p. 132 | Untitled article by W. C. G.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 13, 1867

Infidel Objections to the Bible Answered. No. 8.

By W. C. G.

Reward and Punishment to be Bestowed in this World.

—Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.—Prov. xi, 31.

Reward and Punishment to be Bestowed in the NEXT World.

—And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.—Rev. xx, 12. Then he shall reward every man according to his works.—Matt. xvi, 27. According to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.—2 Cor. v, 10.

The foregoing is an illustration of the manner in which contradictions are manufactured—not between scripture and scripture, but between the Bible and popular theology. The orthodoxy of the present day teaches that we are to be rewarded or punished beyond the bounds of time and space, while the Scriptures teach, as expressed in the first of the above texts, that they will “be recompensed in the earth.” Here is a contradiction indeed, but one for which the Bible is not responsible. Nor do the above texts even seem to contradict this great truth, as they do not allude to the place of future punishment, referring as they do only to the time and certainty of a future judgment. That this is to be in the next world we freely admit, but would submit as our belief that the world to come will be this earth, purified and made fit to become the reward of the righteous, while its transition state of fiery refining will be the scene of the woe and misery which are the sinner’s portion. W. C. G.