Endless Torture and Modern Thought
Rev. Wm. Rader, a Congregational minister of San Francisco, has renounced “the doctrine of endless torture.” This is a step in the right direction, but its influence for good is stultified by the fact that he still represents it as a doctrine of the Revelation, and turns away from it in deference to “modern thought.” In a paper read before a recent meeting of Congregational ministers, Mr. Rader says:— “Personally I confess that the doctrine of endless torture as depicted in the awful pictures of Revelation puzzle, confuse, and daze my mind. The New Testament teaches plainly and in vivid imagery the punishment of the wicked. It may be truthfully said that the modern mind rejects the repulsive literalness of a material hell fire and brimstone, and with it the frightful dreams of Angelo and Dante.” While both the Old and New Testament teach the punishment of the wicked, and show by the examples of the deluge and the destruction of Sodom that it will be literal, it is nowhere said or taught that such punishment is “endless torture.” The Word plainly states that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and it plainly states that the element used in the final execution of the sentence will be fire (see Mal. 4:1; 2 Peter 3:7, 10-13). Of course the tendency of the “modern mind” is to reject the inspired testimony, “but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.”