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THE KING’S BUSINESS I
we have fire. Everything else in the. para- %ble is explained, every item in the parable except the fire, but that remains fire in the interpretation of the parable as well as in the parable itself. We find the same thing in ànother parable in verses 47 to 50, the parable of the net cast into the sea. Here, also, in the interpretation of the para ble as well as in the parable itself we have fire. Every other figure of the parable is explained by the literal faci that it repre sents, but in the interpretation of the para ble we have “fire.” In the light of these facts we cannot deny thè literal fire of hell without doing violence to every reasonable law of interpretation. Furthermore still, ■we read in Rev. 20:15 that at the judg ment of the great white throne, “and if any was not found written, in the Book of Life, i he was cast into' THE LAKE OF FIRE.” There is nothing in the whole ,context that suggests a. figure. And in the 21st chapter and the 8th verse we read, “But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which, is the second death.” Remember furthermore that thè wicked in the eternal world are not mere disem bodied-spirits. This is plain both from the Old Testament and the New. We read in Dan. 12:2 , “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the .earth shall aivake, some to. everlasting life, and some to shame and . everlasting ■contempt.” 'Now this says “them that sleep in the dust of the earth.” The soul departs into Hades. It is the body that crumbles into dust, and it is the body that is to be raised. In the New Testament, in John 5:28, 29, our Lord is recorded as saying, “Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resur rection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." Now it is not the souls of men that are in the tombs, it is the bodies of men, and this
passage teaches the resurrection of the bodies, both of the good and of the wicked. In 1 Cor. 15:22 we read, "For as in Adam ‘alt die, so also in Christ shall all, be made alive.” What Paul is talking about in this entire 'chapter is the resurrection of the body, not merely the immortality of the soul, and we are here distinctly told that every child of Adam gets resurrection of his body in Christ. Furthermore, in. Math 5: 30, Jesus says, “I f thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and NOT TH Y WHOLE BODY GO INTO HELL.” Here in the plainest possible terms thè body is spoken of as going into hell, and in a similar way in Matt. 10:28, the Lord Jesus says, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both SOUL AND BODY in hell” From these plain and definite words of our Lord it is plain as day that in the future life we are to have bodies, and tliat the bodies of the lost are to have a place in a literal physical hell of fire. While the bodily torments of hell fire are not the most appalling feature of hell, while the mental agony, the ‘agony of remorse, the agony of shame, and the agony of despair, is worse, immeasurably worse; nevertheless, physical suffering, a physical suffering to which no pain on earth is anything in comparison, is a feature of hell.. IV. Is th e Lake of Fire a Place of Con scious Torm ent, or Is It a Place of Annihilation, i. e., a Place of Non- Existence o r is it a Place of Non- Conscious Existence? There is one other question that remains to be answered tonight, and that is, is the lake of fire a place of conscious torment, or is it a place of annihilation, i. e., a place of non-existence, or i$ it a place of non- conscious existence? There are those who believe in a literal hell, but they do not believe that those who are consigned to it will consciously suffer there for any
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