The concept of everlasting punishment is closely related to such other topics as: unconditional election, predestination, perpetual banishment, endless/eternal/future punishment, condemnation, damnation, hell, and the opposite concept of salvation.
Some wonder why the seemingly unpleasant topic of “everlasting punishment” is one of the 26 bi-annual subjects of the Lesson-Sermons chosen by our Leader. However, the history of Mrs. Eddy’s early life makes the reason plain, because the doctrine of predestination is what Mary Baker rebelled against at the tender age of 12, when admission to the Congregational (Trinitarian) Church of her parents was to occur. However, “Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination, greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God. . . . My father’s relentless theology emphasized a belief in a final judgment-day, in the danger of endless punishment . . . “ (Retrospection and Introspection. p. 13:1-13).
CONDEMNATION: The judicial act of declaring one guilty, and dooming him to punishment. – Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
DAMNATION: Sentence or condemnation to everlasting punishment in the future state. – Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
“Future Punishment of Sin – My views of a future and eternal punishment take in a poignant present sense of sin and its suffering, punishing itself here and hereafter till the sin is destroyed” (Message to TMC, ’01, 16:4-6).
“As the study of Christian Science makes it plain that nothing created by God could ever be condemned by Him, it follows that the condemnation could only attach to the belief in that which was not created by God, and eternal or everlasting condemnation could only mean the utter destruction of such beliefs. . . . Everlasting or eternal punishment, then, must be clearly seen to be the complete destruction of all error, that the everlasting or eternal manifestation of all good may appear” (“Everlasting Punishment” by Helen K. Brock, CSS, 8/23/1918).
“Most people would be surprised if in answer to their question as to whether Christian Scientists believe in everlasting punishment they were told that it was largely a matter of individual choice. . . . it is no longer a question of an uncertain experience in an unknown future, but relates itself to the individual’s acceptance or rejection of Truth from day to day. If one fails to understand or to accept the divine law which St. Paul names ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,’ and which he says makes ‘free from the law of sin and death,’ he will be under a self-imposed sentence of ‘everlasting punishment’” (“Everlasting Punishment” by Annie M. Knott, CSS, 11/25/1916).
“Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven” (S & H, 196:18-19).
HELL: The place or state of punishment for the wicked after death. – Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
“HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-destruction; self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which ‘worketh abomination or maketh a lie’” (S & H, 588:1).
“The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the saint his own heaven by doing right (S & H, 266: 20-21).
“Salvation is as eternal as God” (Unity of Good, 50:13).
“SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed” (S & H, 593:20).