The Sinner's Fate by D. M. Canright

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 15, 1875

The Sinner's Fate.

By D. M. Canright

NOTHING is more reasonable than that the wicked should be utterly destroyed and cease to be a curse to themselves and to others; and no doctrine is more plainly and pointedly taught in the Bible than this. We invite the reader's attention to the following condensed but comprehensive statement of the Bible upon this subject.

THEY SHALL DIE.

To die is thus defined by Webster: "To cease to live; to expire; to decease; to perish."

Death, then, is a loss of life, a cessation of existence. In this sense it is familiarly and repeatedly used in the Bible. Take four examples: Speaking of the flood it says: "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth." Gen. 7:21. Of his cattle Jacob said: "If men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die." Gen. 33:13. Again: "And the fish that is in the river shall die." Ex. 7:18. Of Dorcas it says: "It came to pass in those days, that she was sick and died." Acts 9:37. The simple meaning in these instances cannot be misunderstood. It means an utter loss of life. And so it is used in hundreds of places all through the Scriptures. This familiar word is the one which the Lord has chosen more frequently than any other to describe the end of the wicked.

Take a few examples: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." "For his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." Eze. 18:4, 26. "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die." Eze. 33:14. "He that hateth reproof shall die." Prov. 15:10. "He that despiseth his way shall die." Prov. 19:16. "The end of those things is death." "For the wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:21, 23. "To be carnally minded is death." Rom. 8:6. "Shall save a soul from death." James 5:20. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15.

THEY SHALL BE DESTROYED:

Destroy: "To demolish; to pull down; to bring to naught; to annihilate."—Webster. Destruction, then, is utter ruin, complete annihilation; and so it is used in the Bible. At the flood the Lord said: "Every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth." Gen. 7:4. Wild beasts shall "destroy your cattle." Lev. 26:22. "The trees . . . thou shalt destroy." Deut. 20:20. "He sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers." Matt. 22:7.

With a Concordance, the reader can readily find scores of texts where the word destroy or destroyed is used as above, where there can be no question about its meaning. This strong but simple word the Lord has repeatedly used in naming the punishment of the wicked. Thus: "All the wicked will he destroy." Ps. 145:20. "I will early destroy all the wicked." Ps. 101:8. "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28. "The transgressors shall be destroyed together." Ps. 37:38. "All the workers of iniquity . . . shall be destroyed forever." Ps. 92:7. "Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed." Prov. 13:13. "Is not destruction to the wicked." Job. 31:3. "Destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity." Prov. 10:29. "The indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." Isa. 10:25. "Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." Rom. 9:22. "Whose end is destruction." Phil. 3:19. "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." 2 Thess. 1:9. "Which drown men in destruction and perdition." 1 Tim. 6:9.

THEY SHALL PERISH.

Perish: "To die; to lose life in any manner; to be destroyed; to come to nothing."—Webster. Here is another word, the very strongest that can be found to denote an utter destruction, used times without number to denote the end of the wicked.

Take a few passages to show its Bible usage. Of Saul David said: "He shall descend into battle and perish." 1 Sam. 26:10. Of Jonah's gourd it is said, "Which came up in a night, and perished in a night." Jonah 4:10. "And the bottles perish." Matt. 9:17. The "swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished." Matt. 8:32.

So the Lord declares the wicked shall end. "Let the wicked perish at the presence of God." Ps. 68:2. "But the wicked shall perish." Ps. 37:20. "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish." John 3:15. "Thy money perish with thee." Acts 8:20. "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." Acts 13:41. "The cross is to them that perish foolishness. 1 Cor. 1:18. "In them that perish." 2 Cor. 2:15. "With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." 2 Thess. 2:10. "He that speaketh lies shall perish." Prov. 19:9. "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." Luke 13:3. "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law." Rom. 2:12. "Shall utterly perish in their own corruption." 2 Pet. 2:12.

SHALL BE BURNED UP.

The meaning of the word burn is too familiar to every reader to need a definition. Look a moment at its use in the Bible. Sampson's firebrands "burnt up both the shocks and the standing corn." Judges 15:5. Job's servant said, "The fire of God is fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep." Job 1:16. "Our holy and beautiful house . . . is burned up with fire." Isa. 64:11. The king "burned up their city." Matt. 22:7.

And so in numerous places. A thing burned up is totally destroyed and reduced to ashes. The Lord says "he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. 3:12. "Whose end is to be burned." Heb. 6:8. Gather together "the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them." Matt. 13:30. "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, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1.

THEY SHALL BE CONSUMED.

Consume: "To destroy by separating the parts of a thing by decomposition, as by fire; to destroy and annihilate the form of a substance."—Webster. When a thing is consumed it is reduced to ashes. "There came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering." Lev. 9:24. "And cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire." Jer. 36:23. "The gates thereof are consumed with fire." Neh. 2:3.

Knowing what the people would understand by this word the Lord often tells them that the wicked shall be consumed. Thus: "They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." Isa. 1:28. "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth." Ps. 104:35. "The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume, into smoke shall they consume away." Ps. 37:20. "Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be." Ps. 59:13. "Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth." Zech. 14:12.

THEY SHALL BE DEVOURED.

Devour: "To eat up; to destroy; to consume with rapidity and violence."—Webster. A couple of passages will show its Bible use. "There went out fire from the Lord and devoured them." Lev. 10:2. "Some evil beast hath devoured him." Gen. 37:20. This word again the Lord uses to describe the condition of the wicked. "Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." Rev. 20:9. "Fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. 10:27. "The fire shall devour them." Ps. 21:9. "They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." Nahum 1:10.

SHALL GO INTO PERDITION.

Perdition: "Entire loss or ruin; utter destruction."—Webster. This again is a very strong word to denote utter destruction. "None of them is lost but the son of perdition." John 17:12. "Which drown men in destruction and perdition." 1 Tim. 6:9. "We are not of them who draw back unto perdition." Heb. 10:39. "Against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Pet. 3:7.

CUT ASUNDER.

"Shall cut him asunder." Matt. 24:51.

CUT DOWN.

"They shall soon be cut down like the grass." Ps. 37:2.

CUT UP.

"As thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire." Isa. 33:12.

CUT OFF.

"I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord." Ps. 101:8. "For evil doers shall be cut off." "They that be cursed of him shall be cut off." "The seed of the wicked shall be cut off." "When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it." "The end of the wicked shall be cut off." Ps. 37:9, 22, 28, 34, 38. "The wicked shall be cut off from the earth." Prov. 2:22. "Every one that stealeth shall be cut off." Zech. 5:3.

CUT IN PIECES.

"Let them be as cut in pieces." Ps. 58:7.

ROOTED OUT.

"The transgressors shall be rooted out of it" (the earth). Prov. 2:22.

CHASED OUT.

"He shall be . . . chased out of the world." Job. 18:18. "He shall be chased away as a vision of the night." Job. 20:8. They "shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind." Isa. 17:13.

BLOTTED OUT.

"Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." Ex. 32:33. "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living." Ps. 69:28. "Let their name be blotted out." Ps. 109:13.

PASS AWAY.

"As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away." Ps. 58:8.

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED IS COMPARED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MOST PERISHABLE MATERIALS.

They are to be dashed "in pieces like a potter's vessel," Ps. 2:9; to be consumed "as the fat of lambs," Ps. 37:20; to perish "like the beasts," Ps. 49:20; to pass away "as a snail which melteth," Ps. 58:8; to be driven away "as smoke is driven away," and to perish "as wax melteth before the fire," Ps. 68:2; to be no more, "as the whirlwind passeth," Prov. 10:25. They "shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water, and . . . as tow," Isa. 1:30, 31; "as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire," Isa. 33:12; "like moth and worm-eaten garments," Isa. 51:8; and "as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust." Isa. 5:24. They shall be burned as tares, Matt. 13:30; as dry branches, John 15:6; as wood and hay, 1 Cor. 3:12; as thorns and briars, Heb. 6:8. "They shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away." Hosea 13:3. "They shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb." Ps. 37:2. "His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off," Job 18:16; and his light "shall be put out." Job 18:5.

How could the utter destruction of the wicked be more clearly stated or more forcibly illustrated than in the above scriptures? Added to these are the declarations over and over made that the soul itself shall die, and that the wicked shall be no more. Thus: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Eze. 18:4. "And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body." Isa. 10:18. "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28. Equivalent to this is the declaration that the wicked shall be burned up, so "that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1.

Several times it is directly stated that the wicked shall be as nothing. "Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught." Isa. 41:11, 12. Obadiah's language is still stronger. He says, "They shall be as though they had not been." Obd. 16. And so the Psalmist says, "For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be." Ps. 37:10. Again he exclaims, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more." Ps. 104:35.

Such an array of positive testimony as there is for the utter destruction of the wicked, can hardly be produced for any other doctrine of the Bible, even though it be the plainest one.

D. M. CANRIGHT. Petaluma, Cal., April 1.