p. 4 | THE CLEAN UNIVERSE by WM. PENNIMAN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 50.

THE CLEAN UNIVERSE.

By WM. PENNIMAN

Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, Gehenna.

A TIME will come when the universe will be cleansed from sin, and there will be "no more death." Rev. 21 : 4. Then there will be "no more" a hell, or place of punishment. To prove this, let us look into the definitions of these words, "sheol," "hades," "tartarus," and "gehenna," to see if an endless hell is implied in any of them. No attempt will be made to treat the subject exhaustively.

Sheol means the same in Hebrew that hades does in Greek. Prof. Moses Stuart, "Exegetical Essays," p. 112, says: "The meaning of sheol which lies upon the page of the Sacred Record (if I may thus speak), is indeed that of the grave, sepulcher, under-world, or state of the dead, as I have given in the recension of the passages." Mr. Stuart also says that "hades designates the under-world, subterranean regions, simply in opposition to the regions of the earth." "Sheol, in common and popular language, is the world, or region, to which both the righteous and the wicked go after death, e. g., Gen. 25:8; Num. 20:26; Deut. 32:50." Notice that he says in common and popular language; he does not say it is the words of the Bible.

Again he says: "Where is the specific difference between the future state of the righteous and wicked fully set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures? Where are the separate abodes in sheol for each particularly described? I know not, nor do I believe any one can inform me."—P. 122.

This is quite candid; we will quote further: "On the whole, it is to be regretted that our English translation has given occasion for the remark that those who made it have intended to impose on their readers in any case, a sense different from that of the original Hebrew. . . . I am inclined to believe that in their day the word 'hell' had not acquired, so exclusively as at present, the meaning of a world of future misery."—P. 113.

In commenting on Ps. 9:17, "The wicked shall be turned into hell [sheol], and all the nations that forget God," he says it "likely tells the final doom of the sinner; and if so, it is death; the dead can not occupy a world of woe. Ps. 37:10 tells that 'his place . . . shall not be.'"

In the preceding quotation we have the opinion of one of the greatest Greek and Hebrew expositors that "the final doom of the sinner is death." The reader can judge whether the professor means a "death that never dies," or a cessation of existence.

Some may ask, "Was not the rich man of the parable in Luke 16:23 in hell?" This is simply a parable, and has no reference to a literal death or grave, as has often been admitted by critics who hold to the doctrine of endless misery. Hades, or the grave, is not a place of misery; and if it could be proved to be such a place, it would not follow that the misery was endless, as Rev. 20:13, 14 plainly teaches the contrary. Like Ps. 9:17, it seems to be symbolic of the future punishment in the lake of fire. Rev. 20:14.

Tartarus, Mr. Parkhurst, in his Greek Lexicon, says "is the condensed, solid, and immovable darkness which surrounds the material universe." It is but once translated hell, in 2 Peter 2:4, and the meaning of this text perfectly corresponds with the definition of

tartarus or tartasoo. We will quote the text, as follows: "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Greek, tartarōsas], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." It can be seen that in this text no hell fire is mentioned, as they are only reserved unto judgment. The same principle of reservation is brought out in verse 9, and also in Jude 6.

Greenfield, in his Greek Lexicon, defines gehenna as the valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10), south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch, and afterward polluted with every species of filth as well as the carcasses of animals and dead bodies of malefactors, to consume which, in order to arrest the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning.

It is evident that our Saviour used gehenna in a figurative sense, as a symbol of the future punishment of the wicked. The concession of Rev. A. Barnes, in his notes on Matt. 5:22, is strong proof that it is only used to symbolize a miserable and eternal loss of life.

Paul wrote fourteen epistles and preached thirty years, yet he makes no mention of any eternal hell. In Heb. 10:26, 27 he explains what Christ meant by being cast into the gehenna of fire. The reader, if not familiar with the text, will please turn to it, and notice it reads "fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries," thus corresponding to the gehenna of punishment.

Again he says, "That which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." Heb. 6:8. In Rom. 9:22 we read that the wicked are "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction," not to an everlasting hell, as is so often preached.

We find, therefore, no hell in the grave (sheol is hades), nothing but a reservation unto judgment in tartarus, and in gehenna a symbol of punishment in the lake of fire, which is not now in existence, but will be on the earth. See Rev. 20:10. WM. PENNIMAN. Woodburn, Ill.