THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Rev. 21: 8, “But the .fearful, and'unbeliev ing, and the abominable, and murderers, and. whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall hdve their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH.” Here we are told in so many words that the “death” which is the final outcome of per sistent sin and unbelief is a portion in the place of torment, the lake of fire. That this lake of fire is, a place of conscious suffering is made- clear in the preceding chapter, Rev. 20:10, where we. are, told that “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 for. ever and ever.” The1 beast and false prophet had already been there a thousand years .when the devil was cast, into thè lake of fire, and they were tormented con sciously, without rest. 2. Now let us look at what “destruction” means in the New Testament. We are told by a certain school of religious thought that “destruction” means destrüction. Yes, “destruction” means destruction, but what does destruction mean? They say it means annihilation, or ceasing to be, but the Greek word so translated never means that in the Bible, nor even out of the Bible. In the best Greek-English lexicon of thè New Testament extant, Thayer’s translation of Grimm’s great work, we are told that when a thing is said to “perish” (and the verb from which the noun commonly translated “destruction” and “perdition” is derived, is the one translated “to perish”) it is not meant that it céases to be, but that it is “so ruined that it no longer subserves the use for which it was designed.” Further more, here again God has been Careful to de fine His term's. He Himself has given us in the BibWa definition of “destruction.” We read in Rev. 17 :.8, 11, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go INTO PERDITION ; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder . . . and the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth,
great length of time. They hold either that those who are sent to hell are annihil ated, or else th a t. they exist there in a non-conscious state. Of course, this would be an everlasting hell, and everlasting pun ishment, but is it the hell that is taught in the Bible? Is the lake of fire a places of continued conscious torment, or is it a place of non-conscious existence? In answer to this squestion let me call your attention to the fact that the punishment of the wicked is spoken of in the Bible most frequently .as ' “death” and “destruction.” What do these ' words mean in biblical usage ? 1. l e t us look first at the biblical usage o f the word “death.” We are told time and time again that death means non- existence, or at least non-conscious exist ence, and therefore that is what it must mean in the passages where it is spoken of as the future punishment of the impeni tent. But does “death” as used in the Bible mean either non-conscious existence, or annihilation? Look first at 1 Tim. 5:6; here we read, “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Death here cer tainly does pot mean either non-existence, or non-conscious existence. The woman that lives In pleasure still exists, and she cer tainly exists consciously; but she. is “dead." Death means rather wrong existence than non-existence. It is just the opposite of life, and life in the New Testament usage does not mean mere existence, it means right existence, God-like existence, holy existence. It means the ennoblement and glorification and deification of existence; and death means just the opposite, it means wrong existence, debased existence, the ruin, the shame, and the ignominy and the despair of existence. In a similar way we are told in Eph. 2:1, that men until they are quickened, or made alive, by the, power of God are “DEAD in trespasses and sins." . It is perfectly dear then that death does not mean either non-existence, or non-conscious existence. But even more decisive than this is the fact that God himself has defined death very :accurately and very fully in
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