EXTINCTION WORSE by John N. Quinn

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 18, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 28.

EXTINCTION WORSE

By John N. Quinn

THAN HELL

WHEN the truth of the Bible concerning the end of the wicked is taught, the cry is raised that annihilation is not punishment, and that if eternal suffering is not preached, there will be no fear of the future in the hearts of men. Indifference to the service of God will result. Better indifference than a service based on fear. Fear has torment, says the Word; but perfect love casts out fear. The belief in eternal torment keeps the love of God in its fullness out of the human heart. How can a person love a being one of whose attributes is extreme cruelty? Cruelty is the antithesis of love.

That eternal nonexistence has with it a wholesome fear is thus evidenced:

In 1883, when he stood upon the edge of threescore years, the noted scientist Huxley wrote to a friend:

"It is a curious thing that I find my dislike to the thought of extinction increasing as I get older and nearer the goal. It flashes across me at all sorts of times with a sort of horror that in 1900 I shall probably know no more than I did in 1800. I had sooner be in hell."—Quoted by T. Calvin McClelland, D. D., in his book, "The Mind of Christ," page 135; published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.

Men look upon death as a severer punishment than imprisonment for twenty years, or for life. There is no greater punishment than the eternal extinction of being. To put the sinner out of existence forever—this is justice and mercy; to keep him in excruciating torments for eternity is cruelty,—a cruelty which had its origin in the mind of Lucifer, God's everlasting enemy. The wicked shall be as though they had never existed. This is the truth taught in the word of God, a truth which appeals to every man's sense of right and justice.

JOHN N. QUINN.