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"Divines and dying men may talk of hell,
But in my heart her several torments dwell."
                      --Shaks.

     By the future punishment of the wicked we mean those who die in their impenitence and their consequent reward. This is one of those Bible doctrines about which far too little is said in these latter days. True, it is by no means a desirable subject of discourse or conversation. But with the

burden of souls upon our hearts, we can not ignore or even treat lightly so important a Bible doctrine; but, moved by the love of God, we must warn the wicked of impending danger. And for the benefit of any who may feel loath to believe this doctrine, we will consider the subject,

     In the creation God formed everything upon the basis of certain law and order, and by that law everything exists and acts. And no less so in the creation of man, with only an additional feature: That feature was obedience as opposed to disobedience--of right as opposed to wrong. This feature has become the fundamental principle of all law regulating the relations of human society and of man to God. In addition to this principle God also gave man the faculty of volition--that of choosing between right and wrong, and of regulating his acts accordingly. In short, he created man a free moral agent, and in order that man might have the privilege of exercising this faculty God placed a tree in the midst of the garden, with the command "Thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The reader will notice here that it is not the knowledge of a thing here that constitutes disobe-

dience and sin, but the experience of it. Hence, no sooner had our first parents eaten of the forbidden fruit, than they hid themselves. Why? Because they had now experienced the consequence of the violation of the fundamental law of their being. The improper exercise of their volition had resulted in a violated law. A violated law brought an -- experience of condemnation. Therefore, we have this principle of fundamental law asserting itself as one of the intuitive principles of human existence. We naturally and invariably experience a sense of condemnation for wrong, and a sense of satisfaction for good done; and just as invariably expect punishment for sin and approbation for good. It is an intuitive principle universally asserting itself. This same principle is the basis of all civil and ecclesiastical law. Adam and Eve tried to hide themselves from the presence of God, not because God had condemned them--for they hid before they heard the voice of God--but because they had condemned themselves on the principle of this law. They realized their condemnation and the justice of it before God called them to an account. They had experienced a sense of guilt and expected all they received. With the experience of the guilt and

effects of sin came also the expectation of punishment. With this fundamental principle in ecclesiastical law, therefore, every sinner intuitively expects punishment for his sins; and this is true of civil law as well. The criminals of to-day realize the guilt of their crime in the act of committing it. Their only hope of escape from punishment is in escaping detection by the executors of the law. Hence, their prompt flight from expected punishment, even when no man pursueth; and so every transgressor of law intuitively expects the just punishment for his crime. This principle is so fixed and prevails so absolutely universal, that, though many attempts have been made, no man has ever been able to explain away the solemn truths of God's own declaration, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

     From this thought we turn to consider this subject,

     Upon the principle of fundamental law of which we have just spoken is based our conception of right and wrong, of good and evil. But for that principle of law, like the brute creation, man would have no conception of right and wrong except as taught. But in order to further reveal in 18

us God's image and to confirm and strengthen our conception of this principle as the voice of God speaking in and through our consciences, the Bible teaches most explicity the same principle, emphasizing, echoing and re--echoing the thought in almost every chapter, approving of the good on the one hand and threatening the evil on the other. Moreover, the Bible looking from cause to effect presents the end or consummation of all good as a condition of rest, happiness and eternal felicity. Hence upon the principle of this law we have a foretaste in this life of the different conditions and states in the life to come. For obedience to God--for every act of kindness, or of sacrifice for His sake--there conies a sense of satisfaction and joy. A good cause has produced a good effect. The effect of the good cause is the foretaste of that which is to come. Upon this principle therefore the Bible looks from a good cause and its effects in our present existence into the future for corresponding effects in a condition and place called heaven. Hence we read in Heb. iv. 9, "There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God." And in Rev. xiv. 13, "Blessed "--happy--" are the dead which die in the Lord." And then Paul's parting enlogium, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, "I have fought a good

fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day." These are only a few of the many cheering promises of God to the righteous. And all who have any regard for God or a religious state believe these cheering promises and aspire to a realization of them in the latter day.

     But the same principle involved here in the condition and state of the righteous is involved also in the state of the wicked. The cause being evil, the effects must correspond. Thorns produce thorns and thistles yield thistles, but we do not look for 'figs from either. So the Bible discovers to us the fact that the sense of condemnation experienced here for sins committed is but a foretaste of the final effect in a future state of condemnation. The wrong the sin--is the cause, the sense of condemnation is the effect. And the sense of condemnation can not be better described than by the Bible terms "misery," ''shame," ''torment," etc. For there is no state more shameful and miserable than that of the wicked. "The way of the transgressor is hard," Prov. xiii. 15. Sin is the cause, misery, shame and torment the effect. Hence

God's word looking from cause to effect speaks of the future state of the wicked--of the finally impenitent--as one of shame and torment. For this cause the rich man prayed Abraham to send Lazarus back to his friends. "For," said he, "I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment." In Rev. xiv. 11 we read, "and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night." In Dan. xii. 2, God's word speaks of "everlasting shame and contempt," of the "bottomless pit" (Rev. xx. 3), of "eternal damnation" (Luke iii. 29; John v. 25), of "hell," etc., Ps. ix. 17; Ezek. xxxi. 16; Matt. v. 22; xviii. 9, etc.) It is God's word speaking in the same positive terms of both the condition of blessedness and condemnation. It looks from cause to effect in each case. It thus confirms our intuitive anticipation's in each case. All who believe he Bible therefore in the one case can not do otherwise than believe it in the other.

     Again, the Bible also speaks of a judge and a judgment Day. The psalmist declares (l. 6): "And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge." "And (Ps. ix. 8) he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall

minister judgment to the people in righteousness." Felix trembled when Paul "reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come" (Acts xxiv. 25). For more passages on this point the reader may see Ezek. vii. 3; Matt. v. 21, etc.; Rom. i. 32; 2 Tim. iv. i; i Pet. iv. 5.

     In civil law the judge sits as the executor of the law. He pronounces the penalty prescribed by the law. Since therefore the law of God is the basis of all law, and since both the Judge and the Day of judgment have been appointed and the law and its penalties fixed, we naturally expect the infliction of the penalty. For why have a law, a Judge and a Judgment Day, if it is not the divine purpose to execute the law. Anything short of this would be an injustice to those for whose benefit the law was given, and to him who came to redeem us from the curse of the law, as well as make God, the author of the law, a liar. Of the Jews it has been written (Rom. iii. 3): "For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written: "That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." Hence the inspired

writer (Gen, xviii. 25) pertinently asked: "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

     Let it be further noted that God has made provision for every want or expectation of his creatures. For example, man intuitively looks for an object of worship. From the depth of his heart comes welling up that desire for worship--not alone in Christian, but in all lands. The disposition to worship is as universal as the human race.

     A people without some object of worship has never been known. The heathen, the pagan, the Christian--all have their objects of worship. God created in man this disposition. He created us religious, worshipful beings. To meet this want, and deeming it proper that the creature should worship the creator, God has said, "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me." But the disposition to worship anticipates as the consummation of worship, a future state of rest and peace and glory, like unto the state of the Creator. Hence, the anticipations of a future eternal, spiritual, blissful home. To meet these expectations our Lord said, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also." John xiv. 3. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you

rest." And we need not multiply these promises of God to assure the reader of the ample provisions which God has made for this want, as the fact is involved in our earnest longings for its realization.

     But the intuitive sense of wrong, condemnation and consequent expectation of punishment for sin, is as universal as the disposition to worship. The heathen, in times of distress, or any sore calamity, resort to almost anything, in order to appease the supposed wrath of their gods. Why? Because simultaneously with the sense of sin, and consequent condemnation, comes also the intuitive expectation of judgment and consequent punishment. Under such a conviction, the famous infidel Voltaire uttered his dying sentence: "I look behind me, and all is dark; I look before me, and all is dark; soon I shall make a leap into the dark!"

     Recognizing therefore, all these wants and expectations, and God's provision for them, the only logical conclusion can be that God has provided for and will justly mete out to every transgressor of his law according to their intuitive expectations. For we believe his promises to provide for the longings of the soul in the one case, shall we not believe his threat to provide the expected punish-

ment in the other? Analogy presses its claims alike in each case.

     The Bible is replete with God's promises to his people. They are as the sands of the sea shore. But God is not partial--he is no respecter of person. His warnings and threats to the wicked are as numerous as his promises to the faithful. He would not give any occasion for any "in the last great day" to rise up and say, "Lord why hadst thou not revealed unto us the terror of the law and the fierceness of thy wrath?" Beginning therefore with Job xxi. 29, 30, let us read a few passages from God's word regarding the future prospects for the wicked. "Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." And from Psalm xcii. 7, "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever." And (ix. 17) "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And then turning to the evangelical prophet (Isa. iii. 10, 11) and we read: "Say ye to

the righteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." From Dan. xii.: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And yet one more passage from the Old Testament (Mal. iv. 1): "For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

     Upon these unmistakably clear passages, no comment is needed, and we turn to the New Testament for further instruction.

     Our Universalist friends seem to comfort themselves with the thought that the Old Testament was given under a dispensation of law, when the Lord moved the people with the "terror of the law," but that the New Testament was given in a dispensation of grace and mercy, when God would move the people by love awakened in their hearts by the atoning blood of Christ. But the vanity of this hope will be seen after a few quotations.

     Listen to the words of our Lord (Matt. Viii. 11, 12) "And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Again (xiii. 36--42) we read: "Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house; and his disciples came unto him saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that 'soweth the good seed is. the son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of the kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Our Lord was asked for an interpretation of his parable of the tares, and in response to the disciples' request gave them this

passage, which is so unmistakably clear that there can be no hope for mercy to the impenitent. But this is not all. Hear him again (Matt. xxv. 41, 46): "Then shall he say also to them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; and these shall go away into everlasting punishment." Again it is written (2 Pet. ii. 4-9): "For God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person  *  *  *  bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.  *  *  *  * *  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." That is to say, that if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell; and if he did not spare the old world, saving only the just person, and reserved the rest unto judgment, then there can be no hope for the finally impenitent. In Revelation xiv. 10, 11, it is written of this same class: "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire

and brimstone,  *  *  *  *  and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever."

     And thus we might indefinitely multiply passages from God's word on this subject. But with one more citation we leave the matter for the reader's prayerful consideration. Let us read Matt. xii. 31, 32: "Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."

     In this passage we are simply taught that there is a sin which for its heinousness has transcended the bounds of penitence, and hence is without the reach of love and mercy, and therefore can not, for any consideration, at any time, be forgiven

     And if it can not be forgiven, the result is inevitable, and the future punishment of the wicked is established once and for all. And in view of this we do not wonder at our Lord's pertinent question (Matt. xxiii. 33): "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Dear reader, if you are not abiding in

the love and grace of God, how can you hope to escape?

     This thought is worthy of our most serious consideration. It becomes serious because of the duration involved in the future state of the 'wicked. It is true, in the minds of some, the duration of the future punishment of the wicked has not been very definitely fixed. Prominent among these are Universalists and Romanists--the former believing that all will be finally saved: some being doomed for a time to the fires of hell until they have paid the penalty of their sins, when --they will be restored to peace with God and the bliss and glory of heaven: the latter believing that all outside of the Romish Church will be eternally lost, and that the weak and unfaithful of their Church will be committed for a time to purgatorial tortures, but at length to come into the enjoyment of heavenly blessedness. But all such expectations are, in fact, groundless; nay more, they are all pernicious in their results. When Universalism and Romanism will extinguish their purgatorial fires, the one will increase

its piety, and the other its real consecration to God, a hundred fold. The Bible leaves the impenitent in Gehenna, suffering the judicial penalty of their sins. It nowhere speaks of their restoration. Not one word is given to assure us that their punishment is of limited duration, or that the final restoration and happiness of any or all the wicked may ever be expected. But to our minds the Bible is decidedly clear on this point.

     We believe that heaven, its blessedness and bliss is of everlasting duration, why? Because the Bible speaks of it as such. "God so loved the world that  *  *  *  *  whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. "He that heareth my word and believeth on him that--sent me hath everlasting life." John, v. 24. "And every one that hath forsaken houses  *  *  *  *  for my name's sake  *  *  shall inherit everlasting life." Matt. xix. 29. "But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." Gal. vi. 8.

     All who believe the Bible at all, believe that these statements mean just what they say. Upon their literal meaning depend our hopes, our aspirations--our all--for the future. The Greek word "aionion" ("aíwvîov") in each one of these pas

sages is translated "everlasting." All--our Universalist and Romish friends not excepted--believe that this word means just what it says. Indeed, with any limitation of meaning and duration, our anticipations of heaven would be much allayed, to say the least. But taking God at his word, and his word here at its literal meaning, and all aspire to the glory and bliss of heaven.

     But we turn now to other passages of God's word in which the same aionion occurs, and ask what will you do with them? Isaiah (xxxiii. 14) asked, "Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" In Matt. xviii. 8 it is written: "Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (See also Matt. xxv. 41, 46).

     In each of these passages, (with many more which might be mentioned) the same Greek word aionion is used, with the same translation. And in some of these passages the same adjective occurs twice in the same verse --"everlasting life," "everlasting fire "--with the same translation in each case. And if we believe it means everlasting in the one, we can not do otherwise than so translate it in the other. If we believe God's promises

to the faithful, we can not consistently deny his threats to the wicked. To the one he promises everlasting life; the other he threatens with everlasting punishment. Therefore both must be alike true or false. The one belief inspires the penitent and faithful to deeper consecration, to greater purity of life, and quickens their zeal in the religions work, while it dooms only the impentent to their eternal fate. The other belief dooms both, at some indefinite future time, to utter annihilation. Hence the only tenable, safe and scriptural ground of belief is that in each case the word means "everlasting."

     But some will say, "We admit that the wicked should and will be punished. But inasmuch as both the time of sinners and their sins are finite--limited--it would be unjust to inflict unlimited--infinite punishment."

     In reply to this objection we would note briefly:

     1. That in the creation God imbued man with immortality, "he breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul." God breathed into man of his own essence, and hence man's immortality. But that which is immortal can have no extinction or end of being. Therefore man's destiny must correspond with his immortality.

     2. That God created man an intelligent, free moral agent, with both the privilege and the ability to choose for himself between good and evil; and with the instruction that in the one case it would be life, in the other death. According to the principle of fundamental law already enunciated, the choosing presumes the consequence. Hence man having chosen the evil, and intuitively anticipated the consequences, God would virtually have thwarted man's free moral agency if he had made any change in the plan. For in so doing he would have denied man the right of his own choice, and would therefore have made himself a liar.

     3. That man having chosen the evil, and thereby fallen from favor with God and from his grace, God has made ample provision, in an infinite atonement, for man's recovery, and has again given man the privilege of chosing--having set before him life and death. The privilege of an intelligent choice is now offered to all; the atonement has been made for all the sins of all men, for all time; and the benefits of this atonement are infinite. Therefore, the punishment for those who reject such a provision must be commensurate with the restitution effected in the vicarious atonement of Christ. Man being im-
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mortal, a free moral agent capable and privileged to choose for himself the grace and infinite glory of God, the only injustice in the future eternal punishment of the wicked is on the part of the doomed, and not on the part of God. All the injustice done, sinners do to their own souls. But the justice of God demands that the future punishment of the wicked be eternal, everlasting. In the language of another, "I do not accept the doctrine of eternal punishment because I delight in it. I would cast in doubts, if I could, till I had filled hell up to its very brim; I would destroy all faith in it. But that would do me no good; the thing would still remain--I could not destroy it. Nor does it help me to take the word 'everlasting' and put it into a rack like an inquisitor until I make it shriek out some other meaning. I can not alter the stern fact. It will stand while eternity lasts."

     But "eternity!" Who can measure its duration! Suppose, after one of our most violent snow storms, which covers the earth deep for thousands of miles, one single flake were melted in a thousand years; or, if a single beam of the sun's rays stood for a year, and as many years were added as there have been rays flooding the earth since the sun began to shine; or if a single drop of the

ocean were exhaled in a million years, till the last drop were taken up;.--though we can not conceive of such apparently almost interminable periods, yet though we could, eternity would stretch as far beyond them as if they had not yet begun.

     But we could not close this chapter without a moment's attention to

     I do not believe, as some have taught, in the literal outpouring of "fire and brimstone" upon the wicked as a necessary constituent of hell. For the Bible does not present the future state, either of the righteous or the wicked, as essentially material, but of spiritual things. Material figures are used in some passages of God's word to convey to the mind some conceptions of the fearful tortures of the wicked, in eternity writhing with agony in the flames of God's eternal wrath. And this idea does not detract, but rather adds to the severity of the punishment. The joys of heaven magnify as we are changed from glory to glory, into the image of him who sits upon the throne. So the woes of hell will also magnify as the wicked fall deeper and deeper into the power and image of the demon that beguiled them there.

     Could we conceive of the wicked suffering under a continuous and most bitter remorse of conscience, with all their guilt in all its heinousness looming up before them; conceive of them as seeing nothing but their sins, as thinking of nothing but their sins, as feeling nothing but the guilt of their sins, augmented by the taunts of

heavenly felicity, once so near and so freely offered, is now lost forever; conceive of their banishment from all good, of banishment from all the salutary influences of good society; banished from friends and home and parents; conceive of their state in the society of blasphemers, drunkards, sorcerers, murderers and such like, all in a pandemonium of raging demons, with their very abode trembling with their fearful groans and terrific howlings; conceive of them "cast into outer darkness"--" into the blackness of darkness," "into the bottomless pit," with the infinite and eternal wrath of God constantly pouring into their souls, and written over it all--' Doomed Forever "--and we have but a meagre conception of hell.

     But O! that thought "Forever!" There are many sufferings tolerable only because they are believed to be of short duration. In this world health fails, the hope of recovery vanishes, and we count the weary hours till we may find a happy release in death. But O! there is no death in hell. Death, which is a monster on earth, would be an angel there. If death could go there, all the damned would fall down and worship him, every tongue would sing, and every heart would praise,

each cavern would echo with a shout of triumph, till all was hushed, and silence brood where terror reigned. But no! the terrible reality is this: "their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched," Mark ix. 44. "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever," Rev. xiv. ii. O the destiny of the unsaved! who can comprehend it!

     My dear reader "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord," if you have not already arranged to escape it, will you not arrange to escape it by embracing Christ and His love, and by the riches of His grace come into the enjoyment of the riches of His glory? For to the wicked "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," but to the righteous it is joy and pleasure forever more. May a thoughtful and prayerful consideration of this subject lead you to peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, is the prayer of your humble servant. Amen.

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.