|
–
Bible
Threatenings Explained
–
Or, Passages of
Scripture Sometimes Quoted to Prove Endless
Punishment
Shown to Teach Consequences of Limited Duration
John Wesley Hanson, D. D.
1878
INDEX OF TOPICS
BIBLE
THREATENINGS EXPLAINED
THE SON OF PERDITION,
ETC
ENDLESS
PUNISHMENT OF HEATHEN ORIGIN THE
GOSPEL HID
ADAM'S
PUNISHMENT
THE
LOST SOUL
TESTIMONY
OF CRITICS
"ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL"
OLD
TESTAMENT PUNISHMENTS
BETTER NEVER BEEN BORN
THE
STRAIT GATE
HIS OWN PLACE
THE
BAD CAST AWAY
WAS JUDAS A SUICIDE?
YE
SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH
ETERNAL, ETC
IMPOSSIBLE
TO RENEW THEM
LEXICOGRAPHY
THE
SIN UNTO DEATH
CLASSIC USAGE
THE
HYPOCRITE'S HOPE
THE OLD TESTAMENT
AGREE
WITH THINE ADVERSARY
THE END OF AIONIAN
THINGS
THE
WICKED DRIVEN AWAY
EVERLASTING CONTEMPT
THE
LIVING GOD FEARFUL
EVERLASTING BURNINGS
GOD
LAUGHS AT MAN'S CALAMITY
JEWISH GREEK USAGE
YE
SHALL NOT FIND ME
THE NEW TESTAMENT
NOT
INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD
THE NOUN
THE
BARREN FIG TREE
THE ADJECTIVE
GOD
ANGRY EVERY DAY
THE GREAT PROOF TEXT
THE
BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY GHOST
THE LAST DAYS
THE
WRATH OF GOD
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED
THE
WRATH TO COME
WORDS DENOTING
ENDLESSNESS
THE
SPIRITS IN PRISON
ALL NATIONS NOT
GATHERED THEN
"I
PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD"
ETERNAL JUDGMENT
THE
RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY SAVED
EVERLASTING CHAINS
WRESTING
SCRIPTURES TO DESTRUCTION
EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION
NO
MURDERER HATH ETERNAL LIFE
PRESENCE OF THE LORD
LET
HIM BE ACCURSED
BANISHED FROM GOD'S
PRESENCE
THE
SECOND DEATH
SMOKE OF TORMENT FOR
EVER AND…
THE
FIRST RESURRECTION
THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS
LET
HIM BE UNJUST STILL
THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN
ATTAIN
UNTO THE RESURRECTION
UNAVOIDABLE CONCLUSION
SHALL
NOT SEE LIFE
HELL
"AS
THE TREE FALLS SO IT LIES"
SHEOL AND HADEES
THE
DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST
ONLY FIVE OT TEXTS ARE
CLAIMED
THE
HARVEST PAST AND WE NOT SAVED
SHEOL--HADEES RENDERED
HELL
FIRE
THE LOWEST HELL IS ON
EARTH
"OUR
GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE"
IMPORTANT FACTS
HE
IS A "REFINER'S FIRE"
THE OT REPUDIATES THE HEATHEN…
GOD'S
JUDGMENTS LIKE FIRE
"ORTHODOX" AND HEATHEN VIEWS…
UNQUENCHABLE
FIRE
CONVINCING TESTIMONIES
FURNACE
OF FIRE
JEWISH AND PAGAN
OPINIONS
ETERNAL
FIRE
HELL IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT--HADEES
"WHEAT
AND CHAFF," "AXE," ETC
MEANING OF HADEES
FIRE
AND BRIMSTONE
OPINIONS OF SCHOLARS
JUDGMENT
HEATHEN CORRUPTIONS
IT
IS A JOYFUL OCCASION
THRUST DOWN TO HADEES
IT
IS IN THIS WORLD
THE GATES OF HADEES
IT
IS NOT HEREAFTER
HADEES IS ON EARTH
IT
IS NOW
HADEES DESTROYED
IT
IS FOR EVERY ACT AND THOUGHT
THE RICH MAN AND
LAZARUS
JUDGMENT
TO COME
TARTARUS
THE
JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST
THE BOOK OF ENOCH
THE
DAY OF JUDGMENT
WHAT DID PETER MEAN?
CHRIST,
THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD
GEHENNA
AFTER
THIS THE JUDGMENT
OPINIONS OF SCHOLARS*
GNASHING
OF TEETH
JEWISH VIEWS OF GEHENNA
DAMNATION,
ETC
IMPORTANT FACTS*
EATING
AND DRINKING DAMNATION
DANGER OF HELL-FIRE
THE
UNBELIEVER DAMNED
CAST INTO HELL-FIRE
THAT
THEY ALL MIGHT BE DAMNED
DESTROY SOUL AND BODY
IN HELL
THE
RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION
THE DAMNATION OF HELL
THE
CASE OF JUDAS
SET ON FIRE OF HELL
CONCLUSION
Preface
When one who has been reared in the Evangelical Church is favorably
impressed with the doctrine of Universal Salvation, it frequently
happens that the many texts he has heard quoted against it, operate as
stumbling blocks in his way. The author of this book believes that no
text of Scripture, properly understood, in any manner traverses the
grand central truth of the Gospel: God's triumph over all his foes,
converting them to himself; and he has arranged these expositions in a
brief and popular style for the purpose of showing that the Threatenings
of the Bible are perfectly harmonious with the Promises of Scripture; in
fact, that the threatenings are given in order that the promises of
Universal Redemption may be fulfilled.
He agrees with the Canon Farrar of the Episcopal Church, who says: "If
the decision be made to turn solely on the literal meaning of the
scriptures, I have no hesitation whatever in declaring my strong
conviction that the Universalist and Annihilist theories have far more
evidence of this sort for them than the popular view. It seems to me
that if many passages of Scripture be taken quite literally,
universal restoration is unequivocally taught, ...but that endless
torments are nowhere clearly taught--the passages which appear to
teach that doctrine being either obviously figurative or historically
misunderstood."
If these pages shall assist any mind to remove obstacles that prevent it
from beholding God as the Savior of the world, its purpose will be
fulfilled.
BIBLE THREATENINGS EXPLAINED
When considering the threatenings of the Bible, it must never be
forgotten that they are always to be interpreted and understood in
harmony with the great principles declared in the Scriptures, and more
especially with the revealed character of God, and his promises to man.
They must be so explained as to harmonize with the rest of the book that
contains them. For instance, we read that "God is a spirit," and yet the
same book speaks of the eye, hand, arm and ear of God. As an infinite
spirit can have no such organs, we must not say either (1) that God is
not a spirit, or (2) that one part of the book contradicts another part.
Such passages must be interpreted so as to agree with the great central
fact that God is a spirit.
Now we read that "God is Love"--is a "Father." And at the same time we
are told that he will cast the wicked into hell--into everlasting
fire--will punish them forever, etc. On the same principle we must not
(1) deny that God is Love and a merciful Father, nor (2) believe that
the Bible contradicts itself; but we must believe that the threatenings
harmonize with the promises, and that no penalty can be accepted as
taught in the Bible, that would prove God not a father, or destitute of
love towards each and all of his children. In other words, we must shed
the light of infinite, boundless, unending love on all threatened
penalties, and interpret them in perfect accord with the Divine
character. Believing that God is love, we must not only be prejudiced
against believing that endless or any other cruel punishment is
threatened in the Bible, but we must, with all the resistance of which
our moral natures are capable, refuse to credit any statement that
represents God as permitting any penalty to befall the sinner which will
not result in his final welfare. The love of God, the Divine Paternity,
is an efficient guaranty against the possibility that unending agony can
be experienced by any human creature. So that, if the letter of
Scripture seemed to teach endless punishment--which it does not, when
properly understood--the light of the great central fact of
revelation-God's Love--would dispel all darkness from the declaration as
soon as the light of that truth should fall upon it. In this frame of
mind we should consider the threatenings of the Bible.
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT OF HEATHEN ORIGIN
We should also bear another fact in mind. When the doctrine of endless
punishment began to be taught in the Christian Church, it was not
derived from the Scriptures, but from the heathen converts to
Christianity, who accepted Christ, but who brought with them into their
new church that doctrine which had for centuries been taught in heathen
lands, but which neither Moses nor Christ accepted. And having received
the idea from heathen tradition, it was natural that the early
Christians should transfer it to the Bible, and seek to find it there.
That heathen invented this doctrine is undeniable.
Says Cicero" "It was on this account that the ancients invented those
infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in
this life, who without them, would have no dread of death itself."
Says Polbius, the Greek historian: "The multitude is ever fickle and
capricious, full of lawless passions and irrational and violent
resentments. There is no way left to keep them in order but by the
terrors of future punishment, and all the pompous circumstances that
attend such fiction! On which account the ancients acted, in my opinion,
with great judgment and penetration, when they contrived to bring those
notions of the gods and a future state into the popular belief."
Strabo, the Greek geographer and philosopher, says: "it is impossible to
govern women and the gross body of the people, and to keep them pious,
holy and virtuous, by the precepts of philosophy. This can only be done
by the fear of the gods, which is raised and supported by ancient
fictions and modern prodigies." And again he says: "The apparatus of the
ancient mythologies was an engine which the legislators employed as
bugbears to strike a terror into the childish imagination of the
multitude."
This horrible heathen dogma sought entrance into the Christian church in
vain for the first three centuries after Christ, and though here and
there a heathenized Christian announced it, it did not become an
accredited Christian doctrine till after more than five centuries. Dr.
Edward Beecher candidly confesses that as late as three hundred years
after Christ it had hardly obtained a foothold.
He says: "What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading
theological schools of the Christian world in the age of Origen and some
centuries after? It was, in brief, this: There were at least six
theological schools in the church at large. Of these six schools, one,
and only one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of
future eternal punishment. One was in favor of the annihilation of the
wicked. Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on
the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on
the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia."
That is to say, here were four times as many Universalist theological
schools, where clergymen were educated, as there were schools in which
endless punishment was taught, even as late as A. D. 300. But from that
time onward, as darkness increased, the heathen idea was more and more
transferred to the sacred page, till it entirely overlaid and obscured
the truth. and it was not until the light of the Reformation began to
dawn that the profane inscriptions of heathen tradition were erased from
the palimpsest of the Scriptures, so that the meaning of the inspired
authors could be apprehended.
We propose in this volume to show that the texts quoted in behalf of the
heathen error do not contain it; that none of the threatenings of the
Bible teach endless punishment.
ADAM'S PUNISHMENT
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat; 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." --Gen. ii : 16,17.
The penalty that God intended to threaten to Adam would certainly be
found at the very promulgation of the consequences of his sin. But it is
nowhere intimated in the account of the first human transgression that
he had incurred endless torment.
Adam was told: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die," or, as a literal translation would read, "Dying thou shalt die."
Whatever death Adam died, it was in the day he sinned. What death did he
die, in that day?
This threatened death is not (1) of the body, for physical dissolution
was the natural result of physical organization, and the death
threatened was to be "in the day he sinned." His body did not die in
that day. (2) It was not eternal death for the same reason. He certainly
went to no endless hell "in the day" of his transgression. It was (3) a
moral, spiritual death, from which recovery is feasible. Paul describes
it:
"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart." --Eph. iv:18. "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses
and sins." --Eph.ii:1
Jesus describes it in the parable of the Prodigal son: "It was meet that
we should make merry and be glad; for this, thy brother, was dead and is
alive again, and was lost and is found." --Luke xv:32
So does Moses: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and
death and evil. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may
live." --Deut.xxx:15-19
Adam died this kind of death, and no other, "in the day" he sinned. This
is apparent from the description of his fate subsequent to his
transgression."
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the
ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return." --Gen.iii:17-19
If the reader will carefully consult the accounts of the sin and
punishment of Cain, the Antediluvians, the Diluvians, Sodom and
Gomorrah, and all the transgressors whose sins are recorded for four
thousand years, he will find not a whisper, not a hint, that any but a
limited and temporal penalty was received. This is agreed by all
scholars.
TESTIMONY OF CRITICS
Warburton: In the Jewish Republic, both the rewards and punishments
promised by heaven were temporal only: such as health, long life, peace,
plenty, and dominion, etc.; diseases, premature death, war, famine,
want, subjections, and captivity, etc. And in no one place of the Mosaic
Institutes is there the least mention, or intelligible hint, of the
rewards and punishments of another life. --Div Leg. vol.iii. Jahn:
We have not authority, therefore, decidedly to say that any other
motives were held out to the ancient Hebrews to pursue the good and
avoid the evil, than those which were derived from the rewards and
punishments of this life. --Archaeology, p.398. Milman: The
lawgiver (Moses) maintains a profound silence on that fundamental
article, if not of political, at least of religious legislation rewards
and punishments in another life. He substituted temporal chastisements
and temporal blessings. On the violation of the constitution followed
inevitably blighted harvests, famine, pestilence, defeat, captivity; on
its maintenance, abundance, health, fruitfulness, victory, independence.
How wonderfully the event verified the prediction of the inspired
legislator! How invariable apostasy led to adversity--repentance and
reformation to prosperity! --Hist. Jews, vol.i. Dr. Campbell: It
is plain that in the Old Testament the most profound silence is observed
in regard to the state of the deceased, their joys and sorrows,
happiness or misery.
The punishments, then threatened and received, are thus described:
OLD TESTAMENT PUNISHMENTS
"It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the
Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and statutes which I
command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and
overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou
be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall
be the fruit of the body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy
kine and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest
in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send
upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine
hand unto for to do. The Lord shall smite thee with consumption, and
with a fever, with blasting and mildew; etc. In the morning thou shalt
say: Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say: Would God it
were morning!" --Deut.xxviii:15-29, 67.
Abimilech's is a case in point: "Thus God rendered the wickedness of
Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy
brethren." --Judges ix:56.
So with Ahithophel, the suicide: "And when Ahithophel saw that his
counsel was not followed, he put his household in order, and hanged
himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his
father." --II.Sam.xvii:23.
Is it asked how this suicide was punished? Paul answers:
"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment," --I
Tim.v:24.
Hence Paul tells us that under the Law: "Every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompense of reward." --Heb.ii:2.
Now for four thousand years every wicked act was fully punished in this
life. "Every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward."
Would God have an endless hell and keep it a secret from the world for
four thousand years? Would he keep sinners for four thousand years from
a hell he had made, and then use it as a prison for other sinners no
worse? No; the silence of God for forty centuries is a demonstration
that he had no such place reserved for any of his children; and if not
thence under the severe dispensation of Moses, it is impossible that it
should be found in the milder message of the Gospel of the grace of God.
Before proceeding to consider the chief supports of the doctrine of
endless torment, we will give brief expositions of several passages that
are usually quoted in its defense.
THE STRAIT GATE
"The Strait Gate" and the "Few saved" are thought by many to indicate
the final salvation of only a portion of the human family.
The question was asked by some one (Luke xiii:23 and Matt. vii:13, 14):
"Lord, are there few that be saved? and he answered: "Strive to enter in
at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and
shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and
hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the
door, saying, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you,
I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten
and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he
shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all
ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,
when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in
the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."
No intelligent reader supposes this language literal--that there is a
gate at which men knock, after death, for admission into heaven. The
Kingdom of God is Christ's reign on earth, and its gate signifies
entrance into it. "The Kingdom of God," "Kingdom of Heaven," etc., is
always in this world.
And every careful reader will see that the language is entirely confined
to the present.
"Lord, are there few that be 'saved'?" The literal
rendering is: "Are those being saved few?" The question relates
entirely to the number then accepting Christianity. But inasmuch as all
partialist Christians believe that the great mass--all but a small
minority of mankind--will be finally saved, it is very inconsistent for
any one thus believing to apply this language to man's final condition.
"Are there few that are now being saved?" is the literal rendering of
the question. From what? Not from endless torment, but from certain evil
consequences in this world.
And the answer to Jesus shows that the application was confined to those
to whom he was speaking.
"Lord" (they say) "we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou
hast taught in our streets."
The words apply entirely to those who had heard him speak in their
streets, namely the Jews, whose advantages were about to be taken away,
and given to the Gentiles, who were to enter the kingdom by faith, with
faithful Abraham, while they were thrust out. The weeping and gnashing
of teeth represents their chagrin and rage at their lot, despising the
Gentiles as they did.
This same subject is thus treated in Matt. vii:13, 14.
"Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
because, strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it."
As we just said, it is entirely inconsistent for any advocate of endless
punishment to quote this language in support of that doctrine, inasmuch
as all such believers now teach that the great majority of souls will be
finally saved, while only the small minority will be forever lost. The
Savior referred, by the Strait Gate, to the exacting nature of his
religion. The road was narrow, and difficult to follow, and but few then
followed it, while the many avoided it, and pursued the broad road of
error and sin. The words have the same application today, well expressed
by good Dr. Watts:
Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there,
But wisdom shows a narrow path,
With here and there a traveller.
The language teaches that only the few then walked in the narrow way
marked out by Christ while the many chose the broader way of wrong.
If we refer the passage to the future world, we cannot escape the
conclusion that heaven will only contain a few souls, while the great
majority will be damned. It has no reference to the future world
whatever, but denotes the few who in our Savior's day went right, while
the great multitude went wrong. Dr. A. Clarke says: "Enter in through
this strait gate--i.e., of doing to every one as you would he should do
unto you; for this alone seems to be the strait gate."
The language in Luke has a more special application to the Jews than
that in Matthew, which may be applied to every age since Christ, and to
the present. It is as true now as at the time Jesus spoke, that the path
of Christian goodness is a difficult one, followed by a comparative few,
while the way of wickedness is broad and much travelled. But it will not
always be so.
Whoever refers the language to the final condition of the human race
must admit that only a few will ever be holy and happy, while the great
multitude will be lost. It has no such application, but teaches that at
the time Jesus spoke the many went wrong, while only the few chose the
way of life.
THE BAD CAST AWAY
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the
sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the
bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come
forth and sever the wicked from the just; and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth. --Matt.xiii:47-50.
The "furnace of fire" and "gnashing of teeth" will be fully explained,
as also the "end of the world," or age (aion) in subsequent parts
of this book. The material universe, this world (kosmos) is never
spoken of as ending, but it is always the aion, or age, the end of which
is announced. "The field is the world," kosmos, v.38, but "the
end of the world," when the harvest comes, v. 39, is aion. The
age ends, but not the world.
The kingdom of heaven is Christ's rule among men, his church. It is a
net which catches good and bad, and at the end of that age, so often
referred to, when severe judgments were to come, the angels, or
messengers to execute God's judgments, would separate Christians from
others, and the bad were to suffer in the furnace of fire, the burning
city, and perish in Gehenna.
Dr. Clark says: "It is very remarkable that not a single Christian
perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there
when Cestius Gallus invaded the city; and had he persevered in the
siege, he would have rendered himself master of it; but when he,
unexpectedly and unaccountably, raised the siege, the Christians took
that opportunity to escape."
This language has sole reference to the remarkable trials through which
the early Christians were about to pass, when Jerusalem was destroyed,
and the Christian religion was fairly established on the ruins of the
Jewish church. The "furnace of fire," the "wailing and gnashing of
teeth," were when the awful calamities of those fearful days, so fully
described in Matt. xxiv, were visited upon the people of Judea. These
expressions will be more fully explained hereafter.
YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH
"I tell you, nay; except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." --Luke
xii : 3.
Many readers of the Bible suppose that the word perish always relates to
the immortal soul, and that it means to suffer torment without end. And
this passage has been quoted blindly, ignorantly, thousands of times to
denote the final loss of the soul. But it is only necessary to consult
the immediate context to perceive that Jesus was referring to nothing of
the sort. He asks:
"Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans,
because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
That is, perish in a manner similar to their death. "Except ye repent,
ye shall all perish as they died." How was that? There were "some who
told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices," and of a certain eighteen "upon whom the tower of Siloam
fell, and slew them."
"Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem?
I tell you, nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."
That is, be slain as they were. No better explanation of these words can
be given than in the language of "orthodox" commentators.
Says Dr. Clarke: "ye shall all likewise perish. In a like way, in the
same manner. This prediction of our lord was literally fulfilled. When
the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, etc.,
who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood
mingled with the blood of their victims; and multitudes were buried
under the ruins of the walls, houses and temple."
Dr. Barnes (Presbyterian) observes: "You shall all be destroyed in a
similar manner. …This was remarkably fulfilled. Many of the Jews
were slain in the temple; many while offering sacrifice; thousands
perished in a way very similar to the Galileans."
Whitby says: "I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish, for the same cause, and many of you after the same
manner."
IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame." --Heb vi:4-6.
Any reader of the New Testament ought to see that this language is not
to be understood as literal, when he remembers that Peter himself "fell
away," and was "renewed again unto repentance." What Paul says is that
it is difficult, not impossible, to renew those who have once tasted the
heavenly gift.
The word here has the same force as in Matt. xix:26, where it is said to
be impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In reply to
the apostles' question, "who, then, can be saved?" Jesus said: "With men
it is impossible, but with God everything is possible;" or, more
exactly, "With men it is hard, but everything is easy with God."
Calmet says: "St. Paul by no means intended to exclude the baptism of
tears and repentance, for the expiation of those sins which we commit
after regeneration."
Rosenmuller, a celebrated German theologian, says: "Adunaton, in
this place, does not mean absolutely impossible, but rather a
thing so difficult that it may be nearly impossible; thus we are
accustomed to say of very many things in common conversation."
Dr. MacKnight observes: "The apostle does not mean that it is impossible
for God to renew a second time, by repentance, an apostate; but that it
is impossible for the ministers of Christ to convert a second time, to
the faith of the Gospel, one who, after being made acquainted with all
the proofs by which God has thought fit to establish Christ's mission,
shall allow himself to think him an impostor, and renounce the gospel.
The apostle, knowing this, was anxious to give the Hebrews just views of
the ancient oracles, in the hope that it would prevent them from
apostatizing.
THE SIN UNTO DEATH
"If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall
ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There
is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All
unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin unto death. --I John v:16, 17.
"The sin unto death" has often been supposed to be the "unpardonable
sin," so called, as though any sin could be unpardonable by a God whose
mercy is without limit and without end. The apostle was merely alluding
to the various offences under the Jewish law, some of which were unto
death, or capital offences, while others were less heinous. The latter
were to be interceded for, but the former were to be regarded as beyond
intercession. On this passage Bishop Horne correctly says:
"The Talmudical writers have distinguished the capital punishments of
the Jews into lesser deaths and such as were more grievous; but there is
no warrant in the Scriptures for these distinctions, neither are these
writers agreed among themselves what particular punishments are to be
referred to these two heads. A capital crime generally was termed a
sin of death (Deut. xvi:6); or a sin worthy of death (Deut.
xxi:22), which mode of expression is adopted, or rather imitated, by the
apostle John, who distinguishes between a sin unto death, and a sin not
unto death (I John v:16). Criminals, or those who were deemed worthy of
capital punishment, were called sons or men of death (I Sam. xv:32;
xxxi:16; II Sam. xix:28, marginal reading), just as he who had incurred
the punishment of scourging was designated a son of stripes
(Deut.xxv:16; I Kings xiv:6). A similar phraseology was adopted by Jesus
Christ, when he said to the Jews: "Ye shall die in your sins" (John
viii:21-24). Eleven different sorts of capital punishment are mentioned
in the sacred writings."
THE HYPOCRITE'S HOPE
"And the hypocrite's hope shall perish." --Job viii:13
Why this passage was ever quoted in support of endless punishment, we
have no conjecture. There is nothing in it to indicate that it has the
remotest reference to anything beyond this life. Its meaning is that the
wicked shall be disappointed; that the will not realize what they
desire. It is exactly equivalent to Prov. x:28: "The expectation of the
wicked shall perish."
AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY
"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him;
lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say
unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing." --Matt. v:25, 26.
The adversary here is a legal one, the language refers to those who were
opposed to the disciples in some way, as is evident from the references
to a "judge", an "officer" and a "prison." If God were the adversary, as
is sometimes claimed, and the prison is after death, then limited
punishment is certainly taught, for when "the uttermost farthing" is
paid, then deliverance from the prison follows. But it has no such
reference. The language has a local reference to the times of the
disciples, and relates entirely to legal opponents.
THE WICKED DRIVEN AWAY
"The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath
hope in his death." --Prov. xiv:32.
Solomon had not the most remote reference to post mortem suffering in
this language. What he meant to say was that when the wicked is driven
away to death in his wickedness, the righteous has hope. He expresses
the same idea when he says: "I praised the dead which are already dead
more than the living which are yet alive." --Ecc. iv:2. When the wicked
die in their wickedness, the righteous have hope even in their death, is
what Solomon says in this language.
THE LIVING GOD FEARFUL
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God." --Heb.x:31
To fall into the hands of God, the living God, is as when (I Sam. v:6)
"the hand of the Lord was heavy," and "the hand of the Lord was against
the Philistines."
It denotes the judgments of God falling on the sinful. It is fearful to
merit and receive those penalties. God has a merciful purpose in them,
but they are often fearful to experience. We are always in God's hands,
but we are said to "fall into" his hands when we suffer the consequences
of sinfulness. It is a fearful thing to merit and receive the results of
wickedness, even though a beneficent purpose moulds them, just as an
amputation is a fearful process to undergo, though it may save life and
restore health.
GOD LAUGHS AT MAN'S CALAMITY
"I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man
regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my
reproofs. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear
cometh." --Prov. i:24-26.
This language is sometimes wrongfully applied to God, who is represented
as laughing at man's calamity, and mocking him when in future and final
torment, whereas it is Wisdom that is personified as saying:
"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she
crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in
the city she uttereth her words, saying: How long, ye simple ones, will
ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and
fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof! Behold, I will pour out my
spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have
called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man
regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my
reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear
cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh
as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall
they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel; they
despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their
own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of
the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy
them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil."
The idea of wresting this language from its application to Wisdom, and
applying it to the merciful God and Father of all, is one of the many
illustrations of the manner in which the advocates of endless torment
have misapplied the language of the Bible to make it seem to sustain the
horrible doctrine. Think of God mocking the sinner's groans, and
laughing as he listens to his cries of torment! And why should he not,
if he has, in infinite wisdom and love, created an endless hell for his
abode?
YE SHALL NOT FIND ME
"Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am thither ye can
not come." --John vii:34. "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way,
and ye shall seek me, and die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot
come." --John viii:21.
These verses are usually misquoted thus: "If ye die in your sins, where
God and Christ are ye never can come." But Jesus said just the same
thing to his disciples in John xiii:33.
"Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me;
and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say
to you."
True, he said to his disciple Peter: "Thou canst not follow me now, but
thou shalt follow me afterward," and so he told the wicked Jews: "Ye
shall not see me till ye shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord" (Matt. xxiii:39). In both instances he meant that he
should not be followed at that time, but in neither case did he mean
that they should be excluded from his presence forever.
NOT INHERIT THE
KINGDOM OF GOD
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." --Gal.v:19-21. "For this ye
know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is
an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of
God." --Eph. v:5. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God." --I Cor. vi:9,10.
The popular rendering of these passages is, that those who commit these
sins in this life will never find heaven, unless they repent before they
die; but that idea is not expressed nor implied. The kingdom of God, of
heaven, is a condition of purity, and whoever is guilty of these sins
shuts himself out from the enjoyment of the kingdom. No Christian sect
teaches this doctrine more earnestly than do Universalists. All
Christians teach that this language is not to be interpreted literally.
All those thus guilty; may, by repentance, enter the kingdom.
THE BARREN FIG TREE
"Cut it down why cumbereth it the ground?" --Luke xiii:7. This language
is parallel to that in Matt. iii:10: "and now also the axe is laid unto
the root of the tree; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire."
Man is compared to a fruitless tree, that is destroyed because barren.
No point of the description is literal--neither the tree, the axe, the
fruit, nor the fire. The nation, or the individual, that does not serve
God, perishes; that is, passes through a process of decay, destruction,
as the penalty of sinfulness. Not annihilation, nor ceaseless torment,
but that moral condition for which the Scriptures have no better name
than death.
GOD ANGRY EVERY DAY
"God is angry with the wicked every day." --Psalm vii:11.
Anger, as the word is ordinarily used, is not a noble emotion; it is
altogether unworthy of God, and he is incapable of it. The wise man says
(Ecc. vii:9): "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools." Then God cannot be
"angry every day," all the time. What is the meaning of these words?
Dr. Adam Clarke, the well known scholar and commentator, has examined
the text with equal learning and candor, and he gives us the result of
his investigation in the statement that a mistranslation of the language
puts a false meaning on the words. He gives these as authorities:
The Vulgate: --"God is a judge, righteous, strong and patient.
Will he be angry every day?" The Septuagint: --"God is a righteous
judge, strong and long-suffering; not bringing forth his anger every
day." The Arabic is the same. The Genevan version, printed
in 1615: --"God judgeth the righteous, and him that contenteth God, every
day;" marginal note: "he doth continually call the wicked to repentance
by some signs of his judgments."
Dr. Clarke says: "I have judged it of consequence to trace this verse
through all the ancient versions in order to be able to ascertain what
is the true reading, where the evidence on one side amounts to a
positive affirmation, 'God is angry every day,.' and, on the other side,
to as positive a negation, 'He is not angry every day.' The mass
of evidence supports the latter reading. The Chaldee first corrupted the
text by making the addition, 'with the wicked,' which our
translators have followed, though they have put the words into
italics, as not being in the Hebrew text. Several of the versions
have rendered it in this way: 'God judgeth the righteous, and is not
angry every day." The true sense may be restored thus; el with
the vowel tsere signifies God; el, the same letters with
the point pathach, signifies not. Several of the versions
have read in this way: 'God judgeth the righteous, and is not angry
every day.' He is not always chiding, nor is he daily punishing,
notwithstanding the daily wickedness of man; hence the ideas of
patience and long-suffering which several of the versions
introduce."
It will be seen that David expressly says that God is not angry
every day, though those who quote the text as found in our version to
prove God petulant, wrathful and passionate, do not seem to reflect that
it is no proof of endless punishment, for the same author and
others declare (Micah vii:18; Psa. ciii:8,9; xxx:5) that "He retaineth
not his anger forever." So that, if he were--as he is not--angry every
day, the time would come when his anger would no longer exist.
It will enable the reader to understand the meaning of anger, as
ascribed to God in the Scriptures, if he will consider how the word is
used in the Bible. There are two kinds of anger. One is right, and is
exhibited by God, good angels and good men, and the other is wrong and
is an animal characteristic, of which God is incapable. Abstract anger
is a disposition to combat, destroy, and its legitimate use is to remove
obstacles. Employed by the good it never harms, but used by the evil,
its work is mischief and woe.
The first sort is referred to in the passage we are considering, and is
exercised by God, who is said to "hate all the workers of iniquity." And
how does he exhibit his anger? Not against the sinner, but against the
sin. Men, smarting under the penalties of sin, seeing only the stroke,
and not realizing the love that impels it, say with Saul that God hates
them, but it is Infinite Love that wields the rod, and that inflicts
every stroke because it loves the sinner, and will destroy that in him
that alienates him from his best friend, and ruins his best interests.
David says; "Thou shalt make the wicked as a fiery oven in the time of
thy anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire
shall devour them." --Psa. xxi:9. The prophet declares: "The Lord reserveth wrath for his enemies." --Nahum i:2,3. Paul affirms; "The wrath
of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." "The power and wrath
of God is upon all them that forsake him." --Eph. v:6; Col. iii:6. Jesus
says: "The wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not the
Son." --John iii:36. He also says: "God is kind to the unthankful and
evil." --Luke vi:35. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust." --Matt. v:48.
Now these are not contradictory statements. They are consistent with
each other. What God is determined to destroy in the sinner is that
which makes him a sinner, and he proceeds towards him as a good parent
must, to eradicate it by punishment. An angry mother--a true
mother--punishes her wayward boy, just as God punishes the wicked,
because she loves him. The boy may call it anger, but it is that kind
which will not harm a hair of his head. It is indeed the highest love;
it is determined on the child's welfare, and so will not shrink from
inflicting pain. But it is temporary. This is evident when we remember
that men are told to be like God, and yet they must not let the sun go
down upon their wrath. We must love our enemies that we may be children
of the highest. If God were angry every day, and we were like him, we
should be cross, petulant, wrathful, vindictive and hateful all the
time. But we can only be like God as we "put off anger" (Col. iii:8) and
"put away all wrath, anger and malice," (Eph. iv:31) inasmuch as "a
fool's wrath is presently known," (Prov. xii:16) while "he that is slow
to wrath is of great understanding." (Prov. xivv:28)
"God is not angry with the wicked every day," is the correct reading of
this passage, and it must be true of him who is Love, and who is
unchangeable, that he never was, nev |
