BRIEF ARGUMENTS ON LIFE AND DEATH.
Shall the wicked live to all eternity? In the minds of many persons it is heresy to deny it. Yet nothing seems to be more plainly taught in the Bible than that the righteous only shall live forever, and the wicked shall die the second death. Those who object to the actual death of the transgressor do it, 1. On the ground that this destruction of soul and body in the fire of the last day, is not adequate punishment; and, 2. That the wicked have an undying nature that renders their existence as enduring as that of their Creator. That the second death can adequately punish the transgressor is evident from two considerations, 1. It is inflicted upon the wicked in full view of the infinite reward of the righteous. They can behold something of that eternal life which they have lost. 2. The death of the transgressor involves the act, or process, of dying. Men who think it a light thing to lose eternal life and to die the second death, will certainly think differently of this matter when they shall feel in their own person, or witness in others, the anguish of the second death. “There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” in that furnace or lake of fire which shall devour the wicked. Matt. xiii; Rev. xx; xxi. As to the undying nature of the wicked it is never asserted in the Bible. They are compared to stubble, chaff, tares, thorns, the fat of lambs, and the like, and their fate is to be consumed in the unquenchable fire of gehenna, where Christ teaches that his Father is able to destroy them soul and body. MEN MUST EAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE
“And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Gen. iii, 22–24. Our present state is one of exclusion from the tree of life. We cannot live forever as we are. We can reach the tree of life only by overcoming. Rev. ii, 7. Those who do not overcome shall be hurt of the second death. Rev. ii, 11. The tree of life is now in the heavenly Jerusalem. None can enter through its gates to eat of that fruit except those who keep the commandments of God. All others are excluded and left without. Rev. xxii, 14, 15, compared with xx, 9. Shall the wicked in the lake of fire and absolutely debarred from the tree of life, live as long as the righteous in the paradise of God, with free access to that immortal fruit? If man is capable of living forever without eating of the tree of life, is it not strange that the Author of his existence should have been unaware of that fact? “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even LIFE FOREVERMORE.” Ps. cxxxiii, 3. Probably no one will deny that “life forevermore” means unending life. None can deny that the Psalmist speaks of this in very emphatic terms. It is THE BLESSING which God hath commanded. Questions. Shall this blessing be bestowed on the wicked? If the righteous are the only ones who receive it, shall the wicked who do not receive it live as long as the righteous? Shall the wicked live forevermore? Or is this to be the exclusive privilege of the righteous? THE FUTURE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. vi, 23. Here the fate of the transgressor and the reward of the obedient are distinctly presented. The wages of sin will be paid. When they are paid the sinner will no longer be numbered among the living. But the gift of God shall cause the righteous to live an unending life. Shall sin be as enduring in its existence as righteousness? Are the wicked placed in the lake of fire to perpetuate their evil life, or to punish and destroy it? Is not the fact that the righteous receive eternal life owing to this, that they have formed a character worth preserving? WHERE SHALL THE WICKED BE PUNISHED?
In the very place where they have sinned. This earth is the place of their recompense. “Behold the righteous shall be recompensed IN THE EARTH; MUCH MORE the wicked and the sinner.” Prov. xi, 31. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Rev. xx, 9. The fire which devours the wicked and causes the perdition of ungodly men shall melt the very elements of which our earth is composed, and cause it to burn like an oven. 2 Pet. iii; Mal. iv. Thus the wicked are to be punished after the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. Gen. xix; 2 Pet. ii, 6; Jude 7; Rev. xx, 9. The lake of fire becomes a fearful reality when we learn that it is our earth undergoing its final conflagration. WHEN SHALL THE WICKED BE PUNISHED?
Not till the day of Judgment. They shall be first judged then punished. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.” 2 Pet. ii, 9. The day of Judgment is the day of perdition to ungodly men. 2 Pet. iii, 7. “Whosoever was not FOUND WRITTEN in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. xx, 15. So it is certain that none are cast into that devouring fire till the books are examined. And verse 12 tells when the books are opened; it is when the Judge sits upon the great white throne. It is at the close of the 1000 years that the fire comes down from God out of heaven to devour the wicked. Verse 9. The tares are cast into the furnace of fire at the end of the world. Matt. xiii, 40, 50. The wicked do not go away into devouring fire till the Judge shall say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.” Matt. xxv, 41. SHALL OUR EARTH BURN ETERNALLY?
By no means. The fire shall melt it. Every part of it shall be subjected to the refining heat. The fire shall devour the earth. But its elements shall all remain. When it has answered the great purpose of furnishing the fiery oven, or furnace of fire where the wicked shall receive their dreadful doom, the second death, it shall, like Sodom, be reduced to ashes by the eternal fire, and cease longer to burn. Then by the power of the great Author of its existence it shall be re-created. New heavens and earth shall exist, formed out of the elements of the old thus purged of sin and sinners, and therein shall the righteous have the promise fulfilled that they shall be recompensed in the earth. 2 Pet. iii, 10–13; Mal. iv. SHALL THE FIRE AT LAST CEASE TO BURN?
It is a fire that can never be quenched. It is termed also an unquenchable fire. Mark ix; Matt. iii. It is also called a devouring fire. Isa. xxxiii, 14. It shall devour the chaff, the thorns, the tares, the stubble, and even the earth itself which is the seat of the fire. Matt. iii, 12; Isa. xxiv. But the very fact that the fire devours all these things is proof that it must sometime cease to burn. When they are all reduced to ashes then the fire has accomplished its work and need260not, and cannot, longer exist. It is an eternal fire, not because it shall require all eternity in the effort to consume the wicked, but because, like that which devoured Sodom, it shall be eternal in its consequences. It shall execute the sentence of the eternal Judgment. Heb. vi, 2, compared with Rev. xx, 12–15. “Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver THEMSELVES [margin, Heb., THEIR SOULS,] from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.” Isa. xlvii, 14. Observe three things. 1. The wicked shall be stubble. This is what Malachi says. 2. The fire shall burn them. This is what John the Baptist says, Matt. iii, 12. 3. They shall not deliver themselves, or, as the margin, which is the exact Hebrew expression, has it, “they shall not deliver THEIR SOULS from the power of the flame.” This is the execution of the Judgment so pointedly brought to view in our Lord’s warning: “Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. x, 28. The fire of gehenna, having accomplished the very purpose for which it was kindled, shall also fulfill the remainder of Isaiah’s wonderful prophecy: “There shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.” The devouring element, having cleansed the earth itself, now ceases to exist. Destruction is now brought to a perpetual end. Let us thank God that this time shall come at last. The universe will be clean. Sin and sinners shall no longer exist. Only holy beings shall be left alive. But may not the wicked be ever burning and never burned up? Leaving the Bible out of the account, we may say that in one of two ways this might be. 1. If the wicked can exist in the fire without its having any power upon them to burn, devour, or consume them. But in that case they burn only in appearance and not in reality. Their nature must be of a higher species of immortality than that of the righteous, for they live in the fire and excluded from the tree of life as long as the righteous who are in Paradise and have free access to that tree. 2. But there is another view of their ever burning and never being burned up. It is that they shall keep growing as fast as they burn. But where do they find food to supply the waste of the devouring fire? And where do they obtain so wonderful an immortality that it can sustain them in the midst of the fiery flame and ever renew the unceasing waste caused by the ravages of the destroying element? To state either of these views is to refute it. The unquenchable fire shall burn up the wicked. Matt. iii. It shall burn them up root and branch. Mal. iv. They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Nahum i. The fire shall have power even upon their souls. Isa. xlvii, 14, margin. And the lake of fire itself is the second death; a sure testimony to the fact that it does not preserve alive those that are cast into it; and that none can live in the intolerable heat of the devouring flame. If wicked men were not devoured by the fire they would be, like the three worthies, capable of walking unharmed in the furnace of fire. Dan. iv, 25. But the fire does take hold of them for they are consumed into smoke. Ps. xxxvii, 20. Men may argue as they please to prove from the smoke of their torment that they shall never be consumed. But where there is smoke there is also fire; and that fire is by that very fact shown to be in the devouring or consuming process. And let that be continued long enough there will be nothing left from the fire but smoke and the ashes. Compare Ps. xxxvii, 20; Mal. iv, 3. The Holy Spirit has chosen such figures to represent the condition of the wicked when cast into the fire that it is impossible to believe them possessed of an indestructible nature. They are tares, thorns, stubble, and chaff. They are never said to be preserved alive in the flame, but always to perish, to consume, to be devoured, to be burned up root and branch, and to die the second death. It would be easy to say of them, were it only true, as of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that the fire had no power to singe a hair of their heads. But they are put into the fire to be consumed, and the fire itself exists for that very purpose. When that object is accomplished, the fire itself shall cease. The Holy Spirit is capable of speaking language that can be understood. If the wicked were to be preserved without undergoing a consuming process in the fire, the Spirit of God could say so. It tells us that the bush which Moses saw “burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” Ex. iii, 2. It could say just so concerning the punishment of the wicked. It never has spoken thus in their case. Who dare affirm that that is what it means to say? It has spoken the exact opposite of this idea, even declaring that they shall be burned up root and branch in the unquenchable fire. Who dares to reverse this solemn declaration? If men would live forever they must have access to the tree of life. All others shall have the second death in the lake of fire.