Here and Hereafter

2. — EVERLASTING FIRE

Matthew 25:41: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.” What is said to be everlasting? Wicked men? — No. The Devil? — No. His angels? — No. But only the fire. And how can the application of this term to the fire prove the indestructibility and eternal life of those who are cast therein? It may be answered, What propriety could there be in keeping the fire everlastingly, if its victims were not to be eternally the objects of its power? And we reply. This word is sometimes used to denote simply the results and not the continuance of the process. Everlasting fire may not be fire which is everlastingly burning, but fire which produces results which are everlasting in their nature. The victims cast therein will be consumed; and if from that destruction they are never to be released, if that fiery work is never to be undone, it is to them an “everlasting fire.” This will appear more fully when we come to speak of the “eternal fire” through which God’s vengeance was visited on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. HHMLD 277.1

There are several passages of scripture in which the same word, aionios, is unquestionably used in this sense of results, not of continuous action. In Hebrews 5:9 we read of “eternal salvation;” that is, a salvation which is eternal of everlasting in its results, not one which is forever going on, but never accomplished. In Hebrews 2:6 Paul speaks of “eternal judgment;” not judgment which is eternally going forward, but one which, having once passed upon all men (Acts 17:31), is irreversible in its decisions and eternal in its effects. In Hebrews 9:12 the apostle speaks in the same way of “eternal redemption,” not a redemption through which we are eternally approaching a redeemed state which we never reach, but a redemption which releases us for all eternity from the power of sin and death. It would be just a proper to speak of the saints as always redeeming, but never redeemed, as to speak of the sinner as always consuming, but never consumed, or always dying, but never dead. This fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels, and will be shared by all of the human race who choose to follow the Devil in his rebellion against the government of Heaven. It will be to them an everlasting fire; for once having plunged into its fiery vortex, there is no life for them beyond. HHMLD 278.1