p. 79 | Second Death

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 7, 1866

Second Death.

THE following is an extract from an English tract, we received recently, entitled, ‐The Second Death.‐ We are glad to learn that light on this important subject is spreading in Christian churches in all countries. The following are the first three pages:

‐There are so many theories extant on this subject, held by religious men of all denominations, that it will surprise most people when they hear only a brief recapitulation of them.

Some hold and teach that as God is eternal, that is, without beginning or end, so the human soul is eternal, having neither beginning or end. There are others who hold that whatever has had a beginning may have an end; and they believe that while the righteous have ‘eternal life,’ as God’s ‘gift,’ the wicked after punishment, according to their works, (see Matt. xi, 24,) shall be utterly destroyed, or annihilated, according to Matt. x, 28. There are others who hold that though the soul of man was created, and therefore had a beginning, yet that it shall exist ‘as long as God exists,’ that is, to all eternity, both in the case of righteous and wicked. There are others who hold that the soul shall be destroyed, and the body exist as a memento of God’s wrath to all eternity. And there are others who think the body shall be destroyed, and the soul exist everlastingly. Some think the fire of hell is literal, and will destroy both body and soul, Matt. x, 28; and others that the fire is figurative. Some think that all the demons and bad men shall be ultimately saved, and thus God be ‘all in all;’ and others that they shall be punished and destroyed, (see Mark i, 24,) and then when all things are made new, (Rev. xxi,) that God shall be all in all. (1 Cor. xv.) Others that they all shall exist to all eternity in ever-burning fire and brimstone. Some, again, think the entire brute creation immortal; others that an election among them (as in Noah’s ark,) may be preserved; and others that they shall all perish.

And now, ‘What is truth?’ Let us wait for God’s answer; and not ask the question and then go away as Pilate did.

It would be too long, in a mere pamphlet like this, to take up the subject in all its bearings from Genesis to Revelation. But yet we must glance at it thus, if we would hear the ‘whole counsel of God.’

God told Adam that, if he ate of the forbidden tree, ‘dying he should die.’ And when he did eat and expose himself to the penalty of death, God placed cherubim before the tree of life, ‘lest he put forth his hand, and take, and eat, and live forever.’ . . . Was not that mercy? Did not God in grace prevent him from immortalising himself and his seed as he, no doubt, would have done? And when Moses said (in Exodus) ‘Blot me out of thy book,’ because of his great love to Israel, like Paul, in Rom. ix, 3; did either of them mean that they would willingly endure unending misery in ever-burning fire? And when God said by his prophets, ‘All souls are mine, . . . the soul that sinneth it shall die.’ . . . ‘Hear, and your soul shall live,’ . . . did he not make a plain declaration of eternal life to the righteous, and death to the wicked? And when, all through the Psalms, we are told that God will ‘destroy’ the wicked; is that merely temporal, or eternal? I believe eternal. They shall be destroyed—consumed—forever. See Psa. xxxvii, 20; cxii, 10. And when we come to the brighter light of the New Testament (or Covenant) Scriptures, what do we find in the very first pages? See Matt. iii, 12. ‘He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire;’ i. e., the fire is not quenched till everything is consumed. (See 2 Kings xxii, 17.) Again, ‘Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.’ Chap. vii, 13. ‘Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill, or annihilate the soul; but fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,’—gehenna, or ‘the lake of fire.’ Chap. x, 28, and Rev. xx, 13, 14. And then, how many times we are told, in the other gospels, that unbelievers shall ‘perish,’ or be destroyed, for it is the same word in the original. ‘Except ye repent ye shall perish.’ But ‘whosoever believeth in Him shall NOT PERISH,’ but have everlasting life. ‘I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never PERISH.’ Then look at the Epistles. Peter and Paul alike preach ‘destruction,’ as did Jesus in Matt. x, 28. ‘Vessels of wrath fitted for ‘destruction,’ Rom. ix, 22. ‘The day of judgment and perdition (literally, destruction) of ungodly men.’ 2 Pet. iii, 7. And, lastly, John in the closing book of Scripture (Rev. xx,) speaks of the great white throne, after the thousand years are finished,—the wicked dead raised and judged, and cast into the lake of fire. ‘This is the second death,’ of the destruction of ‘soul and body’ in gehenna, according to our Lord’s words, Matt. x, 28.”