1040. Is There Annihilation at Death?
Is There Annihilation at Death?
"And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment" (Luk_16:23)
We propose to answer this question by bringing before you certain passages of Scripture in Job, in the Psalms, and in Ecclesiastes, which are continually used by some in trying to establish that the wicked cease to exist when they die.
1. Statements taken from the Book of Job.
(1) Job_3:17 : "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."
The passage is hopelessly warped when it is made to teach that the wicked cease from having trouble. The passage teaches that they cease their troubling and there the wearied are at rest. In this life the wicked may trouble us, there they cannot.
(2) Job_16:22 : "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return."
Job in this passage did not mean that he would cease to exist when he had passed from this earth; neither did he mean that he would never come again to the earth. He said positively, as we read in chapter Job_19:25-26, that he would stand again upon the earth. What he is emphasizing is, that he will not return as he was. He will be where he will never come back to sorrow and to suffer and to the persecution of his vain friends.
2. Statements taken from the Psalms:
(1) Psa_49:20 : "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish."
The Psalmist is speaking about a rich man who is rich and the glory of his house increases. He lived on earth and was praised of men, but when he dies he is like the beasts that perish, in the sense that he carries nothing into the age beyond. But David, in speaking of himself, said that God would redeem his soul from the power of sheol and would receive him. David was "laying up treasures in Heaven;" the rich man was going out into eternity as a beast carrying nothing with him.
(2) Psa_37:10 : "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be."
In the 37th Psalm the Holy Spirit through David is urging us to cease from fretting. He says, "The wicked shall soon be cut down." He says, "Evil doers shall be cut off." He says, "The arms of the wicked shall be broken." He says, "The wicked shall perish." He says, "The wicked shall pass away." He never says that they shall cease to exist.
So, in Psa_37:10, he is only stating the fact that the wicked shall not be upon the earth. The "meek shall inherit the earth;" the upright shall have an "inheritance forever;" they who are "blessed of Him shall inherit the earth." The wicked will be cut off.
3. Statements taken from Ecclesiastes.
(1) Ecc_3:19-21 : "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"
The passages in Ecclesiastes are not the statements which God is making concerning the afterworld. They are the statements which are deduced from the search of wisdom. The man who stands at the grave without God and without the Word can never get any farther than the vision of the Book of Ecclesiastes. He is crying: "Who knows?" It is all mystery to him. The Holy Spirit directed the statements of the Book of Ecclesiastes so that we might see the mist that hangs over the eyes of the man who has not Christ.
The Book discusses what is "good for a man under the sun;" the Book discusses what a "man has of his labor which he does under the sun," and, again, the Book discusses "what shall be after a man under the sun," but in every instance the questions are answered from the philosophical viewpoint. The Book presents the conclusions of a man who lives under the sun; and God is thus showing us the vanity of vanities which overshadows everything that man is and does.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR