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COMING TO THE LIGHT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 30, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 31.

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COMING TO THE LIGHT.

There are theologians who study the Bible. Those who do, not to maintain error or theory, but to know its doctrine, reach, if permitted to live long enough, the truth. Such a one appears to be Prof. Joseph Agar Beet, D.D., for seventeen years the principal of Richmond College, the principal seat of theological training among the Wesleyan Methodists of England. The question up now is, Will he be continued as instructor? The reason is not that he denies God's Word in any part, but that he believes it; but he does not believe in the inherent immortality of the soul, because he does not find it taught in the Scriptures. Here is the report of the part of an interview with a representative of the Christian Commonwealth of London (we quote from the Literary Digest of June 7):—
“What kind of immortality, then, do you believe in?”
“Eternal and blessed life for the righteous through Jesus Christ.”
“What do you think will be the fate of those who die impenitent in this world?”
“What their ultimate fate will be I do not know. I am convinced that they will be punished, but I can not say how long the punishment will last, because the Bible does not tell me.”
“How do you interpret such passages as those which say that the wicked shall be cast into a furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth?”
“That phrase occurs seven times, but in not one place is anything said about duration.”
“You are, of course, familiar with the argument that as the same word is applied to the duration of the felicity of the blessed as to the duration of the condition of the lost, a time limit in the latter case would, inferentially, involve a possible time limit in the other case?”
“Yes; but I do not see that punishment necessarily involves consciousness. The loss of eternal life would itself be eternal punishment.”
But threatened loss of place does not seem to move Dr. Beet. He says in the British Weekly:—
“Whatever success I have gained is due to the fact that my whole life has been devoted, with the best aids within my reach, to study the Bible, as the only safe method of learning the truth revealed in Christ; that, whatever I have thus learned, I have stated in plain and clear language, without fear and without reserve. This method, applied to eschatology, has roused the antagonism which now threatens to cut short my work at Richmond. But I can not disavow principles which a life of study declares to be sound; and therefore I shall not shrink from their consequences. Altho the evening of life is approaching, I am well able to continue the work I have done so long; but am not able to begin a new kind of work. If, in consequence of my loyalty to that I believe to be true, that work be interrupted, and this eventide be overcast, I shall accept whatever may come, and lay it with joy as a lowly sacrifice on the altar of Him who, in order to bear witness to the truth, laid down His life.”
May God bless the old soldier, and lead him safely on to the glorious consummation, immortality with Christ Jesus.