In Defense of the Faith

How Can The Wicked Live Eternally?

Paul declares that “the gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 6:23. But what about the wicked who do not receive this gift? How shall they live eternally in hell if they do not have everlasting life? Obviously it would require a greater manifestation of God’s power to keep the wicked alive in a roaring, burning, seething hell than to perpetuate the lives of the righteous in heaven, where they are given access to the tree of life. But the wicked do not have God’s gift of life. They must therefore die, and their death will be eternal. DOF 249.2

From the second death men will never come forth,to live again. They are “cut off”; they are reduced to ashes; they have ceased to be; they are as though they never had been. Then, and only then, can John’s prophecy be fulfilled, in which he said: DOF 249.3

“Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Revelation 5:13. DOF 249.4

All through Mr. Canright’s chapter on this subject he advances the idea that the spirit of man has an existence and entity separate from the body, and that the spirit goes immediately to its reward at death. In commenting on the experience of the thief who was converted on the cross, he says: DOF 250.1

“Jesus plainly said, ‘Today shall thou be with Me in Paradise.’ If he went to Paradise that day, then all Christians go there at death. His body did not go to Paradise, for it was buried. Hence his spirit did live and go there.”—Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 404. DOF 250.2

The statement made by Jesus to the thief has long been used by immortal-soul advocates to prove that men go to their reward at death. “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shall thou be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43. DOF 250.3

Now, of course, the thief could not be with Jesus in Paradise that day unless Jesus Himself was there. And the Bible record clearly reveals that Jesus did not go to Paradise on the day of His crucifixion, for He said to Mary on the morning of His resurrection, three days later: “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.” John 20:17. Of course, no one will dispute that Paradise is the place where God dwells; and therefore here is clear testimony from Jesus to the effect that He had not yet visited this place when He appeared to Mary near the empty tomb. DOF 250.4

What, then, shall we conclude from thief just this: that Jesus did not promise the thief that he would go to Paradise that day. In fact, the thief did ‘not ask that. He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Luke 23:42. Not when Thou goes, but when Thou comes. This is quite different. Daniel tells us that Jesus comes into, or receives, His kingdom at the time of the judgment: DOF 251.1

“The judgment was set, and the books were opened.... I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not he destroyed.” Daniel 7:10-14. DOF 251.2

This, then, is the time the thief asked to be remembered, and not on the crucifixion day. It was in the day of the resurrection that he did not want to be forgotten. The answer Jesus gave to this dying man’s request becomes as clear as day if, when reading it, we just place the comma after the word today instead of the word thee. It then reads thus: “Verily I say unto thee today, Shall thou be with Me in Paradise.” DOF 251.3

Joseph Bryand Rotherham, in his Emphasized New Testament, renders this text thus: DOF 251.4

“Jesus! remember me when so ever Thou shall come into Thy kingdom. And He said unto him, Verily I say unto thee this day: With Me shall thou be in Paradise.”—Printed in London, 1903. DOF 251.5

The use of the word today in a sentence for emphasis is common in the Bible. (See Zechariah 9:12; Deuteronomy 8:19; 26:16-18; 30:15, 16, 18, 19; 11:26-28.) DOF 252.1

It was the promise that was made that day. “Verily I say unto thee today.” Yes, today, when I am hanging here with you on the cross, when everything appears hopeless and men and devils think they have silenced Me forever; today I make you the solemn promise that you shall be with Me in Paradise. But just when the repentant thief would be with Jesus in Paradise the Savior did not say. This point was already clear in the thief’s mind. It was to be when Jesus should come into possession of His glorious kingdom and come to ransom His people. That is when all the saved will go to Paradise together, and the thief will be among them. “The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27. DOF 252.2

The idea that men go to their reward at death the righteous to heaven and the wicked to hell-is entirely inconsistent with many other Bible texts. For example, the Bible clearly teaches that there will be a final judgment, a time in the end of the world when the cases of all men will be tried. It is clearly stated that the purpose of this judgment is to determine what rewards shall be given the people who have lived upon the earth. Thus Paul declares, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10. DOF 252.3

But if the rewards are to follow the judgment, and if the judgment is to be at the “time of the end,” how, then, is it possible for men to go to their reward at death? Will these people who have been sent to the respective places be recalled and judged to determine where they should be sent? Will Abel have to come down out of heaven and Cain up out of hell, and wait for the judge to determine what their reward should be? If so, is there some possibility that, after the judgment, some will have to exchange places because it is found that a mistake had been made in the place of their consignment? Such questions sound foolish, and yet this is exactly what might happen if men went to their reward prior to the time of final judgment. DOF 252.4