Arresting the Wresters Part 2: A Notorious Scene of Their Crime
Continued from Arresting the Wresters
To make our case, we focus our attention on a notorious scene of their crime, Isaiah 33:14. It is a text that defenders of undying souls and unending anguish often cite as proof of their horrible hypothesis. They are unabashed in lifting the verse out of its chapter, and isolating one of its phrases, everlasting burnings, out of its setting, thus allowing its disconnected wording to play right into the assumptions of their audience.
If they would defend the integrity of their intentions they would have to confess the carelessness of their research. If they didn’t mean to mislead, neither did they bother to verify. Did they even read it, or just repeat it? Either way, it's shameless!
Once the text is examined in context it becomes evident that to dangle the disconnected phrase as a proof-text of endless torment is either to knowingly deceive, or unknowingly be deceived. Hopefully it’s a case of a lazy parrot, not a wily fox.
Before arresting some of the wresters of everlasting burnings, here is the context (Isaiah 33:10-16):
10 Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11 Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12 And the people shall be as the burning of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
The magnanimous Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, identified on the back cover of his book Why I Believe as “one of the most listened to ministers in the world today,” and “author of forty books,” is our first suspect. In the chapter “Why I Believe in Hell,” he begins:
No subject in the world is so repugnant to the human mind as this one, yet no subject is of greater importance. Jesus wept when he contemplated the destruction of Jerusalem. God himself says, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked’ (Ezekiel 33:11). No Christian can find joy in the contemplation of the final abode of the impenitent (italics mine).”
What a way to begin - paralleling destruction and death with the final abode of the impenitent, an abode Dr. Kennedy says is a place of “endless punishment” (which to him means eternal torment)! Thus, the end of destruction and death is actually an abode of endless punishment.
To correct “the delusion that hell has evaporated,” Kennedy asks us to consider the words of “the great Princeton theologian, A. A. Hodge” stressing the consensus of “the Jews… all the great church fathers, Reformers, and historical churches… all the great evangelical theologians and biblical scholars (italics mine).” The thrust of his urgings are to affirm that “the wicked are to suffer forever… the endlessness of the future sufferings… that the unbeliever will go into endless punishment.”
While I appreciate the sober demeanor of Dr. Kennedy’s discussion of such appalling thoughts, I was disappointed that he relied so heavily on the quotes of the great to confirm his belief, such as Joseph Stiles’ hollow extract that supposedly proves “that the laws of our nature demand that there be a hell,” and of course an endless one. And then he quotes Hodge again, and later follows with four consecutive quotes by the eloquently expressive William Munsey. For someone who is obviously well read, it is astounding that Dr. Kennedy did not read his Bible more carefully.
When he finally gets around to quoting God’s words on hell, he alleges without any attempt at evidence:
The Scriptures state that if the effects of our sins are everlasting, then the punishment for our sins will also be everlasting.
Since the Scriptures state such a thing, it should have been easy enough for Dr. Kennedy to quote it, or at the very least give the reference. But there is nothing but the naked assertion. I guess we are to take Dr. Kennedy’s word for it. The reality is, it states no such thing.
He continues:
We are told that sinners dwell in “everlasting burnings.” Isaiah 33:14
It is here that we present our warrant for this wrester’s arrest - three counts of manipulative malfeasance:
He identifies a question as an assertion.
He assumes the wrong answer to the question.
He puts the phrase everlasting burnings to the rack to wrest devouring into tormenting.
In Isaiah 33:14 we are not told, we are asked! Question marks end the sentences. We are not “told that sinners dwell in ’everlasting burnings,’” (as the good Doctor claimed) but these questions are asked:
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
How did the learned doctor miss that elementary punctuation?
The next verse continues: He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly…”
If this is not a direct answer to the preceding question, the answer is nonetheless not that sinners will dwell with everlasting burnings! It is rhetorical at worst - who could possibly dwell with devouring fire and everlasting burnings? Certainly not sinners who are likened to chaff, stubble, lime, and thorns! How did the erudite educator make such a presumptuous assumption?
It is similar to Malachi’s question:
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? Malachi 3:2
While the prophet says of those that fear him, God will “spare,” he says the day that cometh shall burn up the wicked as stubble.
This question and answer device is used in the following:
LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. Psalm 15:1, 2
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. Psalm 24:3, 4
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. Isaiah 28:9
Now compare:
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly.
Psalm 15:1, 2: Who? He that…
Psalm 24:3, 4: Who? He that…
Isaiah 28:9: Whom? Them that…
Isaiah 33:14, 15: Who? He that…
The context confirms our point:
Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. Isaiah 33:11
Chaff and stubble could not dwell (continue to abide) with devouring fire and everlasting burnings! Fire devours chaff and stubble!
It is further reinforced:
And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. Isaiah 33:12
Lime and thorns could not dwell with devouring fire and everlasting burnings. Fire consumes lime and thorns! These plain words, taken sincerely and not corrupted, picture complete destruction, not continual torment. They have to be wrested to express endless agony. How did the scholarly sermoner mistake this evident exegesis?
WORD RUSTLERS OF THE OLD WREST. This wresting by Dr. Kennedy provides a typical example of how Isaiah 33:14 is employed as a proof-text for endless torment. And I should emphasize typical - it is not exceptional. Without going into the detail we did with “one of the most listened to ministers in the world today,” we will nevertheless round up a gang of his cavorting cohorts - word rustlers of the Old Wrest.
The colorful Southern Baptist of “Payday Someday” fame, R. G. Lee, hoary headed like Robert E., rides in the lead. He let everlasting burnings stand alone and play to the assumptions of his hearers as he summarized his message Is Hell a Myth? He says, “Hell is a lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). A devouring fire (Isa. 33:14). A bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1). Everlasting burnings (Isa. 33:14).” He continues with a long list of such descriptions.
Lee’s listeners, at least those who would not bother to look up the references (which would be most if not all), would naturally assume that Isaiah 33:14 was verily depicting their understanding of hell. They would not suspect that another branding iron had distorted the original identifying mark.
No, Dr. Lee, hell is not a myth, but that Isaiah 33:14 describes endless torment is.
DOCTOR DESPERADO. John Walvoord, the genteel Dad Cartwright of the Dallas Theological Ponderosa, should have known better, yet quotes verse 14 without comment, which is its own comment.
Beforehand he writes:
The Bible is clear that judgment follows the death of the wicked; see Job 21:30-34, where the idea that the wicked escape punishment and are spared from the day of calamity and God’s eternal wrath is declared to be ’falsehood.’ Obviously, the wrath of God is more than mere physical death.
Yes, the Bible is clear that judgment follows the death of the wicked, and obviously, the wrath of God is more than mere physical death. But more does not equal endless!
The very passage Dr. Walvoord cites tells us “the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction,” and “shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” But most of his readers won’t look up the reference and discover his tidy twisteroo. At his rack, the day of destruction becomes the day of calamity, and “the day of wrath” becomes “God’s eternal wrath.”
So, sincere words that are both clear and obvious in expressing a limited day of destruction are cleverly corrupted by this wresting desperado into confessing an infinite eternal wrath and punishment (eternal and punishment being words that Dr. Walvoord supplies that are nowhere to be found in the text in Job).
Day equals eternal? Only after it’s terribly tortured on the rack of a wrester!
The Old Testament prophet Malachi and the New Testament apostle Peter speak plainly of “the great and dreadful day of the LORD,” and both articulate a complete destruction by fire:
Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up. Malachi 3:16-4:6
The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men… the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:1-12
Truly, the day of wrath is the day of destruction! To twist it into eternal torment, Dr. Walvoord, is falsehood.
EVERLASTING BURNINGS WRESTING GANG. J. M. Humphrey, in the chapter “No Annihilation in Hell'' of his sober book The Lost Soul’s First Day in Eternity, connects Isaiah 33:14 with the torments of the rich man in Luke 16:
The rich man in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torments. The wicked shall dwell with everlasting burnings.
Again, the phrase is lifted to stand alone, without context or comment. Again, the question is changed into a statement. The unsuspecting would obviously suppose that the everlasting burnings must be speaking of the place where the wicked rich man dwells. And the wily fox or lazy parrot would have them so suppose.
Under the heading “Sheol signifies the place of future retribution,” W. G. T. Shedd quotes Isaiah 33:14 without context or comment as part of “that large class of texts in the Old Testament which represent God as a judge, and assert a future judgment, and a future resurrection for this purpose.”
I would agree with these futures, but as we learned from the context of the oft isolated text, the everlasting burnings speaks of a future judgment of devouring fire in which sinners will not be able to dwell, but will be like chaff, stubble, lime, and thorns devoured by fire.
So these are some of the Everlasting Burnings Wresting Gang. Oh, but there were and are many others.
Dear John Wesley would use the term everlasting burnings (without the reference) like a cliché in speaking of hell and future punishment (for verification, do a word search in an online collection of his sermons).
Beloved Matthew Henry’s commentary ties the verse to the endless torment of an immortal soul:
His wrath will burn those everlastingly who make themselves fuel for it. It is a fire that shall never be quenched, nor ever go out of itself; it is the wrath of an ever-living God preying on the conscience of a never-dying soul.
Articulate Brother Henry fails to explain how devouring fire will burn those everlastingly, or how fuel described as chaff, stubble, lime, and thorns should be understood to relate to a never-dying soul!
Henry Constable, champion extraordinaire for conditional immortality, lamented in his day (the late 1800’s) that the isolated portion of verse 14 “is very often brought forward in proof of the eternity of future misery,” but which to his sincere handling of the Word “affords very valuable proof that the eternity which it affirms of future punishment does not refer to any eternity of life in misery; but to the eternal extinction of life…“
In our own day, Carl G. Johnson includes Isaiah 33:14 (alone, of course) in a listing of verses under the heading “What the Old Testament Says About Hell and the Eternal Punishment of the Wicked.” Brother Carl has plenty of contemporary company.
At least some of these wresters have now been arrested. They have been charged with twisting the words, corrupting the Word, and deceiving the masses. Outrageous outlaws, they have been caught in the very act of violence to vocabulary and larceny of language. The mangled forms of their tortured victims have been exposed. The evidence against them has been examined.
And they have been found guilty as charged!
But we won't leave them hanging.
Their followers are hereby sentenced to life… in study of the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. They must carefully read such plain words, sincerely handle such clear words, and humbly believe such true words. May God abundantly bless the honest heart who will love truth more than tradition, and seek to please God more than men.
Don't wrest. Rest.
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing forward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, And right to them that find knowledge. Proverbs 8:8, 9
What if a man wanted a big church consisting of the flock of folks he twisted the scriptures to frighten then coral away from an imaginary eternal place of torment called Hell?
ReplyDeleteWhen this flimflam man stands at the Great White Throne on that great day, he may be surprised to find his name not in evidence, and sadly, none of the names from his roster of hell threatened members in good standing. ATW Narrogate.