Required reading
Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 by William G.T. Shedd (Available from Amazon or here) - Conclude Chapter VI 'Hell'.
My summary
This week we finish hearing from Shedd on the eternal nature of hell.
Shedd now proves that endless punishment is rational and right because:
(i) it is supported by the human conscience;
(ii) of the endlessness of sin;
(iii) sin is an infinite evil;
(iv) of the preference of the wicked themselves;
(v) of the history of morals.
Shedd concludes the chapter with some comments on divine mercy.
What grabbed me
What a way to end the chapter!
In my opinion, this is some of Shedd's most exhilarating work.
I liked this comment, for example: 'The Christian Gospel — the universal offer of pardon through the self-sacrifice of one of the Divine Persons — should silence every objection to the doctrine of Endless Punishment. For as the case now stands, there is no necessity, so far as the action of God is concerned, that a single human being should ever be the subject of future punishment. The necessity of hell is founded in the action of the creature, not of the Creator. Had there been no sin, there would have been no hell ; and sin is the product of man's free will. And after the entrance of sin and the provision of redemption from it, had there been universal repentance in this life, there would have been no hell for man in the next life. The only necessitating reason, therefore, for endless retribution that now exists, is the sinner's impenitence. Should every human individual, before lie dies, sorrow for sin, and humbly confess it, Hades and Gehenna would disappear.'
We are responsible for hell, not God!
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