the Papal system was the “Man of Sin,” and the degenerate church,
the “mother of harlots and abominations;” showing also the
daughters which had engaged in their mother’s crime–adultery
with the world; but also while recognizing Jesus as both Lord and
Head over all, and a partaker of the divine nature, proved that the
incomprehensible doctrine of Trinity, was of Papal decree, and
without any foundation in Scripture save a part of a paragraph
interpolated to prove the doctrine–so acknowledged by all
students. (1 John 5: 7, 8) See New Translation.
But still another item of the abominable, sanctuary-defiling
error, did they boldly cast out, viz.: the teaching of Papacy-
without the slightest Bible proof–that man is by nature immortal.
That is to say, that, though God can create a man (or an angel),
when once created, he can never destroy him. Absurd as this
doctrine may seem, that He who has power to create, cannot
destroy, it is nevertheless accepted, by nearly all of the church
nominal, as well as by the world who disbelieve the Bible entirely.
In fact, it should be easier to believe it, while denying the Bible,
because it distinctly affirms that God “only hath Immortality,” (1
Tim. 6: 16,) and holds it up as a reward to all who follow Jesus in
self-sacrifice. (2 Pet. 1: 4)
The wide influence of this last named abomination of error
cannot be fully appreciated, until we remember that it is the very
foundation of Papacy’s purgatory, and of Protestantism’s eternal
torment; neither of which, find support in Scripture, though the
translators of the Bible being believers in these doctrines, have
done what they could to have it support this, the most awful, most
abominable, most God-dishonoring doctrine, of all which defiled
the Sanctuary of truth. It contradicted Jehovah exactly; for when
His Word declared that God “only hath Immortality,” it cast the lie
in his face, and declared that all men possessed it. When he
declared: “The soul (being) that sinneth, it shall die,” the reply of
this abomination was a repetition of Satan’s words, “Ye shall not
surely die” (Gen. 3:4), but ye must live forever in torment for ye
are immortal. When Jehovah declared that the broad road leads to
destruction, this error told God’s children: nay, God cannot destroy
man–it must be understood to mean preserve in torment.
Jehovah says: “All the wicked (willful transgressors) will He
destroy” (Psa. 145: 20), but the Devil delights to malign the
character of God, and deceive “the host” into believing that such
will be tortured, either by mental or physical pain, endlessly,
hopelessly, forever and forever; with the heart of the Eternal so