Are the Wicked Dead Now Being Punished?
By John Nevins Andrews
This is a question of awful solemnity, and should not be treated as a matter of speculation and idle curiosity. By far the greater part of mankind live in neglect of the great duties of religion, if not in open contempt of its most solemn commands. Such has ever been the fact with our fallen race. This vast throng of sinful men for long ages have been pouring through the gates of death, and its dark portals hide them from our further view. What is the condition of this innumerable multitude of impenitent dead? Where are they? and what now is their real state? To this question, two answers are returned: 1. They are now suffering the torments of the damned. This is the answer of all the so-called orthodox creeds. 2. They are now sleeping in the dust of the earth, awaiting the resurrection to damnation. This answer is believed by many candid Bible students to be the harmonious teaching of the Scriptures on this subject. Which of these two answers is the true and proper one? 1. There is no statement in the Bible relating to the wicked dead in general, where they are in any way represented as in a state or place of torment. Nor is there any instance in the Bible where men are threatened that they shall, if wicked, enter an abode of misery at death. Even the warning of Jesus in Matt. 10:28, which is thought to contain the strongest proof of the soul’s immortality that can be found in all the Bible, says not one word concerning the suffering of the soul in hades, the place of the dead, but relates wholly to what shall be inflicted upon “both soul and body in gehenna” (the Greek word here rendered hell), the place of punishment for the resurrected wicked. There being no general statement in the Bible representing the wicked dead as now in torment, and no instance in which the living wicked are threatened with consignment to the furnace of fire till after the Judgment, we now search out the particular cases which may be thought to teach such fact. There are just two of these cases which may be cited to prove that some of the wicked dead are now in torment; and from these, if at all, the torment of the wicked dead in general must be deduced. These cases are the Sodomites, “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”; Jude 7; and the rich man lifting up his eyes in torment; Luke 16:19–31. These are the only cases that can be cited from the Scriptures in proof that the wicked dead are now undergoing the punishment of their sins. 3. The case of the Sodomites first claims our attention. The text reads thus: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 7. The present tense is used throughout the verse. It occurs twice in speaking of the sin of Sodom, and twice with reference to its punishment. This text does not teach that the men of Sodom are now engaged in the sinful acts referred to: why should it be understood to teach that they are now receiving their retribution? Does the apostle mean to say that the Sodomites are now in the flames of eternal fire? The clause, “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” is modified by the words, “set forth for an example,” which immediately precede it. In fact, the real meaning of the apostle in what he says of the sufferings of the Sodomites can only be determined by giving this phrase, “set forth for an example,” its proper bearing. To be “set forth for an example” to wicked men, “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” one of two things must be true: 1. They must now be in a state of suffering in plain view of the inhabitants of the earth; or, 2. They must be somewhere in the Scriptures set forth in the very act of suffering the vengeance of fire from heaven. If the first of these views be correct, then the Sodomites are indeed now in torment. But that view is not correct; for the very place where Sodom was burned, is now covered by the Dead Sea. That the second view is correct, is manifest from Gen. 19:24–28: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his [Lot’s] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” Here the Sodomites are set forth for an example in the very act of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Are they to this day in that fire? Peter bears testimony, and it is the more valuable in this case because the chapter containing it is almost an exact parallel to the epistle of Jude. Thus he says: “Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah INTO ASHES, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.” 2 Pet. 2:6. Peter thus shows that the fire did its proper office upon the men of Sodom, and that they were not in his day alive in its flames. Their case is an example of what God will do to all the wicked after the resurrection to damnation, when fire shall descend out of heaven upon them, and the whole earth become a lake of fire. Rev. 20; 2 Pet. 3; Mal. 4. The testimony of Jeremiah, which represents the punishment of Sodom as comparatively brief, must complete this evidence: “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.” Lam. 4:6. 4. The language of Jude concerning the Sodomites has, therefore, no relation to their condition in death, and cannot be made to furnish evidence that the wicked dead are now in a state of torment. There remains, therefore, the case of a single individual—the rich man—out of which to deduce the doctrine that the wicked dead are now in the lake of fire. This is certainly a fact worthy of note. As we have already examined the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we omit to notice it again at this time. The testimony of the Bible shows that the wicked dead are asleep in sheol, where they await the resurrection to damnation.21 The following texts show that the resurrection and judgment of the wicked take place before they are punished; a doctrine in the highest degree reasonable, and sustained by many plain testimonies. 1. “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. The day of Judgment must arrive before the retribution of the ungodly. 2. “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 Pet. 3:7. The perdition of ungodly men comes at the Judgment. 3. “The wicked is RESERVED to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” Job 21:30. The next scripture will explain this. 4. “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29. 5. The wicked are first raised and judged, then afterward cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11–15. 6. Vengeance is taken upon all the ungodly together when the Lord comes with his saints. Jude 14:15. 8. The burning day is the time when the wicked meet their fate. Mal. 4; Ps. 21:9. 9. The wrath of God waits till the day of wrath. Rom. 2:5–9. 10. Tribulation to the ungodly comes in connection with the advent of the Saviour. 2 Thess. 1. 11. The wicked dead are not punished till after the seventh trumpet. Rev. 11:15, 18. 12. The Judge says, “Depart from me, ye cursed,” and then, for the first time, the ungodly enter the furnace of fire. Matt. 25:41.