First Great Deception
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of transgression—“the wages of sin.” They suffer punishment varying
in duration and intensity, “according to their works,” but finally ending
in the second death. Since it is impossible for God, consistently with
His justice and mercy, to save the sinner in his sins, He deprives him
of the existence which his transgressions have forfeited and of which
he has proved himself unworthy. Says an inspired writer: “Yet a little
while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place, and it shall not be.” And another declares: “They shall be as
though they had not been.”
Psalm 37:10
;
Obadiah 16
. Covered with
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infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion.
Thus will be made an end of sin, with all the woe and ruin which
have resulted from it. Says the psalmist: “Thou hast destroyed the
wicked, Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy,
destructions are come to a perpetual end.”
Psalm 9:5, 6
. John, in
the Revelation, looking forward to the eternal state, hears a universal
anthem of praise undisturbed by one note of discord. Every creature in
heaven and earth was heard ascribing glory to God.
Revelation 5:13
.
There will then be no lost souls to blaspheme God as they writhe in
never-ending torment; no wretched beings in hell will mingle their
shrieks with the songs of the saved.
Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doc-
trine of consciousness in death—a doctrine, like eternal torment, op-
posed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason,
and to our feelings of humanity. According to the popular belief, the
redeemed in heaven are acquainted with all that takes place on the
earth and especially with the lives of the friends whom they have left
behind. But how could it be a source of happiness to the dead to know
the troubles of the living, to witness the sins committed by their own
loved ones, and to see them enduring all the sorrows, disappointments,
and anguish of life? How much of heaven’s bliss would be enjoyed
by those who were hovering over their friends on earth? And how
utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body
the soul of the impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! To what
depths of anguish must those be plunged who see their friends passing
to the grave unprepared, to enter upon an eternity of woe and sin!
Many have been driven to insanity by this harrowing thought.
What say the Scriptures concerning these things? David declares
that man is not conscious in death. “His breath goeth forth, he retur-