"lust" means. It means to desire something in a selfish way, and "the lust of the eyes" means a desire for those things which we see that seem to be desirable and yet are forbidden. Now we are prepared to understand what is meant by the statement, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out." It means that if we see something that we desire and crave and yet it is forbidden, or that we can not possess except by selfish or wicked means, then we are to deny ourselves this particular thing. Why should we deny ourselves thus? The answer is, Because to obtain it, or to obtain it in illegal or unjust ways, is selfishness and will surely lose us the kingdom. Hence, in symbolic language we speak of the eye as offending us. It becomes an offense to us because it looks upon something with a selfish desire to possess it. It is far better for us to cut off these selfish desires and to deny ourselves their gratification than to lose the kingdom, and so the Lord said: 'It is better for thee to thus deny thyself than to be cast into eternal destruction, where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched.' Just as the literal fire in this valley of the son of Hinnom completely destroyed everything that was cast into it, so every person who selfishly lives for his own personal gratification will eventually be completely destroyed in the second death. No person in heaven or in earth will be allowed to quench this fire or stop it in any way: it must accomplish its purpose. But how about the other part of the text, namely, "where their worm dieth not"? Any one ought to be able to see that if eternal torment is true, and a literal lake of fire, worms could not live a single moment in it. It is entirely unreasonable to connect these worms with eternal torment or with fire. But what does it mean? There must be some proper and reasonable explanation. Since we have found the "fire" to be a picture or illustration, it is but reasonable to think that the "worm" is also an illustration. If so, what does it illustrate? Referring to the refuse cast into the valley, history records that no live thing was ever cast into it, thus contradicting the eternal torment theory. History further records that the carcasses of animals, and also the bodies of the worst of criminals, after execution, were denied a burial and were cast into this valley and destroyed as so much rubbish. Some of these carcasses would catch on the rocks or on the trees and never reach the fire, and the worms would completely devour them, thus picturing the same thing as the fire, namely, destruction. The worms destroyed what the fire did not. But what about the worms' not dying? The thought is exactly the same as that of the fire's not being quenched. Just as long as there was any of the carcass left to feed upon, the worms would not die.
We have all seen instances of worms, literally thousands of them, consuming a carcass in a very short time; and then the worms would all disappear, and nobody knows where they went. Now let us read our text again. 'It is better to deny yourself all of these things which we crave, which seem desirable and yet are forbidden, and win the kingdom of God, than to gratify yourself with these things for a few brief years and go into eternal destruction, pictured by a fire, which destroys everything cast into it, and by a worm devouring a carcass.' The thing responsible for the wrong interpretation is the false teaching that wicked people go into a place of torment at the moment of death, and that they are alive and conscious. Believing this lie, because taught it by parents and in the theological schools and seminaries, Bible expositors have seized upon these highly symbolic statements and pictures and distorted them into meaning something that they do not mean and that directly contradicts other plain and non symbolic statements. Let me quote some of the many plain statements of the Scriptures, which in pointblank language deny the theory of eternal torment. Ecclesiastes 9:5 says: "The dead know not any thing." Psalm 145:20 says: "All the wicked will he [God] destroy." Job 36:6 says: "He preserveth not the life of the wicked." In 2 Thessalonians 1:9 we read that the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction"; and in entire harmony with all these statements is the Bible teaching of a "second death". The very fact that there is a second death is an indisputable denial of eternal torment. The fact that there is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust, is another most emphatic denial of eternal torment. Now let us note other texts containing the word "fire". Many people think every text containing this word is a positive proof of eternal torment. In Matthew 25:41 we read that our Lord says: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting' fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." This text tells us that it is the Devil and his angels, followers or allies, that are to be cast into the fire. This means that all, angels and men, who eventually choose to follow the Devil instead of the Lord, will be destroyed. In harmony with this, Revelation 20:10 says: "The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are." Now note what this text says. It plainly states that the Devil will be cast into the lake of fire. The majority of Christian people believe that the Devil is to roast and torment those who are so unfortunate as to get into "the hot place".
But what does this mean? It means simply that the Devil is to be destroyed. In full harmony with
