Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 82:328 (Oct 1925)
Article: The Nature Of Eternal Punishment
Author: James Oliver Buswell

BSac 81:328 (Oct 1925) p. 403

The Nature Of Eternal Punishment

James Oliver Buswell

We shall live forever with God’s eyes upon us.
Will this be Heaven or Hell for you?
Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ
before it is too late.

Returned Soldiers’ Views on Eternal Punishment

The following short article, reprinted by permission of the Sunday School Times, was written during the Summer of 1919, just after the writer returned from France.

For a long time many in the church of Jesus Christ have been nauseated and disgusted with insipid contradictions of the Scriptural doctrine of eternal punishment. The most foolish of these contradictions is the saying, “You can’t tell returning soldiers that God will punish unbelievers,” heard on every hand when the American Expeditionary Forces were being demobilized and sent to the transports.

Can we not restrain theoretical writers from making those returned soldiers responsible for all their own absurdities? Of course, the war was tremendous, and, of course, none but divine intelligence will ever see it from all points of view, but the fact still remains that testimony is of more value than opinion. I feel constrained, therefore, to bring my small but actual experience to bear upon the question, “What is the returned soldier’s view of eternal punishment?”

My experience must here be intimated, simply as to my qualifications to speak on this question. There is nothing of which to boast, but for four awful days of the Meuse-Argonne offensive I shared the experiences of the enlisted men and line officers of the One Hundred and Fortieth Infantry Regiment. I was a chaplain with the rank of first lieutenant, and served at the time with the Second Battalion, under Major Maybery, of Kansas City. We went over Vouquois Hill the morning of September 26, 1918. I was armed with a forty-five automatic, carried ammunition for men who needed it, helped to dig a machine gun emplacement at one time when a counter attack was expected, twice had the equipment I was carrying shot through, once buried two men where we dared not remove our helmets as I led in prayer, and spent most of the time doing

BSac 81:328 (Oct 1925) p. 404

first aid work, under constant fire, till I was wounded about noon on Sunday, September 29, 1918. I wore no Red Cross brassard. My “citation” was not an extreme honor, but I feel that it entitles me to testify as a “returned soldier.” I had almost three months of experience in Camp Dodge and Camp Taylor before going to France, and in the six months following the armistice I visited almost every part of France and talked with men from every quarter of the United States.

Many of those who have b...