The sense of the passage appears to be very evidently this: That the Sodomites, giving themselves up to their wicked practices, and, as a consequence, suffering an eternal overthrow by fire rained down upon them from heaven, are thus set forth as an example to the ungodly of all coming ages, of the overthrow they will also experience if they follow the same course.
Peter speaks of the same event, as an example to the wicked, and tells what effect that fire had upon the cities of the plain. It did not preserve them in the midst of the fire in unceasing torture, but turned them into ashes. He says, 2 Pet. 2:6: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” This language is too plain to need comment. How are the Sodomites made an example? By being overthrown and turned into ashes for their open and presumptuous sins. It is God saying to the wicked of all coming time, Behold, how your sins shall be visited unless you repent.
But those fires are not now burning. Seek out the site of those ancient and abandoned cities, and the brackish waters of the Dead Sea will be found rolling their sluggish waves over the spot where once they stood. Those fires are therefore called eternal, because their effects are eternal, or age-lasting. They never have recovered, nor will they ever recover while the world stands, from that terrible overthrow.
And thus this text is very much to the purpose on the question before us; for it declares that the punishment of Sodom is an exact pattern of the future punishment of the wicked; hence that punishment will not be eternal life in the fiery flame, but an utter consumption, even as Sodom was consumed, by its resistless vengeance.
CHAPTER XXXI.
TORMENTED FOREVER AND EVER.
The only remaining texts to be urged in favor of the eternal torment of the wicked, are two passages which are found in the book of Revelation. The first is Rev. 14:11: “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
It is proper first to inquire of whom this is spoken. The question before us relates to the destiny of all the wicked. No text is therefore conclusive on this question, which speaks of only a certain class, or a limited number, of the wicked; for a particular class might for good reasons be set apart to a certain punishment, and that punishment be exceptional in their cases, and not such as awaits the whole race of the guilty. The passage just quoted speaks not of all the wicked, but only of a limited class--the worshipers of the beast and his image. The beast, according to evidence which no Protestant will be disposed to question, means the papal power; Rev. 13:1-10; and the image is to be formed, near the close of the career of that power. Rev. 13:14-18; 14:1-5. The text, therefore, embraces only comparatively a small portion of the wicked of the human race. The ancient world, with its teeming millions, and the present heathen world, knowing nothing of this power, are alike exempted from the punishment here brought to view. This text might therefore be set aside as inconclusive, since, even if it should be admitted to prove eternal torture for some, it does not for all.
But we claim that no text affirms eternal torment for a single conscious intelligence in all the universe, and hence undertake to show that this passage does not prove it in reference to even the limited class brought to view. The expression, “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever,” is the one upon which the doctrine of eternity of suffering is in this case suspended. But the same may be said of this expression that was said in last chapter in reference to the undying worm and the quenchless fire. It was not new in John’s day, but was borrowed from the Old Testament, and was one which was well understood at that time.
In Isa. 34:9, 10, the prophet, speaking of the land of Idumea, says: “And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day: the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.” But two applications can be made of this language. Either it refers to the literal land of Edom east and south of Judea, or it is a figure to represent the whole world in the day of final conflagration. In either case it is equally to the point. If the literal land of Idumea is meant, and the language has reference to the desolations which have fallen upon it, then certainly no eternity of duration is implied in the declaration that the smoke thereof shall go up forever. For all the predictions against the land of Idumea have long since been fulfilled, and the judgments have ceased. If it refers to the fires of the last day, when the elements melt with fervent heat, no eternity of duration is even then implied in the expression; for the earth is not to be forever destroyed by the purifying fires of the last day. It is to rise from its ashes, and a new earth come forth purified from all the stains of sin, and free from all the deformity of the curse, to be the everlasting abode of the righteous.
Here is an instance in which the word, forever, apply it in either of the only two ways possible, must denote a limited period. And here the Septuagint uses αἰων (aion) the same as is used in Rev. 14:11; and from this passage in Isaiah, the language in Revelation was probably borrowed. That the words αἰων and αἰωνιος sometimes denote a limited period, and not invariably one of eternal duration, will appear in the examination of the only remaining text that calls for consideration, namely, Rev. 20:10: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.”