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except such consequences as naturally result from the sinful action. Punishment is not the
execution of a sentence pronounced by the divine Being on the merits of the case, but simply
the operation of a general law. This position is taken by J. F. Clarke, Thayer, Williamson, and
Washington Gladden. The latter says: “The old theology made this penalty (penalty of sin) to
consist in suffering inflicted upon the sinner by a judicial process in the future life . . . The
penalty of sin, as the new theology teaches, consists in the natural consequences of sin. . . . The
penalty of sin is sin. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”[Present Day Theology,
pp. 78-80.] The idea is not new; it was present to the mind of Dante, for in his famous poem the
torments of hell symbolize the consequences of sin; and Schelling had it in mind, when he
spoke of the history of the world as the judgment of the world. It is abundantly evident from
Scripture, however, that this is an entirely un-Biblical view. The Bible speaks of penalties, which
are in no sense the natural result or consequences of the sin committed, for instance in Ex.
32:33; Lev. 26:21; Num. 15:31; I Chron. 10:13; Ps. 11:6; 75:8; Isa. 1:24,28; Matt. 3:10; 24:51. All
these passages speak of a punishment of sin by a direct act of God. Moreover, according to the
view under consideration there is really no reward or punishment; virtue and vice both
naturally include their various issues. Furthermore, on that standpoint there is no good reason
for considering suffering as punishment, for it denies guilt, and it is exactly guilt that constitutes
suffering a punishment. Then, too, it is in many cases not the guilty that receives the severest
punishment, but the innocent as, for instance, the dependents of a drunkard or a debauchee.
And, finally, on this view, heaven and hell are not places of future punishment, but states of
mind or conditions in which men find themselves here and now. Washington Gladden
expresses this very explicitly.
B. NATURE AND PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENTS.
The word “punishment” is derived from the Latin poena, meaning punishment, expiation, or
pain. It denotes pain or suffering inflicted because of some misdeed. More specifically, it may
be defined as that pain or loss which is directly or indirectly inflicted by the Lawgiver, in
vindication of His justice outraged by the violation of the law. It originates in the righteousness
or punitive justice of God, by which He maintains Himself as the Holy One and necessarily
demands holiness and righteousness in all His rational creatures. Punishment is the penalty that
is naturally and necessarily due from the sinner because of his sin; it is, in fact, a debt that is
due to the essential justice of God. The punishments of sin are of two different kinds. There is a
punishment that is the necessary concomitant of sin, for in the nature of the case sin causes
separation between God and man, carries with it guilt and pollution, and fills the heart with
fear and shame. But there is also a kind of punishment that is superimposed on man from
without by the supreme Lawgiver, such as all kinds of calamities in this life and the punishment
of hell in the future.