The popular theory respecting the fate of the wicked has always troubled me. I should be glad if you would show me from the Bible whether there is any foundation for supposing that they are to be everlastingly tormented. I cannot think that a God of love would create beings to condemn them to suffering throughout eternity.
Divine Love
Neither would He. God is not a cruel tyrant, delighting in human suffering; and the Scriptures give not the slightest warrant for thinking that He is. "God is love." (1 John 4:16)
He is not simply loving, but He is love itself. "Love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God." (1 John 4:7-8)
The highest human conceptions of love fall far short of Divine love. Whatever sense of tenderness and compassion and love there is in the world, is but a fragment, a breath, of the boundless, eternal love of God. Hence it is plain that God will never outrage the sense of justice which He himself has planted in the human breast.
Just Judgment
This is made plain by those words of God: "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." (Isaiah 45:23)
That this has reference to the time of general judgment, is evident from: "Why do you judge your brother? or why do you set at naught your brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God." (Romans 14:10-12)
So we see that no man will be punished until he subscribes to his own judgment, and bears witness that God is just.
Judgment Committed to Man
Still further: So careful is God to insure that no man can have any cause of complaint against Him, and that all shall be satisfied that no advantage is being taken of them, that He has put the destiny of the world into the hands of men themselves. "For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 5:22)
This is no subterfuge, no device to seem to put judgment out of His own hands, while still holding it; for we read: "For as the Father has life in himself, so has He given to the Sonto have life in himself: And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." (John 5:26-27)
In the beginning God gave man dominion over the earth, and He has never taken it from him. "Whatsoever God does, it shall be for ever." (Ecclesiastes 3:14)
Therefore Jesus, the second Adam, who as "the Son of man" stands for all mankind, says: "He that overcomes, and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." (Revelation 2:26-27)
Compare: "I will declare the decree: the Lord has said unto me, You are mySon; this day have I begotten You. Ask of me, and I shall give You the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Psalm 2:7-9)
Read also: "Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all His saints." (Psalm 149:5-9)
What possible chance is there to think that God has created beings for the purpose of torturing them eternally, when He turns the whole care over to them? Now since, according to God's word, even those who will finally be punished will confess that God is good, and their punishment just, let us examine that same Word, to see if we cannot discern both justice and mercy in the punishment of the wicked.
Everlasting Destruction
For the wicked will be punished. The testimony of all the Scriptures is to this effect. And there is no ambiguity; for the same passages that tell the fact of the punishment, also tell what it will be. Take, for instance, this: "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9)
"They shall be punished with everlasting destruction."
It is true that "These shall go away into everlasting punishment," (Matthew 25:46) but the punishment will be death,--cessation of existence,--not existence in torture. "They shall be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 16) "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 language is not ambiguous; it is as plain as it can be.
The Effect of Everlasting Fire
But what about the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, into which the wicked are to be told to depart? That gives no hint of eternity of suffering, but quite the contrary. If the fire "never shall be quenched," (Mark 9:43, 45) it will certainly in time consume whatever of a combustible nature is put into it. Thus we read of Christ, that His fan is in His hand, "and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather the wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:12) "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)
The Consuming Fire
Surely there is no room here for eternal conscious existence in torment. But it will be asked how the fire can be everlasting, unless the wicked remain in existence for it to feed on. That is easily answered. It is the fire of God's own glory. "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)
By the fire of His Spirit He consumes sin out of the earth; and it remains with each person to choose how he will have his sin removed--whether from him, or with him. If the man desires to be for ever separated from his sins, the Spirit of God will consume them, completely freeing him from them, and purifying him; and this work will be performed now.
But if the man loves his sins, and clings to them; if he prefers them to God, and would rather live in them than to abide in God;--then when the sin is consumed (as it must be; for God will have a clean universe), the man who has identified himself with the sin will necessarily be consumed with it; but the fire of God's glory will abide for ever, after the wicked have all been blotted from existence.
The Philosophy of Punishment
This brings us to the root of the matter--the explanation, the reason, the necessity, the philosophy, so to speak, of the punishment of the wicked. It is very simple when one once knows the simple science of salvation. We begin with the Scripture proposition that: "God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek after Him," (Hebrews 11:6) rewarding them with himself: "I am ... your exceeding great reward." (Genesis 15:1)
There is "One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all." (Ephesians 4:6)
There can be no existence apart from Him; for He is our life. (Deuteronomy 30:20) "He gives to all life, and breath, and all things." (Acts 17:25)
In His hand is "the soul [or life] of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." (Job 12:10) "In Him we live, and move, and have our being; ... for we are also His offspring." (Acts 17:28)
Let us make this very clear, so that there can be no mistake about it. It is necessary, in order that we may see that righteousness is essential to our existence; for there are very many people who do not acknowledge the right of God to command them, and to expect obedience from them. A little experiment will settle this matter much more positively than a long argument.
Here is a man who does not acknowledge that God has any claim on him, nor that he owes anything to God. Of course, then, he will not think of accepting anything at God's hands; he will not be under obligation to Him for anything. But he is breathing air, which he certainly did not make, and which he does not pay for; no man on earth supplies it to him; it comes from above--the breath of heaven. It is God's air, God's breath, and as the man intends to be absolutely independent of God, he will of course no longer breathe God's air, but will provide his own supply.
But how shall he proceed, since the air is everywhere? It is evident that he must secure an air-tight room, and go inside and remain there, sealing up the entrance, so that not a breath of air can come in. There will be some air inside, which, in strict honesty, he ought to have pumped out; but since finding an air-pump large enough to exhaust the air will be attended with some difficulty, he can venture to trespass to the extent of the one or two thousand cubic feet that the room contains. Or, if he is very scrupulous, he can burn a little charcoal in the room, and the air will soon be exhausted. Now he can carry out his plan of living absolutely independent of God. Unfortunately, he will not live long enough to tell anybody how he enjoys it. His attempt to live by his own power, and his existence, will come to a very speedy end.
Will anybody charge God with injustice or unkindness for allowing that man to die? Will anybody wonder how a God of love could create a being to condemn him to such suffering as choking to death? You will say, "The man could have lived if he had not been so foolishly and stubbornly independent. There is abundance of air, if he had been willing to be dependent on God; he died self-condemned and selfexecuted; and while we pity his folly, we must absolve God from any responsibility for the result."
You see the point, do you not? It is utterly impossible for any being to exist on this earth independent of God. The man is dependent on God even for a place in which to attempt to carry out his purpose to live wholly on his own resources; and as soon as he makes the attempt, he dies. But he need not die; he may live, if he is but willing to be dependent upon the one Source of life, and to abide in the Life that upholds the universe.
Righteousness Essential to Life
We are not yet quite ready for the final application, although you doubtless have already made it. We must take our man as he stands at the door of the room that is to be his absolute and independent dominion and, foreseeing what the result of his experiment will be, turns back. He will breathe God's air; he will acknowledge his dependence.
But that means that he will acknowledge God a right to command him, and to expect implicit obedience. Indeed, it is not fair to put it in that way, as though God were receiving something by the man's obedience. The truth is that the acceptance of God's life is man's only hope of life, and if man will not come into harmony with it, he must cease to be. But God's life is righteousness, and the man who comes fully into harmony with it is righteous, and has eternal life; for: "His commandment is life everlasting." (John 12:50)
The Science of Salvation
Here, then, is the science of salvation. God created all things for eternal life and happiness. He never created a single soul for destruction, much less for torture. But the inhabitants of this world have rebelled against His loving rule, and have chosen gods of their own. But God is "long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23) "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezekiel 33:11)
So He has sent forth His Son, in whom is the fullness of His own life, to show the world that He cherishes no ill-will, but that He is anxious for them to be saved. He knows that they do not know what it means to cast off allegiance to Him, and set up their own rule, so He bears long with them, taking their guilt all on himself, so that they may be wholly freed from it. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
By the ease with which God keeps us alive, renewing our life moment by moment, He shows how easily He can save us; He shows that He is the Saviour, in that He is the Preserver.
The Fate of the Wicked
With such provision for man's salvation from the sin into which he has plunged himself, it is evident that there is no excuse for him to remain in it. There is therefore no reason for allowing sin to mar God's creation eternally; and so it must finally be brought to an end. That end will come only when it can be made apparent that nothing would be gained by further delay: all who can be inclined to righteousness will have accepted God's free and abundant provision, and only the defiantly depraved will remain.
It is clear that then it will be perfectly just to cut off the sinners, and blot out sin. But even then there is nothing arbitrary in God's action. The Judgment fully demonstrates to all that "He that is unjust, [will] be unjust still" (Revelation 22:11) and then God finally leaves them to that which they have persistently chosen, contrary to all His entreaties. He takes all creatures absolutely at their word:
• those who have professed to love life, and to love and accept Him as the Fountain of life, He takes to himself, to dwell for ever in Him; and
• those who have hated Him, and have said that they would not have Him to rule over them, He allows to go away by themselves, away from Him.
A Clean Universe
But where can they go where He is not? "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)
Not in heaven, or earth, or sea, or in all space, can they find a place where they can live outside of God's hand. (Psalm 139:1-12) Therefore there is nothing for them but to go out of existence; and this they do. In the process some suffering is involved, as in the case of the man in our experiment; but even though this seem in some cases to be drawn out to eternity, it will be comparatively but a moment, (Compare 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7; and Lamentations 4:6) and then the universe will once more be clean, the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21,RV) will be completed, and: "Every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them," (Revelation 5:13) will with one accord unite in proclaiming: "Unto Him that sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever." (Revelation 5:13)--Present Truth, March 19, 1903.