EVERLASTING FIRE by M. H. Brown

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1881

EVERLASTING FIRE.

By M. H. Brown

BY ELD. M. H. BROWN.

THE language of the Saviour in Matt. 25:41 is frequently quoted to prove eternal torment, and although quoted with great confidence, we think that those who compare scripture with scripture will see that it comes far short of teaching an endless hell for the finally lost.

We shall take no issue with the advocates of endless misery in regard to the definition of everlasting and eternal in Matt. 25; for with them we agree that these words here mean never-ending. This admission in no way helps our opponents, as we shall presently see. An element or action may produce results which are everlasting or eternal, and yet the element or action itself may be of short duration.

Paul, in Heb. 5:9, speaks of eternal salvation. Will the process of saving men always be going on, and never be accomplished? Certainly not; but the results secured by the great plan of salvation will be eternal. Again, in Heb. 6:2, Paul speaks of eternal judgment. Will the work of judgment be endless in duration? If it is, then the punishment of the wicked will never come; for men are not punished till after they are judged. The idea expressed simply is, that the results of the judgment are eternal; that is, the decisions rendered are final and irreversible, and from them there is no appeal.

In Heb. 9:12, Paul speaks also of eternal redemption, not that Christ will never complete that work, but that the results secured will be endless; for those who share in that redemption will never again be brought under the cruel power of death or the curse and stain of sin.

Will God be engaged in judging men throughout the endless ages of eternity, and never get them judged? Will he always be engaged in redeeming men, and never secure their redemption? Then he may carry on the process of burning the wicked, and never get them burned; but the Scriptures say they shall be burned up, root and branch. Mal. 4:1. Therefore we cannot avoid the conclusion that the everlasting fire under consideration is not eternal in its duration, but the results of the fire are eternal, because the judgment pronounced and the penalty executed are eternal, irrevocable and final.

No resurrection morn will ever greet the eyes of those who are cast into that lake of fire which produces the second death; but the blackness of darkness forever will enshroud them, as they sink into that long night of oblivion which knows no waking. The Lord has shown us, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, what results eternal fire will produce. Jude says that those cities, in suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, are set forth as an example. Jude 7. Peter tells us the result of that conflagration: they were turned into ashes. 2 Peter 2:6.

And what is to hinder such a result in the cases of the wicked? Do we ever find them compared in the Scriptures to enduring and imperishable substances? Never. On the contrary, they are always likened to the most perishable and inflammable substances, such as chaff, dried branches, thorns, briers, and stubble. Why has Inspiration used such comparisons? Is it to mislead the mind, and darken the subject? We believe not. We believe they teach the complete destruction of the wicked as plainly and forcibly as language can express it.

When the wicked become ashes under the feet of the righteous, as Malachi declares in his prophecy (4:3), no one will doubt that the results of the everlasting fire into which the wicked are cast, were clearly seen in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were set forth as an ensample to those that after should live ungodly. 2 Pet. 2:6.