19. Hell
HELL Do you believe in the biblical Hell, just as the Bible describes it?
Yes. Hell is a place as truly as Heaven is a place. Hades in the New Testament, and Sheol its Old Testament equivalent, are often mistranslated Hell, and this mistranslation tends to confuse the doctrine for English readers. But the Bible surely speaks of Hell. Not only is Hades or Sheol a place, but so also is Gehenna, Hell, the Lake of Fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels, and one day they shall be consigned to that awful place together with all those of the human race whose names are not found written in the Book of Life.
If Hell is everlasting, how can those in Heaven now, or in the future, really be happy if they have relatives, such as father, mother, sister, brother or friend, who are in Hell while they are in Heaven? One would think they would remember these poor lost friends and relatives and often wonder whether God really will keep them there forever and ever. I cannot see how one could be happy in heaven, with this knowledge. The easiest question to ask, and the hardest to answer, is “How?’ The only answer I have to this question is “I do not know.” God’s ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts; they are infinitely better and higher (Isaiah 55:8-9). No one will be in Hell unless he or she has trodden under foot the Son of God, making His blood common and doing insult to the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10:29). As for happiness in Heaven, those who find themselves there will be more concerned for the honor and glory of God than for the claims of human relationship. “Wisdom is justified of her children,” and God is justified by them that are His.
One of my Sunday school pupils recently came in contact with a Seventh Day Adventist who is visiting in our neighborhood and trying to start a work here. Of course, the question of eternal punishment was brought up, and the Adventist said that the wicked were annihilated in Hell. My friend told him thatRevelation 20:10says that Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire where the Beast and False Prophet are, and is tormented for ever and ever. The Adventist said that the “are” is in italics because it has been put in the Sacred Writings by the translators, and it has no right to be there. Can such an argument be answered from Scripture?
It is true that the word “are” is supplied by the translators in the Authorized Version of Revelation 20:10. But the pronoun “they” has been omitted by the translators which is plainly in the Greek text. The presence of that pronoun “they” in the text makes it legitimate and necessary to supply the word “are.” The Revised Version has the correct rendering of the verse: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” The doctrine of annihilation, however, is in contradiction to the whole teaching of Scripture, and the answer to it does not need to be rested upon Revelation 10:10. The record of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 (which is sometimes erroneously called a parable), and the testimony of our Lord in Mark 9:38-48, and many other Scriptures on the same subject, ought to be enough, and are enough, to satisfy any honest student of the truth of eternal conscious punishment. Will you please explainRevelation 20:14andMatthew 25:41? How can it be a second death if there is everlasting fire? Are the wicked annihilated entirely?
No. As Mr. Spurgeon says, annihilation would be “ended” punishment rather than “endless” punishment. Death never means cessation of existence, but only cessation of life, which is a different thing. God is the source of life, and the worst form of death is that spiritual death by which men are separated from Him. The duration of the punishment of the lost is proved to be endless by the use of the same words as are used to indicate the duration of the life of the saved: they are both aiomon, translated eternal or everlasting. The same word is used also to denote the endlessness of the being and glory of God. An advocate of no eternal torment seeks to prove to me that God’s original sentence was death (Genesis 2:16-17), and that the condition of death is non-existence, or oblivion (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20;Ecclesiastes 9:5-6;Ecclesiastes 9:10;Psalms 146:4). He also says that the Valley of Hinnom (Gr., Gehenna) was a place used by the Jews to destroy the waste of the city, and therefore typifies the complete destruction of the wicked (Psalms 145:20;Psalms 37:20;Romans 6:23;Matthew 10:28;Hebrews 2:14).
He tries to prove that eternal torment is a lie forced upon mankind by Satan, for Christ did not endure eternal torment in addition to dying (Romans 6:23) to pay the penalty of our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3-4;1 Corinthians 15:22-23;1 Timothy 2:5-6).
Knowing that God is merciful and just, and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11), how can I refute these statements? I shall be very grateful for any light that you can give me on this subject. The best answer I know to the questions you raise is furnished by Dr. C. I. Soofield, whose remarks I quote on the subjects of soul-sleeping and annihilation, from his Correspondence Course, under the subject of “Death”:
Two errors concerning the biblical meaning of death require notice. The first is that physical death is the cessation of all consciousness until the resurrection of the body. This error is sometimes called “soul sleeping,” and rests mainly upon a few Old Testament passages. For example: Psalms 88:10, “Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?” Psalms 115:17, “The dead praise not Jehovah, neither any that go down into silence;” Isaiah 38:18, “For the grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee;” Ecclesiastes 9:5, “But the dead know not anything.” It is said that the New Testament word “sleep” explains this unconsciousness. The answer is twofold:—
First. The Old Testament revelation was almost silent upon the future state. Doubtless the truly enlightened saint of the former dispensations dimly foresaw life after death, as in the case of Job (19:26), but even this dim apprehension was exceptional, and seems to have been by a special revelation. Abraham saw Christ’s day and was glad (John 8:56). David foresaw the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:29-31). The general fact is that the time for the unfolding of conditions beyond the grave had not come. It was reserved to Christ to “bring life and immortality to light through the gospel.” It is not said that Christ brought life and immortality into existence, but into revelation. Life and immortality always existed. The grave, therefore, bounded the horizon of the Old Testament vision. Accordingly, speaking within the limits set to their knowledge, the Old Testament writers speak—and correcdy for all time—of the grave (whether considered as the place of sepulture, or as Sheol in a wider sense as the intermediate state of the dead) as the place where the activities of life cease. If men are to serve or praise God, they must do it now. This is still true. Pending the first resurrection, the saintly “activities” cease; “They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13).
Secondly. But cessation of labor and cessation of consciousness are different facts. The New Testament, in which, rather than in the Old, we should expect to find every doctrine completed, leaves it beyond question that the dead, whether lost or saved, are separated from their bodies and are in full consciousness (Isaiah 14:9-11; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31; John 11:26; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Php 1:21-23; Revelation 6:9-11). The second error, variously called the annihilation or conditional immortality theory, affirms (with many variations of detail) that only the regenerate have immortality and that the unregenerate cease to exist. In some forms of this teaching the moment of physical death is held to be the moment of nonexistence. Others hold that unconscious existence continues until the resurrection of the impenitent dead (Revelation 20:12-13). At that time consciousness is restored and the body raised for the act of judgment after which “the second death” ends bodi consciousness and existence.
These views rest upon the alleged meaning of such words as “perish” (John 3:15-16), “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), and “destroy” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). It is contended that these words imply cessation of being. The first form of this error has already been met. The physical death of the unregenerate is neither annihilation nor unconsciousness. The rich man in Hades is intensely conscious. Lost souls in Sheol are fully aware of the advent of the fallen and doomed. A very brief examination of the word alleged to imply extinction of being as the penalty of sin will suffice to show the baselessness of the contention. The Greek word apollurni, translated “perish” in John 3:15-16, is often used in the New Testament to describe a condition which renders impossible a normal or intended use, as the bottles into which new wine is put are said to “break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish—are no longer fit for their intended use (Matthew 9:17). In the parallel passage, in Mark 2:22, the same word is rendered “marred.” In Matthew 10:6; Matthew 15:24, the same word is rendered “lost.” “Go rather to the lost sheep”; “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep.” In Matthew 18:11, “. .. come to save that which was lost.” In the parables of the Lost Sheep and of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 the same word (translated “lost”) is used of each. Certainly neither the sheep nor the son was “lost” or “perished” in the sense of annihilation. The “destruction” of 2 Thessalonians 2:8 is that of the “man of sin,” the “lawless one,” and “beast” at the appearing of the Lord in glory. That this is not annihilation, nor even death, is manifest from Revelation 19:19-20, where it is said that the Beast was “cast alive” into a Lake of Fire. A thousand years afterward they are still there (Revelation 20:10). That this condition is unchangeable is shown from the words of duration, “for ever and ever,” which are used to denote the eternal duration of God’s own existence (Hebrews 1:8; Galatians 1:5; Revelation 4:9-10; Revelation 10:6).—(Scofield Correspondence Course) Does the word “eternity” in the original writings occur once only?
“Eternity” is not a word of the original Bible languages. It is an English word, and it occurs once only—in Isaiah 57:15. The Hebrew word in this instance, “ad,” is not the usual word for eternity. The ordinary word for eternity in the Old Testament is olam in some of its forms. Its Greek equivalent is axon, and this is the New Testament word for age, ages, or, in its adjective form—aionion—for eternal or endless. The same word is used to denote (1) the duration of the being and glory of God; (2) the duration of the life and bliss of the saved; and (3) the duration of the punishment of the lost. In Matthew 25:46 both “everlasting” and “eternal” represent aionion in the Greek. Will unsaved people who are dead have another chance? The Bible teaches no such thing as “another chance” after death.
I find in Young’s Analytical Concordance under the word “eternal” forty-two references, and the translation shows the word “eternal” to mean age-lasting in such passages asJohn 3:15;John 10:28;John 17:3and in the Epistles through to Jude. Likewise under the word “everlasting” I find that it is shown as age-lasting in the original twenty-five passages, some of which areJohn 3:16;John 3:36;John 5:24, etc. I have always used these passages to show the eternal security of the believer, but now I cannot, since it is only age-lasting. Will you kindly explain? The Greek word for “eternal” and “everlasting” is akmion, and while it is true that various combinations of the word may be translated “for the age” or “unto the ages” or “unto the ages of the ages,” it is the only way in Greek to say “eternal” or “everlasting.” That it stands for endlessness is apparent from the fact that it is the word used for the being and glory of God, which without controversy is endless. The same word is used for the being and glory of God, for the security of the believer in Christ, and for the punishment of the lost
I have three verses of Scripture which I should like you to explain: they areEcclesiastes 9:5-6;Ecclesiastes 9:10. Do they refer in any way to the immortality of the soul?
No, they do not. The vision of Ecclesiastes is limited to those things that may be seen and known “under the sun”; which phrase is the key to the book. “Verse 10,” says Dr. Scofield, “is no more a divine revelation concerning the state of the dead than any other conclusion of’the Preacher’ (Ecclesiastes 1:1) is such a revelation. Reasoning from the standpoint of man ‘under the sun,’ the natural man can see no difference between a dead man and a dead lion (verse 4). A living dog is better than either. No one would quote verse 2 as a divine revelation. These reasonings of man apart from divine revelation are set down by inspiration just as the words of Satan (Genesis 3:4; Job 2:4-5) are so set down. But that life and consciousness continue between death and resurrection is directly affirmed in Scripture (Isaiah 14:9-11; Matthew 22:32; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Php 1:21-23; Revelation 6:9-11).”