A.07 ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.
If modern theology may be credited, there is no longer a Hell to be feared, nor is there in man that which must necessarily abide for ever. Satan, Hell, and the soul (as we have always understood these terms) have been practically eliminated from the text books of Christendom. To all this no objection could be offered, if there was any divine authority for such a revolution of thought and idea. Since the voice of God can only be heard in Holy Scripture, we must submit all human propositions, whether ancient or modern, to its arbitrament. He who is willing to take eternal risks on the dubious authority of the word of man should be an object of deep compassion to us all.
To Scripture then we turn. First, as to the word "eternal" (or "everlasting"); what does it mean?2 Corinthians 4:18 will suffice to answer the question. "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The eternal is here contrasted with the temporal. The temporal has an end; the eternal has no end. Now precisely the same word is used in Scripture to denote the divine Being (1 Timothy 1:17); the blessedness of believers (John 3:16); and the punishment of unbelievers (Matthew 25:46). God is eternal; the portion of believers is eternal; and the doom of unbelievers is eternal. All are alike without end.
To this it is sometimes objected that the wicked are to be "destroyed" or "perish," and that these terms indicate the absolute end of their being. But this is false, as a very little examination of the Scripture usage of these terms will show. "Destroyed" and "perish," it should be noted, are but different translations of one Greek word concerning which the lexicographers tell us that "its fundamental thought is not annihilation, but ruin, loss." Take a few examples. In
 Luke 5:37 our Lord says if new wine is put into old bottles (or skins) the wine will burst the bottles, and the bottles will "perish." He did not mean that they would hence forward cease to exist in any form, the point is that as wineskins they would be marred and ruined. So in 1 Corinthians 8:12, where the apostle asks, "Shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died?" there is no suggestion that the weak one might pass out of being; but simply that, if not considerately treated, such an one might make shipwreck of his Christian testimony.
Even in our daily talk we never think of attaching the thought of annihilation to the words "destroy" or "perish." If I destroy a letter, or an article of furniture, I do not thereby annul their existence in any shape or form, but I so far annul them that they can never again be what they were formerly. The Saviour in Matthew 10:28 and John 10:10 expressly distinguishes between "kill" and "destroy." To "kill" is to take life, and in consequence the word is never used in Scripture of the soul. The reader is earnestly recommended to examine these two important passages carefully.
Scripture is explicit — terribly explicit — concerning the impenitent that "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night" (Revelation 14:11). It insists, moreover, that "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:46). It declares, too, as one of the principles of God's moral governments that He will render "unto them that are contentious; and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil" (Romans 2:8-9). The word "punishment," so often used in Scripture in this connection, "requires (as another has said) a conscious subject to endure it." It could have no possible meaning as applied to persons who have ceased to be.
No hope of change of condition, nor of extinction of being, was held out to the rich man by "father Abraham" (Luke 16:24) . The doctrines of universal salvation and of annihilation (so popular in our day) were quite unknown both to the one and the other. The man who had lived wholly for this world was solemnly told that he had received his good things, and that now a great gulf was fixed between himself and the blessed. His humble prayer for even a drop of water could not be granted.
We may well marvel at the madness of those who defy the Almighty to His face. In infinite love He sacrificed His beloved Son in order that men might not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, in the Gospel, He "commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Further than this even God could not well go, and those who reject or neglect the preached Saviour can expect nothing else than to reap the eternal consequences of their guilt and folly. In their case, grace being refused, the government of God must take its solemn course. To every man who may be disposed to argue and cavil instead of repent and believe, our counsel would be, "Escape for thy life, look not behind thee . . . lest thou be consumed" (Genesis 19:17) .