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No retreating, hell defeating
by
Captain Andrew Bale
When Edward Saunders and John Gore began the work of The
Salvation Army from the back of a grocer’s cart under a gum
tree in Adelaide, Australia on 5 September 1880, they sang the
following words:
“We’re travelling home to heaven above, will you go?”
When George Scott Railton unfurled the first official
Salvation Army flag in America, the customs officials at the
New York Battery, where he and his seven intrepid lasses
landed, asked for an open air meeting. In response Railton
fell to his knees in prayer, then rose to sing a song and
boldly asked the question “Are you bound for hell or heaven”?
One of the most popular songs used by the early Christian
Mission in its open air meetings in the East end of London
during the 1870’s and beyond contained the refrain “Oh you
must be a lover of the Lord, or you won’t go to heaven when
you die!”
In ‘Heathen England’, Railton’s eye-witness account of the
birth of primitive Salvationism, the purpose of an Army
meeting is described as follows;
“The officer or other person who leads the meeting is there to
see that the truth as it is in Jesus, and that only, is set
forth, and set forth in such a way as to inform the darkest
mind present of the two great facts which alone we profess to
propound: that every man is a guilty, hell deserving sinner,
and that there is a way of escape for him if he be willing to
avail himself of it.”
Orders and Regulations for Field Officers published in 1908,
Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 3, paragraph ‘g’ states:
“Every F.O. ought to read the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel on his
knees at oft-returning intervals. The F.O. is the watchman. He
sees – or ought to see – the sword coming. He knows that hell
must be the doom of every man who dies with his sins upon him.
He has to blow the trumpet and warn the people; if they die in
their sins, their blood will be found on his skirts. The F.O.
should consider well what that means. Let him remember that he
will have to see these people again, that he will have to meet
those who are lost, whom he had the opportunity of warning, at
the judgement seat of Christ, where enquiry will certainly be
made, as to whether he has dealt faithfully with them. Let him
anticipate that solemn hour, and fix himself before that
Throne and see these very people, whom he meets almost every
day, come up to receive their sentence. This will give him
feeling, and with his soul filled with compassion he will go
out with burning zeal to save them.”
Just to underline the consequences, should an Officer fail to
accept his primary directive, Chapter 5, Section 8’ of the
same book issues the following frank warning:
“If he does not personally save souls, he will hinder others
from doing so. If he is a daring Blood and Fire Officer,
rushing to the very mouth of Hell to rescue sinners, his
soldiers will imitate him. And Alas! Alas! They will also too
probably copy him, if he is a cowardly, indolent, hang-back
creature, which can neither bark nor bite at the roaring lion
of Hell as he carries off his prey.”
In the January edition of The Officer magazine (1894) that
great Army pioneer and exemplary soul winner Commissioner
Booth Tucker writes of a dream in which he witnesses his own
funeral. As he wonders at the scenes below he shares three
regrets, the third of which is quoted below:
“The nearness of Heaven brought with a sweep over my soul the
terrors of hell… Oh, how I wished I had better compelled men
to seek God: That my compassions had been fuller, deeper; that
rivers of tears had run down my eyes; that I had believed for
the most hopeless; that I had made a chance for the worst;
that I had hung on to the backsliders; that with Calvary
passion I had poured out my very soul over sinners and had
been less easily turned aside from seeking their Salvation.”
Catherine Booth who, along with her husband and Railton
co-founded The Salvation Army, says in her collection of
lectures entitled ‘Aggressive Christianity”:
“What is our work? To go and subjugate the world to Jesus;
everybody we can reach; everybody we can influence, and bring
them to the feet of Jesus.”
In answer to his own question “Are all to be Officers?”
William Booth responds:
“My business is to get the world saved. If this involves the
standing still of the looms and the shutting up of the
factories and the staying of the sailing ships, let them all
stand still. When we have got everybody converted, they can go
on again.”
Finally, one last quote, said by Catherine Booth at the public
meeting where Railton and his seven lasses were given their
commission to save America:
“The decree has gone forth that the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and
that He shall reign whose right it is, from the rivers to the
ends of the earth. I believe that this Movement is to
inaugurate the great final conquest of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The information given above is meant to clearly set out our
heritage and our purpose. The Salvation Army exists to rescue
those who are on their way to hell and set them on the road to
heaven. The Salvation Army was raised up specifically to do
this work and to remind the rest of the church of its urgent
responsibilities in this area. The sole purpose of a Salvation
Army Officer is to practice dare-devil soul saving and to
train and encourage his soldiers to do the same. Our very name
perfectly describes our reason d’être, we are an ‘Army’
engaged in spiritual warfare and the plunder we seek is the
‘Salvation’ of the lost.
It is no wonder that in the western world at least, The
Salvation Army is suffering from a terrible identity crisis.
Our once fearless movement sits in the corner of some ethereal
denominational psychiatric ward a gibbering and confused
wretch, apparently no longer possessing sufficient confidence
to be itself.
The problem stems from our attitude towards eternity and the
blessings or punishment awaiting us there; we don’t believe in
hell or we simply don’t care – I’m hard pressed to believe
it’s the latter and conversations I have had with colleague
officers convince me it’s the former.
Our understanding has got out of balance; we are so enthralled
and entranced by the undeserved and generous love of God that
the idea of his wrath has become an anathema to us. We can’t
comprehend how the God who has done so much to save mankind
could bring himself to punish it.
To make matters worse the debate is further clouded by two
notions, both of which if not carefully handled, can lead us
into universalism.
The first is the belief that everyone is judged (if they are
judged at all) according to the light they have received. This
myth which holds so many people in error is based largely on
Paul’s teaching in Romans (especially chapters 1 and 2) and
the statement in John 3:19-21
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men
loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into
the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever
lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be
seen plainly that what he has done, has been done through
God."
Although this phrase is waved about by contemporary Christians
like a talisman, it has no real scriptural authority. We are
not judged according to the light we have received but by the
way we respond to that light which God has shines upon all.
We use this get out clause at our peril. To assume that a
sinner’s failure to respond to the gospel is down to the
quality of delivery is dangerous indeed – of course method and
style is important, but to suggest that poor evangelism is the
reason behind every rejection of the gospel is taking the
argument too far.
At Pentecost God the Holy Spirit descended upon Peter and made
the incomprehensible comprehensible – although many ‘were cut
to the heart’ and responded many did not – the thousands who
rejected Peter’s message did so because they chose to – not
because the quality of the evangelism was poor.
The second notion is based on the biblical truth that in
heaven the social order is not as might be expected. The laws
governing judgement are largely a mystery to man – which is
why we are not permitted to make judgements about each others
eternal destiny:
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way
you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you
use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck
of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the
plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:1-3)
Citizenship in heaven doesn’t depend upon our definition of
righteousness but upon God’s.
“Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors
and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of
you. For John came to you to show you the way of
righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax
collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw
this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:22)
What we call bad, God might call good, whilst our apparently
anointed ministry he simply dismisses out of hand:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive
out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them
plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
(Matthew 7:21-22)
Neither of these arguments does away with the problem of hell,
judgement and eternal punishment. We cling to such arguments
like a drowning man clinging to the wreckage of his broken
boat – but our desperation doesn’t remove the peril of our
situation.
If we are to experience revival in the western territories of
The Salvation Army, then we must have a workable and
biblically based concept of eternity, and the positive and
negative consequences that might await us there. A Salvation
Army Officer operating in a theatre of war where there is no
enemy, no hell and no ‘endless punishment of the wicked’ is a
bit like a surgeon operating in a theatre where no one is ill.
In such a hospital there would be no need for medical
knowledge, no need for infection control or medicine – the
surgeon and his staff would be redundant. Correspondingly, a
Salvation Army Officer operating in a theatre of war where
there is no heaven, no hope of victory, no crown of life – no
‘promotion to glory’ would be like a Doctor compelled to spend
his days in a hospice – no chance to cure just the daily toll
of administering palliative care.
To rediscover our identity we need to rediscover the context
in which we are called to operate.
There is a heaven, there is a hell, there is a devil committed
to seeing as many damned as he can; there is a God determined
to save as many as he can and there is a final judgement where
everything is sorted out. These facts are so intricately woven
into scripture that they cannot be removed without destroying
the whole garment. Tug at just one of these threads and you
will soon unravel the whole jumper.
So, in an increasingly ambivalent world, what should our
approach be?
First of all we should look to Christ – if there are no
consequences for me to face once I cross the Jordan, then why
did he endure such a painful death? If nothing else convinces
me of the reality of hell then the sacrifice of Christ ought
to. I’m no great fan of Cecil Frances Alexander’s theology but
he was spot on when he wrote the following words:
“We may not know, we cannot tell
What pains he had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to Heaven,
Saved by his precious blood”
Secondly, bitter pill though it is to swallow, we must
recognise that in spite of Christ’s efforts to save us his
sacrificial act alone is not enough to provide eternal
security for everyone regardless of their behaviour. The only
people that go to heaven are those deemed by God to be
righteous – wicked people will not get in.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor
idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor
slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1
Corinthians 6:9-10)
However, in our pursuit of sinners we must not forget that
social justice, social welfare (feeding the hungry, clothing
the naked etc) are clearly outlined in the bible as fruit
‘worthy of repentance. Citizens of heaven are installed by God
not by themselves.
On this basis we should assume that everyone we meet is
potentially destined for hell and we should love them
accordingly – not in a self righteous judgemental way but in
the same way we might wish to help an old lady cross a busy
street. Motivated at all times by divine compassion and
controlled and empowered by discernment, wisdom, knowledge and
other spiritual gifts. I must also remember that my own
eternal destiny rests not just on my faith and righteousness
but on my active and effective involvement in ‘getting others
to climb with me’.
Finally, we must avoid getting bogged down in the theological
difficulties associated with a God who judges and punishes
with the same impartiality with which he loves and forgives
(as Paul reminds us “God does not show favouritism.” Romans
2:6-11) Instead we should emphasise in our preaching that God
judges with a painful reluctance, our God is a “compassionate
and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6) Yet at the same time always
conscious of the fact that reluctant or not he will ultimately
judge as surely as he loves “'The LORD is slow to anger,
abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does
not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for
the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'”
(Numbers 14:18)
I’m writing this article just one week before Good Friday when
we will celebrate God’s final heroic effort to save us all
from the consequences of our sins, and it would be a tragedy
indeed if we refused to promote his offer of heaven, simply
because we were uncomfortable with the idea of hell. It would
be a double tragedy if The Salvation Army stopped preaching
Salvation on the same grounds. Whatever the world says,
whatever our doubts say, whatever the church says, however the
unsaved laugh at us - let us be ourselves – a Salvation Army
‘mobilised by God’ and ‘moved with compassion’ and like our
first General possessing but one ambition – the souls of men!
As with most things in life, death and heaven Pearson has
written a song about it:
With salvation for every nation,
To the ends of the earth we will go,
With a free and full salvation,
All the power of the cross we'll show.
We’ll tear Hell's throne to pieces,
And win the world for Jesus,
We'll be conquerors forever,
For we never will give in.
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