"But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
Luke 12:5

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  Endless Punishment  

A sober look at the eternal torment of those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior.

"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" (Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25).

"The rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments" (Luke 16:22,23).

"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).

"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41,42).

"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?...Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22,23).

"He that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God...Unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven" (Luke 12:9,10).

"Woe unto you, ye blind guides. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:16,33).

"Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matthew 26:24).

"The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers" (Luke 12:46).

"He that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16).

"Thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell" (Matthew 11:23).

"At the end of the world, the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:49,50).

"Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come" (John 8:21).

"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28,29).

To all this, add the description of the manner in which Christ will discharge the office of the Eternal Judge. John the Baptist represents him as one "whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12).

And Christ describes himself as a householder who will say to the reapers, "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them" (Mattewh 13:30); as a fisherman casting a net into the sea, "and gathering of every kind: which, when it was full, he drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away" (Matthew 13:47,48); as the bridegroom who took the wise virgins "with him to the marriage," and shut the door upon the foolish (Matthew 25:10); and as the man travelling into a far country who delivered talents to his servants, and afterwards reckons with them, rewarding the "good and faithful," and casting the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, where "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:19-30).

Let the reader now ask himself the question: Do these representations, and this phraseology, make the impression that the future punishment of sin is to be remedial and temporary ? Are they adapted to make this impression? Were they intended to make this impression? Is it possible to believe that that Holy and Divine Person who uttered these fearful and unqualified warnings, eighteen hundred years ago, respecting the destiny of wicked men and devils, knew that a time is coming when there will be no wicked men and devils in the universe of God, and no place of retributive torment?

Did Jesus of Nazareth hold an esoteric doctrine of hell, a different view of the final state of the wicked, from that which the common and natural understanding of his language would convey to his hearers, and has conveyed to the great majority of his readers in all time? Did he know that in the far-off future, a day will come when those tremendous scenes which he described, the gathering of all mankind, the separation of the evil from the good, the curse pronounced upon the former and the blessing upon the latter, will be looked back upon by all mankind as "an unsubstantial pageant faded," as a dream that is passed, and a watch in the night?

— By William G. T. Shed

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