SERMON XXIII – William Elbert Munsey
THE FUTURE AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED (DISCOURSE III.).
” If thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched : where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire : where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”— Mark 9:43-48.
THE word in these verses translated hell, is Gehenna, not Hades. The Hebrew word Sheol, and its Greek equivalent Hades, often translated hell in our version, mean the invisible world — the unseen world of spirits — of spirits both bad and good. They are sometimes used to represent the grave — the invisible abode of dead bodies, — but this use is figurative. Sheol among the Hebrews, (as well as hades among the Greeks,) means the invisible world of spirits. It was in Sheol, where the patriarchs are represented in dying as being ” gathered to their people.” ” Gathered to their people ” is recorded as something distinct from burial, and as preceding burial, and this shows us the meaning of sheol, and hades, and that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is taught by being recognized, in the Old Testament. Abraham “gave up the ghost …. and was gathered to his people,” before his burial in the cave of Machpelah. It certainly could not mean Machpelah, for Abraham had no people there — Sarah was the only one buried there. Moc-s was “gathered unto his people,” and so was Aaron; and their graves were solitary. It was in Sheol Jacob expected to meet his son. The common name of grave in the Hebrew is keber. In the Greek it is taphos, or some equivalent word.
Sheol, translated hell, sometimes means that part of the invisible world in which the wicked are punished till the Judgment, as in the verse, ” The wicked shall be turned into hell (sheol) and all the nations that forget God.” It certainly here cannot mean the grave, for those who are not wicked, and who do not forget God, go to the grave, as well as the wicked and all the nations that do forget Him. It cannot simply mean the place of spirits good and bad, for then there is no sense in saying that the wicked and the nations that forget God go there, for certainly if all people go there after death they will go. Speaking of the people in two classes, and saying that one class — the wicked class — go to sheol when they die, implying that the good class do not go there, shows that the word here means the place of future punishment. It is so used by Solomon in the verse, ” Thou shalt beat him (i. e., thy child) with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell ” (sheol) — whether he correct his child or not he will go to the grave and invisible world. The Greek equivalent of Sheol is Hades. It, also, sometimes means the place of future punishment for the wicked, as in the verse, ” The rich man died, and in hell (hades) he lifted up his eyes being in torment ” — ” torment” as a state of misery. John says, ” Death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire : this is the second death.” This certainly means the wicked only. Now the word tartaros is never used but as the prison of the wicked, and is used in 2 Peter, “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and de- livered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto Judgment.” This is in harmony with the other verses, and corroborates what I have said about them.
Gehenna is the word used in the text. It is compounded of two Hebrew words Ge and Hinnom — valley of Hinnom. This valley was southeast of Jerusalem, and near the city. In this valley was an image of Moloch, Baal, or the Sun, and in the valley the idolatrous Jews, in the worship of this god, burned their children alive. This valley is also called Tophet, from toph, meaning a drum, because the cries of the burning children were drowned by the beating of drums. Josiah, who abolished the worship of Moloch, to render this valley odious turned all the filth of Jerusalem into it. The dead of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors, were thrown into it. The sewers of Jerusalem also emptied their filthy contents into it. To consume this filth a fire was kept there perpetually burning. The valley, by a natural law of all ideas, became the symbol of cruelty, misery, pollution, and of perpetual burning. Thus, by a law of language, its name was transferred to the place of punishment for the wicked, and is so used in the text and other places.
The Universalists say that when the word is used in the Bible it always means the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. They have written books to prove that it has no reference to such a place of future punishment for the wicked as we claim. It is a pet argument of theirs. Let us read some of the Scriptures in which Gehenna is used according to their argument, and mark well the consistency, beauty, and sense, and if the inspired writers are not crazy, craziness cannot be proven by the productions of a man’s pen. ” Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul ” in the valley of Hinnom, which is near Jerusalem — “in hell.” ” Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child” (“of hell”) of the valley of Hinnom, near the city of Jerusalem, ” than yourselves.” ” Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation ” (” of hell “) of the valley of Hin- nom near Jerusalem ? ” The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity : so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire” (“of hell”) of the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem.
The word Gehenna is used twelve times in the New Testament. It never literally means the valley of Hinnom. It may in a few instances mean the misery of the Jewish nation, but its general meaning is a place of great suffering in the future for sinners. Take one verse already quoted : ” Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell ” — geenne. The soul is here distinguished from the body, and is said to be indestructible by man, and is said to live after the body is killed, and that God only can destroy it, and that God will cast it with the body in Gehenna, and after the body being dead shows that it will be after the resurrection ; hence Gehenna is the abode of the damned after the Judgment, as Hades is their abode after the death of the body and before the Judgment. The conclusions from this verse, and that the punishment is in the future, are more clearly taught in Luke : ” Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ; but fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.” The preposition ‘ meta,’ in the phrase “after that,” is properly translated — it always means ‘after’ when it governs the accusative as in the text. It means ‘ with,’ ” together with” when it governs the genitive.
Because the word Gehenna is compounded of Ge and Hinnom — valley of Hinnom — to make the word when it used with reference to the wicked apply to the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, is philological stupidity. The in- visible is always represented by words made from the visible. The word Paradise meant ” originally, in Persia, a park or pleasure-ground, well watered and planted, and stocked with animals for the chase.” When Christ said to the dying thief, ” To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise,” do you suppose he meant one of those Persian gardens ? Do you suppose Paul, when he said — and I quote — ” that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter ” — that is possible for a man to utter, as the marginal reading is — that he meant a Persian garden ? If so, Persia is in the third heaven, and is “up” — “caught up” — for Paul says in two verses before, ” caught up to the third heaven.” Our word meaning heaven just means the region of air around us. Are the damned to be sent to the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, and the saved into a garden in Persia? If one is to be taken this way the other must. If Gehenna is not the place of future punishment for the wicked, we have no heaven or Paradise either. The same arguments can be used against both, and why they are used in favor of hell, and not heaven, is because those who use them, as a general rule, would love to go to heaven, but feel they are not prepared for it, and they want to get a future hell out of the way. I do not want to offend any one, but with my convictions I can say nothing else, and God helping me I will not go to the Judgment with your blood on my skirts. I feel it my duty, and I know no policy in the pulpit.
The existence of the atonement is evidence of a state of future punishment. I lay down three propositions : 1. Man’s body is mortal. 2. Man’s soul is immortal. 3. Sin has produced the mortality of the body ; corrupted the moral char- acter of the soul, but cannot destroy the immortality of the soul. Take these three facts laid down as premises, and think over them but for a moment. Man’s body is mortal — who would ask proof of it ? Man’s soul is immortal— all of you believe it ; if there is a person here who does not, then he is prepared to hear no argument whatever upon either heaven or hell. Sin produced the mortality of the body, but cannot destroy the immortality of the soul. The basis of the soul’s immortality is found in the capabilities of its constitutional essence — the reason is found in God’s will thereto agreeing. Sin from its nature affects the moral char- acter of the soul, not its constitution and essence. What the soul is capable of having in virtue of its constitution and essence independent of its moral character sin cannot touch or destroy.
Now hear the conclusion : If man’s body is mortal, if man’s soul is immortal, and sin produced the mortality of the body, but cannot destroy the immortality of the soul, and there is only a state of eternal blessedness in the future for departed spirits — which is the theory of one class of Universalists — all spirits must necessarily go there after the death of the body, and we have universal salvation irrespective of character. Where, then, is the necessity for a Saviour, and the scheme of redemption of which he is the subject ? There is none. The existence of the atonement is evidence there is a state of future punishment. If there is no state of future punishment, the atonement is at once perceived to be a supererogation — a something superinduced upon the grand system of God’s moral government, for the existence of which there can be no sensible reason assigned.
If it be said by another class of Universalists that there is a place of future punishment, but that the punishment of the wicked is limited, and that after a time they will all go to heaven, the following conclusions inevitably follow : 1. Thai suffering can compensate for sin ; 2. That suffering involuntarily endured can compensate for sin voluntarily committed ; 3. That suffering can purify man’s nature. These conclusions are unphilosophic and unscriptural ; and the result is as before — there is no necessity for Christ or the atonement. The very existence of the atonement is evidence of a state of eternal future punishment for the wicked.
This punishment is eternal as a matter of fact, as I have shown ; and it is eternal as a matter of right. I can present my arguments, because of what has preceded them in this series, as briefly and compactly as I choose. As a matter of course I go upon the doctrine that the true sense of future punishment is that of retribution, not that it is disciplinary. This has been shown inferentially from every argument all the while. I may in a future discourse touch upon it more explicitly.
The penalty must be in proportion to the amount of guilt. This arises out of the very relation between penalty and guilt. The guilt of any offence of man against God is in proportion to the superior dignity of God’s nature. This will not do as a general rule. It is not true when both parties are finite, and never true with reference to the accidental dignity of mere office and circumstances, but only with reference to dignity of nature. It is only true with reference to a finite creature and an infinite God, where such relations exist as do exist between the infinite God and all finite creatures. Man’s nature is finite. God’s nature is in- finite. There can be, therefore, no proportion in point of dignity of nature between the two. There can be no proportion between two things unless the one subtracted from the other creates a visible diminution. Subtract the finite from the infinite, and there is no diminution — the infinite remains. Let the infinite be your minuend, the finite your subtrahend, and the infinite is your remainder. Now, if the penalty is in proportion to the amount of guilt, and the guilt of man’s offences against God is in proportion to the superior dignity of God’s nature, and between God and man there is no proportion in point of dignity of nature because God is in- finite ; then the penalty of sin as a matter of right is infinite, in the only direction in which it can be, that of duration.
Again, the penalty of sin must be in proportion to the amount of guilt. The guilt of sin consists in its being the violation of an obligation ; therefore must be in proportion to the amount of obligation violated. This is also clear. The whole question turns upon the character of man’s obligations to God. These are infinite. God is the Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Governor and Redeemer of men, infinitely and absolutely. If man really owns, originates or preserves, by any right or power within himself, anything subjectively or objectively, just so far as that thing was worth he would lack of being under infinite obligations to God. But where is the such thing ? From the nature of God and His relations to man, the character and value of man’s obligations must be estimated from the infinite nature and plans of God, the obligee ! and not from man, the obligor. Man is under infinite obligations to obey God. If man’s obligation to obey God is infinite, the guilt of disobeying him is infinite, and if the guilt of disobeying Him is infinite, the penalty, as a matter of right, is infinite. The penalty must be in proportion to the amount of guilt, the amount of guilt must be in proportion to the amount of obligation violated : man’s obligations to God are infinite — the penalty, as a matter of right, must be infinite.
Is eternal punishment a fact, and is it right ? Our God is a consuming fire. The capacity and power to love shows the capacity and power to hate. Those who would say that anger and wrath are inconsistent with the character of God. make God a cold and chilling abstraction unable to love. It you want a God capable of love, and infinite love, He must be capable of wrath, and infinite wrath. Indeed, love of the Good and love of good men is anger of evil and evil men. Anger is but love itself, the burning reflex of Divine love which warms and rejoices heaven, kindling into a flame of unquenchable wrath for evil-doers. The existence and happiness of the righteous depend upon the integrity of God’s system and government, and God loves the righteous so well that every sinner who would destroy the integrity and rectitude of His system and government, He is angry with. Destroy God’s government, and the righteous are ruined. Sin is treason and the sinner is a rebel, and God must punish him.
Away, you sickly sentimentalists ! While you say God can- not hate, you say He cannot love— and every argument you use against hell, is an argument against heaven. Is eternal punishment a fact, and is it right? God’s justice answers in the affirmative, and the Divine Mercy says, ” Yes.” After all that Mercy has done to save a sinner, to follow him with its offers after this probation would be to give a premium for sin. And in the magnificent family of God’s attributes, Mercy is the sweetest, loveliest, and most beautiful. Her form is perfect symmetry, her eyes a celestial blue, her locks are golden, her face the fairest in heaven, and a glittering circlet of gold set with sparkling diamonds, and intertwined with leaves and flowers of fadeless amaranth, rests upon her white and pure brow. She is the friend of man ; and though she leans upon the brawny arm of Justice — with his dark brow, flashing eye, and stalwart form — yet she is as strong as he. A glance of her eye has often stayed his hand, and her fingers have unstrung his bow — and if an arrow has flown, with leaves plucked from the tree of life she stanches and heals the wound in man the arrow made, if the man will permit her. But, oh ! she is oftener cursed by the man than blessed in her mission. And in the moment the sinner passes over the river, holding in one hand a list of her slighted offers and unappreciated blessings, with the other she wields the fiercest whip on the backs of the damned, and her voice is loudest- and clearest in asserting the. rightfulness of eternal punishment —
” Bow ere the awful trumpet sound,
And call you to His bar !
For Mercy knows the appointed bound,
And turns to Vengeance there.”
Is eternal punishment a fact, and is it right ?
The Bible, born in the wilderness and rocked by the hand of God — Horeb’s fiery thunders beating its lullabies on the bare and granite crags, and the red lightnings flashing around its cradle — and who was baptized by water and blood, kneeling at the foot of the cross — God’s eternal Truth standing sponsor — and who in mature manhood was crowned and commissioned on the cliffs of Patmos, the blue waters of the Grecian sea laving their base, and which rippled in music around the boats and oars of hero and warrior in classic story, — comes forth with a casket in its right hand and a quiver in its left. The casket was filled with jewels — bright and sparkling from the mines of heaven— jewel promises which it empties into the lap of the church ; and scatters on our closet floors to shine, glitter, and light up these temples when we pray ; and sows along the pathway of the Christian, till the road to heaven, through the gloom and night of this probation, is shining and paved with gems — the road itself leading to a city whose foundations are precious stones.
The quiver is filled with arrows— pointed, barbed, and deadly— fiery threatenings which it ever hurls upon the heads of the wicked, to force them to come into the marriage sup- per of the Lamb— or, refusing, to beat in one tempestuous storm of hissing and piercing shafts upon their naked heads as they run and scream over the fields of perdition. Nc grotto or overhanging rock can shelter from the pitiless storm, for the bolts of God can pierce all rocks and burn through every defence. There is a curse for every promise, and both alike are the Bible’s answer to our question.
In Palestine there are two mountains, rising on steep and rocky precipices about 800 feet high, on both sides of a narrow valley about 300 yards wide. They are called Ebal and Gerizim. God commanded the children of Israel by Moses when they entered the promised land, that six tribes of them should stand upon Mount Ebal and the other six tribes on Mount Gerizim, and that the Levites should pronounce the curses and blessings of the law — the tribes on Mount Ebal responding “Amen” to the curses, the tribes on Mount Gerizim responding ” Amen ” to the blessings. This was doubtless the grandest ceremony in the history of the nations. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are on every page of the Bible, and on every field of Divine providence, and in the valley between them will sit the throne of the Judgment — and to every blessing and every curse, all the people will say “Amen,” and the universe shall acknowledge that eternal punishment is right. The Blessed Saviour sat down probably on the eastern horn of the Hattin, a ridge between Tabor and Tiberias, and preached his first sermon.
It was a sermon of blessings. ” Blessed are the poor in spirit — Blessed are they that mourn — Blessed are the meek ■ — Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness— Blessed are the merciful — Blessed are the pure in heart — Blessed are the peacemakers — Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake ; ” — a Sermon of Blessings. Certainly it would be inconsistent with Christ’s char- acter to curse. Would not the Universalist quote these all the day ? To pronounce curses would not suit that kind face and be in harmony with his mission.
This was his first sermon ; now hear his last — standing in the Temple in the presence of all the people and those who had been taught to regard the Pharisees and Scribes as their teachers and patterns of piety. ” Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites — Woe unto you, ye blind guides — ye fools and blind — Woe unto you Scribes — Woe unto you, thou blind Pharisee — ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? “
Curses and blessings go together — Love incarnate can curse a sinner, Love incarnate can damn a sinner, and if Love incarnate can curse and damn a sinner it can do it for all eternity.
O Eternity ! let thy ages tramp, thy cycles roll, but thou canst not crumble or scar the walls of hell, or rust and break its locks or silver the hair of God, who has sworn by His eternal self that the sinner shall die. The pendulum of thy horologe over the gates of woe vibrates through all aeons, and says “forever, and ever” — “forever, and ever” — “forever, and ever” — its sounding bell striking off the centuries, the ages — the cycles. The appalling monotony of its pendulum — going — going— going — repeating still, “forever, and ever” — “forever, and ever” — “forever, and ever ” — O Eternity! God has wound up thy clock and it will never run down— and its tickings and beatings are heard by all the lost — “for- ever, and ever ” — ” forever, and ever ” — ” forever, and ever.” God being my Judge, I would die to save you this day.
