I now have come to the point where I can begin grappling with Mr. Pollock’s polemic “HADES and Eternal Punishment”. The online version of Hades and Eternal Punishment has a font size that is difficult for me to read as well as being one long html document that is difficult to reference. Because of this I have pulled a copy of it into a more modern PDF format and make available here:
When I reference page numbers they refer to the PDF file.
For those of you who don’t want to mess with the PDF document I will also include the section of Pollock’s booklet that I am commenting on at the end of the post. In that way there can be no doubt about what part of Pollock’s booklet I am commenting on.
Pollock’s writing style tends to mention individual topics at several different points in the booklet, seeming to weave threads in his narrative tapestry that come in and out of view. I plan on dealing with a topic in as much depth as I believe appropriate at its first occurrence and then refer back to that post as necessary. Only time will tell if I stay true to my plan.
When it comes to Pollock’s forward quoted below I have no quibbles. Everything he has to say I agree with. It is a great way to start my comments with a simple “I agree”. Of course things will get a bit trickier as we move along.
***** Begin Quote *****
FOREWORD
Everyone admits the extraordinary character of the times in which we live. Things never questioned a few years ago are now openly scouted. Truths, once reverenced, are thrown by many on the scrap heap with a light heart.
A good deal is said nowadays about thinking men, but in truth there is little depth of thought at the present time with the majority. People generally believe what is agreeable to them, rejecting what is not. Unbelief is in the air. Infidelity is in the pulpit and the pew, in the theological chair, and even in our nursery books. This sowing of doubt and unbelief is bearing a terrible harvest of infidelity, lawlessness and wickedness.
The day is gone by when anything can be taken on credit. We must either be swept away by the rising tide of religious unbelief, or stand against it. Our belief must be based on the Word of God, and not be dependent on what Pope or Cardinal, Bishop or Priest, Minister or Pastor, this Christian teacher or that leading brother may say, though we should look for help through gifts given by the ascended Lord to His Church.
All this – if we stand the test – leads to robustness of conviction, moral fibre and spiritual vigour.
Alas! the unthinking multitudes are being carried at frightful speed into the arms of open apostasy. Thank God for those who, seeing the withering blight of Higher Criticism and New Theology all around them, only strike the roots of their faith deeper into the Word of God, and find in it the stay and comfort which they need.
It is to help honest enquirers, the young and unestablished, who are feeling keenly the difficulties of the times; the waverers, who are discovering they have insufficient knowledge on these subjects, that we seek grace to pen these lines. Our appeal will be to the Scriptures. We shall go to them with open mind, and by God’s grace hold to what they teach.
Seeing that the Bible claims for itself inspiration, there is no logical ground between receiving its teachings or rejecting them. There can be no middle ground. Either the Bible is inspired or it is not. But the Scriptures have so many overwhelming proofs of their divine origin, of authority and inerrancy – though this is not the place to enlarge upon the theme, happy and profitable as it is – that we have no hesitation in bowing without a question to their teaching.
In all the solemn questions before us we can only heartily and reverently re-echo the grand words of Abraham,
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25)
We are not surprised at the state of things around us. Scripture tells us of “the mystery of iniquity,” and that nearly two thousand years ago it was already working. Scripture is being fulfilled to the letter under our very eyes. On every hand signs are as thick as falling leaves in autumn blasts. They foretell the imminence of “the day of the Lord. We are indeed in “the last days.”
May the following pages be greatly blessed to many is the writer’s earnest prayer.
HADES and Eternal Punishment
By A J Pollock
pp 1-2
[Click on link to see the next installment in this series: Hades and Eternal Punishment: Pages 2-7]
