Everlasting Punishment


One of the classic features of Nineteenth Century Liberalism was a denial of the traditional doctrine of everlasting punishment. Sadly, this error is now spreading into the evangelical camp. Today’s world regards belief in hell as terribly old-fashioned. People mock the ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers of the past and any who would follow in their footsteps are to be despised as extreme fundamentalists. When did you last hear a sermon on hell? Are some of our ministers embarrassed and ashamed of the biblical doctrine of eternal damnation? If not, why has it become so rare to hear preachers proclaiming this doctrine and warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come?

Modern Evangelicals
Several modern evangelical theologians such as John Stott, Michael Green, John Wenham and Philip Hughes, have rejected the idea that the wicked will suffer forever in hell. These writers are influential, and some of their writings on other subjects are excellent. Instead of the traditional doctrine of hell they teach ‘conditional immortality’. This is the idea that man’s soul is not immortal. Only those who believe in Jesus live forever. The souls of the rest, when they die, are kept in prison until the resurrection when all are raised and judged. The wicked are punished for their sins and then destroyed out of existence. Hell is temporary in the sense that those who are cast into it are annihilated. While we cannot enter fully into the arguments here, there are certain Scripture passages which clearly teach that hell is a place of everlasting suffering. In Revelation 14:10-11 it is stated concerning the one who receives the mark of the beast: “He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name”. This is neither temporal punishment nor annihilation.

Compassionate Preaching
McCheyne said that hell should be preached with compassion. The preacher should have tears in his eyes. How true! But some go on from there to use this as an excuse for never preaching hell because they cannot do so with tears. Surely it is wrong to preach on the love of Christ and His death for us without tears in our eyes. But when did your minister last weep while proclaiming the love of God? Does that mean he must stop preaching Christ? Surely the proper response is to preach the whole Word of God and to plead with the Lord to bestow upon us the appropriate emotions. Whatever we preach we never do it as it should be done. However, the Holy Spirit takes our imperfect sermons and blesses them to souls. To God be the glory! Let us preach the whole truth.
Great stress is laid these days upon the love of God. It is indeed impossible fully to proclaim the infinite greatness of this wonderful attribute of God. Yet it is wrong to emphasise the love of God at the expense of His justice. We must declare the “good news”, but the Bible always sets this in the context of the wrath of God. Indeed it is just because God is angry with sinners, that the gospel is such good news. Only when people are convicted of their sins and of the wrath to come, will they repent and believe in Jesus. Many forget that the Holy Spirit’s work in conversion is to “reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jn.16:8).

‘Gentle Jesus’
John Wenham has written: “I think that any ordinary decent person who is groping his way through life, ignorant of God,...is helped best by introducing him or her to the Jesus of the gospels in his gentleness, truthfulness and power....We must see that the love of God gets through....To any normal way of thinking this (everlasting torment) depicts God as a terrible sadist, not as a loving Father”. Yet no one preached hell more than Jesus. It comes into many of His parables. When there was a terrible massacre of Galileans by Pilate the Saviour pressed the point home, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk.13:3). In describing the end of the world He refers to the unbelievers to whom it shall be said: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mat.25:41).
The widespread rejection of eternal punishment is something recent. It is linked to the sentimentality of the age, the increasing confidence in man’s goodness, the stressing of the love of God at the expense of His holiness and the belief in the universal fatherhood of God. Wenham says: “I cannot see that endless punishment is either loving or just....It is a doctrine which I don’t know how to preach without negating the loveliness and glory of God. It is a doctrine which makes the Inquisition look reasonable. It seems a flight from reality and common sense....I believe that endless torment is a hideous and unscriptural doctrine which has been a terrible burden on the church for many centuries and a terrible blot on her presentation of the gospel. I should indeed be happy if, before I die, I could help in sweeping it away”.
Wenham here admits that eternal torment is the doctrine which the church has held in the past. His argument is that we today are more enlightened than our forebears and have a better understanding of the Scriptures. Surely it is dangerous to reject the doctrine of eternal punishment preached for two thousand years and put our confidence in the theologians of today. The Spirit has been teaching the church down through the centuries. Further, what right has the sinner to judge what is the appropriate punishment for sin? It is wrong to measure God by our standards of what is and is not acceptable. If we had eyes to see we would recognise the wickedness of sin and the awfulness of God’s wrath in the punishment of His only begotten Son on the cross.

Faithful Preaching
The faithful and sensitive preaching of hell provides the context for proclaiming the good tidings. We call on men and women to flee from the wrath to come and proclaim to them the wonderful provision that God has made in the gospel. The man-centred Arminianism of today cannot accept a sovereign God, glorious in justice and holiness. God is love and this is interpreted as if there were nothing else in God but love. The preaching of hell is against the spirit of our age and is offensive to the natural man. Yet God blessed this doctrine in the great revivals of the past. Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, is a classic example. Also in the preaching of the early church recorded in Acts, the note of judgment and coming wrath is the context for the exhortation to repent and believe. With Ezekiel of old we cry: “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek.33:11). With John the Baptist we preach: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand....And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Mat.3:2,10). With Jesus we warn: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Mat.7:13). With Peter we plead: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). With Paul, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men....As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2Cor.5:11,20).


Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.

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