One
thing that involved some delay has been the discovery of a basis of
doctrine that would suit the three churches. At length such a basis has
been formulated. It contains one statement, however, which I am rather
surprised to see. It says that the doom of the finally impenitent will
be "eternal death." Now what does that mean? Might it not be honestly
taken to mean two very different things? Might it not be taken to mean
"eternal torment" or "eternal extinction?" The manifest ambiguity of
such a statement would seem to me highly objectionable. I quoted the
phrase to two thoughtful friends, and asked them what it meant. They
made a long pause, and said they did not know.
If the phrase has been adopted on purpose to make it the expression of
the two views referred to, such a course is surely wanting in candor and
honesty. To be sure it is a Scripture phrase; but inasmuch as it is
taken to express two very different views, it ought not to be adopted.
By all means let us be clear and simple and straightforward.
There has been too much vagueness on the part of preachers on this
most solemn theme. Lately I heard a preacher speaking of unsaved men as
"miserable failures, going out into the darkness." Now what did he mean?
Either he has no definite idea himself, or he judged it unwise to
express it; or he was afraid to express it.
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