"Fret not yourself because of the evil-doers, neither be envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as thegreen herb. ... For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, you shalldiligently considered his place, and it shall not be." (Psalm 37:1-2,9-10)
Compare this with: "For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 16)
We should like to know how these texts can be harmonized with the doctrine of the endless existence of the wicked. That theory cannot be held except by denying these texts, or, what is the same thing, ignoring them. "For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off." (Psalm 37:22) "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ... Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." (Isaiah 5:20,23-24) "And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." (Hosea 13:2-3)
Dr. Scott, after quoting this text, says, "i.e., violently and speedily made to banish and disappear." The Speaker's Commentary says of this passage: "The tone of indignant derision passes into that of stern wrath the inflexibility of the purpose to punish is expressed by the accumulation of four several images, all describing utter extermination."
That is just what the language signifies,--"utter extermination." If it does not mean that, we do not see how it can be anything. The preceding texts have compared the wicked to the most combustible material--stubble and chaff. In the following, the prophet makes the case stronger yet; the wicked are declared to be stubble: "For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. ... And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 4:1,3)
With this agree the words of John the Baptist: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:12)
We turn once more to the 37th Psalm: "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." (Psalm 37:20)
The psalmist could have given no illustration of the final destiny of the wicked that would have been more forcible to the minds of the Jews. Every morning and every evening, according to the law, a lamb was placed on the altar and consumed. Beside this, every sin-offering, whether it was a bullock, a goat, or a lamb, (Leviticus 4) was burned upon the altar.
They saw the fat of lambs continually vanishing into smoke, and in that column of the ascending smoke they had an everpresent reminder of the fate of the incorrigibly wicked. They knew that when the fat was placed in that sacrificial fire, it was not preserved, but was speedily destroyed; and so when the psalmist said, "the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away," (Psalm 37:20) they knew that the fate of the unrepentant sinners would be utter extinction. The last part of the verse only confirms the first clause: "The wicked shall perish;" (Psalm 37:20) for as we have already seen, the word "perish" means: To be destroyed; to go to destruction; to pass away; to come to nothing; to be blotted from existence.
"Why," says one, "you are an annihilationist."
Our reply is, We believe what we have just been reading from the Bible; if that is what you call annihilationism, alright; we shall not be frightened from our position, whatever name may be applied to us. This word "annihilation" is a great bug-bear to many.
Say they, "It is impossible for matter to be annihilated."
Now while we should not dare place any limit to God's power, we do not believe that He will blot out of existence any of the matter which He has created; but that He will and does change the form or combination of parts of many things, we have the most abundant evidence. Webster defines "annihilate" thus:
1. To reduce to nothing; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be.
2. To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists, as, to annihilate a forest by cutting and carrying away the trees, though the timber may still exist.
The Bible says that: "the wicked shall not be;" (Psalm 37:10) that: "they shall be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 1:16)
There was a time once when they were not; they had no existence; but the matter of which they are composed was even then in existence. So likewise the matter of which they are composed will remain after they cease to be.
When the fat was placed on the altar it was destroyed; no one removed it, yet in a little while there was no fat there. What had become of it? It had become smoke. The fat was annihilated, if you please; but the matter which had composed it was not.
Thus, we are told, will it be with the wicked. If anyone disagrees with the statements concerning the wicked, his quarrel is with the Bible, not with us.--Signs of the Times, December 18, 1884--Psalm 37:1-22.