Robert Reynoldson,
London:
Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.
May, 1871.
"The wages of sin is death."—Rom. 6.23.
THE writer of the following Sermons wishes it to be understood that he bears no responsibility in connection with their publication in the present form. His age and the state of his health preclude him from undertaking the kind of labor involved in preparing for the press, however much inclined for the work. He has simply yielded to the solicitation of Members of his Church and Congregation, who wished to see his sentiments on the solemn subject of the sinner's punishment recorded in print, and handed the manuscript of the Sermons, as preached, to a friend,—being satisfied that whatever revision and re-arrangement may be made in form and expression, the opinions held and enunciated by him, will be submitted to the public unmutilated and substantially unchanged.
THE proposition sought to be established and illustrated in the following sermons is not a novel one. It has been frequently held, but generally, it is to be deplored, either in conjunction with false and pernicious dogmas which have concealed its beauty and destroyed its usefulness, or without a clear perception, necessary to the realization of its true value,—of its connection with other prominent truths of Scripture.
In making a further contribution to the literature upon this subject, the Editor does not claim for the preacher any special illumination or authority; but he ventures to think that these sermons present the topic in some respects in a clearer light than any previous publication. This is saying much in the face of such an excellent volume as that of Mr. Davis, the Incumbent of Roundhay, and, if Mr. Reynoldson were a young and unproved man, the assertion might seem presumptuous; but for fifty years of a studious life he has given vastly more attention to the Bible than to any other book, and, freed by his training and position to a great extent from the trammels of dogmatic theology and the necessity of upholding a man-made creed, he has ever sought to know and teach the whole counsel of God.
The opinions which the author holds, as the Editor is assured, have matured slowly. During the last ten or twelve years his mind has been advancing, step by step, to the conclusion now reached that the Scriptures do not teach the eternal misery of the wicked. With a vivid recollection of his own cautiousness in adopting new views, he will not reproach those who have not progressed so far as himself in the reception of this doctrine. It must, however, be borne in mind that even caution may be excessive. As many Christians know by experience, the mind, which has reached peace after a painful search, is too often beset by temptations to rest from the toil and uneasiness connected with further investigation. This love of ease is natural, but it is permissible only to a very limited extent, and
there is a grave responsibility upon every believer, at all times, whatever his acquirements, to attend unto wisdom, and bow his ear to understanding. He knows not whither the smallest delusion may lead. We cannot tell what mischief a single dead fly may occasion to the ointment of the apothecary, nor how often
"These fantastic errors of our dream Lead us to solid wrong."
But it is not merely on negative grounds that the reader is invited to study the foundation and proofs of the alleged doctrine. If true, there are positive advantages in embracing it, as the following pages will show, and although it may not be right to treat a question like the present as vitally important to the enquiring sinner, or the believer under all circumstances, any one whose attention has been directed to the subject will disregard it at his great peril, and to his certain loss.
There is one observation which the Editor wishes to make to avoid possible misapprehension. This discussion is neither connected with nor can encourage a belief in "universalism." Indeed, before that dogma can be accepted, the strongest arguments in these Sermons must be abandoned. It would, therefore, be most unjustifiable and uncandid for anyone to object to the enquiry on the ground of its tendency to lead to a religious opinion which the Author most unmistakably repudiates.
In conclusion, the Editor expresses his sincere and heart-felt desire that the Holy Spirit may enlighten the understanding of each reader of this little book-free him from preconceived notions opposed to the word and will of the Most High, and guide him in his adoption or rejection of the doctrine advocated, accordingly as it shall be taught or not taught of God.
Sermon 1.
Death In Gehenna
Hell Not A State Of Eternal Torment
Sermon 2.
Everlasting Punishment Not Everlasting Pain
Sermon 3.
Everlasting Punishment Not Everlasting Pain
Sermon 4.
The Second Death
Sermon 5.
The Sufferings And Death Of Jesus Christ
The Penalty Of The Law For Sin
"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched."—MARK 9. 43-48.
FOR some years I had considerable doubt respecting the commonly received tradition that the state which the Judge of the whole earth will assign to the unjust, at the judgment-day, will be one of never-ending torment. That a great portion of the human race, with all the sensations of living men, should suffer torments without end by the judgment of the Most High, is a thought so repugnant to our cherished ideas of His character, that the question involuntarily arose in my mind—Can this doctrine possibly be true? Entertaining this doubt, I have not preached the doctrine of eternal torment for several years. I have satisfied myself with saying, that beyond the plainly declared truth, that "tribulation and anguish" will be "upon every soul of man that doeth evil," we know not what the state of the wicked will be, though we have the fullest assurance, from the perfection of His character, that the Judge of the whole earth will do right.
In the early part of the present year, however, I advanced a step beyond this, and arrived at the conclusion that the " second death'• cannot be a state of life, of consciousness, of sensation; and believing that the doctrine which assigns eternal torments to millions of human beings is both contrary to the Character of God and injurious to the souls of men, I have a conscientious conviction that I ought not any longer to keep silence.
The position I hold in relation to this doctrine is, to my own mind, impregnable, and I have no fear of being at any future time under the necessity of recanting what I now advance. I know well, a:id have carefully considered, all that can be said in sup-Port of the commonly received opinion; and if you will only keep preconceived ideas in abeyance, and weigh impartially the arguments that will be submitted, I feel confident you will conclude with me that this terrible tradition—for such it is—has no foundation in the Holy Scriptures. These alone must be our authority, and we must avoid, as far as possible, the region of speculation; for, after all, our convictions must be established, not on tradition, or on what we may judge to be in harmony with the character of God, but on what the Scriptures reveal concerning Him; and a careful investigation of the Bible, in relation to the subject before us, will remove from the mind a cloud which obscures the brightness; of God's righteousness and justice, and will enable us to behold more clearly His most excellent glory.
Before entering upon an examination of the text, I will state the commonly received doctrine. It is generally held that we are all born with an immortal nature—that we shall live fur ever in happiness or misery. If this be so, there are two kinds of eternal life, one of happiness in the kingdom of God, the other of misery in a state of the most terrible torment. Numbers beyond calculation of the human family will; it is commonly thought, be eternally associated with fiends, writhing in indescribable anguish, as in a vast ocean of fire and brimstone; and after millions of ages this will he but the beginning of their woe. According to this doctrine the Almighty will never put an end to His wrath, never destroy sin and misery in the universe; but, since He fills immensity, He will have the appalling spectacle before Him for ever and ever without end.
Connected with other dogmas of certain religious systems, this doctrine presents itself in a still more repulsive aspect. Many maintain that we are born not only immortal but corrupt, having inherited both these necessities of our nature from our first father Adam; and that sin, which is thus innate and inherent, grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength; so that if God's saving grace do not interpose, men die as they were born, immortal and corrupt, only with a deeper corruption contracted from the miasmata' of the world through which they have passed. The Greek word rendered "pollutions" (2 Peter 2.20)
There is a section of Christian professors who glory in a system of a high Predestinarian doctrine, which distinguishes one class of mankind by the term " non-elect." This class of unhappy beings, according to this doctrine, is by the eternal decree of its Creator born only to be immortal in corruption, and to have its portion to all eternity where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Alas! if this be true, is not the gift of life to such persons in itself a curse from the day of their birth?
We now turn our attention to the Scripture before us, to the solemn warning of Him on whose words hang the eternal issues of life and death. It is to be regretted that "Gehenna" and "Hades," two words of the Greek Testament, are both translated in our version by the one word, "hell." It is certain that these two words have not the same meaning; the former being, as we shall see, derived from the name of a deep narrow valley near Jerusalem, and used as a figure to represent the state of the condemned after death; while the latter is the name given to the invisible world, without reference to anything on earth as a figure. "Gehenna," when used as a figure, sets forth exclusively the state of the condemned; "Hades" is the state of departed spirits without distinction, for both the rich man and Lazarus are described as being in "Hades." The confounding of these two states by applying the word "hell" to both, causes multitudes of readers of the New Testament to associate, in every instance, the idea of torment with the word "hell." This is quite erroneous and leads to strange conclusions. Take, for instance, the words which the spirit of Christ spoke in prophecy concerning the state of His human soul in the interval between His death and resurrection, "Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell." Many, even among the learned, have supposed from this passage that our Lord entered the state of torment, whereas in another scripture He says," Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise," plainly showing that in His case “Hades'' and "Paradise" were identical.
The word in our text rendered "hell" is "Gehenna," which is derived from two Hebrew words, "ge," a valley, and "henna," the Greek form of the Hebrew "Hinnom." All readers of the historical portions of Scripture are familiar with the place called " valley of the Son of Hinnom. " Ahaz, king of Judah, instituted the cruel rite of causing children, in this valley, to pass through fire to Molech; [2 Chron. 28.3; 2 Kings 23.10.] and this horrible idolatry continued, or at least was not finally abolished, until more than a hundred years afterwards, when the good king Josiah " defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech."' It was defiled by being set apart as a place of punishment in cases of extreme criminality; a place where the decent rites of burial were denied, and into which criminals after execution were cast, to be consumed by fire, and by worms preying on the putrid carcasses. The prophet Isaiah, whose words our Savior in the text referred to, says of those who were cast into this loathsome valley, " They shall be an abhorring to all flesh" (Isa. 66.24).
Terrible as this revolting scene of corruption and death must have been to the eye that looked on it, and as it is to our imagination from the description, still it does not represent eternal torment. That our Lord did refer to it, as a figurative representation of the state of the condemned in the world to come, is admitted; but His words do not convey the idea which is commonly entertained concerning that state. "The worm that dies not" is generally regarded as the torture of a guilty conscience, and "the fire that never shall be quenched" as the torment of the condemned for ever and ever. The typical Gehenna will not bear out this idea. There cannot be any resemblance between a worm preying on a dead carcass and a guilty conscience tormenting a living soul. The picture is one of death and not of life. It is not the body but the worm that never dies, and that worm preys not on the living but on the dead. It is concerning the carcasses of those who have sinned against God that the prophet says, "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched" (Isa. 66.24).
Consider the instruction which Jesus was giving His disciples at the time. Their minds were buoyed up with false expectations as to the advantageous positions they should occupy in the Messiah's kingdom; and He was teaching them to look forward to the sacrifice of earthly interests, and not to the enjoyment of exaltation and wealth. Under the figure of amputation of limbs, Jesus taught the sacrifice of fleshly lusts, and of the dearest worldly interests. He uses for a metaphor a case of surgery. It is better to amputate a gangrened member of the body, and by so doing to retain life, than to retain the member and die—to become a putrid carcass, only fit for Gehenna and to be food for the worm and the fire. But it is a state of death which our Lord pictures; and the alternative is not between life in happiness and life in misery, but between life and death. We shall have more of such contrasts before us at a future time.
But it is argued that if the worm dies not, that which it acts upon must continue to exist. Suppose it is so, still the worm is not represented as torturing the living body. What is said about the worm not dying was literally true of the literal Gehenna, yet the same worm did not always prey on the same body. Again, it is said, if the fire never shall be quenched, that which the fire feeds upon must ever continue. Still the argument is the same as in the case of the worm—the fire of Gehenna did not act on living sentient beings.
It must not, however, pass unnoticed that in Matthew 3.12, where it is said, "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," the last two words are, in the Greek, the identical words which are translated in the text—"the fire that never shall be quenched." How the translators came to interpret the adjective rendered "unquenchable" by the words "that never shall be quenched," I do not understand, as it certainly does not contain the idea of future time. But they found it impossible to put forward such an idea in verses 44 and 46 of the text, because the word there is a verb, and in the present tense, "the fire is not quenched." Referring to the passage above quoted from Matthew's gospel, we ask, does the chaff continue forever because the fire is unquenchable? Or, is not "unquenchable fire" to be understood as fire that no power can control or extinguish until it has accomplished the end for which it was kindled? As to the chaff, it is consumed; and so with regard to the tares in our Savior's parable of the tares of the field. The idea which ought to be attached to this and similar expressions in the Scriptures is, that the doom of the impenitent is fixed and irrevocable, even an awful destruction. Such is the correct interpretation of the following passages: "Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands : therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched" (2 Chron. 34.25). Again, "And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree : the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein" (Ezek. 20.47). Fire in these passages, as in the text and elsewhere, is an agent of destruction, not of perpetual torment. God is not a tormenting, but "a consuming fire." "A fire goes before him, and burned up his enemies round about."
We therefore conclude that Gehenna represents a state of death and destruction, and that the two things which are placed in opposition are life and death. Cast from you all fleshly lusts, and all worldly interests that cause you to fall into sin; do this and live; retain them and die.
It may be necessary, perhaps, to remark that in all these passages where "fire" is connected with "hell," such as Matthew 5.22, the word used is Gehenna: James 3.6, is no exception, and besides these the word is Gehenna in the following places, Matt. 5.29, 30; 10.28; 23.15 and 33; Luke 12.5.
Whatever may be advanced concerning a state of eternal torment, as the lot of the condemned hereafter, it is impossible to derive that doctrine from this scripture. Gehenna is a loathsome picture of death, and is calculated to produce in the guilty mind " a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," but it is not a picture of eternal torment. Many, and indeed nearly all, whose habit of thought has been to regard everlasting misery as the final penalty of sin, on hearing for the first time a word spoken in opposition to this sentiment, are startled with the fear, that to remove the dread of this doom from the minds of men is to remove a motive for right action, to comfort the evil doer, and encourage him to persevere in the way of destruction. This fear is groundless. The doctrine was never preached by the apostles; to say the least, we have no recorded instance of it, and therefore we conclude so. Nor does it appear in their epistles; indeed it seems to have been unknown to them. It has been uttered by later preachers in the ears of men for centuries past; but, taking a general view of the effects of this preaching, there is room for doubt whether it has exerted an influence for good. This cannot, perhaps, be proved one way or the other, but it is a matter of belief with me that the doctrine is demoralizing. It is calculated to stifle the best affections of the heart, or rather to shut it against all love and admiration of the Divine Name. It has, without doubt, been the occasion, if not the cause, of a widespread unbelief of the Holy Scriptures, latent and avowed; though only a very small amount of this unbelief comes to the surface in professed deism. Men will not believe the Bible, because they are told that this fearful doctrine is contained in the Book. They scoff at the doctrine, and despise the Book.
The first consideration, doubtless, ought to be—is this doctrine true? its expediency or policy being only a secondary matter. In my own judgment it is impolitic, as well as untrue. Still, as to its policy, there are surely in the declared truths of the Scriptures, denunciations on the wicked terrible enough to deter men from the commission of sin, without placing before them the awful idea of eternal misery. If they only believe the statements relating to the final effects of God's judgment on the impenitent and unbelieving, they have sufficient to make them tremble. The devils, we are assured, do believe and tremble, and the judgment to come, even in its least terrible aspect, is enough to make a Felix tremble as far as a Felix believes. It may be urged by some who are now justified by faith and have peace with God, that there was a time when the belief that the torments of hell are not everlasting would have been a comfort indeed; still, I cannot, for my part, suppose that if such persons had duly considered that the lightest effect of the curse consequent on the violation of the law of God would be tribulation and anguish, terminating in death, and this death involving the forfeiture of all hope of attaining to the blessedness of God's kingdom; I cannot, I say, suppose that if such persons had believed the final consequence of sin to be limited to a penalty as dreadful as this, they would have had no concern about their salvation.
Do not, however, while your thoughts are occupied on what Gehenna does not represent, lose sight of the admonitory instruction which our Lord here gives to all. He is pressing upon His own followers the necessity, under certain conditions, of great sacrifice. There must be very powerful motives indeed to determine any one to cut off a hand, or a foot, or to pluck out an eye; and the motives which our Lord urges are the strong desire for life, and the fear of a death to be dreaded more than any ordinary dissolution. It is manifest in what He says respecting Gehenna, “where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched," that He intended to depict a revolting and terrible scene of death, for the purpose of enforcing a reason for the sacrifice of very clear interests, the retention of which must issue in an awful end. And there is not only iteration but re-iteration in His wording of this warning, evidently with the view of making the terrible nature of this end more impressive. As we have just said, strong reasons. indeed, are required for such sacrifices as are represented by that of hand, foot, and eye; and reasons quite strong enough will present themselves to the minds of any who realize this loathsome and fearful scene of corruption and death.
"These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."--MATTHEW 25.46.
IT was shown in the previous discourse that the picture of "hell," as set forth by “Gehenna," does not convey the idea of life in torment, much less of endless life in such a state; but that, on the contrary, it depicts a state of corruption and death—the endless duration being ascribed to the powers that destroy, namely, the worm and the fire, and not to the bodies they consume.
We have now for consideration a passage on which the doctrine of endless sufferings is thought to be firmly based; but which, if carefully considered, and interpreted by the Scriptures, does but confirm the belief already stated, that the end of the wicked is destruction. In these words our Lord expresses the result of the judgment by which He will at the last day, decide the character and the final portion of all men, both of the righteous and the unrighteous.
The two clauses of the text are exactly parallel, thus—"these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into everlasting life." By putting the two clauses of the verse into this form, no advantage is sought as to the issue of the present argument, for it is done by the advocates of the doctrine which we impugn; but by reading the verse in this way it brings out more forcibly the contrast between "punishment" and "life." The question before us does not turn on the word "everlasting," for this word is attached to life as well as to punishment; and, with two exceptions, Rom. 1.20, and Jude 1.6, it is the word invariably used in the New Testament to express endless duration. Whatever the punishment may be, it is final and forever; and the question immediately before us is, what is to be understood by the word "punishment?"
There are two ways of interpreting the words "everlasting punishment;" and, apart from other considerations, looking simply at the words themselves, one seems as correct and fair as the other. According to one view, the word "punishment" is equivalent to misery, and so "everlasting punishment" is everlasting misery. According to the other, the word "punishment" means death and destruction, and then the words "everlasting punishment" signify everlasting death and destruction. And as the first construction involves a contradiction of the Scripture testimony respecting the character of God, and is at variance with the general teaching of the Holy Scriptures on this weighty matter, while the second interpretation is in perfect harmony with both, I must contend for the second as the right interpretation. Why put the severest possible construction upon the words in order to establish a doctrine agonizing to every reflecting mind, when this is not required for any good purpose, while, on the other hand, it is calculated to serve a very bad one?
It seems to be generally assumed that the word "punishment" signifies the process of punishing; but this is an error. The words "everlasting punishment" do not necessarily mean that the process of punishing will be continued to all eternity; but rather that the punishment—the effect of the sentence—is everlasting. These words cannot mean that the process of punishing is continuous, any more than the words "everlasting judgment" [Hebrews 6.2] mean, that the process of judging will be going on to all eternity; or that the similar expression "eternal redemption" [Hebrews 9.12] means that the redemption is being eternally wrought out. In both these instances the effect, and not the process, is meant; and so, in our text, it is the effect, and not the process, which is everlasting.
It must be admitted by all that it is only common sense to say there cannot be pain where there is not life; and, therefore, eternal misery implies eternal life. That this is the common understanding is manifest; for it is constantly affirmed that we are all born to live forever in happiness or misery, and ministers are repeatedly calling on their hearers to consider their immortal, their never-dying souls. As I remarked in my previous discourse, the doctrine is almost universal, that all men are born both immortal and corrupt. It is asserted that corruption and immortality are from our birth inherent in our nature. Dr. Chalmers says it all comes to this, that " man sins because he is a man." Hence, if God do not interpose His saving power, the man dies as he was born; and after death this man, thus born and thus dying, will be sentenced to live for ever and ever in misery. According to the doctrine of one class of Christians, this is the inevitable lot of the non-elect. How it is possible for rational beings to cherish such a sentiment I cannot understand. Such a belief was repugnant to my own mind from the time I began to reflect upon the ways of God to man; and I am convinced that if I had been compelled to admit that the Bible contained this doctrine, I never could have believed the Book to have been divinely inspired. I do not like to use harsh words; but I cannot do justice to my own feelings if I describe this doctrine by a weaker epithet than atrocious.
Concerning that blessed God, whom we are commanded to love with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength, it says far worse things than any that were spoken of Him by those three Arabian friends of Job; and yet these men were required to seek forgiveness through sacrifice for their unadvised expressions. The thought of human beings living eternally in agony is so exceedingly fearful, that no one ought to admit it into his mind without the most rigorous necessity, and on the ground of the most demonstrative evidence. This necessity and this evidence I ,venture to affirm do not exist; and I am happy in the conviction that the Holy Book, in which I learn the ways of God by the words of God, does not require me to believe it.
The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul is so inseparably connected with the idea of eternal misery that it requires special consideration. There is great difficulty in comprehending what is meant by "the natural immortality of the soul." Are we to understand that when the Almighty formed man He gave him a nature, by virtue of which he, of necessity, lives on for ever and ever, independently of Him that made him? Or, are we to believe that God cannot under any circumstances destroy both soul and body? But this is plainly contrary to our Savior's teaching. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10.28). It is sometimes said that the soul of man is an emanation from the Deity; this was the belief of some of the old philosophers, though they held in addition that, after undergoing a sort of purification in passing through certain transmigrations, the soul would again be absorbed in the infinity of the Deity. But the notion that the soul is an emanation from the Deity, as held by Christians, confounds the natural soul with the Holy Spirit; by the in-dwelling of which, as Scripture teaches, is communicated the only immortality that can ever have place in the soul of man.
The breath of life which the Creator breathed into the lifeless clay of Adam was not his own immortal nature—the Holy Spirit. It is true that by a similar act the Lord did communicate the Holy Spirit to His apostles after His resurrection; but in the case of Adam it was simply the imparting of natural life. By the breath of the living God Adam became a "living soul," which means no more than that he became an animated being in opposition to the lifeless form he was before. The same two words, "nephash chavah," of which "living soul" is a translation, are applied to all animated beings in water, air, and earth. In Genesis 1.20, these words are rendered "creature that hath life," and in verses 21 and 24, "living creature." The higher nature of man I find in verse 27, where it is said, "God created man in His own image." But it no more follows that because man was made in the image of God he was therefore immortal than that he was omnipotent.
But eternal torment requires the body to be immortal as well as the soul. I suppose those who maintain this doctrine understand that the condemned at the clay of judgment will suffer in their whole constitution,—body, and soul. Indeed, a distinguished writer on this subject says, "their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins, and all their vitals shall forever be full of a glowing melting fire, enough to melt the very rocks." The simple teaching of Scripture is, that all who are in their graves will hear the voice of the Son of God summoning them to His judgment-seat. They who come forth unto the resurrection of condemnation will suffer the sentence in their whole constitution.
Now, if they become immortal in misery, immortality must be given to their bodies by the resurrection. In fact God must sustain them in a living, feeling nature forever, that they may suffer the vengeance of His wrath. I do not so know God.
Though we may urge that Jesus Christ "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light;" that God "only hath immortality;" that it is impossible to find in the Scriptures the word immortality, or any equivalent term in connection with misery and the fire of hell, but only in connection with life, happiness, and heaven; yet, if we do not hold that the soul is immortal by nature, we shall he regarded by a large portion of the Christian world as little better than infidels. Still in no place do the Scriptures reveal an immortal soul united with an immortal body in the agonies of eternal torment. Death and destruction are the portion of the wicked, while to the redeemed alone is there promise of immortality in soul and body through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have already alluded to the common interpretation of the text as being in opposition to the Scripture testimony respecting the character and ways of God, while the view we are seeking to establish is in harmony with that testimony. Revelation invariably testifies not only that God is, but that He is "light" and "love." The two short sentences of three words each, "God is light " and " God is love," teach more concerning the Divine nature than all the books that philosophy ever produced. And He, who is the Word made flesh, the Eternal Word speaking by man to man, has declared that God loves the world, and so loves the world as only the one great gift can express. Now, though we have no faculties to discern the agreement between God's perfections of justice and goodness and the doctrine of eternal torment, yet we can understand the declaration, "God will judge the world in righteousness," as being consistent with His love of the world; for, as King over all the earth, His justice in condemning sin accords with benevolence and love. And God in His righteous judgment will award "tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doeth evil " (Rom. 2.9).
In God's dealings with the children of men, there are many instances in which we must trust implicitly to His wisdom and goodness; for, "how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." When he answered Job out of the whirlwind by those awful interrogatories, it was not to clear up the difficulties that had embarrassed Job and his friends, but to silence the man in reverential awe and implicit submission. We cannot, however, love a being solely on the ground of implicit belief that he is just and good, without some perception of justice and goodness in his acts and ways. Now as God demands of His rational creatures, as a duty, love to Himself in the highest degree, and this as the foundation of all law, on what ground does He claim this supreme love?
It is implied that He is not only worthy of being loved supremely and for ever, but that He has also, though we see Him not, made Himself known by His gracious dealings, thereby claiming our highest love to Him. All that we can learn of Him from these manifestations is calculated to excite in our minds the strongest feelings of admiration and love, while the doctrine of endless existence in torment is so repugnant to the nature and attributes of God, the Creator and Judge of all, that it tends to stifle every tender sentiment of the heart towards Him. Consider well what is said of Him in these passages, " God bath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongs unto God; also unto Thee, O Lord, belongs mercy; for thou renders to every man according to his work" (Psa. 62.11, 12). " Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face " (Psa. 89.13, 14). " Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne" (Psa. 92.2). Here we behold power combined with righteousness, mercy, and truth, in the Supreme Judge of the world; but in the doctrine of eternal torments, though power is indeed displayed, we cannot, by any possibility, trace His attributes of righteousness and mercy.
In a future discourse I shall endeavor to show that this terrible tradition is contrary to the teaching of inspired revelation respecting the mind and will of God, as it is contradictory to His nature which is love. In the meantime, let the Savior's words, which we have had before us, sink into your ears. All that will be found on the left hand of the Supreme Judge will suffer a punishment as eternal as the life of the righteous. They are they who in their lifetime could look on the suffering condition of the poor of Christ's flock, without moving hand or foot to aid or cheer them. This argues the absence of faith in Christ; the absence, too, of love to Him. What they have done is not recounted, but only what they have not done; and their guilt on this account will involve them in everlasting destruction. This, though a fearful sentence, will be just; for He who is the Son of man, and to whom all judgment is committed, will do right. He came not to judge the world, when He came to His own in Judea; but to judge the world He will come at the last day; and His judgment is "just," because He seeks not His own, but His Father's will, and it is " true," because He is not man alone, but He and the Father are one (John 5.30 and 8.16).
"These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."—MATTHEW 25.46.
IN our previous discourse it was stated that the I word "everlasting" referred to the effect, and not to the process, of the last judgment; and that this is the interpretation which we of necessity put upon the words "eternal judgment" and "eternal redemption;" since the word eternal cannot mean that the "judgment" and "redemption" will be carried on eternally.
We have observed that there cannot be suffering apart from life; and we will now call your attention to the contrast, so frequently presented in Scripture, between the final state of the wicked and that of the righteous. In all these contrasts the lot of the just only is "life," "life eternal," leading irresistibly to the conclusion that the everlasting punishment of the wicked is not life; and, consequently, that "tribulation and anguish" will not be eternal. To suit the common doctrine the meaning of our text would be, "these shall go away into everlasting life in misery, but the righteous into everlasting life in happiness." But there is no ground in Scripture for such an interpretation. It is "life" and "death" which are set in opposition, "life" and "destruction," "life" and "punishment," or some equivalent terms. It is never "everlasting happiness" and "everlasting pain," nor any form of expression which, carefully weighed, will bear such an interpretation.
In Matt. 7.13, 14, opposed to life is "destruction." "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
In John 3.16, "perish;" and the word rendered "perish" is the intransitive form of the word rendered "destroy." "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."
It is in the original the same word as that rendered "destroy" (Matt. 10.28); but here it is transitive while the word "perish" is intransitive, and is interpreted in the Lexicon "to perish, to come to an end." "That whosoever believeth in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life," is as correct a version of John 3.16, as that which is given in our translation. In John 10.28, "perish " is again opposed to "eternal life." ["And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand."] In John 5.29, "condemnation" is the opposite of "life." [" And shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation (condemnation)."] And in the following passages, "death" is the opposite term, Romans 5.21; ["That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."] 7.21, 22, 23; [" What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."] Revelation 20.14, 15. ["And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire."] In Galatians 6.8, where "corruption" is contrasted with "life everlasting," ["For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."] and the word "corruption" is equivalent to death, as the following passages show, "I have said to corruption, thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister" (Job 17.14). "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psa. 16.10). "That he should still live forever and not see corruption (Psa. 49.9). "Now this I say, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." "This corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15. 50, 53). The same term in the Greek occurs in Col. 2.22, where it is rendered to "perish," ["Which all are to perish with the using."] and in 2 Peter 2.12, where it is translated "destroyed." ["But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not."] The former passage reads literally "which all are unto destruction in using," and the latter "made for capture and destruction." In Hebrews 10.38, 39, the word translated "perdition," and which is contrasted with "shall live" and "the saving of the soul," ["Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them who believe to the saving of the soul."] is the same as that commonly rendered "destruction." In 2 Thess. 2.10, the word "perish" ["And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved."] is opposed to "saved." Now according to the rule, that you may frequently ascertain the true meaning of words by carefully observing those that are contrasted with them, in what sense are we to understand these words that are thus constantly put as the opposites of life? Certainly they cannot be intended to indicate life of another kind. For in no one instance where such words as "eternal life" occur, is any explanatory term added to show what kind of life is intended, as if there could be eternal life of more kinds than one. It is simply "life eternal" undescribed and unqualified. We repeat, after weighing all the passages which bear upon this subject, that the contrast is not between a life of happiness and a life of misery, but between life and death, life and destruction.
Hitherto we have been occupied with the terms that express the final state of the unjust, in opposition to the "life eternal" of the righteous. It is necessary now to notice those terms which refer to the state of the condemned, but which are used without antithesis. The passages in which it is said that the wicked will be "destroyed," and that their state will be "destruction," and other equivalent terms, are far too numerous to be quoted. We cannot do more than give some examples. "When the wicked spring as the grass . . . it is that they shall be destroyed forever" (Psa. 92.7). "All the wicked will He destroy" (Psa. 145.20). "Destroy them with double destruction" (Jer. 17.18). "Able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna" (Matt. 10.28). "Whose end is destruction" (Phil. 3.19). "Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction" (Rom. 9.22). "Which drown men in destruction and perdition" or ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6.9). "There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy" (James 4.12).
But there is one passage to which I call your special attention, because it is closely connected with the text, to which it supplies a good comment. The words I refer to are, " Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1.9). The latter clause in this passage is thought by scholars to refer to the presence of the Lord Jesus, when He "shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels," according to verses 7 and 8. Conybeare and Howson render the words thus; "and from the presence of the Lord and from the brightness of His glorious majesty they shall receive their righteous doom, even an everlasting destruction." Now those who hold the doctrine objected to, understand that the enemies of the Lord will be punished with everlasting misery; the Apostle says "with everlasting destruction." I regard "everlasting punishment," and "punished with everlasting destruction" as equivalent; but it is impossible to understand everlasting life in misery and everlasting destruction to be the same thing. The word destruction, according to its strict etymology, signifies "the pulling down a building." The word "destroyed" (1 Cor. 15.26), [" The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."] which is rendered "put down" in verse 24, [" Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power."] must necessarily mean "made to utterly cease." The Lexicons give this meaning to the word equally with that used in Matt. 10.28, "Destroy both soul and body in hell." The only inference I can draw is that when the wicked are destroyed they will cease to be.
Those who maintain the terrible dogma of eternal misery, utterly ignore all the passages to which we have just referred, as if they were not in God's Book. They have fixed in their imagination the picture of a great portion of the human race eternally writhing in agony, or living in fire; and, to uphold the idea, they confine their attention to a few figurative parts of Scripture, especially some in the symbolical visions of the Revelation, where fire is represented as the agent of judicial punishment. And, instead of interpreting the few figurative passages by the very many that are enunciated in plain terms, they take the opposite course; and, so far as they interpret them at all, they interpret the literal by the figurative. As a rule there is no class of people that take the same license with regard to the meaning of words as religious people. And when we are averse to any particular thought, we are like the disciples of Jesus, with regard to His sufferings, who could not understand the plainest language (Luke 18.31-34).
It will probably be objected that our Lord's words, "Depart from Me, ye cursed into everlasting fire" (Matt. 25.41), point to the fearful retribution of everlasting misery. It should be noticed that here, as in other places, it is not said the wicked will live forever in fire, though the fire is called everlasting; just as in the text the same epithet is applied to punishment. We shall better understand the effect of this fire, as an agent of punishment, if we consider the full signification of the word "cursed." "Depart from Me, ye cursed." The original word, as it is used here, signifies "devoted to destruction." It is used in this sense in application to the fig-tree: "Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursed is withered away" (Mark 11.21). And, as Jesus describes those whom He will bid depart into everlasting fire as "cursed"—that is "devoted to destruction "—it is necessary for us to view the fire in relation to the meaning of this term; and thus the fire must be regarded as an element of destruction and not of everlasting torment. And this is the general meaning
that is attached to fire throughout the Scriptures, when it is used to express the judgment of God upon the wicked. God is not a tormenting but "a consuming fire." “For our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12.29). Again, in Hebrews 10.27, it is said, "A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, that shall devour the adversaries." And the word "devour," which signifies literally "to eat," or "eat up," "That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains," (Rev. 19.18.) means the same as "consume" and "destroy" in 2 Thess. 2.8. [" And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."] And we know that fire is a consuming agent. Of course it is tormenting until it has accomplished the end; but the end is the destruction of what it acts upon: it is never said to be endless in its action upon the material on which it feeds; nor is that action said to be endless torment. Respecting Jerusalem of old, God said, "Then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched" (Jer. 17.27). Again, "Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched " (Ezek. 20.47). Turning to the New Testament we find it said, " He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire " (Matt. 2.12). And in the Lord's parable respecting the tares we have the words, "Bind them in bundles and burn them" (Matt. 13.30). And when He applies this to the persons —to them which do iniquity—He says, His angels "shall gather out of His 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" (Matt. 13.41, 42). This, doubtless, will cause wailing and gnashing of teeth; but the things and the persons are both devoted to the same end. No one doubts that all things that offend will be destroyed; why then should we doubt that a like end awaits them that do iniquity? It is not said, and it is plainly wrong to infer, that their wailing and gnashing of teeth will be eternal. The Lord, evidently, in the parable of the tares of the field, speaks of the fire as an agent of destruction. It is a consuming fire, and this I believe is the Correct, as it is the natural, idea respecting fire.
In order to bring out the idea of eternal torment from the words in Matt. 25.41, ["Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."] stress is laid on the word "everlasting." If the fire is everlasting, the argument is, so must those be who depart into it. But cases are to be found in the Scriptures in which, beyond doubt, it was otherwise; where the fire is said to be "forever," and "eternal," because it utterly destroys what it burns up, and because its effects remain forever. Thus the smoke of the burning of Idumea, and its capital city Bozrah, is said to "go up for ever;" [" Shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever" (Isa. 34.10).] but these places are not burning now. Sodom and Gomorrah are said to suffer "the vengeance of eternal fire," [" Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 1.7).] but they are not burning now. A commentator remarks on these words that the cities are set forth for an "example" of eternal fire. But in the words, "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," the word "suffering" applies to the cities themselves; the cities, it is plainly stated, suffered the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude 1.7 is frequently appealed to, in support of the doctrine of eternal torment, by applying the words "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" to the inhabitants of the cities. But surely this is in direct contradiction to our Lord's words (Matt. 11.24), "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee;" also to those of 2 Peter 2. 6, 9, "The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished."
And besides, that it is the historical fact of the utter destruction of the guilty cities by fire, of which Jude speaks, is manifest, by his reference to these cities as an " example;" for how could the suffering of souls, in the invisible world, be " set forth as an example" for the warning of evil doers in this world? It is the visible outpouring of God's wrath in this world that is set forth as the example.
The Greek participle rendered "suffering" is feminine plural, agreeing with the antecedents, "Sodom and Gomorrah."
In these instances everlasting destruction is set forth, and we may legitimately infer that the "everlasting fire" (Matt. 25.41), is an agent of utter destruction, its effects being final and forever.
While contending, however, most earnestly that it is a serious error, and very pernicious in its effects, to impute to the judgment of the Most High the unutterable severity of eternal torment, we do with equal earnestness desire to set before you the fearful consequences of being found on the left hand of the Judge in that day. Evil doers who live and die impenitent and unbelieving have a judgment awaiting them, attended in its execution with "tribulation and anguish," and eternal in its issue. ["Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil " (Rom. 2.9).] It is evident that our Lord, in what He says concerning those on His left hand, has in view the wicked who have lived in the society of those who have believed on Him, and loved His name and His people. They will consequently have heard the Gospel testimony concerning Him. There are vast masses of mankind who will not have had these advantages, who having sinned without law, will perish without law; but such as are introduced by our Lord into this awful scene of a future judgment, separated and set at His left hand, will be judged by the law) They have rejected the stone which God has made the head stone of the corner, and now this stone will fall upon them and "grind them to powder."
"For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law" (Rom. 2. 12).
"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."—REV. 20.14, 15.
BEFORE entering upon the consideration of this Scripture, I must refer to an earlier chapter of this prophetic book, to a passage which is considered one of the pillars on which the doctrine of eternal torment rests. This is the eleventh verse of the fourteenth chapter, "And the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name." These words occur in a highly symbolical book, and in a highly symbolical vision of that book. Symbols are often found convenient for supporting opinions which plain language does not confirm; and this is no exception. The passage cited describes an hour of judgment announced in the seventh verse, "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." But this judgment, though most severe in its nature, is not the judgment of the last day. A careful comparison of this and the following chapters clearly proves that this visitation of wrath is prior to the millennial period; and is not descriptive of events in the end of this world. The vision is one of others introductory to those which describe more fully the downfall of Babylon, under the figure of a burning city, the smoke of which is said to ascend up for ever and ever. But the vision of the final judgment in chapter 20.11, when "the dead small and great stand before God," is not introduced until after that of the downfall of Babylon, and many other awful scenes; for the destruction of the beast—the binding of Satan for a thousand years—the final struggle between Satan and the servants of God—and the casting of the devil into the lake of fire and brimstone— all these visions precede that of the judgment clay, and it is straining Scripture to apply the terms of the vision in Rev. 14.11, to the final condemnation of the wicked.
The dragon is "that old Serpent—the Devil and Satan" (Rev. 12.9), referring to the embodiment which the devil took in tempting Eve. The beast that rose up out of the sea (Rev. 13.1), represents secular power, instigated by the devil to persecute and kill the saints of the Most High. The beasts in the prophet's vision (Daniel 7), in like manner represent the earthly powers that oppressed the Jews.
The language of this verse is nearly paralleled with that applied by the prophet Isaiah to the destruction of Idumea and its capital, Bozrah; ["It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever" (Isa. 34.10).] and the words do not necessarily include or convey more in one place than in the other. In considering the doctrine of eternal torment, we have to do only with the last judgment of the Most High on those who are not written in the Book of Life.
The second beast that came up out of the earth (Rev. 13.1), is not armed with horns as weapons of destruction, as the first beast was, for he has two horns like a lamb. He has, however, the nature of the serpent; and though he is not armed with strong horns, he upholds the power of the first beast, and thus in an indirect way he persecutes God's people. He is afterwards called the false prophet (Rev. 13.14, compared with chap. 19.20); and as a prophet he is evidently an ecclesiastical power claiming divine authority, and a kind of inspiration. He seems to represent an anti-Christian priesthood that abets the persecuting secular powers.
These two are wild beasts, which destroy life, in opposition to the Lamb (Rev. 14.1), which saves life, reminding us of John 10.10, "I am come that they might have life."
The woman, called Babylon the great, rides upon the beast that arose out of the sea (Rev. 18.3), and rules him (Rev. 17.18). She is represented as a bold, shameless, dissolute, gaudily attired harlot, alluring and ruling over kings until they become disgusted with her, and burn her with fire. These kings, however, after they have destroyed the woman, still continue in league with the beast she sat upon; and afterwards are found associated with the beast and the false prophet, in their final battle with Him whose name is called the Word of God; which battle results in utter destruction of the two beasts, whose rise is described in the thirteenth chapter (Rev. 19.11-21).
Babylon, the mother of harlots, represents a worldly and wealthy organization of an apostate and deeply corrupted Christianity, full of malice against the faithful; and seeking their blood through those powers over which she rules. "And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth" (Rev. 18.24).
The torments mentioned in this verse are in the tenth verse said to be "in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." Do those who base the doctrine of eternal torments on these words believe that the holy angels and the Lord of glory will have before them to all eternity the spectacle of myriads of human beings writhing in agony - immortal in the torment of fire and brimstone? The smoke is forever, just as the fire is said to be "everlasting" that destroyed Sodom and Bozrah of old, and as the judgment on Jerusalem is apprehended by the hypocrites to be "everlasting burnings" (Isaiah 33.14.)
I now direct your thoughts more especially to the vision of the last judgment, as described in our text. From the eleventh verse onward the Apostle describes the vision of "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." On a great white throne appears the Supreme Judge, without name in the first instance, but "from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them." The dead of all nations, of all races and all times, called up from the states they entered at death—from sea and earth and the invisible world of spirits—John saw all these, both small and great, stand before God. The books were opened that contained the laws under which each had lived, and all the records of the Divine government, and another book which is the Book of Life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Thus did the Evangelist see in vision the grand and awful day of the last judgment—the resurrection from the first death to the execution of the sentence of the second death—and truly this was the most stupendous and transcendently awful vision that ever passed before prophet's entranced mind.
Continuing the vision, the thirteenth verse seems to be added to explain that the dead which stood before God, were in a state of life from the dead. ["And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."] Those who were not written in the Book of Life had no title to everlasting life; and in suffering the second death they suffered the forfeiture of the life they then possessed. This being suffered in a lake of fire was attended with "tribulation and anguish" (Rom. 2.9).
It is said "death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them," that they might be judged; and then "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Death and hell, or hades, are the two receptacles of the dead—the grave which receives the body, and the unseen world which receives the soul at death. The two words, in the Greek, occur 1 Cor. 15.55, "O death! where is thy sting? O grave (hades)! where is thy victory?" We have these two states united in Rev. 1.18, "I am He that lives and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Our Savior's possessing "the keys of hell and of death" may be explained by the words of Psalm 67.20, "Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death."
With regard to the books that are said to be opened, the language is, of course, figurative. Books are artificial memories and belong to human affairs; but all things that relate to the life and conduct of every individual of the human family are recorded in the infinite mind of the omniscient Judge. Nothing escapes His knowledge, nothing escapes His memory.
These books, we may suppose, contain the laws and all the records of the Divine government, with all the works, the advantages and disadvantages of men. But there is another book, which is the Lamb's Book of Life; a book wherein are written the names of the redeemed, the heirs of the grace of life in Christ Jesus. This book is mentioned in connection with the happy state of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21.27), ["And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiled, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."] and in this connection, as in Psalm 87.6, ["The Lord shall count, when he writes up the people, that this man was born there."] the book is the register of the citizens of that holy city, of those who are entitled to its blessedness—eternal life.
The Predestinarian interprets the Book of Life as the book of God's decrees. The dead, however, will not be judged by eternal decrees, but according to their works. The Apostle Paul speaks of certain Christian women "whose names," he says, "are in the Book of Life;" and surely he did not say this from his knowledge of God's decrees, but from the evidence of spiritual life manifest in their conversation. It was not the book of eternal decrees of which the Lord said, "I will not blot out the name of him that overcomes." Besides, this is called the Lamb's Book of Life, while the author of eternal purposes is not the Son but the Father. The figure presented is that of a book such as might be used in the affairs of men not as a record of their fixed purposes, but as a register of the names of persons entitled to privileges. In Scripture we frequently find mention made of books containing the names of privileged persons. [Exod. 32.32, 33; Psa. 69.28; Isa. 4.3; Dan. 12.1.] And the Lamb's Book of Life contains the names of all, who from the foundation of the world have believed in God as Abraham believed, who are redeemed from destruction, and made inheritors of eternal life through the Lamb slain.
And what is the "second death?" Why is it called the "second?" This death, as interpreted by those who hold the doctrine of eternal torments, is not the opposite of life, but is quite consistent with immortality, with consciousness, and with the most acute sensibility. It is quite common to call it a living death. In support of this view it is urged that the Apostle Paul uses the words "dead in trespasses and sins" to express the state of living men; and it is therefore inferred that we ought to regard the second death in a similar light. But this we cannot do; for this death is the second in relation to the first—the physical death, from which transgressors will have been raised when they suffer the second. The first death is not that referred to in the figurative words "dead in sins," but is the literal death that passes upon all men by Adam's offence. Even the death in sins, which relates to the mind and not to the body, is loss of life in the Apostle's sense, being a state of insensibility, as described in the words of the same epistle, "being past feeling." The second death is not analagous to the death in sins, but to that death in relation to which it is the second. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." This is the first death; and the second is of a like nature, only it is suffered in what is compared to a lake of fire. In the twelfth verse it is said, "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." These are they that had been dead; but when they stand before God, according to the thirteenth verse, they are in a risen state, alive from the dead. And those who shall not, through faith, have laid hold on eternal life, and who are not written in the Lamb's book as the heirs of life, forfeit, as the effect of the righteous judgment of God, the life to which they are raised; and this forfeiture is the second death. It must be understood as second in relation to that spoken of in the thirteenth verse, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them."
Death is the loss of life, and the second death is the loss of that life which the dead will receive when the voice of the Son of God shall have called them forth from their graves. But to understand this death as an immortality of consciousness and sensation, is to regard the dead as being alive after they have suffered the second death, as much as they were when the sea, death, and hades delivered them up. As to their being "dead in sins," those unhappy beings, whose names are not found written in the Book of Life, are as much dead in this sense, when their graves give them up and they stand before God, as they were when living in the present world. They have not been regenerated in the interval. In the vision before us we are not contemplating the dead as suffering death, but those who are alive from the dead suffering death a second time. And, whatever tribulation and anguish shall attend this death, when it shall have become a dreadful reality, there will be no life, no after-suffering.
But we are met with an objection founded on the tenth verse of this chapter, where the devil is said to be " cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." It is argued, that if wicked men are to be associated with the devil and his angels in the lake of fire, since the devil will be in everlasting misery there, so also must the wicked of the human race; for the doom of all in that place will be identical. Now I fear I shall rudely disturb some old habits of thought, when I affirm that the Scriptures do not afford any proof that wicked men will ever be associated with the devil and his angels, or be at the same time with them in the ever-lasting fire. Nay, I affirm that the Scriptures furnish no evidence that the devil and his angels will suffer eternally, in the sense commonly understood.
With regard to the tenth verse, it seems pretty clear that the punishment of the Wicked One takes place before the universal resurrection. This verse seems to end the vision with which the chapter commences, and the eleventh verse introduces another vision—that of the resurrection, and a final judgment of the whole human race. And I think that in the order of time the things in the latter vision will succeed those of the former. This is, to my mind, confirmed by our Lord's words, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25.41). The fire is prepared for the devil and his angels before the dread sentence goes forth, "Depart from Me, ye cursed." From this I conclude that these fallen spirits will have received their portion in this fire before those on the left hand of the Supreme Judge are sentenced to suffer in it. I hold that these fallen spirits are judged and sentenced before the day of the judgment of the human race; and that the impenitent and unbelieving of these are sentenced to suffer in the fire previously prepared for the devil and his angels. We are not to suppose that the everlasting fire is prepared from the foundation of the world, in anticipation of the judgment of the angels that kept not their first estate. 'The kingdom was prepared for the blessed of the Father "from the foundation of the world," [Matt. 25.34] but the different language of the forty-first verse ["Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."] leads to the conclusion that there is no such previous preparation of the fire. It is prepared when the beings who are to suffer in it are brought to judgment; and that is before the judgment of the world of men. And with this agrees the language of the Apostle Paul in I Cor. 15.24, 25, 26: "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For He must reign till He bath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Here it is said that death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed; this implies that all enemies besides have been previously destroyed. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor. 15.54). The satanic powers are included in "all rule, and all authority, and power," which the Son of God will put down, or destroy; for in verse twenty-five these are described as "all enemies."
Let it be understood, in relation to the present argument, that I lay no greater stress on what is here advanced, than that it shows we have no proof from the Scriptures that wicked men will be associated at the same time with the satanic powers in the everlasting fire. It is nowhere said so; the Scriptures just referred to rather lead to the conclusion that these powers will be destroyed before the last judgment takes place.
Turning our attention again to Rev. 20 to, the beast and the false prophet, as well as the devil, are said to be tormented for ever and ever in the lake of fire; but the beast and the false prophet are symbolical representations of anti-Christian systems. That the beast and the false prophet are included in the torment for ever and ever is manifest, the verb translated "shall be tormented" being in the plural number; and to make the meaning definite the reading should be "they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." In opposition to this, it is urged by some, that the persons who worship the beast are included in the terms, "the beast and the false prophet." But this is not tenable; for when the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the people deceived by them are dealt with in another manner. After stating that "these both," that is, the beast and the false prophet, "were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," it says, "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."
The judgment, or rather the great battle that ends in the casting of the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire and brimstone, will issue in their utter destruction. For these are emblematic of anti-Christian systems that deceive men; they are the same as those referred to by the Apostle Paul in another form, and whose destruction he predicts in these words, "Whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess. 2.8). The devil, in the punishment described in Rev. 20.10, is associated with symbolical representations of those delusive systems, to which he is represented in chapter 13.2, as giving his power to deceive the nations to their destruction. It is also said in connection with those who are not written in the Book of Life, that "death and hades were cast into the lake of fire." Will it be affirmed that these also are tormented, and that they live for ever and ever? Is not the meaning evident, namely, that death and hades will be destroyed? And these instances should convince us how dangerous it is to found such a doctrine as that in question upon detached and highly figurative passages.
I have the conviction that all satanic powers will be utterly and for ever destroyed, and that this is the meaning of Rev. 20.l0. Like Sodom and Gomorrah they will suffer "the vengeance of eternal fire." They expect destruction. "Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?" (Mark 1.24; Luke 4.34). The demon mentioned by Matthew uses the word "torment," instead of "destroy." Now, the Apostle Paul foretold that, when the end comes, Jesus Christ will have destroyed all rule, and all authority, and power—that is, "all enemies." For the word translated "put down" in 1 Cor. 15.24, is the same as that rendered "destroyed" in the twenty-sixth verse. Everyone understands, of course, that when death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed, it will be entirely abolished, and have no more existence. And are we not to understand the same word, which is rendered "put down," in the same sense?
It is said in Rom. 6.9, "Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more, death hath no more dominion over Him." And our Lord says of the children of God, "Neither can they die any more" (Luke 20.36). It is the death of those who are Christ's at His coming of which the Apostle speaks in passages referred to above (1 Cor. 15).
The contemplation of the last judgment, even in the view I take of it, is sufficiently terrible to cause our Savior's gracious words to fall on our ears as a joyful sound—" God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And so understanding these things I have the pleasing hope and prospect that God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, will in the end utterly abolish all sin, all suffering, all death; that they will forever disappear from the universe; and that in the eternal settlement of things there will be but one kingdom, and that the kingdom of God—a realm of life, of love, of holiness, and of joy; and of this happy prospect no one shall rob me.
THE PENALTY OF THE LAW FOR SIN.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."—ISAIAH 53.6.
IT is not necessary to occupy time in proving what 1 we may safely assume, namely, that this passage refers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this chapter the spirit "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." And there is not in the whole Book of God another prophetic chapter equally distinct in its testimony on this subject; Here prophecy reads like history; the events predicted were so sure to come to pass that they are spoken of as accomplished facts.
Our manifold sins are compared to the devious wanderings of sheep, when they go astray and become separated from their shepherd and from each other. This similitude is very frequently used by the prophets of old, and by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to represent our departures from the living God. The Apostle Peter, having in view the words of the text, wrote, "For ye were as sheep going astray." Our text classes all mankind together in one common apostasy, " All we like sheep have gone astray," but everyone has taken a course of his own; all have sinned, but in many different ways; "we have turned everyone to his own way." The peril to which wandering sheep are exposed is probably one reason for using this similitude to describe the condition of sinful men, and their peril was much greater in early times than it is now. The dangers of pastoral life are incidentally mentioned in David's history. And in the prophecy of Amos the deliverance of a remnant of Israel is introduced under the figure of a shepherd taking "two legs or a piece of an ear" of a sheep out of the mouth of a lion. The twenty-third Psalm attributes the security of the sheep, in passing through the dangerous valley, to the presence of the Divine Shepherd with His rod and His staff.
The text also affirms that Jehovah laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all. In the eleventh verse also it is written, "By His knowledge (the knowledge of Him) shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities." The iniquity which, in the one place, Jehovah is said to lay upon His righteous servant, and which, in the other, that servant is said to bear, is necessarily the punishment of our iniquity. The text is translated by Boothroyd thus: "And Jehovah bath caused to light on Him the punishment of the iniquities of us all." Henderson, another translator of Isaiah, gives the passage thus: "But Jehovah hath inflicted upon Him the punishment of us all." The eleventh verse stands thus in Lowth's version: "For the punishment of their iniquities shall He bear." Indeed, in the authorized version the word translated "iniquity" in the text is rendered "punishment of iniquity" in Lev. 26.41, 43; and "punishment" in 1 Samuel 28.10. Also the word translated "sin" in the twelfth verse, "He bare the sin of many" is translated "punishment" in Zech. 14.19; and the word also occurs in Genesis 19.15, where it necessarily means the consequence, or the punishment of the iniquity of the city. Independently of this criticism, it must be obvious to everyone that it was the punishment—the penal consequence—of our sins, that the Father laid on His servant. And this He bore solely as the substitute for those who had sinned, being Himself "holy, harmless, and undefiled." Jehovah calls Him, His "righteous servant," and His "elect," in whom His soul delighted.
That Christ, in His. suffering and death, bore the curse of the law as the sinner's substitute, is a fundamental truth of the Gospel; and it is through Him, as such, that believers in His name are saved or redeemed from the curse. The principle of substitution is prominent throughout the remarkable chapter in which our text stands; and the apostles gave especial prominence to the same principle; "In due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5.6). "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us " (Rom. 5.8). "If one died for all, then were all dead" (2 Cor. 5. 14.). " Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree " (1 Peter 2.24). " Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3.16). It is impossible for words to lay down more plainly than these do the principle of substitution. When David, in his bitter mourning for Absalom, said, "Would God I had died for thee," did he not mean, "Would that I had died in Absalom's stead?" so that his rebellious son's life might have been spared. And David's words do not convey the idea of one dying instead of another more plainly than the words of the prophet and those of the apostles teach the truth, that Christ died instead of sinners. And if He suffered and died in their stead and as their substitute, it is implied that they were under sentence to suffer and to die. His death was instead of their death—death for death. He died to ransom sinners from death; not to redeem them from an endless life in misery. "We thus judge," saith the Apostle, "that if one died for all, then were all dead."
Let us now consider the nature of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as the substitute for transgressors of the law of God.
The agony of both His soul and body was great in the extreme. He possessed the constitution of man in both respects, and in both He suffered when the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. The terms used by the prophet in this chapter, to describe the sufferings of Christ, are expressive of extreme pain, as well as of death. The prophet foretold not only that Jehovah's righteous servant should die, but he also predicted that extreme anguish would attend His death. He not only "poured out His soul (or life) unto death," but "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities," and "with His stripes we are healed." The word rendered "bruised" is a very strong term; it signifies" crushed;" and the same word is translated "broken in pieces" in Psalm 72.4. The word expressed by "stripes" signifies wales made on the flesh by scourging, such as were inflicted on the Apostle at Philippi (Acts 16.33). The Psalmist also foretold the extreme suffering that the Messiah should undergo: 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. Psa. 22.14, 15, 16).
The sacred narrative of the four evangelists concerning the sufferings of Christ, entirely agrees with the predictions of the prophets and the Psalms. Read the passage in the Gospel where Jesus is represented in the garden on the slope of the Mount of Olives. The Evangelist says, "Being in an agony He prayed more earnestly." And the word "agony" means more than passive endurance—it signifies active struggle or conflict—"His visage was so marred more than any man"—and testified of the inward anguish that He endured. " He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy," and when He uttered the words, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death," He was being overwhelmed with anguish to the very extremity of human endurance. The sweat fell from Him to the ground as it were great drops of blood; and the iniquitous transactions immediately following this scene of agony filled up that cup of bitterness which, at His Father's will, Jesus drank for our sakes. He was crucified; nailed on the cross, the loving Savior lingered out His life from the third unto the ninth hour.
The relation of the foregoing remarks to the subject immediately under notice will now have our attention. In the previous discourses I have endeavored to establish my position relative to the doctrine of eternal torment by the fair grammatical and logical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. It is impossible to settle this question on mere rational grounds, by reasoning on what is fit and proper for God to do consistently with His acknowledged perfections. The question is, What has God said He will do? This momentous question can be decided only by impartially ascertaining the sense of Scripture. This I have endeavored to do; and now, in support of what has been already advanced, I request your attention to two or three considerations connected with the suffering and death of our substitute, the Lord of Glory. At the same time it should be observed that the considerations I am about to submit are only collateral to the main argument.
Jesus died in our stead to redeem us from death, and from death of every description, including the ultimate penalty of the law, "the second death." As transgressors we were subject to this penalty called "the curse of the law;" and from it the blood of Jesus Christ is our redemption, "If one died for all, then were all dead." But the doctrine that the unredeemed will suffer eternal misery, implies that they will live forever. Now we all were under the curse of the law, and were consequently exposed to the suffering of eternal torment, if that be the curse. But if so, Jesus died to redeem us, not from death, but from immortality in suffering. This is, however, directly opposed to all the teaching of Scripture; for nothing can be more certain than that the Prince of Life died to redeem us from death.
It is not only said that " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law," but that, as our substitute, He was "made a curse for us" (Galatians 3.13). And I believe it is almost universally understood, that Christ endured the whole curse of the law, and by so enduring redeemed us therefrom. But if the penalty, to which we, as transgressors of the law, were subject, is immortality in misery, how did the Redeemer suffer this penalty as our substitute? It is said that "tribulation and anguish," at the day of judgment will be "upon every soul of man that doeth evil;" also that "the wages of sin is death." Taking these words as explanatory of the curse of the law, we have no difficulty in understanding how our Savior endured it; but it is impossible to comprehend how He can have endured the law's penalty as a substitute for the guilty, if that penalty be eternal torment. How, in that case, can we understand that "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all?" This difficulty perplexed my own mind upwards of forty years since, and, mentioning the subject to an eminent minister, he replied—"the great and illustrious character of the Son of God imparts an infinite value to His sacrifice." And this probably expresses the common sentiment on this question. Now, I can understand how the sacrifice of One so Great, so glorious, and so holy, as the only begotten Son of God, is equal to and sufficient for the many for whom He died; but how that consideration can render temporary suffering a substitute and an equivalent for eternal suffering, I never could comprehend. Viewing the penalty of the law as I now view it, I can understand that Jesus, in being "made a curse for us," was an all-sufficient substitute.
With regard to the strange assertion that, "if the penal consequence of sin be not eternal misery, there is no adequate end for which our Lord should have died;" the man who says this says in reality, that eternal life is not worth so great a price; and that redemption from death, in order that we may inherit eternal life, is effected by too costly a sacrifice.
I have not entered upon the historical view of the argument. Those who maintain the doctrine of eternal torments do not in any degree rely on Moses and the prophets and the Psalms for its support; for, as to this subject they are all silent. Indeed, the language of the Old Testament Scriptures gives an entirely opposite, view of the punishment of evil-doers, —"But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away" (Psalm 37.20). "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed forever" (Psalm 92.7). "But all the wicked shall He destroy" (Psalm 145.20). "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" (Malachi 4.1). It may also be remarked that the doctrine in question does not appear either in the recorded sermons, or in the epistles of the apostles; but, whenever they allude to the condemnation of the wicked, it is in words which clearly imply destruction.
I have now stated the thoughts of my heart on this grave subject. It is possible that difficulties will still be felt by some in accepting the views that. have been presented; but, on the other hand, is there no difficulty in believing that many, many millions of God's rational creatures will, in some part of His universe, exist in eternal agony, and will never, never be destroyed? Is there no difficulty in believing that the works of the devil will thus forever remain, and that no final destruction awaits them? The words of the sentence which the Almighty passed upon the enemy of His government, convey to my mind the idea of his destruction. Of the seed of the woman whom the serpent deceived and betrayed, God said, addressing the serpent, "It shall bruise thy head." Now the figure here presented is that of the heel of a mighty one crushing the head of the serpent, and so causing its destruction. Moreover, it is plainly stated in the New Testament, that the Son of God took flesh and blood, and was manifested to destroy both the devil and the works of the devil,—"that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil" (Heb. 2.14). "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil " (1 John 3.8). The Scriptures also affirm that "All the wicked will be destroyed;" and the Apostle Peter says that "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men " (2 Peter 3.7).
My own conviction is that when the Son of God shall have finished all the work which the Father gave Him to do, He will have made an utter end of sin and its bitter effects; that He will have completely destroyed both the devil and all his works; that, when the Lord of Glory shall utter the momentous words, "It is done. I am Alpha, and Omega, the beginning and the end," there will be but one region of immortality, the blessed inhabitants of which will live in a state of joy unspeakable, and full of glory, for the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. This is my conviction, and it incites me more and more to love God in Christ and Christ in God, and to love His appearing. It heightens, too, beyond expression my sense of the blissful prospect beyond the grave which I expect so soon to enter.
The word translated "perdition" is the same as that generally elsewhere translated "destruction."