THE STRAIT GATE
“The Strait Gate” and the “Few saved” are thought by many to indicate the final salvation of only a portion of the human family.
The question was asked by some one (Luke 17:23 and Matt. 8:13,14): “Lord, are there few that be saved? and he answered: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.”
No intelligent reader suposes this language literal—that there is a gate at which men knock, after death, for admission into heaven. The Kingdom of God is Christ’s reign on earth, and its gate signifies entrance into it. “The Kingdom of God,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” etc., is always in this world.
And every careful reader will see that the language is entirely confined to the present.
“Lord, are there few that be ‘saved’?” The literal rendering is: “Are those being saved few?” The question relates entirely to the number then accepting Christianity. But inasmuch as all partialist Christians believe that the great mass—all but a small minority of mankind—will be finally saved, it is very inconsistent for any one thus believing to apply this language to man’s final condition. “Are there few that are now being saved?” is the literal rendering of the question From what? Not from endless torment, but from certain evil consequences in this world.
And the answer to Jesus shows that the application was confined to those to whom he was speaking.
“Lord” (they say) “we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.”
The words apply entirely to those who had heard him speak in their streets, namely the Jews, whose advantages were about to be taken away, and given to the Gentiles, who were to enter the kingdom by faith, with faithful Abraham, while they were thrust out. The weeping and gnashing of teeth represents their chagrin and rage at their lot, despising the Gentiles as they did.
This same subject is thus treated in Matt. 7:13,14.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because, strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
As we just said, it is entirely inconsistent for any advocate of endless punishment to quote this language in support of that doctrine, inasmuch as all such believers now teach that the great majority of souls will be finally saved, while only the small minority will be forever lost. The Savior referred, by the Strait Gate, to the exacting nature of his religion. The road was narrow, and difficult to follow, and but few then followed it, while the many avoided it, and pursued the broad road of error and sin. The words have the same application today, well expressed by good Dr. Watts:
- Broad is the road that leads to death,
- And thousands walk together there,
- But wisdom shows a narrow path,
- With here and there a traveller.
The language teaches that only the few then walked in the narrow way marked out by Christ while the many chose the broader way of wrong.
If we refer the passage to the future world, we cannot escape the conclusion that heaven will only contain a few souls, while the great majority will be damned. It has no reference to the future world whatever, but denotes the few who in our Savior’s day went right, while the great multitude went wrong. Dr. A. Clarke says: “Enter in through this strait gate—i.e., of doing to every one as you would he should do unto you; for this alone seems to be the strait gate.”
The language in Luke has a more special application to the Jews than that in Matthew, which may be applied to every age since Christ, and to the present. It is as true now as at the time Jesus spoke, that the path of Christian goodness is a difficult one, followed by a comparative few, while the way of wickedness is broad and much travelled. But it will not always be so.
Whoever refers the language to the final condition of the human race must admit that only a few will ever be holy and happy, while the great multitude will be lost. It has no such application, but teaches that at the time Jesus spoke the many went wrong, while only the few chose the way of life.
THE BAD CAST AWAY
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.—Matt. 13:47-50.
The “furnace of fire” and “gnashing of teeth” will be fully explained, as also the “end of the world,” or age (aion) in subsequent parts of this book. The material universe, this world (kosmos) is never spoken of as ending, but it is always the aion, or age, the end of which is announced. “The field is the world,” kosmos, v. 38, but “the end of the world,” when the harvest comes, v. 39, is aion. The age ends, but not the world.
The kingdom of heaven is Christ’s rule among men, his church. It is a net which catches good and bad, and at the end of that age, so often referred to, when severe judgments were to come, the angels, or messengers to execute God’s judgments, would separate Christians from others, and the bad were to suffer in the furnace of fire, the burning city, and perish in Gehenna.
Dr. Clark says: “It is very remarkable that not a single Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invaded the city; and had he persevered in the siege, he would have rendered himself master of it; but when he, unexpectedly and unaccountably, raised the siege, the Christians took that opportunity to escape.”
This language has sole reference to the remarkable trials through which the early Christians were about to pass, when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Christian religion was fairly established on the ruins of the Jewish church. The “furnace of fire,” the “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” were when the awful calamities of those fearful days, so fully described in Matt. xxiv, were visited upon the people of Judea. These expressions will be more fully explained hereafter.
YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH.
“I tell you, nay; except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”—Luke 12:3.
Many readers of the Bible suppose that the word perish always relates to the immortal soul, and that it means to suffer torment without end. And this passage has been quoted blindly, ignorantly, thousands of times to denote the final loss of the soul. But it is only necessary to consult the immediate context to perceive that Jesus was referring to nothing of the sort. He asks:
“Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
That is, perish in a manner similar to their death. “Except ye repent, ye shall all perish as they died.” How was that? There were “some who told him of the Galilieans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices,” and of a certain eighteen “upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them.”
“Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.”
That is, be slain as they were. No better explanation fo these words can be given than in the language of “orthodox” commentators.
Says Dr. Clarke: “ye shall all likewise perish. In a like way, in the same manner. This prediction of our lord was literally fulfilled. When the city was taken by the Romans, multitudes of the priests, etc., who were going on with their sacrifices, were slain, and their blood mingled with the blood of their victims; and multitudes were buried under the ruins of the walls, houses and temple.”
Dr. Barnes (Presbyterian) observes: “You shall all be destroyed in a similar manner. * * This was remarkably fulfilled. Many of the jews were slain in the temple; many while offering sacrifice; thousands perished in a way very similar to the Galileans.”
Whitby says: “I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, for the same cause, and many of you after the same manner.”
IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”—Heb 7:4-6.
Any reader of the New Testament ought to see that this language is not to be understood as literal, when he remembers that Peter himself “fell away,” and was “renewed again unto repentance.” What Paul says is that it is difficult, not impossible, to renew those who have once tasted the heavenly gift.
The word here has the same force as in Matt. 19:26, where it is said to be impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In reply to the apostles’ question, “who, then, can be saved?” Jesus said: “With men it is impossible, but with God everything is possible;” or, more exactly, “With men it is hard, but everything is easy with God.”
Calmet says: “St. Paul by no means intended to exclude the baptism of tears and repentance, for the expiation of those sins which we commit after regeneration.”
Rosenmuller, a celebrated German theologian, says: “Adunaton, in this place, does not mean absolutly impossible, but rather a thing so difficult that it may be nearly impossible; thus we are accustomed to say of very many things in common conversation.”
Dr. Macknight observes: “The apostle does not mean that it is impossible for God to renew a second time, by repentance, an apsostate; but that it is impossible for the ministers of Christ to convert a second time, to the faith of the Gospel, one who, after being made acquainted with all the proofs by which God has thought fit to establish Christ’s mission, shall allow himself to think him an impostor, and renounce the gospel. The apostle, knowing this, was anxious to give the Hebrews just views of the ancient oracles, in the hope that it would prevent them from apostatizing.
THE SIN UNTO DEATH
“If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin unto death.—1 John 5:16,17.
“The sin unto death” has often been supposed to be the “unpardonable sin,” so called, as though any sin could be unpardonable by a God whose mercy is without limit and without end. The apostle was merely alluding to the various offences under the Jewish law, some of which were unto death, or capital offences, while others were less heinous. The latter were to be interceded for, but the former were to be regarded as beyond intercession. On this passage Bishop Horne correctly says:
“The Talmudical writers have distinguished the capital punishments of the Jews into lesser deaths and such as were more grievous; but there is no warrant in the Scriptures for these distinctions, neither are these writers agreed among themselves what particular punishments are to be referred to these two heads. A capital crime generally was termed a sin of death (Deut. 16:6); or a sin worthy of death (Deut. 21:22), which mode of expression is adopted, or rather imitated, by the apostle John, who distinguishes between a sin unto death, and a sin not unto death (1 John 5:16). Criminals, or those who were deemed worthy of capital punishment, were called sons or men of death (1 Sam. 15:32; 31:16; 2 Sam. 19:28, marginal reading), just as he who had incurred the punishment of scourging was designated a son of stripes (Deut. 25:16; 1 Kings 14:6). A similar phraseology was adopted by Jesus Christ, when he said to the Jews: “Ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:21-24). Eleven different sorts of capital punishment are mentioned in the sacred writings.”
THE HYPOCRITE’S HOPE.
“And the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.”—Job 8:13
Why this passage was ever quoted in support of endless punishment, we have no conjecture. There is nothing in it to indicate that it has the remotest reference to anything beyond this life. Its meaning is that the wicked shall be disappointed; that the will not realize what they desire. It is exactly equivalent to Prov. 10:28: “The expectation of the wicked shall perish.”
AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY
“Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”—Matt. 5:25,26.
The adversary here is a legal one, the language refers to those who were opposed to the disciples in some way, as is evident from the references to a “judge”, an “officer” and a “prison.” If God were the adversary, as is sometimes claimed, and the prison is after death, then limited punishment is certainly taught, for when “the uttermost farthing” is paid, then deliverance from the prison follows. But it has no such reference. The language has a local reference to the times of the disciples, and relates entirely to legal opponents.
THE WICKED DRIVEN AWAY.
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death.”—Prov. 14:32.
Solomon had not the most remote reference to post mortem suffering in this language. What he meant to say was that when the wicked is driven away to death in his wickedness, the righteous has hope. He expresses the same idea when he says: “I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.”—Eccl. 4:2. When the wicked die in their wickedness, the righteous have hope even in their death, is what Solomon says in this language.
THE LIVING GOD FEARFUL.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”—Heb. 10:31
To fall into the hands of God, the living God, is as when (1 Sam. 5:6) “the hand of the Lord was heavy,” and “the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.”
It denotes the judgments of God falling on the sinful. It is fearful to merit and receive those penalties. God has a merciful purpose in them, but they are often fearful to experience. We are always in God’s hands, but we are said to “fall into” his hands when we suffer the consequences of sinfulness. It is a fearful thing to merit and receive the results of wickedness, even though a beneficent purpose moulds them, just as an amputation is a fearful process to undergo, though it may save life and restore health.
GOD LAUGHS AT MAN’S CALAMITY.
“I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproofs. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.”—Prov. 1:24-26.
This language is sometimes wrongfully applied to God, who is represented as laughing at man’s calamity, and mocking him when in future and final torment, whereas it is Wisdom that is personified as saying:
“Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying: How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof! Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
The idea of wresting this language from its application to Wisdom, and applying it to the merciful God and Father of all, is one of the many illustrations of the manner in which the advocates of endless torment have misapplied the language of the Bible to make it seem to sustain the horrible doctrine. Think of God mocking the sinner’s groans, and laughing as he listens to his cries of torment! And why should he not, if he has, in infinite wisdom and love, created an endless hell for his abode?
YE SHALL NOT FIND ME
“Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am thither ye can not come.”—John 7:34. “Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come.”—John 8:21.
These verses are usually misquoted thus: “If ye die in your sins, where God and Christ are ye never can come.” But Jesus said just the same thing to his disciples in John 13:33.
“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.”
True, he said to his disciple Peter: “Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterward,” and so he told the wicked Jews: “Ye shall not see me till ye shall say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:39). In both instances he meant that he should not be followed at that time, but in neither case did he mean that they should be excluded from his presence forever.
NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”—Gal. 5:19-21. “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”—Eph. 5:5. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”—1 Cor. 6:9,10.
The popular rendering of these passages is, that those who commit these sins in this life will never find heaven, unless they repent before they die; but that idea is not expressed nor implied. The kingdom of God, of heaven, is a condition of purity, and whoever is guilty of these sins shuts himself out from the enjoyment of the kingdom. No Christian sect teaches this doctrine more earnestly than do Universalists. All Christians teach that this language is not to be interpreted literally. All those thus guilty; may, by repentance, enter the kingdom.
THE BARREN FIG TREE
“Cut it down why cumbereth it the ground?”—Luke 13:7. this language is parallel to that in Matt. 3:10: “and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.”
Man is compared to a fruitless tree, that is destroyed because barren. No point of the description is literal—neither the tree, the axe, the fruit, nor the fire. The nation, or the individual, that does not serve God, perishes; that is, passes through a process of decay, destruction, as the penalty of sinfulness. Not annihilation, nor ceaseless torment, but that moral condition for which the Scriptures have no better name than death.
GOD ANGRY EVERY DAY.
“God is angry with the wicked every day.”—Psalm 7:11.
Anger, as the word is ordinarily used, is not a noble emotion; it is altogether unworthy of God, and he is incapable of it. The wise man says (Eccl. 7:9): “Anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Then God cannot be “angry every day,” all the time. What is the meaning of these words?
Dr. Adam Clarke, the well known scholar and commentator, has examined the text with equal learning and candor, and he gives us the result of his investigation in the statement that a mistranslation of the language puts a false meaning on the words. He gives these as authorities:
The Vulgate:—”God is a judge, righteous, strong and patient. Will he be angry every day?” The Septuagint:—”God is a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering; not bringing forth his anger every day.” The Arabic is the same. The Genevan version, printed in 1615:—”God judgeth the righteous, and him that contemneth God, every day;” marginal note: “he doth continually call the wicked to repentance by some signs of his judgments.”
Dr. Clarke says: “I have judged it of consequence to trace this verse through all the ancient version. in order to be able to ascertain what is the true reading, where the evidence on one side amounts to a positive affirmation, ‘God is angry every day,.’ and, on the other side, to as positive a negation, ‘He is not angry every day.’ The mass of evidence supports the latter reading. The Chaldee first corrupted the text by making the addition, ‘with the wicked,’ which our translators have followed, though they have put the words into italics, as not being in the Hebrew text. Several of the versions have rendered it in this way: ‘God judgeth the righteous, and is not angry every day.” The true sense may be restored thus; el with the vowel tsere signifies God; el, the same letters with the point pathach, signifies not. Several of the versions have read in this way: ‘God judgeth the righteous, and is not angry every day.’ He is not always chiding, nor is he daily punishing, notwithstanding the daily wickedness of man; hence the ideas of patience and long-suffering which several of the versions introduce.”
It will be seen that David expressly says that God is not angry every day, though those who quote the text as found in our version to prove God petulant, wrathful and passionate, do not seem to reflect that it is no proof of endless punishment, for the same author and others declare (Micah 7:18; Ps. 103:8,9; 30:5) that “He retaineth not his anger forever.” So that, if he were—as he is not—angry every day, the time would come when his anger would no longer exist.
It will enable the reader to understand the meaning of anger, as ascribed to God in the Scriptures, if he will consider how the word is used in the Bible. There are two kinds of anger. One is right, and is exhibited by God, good angels and good men, and the other is wrong and is an animal characteristic, of which God is incapable. Abstract anger is a disposition to combat, destroy, and its legitimate use is to remove obstacles. Employed by the good it never harms, but used by the evil, its work is mischief and woe.
The first sort is referred to in the passage we are considering, and is exercised by God, who is said to “hate all the workers of iniquity.” And how does he exhibit his anger? Not against the sinner, but against the sin. Men, smarting under the penalties of sin, seeing only the stroke, and not realizing the love that impels it, say with Saul that God hates them, but it is Infinite Love that wields the rod, and that inflicts every stroke because it loves the sinner, and will destroy that in him that alienates him from his best friend, and ruins his best interests.
David says; “Thou shalt make the wicked as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.”—Ps. 21:9. The prophet declares: “The Lord reserveth wrath for his enemies.”—Nahum 1:2,3. Paul affirms; “The wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.” “The power and wrath of God is upon all them that forsake him.”—Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6. Jesus says: “The wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not the Son.”—John 3:36. He also says: “God is kind to the unthankful and evil.”—Luke 6:35. “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust.”—Matt. 5:48.
Now these are not contradictory statements. They are consistent with each other. What God is determined to destroy in the sinner is that which makes him a sinner, and he proceeds towards him as a good parent must, to eradicate it by punishment. An angry mother—a true mother—punishes her wayward boy, just as God punishes the wicked, because she loves him. The boy may call it anger, but it is that kind which will not harm a hair of his head. It is indeed the highest love; it is determined on the child’s welfare, and so will not shrink from inflicting pain. But it is temporary. This is evident when we remember that men are told to be like God, and yet they must not let the sun go down upon their wrath. We must love our enemies that we may be children of the highest. If God were angry every day, and we were like him, we should be cross, petulant, wrathful, vindictive and hateful all the time. But we can only be like God as we “put off anger” (Col. 3:8) and “put away all wrath, anger and malice,” (Eph. 4:31) inasmuch as “a fool’s wrath is presently known,” (Prov. 12:16) while “he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Prov. 14:29).
“God is not angry with the wicked every day,” is the correct reading of this passage, and it must be true of him who is Love, and who is unchangeable, that he never was, never is, and never will be—for he never can be—angry with any human being in any other sense than that his righteous indignation burns towards those traits that cause his children to sin, and that it will continue to burn until it destroys those traits, and transforms his enemies into friends. “The man who destroyed his enemies” transformed them to friends. God’s anger will destroy the enmity of his enemies. He will always be kind to the unthankful and evil. He “is not angry with the wicked every day.”
THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY GHOST
The passages that relate to this subject are in Matt. 12:31,32: “Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor the world to come.” Mark 3:28-30: “all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation; because they said, he hath an unclean spirit.” Luke xii:10: “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.”
What is this sin? It consisted in ascribing the power by which Jesus wrought his wonderful works to Satan. He was accused of being aided by Beelzebub, of having an unclean spirit, and of working his miracles by the power of an evil spirit. From this it follows that but very few persons are exposed to the doom here threatened, inasmuch as very few have ever committed this sin.
But if we take this language literally, we must hold that all other sinners, of every character and kind, will be saved, because just as positively as the Scripture declares that these blasphemies shall never be forgiven, it declares that all others literally and absolutely shall be forgiven. “Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme.” The sin against the Holy Ghost is the only sin that shall not be pardoned. All other sinners. thieves, liars, murderers, all except that very small number that accused Jesus of receiving diabolical help, shall be forgiven. Does not this show that the terms of the passage are not to be taken literally? Does it not appear that men must either believe that all kinds of sinners, and all of them, except this small number, must be pardoned, or else that the rest of the language is not to be taken literally? It is asserted just as positively that all others shall be, as that these few shall not be forgiven.
If the “shall” and “shall not” are to be understood literally, then the number of the damned is entirely limited to the very few who actually saw Christ’s miracles, and ascribed them to Beelzebub. No one since, and no one hereafter can be damned, for all other sin but that shall be forgiven. This saves all mankind except those few persons who said, “he [Christ] hath an unclean spirit.” This reduces hell to a mere mote in the universe, and excludes all now living, or who hereafter shall live, from any exposure to it.
What does that language mean? Campbell says this is “a noted Hebraism;” that is, a term of speech common among the Jews, to teach that one event is more likely to occur than another, and not that either shall or shall not occur.
Dr. Newcome says: “It is a common figure of speech in the oriental languages, to say of two things that the one shall be and the other shall not be, when the meaning is that the one shall happen sooner, or more easily, than the other.”
Grotius and Bishop Newton are to the same purport. For illustration, when Jesus says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,” he does not mean that heaven and earth shall actually pass away, but they will sooner fail than his words. It is a strong method of asserting that his words shall be fulfilled. This is common in the Bible.
Prov. 8:10: “Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.” Matt. 6:19,20: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” Luke 14:12,13: “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.” John 6:27: “Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him hath God the father sealed.”
The plain meaning is, all other sins are more easily forgiven than this. The words “never,” “neither in this world nor the world to come,” do not change the sense, but only strengthen and intensify the Savior’s meaning that this is of all sins the worst.
The popular impression that ‘the world to come” here means the life after death is an error.
Dr. Clarke well observes: “Though I follow the common translation, yet I am fully satisfied the meaning of the words is, neither in this dispensation, viz., the Jewish, nor in that which is to come. Olam ha-bo, the world to come, is a constant phrase for the times of the Messiah, in the Jewish writers.”
Wakefield, Rosenmuller and Hammond also give the same opinion. And it should be added that the word “never” is no part of the original Greek. That is, not under either dispensation, or age (aion—mistranslated “world”), will this inexcusable sin be less than the greatest of transgressions.
Bishop Pearce declares: “This is a strong way of expressing how difficult a thing it was for such a sinner to obtain pardon. The Greek word aion seems to signify age here, as it often does in the New Testament (see Matt. 13:40; 24:3; Col. 1:26; Eph. 3:5,21) and according to its most proper signification. If this be so, then ‘this age’ means the Jewish one, and ‘the age to come’ (see Hebrews 6:5 and Eph. 2:7) means that under the Christian dispensation. The end of the world took place during the time of the apostles. ‘Now once in the end of the world hath he [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.’—Heb. 9:26. ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.’ 1 Cor. 10:11.”
Gilpin observes, “Nobody can suppose, considering the whole tenor of Christianity, that there can be any sin which, on repentance, may not be forgiven. This, therefore, seems only a strong way of expressing the difficulty of such repentance, and the impossibility of forgiveness without it. Such an expression occurs Matt. 19:24: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven;’ that is, it is very difficult. That the Pharisees were not beyond the reach of forgiveness, on their repentance, seems to be plain from verse 41, where the repentance of Nineveh is held out to them for an example.”
Clarke says: “Any penitent may find mercy through Christ Jesus; for through him any kind of sin may be forgiven to man, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, which I have proved no man can now commit.”—Clarke on 1 John 5:16. And again: “No man who believes the divine mission of Jesus Christ, ever can commit this sin.”
These are all “Orthodox” commentators, whose opinions were certainly not formed by prejudice in favor of our views of the passages in question. They agree with what seems the meaning of the Savior, that this sin is of all others most inexcusable. But that any sin is literally unpardonable, by a God and Father of infinite love and mercy, is nowhere expressed or implied in the Bible.
Mark’s language “hath never forgiveness” should read “has not forgiveness to the age,” but is liable to aionian judgment; that is, to an indefinite penalty. See the word aionios, explained in subsequent pages of this book.