The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IVMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IV
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
Here, then, we have the result in the case of every one who believes
in Jesus. He shall never perish, but possesses everlasting life. But
who can attempt to unfold all that is included in this word "perish"?
What mortal tongue can set forth the horrors of the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched"? We believe, assuredly, that none but the One who used
the word, in speaking to Nicodemus, can fully expound it to anyone;
but we feel called upon to bear our decided and unequivocal testimony
as to what He has taught on the solemn truth of eternal punishment. We
have occasionally referred to this subject, but we believe it demands
a formal notice; and inasmuch as the word "_perish_" occurs in the
passage which has been occupying our thoughts, we cannot do better
than call the reader's attention to it.
It is a serious and melancholy fact that the enemy of souls and of the
truth of God is leading thousands, both in Europe and America, to call
in question the momentous fact of the everlasting punishment of the
wicked. This he does on various grounds, and by various arguments,
adapted to the habits of thought and moral condition and intellectual
standpoint of individuals. Some he seeks to persuade that God is too
kind to send anyone to a place of torment. It is contrary to His
benevolent mind and His beneficent nature to inflict pain on any of
His creatures.
Now, to all who stand, or affect to stand, upon this ground of
argument, we would suggest the important inquiry, "What is to be done
with the sins of those who die impenitent and unbelieving?" Whatever
there may be in the idea that God is too kind to send sinners to hell,
it is certain that He is too holy to let sin into heaven. He is "of
purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity" (Hab. i.
13). God and evil cannot dwell together. This is plain. How, then, is
the case to be met? If God cannot let sin into heaven, what is to be
done with the sinner who dies in his sins? He must perish! But what
does this mean? Does it mean annihilation--that is, the utter
extinction or blotting out of the very existence of body and soul?
Nay, reader, this cannot be. Many would like this, no doubt. "Let us
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," would, alas, suit many thousands
of the sons and daughters of pleasure who think only of the present
moment, and who roll sin as a sweet morsel under their tongue. There
are millions on the surface of the globe who are bartering their
eternal happiness for a few hours of guilty pleasure, and the crafty
foe of mankind seeks to persuade such that there is no such place as
hell, no such thing as the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone;
and in order to obtain a footing for this fatal suggestion, he bases
it upon the plausible and imposing notion of the kindness of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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