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Antichrist, under the figure of the Assyrian, is consigned to Tophet (Isa. 30: 33),
where "the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone," is parallel to the
passage in II Thess. 2: 8. It is this valley of the son of Hinnom (used as the place for the
worship of Molech, afterwards defiled and used as the place for the destruction of offal,
refuse, and the dead bodies of criminals), which supplies the word Gehenna, twelve times
translated "hell," in the New Testament.
The witness of every passage in the Old Testament is unanimous; it says with one
voice that,
"The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6: 23).
"The candle of the wicked shall be put out" (Prov. 24: 20).
"The wicked is reserved unto the day of destruction" (Job 21: 30).
"As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God"
(Psalm 68: 2).
"For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be" (Psalm 37: 10).
"He is like the beast that perish" (Psalm 49: 12).
"Let the sinners be consumed out of the land, and let the wicked be no more"
(Psalm 104: 35).
"They shall be as though they had not been" (Obadiah 16).
"They shall be as nothing" (Isa. 41: 11).
"To the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, it is because
there is no light in them."
The Wages of Sin .
A consideration of the words used in the Greek New Testaments.
pp.128-130
In the preceding papers of this series we have submitted to a careful examination some
of the words most frequently used in the Hebrew Scriptures to denote or to describe the
end of the unsaved. We now would 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.
Apollumi.--This word is translated in the A.V. as follows: "Destroy," 23 times;
"lose," 21 times; "be destroyed," 3 times; "be lost," 10 times; "be marred," once;
"die," once; and "perish," 33 times.
In examining "the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth" we must ever remember that
the literal sense of the words is primâ 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