EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT.
By M. H. Brown
The words of the Saviour in Matt. 25:46, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal,” are considered as strongly favoring the doctrine of endless misery; yet a careful comparison with other scriptures will aid us greatly in our researches for truth. It is urged that there can be no punishment without conscious existence; but it should be noticed that the passage in question does not tell us what the punishment will be. Paul, in Rom. 6:23, informs us that the wages of sin is death. Christ died for our sins; suffering of body and anguish of soul were attendant elements or ingredients in the bitter cup which our Saviour drank, yet those sufferings culminated in death. So with the wicked; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 24:51), also indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish (Rom. 2:8) in their experience; but death, the essential element in the penalty, closes the scene; and no gleam of light or life ever comes to relieve the long night of death to which they are consigned. If the wicked are always dying, yet never die, then they never receive the wages of sin, which Paul declares is death. If death is the wages of sin, or the punishment received for sin, then everlasting death is an everlasting punishment. Strange to say, some contend that death is no punishment; but the experience of the race, as found in its history and its laws, bears testimony that the death penalty is the most severe which can be inflicted. If a man is deprived of life and its blessings, it is considered that he suffers a great loss, a severe punishment; and yet the loss of eternal life, with its unceasing round of joy unmixed with sorrow, must be as much more severe, as eternal life is more desirable than this present mortal life, which we love so well. It is evident that the wicked lose just what the righteous gain, viz., eternal life. If eternal death is no punishment, then eternal life is no reward. But reason, experience, and Scripture teach that death, or loss of life, is a great punishment, and therefore to die the second death—which is everlasting, because no one ever wakes from its strong embrace—will be an everlasting punishment. Eternal life on one hand, eternal death on the other. The saints are to be preserved (Ps. 37:28), but the transgressors are to be destroyed. Verse 38. So Paul does not teach us that the wicked will be preserved from destruction in the flaming fire, but that they will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. 2 Thess. 1:9. But, says one, that means simply separation from God spiritually, loss of divine favor, &c. Sinners have this experience in this life, and they seem to enjoy absence from God’s presence. Is this the vengeance God will take on the ungodly when the Lord Jesus is revealed in flaming fire? Strange punishment this! But Malachi says the wicked will be burned up root and branch, becoming ashes (Mal. 4:1-3); and Obadiah says they shall be as though they had not been. Verse 16. We would like to have the advocates of endless misery tell us where the wicked are when “every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,” are heard saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne.” Rev. 5:13. David says, “Thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Ps. 37:10. M. H. BROWN.