1 Peter 4:17-19 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us… I. NOT ANNIHILATION. 1. Future punishment of some kind seems essential to the moral government of God. 2. The fact of there being various degrees in punishment makes it impossible for that punishment to be annihilation. 3. All that is said about the sinner's doom shuts out the idea of annihilation (Luke 12:4, 5; Matthew 13:41, 42; Mark 9:43). II. NOT MERELY A TEMPORARY PUNISHMENT. The most general argument brought against eternal punishment is that it is opposed to the perfect justice of God. "The punishment," they say, "being eternal must at last exceed the sin." In order to understand aright the nature of the sin, you must bear in mind the being against whom the sin is committed. It is against Jehovah, the Infinite One, and against one to whom we are under infinite obligations. "But," say others, "God is infinitely merciful, and the very idea of eternal suffering is opposed to that attribute." it may be according to your idea of that mercy, and yet not against that mercy itself. Remember God is as just as He is merciful. That mercy can permit eternal suffering is proved by the fact that it does in the case of Satan and the rebel angels. There will be nothing in hell to refine or alter the sinner. Hell fire is no "refiner's fire," to purge the dross away. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? |
    |