to send forth “things new and old,” “meat in due season,” to the household of faith, by the hand of the unfaithful servants? No; such shall not continue to be his mouthpieces or to shepherd his flock. (Ezek. 34:9, 10) He will choose instead, as at the first advent, from among the laity—“the common people”— mouth-pieces, and will give them words which none of the chief priests shall be able to gainsay or resist. (Luke 21:15) And as foretold, “the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”—Isa. 29:919).

“HELL” IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The word “hell” occurs thirty-one times in the Old Testament, and in every instance it is sheol in the Hebrew. It does not mean a lake of fire and brimstone, nor anything at all resembling that thought: not in the slightest degree! Quite the reverse; instead of a place of blazing fire it is described in the context as a state of “darkness” (Job 10:21); instead of a place where shrieks and groans are heard, it is described in the context as a place of “silence” (Psa. 115:17); instead of representing in any sense pain and suffering, remorse, the context describes it as one of forgetfulness. (Psa. 88:11, 12) “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, in the grave [sheol] whither thou goest.”—Eccles. 9:10.

The meaning of sheol is, the hidden state, as applied to man’s condition in death, in and beyond which all is hidden, except the eye of faith; hence, by proper and close association, the word was often used in the sense of grave—the tomb, the hidden place, or place beyond which only those who have the enlightened eye of the understanding can see resurrection, restitution of being. And be it particularly noted that this identical word sheol is translated “pit” and “grave” thirty-four times in our common version by the same translators—more times than it is translated “hell”; and twice where it is translated “hell,” is seemed so absurd, according to the present accepted meaning of the English word “hell” that, in the margin of modern Bibles, the publishers explain that it means grave.(Isa. 14:9) and Jonah 2:2) In the latter case the hidden state, or grave, was the belly of the fish in which Jonah was buried alive, and from which he cried to God.

ALL TEXTS IN WHICH “SHEOL” IS TRANSLATED “HELL.”

(1) Amos 9:2—“Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them.” [A figurative expression; but certainly pits of the earth are the only hells men can dig into.]

(2) Psa. 16:10.— “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” [This refers to our Lord’s three days in the tomb.—Acts 2:31; 3:15.]

(5) Psa. 55:15.—“Let them go down quick into hell”—margin, “the grave.”

(6) Psa. 9:17.—“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” This text will be treated later, under a separate heading.

(7) Psa. 86:13.—“Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell”—margin, “the grave.”

(8) Psa. 116:3.—“The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.” [Sickness and trouble are the figurative hands of the grave to grasp us.]

(9) Psa. 139:8.—“If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” [God’s power is unlimited: even over those in the tomb he can and will exert it and bring forth all that are in the graves.—John 5:28.]

(10) Deut. 32:22.—“For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn into the lowest hell.” [A figurative representation of the destruction, the utter ruin of Israel as a nation— “wrath to the uttermost,” as the Apostle called it, God’s anger burning that nation to the “lowest deep,” as Leeser here translates the word sheol.—1 Thes.2:16.]

(11) Job 11:8,—“It [God’s wisdom] is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell [than any pit;] what canst thou know?”

(12) Job 26:6.—“Hell [the tomb] is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

(13) Prov. 5:5.—“Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell [i.e., lead to the grave].”

(14) Prov. 7:27.—“Her house is the way to hell [the grave], going down to the chambers of death.”

(15) Prov. 9:18.—“He knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ [Here the harlot’s guests represented as dead, diseased or dying, and many of the victims of sensuality in premature graves from diseases which also hurry off their posterity to the tomb.]

(16) Prov. 15:11.—“Hell and destruction are before the Lord.” [Here the grave is associated with destruction and not with a life of torment.]

(17) Prov. 15:24.—“The path of life (leadeth) upward for the wise, that he may depart from ‘hell beneath.” [This illustrates the hope of resurrection from the tomb.]

(18) Prov. 23:14.—“Thou shalt beat him with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell” [i.e., wise correction will save a child from vicious ways which lead to premature death, and may possibly also prepare him to escape the “second death”]

(19) Prov. 27:20.—“Hell [the grave] and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

(20) Isa. 5:14.—“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure.]

(3, 4) Psa. 18:5 and 2 Sam. 22:6—margin .— “The cords of hell compassed me about.” [A figure in which trouble is represented as hastening one to the tomb.]

(21, 22) Isa. 14:9, 15.—“Hell [margin, grave] from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming.”

“Thou shalt be brought down to hell” [the grave—so rendered in verse 11].

(23) Isa. 57:9.—“And didst debase thyself even unto hell.” [Here figurative of deep degradation.]

(24, 25) Ezek. 31:15-17.—“In the day when he went down to the grave,....I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit....They also went down into hell with him, unto them that be slain with the sword.” [Figurative and prophetic description of the fall of Babylon into destruction, silence, the grave.]

(26) Ezek. 32:21.—“The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him.” [A continuation of the same figure, representing Egypt’s overthrow as a nation to join Babylon in destruction.]

(27) Ezek. 32:27.—“And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads; but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.” [The grave is the only “hell” where fallen ones are buried and lie with their weapons of war under their heads.]

(28) Hab. 2:5.—“Who enlargeth his desire as hell [the grave] and as death, and cannot be satisfied.”

(29) Jonah 2: 1, 2.—“Then Jonah prayed unto

the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.” [The belly of the fish was for a time his grave.]

(30, 31) Isa. 28:15-18.—“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with [the grave] are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore saith the Lord, . . . Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell [the grave] shall not stand.” [God thus declares that the present prevalent idea, by which death and the grave are represented as friends rather than enemies, shall cease; and men shall learn that death is the wages of sin now that it is in Satan’s power (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 2:14), and not an angel sent by God.]

ALL OTHER TEXTS WHERE “SHEOL” OCCURS —RENDERED “GRAVE” AND PIT.”

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Gen. 37:35.—“I will go down into the grave unto my son.”

Gen. 42:38.—“Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” [See also the same expression in 44:29, 31. The translators did not like to send good old Jacob to hell simply because his sons were evil.]

1 Sam. 2:6.—“The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.”

1 Kings 2:6, 9.—“Let not his hoar head go down to the grave with peace....His hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.”

Job 14:13.—“Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me [resurrect me]!”

Job 17:13.—“If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” [Job waits for resurrection—“in the morning.”]

Job 17:16.—“They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.”

Job 24:19, 20.—“Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.” [All have sinned, “death passed upon all men,” and all go down to the grave. But all have been redeemed by “the precious blood of Christ”; hence all shall be awakened and come forth again in God’s due time—“in the morning.”]

Psa. 6:5.—“In death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”

Psa. 30:3.—“Oh Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” [This passage expresses gratitude for recovery from danger of death.]

Psa. 31:17.—“Let the wicked be ashamed; let them be silent in the grave.”

Psa. 49:14, 15, margin.—“Like sheep they are

laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright [the saints—Dan. 7:27] shall have dominion over them in the morning [the Millennial morning]; and their beauty shall consume, the grave being in habitation to every one of them. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,”

Psa. 88:3.—“My life draweth nigh unto the grave.” Psa. 89:48.—Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” Psa. 141:7.—“Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth.” Prov. 1:12.—“Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit” [i.e., as of an earthquake, as in Num. 16:30-33]. Prov. 30:15, 16.—“Four things say not, It is enough: the grave,” etc. Eccl. 9:10.—“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Song of Solomon 8:6.—“Jealousy is cruel as the grave.” Isa. 14:11.—“Thy pomp is brought down to the grave.” Isa. 38:10.—“I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my

years.” Isa. 38:18.—“The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.” Num. 16:30-33. — “If...they go down quick into the pit, then shall ye understand... .The ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.”

Ezek. 31:15.—“In the day when he went down to the grave.”

Hosea 13:14.—“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” [The Lord did not ransom any from a place of fire and torment, for there is no such place; but he did ransom all mankind from the grave, from death, the penalty brought upon all by Adam’s sin, as this ~ 33 ~

verse declares.]

The above list includes every instance of the use of the English word “hell” and the Hebrew word sheol. From this examination it must be evident to all readers that the Old Testament, God’s revelation for four thousand years, contains a single hint of a “hell,” as the word is now understood.

HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

In the New testament, the Greek words hades corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. As proof see the quotations of the apostles from the Old Testament, in which they render it hades. For instance Acts 2:27, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades,” is a quotation from Psa. 16:10, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol.” And in 1 Cor. 15:54, 55, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hades], where is thy victory?” is an allusion to Isa. 25:8, “He will swallow up death in victory,” and to Hos. 13:14, “O Death, I will be thy plagues: O sheol, I will be thy destruction.”

“HELL” FROM THE GREEK WORD “HADES.”

Matt. 11:23.—“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell”; Luke 10:15: “shalt be thrust down to hell.” [In privileges of knowledge and opportunity the city was highly favored or, figuratively, exalted to heaven; but because of misuse of God’s favors, it would be debased, or, figuratively, cast down to hades, overthrown, destroyed. It is now so thoroughly buried in oblivion that even the site where it stood is a matter of dispute. Capernaum is certainly destroyed, thrust down to hades.]

Luke 16:23.—“In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” [A parabolic figure explained further on in this pamphlet.]

Rev. 6:8.—“And behold a pale horse: and his name that sat in him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” [Symbol of destruction or the grave.]

Matt. 16:18.—“Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Although bitter and relentless persecution, even unto death, should afflict the church during the Gospel age, it should never prevail to her utter extermination; and eventually, by her resurrection accomplished by her Lord the church will prevail over hades—the tomb.

CHRIST IN “HELL” (HADES) AND RESURRECTED FROM “HELL” (HADES).—

ACTS 2:1, 14, 22-31.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come.. .Peter.. .lifted up his voice and said,...Ye men of Israel, hear these words:—Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you,.being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [“He was delivered for our offenses”], ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains [or bands] of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it [for the Word of Jehovah had previously declared his resurrection]; for David speaketh concerning him [personating or speaking for him], I

[Christ] foresaw the Lord [Jehovah] always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad: moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou [Jehovah] hast made known to me [Christ] the ways of life.” Here our Lord, as personified by the prophet David, expresses his faith in Jehovah’s promise of a resurrection and in the full glorious accomplishment of Jehovah’s plan through him, and rejoice in the prospect.

Peter then proceeds, saying, “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day [so that this prophecy could not have referred to himself personally; for his soul was left in “hell”— hades—and his flesh did see corruption]: Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before [prophetically], spake of the resurrection of Christ [out of “hell”— hades—to which he must go for our offenses], that his soul was not left in hell [hades—the death state], neither his flesh did see corruption.” Thus Peter presents a strong logical argument based on the words of the prophet David, showing first, that Christ, who was delivered by God for our offenses, went to “hell” the grave, the condition of death, destruction (Psa, 16:10}; and, second, that according to promise he had been delivered from “hell,” the grave, death, destruction, by a RESURRECTION—a raising up to life, being created again, the same identical being, yet more glorious, and exalted even to “the express image of the Father’s person.” (Heb. 1:3) And now “this same Jesus” (Acts 2:36}, in his subsequent revelation to the Church, declares—

Rev. 1:18.—“I am he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore.

Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades, the grave] and of death.” Amen! Amen! our hearts respond; for in his resurrection we see the glorious outcome of the whole plan of Jehovah, to be accomplished through the power of the Resurrected One, who now holds the keys of hell and of death, and in due time will release all the prisoners, who are, therefore, called the “prisoners of hope.” (Zech. 9:12) No craft or cunning can by any possible device wrest these Scriptures entire and pervert them to the support of the monstrous and blasphemous Papal tradition of eternal torment. Had that been our penalty, Christ, to be our vicarious sacrifice, must still, and to all eternity endure it, which is not the case, as these Scriptures affirm. But death was our penalty, and “he died for our sins,” and “also for the sins of the whole world.”—1 Cor. 15:3; 1 John 2:2.

Rev. 20:13, 14.—“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire: this is the second death.” [The lake of fire is the symbol of final and everlasting destruction. Death and hell both go in it. There shall be no more death.—Rev. 21:4.]

OTHER OCCURRENCES OF THE WORD “HELL.”

Having examined the word sheol, the original and only word in the Old Testament for “hell,” and the word hades, most frequently in the New Testament rendered “hell,” we now notice every remaining instance in Scripture of the English word “hell.” In the New Testament two other words are rendered “hell”; namely, gehenna and tartaroo, which we will consider in the order named.

“GEHENNA,” RENDERED “HELL.”

This word occurs in the following passages— in all twelve times:—Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:128; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Jas.3:6. It is the Grecian mode of spelling Hebrew words which are translated “the Valley of Hinnom.” This valley lay just outside the city of Jerusalem, and served the purpose of sewer and garbage burner to that city. The offal, garbage, etc., were emptied there and fires were kept continually burning to consume utterly all things deposited therein, brimstone being added to assist combustion and insure complete destruction. But a living thing was never cast into gehenna. The Jews were not permitted to torture any creature.

When we consider that in the people of Israel God was giving us object lessons illustrating his dealings and plans, present and future, we should expect that this Valley of Hinnom, or gehenna, would also play its part in illustrating things future. We know that Israel’s priesthood and temple illustrated the royal priesthood, the Christian church as it will be, the true temple of God; and we know that their chief city was a figure of the New Jerusalem, the seat of kingdom power and centre of authority, the city (government) of the great King, Immanuel. We remember, too, that Christ’s government is represented in the book of Revelation (Rev. 21:10-27} under the figure of a city class permitted to enter the privileges and blessings of that kingdom—the honorable and glorious, and all who have the right to the trees of life— we find it also declared that there shall not enter into it anything that defileth, or that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but only such as a Lamb shall write as worthy of life. This city, representing the redeemed world in the end of the Millennium, was typified or represented in the earthly city, Jerusalem; and the defiling, the abominable, etc,. the class unworthy of life, who do not enter in, were represented by the refuse and the filthy, lifeless carcasses cast into gehenna outside the city, for utter destruction. Accordingly, we find it stated that those not found worthy of life are to be cast into the “lake of fire” (Rev.20:15)—fire here, as everywhere, being used as a symbol of destruction, and the symbol, lake of fire, being drawn from this same gehenna, or Valley of Hinnom.

Therefore, while gehenna served a useful purpose to the city of Jerusalem as a place for garbage burning, it, like the city itself, was typical, and illustrated the future dealings of

God in refusing and committing to destruction all the impure elements, thus preventing them from defiling the holy city, the New Jerusalem, after the trial of the Millennial age of judgment shall have fully proved them and separated with unerring accuracy the “sheep” from the “goats.”

So then, gehenna was a type or illustration of the second death—final and complete destruction, from which there can be no recovery; for after that, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,” but only “fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”— Heb.10:26.

But remember that Israel, for the purpose of being as types of God’s future dealing with the race, was typically treated as though the ransom had been given before they left Egypt, though only a typical lamb had been slain. When Jerusalem was built, and the Temple— representative of the true temple, the church, and the true kingdom as it will be established by Christ in the Millennium—that people typified the world in the Millennial age. Their priests represented the glorified royal priesthood; and their law and its demands of perfect obedience represented the law and conditions under the New Covenant, to be brought into operation for the blessing of all the obedient, and for the condemnation of all who, when granted fullest opportunity, will not heartily submit to the righteous ruling and laws of the great King.

Seeing then, that Israel’s polity, condition, etc., prefigured those of the world in the coming age, how appropriate that we should find the valley of abyss, gehenna, a figure of the second death, the utter destruction in the coming age of all that is unworthy of preservation; and how aptly, too, is the symbol, “lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev. 19:20), drawn from this same gehenna, or Valley of Hinnom, burning continually with brimstone, The expression, “burning with brimstone,” adds force to the symbol, “fire,: to express the utter and irrevocable destructiveness of the second death; for the latest deductions of scientists are that burning brimstone is the most deadly agent known. How reasonable too, to expect that Israel would have courts and judges resembling or prefiguring such courts and judges in the next age; and that the sentence of those (figurative) courts of that (figurative) people under those (figurative) laws, to that (figurative) abyss, outside that (figurative) city, would largely correspond to the (real) sentences of the (real) court and judges in the next age. If these points are kept in mind, they will greatly assist us in understanding the words of our Lord in reference to gehenna; for though the literal valley just at hand was named and referred to, yet his words carry with them lessons concerning the future age and the antitypical gehenna—the second death.

MATT. 5:21, 22.

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be amenable to the judges: But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother [without a cause] shall [future—under the regulations of the real kingdom] be amenable to the judges; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca [villain], shall be in danger of the high council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [gehenna] fire.”

To understand these references to council and judges and gehenna, all should know something of Jewish regulations. The “Court of Judges” consisted of seven men (or twenty-three—the number is in dispute) and had power to judge some classes of crimes. The High Council, or Sanhedrim, consisted of seventy-one men of recognized learning and ability. This constituted the highest court of the Jews, and its supervision was over the gravest offenses. The most serious sentence was death; but certain very obnoxious criminals were subjected to an indignity after death, being refused burial and cast with the carcasses of dogs, the city refuse, etc., into gehenna, there to be consumed. The object of this burning in gehenna was to make the crime and the criminal detestable in the eyes of the people, and signified that the culprit was a hopeless case. It must be remembered that Israel hoped for a resurrection from the tomb, and hence they were particular in caring for the corpses of their dead. Not realizing the fulness of God’s power, they apparently thought he needed their assistance to that extent. (Exod. 13:19; Heb. 11:22; Acts 7:15, 16) Hence the destruction of the body in gehenna after death implied to them the loss of hope of future life by a destruction. Thus it represented the second death in the same figurative way that they as a people represented or illustrated a future order of things under the New Covenant.

Now notice that our Lord, in the above words, pointed out to them that their construction of the law, severe though it was, was far below the real import of that law, as it shall be interpreted under the real kingdom and judges, which theirs only typified. He shows that the command of their law, “Thou shalt not kill,” reached much farther than they supposed; and malicious anger and vituperation “shall be” considered a violation of God’s law, under the New Covenant; and that such as, will not reform so thoroughly as to fully observe God’s law would be counted worthy of that which the gehenna near them typified— the second death. However, the strict severity of that law will be enforced only in proportion as the discipline, advantages and assistance of that age, enabling each to comply with its laws, shall be disregarded.

The same thought is continued in

MATT. 5:22-30.

“Ye have heard,” etc., but I say unto you . . . .it is better for thee to lose one of thy members than that thy whole body should be cast into gehenna.”

Here again the operation of God’s law under the New Covenant is contrasted with its operation under the Old or Jewish Covenant; and the lesson of self-control is urged by the statement that it is far more profitable that men should refuse to gratify depraved desires (though they be dear to them as a right eye, and apparently indispensable, as a right hand) than that they should gratify these, and lose in the second death the future life provided through the atonement for all who will return to perfection, holiness and God.

These expressions of our Lord not only serve to show us the perfection (Rom 7:12} of God’s law, and how fully it will be defined and enforced in the Millennium, but they served as a lesson to the Jews also, who previously saw through Moses’ commands only the crude exterior of the law of God. Since they found it difficult in their fallen state to keep inviolate even the surface significance of the law, they must now see the impossibility of their keeping the finer meaning of the law revealed by Christ. Had they understood and received his teaching fully, they would have cried out, “Alas! if God judges us thus, by the very thoughts and intents of the heart, we are all unclean, all undone, and can hope for naught but condemnation to gehenna (to utter destruction, as brute beasts).” They would have cried, “Show us a greater priesthood than that of Aaron, a priest and teacher able fully to appreciate the law, and able fully to appreciate and sympathize with our fallen state and inherited weaknesses, and let him offer for us better sacrifices, and apply to us the needed greater foregiveness of sin, and let him as a great physician heal us and restore us, so that we can obey the perfect law of God from our hearts.” Then they would have found Christ.

But this lesson they did not learn, for the ears of their understanding were “dull of hearing”; hence they knew not that God had already prepared the very priest and sacrifice and teacher and physician they needed, who in due time redeemed those under the typical law, as well as all not under it, and who also “in due time,” shortly, will begin his restoring work, restoring sight to the blind eyes of their understanding, and hearing to their deaf ears. Then the “vail shall be taken away”—the vail of ignorance, pride and human wisdom which Satan now uses to blind the world to God’s true law and true plan of salvation in Christ.

And not only did our Lord’s teaching here show the law of the New Covenant and teach the Jew a lesson, but it is of benefit to the

Gospel church also. In proportion as we learn the exactness of God’s law, and what would constitute perfection under its requirements we see that our Redeemer was perfect, and that we, totally unable to command ourselves to God as keepers of that law, can find acceptance with the Father only in the merit of our Redeemer, while none can be of that “body,” covered by the robe of his righteousness, except the consecrated who endeavor to do only those things well pleasing to God, which includes the avoiding of sin to the extent of ability. Yet their acceptability with God rests not in their perfection, but upon the perfection of Christ, so long as they abide in him. These, nevertheless, are benefited by a clear insight into the perfect law of God, even though they are not dependent on the perfect keeping of it. They delight to do God’s will to the extent of their ability; and the better they know his perfect law, the better they are able to rule themselves and to conform to it. So, then, to us also the Lord’s words have a lesson of value.

The point, however, to be specially noticed here is that the gehenna which the Jews knew, and of which our Lord spoke to them, was not a lake of fire to be kept burning to all eternity, into which all would be cast who get “angry with a brother” and call him a “fool.” No; the Jews gathered no such extreme idea from the Lord’s words. The eternal torment theory was unknown to them, as well as to all the heathen nations. It had no place in their theology, as will be shown. It is a comparatively modern invention, coming down, as we have shown, from Papacy—the great apostasy. The point is that gehenna symbolizes the second death— utter, complete and everlasting destruction. This is clearly shown by its being contrasted with life as its opposite. “It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed than otherwise to be cast into gehenna.” It is better that you should deny yourselves sinful gratifications than that you should lose all future life, and perish in the second death.

MATT. 10:28; LUKE 12:5.

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [gehenna].” See also another account of the same discourse by Luke 12:4, 5.

Here our Lord pointed out to his followers the great cause they had for courage and bravery under the most trying circumstances. They were to expect persecution, and to have all manner of evil spoken against them falsely, for his sake, and for the sake of the “good tidings” of which he made them the ministers and heralds; yea, the time would come, that whosoever would kill them would think that he did God a service. Their consolation or reward for this was to be received, not in the present life, but in the life to come. They were assured, and they believed, that he had come to give his life a ransom for many, and that all in their graves must in consequence, in due time, hear the Deliverer’s voice and come forth, either to reward (if their trial was passed in this life successfully), or to trial, as it must be to the great majority who had not, in this present life, come to the necessary knowledge and opportunity essential to a fair trial.

Under divine arrangement men are able to kill our bodies, but nothing that they can do will affect our beings (souls),* which God has promised shall be revived or restored by his power in the resurrection day—the Millennial age. Our revived souls will have new bodies (spiritual or natural—“to each seed his own [kind of] body); and then none will have liberty to kill. God alone has power to destroy us utterly—soul and body. He alone, therefore, should be feared, if thereby we gain divine approval. Our Lord’s bidding then is, Fear not them which can terminate the present (dying) life in these poor dying bodies. Care little for it, its food, its clothing, its pleasures, in comparison with that future existence or being which God has provided for you and which, if secured, may be your portion forever. Fear not the threats, or looks, or acts of men, whose power can extend no farther than the present existence; who can harm and kill these bodies, but can do no more. Rather have respect and deference to God, with whom are the issues of

*—THE WATCH TOWER, OCTOBER 15,1895. life everlasting—fear him who is able to destroy in gehenna, the second death, both the present dying existence and all hope of the future existence.

Here it is conclusively shown that gehenna, as a figure, represented the second death—the utter destruction which must ensue in the case of all who, after having fully received the opportunities of a future being or existence through our Lord’s sacrifice, prove themselves unworthy of God’s gift, and refuse to accept it, by refusing obedience to God’s just requirements. For it does not say that God will preserve soul or body in gehenna, but that in it he can and will “destroy” both. Thus we are taught that any who are condemned to the second death are hopelessly and forever blotted out of existence.

MATT. 18:8, 9; MARK 9:43-48.

[Since two passages refer to the same discourse, we quote from Mark—suggesting that verses 44 and 46, and part of 45, are not found in the older Greek MSS., through verse

48, which reads the same, is in all manuscripts. We quote the text as found in these ancient and reliable MSS.] :If thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into gehenna, into the fire that never shall be quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into gehenna. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into gehenna, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.”

After reading the above, all must agree with the prophet that our Lord opened his mouth in figures and obscure sayings. (Psa. 78:2; Matt. 13:35) No one for a moment supposes that our Lord advised the people to mutilate their bodies by cutting off their limbs or gouging out their eyes. Nor does he mean us to understand that the injuries and disfigurements of the present life will continue beyond the grave, when we shall “enter into life.” The Jews, whom the Lord addressed having no conception of a place of everlasting torment, and knowing that the word gehenna referred to the valley outside their city—which was not a place of torment, nor a place where any living thing was cast, but a place for utter destruction of whatever might be cast into it—and recognizing the Lord’s expression regarding limbs and eyes to be figurative, knew that gehenna also was used in the same figurative sense to symbolize destruction.

The Lord meant simply this: ‘The future life, which God has provided for redeemed man, is of inestimable value, and it will richly pay you to make any sacrifice to receive and enjoy that life. Should it even cost an eye, a hand or a foot, so that to all eternity you would be obliges to endure the loss of these, yet life would be cheap at even such a cost. That would be better far, than to retain your members and lose all in gehenna.’ Doubtless, too, the hearers drew the lesson as applicable to all the affairs of life, and understood the Master to mean that it would richly repay them to deny themselves many comforts, pleasures and tastes, dear to them, as a right hand, precious as an eye, and serviceable as a foot, rather than by gratification to forfeit the life to come and be utterly destroyed in gehenna—the second death.

But what about the undying worms and the unquenchable fire?

We answer, In the literal gehenna, which is the basis of our Lord’s illusion, the bodies of animals, etc., frequently fell upon ledges of rocks and not in the fire kept burning below. Thus exposed, these would breed worms and be destroyed by them, as completely and as surely as those which burned. No one was allowed to disturb the contents of this valley; hence the worm and the fire together completed the work of destruction—the fire was not quenched and the worms died not. This would not imply a never-ending fire, nor everlasting worms . The thought is that the worms did not die off and leave the carcasses there, but continued and completed the work of destruction. So with the fire also; since it was not quenched, it burned on until all was consumed. Just so if a house were on fire could not be controlled or quenched, but burned until the building was destroyed, we might call it an “unquenchable fire.”

Our Lord wished to impress the thought of the completeness and finality of the second death. All who go into the second death will be thoroughly and completely and forever destroyed; no ransom will ever again be given for any (Rom. 6:9); for none worthy of life will be cast into the second death, or lake of fire, but only those who love unrighteousness after coming to the knowledge of the truth.

Not only in the above instances is the second death pointedly illustrated by gehenna, but it is evident that the same Teacher used the same figure to represent the same thing in the symbols of Revelation, though it is not called gehenna, but a “lake of fire.”

The same valley was once before used as the basis of a discourse by the Prophet Isaiah. (Isa. 66:24) Though he gives it no name, he describes it; and all should notice that he speaks, not as some with false ideas might expect, of billions alive in flames and torture, but of the carcasses of those who transgressed against the Lord, who are thus represented as utterly destroyed in the second death.

The two preceding verses show the time when this prophecy will be fulfilled, and it is in perfect harmony with the symbols of Revelation: it is in the new dispensation, of the Millennium, in the “new heavens and new earth” condition of things. Then all the righteous will see the justice as well as the wisdom of the utter destruction of the incorrigible, wilful enemies of righteousness, as it is written: “They shall be an abhorring unto the flesh.”

MATT. 23:15, 33.

The class here addressed was not the heathen who had no knowledge of the truth, nor the lowest and most ignorant of the Jewish nation, but it was not the Scribes and Pharisees, outwardly the most religious, and the leaders and the teachers of the people. To these our Lord said, “How can ye escape the judgment of gehenna?” These men were hypocritical: they were not true to their convictions of the truth. Abundant testimony of the truth had been borne to them, but they refused to accept it, and endeavored to counteract its influence and to discourage the people from accepting it. And in thus resisting the holy spirit of light and truth, they were hardening their hearts against the very agency which God designed for their blessing. Hence they were wickedly resisting his grace, and such a course, if pursued, must eventually end in condemnation to the second death, gehenna. Every step in the direction of wilful blindness and opposition to the truth makes return more difficult now, as then, and makes the wrong-doer more and more of the character which God abhors, and which the second death is intended to utterly destroy. The Scribes and Pharisees were progressing rapidly in that course: hence the warning inquiry of our Lord, “How can ye escape”” etc. The sense is, Although you boast of your piety, you will surely be destroyed in

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