The Destiny of the Wicked by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 17, 1914

The Destiny of the Wicked

By G. B. Thompson

WHAT is the destiny of the finally impenitent? This question is worthy of careful and candid study. Thoughtful men have asked throughout the centuries, “What is this mysterious doom of death which overshadows all?” Man scarcely arrives at his maturity before his strength wanes, and he is compelled to submit to the inexorable power of death. With millions of others of his fellow creatures, he lies down in the dust, and the portals of the tomb close about him. All who live are but a handful to those who sleep. Unaided by divine revelation, man stands dumb before the question of what lies in the future. From beyond the curtain which divides the present from the future, through the millenniums of sin since Adam lost Eden, none have ever returned with tidings of what lies hidden there.

Our question concerns the unnumbered host of the lost. Through all the centuries since the fall of man, millions have spurned the offers of mercy, refused life, rejected its Author, and died in their sins. What doom awaits all these? What will it mean to be lost? What will be the end of sin and sinners? Will sin be destroyed? or will the curse forever remain? Will the sinner exist eternally, or finally be destroyed? These queries have to do with the eternal destiny of the greater part of the human family, for “broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat,” while the way to eternal life is said to be “narrow,” and “few there be that find it.” Matt. 7: 13, 14.

Before each of us is a destiny; we cannot escape it; we must meet it. Eternity stretches before us. Righteousness has its reward; so has sin. What awaits the lost in the great beyond? This interesting and stupendous question cannot be solved by human speculation. Groping in the uncertain twilight of scientific conjecture, men have reached some very strange and erroneous conclusions. During all the centuries some have arisen to tell us that there is no future life beyond the tomb; that death is an eternal sleep. Others have taught that sin has its own punishment in this life, and in the future all will be saved; that the Scriptures promise universal salvation; that all men, whether believing or unbelieving, will finally enjoy the felicity of endless happiness. The modern orthodox belief, based on the unscriptural assumption that man possesses inherent immortality, teaches that the wicked will never die; that through endless ages they will live and be tortured in the perpetual fire of God’s vengeance, preserved by his power to suffer unspeakable misery in the avenging flames of his indignation. The horrors of this orthodox belief have been expressed by the poet in the following language: —

“Infinite years in torment shall I spend, And never, never, never have an end. Ah! Must I live in torturing despair As many years as atoms in the air? When these are past, as many millions more As grains of sand that bound the ebbing shore? When these run out, as many more behind As leaf of forest shaken by the wind? When these are spent, as many more to flow As blades of grass on hills and dales that grow? When these run out, as many on the march As starry lamps that gild the spangled arch? When these are gone, as many millions more As every moment in the age before? When all these doleful years are spent in pain, And multiplied by myriads yet again, I must in that fierce gulf in misery lie, And madly writhe in all eternity.”

A year for every mote that dances in the sunbeam, a year for every grain of sand, a year for every leaf of the forest and for every blade of grass, a year for every star in the firmament, a year for every tick of the watch since time began its flight, then this infinite multiplicand multiplied by a myriad! Then when all these years of torture are past, an eternity of unspeakable suffering still stretches before lost souls in which to curse and blaspheme God! Talk about a gloomy doctrine! Behold it here!

While the quotation above is only poetry, these words of the poet are true provided man by nature has an immortal, indestructible soul, and the lost are conscious in death, and enter on their reward in the lake of fire when this life ends. Such teaching clothes the God of love and tender compassion with the most awful attributes, and distorts and misrepresents the teaching of his Word. G. B. Thompson. (To be continued)