JniE 1, 1929
CfheWATCH TOWER
this statement are the words of the apostle, recorded in Hebrews 2: 14, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise partook of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the deviL" Here is a plain statement that the Devil is to be destroyed. How easy it is to understand the matter when we see that fire means destruction, and that nowhere in the Bible docs it mean consciousness or torment. Another text that has been misunderstood, and that has caused innumerable heartaches, is found in llalachi 4: 1. It reads: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: alll] all the proud, yea, and all that do wic'h'dly, shall be stubble: and the day thai cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, t hat it shall leave them neit her root nor branch." In this text the proud and all the wicked arc likell('d to st ubble in a fire, am] everyhody knows that stuhble could not he tormented in a fire, but would be quiekly eonsumed. The text goes on to say that nothing would be left of the wieked, neither root nor branch. Surely it rCmld take a 'Cry strong imagination to make sueh langnag'e mean eternal torment. Now let us notice the third ycrse of this chapter. It reads, ". d ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall he ashes under t he sales of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." This text is allothe'r favorite proof text for the advoeates of the eh'mal torment theory. But it says plainly that the wicked are to bccome ashes under the soIPs of t he feet of the righteous. God told Adam that he was dust, al1 d when he sinned God told him t hat he would return to the dust again. Just so, when the "'irked arc destroFd in the scrond death, they v,'ill have returned to the dust from ,,,hich they were taken, and "'ill l)('comC' as ashes under the feet of the righteous. Onl;.' a theologian could read eternal torment into this text. Kow let lIS note still other texts whic'h usc the words "fire" and "worms", and show clearly that the thought hehind them is destruction. Speaking of the time when the Lord's kingdom is established and all flesh shall come and worship before him, the Prophet Isaiah said: "They shall g'CJ forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." (Isa.
66: 24) Note carefully that the text says that they will look upon the carcasses of men. The fact that carcasses are mC'ntioned is proof positive that they are not alive, and nothing' that had life was ever cast into the valle'y of the son of Hinnom. Job tells us that he expected to die, and that his body wouJd be destroyed with worms, and that he expected to come back on the earth again and behold the gJory of the Lord in a perfected earth. I quote: "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I sec God. "-Job 19: 26. Again, in Job 21: 23-26 we read: ,. One dieth in his full strength, being who]]y at case and quiet..•. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shaJl lie down alike in the dust, and the "'orms shall coyer them." Again, in Job 24: 19, 20 we read: "Dronght and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the graye those which have sinned.... The worm shall feed sveetly on him; he shall be no more remembered. " Thus we can sec clearly that the fire that is not quenched and the worm that dieth not arc simpJy illustrations used by the inspired writers to picture to the mind the punishment of the wicked, which Ood has repeatedJy told us is everlasting destruction, and not eternal torment. 'Vhen picturing the death or destruction from which there will be a resurrection, the Old Testament writers use the Hebrew word sheol, and the New Tcstament "Titers nse the Greek word hades, both of which arc correct Jy translated by the words "hell" and "grave". But when picturing the "second death", which is called "everlasting' destruction", the Old and the New Testament writers inyariably usc the symbolic words "fire", "worms," and "gehenna", and the symbolic phrases" lake' of fire" and "lake of fire and brimstone". Thus the Bihle pictures to our minds, in symbolic phrase, the completi' and everlasting destruction of wicked men, ,vickcd angels, and eYery wicked and corrupt system of e"il now existing all the earth. After the dpstruction of eYery evil person and thing, there will be a clean uninrsl" and no more death, no more destruction, and hence no more nec(] for "fire", ""'orms," or "brimstone". In Revelatioll 20: 10 ve arc told that eVC'lltually the nevil himscl f is to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, which means his eternal destruction also.
A LETTER THANK GOD FOR THE TRUTH Heartiest greetings to Sir Rutherfonl. I have real! the hooklet Oppression, Wilen Will It End? I bought the booklet from a Blole Student, of Wheeling. I want to tell rou that I newr heard or read such truths as that booklet contains. It IYpnt (Ieep into my heart and I am
expressing my 11'st apprt'ciation to you for it. It l'C'minds me of a sto]'~' ahout an old man who had heen searching for the truth all his hfc, with a lighted (,andIe, but in Yain. 'l'hNefore I thank God for the truth which I haye found ,,-hi Ie I am still young. Yours truly. MELViN GLAKY,
W. /"((.
