Question — Upon what texts do the holders of non-eternity of punishment base their views, and will you explain them and give some passages which prove this doctrine. — W.P.
The more advanced of those who deny the truth of eternity of punishment, do not appeal to any passage in the Bible: that Book is discarded by them as being without authority. R. J. Campbell tells us that what Paul wrote, for instance, should have less weight with us than the opinions of a pious mother; so that we are not surprised to have from his pen the statement, “Perhaps it would help to clear up the subject if I were to say frankly, before going any further, that there is no such thing as punishment, no far-off Judgment Day, no great white throne, and no Judge external to ourselves.” He makes this emphatic assertion without a shadow of proof, and has no authority for it except his own personal feelings on the subject. No earnest seeker after the truth will be satisfied with that.
There are others, of whom the late Canon Farrar was representative, who build up a doctrine of salvation after death upon the much discussed text, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:18-20).
Their interpretation of this is that the gospel is preached to men after death, but there is no other passage in the Bible to support this view, moreover it is in direct contradiction to several plain scriptures, about which there can be no question. For instance, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment” (Heb. 9:27).
“Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
“And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26).
We know that there are no contradictory teachings in the Holy Scriptures, so that this interpretation of the passage must be rejected, and one in keeping with the whole body of scriptural truth sought in its place.
The whole question hangs upon the time when the preaching to the spirits now in prison took place, and about this there ought not to be any difficulty.
In this same epistle, Peter speaks of the Spirit of Christ testifying in the prophets (2 Peter 1:10-11). When did the Spirit of Christ — the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) — testify in the prophets? When they uttered their prophecies. When did Christ in (as it should be) the Spirit preach to the spirits who are in prison? When Noah uttered his prophecy of the coming flood. It was not Noah’s word merely that they rejected, but the warning of Him who is the Eternal Word.
This is confirmed in the account of the preaching in Genesis 6:3, where we read, “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man... yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” And so in great longsuffering the Spirit of Christ — the Holy Spirit — continued to strive for 120 years, but men continued disobedient, and the door of mercy closed, and closed for them forever. There is not the slightest ground in this passage upon which to build the doctrine of hope for those who die without mercy (Heb. 10:28, 29), and in their sins (John 8:21).
The following passages speak clearly upon this solemn subject — everlasting punishment — and need no comment —
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal (the same word in both oases) “ (Matt. 25:46).
“Into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched “ (Mark 9:43, 44).
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power “ (2 Thess. 1:9).
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).