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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Life After Death (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 37. The Meaning of "Torment."
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The Meaning of "Torment."
But there is one outstanding bit of Jesus' teaching that deals explicitly with this matter of the life beyond the grave. And I want to bring it in here. It is the remarkable story of the rich man and poor beggar in the Sixteenth of Luke. The story is drawn out by the criticism of the Pharisees, and is aimed directly at them.
The Pharisees were the dominant party in Jewish politics. They were the official religious leaders. For church and state were one thing. They posed before the crowds as saints. And it was notorious that they were as bad in their lives as bad could be. Their criticism of Jesus for His friendliness to the poorest classes drew out the three matchless parables of the Fifteenth of Luke, and that of the unjust steward in the Sixteenth.
The Pharisee leaders were in the crowd listening. The money parable stirred them. They scoffed openly. For they were "lovers of money." Then Jesus touched another sorely sensitive spot with them by speaking of the easy divorce so common among them.
Then at once He begins on this story of the rich man and the poor beggar. Their conditions in this life are touched first. The rich man was not simply rich. He was notoriously selfish. He lived "in mirth and splendour every day," a constant round of lavish selfish pleasure-seeking.
The beggar was afflicted in body as well as being a pauper. He was carried by some kind friend of his class to the rich man's gate daily, depending on scraps for subsistence. But even the dogs were kinder to him than his selfish rich brother-man whose servants threw out the crumbs.
Then there's the swift sudden change. The beggar died. That was the earthly end for him. The rich man died, and was buried. The splendour of life lingered over his remains. That was the earthly end for him.
Then comes the second picture, in the next life. Again there's the same painful contrast between the two, but with places exactly reversed. The beggar is tenderly carried by angels up into Abraham's bosom, the Jewish statement for utmost bliss. Not because he is a beggar, of course. He simply goes by natural spirit gravity to where his spirit kinsfolk are.
The rich man is in Hades. That tells us nothing of his condition until the phrase is added, "being in torment." That last word tells the story for him. It is so not, of course, because he is rich. He simply goes by natural movement to his center of spirit gravity.
That word "torment" is the significant word. Let us look at its meaning. It is used four times in this story, in our common authorized version. There are two different words underneath. The Revisions translate one of these, "in anguish." The rich man says, "I am in anguish in this flame." And Abraham says, "thou art in anguish."
This word translated anguish occurs four times in the New Testament. It occurs twice here. It is the word used of Joseph and Mary's distress over the absence of the boy Jesus (Luk_2:48), and by Paul's Ephesian friends over his farewell words (Act_20:38). In both cases it is translated sorrowing.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon indicates these as the only occurrences. Its original meaning is to cause intense pain, to be in anguish, to torment or distress one's self. The. word clearly refers to one's mental and spirit condition, simply that.
The other word translated here "torment," occurs in varying form twenty-two times, in thirteen instances [Mat_4:24; Mat_8:6; Mat_8:29 (Mar_5:7; Luk_8:28); Mat_14:24; (Mar_6:48) Mat_18:34; Luk_16:23; Luk_16:28; 2Pe_2:8; Rev_9:5; (three times); Rev_11:10; Rev_12:2; Rev_14:10-11 (twice); Rev_18:7; Rev_18:10; Rev_18:15; Rev_20:10.
It is translated "vexed" once, "pained" or "in pain" once, "distressed" twice, and some form of "torment" eighteen times. Once the alternate phrase "have no rest" is added, and once "sorrow," where torment is used. Its original meaning has reference to the testing of metals by a touchstone. It came to be used for testing by torture to compel one to tell the truth. The meaning of all words grows and changes with usage. Note the usage in the Scriptures of this word,
Twice it is used of intense suffering through disease, once for the pains of child-birth, once for the difficulty of rowing in a storm, twice for persons distressed in mind and spirit by the con-duct of others, once as a name for a jailor, once by demons of their suffering, once of pain inflicted upon men by demons, once of Satan's suffering in the future state, once of suffering in the future state by men, once of the doom of Babylon, and twice of the suffering of this rich man in the story we are studying. That is to say, omitting the story in Luke, and omitting the use as a name for a jailor, six times it is used for pain or suffering wholly within one's self connected with the common experiences of life, and two of these six times the suffering is wholly of mind and spirit.
Twice it is used of demons suffering. Three times it is used of punishment inflicted in judgment. But whether, in this last the suffering is of mind and spirit only, or through some positive act of God in punishment is not specified. Judging by this usage it would seem usually to mean pain growing out of one's actions or through common experience and not through arbitrarily chosen punishment inflicted by God. Turning back now to the story of this man, he says, using this word, "I am in anguish in this flame." And his pain, as of being burned by fire, is further stressed in this plea to .Abraham "that he may dip his finger in water and cool my tongue." The language intimates that it is a terrible thirst that is burning him up.
It will be noticed that there is no change of spirit or of heart in this rich man. The only thing that is bothering him is his suffering. There's no thought of regret nor of remorse for the intense selfishness of his former life.. And his plea, while a perfectly natural one, is still simply to get some ease for himself.
He is sorry to be in such an awful fix. There's no suggestion of anything beyond that. Clearly his attitude toward God remains as before. The life there in that regard is merely an extension of the life he lived here. He is the same man in spirit as he was. That's clear, and that seems the decisive thing.
And in Abraham's reply to his plea, two things stand sharply out. There can be no alleviation of pain by the method the rich man suggests.
And the added words take hard hold of one's eye and ear and inner being, "between us and you there's a great gulf fixed," an impassable gulf. What that gulf is will be touched upon in our last talk, on "Another Chance." Just now it's enough to let the terrible fact stand out, naked and gaunt and real.
This is the most outstanding teaching on this matter from the lips of the tender-hearted, tender-spoken Jesus. There's another life beyond the grave. There's a distinction made between men in that next life. That distinction is shaped up, down in this life.
It continues beyond the grave as started here. There is a place of intensest pain of some sort over there. The language used here suggests simply pain of spirit. That of course is the in-tensest kind known. There's also a place of happiness. Some are in each. There's an impassable gulf between the two.