God has done a great thing that men might be saved from perishing. He could not have done more. He has given His only begotten Son. After such a proof of His love, who would dare to question what we read in 2 Peter 3:9, that He is "not willing that any should perish"? Men are in danger of perishing and should not be indifferent about it.

But what is it to perish? I heard a preacher spell out the world like this: P-E-R-I-S-H— to Pass Eternally Ruined Into a Sinner's Hell. What a terrible doom that must be! Yet this is exactly what it is to perish.

Why are men condemned to such a doom? Because they follow the devil in his revolt against God. Satan was the first to take the self-willed, rebellious road and Adam was the first man to follow the devil's lead. Thus by Adam "sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). The end of that road is hell.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This "whosoever" of John 3:16 is not the only whosoever in the Bible. It is the whosoever of blessing and salvation and eternal life. But, there is another "whosoever." It occurs in the account of the last judgment, at the great white throne. It is the whosoever of damnation and the second death. We read, "The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works … and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14,15). That is what it is to perish!

—J.T.M.