THE SILENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
ON PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH
In the Old Testament the penalty for disobedience is always in this lifetime; there is no allusion made to any punishment after this lifetime. The punishments were 276
temporal, not endless but limited punishments, not punishments in the hereafter but were always in this lifetime.
FROM ADAM TO MOSES
[1] Adam: God told Adam in the day he ate he would die. The day he ate was the beginning of the dying process, "Dying you shall die." The death that came into the world by Adam's sin is the same death that he died for eating, a physical death. His punishment was that he had to work to live with the earth bringing forth thorns, and dying, all the things he suffered was earthly sorrows and punishments with not a word about punishment of any kind after his death. It was not the death of Adam's "soul," an inward immortal never dying part of Adam that could not die but it would die anyway if he eats.
He was not told that after his death he would be subjected to endless torment in Hell, but endless torment is almost always read into this. The complete silence of any punishment after death would be unthinkable if the doctrine of Hell were true.
[2] Cain: His sin was the first murder, which by most is believed to be the greatest of all sins. What was his punishment? Today he would be told that he would go to Hell if he did not repent, but his punishment was that he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in his lifetime on the earth. Not one word about any punishment after his death. The punishment for anyone who killed Cain would be seven times greater than the punishment of Cain. How could anything be seven times greater than today's Hell?
[3] The flood: The people had become so evil that God destroyed them. Only eight were saved. What was their punishment? Read the Bible. It was death. There is no mention of any punishment after their death. They were not told they had lost their souls or that they would go to Hell. Their punishment was not something that would be after the flood; it was the flood and their death. "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will blot out
man whom I have created from the face of the land'" [Genesis 6:6-7 New American Standard]. " And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every creeping thing that creeping that creeps upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land
died. And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were destroyed
from the earth" [Genesis 7:21-23]. The same thing happened to "every man" also happened to every beast; their punishment was death, not eternal torment. If the punishment of Hell awaited all those who drown in the flood, the punishment given to them utterly pales into insignificance when it compared to an eternal life of torment in Hell, yet absolutely nothing is said about eternal punishment after death.
"I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature (soul-nehphesh) that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth" [Genesis 9:9-11]. All the souls, both of beast and man were destroyed, not forever tormented.
"For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished [apollumi]" [2 Peter 3:5-6
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American Standard Version]. " Was destroyed" New American Standard Bible. Nothing is said about endless torment or any torment after death.
[4] The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 13 and 14: These cities were literally burnt up [Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 34:9], not still burning with the people walking around in torment. Their end was complete total destruction and is an example of the total destruction that is coming to the ungodly at the judgment. Sodom did not just suffer a lost of ―will being‖ but was completely and forever totally destroyed “by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” [2 Peter 2:6]. Peter adds in the next chapter that the earth will be “burned up.” The earth has been stored up for fire “being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” [2 Peter 3:7-13].
[5] From Adam to Moses: For about twenty-five centuries, from Adam to Moses, Lot's wife, Pharaoh, building of Babel, etc., punishment was always in this life, not in life after death.
THE LAW OF MOSES
ALL THESE BLESSING, ALL THESE CURSING
"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord our God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessing shall come upon you and
overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God" [Deuteronomy 28:1-2]. "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" [Acts 7:22], therefore, he knew of their teaching of life after death, but he did not put a word of it in the Law.
All these blessings of the Law were in this lifetime, not after death [Deuteronomy 28:11]. Not one word about a blessing after death.
God would set Israel high above all nations [Deuteronomy 28:1].
Blessing in the city and in the country [Deuteronomy 28:4].
Blessing in children, cattle, and the ground [Deuteronomy 28:5].
Blessing in full barns [Deuteronomy 28:8].
Blessing in all they set their hand to do [Deuteronomy 28:8].
The Lord will establish them as a holy people to Himself [Deuteronomy 28:9].
All nations will see and be afraid of you [Deuteronomy 28:10].
They will abound in prosperity, in children, and the fruit of the land [Deuteronomy 28:11-12].
They will lend to many nations and not borrow, be the head and not the tail [Deuteronomy 28:12-13].
All these curses of the Law if they did not keep it were in this lifetime [Deuteronomy 28:18-19]. Not one word about a curse after this lifetime. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and
overtake you" [Deuteronomy 28:15].
Cursed in the city and the country [Deuteronomy 28:16].
Cursed in your basket and kneading bowl [Deuteronomy 28:17].
Cursed in their children, the produce of their ground, the increase of their herd [Deuteronomy 28:18].
Cursed when they come in and when they went out [Deuteronomy 28:19].
Confusion, rebuke, in all they did unto they was destroyed [Deuteronomy 28:20].
Cursed with pestilence until they were consumed from the land [Deuteronomy 28:21].
Smite with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, with mildew, and pursued unto they perished [Deuteronomy 28:22].
The heaven over their head as bronze and the earth under them as iron [Deuteronomy 28:23].
The rain on their land made as power and dust unto they were destroyed [Deuteronomy 28:24].
Defeated before their enemies and their carcasses shall be food for birds [Deuteronomy 28:25-26].
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Smite with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scab, with an itch, which cannot be healed, with blindness, madness, and bewilderment of heart [Deuteronomy 28:27-28].
They would not prosper and would be oppressed and robbed continually [Deuteronomy 28:29].
Their wives would be violated, and they would build a house and not live in it, plant a vineyard but not use it
[Deuteronomy 28:30].
Many more curses if they did not obey the Lord [Deuteronomy 28:31-68]. Those who came out of Egypt and provoked the Lord died in the wilderness. Death was their punishment, not eternal torment after death
[Numbers 14; Hebrews 3:16-19].
"I declare unto you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land" [Deuteronomy 30:18]. "So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the assembly" [Numbers 16:33]. "And whatsoever soul it be that does any manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people" [Leviticus 23:30].
Throughout the Old Testament perish and destroy means dying and has nothing to do with any kind of torment after death. It would be past comprehension that God would give them such detail of what would happen to then in this lifetime and say nothing of the unending pain He was going to forever heap on them if Hell awaited them.
"One of the first phenomena which draws attention in the Pentateuch is the omission, both in the historical and perceptive portions of it, of any mention of the immortality of the soul. If this view of man's nature were true in our time, it was true from the beginning, and true in the time of Moses. And if it were as important as it is supposed to be now, it was equally important then. Yet no single indication of it is discoverable in the writings of Moses...There is but one tolerable explanation of this silence. Moses was withheld by divine control from teaching what was not true; a doctrine which was radically opposed to the fundamental facts of man's sin and mortality, on which redemption proceeds"
Edward White, Life In Christ, Third Edition, Page 148, 1878.
The fifth commandment is the "first commandment with promise" [Ephesians 6:2].
What was the promise? Was it that one would be rewarded in Heaven? No, it had nothing to do with life after death, but life on earth before death, "That your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you" [Deuteronomy 5:16].
UNDER THE JUDGES AND KINGS
Both under the Judges and later under the Kings the history of the Jews is one of rebellion against God followed by defeat and captivity. When they repented and turned back to God, they came out of exile and prospered.
"The entire history of the Jewish people as a nation, and as individuals, from generation to generation, shows with what exactness the threatening of the law was fulfilled in judgment. When they were obedient, the Lord prospered them, and rewarded them with fruitful seasons, with increasing wealth and power, and made them superior to their enemies. But, when they were rebellious and wicked, then followed adversity, defeat, captivity, and all the physical calamities threatened in the Law. But, all this while we have not one syllable of an endless woe, which is to be added to all the other woes. In no instance of rebellion against God, not when their corruption and idolatry were at the highest reaches of crime and blasphemy, do we find them threatened with the torments of a hell beyond the present life."
Thomas Thayer, "Origin And History Of The Doctrine Of Endless Punishment"
All the blessings and all the punishments of the Law were physical in their lifetime.
Punishment or reward after death is not promised. For thousands of years throughout the Old Testament, God warned of punishments in this lifetime if anyone did not keep the Law, but not one warning that anyone would "go to Hell." Death [mooth] is used hundreds of times and except the few times it is used in a symbolic passage it always means an actual physical death. The concept of Heaven is in the Old Testament but only as the dwelling place of God [Psalms 11:4; 33:13-14] and of angels [Genesis 21:17; 22:11; 28:12]. Heaven in the Old Testament was not a place where any person would ever be and where they would live forever. The God of Israel was a God who would 279
protect them, give them blessings in this lifetime if they were faithful to Him and punish them only in this lifetime if they were not. The savior they looked for was a human person like David (not the Son of God) who would restore Israel as a nation and make it be superior to other nations. Even after His death and resurrection His apostles still thought the Christ they and all Israel looked for would restore the nation of Israel to their land and rule national Israel in his lifetime, that He would be a human king only of Israel only in his lifetime as David was [Acts 1:6]. A resurrection to immortality and life in Heaven was a new teaching by Christ [2 Timothy 1:10] and was unknown in the Old Testament. The word resurrection is used forty-one times in the New Testament but not once in the Old Testament. One of the great difficulties with the eternal torment view is the profound silence of the Old Testament about it. How could God have warned Israel in detail about punishments in this life, droughts, plagues, and other punishments and not say one word about an eternal Hell which would be the worst of all punishments? The total silence of the Old Testament for thousands of years about this endless torment is proof that it does not exist.
"For man to endure unending pain (characterized by fire) is a doctrine so awful to contemplate, that it is reasonable to conclude it would be revealed to man from the beginning, and so revealed that he could by no possibility misapprehend the consequences of sinning against his Maker; and we might expect to find the terrible sentence reiterated from time to time throughout the Scriptures, especially upon occasions of aggravated sin and wickedness"
W. T. Berger, The Wages Of Sin And Everlasting Punishment, 1886.
" First. If their belief was the same as in our day, why did they never express themselves as people now do in books, sermons, and common conversation? None can deny the wide difference in the language used, or that the difference is proof that the new language had its origin in new views concerning the future. An unscriptural doctrine always give rise to unscriptural language; for the words of Scripture are the very best which could be chosen to express the will of God to man. If the doctrine were of God, the words of Scripture would be sufficient to express it. As we do not find this new phraseology in the Bible, we infer that the doctrine it was introduced to teach is not there. Second. How is it to be accounted for that the fears and feeling and exertions of good people, under the old dispensation, were so different from the fears and feelings and exertions of Christians in our day, about saving men from hell? I do not find that they express and fear of hell, and it is fair to conclude that they had none. I find no examples of their fears about their children, their relations, their neighbors, or the world at large, gong to eternal misery. As to their feelings, I do not find a sigh heaved, a tear shed, a groan uttered, a prayer offered, or any exertions made, as if they believed men were exposed to endless misery. We see parents, and others, deeply affected at the lost of their children and friends by death; we see pious people grieved on account of their disobedience to God's laws; but we find no expression of feeling arising from the belief that such persons would lift up their eyes in endless misery. Now, is it not strange that all this should be the state of the fears and feelings of good people, if they believed such misery was to be the portion of the wicked? The whole race of mankind was swept from the earth by a flood, Noah and his family excepted; but does this good man deplore, in any shape, that as many precious souls should be sent to hell?
God also destroyed the cities of the plain. Abraham interceded that they might be spared, but used no argument with God that the people might not go to hell to suffer eternal misery. If Abraham believed this doctrine, it is possible he should have failed to urge it as an argument that all those wicked persons must go to hell, if God destroyed them? No notice is taken of the very argument, which, in our day, would be most urged in prayer to God, if anything similar was to take place. All who have read the Old Testament know what vast numbers were cut off in a day, by war and pestilence, and other means; yet do you ever hear it deplored by a single individual, as is often done in our day, that so many were sent out of the world to eternal misery? If, in short, this doctrine was then believed, a dead silence and the most stoical apathy were maintained even by good men about it.‖
―Under the Old Testament dispensation the sinful condition of the heathen nations is often spoken of. But do we ever find the inspired writers representing those nations as all going to eternal misery, or did they use similar exertions to save them from it as are used in the present day? If the doctrine of eternal misery was know and believe in those day, is it not unaccountable that so many ages should pass away before God commanded the gospel to be preached to every creature, and before those who knew their danger should use exertions to save them from it? If the doctrine be false, we may cease to wonder at this; but if it be true, it is not easy to reconcile these things with the well known character of God, and the feelings of every good man. What an immense multitude of human beings, during four 280
thousand years, must have lived and died ignorant that such a place of misery awaited them!" Walter Balfour,
"An Inquiry Into The Scriptural Import Of The Words, Sheol, Hades, Tartarus And Gehenna" 1854.
The Law of Moses offered no atonement of reconciliation, if it had, the death of Jesus would not have been needed. Then Jesus, our High Priest, would not have presented his sacrifice to the Father, and would not have brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel [2 Timothy 1:10].
From the first page to the last page of the Old Testament God warns no one of an eternal life of torment after death if they were not faithful to Him.
THE SILENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
ON PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH
Gehenna was used on four occasions by Christ and recorded in three of the four Gospels, and one time by James. In the rest of the New Testament Gehenna was not used, as Gentiles would not understand it; and the people not living near Jerusalem would not know what Gehenna was, that it was the name of the trash dump of Jerusalem. Just as most who read this would not know the name of the trash dump of London. John did not use Gehenna in his Gospel for when he wrote the destruction of Jerusalem was passed and most believe he wrote to Gentiles, and Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles; neither John nor Paul used Gehenna. Every time Christ used Gehenna, on all four occasions it was spoken to the Jews in or near Jerusalem. Gentiles are not once threatened with destruction in Gehenna.
Today, those who believe in Hell are always warning unbelievers about going to Hell if they do not believe. Acts covers about thirty years of preaching, but not one time is anything said about Hell. Paul said he did not keep back anything that was profitable
[Acts 20:20] and that he declared the whole counsel of God [Acts 20:27], yet he did not say anything about Hell in any of his letters. In about thirty years of preaching to many in many countries, he never told anyone that they would be forever tormented in Hell if they did not believe. Why? He certainly would not have omitted such a doctrine as Hell.
Today it is preached as a most profitable teaching, and the fear of Hell is used to keep many going to church. Paul did not declare anything about Hell for the same reason he did not declare anything about Purgatory; there are no such places.
If the lost shall be forever tormented in Hell, it is only reasonably to believe there would be many warning anyone about it, but there are none. The Hell, which is preached today, was not a part of the teaching of the apostles and early church. The same strange silence that is found through out the Old Testament is also through out the New Testament. Did God just forget to warn of the awful place some are always preaching about?
Those who believe in Hell, try to prove it by their interpretation of metaphors and symbols for they have not one plain statement in the whole Bible. The name they give it (Hell) is not in the Bible. The place they preach about is not in the Bible under any name.
Its origin is Pagan to the core. With no revelation from God about Hell, how could we: (1) Know about it. (2) Know what it is. (3) Know its name. (4) Know there will be torment in it. (5) Know it will last forever. (6) Know who or if anyone will be in it. (7) Who told us these things? God has given us not one word of revelation on it.
GOD WAS NOT SILENT ON THE FATE OF THE LOST
The apostles did tell what would be the fate of the unbelieving, but the words they used are very different than what is preached today. Most churches would throw a preacher out if he preached the lost would be destroyed, perish, die, death, or end. Death 281
is very different than everlasting life in Hell [see chapter two, "Life and Death"]. The words used to describe the fate of the lost are miles apart from much of today's preaching.
Some of the none symbolic Greek words used to describe the fate of the lost are:
[1] Death "For the wages of sin is death" [Romans 6:23]. See chapter two "Life or Death." Death is death, not everlasting life with torment; life and death are opposites, not two kinds of life.
Unconditional immortality makes both life and death into life in a different place.
Death has been changed to be life.
1. To them, death is eternal life in Hell
2. To them, the only difference in life and death is the place where all will have eternal life. Neither one means to be dead. Both the saved and the lost will be alive and have eternal life; they just will not live at the same place.
To them life is life in Heaven.
To them death is life in Hell.
Death deprives us of all life. It does not give more life than we now have. It is not just a continuation of life in a different form. The resurrection restores the life death took away. It is a return to life from death, not a return of the undead to still being undead just as they were before the resurrection. The resurrection is our only hope of life after death.
A change from one state of being to another state of being, moving from one place to another place, is not a resurrection.
Moving from earth to Abraham's bosom and then moving from Abraham's bosom
to Heaven is not a death or a resurrection.
Moving from earth to Heaven or Hell is not a death or a resurrection.
o To them, no one dies; they just change their address.
Death is the big problem for unconditional immoralists. Innate immortality says whether it is a sinner or saint, an immortal soul cannot die and cannot be subject to death.
They must prove that death is not death but is only a change from one kind of life to another kind of life. They must prove that death is eternal life, that death is not death, but if they did, then they would have proven that Christ could not have died and that He has not been raised from the dead. Unconditional immoralists have taken all resurrections, both of Christ and ours, out of the Gospel. Without the resurrection death is the end of life and means our utter destruction.
The immortal soul doctrine says death is not the enemy Paul thought it to be [1
Corinthians 15:26], but the friend Plato and Greek philosophy thought it to be. In Greek philosophy the preaching of the resurrection was foolishness for death was a gateway to a better life. In today teaching death has replaced the resurrection by being the gateway to a better life in Heaven.
"The words of the Bible contain all the ideas in it. These words, then, rightly understood, and the ideas are clearly perceived. The words and sentences of the Bible are to be translated, interpreted, and understood according to the same code of laws and principles of interpretation by which other ancient writings are translated and understood; for, when God spoke to man in his own language, He spoke as one person converses with another-IN THE FAIR, STIPULATED, AND WELL-ESTABLISHED MEANING OF THE TERMS. This is essential to its character, as a revelation from God; otherwise, it would be no revelation, but would always require a class of inspired men to unfold and reveal its true sense to mankind." A. Campbell, "The Christian System," Page 3, Gospel Advocate, 1970.
In today's teaching of an immortal part of a person is not subject to death, and death cannot be used " In the fair, stipulated, and well-established meaning of the terms."
Death must be changed to be life.
1. "The END of these things is death" Romans 6:21
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2. "Whose END is destruction" Philippians 3:19
3. "Whose END is to be burned" Hebrews 6:18
4. "Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth DEATH" James 1:15
5. "Sin unto DEATH" Romans 6:16
6. "Wages of sin is DEATH" Romans 6:23