\u00a0In an 1892 Sherlock Holmes story called Silver Blaze<\/i>, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his famous detective solve a mystery based on a clue’s absence rather than its presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
The crime – a murder and the theft of a racehorse – occurs late at night. There are no witnesses, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n
In all of the testimonies given by the household staff, Holmes notices something that is not there.<\/p>\n\n\n
There is no report of the dog barking.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
And thus, Holmes correctly reasons, the perpetrator was not a stranger.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
*****<\/p>\n\n\n
Those who want to prove that the Bible teaches that\u00a0unbelievers suffer eternal punishment in Hell have a handful of verses to point to. But it is “the dog not barking” that has me leaning the other direction – towards annihilationism.<\/p>\n\n\n
I have hinted at this in some of my other posts on this topic, but let me state it plainly: It seems to me that justice exacted by a holy God through torment of billions of human souls over millions upon trillions of years in a lake of fire is such a horrifying and weighty idea that it deserves to be introduced early in the Bible and then repeated often.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
If it is indeed reality, Hell – and how to avoid it – should be woven into every step of the Bible narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n
But take a look at the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n
Scripture begins with God warning Adam and Eve that if they eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they will surely … die.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Funny not to mention the eternal torment thing at this point. Seems like a logical place to introduce the fact that the vast majority of humanity is now doomed to everlasting torture and suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
By Genesis 6, we have God regretting making man.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It’s a safe bet that the Lord judged these people as deserving of Hell, so it seems like another good place to introduce the concept. But I suppose we can’t fault God for not including a little diatribe on Hell here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It might have come across a little hypocritical for him to judge humans for their violence<\/i> to each other<\/i> by subjecting them all to eternal pain and torment.<\/p>\n\n\n
And so it goes. Story after story in the Old Testament, but no time to develop any doctrines regarding the afterlife?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It’s not for lack of various characters dying. We’re told repeatedly where their bodies get buried. But that is typically the end of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n
Then a new story begins.<\/p>\n\n\n
So … why is the Hell dog not barking?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Perhaps when humans sinned in the garden they lost their shot at immortality?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Maybe the only way for humans to have immortality is if God goes out of his way to provide a new path to eternal life?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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