NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN.
By N. V. Hull
DISCUSSION BETWEEN ELD. N. V. HULL, SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST, AND ELD. R. F. COTTRELL, SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST.
(Continued from Review No. 22, Vol. xxvii.) Elder Hull's Eleventh Article.
Dear Brother,—In proceeding to the second division of the subject we have under discussion, I have thought best simply to reproduce my first statement of it, as follows: That in the future state, the happiness of the righteous and the misery of the wicked will be co-extensive. Matt. xxv, 46. "And these (the wicked) shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Here the terms describing the duration of the punishment of the wicked, and the happiness of the righteous, are the same. John v, 28, 29. "Wonder not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and will come forth, those who have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." Here you have "life" and "damnation" so contrasted as to necessitate the idea of equal duration. 2 Thess. i, 7-10. "And to you who are afflicted, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all those who believe (because our testimony among you is believed) in that day." In this instance, the punishment is to be an everlasting destruction, which, I take it, is equal to eternal destruction. That both the happiness of the righteous, and the misery of the wicked, will in a degree correspond to the merits of the one, and the demerits of the other. Luke xii, 47, 48. "And that servant who knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, will receive few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him much will be required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." James iv, 17. "Therefore to him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." I take it that these passages fairly establish the idea of degrees in guilt, and in rewards and punishments.