Our creeds perplex us; for, as our hearts will not permit us to think of these poor creatures going to an eternity of misery, neither will our heads permit us to say that they are fit for heaven. Indeed it would be at variance not only with the Scripture, but also with reason itself, to suppose heaven with three-fourths of its inhabitants unregenerate in every sense of the word. Our forefathers merely spoiled things for us when they threw away purgatory and kept the remainder of the arrangement. If we must object to purgatory as being unscriptural, must we not equally object to the eternal torment of all the families of the earth as being unscriptural, especially when the Bible declares that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 28:14) through Christ — blessed with a knowledge of the Truth and opportunity to come into heart harmony with God and attain everlasting life through Christ. I believe that it is necessary to press this point of the unreasonableness of the eternal torment doctrine. Nevertheless, I will remind you of what our prominent Protestant theories are on the subject:

(1) The Calvinistic thought is that divine wisdom and power planned for mankind in advance — knew of the fall of man in advance, and prepared therefor by the creating of a great place called hell and the manning of it with fire-proof devils for the torment of the race —  all  except  the  “little  flock”  (Luke  12:32),  the  “elect” (Titus 1:1). Love and justice were left out of this calculation.

(2) The other prominent Protestant theory, the Armenian, held today probably by the majority, insists that both love and justice created the world and arranged the torment, and that wisdom and power were not consulted; hence that God has gotten into difficulty, while endeavoring to do justly and lovingly by his creatures; because lacking in power to render the needed aid.

The entire difficulty, dear friends, is that, in our reasoning on the subject, we have merely asked the opinions of men and have not sought the Word of the Lord.

Let us consider the clear, plain, reasonable, just, loving and wise program of our heavenly Father. It has been so long overlooked, so long buried under the rubbish of human tradition of the “dark ages” that today “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Well did our Lord through the prophet declare:

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isa. 55:9.