was not a spiritual being as is so often taught (cf. 1 Cor. 15:45-47), was

treated by God upon a plane suitable to his nature.  His obedience would have

meant a continuance in the state of innocence and the temporal blessings of

Eden, while his disobedience involved himself and his descendants in the

forfeiture of these blessings.  What is true concerning the first death is

true of the second death also.  If the second death means eternal conscious

agony, it cannot be justly named the second death, for it differs in its

every character.  Into the second death God will cast Hades (i.e. gravedom),

and death, the last enemy to be destroyed, not to be tormented or

The lake of fire is God's great destructor.  All things that offend are

gathered out of God's kingdom, not to be perpetuated by constant miracle, but

to be destroyed, root and branch.  We hope to prove this definitely when we

have considered the New Testament words.  Muth, 'death', is the expression of

abad, 'perish', shamad, 'destroy', tsamath, 'cut off', karath, 'cut off', and

kalah, 'to make an utter end'.

The witness of every passage in the Old Testament is unanimous; it says

with one voice that,

'The candle of the wicked shall be put out' (Prov. 24:20).

'The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction' (Job 21:30).

'As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the

presence of God' (Psa. 68:2).

'For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be' (Psa. 37:10).

'He is like the beasts that perish' (Psa. 49:12).

'Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no

more' (Psa. 104:35).

'They shall be as though they had not been' (Obad. 16).

'They shall be as nothing' (Isa. 41:11).

'To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this

Word, it is because there is no light in them' (Isa. 8:20).

We would now direct the reader to the New Testament, and the

examination of the words used therein in the teaching, warning, or

demonstration of the wages of sin.

This word is translated in the A.V. as follows:

23

be marred

28

be destroyed

3

33 times

be lost

3

In examining 'the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth' we must ever

remember that the literal sense of the words is prima facie their true sense.

It is this literal sense which is the common, ordinary, fundamental basis

of all language, and accurate communication of thought.  'Labour not for the

meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth to age-abiding life'

(John 6:27).  'They shall perish, but Thou remainest' (Heb. 1:11).  None can

fail to see that the word perish in these passages is the opposite of

enduring or remaining.  By what system of contrarieties do men seek to

explain the Bible when the object of perishing is the sinner?  Why should

perishing in this special case mean remaining or enduring in conscious

suffering? Dean Alford is responsible for the following statement: