THE DESTINY OF THE UNGODLY by G. P. Wilson

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 10, 1860

THE DESTINY OF THE UNGODLY.

By G. P. Wilson

"The wages of sin is death." Rom. vi, 23. Thus speaks the great apostle to the Gentiles. The apostle James also says [chap. i, 15], "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." God tells us by the mouth of Ezekiel [chap. xviii, 4], "The soul that sinneth it shall die." The sad truth in the matter is this: our first parents having partaken of the forbidden fruit, and thereby brought sin upon themselves and their posterity, the fearful sentence is pronounced upon all men, "Thou shalt surely die." "By one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. i, 12.

But what is death? For the benefit of some who do not seem to see clearly on this point, let us pause a moment and investigate. Death is defined by lexicographers, to be "mortality," "extinction of life," which is being, as Job says, "As though we had not been." Job x, 18, 19. For when life is extinguished in man, and his body returns to dust, nothing remains save the particles of his composition, which then take other forms in nature.

The holy scriptures represent death as a state of utter unconsciousness in respect to the intellectual being [see Ps. vi, 5; cxvi, 3, 4; lxxxviii, 10–12; Eccl. ix, 5, 6; Isa. xxxviii, 18, 19; Ps. xxv, 17]; of decay and ruin [see Job x, 20–22; Ps. lxxxviii, 10–12; Gen. iii, 19; 2 Sam. xiv, 14]; and unless there be a resurrection of the dead, of eternal destruction, save in respect to the particles of which beings are composed, as remarked before. See 1 Cor. xv, 16–18; 2 Sam. xiv, 14.

Such was the impending doom of all when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came into the world. Man had violated the holy law of his Maker, and by Jehovah's immutable decree must suffer the fearful penalty of so doing, death. But "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii, 16. He came that by passing through them himself he might obtain the keys of hell and of death [Rev. i, 18], and have power to loose all who are bound therein. So that, "as by the offense of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one [Jesus Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. v, 18. He suffered the penalty of Adam's sin, that we being set free from the claims of the broken law, might have life beyond the grave, and if obedient during our own individual lives, might enjoy the same to all eternity. See 1 Pet. ii, 24; i, 18–21; 1 Cor. xv, 21, 22; 2 Tim. i, 10.

But what, it may be asked, is to be the lot of those who, regarding not the atonement thus made for them, and denying the glad truth of redemption through Christ, go on still in transgression of God's law, fulfilling the desires of the natural heart? Answer. They are subject to the original penalty, death, though it is to take place in a different manner from the death consequent upon original sin. It is the second death. Rev. xx, 7–9. Says David [Ps. xxxvii, 20] "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." Again, "The wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. xxxvii, 10. Obadiah says [verse 16], "They [the heathen] shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." See also on this point, Matt. iii, 10, 12; Mal. iv, 1; Deut. xxx, 16–19; 2 Thess. i, 8, 9; Ps. lxviii, 2; Isa. lxvi, 24.

John iii, 16. "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish." Perish signifies, "to be destroyed eternally." Webster. Jesus says [John xi, 26], "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," the meaning of which no doubt is, "die eternally;" as faith in Christ does not exempt men from the death consequent on the fall of Adam. He himself suffered that death when he "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii, 8.

Such is a portion of the scripture testimony concerning the end of them that obey not the gospel of God. 1 Pet. iv, 17. Much more might be adduced to establish the view herein maintained, but the little here made use of, I deem sufficient unless the argument contained in it be refuted by positive testimony from the Scriptures for a contrary view, which, so far as I am acquainted with them, does not occur in the sacred writings. The holy Spirit which dictated those writings does not deny in one place that which is positively asserted in another; and with no other view, in my opinion, can the scriptures on this subject be made to harmonize, than with the one here given; as also in the New Testament, hold up, viz., that "the wages of sin is death;" but that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vi, 23. And consequently is not to be shared in any sense whatever by those who deny both the Father and the Son.