The origin of the book lies in the author being invited by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship to write a book on the moral difficulties found in Scripture. The last chapter was to deal with the question of everlasting torment. When he came to this chapter, he found that he could not answer the question satisfactorily himself. The chapter was, therefore, omitted from the book. He then set himself to study the subject, and the result was that the last chapter was expanded into the present book and the question answered in a different way from what he had first expected.