CAN BOTH BE TRUE? by E. R. Jones

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1880

CAN BOTH BE TRUE?

By E. R. Jones

BY ELD. E. R. JONES.

LONG we have heard, and in our childhood days we were carefully taught, that the soul was immortal, and if everlasting happiness and bliss were not obtained by a life of obedience here, an eternity of misery and unspeakable woe in that terrible lake of fire would surely follow. We were told that the Bible said this. And, further, it was told us that the wicked, in their unutterable torment, would go on sinning against God to such an extent that after a thousand years of this punishment they would be further from their just deserts than when they first entered upon it. We were astonished at such thoughts, and to say that in our childish folly serious doubts arose, would be stating the case mildly.

In after years we read the Bible for ourself, and were led to ask: "Will the lost in their anguish too great for tongue or pen to express, or the power of reason to comprehend, ever lift up their voices in praise to God and the Lamb, and thus mingle, in confusing accents, blessings and cursings?" Will this be so? No, never. But the prophet of Christ in his vision of the future said: "And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:13.

As every creature in Heaven above, and in the earth beneath is here said to ascribe praise and glory to God and the Lamb, it surely follows that the time will come when not one single creature in all the universe of God will be in pain or woe. "How glad I am for the thought," says one; "for now I see clearly that, as the real man is immortal, the time will come when all God's creatures will be restored to his favor; and thus beautifully appears the convincing evidence that all mankind will finally be saved." And now we have before us this astonishing medley—the doctrine of the everlasting conscious misery of the impenitent and that of universal salvation, one directly opposed to the other, both securely anchored to the dogma of the natural immortality of man. Can both be true? It is impossible. The premise is wrong, the conclusions are errors. "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel." "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures."

From the word of God we learn that he will give eternal life, through Christ, to them who seek for immortality by well doing; while the wages of those who will not shall be death. Rom. 2:7; 6:23. Of the wicked God says, "For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." Isa. 10:25. Not burned to all eternity, not all saved. The righteous shall be blessed with life eternal, and the wicked, driven from existence by the implements of the wrath of God, shall be as though they had not been. Obad. 16.

God will again have a clean universe, good and holy as in the beginning, and then will be fulfilled that beautiful scripture, "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21:4. Not one single trace of the sinner or the sad effects of sin shall ever more appear; but every creature in Heaven and in earth with one heart and voice shall give blessing and honor, glory and power, to Him that sitteth upon the throne, to the Lamb forever and ever.