FINAL JUDGMENT, The, C. H. Cayce “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” In this text the word which is translated “everlasting” with reference to the punishment of the wicked is the same word which is translated “eternal” with reference to the life of the righteous. The word means “eternal, everlasting.” See Bagster’s Analytical Greek Lexicon, page 11. It is the nominative or accusative case of the word “aion,” which means “illimitable duration, eternity.” See same book, page 11. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines the word thus: “Perpetual, eternal, for ever, everlasting.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines it thus: “1. Without beginning or end, that which always has been and always will be. 2. Without beginning: a gospel whose subject matter is eternal, i. e„ the saving purpose of God adopted from eternity. 3. Without end, never to cease, everlasting.” Liddell & Scott Greek Lexicon defines it: “Lasting for an age, perpetual, everlasting, eternal.” The new Testament Lexicon by Berry and published by Hinds & Noble, defines the word thus: “1. Without beginning or end, eternal. 2. Without beginning. 3. Without end, everlasting; often with “zon” life, eternal life, denoting life which in its character is essentially eternal.” So much for the meaning of the word; and remember that this word is used to describe, or with reference to, the punishment of the wicked as well as with reference to the life of the righteous.
If the life of the righteous is of illimitable or boundless duration, so is the punishment of the wicked of illimitable or boundless duration. If the punishment of the wicked ever ceases or [pg 266] ends, the life of the righteous will end at the same time, for one is of equal duration with the other. The punishment of the wicked and the life of the righteous are placed in contradistinction from each other — one stands over in opposition to the other. Hence, one must be of equal duration as the other. If the life of the righteous is endless, then the punishment of the wicked must also be endless. For the righteous it is “aionion” life, and for the wicked it is “aionion” punishment. If “aionion” punishment is not “eternal” punishment, then “aionion” life is not “eternal” life. In 1 John 5:11 the same word is used— “that God hath given to us eternal life’— it is “aionion life.” To deny that the punishment of the wicked will be eternal is to deny the plain statement of the Son of God; for He plainly says that they “shall go away into aionion eternal punishment.”
If the doctrine of eternal punishment came from Rome, the Saviour was a Romanist, for He declared that doctrine. The doctrine the brother admits— that the dead occupy an intermediate state— is Romanism, pure and simple. This is Rome’s doctrine of purgatory under a new name. At the death of the body the spirit goes to God who gave it. See Eccl. 12:7. The Saviour said to the thief on the cross, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Paradise is a place of future happiness. In 2 Cor. 12:2-3,4, we find this language: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. The apostle informs us here that the third heaven and paradise are the same.
The London Confession of Faith, put forth by the Baptists in [pg 267] 1689, says (chapter xxxi. Sec. 1): “The bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them; the souls of the righteous then being made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies; and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day; besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.”
This declaration of faith is a positive denial of the Romish heresy of an intermediate state or place for the dead. The man who denies the doctrine of eternal punishment of the wicked, and argues that there is an intermediate state of the dead, does not occupy original Baptist ground, but occupies a position which may be termed a combination of Romanism and Russellism. If he agitates the question, and argues it, thus disturbing the peace of the brotherhood, he should be admonished, and if he will not cease, then he should be promptly excluded. The Primitive Baptist, August 18, 1914.