What is salvation? Almost the universal answer of Christendom has been for eighteen centuries, escape from hell hereafter and the assurance of heaven. Yet, according to the record we have of him, Jesus never taught any such doctrine. It is true that he refers several times to the Gehena of the Jews, "where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched," but always as a natural consequence of some failure to do, or perform certain things that they should do; but never does he appeal to any one to do or perform anything for the purpose of escaping it.
Did the reader ever notice that in all the record we have of the sayings of Jesus, he is nowhere quoted as having ever said one word about the great, fundamental doctrines of Christianity, over which pagans and Christians wrangled for four centuries; and over which Christians have wrangled and fought with each other for fourteen centuries? Do we find where Jesus ever said one word about the Garden of Eden, the fall of Adam, original sin, total depravity, vicarious atonement, the mode of baptism, the Trinity, the possession of the Holy Spirit, or any form of ecclesiastical organization or church polity?
Salvation, and Jesus so taught, pertains to this life exclusively. It simply means to save this life,—not from physical death, nor hell hereafter,—but to its proper function, use and purpose, according to the will of God, as revealed in nature and human experience. In simpler words, it is to save this life from sin, wrong doing of every kind, and making of it the highest, noblest and best it is capable of.
This is what Jesus taught; and Jesus is the savior of mankind only in that he has taught mankind how to live,—not by dying for it. Thus to save this life to the highest, noblest and best of which it is capable, is to save it from sin unto righteousness; and this is to save it both here and hereafter. He that continually lives right cannot die wrong. And whatever the next life may be, it is but a continuation, a larger unfolding and fruition of this. Salvation is here, not hereafter.
HEAVEN AND HELL
But do I not believe in heaven and hell? Yes, and no. I believe in both, and neither. I do not believe in either the kind of heaven or hell I was taught in the church. Yet, I have already said that I did not believe any sin ever committed by man ever went unpunished, either here or hereafter, until the full penalty was paid, and the punishment had completed its remedial and corrective purpose. And I will say here that I do not believe any good deed or word ever performed or said by man ever went unrewarded up to the full value of its merit, either here or hereafter. But I believe both heaven and hell to be conditions,—not places,—and we have them both here in this life, and will have them hereafter. Each individual makes his own heaven, or his own hell, and carries it with him when he leaves this life. To quote from Omar Khayyam:
"I sent my Soul thru the invisible
Some letter of that After-life to spell;
And by and by my Soul returned to me
And answered: I myself am Heaven and Hell;
Heaven's but the vision of fulfilled desire,
And Hell the shadow of a Soul on fire."
The idea of a literal lake of fire and brimstone to be the eternal abode of by far the larger part of the human race, according to the orthodox doctrine of Christianity, is not only unreasonable, but unthinkable. If it exists God must have made it; and such a thought is a caricature of God. Such a view of hell practically involves the necessity of the personal devil that has always been associated with it; and this is also both unreasonable and unthinkable. If such a being exists he is either co-eternal with God—which is unreasonable—or God created him—which is unthinkable. The idea that there is in this universe two co-eternal antagonistic spirits in eternal warfare with each other challenges human credulity. If the Bible story of creation and the fall of man is true, as interpreted by orthodox Christianity, the devil got the best of God right from the start, and has held it ever since; and according to the current doctrines of the plan and means of salvation, will hold it eternally. This leads us inevitably to one of two conclusions: God is neither Infinite, Omniscient, nor Omnipotent, else He would not have permitted such a condition to come about, and permit Himself to be thus defeated in his plans and purposes, and lose eternally ninety percent of the highest product of his own creation, Man, whom He made in his own image and likeness. If we still insist that God is Infinite, Omniscient, and therefore knew in advance all that ever would take place, including the fall of Adam and its consequences, Omnipotent, and therefore able to prevent it, but did not, it only makes the matter worse.
But to take the other horn of the dilemma, that God created the devil first an angel in heaven, who afterwards led a rebellion in heaven and had to be cast out, and that hell was then created as a place in which to put him, but where it proved afterwards that he could not be kept, but got out and robbed God of the noblest product of his creative genius at the very threshold of creation, corrupting the very fountain of human life itself, whereby he became the ultimate possessor of nine-tenths of all the race forever, is only to make the matter still worse than before. He certainly was not Omniscient, and therefore able to foreknow what this newly created angel would ultimately do, else He would not have made him; nor was He Omnipotent, else He would have prevented it. But if it still be insisted—and unfortunately it is by far the greater part of Christianity—that God is, nevertheless and notwithstanding, Infinite, Omniscient and Omnipotent, and either deliberately planned or supinely sat by and permitted these things to take place, then He is not a God of goodness, love, justice, truth, mercy and benevolence, but an unthinkable monster, more diabolical and cruel than the wildest savage ever known to the earth, or the most ferocious beast of prey in the jungle. I might naturally fear such a God, but never love or respect, but eternally hate him.
I have already given my views of the story of Eden and the fall of man; that man never fell, but is still incomplete, but progressing onward and upward forever; that he was never, on the general average, higher or better than now; and as the years and ages go on he will continue thus to grow better and nobler, making his own heaven as he goes along, and destroying his own hell by learning his lessons of suffering for wrong doing, and leaving it behind him. No, God did not make man in his own image, implant in his very nature that eternal aspiration upward that is possessed by every normal human being, and then make a devil to tempt and ruin him, and a hell in which to eternally torment him.