Is Sin Eternal?

THE third text which is taken to prove eternal suffering, reads, "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever." Rev. 14:11. In this case, torment is spoken of as the portion of the finally impenitent. According to our Saviour's testimony, this torment, or the "stripes" upon the wicked will accord with the magnitude of their guilt. "That servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." Luke 12:47, 48. This does not disagree with St. Paul's statement, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. Comparing these texts we should conclude that the fate of the ungodly will be the second death, and that each will also receive torment or stripes according to the amount of willful, personal sins committed by them. We notice also that this torment of our text is said to be "in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." St Paul says of the punishment, "Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." A comparison of these texts will show that the torment is to end, not in the conversion of the sinner, but in his destruction.

David said of the wicked (Ps. 37:20), "The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." While thus consuming they are tormented. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, not that they are to be tormented eternally, but a complete and final work is accomplished on them. After thus consuming into smoke there is no resurrection to again unite these dissolved elements and bring them to life. No! The smoke ascends up forever.

The fourth text is Rev. 20:10, "Tormented day and night forever and ever." A casual reading of this text might seem to convey the idea of eternal torment to the devil and his hosts of sin. Let us look at it carefully and see if it will bear such construction. This scene is presented as transpiring "in the lake of fire." In this lake of fire, as we have already learned, the wicked are to die the second death. Here the sinner is to meet his "perdition," 2 Pet. 3:7, illustrated by the reduction of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes. 2 Pet. 2:6. The devil is one of those said in the text to be tormented forever and ever. St. Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews says Christ was manifested that "through death he might destroy" the devil. Heb. 2:14. If the devil is to be destroyed with all his works; and if the strong (Satan) is to be as tow, and his work (sinners), as a spark, and are both to burn together with none to quench them (Isaiah 1:31), what can be the meaning of the statement that in the lake of fire they are to be tormented day and night forever and ever"?

The Greek here is Ais tous aionos ton aionon. Aionos and aionon are both in the plural number. How is this? To give it a rigidly literal translation, following the form of the text, we should have them tormented day and night forevers of forevers. If one forever in the text means eternal, what is the force of it in the plural? Are the wicked and the devil to be tormented eternities of eternities? This cannot be, for there is but one eternity—duration endless. This Greek word aion—age—here rendered forever must then be understood in this case in its literal sense of age, or period, and that period here is of less duration than endless, because there cannot be a multiplication of eternities. It has been by some scholars translated "for ages of ages." In that case the obvious meaning would be this; they have periods of torment in the lake of fire corresponding to the periods of their sin, and this would accord with the words of Christ respecting the few and many stripes. Let it be borne in mind that this torment of the ungodly is in the presence of Christ, (Rev. 14:11), and that this torment must close as they are to be destroyed from his presence. 2 Thess. 2:8, 9. To be out of God's presence must be out of existence. See Ps. 139:7-10.

It is further claimed that the wrath of God abiding on the sinner must mean that the wicked are to exist eternally, and be conscious of God's wrath. Is this a necessary conclusion? "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36. Before adopting any hasty conclusions from this text it may be well for us to examine what the Bible says of the wrath of God, and what that wrath will do for the sinner. 1. The Scriptures declare that the anger of God will cease. 2. The effect of that anger on the sinner is to be his destruction and not his conversion.

On the first point, the cessation of God's anger, we read (Ps. 103:8,9), "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever." "He retaineth not his anger forever, because he dealeth in mercy." Isa. 57:16. "For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made." This text shows plainly that if God's anger were to be continued, it would be the destruction of all his creatures both spirit and soul. For this reason he declares that his anger shall cease. We now inquire second, Is the fact that his anger is to cease, any source of encouragement to those who shall be found at last impenitent? Is the wrath of God of such a nature that it is to accomplish their salvation? What saith the Scripture? We read, Ps. 76:7 "Who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?" and in Nahum 1:6, "Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?" In Zeph. 3:8 "For my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy."

What is this indignation of the Lord which is to be poured at last upon all nations? This we may learn by turning to Isa. 26:20, 21. "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."

We see, then, that this greatest manifestation of God's anger against the ungodly, when he pours out his indignation upon them, will be at their final resurrection, for it is at a time when "the earth shall no more cover her slain." Though this wrath of God abides on the sinner, he will not be always contending with them, but, as expressed in Isa. 10:25, "For yet a little while and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." The fact that the wrath of God abides on the sinner is a proof that they are not restored to God's favor, and is another strong evidence of their utter destruction.

One of the latest publications in Southampton, on the subject of future punishment, is a pamphlet of 24 pages from the pen of Rev. C.E. Steward, Vicar of St. Peters, entitled "Divine Punishment, and the Larger Hope." I should denominate the production an apology for the "Eternal Hope" theory, as put forth by Canon Wilberforce. Although the writer of the pamphlet does not declare himself as fully with the advocates of eternal hope, he certainly wishes us to understand that probably the doctrine is true. He claims that punishment is only of a reformatory character, and so is like the fatherly corrections of the parent who hopes to reform the wayward child.

His position is unmistakably against the doctrine of eternal conscious suffering to the wicked. In speaking of the tendency of the age to the more liberal view of the fatherly dealing of God with all his creatures, he inquires: "Is it not inevitable, then, that to an age saturated with such ideas, the doctrine of eternal torment should assume the proportions of simply the most gigantic difficulty in the Bible, or out of it?"

He takes the position that what is called punishment in the Scriptures, is no direct infliction from God, but only a natural spiritual "consequence," as physical dissolution is a necessity of the human constitution. He says, "The misapprehension to which I refer is this: that the so-called punishment of sin need be anything else than its natural results; that it involves any annexed or super-added infliction, being the simple consequences of spiritual disorganization." To express his thoughts in our own words, it would be that the mental anguish of the sinner will be measured by the time it takes him to spiritually die; the same as the duration of the physical pain consequent upon the physical disease of the body, depends on the length of time intervening before physical dissolution.

We are left to infer that by this spiritual death he means the subduing and conversion of the sinner, as set forth by advocates of "Eternal Hope." These may be consoling thoughts to those who do not choose to repent now; but he who advocates this theory of no "execution" against the sinner, will meet in his readings of the Scripture, many denials of his theory. One in particular, I will notice. A statement made by that holy man, Enoch, who "walked with God three hundred years," and was, therefore, more likely to know the truth of what he stated, than those in this age, who would frame their theory to human reasonings. St. Jude, when comparing the ungodly to wandering stars, "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever," says: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all." Jude, verses 14, 15. To this, we may be allowed to add one other testimony: "God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." Nahum 1:2, 3.

The Vicar makes some admissions, which we must notice. On page 13, he says: "The theological literalist indeed, must admit that the condition of the lost is never represented as an existence at all. 'Destruction', 'death,' and the like, are expressions which require to have a certain amount of force put upon them, before they will mean 'keeping alive forever in pain.' Hence, Archbishop Whateley, after showing that the letter of Scripture makes not for eternal misery, but more for the final extinction of evil souls, adds: "On the whole, therefore, I think we are not warranted in concluding, as some so persistently have done concerning this question, as to make it a point of Christian faith to interpret figuratively, and not literally, the death and destruction spoken of in Scripture as the doom of the condemned, and to insist on the belief that they are to be kept alive forever." Unless destruction means preservation, the rigid adherence to the letter involves the doctrine of annihilation; it certainly does not really countenance eternal existence in misery."

With the exception of the use of the word annihilation in the above quotation, I think its conclusion must commend itself to every candid reader of the Scripture. Annihilation is not a Scriptural term, so I prefer not to use it. Although the wicked may become extinct as conscious beings, the matter of which they were formed is not annihilated, but changed in the form of its existence. The Scripture terms are that they shall "die," "perish," be "consumed," "be as though they had not been," etc.

We think the theory of the final salvation of all, grows out of a misapprehension of the real restitution work of Christ, and what is to be accomplished by it. They claim that Christ's work is to restore all the finally impenitent to God's favor, and thus clear the universe from sin, while we suppose the Scriptures to teach that God will bring upon the sinner the most merciful punishment that will meet their deserts. He is a God of love, but he cannot look upon sin with any allowance. Hab. 1:13. He is a God of mercy, but as he has threatened the wicked with an overthrow, may it not be death, in their case, as with Pharaoh? "But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for his mercy endureth forever." Ps. 136:15.