IN the chapter quoted, "a better resurrection" is presented as the hope of all those ancient worthies, which would be surpassingly strange, if they expected to enter upon their rewards hundreds and thousands of years before the dead should be raised; but with the view that the dead are unconscious from death to the resurrection, all is plain, and easily understood. Paul in his defense before Felix, a Roman Governor, testifies to the same hope: "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets; and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts xxiv, 14, 15. Again, he declares the resurrection of the dead to be the hope, saying: "Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." Chap. xxiii, 6.
Read the explicit language in which those fathers express their hope. Job says, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee. Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. . . . For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." Job xiv, 14, 15; xix, 25-27.
David says, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." Ps. xvii, 15. 1st. When will David awake? Ans. At the resurrection of the just. Acts xxiv, 14, 15; 1 Cor. xv, 51-57; 1 Thess. iv, 13-17. 2d. When will David awake in his likeness? Ans. When Christ shall be revealed. Phil. iii, 20, 21; 1 John iii, 2. 3d. Did David ascend to heaven at death? Ans. He had not ascended in Peter's day. Acts ii, 34.
Isaiah, speaking of this hope, says: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out her dead." Isa. xxvi, 19. In reference to this glorious hope, Daniel was told that "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life," &c. Dan. xii, 2. God assures Moses that this blessed hope shall be realized: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." Hos. xiii, 14. Compare this with the triumphant song of the redeemed: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv, 55, 56.
a. A dead law can no more sting a man to death than a dead scorpion.
b. They shout victory by far too soon, who shout at death. For a man to shout victory over death just as he is sinking beneath his fatal blow, would be like a general shouting victory over an enemy, just as he was surrendering himself and army to that enemy. Death is represented as an enemy; not as a friend, as theologians and poets would have us believe. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Cor. xv, 26. God's people will not triumph over this enemy until the dead shall be raised incorruptible; [verses 51-57;] when Christ shall be revealed and the righteous dead shall be raised; [verses 20-26;] when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall be raised. 1 Thess. iv, 16, 17.
c. How different the hope of the fathers from the hope of their offspring of the present day. They had no expectation of receiving any portion of their reward until the advent of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; those expect theirs at death. The Bible teaches, that when Christ comes his reward is with him: [Rev. xxii, 12:] they teach, that when death comes his reward is with him. When Christ would console his disconsolate disciples who mourned because their Saviour was going to leave them, he promised them that he would come again, and receive them unto himself, [John xiv, 1, 2, 3,] thereby teaching that they should see his face no more, after his ascension, until his return to earth, and that he would not receive them unto himself until that time. But the ministers of the present day tell us that they went to Christ, and were received by him more than eighteen hundred years before his second coming. The Bible associates the rewards of the righteous with the kingdom of God; and the establishment of that kingdom with the appearing of Jesus Christ to judge the living and dead. 2 Tim. iv, 1. Compare Dan. ii, 44; vii, 13, 14, with Matt. xxiv, 30; Rev. i, 7; also Dan. vii, 27, with Matt. xxv, 31-35; also verse 24, with Gen. i, 26; Micah iv, 8.
d. How different the consolation Jesus Christ and the apostles would give their bereaved friends, from that which the ministers of our day would give theirs. When our blessed Redeemer, with a heart overflowing with tenderest sympathy, would console the bereaved Martha and Mary, who mourned the death of a beloved brother, he pointed to the grave where their brother was buried, saying, "Thy brother shall rise again." John xi, 23. See where their hopes were placed: "Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Verse 24. But when the professed ministers of the present time would console their bereaved friends, they point toward heaven, saying, Your friends are not dead; they are in heaven: thus dispensing with the necessity of a future judgment, and resurrection of the dead; thus rewarding men before they are judged, and contradicting the harmonious teachings of all the Bible writers, which make all future rewards and punishments consequent upon the judgment and resurrection of the dead. I cannot find one promise of a reward at death, between the lids of the Bible, or one commandment to prepare for death; but we are invariably pointed to the second advent of Jesus Christ, to raise the righteous dead, and change the living, and then reward them, all at one time, with immortality and eternal life. See 1 Thess. iv, 13-17; 1 Cor. xv, 22, 23, 50-57.
When Paul would console his Thessalonian brethren, who mourned the loss of dear friends, he points them to the descension of our Lord from heaven to raise the dead and change the living: he gives them all the consolation the gospel can afford: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 1 Thess. iv, 13, 14. When will he bring them, and where will he bring them from? Ans. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a58shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." Verses 16-18. Paul did not expect to receive his reward until the day of the Lord, and the appearing of his Son Jesus Christ. He expresses his hope to his son Timothy, just before his execution; and if any, who have ever lived, could expect to receive their crown at death, Paul might; but hear his language: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv, 6-8. The worthy patriarchs all died in faith not having received the promises: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. xi, 13. They expected to receive those promised rewards when Paul receives his crown, and when all the martyrs and saints shall be rewarded. Read Heb. xi, 15-40. Verse 35 expresses their hope: "that they might obtain a better resurrection."
Having investigated that class of scriptures which makes all rewards and punishments, after death, dependent upon the advent of Christ and resurrection of the dead, I will notice,
2. Those scriptures which suspend all future life upon the resurrection of the dead. Jesus Christ emphatically declares that Moses taught the resurrection of the dead at the bush: "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Luke xx, 37. Query. How did Christ prove that the dead shall [see Mark xii, 25] be raised, by quoting the language of Jehovah to Moses in the bush? Ans. God only re-iterated to Moses a promise he had before made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Compare Ex. iii, 6, with Gen. xxviii, 13. "Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." "And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." God promised Abraham and his seed an everlasting inheritance in the land. Chap. xiii, 14. "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." The Lord made a covenant with Abraham to this effect, saying, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." Gen. xvii, 7, 8. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. xi, 13. They "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." Verse 9. Stephen testifies that Abraham was not permitted to set his foot on the promised land: "And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him," &c. Acts vii, 5. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, expected to receive the promised inheritance through the medium of "a better resurrection." Heb. xi, 35. To sum up the evidence, God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, an everlasting inheritance in the land: "These all died . . . not having received the promises;" hence, if those promises are ever fulfilled, God must first raise them from the dead. Moses, therefore, taught the resurrection of the dead, by quoting the pledge the Lord gave Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give them the promised inheritance.
Jesus Christ lays down another premise from which we may deduct the same conclusion. He says: "For he is not the God of the dead, [the dead that shall not live again, as the Sadducees believed,] but of the living, &c." [Luke xx, 38;] i. e., those who shall live again; but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are dead: God is their God; therefore, they shall live again. Paul when speaking of those very promises in connection with the resurrection of the dead, declared that God called those things which be not, as though they were: ("As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations) before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." Rom. iv, 17. Hence, when Christ spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as though they were then living, he called those things which were not, as though they were.
From the above testimony, we may deduct the following conclusions: 1st. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (and, through them, all their children by faith,) will not receive their promised rewards until they are raised from the dead. 2d. Their future life is predicated, not of natural immortality, but of their resurrection. 3d. The language of God to Moses at the bush, was quoted by the Saviour, not to prove that those Patriarchs were not dead, but that they would be raised from the dead, as a necessary prerequisite to their realizing God as their God.
Jesus Christ gives his Father a pledge that of all he has given him, he will lose none: "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." John vi, 39. Here Christ gives the Father as a pledge, that he would lose none intrusted to him, but would raise them up at the last day: thereby teaching, that if he did not raise them up, he would lose them. But how could this be true, if they are immortal, and will live forever whether raised up or not? What, lose their immortal souls?! Again he says, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." Verse 40. Here our Saviour predicates eternal life on the resurrection at the last day: thereby teaching, that if he should not raise them up at the last day, they would not have everlasting life, which could not be true if they have eternal life as attributes of their nature.
Paul declares that if Christ be not raised from the dead, then the dead shall not be raised; and if the dead be not raised, "then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. xv, 12-18. By sleep, the Apostle means death. See verses 13, 18, 20. Now, upon the hypothesis of the deathlessness of man's essential nature, how can it be said of the righteous, that if their dead bodies are not raised, they have perished? Could not the deathless spirit live forever, and enjoy all the bliss of Paradise, even though their unintelligent bodies should never be raised? But with the view that the dead know not anything; that all future life is dependent upon the resurrection of the dead; all is plain and harmonious.
Again, Paul declares that all his sufferings and sacrifices for Christ, would profit him nothing; nay, he goes further, and positively avers, that if the dead rise not, he would adopt the Epicurean motto, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." 1 Cor. xv, 32. Hear his bold and decisive language: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." If Paul possessed an immortal soul, which will live while God shall live, and co-exist with angels in bliss, or sink beneath the ire of a sin-avenging God, to writhe in anguish and despair while eternity is onward rolling, would it not matter how he lived? whether a good or a bad man? a virtuous or a vicious life? even though his dead body should never be raised? I cannot conceive how the resurrection of Paul's body could materially change the nature or condition of his undying soul, which will have enjoyed the bliss of Paradise at least eighteen hundred years, before his unconscious body shall be raised! But on the theory of the unconsciousness of the dead, and, consequently, of no resurrection, no future life, it matters not how we live: then all our sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of Christ, would avail us nothing; and then it would be wisdom in us to spend the present life to the very best advantage; (to eat, drink, and be merry;) for it would be all the life we should ever enjoy.
The foregoing texts, prove conclusively, that the dead are in a state of utter unconsciousness, and that all future life is dependent upon the resurrection of the dead. This brings me to notice,
3. Those portions of sacred writ, which exclude the possibility of man's possessing immortality or eternal life in the present state of existence.
1st. Immortality is presented in the New Testament as a condition of the gospel, to be obtained by obedience. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, says, "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, [God will render] eternal life." Rom. ii, 2, 7. If man possesses immortality as an inherent quality of his nature, why should God command him to seek for it? The fact that God by the mouth of the inspired Apostle, commands us to seek for it by a patient continuance in well-doing, proves, first, that none possess immortality in the present life; second, that none ever will possess it, except those who comply with the conditions.
2d. Will God confer upon the righteous and wicked indiscriminately, that which he offers as the reward of obedience, and the peculiar privilege of his people? Again, the same Apostle says, "But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Tim. i, 10. He predicates immortality of the abolition of death; thereby teaching that without a resurrection from the dead, immortality could not be secured for man; but Christ was raised as the first fruits of them that slept; (i. e., were dead;) [1 Cor. xv, 20;] Therefore the rest of the dead will not be raised until the harvest of the resurrection; which will not take place until the coming of Christ. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." 1 Cor. xv, 22, 23. Compare the foregoing verses with verses 51-55: "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." By the passages quoted, we may learn, first, that Christ in his resurrection, as "the first fruits of them that slept," has given us a pledge that he will abolish death, and give all his children, who are asleep in him, immortality and eternal life, as the Father abolished his death, and through him, as our surety, "hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." See Acts xvii, 31, last clause: "Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Second. These blessings will be received when Christ our surety shall return to earth; when "the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised." Third. These inestimable blessings will be enjoyed by none only those who "are Christ's at his coming." Fourth. Life and immortality were brought to light (i. e., made manifest) by the abolition of death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the first fruits of them that slept."
Life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel. "Who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel?" thereby teaching that these are blessings of the gospel,59and that none will receive them only those who comply with the conditions of the gospel; and they cannot receive them until they receive the rewards of the gospel; which will not be given until the advent of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. The term immortality occurs just once more between the lids of the Bible; it is there represented as the exclusive prerogative of the Great Jehovah: "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." 1 Tim. vi, 16. Here it is positively asserted that God only hath immortality; and yet, it is applied to the most depraved and abandoned wretch of earth. The facts I understand to be these: the Father only is self-existent; i. e., hath life (eternal life) in himself; and he has given his Son to have life in himself; that he should give it to them that are his at his coming. Compare John v, 26, with 1 John v, 9-12. "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life."
1st. Eternal life is in the Son of God, i. e., the second Adam, not the first; hence the glory of conferring this blessing upon man belongs to the former, and not to the latter. 2d. Eternal life has reached no nearer man than the Son of God; and none can have it only by having the Son: "He that hath the Son hath life." Those who do not have the Son cannot have life: "and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life." &c. John iii, 36. 3d. In what way do we have life by having the Son? Ans. By faith: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." By hope: Paul says, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Tit. i, 2. "What a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for." Rom. viii, 24. When will this hope be realized? Ans. In the world to come. "Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and have followed thee; and Jesus answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, . . . with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life." Mark x, 28-30. Did Jesus Christ offer his disciples as a reward in the world to come, that which they had possessed from their earliest childhood; or even that which they then possessed by virtue of their discipleship? This sacred boon will be conferred upon all the dead, whose lives are hid with Christ in God, at the appearing and glory of Jesus Christ; [Col. iii, 3, 4;] when they reap the rich reward of patient continuance in well-doing. Rom. ii, 7.
3d. All those who do not believe this record, make God a liar: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us, eternal life; and this life is in his Son." Every person, without exception, who believes that he inherited eternal life of Adam his first parent, or who believes that he has it, as an inherent part of his nature, makes the only true God a liar, and robs his only begotten Son of the crowning glory of redemption. But blessed be the name of God forever and ever! there are a few who, with gratitude and adoration, are willing to believe the record God hath given of his Son, and give the second Adam all the glory, and honor of conferring, upon his believing children, the priceless gifts of immortality and eternal life.
a. The foregoing view exhibits the glory and utility of the atonement. It takes the crown of immortality and eternal life from the head of the first Adam, and places it on the brow of the second Adam. It abases man, and elevates his Redeemer. It leaves man a poor mortal, corruptible, dying creature, without any ability to remedy his condition, and without anything of which to boast. It exhibits Jesus Christ as the only name under heaven, among men, whereby lost sinners can be saved. It presents the Babe of Bethlehem as the fairest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely. It makes the atonement, the only means, which the infinite wisdom of God could devise for the restoration of our fallen race; hence those who reject this plan must be lost, without hope or mercy. Hasten then O sinner! while Christ may be found, and mercy may be obtained.
b. This view enables us to realize the infinite importance which all the Bible worthies attached to the second advent of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead. They associated the resurrection with the advent and all future life with the resurrection. They had no expectation of receiving any part of their rewards, for well-doing, until their Lord should return to raise them from the dead, and give them a nature which should never decay, a life which should never end, and an inheritance which should never pass away. For these glorious privileges, they were willing to suffer all the privations earth could heap upon them, and many of them to seal their faith with their own blood, "having respect unto the recompence of the reward."
c. This view reconciles the justice of God. To punish men before they are judged, would be unjust in God or man. According to the Orthodox view, wicked men enter upon their punishments at death; from whose dreary abodes, they shall ere long be summoned to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to hear their fearful doom, and be remanded back to the same place; because it cannot be supposed that God made a mistake in the first sentence. According to this view, some will be punished hundreds and thousands of years more than others. To punish Cain five thousand years more than a murderer of the present day, equally as bad, would be the acme of injustice. But let them all wake up, from the unconscious sleep of death, just where they went to sleep, and receive their recompense at the same time, then all is harmonious, and equity and justice environ the throne of God.
d. It reconciles the conduct of God with the character the Bible gives him; viz., that he is no respecter of persons, and impartial in all his dealings with the children of men. To reward men before they are judged and their characters determined, would be the grossest contempt of law and equity; it would be a virtual abrogation of all law and order. Then to pretend to judge the same persons, after they had received a portion of the rewards, which would have been consequent upon such judgment, would be the most solemn mockery, and consummate knavery. To reward some of his children thousands of years before others, equally righteous, would be the most palpable partiality. But to raise them all at the same, to immortality and eternal life, would prove to an intelligent universe, that with God, there is no respect of persons; that "the Judge of all the earth will do right."
e. It robs the grave of all its gloom, and removes those fearful apprehensions, which most men have, in reference to the precise condition of their friends in death. With sweet and quiet sleep, no one associates painful ideas. This brings me to consider,
2. The nature of that penalty which will be inflicted upon all the incorrigible for the transgression of God's holy law. It has already been shown to be death. But the condition in which this death will place the sinner remains to be investigated. We have seen that the death threatened Adam reduces man to a state of unconsciousness. We may reasonably suppose that the death threatened for personal sin, will place him, a second time, in the same condition. This I will attempt to demonstrate. I invite your attention,
1st. To those portions of Scripture which contrast the punishment of the wicked with the future rewards of the righteous. In Ps. xxxvii, we have the destiny of the two classes presented in the most striking contrast. David says, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evil doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Verses 8, 9. When in the world's history have God's people inherited the earth, to the exclusion of the wicked? Never.
Again, "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. Be signifies to exist. The wicked shall not exist; their place shall not exist; they shall be cut off; but the meek shall inherit the earth. The meek never have inherited the earth. See the promise for the meek: "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." Matt. v, 5. That this promise refers to the rewards of the gospel, none can deny; and that the converse refers to the punishment of the wicked, in contrast, is equally evident. How long shall the inheritance of the meek continue? Ans. "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be forever." Verse 18. Where will the wicked be during this time? Ans. "But 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. Again, verse 22. "For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off." Mark well the force of evidence connected with these distinct classes. The inheritance of the upright shall be forever; but the wicked shall perish, &c.
PERISH. (L. pereo.) To die; to lose life in any manner; to wither and decay; to be destroyed. Webster. Then to make it still more explicit he says, "They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." How much of any thing is left after it is consumed into smoke? Look at the smoke as it ascends from your chimney; you look again, it is dissipated, and is gone forever. Just so with the wicked, they shall be destroyed forever. Ps. lii, 5. "God shall likewise destroy thee forever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living."
DESTROY. (L. destruo.) To kill; to annihilate; to demolish; to ruin; to lay waste. Webster. Now, you may annex the term forever to any of these definitions, and you have David's idea of the nature of future punishment. And yet again: "Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell forevermore: for the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever; but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off." Verses 27, 28, 29, 34, 38. Compare the contrast drawn in the above texts, with Prov. xi, 31. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." The plain statement here is, that both classes shall be recompensed in the earth. Now if both classes are actually recompensed in the earth, the righteous by having an everlasting inheritance in the earth, and the wicked by being cut off from the earth, where can the wicked exist? Again, if the wicked are recompensed in the earth, and yet cut off from the earth, where will they be? As Obadiah says, they will be as though they had not been. Obad. verse 16. "For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." Were they conscious and intelligent before they had existence? Certainly not. Then they will not be, when the penalty of God's law for personal sins, passes upon them.
Once more: Solomon says, "For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it." Prov. ii, 22. Malachi says, they shall be burnt up root and branch: "For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven: and all the60proud, 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." When any substance, susceptible of being affected by fire, is burnt up, there is nothing left: so when the wicked are burnt up root and branch, there will be nothing left to enjoy happiness or misery. The same idea is expressed by John the Baptist. He says, addressing himself to men, "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Matt. iii, 10. What does this fire do? Ans. It burns them up root and branch. Again, he compares the righteous to wheat, and the wicked to chaff, and shows what will become of each. Speaking of Christ, he says: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." How long could dry chaff exist in an unquenchable fire? It would require an eternal miracle to prevent its burning up. But the text declares that the chaff (i. e., the wicked, represented by chaff) will be burned up; then as if to make it more emphatic, he declares that the fire shall not be quenched. If the fire could be quenched, a portion of the wicked might be preserved; but if it cannot be quenched, it must utterly consume them.
Our Saviour, in the parable of wheat and tares, compares the children of the wicked one to tares; and declares that they shall be cast into the fire. Matt. xiii, 37-40. Again, he declares that those who do not fear God, shall be destroyed, both soul and body. Matt. x, 28. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Give this verse whatever construction you may, and it proves the entire destruction of the wicked. But the obvious meaning of the text is, fear not them which kill you (i. e., take the present life,) but are not able to take away the future life; but rather fear him who is able to deprive you of both the present and future life. Verse 39 is a key to this verse: "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." The same Greek word which is translated soul in verse 28, is translated life twice in this. Now one thing is certain; the same man cannot lose the present life, and find it at the same time; nor can he find and lose it at the same time. I understand it thus; he who will save the present life by denying me, shall lose the life I have to give; (i. e., eternal life;) but he who will lose the present life for my sake, (which he predicted they should, verse 21,) shall find it, eternal life. See Mark x, 30. According to this view, all those who do not fear God will lose both the present and future life; and the Bible no where reveals a third life. They will lose themselves. Luke ix, 25.