The Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment.
By John Nevins Andrews
No doctrine is more clearly revealed in the Scriptures than this, that God shall punish every man that goes on in iniquity, and that he will do this according to every man’s measure of guilt. That this will be indescribably awful, many passages plainly teach. We have no disposition to represent this punishment as of momentary duration, or to compare it with even the most painful death that we witness in this world. Because we teach that God will inflict the second death upon all transgressors some have concluded that we hold this to be simply the equivalent of death as we now see it. But this is far from being the case. We fully credit all those scriptures which set forth the terrible nature of the second death. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” But we do assert that wicked men will not live in the fire of hell to all eternity, and that sin will not have an unending existence. We think many testimonies and many plain facts confirm this statement. We do not rely alone upon one class of texts, but upon the plain testimony of a great number of witnesses. The wicked shall die the second death; Rom. 6: 23; Rev. 21: 8; they shall be devoured; Ps. 21: 9; Rev. 20: 9; they shall be consumed; Ps. 37: 20; 59: 13; they shall perish; Ps. 73: 27; John 3: 15, 16; they shall be burned up root and branch; Mal. 4: 1–3; they shall be destroyed soul and body; Isa. 47: 14, margin; Matt. 10: 28; they shall be as though they had not been; Obadiah 16. We call attention to several great facts: 1. God shut out man from the tree of life that he should not live forever. 2. He gives an immortal existence to the righteous only, and that at the last trumpet. 3. The punishment of the wicked will be when God burns our earth. This great conflagration will constitute the lake of fire. 4. The earth will not burn to all eternity, for there will be a new earth created from the ashes of the old earth. 5. God will have a clean universe, and none but holy beings will then remain alive. One great fact is settled by the examination of the Bible concerning man’s state in death. Men are not rewarded nor punished till the judgment has first taken place. We cite a passage relative to the wicked because of its emphatic statement of this doctrine: “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. 2: 9. Let us now consider the foregoing propositions relative to the punishment of the wicked. 1. Is it true that God excluded man from the tree of life lest he should in his fallen state LIVE FOREVER? Here are the words of the Bible: “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil: 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.” Gen. 3: 22, 23. No one will deny that the words “LIVE FOREVER” are to be taken in their natural and obvious sense. God’s purpose is distinctly revealed in them. Man as a sinner is not to live forever. This great fact is thus announced at the very beginning of the Bible, and we may be sure that subsequent testimonies do not contradict it. 2. But is it also true that immortality does not belong to man by nature, and is the gift of God to the righteous only, and that not till the last trumpet? So the Scriptures do plainly teach. Thus Paul says: “Who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.” Rom. 2: 6–9. Immortality is therefore the gift of God to those only who seek it by patient continuance in well doing. It is certain therefore that man does not possess immortality by nature. Paul also fixes the time when God shall give immortality to his people: “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15: 51–53. This is the time, and this the manner, in which the righteous shall be made immortal. 3. Is it also the fact that the burning earth is to constitute the lake of fire wherein the wicked shall be punished? Solomon thus states the place of punishment: “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.” Prov. 11: 31. The righteous shall be recompensed in the new earth. And our earth which now is shall be dissolved with fervent heat when the time comes to make it new. This is the time and place for the perdition of ungodly men. “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3: 7. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Verse 10. Our earth will not be burned till the day of Judgment. The wicked are not to be punished till that day. 2 Peter 2: 9. But when God melts the earth, then shall come the perdition of ungodly men. Malachi states this great fact in these words: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . . And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 4: 1, 3. Here is Peter’s burning day, and here also is the perdition of all the ungodly in the lake of fire. John, who speaks as emphatically concerning the lake of fire, plainly teaches that the place where the wicked shall be punished is our earth. For after the resurrection of the unjust, they come up on the breadth of the earth and surround the camp of the saints, and then fire from God out of heaven comes down and devours them. Rev. 20: 9. We have therefore fully proved that our earth is to be the place of the fire wherein the wicked shall be punished. 4. Is it true that this lake of fire, after consuming the wicked, and after melting the earth, shall cease to burn, and that there shall be a new earth that shall spring from the ashes of the old, wherein the just shall dwell? Malachi plainly teaches that the fire shall cease to burn after devouring the wicked, and that the very place where the wicked were burned shall become the abode of the saints. For he speaks of what shall follow the burning day: “And ye shall tread down the wicked: for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 4: 3. Peter affirms this when he says: “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. 3: 12, 13. So that the fire shall sometime cease to burn, and then God shall create from the ashes of the old earth a new earth to be the abode of his people forever. And this also is Solomon’s doctrine when he says: “The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.” Prov. 11: 31. And John represents the creation of the new earth as an event that succeeds the lake of fire. Rev. 20: 14, 15; 21: 1. It is certain, therefore, that the fire in which the wicked are to be punished shall not burn to all eternity. 5. But is it certain that God shall again have a clean universe, and none but holy beings remain alive? He certainly had such once, for evil had no existence till Satan originated it. The psalmist prays: “Let the wicked be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” Ps. 104: 35. This prayer will most assuredly be answered, as the texts above quoted testify. When Balaam predicts the advent of Christ, and the destruction of the wicked, he cries out, “Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!” Num. 24: 17–24. And John tells us that “whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire,” and “this is the second death.” Rev. 20: 14, 15. He also sets forth the time when none but holy beings exist in the universe of God. Thus he says: “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5: 13. When these words shall have their fulfillment, the lake of fire shall have done its work upon the wicked, and none but holy beings remain alive. God is then all in all. And this time shall assuredly arrive, for God has spoken it. J. N. A.