It is asserted sometimes that God punished the wicked in Old Testament days, but that He is shown to be loving. and compassionate in the New Testament; therefore, the Old Testament concept of punishment for sin is thought to differ from the New Testament concept.<\/p>\n
Let us begin by noting what Jesus Christ said on this important subject. “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell<\/em>” (Matthew 10:28). The word for “destroy” that Jesus used here means “to devote or give over to eternal misery” (Thayer’s Greek English Lexicon). “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?<\/em>” (Matthew 23: 33). This was the question that our Lord put to the Pharisees and scribes. Depicting the final judgment of the wicked, Jesus said, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels … And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal<\/em>” (Matthew 25:46). Our Lord made three points clear in this passage:<\/p>\n Now notice what the apostle Peter had to say on this subject. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly . . . The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished<\/em>” (II Peter 2:4-9). Peter here gave three arguments to show that God will reserve the unjust to be punished. First, God did not allow sinful angels to escape judgment. Second, He spared not the wicked world of Noah’s day. Third, God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah.<\/p>\n No writer in the New Testament spoke more clearly on the subject at hand than Paul. “...The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power<\/em>” (II Thessalonians 1:7-9). Paul taught that in the judgment God will render to every man according to his deeds. “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,”<\/em>\u00a0God will render\u00a0“eternal life.” “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,”\u00a0<\/em>God will render\u00a0“indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile<\/em>” (Romans 2:6-9).<\/p>\n We often think of John as the apostle of love because he had so much to say about love, but John, like the Lord and the other apostles, understood that the wicked will be punished in the lake of fire. Hear John’s testimony: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever<\/em>” (Revelation 20:10). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire<\/em>” (Revelation 20:15). “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: Which is the second death<\/em>” (Revelation 21:8).<\/p>\n All that any of us can know about the punishment which the wicked will receive is what God has disclosed in the Scriptures. If we cannot believe what the Bible says about hell, why believe what it says about heaven, or anything else?<\/p>\nGod is loving and kind; but at the same time, His divine law demands that there be some penalty for violation. Justice could not be served in the absence of punishment for the wicked: It is for God, not man, to decide on the penalty for sin. Let us not presume by Irvin Himmel via Truth Magazine XIX: 11, p. 162, January 23, 1975 It is asserted sometimes that God punished the wicked in Old Testament days, but that He is shown to be loving. and compassionate in the New Testament; therefore, the Old Testament concept of punishment for sin is thought to differ from the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1579,373,987],"class_list":["post-55933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-eternal-punishment","tag-hell","tag-wickedness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":77826,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-souls-of-the-wicked-annihilated\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":0},"title":"Are the Souls of the Wicked Annihilated?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Pierce Some time ago, Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong, in a broadcast, stated that the souls of the wicked dead cease to exist. Besides using Matthew 10:28 as his proof text, he used cartoons to mock the idea of everlasting punishment. This is a favorite doctrine, not only for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13245,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/please-explain-the-baptism-of-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":1},"title":"Please explain the “baptism of fire”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please explain the \"baptism of fire.\" Thank you. Answer: The concept of a baptism of fire comes from a statement made by John the Baptist. \"And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1505,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-hell-a-proper-translation-of-gehenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":2},"title":"Is “hell” a proper translation of “Gehenna”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The word Hell like the word baptism is not really a proper translation is it? I looked up the word hell and it is Gehenna, and Gehenna is a place, Originally the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem (ISBE). So it would be helpful to use Gehenna instead of hell,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/watering-down-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":3},"title":"Watering Down Hell","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim R. Everett An Answer to \"Conditional Immortality\" The modern, liberal theologian has joined the cultic religionist in seeking to \"water down\" hell and make eternal punishment nothing more than a momentary oxidation of the body. He inconsistently affirms the eternal nature of God and the future state of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40472,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/punished-in-jesus-presence-or-away-from-his-presence\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":4},"title":"Punished in Jesus’ presence or away from his presence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One of the seeming \"contradictions\" I want to give an answer to is found in these two Scriptures: \"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power\" (II Thessalonians 1:9). \"Then a third angel followed them, saying with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14284,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-was-johns-baptism-different-from-jesus-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":55933,"position":5},"title":"How was John’s baptism different from Jesus’ baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have some questions about John's baptism. I've read about how it was a fulfillment of prophecy to prepare the way, but I'm really confused about what that really means and what the point of John's baptism was. I am curious about a few things: What does \"preparing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What Peter Taught:<\/h2>\n
What Paul Wrote:<\/h2>\n
What John Stated:<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
\nto be wiser than God.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"