1870 Eternal Punishment 1 - O. A. Carr Letter
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177
THE AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

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The printer must have hated Mr Carr
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Les Rowley 

That which clearly defines us as a religious people is our hope of heaven, based on the character which is moulded by the teaching of the Bible alone. The Bible teaches in three ways, and only three.
1st. By precept (direct statement), as, " These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."
2nd. By approved example, as, "On the first day of the week the Disciples came together to break bread,"
3rd. By necessary implication, as, It is the privilege of women (Christians) to partake of the Lord's Supper; for it was instituted for those who obey the Gospel, and women obey the Gospel.
    Anything that is taught in any one of these ways we receive as Divine; and any question which cannot be answered in one of the above ways we are to bold as a matter of opinion and treat it with all charity. But our very vitality and happiness as a religious people depend on our believing with all the heart, and shaping our lives according to, whatever is taught, by precept, approved example, or necessary implication, in the Holy Scriptures.
    We attempt not to read the unpublished decrees of God; in our present sphere, and with our present means of judging, reason itself binds us to accept the revelation from God in preference to any plausibilities of mere sentiment.
    On the subject of the Eternal Punishment of the Wicked, the New Testament is very explicit. Of necessity, the teaching on this subject must be by precept (direct statement) or by necessary implication, since we cannot, until the end of eternity, have an example of any one being eternally punished.
    We have here space for those passages of Scripture only where the proper word for hell (yeevva) occurs. There are only two other words rendered hell in the common version-viz., cfbns, raprapoc~. The latter occurs but once -­ 2nd Peter, ii. 4 ; the former ten times, and should never be translated hell.
    Happily the word for hell (yeevva) occurs only twelve times, and to tell what is stated in these twelve passages is an easy task.
1st. " Whosoever shall say (to his brother) thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."  - Matt. v. 22.
2nd. " Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. z. 28 ; Luke xii. 5.
3rd. Jesus said that the Scribes and Pharisees-hypocrites and their converts, were children of hell (Matt, xxiii. 15), and said to them-" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?"-ib. 33 - and James says the unruly tongue is set on fire of hell. - Jas. iii. 6.
4th. The righteous are to cut off the offending hand and the offending foot, and are to pluck out the offending eye, rather than to have two hands, two feet, or two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
    The plain meaning of this is, that we must sacrifice the dearest sins, or we will go to hell.-Matt, xviii. 8, 9 ; Matt. v. 29-30; Mark ix. 43-48. And Mark describes the horrible place thus :-"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched;" repeating it three times, lest somebody might think that he meant Purgatory. "Their worm dieth not:' Whose worm? Cer­tainly the worm of the wicked. Then the worm and the wicked are insepar­ably connected, and are both in hell.
    All agree that their worm here means their torment, which is in hell; and as their worm (their torment ) is to never die, they (the wicked) must be in hell for ever. From all the facts in the case we are helplessly driven to this con­clusion :-viz , The bodies and soul, of all the wicked will be punished in hell eternally. We hold this conclusion to be absolutely irresistible; and as we have given the exact thought of every passage is the New Testament on the subject, there can be no such thin; as an offset to this argument.
    Since these things are so, who, then, that either fears or loves the Lord would continue to use that instrument which "is set on fire of hell," with which to run slander through the multiplication table; who, that expects to avoid the eternal burnings, would persist in living after the flesh, fulfilling the lusts thereof - "the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life;" or who would be a hypocrite, for all such do but make the journey of a whole lifetime in order to find the lowest place in perdition,

O, A. CARR.
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