THE SCRIPTURAL TEACHING ON ETERNAL PUNISHMENT

by Rev. W. W. Sprouse, Staunton, Virginia

Matthew 25:46, "And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (R.V.)

This is one of the most unpopular subjects the Presbytery could have assigned. Since I have been in the ministry there have been twenty-two retiring moderators' sermons before the General Assembly, and only one of them was on "Hell": Dr. R. C. Reed's in 1923. During this time there have been twenty-two retiring moderators' sermons before my Synod of Virginia, all but one of which I heard, and not one of them was on this subject. And this is the only time this subject has been assigned in the forty-two "Presbyterial Sermons" before Lexington Presbytery since I have belonged to it, and I have had the pleasure of hearing all but two of these.

After preaching on this subject one Sabbath this summer, away from home, a man came to me and said, "I am seventy-five years old, and that is the first sermon on Hell I ever heard." He was an elder, and a church-goer all his life. A lady standing by who looked about the same age said, "And that is the first sermon I ever heard on that subject." After the same sermon in another state not long ago a college professor's wife said to me, "That is the second time in my life I ever heard a sermon on Hell."

Yes, "Hell" seems to be about the most unpopular topic in our modern pulpit, and one of the most popular words in the conversation of a vast number of men, yea, women, too, in our modern society.

FIRST, there is punishment for sin.

SECONDLY, this punishment comes to a degree in this earthly life, and continues to an infinitely more terrible degree in the life after death of the unrepentant sinner, through all eternity.

THIRDLY, the nature of this eternal punishment causes unspeakably excruciating suffering, the details of which are not revealed in Scripture, but the fact of this suffering is revealed.

The latter two form the Presbytery's subject.

Our text, spoken by Christ Himself, makes the fact of eternal punishment as plain as human language can make it. "And these shall go away into eternal punishment,..." The same Greek word, "aionion", is used for "eternal punishment" and for "eternal life". How can heaven be eternal if Hell is not eternal when Christ uses the same adjective with each? How can happiness in heaven be eternal if punishment in hell is not eternal? Christ spoke these words in dead earnest, and it is bet trifling with language to claim that He used the same word to mean "temporary" and "eternal" in the same verse. Destroy eternal Hell and you destroy eternal Heaven. They stand or fall together in these words from the Master's lips, spoken in the same breath. It is substituting one's own personal desires for God's inspired Truth when one begins to tamper with Holy Writ like that.

To one who believes the Scriptures without question, this single plain verse, spoken by the Son of God, by God Himself, proves our theme, that there is unending punishment for the sins of unsaved sinners. But there is an abundance of supplementary proof in the Bible, far more than will be possible to use in one sermon.

At this point we shall quote some words the STANDARDS of our Church contain on this subject, and other denominational Standards contain similar declarations.

The [Westminster] Confession of Faith in its last chapter, on "The Last Judgment" reads: "...but the wicked who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."

The proof texts backing up this statement, printed below it, are:

Matthew 25:41,46,... "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ... and these shall go away into everlasting punishment." --Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:9, "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."  - Paul.

"Destruction" in the above cannot mean "annihilation," for how could the punishment then be "everlasting"?

Larger Catechism, question 20. "What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?  A. The punishments of sin in the world to come are, everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire forever." Luke 16:24; Revelation 14:11; John 3:16; and others.

Shorter Catechism, question 19, "What is the misery of that estate where into man fell?  A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever." Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death."  - Paul. And other texts.

Every minister, ruling elder, and deacon in our Church has at his ordination and installation sworn allegiance on his word of honor to the above mentioned Standards of our Church, including these quotations.

There are at least four main fields of materials bearing on our theme in Scripture. There are others, but we wish to stress these four.

FIRST, as soon as we open the Bible we find that there is something wrong in the world, something wrong in the human heart, something that has deeply grieved and angered man's Maker. That thing goes by the short word "S-I-N". It brings in its train another word "D-E-A-T-H", and this "sin" and this "death" are inter-twined from one end of the Bible to the other, and bear directly on our theme.

SECONDLY, there is a line of material dealing with four certain words: "Sheol" in the Old Testament, and "Hades", "Gehenna" and "Tartarus" in the New Testament.

THIRDLY, there is the teaching of Jesus on this subject, much of it in the use of two of the above four words, and it is startling to realize that Jesus had more to say about "Hell" and "eternal punishment" than any other person in the Bible. In fact, Jesus has more plain things to say about Hell than all the others in the Bible put together. The most terrible, most solemn and silencing things spoken on earth about eternal punishment for unrepented human sin fell from the same lips that spoke the most beautiful and glorious things about eternal happiness in Heaven, from the One Who knew most about eternal punishment, Who knew all about it.

FOURTHLY, there is the teaching of the apostle Paul on this theme.

On the very second page of our Bible we find the words: Genesis 2:17, "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Here so soon we find the first mention of that dread word "evil"; the first "thou shalt not"; the first mention of that now universally feared word "die"; the first threat from God, the threat of "death". Surely something sinister and awful is contained in that threat.

The man and the woman did eat of that tree, and so did bring upon themselves and all their descendants the divine execution of that divine threat. From this time on, evil, sin, and death march hand in hand through the Bible, and through the world, down to this present day, bringing terrible consequences in their train.

The first "death" was a murder, a fratricide. The world's first baby grown to manhood murdered the world's second baby, his grown brother. Sin so soon began to get in its deadly work, and has been at it ever since.

There are six long columns of "sin" in Young's Concordance, about seven hundred occurrences of that horrible word in the Bible, not to mention the many synonyms. There are about three hundred and fifty occurrences of that dread word "death" in the Bible.

Surely any one who reads the Bible even casually will soon find out that there is something wrong in the human heart, and something wrong in the world outside, and something terribly wrong with man's relations with his Maker. He has only to look within his own heart, and to look without in the world about him today to know that these wrongs still exist in all their terrible reality.

As this "death' mentioned so early in the Bible resulted from a "threat" of God, that means that it resulted as a "punishment". "For the wages of sin is death."  - Romans 6.23. "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned."  -  Romans 5.12.

This "death" is both physical and spiritual; death of the human body, and death to the human soul. But two quite different deaths.

For some wise reason known only to Him, God never made a way of escape from one consequence of human sin: physical death. Good and bad alike must suffer this punishment for sin, with a few Biblical exceptions as Enoch and Elijah, and, of course, the people who will be alive at Christ's second coming. This is one of the most solemn commentaries on the stark tragedy of human sin.

Deny spiritual death, if you wish, but no one can deny the fact of physical death, not even the most godless atheist. There are too many funerals and cemeteries. And any one who accepts the Scriptures as written knows exactly why men die: sin brought death.

"Spiritual death" results from sin, and is the most frightful of all of sin's consequences. This use of the word "death" occurs all through the Scriptures to describe the separation from God, and the consequent punishment of body, mind, and soul that comes to the sinner who will not accept Christ's atonement for his salvation. One verse will suffice to show this plainly: Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Those who have "eternal life" die in body the same as those who receive "death" as the wages of sin, so clearly something else than physical death is meant in "the wages of sin is death". The same Greek word, thanatos, is used for both physical death and spiritual death, so we must conclude from the context which is meant, and this is easy to do.

Death to the human soul does not mean passing out of existence, annihilation. It means dying away from hope, dying away from another opportunity to accept Christ and be saved, dying away from all that is good, and living forever in all that is bad, and suffering eternally the awful consequences of one's sins on earth.

Scientists tell us that nothing is annihilated in this present universe, not even matter. "Destruction" means merely change in form. Burn up a log and you have exactly the same weight you started with, only changed into ashes, gasses, etc. Man does not have the power to destroy substance, nor spirit. That is one of the tragedies of suicide: it is impossible to destroy one's self: but only to hurl himself into another world and another life, with all his sins to answer for. Scripture teaches that man will live as long as God lives, and that his body will be resurrected and reunited with his soul at Judgment, so where is any proof of a soul being wiped out of existence? Man is unlike God in having a beginning, but is like God in having no ending.

Eternal death in Hell, like eternal life in Heaven, flows from the very nature of God. If He has promised to reward goodness with eternal life  - and He certainly has -  He has also threatened to punish unrepentant badness with eternal suffering, and "God cannot lie". This reward is not merited, but is given as a gracious gift to the repentant sinner. This eternal death is merited, and God could not reward repentance and unrepentance alike and remain a just God. The very justice of God that some blatant sinners claim as their hope for safety hereafter is the very thing that will prove their doom. It is not that sinners will cry to Him for mercy and He will refuse it. The truth is, the unrepentant sinner will still be unrepentant through all eternity, a rebel against the almighty and all loving God. The heart that was hard against Him and would not receive Him on earth, will still be dead set against Him beyond the grave. There is no repentance beyond the grave, so far as the Bible reveals, and an unrepentant sinner cannot be saved in this life, much less the next. And also, there is that solemn parable of the Ten Virgins, where the Master answers the too late cry of the unprepared: "Lord, Lord, open to us" with His positive "I know you not".

There are four words used in the Bible which are translated "hell" in our King James Version: one in the Old Testament Hebrew, and three in the New Testament Greek.

The Old Testament word is "Sheol", and is retained as Sheol in the Revised Version. It is used fifty-five times in fourteen of the thirty-nine books. The root, "shaal", means to "cleave, or break through, to burrow, as a fox burrowing an hollow, an hole". It also means "the insatiable". It is used in many passages to denote the place of the dead, sometimes apparently the good dead, but most times surely the wicked dead. In the use of this word, like many other things in the Old Testament, we must wait for the fuller light of the New before understanding the Bible's complete teaching as to the abode of the wicked dead. But Sheol does give us some information, and points in a definite direction: the wicked suffer after death, and suffer eternally.

Genesis 37:35, "... but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning."  - Jacob.

Genesis 42:38, "... if harm befall him by the way in which ye go, then will ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."  - Jacob.

Genesis 44:29, "and if ye take this one also from me, and harm befall him, ye will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."  - Jacob.

Genesis 44:31, "it will come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servant will bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol."  - Judah speaking of Jacob. The King James Version uses "grave" above; clearly referring to the death of a good man.

Numbers 16:30,33, "... and they go down alive into Sheol"; "...So they... went down alive into Sheol:..." Korah's rebellion, Moses.

Deuteronomy 32:22, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol,..."  - Jehovah, of the wicked, written by Moses.

1 Samuel 2:6, "Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up."  - Hannah. King James Version: "to the grave".

2 Samuel 22:6, "The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me."  - David, near death.

Job 7:9, "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more."  - Job, of death.

Job 11:8, "It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?"  - Zophar, on the deep things of God.

Job 14:13, "Oh that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldst keep me secret, until thy wrath be past."  - Job.

Job 17:13,15,16, "If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness; ... 15 Where then is my hope? ... 16 It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,..."  - Job.

Job 21:13, ""They spend their days in prosperity, And in a moment they go down to Sheol."  - Job, of the wicked.

Job 26:6, "Sheol is naked before God, And Abaddon hath no covering."  - Job.

Psalm 6:5, "For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shall give thee thanks?"  - David, of grave.

Psalm 9:17, "The wicked shall be turned back unto Sheol, Even all the nations that forget God."  - David, of wicked.

Psalm 16:10, "For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption."  - David, of own death. Quoted by Peter at Pentecost to prove Christ's resurrection.

Psalm 18:5, "The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me."  - David.

Psalm 31:17, "Let me not be put to shame, O Jehovah; for I have called upon thee: Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol."  - David, of wicked.

Psalm 49:14,15, "They are appointed as a flock for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd: ... And their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,... But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For he will receive me."  - Sons of Korah, of wicked.

Psalm 55:15, "Let death come suddenly upon them, Let them go down alive into Sheol; For wickedness is in their dwelling,..."  - David, of wicked.

Psalm 86:13, " "For great is thy loving kindness toward me; And thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol."  - David.

Psalm 88:3, "For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draweth nigh unto Sheol."  - Sons of Korah, of death.

Psalm 116:3, "The cords of death compassed me, And the pains of Sheol gat hold upon me:..."  - Author unknown, of death.

Psalm 139:8, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there."  - David, region of dead.

Psalm 141:7, "As when one ploweth and cleaveth the earth, Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol."  - David.

Proverbs 5:5, "Her feet goeth down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol."  - Of "strange woman."

Proverbs 7:27, "Her house is the way to Sheol, Going down to the chambers of death."  - Of the "harlot."

Proverbs 9:18, "But he knoweth not that the dead are there. That her guests are in the depths of Sheol."  - Of the "foolish woman."

Proverbs 15:11, "Sheol and Abaddon are before Jehovah: How much more then the hearts of the children of men!"

Proverbs 15:24, "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol." This is of a bad son, and cannot mean mere "region of the dead", as beating with a rod could not deliver from death. Must mean place of punishment after death.

Proverbs 27:20, "Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; And the eyes of man are never satisfied." Bears out idea of "insatiable".

Proverbs 30:15,16, "...There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four that say not, Enough: Sheol; and the barren womb; The earth that is not satisfied with water, And the fire that saith not, Enough."  - King James: "The grave".

Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest."  - King James: "the grave."

Isaiah 5:14, "Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it."  - Of wicked.

Isaiah 14:9,11,15, "Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, ...Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee. ...Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit."  - Of wicked.

Isaiah 28:15,18, "Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it should not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: ...And your agreement with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand, when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."  - Of wicked.

Isaiah 38:10,18, "I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years. ...For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth."  - Hezekiah. King James: "grave".

Isaiah 57:9, "And thou wentest to the king with oil, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thine ambassadors far off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol."  - Of wicked.

Ezekiel 31:15-17, "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning:...I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with them that descend into the pit; ...They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that are slain by the sword;..."  - Of wicked Pharaoh. Seems to mean more than mere death.

Ezekiel 32:21,27, "The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword... And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, that are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are upon their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living."  - Of wicked Egyptians.

Amos 9:2, "Though they dig into Sheol thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down."  - Of wicked.

Jonah 2:2, "And he said, I called by reason of mine affliction unto Jehovah, And he answered me; Out of the belly of Sheol cried I, And thou heardest my voice."  - Near death, an "hellish" experience.

Habakkuk 2:5, "Yea, moreover, wine is treacherous, a haughty man, that keepeth not at home; who enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all peoples."  - Of wicked.

So we have found "Sheol" fifty-five times in Genesis, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Jonah, Habakkuk; spoken by Jacob, Judah, Moses, Jehovah (written by Moses), Hannah, David, Job, Zophar, Sons of Korah, Solomon, Agur, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Jonah, Habakkuk. What these persons said and wrote must be listened to.

We cannot be sure what the author or speaker had in mind in a number of those fifty-five cases, but the "grave", or "death" seem to be meant in about twenty cases; at least four clearly refer to good men; five of them seem neutral; and twenty-six of them seem clearly to refer to wicked people. They all refer to death, the grave, near death, hellish experiences, the region of the dead, or suffering after death. A fearful list is this, and the serious thing is that the word gets more sinister the deeper into the Old Testament we read. And it is certainly linked with the clearer words for eternal punishment in the New Testament, as we shall see later.

There are three words in the New Testament Greek translated "hell" in the English King James Version: "Hades", "Gehenna", and "Tartarus". In the Revised Version the first is retained as "Hades", while the latter two are translated "hell".

In the time of Christ large numbers of the Jews, including Christ, spoke the Aramaic language, in part, or all of the time. This was a Semitic language spoken in Aram, and written with the same alphabet as Hebrew, and was very closely related to it. Some Aramaic is found in the Old Testament, used by Laban, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, in a few places. It was adopted by Jews returning from Babylon, and in the time of Christ was spoken by large numbers of the Jews colloquially. The Hebrew Scriptures were translated into it.

Christ's use of Aramaic is retained in the Greek and English languages in such words as "Talitha cumi", "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani". So when we shall say that Christ "spoke" a certain word in the English version, we mean that He used the Aramaic word that is either translated or transliterated into the Greek word which was used by the gospel writer, and in turn either translated or transliterated into our English word.

"Hades" is a transliteration of the Greek word spelled with the same letters, and it is either a translation or transliteration of an Aramaic word used by Christ, and meaning the same thing. It means "the unseen world", and occurs nine times in the New Testament, eight of them being separate mentions; by Christ four times, Peter once, John three times; in the books of Matthew, Luke, Acts, Revelation.

Matthew 11:23, "And thou Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained unto this day."  - Jesus Luke 10:15 is a parallel passage, and was spoken in Perea, on sending forth of The Seventy.

Matthew 16:18, " And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."  - Jesus.  No mere "region of the dead", irrespective of character, can be meant here.

Luke 16:23, "And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom."  - Jesus, in parable of Dives and Lazarus. Notice Christ uses "Hades" here to describe terrible torments, eternal punishment for human sin, as well as "Gehenna" later on. This is one of the most awful passages in the Bible: "And in Hades... being in torments... have mercy on me... I am in anguish in this flame... thou art in anguish... between us and you there is a great gulf fixed... this place of torment." How could human language be used to draw a more frightful picture? And it is Christ speaking, and speaking of the future of lost human souls.

Acts 2:27, "Because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption."  - Peter at Pentecost, quotes Psalm 16:10. And then Peter goes on to say in 2:31, "he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption."

Now David in Psalm 16:10 uses "Sheol", apparently speaking of himself, and thinking of corruption in the grave. Peter, speaking under divine inspiration, takes the passage, changes "Sheol" to "Hades", and applies it to Christ: first, "neither was he left unto Hades", and second, "nor did his flesh see corruption." It looks like Peter had two different things in mind: certainly the corruption of flesh in death in the grave, and that other thing that he expresses by changing Sheol to Hades. He does not seem to be using parallelism. Hades is not used elsewhere in the New Testament to mean death alone, so how can it be so used here? Neither is Hades used elsewhere in the New Testament to mean "the region of the dead", irrespective of character. So Peter must be saying that Christ's soul did not go to Hell, nor did His body corrupt in the grave, but rather He was resurrected. Certainly Peter links Sheol and Hades, and Christ has already in the parable of Dives and Lazarus called Hades a place of eternal torment.

Revelation 1:18, "... I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever more, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."  - The risen Christ.

Revelation 6:8, "And I saw, and behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him..."  - John.

Revelation 20:13-15, "And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. 15 And if any man was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire."  - John.

Here four times "death" and "Hades" are used to express two distinct things. "Them" expresses plurality.

Now we come to the most dreadful word in Scripture used to describe eternal punishment for human sin: "Gehenna", the valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, where in Old Testament days some Israelites actually burnt their children alive, imitating the heathen. Jeremiah 7:31, "... in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire;..." This valley became the city's trash dump, and constantly burned in Christ's day. This word was used by Christ as a figure to describe the place and kind of punishment for the wicked and unrepentant dead. It is highly significant that Jesus in His ten times, and His half brother James in his once, are the only persons who used this word in the Bible. "Gehenna" is always spoken of in connection with punishment of the wicked dead; it is warned against by Christ; He used His most solemn words speaking of it; fire is always prominent in it; and its eternity is strongly emphasized.

Matthew 5:22 is the first appearance of this word in the New Testament,  which is always translated "Hell" in English: "...and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire."  - Jesus.

Matthew 5:29,30, "And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell."  - Jesus.

Notice the first three occurrences are in Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount," which some people, seeking a softer theology, claim as their "only creed"!

Matthew 10:28, "And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  - Jesus, in Galilee, sending forth the Twelve.

Mark 9:43,45,47,48, "And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. ...And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. ...And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; 48 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."  - Jesus, in Galilee.

This is a repetition, not a parallel, of Matthew 5:29,30.  Matthew 18:8,9 is a briefer parallel of this, with these two additions: "...into the eternal fire... into the hell of fire."

Of course "hand", "foot", "eye" are parabolic words for anything, however dear to us, which nevertheless keeps us from Heaven, and sends us to Hell. It, or them, must be sacrificed at all costs, for the infinitely greater value.

Luke 12:5, "But I warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him."  - Jesus, in Perea.

This is a repetition of Matthew 10:28, spoken some six months later. The fact that Jesus repeated these solemn warnings so much shows how deeply He felt the need for the people to understand them, and heed them. These words of Christ are on the same page in my Bible with Christ's beautiful words: "Consider the lilies", and  we cannot throw away the horror on the one side of the page and keep the beauty and comfort on the other.

Matthew 23:15,33, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves. ...Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?"  - Jesus, Tuesday of Passion Week, last day in the Temple.

This is the tenth and last time, on record, Jesus used "Gehenna"; "Hell". From the Sermon on the Mount until this last great day of conflict and teaching in "My house ...of prayer". He used the word to describe punishment after death for a lost soul, with not a single exception. There is no possibility in this last case of its meaning a mere "region of the dead", regardless of moral condition or penalties. The word is used consistently by Christ: "...ye make him twofold more a son of hell" can mean no mere "region of the dead".

Looking back, we found Peter, by divine inspiration, changed "Sheol" into "Hades", and we heard Christ in the parable of Dives and Lazarus describe "Hades" as a terrible place of "torments", "this flame", "in anguish", "between us and you there is a great gulf fixed". Then we hear Christ using "Gehenna", the English "hell", as a place of "the eternal fire", "the unquenchable fire", where the unrepentant lost souls go. So Christ and Peter between them have tied these three terrible words together: "Sheol"  - "Hades"  -  "Gehenna". What does that mean?

Once more we find this word in Scripture, by James the Lord's half brother: James 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell."  -  "Gehenna".

2 Peter 2:4 contains the last word for "hell" in the Bible: "Tartarus".  "For if God spared not the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..."

In the parable of the tares, Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43, while "hell" is not mentioned by name, the thing is certainly there in its terrible reality: "Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; ... Explain unto us the parable of the tares... And he answered and said... the tares are the sons of the evil one... As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."  - Jesus.

Jesus spoke these terrible words, do not forget. I do not know exactly what they mean, but I know they mean something unspeakably frightful.

Jesus said in Mark 3:29, "but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin". And is not every sin "an eternal sin", and "hath never forgiveness" if it is never repented? If "the unpardonable sin" is punished eternally, then all unpardoned sin is.

There lies something sinister and horrible behind that word "torment". The Greek word is "basanidzo": "a trial, testing, tormenting, inquisition".  In Matthew 8:29 the demons said to Christ, "art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Ah! "the time". An angel, in Revelation 14:9-11, says, "If any man worshippeth the beast... he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone... and the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever"; John says in Revelation 20:10, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." We have already heard Christ say, "And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments... this place of torment."

Clearly, the devil and demons are doomed to eternal torment in Hell. The same word is used in connection with the punishment for "man"  -  "the beast"  -  "the false prophet". Laugh at "the fire and brimstone" if you wish, but our Christ and our Bible do not use such words thoughtlessly or without meaning.

There is a series of passages where Jesus spoke that awful sentence about "gnashing of teeth". Surely He knew of sin's consequences, or He would not have dared use such language. Matthew 8:12, "but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." "Sons of the kingdom" are unbelieving Israelites. Spoken in Galilee.

Matthew 13:42,50 "and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth."  - In Galilee.

Luke 13:28, "There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth..."  - In Perea.

Matthew 22:13, "Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  - Passion Week.

Matthew 24:51, "and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."  - Passion Week.

Matthew 25:30, "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."  - Passion Week.

Seven separate times the Master spoke these fearful words. What do they mean? And notice three of them were spoken during Passion Week, among His last words to man, when He wanted every passing moment to count tremendously. They most assuredly mean something, and something as punishment for sin.

The word "Hell" is not found in Paul's writings, but eternal punishment is found there unmistakably. No mere man in the Bible hated sin more than Paul, and no writings contain more about "sin", and "death" used as a figure of speech for the lost state. Passages could be multiplied giving Paul's definite teaching that there is eternal punishment for unrepentant sinners in the next life, but a few must suffice.

2 Thessalonians 1:8,9, "rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; 9 who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might."

Here we have "punishment" and "eternal destruction" coupled together. And "destruction" does not mean "annihilation", as some claim.   There is absolutely not one verse, nor one word, in the Bible that teaches that man will have a "second chance" after death; that some will accept and leave hell for heaven, while the others will still reject salvation, and will then be "annihilated", body and soul pass out of existence.  We can be dogmatic here, because the Bible is dogmatic, and says again and again that this life contains man's only chance for salvation. Man's desires and opinions amount to nothing, and it is always dangerous to substitute man's opinions for God's clear word.

Jesus told Dives that "between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass over from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us."  - Luke 16:26.

Our church teaches that the Bible teaches, and it does, that there is no "half way station", no purgatory, between earth and Heaven, or Hell. "For the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, while their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection," and that the souls of the lost also pass immediately to their punishment in Hell. And Christ teaches that they never can come back across that gulf  -  so where is any "second chance", or "annihilation"?

The Creator made all men immortal, good and bad alike. All are "made in His image", and He is certainly immortal. We have a beginning, unlike God; but we shall never have an ending, just like God. It is utterly impossible to quit living, existing. Suicide only takes one into another form of existence. Man cannot destroy himself, and God does not.

Says Paul, "For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23.

Here "death" is balanced over against "eternal life". Yet Christians "die" as well as sinners, so "death" here cannot mean physical death, but what Paul, Christ, and others, often call "spiritual death": death of the soul. Not passing out of existence, but dying away from hope, dying away from opportunity of salvation and heaven, forever. And in that "forever", eternal punishment for unrepented sin.

Here is a verse dealing with that solemn question about those who never receive the gospel: "For as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the law." Romans 2:12.

Now we have come to that perplexing question as to the nature of this eternal punishment.

In the very first place, the Scripture says it is "punishment". That means suffering, a word all the race understands only too well.

In how many ways can a man suffer? Can he not now suffer in three ways: in body, in mind, in soul?

Surely a man's soul suffers here in consequence of his sin. The stabs of conscience, the realization of guilt, remorse and regret, sleepless nights and uneasy days.

Certainly we suffer here in mind, even when there is no special guilt on the soul: worry, fear, anxiety, dread. The sins of others can make us suffer excruciatingly in mind.

And of course all the world knows how we can and do suffer in body, this bundle of keen, sensitive nerves in which we live.

It is very plain that the sufferings of eternal punishment will be made up of all three kinds of sufferings we experience on earth, carried to an appalling degree.

The first two will then be very close: the anguish of soul and mind over the consequence of one's folly. The hellishness of Hell will certainly be to a large degree vain regrets, self condemnation, and anguishing remorse, cursing one's stupidity in bringing upon himself such a fate, so needlessly. Conscience will then get in its deadly work, and all through eternity there will be no way of quieting the conscience by getting forgiveness for sin, for the lost sinner will still be a rebel against God, and no rebel against God can get forgiveness either in this life or the next.

And there is no denying the fact that when Jesus talked so much about "the hell of fire" He had in mind bodily suffering, for fire cannot burn a mind, or a soul. He evidently was thinking of bodily torture when He used such expressions as "I am in anguish in this flame".

To be sure we cannot understand how the resurrected body could suffer physically, but we have the words of Christ to face and reckon with. He understood all about the resurrection body, and yet He kept on using such terrible language. This, to me, is the most solemn and awesome thing about this question.

Frankly, I do not know, and I am quite sure that no one else knows. But I am just as equally sure that He meant something. Jesus never talked foolishness. He never tried to frighten by exaggeration. Every word He spoke had a definite meaning, and was used seriously. That is the terrible thing about it: Jesus was in dead earnest when He used that very word, ten times over.

It seems to me that we are shut up to believing that Jesus used this word in one or the other of two ways: He meant literal fire, as Peter and John knew fire, as you and I know fire, or He used "fire" as a figure of speech to describe some punishing element in the hands and power of God about which men of earth know nothing, and would not understand it if He called it by its right name, but the nearest thing like it in earth is what we humans know as "fire."  Now we know that no figure of speech can fully express anything; and we also know that Jesus could not have been playing fair with us if He had used a terrible word like fire to describe something unknown that was less terrible. He would then have been not only exaggerating, but also deceiving us; in plain words, lying. Yes, I say it very reverently, but I nevertheless say it, as I understand God's Word, Jesus could not have used this word merely to frighten us and still remain absolutely honest and truthful.

Did He mean literal fire?  Well, it is noticed that eight Hebrew words are used for fire in the Old Testament, and six Greek words used in the New Testament for fire, and of the seventy-six times "fire" occurs in the New Testament all of them but three use the word "pur" or its derivatives. And it may be significant that this word "pur" is the word used in the nineteen times "fire" is used in connection with punishment in Hell. And this same "pur" is used in Acts 28:5 where Paul shakes off the viper "into the fire,"  "into the pur," the kind of pur we all now know.  In Luke 22:5 Peter warms himself by a "pur."

Of these nineteen times, two are by John the Baptist, ten by Christ, one by Jude, and six in Revelation. It will pay us to look at this astonishing list of verses.

John the Forerunner first used fire to describe punishment in the next world for unrepented sin in this world. Where did he get his authority to use such a word?  Matthew 3:10, "And even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Luke 3:9 is the parallel passage.

Matthew 3:12, "whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.

Obviously "tree" and "chaff" mean wicked human lives.

Christ next used fire in this sense, ten times, over half of the total nineteen. Matthew 5:22, "...the hell of fire."

Matthew 7:19, "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." The same use as John's and making stronger his.

Matthew 13:40,42,50, "As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world... and shall cast them into the furnace of fire... and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."  The "tares" are obviously unrepentant sinners.

Matthew 18:18, "the eternal fire." Mark 9:43 parallel.

Matthew 18:9, "the hell of fire."

Mark 9:48, "... the fire is not quenched."

Matthew 25:41, "...the eternal fire..."

John 15:6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

Jesus' half brother Jude also used this word in the same sense: Jude 7, "...suffering the punishment of eternal fire."

Some terrible pictures are given us by John the apostle in Revelation.

Revelation 14:10, "...and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone."

Revelation 19:20, "...they two were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone";

Revelation 20:10,14,15, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever... And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. ...And if any man was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire."

Revelation 21:8, "But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death."

What a list of words to fall from the lips of such a loving Lord: "Fire  -  brimstone  -  punishment  - torment  -  torments  -  weeping  - gnashing of teeth  -  unquenchable fire  -  worm dieth not  -  fire is not quenched  -  cast into outer darkness  - Hell  -  Hades  -  Gehenna  -  burning up chaff  -  casting dead branches into fire  -  day and night  -  lake of fire  - furnace of fire  -  eternal fire  -  for ever and ever."

So what do we gain by trying to do away with the literalness of this word fire, and claim it is used figuratively? What unspeakable horror must lie back of such a word on such lips! It is not surprising that through the ages since Christ spoke it men keep trying to laugh this word out of court, Christ's own word, yet retain Christ, and His other words, more beautiful and comforting words, words of love and patience and gentleness. But have they succeeded? Can it be done?

Christ says in Luke 12:47,48 "And that servant who knew his master's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; 48 but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more."

This is Christ's way of saying that sinners will be punished in accordance with the heinousness of their sins: "many stripes"  -  "few stripes". But notice that there is none who is not beaten at all. In His parables of the talents and the pounds Christ teaches that there will be degrees of eternal happiness in heaven, and there are no servants who are not given any talents at all, or pounds: all will be rewarded according to their faithfulness. So here He teaches that all lost souls will be punished according to their sins, taking their knowledge and opportunities into consideration. Notice all of them do "things worthy of stripes," and all get stripes. And do not take any comfort from that "few," for even the smallest punishment in torment must be only too terrible. We, in this land of Bibles, churches, gospel appeals from birth to death, face a fearful punishment, if we reject Christ in such full light. "And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required..." Once again I am deeply impressed by Christ's choice of words: "beaten"  -  "stripes."

Thus we have found, my friends, that the bulk of the teaching about eternal punishment in the Scriptures came from the lips of Christ the Son of God, Who verily is God Himself: Three of the eight "Hades"; ten of the eleven "Gehenna"; all seven of the "weeping and gnashing of teeth"; ten of the nineteen "fire" describing punishment in hell, calling it "the hell of fire,"  "the furnace of fire,"  "the eternal fire," "the fire is not quenched."

I am unable to get away from the fact that it is Christ, the meek and lowly, the merciful and good, the pure and holy, the truthful and honest, the omniscient and omnipotent, the just and loving, Who has told us most of what we know about the future of unsaved sinners, just as it is He who has told us most of what we know about the future of saved sinners.  This hard fact haunts me night and day. Since this study I am more profoundly convinced than ever before in my life that we ministers have an overwhelming burden upon our souls to speak forth the Scriptural truth about what awaits the heedless and godless and wicked of this world about us, in the church and out. Yes, Jesus "preached love," but how can I ever forget that it was He Who preached, as no other preacher on earth has ever preached, the frightful doom of those who refuse that "love" He preached, that gracious offer of the Father's redemption? Yes, enjoy your John 14, your Psalm 23, your "My Father's house," your "many mansions," but what about those prodigal sons and daughters who care nothing for "My Father's house"  - what of them?

But let me close with the only blessed thing I know about Hell. Matthew 25:41, the Master speaking: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Thank God, Hell was not made for man, for you and me, but for the fallen angels, Satan and his demons. When man also sinned and fell, God did not see fit to prepare another place of eternal punishment for him, so those who insist on being and living like the devil must spend eternity with him and his, and they will no doubt get their fill of him then. For some wise reason God did not offer Satan and the other lost angels a way of salvation as He has offered to lost man.

As to where Hell is, God has not seen fit to reveal unto us. But he has made it unmistakably clear that it is, that it has just as definite a place somewhere in God's vast universe as Heaven has a definite place. Where is Hell? I do not know, and bless God, I do not ever intend to know, for only those who go there will ever know.

And then Jesus said this other "prepare":  "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also."

In one or the other of these two "Christ prepared" places all the human multitudes of the ages will live for ever and ever.

Human sin that robs a soul of eternal happiness and thrusts him into eternal suffering is infinitely more horrible than any of us have ever dreamed. Oh, if we could only see sin as Christ saw it, surely we could never turn our faces away from the Father's house and bend our steps toward hell.

"And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
 

Edited into digital media May 4, 1997, by Clyde C. PRICE, Jr. , 3145 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 125-169, Atlanta, GA 30305, The Christian Digital Library Foundation, Inc. Find CDLF files on the Web at http://www.atl.mindspring.com/~iom. Formatted to HTML by Didaskalos Ministries.