Is Future Punishment Everlasting?

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. MATTHEW 25:46

This is the hardest chapter in the book, and it would be dishonest to leave it out. Torrey preached two Sunday-evening sermons on hell at the Church of the Open Door — Is There a Literal Hell? and Is Future Punishment Everlasting? — and they close The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith. His sermon Where Will You Spend Eternity? presses the same subject on the conscience of an unconverted hearer. He spoke of it more directly than almost any preacher would today. This chapter sets out what he taught, why he taught it, and where a reader needs care.

Why he preached it

Torrey did not preach hell because he enjoyed it. He began the first sermon by saying that God does not wish anyone to perish, but that God has made us with the power of choice, and some will choose darkness. He was sorry they would. He would be willing to die to save them, he said; the Lord Jesus did die to save them. Then he gave his reason for the sermon: “I am going to preach about hell to keep as many of you as possible from going there.”

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? EZEKIEL 33:11

That is the right place to begin. Whatever else is said about this doctrine, the God of the Bible takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and the preacher who speaks of judgement without that note has misrepresented Him.

How to settle the question

Torrey refused two ways of settling the matter. We cannot decide it by counting heads, he said, because majorities in science, philosophy and theology have often been wrong. And we cannot decide it by reasoning about what a good God must do, because finite creatures cannot judge what an infinitely wise and holy God will do. All we know about the future is what God has told us. “One ounce of God’s revelation,” he said, “is worth more than a thousand tons of man’s speculation.”

So the question is only: what does the Bible teach?

What the Bible says

Torrey went first to the words of Jesus, who spoke of hell more than anyone else in Scripture.

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go 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

He took Matthew 25:46 as decisive for the question of duration. The same word describes the punishment of the wicked and the life of the righteous. He examined it with some care, noting that of its many uses in the New Testament most are in the phrase eternal life, which no one supposes to end. If the one is endless, he argued, so is the other.

He turned also to Paul, who speaks of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and to Revelation, where the smoke of torment ascends for ever and ever.

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 2 THESSALONIANS 1:9

Tried to escape it

The most striking passage in the sermon is a personal one. “Time and time again,” Torrey said, “I have come up to this awful doctrine and tried to find some way of escape from it.” He did not find one. When he determined to be honest with the Bible and with himself, he said, he went back to his work with a heavier burden for souls.

That admission matters. Torrey was not a cold man reciting a dogma. He was a man who did not want this doctrine to be true, looked hard for a way out, and believed Scripture did not give him one. Whatever the reader concludes, that is an honest way to come to it.

He drew a practical conclusion. Those who truly believe in the eternal loss of the impenitent, he said, work as they never worked before for the salvation of the lost. To weaken the doctrine is to weaken the zeal.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. MATTHEW 10:28

Where care is needed

Here the reader must think carefully, and there are several things to say.

First, the substance of Torrey’s teaching is the historic teaching of most of the church through most of its history: that there is a real judgement, that it is final, and that those who reject Christ will be separated from God forever. Jesus Himself taught it with great seriousness. It should not be lightly set aside.

Second, Torrey’s imagery was more literal and more lurid than Scripture requires. He preached of the impenitent looking out after ten million years and seeing no end. Scripture uses the language of fire, darkness, the worm and exclusion from God’s presence, and faithful interpreters have differed on how literally to take each image. What is certain is the reality and the seriousness, not every detail of the picture.

Third, some who love Christ and hold Scripture as God’s Word have concluded that the wicked will finally be destroyed rather than endlessly tormented. Torrey spoke of such people harshly, and claimed that anyone who holds a looser view loses power with God. That is an overstatement. The question should be argued from Scripture, with charity.

Fourth, his tone. He compared hell to the war then raging in Europe and told his hearers that hell was far worse, and that it was the destiny of some of them unless they repented soon. It is hard to read. But the reader should remember that he was speaking to an evening congregation that included many who were not Christians, and that he believed with his whole heart that they were in danger. Silence, if he was right, would have been the cruellest thing he could do.

And finally, the right response to this doctrine is not a debate but tears. Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. LUKE 19:41–42

Torrey ended by urging his hearers to accept Christ at once. That is still the point. The God who warns is the God who sent His Son not to condemn the world but to save it. The Judge of all the earth will do right. Our part is to flee to Christ ourselves and to plead with others while it is called today.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. JOHN 3:17

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read what Jesus Himself says about judgement in Matthew 25:31–46 and Mark 9:42–48. Let His seriousness, not anyone else’s rhetoric, shape your view.

2. Ask honestly whether you have quietly set this doctrine aside because it is uncomfortable, or because Scripture requires it.

3. Name three people you know who do not know Christ, and begin praying for them by name daily.

4. If you speak of judgement to others, ask God to let you do it with tears and not with harshness.

5. Thank God that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

A PRAYER

Holy and righteous God, You have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. You sent Your Son not to condemn the world but to save it.

I tremble at the words of Jesus about judgement. Keep me from explaining them away, and keep me from speaking them without love.

Thank You that in Christ I am safe, not by my goodness but by His blood.

Give me a burden for those who are lost, and courage and tenderness to plead with them while it is called today. Amen.