Part III, Chapter XXXVIII, 1

OF THE MEANING IN SCRIPTURE OF ETERNAL LIFE, HELL, SALVATION, THE WORLD TO COME, AND REDEMPTION

The preservation of civil society depends on justice, and justice on the power of life and death, and of other lesser rewards and punishments, held by those who have the sovereignty of the Common-wealth. Thus a Common-wealth cannot endure where anyone other than the Sovereign has the power to give a reward greater than life or inflict a punishment greater than death. Since eternal life is a greater reward than our present life, and eternal torment a greater punishment than natural death, it is worth careful consideration by all who wish to avoid the calamities of disorder and civil war by obeying authority what Holy Scripture means by eternal life and eternal torment; for what offenses, committed against whom, people are to be eternally tormented; and for what deeds they are to obtain eternal life.

First we find that Adam was created in such a condition that, had he not broken God's command, he would have enjoyed life forever in the Paradise of Eden. For there stood the tree of life, from which he was allowed to eat as long as he refrained from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from which he was forbidden to eat. Thus, as soon as he ate from the latter tree, God drove him from Paradise “lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live forever” (Gen. 3. 22.). From this it seems to me—with submission, both here and in all questions whose resolution depends on Scripture, to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Common-wealth of which I am a subject—that if Adam had not sinned he would have had eternal life on earth; and that mortality came upon him and his descendants through his first sin. It was not actual death that then came upon him, for had he died then he could never have had children; instead, he lived long afterward and saw numerous descendants before he died. But where it is said, “On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die,” what is meant must be his mortality and the certainty of his death. Since eternal life was lost by Adam's forfeiture through sin, whoever canceled that forfeiture would thereby recover that life. Now Jesus Christ has made satisfaction for the sins of all who believe in him, and has therefore restored to all believers the ETERNAL LIFE lost through Adam's sin. In this sense the comparison made by St. Paul holds (Rom. 5.18, 19.): “As by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life.” He says it again more clearly (1 Cor. 15.21,22): “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

As to the place where people shall enjoy the eternal life Christ has obtained for them, the passages just cited seem to put it on earth. For if in Adam all die—that is, forfeit Paradise and eternal life on earth—and likewise in Christ all shall be made alive, then all shall be made to live on earth; otherwise the comparison would not be apt. The Psalmist appears to agree (Psal. 133.3.): “Upon Zion God commanded the blessing, even life forevermore”; for Zion is in Jerusalem, on earth. So too does St. John (Rev. 2.7.): “To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” This was the tree of Adam's eternal life, but his life was to have been on earth. The same point seems again confirmed by St. John (Rev. 21.2.), where he says: “I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”; and again, to the same effect, in v. 10. It is as though he said that at Christ's return the new Jerusalem, the Paradise of God, would descend from heaven to God's people, not that they would ascend to it from earth. Nor does this differ from what the two men in white clothing—that is, the two angels—said to the apostles as they watched Christ ascend (Acts 1.11.): “This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall come as you have seen him go up into heaven.” It sounds as though they said that he would descend to govern them here eternally under his Father, not carry them up to be governed by him in heaven. This accords with the restoration of the Kingdom of God instituted under Moses, which was a political government of the Jews on earth. Again, our Savior's saying (Mat. 22.30.) that “in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” describes an eternal life resembling what we lost in Adam with regard to marriage. For since Adam and Eve, had they not sinned, would have lived eternally on earth as individuals, it is plain that they would not have gone on continually procreating. If immortal people reproduced as mankind does now, the earth would soon be unable to give them room to stand. The Jews who asked our Savior, concerning a woman who had married many brothers, whose wife she would be in the Resurrection did not know the consequences of immortality: there will be no procreation and therefore no marriage, any more than there is marriage or procreation among the angels. The comparison between the eternal life Adam lost and that our Savior recovered by his victory over death holds also in this: just as Adam lost eternal life through his sin yet lived for some time afterward, so the faithful Christian has recovered eternal life through Christ's Passion though he dies a natural death and remains dead for a time, namely until the Resurrection. As death is reckoned from Adam's condemnation, not its execution, so life is reckoned from the absolution, not the Resurrection, of those elected in Christ.

That the place where people are to live eternally after the Resurrection is the heavens—meaning those parts of the world most remote from earth, where the stars are, or beyond them in another, higher heaven called Caelum Empyreum, for which there is neither mention in Scripture nor basis in reason—is not readily drawn from any passage I can find. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the Kingdom of the King who dwells in heaven; and his Kingdom was the people of Israel, whom he ruled through the prophets, his lieutenants: first Moses, then Eleazar and the sovereign priests, until in Samuel's day they rebelled and demanded a mortal king after the custom of other nations. And when our Savior Christ, through the preaching of his ministers, has persuaded the Jews to return and called the Gentiles to obey him, there shall be a new Kingdom of Heaven, because our King shall then be God, whose throne is heaven. Yet nothing evident in Scripture requires humanity to ascend for its happiness above God's footstool, the earth. On the contrary, we find it written (John 3.13.) that “no man has ascended into heaven, but he who came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven.” I observe in passing that these words, unlike those immediately preceding them, are not our Savior's but St. John's own; for Christ was then not in heaven but on earth. Something similar is said of David (Acts 2.34.), where St. Peter, seeking to prove Christ's Ascension, cites the Psalmist's words (Psal. 16.10.), “You will not leave my soul in Hell, nor suffer your Holy One to see corruption.” He says they were spoken not of David but of Christ and adds this reason as proof: “For David has not ascended into heaven.” A person might readily answer that although their bodies would not ascend until the general day of Judgment, their souls went to heaven as soon as they departed from their bodies. This seems also to be supported by our Savior's words (Luke 20.37,38.) when, proving the Resurrection from Moses' words, he says: “That the dead are raised, even Moses showed, at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for they all live to him.” But if these words are understood only of the immortality of the soul, they do not prove what our Savior intended to prove: the Resurrection of the body, that is, the immortality of the human being. Our Savior therefore means that those patriarchs were immortal not through a property of the essence and nature of mankind but through the will of God, who graciously chose to bestow eternal life on the faithful. And although at that time the patriarchs and many other faithful people were dead, they lived to God, as the passage says: they were written in the Book of Life among those absolved of their sins and appointed to eternal life at the Resurrection. That the human soul is by its own nature eternal, and a living creature independent of the body, or that any mere human being is immortal except through the Resurrection on the last day (apart from Enos and Elias), is a doctrine not apparent in Scripture. The whole 14. chapter of Job, spoken by Job himself and not by his friends, laments this natural mortality, without contradicting immortality at the Resurrection. “There is hope for a tree,” he says (verse 7.), “if it is cut down. Though its root grows old and its stump dies in the ground, yet when it scents the water it will bud and put forth boughs like a plant. But man dies and wastes away; man gives up the ghost, and where is he?” And (verse 12.): “man lies down, and does not rise until the heavens are no more.” When will the heavens be no more? St. Peter tells us: at the general Resurrection. For in his 2. Epistle, 3. chapter, 7. verse, he says “the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for fire against the day of Judgment and the destruction of ungodly people”; and (verse 12.): “looking for and hastening the coming of God, in which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, according to the promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Thus when Job says that man does not rise until the heavens are no more, it is as though he said that immortal life—and soul and life usually signify the same thing in Scripture—does not begin in man until the Resurrection and day of Judgment. Its cause is not his nature as a species or his birth, but the Promise. For St. Peter does not say, “We look for new heavens and a new earth from Nature,” but from Promise.

What Scripture means by eternal life, hell, salvation, the world to come, and redemption

Civil society depends on justice. Justice depends on the power to impose death and lesser punishments, and to offer life and lesser rewards. Those powers belong to whoever holds sovereignty in the Commonwealth. A Commonwealth cannot survive if anyone besides the sovereign can give a reward greater than life or impose a punishment greater than death. Eternal life is a greater reward than life now, and eternal torment is a greater punishment than a natural death. So everyone who wants to avoid the disasters of disorder and civil war by obeying authority should carefully consider what Scripture means by eternal life and eternal torment. They should also consider what offenses against whom bring eternal torment, and what actions bring eternal life.

First, Adam was created in a condition in which he would have lived forever in the Paradise of Eden if he had not broken God's command. The tree of life was there. He was allowed to eat from it as long as he did not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden to him. As soon as he ate from the forbidden tree, God expelled him from Paradise “lest he put out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever” (Gen. 3. 22.). This suggests to me that Adam would have lived forever on Earth if he had not sinned, and that mortality came upon him and his descendants through his first sin. On this and every other question decided by Scripture, however, I submit to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Commonwealth of which I am a subject. Adam did not actually die at the moment he sinned. If he had, he could never have had children. Instead he lived much longer and saw many descendants before he died. So when God said, “On the day you eat from it, you shall surely die,” he must have meant that Adam would become mortal and certain to die. Adam forfeited eternal life by sinning. Whoever canceled that forfeiture would restore that life. Jesus Christ has made amends for the sins of everyone who believes in him. He has therefore restored to all believers the eternal life lost through Adam's sin. In this sense St. Paul's comparison holds (Rom. 5.18, 19.): “As one person's offense brought judgment upon all people and condemnation, so one person's righteousness brought the free gift upon all people and justification of life.” He makes the same point more plainly in 1 Cor. 15.21,22: “For since death came through a human being, resurrection of the dead also came through a human being. For as all die in Adam, so all shall be made alive in Christ.”

The passages just cited seem to place the eternal life Christ obtained for people on Earth. All die in Adam, meaning they have forfeited Paradise and eternal life on Earth. If all are likewise made alive in Christ, they must be made to live on Earth. Otherwise the comparison does not fit. The Psalmist seems to agree (Psal. 133.3.): “On Zion God commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.” Zion is in Jerusalem, on Earth. St. John also says (Rev. 2.7.), “To the one who overcomes I will give food from the tree of life, which is in the middle of God's Paradise.” This tree would have given Adam eternal life, and his life would have been on Earth. St. John seems to confirm the same point elsewhere (Rev. 21.2.): “I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Verse 10 says the same thing. The point appears to be that when Christ returns, the new Jerusalem, God's Paradise, will descend from heaven to God's people. They will not rise from Earth to reach it. This agrees with what the two men in white clothing, the two angels, said to the apostles as they watched Christ ascend (Acts 1.11.): “This same Jesus, taken from you into heaven, shall come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.” This sounds as if he will descend to govern them forever here under his Father, not take them up to be governed in heaven. It also agrees with the restoration of the Kingdom of God established under Moses, which was political government of the Jews on Earth. Our Savior's words (Mat. 22.30.) say “that at the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven.” This describes eternal life as like the life Adam lost, particularly regarding marriage. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would have lived forever as the same individual people on Earth. Clearly they would not have gone on having children without end. If immortal people reproduced as people now do, there would soon be no room left for them to stand on Earth. The Jews who asked our Savior whose wife a woman who had married several brothers would be at the resurrection did not understand the consequences of immortality. There will be no reproduction and so no marriage, just as angels neither marry nor reproduce. There is another way Adam's lost eternal life resembles the life our Savior restored by his victory over death. Adam lost eternal life through his sin yet went on living for a time. Likewise, a faithful Christian has regained eternal life through Christ's suffering, though the Christian dies naturally and remains dead for a time, until the resurrection. Adam's death is dated from his condemnation, not its execution. Likewise, the life of those chosen in Christ is dated from their acquittal, not their resurrection.

I cannot readily find a passage supporting the claim that after the resurrection people will live forever in the heavens—that is, in regions far from Earth where the stars are, or above the stars in another, higher heaven called Caelum Empyreum. Scripture does not mention that higher heaven, and reason gives no support for it. “Kingdom of Heaven” means the kingdom of the King who lives in heaven. His kingdom was the people of Israel, governed through his deputies the prophets: first Moses, then Eleazar and the sovereign priests. This continued until the days of Samuel, when they rebelled and wanted a mortal king like other nations had. When our Savior Christ has persuaded the Jews to return through his ministers' preaching and called the Gentiles to obey him, there will be a new Kingdom of Heaven. Our King will then be God, whose throne is heaven. Scripture does not clearly require people to rise any higher for their happiness than Earth, God's footstool. On the contrary, we read (Joh. 3.13.) that “no one has ascended into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven.” Incidentally, I take these words to be St. John's own rather than our Savior's, unlike the preceding words. Christ was then on Earth, not in heaven. St. Peter says something similar about David (Acts 2.34.). To prove Christ's ascension he quotes the Psalmist (Psal. 16.10.): “You will not leave my soul in hell or allow your Holy One to see decay.” Peter says these words refer to Christ, not David. His reason is: “For David has not ascended into heaven.” Someone might answer that David and others had not risen bodily, and would not rise until the general day of judgment, but their souls went to heaven when they left their bodies. Our Savior's words (Luke 20.37,38.) might seem to confirm this. To prove the resurrection from Moses' words, he says, “That the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead but of the living, for they all live to him.” But if these words refer only to the soul's immortality, they do not prove what our Savior meant to prove: the body's resurrection, meaning the immortality of the whole person. Our Savior therefore means that those patriarchs were immortal not by any essential feature of human nature, but by God's will. In his generosity God chose to give eternal life to the faithful. The patriarchs and many other faithful people were dead at that time. Yet, as the passage says, they lived to God: their names were written in the Book of Life among those acquitted of their sins and appointed to eternal life at the resurrection. Scripture does not clearly teach that the human soul is naturally eternal, a living creature independent of the body. Nor does it clearly teach that any ordinary human being is immortal except through resurrection on the last day, apart from Enos and Elias. All of Job's 14. chapter is Job speaking, not his friends, and lamenting our natural mortality. It does not, however, contradict immortality at the resurrection. “There is hope for a tree,” he says in verse 7, “if it is cut down. Though its root grows old and its stump dies in the ground, when it senses water it will bud and grow branches like a plant. But a human being dies and wastes away; a human being gives up the spirit, and where is he?” And in verse 12: “A human being lies down and does not rise until the heavens are no more.” When will the heavens be no more? St. Peter tells us it will happen at the general resurrection. In his 2. Epistle, 3. Chapter, verse 7, he says that “the present heavens and Earth are kept for fire until the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly people.” And in verse 12 he speaks of “looking for and hastening the coming of God, when the heavens will burn and dissolve, and the elements will melt in intense heat. Yet, according to the promise, we look for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness lives.” So when Job says people do not rise until the heavens are no more, he is saying that human immortal life begins only at the resurrection and the day of judgment. Scripture commonly uses “soul” and “life” to mean the same thing. This immortal life comes not from the nature of our species or from being born, but from the promise. St. Peter does not say, “We look for new heavens and a new Earth by nature,” but that we look for them by promise.