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SHALL NOT PERISH

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Aug 2, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 31.

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SHALL NOT PERISH.

By G.

THE Gospel of Jesus Christ is briefly but tersely stated in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There is a clear-cut distinction between everlasting life and perishing. Accepting the Gospel of Christ is unending life; being without the Gospel is to perish.
David gives us some contrasts that make very clear the idea of what perishing means: "Evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Ps. 37:9. Again, "For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off." Verse 22. Another expression gives a still fuller idea of the end of the wicked and the reward of the righteous: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." Verses 10, 11. But David's definition of the word "perish" may be more to the point of the quotation at the head of this article: "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.
Consuming into smoke implies destruction by fire. So John, in one of his visions on Patmos, saw the manner of the execution of the wicked, and tells it as follows: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [margin, "the grave"] delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:12-15.
The effect of this fire is eternal, or everlasting; hence we have the phrase "everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46). Jude compares it to the destruction of Sodom: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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." Jude 7. Sodom was utterly consumed, and the fire, altho "unquenchable," naturally went out of itself, when that upon which it fed was consumed "into smoke."
This is the doom which those escape who accept the Gospel of Christ, they "shall not perish." Christ says, "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth;" to which wemay add the promise by the mouth of David, "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be forever." G.