The Unspeakable Gift by J. H. Pettingell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 38.

The Unspeakable Gift.

By J. H. Pettingell

Of what the soul of man consists, pure science can tell us nothing. Indeed, science cannot tell us whether man has any soul as an entity distinct from the body. Nor does Scripture give us any warrant for dogmatizing as to its independent nature, and asserting positively, as many do, that it can consciously exist, and exercise all the functions of an active, conscious personality, apart from the body. Without dogmatizing on a subject which grows more and more difficult the more it is examined, and in regard to which the wisest are the most diffident, we are free to confess that we have never been able to find any good evidence from Scripture—certainly not from science, to believe that man can exist as an intelligent, sensitive, responsible person, in a disorganized condition; or, in other words, that he can be dead and alive at the same time, as is commonly believed to be his abnormal condition between death and the resurrection. But, be that as it may, it is the ultimate state of man that especially concerns us now.

The extensive prevalence of the Platonic philosophy, which attributes to man an indestructible soul independent of the body—which is at best but a speculation—has put a new meaning into the word soul, which is quite different from the sense in which it is employed in the Scriptures—as we will show—and has introduced into our theological teaching, and into our literature generally, new forms of expression when treating of the destiny of man, not to be found in the word of God, such as "the immortal soul," "the ever-living soul," "the never-dying soul," etc.; and our dictionaries have incorporated this deathless nature of the soul into the very definition of the word, as its distinguishing characteristic. This is actually a pre-judgment of the whole question. At least, it misleads and confuses the minds of inquirers who would know what is the true doctrine of the Scriptures concerning the destiny of man. It sets them to disputing about the soul of man, when the real question which the Scriptures set before us is concerning the whole man, body and soul in one; man, not in any transitional state, but as reconstituted in the resurrection.

We need not stop to inquire what is the condition of man immediately after death, concerning which the Scriptures give us very little light. Our chief inquiry is concerning the man that now is, to whom the word of God is addressed; the man whom God created and placed under law; the man who sinned and forfeited the life—all the life—that was given him; the man to whom God said, "Thou shalt surely die;" the man who was redeemed by the death of the Son of God; the man to whom the unspeakable gift of eternal life is again offered in the gospel, and who is exhorted to lay hold of it; the man who will be raised and judged according to the deeds done in the body—What will become of him? The righteous, with new spiritual bodies like unto Christ’s glorious body, will then enter upon a new life, a life of joy and blessedness that shall never end—this, no one can doubt—and the wicked—who, according to the word of God, shall then "be punished with everlasting destruction"—Shall they too enter upon a life, a life of misery that shall never end? or shall they perish, soul and body together, in the second death, from which there is no resurrection?

It is not the future punishment of the wicked, nor even the future rewards of the righteous, that is the special subject of our inquiry; but the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That the wicked are punished, and punished according to their ill desert, after death for the sins they commit in this life, and that the righteous are rewarded for all their good deeds, is too clearly revealed in the Scriptures to admit of any question by those who accept their testimony. But it is a great mistake, which too many make, and a fruitful source of error, on the subject of our inquiry, to suppose that the death which is the common lot of all men since the fall, is that punishment, or that the eternal life, which is a gift of grace, is the reward of the righteous. No man, however free he may be from personal sins, can hope for exemption from this death; nor can any one, however full he may be of good works, establish any claim to this life eternal on the score of merit. The punishment which is due to the sinner for his own sins, and the death which he dies as a mortal man, are two distinct things, and they should never be confounded with each other, as they commonly are in the popular mind. The same distinction is to be observed between the rewards of the righteous, and the unspeakable gift of God—the eternal life—which is the subject of our inquiry.

The Scriptures assure us that, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." "It is appointed unto men—all men—once to die, but after this the judgment." Had it not been for God’s purpose of grace and mercy, made known in the gospel, this death would have been the final end of all men. But the gospel reveals to us a resurrection from the dead, and another life—a second life—which is pure, spiritual, and eternal, for all who shall be fitted to enjoy it; and a second death, from which there is no resurrection for all who have no fitness for this immortal life.

Now this is the life which is freely offered to all men in the gospel, without money and without price—the life which we are exhorted to seek, to lay hold of, to receive as the gift of God through Jesus Christ; and having received it, the way is open for us to lay up our treasures in Heaven, and to accumulate merit as abundantly as we please. We are assured that there shall be distinctions, according to merit, in the recompense of the righteous, and that not one good deed, even to the giving of a cup of cold water to a disciple for the sake of Christ, shall fall of its full reward.

The "second death" is the death we are warned against, and urged to escape, while we may. Though the first death may not be avoided, the second, which shall issue in utter destruction, may be. What various degrees of punishment shall be meted out to the unsaved by the hand of justice; how many shall fall under this dreadful doom of the second death; what the number of stripes that shall be inflicted upon "those who have sinned without law, and shall perish without law;" how many and how heavy the stripes which they shall deserve who have sinned against both the law and the gospel, and have rejected and despised an offered Saviour, and what shall be their disappointment, their rage, their anguish of spirit, and their torment, and how long all this shall endure, before the fires of Gehenna shall utterly consume them, and the universe shall be rid of their presence—we forbear even to guess. Nor need we now inquire, for this is not our theme. It is just the opposite of all this—the unspeakable gift of God.

This gloomy side has its fit place for consideration, but it now comes only incidentally into view as the background of the glorious picture we are considering.

Entertaining large views of the saving power of him who "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life," we would gladly hope, if we could, for the salvation of all the children of Adam. But bowing reverently, as we do, to the teaching of his word, we cannot entertain any such hope. Alas! that word assures us that, at the last day, "many" will be adjudged to be fit only for destruction; that the good wheat only will be gathered into the garner, and that the chaff will be "burned up with unquenchable fire;" "And then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father"—a kingdom which is not only everlasting, but co-extensive with the universe.

The notion of two everlasting kingdoms, running parallel with each other, the one, a kingdom of purity and blessedness; the other, a kingdom of sin and sorrow; the one, to resound with the praises and joyful songs of redeemed men and angels; and the other, with the groans and blasphemies of lost sinners and devils to all eternity, is not a doctrine of the Bible; it is a relic of Persian dualism and pagan superstition. It came into the Christian church in the latter part of the second century, with that other pagan doctrine of which it is the legitimate fruit—the natural and necessary immortality of sinners. It was incorporated into her creed by the philosophic schoolmen of the Dark Ages, and has been handed down to us through the medium of an apostate church; but is regarded by many, even to this day, as a part of the faith once delivered to the saints. It is full time that it were relegated to its source, and that those who call themselves Christians returned to the simple faith of the gospel, as taught by the Master himself and his apostles.—J. H. Pettingell.