Eld. R. F. Cottrell's Eleventh Reply.
By R. F. Cottrell
Dear Brother,—By a failure in getting the RECORDER changed to my new address in season, your last comes to me a week later than usual. This will account for the delay.11 Concerning the duration of future punishment, we shall have no controversy. We are agreed, that the final damnation and punishment of the wicked will be eternal. The judgment to condemnation is irreversible. From the sentence there is no reprieve, and from the punishment there is no restoration. Hence it is eternal. But in regard to the nature of the punishment, we may differ in part; not wholly, I trust. I shall hold that the torment of the wicked will eventuate in death, a death with no resurrection beyond it. This is eternal punishment. The man that fails of securing eternal life, will "lose his own soul," or life, will "lose himself." Matt. viii, 35, 36; Luke ix, 24, 25. Loss or deprivation is punishment, as well as pain. The wicked are threatened with the loss of all things, even of life and being. This irreparable loss, this death without a resurrection, is their everlasting punishment. On the contrary, you will attempt to prove, I suppose, that the wicked will have eternal conscious suffering; that instead of losing life, they will have an endless life in torment. Your first text contrasts eternal life with eternal punishment. From this it is reasonable to infer, that the punishment is the opposite of life, i. e., death, eternal death. In your remarks, you contrast happiness with punishment. Thus you vary from the text. This text defines the duration of the punishment, but does not reveal its nature, further than to clearly intimate that it is death. But your third text, 2 Thess. i, 7-10, defines the nature of this everlasting punishment. It is "everlasting destruction"—"who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." Destroy, when applied to men and animals, means "to put an end to life, to kill, to slay, to extirpate." This makes the matter clear, and shows the harmony of the Scriptures on this subject. But with the opposite view, it would be difficult to show how the soul—("the animal life,"—N. V. H.)—is lost. And surely an immortal life cannot be lost. "Damnation," you truly remark, is contrasted with "life;" because it is a condemnation to death. "Eternal damnation" is the sentence of condemnation proceeding from the "eternal judgment." Not that the judgment will eternally be in session, nor that the sentence of condemnation will be forever passing and never be passed; but that they are irreversible and eternal in their consequences—resulting in the deprivation of life and being, with no hope of recovery. As to your fifth proposition, I shall not deny that there will be degrees in future rewards and punishments. By the use of the term "merit," I presume you do not intend to say that the righteous merit what they are to receive. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Rom. vi, 23. They will receive more than they merit. But you will be slow to take the ground that God will inflict on the wicked more than the just demerit of their sins. "The wages of sin is death." In this respect, the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous, are not parallel. The sinner earns all he receives; it is his wages justly due. Can finite man, in a brief life, merit an eternity of bliss or misery? Let the word of God decide. The righteous person merits nothing; he is an "unprofitable servant;" but God freely gives him life, eternal life, that which all mankind have forfeited by sin. Life was freely given to man at first. He lost it by sin; he has no right to it; he has nothing with which to purchase it. It is offered on condition of faith and obedience; but it is all of God's free grace; if God give him back a right to the tree of life, it is the "gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Every prayer indited by the Holy Spirit will surely be answered. The prayers of David the son of Jesse were thus indited. He prayed, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more." The effect of this prayer has never been realized; for there has always been a multitude of sinners on the earth unconsumed, ever since the prayer was uttered. But it will be answered. The time will come when there will not be a sinner on the earth. Where will they be? They will "be no more." Be, means to exist.