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Eternal Punishment
III. THE NATURE OF PUNISHMENT
AWAITING THE LOST
1. THE PORTION OF
THE WICKED IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH.
We turn first to the
teaching of our Lord found in Luke 16. Here, we learn the following facts;
First, that in Hades the lost are in full possession of all their
faculties and sensibilities. They see, for the rich man saw Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (v. 23). They feel, for he was
in "torments" (v. 24). They cry for mercy, for he asked—but in
vain—for a drop of water to cool his tongue (v. 24). They are in
possession of memory, for the rich man was bidden to "remember"
what he had received during his lifetime on earth (v. 25). It is
impossible for them to join the redeemed: there is "a great gulf fixed"
between them (v. 26).
Unspeakably solemn is
all this. Not only will the lost be tormented in flames, but their anguish
will be immeasurably increased by a sight of the redeemed being
"comforted." Then shall they see the happy portion of the blest
which they despised, preferring as they did the pleasures of sin for a
season. And how the retention of "memory" will further augment their
sufferings! With what unfathomable sorrows will they recall the
opportunities wasted, the expostulations of parents and friends slighted,
the warnings of God’s servants disregarded, the proclamations of God’s
Gospel spurned. And then to know there is no way of escape, no means of
relief, no hope of a reprieve! Their lot will be unbearable; their awful
portion, beyond endurance. The Son of God has faithfully forewarned that
"there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:42). It is very
significant that Christ referred to this just seven times—denoting
the completeness of their misery and anguish; see Matthew 8:12;
13:42-50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28.
2. THE FINAL
PORTION OF THE WICKED.
(1) This is spoken of
as being "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord" (2 Thess. 1:9). None but one who really knows God can begin
to estimate what it will mean to be eternally banished from the Lord.
Forever separated from the Fount of all goodness! Never to enjoy
the light of God’s countenance! Never to bask in the sunshine of
His presence. This, this is the most awful of all. 2 Thessalonians 1:9
furnishes clear intimation that the judgment of Matthew 25, with
its eternal sentence, looks beyond the Assize. "Destruction from the
presence of the Lord" is paralleled with "depart from Me ye
cursed."
(2) The final portion
of the wicked is spoken of as "everlasting punishment" (Matt.
25:46). In 1 John 4:18 the same Greek word is rendered "torment." This
term announces the satisfying of God’s justice. In the punishing of the
wicked God vindicates His outraged majesty. Herein punishment differs from
correction or discipline. Punishment is not designed for the good of the
one who suffers it. It is intended for the enforcing of law and order; it
is necessary for the preservation of government.
(3) The final portion
of the wicked is spoken of as a "tormenting. " This is proven by
the fact that the everlasting fire into which the wicked depart is
"prepared for the Devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41) which emphasizes the
awfulness of this punishment, rather than specifies who are going to
endure. This verse sets forth the severity of the punishment of the
lost. If the everlasting fire be "prepared for the Devil and his
angels," then how intolerable it will be! If the place of eternal torment
into which all unbelievers shall be cast is the same as that in
which God’s arch-enemy will suffer, how dreadful that place must
be.
That this everlasting
fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels, produces the most awful
suffering is clear from Revelation 20:10, where we are told that Satan
shall be "tormented day and night for ever and ever." No doubt this
torment will be both internal and external, mental and physical. The word
occurs for the first time in the New Testament in Matthew 8:6. "Lord, my
servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." The
same word occurs again in Revelation 9:5 where we read of infernal
locusts, issuing from the Pit, and which are given power to torment men,
the nature of which is explained as "the torment of a scorpion, when he
striketh a man." So intense will be the suffering caused therefrom "men
shall seek death and shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and
death shall flee from them" (Rev. 9:6). This torment then cannot mean less
than the most excruciating pain which we are now capable of conceiving.
How much the pains of Hell will exceed the pains of earth we know not.
(4) The final portion
of the wicked is spoken of as "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire"
(Jude 7). But many say this is merely a figurative expression. We ask, How
do they know that? Where has God told them so in His Word? Personally, we
believe that when God says "fire" He means "fire." We refuse to blunt the
sharp edge of His Word. Was the Deluge figurative? Was it figurative "fire
and brimstone" which descended from heaven and destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah? Were the plagues upon Egypt figurative ones? Is it figurative
fire which shall yet burn this earth, and cause the very elements to "melt
with fervent heat?" No’ in each of these cases we are obliged to take the
words of Scripture in their literal signification. Let those who dare
affirm that Hell-fire is non-literal answer to God. We are not their
judges; but we refuse to accept their toning down of these solemn words.
Literal fire in Hell presents no difficulty at all to the writer. The lost
will have literal bodies when they are cast into Hell. The "angels"
also have bodies; and for all we know to the contrary, the Devil has too.
But the question is
often asked, How can the bodies of the lost be tormented eternally by
literal fire? Would not the fire utterly consume them? Even though we were
unable to furnish an answer to this question, we should still believe that
Scripture meant what it said. But we are satisfied that God’s Word answers
this question. In Exodus 3 we read of the bush in the wilderness burning
with fire, and yet was not consumed! In Daniel 3 we read of the three
Hebrews being cast into the fiery furnace of Babylon, yet they were not
consumed. Why was this? Because, m some way unknown to us, God
preserved the bush, and the bodies of the three Hebrews. Is God, then,
unable to preserve the bodies of the damned from being consumed?
Surely not. But we are not left even to this unescapable inference. In
Mark 9:47-49 we are told, "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. For every one shall be
salted with fire." The expression salted with fire" confirms what
we have said above. Salt is a preservative; hence, when we are told
that "every one" who is cast into Gehenna shall be "salted with fire" we
learn that the very fire itself so far from consuming shall preserve. If
it be asked, How can this be? We answer, Because that fire is
"prepared" by God (Matt. 25:41).
(5) The final portion
of the wicked is described as an association with the vilest of the
vile. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and
murderers, and whore-mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars,
shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"
(Rev. 21:8). O dear reader, weigh well this solemn language. You
may be a person of culture and refinement: judged by moral standards your
life may be exemplary and spotless: you may pride yourself on your honesty
and truthfulness: you may be very particular in your choice of friends and
very careful to avoid the company of the profane and vicious: you may even
be religious, and look down in scorn and pity upon the idolaters of
heathendom; but God says that if you die in unbelief your portion shall be
with "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars." Think of what
it will mean to spend eternity in the Prison-house of the universe with
Cain, and Pharaoh, and Judas! Think of what it will mean to be shut up
with the vile Sodomites! Think of being incarcerated forever with every
blasphemer who has ever lived!
(6) The final portion
of the wicked is described as "the blackness of darkness forever"
(Jude 13). Unrelieved will be their fearful sufferings; interminable their
torments. No means of escape. No possibility of a reprieve. No hope of
deliverance. Not one will be found who is able to befriend them and
intercede with God for them. They had the offer of a Mediator often made
them in this world; but no such offer will be made them in the Lake of
Fire. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." There will
be no resting-place in Hell; no secret corner where they can find a little
respite; no cooling fountain at which they may refresh themselves. There
will be no change or variation of their lot. Day and night, forever and
ever, shall they be punished. With no prospect of any improvement they
will sink down into blank despair.
(7) The final portion
of the wicked will be beyond the creature’s power of resistance.
"And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Matt. 21:44). There
are many who now say, If at the end I find myself in Hell, I will bear it
as well as I can, as if by strength of will and firmness of mind they
shall, in measure at least, be able to support themselves. But alas! Their
resolutions will count for nothing.
It is common with men
in this world to shun calamities, but if they find this is impossible,
they set themselves to bear it: they fortify their spirits and resolve to
support themselves under it as well as they can. They muster up all their
courage and resolution in the determination to keep their hearts from
sinking. But it will be utterly vain for sinners to do this in the Lake of
Fire. What would it help a worm which was about to be crushed by some
great rock, to collect its strength and endeavor to set itself to bear up
against its weight, and so seek to prevent itself from being crushed? Much
less will a poor damned soul be able to support itself under the weight of
the wrath of Almighty God. No matter how much the sinner may now harden
himself, in order to endure the pains of Hell, the first moment he shall
feel the flames, his heart will melt like wax before the furnace —"Can
thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall
deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it" (Ezek 22:14).
If such then be the
case with impenitent sinners, that they can neither escape their
punishment, nor deliver themselves from it, nor bear up under it, what
will become of them? I answer in the words of another:
"They will wholly
sink down into eternal death. There will be that sinking of heart, of
which we now cannot conceive. We see how it is with the body when in
extreme pain. The nature of the body will support itself for a
considerable time under very great pain, so as to keep from wholly
sinking. There will be great struggles, lamentable groans and panting, and
it may be convulsions. These are the strugglings of nature to support
itself under the extremity of the pain. There is, as it were, a great
lothness in nature to yield to it; it cannot bear wholly to sink. But yet
sometimes pain of body is so very extreme and exquisite, that the nature
of the body cannot support itself under it; however loth it may be to
sink, yet it cannot bear the pain; there are a few struggles, and throes,
and pantings, and it may be a shriek or two, and the nature yields to the
violence of the torments, sinks down, and the body dies. This is the death
of the body. So it will be with the soul in Hell; it will have no
strength or power to deliver itself; and its torment and horror will be so
great, so mighty, so vastly disproportioned to its strength, that having
no strength in the least to support itself, although it be infinitely
contrary to the nature and inclination of the soul utterly to sink; yet it
will sink, it will utterly and totally sink, without the least degree of
remaining comfort, or strength, or courage, or hope. And though it will
never be annihilated, its being and perception will never be abolished:
yet such will be the infinite depth of gloominess that it will sink into,
that it will be in a state of death, eternal death.
"The nature of man
desires happiness; it is the nature of the soul to crave and thirst after
well-being; and if it be under misery, it equally pants after relief; and
the greater the misery is, the more easily doth it struggle for help. But
if all relief be withholden, all strength overborne, all support utterly
gone; then it sinks into the darkness of death. We can conceive but little
of the matter; we cannot conceive what that sinking of the soul in such a
case is. But to help your conception, imagine yourself to be cast into a
fiery oven, all of a glowing heat, or into the midst of a blowing
brick-kiln, or of a great furnace, where your pain would be as much
greater than that occasioned by accidentally touching a coal of fire, as
the heat is greater. Imagine also that your body were to lie there for a
quarter of an hour, full of fire, as full within and without as a bright
coal of fire, all the while full of quick sense; what horror would you
feel at the entrance of such a furnace! And how long would that quarter of
an hour seem to you! If it were to be measured by a glass, how long would
the glass seem to be running! And after you had endured it for one minute,
how overbearing would it be to you to think that you had yet to endure the
other fourteen.
"But what would be
the effect on your soul, if you knew you must lie there enduring that
torment to the full for twenty-four hours! And how much greater would be
the effect, if you knew you must endure it for a whole year, and how
vastly greater still, if you knew you must endure it for a thousand years!
O then, how would your heart sink, if you thought, if you knew, that you
must bear it forever and ever! That there would be no end! That after
millions of millions of ages, your torment would be no nearer to an end,
than ever it was; and that you never, never should be delivered! But your
torment in Hell will be immeasurably greater than this illustration
represents. How then will the heart of a poor creature sink under it! How
utterly inexpressible and inconceivable must the sinking of the soul be in
such a case." (Jonathan Edwards).
Such, in brief, is
the portion awaiting the lost—eternal separation from the Fount of all
goodness; everlasting punishment; torment of soul and body; endless
existence in the Lake of Fire, in association with the vilest of the vile;
every ray of hope excluded; utterly crushed and overwhelmed by the wrath
of a sin-avenging God. And let us remember in Whose Word these
solemn statements are found! They are found in the Word of Him who is
faithful and therefore has He written in plain and positive language
so that none need be deceived, They are found in the Word of Him
who cannot lie, and therefore He has not employed the language of
exaggeration. They are found in the Word of Him who says what He
means and means what He says, and therefore the writer, for one, dares do
nothing else than receive them at their face value.
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