CHAPTER II

THE WAGES OF SIN
Eternal Torment. — Orthodox. — Heathen. — Unknown to the Scriptures. — The Clearly Taught Scriptural Penalty. — Just and Severe. — Jesus Silent on Eternal Torment. — Taught Another Doctrine. — The Ransom versus Eternal Torment. — The Wages of Sin, Not Eternal Life in Torment, but Death. — Scriptural, Reasonable and Factual Proofs against the Former and in Favor of the Latter.
"The wages of sin is death." "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by [as a consequence of] sin" — Rom. 6:23; 5; 12.
T HE TEACHING of "Orthodoxy," that the wages of sin is •*• everlasting torment, is emphatically contradicted by the above words of inspiration, and by many others, direct and indi- rect, which might be cited. How reasonable is the Bible state- ment, and how absurd the common view, which is founded neither in reason nor in the Scriptures, and which is in most violent antagonism to the Plan and Character of God, as pre- sented in His Word !
The eternal-torment theory had a heathen origin, though as held by the heathen it was not the merciless doctrine it after- ward became, when it gradually began to attach itself to nom- inal Christianity, during its blending with heathen philosophies in the second century. It remained for the great apostasy to tack to heathen philosophy the horrible details now so generally believed; to paint them upon the church walls, as was done in Europe; to write them in their creeds and hymns; and so. to pervert the Word of God as to give a seeming Divine support to the God-dishonoring error. The credulity of the present day, therefore, receives it as a legacy, not from the Lord or the Apostles or the Prophets, but from the compromising spirit which sacrificed truth and reason, and shamefully perverted the doctrines of Christianity, in an unholy ambition and strife for power, wealth and numbers.
Eternal torment as the penalty for sin was unknown to the patriarchs of past ages; it was unknown to the Prophets of the Jewish Age ; and it was unknown to the Lord and the Apostles ; but it has been the chief doctrine of nominal Christianity since the great apostasy. It has been the scourge wherewith the credulous, ignorant and superstitious of the world have been lashed into servile obedience to tyranny. Eternal torment was pronounced against all who offered resistance to or spurned Rome's authority, and its infliction in the present life was begun
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so far as she had the power; and the pains of Purgatory she promised, in such measure as she could dictate, to any of her votaries who showed the slightest disposition to be refractory. Under the terrible bondage of a superstitious reverence for self- exalted fellow-men, in dense ignorance of God's real Plan, and tormented with a wretched fear of eternal misery, the masses of men resigned both their reason and the Word of God. And even yet, under the increasing light of this twentieth century, men scarcely dare to think for themselves on religion and the Bible. — Isa. 29: 13.
Let God's inspired writers be heard in opposition to heathen- ized Church traditions, and let reason judge which is the right view, and which the error. First, note the Old Testament — the Divine Revelation covering 4000 years. The Prophets of the Old Testament do not mention a word about eternal torment; but they do repeatedly mention destruction as the sinner's doom, and declare over and over again that the enemies of the Lord shall perish. The Law given to Israel through Moses never hinted at any other penalty than death, in case of its violation. The warning to Adam when placed on trial in Eden contained not the remotest suggestion of eternal torture in case of failure and disobedience; but, on the contrary, it clearly stated that the penalty would be death — "In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die." — Gen. 2:17, margin. Compare 2 Pet. 3 : 8.
Surely, if the penalty of disobedience and failure is everlast- ing life in torment, an inexcusable wrong was done Adam and the patriarchs and the Jewish people, when they were misin- formed on the subject, and told that death was the penalty. Surely Adam, the patriarchs or the Jews, were they ever to find themselves in eternal torment, where the various sectarian creeds of Christendom assert that the vast majority will find themselves, would have sufficient ground for an appeal for justice. Such, no less than the heathen billions who died with- out knowledge, and hence surely without faith, would have just ground for cursing the injustice of such a penalty, as ,a most atrocious misuse of power — first, in bringing them into a trial subject to so awful and unreasonable a penalty, without their consent ; and secondly, for leaving the one class wholly ignorant of such a penalty, and for misleading the others by telling them that the penalty of sin would be death — to perish. It must be admitted that the presumption to declare that death, destruction, perishing, and similar terms, mean life in torment, belongs to word-twisting theologians since the days of the Apostles; for, as we shall prove, the Apostles taught nothing of the kind.
Look at the New Testament writings: St. Paul says he did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27); and yet he did not write a word about eternal torment. Neither
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did St. Peter nor St. James nor St. Jude nor St. John; though it is claimed that St. John did, in the symbols of Revelation. But since those who make this claim consider the book of Reve- lation a sealed book, which they do not and cannot understand, they have no right to interpret any portion of it literally, in violation of its stated symbolic character, and in direct opposi- tion to the remainder of the Bible, including St. John's plain non-symbolic epistles.
Since the Apostles do not so much as mention eternal torment, all truth-seekers, especially Christians, should be interested to search what they do teach concerning the penalty of sin, remem- bering that they, and not the apostate church of the darker ages, taught "the whole counsel of God." The Apostle Paul states the matter thus: "The wages of sin is death" ; the diso- bedient "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His Power" ; and "many walk, who are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction." — Rom. 6:23; 2 Thess. 1:9; Phil. 3: 19.
The Apostle John says : "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abide th forever. ... He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was man- ifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. . . . He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. . . . He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." — 1 John 2 : 17; 3:8, 14, 15; 5:12.
The Apostle Peter says the disobedient "shall be destroyed from among the people"; that evil-doers "bring upon them- selves swift destruction" ; and that the Lord is not desiring "that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (Acts 3:23; 2 Pet. 2:1; 3:9.) The Apostle James says: "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." "There is one Law-giver, who is able to save and to destroy." — Jas. 1:15; 4:12.
No one who has studied the subject can consider the penalty of sin, as Scripturally set forth and defined, too slight a punish- ment. When understood, it is seen to be neither too slight nor too severe, but simply "a just recompense of reward." "The gift of God," says the Apostle, "is eternal life." And that gift, or favor, bestowed upon Adam, and through him upon his pos- terity, was to be lasting only on condition of its proper use, which was to glorify God in their well-being and well-doing, and not to dishonor Him by rebellion and sin. When God creates He reserves both the right and the power to destroy that which He considers unworthy of continuous existence. When man sinned, therefore, God simply withdrew the favor He had
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granted, which had been misused, and death (destruction) fol- lowed, preceded naturally by the dying — pain, sickness, and mental, moral and physical decay.
Had God not provided redemption through Christ, the death penalty which came upon our race in Adam would have been everlasting; but in Divine mercy all have been redeemed from death. Yet all must again, individually, come under the same Divine Law, which changes not; namely, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." — Rom. 6 : 23.
Did our Lord Jesus ever use the expression, eternal torment? or even once hint that He came into the world to save men from eternal torment? No, never! Yet, if this were the truth, and they were in danger of a penalty so terrible for not receiving Him, it would have been neither just nor merciful in Him to have kept back a truth so important. He did tell them, however, that He came to save them from death, from perishing. Death, the penalty of sin, being against all, none could hope for a res- urrection to any future life, but all were hopelessly perishing, unless Christ should redeem them from death, to that which was lost to Adam — to righteousness and its privileges of everlasting- life and favor. The Lord's title, Savior, has a weight, too, in this examination. It does not imply a deliverer, or savior from torment, but a Savior from death. The Lord and the Apostles used the language of the Samaritans, and in that tongue the word for Savior signifies Life-Giver.
What did our Lord say of His mission? we may well inquire. He said that He came "to preach deliverance to the captives." What captives could He refer to but the captives of sin, receiv- ing daily its wages — dying by inches and entering the great prison-house, the tomb ? He said He came to "open the prison- doors." What prison but the tomb? of which the Prophet also had spoken. (See Isa. 61 : 1 ; Luke 4: 18.) He declared that He came that mankind "might have life"; that He came "to give His life a Ransom for many" lives — in order that by believ- ing in Him men "should not perish, but have eternal life" ; and again, "Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life" and "broad is the way that leadeth to destruction." — John 10:10; Matt. 20: 28; John 3: 16; Matt. 7:13.
ft will generally be admitted by Christians claiming to be orthodox that our Lord Jesus redeemed mankind by His death ; that He endured willingly the penalty of man's sins, in order that man might be released from that penalty. "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." "He was wounded for our transgressions ; He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed." — Isa. 53 : 4, 5.
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This being admitted it becomes an easy matter to decide, to an absolute, unquestionable certainty, what the penalty of our sins was, if we know what our Lord Jesus endured "when the chas- tisement for our peace" was inflicted upon His willing head. Is He suffering eternal torment for us? If so, that would thus be proven to be the penalty against our sins. But no one claims this, and the Scriptures teach to the contrary, that our Lord is now in glory, and not in torment, which is incontrovertible proof that the wages of sin is not torment.
But what did our Lord do to secure the cancellation of our sins? What did He give when He laid down our Ransom-price — the price, or penalty, against sinners? Let the Scriptures answer. They repeatedly and explicitly declare that Christ died for our sins; that He gave His life a Ransom to secure life for the condemned sinners; that He bought us with His own precious blood; that for this purpose the Son of God was mani- fested in flesh ; that He might give His flesh for the life of the world; that as by man (Adam) came death, by man ("the Man Christ Jesus") might come the resurrection of the dead. — 1 Cor. 15:3; Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:5,6; Hos. 13:14; 1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Peter 1 : 18, 19; 1 John 3 : 8; John 6: 51 ; 1 Cor. 15:21.
Is there room to question further the clear Bible doctrine that "the wages of sin is death"? Is there room to doubt further either the unscripturalness or the unreasonableness of the heath- enish dogma of eternal torment?
As a supplement to the foregoing excellent discussion we sub- mit the following outline of another writer on the subject: The Wages of Sin — Is It Eternal Life in Torment or Death? — Which?