Signs of the
Times
REV. WILLIAM B.
BEACH
It
is in the realm of eschatology that Christians have most
strayed from the teachings of Jesus. They have so
caricatured the last judgment as to make it absurd, and so
destroyed all vital sense of judgment. We know that there
must be a future judgment because we see judgment going on
every day of our lives, for judgment, according to Jesus, is
self-revelation, conscience turning its all-searching light
upon our own souls. Jesus gave no geographical description
of heaven or hell, and he implied that they are not places
but conditions within our own hearts. As he said that "the
kingdom of God is within you," so is the kingdom of hell
within us. Heaven and hell are not where we are but
what we are. If you insist on locating heaven
according to the teaching of Jesus, then heaven is where God
is, but we must have heaven in the heart or we shall not
find it anywhere; in a word, we must have God in the heart
or we shall not experience heaven here or
hereafter.
Rev. William B.
Beach, DD, in The Universalist Leader
Quoted in "Signs of the Times"
Christian Science Sentinel, September 20,
1919
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