ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED.
By G.
It is not worth while to argue with any one who refuses to accept the plain Word of God as final. So it is not for the sake of argument with a certain "holiness" journal that we notice its failure to find in the Word of God the doctrine that He will annihilate the finally impenitent sinner. We give a few very plain references for the benefit of those who are willing to heed the Word when it is brought to their attention. 1. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. Here death is set as the opposite of life. 2. To Adam God said: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:19. 3. "Evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. 37: 9, 10. "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." Verse 20. 4. "Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and 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. 5. David compares the wicked to chaff (Ps. 35:5), and John the Baptist said of Christ, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." Luke 3: 17. That is, no power will be able to avert the utter destruction of the wicked. They will be "burned up" as chaff, just as Malachi says of the "stubble." 6. To the same effect it is said that "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," thus showing that their utter annihilation is sure, because the instrument of their destruction is invincible. The fact that the power by which the wicked are destroyed is indestructible, or can not be stayed, is a proof that its work will be thorough and complete. This is illustrated by the destruction of Sodom. Jude tells us that "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 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." Note particularly that the "everlasting chains" (unbreakable chains) only hold those fallen angels unto the day of judgment—when they will be destroyed in the "everlasting fire" (Matt. 25:41), in the same manner that Sodom was destroyed, a destruction from which they never can recover. The destruction is by fire from God, which is a "devouring" fire. Heb. 10:27; Ps. 50:3. 7. The righteous will be "recompensed in the earth," where the wicked also will receive their "wages." Prov. 11:31; Ps. 37:22. The Lord will then have a clean universe, according to His "eternal purpose." The antediluvian world was destroyed by water; "but 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. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." See 2 Peter 3:5-13. And the place of the wicked "shall not be." They will have consumed away into smoke. All the foregoing scriptures perfectly harmonize. There are no contradictions in the Word of God, if the plain statements regarding which there can be no misunderstanding, if taken at their face, are allowed to stand as the basis of interpretation. There is one other expression, "forever," which men have used extensively in the endeavor to overthrow the plain statements which we have quoted. We will state briefly that "forever" is a word limited by the existence of the thing to which it is applied. For examples, see Ex. 21:5, 6; Lev. 10:15; 16:29-31; 24:3; Joshua 4:7, and many others too numerous to mention here. Attention is called to a very comprehensive little tract, entitled "Tormented Forever and Ever," for sale at this office; price one cent. It is a full and clear exposition of the meaning and use of the phrase. G.