EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT - THE NATURE

EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT

The Nature of the Punishment

• Our Lord uses three terms to describe it

Outer darkness - Matt. 25:30 "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

2 Pet. 2:17 Exclusion from the immediate presence of God.
"These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever."

Undying worm - Mark 9:47-48 Gnawing of remorse and conscience.

"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Unquenchable fire - Mark 9:47-48 Internal burning forever of men's sinful passions with no body to execute them.

"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

1 Cor. 7:9 than to burn - middle voice

"But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."

• Are these terms to be taken literally?

Doesn't matter much how you take them.
The symbol or figure is always less than the thing symbolized.

Cf. Communion

Literal but not material - arg.
Christ deliberately chose the terms - darkness, worm, fire.
Adds to each an idea which magnifies the reality.

Mark 9:47-48 the darkness is "outer," for with fire you have light. Fire is "not quenched" worm is "undying."

James 3:6 suggests the meaning of "Gehenna fire." Fire here is certainly not material fire.

"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."

Raging fire of human hatred, and other passions.
Sin is seated in the spirit, not the body.

Body is only the instrument by which the passion is satisfied.

cf. Demons - Matt. 8:29 f.f.

"And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"

to lose the body is torment for the body is the instrument for the desires to be carried out or performed.

cf. the "second death." where there is permanent disembodiment. Each person makes his own hell by accumulating desires over the life and now has no instrument to perform or fulfill those desires.