The state of the dead and the destiny of the wicked

by Uriah Smith

Blinded by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, two opposite conclusions are reached by those who connect this doctrine with two different classes of Scripture declarations. For one class, reading that the punishment of the sinner is to be eternal, and holding that man has an inherent immortality which can never be alienated, at once come to the terrible conclusion of an eternity of conscious suffering, an eternal hell as taught by Augustine. Another, connecting it with the declarations that God’s anger shall not always burn against the wicked, but that a time comes when every intelligence in the universe, in the plenitude of joy, is heard ascribing honor, and blessing, and praise to God, speedily reaches the conclusion of universal restoration as taught by Origen. And if the doctrine of the immortality of the soul be a scriptural doctrine, then the Scriptures are found supporting these two diametrically opposite conclusions.

We have seen that the Scriptures do not teach any such inherent immortality as is claimed for man; this, therefore, cannot fetter us in our investigation of this question. God can continue the existence of the wicked to all eternity after the resurrection, if he so chooses; but if so, the doctrine must rest on explicit statements of the Scriptures to that effect. Paul says plainly that the wages of sin is death; Rom. 6:23; and as we do not receive wages for the work of another, this must be a declaration of what will result to every individual for a course of sin; and before this can be made to mean eternal life in misery, the present constitution of language must be destroyed, and new definitions be given to established terms. We hold this declaration of Paul’s, on which we take our stand, to be the true ground between the errors above mentioned, and one which not only harmonizes all the Bible on this question, but which has abundance of positive testimony in its favor.

1. The future punishment, threatened to the wicked, is to be eternal in its duration. The establishment of this proposition, of course overthrows the universal restoration of Origen; and the nature of this punishment, involving a state of death, overthrows alike the restoration view of Origen, and the eternal hell of Augustine.

One “Thus saith the Lord,” is sufficient for the establishment of any doctrine. One such we offer in support of the proposition now before us. Speaking of the reprobate, Christ says, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,” and immediately adds concerning the righteous, “but the righteous, into life eternal.” Here the same Greek word, aionios, is used to express the duration of these opposite states. If, as must be admitted, the word expresses unending duration in the case of the righteous, it must mean the same in that of the wicked.

To the same end we might refer to the words of Christ on two other occasions: John 3:36; Matt. 26:24. In the first of these passages he says: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life;” that is, eternal life. But if, after a certain period of suffering, such persons are released from that state by a restoration to God’s favor, this declaration could not be true. In the second, he speaks of some of whom he says that it would be good for them if they had not been born. And this utterly precludes the idea that they should ever be released to enter the bliss of Heaven; for the first moment of such release would make amends for all past suffering; and throughout eternity they would praise God that they had been born.

The punishment of the wicked, alike with the reward of the righteous, is therefore to be eternal. Two unending conditions are held out to men, and between the two, they have the privilege in this life of choosing.

2. In what will the eternal state of the wicked consist? Before presenting an argument to show that it is death in the literal sense, it may be necessary to notice the few passages of Scripture which are put forth as evidence that it is eternal misery.

1. Daniel 12:2: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The shame spoken of in this text is coupled by the objector with the contempt, and claimed to be like that, everlasting; and if the shame, which is an emotion to be exercised by the individuals themselves, is to be eternal, they must be awakened to everlasting life and consciousness.

The fact that they are raised to shame proves indeed that they have a veritable resurrection to life and consciousness, and that this is no figure of speech which is applied to them. But the reader will notice that the shame is not said, like the contempt, to be everlasting. Contempt is not an emotion which they feel; they are not raised to the contempt of themselves; but it is an emotion felt by others toward them; and this does not imply the consciousness of those against whom it is directed; inasmuch as contempt may be felt for them as well after they have passed from the stage of consciousness as before. The Syriac sustains this idea. It reads, “Some to shame and the eternal contempt of their companions.” And thus it will be. Shame for their wickedness and corruption will burn into their very souls, so long as they have conscious being. And when they pass away, consumed for their iniquities, their loathsome characters and their guilty deeds, excite only contempt on the part of the righteous, unmodified and unabated, so long as they hold them in remembrance at all. The text, therefore, furnishes no proof of the eternal suffering of the wicked.

2. Matt. 25:41: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” What is here said to be everlasting? Wicked men? No. The devil? No. His angels? No. But only the fire. And how can the application of this term to the fire prove the indestructibility and eternal life of those who are cast therein? It may be answered, What propriety could there be in keeping up the fire everlastingly, if its victims were not to be eternally the objects of its power? And we reply, This word is sometimes used to denote the results and not the continuance of the process. Everlasting fire may not be fire which is everlastingly burning, but fire which produces results which are everlasting in their nature. The victims cast therein will be consumed, and if from that destruction they are never to be released, if that fiery work is never to be undone, it is to them an everlasting fire. This will appear more fully when we come to speak of the “eternal fire” through which God’s vengeance was visited on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.