AN AWFUL DOGMA by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 9, 1901

AN AWFUL DOGMA.

By G. B. Thompson

The above title can, we think, be truly applied to the doctrine of the eternal torment of the wicked, based on the inherent immortality of the soul. If man has by nature an immortal, never-dying soul, then it follows that those who make up that mighty caravan of the lost which is continually passing down into the grave, are weeping and wailing in torment from which there is no deliverance forevermore. The time during which they must writhe in unspeakable anguish is expressed by a poet as follows:—

“Infinite years in torment shall I spend, And 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 leaves of forests shaken by the wind; When these are spent, as many more to flow As blades of grass on hill 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 grief in misery lie, And madly writhe to all eternity.”

Reader, that is an awful doctrine. It is a terrible charge to bring against God, the God of love and mercy, that He will thus deal with any of His creatures. We are sometimes told that it is a gloomy doctrine which teaches that the dead are quietly sleeping in the silent tomb until the resurrection. Gloomy, forsooth! What could be more gloomy and doleful than the hideous dogma of the above lines, which are but an expression of the teaching of modern theology? To think that at this very hour there are myriads of poor, lost mortals who once lived and walked the earth as we do now, screaming with pain and anguish in the lurid flames of hell fire, and that the number is daily augmented with thousands more, is revolting. Mr. Benson, a believer in the immortality of the soul, and necessarily a believer in the eternal torment of the wicked, describes the exquisite scene thus:—

He [the Lord] will exert all His divine attributes to make them as wretched as the capacity of their nature will admit. . . . They must be perpetually revealing their enormous sums of guilt, and still running deeper, immensely deeper, in debt to divine and infinite justice. Hence after the longest imaginable period, they will be so far from having discharged their debt that they will find more due than when they first began to suffer. . . .His fiery indignation kindles, and His incensed fury feeds the flame of their torment, while His powerful presence and operation maintain their being, and render their powers most acutely sensible, thus setting the keenest edge upon their pain, and making it cut most intolerably deep.

We feel safe in saying that such teaching has strengthened infidelity in many a heart. Many, believing that such a dogma was taught in the Bible, have been unable to reconcile it with the idea that God is love, so have discarded the Scriptures as the divine Word of the Lord.

But it is clearly shown from consulting a few texts that such theology is an entire perversion of the Gospel and Scriptures of our Saviour. Life and immortality were brought to man thru the Gospel. 2 Tim. 1:10. Only thru the Gospel can man live forever. When man sinned, he forfeited his life, and if the plan of redemption, as taught by the Gospel, had not been instituted, he would never possess either immortality or eternal life; for they are the gift of God. Rom. 2:7. Sinners are “alienated from the life of God,” and have life only by laying hold of it by faith in the Lord. Eph. 4:18; 1 Tim. 6:12. The Lord gives eternal life to the sheep, those who hear His voice and follow Him. John 10:27, 28. But none except those who follow Him will live forever. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” I John 5:12.

The finally incorrigible have not the Son of God. It is for this reason that they are lost, and they therefore have no life; and having no life, they are dead. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that the punishment of sinners will be eternal torment. Having chosen death, they will receive it; and when eternally dead, they can not be in torment.

By holding out before the sinner life, by promising life to those to whom God has not promised life, the sinner is strengthened and confirmed in sin. Eze. 13:22.

Reader, eternal life and eternal death are set before us. Deut. 30:19. The Lord compels none; He permits us to choose. Let us heed His loving admonition to “choose life,” that we may live; for only those who make this wise choice will be granted the boon of an eternal existence. G. B. THOMPSON.

Rome, N. Y.