06.06 The Punishment Must Fit the Crime

6 - Hell; Section 6 THE PUNISHMENT MUST FIT THE CRIME

If Christ went to hell once, and preached, and led out a host of captives, I wonder why, on the same errand, He should not go or send to hell twice or even a thousand times? He considered the dreadfully and unspeakably wicked in the days of Noah fitting subject for His mercy, and shall He not so consider the poor, wretched creatures who have gone to hell by the billions from heathen lands and by the millions from our so-called Christian cities? They never heard the name of Jesus, except as profanely used or in some empty religious platitude. They know nothing of His word or His power. The Churches too often cared nothing for them, and care next to nothing for them today. I speak plainly, because it is necessary. I am not seeking to extenuate the crime of anyone, and I am urging no plea for the undue mitigation of just punishment. But unlimited mercy is an attribute of God, as love is His nature, and when endless punishment is taught I claim the right to enter protest against that horrible dogma. I admit, and declare, and warn men, that those who sin against light and knowledge will have the heavier penalty. They invite the just judgment of God. No man who rejects the Christ will go from earth into the joys and purity of heaven; he will certainly go to hell. As Charles Pridgeon has stated, "One of the elements that makes punishment effective is its certainty. If a man thinks that there is a chance for him to escape the punishment for a wrong doing, he may take that chance. Every one needs to learn that this law of certainty has no exceptions. There is no chance about it; WHAT YOU SOW, YOU REAP (Galatians 6:7). Every sin has its certain consequences. This is true even of the wrongdoer who thinks that he has escaped the working of this law. He is mistaken. The evil has already wrought damage to his character, and one day its direful consequence will be manifest, unless divinely dealt with. Every offer of salvation; every presentation of more or new light; and every opportunity proffered, brings added responsibility. Every rejection increases guilt and multiplies the consequences. From this law there is no escape. The normal harvest exceeds by many fold the sowing. This is a wise provision in reference to punishment. The enjoyment or gain that comes through sin is very small in proportion to the evil consequences that naturally come to the one who so yields. This is one of the natural laws of the harvest. God means this law to cause men to halt and to cease from sin. Sin costs the sinner too dear; it cost God His only begotten Son!" - end quote.

But, on the other hand, the doctrine that a temporal fault is to be punished with an eternal punishment is, in the very nature of things, unreasonable, illogical, and wicked. Such a doctrine could not be divine. As Adam fell, we fall each one, for Adam lives yet in his progeny. Because Adam had the principle of sin and death imposed as an actual feature of his biological life, his descendants also have inherited a life principle which involves a built-in death principle. The moment a child is conceived the nature of disobedience is in him and the power of death - so that in the same moment he is conceived he is a sinner by nature and also begins to die; he is dying ere he is born, and eventually the death principle wins out over the life principle and he does die. And, fallen in Adam, men prove he is in them, by walking just as he walked. Adam yet relives old Adam’s life in every unregenerated man, as Christ in us yet lives Christ’s life. With all emphasis I must declare that at the very most, the worst offender on earth, has committed a crime WHICH IS INHERENT IN HIS OWN NATURE, and the eye of the all-seeing God sees what even we, in most cases, cannot see, that the most wicked sinner on earth IS SIMPLY DOING THAT OVER WHICH HE REALLY HAS NO CONTROL. People tell me that "man has a choice," but I declare to you that when I came into this world some 47 years ago ADAM HAD ALREADY MADE MY CHOICE FOR ME. I wasn’t consulted, God didn’t ask me whether I would prefer to be born a sinner or a saint - Adam answered that question for me in the dim and distant past! WHAT "CHOICE" DO DEAD MEN HAVE? Never in my life did I have a choice until the blessed day when the Spirit of God came and illumined my mind, convincing me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and showing me the things of Christ, taking the glories of Him and unveiling them to my astonished soul; then, and not until then did I have a choice - and it did not take me long, beloved friend, to make that choice! The Psalmist acknowledged that he had been "shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5). This was not a confession of some illicit act on the part of his mother, which resulted in his birth. Perish the thought! For the following verses bear out the fact that it was the hereditary "mystery of iniquity" which was passed upon all men, stamped upon the very "genes" of his makeup; the "seed of Adam" has blueprinted into its genes the propensities for evil, which he acknowledged, and for which he sought deliverance. "Behold, You desire truth IN THE INWARD PARTS: and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:6-7; Psalms 51:10).

Men have, in their very blood, been saturated with sin, with lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases WHICH HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT CAUSE OF THEIR TRANSGRESSION. God in His great mercy knows this, and thus it is written, "And the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man ’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done" (Genesis 8:21). I do not hesitate to say that all the multiplied sins upon earth today ARE THE RESULT OF HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES - inherited from Adam! And if God in His great mercy will not send a flood again, because He pities man in his weakness, shall He then proceed to commit an even more horrendous act by torturing men in everlasting hell-fire?

Any penalty which does not take into account the fact that a poor miserable human creature has been the victim of such an inheritance is an unjust penalty. The law of man may punish without mercy, but even that law should be merciful to the ignorant. But even when the extreme penalty of death has been visited upon the transgressors, the bigot adds to it a penalty far in excess of the crime when he says that a man who has not been drawn to the Lord will go to a burning, torturing hell and live on in misery, without hope or mercy, through unending eternity. That is a vile and devilish doctrine, which has no support in the Word of God. Those who say otherwise are ignorant or perversely wicked. It is foolish to say that it is necessary to preach an everlasting hell to keep people from being wicked. I should be wicked if I preached it, and in conflict with both the love and the justice of God who is the Father of my spirit, and the Creator of my soul and body. I clearly see that it would be vile and wicked to make punishment so tremendously exceed the guilt. One should take into account what God remembers in dealing with humanity. He never forgets that we are "dust," and He remembers just the kind of muck from which our souls and bodies came. "Oh," you say, "when people are wholly bad, and their thoughts are evil, and that continually, they must go to hell!" Yes, that is right! they cannot go to heaven! "And they must stay there for ever and ever!" you erroneously add. Then why did God send His Son to get them out of hell? Why did the Christ, after He arose from the dead, grab the keys of death and hell and descend into hell? What was He doing there? WHY does the blessed Redeemer HOLD THE KEYS? Thank God! hell is not the end of the matter. Banishment and torment do not spell the ultimate results of God’s great plan. The end of all God’s dealings is one of victory, deliverance, and full redemption and restoration.