Mat. 26:24—“The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had not been born.” G. F. Wright, Relation of Death to Probation: “As Christ of old healed only those who came or were brought to him, so now he waits for the coöperation of human agency. God has limited himself to an orderly method in human salvation. The consuming missionary zeal of the apostles and the early church shows that they believed the decisions of this life to be final decisions. The early church not only thought the heathen world would perish without the gospel, but they found a conscience in the heathen answering to this belief. The solicitude drawn out by this responsibility for our fellows may be one means of securing the moral stability of the future. What is bound on earth is bound in heaven; else why not pray for the wicked dead?” It is certainly a remarkable fact, if this theory be true, that we have in Scripture not a single instance of prayer for the dead.
The apocryphal 2 Maccabees 12:39 sq. gives an instance of Jewish prayer for the dead. Certain who were slain had concealed under their coats things consecrated to idols. Judas and his host therefore prayed that this sin might be forgiven to the slain, and they contributed 2,000 drachmas of silver to send a sin offering for them to Jerusalem. So modern Jews pray for the dead; see Luckock, After Death, 54-66—an argument for such prayer. John Wesley, Works, 9:55, maintains the legality of prayer for the dead. Still it is true that we have no instance of such prayer in canonical Scriptures. Ps. 132:1—“Jehovah, remember for David All his affliction”—is not a prayer for the dead, but signifies: “Remember for David”, so as to fulfil thy promise to him, “all his anxious cares”—with regard to the building of the temple; the psalm having been composed, in all probability, for the temple dedication. Paul prays that God will “grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus” (2 Tim. 1:16), from which it has been unwarrantably inferred that Onesiphorus was dead at the time of the apostle's writing; but Paul's further prayer in verse 18—“the Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day”—seems rather to point to the death of Onesiphorus as yet in the future.
Shedd, Dogm. Theology, 2:715 note—“Many of the arguments constructed against the doctrine of endless punishment proceed upon the supposition that original sin, or man's evil inclination, is the work of God: that because man is born in sin (Ps. 51:5), he was created in sin. All the strength and plausibility of John Foster's celebrated letter lies in the assumption that the moral corruption and impotence of the sinner, whereby it is impossible to save himself from eternal death, is not self-originated and self-determined, but infused by his Maker. ‘If,’ says he, ‘the very nature of man, as created by the Sovereign Power, be in such desperate disorder that there is no possibility of conversion or salvation except in instances where that Power interposes with a special and redeeming efficacy, how can we conceive that the main portion of the race, thus morally impotent (that is, really and absolutely impotent), will be eternally punished for the inevitable result of this moral impotence?’ If this assumption of concreated depravity and impotence is correct, Foster's objection to eternal retribution is conclusive and fatal.... Endless punishment supposes the freedom of the human will, and is impossible without it. Self-determination runs parallel with hell.”
The theory of a second probation, as recently advocated, is not only a logical result of that defective view of the will already mentioned, but it is also in part a consequence of denying the old orthodox and Pauline doctrine of the organic unity of the race in Adam's first transgression. New School Theology has been inclined to deride the notion of a fair probation of humanity in our first father, and of a common sin and guilt of mankind in him. It cannot find what it regards as a fair probation for each individual since that first sin; and the conclusion is easy that there must be such a fair probation for each individual in the world to come. But we may advise those who take this view [pg 1044]to return to the old theology. Grant a fair probation for the whole race already passed, and the condition of mankind is no longer that of mere unfortunates unjustly circumstanced, but rather that of beings guilty and condemned, to whom present opportunity, and even present existence, is a matter of pure grace,—much more the general provision of a salvation, and the offer of it to any human soul. This world is already a place of second probation; and since the second probation is due wholly to God's mercy, no probation after death is needed to vindicate either the justice or the goodness of God. See Kellogg, in Presb. Rev., April, 1885:226-256; Cremer, Beyond the Grave, preface by A. A. Hodge, xxxvi sq.; E. D. Morris, Is There Salvation After Death? A. H. Strong, on The New Theology, in Bap. Quar. Rev., Jan. 1888,—reprinted in Philosophy and Religion, 164-179.
C. Scripture declares this future punishment of the wicked to be eternal.
It does this by its use of the terms αἰών, αἰώνιος.—Some, however, maintain that these terms do not necessarily imply eternal duration. We reply:
(a) It must be conceded that these words do not etymologically necessitate the idea of eternity; and that, as expressing the idea of “age-long,” they are sometimes used in a limited or rhetorical sense.
2 Tim. 1:9—“his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal”—but the past duration of the world is limited; Heb. 9:26—“now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested”—here the αἰῶνες have an end; Tit. 1:2—“eternal life ... promised before times eternal”; but here there may be a reference to the eternal covenant of the Father with the Son; Jer. 31:3—“I have loved thee with an everlasting love” = a love which antedated time; Rom. 16:25, 26—“the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal ... according to the commandment of the eternal God”—here “eternal” is used in the same verse in two senses. It is argued that in Mat. 25:46—“these shall go away into eternal punishment”—the word “eternal” may be used in the narrower sense.
Arthur Chambers, Our Life after Death, 222-236—“In Mat. 13:39—‘the harvest is the end of theαἰών,’ and in 2 Tim. 4:10—‘Demas forsook me, having loved this present αἰών’—the word αἰών clearly implies limitation of time. Why not take the word αἰών in this sense in Mark 3:29—‘hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’? We must not translate αἰών by ‘world,’ and so express limitation, while we translate αἰώνιος by ‘eternal,’ and so express endlessness which excludes limitation; cf. Gen. 13:15—‘all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever’; Num. 25:13—‘it shall be unto him [Phinehas], and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood’; Josh. 24:2—‘your fathers dwelt of old time [from eternity] beyond the River’; Deut. 23:3—‘An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter ... into the assembly of Jehovah for ever’; Ps. 24:7, 8—‘be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.’ ”