Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Watson: "The torments of hell abide forever."

I've been reading Thomas Watson's classic exposition The Ten Commandments as preparation for our current CRBC Sunday afternoon series on Exodus 20:1-17.  In his discussion of the Preface to the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1-2), Watson closes with a powerful and sober description of hell in which he vividly captures the hopelessness of eternal suffering:

The torments of hell abide for ever. ‘The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.’ Rev 14: 2: Time cannot finish it, tears cannot quench it. Mark 9: 44. The wicked are salamanders, who live always in the fire of hell, and are not consumed. After they have lain millions of years in hell, their punishment is as far from ending, as it was at the beginning. If all the earth and sea were sand, and every thousandth year a bird should come, and take away one grain, it would be a long time before that vast heap would be removed; yet, if after all that time the damned might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but this word EVER breaks the heart.

JTR

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