Eternity of Torment by James H. Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 34.

Eternity of Torment.

By James H. Waggoner

EVERY considerate person must have been often pained at the flippant manner in which some preachers speak of the eternal torment of the lost, as though it were a matter not to be questioned, and even a subject for rejoicing. Why it should provoke them to anger to have it called in question, as is sometimes the case, is hard to explain. George Storrs once said that he was led to examine the evidences of the doctrine by hearing a professed Christian praising the Lord that the wicked would be tormented to all eternity.

Such people do not know of what they are speaking. We have no conception of eternity. We can conceive of very long periods, but eternity—a whole eternity—is still beyond them. An eternity of accumulating guilt and ever-increasing suffering, as some teach, is too horrible to be calmly contemplated. Add to this the thought of the belief entertained by many (professedly), that that torment, to some of their own friends, has already been going on for years. If they do indeed believe it, we cannot imagine what manner of spirit they are of that they can eat and drink and sleep with the peace of mind they seem to enjoy. We should count that mother unworthy of the name who could sleep in peace knowing that her child was in burning torture, for even one night. But in this theology it is torture—beyond conception at the beginning and ever increasing—and yet it makes no visible impression on their minds.

Men of deep thought and fine sensibilities are either overwhelmed by the terribleness of this doctrine, or else they have discarded it. Dr. Barnes confessed that it was unendurable to him. But very few view it as he did. Most theologians of the present day have discarded it. We do not mean that they have actually renounced it, but they have so modified it as to make it something besides what the words of their profession indicate. At a General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, some five years since, a newspaper reporter interviewed a large number of prominent D. D.'s, and found that the orthodox Methodist faith of “hell fire” was discarded by them. Even bishops repudiated the idea of actual fire in the torment of the wicked. What their faith really is we cannot imagine. We cling to the old faith—that “fire and brimstone” are not mere figures in the Bible. A fire that can melt the elements must be very literal. And we believe it will have the effect on the wicked which fire—unquenchable fire—has on chaff or stubble; it will burn them up, leaving them neither root nor branch. In that case the wicked will be destroyed, just as the Bible says, “punished with everlasting destruction.” In a never-ending torment, a “death that never dies,” we have no faith.

In contrast with the positive style adopted by many when speaking of the eternity of torment, we recommend the following thoughtful words of Dr. Watts on the “Duration of Punishment”:

“I grant that the eternity of God himself, before this world began, or after its consummation, has something in it so immense and so incomprehensible, that in my most mature thoughts I do not choose to enter into those infinite abysses; nor do I think we ought usually, when speaking of creatures, to affirm positively, that their existence shall be equal to that of the blessed God, especially in regard to the duration of their punishment; perhaps this sort of language may carry in it something beyond what we are called to discourse about, at least in this mortal state, and therefore such comparisons are more safely omitted.”

This language of Dr. Watts will certainly commend itself to all who seriously contemplate this awful subject of eternity. We have heard speakers declare, in the most positive manner, that every sinner “has a soul which must live and suffer as long as God lives.” But many a new-fledged preacher will boldly walk where Dr. Watts feared to tread,

in his “most mature thoughts.” We are aware that in the progress of critical Biblical knowledge a learner might know, of some things, more than even Dr. Watts could know in his day. But we cannot know more of eternity than he knew; and we cannot change the Bible truth that the wicked will come to an end, be blotted out, be destroyed forever, “utterly perish in their own corruption.” If we go beyond this, we add to God's word, and all such as do this incur a terrible penalty.

J. H. W.