The reward of the righteous in heaven and the punishment of the wicked in hell will be to all Eternity. The same terms employed to express and to measure the never-ending bliss, glory and reward of the righteous beyond the resurrection and the judgment are used to express the never-ending torment and punish of the wicked. There are three words in the New Testament that express Eternity, and they are translated from the same Greek word---aionios. These are Eternal, Everlasting and Forever. We will consider them in the order given.

First, eternal. With reference to the future state of the righteous: "in the world to come eternal life" (Mark 10:30); "eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2:10); "eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15); "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). With reference to the future state of the wicked: "is in danger of eternal damnation" (Mark 3:29); "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7).

Second, everlasting. With reference to the righteous: "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have you fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6:22); "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall, for as an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:10,11). With reference to the future state of the wicked---the same term is employed: "and these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous unto life eternal" (Matt. 25:46); "Then shall He say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (vs. 41).

Third, forever. Applied to the future of the righteous: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteous as the stars forever and ever! (Dan. 12:3). "And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: the they shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:5). Now we turn to the eternal state of the wicked: "To whom the most of darkness is reserved forever" (2 Pet. 2:17). "To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever" (Jude 13). Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. In the “day of judgment”, they will be cast into it. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented...forever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). In the final day of eternal rewards Jesus will sentence the wicked to the same hell of fire and torment (Matt. 25:41).

The same words that measure the life, the salvation and the inheritance of the righteous in heaven, as well as the punishment of the lost in hell, are used to measure the existence of God himself, the endurance of His throne in heaven and the existence of the Holy Spirit. Let me call your attention to a few examples: "the everlasting God". (Rom. 16:26) "the eternal Spirit". (Heb. 9:14) "King eternal (1 Tim. 1:17). "the Son abideth EVER" (John 8:35). "Thy throne, O God, is Forever and ever" (Heb. 1:8). No earthly wisdom can overthrow these solid truths. As long as heaven shall last, as long as the righteous enjoy its felicities; so long will the damnation of the wicked last.

Let us draw some comparisons. Time, the whole period of human history from creation to the end of this world, is but a fragment of eternity. It might be likened to a small island in the midst of the ocean. Gradually, its sands are being washed away by the mighty billow, which sweep against its shores. At length---God only know how soon---the billow of eternity will sweep over and wash away the last sands of time and nothing will remain but eternity! Your life and mine are but a very small fragment of time. Let us suppose that the average human life on this earth is seventy years and that the future would last only 100,000years. Would it not be wise to be a Christian? Imagine you would have to suffer as much and endure as many hardships and persecutions as Paul did, even for seventy years. You would have 99,930 more years of glory and happiness with Christ, the angels and the redeemed hosts of heaven, than all your period of suffering here. On the other hand, suppose for seventy shore years of life here, you could enjoy all the pleasure that sinful life can give, climb to the pinnacle of earthly fame and honor, accumulate riches so you could revel in worldly aggrandizement, and then---die without hope. You would have 99,930 more years of torment amidst howling demons and the "weeping wailing" of the damned in hell than all your years of enjoyment in sin. How foolish it is it live in sin!

Listen! 100,000 years does not measure the future. It takes ten hundred thousand years to make a million, and a thousand million to make a billion. Someone said that approximately one billion minutes have passed since the day Christ was born in Bethlehem. This statement interested me, so I began to count. There are 1,440 minutes in a twenty-four hour day, and 525,600 in a year. Multiply this by the years that have elapsed from the birth of Christ to Jan. 1, 1942, and the sum total is a little over 1,000,000,000. Now, think of as many years as there have been minutes since the Savior was born. God, help us, to wake up to the realities of the future! It takes a thousand billion to make a trillion, a thousand trillion to make a quadrillion, a thousand quadrillion to make a quintillion, a thousand quintillion to make a sextillion, a thousand sextillion to make a septillion, a thousand septillion to make an octillion, a thousand octillion to make a nonillion, and a thousand nonillion to make a decillion, written with a 1 and 33 zeros.

Some school teachers met (a number of years ago) and decided to get an idea of how many a decillion is. They bored a hole in a plank two inches deep and two inches in diameter, filled it with mustard seed, and counted every seed. They found 16,000 of these seed to a cubic inch. From this they began their calculations. Before they reached the enormous sum of a decillion, they had enough mustard seed to cover the whole earth---approximately a thousand miles deep! Think of that many years! Let us suppose that a bird comes from a far-distant planet, make one trip in each decillion years, and carries away as much water in its tiny mouth as it can contain. How long would it take that bird to empty a two-gallon pail of water? That bird can transfer to that distant planet all the waters contained in the springs, wells, ponds rivers, lakes and oceans, and actually drain this earth dry, and that would not measure Eternity! After carrying away all the water on this earth, suppose the bird still continues its journey only once in a decillion years, and carries away in it tiny mouth a grain of sand from the seashore, or a bit of dust. That bird can carry away the entire globe on which we live, and eternity has not been measured. Friend, YOU are going there! We shall all---soon be there! Death is the gateway through which we all must pass, and death fixes our destiny either in heaven or hell. While you are reading this, your casket may be in some undertaker's room, and the "pick and shovel" that will dig your grave may be in a "tool house." The minute your lungs cease to inhale and exhale, the moment your heart stops beating; you are there! The supreme question of life is, are you ready? [ The End ]