BY THE REV. D. BEATON, WICK.
II.
IN concluding our article in a previous issue, we expressed our intention of discussing the question whether the punishment of the finally-impenitent was endless or only temporary. The Church of Christ down through the ages has, with no uncertain sound, declared that the punishment of the wicked is everlasting. They held this doctrine, not because the depraved heart of man was biassed towards it, but because they understood this to be the clear teaching of the word of God. On the other hand, the advocates of all those various phases of doctrine which teach that the punishment of the wicked is not eternal, have certainly been influenced by the bias of the human heart against what is the Scriptural doctrine, and, in seeking to establish their position, they have not hesitated to wrest the plain teaching of Scripture to suit themselves. To the ordinary reader of the Bible there is scarcely any doctrine that appears so explicitly declared as that of the endless punishment of the wicked. And the question which awaits an answer is this—Does a careful, thorough, and honest interpretation of Scripture confirm the impression made on the ordinary reader? To this question we now direct attention. The determination on the part of many to get rid of this solemn doctrine at all costs, has led some writers to give expression to daring and heaven-defying sentiments. For instance, one writer allows himself to write as follows:—”If the Bible teaches everlasting punishment, so much the worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it; you may quote texts and have behind the texts the very finest scholarship to justify certain interpretations, but it is no good.” The glaring arrogance and impudence of this writer is colossal; after setting himself up as the standard of truth he calmly announces that a doctrine which has been believed by millions is to be set aside because he cannot believe it. If truth herself were to be judged by such a standard, she would run a poor chance of being in existence. We quote this merely in passing as an instance of the style of argument one so often meets with in connection with the attempt to set aside this doctrine.
The eternity of the punishment of the wicked has been denied by those who hold the doctrines of Universalism and Annihilationism. The Universalist maintains that all who die unsaved will undergo a period of suffering, which will be remedial, and that in the end all will be saved. Annihilationists are divided into two classes—(1) those who teach that the sinner is annihilated at death, never to be raised; (2) those who hold that the sinner will be raised up, judged at the great white throne, cast into the lake of fire, and there burnt up, consumed, or annihilated. The former deny the plain scriptural teaching of the resurrection of the wicked. Both classes hold the doctrine of conditional immortality—that is, endless existence is not given to man in his creation, but is conditional on his receiving Christ. They hold that there is no existence for men after death, except in Christ. Later on it will be pointed out that a good deal of confusion has arisen on this matter, through regarding eternal life, the gift of God, and continuous existence, or what we term immortality, as the same. Wicked and righteous alike have an endless existence, but it is only the latter who have eternal life. The argument by which the Universalists and Annihilationists seek to establish their position will be discussed in our concluding article.
We now proceed to produce the evidence from the New Testament of the eternity of punishment for the wicked. And at the outset we are met with the meaning that is to be attached to the Greek word, aiōnios, translated in our version by the words eternal and everlasting. It has been stoutly maintained that the word means no more than age-lasting, and, therefore, it cannot mean eternal. The purpose of giving such a meaning to the word is to rob it of its significant testimony to the duration of punishment. Classical writers have been quoted with the purpose of showing that aiōnios may be applied to the period of man’s life in this world. There is one point, however, that should not be overlooked by those who interpret aiōnios as age-lasting, viz., the duration of the age so designated. If it is man’s period of existence in this world, if it is the duration of a kingdom or a dispensation, then the significance of age-lasting will be materially altered. If the age or dispensation happens to be endless then aiōnios as age-lasting applied to that age, or dispensation will mean everlasting, and it is quite evident from God’s Word that it is to such a dispensation that aiōnios is often applied in scripture. We pass by, in the meantime, the evidence from classical writers as to the signification of the word, and turn our attention to passages in the New Testament where it occurs. It is of interest that Profs. Milligan and Moulton, in their recently-issued Vocabulary, point out that aiōnios, in the Greek used in the New Testament period, means perpetuus, i.e., perpetual, continuing throughout. In 2 Cor. iv. 18, we read, “The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (aiōnia).” What is eternal is here contrasted with what is temporal; if aiōnia meant things that end, then the contrast so emphatically stated here would lose its significance. Then, when we turn to the many passages where the blessings of the saved are mentioned, the word aiōnios meets us continually. One writer has pointed out that there are in all fifty-six texts where the believer’s life and blessings are described as eternal or everlasting, and pointedly adds, “Now we do not find books written fiercely contending that aiōnios in this connection is only age-lasting. On the contrary, we find writers who teach non-eternity of punishment, affirm suavely that everlasting life is eternal. Verily, the legs of the lame are not equal. What a pitiable sight! Men receiving the Word of God when it suits them, and refusing the same when it does not suit them.”
For our present purpose it is not necessary to quote all the texts where punishment is described as everlasting, but there is one passage that is of supreme importance in deciding this important matter, and surely we may conclude that the Lord Jesus, in His foreknowledge and wisdom, saw meet to bring everlasting punishment and everlasting life into such striking and solemn contrast for a definite purpose. “These,” he said, “shall go away into everlasting (aiōnios) punishment, but the righteous into life eternal (aiōnios)” (Matt. xxv. 46). This is the Universalists’ and Annihilationists’ dilemma, for the same argument that robs aiōnios of the idea of endlessness strikes at the non-eternity of life as surely as the non-eternity of punishment, as it is exactly the same word which designates both. The desperate plight to which advocates of the non-eternity of punishment are reduced is seen in their attempt to give a different meaning to aiōnios in the first part of the sentence to that which it bears in the latter part. Dr. Salmon, in his Christian Doctrine of Immortality, has well designated such a subterfuge as “the counsel of despair.” It has further been urged that “eternal life” does not refer so much to the endless existence of the believer as to the blessings that he has received from Christ. This argument has, certainly, an element of truth in it, but this element is used for the purpose of deceiving. Eternal life, it is quite true, means a great deal more than eternal existence, but to say that it does not include the endless existence of the believer is surely the argument of men who have lost all sense of the desperate nature of their position. Christ has set His seal on the meaning of aiōnios here, and the attempt to rob it of its solemn meaning is more than a daring experiment—it is an open and determined attempt to set aside the teaching of God’s eternal Son.
There is another passage worthy of our attention, where the thought of eternal punishment is very forcibly brought before us:—”He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal (aiōnios) damnation”—Mark iii. 29. No one can possibly read these words with any other feeling than that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost stands out above all other sins, and is of such a heinous nature that it will never be forgiven. Then, again, there is the solemn statement also from the lips of the Lord Jesus, and repeated three times—”Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark ix. 44, 46, 48). Here there is a contrast with what was taking place in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where the worm died and the fire was quenched, and the impression left on the mind is that there was another Gehenna where such things did not happen—”Where their worm died not and the fire is never quenched.” Other passages, where the eternity of punishment is strongly expressed, are to be found in Rev. xv. 7—”God, who liveth for ever and ever (literally, to the ages of the ages),” taken with Rev. xiv. 11—”And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever (literally, to the ages of the ages), and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image.” Here we have the affirmation that God exists to the ages of the ages, and that the smoke of the torment of the wicked ascends through the ages of the ages. None will maintain that God will cease to exist, but the same authority that makes us accept the eternity of God, speaks of the eternity of the wicked’s torment. The evidence for the doctrine held by the Church on this matter is overwhelming, and no one can read it without being deeply impressed with the awful solemnity of the subject. It must be borne in mind that we have been warned to flee from the wrath that is coming and to look to Christ that we might be saved. The whole tremendous undertaking which culminated in the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, tells not only of boundless mercy and redeeming love, but also of a terrible and dread evil and state, from which there is but one way of deliverance. Man’s heart rises in rebellion against God, and asks a thousand questions why this and that thing is permitted by a kind God, but the fact that there is a prisonhouse and endless punishment for sinners, no more conflicts with God’s goodness than does the fact that the numberless prisons of Britain, and the criminals undergoing sentences for life, prove that King George is a cruel-hearted man.