Letters

“ON TORMENT FOREVER AND EVER”

October 8, 1949

Dear Friend:

Answering yours of September 25:

Frankly we are surprised that, in your effort to support eternal hell-fire and torment for HUMAN souls, you turn to a book of symbols or sign language, and not to some plain, literal passage of Scripture. Have you never noticed that the introduction to the book of Revelation reads: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to point out unto his servants the things which must needs come to pass with speed, and he shewed them BY SIGNS, sending through his messenger unto his servant John.” (Revelation 1:1, 2, Rotherham’s translation) So God through Christ “signified” or disclosed by signs and symbols his message to John. Hence Revelation 20:10 teaches a truth by signs or symbols, and one of those signs or symbols is the “lake of fire and brimstone”. Have you never noticed what the “lake” symbolizes? Revelation 20:14 tells you plainly: “And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the SECOND DEATH, even the lake of fire.” (American Standard Version) And that the lake represents eternal death or annihilation and not a living state is shown by the next verse, which says: “And if any was not found written in the book of LIFE, he was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15, A.S.V.) For not being found worthy of living, he was thrown into the fiery lake, that is, the everlasting death state, which is a death different from that which Adam brought upon our race.

Just as the “lake” is a symbol at Revelation 20:10, so the “beast” is a symbol and not a literalism. You do not believe it to mean a literal beast, now do you? Just as the Devil is not a literal dragon; and even the “false prophet” is not a literal man, but proves to be an organization. On Revelation 20:10, our book published in 1930 entitled “Light” says in Volume 2, page 219, paragraph 2: “As stated in Revelation 14:10 and the comments thereunder, all imprisonment is torment as long as it lasts; and since ‘the beast and the false prophet’ and Satan shall never be released from the imprisonment of destruction, that condition is symbolically described as ‘torment day and night for ever and ever’. In ancient times when persons were in jail, and therefore in torment, under certain conditions they might be released. . . . There is nothing that could ever release Satan or ‘the beast and the false prophet.’ This ‘lake of fire and brimstone’ denotes destruction from which there is no recovery.” The aforementioned book Light in two volumes discusses all of the Revelation, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Matthew 18:34 speaks of jailers as “tormentors”.—Am. Stan. Ver.

Revelation 14:9, 10 says: “If any man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) Now, Mr. ——, you do not believe, do you, that in these verses the beast, his image, the mark on forehead and mark on hand and the wine and the cup and the Lamb are literal things? If you make the fire and brimstone literal, then you must make those other things literal. If you say those other things are not literal, then why do you insist that the fire and brimstone are also literal? Revelation 20:14, 15 shows the fire and brimstone are not literal, but symbolical. Hence for the worshiper of the beast and his image to be punished with fire and brimstone from which the smoke rose up forever and ever means for such false worshiper to be cast into the symbolic lake where such symbolic fire and brimstone are. In other words, to be cast into the second death. It is a death forever and ever, because the symbolic fire and brimstone are never put out for those thrown in.

Those thrown into this symbolic lake do not remain alive, but die forever without hope of resurrection. Revelation 19:20 does not say the beast and the false prophet remained alive AFTER being cast “into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone”. In the case of Gehenna, the dump outside of Jerusalem where the city’s refuse was burned, the bodies of DEAD animals were thrown there to be consumed and annihilated, but in the case of the beast and false prophet they are cast into the symbolic lake of fire and brimstone while they are still alive or going concerns. Christ suddenly and abruptly ends their existence.

Yes, we believe you would not torment for an instant a dumb brute beast. So how would God torment creatures made in his image and likeness and torment them so fiendishly forever and ever, when his Son Jesus Christ says: “Are not ye of much more value than they?”—Matthew 6:26, Am. Stan. Ver.

And so, Mr. ——, do not try to refute the literal truths of the Bible with symbolic statements which Christendom’s clergy have twisted out of their meaning. Do not try to make the Bible contradict itself by your so doing. It now remains for you to disprove all the literal statements of the Bible which we have submitted to you in our Bible books that prove that the human soul is not immortal but dies and hence cannot be tormented forever after the dissolution of our human body.

Sincerely yours in the interests of the truth,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

“LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD”

November 21, 1949

Dear Sister:

Answering yours of the 6th instant:

The funeral profession in Christendom may be, as you say, a “racket”, but they are practically required by law in this land and in many other lands. In Jesus’ day over in the Orient they buried the dead almost immediately. And this is the case of many tropical countries today, where there are not facilities for embalming the dead or the poor people do not have the means for it. But in this land, before ever a dead person can be buried, a doctor’s certificate has to be obtained that the person is dead and there has to be an investigation as to the causes of his death. Also a time is allowed to elapse to make sure that he is really dead. Thus hurried burials to cover over a crime committed upon the dead are forestalled. So in this land we cannot altogether eliminate funerals. But if any Christian does not care to attend, he can suit himself.

Jesus’ words, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead,” do not militate against anyone’s attending a funeral. The man here addressed had said to Jesus: “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” (Matthew 8:21, 22) This does not mean that the man’s father was dead already, for if his father had been dead at the moment the man would have been there at the bier and not listening to Jesus. But the man meant that his father was old and sooner or later would die; and so the man wanted to postpone following Jesus until after he had taken care of his father until death and could receive his father’s dying blessing and then fulfill his father’s wish to have his son at the deathbed close his eyes piously after death ensued. This would have delayed the man’s following Jesus indefinitely and hence Jesus said to let the dead bury their dead. The man’s relatives were evidently not following Jesus on the way to life and hence were dead spiritually and could be left to bury the man’s father when he died. But when consecrated Christians today who are on the way of life and out from under the world’s condemnation have a death in the family and have a funeral, can you rightfully say that here is a case of the “dead” (spiritually) burying the dead? No. The man wanted to go home to bury his father and not to give a witness by a funeral sermon. But consecrated Christians arrange for a witness to the truth at the funeral. This is taking advantage of an opportunity.

Sincerely yours in witnessing to the Kingdom,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY