The Punishment of the Impenitent by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 22, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 41.

The Punishment of the Impenitent

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

WHAT is to be the final punishment of the impenitent?

There are so many millions of human beings to whom this question comes with fearful import, that were it not for the fact that the Word of God is very conclusive upon the subject, I might well approach it with hesitancy. It is a question which is only equaled in importance by that one which we have already considered, "Shall the dead live again?"

Husbands have asked it over the graves of their wives; and wives have uttered the compelling question above the sealed sepulchers of their dead. Mothers have mournfully repeated it over the graves of their sons and daughters; and countless multitudes whose unwilling feet are about to enter the dark valley of the shadow, Christless and godless, are facing the dim unknown with the same question trembling upon their pallid lips — even as I write.

And hence it is with a swift prayer to Heaven for help that my pen may be laden with words of wisdom and truth, that I undertake to bring you God's answer from His Book. Can we wonder that this question propounds itself to a dying world with an insistency which refuses to be satisfied with anything less than truth?

The Commonly Accepted Idea

We all know the commonly accepted idea concerning this subject, — an idea which is so at variance with the teachings of the blessed Bible, so defaming to the loving character of our merciful Redeemer, and withal so repugnant to our own ideas of justice, that it is verily astonishing that the error has become so wide-spread and general.

This weird, unscriptural, and unreasonable idea that the unrepentant must enter, at death, a seething, roaring maelstrom of fire, and never, never be consumed or released through the eternal ages, has its foundation in that hoary falsehood first whispered by the insidious tongue of the serpent. Indeed, it is part and parcel of the first lie glibly muttered by the wily foe: "Thou shalt not surely die."

And there are not a few who are gullible enough to believe, with honest hearts, that the human soul can not possibly die, even after spending an eternity in the horrible fires of hell.

God's Word on the Subject

Well, what does God say about it? — He says plainly that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." And He repeats it in the same chapter, and then adds, as if He knew our proneness to impute injustice to Him, "Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal."

When the Almighty speaks once, it ought to be sufficient; but He has been kind enough to give us line upon line, precept upon precept, "here a little, and there a little," upon this most thrilling subject.

King David, the sweet singer of Israel, had some sad experiences. His enemies were numerous. Idol-worship was on every hand. Treacherous and cruel foes sprang from many an ambush. Wicked men appeared to triumph in his day — as well as in ours.

Besides this, with prophetic vision, the seer looked far down the stream of time, and saw the coming generations of wicked men rising in rebellion against God. Therefore he makes wicked men a subject of prayer; and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he prays concerning their death, "Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."

But, David, why do you pray so vain a prayer as this? Do you not understand that at death, the wicked can not be silent in the grave, because they are shrieking amid the torments of the fires of hell, where they must forever exist in awful agony?

Hark! The voice of the inspired prophet is raised in earnest protest: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be."

Solomon, the son of David, seems to have entertained the same ideas as his inspired father. King Solomon had become acquainted with wicked men. He knew them alive, and he had seen them die; and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he speaks of their condition in death: "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. . . . For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything. . . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished."

Now could it be possible for the hatred to perish from a man's heart, if he were enduring the awful pains of hell, with no prospect of relief to all eternity? — Nay, verily.

But let us have another testimony to the point from David. Tell us, O man "after God's own heart," must the wicked man who dies in his sins, be condemned to everlasting torture and never-ending anguish?

Listen: "But the wicked shall PERISH, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away."

Neither Root nor Branch Left

This language is as plain as it is possible for language to be. But we will give one more testimony from the last prophet of the Old Testament: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts—"

"But surely," somebody protests, "there must be something left to suffer on to all eternity, is there not?"

Let the Lord of Hosts Himself give the answer: "The day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . . For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this."

O my friends, do we not rejoice to know, then, that there is no such thing as eternal suffering? A God of love can not and will not permit it.

Satan Himself Destroyed

Not long ago, a man said to me, "Why, I do believe that you actually think Satan himself will be utterly destroyed."

No, I do not "think" anything of the kind. I know it. How? — Because God says so: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so. . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways, . . . TILL iniquity was found in thee. . . . Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub. . . . Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. . . . The people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and NEVER shalt thou be any more."

A Clean Universe

O, let us thank God that it is true. When the Almighty speaks, let the cunning fables of men and devils be silenced. The universe of God will be clean some day. There will be left no creature to moan and to shriek in anguish unutterable. Else the divine Revelator could not have said, "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." Could this be true if, in some dark corner howsoever remote, there were millions upon millions of screaming, groaning, shrieking, blaspheming creatures — creatures made in the image of God Himself? — Nay, verily. The brain reels, and the heart turns sick, at thought of it.

"But," you say, "does not Christ declare of the wicked, that 'these shall go away into everlasting punishment'?" Surely He does, and it is true. But there is vast difference between "punish-ing" and "punishment." Christ does not say that the punish-ing will be everlasting. But the effects of that punishing must be eternal. Those who suffer the pangs of the second death, can never hope for life again. They must share the fate of Satan — of whom God says, "Never shalt thou be any more."

From the Standpoint of Justice

But now let us consider this question a moment from the side of justice. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." If it is true that the wicked go to a place of eternal torment at death, then Cain, the first murderer, must have been forced

to suffer unspeakable torture for about six thousand years longer than the murderer who dies to-day. Again, if this is true, then the comparatively innocent man must suffer side by side, eternally, with the most hardened and vile criminal—when God has said that men shall be punished ACCORDING to the deeds done in the body.

Reader, our heavenly Father delights in mercy. He says, “I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.”

Aye, He is infinite in mercy. Shall we impute to Him a vindictiveness and a cruelty which shocks our own sense of mercy or justice? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

We speak of Nero, the emperor of Rome, with a shudder. His very memory is hateful to the world. Why?—Because of his fiendish cruelty. But Nero put men to death quickly. He burned them—but the fires have gone out centuries ago.

We would not torture the vilest worm with a lingering death. The state condemns the fiercest murderer to death by lightning. He sits in the electric chair. The current is turned on. That is the end.

O, away, I say, with that God-dishonoring theory which paints our loving heavenly Father in character blacker than that of a Nero or a Caligula!

Well, what then?

God gave man life conditionally. If we obey Him, He makes that life eternal. If we disobey, He takes from us the life He gave; because we have virtually refused to accept it, when He has freely offered it.

Let us take comfort in the thought that sin and suffering must not be eternal—can not be; for “neither shall there be any more pain.” “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”

Thank God, the time is at hand when the entire universe will be clean and pure and beautiful forevermore. Amen.