ANOTHER question which we wish to notice is this: “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17. The Bible answer to this, its own question, is: “They are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction.” Philippians 3:18, 19. “Them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9. Peter also tells of the “perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7. Perdition is defined to be “utter destruction.” There would not be space in an article of reasonable length to quote the bare texts without note or comment, that destruction is the end of them that obey not the gospel of God. We can only give some indication of the evidence on this point by a summary. Nineteen times the word of God says they shall be “destroyed;” seven times it says they shall go to “perdition;” thirty-four times it says they shall “die,” and this with reference alone to the second death; twenty times it says they shall “perish;” eight times it says they shall be “consumed;” four times it says they shall be “devoured;” seven times it says they shall come to an end; ten times it says they shall be burned up or “utterly burned;” three times it says they shall be as nothing; once it says “the wicked shall not be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Psalm 37:10 [sic.].SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.1

Now when the Scripture says so plainly and so repeatedly that the wicked shall be destroyed, and utterly destroyed; that they shall die, perish, be consumed, devoured, come to an end, be burned up, shall come to nothing, and shall not be, and that there will be no place for him if he should be; then how can the idea of eternal torment be true? If those words of the Scripture do not show that the wicked shall perish, that he shall come cease to exist, then what do they mean? If these Scriptures do not show that the wicked shall cease to exist, then how could God make known such a thing if he wanted to tell to men that the wicked should perish and should not be?SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.2

Then in the face of scores of passages of Scripture that show that the wicked shall be destroyed, etc., how can it be that, in the almost universal doctrine of Christians, eternal life is given to the wicked. True, by this doctrine they are to remain in misery eternally without dying; but if the wicked live eternally, that is eternal life, and the fact that they are in misery, does not in the least affect the duration of their existence. But against such doctrine there stands the word of God that “the wages of sin is death,” and if the wicked live eternally even in torment, then there can be no such thing as death. Again the Scripture speaks of a time when there shall be no more pain (Revelation 21:4); but if the wicked are tormented eternally there never can be a time when there shall be no more pain.SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.3

Again we ask, How then can it be that in the beliefs of men eternal life is given to the wicked? How is it that, in spite of the plain Bible answer to the question as to what the end shall be of them that obey not the gospel of God, so many are perplexed upon the question? The perplexity on this question arises from the same source that it does on all the other questions which we have examined, that is, from the doctrine which we have examined, that is, from the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. As a Doctor of Divinity once said, “If we believe in the immortality of the soul we must believe in the eternal torment of the wicked.”SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.4

Immortal means “exempt from death,” “exempt from liability to die.” It is the doctrine of the unconditional immortality of man, therefore, which gives eternal life to the wicked. But such a view cannot be held consistently with the Bible. This is plain from the few texts cited, and the Bible terms referred to above. And that the doctrine of the immorality of the soul may be still held, the language of the Bible has to be, and is, forced into channels where that of no other book would be allowed to go.SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.5

Words when found in the Bible are made to mean exactly contrary to what they mean when found in any other place in human language. And all to sustain the dogma of the immortality of the soul. But that is just where this method of interpretation belongs. It was the introduction of this doctrine into the Christian church, that created the necessity for this scheme of interpretation. The one man who, more than any other, is responsible for it was Origen, who lived from A.D. 185 to 253. Says Mosheim:—SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.6

“The Christian doctors who had applied themselves to the study of letters and philosophy, soon abandoned the frequented paths, and wandered in the devious wilds of fancy. The Egyptians [Alexandrians] distinguished themselves in this new method of explaining the truth.... Origen was at the head of this speculative tribe. This great man, enchanted by the charms of the Platonic philosophy, set it up as the test of all religion, and imagined that the reasons of each doctrine were to be found in that favorite philosophy, and their nature and extent to be determined by it.... He alleged that it was not in their literal force and import that the true meanings of the sacred writers were to be sought, but in a mysterious and hidden sense... In this devious path he displays the most ingenious strokes of fancy, though generally at the expense of truth, whose divine simplicity is rarely discernible through the cobweb of allegory. Origen expresses himself in the following manner. Origen expresses himself in the following manner: ‘The source of many evils lies in adhering to the carnal or external part of Scripture. Those who do so shall not attain to the kingdom of God. The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written.’ But the philosophy which this great man embraced with such zeal was one of the sources of his delusion. He could not find in the Bible the opinions he had adopted, as long as he interpreted that sacred book according to its literal sense.”—Church History, century 2, part 2, chap. 3, paragraphs 1, 5.SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.7

There is exposed the secret of the whole matter. “He could not find in the Bible the opinions he had adopted.” What were those opinions? He was “enchanted by the charms of the Platonic philosophy.” And that was the immortality of the soul. Now in Plato’s discussion of the nature of the soul, he maintains that it is imperishable, indestructible, immortal, deathless, etc., etc. But the Bible, speaking of wicked men, says they shall “die,” “they shall utterly perish,” their “end is destruction,” that man is “mortal,” etc. It is not at all strange, therefore, that Origen could not find in the Bible the opinions he had adopted, because those opinions, and the statements of the Bible, are as entirely opposites as it is possible for things to be. And so, not finding any support in the Scriptures for this doctrine, he invented a scheme by which he could find not only that, but whatever he wanted. That is, to give a meaning to the Bible language directly opposite to what it says. And Origen’s method of interpretation is perpetuated to this day by those who attempt to maintain, by the Scriptures, the immortality of the soul, and the consequent eternal life of the wicked. However, this is not strange, because, as the doctrine was dependent wholly upon this scheme of interpretation for its birth into the Christian church, so, without that scheme, it could not live there for a day.SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.8

The Bible taken as it is, therefore, is clear on the question, “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” The word of God says, their “end is destruction.” That word says, they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;” and “neither shall there by any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”SITI January 6, 1887, page 7.9

“The Ten Kingdoms in the Dark Ages” The Signs of the Times 13, 1, pp. 3, 4.

“The Financial Results of that Paper Carnival” The Signs of the Times 13, 1, pp. 7, 8.