orships by the hard-earned money of
earnest believers in God's word, while they are undermining the faith
of the children of their supporters.
The Heaven that such men teach is the Hell of the Bible. Rejecting
complete redemption through Christ dying for our sins as our
substitute, they teach salvation by character, or that one's destiny
beyond the grave will be according to the way he has lived here. That
is their Heaven, but that is the Bible's Hell, exactly, absolutely.
Infidelity, Judaism, Christian Science, Universalism, Unitarianism,
Higher Criticism, New Theology and all who reject Christ dying for our
sins, as our substitute, as our complete Redeemer, because of their
hatred of God's punishing sinners in Hell, have made their Heaven to
be the result of their life here on earth; and as a consequence, have
made their Heaven the Bible's Hell; for Hell will be exactly the
result of the life here on earth; and, as a result, they have in
theory, and, alas! will have in fact, the Bible's Hell which they
label Heaven, without any real Heaven at all. As an example, consider
Mr. R. G. Ingersoll's words, "I believe in the gospel of justice, that
we must reap what we sow (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). I do not
believe in forgiveness (Bible's Hell without any Heaven). If I rob
Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I cover some
poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime and she withers away
like a blighted flower and afterward I get forgiveness, how does that
help her? If there is another world, we have got to settle (admitting
that we do not settle in this life), and for every crime you commit
here (hence, the more the crimes, the more you must suffer, exactly
the Bible's teaching), you must answer to yourself and to the one you
injure. And if you have ever clothed another as with a garment of
pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that
thing." "No forgiveness; eternal, inexorable, everlasting justice,
that is what I believe in." Any Christian would be willing to take Mr.
Ingersoll's place, or the place of any one else, in Hell, if God
varies one pang from what Mr. Ingersoll himself calls for. But it is
the Bible's Hell, pure and simple, without any Heaven.
But the objector who rejects the teaching of Hell, and also Christ
dying for our sins as our substitute, may say that he does not agree
with Mr. Ingersoll, as to no forgiveness; that he believes in
forgiveness. To
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