[73]Suppose we have a dog that becomes mad and tries to bite every one in the neighborhood. He must be killed; but we would not torment the poor brute by putting it into a slow fire. We would kill it in the easiest way, so that it would not suffer much pain. Why would a person do this? Because his sense of justice and love would deter him from doing anything else. Man has not as much love as God. Every thing that God does for man he does for man's good.
[74]The doctrine is unreasonable because no one could be eternally tormented unless that one were eternally conscious; and the Scriptures above cited show that the dead are not conscious. Furthermore, there could be no eternal torment of the soul unless that soul were immortal, indestructible; and the Scriptures above cited and all other Scriptures bearing upon the subject show that man is not immortal, that none are granted immortality except those who receive it as a reward for right-doing and who are made joint-heirs with Christ Jesus in his glorious kingdom. Then it is easy to be seen that this is a doctrine of Satan; and the two doctrines or teachings of inherent immortality and eternal torture must stand or fall together. And since they are both false, they must both fall.
[75]The doctrine of eternal torture is unjust, because God is just. Justice is the foundation of his throne. God plainly told man that if he sinned he would die. If thereafter he put him into eternal torment, then he increased the penalty after man had violated the law, and this is contrary to every principle of justice. All of Adam's children were born imperfect. "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," (Psalm 14:3) Every child is born imperfect. It would be very unjust for Jehovah to permit such a one to be born under conditions over which he had no control and then, because he could not obey perfectly, to put him into eternal torture. Man's sense of justice is shocked at the thought of torture of any creature. The justice that man possesses is a God-given quality. The more Godlike a man is the more just he is. We must know, then, that God deals justly with all of his creatures.
[76]The doctrine of eternal torment is devoid of the attribute of love. Every good father loves his children and children love their father. The mother loves the children and the children love the mother. When the children are disobedient, it becomes necessary for the father or the mother to discipline them; and sometimes by using the rod. But no loving parent would for a moment think of torturing his or her child. Just punishment is always for the purpose of doing ultimate good, and where the parents are compelled to punish or discipline their children they do it because they love them. The apostle Paul, discussing the discipline by earthly parents and by God said: "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."—Hebrews 12:9,10.
[77]Only a wicked fiend would want to torment anybody, such a one as loves dark and wicked things.
[78]Our great God is love. (1 John 4:16) "God is light and in him is no darkness at all," (1 John 1:5) Everything that Jehovah does is good. God created the first man Adam and gave him the power to transmit life to his offspring. All the human race are the children of Adam. Only by God's permission could these children have come into existence. Adam was God's son and all the human race descend from Adam; and thus they bear relationship to Jehovah.
[79]None of Adam's children were born perfect. Some were born under very depraved conditions. God's love, then, for the human race is so great that he made provision for the redemption and ultimate blessing of all, and it would be wholly inconsistent with his attribute of love to arrange to torture any of them at any time. The doctrine of eternal torment is a libel upon the great and loving name of God, and Satan is responsible for it. But in God's due time he will make it clear to all that he is love; and that all of his dealings with the human race are for their good.
[80]The eternal torment teaching is not supported by any Scripture text in the Bible. There are some texts that are written in symbolic phrase, parables and dark sayings, which were written to illustrate another great truth, but with no reference to the eternal punishment of the human race. These Scriptures must be considered elsewhere. Our space does not permit us to consider them here. What we will examine are the direct Scriptural statements.
[81]All the Scriptures show that the wicked will be punished, but punishment does not mean torment. There is a wide distinction between everlasting punishment and everlasting torment. Everlasting punishment is a punishment that lasts. Everlasting torment would be a torment that never ends, but one would be consciously suffering all the time. The laws of the land punish the wicked who violate the law, and the duration of punishment is short or long in proportion to the enormity of the crime committed. One who steals a loaf of bread violates the law and he may be punished by confinement for a day or a month in prison. One who destroys his neighbor's house by fire is punished, and his punishment may be a number of years in prison. Another takes the life of his neighbor, and his punishment is death. No law of any nation on earth permits the violator of the law to be tormented. The stealer of bread is punished for a short period; the one who destroys the home is punished for a longer period; and the one who takes his neighbor's life deliberately is punished by the full penalty of the law, and his punishment is lasting. Death is the highest penalty inflicted by the law. It is also the greatest punishment inflicted by Jehovah. Life is the dearest thing to any creature, and to be deprived of life would be the greatest punishment that could be inflicted. Therefore eternal or everlasting death, with no hope of a resurrection, would be an everlasting punishment. But it would not be an everlasting conscious torture. God plainly declared: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and not eternal torture.
[82]Having fixed this penalty, God could not change it afterward, because God could not be inconsistent; he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:13) It was by the disobedience of one man that sin came into the world and death as the result of sin; so death has been the penalty upon all mankind. (Romans 5:12) And this will continue until God's due time to awaken them out of death and give all an opportunity for life; and this we will discuss later. "The Lord preserveth them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy." (Psalm 145:20) The Apostle plainly says that all the wicked shall be punished with an everlasting destruction.—2 Thessalonians 1:9.