200
THE KING’ S BUSINESS
mately be saved, and there is nothing in them to in any way conflict with what we have seen to be thé honest meaning o f the passages studied above, namely, that the future punishment o f sin is absolutely end less. There is not a pasage to be found in the Bible that teaches universal salvation, or that all men will ultimately come to re pentance and be saved. I wish that there were, but there is not. I have been search ing diligently for such a passage for nearly forty years and I have not found it, and it cannot be found. III. Where Are the Issues of Eternity Set tled? There remains one other important ques tion and that is, where are the issues of eternity settled. There are those who, believe that,punishment o f the persistently impenitent is everlasting, that it has no end, but they also believe that the issues o f eternity are not settled in the life that now is, but that with many they are settled after death and that when men die impenitent they will have another ctiance. Believing in endless punishment does not necessarily involve believing that there is no chance after death. There are many who believe that there will be a chance after death, and that many will accept it, who also believe that some will not accept it and will there fore be punished for ever and ever. Now what is the teaching o f the Word o f God on this point? Let me call your attention to four passages, any one o f which settles the question, and taken together they leave no possible room for doubt for any candid man who is willing to take the Bible as meaning what it says, any man who is really trying to find out what the Bible teaches and not merely trying to support a theory. 1. The first passage is 2 Cor. 5 :10, “ For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat o f Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” In this pa'ssage we are plainly told that the basis o f judgment
“ things under the earth,”' that is the abode o f the lost, so this passage, so far from suggesting that the lost ones in hell will be restored, suggests exactly the opposite thing. -There is then certainly nothing in this passage to militate even inferentially against the plain statements we have been studying. S'. One more passage that is urged against the doctrine we have been studying remains to be considered, that is 1 Cor, IS :22. Here we read, “ For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.’’ It is urged in connection with this passage that we are distinctly told here that all who die in Adam, that is every human being, shall be made alive in Christ, and that “made alive” means "obtain eternal life,” or “be saved.” For years I thought that this was the true interpretation of this passage, and for that reason in part, I held and preached at that time that all men ultimately, some time, somewhere, somehow would be brought to accept Jesus Christ and be saved, but wlien I came to study the passage more carefully I saw that was a misinterpretation o f the passage. Every passage in the Bible, or in any other book, must be interpreted in its context. The whole subject that Paul is talking about in this chapter is not eternal life, not the immortality o f the soul, but the resur rection o f the body, and all this passage de clares is that as all lose physical life in Adam, so also all will obtain a resurrection o f the body in Christ. Whether that resur rection o f the body is a resurrection to everlasting life or a resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2) de pends entirely upon what men do with the Christ in whom they get it. There is abso lutely nothing here to teach universal salva tion. It only teaches a universal resurrec tion, resurrection o f the wicked as well as the righteous. T o sum up the teaching o f all these passages that are so often urged to prove universal salvation, there is nothing in any one o f the passages, nor in all o f them together, to teach that all men will ulti
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs