THE KING’S BUSINESS
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it up to Heaven with Him, as we read in Eph. 4:8, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Before Christ ascended Para dise was down, now it is up. Christ said to the repentant thief on the cross, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise," and Jesus Himself taught us He went down into Tthe heart of the earth" (Luke 12:40) and the dying thief went down with Him into this subterranean Paradise. I think Jesus Himself went also into that part of Hades where the lost spirits were (1 Peter 3:18-20), but that is another story that we will consider later. All that is important now is that the repent- ant, dying thief went down into Paradise, but after the ascension of the Lord, when Paul went to Paradise, he was “caught up even to the third heaven into Paradise" (2 Cor. 12:2-4). No blessed dead are now left in Hades, and ultimately “death” and “Hades,” i. e., all that are dead who have not yet been raised, or caught up into the Celestial Paradise, all who are still in Hades, shall be “cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14). This “lake of fire" into which death and Hades are to be cast, is the true and ultimate Hell. H. T here Is to Be a Literal Hell. Having cleared the way by removing the misapprehension so common in the minds of people today, that Hades and Hell are the same, now let us say next that there is to be a Hell. The Bible says so, Jesus says, “but I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.” In the 29th verse of the same chapter the Lord Jesus says, “And if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out, and cast it from thee;-for it is profitable fo r thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” And in the 30th verse He says, “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." We read again what our Lord , Jesus said in Mark 9:45-48 , “and if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. And if thine eye cause thee to stum ble, cast it out; it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one/ eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Some one may say that these words of our Lord are figura tive. There is not the slightest suggestion that they are figurative. The whole context is against their being taken figuratively. It is indeed wrong to interpret figurative lan guage as if it were literal, but it is just as unwarranted and just as wrong to interpret literal language as if' it were figurative. Of course, the word “Gehenna,” which is translated “Hell” is derived from the valley of Hinnom, where in ancient times human sacrifices were offered, but the use of the word is literal throughout the New Testament, though its derivation is figurative. Many words that are figurative ' in their derivation are literal in their use, and the meaning of words is never deter mined by derivation, but by usage. For example, our word “eclipse” is a figure of speech. According to the figure it is a leaving or falling or fainting of the moon or sun, whichever it may ie that is eclipsed. But though it is figurative in its derivation, the ordinary usage of it is literal. The universal use in the New Testament of “Gehenna” or “Hell” is literal. .The word here translated “Hell” is found twelve times in the New Testament, .eleven of these twelve times it is used by our Lord Jesus Himself, and He uniformly uses it as in the passages which I have just read, of a literal hell. If there is no literal hell, then our Lord Jesus was either a fool or a fraud. He certainly meant to convey the impression that there was a literal hell. There can be no doubt of that, if we go to His words to find out what is the
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