The Wages of Sin by L. D. Santee

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 9, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 44.

The Wages of Sin

By L. D. Santee

Will the Wicked Burn Eternally?—Is Such a Doctrine Reasonable or Just?

By L. D. SANTEE

"THE wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6: 23.

In all nations, death is considered the greatest punishment. The word thanatos, here rendered "death," is defined, "extinction of life." This is the only literal meaning of the word as used by those who wrote and spoke in Greek. It has no other meaning when used to represent punishment.

Dr. Whedon says, "The Jewish synagogue taught the utter annihilation of the finally wicked."

The noted John A. Bengal says, "There are sacred truths which forbid us to insist on the eternity of 'hell torments' if we admit the Bible statement, that the wages of sin is death."

HORRIBLE AND UNREASONABLE

The horrible doctrine of eternal torment is abhorrent to reason. Here is one illustration: Suppose that I am going to visit a dear friend. We were boys together; and our love, true and tender, has stood the test of years. Circumstances drifted us apart, and for ten years we have not met. At last I arrange for a visit, to renew the old ties. Our joy is mutual over our proposed meeting. My heart thrills as I see the smoke of his cottage in the distance, for I know what a warm heart will welcome me over the threshold.

My friend is married, and a little girl nine years old gladdens their home. One day, I am sitting in the parlor, and the child is in the room, and she does something deserving of punishment. Her father, coming in soon, sees what has been done, and corrects the child reasonably.

As he goes out, she says to me: "Don't you feel sorry for me? Pa whipped me."

I answer, "No, my child; you ought not to have done wrong, and then you would not have been punished."

In this, I am loyal to my friend, and my sympathies are on the side of government.

The next day, the same thing happens again, and she asks me the same question. I say, "I am sorry that it was necessary to punish you, but your father did right."

In this, I am loyal to my friend, and my sympathies are still with the one who governs.

HIS CRUELTY BREEDS SENTIMENTS OF REBELLION

On the third day, the same offense is repeated. The father commences to punish his child; but instead of being governed by justice and mercy, the cruel whip continues

to fall. My feelings are changing, and I begin to have a sympathy for the criminal, and an indignation toward the one who is exercising cruelty.

By and by, I say to him, with some hesitation, "John, I think that you have whipped that child long enough." He answers back sharply, "You attend to your affairs, and don't dictate to me," and the whip still falls.

The friendship of years is forgotten, love is dead, and I am bitterly indignant, and just about to array myself as a rebel against his home government. I had been loyal, but his injustice made me rebellious.

THE ANGELS WOULD REBEL

Was I wrong? If God should visit on the sinner a living, agonizing punishment to all eternity, it would arouse just that feeling among the angels, and there would be another rebellion in heaven. God Himself does not want us to consider Him as a being of infinite cruelty. He protests against mankind's clothing Him with injustice.

Read Nahum 1: 9: "What do ye imagine against the Lord?" His next words tell us what He wants us to believe: "He will make an utter end." Read further on: "They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." The one who imagines differently, does a cruel wrong to Him who "so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Do you want the truth? Then listen to two scriptures that settle this question forever. One is Ezek. 18: 4: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The other is our text: "The wages of sin is death."

One more statement voices the convictions of many thoughtful and scholarly men. Prof. C. M. Butler says, "Since I have reached and rested in the conclusion that the ultimate doom of the impenitent is death, and not eternal life in agony, a great cloud seems to have rolled away from the face of God, and I see Him as the loving Father of all His creatures."