“But it is not only by this phrase, ‘death,’ that the Old Testament describes the punishment of the ungodly. By every expression in the Hebrew language, significant of loss of life, loss of existence, the resolution of organized substance into its original parts, its reduction to that condition in which it is as though it had never been called into being--by every such expression does the Old Testament describe the end of the ungodly. ‘The destruction of the transgressors and the sinners shall be together:’ ‘prepare them for the _day of slaughter_:’ ‘_the slain_ of the Lord shall be many:’ ‘they shall go forth and look upon _the carcasses_ of the men that have sinned:’ ‘God shall _destroy_ them:’ ‘they shall be _consumed_:’ ‘they shall be _cut off_:’ ‘they shall be rooted _out of the land of the living_:’ ‘_blotted out of the book of life_:’‘_they are not_.’ The Hebrew scholar will see from the above passages that there is no phrase of the Hebrew language significant of all destruction short of that philosophical annihilation of elements which we do not assert, which is not used to denote the end of the ungodly.” _The wicked shall be destroyed._ “The Lord preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.” Ps. 145:20. Here preservation is promised only to those who love God, and in opposition to this, _destruction_ is threatened to the wicked. But human wisdom teaches us that God will preserve the wicked in hell--preserve them for the mere sake of torturing them. Mr. Benson again says:-- “God is therefore present in hell to see the punishment of these rebels. His fiery indignation kindles, and his incensed fury feeds the flame of their torment, while his powerful presence and operation _maintains their being_, and renders their powers most acutely sensible, thus setting the keenest edge upon their pain, and making it cut most intolerably deep.” _The wicked shall perish._ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not _perish_, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. A double enunciation of the truth is couched in this short text. It is that eternal life is to be obtained only through Christ, and that all who do not thus obtain it will eventually perish. John testifies further on the same point in his 1st epistle, 5:11: “And this is the record: that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” From which it follows, as a most natural consequence, that “he that hath not the Son of God _hath not life_.” Verse 12. _The wicked shall go to perdition._ “We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb. 10:39. We either gain the salvation of our souls by a perseverance in faith, and obtain eternal life by a patient continuance in well-doing, Rom. 2:7, or we sink back into perdition, which, is defined to be utter ruin, or _destruction_.