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    The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell
    The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell
    The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell
    Ebook126 pages2 hours

    The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell

    By Mike Partyka

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    About this ebook

    "All souls are immortal, even those of the wicked, for whom it were better that they were not deathless. For, punished with the endless vengeance of quenchless fire, and not dying, it is impossible for them to have a period put to their misery." (Clement of Alexandria, Fragment 6, from the Book on the Soul)

    The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the official organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, claim that there is no such thing as an immortal soul, and that the final fate of the wicked is to be completely annihilated from existence rather than consigned to hell for an eternity of torment. But is that what the early Christians believed?

    Using more than 100 quotes from the same sources approved by the Watchtower as early Christian authorities -- Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen -- Mike Partyka proves that the early Church did indeed believe in an immortal soul and an eternal hell.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMike Partyka
    Release dateMay 15, 2017
    ISBN9781370447947
    The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell
    Author

    Mike Partyka

    Mike Partyka is an author of short stories and nonfiction books and a video blogger on politics and religion. He has appeared as a guest commentator on radio programs including "Fault Lines Radio" and "The Backstory with Lee Stranahan".You can connect with Mike Partyka on Twitter, Gab, YouTube, BitChute, and his blog (http://mikespeakshismind.com).

    Read more from Mike Partyka

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      Book preview

      The Testimony of History to the Souls in Hell - Mike Partyka

      Praise for Holding God in Accurate Knowledge: The Watchtower and the Early Church Fathers

      This is just what you need to demonstrate the dishonesty of the Watchtower in their scholarship. A must-have for any Christian who wants to make an overwhelming Trinitarian point!

      --Randall Waters, CEO, Freeminds.org

      Excellent apologetic....Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that the Early Church Fathers knew nothing of the doctrine of the Trinity....Mr. Partyka puts that claim to rest once and for all.

      --CatholicCulture.org

      * * * *

      THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY TO THE SOULS IN HELL

      by Mike Partyka

      Copyright 2017 Mike Partyka

      Smashwords Edition

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

      Cover Art

      By Fir0002 - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=483635

      * * * *

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Justin Martyr

      Irenaeus

      Clement of Alexandria

      Tertullian

      Hippolytus

      Origen

      Analysis: What Did the Early Church Fathers Say About the Soul and Hell?

      Conclusion

      Appendix 1: Evidences of the Cross

      Appendix 2: Suggested Reading

      * * * *

      INTRODUCTION

      A few years ago I was looking around the official web site of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the official organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I was searching for articles supporting their rejection of the cross as a Christian symbol – Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was put to death on an upright torture stake, not a t-shaped cross – but in the midst of my quest I stumbled across an old booklet of theirs called Should You Believe in the Trinity? explaining the Jehovah's Witnesses' rejection of that doctrine. When I got to page three of the booklet, I recall blinking several times furiously because I literally could not believe what I was reading: The Watchtower was quoting certain ante-Nicene Church Fathers (i.e., early Church Fathers who lived prior to the Nicene Council of 325), from Justin Martyr in the 2nd century up through Origen in the 3rd century, in an attempt to disprove that the early Christians ever subscribed to the doctrine of the Trinity. The Watchtower concluded the Church Fathers section of their booklet with a bold statement: "The testimony of history makes clear that the Trinity was unknown for several centuries after Biblical times."

      Unknown, huh? Well, as someone who has actually read all or most of the extant writings of those early Church Fathers cited in the Watchtower's booklet, I could say with absolute certainty that those Church Fathers knew the doctrine of the Trinity very well – and, in my ebook Holding God in Accurate Knowledge, I did just that: I looked back through these early Church Fathers' writings and presented plenty of conclusive evidence, sometimes from the very same texts selectively quoted by the Watchtower, showing that these early Church Fathers not only believed in the doctrine of the Trinity but also defended it against its detractors.

      To my joy and amazement, a couple of years after the publication of my ebook, the Watchtower ceased publishing their ebook, Should You Believe in the Trinity? in any form. In fact, they no longer feature any online versions of it on their website, which just shows how thoroughly debunked that booklet has been. I'd like to think that my ebook helped make that possible, but the truth is, many other people have been working hard to take that booklet apart piece by piece and showing the deception within, so it's impossible to know how much or little impact my ebook had in forcing the Watchtower to pull their booklet out of circulation. Still, I'm proud to say that I contributed at least a few wild swings to the infinite-innings baseball game we call apologetics and got to see my team score a bases-loaded hit!

      Of course, since researching and writing an ebook is an exhausting ordeal, and since I have no peculiar beef with the Jehovah's Witnesses that would spur me to write further, I naturally thought that Holding God would be my last word on anti-Watchtower apologetics. However, I happen to live near a Kingdom Hall – that’s what Jehovah's Witnesses call their places of worship – and on a marquee sign outside the Hall one day I saw this question presented in bold black letters: IS THERE REALLY AN ETERNAL HELL?

      I had completely forgotten: In addition to rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity and the cross as the instrument of Jesus' execution, the Jehovah's Witnesses also reject the doctrine of immortal souls consigned to an eternal hell.

      It may be strange to anyone with even a cursory familiarity with Christianity or the Bible to think that any offshoot sect could deny that human beings have immortal souls capable of experiencing eternal torment in a hell of God's making – these are basic Christian teachings, right? What's more, these teachings are seeded throughout our classic literature and pop culture: Who hasn’t heard of Dante's Inferno and its nine circles of hell, each circle containing its own peculiar class of sinners suffering forever from their appropriate punishments? And who can forget Samuel L. Jackson screaming, I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!!! on the stand in the movie A Time To Kill? The concept of souls burning in hell forever seems as basic to Christianity as Christ on the cross...which the Jehovah's Witnesses deny, too, so maybe it isn't that strange after all to learn that they don't believe in immortal souls or an eternal hell.

      So what do Jehovah's Witnesses believe about souls? An article entitled What Really Is Hell? from the July 15, 2002 issue of the Watchtower magazine makes for an enlightening resource. It asks the question, Does something inside us, like a soul or spirit, survive the death of the body? Not at all, says the Watchtower. When a person dies, his impersonal spirit does not go on existing in another realm as a spirit creature. This is because spirit can be compared to the electric current that activates a machine....[it] does not take on any of the characteristics of the creature it animates. It has no personality and no thinking ability. In summary, when you die, this impersonal life energy that inhabits your body is reclaimed by God, and your lifeless body decays into dust. Eventually there's nothing left of you at all. Hence, death is a state of nonexistence. The dead have no awareness, no feelings, no thoughts.

      And what, consequently, do Jehovah's Witnesses believe about hell? Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death. Rather, the biblical hell is simply the common grave of mankind – that is, nonexistence. So what do sinners have to fear? More nonexistence! Willful, unrepentant sinners...will be annihilated forever, while the righteous will be resurrected by God to live in a new earthly paradise. So the Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching concerning hell is far milder than the Christian teaching: To a Jehovah's Witness, the most you have to fear from God is that God won't resurrect you after you die, whereas to a Christian, you might die and find yourself in neverending torment in a fiery hell! I suppose it's no wonder why some people might prefer the thought of nonexistence to endless torment and choose to be Jehovah's Witnesses instead of Christians, but the real question here is...who's right?

      Are Christians right to believe in an immortal soul and eternal torment in hell, or are Jehovah's Witnesses right to believe in a nonexistence after death that, if you died an unrepentant sinner, will simply never be revoked?

      I could try arguing the Christian case here, but, let’s face it: I'm just some guy. What credibility do I have? I can't expect a Jehovah's Witness to listen to me and think, Yeah, here's an authority figure I can trust! Especially since I've already written one ebook against the Watchtower's use of the early Church Fathers in their denial of the Trinity.

      But in that fact lies the seed of a credible argument: If the Watchtower was willing to put forward those early Church Fathers as reputable authorities on the doctrine of the Trinity, then shouldn't the Watchtower also be willing to accept as authoritative whatever those same Church Fathers had to say about immortal souls in an eternal hell? Shouldn't the testimony of history, as the Watchtower themselves called these Fathers' writings, speak as reputably and authoritatively in one case as in the other?

      Here, then, is what this ebook is about: Presenting the testimony of history – quotes from the writings of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen – on the subjects of the soul and hell. My hope is that these quotes will give interested readers insight into the mind of the early church concerning these important topics. And perhaps the ancient testimony of these Fathers will also give any Jehovah's Witnesses now reading pause to consider whether the Watchtower actually is speaking the truth about the Christian faith.

      * * * *

      JUSTIN MARTYR (d. 165 C.E.)

      And Plato...used to say that Rhadamanthus and Minos would punish the wicked who came before them; and we say that the same thing will be done, but at the hand of Christ, and upon the wicked in the same bodies united again to their spirits which are now to undergo everlasting punishment; and not only, as Plato said, for a period of a thousand years. (First Apology, Chapter 8)

      ...we hold this view, that it is alike impossible for the wicked, the covetous, the conspirator, and for the virtuous, to escape the notice of God, and that each man goes to everlasting punishment or salvation according to the value of his actions. For if all men knew this, no one would choose wickedness even for a little, knowing that he goes to the everlasting punishment of fire; but would by all means restrain himself, and adorn himself with virtue, that he might obtain the good gifts of God, and escape the punishments. For those who, on account of the laws and punishments you impose, endeavour to escape detection when they offend (and they offend, too, under the impression that it is quite possible to escape your detection, since you are but men), those persons, if they learned and were convinced that nothing, whether actually done or only intended, can escape the knowledge of God, would by all means live decently on account of the penalties threatened, as even you yourselves will admit. (First Apology, Chapter 12)

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