(Continued from page 155.)
DESTRUCTION OF APOSTATES.
"But I would put you in remembrance, you who once knew all things, that the Lord, having saved a people out of [the] land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who had not believed. And angels who had not kept their original estate, but had abandoned their own dwelling, He keeps in eternal chains, under gloomy darkness, to [the] judgment of [the] great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, committing greedily fornication, in like manner with them, and going after other flesh, lie there as an example, undergoing the judgment of eternal fire" (vers. 5-7).
When the saint of God dwells on the end awaiting all apostates from the truth who persist in their impious doctrines and unholy practices, all bitterness toward them must of necessity be banished from the heart. They may seem to ride now on a crest of popular appreciation and support, but "their feet shall slide in due time," for they are set in slippery places, and shall soon be cast down to destruction (Ps. 73 et al.).
This is the solemn lesson taught by the unbelieving host who fell in the wilderness. They started out well. All were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All drank the same spiritual drink and ate the same spiritual food. But unbelief manifested itself when the time of testing came. Murmuring, idolatry, and the gainsaying of Korah (of which particular note is taken in this epistle farther down), told out the true state of many who sang with exultation on the banks of the Red Sea. Kadesh-Barnea, the place of opportunity, became but the memorial of lack of faith; and though once saved out of Egypt, they were destroyed in the wilderness because of having apostatized from the living God.
In the same way had the Nephilim (the fallen ones) been dealt with long before. Though created as sinless angels of God, they, like Lucifer, the son of the morning, bartered the realms of bliss for selfish ends. Keeping not the glorious estate in which they were created, they abandoned their holy abode, and are now kept "in eternal chains, under gloomy darkness," awaiting the judgment of the great day.
Whether the apostle is here referring to the "sons of God" of Gen. 6 has been a mooted question ' throughout the Christian centuries. That the beings there referred to could possibly be angels has been scouted by many spiritually-minded teachers, who see in "the sons of God " simply the seed of Seth, and in "the daughters of men" the maidens of the line of Cain. Others, equally deserving to be heard, identify the sons of God of the book of Job with those of Genesis; and, accepting the passage before us as the divine commentary on the solemn scene of apostasy described as the precursor of the flood, believe they here learn the judgment of the fallen ones whose sin is there delineated.
It must be admitted that the following verse in Jude seems to corroborate this latter view. "As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, committing greedily fornication, in like manner with them" would appear to indicate a close relationship between the sin of these cities and that of the angels referred to.* *The comments of W. Kelly, C. E. Stuart, W. Scott, and others, may be consulted as favoring this view. Both J. N. Darby and F. W. Grant are, perhaps wisely, non-committal. The same is true of C. H. Mackintosh. W. Lincoln in " Typical Foreshadowings," opposes it with vigor.
Since writing the above, I have come across the following from the pen of J. N. D., in "Notes and Comments," Vol. I., page 73:"Jude and Peter seem to make the B'ney ha-Elohim (Sons of God) the angels ; but God effaced all this in the Deluge, aud so may we; but the Titans and mighty men, heroes, find the origin of their traditions here.
" I have little doubt this is purposely obscure, but the language here, in itself, tends to the thought that B'ney Elohim were not of the race of Ha-Adam (man)."* At any rate, they were one in this, that both angels and the men of the plain fell into grievous sin through unbelief, and were punished accordingly.
It was light rejected that paved the way for the unprintable enormities of the inhabitants of the cities of the plain, who are now set forth as an example, suffering, or undergoing, the vengeance of eternal fire.
Nothing can be more solemn than this. Long ages have elapsed since fire from heaven destroyed those cities, reeking with moral pestilence. But the guilty apostates of that far distant day are at this moment still suffering the judgment of God because of their wicked deeds. They are with the once rich man of Luke 16, tormented in the flames of hades, while waiting for the awful hour when death and hades shall be cast into the lake of fire!
This passage, carefully considered, will throw a lurid light on a scripture which, perverted from its proper meaning, has become a favorite one of late years with those who deny the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked, holding out instead the delusive dream of annihilation:I refer to Mal. 4:1-3. " For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." This passage is looked upon by the annihilationist as one of his strongest proof-texts. Assuming that the passage is treating of the final judgment, he exclaims, " What could be clearer ? If the wicked are burned up like stubble, if neither root nor branch is left remaining, must they not necessarily have utterly ceased to exist ? Furthermore, if they become as ashes under the soles of the saints, where is room for the awful thought of an immortal soul suffering endless judgment ?" The superficial observer is very apt to think such questions unanswerably conclusive in favor of annihilation. But a more careful survey of the chapter makes manifest the fact that it has no reference to judgment after death; but the Holy Ghost is there describing the destruction of apostates at the coming of the Lord to establish His kingdom; prior, therefore, to the Millennium of Rev. 20. It is the bodies of the wicked, not their souls, which are thus to become as ashes under the feet of triumphant Israel. Like stubble, they will be destroyed as with devouring fire, so that neither root nor branch shall remain. So it was in the day when Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities, met their doom. Lot or Abraham might then have trodden down the wicked, who would have been ashes under the soles of their feet after the terrible conflagration. All had been burned up, root and branch. But were they then annihilated ? Not so. Our Lord Jesus says, " It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment" than for those who rejected His ministry when here on earth. The very men and women who were burned to ashes so long ago are to rise from the dead for judgment. Where are they now, and what is their condition ? Are they wrapped in a dreamless slumber, waiting in unconsciousness, till the sounding of the trump of doom ? Nay, the soul-sleeper and the annihilationist are both wrong. They "are set forth as an example, undergoing the judgment of eternal fire"!
Truly, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Judgment unsparing must be the portion of all who trifle with the grace shown to guilty sinners in the cross. Better far never to have heard of Christ and His blood, than, having heard, to turn from the truth so earnestly pressed in the word of God, to the soul-destroying fables of the latter and the last days, which are yearly reaping their harvests of lost souls.
Oh, to be awake to the solemnity of these things! "Knowing the terror of the Lord," cried the great apostle to the nations, "we persuade men." And it was the very same who wrote, "The love of Christ constraineth us." Man, energized by Satan, would divorce the two, making much of love, and deriding the thought of eternal retribution. The soul subject to Scripture remembers that "God is light" is as true as "God is love."
In turning from so solemn a theme, I add a word as to apostasy. It is only the Christless professor who thus sells his birthright for the devil's mess of pottage. God has said, "If any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him." But the Holy Ghost is careful to say of true believers, " We are not of them who draw back unto perdition ; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul " (Heb. 10 :38, 39). It is only those who endure to the end who shall be finally saved; but all will endure, through grace divine, who are born of God. "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? " (i John 5:5.) H. A. I.
(To be continued.)