The Rich Man and Lazarus
By J. N. Andrews
ARE the
wicked dead now being punished? This is a question of awful solemnity, and
should not be treated as a matter of speculation and idle curiosity. For the
greater part of mankind live in neglect
of the great duties of religion, if not in open contempt
of its most solemn commands. Such has ever been the fact with our fallen race.
This vast throng of sinful men for long ages have been pouring through the
gates of death, and its dark portals hide them from our further view. What is
the condition of this innumerable multitude of impenitent dead? Where are they?
and what now is their real state?
To this
question two answers are returned: 1. They are now suffering the torments of
the damned. This is the answer of the so-called orthodox creeds. 2. They are
now sleeping in the dust of the earth, awaiting the resurrection to damnation.
This answer is believed by many candid Bible students to be the harmonious
teaching of the Scriptures on this subject. Which of these two answers is the
true and proper one?
There is
no statement in the Bible relating to the wicked dead in general, where they
are in any way represented as in a state or place of torment. Nor is there any
instance in the Bible where men are threatened that they shall, if wicked,
enter an abode of misery at death. Even the warning of Jesus, in Matt. 10:28,
which is thought to contain the strongest proof of the soul's immortality that
can be found in all the Bible, says not one word concerning the suffering of
the soul in hades, the place of the dead, but relates wholly to what shall be
inflicted upon "both soul and body in gehenna" (the Greek word here
rendered hell), the place of punishment for the resurrected wicked.
There
being no general statement in the Bible
representing the wicked dead as now in torment, and no instance in which the
living wicked are threatened with consignment to the furnace of fire till after
the Judgment, we now search out the particular
cases which may be thought to teach such a fact. There are just two of these
cases which may be cited to prove that some of the wicked dead are now in
torment; and from these, if at all, the torment of the wicked dead in general
must be deduced. These cases are the Sodomites; "set forth for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire;" Jude 7; and the rich man lifting
up his eyes in torment; Luke 16:19-31. These are the only cases that can be
cited from the Scriptures in proof that the wicked dead are now undergoing the
punishment of their sins.
The case of the Sodomites first claims our attention. The text
reads thus: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like
manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh,
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
Jude 7.
The present tense is used throughout the verse. It occurs twice in
speaking of the sin of Sodom, and twice with reference to its punishment. This
text does not teach that the men of Sodom are now engaged in the sinful acts
referred to; why should it be understood to teach that they are now receiving
their retribution? Does the apostle mean to say that the Sodomites are now in
the flames of eternal fire? The clause, "suffering the vengeance of
eternal fire," is modified by the words, "set forth for an
example," which immediately precede it. In fact, the real meaning of the
apostle in what he says of the sufferings of the Sodomites can only be
determined by giving this phrase, "set forth for an example," its
proper bearing. To be "set for an example," to wicked men,
"suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," one of two things must be
true: 1. They must now be in a state of suffering in plain view of the
inhabitants of the earth; or, 2. They must be somewhere in the Scriptures set
forth in the very act of suffering the vengeance of fire from heaven. If the
first of these views be correct, then the Sodomites are indeed now in torment.
But that view is not correct; for the very place where Sodom was burned is now
covered by the Dead Sea.
That the second view is correct, is manifest from Gen. 19:24-28:
"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from
the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and
all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his
[Lot's] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And
Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the
Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the
plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a
furnace."
Here the Sodomites are set forth for an example in the very act of
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Are they to this day in that fire?
Peter bears testimony, and it is the more valuable in this case
because the chapter containing it is almost an exact parallel to the epistle of
Jude. Thus he says: "Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah INTO ASHES
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after
should live ungodly." 2 Pet. 2:6. Peter thus shows that the fire did its
proper office upon the men of Sodom, and that they were not in his day alive in
its flames. Their case is an example of what God will do to all the wicked
after the resurrection to damnation, when fire shall descend out of heaven upon
them, and the whole earth become a lake of fire. Rev. 20; 2 Pet. 3; Mal.
4.
The testimony of Jeremiah, which represents the punishment of
Sodom as comparatively brief, must complete this evidence: "For the
punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the
punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown
as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." Lam. 4:6.
The language of Jude concerning the Sodomites has, therefore, no
relation to their condition in death, and cannot be made to furnish evidence
that the wicked dead are now in a state of torment. There remains, therefore,
the case of a single individual - the rich man - out of which to deduce the
doctrine that the wicked dead are now in the lake of fire. This is certainly a
fact worthy of note.
TO BE CONTINUED….
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