<b><font size="5">THE WAGES OF SIN</font></b>
<p align="left"><font size="4">Part 4</font></p>
<p align="left"> by Charles H. Welch </p>
<p align="left">"Add thou not unto His words,
lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Prov.
xxx. 6). We desire to draw attention in this paper to
the word which in the Old Testament is translated
"hell," and to show its close connection
with the word muth (death) which we considered in our
last article. The word in its original is sheol. It is
translated "grave" 31 times,
"hell" 31 times, and "pit" three
times. The word sheol is derived from the verb shaal,
meaning "to ask" or "to enquire."
Moses used the word sheol seven times. The first six
occurrences the A.V. renders by the grave " and
"pit," the last by the word
"hell." The passages are as follows: "I
will go down into sheol (A.V. the grave), unto my son
mourning" (Gen. xxxvii. 35). "Then shall ye
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to sheol" (A.V.
the grave) (Gen. xlii. 38). "My gray hairs with
sorrow to sheol" (A.V. the grave) (Gen. xliv.
29). "His gray hairs to sheol" (A.V. the
grave) (Gen. xliv. 31) "If the earth open her
mouth, and swallow them up . . . and they go down
quick (alive) unto sheol" (A.V the pit) (Num.
xvi. 30). "They went down alive unto sheol"
(A.V. the pit) (Num. xvi. 33). "For a fire is
kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest
sheol (A.V. hell), and shall Consume the earth with
her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the
mountains" (Deut. xxxii . 22). Let the reader try
the word "hell" in place of
"grave," as used by Jacob and his sons, and
then let him ask whether Deut. xxxii. 22 has been
translated fairly. The bias that lies behind this
selection of words may be discerned by comparing such
passages as Job xiv. 13 with Psa. ix. 17. The former
reads, "Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the
GRAVE," whereas the latter reads, "The
wicked shall be turned into HELL." Let the reader
put the word "hell" into the prayer of Job,
and its utter absurdity will be evident. The word
translated "turned" (Psa. ix. 17) is really
"returned" (see Lange), and the meaning is
that the second death is the final doom of the
"wicked" and the "nations" who
forget God. Or again, compare the following:
"Thou hast brought up my soul from the
GRAVE" (Psa. xxx. 3). "For Thou wilt not
leave my soul in HELL" (Psa. xvi. 10). The
context of these passages confirms the Scriptural
meaning ("the grave"), and refutes the
traditional error ("hell"). Psa. xxx. 3
reads: "Oh Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul
from the GRAVE, Thou hast kept me ALIVE, that I should
not go down into the pit," while Psa. xvi. 9, 10
says: "My FLESH also shall rest in hope, for Thou
wilt not leave my soul in the GRAVE (A.V. hell):
neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see
CORRUPTION." The Hebrew parallel in both cases
proves to all that sheol means the grave, and not the
orthodox hell. Eccles. ix. 10 declares that
"there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor
wisdom, in the grave (sheol) whither thou goest."
Why did not the translators render this,
"hell"? It certainly would have opened the
eyes of many to see that the agony, torment and
gnawing of conscience of the orthodox "hell"
were false; so in this place we have "grave"
as the rendering of sheol. I Sam. ii. 6 bears ample
testimony that sheol is to be read as antithetical to
life: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He
bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up."
Again in 2 Sam. xxii. 6 the Hebrew parallelism is
strongly marked: "The CORDS of the grave (A.V.
hell), compassed me about, the SNARES of death
prevented me." The cords of the grave and the
snares of death are a beautiful example of parallelism
in Hebrew poetry, and at the same time confirm the
meaning of the words sheol and muth (death). Sheol is
spoken of as a place of darkness and silence; the
Psalmist speaks of "making his bed" there (Psa.
cxxxix. 8). The A.V. reads, "If I make my bed in
hell" -- a monstrous distortion, the bed speaking
of the sleep of death until resurrection. This the A.V.
itself admits by rendering the parallel passage in Job
xvii. 13-16 thus: "If I wait, the grave (sheol)
is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I
have said to CORRUPTION, Thou art my father; to the
WORM, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is
now my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to
the bars of the pit (sheol), when our rest (cf. made
my bed) together is in the dust ." No one can
deny that sheol here means the grave; so also it means
the same in Psa. cxxxix. 8. Once again notice Isa.
xxviii. 15 and Prov. vii. 27: "We have made a
covenant with DEATH, and with the GRAVE (A.V. hell)
are we at agreement." "Her house is the way
to the GRAVE (A.V. hell), going down to the chambers
of DEATH" (Prov. vii. 27). Look at Ezek. xxxi.
14, 15: "They are all delivered unto DEATH, to
the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the
children of men, with them that go down to the pit . .
. . in the day that he went down to sheol (A.V.
grave)." Now notice the utter disregard for
adherence to the letter of Scripture in the verses
which follow (16 and 17): "When I cast him down
to sheol (A.V hell) with them that descend into the
pit . . . . they also went down into sheol (A.V. hell)
with him." In Hosea xiii. 14 we read, "I
will ransom them from the power of the grave (sheol);
I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave (sheol), I will be thy destruction
": A) Sheol . . . ransomed from. B) Death . . .
redeemed from. B) Death . . . plagued. A) Sheol . . .
. destroyed. Here we read of the destruction of sheol
-- the grave. Orthodoxy would not permit
"hell" here for obvious reasons -- the
orthodox hell will never be destroyed. Sufficient, we
trust, has been brought forward to warrant the
statement that sheol means the grave. We must not
confound it, however, with keber, a grave (Gen. xxiii.
4), or bor, a pit, rock hewn (Gen. xxxvii. 20-29), for
sheol means THE GRAVE, or Gravedom, rather than a
specific burying place. The word "hell" is
an old English word derived from the Saxon hillan or
helan, "to hide," or "to cover."
The word occurs in Old English literature with this
meaning; helling a house meant thatching or covering a
house. This is the idea in the word
"helmet," which is a covering for the head.
The word "heal" also is derived from the
same word, the broken flesh of a wound being healed or
covered over. In Cornwall and Somerset a thatcher or
slater is called a "healer" or "hellier,"
while in Berkshire and Wiltshire the words "yelming"
or "helming" are used for thatching. If this
be the meaning of "hell" in modern English,
we may let it stand as a translation in our Bibles of
the word sheol, but we all know that this is by no
means the case; "hell" stands for endless
and unutterable torment, and we hesitate not to brand
the rendering as a lie. Some readers complain of our
"dogmatism" and of "rudeness."
Much as we would desire to consider the
susceptibilities of all believers, much as we would
ever remember how insignificant we are in comparison
with the teachers whose doctrines we deny, yet we
would rather be liable to the charge of rudeness than
of unfaithfulness. Paul treated those who were his
fellow-labourers with courtesy and respect, yet in his
defense of the "truth of the gospel" he did
not hesitate to speak of the "Somewhats" at
the the Conference at Jerusalem, when he championed,
by grace, the cause of Christian liberty (Gal. ii.).
"We use great plainness of speech," he wrote
upon another occasion; so would we also. Greek
philosophy rather than the written Word of God
permeates and dominates the theology concerning the
soul, death, the intermediate state and hell. Sheol is
never described except under the imagery of terror,
and is always regarded as an evil. Never do we find it
likened to the portal of heaven, or the passport to
immediate bliss. It is described as an awful abyss and
a land of darkness and forgetfulness. The parallels
used in relation to sheol (such as destruction,
corruption, &c.) confirm the teaching that has
already been advanced in the previous papers, that the
wages of sin is death (destruction - - perishing) and
that the dogma of eternal conscious suffering is a
libel and a lie. While dealing with sheol we would
draw attention to another word, Tophet. The derivation
of this word is somewhat doubtful. It is a name given
to a part of the valley of the children of Hinnom
which was outside the city of Jerusalem. The
idolatrous worship of Molech had been practiced in
this place and had rendered it odious. When Josiah was
raised up to stamp out, for the time, the idolatry of
Israel, we read: "He defiled Topheth, which the
valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might
make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire
to Molech" (2 Kings xxiii. 10). This fearful
practice is mentioned and prohibited in Lev. xviii.
21: "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass
through the fire to Molech." The disgusting
idolatry seems to have had a powerful hold over the
people, for in Jer. vii. 31 we read: "And they
have built the high places of TOPHET, which is in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and
their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them
not, NEITHER CAME IT INTO MY HEART." The
diabolical institution that inflicted the agonies of
the fire for a few moments is repudiated in a manner
worthy of our attention. Not only does the Lord say
that He did not command such practices, but that they
never came into His heart. If this be the case, and
analogy be allowed any place, what shall the Lord say
of that doctrine so tenaciously held by thousands, of
not merely temporary suffering as in the worship of
Molech, but an eternal Tophet where the victims writhe
and groan in never-ending agonies? The Lord overturns
the worship of Molech and says that He will use Tophet
as a burying place (Jer. vii. 32), speaking of it as a
place of defilement (Jer. xix. 13). Antichrist, under
the figure of the Assyrian, is consigned to Tophet (Isa.
xxx. 33), where the breath of the Lord, like a stream
of brimstone," is parallel to the passage in 2
Thess. ii. 8. It is this valley of the son of Hinnom
(used as the place for the worship of Molech,
afterwards defiled and used as the place for the
destruction of offal, refuse, and the dead bodies of
criminals), which supplies the word Gehenna, twelve
times translated "hell," in the New
Testament. The witness of every passage in the Old
Testament is unanimous; it says with one voice that,
"The wages of sin is DEATH " (Rom. vi. 23).
"The candle of the wicked shall be PUT OUT"
(Prov. xxiv. 20). "The wicked is reserved unto
the day of DESTRUCTION" (Job xxi. 30) "As
wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked PERISH
at the presence of God" (Psalm lxviii. 2).
"For yet a little while and the wicked SHALL NOT
BE" (Psalm xxxvii. 10). "He is like the
beasts that PERISH" (Psalm xlix. 12). "Let
the sinners be consumed out of the land, and let the
wicked BE NO MORE" (Psalm civ. 35). "They
shall be AS THOUGH THEY HAD NOT BEEN" (Obadiah
16). "They shall be AS NOTHING" (Isa. xli.
11). "To the law and the testimony, if they speak
not according to this Word, it is because there is no
light in them."
