VII. Baptist Hall—Eternal Torment Not Essential Article of Faith

Next, we come to ROBERT HALL (1764-1831), one of the most famous Baptist preachers of his generation. He was a precocious youth, becoming a student of the Baptist academy at Bristol at fifteen, and of King’s College, Aberdeen, at eighteen. He became associate minister of Dr. Caleb Evans, of Broadmead Chapel, Bristol, and associate professor at the Baptist academy. However, differences with Dr. Evans led to his transfer to the Baptist congregation at Cambridge (1791-1806), then Leicester (1807-1825), and finally Bristol. He was famed for his absolute mastery of his subject, his style being clear, simple, and unencumbered. His Works comprise six volumes. Volume four deals with the end of man’s existence and volume six touches upon “Death the Last Enemy.” (Picture on page 257.)CFF2 258.4

Here again a prominent Baptist of the time breaks ranks with the predominant view and asserts that the doctrine of eternal misery is not an essential article of faith—just as many others before, and after, contended. Here are his cautionary words:
“I would only add that in my humble opinion the doctrine of the eternal duration of future misery, metaphysically considered, is not an essential article of faith, nor is the belief of it ever proposed as a term of salvation; that if we really flee from the wrath to come, by truly repenting of our sins, and laying hold of the mercy of God through Christ by a lively faith, our salvation is perfectly secure, whichever hypothesis we embrace on this most mysterious subject. The evidence accompanying the popular interpretation (of the doctrine of eternal suffering) is by no means to be compared to that which establishes our common Christianity: and therefore the fate of the Christian religion is not to be considered as implicated in the belief or disbelief of the popular doctrine.” ^{1919) Robert Hall, Works, vol. 5, p. 529.}CFF2 259.1