p. 535 | EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT by M. C. W.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 34.

EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT.

By M. C. W.

"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25:46.

THE above text is one of the strongholds of those who advocate eternal torment. They hold that the period of time is the same in the case of the wicked as in the case of the righteous, and that the punishment is torment, or misery; and as the life of the righteous is endless, therefore the torment of the wicked is endless. Is this true? Let us examine the text.

1. The text contrasts the ultimate reward of the righteous with the ultimate fate of the wicked. It is the execution of the final sentence of the great Judge. The classes were opposite in character; their doom also will be opposite.

2. The extent of the punishment is the same. The same word in the original is used in both cases. "These shall go away into everlasting [aïonion] punishment; but the righteous into life eternal [aïonion]." The Greek term aïonion, is sometimes limited in its meaning, the same as the substantive aïon, from which it is derived, and which is defined by lexicons to mean "age," "period," "lifetime," "unlimited duration," "eternity." Its proper meaning is "age," whether longer or shorter, a period, the beginning or ending of which is hidden from man. We will give the adjective aïonion, "age-lasting," in the text its fullest meaning—eternity, without end.—Eternal life and eternal punishment,—no change ever comes to either as respects the conditions indicated in the terms.

3. We know as well as mortals can know what the eternal life [aïonion zoe] is. It is living in the kingdom of God, a life which measures with the life of God. To such a life happiness must be a necessary concomitant; but of this the text says nothing: it is not its object. It sets before us two opposite classes—righteous and unrighteous. It also places before us two opposite conditions as their destinies—life and the only opposite of life—death. It is eternal life or eternal death.

The text does not state everlasting life in happiness and everlasting life in misery, as it should have said if the wicked are to be endlessly tormented. For life without end is as much eternal life in misery as in happiness. Not the conditions of life are presented; but the ultimate destiny of two classes of opposite characters, therefore opposite destinies. As the one was life, reason would say the other was death.

4. The term torment has been read into the text. "Punishment" might mean "torment" or "misery," and it might not. For instance, two criminals are before a judge for different offenses. The punishment of the one, as expressed in the sentence of the judge, is to receive sixty lashes at the whipping post; the punishment of the other is to be shot through the heart. The first has a punishment which means much pain and misery; the second suffers but momentary pain. Which is the greater punishment? All will reply, the latter. And yet it did not have a tithe of the suffering which the former had. Then wherein is it greater? We reply it deprives of life. If the criminal were thirty years old, he might in the natural course of events have lived forty years more. His punishment has deprived him of forty years of life, what he probably would have lived if he had not been punished.

So with the punishment of the wicked. If they had not rejected Christ, they might have had eternal life. But because of unrepented, unconfessed, unforgiven sin, they are deprived of that life which they otherwise would have had, even eternal life. But the deprivation of eternal life is eternal death, and that is eternal punishment.

5. Notice further: The term used indicates a completed, final act. It is not punishing, but punishment. Punishing would denote a continued process, punishment would denote a completed one. So "eternal salvation" (Heb. 5:9), "eternal judgment" (Heb. 6:2), "eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12), do not mean eternal saving, eternal judging, and eternal redeeming, but these terms denote finality and completeness. They are not processes forever going on, but things accomplished and irreversible. So everlasting punishment is final and completed punishment.

6. What do parallel texts say? What is the punishment which they set forth? By what term do they indicate what our Saviour used "punishment" to indicate? Says Paul: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. The one is opposite of the other. It is death and life. Again, 2 Thess. 1:9: "Who shall be punished with everlasting DESTRUCTION from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." The "punishment" of Matt. 25:46 is therefore shown to be, by unambiguous and positive language, "death" and "destruction." Says one apostle, "What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Pet. 4:17) and another furnishes the reply, "Whose end is destruction." Phil. 3:19. Again Peter says, that they "shall utterly perish in their own corruption." 2 Peter 2:12.

Certainly this is everlasting death, not misery. A few words will make this clear. If death should be visited upon the sinner, and then at the end of a thousand years he should be raised, he would only have been punished a thousand years; that is, he would have been deprived of a thousand years of life, which otherwise he would have had. If he were raised at the end of a million years, that period would be the length of his punishment. There would be taken from him a million years which he could have used had it not been for the punishment. Even so, if the wicked are never raised from that second death (and they never will be), their punishment is eternal, for it is eternal death.

We now have the privilege of choosing life or death. The life is as endless as the life of God with naught to mar its blessed fruition. The death is the loss of this eternal life, and is therefore eternal. One is given through repentance and obedient faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the other may be chosen by making no choice. "As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." "Therefore choose life."