I cannot believe in hell, at least not the hell I very often hear preached. I can fully understand hell as a place of remedial punishment, but so an everlasting punishment, or even a punishment that ends in annihilation, I cannot accept. If Christ has died for the world, the ransom has been paid, and all are out of condemnation.
"Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8) Christ is the Saviour, and according to the foregoing text, is always the Saviour. Therefore if any soul in the future looks to Him, Christ must (I say it reverently) of necessity save him. Then Timothy ["not Timothy, but Paul writing to Timothy," Editor of Present Truth] tells us of God "who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." (1 Timothy 4:10) This statement makes believing not necessary to salvation. It makes it necessary to a knowledge of it, I admit, but that is not the point.
To my mind all Scripture, and reason seem to point to a restoration of all things, that Christ may be all and in all. The only point I cannot explain is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Perhaps you can help me.
I can at least present some of the abundant testimony which the Scriptures give on this subject. It is most clear and explicit. In the first place, let me assure you that you are not specially required to believe in hell; you are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for an intelligent faith in Him explains everything that we need to know.
In the second place, we are to remember that the Scriptures are for the purpose of enlightening our understanding, of giving us understanding. When we cannot understand a thing, we are to find out what the Bible says, and believe it, and then we shall have understanding. It is the easiest thing in the world to understand, when we know and believe what the Bible says; and we have no right or reason to understand anything else. In fact, there is no understanding aside from the Word of God; everything else is but imagination and speculation.
Now there is a grave error that you have fallen into, and it is not strange that you have, because it is almost universal, and that is in confounding punishment with chastisement. They are two very distinct things. Chastisement is remedial, but punishment is not. God chastens us now, but punishment is not being administered now, and never will be to those who profit by chastisement. Even the angels that kept not their first estate, "but left their own habitation," (Jude:6) are not now being punished, but are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day." (Jude:6)
And in like manner those who willfully and deliberately reject the mercy of God, have nothing left for them but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:26)
Chastisement not Punishment
Read Hebrews 12:5-11. There we learn that chastisement is a proof that we are sons of God, and that He loves us. He chastens us for a short time, for our profit, "that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastisement for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews 12:10-11)
David said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept your Word. ... It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes." (Psalm 119:67,71)
But it is possible for people not to be "exercised" by chastisement; they will not profit by correction, and they despise and reject reproof. For them nothing but punishment remains. "For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Proverbs 1:29-32) "He that, being often reproved, hardens his neck; shall be cut off, and that without remedy." (Proverbs 29:1)
Here we see that there is a marked difference between chastisement and punishment. From the very nature of the case chastisement is only for a season, while punishment is as necessarily everlasting. Read the facts: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." (Matthew 25:46) "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; When He shall come to be glorified in His saints." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10)
Now for the evidence that this punishment of the wicked must from the very nature of the case be everlasting. We have already seen that those who despise the chastisement of the Lord, shall "eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their owndevices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them." (Proverbs 1:31-32)
From what do these foolish ones turn away? From God. They refuse to be subject to Him. They reject His life. They wish to live independently of Him, and will not acknowledge that He has any claims on them. They do not wish to be in His presence. But He fills all things, and Christ "who is, our life," (Colossians 3:4) "[has] ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." (Ephesians 4:10)
Now when these people who wish to live by themselves, away from God, are given their own choice, what must necessarily become of them? It is evident that they must go out of the universe, out of existence; for there will be no place that Christ will not fill. So, "Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." (Psalm 37:10)
Cut off from God, the only source of life,--taken at last at their own word, that they do not wish to have anything to do with Him,--there is nothing left for the finally impenitent but death,--death with no hope of a resurrection, because the only salvation has been rejected "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23) and it is the wages which the wicked work for and lay up for themselves. "But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." (Romans 2:5)
But this is not eternal torment, and torture to all eternity. To claim that men have in themselves a life which God himself cannot take away, and that the wicked will be kept in a place of torture, which will make them increase in wickedness, and thus increase their torment, is to deny the power of Christ's salvation. It is to deny that He is able to accomplish the purpose for which He ascended above all heavens, namely, "that He might fill all things." (Ephesians 4:10)
It is to say that there is a place that He will not fill.
Making an End of Sin
On the other hand, to say that God will not punish the ungodly, that He will not extirpate sin from the universe, together with those who refuse to be separated from it, is equally to deny the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, who appeared "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Hebrews 9:26)
It is to say that He cannot do that which He came to do. The death of Christ means the death of all who will not accept His sacrifice, just as surely as it means everlasting life to those who believe, insomuch as it shows the fate of the guilty. It shows how God regards sin. Sin is so odious in God's sight, that He would not spare even His own Son when sin rested upon Him.
Christ is indeed the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe, but this does not show that the reprobate will not be punished. "The free gift [has actually come] upon all men unto justification of life," (Romans 5:18) but there are many who thrust it from them. Yea, all men are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, since "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;" (2 Corinthians 5:19) but after that is done it still remains necessary for us to be "saved by His life," (Romans 5:10) which means the acceptance of His life in the place of ours. He gives all men life; but it is not enough that we take it and use it only to the extent that most people do; we must "have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
The Judgment will show that God is clear, in that He has given His life to every man; but the fact that so many have rejected the precious gift will be their everlasting condemnation.
Jesus is able "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives;" (Hebrews 7:25) but when, as He himself says to some, "You will not come to me, that you might have life," (John 5:40) such refuse the salvation that is provided for them. He saves none against their will, but like the most indulgent Father that He is, He allows everyone to have just what he desires.
With these facts before you, it will not be necessary to say anything about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, for you can see that it is perfectly in harmony with the rest of the Scriptures. It simply shows that everybody will find his true place at the last.
Before closing, let us recur for a moment to the first thoughts, namely, the distinction between chastisement and punishment. It is most highly dishonoring to God, to conceive of Him as watching only for faults in men, and to consider that every affliction is a punishment from Him. How often we hear one say, "What have I done, that I should suffer in this way?"
They should rather say, "What has the Lord for me to do, seeing He is subjecting me to this discipline?"
Job suffered greatly, yet God was not punishing him, but fitting him for a much greater and better work than he had previously done. God is revealed only in the cross; it is impossible to know God, except as we see Him in the cross; therefore He brings us to the cross, in order that we may become acquainted with Him, and find fullness of joy in His presence.
The Restoration of All Things
There will be a restoration of all things to the original, Eden state, the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose; but that will not be until the thorns and briers have been burned up. (See Hebrews 6:7-8; Matthew 13:37-43; Malachi 4:1-3) Thorns never become fruits, neither do tares ever become wheat. When the distinction is clearly made, which will be in the harvest, when both kinds have fully developed, the final separation will be made. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;" (Acts 2:21) but those who now reject and despise the name of the Lord would continue to blaspheme it if they should have their probation lengthened through thousands of years; for God has no greater power by which to save men than that which is revealed in the Gospel. Therefore, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:6-7)--Present Truth, May 2, 1901.