Endless Punishment Refuted
An examination of the doctrine of endless punishment and its claims to divine origin refuted in a series of lectures. Presented by Rev. I. D. Williamson in 1854. Printed in 1860.
“It is observable that none are tormented in this lake but those that believe in it. It burns not me. Imagination may picture it forth in all its horrors, until the fearful and the unbelieving heart can see its lurid flames, and feel its inherent heat. But for me, its flames are not hotter than moonshine; I can pass through them, and come out without the smell of fire upon my garments. I believe in God, and have no fears to trust myself in his hands for time and eternity. I repose a steadfast and unfaltering confidence in him, that forbids a doubt or fear; and for that reason the second death has no power to alarm. But, unfortunately, many, very many, of those who are loudest in their professions of faith, are still fearful and unbelieving. Talk not of infidel Turks and unbelieving Jews, but look at home, and you shall find the most obstinate spirit of unbelief enshrined in the sanctuary of the Christian church, and the most dreadful of all fears not only indulged and countenanced, but nurtured and cherished by those who profess to be followers of Christ. Go you to the house of worship where the main topic of discourse is the horrors of the burning lake, and mark what feelings are indulged there, and the efforts that are made to alarm the fears of the people, and then tell me if there are not many who are hurt of the second death. The preacher moves away the dark curtain that intervenes between time and eternity, and brings up to the vision of the people a picture of that awful sea of torment, whose billows, upheaved by the spirit of omnipotent wrath, roll on and lash its shores, “mixed with the damned like pebbles!” And all ages and conditions of men are there; fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, friends, are torn from all that they hold dear and sacred, and plunged in that raging, boiling ocean of woe, there to howl with grim devils and infuriated fiends through a long and never ending eternity. The people believe, and you shall see pale fear depicted on every countenance, and a whole congregation viewing themselves hair-hung and breeze-shaken over the awful lake, and God himself about to cut the last thread, that they may fall to rise no more. Oh, what a scene ensues! The timid faint, the weak shriek outright for fear. The mother trembles for her children; and even the aged veteran, who has stood with steady nerve in the midst of “war’s alarms,” now trembles like an aspen leaf, and all are agitated and miserable. And all this in the nineteenth century! In a land boasting of Christian light and knowledge! Yea, and in a Christian church too!”