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4. ETERNAL DEATH.
This may be regarded as the culmination and completion of spiritual death.
The restraints of the present fall away, and the corruption of sin has its perfect work. The full
weight of the wrath of God descends on the condemned. Their separation from God, the source
of life and joy, is complete, and this means death in the most awful sense of the word. Their
outward condition is made to correspond with the inward state of their evil souls. There are
pangs of conscience and physical pain. And the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and
ever. Rev. 14:11. The further discussion of this subject belongs to eschatology.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.
Why do many modern liberals deny all positive punishments
for sin? Is the position at all tenable that the punishments of sin consist exclusively in the
natural consequences of sin? What objections do you have to this position? How do you
account for the widespread aversion to the idea that the punishment of sin is a vindication of
the law and of the righteousness of God? Do the punishments of sin also serve as deterrents,
and as means of reformation? What is the Biblical conception of death? Can you prove from
Scripture that it includes physical death? Is the doctrine of eternal death consistent with the
idea that the punishment of sin serves merely as a means of reformation, or as a deterrent?
LITERATURE:
Bavinck, Geref. Dogm. III, pp. 158-198; Kuyper, Dict. Dogm., De Peccato, pp. 93-
112; Strong, Syst. Theol., pp. 652-660; Raymond, Syst. Theol. II, pp. 175-184; Shedd, Doctrine of
Endless Punishment; Washington Gladden, Present Day Theology, Chaps. IV and V; Kennedy, St.
Paul’s Conceptions of the Last Things, pp. 103-157; Dorner, Syst. of Chr. Doct. III, pp. 114-132.