“Annihilation.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 343, 27 August 1889, Page 2

“Annihilation.”

Mb Sooty delivered the third sermon of the series on Sunday morning. The Church was full and the attention was well sustained during the discourse, which occupied nearly an hour.

The lecturer took for his text Matt. xxy. -46. By way of introduction he referred to the various theories of the destiny of he wicked held outside orthodoxy, and defined the doctrine of annihilation as a theory ’J 110 affirmed that the soul not united to Christ will cease to be, and that the terms , destinetion,’ ‘perdition,’ • condemnation, Ac., are held to express the consignment of the enure nature to complete non-existence. Destruction’ was first dealt with conjoined to « analagous terms ‘ perish ’ and ‘ lost ; having pointed out that these three ter, J® were translations of the one Greek word he proceeded to show that they did not mean extinction. For destruction the 6th chap, of Gen., with the comments in the epistle of Peter, was taken as an illustration to show that al thoug the Antediluvians had been destroyed, tn a at the time of Christ’s death they still existed in prison. The 15th chapter of Luke was selected to show that ‘ lose or lost did not mean annihilation ; the prodigal son was lost to the father, but he had not ceased to exist; the lost sheep was similarly situated. The lecturer claimed that these exactly corresponded with spiritual death, J 0 not to being but to well-being. Matthew IX—l7, was used to illustrate the meaning of ‘ perish ’ The bottles, which formed the subject matter of the text, had not become annihilated, but were perished for the purpose of use. They were useless which corresponded with the state of the sinner, in that he was not fulfilling the function for which he was created. The lecturer followed much the same Pl ft n in dealing with the terms “ consume,’ “ burn,” &<*■,, quoting Scripture to show that it was possible to suffer being consumed, and yet not lose consciousness; urging as conclusive reasons why these phrases do not mean annihilation: (l)-The spirit only enters the next world, and it being immaterial can not be touched by literal fire. (2) The fact that these figures are used to denote extreme suffering, when the subject continues to exist, and even describe himself as burnt and consumed. This was forcibly illustrated by a large number of passagas from the book of Job. It is impossible in the space available to give anything like a complete notice of the number of arguments and texts used to show that the emphatic teaching of Jesus was directly opposed to the doctrine of annihilation. We will content ourselves with a notice of Matt: xxv, which the lecturer claimed to establish hia position of the eternity of punishment. The scene is the judgment day, good and bad are gathered before the judge, the sentence is pronounced—“ These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” The same word is used to express the duration of punishment as the duration of life. The word, although it is used in. the Old Testament when it has a secondary meaning, is never ussd in the New Testament with the meaning of a limited duration. It is the same word that is applied to God, and therefore the existence of the wicked is co-existant with God. Noticing that the term eternal is explained by some as being eternal in its effect, he replied that eternal non-existence would not be punishment, but rather a boon to be desired by the wicked. It was also pointed out that Scripture speaks of them as going away into punishment; this was illustrated by a prisoner in a court going away to fulfil the sentence pronounced by the judge. In closing, the leaturer pointed out that if any of hia hearers were living in wickedness, they were gathering the fuel which should burn in their soul. Hellfire was kindled here, and this was their worm which would never die. Earnestly were his hearers invited to flee from the wrath to come by entering into life by the God provided way, Jesus Christ.