THERE is much teaching and preaching connected with the activities of the professed Christian Church to-day, and this follows upon the practice of Christ himself, who went everywhere preaching the Word, and is apparently in compliance with His command and commission to His Church to attend to the preaching of the Gospel: “Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark xvi., 15). But the substance and doctrine of much preaching to-day is either erroneous and modernistic, or only partially deals with the essential truths taught and promulgated by the Divine Head of the Church and also set forth clearly in Holy Scripture. One outstanding truth, either denied out and out, or deliberately ignored and relegated to the background, is the tremendously solemn reality of “everlasting punishment” (Matt. xxv 46). This has been purged and banned from the most of pulpits in our land to-day, and from theological instruction.
We firmly believe, assert, and maintain this truth, as we believe the Holy Scriptures to be the inspired and infallible Word of God throughout, and it is not our intention presently to seek to prove the fact of “everlasting punishment” from Scripture. But what of this doctrine in respect of preaching the Gospel of Christ, of salvation and of grace?
Those to whom the Gospel is to be declared are, in the first instance, sinners who have come short of the glory of God, and are under His wrath and curse. In addition to this, all are destined for an eternal existence in the world to come, at, and after, death; and finally, following upon the judgment of the Great Day.
In the eternal world there is not only a heaven, but also a hell; that is, everlasting punishment. There is “the wrath to come”; there is “the fiery indignation” of God which shall devour His adversaries. And as we read in Revelation: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death” (xxi., 8). The Old Testament and the New especially, reveal that this awful punishment awaits the finally impenitent and unbelieving sinner.
Thus for men to deny this truth or ignore it in a professed Christian pulpit, is to say in effect to the people, that they need no Gospel of salvation at all; but merely a series of Christian truths, unrelated to sin and its final consequences, whereby to regulate their thinking and external conduct here in time, that they may attain to some semblance of Christian behaviour. This, of course, is just walking in a vain show, obnoxious to the God of Heaven.
In a professed Christian Church, if there be no “everlasting punishment” in the preacher’s doctrine, then he inevitably teaches that all are proceeding to Heaven, or he implies this. This, of course, is one of the greatest and the most dangerous lies imposed by the devil on ignorant and unconverted preachers, and by them upon many thousands of poor sinners. And so multitudes are never taught, and warned regarding not only as to what sin is, but as to the inevitable consequences to the impenitent and unbelieving, viz., “The miseries of this life, death itself, and the pains of hell for ever” (Shorter Catechism). And so they go with a shallow, false, one-sided Gospel and Christianity into “everlasting punishment.” How unspeakably solemn!
True ministers of Christ’s Gospel are bound to be taken up with all His doctrine in their teaching and preaching, embracing the solemn Truth of “everlasting punishment,” which He so frequently and clearly taught and laid emphasis upon. They are obliged and charged to warn sinners, as they will answer to God as His professed servants; and to make clear to their hearers that if they continue to live an ungodly life and to despise the One, Glorious, Redeemer of sinners, Jesus himself, that they will be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess., chapter I.). And it is the divine Spirit Himself Who can make this truth and doctrine, an awakening and convincing message to the precious souls of guilty and ignorant sinners, that they may flee from the wrath to come, with a broken heart to the atoning death and blood of the Son of God, for deliverance and salvation from their sins and everlasting punishment. And in the free mercy of God, that they may come by a God-given faith to know the unspeakable preciousness of Christ and His Cross, and the wonder of Covenant and saving love, unto “everlasting life.”
Now, where this doctrine is professed, taught, and preached as part of the Counsel of God, it may well be, by reason of manifold influences of a subtle or public nature, that it is not being given adequate prominence, as to clarity of teaching or as to frequent allusions thereto. A passing reference in a Scriptural manner to this truth, once in a long while, by a settled ministry, is entirely unsatisfactory in our view, when one considers the need for definite instruction in all Biblical and Gospel doctrine from Christian pulpits. To delineate on the matter of “the perdition of ungodly men,” is not pleasurable to the gracious soul in pulpit or pew, but it ought to be a real matter of conscience toward God and men, that the truth would be told sinners, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth of God. And the Lord’s people themselves will be only the better of solemn and awesome doctrine, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to stir them up from spiritual lethargy to seek the more diligently to “make their calling and election sure.”
Reader, if you live and die in your sins, and enter eternity without Christ Jesus and divine forgiveness, you shall go away into everlasting punishment. But they who have been enabled to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, shall die in the Lord, and go away into everlasting life and glory. Jesus said: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew, xxv., 46).