George
Storrs
1796-1879
SERMON TWO
"Ye
shall not surely die."
Gen. 3:4
OUR
Saviour saith, the old serpent - "the devil, is a liar and the father
of it." He commenced his attack on our race by saying they should "not
surely die," if they did disobey God. He was successful in that game,
and has played the same card, in some form, on men, ever since he
first swept Paradise with it. He told Eve that the God of love could
not give place to such feelings as to cut them off from life if they
did disobey. He has never forgotten his success. True, he has turned
his card since, but it is the same card still. It has still inscribed
on it - "Ye shall not SURELY DIE." Now he makes use of it to insinuate
that God does not love or pity man, seeing He has determined that man
shall not DIE, but be kept alive in eternal and indescribable
torments, for sins committed on earth, or hereafter to be committed in
the theological hell, where it is impossible for the miserable ones to
cease from sin!
As the doctrine, "Ye shall not surely die," had its
origin with the old serpent, I cannot divest myself of the conviction
that the notion that wicked men will be kept eternally alive in
torments, and never die, had its origin from the same source, as it
appears to be a perfect fac-simile; and that it was invented to
inspire hard thoughts of God and keep men from turning to Him by
repentance and faith, or confidence, and acknowledging their sins
against the God of love. And I solemnly believe, this doctrine has
kept more away from God, and driven them into infidelity, than any
other doctrine that was ever promulgated. I am solemnly convinced that
it has done more to destroy men than all other errors put together.
For, if some minds have been temporarily affected by
it, they are seldom found to be uniform Christians, and hardly pretend
to live in obedience to God, unless under some strong excitement;
multitudes of others, without any proper reflection upon the claims of
God's law, have rejected eternal punishment, because of the nature of
that which the "orthodox" say is to be inflicted; whilst others have
lived and died in real infidelity, or what has been called so, because
they could not believe that a Being whose word declares that He "is
love" could inflict such a punishment on even the worst and most
bitter of His enemies.
But I will not detain you longer with an introduction.
I shall attempt to show you, that the death God has threatened, as the
wages of sin, is not immortality in misery, but an actual and total
deprivation of life. I say, then, in opposition to the old serpent, if
men do not come to Christ, that they may have life, they SHALL surely
die - past hope, past recovery.
Let me here briefly recall attention to the question at
issue. It is not whether man can be immortal, nor whether the
righteous will be immortal, but will the conscious being of the wicked
be eternal? Is the punishment of the wicked interminable being in sin
and suffering? or an eternal cessation from life?
I use the term immortal, in these discourses, in its
commonly received meaning, i.e. according to Grimshaw, "exempt from
death;" and according to Walker, "never to die - never ending,
perpetual." Strictly speaking, immortality is the development of life
through an indestructible organization, so far as it relates to
created beings. In my first sermon I had brought the subject down to the inquiry,
WHAT ARE THE TERMS EMPLOYED
Are they such as can, by any fair construction of
language, be made to mean that the wicked are destined to a state of
eternal sin and suffering? Let us keep in mind, that words are not
to be so explained as to mean more than their primary signification,
without an obvious necessity; though they may, and often do, signify
less.
The terms employed are - Perish - Utterly perish -
Utterly consumed with terrors - Destroy - Destroyed – Destroyed
forever - Destruction - To be burned - Burned UP with unquenchable
fire - Burn them up, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch - Perdition - Die - Death - Second Death, &c.
Let us now begin with the first of these terms, viz:
"PERISH." Grimshaw, in his Etymology, says it signifies "to cease to
have existence - to die - to decay."
Which of these definitions is suited to convey the
idea of eternal sin and suffering? Can that which is never to cease,
be said to be decaying? Can that which has interminable life be said
"to die?" Can that which is always to continue in being, be said "to
cease to have existence?" I need not pursue that inquiry; it is a
self-evident truth, that however the term perish may be used, in an
accommodated sense, to signify something less than actual ceasing to
be, it is even then borrowed from its primary signification, and
must be restored to it when there is not a known necessity for
departing from it. In the case under consideration, there can be no
such necessity, unless it can first be proved that men are
immortal.
Paul, in 1Cor.15:18, says - "Then," (if Christ be not
raised,) "they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
"What! in a state of eternal sin and suffering! The supposition is
so absurd that my opponents admit that the term perish here means
"to cease to be." By what fair interpretation of language can they
ever make it mean any thing else, when spoken of the final state of
the lost? Though the term is sometimes used to denote something less
than an actual ceasing to be, it does not therefore follow that it
is used to mean something far greater and more horrible. To apply
this term to an eternal state of sin and misery, is to force a sense
upon it which is most unwarrantable and unjustifiable, in my
judgment.
Let us keep constantly in mind that the whole family
of man, by their natural birth, have no access to the tree of life,
consequently were perishing, were destitute of immortality. Now look
at the following texts:
"God so loved the world that He gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, but
have everlasting life." Here everlasting life is the opposite of
perishing. I pray, is everlasting sin and misery the opposite of
everlasting life? The wicked, upon that view, have as really
everlasting life as the righteous, though under different
circumstances.
"For we," saith an apostle, "are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To
the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other of
life unto life."
Here perishing and life are put in opposition, and
the term perish is explained by the apostle himself, to mean death,
and not life in misery.
I need not quote all the passage where this term is
employed to express the final doom of the wicked, in which it is
evident we are to receive it in its primary meaning, and no other.
Before I leave this term, however, I must call your attention to one
fact, and that is - in the Acts of the Apostles, the very place
where we should expect to find, if any where in the Bible, the
doctrine of eternal torments, because the apostles were addressing
sinners, there is not a particle of evidence to support the common
theory. On the contrary, the views I maintain are most clearly set
forth by Paul, in the 13th chapter, in a discourse to the
"blaspheming" Jews, telling them that they judged themselves
"unworthy of everlasting life," and saying - "Behold, ye despisers,
and wonder, and perish." What an excellent occasion had the apostle
to have aroused the Jews by the common theory, had he believed it. Look at that chapter, and you will see, if there ever was a time in which the apostle was called to deal plainly, it was then. I ask if any preacher in these days, who believes in the immortality of all men, in preaching to such hardened sinners as the apostle addressed, contents himself with such language as the apostles here used? No. They first describe the misery of the sinner in hell, and then, with the strongest figures they can produce, go on to give an idea of its duration, which, after all, they cannot find language to describe. The apostle did no such thing. There is not a particle of evidence of it in all his preaching and writings.
"DIE" AND "DEATH"
These terms primarily signify, "To perish - to come to nothing - the extinction
of life." Hence, when these terms are applied to man, in regard to the final
result of a course of sin, we ought to have good evidence that they are not to
be understood in their primary meaning, before we depart from that
interpretation; especially, before we fix upon them a sense so contrary to their
proper signification as that of endless sin and suffering. OBJECTIONS EXAMINED The objections do not
arise from any positive proof in the Bible that the wicked are
immortal, but from circumstantial evidence, drawn from expressions
used in reference to the punishment of the impenitent. The first
objection I shall notice is founded on the language of our Lord,
"Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." It is said
this proves the soul immortal. I remark - |
How death, from which there is no recovery, can be an eternal
punishment, we will further illustrate. The highest punishment known
in the law of God or man is loss of life, or death. The privation of
life may be attended with pain or it may not. If it is, it is not
the punishment, it is merely an accident attending the punishment.
This truth is self-evident to the reflecting mind; because, however
much the murderer might suffer in dying, that would not meet the
claim of the law, or answer its penalty, unless his life is
extinguished: he must "be hung by the neck until he is dead," saith
the law. If this man, when dead, could be restored to life in one year after, with the right to live, his punishment would be of only one year's duration. If a thousand years after, then it would have been of a thousand years duration: not of pain, but loss of life. If he is never to be restored, but to remain eternally dead, then how long is his punishment? Is it not eternal, in the strictest sense? It is an eternal deprivation of life. Such is the Bible teaching on the punishment of wicked men. And if we would live eternally we must come to Christ for that life. God has given to us eternal life, but that life is in His Son, and not in ourselves: See 1John 5:11,12. It is the life-giving Spirit of God, bestowed on those, and those only, who come to Christ for it. This is that Spirit which raised up Christ from the dead, and by which, only, can any man be quickened to immortality and incorruptibility. Rom.8:11, with 1Cor.15:45,54; without it men perish - are destroyed -die, and "shall be no more." Psalm 104:35. "Be as though they had not been," Obadiah 16: "for the wages of sin is death;" Romans 6:23; and, "all the wicked will God destroy;" Psalms 145:20; yea, "They shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Psalms 37:20. Another text, on which much reliance is placed, to support the common theory, is Jude 7th. "Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Let us compare Scripture with Scripture. Peter, in his second epistle, gives us an account of this same matter. - He says, "If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell - to be reserved unto the judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah - a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example to those who after should LIVE ungodly," &c. Thus Peter throws light on Jude. Both together show most clearly what displeasures God has manifested against sinners. It is concerning what has been done in this world, we are here told, that God has made an example to those who should after live ungodly. Those judgments inflicted on the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah, are a standing, and perpetual, or "eternal" admonition, warning, or "example" to all men to the end of the world, that live ungodly. Those judgments prove the utter destruction of the wicked, when God shall visit them for their iniquities. For, if Sodom and Gomorrah are an "example," as Peter expressly affirms - then the wicked are to be "turned to ashes:" hence, are consumed, perish from being, and are no longer living conscious beings. Such, I am satisfied, is the scripture doctrine of the punishment of the wicked.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In my own mind the
conclusion is irresistible, that the final doom of all the
impenitent and unbelieving, is that they shall utterly perish -
shall be "destroyed forever" - their "end" is to be "burned up, root
and branch," with "fire unquenchable" - they shall not have
everlasting life, or being, but be "punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord," the universe of God will
be purified not only from sin, but sinners - and "the works of the
devil" will be destroyed, exterminated; but "blessed and holy is he
who hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death
hath no power." Then there will be a "new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away." "And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any
more pain; for the former things have passed away."
The day when these tremendous scenes will transpire,
I conceive, "is nigh, even at the doors." Yes, the time is at hand,
when the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven - a day,
described by the apostle, of "indignation and wrath; tribulation and
anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil." Then they that have
"sinned without law shall alsoperish without law;" and a not less
fearful doom awaits those that have sinned in the light of the law
and gospel both.
That awful day will soon overtake us; and who may
abide the day of his coming? Behold, that day "shall burn as an
oven; and all the proud, and all that do wickedly will be stubble;"
as incapable of resisting the judgment that shall come upon them, as
stubble is to resist the devouring flame. Let us be wise now, therefore, and prepare to meet God. "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little." "But blessed are all they that put their trust in him." |