The doctrine of an eternally burning hell is still held and proclaimed (though with much greater restraint than of yore) in a considerable section of Christendom. This is indicated in the correspondence columns of the Christian Century for October 8, 1941. A Universalist reader writes as follows:
"In looking through the recent Catholic Dictionary I find that that great denomination still holds to hell and preaches hell. Here in New York City last Sunday one of the large and leading Baptist churches advertised the subject : 'Hell: Who Will Go There?' Fundamentalists preach everlasting punishment everywhere, notably in the South. This old terrifying doctrine is a club held over millions of Christians to drive them to church and keep them there. Surely the Universalist Church has a field and a duty to deny hell and preach universal salvation."
In advancing the claims of the everlasting gospel, we strike the via media between the equally fallacious ideas of universal salvationism and never-ending torture. But we do believe and teach that there will be very real hell-fire on this earth, when rebellion is finally punished and obliterated. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." 2 Cor. 5:11. In preaching a saving message, we 4re snatching men as brands from the burning.
The Bible truth concerning the punishment of the wicked has nothing to fear from the best Greek scholarship. One of the best translations of the New Testament into modern English is that by the late Doctor Weymouth of England. And it is of interest to note that this great Greek scholar was a pronounced believer in the doctrine of life only in Christ. He said:
"My mind fails to conceive a grosser misrepresentation of language than when five or six of the strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying destroy or destruction, are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is as nothing to this."—"A Manifesto," Conditional Immortality Mission, England.
Another well-known Bible translator, Doctor Moffatt, has indicated definite leanings toward the truth of life only in Christ; and that other learned translator, the late J. B. Rotherham, most certainly believed it.
This Scriptural truth is the golden mean between the awful doctrine of eternal conscious torment on the one hand and universalism on the other. It allows for God's justice without making Him a fiend. It is a doctrine that can be stated in plain Scriptural language. It ought to have a wide proclamation.
