“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and the nations that forget God.” — Psalms 9:17.

This statement of the Lord recorded by the Psalmist we find without any qualification whatever, and we must accept it as a positive fact. If the claims of “Orthodoxy” respecting hell were true, this would be, indeed, a fearful message.

But let us substitute the true meaning of the word sheol, and our text will read: “The wicked shall be turned into the condition of death, and all the nations that forget God.” This we believe; but next, who are the wicked? In one sense all men are wicked, in that all are violators of God’s law; but in the fullest sense the wicked are those who, with full knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the remedy provided for their recovery from its baneful effects, willfully persist in sin.

As yet few — only consecrated believers — have come to a true knowledge of God. The world knows Him not, and the nations cannot forget God until they are first brought to a knowledge of Him. The consecrated have been enlightened, led of the Spirit through faith to understand the deep and hidden things of God, which reveal the glory of God’s character, but which, though expressed in His Word, appear only as foolishness to the world.

As we have hitherto seen, this will not be so in the age to come, for then “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9) Much that we now receive by faith will then be demonstrated to the world. When he who has ransomed man from the power of the grave (Hosea 13:14) begins to gather his purchased possessions back from the prison-house of death (Isa. 61:1), when the sleepers are awakened under the genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness, they will not be slow to realize the truth of the hitherto seemingly idle talk, that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. (Heb. 2:9)

We have also seen that the gradual ascent of the King’s highway of holiness (Isa. 35:8) in that age will be possible to all, and comparatively easy, because all the stones — stumblingblocks, errors, etc. — will have been gathered out, and straight paths made for their feet. It is in that age that this text applies. Those who ignore the favoring circumstances of that age, and will not be obedient to the righteous Judge or Ruler — Christ — will truly be the wicked. And every loyal subject of the Kingdom of God will approve  the  righteous  judgment  which  turns  such  an  one again into sheol — the condition of death. Such an one would be unworthy of life; and, were he permitted to live, his life would be a curse to himself and to the rest of mankind, and a blemish on the work of God.

This will be the Second death from which there will be no resurrection. Having been ransomed from the grave (sheol) by the sacrifice of Christ, if they die again on account of their own sin, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” (Heb. 10:26) “Christ . . . dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” (Rom. 6:9) The Second death should be dreaded and shunned by all, since it is to be the end of existence to all those deemed unworthy of life. But in it there can be no suffering. Unlike Adamic death, it is the extinction of life.

It is because through sin mankind had become subject to death (sheol, hades) that Christ Jesus came to deliver us and save us from death. (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14) Death is a cessation of existence, the absence of life. There is no difference between the conditions in the Adamic and Second deaths, but there is hope of a release from the first, while from the second there will be no release, no return to life. The first death sentence passed upon all on account of Adam’s sin, while the Second death can be incurred only by willful, individual sin.

That the application of our text belongs to the coming age is evident, for both saints and sinners go into sheol or hades now. This scripture indicates that, in the time when it applies, only the wicked shall go there. And the nations that forgot God must be nations that have known him, else they could not forget him; and never yet have the nations been brought to that knowledge, nor will they be until the coming time, when the knowledge of the LORD shall fill the whole earth, and none shall need to say unto his neighbor, Know thou the LORD, for all shall know him, from the least to the greatest of them. — Isa. 11:9; Jer. 31:34.

The Hebrew word goi, rendered “nations” in this verse, is elsewhere used by Jeremiah and rendered “heathen,” “Gentiles,” and “people.” (Jer. 10:2,25; 16:19) The thought seems to be any who do not become God’s covenant people, even though they be not openly wicked. The nations (Gentiles, all who under that full knowledge do not become Israelites indeed) who are forgetful or negligent of God’s favors enjoyed, and of their duties and obligations to Him, shall share the fate of the willfully “wicked,” and be cast into the Second death.

In further proof of this, we find that the Hebrew word shub, which in our text is translated “turned,” signifies turned back, as to a previous place or condition. Those referred to in this text either have been in sheol or are liable to enter it, but being redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, will be brought out of sheol. If then  they  are  wicked,  they,  and  all  who  forget   God,  shall  be   turned   back or returned to sheol.