Probation After Death

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 9, 1903

Probation After Death

NOT many years ago certain men of prominence in the orthodox churches, seeking an escape from the awful dogma of an eternal hell for those dying in sin, invented the doctrine of probation after death. This doctrine, which met with quite general acceptance, has been slightly amplified by a Methodist minister of Cleveland, Ohio, who at a recent meeting of Methodist clergymen declared his belief, says the Cleveland Daily World, that repentance and salvation are possible in hell itself. It was a discussion of the subject “Post-MMortem Probations” which drew forth this extraordinary declaration. The report states that it gave rise to a “heated discussion, which was only terminated by the time limit.”

Such a doctrine, which, as may be noted, approximates closely to the Catholic dogma of purgatory, shows to what lengths even the best minds may wander from the truth when from any cause the plain testimony of the Scriptures is discarded. Man is not immortal, and knows nothing after death. So says the Word of God. Eccl. 9: 5, 6; Ps. 146: 3, 4, etc. Extinction will be the lot of those who die impenitent. Rev. 20: 9, 14, 15; and 21: 1. Believe these plain statements of revelation, and there is no need of new and extraordinary doctrines to reconcile the fate of the wicked with the idea of the goodness of God.