ETERNAL
PUNISHMENT
FOUR SERMONS
BY
Dr. C. D. Cole
F O R E W O R D
This is a four-part series of
messages preached before the
I have been richly blessed by the
writings of Dr. C. D. Cole. He was a
great doctrinal preacher, with the gift of putting his words into
writings. This series of messages is just
another example of how well he expounded the scriptures.
May the Lord bless His word as it is
read by those who search these pages.
Al
Gormley, Pastor
Table of Contents
PART
I: Introduction…………………………………..1
PART
II: Death…………………………………………9
PART
III: A Study of
Words…………………………..16
PART
IV: The Bible’s Proof…………………………..28
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
By: C. D. Cole
PART I
INTRODUCTION
We have chosen to speak and write
upon a very solemn theme. The flesh will not be entertained, but the spirit may
be profited. Much grace is needed if we are to hear profitably; grace for both
saint and sinner. The flesh, which profiteth nothing, will hinder both classes.
The saint still has a fleshly nature, and the sinner has nothing but a fleshly
nature.
Just as no criminal would enjoy a
lecture on the time, place, and nature of the punishment to be meted out to him
by the law he has violated, so no lost man will enjoy a sermon on the
punishment he will receive for his violation of the law of God. If my preaching
on this subject should meet with universal approval, I would be suspicious as
to my position on it. It would be good evidence of my being in error.
When Pastor Russell was speaking to
a large crowd, in denial of the truth on this theme, a thoroughly worldly man
promised him a liberal donation because, as he said, it makes a man comfortable
to feel that there is no hell. And when Robert Ingersoll was once inveighing
against the doctrine of eternal punishment, a drunkard arose and said, “Make it
mighty strong, Bob, for a lot of us fellows are depending on you.” And there
are people before me today, and some will doubtless read this message who would
be glad to know that there is no eternal punishment for the lost. Any teaching on the subject that has the
approval of the ungodly might well be regarded with suspicion.
This is widespread denial of the
truth about eternal punishment. I expect there is more literature being
circulated today against this truth than against any other truth of the Bible.
You can hardly name a modern sect that does not either deny or eviscerate this
doctrine. Besides such groups as Christian Science, Russellism, Seventh Day
Adventism, and Christadelphians, there are many individuals in the evangelical
denominations who boldly flout their declared faith in this doctrine. We allow
that no truth should be rejected merely because heretics may hold it, but when
such an imposing array of errorist is on one side of a question, there is
certainly a need for serious reflection, and a challenge I Thessalonians 5:21,
to “Prove all things; hold fast that
which is good.”
We preach upon this subject, first
of all, because it is a part of the once delivered faith. Whatever God has
revealed is to be our study and proclamation. Then, a discussion of this truth
will increase the gratitude of the saints for their glorious salvation. They
will see that they have been saved from something as well as to
some-thing. Moreover, a sermon on this solemn subject may, under God, put fear
into the hearts of sinners and cause them to flee the wrath to come. Job 36:18,
“Because there is wrath, beware lest he
take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.”
Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” Luke 13:3, “…except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish.”
THE NATURE OF MAN
Man is a compound being of three
elements: body, soul, and spirit, I Thessalonians 5:23. We can also think of
man as a dual being when we wish to differentiate between that which is
material and that which is immaterial. Our Lord divided man into two parts:
Matthew 10:28, “…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.”
The soul, being the principle part
of man, is often employed for the man himself. Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; (Hebrew –
lives) and man became a living soul.” That
is a living person, or a living man. Exodus 1:5, “And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy
souls:…” (seventy persons) I Peter 3:20, “…eight souls were saved by water.” (eight persons) The word soul
is even applied to a dead body. Numbers 6:6, “…he shall come at no dead body.” The word here for “body” in the
Hebrew is “nephesh” or “soul”, and the clause, if literally translated, will be
“And he shall not approach a dead soul,” that is, a dead person. The word
“nephesh” (soul) is translated dead “body” eight times in our English Bible.
Man also has a spirit as a separate and distinct
entity. We will argue this point later, as we only with to affirm here and now
that man has a spirit by virtue of his creation. Man lost no part of his being
in the fall, but all the parts became depraved.
In the New Testament, the immaterial
part of man is spoken of as the real person in distinction from the body as the
house in which he lives. II Corinthians 5:1-2, “…we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved,…For in this we groan,…” The pronoun “we” so often occurring in
the passage stands for the immaterial and invisible part of man that dwells for
a while in the mortal body and then moves out to go to be with Christ. This
certainly teaches conscious existence with the Lord after death.
That the soul or immaterial part of
man continues in conscious existence after death is seen in the case of the
rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-24, “There
was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was
laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which
fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into
Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up
his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue;
for I am tormented in this flame.” The rich man was in conscious suffering
after the death of the body, and Lazarus was in conscious comfort. The rich
man’s body was buried and the soul of Lazarus was taken into Abraham’s bosom by
angels. Their experiences after death could not have been bodily experiences,
therefore, they were possessed of another element that had conscious existence
after death.
I do not call this a parable. Our
Lord did not say, “Hear another parable,: neither does the Holy Spirit say that
He was speaking in parables. The following extract from a well known writer is
worthy of consideration:
“The rich man and Lazarus I am not
free to regard as a parable, while having no controversy with those who so
regard it. Not only is it not called a parable, but names are introduced, a
thing without precedent in our Lord’s parables. I prefer to look at the rich man
and Lazarus as actual characters, whose history in this world and beyond is
solemnly traced by the Lord for the moral profit of men everywhere.”
What is said of the two men in this
life is quite in keeping with actual occurrence, therefore, what is said of
them in death and afterwards must also be true to facts. We grant that the
physical torment is symbolical, but it is a symbolism of spiritual torment. Is
the symbolism terrible? Then the truth intended to be taught is also terrible.
When Stephen was martyred, Acts
7:58-59, “And cast him out of the city,
and stoned him:…And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Paul had some wonderful experiences on account of
which he was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. II Corinthians
12:7, “And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a
thorn in the flesh,…” II Corinthians 12:2-4, “…such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man,
(whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that
he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not
lawful for a man to utter.” This certainly teaches that a disembodied
spirit can consciously exist and be intelligently active. Paul did not think a
“disembodied spirit is a self-contradiction.”
Various senses of the word “DEATH”
Life and death are antonyms, and it is axiomatic that
a man cannot be both dead and alive in the same sense at the same time. But one
may be alive in one sense and dead in a different sense at the same time. This is
obvious, Matthew 8:22, “But Jesus said
unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” He meant for the
spiritual dead to bury the physical dead. A man may be alive physically and
dead spiritually at the same time, as is true of all the unregenerate living.
We believe there are four distinct senses in which the word death is used in
the Bible.
Physical death. This is
caused by the departure of the spirit from the body. James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Acts 7:59, “And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit.”
Spiritual death. This is the
condition of human nature as the result of the fall of man. It is a death to
holiness, the depravity of nature. There is a human spirit in every man by
which he understands the things of man. I Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. The born again man has the Holy Spirit by which
he understands the things of God. Verse 12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God.” The human spirit is essential to life in the physical realm; the Holy
Spirit is essential to life in the spiritual realm. The human spirit enables a
man to be active in human affairs; the Holy Spirit enables a man to see and
enter the
Judicial death. This is God’s
sentence of death upon all men. It is the death of condemnation as opposed to
justification of life. Romans 5:18, “Therefore
as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by
the righteousness on one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life.” It is death in the sense of guilt. Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The
antithesis of judicial death is justification of life. Romans 5:18 quoted
above. Life and death in the judicial sense are generally overlooked by
commentators. Romans 6:11, “Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The believer is dead to the guilt of sin
and alive or justified before God. The unbeliever is dead in sin, that is,
condemned before God. We have this aspect of life and death in I John 5:12, “He that hath the Son hath life: and he
that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” The present life in Christ is
life in the sense of justification; freedom from the penalty of sin;
deliverance from the wrath to come, and since this is unalterable, it is called
everlasting life.
The second death. This is the
execution of the judicial sentence against sin. It is described, 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.” This is the
gehenna into which our Lord said both soul and body of the wicked would be
cast. This is the final state of the lost. This is hell proper and follows the
judgment of the great white throne. This is the place of unquenchable fire.
The Greek word “hades” should never
be translated hell as the place of final punishment. Hades is the intermediate
state and is to be emptied into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:13-14, “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. And death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Hades is the place of
punishment between death and the judgment, after which both soul and body will
enter the lake of fire. “…the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from
temptation, and…how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of
judgment.” (II Peter 2:9,
PART II
DEATH
We wish to say a few more things
about the nature of man, for this is vital in the discussion of eternal
punishment. In our first message, we observed that man is a compound being,
composed of matter and spirit. The human body is of material substance of the
same earth from which the beasts have their bodies. Genesis 2:7,19. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul…And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field,
and every foul of the air;…” This gives man kinship to the beast. Another
thing that man and beast have in common is a soul. Before making personal
investigation, we thought this was only a vagary of Pastor Russell. The average
Christian will be shocked at the statement that the beast has a soul, but this
is both scriptural and scientific. The Hebrew word for creature in Genesis
1:21,24 and many other places is “Nephesh” or “soul”, the same word used to
describe man as a living soul in Genesis 2:7.
It is soul that distinguishes animal life from plant life. Life is a
general term to denote anything capable of growth and propagation. There is
animate life and inanimate life. Inanimate life is every form of life without
soul. Animal life, or soul life, includes everything that is capable of
conscious sensation. This includes the brute as well as man. It is the soul
that gives to the body the physical senses, such as touch, sight, hearing,
smell, and taste; and, these belong to beast as well as man.
F. W. Grant: “In the fact of being a
living soul, he (man) does not differ from the beast, but he does in the way he
becomes one.”
This is also true of man’s body.
Dr. C. I. Scofield: “In itself,
nephesh, or soul, implies self-conscious life, as distinguished from plants,
which have unconscious life. In the sense of self-conscious life, animals also
have “soul.”
God has a soul. Isaiah 42:1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth;…” Matthew 12:18, “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is
well pleased:…”
What shall we reason from the
foregoing facts? Some reason that there is no difference between man and beast
because both have a soul. By the same law of reasoning, we could argue there is
no difference between man and God, or between beast and God, because all have
souls.
MAN AND BEAST DISTINGUISHED
The origin of the human soul
is different from that of beast. Of the brute creation, Genesis 1:24, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth
the living creature (soul) after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it
was so.” But of man it is said, Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Compare this verse with Genesis 1:11, 20, 24, 27. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon
the earth: and it was so…And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in
the open firmament of heaven…(verse 24 quoted above) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them.”
Man is made in the image of God. There is a link
between man and God that does not exist between the beast and God. God is a
spirit and to be in His image involves man as a spirit as well as a soul. Man
has a spirit which the beast does not have. This makes man the offspring of
God. Acts 17:28, “For in him we live,
and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring.” This explains why God is called the Father of
spirits in Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence:
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
The spirit in man distinguishes him from the beast in
three particulars:
a. It makes him a moral being,
capable of sinning, which is not true of the beast. The beast is only under the
law of his nature, and natural retribution overtakes the cow when she eats too
much, and the dog when he eats poison. But man as a moral being is under a
moral law, which makes him accountable to God, and liable to positive and penal
punishment. The laws of nature and human society inflict punishment in this
life for their transgression, but penal punishment from God does not begin
until after this life.
b. The spirit in man makes him a
rational being, capable of reasoning. To man, God says in Isaiah 1;18, “Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
c. The spirit of man makes him an
endless being. He will have conscious and personal existence in all ages to
come. He may lose his well-being, but never his being. There is this age and an
age to come for human existence. Matthew 12:32, “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.” The
spirit in man is what causes his soul to survive the death of the body.
PROOF THAT NATURAL MAN HAS A SPIRIT
I Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God.” This verse tells us that the spirit enables a
man to understand the things of man, so to be without the spirit would preclude
intercourse in human affairs.
II Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” This verse speaks about the filthiness
of the spirit. This can only refer to the human spirit, which the natural and
fallen man still has. It cannot mean that which is born of the Holy Spirit. The
spirit of the natural man is depraved like the rest of his being.
Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD,…” Now, a candle is to
give light, and the spirit of man is the seat of his understanding; the light
by which he reasons and understands; the light that constitutes every man a
responsible being.
Zechariah 12:1, God “…formeth the spirit of man within him.”
It is obvious from the context that this speaks of man in creation and not in
regeneration.
The Sadducees were a party of Jews
in our Lord’s time who denied the immortality of the soul and the resurrection
of the body. Acts 23:8-9, “For the
Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the
Pharisees confess both. And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were
of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil is this man:
but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.” Josephus
tells us that the Sadducees believed that the soul died with the body. Paul
once split the council by taking the side of the Pharisees.
Why is it said in Genesis 2:7 that
man became a living soul rather that a living spirit? F. W. Grant thinks it was
to “hide pride from man.” The angels are spirits, and they had already fallen;
also the condemnation of the devil was for pride. “Thus he is called ‘Adam’
from adamah, the ground, as if to remind him of his origin; ‘Dust thou
art.’ Yet he was assuredly something
more than ‘dust.’ Here in the same way, his being a living soul reminds him of
his kinship with the beasts; yet it does not show that he is not more. Among spiritual
beings, this is, indeed, his real distinction; that he is a ‘living soul.’” (F.
W. Grant)
It is not until after death that
man’s real distinction begins to manifest itself. It is then that he is called
a “spirit.” After the resurrection, Luke 24:36-39, “And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and
saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye
troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and
bones, as ye see me have.” Our Lord did not believe that “a disembodied
spirit is a self-contradiction.”
I Peter 3:19, “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
These were doubtless the disembodied spirits of lost men to whom Noah preached
while they were in the body and were disobedient to the word of God. When Peter
wrote they were absent from the body and in prison.
Hebrews 12:23, “…and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
WHAT BECOMES OF A MAN WHEN HE DIES?
Death does not end human existence
as it does with the beast. Man is a moral and responsible being, accountable to
God the Creator and Lawgiver. At death, the constituent parts of man are
separated until the resurrection, when they are again united, and come before
God in judgment.
If physical death is punishment for
sin, then redeemed saints are punished for their sins. And dogs, which cannot sin,
are punished as severely as men who do sin.
Matthew 10:28, “And 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.”
If the soul dies when the body dies, then the above scripture is
unintelligible. The man who kills the body would also kill the soul.
Some years ago, H. A. Ironside was
holding meetings in the same city where a Seventh-Day Adventist was lecturing
in a large tent. One day in passing the tent, he noticed a very imposing sign
in large letters: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD, “I will give $10,000.00 United
States Gold Coin to anyone who will product a text from the Bible that speaks
of an immortal soul.” Ironside went inside and contacted the preacher, saying,
I have come to see you, Sir, about the sign outside. The man inquired if he had
come to collect the reward, and Ironside told him that he was afraid he could
not claim it on his terms. The man thought that Ironside was admitting that the
Bible did not teach the immortality of the soul. Then Ironside asked, “Because
the Bible nowhere speaks of an immortal soul, do you therefore believe that the
soul of man is mortal?” Certainly,” the man answered; “undoubtedly if the Bible
never speaks of an immortal soul, the soul must be mortal.” His attention was
then called to the fact that just as the Bible does not mention an immortal
soul, neither does it ever speak of a mortal soul. It was pointed out to him
that, arguing from his standpoint, it was just as reasonable to say that the
soul of man is not mortal, since the Bible never mentions a mortal soul.
Ironside went on: “If I can produce a scripture that declares the soul is not
killed when the body is killed, will you give me the $10,000.00? For, I suppose,
by an immortal soul, you mean a soul that lives when the body dies.” The man
began to hedge and said it was a question of interpretation, but Ironside
produced the passage: Matthew 10:28, “…fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:…”
PART III
A STUDY OF WORDS
Those who oppose the truth of
eternal punishment, in the sense of eternal, conscious suffering, make a show
of wisdom, and confuse the average person by their use of scriptural words and
phrases as they are found in the Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of
the Bible. We will now take up some of these words and do our best, with all
the help we can get from others, to give their meaning as employed in the word
of God.
QEBER
This is a Hebrew word of the Old
Testament, and is translated grave, thirty five times; sepulcher, twenty six
times; and burying place, six times. It is translated by the word grave or its
equivalent in every place, for the word presented no difficulties to the
translators. It denotes the place to which the body goes after death. It is
never used in connection with the soul.
SHEOL
This is also a Hebrew word of the
Old Testament and is translated hell, thirty one times; pit, three times; and
grave, thirty one times. What a pity the translators did not give us a uniform
translation of sheol as they did Qeber! Sheol does not mean the grave, neither
does it mean hell, as the place of final punishment. One example will suffice
to show how ridiculous it is to make sheol mean the grave. Psalm 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, (sheol)
and all the nations that forget God.”
If sheol means the grave, the clear implication is that only the wicked will be
buried, the righteous to be left to rot on top of the ground.
Sheol of the Old Testament, and
hades of the New Testament simply mean the place of departed spirits, and in
the revised version, these words are brought into the text without being
translated.
There were sensational headlines in
the papers back in 1881, when the revised version first came from the press, to
the effect that hell had been taken out of the Bible. But what the revisers did
was to bring sheol and hades (words sometimes translated hell and
sometimes grave) over into the English
untranslated. The only hell they took out of the Bible was the hell that
was never truly in the Bible. These words refer to the place of departed
spirits. But in the place of departed spirits there are two departments: one a
place for lost spirits and the other for the spirits of the saved. The Greek
names for these departments were Tartartus (for the lost), and
A. J. Pollock, in his booklet on HADES
AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, has some helpful words. We quote several lines from
him:
“In giving Scripture on this
important point, we shall find in every case; locality is connected with
qeber, and never condition, and condition with sheol,
and never locality. Qeber occurs in the plural twenty seven times. Sheol
never occurs in the plural. The burial of five hundred bodies in a cemetery
means many graves, but the entrance of five hundred disembodied souls into
eternity means only one condition.
Qeber is referred to as the
EXCLUSIVE Qeber, or grave, of an individual. Sheol is never spoken of as the
EXCLUSIVE Sheol of any individual. To illustrate this we adduce the following
scriptures: “Qeber is spoken of an ‘my grave’ in Genesis 50:5, “…my grave which I have digged…”; ‘a grave’ in Numbers 19:16, “…or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.”;
‘grave of Abner’ in II Samuel 3:32, “and
wept at the grave of Abner;…”; ‘his own grave’ in I Kings 13:30, “And he laid his carcase in his own
grave;…”; ‘thy grave’ in II Chronicles 34:28, “…and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace,…”; and ‘their
graves’ in Jeremiah 8:1, “…they shall bring
out the bones…out of their graves:” Sheol is thirty one times wrongly
translated grave, but in each case without exception is translated ‘the grave.’
It is never translated ‘my grave,’ ‘a grave,’ or ‘his grave.’ Now if sheol had
meant grave it would, like qeber, possess these variations, but it does not.
The reason is very obvious. Sheol does not mean grave, it is
wrongly translated thus.”
Sheol is never spoken of in relation
to the body. It has to do only with the soul. Psalm 16:10, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;…” (sheol) Qeber is
never connected with the soul, but always with the body. Qeber (the
grave) is for the body; sheol is for the soul.
Shoel for the wicked is
associated with pain and sorrow. Deuteronomy 32:22, “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest
hell,…” (sheol) II Samuel 22:6, “The
sorrows of hell (sheol) compassed me
about;…” Psalm 116:3, “The sorrows
of death compassed me, and the pains of hell (sheol) gat hold upon me:…” Qeber is never associated with pain and sorrow,
for the body in the grave is unconscious, and cannot feel pain or sorrow. But
the soul, a conscious entity, in the condition of sheol can experience such
things.
When we turn to the New Testament,
and follow the equivalents of qeber and sheol, we find exactly the same rules
apply to them.
Qeber in the Hebrew is identical
with mnemeion in the Greek New Testament. And sheol is identical with hades in
the New Testament.
In the New Testament, mnemeion is
the Greek for grave, and hades is the Greek for the place of departed souls.
Hades is never connected with the body, and mnemeion is never connected with
the soul. Mnemeion occurs in the Greek New Testament forty two times and is
translated grave, eight times; sepulcher, twenty nine times; and tomb, five
times. In short, it is translated grave or its equivalent every time.
The Septuagint is the name of the
translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, made by the Jews of
Alexandria, and so called because it was said to be the work of seventy
translators, employed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, about 280 B.C. In
this Greek translation, out of the sixty five times in which the word sheol
occurs in the Hebrew, the Septuagint renders it hades sixty one times; thanatos,
the Greek word for death, two times; and twice it is left untranslated. Not
once do they translate it grave. That sheol of the Old Testament is the same as
hades of the New Testament is settled by comparing the following Old Testament
scripture with the New Testament quotation:
Psalm 16:10, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; (sheol) neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption.”
Acts 2:27, “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, (hades) neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption.”
Christ’s soul was in sheol or hades between His death
and His resurrection. His body was in the grave, but it did not become corrupt.
This condition of body in death was peculiar to Christ. Acts 13:36-37, “For David, after he had served his own
generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers,
and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.”
GEHENNA
This is a new word introduced by our
Lord. Gehenna is translated hell nine times and hell-fire three times. It
belongs almost exclusively to the vocabulary of our Saviour, being found only
one time (James 3:6) where not employed by Him. Gehenna is the place of eternal
punishment. It is not the grave, the place for dead bodies; nor is it hades,
the place of departed souls. It is the place for both soul and body of the
wicked after their resurrection.
Hades is temporary. Revelation
20:14, “And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire…”
Gehenna is eternal: Mark 9:43, “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:” Matthew 10:28, “And 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.” (Gehenna)
DESTROY – PERISH – CONSUME – BURN UP
Those who deny eternal torment as
the lot of the wicked employ the above words to denote extinction of being.
When pressed they disavow belief in annihilation, but to all practical ends
this is what they believe.
We affirm that the above words mean
the destruction of well-being, and deny that they mean the loss of being. They
describe the terrible suffering of people under judgment.
Hosea 13:9, “O
Job 19:10, “He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone:…” Here is a man
whom God had destroyed telling about his destruction; no loss of conscious
existence in this case.
Jeremiah 5:3, “…thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive
correction:…” How could they refuse to receive correction if they had
become extinct?
The Greek word apollumi is variously
translated into the English by such words as destroy, perish, and lose. That
this word does not mean annihilation or the loss of conscious existence is
evident from several considerations. First. It is often applied to those who
are physically alive. Paul says that if his gospel is hid it is hid to the lost
(apollumenois). They were in existence.
In John 3:16, apollumi is translated perish and is contrasted with everlasting
life in Christ, which is judicial life with its antithesis in condemnation.
Apollumi describes a terrible condition of being.
Another word in the Greek of similar
import is katakaio translated burn in our English Bible. It is not the word
which means to burn as a lamp, but it means to burn so as to hurt and injure.
The wicked are likened to worthless chaff and tares, but the burning of these
things is not the same as burning men with bodies and souls. Of the burning of
the wicked, Mark 9:46, “Where their worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” “Their worm” refers to something
that does not die, and “the fire” speaks of divine fire that cannot be put out.
(Men are sometimes called worms in the Bible.) Mark 9:49, ‘For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt.” The fire of Gehenna ia a preservative; it preserves
conscious being while it inflicts punishment.
EVERLASTING AND ETERNAL
Opponents of eternal punishment
claim that the primary meaning of aion and aionios (Greek words) is not
endlessness. But if they had to translate from the English back into the Greek
they would be forced to use aion and aionios as the meaning of everlasting and
eternal.
We are fortunate to have a
scriptural definition of aionios. In II Corinthians 4:18, it is contrasted with
temporal, and this is the meaning always, even when applied to things which, in
their vary nature, are finite and limited.
Mosheim, a man of unquestioned
learning, says that aion properly signifies indefinite or eternal duration, as
opposite to that which is finite or temporal.
Aionios is used in the Greek New
Testament 68 times. It is used once in relation to God; once in relation to
God’s power; twice in relation to the Lord; once in relation to the Holy
Spirit; 42 times in relation to the life of God’s people; 14 times to express
the duration of bliss; and seven times to express the duration of the
punishment of the wicked. If aionios means eternal as opposed to temporal 61
times, then the seven times it refers to punishment, whatever be the nature of
the punishment, it must likewise mean eternal or endless.
Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), in his
letters to Mr. Vidler, a Universalist, says some things which we feel
constrained to include in these notes:
“You appeal to the Scriptures, and
contend that they no where teach the doctrine of endless punishment; yet you
are aware that they appear to do so, and are obliged to have recourse to a
method of weakening the force of terms in order to get rid of them. It has long
been the practice of writers on your side of the question to ring changes on
the words aion and aionios, pretty words, and could they be proved to be less
expressive of endless duration then everlasting and eternal, might be to the
purpose; but it not, the continual recurrence to them is a mere affectation of
learning, serving to mislead the ignorant. Be this as it may, this is an
exercise which hardly becomes you or me. I shall only observe upon it, that, by
this method of proceeding, you may disprove almost anything you please. There
are scarcely any terms, in any language, but what, through the poverty of
language itself, or the inequality of the number of words to the number of
ideas, are sometimes used in an improper or figurative sense. Thus if one
attempts to prove the divinity of the Son of God, or even of the Father, from
His being called Jehovah or God, you may reply that the name Jehovah is
sometimes given to things; as to an altar, a city, and once to the church;
therefore nothing can be concluded, from hence, in favour of the argument.
Thus, also, if one goes about to prove the omniscience of God, from its being
declared that His understanding is infinite, you might answer,
the term “infinite” is sometimes used to express only a very great degree; as
when the strength of Ethiopia and Egypt is said to have been infinite
(Nahum 3:9). Again, if one endeavour to prove the endless existence of God from
His being called the eternal God, or the everlasting God; or the
endless duration of the heavenly inheritance, from its being called eternal
life, an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away; you
might answer, these terms are sometimes used to signify only a limited
duration; and that a thing, in common language, is said to be incorruptible,
when it will continue a long time without any signs of decay.”
“The question is, could stronger
terms have been used, concerning the duration of future punishment, than are
used? To object against the words everlasting or eternal as being
too weak or indeterminate in their application for the purpose , is idle,
unless others could be named which are stronger, or more determinate. What expressions could have been used that
would have placed the subject beyond dispute? You ordinarily make use of the
term endless to express our doctrine: it should seem, then, that if we
read of endless punishment, or punishment without end, you would
believe it. Yet the same objections might be made to this as to the words
everlasting or eternal. It is common to say of a loquacious person, he is an
endless talker: it might therefore, be pretended that the term endless
is very indeterminate; that it often means no more than a long time; and, in
some instances, not more than three or four hours, at the longest. Thus you
see, or may see, that it is not in the power of language to stand before such
methods of criticizing and reasoning as those on which you build your system.”
It seems to us that opposition to
eternal punish-ment is born of prejudice and sentimentality which sets aside
the word of God. One writer bluntly says:
“If the Bible teaches ‘everlasting
punishment,’ so much the worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it: you
may quote texts and have behind the texts the very finest scholarship to
justify certain interpretations, but it is no good. We are no longer the slaves
of a book, nor blind devotees of a creed; we believe in love and evolution.”
Another writes:
“Of course God cannot be just if He
arbitrarily and rigidly predestines millions to endless torment. Hence, if
holding to the dogma of endless torment, one logically rejects predestination
to save divine justice.”
The above quotation “lets the cat
out of the bag,” and reveals the real ground of the opposition. God’s right to
punish sin is denied. Men sit upon the bench and tell God what He can justly do
with Hi8s enemies. Who fixes the penalty for sin, anyway, the criminal or the
court? This reminds us that
“No thief e’er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law.”
Besides, we do not teach that God
“arbitrarily and rigidly predestines” anybody to endless torment.
Predestination is unto sonship for some, out of God’s mere good pleasure;
others are left to receive the just deserts for their sins. The question
resolves itself into this: is it right for God to punish His enemies? If so,
who is to fix the penalty, God or man? Predestination is God’s positive purpose
to save some; preterition is His positive purpose to leave others to their just
condemnation and punishment.
Still another writes:
“If there is endless torment for the
unsaved, the serpent in
God said, ‘thou shalt die’:
the serpent said, ‘Ye shall not die. For God doth know that, in the day
ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be like God, knowers of
good and evil.’ Now, if Adam and all his race are immortal, did Satan lie?
Satan spoke truly in saying, ‘God
doth know,’ and ‘Your eyes shall be opened:’ they came to know good and evil.
So, his lie was the promise, ‘Ye shall BE like God.’
“So-called Orthodoxy leans on that
lie of the Devil, ‘Ye shall BE, for all eternity.’ Satan said nothing about
happiness or suffering. He promised our first parents only conscious
existence, and in the ‘Orthodox’ hell the condemned would have that.”
The last quotation is from Mr.
Jonathan J. Robinson,
We are not aware of ever having seen
a more arbitrary and wicked handling of the word of God.
He says the devil “promised our
first parents only conscious existence.” Now it requires some tampering
with the word of God to give any semblance of what Mr. Robinson says, but he
was equal to the task. The truth the devil told was that they would become like
God, knowing good and evil. This is confirmed by what God says in Genesis 3:22,
“…Behold, the man is become as one of
us, to know good and evil:…” But Mr. Robinson deliberately changes the
promise (divinely recorded) to read: “Ye shall BE—like God,” and interprets it
to mean that the devil promised them eternal, conscious existence. What a
travesty on the art of interpretation!
I repeat: the truth the devil
promised was the knowledge of good and evil, and this is what God said they
received for their disobedience. “…Behold,
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:…” But Mr. Robinson
woefully confuses “knowledge of good and evil” with “conscious existence.” To
be ignorant, then, would be to have no conscious existence. He makes God say in
Genesis 3:22, “Behold, the man has conscious existence as one of us.”
Satan’s lie in the garden was, “Ye
shall not surely die.” He told the truth when he said, Your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall become as God, knowing good and evil. They became
competitors with God for supremacy. They got a taste of sovereignty. They
themselves would determine what is good and evil. They would be independent of
God, and do as they pleased.
PART IV
THE BIBLE’S PROOF
In this message we wish to examine
and refute some of the claims made by those who deny eternal, conscious
punishment.
I. The claim is made that physical
death ends the conscious existence of the lost. We are cited, in proof of this,
to the fact that the wicked are likened unto beasts. But the inference drawn is
false. We refute this claim with scripture:
A. There is to be a resurrection of
the wicked. Daniel 12:2, “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.” John 5:28-29, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is
coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 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.” Acts 24:15, “…there shall be a resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and unjust.” Revelation 20:13, “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.”
If the wicked are to be resurrected,
then death does not end all conscious existence as with the beasts. Men may
live like beasts, but they can’t die like beasts.
B. There is to be a day of judgment for the
wicked dead. Acts 10:42, “…it is he
which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” II Timothy
4:1, “I charge thee therefore before
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing and his kingdom;” I Peter 4:5, “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the
dead.” Revelation 20:12, “And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, 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.”
Romans 2:5, “But after thy hardness and
impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God;” If there is to be a day of
judgment for the lost, then physical death does not end all. Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment:” Death cannot be the judgment, for it is
after death that judgment comes.
C. The saints are likened to beasts
as well as the wicked, and if this means no resurrection for the wicked, it
would also mean no resurrection for the saints. The saints are likened to sheep
just as the lost are likened to goats and dogs. David, the man after God’s own
heart, says of himself: Psalm 73:22, “So
foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.” Jude 10 and II
Peter 2:12 tell of men who sin against the light of nature and thus act like
beasts. Jude 10, “But these speak evil
of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute
beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” II Peter 2:12, “But these, as natural brute beasts, made
to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they under-stand not;
and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;” But the death of a saint
is not like that of a sheep, neither is the death of a lost man like that of a
goat or dog.
D. If death ends conscious existence
of the wicked, then there can be no degrees of punishment. But the Bible
plainly teaches that it will be more tolerable for some in the day of judgment
then for others, and that some will receive the greater damnation. Matthew
10:15, “Verily I say unto you, It shall
be more tolerable for the
Here is one trouble with opposers to
eternal punishment: they have a contracted view of death as the penalty for
sin; they can see nothing but physical death. If physical death is the penalty
for sin, then the penalty is not universal, for many will not die; moreover the
redeemed die as well as the lost. The penalty for sin is positive infliction of
punishment and is called “the wrath to come.”
II. The claim is made that the
wicked suffer for their sins in this life. To this we reply:
A. This voids all scripture about a
day of judgment for the lost. If the wicked suffer the penalty for sin in this
life there would be no meaning to a day of judgment for them.
B. The saints suffer more in this
present life than do the wicked.
1. Generally speaking, they suffer
more from poverty than do the lost. There is more of the wealth of this world
in the hands of the ungodly than in the hands of the godly. David observed the
prosperity of the wicked and was puzzled until he learned their end. Psalm
73:3,17, ‘For I was envious at the
foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked…Until I went into the
sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.”
2. The saints suffer more mental and
heart anguish. They are sensitive to sin and groan to be delivered from every
vestige of it. Read the diaries of such men as Bunyan, Fuller, and Edwards.
Also Job 42:6, “Wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?” The saints are the real mourners in this world. Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they
shall be comforted.”
3. The saints suffer more at the
hands of society and civil rulers than do the lost. Let the blood of the
millions of martyrs testify to this fact. The saints are the persecuted in this
world. Ask the Christians of
4. There is no redemption from the
temporal effects of sin. The temporal effects of Adam’s sin rest alike upon the
believer and the unbeliever; they toil, they sorrow, they contend with thorns
and thistles, and return to dust. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
in its eternal effects.
5. There is a natural retribution
that follows all men in this life; saint and sinner alike; and even the beast.
This is expressed by the law of sowing and reaping, which applies to both saint
and sinner. This is the law of cause and effect and operates naturally. Whoever
violates the laws of health will suffer, be he saint or sinner. Whoever drinks
poison will die however saintly he may be. Whoever puts his hands in the fire
will get them burned. But this in not divine penology; this is not the positive
infliction of punishment for the sin of violating a moral law. Eternal
punishment is for sins against God, and is for the satisfaction of divine
justice, and vindication of the divine honour. It is not fatherly and
corrective, but judicial and penal.
Galatians 6:6-10, “Let him that is taught in the word
communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is
not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 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 let us not be weary
in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith.” This applies to the saint, and speaks of sowing and
reaping in the matter of money. There is the exhortation to support the one who
teaches us the word of God. If he sows unto us spiritual things, he has the
right to reap our carnal things. I Corinthians 9:11, “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we
shall reap your carnal things?” The exhortation is enforced by a reminder
of the principle of sowing and reaping. The Christian who spends his money for
the gratification of the flesh will reap corruption; he will receive hurt
instead of blessing. But the Christian who puts his money into the cause of
Christ and makes himself a fellow-helper to the truth, is laying up treasure in
heaven, and will reap eternal benefits. We can sow with our money to our
eternal good. My dear reader, where are you sowing your money? Are you spending
it on worldly pleasures and fleshly lusts? Then you will reap corruption;
nothing good will come of it, but rather that which will disappoint and injure.
Are you giving it to the support of a spiritual and scriptural ministry? Then
you will get it back some day with interest.
Natural retribution falls more
heavily in this life upon the immoral and highhanded sinners, such as thieves,
drunkards, and murderers; but the penal punishment, following death and
judgment may be worse for the moral than for the immoral. Christ said that it
would be more tolerable for immoral
III. The claim is made by some that
immorality and everlasting life mean the same thing. Such people are called
believers in conditional immortality. They say that immortality applies to the
resurrection of the body and that nobody has immortality except believers in
the Christ. That is, nobody will be resurrected but the saints. Death is the
end of the wicked. To this we answer:
A. It is true that the scriptures
use immortality only with respect to the body of the saint. But it is also true
with the use of the word mortal; it is used only of the body. The word
immortality is not found in the Old Testament, and occurs only three times in
the New Testament. In I Timothy 6:16, “Who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.
Amen.” It is limited to God. I Corinthians 15:53-54, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must
put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” This applies
to the bodies of the people of God. There would be a contradiction if the word
is used in the same sense in both references. God only hath immortality
(deathlessness) in Himself and of Himself. His immortality is underived. He is
immortal essentially and immutably. But men and angels have it bestowed on
them. The angels are immortal in the sense that they never die. Luke 20:36, “Neither can they die any more: for they
are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of
the resurrection.”
B. Immortality and everlasting life
are not synonymous. They must not be confused, one with the other.
1. Everlasting life is the present
possession of every believer; immortality will not be the believer’s until the
resurrection of the body. Paul, while in possession of everlasting life, said, “…this mortal shall have put on
immortality,…” Cross reference John 5:24 with I Corin-thians 15:53-54.
2. Everlasting life is a state of
being free from condemnation and penal punishment. It is deliverance from the
wrath to come. It is the state of justification. The believer has passed out of
death into life, and shall not come into condemnation, and this means eternal
life. John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from
death unto life.” It means to exist forever under the favor and blessing of
God. It means more than eternal existence; it is eternal existence under divine
blessing.
3. The antithesis to everlasting
life is expressed by the words perish, destroy, or wrath. In John 3:16,
according to the context, perish means to remain under condemnation and
punishment. It does not mean to pass out of conscious existence, but to remain
under the curse of God. In John 3:36, everlasting life is opposed to the
abiding wrath of God. Of course if everlasting life means everlasting
existence, then the opposite would be ever-lasting loss of existence.
If the inquiry be made as to why
death is left unmodified in such passages as Romans 6:23, while life is called
everlasting, the reason is obvious when you once see that life in Christ is
objective, judicial and irrevo-cable; while death as a present state of
condemnation is not irrevocable. One may pass out of death into life. The
sentence may be altered; condemnation of death may give place to justification
of life. But justification is everlasting and ends in glorification. The
sinner, through faith in Christ, may pass out of death (condemnation) into life
(justification), but the believer can never pass out of life into death.
3. Immortality is used of the body,
but it means more than a mere resurrected body. The bodies of the wicked will
be raised, but not in immortality. Immortality means more than the mere
existence of the body; it has respect to the state of the body. Immortality
will be a glorified and honourable estate, belonging to our bodies when
fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord.
The bodies of the saints will be
death-proof and corruption-proof, but the bodies of the wicked will be
eternally corrupt and subject to the second death, which is defined as “the
lake of fire.” The first death is the sentence of condemnation passed upon all
men; the second death is the execution of the sentence.
The final state of all men is a
fixed state, both as to character and conduct. After every man has been
assigned to his proper place for eternity, it is then written:
“Let the dishonest man act
dishonestly still;
let the filthy man make himself
filthy still;
let the righteous practice
righteousness still;
and let the holy keep himself holy
still.”
Revelation
22:11
Oh, my dear reader, let me warn you,
that the only alternative to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal,
conscious existence for both soul and body in the lake of fire. Trust Him and
receive everlasting life. AND DO IT NOW – TOMORROW MAY BE TOO LATE!
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4-22-2007
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