It seems to us that Christian preachers who are willing to assign most human beings to an eternity of incomprehensible suffering have not spent much time meditating on what they believe and teach.

Let us interject at this point our unswerving conviction that there is a Lake of Fire, a place designed for the devil and his angels, and that some human beings will spend eternity there.

Our objection is to the part of Christian teaching that cannot be defended from the Scriptures, that is a mixture of Scripture and tradition. The concept that the first resurrection is for the saved and the second resurrection is for the lost is inconsistent with passages that bear on the destiny of human beings. The idea is an easy conclusion to come to but it is not scriptural. It destroys the attempt to construct a logical, consistent model of the destiny of man—logical and consistent in terms of all that the Scriptures have to say on the subject.

It is unscriptural to condemn to the Lake of Fire those who never have heard the Gospel on the basis that they never have "accepted Christ." Yet there are Christian teachers who condemn the ignorant to the eternal flames. In some instances such teachers assign babies to the Lake of Fire if they have not been baptized in water.

Several passages teach that those who have but little understanding from God are not judged on the same basis as those who have greater understanding.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:22-24)

Those who are ready to condemn to incomprehensible, eternal suffering all but their own group are revealing the hardness of heart of the Pharisee.

We go beyond the Scriptures when we condemn to the Lake of Fire all except those who have adhered to our formula for salvation. We stress the "four steps of salvation" and overlook the fact that the Lord, when accepting or rejecting people, always proceeds on the basis of their deeds rather than their profession of doctrinal belief.

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)

When the Lord Jesus described His second coming, and the danger at that time to people who are not pleasing Him, He never once mentioned our belief in doctrine. His warning always had to do with how we have managed our talents, how we treated our fellow servants, whether or not we gave a cup of water to His brothers. Never did the Lord make belief in doctrine an issue.

To be continued.