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Eternal Fire

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 7, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 10.

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"Eternal Fire."

ON this phrase, Dr. Whitby remarks: "This fire may be called eternal, not that the bodies of the wicked shall be ever burning in it, and never be consumed by it, since this cannot be done without a constant miracle; but because it shall entirely consume their bodies as that they shall never subsist again, but shall perish and be destoryed forever by it." Again, with reference to the word eternal, we know that it sometimes has the sense of FINAL, or nearly that sense. Because this destruction is eternal, it does not follow that the act of destruction is to be always going on, but rather that the state of destruction is such that there is no recovery from it. Thus, if a man were destroyed for a year, and then restored, it would be punishment for a year; if a hundred years, it would be a century of punishment; if for a thousand years, it would be a millennium of punishment—but if he was destroyed never to be restored throughout eternity, it would be an eternal punishment. That such is the case, we learn from the word of God.
"The apostle [Heb. 6: 2] speaks of 'eternal judgment.' We are not to infer from this that the judgment day is never to expire—but simply this, that whereas earthly judgments are temporal in their character and results, here shall be a judgment where everything wrong shall be made right, and the decisions of which shall not be subject to alteration or reversal—hence, it is an eternal judgment; so also a punishment where there is neither reprieve or restoration may fitly be called an eternal punishment."—Pauline Theology, pp. 60, 61.
Bancroft, the learned Unitarian, says, "We read of eternal redemption [Heb. 9: 12], not that God will be forever redeeming men; but the blessed effects of redemption will be eternal. In the same sense we may understand the punishment of eternal fire, of eternal destruction, etc.; not that the act of destroying, or the fire of consumption, will be perpetual and eternal, but the effects will be. A destruction which will never be reversed, may, with strict propriety, be called an everlasting punishment."