Editor’s Note: With these three objections, we end a section of 24 objections related to the state of the dead, a section Nichol entitled, “Mortal Man.”
Objection 90: The Bible says that hell-fire will not he “quenched” and that "their worm dies not." (See Mark 9:47-48 and Isa. 66:24.) This proves the immortality of the soul.
We have dealt with the belief in an eternally burning hell in answering Objection 88, and will not revisit those arguments here. It should be obvious that language such as “worms not dying” and “fires not being quenched” is figurative language, and that the lessons are spiritual.
The Lord through Jeremiah declared to the ancient Jews, "If you will not hearken unto me . . . then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof [of Jerusalem], and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." Jer. 17:27. (Note that in the Septuagint the same Greek root is used for “quenched” as in Mark 9.) In 2 Chronicles 36:19-21 is recorded the fulfillment of this prophecy, when, in 586 BC, the Babylonians put the city to the torch.
Is that fire still burning? Are those Jewish palaces ever consuming, but never quite consumed? Then why should anyone wish to force from Christ's statement in Mark 9 the conclusion that the judgment fire will never end, that the wicked will ever be consuming, but never quite consumed?
A God who tortures people throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity for the sins of a brief earthly life is not a God who could properly be described as “love.” 1 John 4:8. A “God” like that is no god at all, but rather the devil. Moreover, there is something diabolical about a Christian who would want God to torture the unsaved for millions upon millions of years. That is not the spirit of Christ or Christianity.
Objection 91: The doctrine that a Christian at death goes down into the grave, there to lie unconscious until the resurrection day, is a gloomy belief.
Whether something is or is not “gloomy” depends upon subjective feelings or emotion; doctrine must be founded upon scriptural proofs. The question is not whether a doctrine appears gloomy or bright to our way of thinking, but whether it is taught in the Bible. That said, the doctrine of never-ending torment for the unsaved is far worse than gloomy; it is diabolical or literally Satanic.
But the doctrine often called “soul sleep” is not gloomy. From the point of view of the dead, there is no difference between it and popular theology. In the immortal soul doctrine, a person dies and, at his next conscious thought, he is in heaven with God; in our doctrine of conditional immortality, a person dies and, in his next conscious thought, he is resurrected with a glorified body and is being caught up to heaven to be with Christ.
Is a sleeping man conscious of the passage of time, or of his condition in sleep? What do those who “sleep in the dust of the earth" (Dan. 12:2) know of the passing of millennia, or of the fact that the earth is their bed? They die, and in their next conscious thought Christ is calling them to "come forth" from the grave. John 5:28, 29.
It is obvious that the immortal soul doctrine is intended to comfort us, who are alive and remain. We like to think of the dearly departed in “a better place” and the grave doesn’t seem like a better place to us, even though the dead are not conscious of their surroundings or the passage of time.
But the immortal soul doctrine would not comfort us if we paused to think it through. Every minister preaching a funeral oration, if he can get away with it without provoking audible mirth, preaches the deceased into heaven. But what if—just what if—our dearly departed (let’s call him John Jones, Jr.) was killed attempting an armed robbery, or in a drug deal that went bad, or he overdosed, or he got drunk and wrapped his car around a tree at 90 mph, or he suffered a fatal heart attack while in bed with his mistress while his wife was at home?
Does any preacher say, “John Jones, Jr., is now beginning his first course of torture in Hell, and will be suffering throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.” I’d like to see that happen one day. Ask that man’s family whether the doctrine of “soul sleep” is “gloomier” than thinking about their son being tortured in Hell throughout all eternity. You might get a different answer.
Or let us suppose that John Jones, Sr., dies and his wayward progeny lives on. Is heaven a joyful place for the elder Jones as he gazes down upon his wastrel son? While on earth, Jones, Sr., might be able to do something to reform his son, but as a disembodied spirit, he can only look on helplessly as his child hurries to eternal destruction. And then, when the son finally dies, the father's anguish is only multiplied by the thought that his son has now been consigned to the endless tortures of hell-fire. All this logically follows from the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if we pause briefly to think about it—which is why most people never do!
In view of this, we marvel that an objection based on sentiment should ever be raised against the doctrine called "soul sleep." Any thought of death is tinged with sorrow and gloom, for death and the grave are old enemies. But is the sadness really lessened by belief in the immortal-soul doctrine? On the whole, no. Both the Bible and sentiment agree in favor of the doctrine of unconsciousness in the grave until the resurrection day.
Objection 92: The Adventist doctrine that when a man dies he lies silent and unconscious in the grave until the resurrection day is un-Scriptural, illogical, and gross, as compared with the doctrine held by Christians in general that the real man is an immortal soul that departs from the body at death.
So we’ve gone from “gloomy” to “gross,” but we still seem to be within the jurisdiction of sentiment and feeling, and in that territory nothing trumps the problem of an eternally burning hell. No other doctrine has ever brought such reproach upon the name of God and of Christianity. It is said that Robert Ingersoll after listening, when a boy, to a sermon on the kind of judgment God would mete out to sinners, exclaimed, "If that is God, I hate Him." The arguments of all the Christian apologists who have attempted to harmonize this dogma with the universal and deep-seated belief in a loving God fall far short of their goal. This is the dark spot in apologetics.
Another problem the eternal hell doctrine presents is the lack of completion. The Christian doctrine of the restoration of all things requires that God's plan for the salvation of man and the conquest of evil should bring about the complete restoration of the state of universal holiness and happiness that existed before sin came into the universe. (Rev. 21:5 “Behold, I make all things new”; Isa. 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”)
But if there be an eternal Hell, then we have not the annihilation but merely the segregation of evil. There is still sin and suffering in some corner of God’s perfectly re-created paradise. The former would still be remembered and come into mind—and in a painful way for the saved in heaven who have loved ones continually suffering torment.
How much better the Adventist doctrine, in which the unsaved living are killed by the brightness of Christ’s coming, and the unsaved dead are not resurrected until the end of the millennium. The saints are taken to heaven for the millennium, and during that time, the “books of heaven” are opened, each case examined, and all are satisfied that God has judged correctly in every case. The saved will have one thousand years to go through the lives of those who were not saved before judgment is executed.
Then, at the end of the millennium, the New Jerusalem descends to earth, the unsaved dead are all resurrected, and Satan is set loose. Rev. 20:7-10. It is at this time that “every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:10-11. Everyone will admit that Christ’s judgment was just and fair.
Then, the unsaved will be cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 21:8. Some will be consumed instantaneously, some in mere seconds, some in minutes, a few in hours, and a very few, other than Satan himself, in days. But eventually all are consumed and reduced to ashes. Then the world is made anew, without any trace of sin or evil. Rev. 21:1-5.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” Rev. 22:1-5.
The last paragraph of The Great Controversy reads:
“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”