SERMON XXII – William Elbert Munsey
THE FUTURE AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE W CKED — (DISCOURSE II.).
” These shall go away into everlasting punishment : but the righteous into life Eternal.” — Matt. 25:46.
THE same words used to express the duration of God and the duration of the reward of the good, are used in the text and in the Bible to express the duration of the punishment of the wicked. Indeed, every word in the Bible meaning duration without end is applied to the future punishment of the wicked. All this has been considered, and also the apparent exceptions to the statement have been considered. I have but a few more remarks upon the word translated in the text “everlasting” and “eternal.” It is the same word in both cases — aionion from aion.
Aion is derived from aei, always, and on, being; on is the present participle of eimi to be. Aion signifies ” always be- ing1 ever-being — everlasting. This is the literal meaning of aion. The argument with reference to the literal and figurative meaning of words, and the rule determining the matter have been elaboratively treated already, and I will not repeat. Aristotle, who is as good authority as can be given for the use of a word, uses aion in the sense of eternity in this sentence in his ” De Caelo “—where he is ” describing the highest heaven as the residence of the gods”: “There is neither place, nor vacuum, nor time beyond. Wherefore the things there are not by nature adapted to exist in place ; nor does time make them grow old ; neither under the .highest (heaven) is there any change of any one of these things, they being placed beyond it ; but unchangeable and passionless, having the best, even self-sufficient life, they continue through all eternity ” (aiona). Whenever the ancients used the word aion with reference to the divine, the unseen, the spiritual, they used it to signify duration without end. It is so used in the Septuagint, in our Bible, and is the literal use of the word. “For the things that are seen are (pros kaira) temporal ; but the things that are not seen are (aionid) eternal.” The word is only figurative, and is figurative when used with reference to temporal things — things, which from their nature forbid the idea of eternal duration.
There must be a state of future punishment for the wicked, because the amount of the criminality of their sins cannot be estimated during time. There is no government without law. Law is a nullity without a penalty. In fact, as law is a necessity to government, so penalty is a necessity to law. Punishment for the violation of law lies at the very foundation of all government. Upon the certainty with which the penalty of the violation of law is inflicted, depends the existence and rectitude of the government. Government has no power unless its laws have a commensurate penalty, and unless it is well known by the subjects of the government, that the penalty will be enforced. If every man in our country felt that the penalties of our laws would certainly fall upon him if he violated the law, crime would cease. Rob God’s law of a commensurate and certain penalty, and Christianity and churches would soon disappear from the world. To-day Universalism is a failure in persuading men to be religious. Revival results do not follow their minis- trations, many of them are good people and Christians, but the most of them are worldly, and merely nominal believers. Its tendency is to open and final infidelity. The churches which teach and believe the doctrine of the future and eternal punishment of the wicked, are the churches which persuade most men to be religious, which develop and make the most prayerful, earnest, and devout worshippers and workers, which carry on all the missionary operations of the world, which reclaim the greatest sinners and render permanent to a great degree their reclamation, and which have rendered the earth vocal with the shouts of victory on earth’s dying- beds. Universalism does not produce these results.
Man is a subject of the Divine government. The government being Divine, it is one of justice. Justice requires the man to discharge the obligations of duty arising out of his relations. He being able to meet the requirement, if he fails, or violates these obligations, justice requires that he should be judged, and have a punishment equal to the criminality of his failures, and the criminality of his violations. Every failure and violation, or sin, must be weighed in the scales of justice, and the degree of criminality attach- ing to it fairly adjudged. To affix the degree of criminality attaching to the sin, the sin must be examined in reference to the elements composing the sin. After the degree of criminality attaching to the sin is fully estimated, then, and then only, can an equal punishment be meted out. The degree of criminality attaching to the sin cannot be estimated during the sinner’s life on earth. With reference to the intention prompting the sin, and the principle involved in it, the criminality might be estimated, because the intention and principle are connate with, and reach their development with the act, but the influence of the act sweeps through all time.
Man is but a part of the vast system of God, which is of itself a unity, and his thoughts, words, and acts have their influencing impress upon the universe. I might urge this from several scientific considerations, but will not. Suffice it to say that every man is connected with the past, present, and future by a thousand cords of thrilling sympathy which make individual isolation impossible. Cords of intellectual, spiritual, moral, physical, domestic, social, national, lineal, and religious sympathy, connect him with all generations dead and unborn. He is the active and sensitive centre of a reticulation of sympathies whereby dead ages impress their character upon him, and he in his. turn impresses his charac- ter upon ages yet to come. By them he receives the influ- ences of the past ; by them he transmits his own influence, modified by the influences of the past, to posterity. Each thread of sympathy is a conductor. Every word and every act of every man, dancing with feet of fire upon the quivering cords, flashes its influence upon the latest generation ; exciting in its course the sensoria of numberless other sympathetic systems, and these still others, all acting obediently to the touch, and scattering the influence without diminution till the last day. Let the sinner reject Christ, if he dare, sin in private, reflecting from his character upon others, directly or indirectly, his influence will live during time ; and as long as it affects men during their probation, he is and will be accountable for it, living or dead. The Bible teaches that men will not only be rewarded for their doings, but also for the fruit of their doings.
Now, if the influences of men’s sins must be estimated together, with the intention prompting them, and the principle involved in them, in order to affix the proper degree of criminality attaching to them, that an equal punishment might be meted out for them, it must be when the influence of their sins in time ceases. If the influences of men’s sins live through all time, and men are accountable for these influences through all time, then men cannot be punished in proportion to their guilt till time be no more ; therefore there is a state of future punishment. But cannot God, from His ac- quaintance with the future, estimate the varied and multi- plied tendencies of every sin in the advance, and mete out an equivalent punishment in some form or other in this world ? No : true, God’s acquaintance with the future is per- fect, but to inflict punishment or bestow reward for actions not yet committed by the agent, and results not yet accom- plished, would be in violation of every principle of justice. Though God in virtue of His perfection may be perfectly cognizant of the sin and its influences in advance of its actual and present connection with the agent, yet as far as their re- lation to the agent is concerned they are as if God did not know them, and as if they would never take place.
And this future punishment is eternal. 1. Every word in the Hebrew and Greek languages meaning duration without an end is applied to it, and if olam, aion and their various constructions, as applied to the future punishment of the wicked, do not mean duration without end, there is no word in either language which does, and they never had the idea — which is absurd. 2. If not eternal, God is not, and the re- ward of the righteous is not. 3. This punishment is put after the final resurrection. 4. Some sins were not to be forgiven in this life, or the life to come. 5. The duration of the punishment of the wicked is to be the same with that of the Devil and his angels.
It is eternal as a matter of fact, and as a matter of right. As a matter of fact. Hear three truths and the conclusion : man is immortal— this is one truth ; man is placed in a state of trial — this is the second truth ; his trial will terminate with his life— this is the third truth. That man is immortal is the recognized and fundamental truth in the Bible, and in every system of religion. It has a profound evidence in the hu- man consciousness, and in the nature of the case. It is sup- posed to be an undoubted element in every man’s faitli in this congregation, and is conceded to be true by Universalists and Restorationists, as well as those who believe in the eternity of future punishment. The Annihilationists deny it with reference to the wicked — but I will have to do with thein in another discourse. Man, good or bad, is immortal, so you all believe.
The second truth that man is in a state of trial is evident : i. From the nature, character, and administration of the dispensations of Providence to which he is subject. 2. From the antagonistic moral influences exerted upon him. 3. From the different moral conditions to which he is subject. 4. From the character of the world in which he resides. I could elaborate, illustrate, and prove these propositions, and establish the truth of my thesis, as you all at once perceive, if it was necessary. But you see their force and point. Man is in a state of moral discipline. He is conscious that all in- fluences surrounding him, moral, social, and physical, are instruments of discipline, and discipline only.
Indeed, being in a state of trial of itself is evidence of a state of future punishment. If man’s life in this world is one of discipline, and is spent in a state of trial, it is presumptive that there is something beyond it, whose existence is the rea- son of the discipline and the reason of the trial, or we have the master absurdity of discipline without a purpose, and trial without an object. There is something final beyond man’s probation, and that final something is a system of re- wards and punishments. From the very nature of man’s trial it must be both. Again, if men are in a state of trial while they live, they cannot be punished for the sins commit- ted during their trial, till their trial be ended — it must be after probation, hence in the future. Merited punishment finally inflicted in a state of probation, during any time ot which the sinner by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ could wipe out the dark record of his iniquities, and virtually undo all he had ever done, would introduce an inconsistency in the Divine administration. If the administration of God’a Justice required the immediate infliction of final punishment upon the aggressor, or any time during his probation, and the administration of God’s grace extended pardon at any time, these administrations of God would conflict with each other. If men are punished for their sins at all, the punishment must be subsequent to trial, therefore there is a state of future punishment. That a state of trial implies a state of future punishment, though true, is not my purpose now. That man is in a state of trial is the second truth, or proposition, in showing that the eternal punishment of the finally wicked is a matter of fact.
The third proposition is, man’s trial or probation will terminate with the present life. A subsequent probation would afford no increased facilities for repentance and reformation. If it is a probation at all, good and evil must be presented to the man, and there must be no undue influence exerted upon him to affect his choice. He must be perfectly free to choose, or goodness would be impossible. There is no goodness in a forced act, and it makes no difference as to the principle, whether the force exercised is slight and gradual running through ages of probation, or whether the force exercised be all at once. Another probation in the facilities it may afford can be no better than this, and the chances for being good or evil being equal, there are no more probabil- ities of the wicked in the future choosing good, than now ; and we have an eternal probation, or eternal succession of probations ; and an eternal probation, as far as the argument is concerned, is the same as an eternal hell. Really, as the continuity of man’s existence, and the unbroken chains of his responsibleness to God, remain, as the advocates of this hypothesis assume, in their dogma itself, a sinner in the second probation will have the sins of this probation, also, in his way, and will have increased difficulties as to his maturer bad character to overcome, and the probabilities of his reformation and repentance are lessened, not increased, in a future probation, and an eternal excision from God must result at last, and what is this but hell itself?
Let a man be convinced in this life that he will have another chance in a second probation, and he will naturally feel, whether he really does it or not, the disposition to post- pone his work of preparation till the second probation. Let him have a second probation, and it will be demonstrative to his mind that in the government of God there will be no final and eternal punishment, but that he will be continued in probation till he does choose good ; and according to the laws of human nature — which forever remain the same — he will postpone the work of repentance and reformation for- ever; and an eternal probation, with reference to some at least, must follow, and an eternal probation would make the Divine administration an unmeaning parade of principles and agencies leading to no practical results, and would utterly annihilate the doctrine of a future retribution of any kind. Upon this principle a man may escape punishment for sin forever. If saved at all, God must force him, and if forced he will be a sinner still, and God will have to save a sinner in his sins.
Again, the Bible teaches that there is but one name under heaven, whereby men can be saved, and that is the name of Jesus. Faith in Jesus is the condition of the pardon of sin, and the sole condition. The Bible also teaches that at the end of man’s probation as a race, Jesus will give the keys of the kingdom to the Father — that his mediation between God and sinners will cease forever — that His name will no longer be available for a sinner in seeking pardon for sin. If a sinner may be saved and forgiven in a second probation, it must be upon other conditions than in this life. Suppose all sinners would wait till the second probation for pardon and salvation, then Jesus will have died in vain, and God’s present plan to save sinners, and which has cost so much, is foolishness and a nullity. If God can forgive and save a sinner in a future probation without a Saviour, from mere prerogative, He can do it in this life. It’ He cannot do it in this life, He cannot do it at all. In a second probation a sinner must be saved upon other and different conditions. If not through the merits of another, it must be through the merits of himself. Passing into another probation as a sinner, he can have no merits. Any present obedience he might render would not insure him pardon for his past sins, unless he can perform more than the law requires.
Again, the doctrine is not intimated in the Bible from beginning to end. It is taught that the sinner will be punished after death, and every word in the Hebrew, Greek, and English languages implying duration without end, is used to express the continuation of the punishment. It is said that God told Adam that in the day he ate the forbidden fruit, he should surely die, but that Adam did not die, and that while God declared that death would be the result of Adam’s disobedience, yet God intended at the same time to save Adam from death in case he fell. But this proves nothing as to the declarations of God with reference to the future punishment of the wicked. Adam did die in the very hour he ate the fruit, and the Bible speaks of him and his descendants after that time as being dead, and speaks of Adam before that time as being alive. Notwithstanding Adam had a Redeemer, he died in the very sense, and at the very time God said he would. God told him what would result from his disobedience, but not one word to forbid the idea of a redemption from death. God intended to redeem man all the while, for Paul tells us that the plan of redemp- tion was prepared before the world. Physical death was only produced by man’s expulsion for his sin from the tree of life. But in the announcements with relation to the future punishment of the wicked, it is especially declared that that punishment will be unending. A second probation has nothing in revelation or reason to recommend it, and though entertained by a few men in the past, has been tacitly dropped by its own advocates as untenable. The theory of the Annihilationists is the only theory on this side of the question which has any philosophy to support it, and before this series is completed I will notice it at some length.
The proposition is, the punishment of the wicked in the future is, eternal as a matter of fact. The three truths laid down to establish the proposition are Ist, man is immortal; 2d, man is placed in a state of trial ; 3d, his trial will terminate with the present life. If these three propositions be true, eternal punishment, whether right or wrong, must be the sinner’s portion. If the sinner’s trial will end, and he will have no second trial, and he will continue to be, his punishment will be eternal as a matter of fact. The eternity of future punishment is a necessary consequence of the sinner’s immortality, provided the sinner has not the opportunities of a second probation.
Men make themselves sinners, and if immortal, immortal sinners ; the justice of God requires sinners to be punished, and if immortal, as a matter of course they are punished forever. If they go into the future state sinners, and immortal, their punishment must continue as long as they exist, for there is no opportunity of repentance there. It is illogical and unfair to urge the seeming disproportion between the length of time during which men sin, and the eternity during which they are punished, as an argument against the eternity of future punishment. it is not the sin which is punished^ but the sinner. The question resolves itself into the following clear proposition : If it is right to punish the sinner al all, it is right to punish him forever; if it is wrong to punish him forever, it is wrong to punish him at all.
It is eternal as a matter of fact. (Next Sunday I will show you it is eternal as a matter of right.)
The tremendous truth stands out upon the pages of revelation like a mountain of consuming fire, corroborated and established by bulwarks of evidence indestructible and instinct with horror. There will be a place of future punishment. It may be outer space and darkness, or a place in outer space and darkness. It will not be within the circle of order and light. Hades, or the intermediate state, may be simply a state, and confined to no especial place. If there is a place, the Bible rather confines it to this world. After the Judgment only are fallen angels and damned sinners to be thrown into ” outer darkness.”
The Bible does not reveal a specific location as the residence of the wicked forever. Such a revelation would not make the motive for repentance drawn from future punishment any stronger, therefore it would be superfluous. And if assigned, our acquaintance with space is too limited then to know where. Then a specific location could not be assigned in space where there are, or can be, no especial boundaries. As to its character the Bible uses the strongest and most expressive figures we can understand to express its horror. It must be frightful in its horrors. All evil must be consigned there. Hell must be a place of dire disorder and dreadful ruin. The very idea of correspondence between the character of the place, and the character of the inhabitants of the place, suggests that hell is a place of horror. And when we re- member that such an adaptation is characteristic of all the works of God, the suggestion amounts to a demonstration.
It is called “outer darkness.” The Greek word is used in a comparative sense— deeper darkness, uttermost dark- ness. It may be a dark and frightful sphere, isolated from all worlds, cursed of God, erratic and lawless, rolling beyond the confines of creation, with no sun or star to light up its darkness and chase away its infernal vapors, with rivers and oceans of liquid fire, continents of incinerated rock and scattered scoriae, and rent with awful chasms. Over it the lost may walk, and run, and grope, and stumble, and fall, and climb forever. It may have a strange power over the lost answering to gravity, which binds them to its surface, and compels them to dwell there through all eternity.
It may not be this. It may be a world riven and shivered by volcanic fires and smothered gases, where lurid darkness and hazy light mingle in dusky shades, where smoky flames ooze from a thousand crannies, and flicker and flash from a thousand fissures, where serpents hiss in every gorge, and goblins dance on every hill, and spectres creep from every rock, and phantoms ride on every wind, and demons sit upon every mountain — and where redoubtable horrors mounted upon fiery dragons chase the ruined soul over smouldering plains, gloomy hills, mountains dingy, morasses foul, and abysms squalid, and chase it forever. It may not be this. It may be a gloomy, desolate, and barren world, whose rocks and mountains are tumbled into anarchy ; where there are no blushing flowers, nodding trees, dewy vales, grassy slopes, and running streams; and where there are no homes, no churches, no preaching, no morality, no religion, no friendships, no God. Religion is order, love, and light ; and where it is not all is disorder, enmity, hate, and night. The world must be in harmony with its inhabi- tants. Then the best hell we can promise is a world of ugly ruins shrouded in Night’s blackest pall, where no one of the damned has a friend, and filled with cursings and strifes, and where all ranks and sexes are herded in one promiscuous mob with foulest demons, and where every stinking cave is inhabited with fiend and gnashing ghost, and on whose black crags the ravens of despair sit and croak, and where God’s eternal justice plies his burning whip, and Remorse lays on with his fiery thongs — the flashes of whip and thongs their only light, world without end.
Or it may be some huge cavern hollowing out the centre of some blasted, shattered, and God-cursed planet, in which the poison and stench of ages have gathered, and condensing distil on the walls — dimly lighted by sulphurous torches held by grimacing and howling fiends, and whose sickly flickerings render the darkness in all the windings, pits, chasms, and corners but blacker ; and where occasional blue flames breaking through the fissures overhead lick along the arches, and bolts of thunder crash through the grottoes and roar along the labyrinths, in which lost men and fallen angels may be driven from the Judgment Seat, the ponderous gates closing and locking behind them — the key fastened to the girdle of God, and the Divine Omnipotence installed1 as perpetual sentinel to -guard the way.
Or it may be an unquenchable lake of fire and brimstone, surrounded with precipitous shores of black and beetling crags, over whose surface beat eternal storms, the fiery waves lashing,’ and dashing, and splashing, and groaning around all the shores — bubbles dancing on every wave and swell, and bursting emit fumes and smoke threaded with serpent flames, in whose ascending volumes everlasting lightnings flash and cross, — while the unfettered thunders of God upon hell’s infernal drums roll the eternal bass in hell’s uproar, and beat time to the ceaseless groans of the lost.
The hell of the Bible is horrible beyond description, and the hypotheses of this hour cannot exceed it. Its miseries are as far beyond description as the joys of heaven are. Be it better or worse. Let us not go there. Oh, let us not go there !