_____________________________________
Part 1
What is The Lake of Fire?
Theologians say that "The Lake of Fire" is a physical, material, and literal fiery lake, burning for all of eternity, fueled by those unrepentant sinners against Jesus, the Christ.
They compare this phrase "Lake of Fire" (found only in Revelation which is a book of multiple symbols!) with similar phrases in Scripture thinking that they have proved that The Lake of Fire is a literal fiery lake.
Here are a few examples (apart from those, found in Revelation, previously mentioned in the Introduction) that they believe prove that The Lake of Fire is literally a fiery lake where the screams of billions will be heard:
"...cast into everlasting fire... cast into hell fire," (Matt 18:8-9).
"...cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:45-46).
"...cast into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 13:42-43).
"Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," (Matt 25:41).
And, one more, not because it mentions either hell or fire, but because it is often used to establish the length of punishment in hell.
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt 25:46).
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt 25:46).
I realize there are many other verses and parables which also discuss this matter (supposedly). We'll get to them in later blogs.
The passages above are some of the most used in an attempt to validate the Christian doctrine of hell including The Lake of Fire.
This blog is not discussing "hell" at the moment. Our goal is to figure out what is "The Lake of Fire" as found in the Book of Revelation.
The Lake of Fire, no matter what you've been taught, is NOT "hell".
I only need one passage to cause pause in that basic forethought - I already mentioned this in my Introduction, but...
How can "hell" be cast into itself?!
Rev 20:14 And death and hell WERE CAST INTO the lake of fire. This is the second death.
How can "hell" be cast into itself?!
Rev 20:14 And death and hell WERE CAST INTO the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Stick with me through this series... I don't even need this one passage to prove it to you. I have an arsenal of Scripture that will prove that this is not the simple Theological Doctrine we were taught!
Revelation 20:14 was the passage that first caused me to pause, and my hope is that it's causing pause in you now!
_________________________________
The Premise
Do all these verses combined (including those in Revelation) establish that The Lake of Fire is a literal fiery lake, where all unrepentant peoples (unbelieving sinners), that God Himself created, shall have their physical (or Spiritual) bodies burned and tortured, for ALL of eternity, by a Loving God - only to suffer for all of eternity, while the rest of his "good" children watch on from Heaven?!
What a SICK, DISTORTED view of our ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, ALL PROVIDING, Heavenly FATHER Jehovah Who created ALL that is (including those unrepentant sinners)! It's blasphemy!
Under ANY circumstances, would you condemn YOUR own child to that "eternal" sentence?
If you stick with this series - I'll prove it from Scripture.
That view cannot possibly jive with the attributes of your Loving, Heavenly Father, and if you believe that, it's possible that your view has been "spoiled".
My view had also been spoiled at one time!
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man [including me!] spoil you [G4812 - take captive] through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men [sounds like man's doctrine to me], after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
How does this happen?
Men gather together, they make the best sense out of Scripture, and Theology, that they can, and create "doctrine" in order to feel like they now understand God's ways.
Once this doctrine is voted on by men, they pass this doctrine on to students in order spread their "doctrine". They want to share their knowledge of wealth in a vain attempt to share their vain sense of their perfect understanding of God. (Something you and I couldn't possibly understand without the benefit of their brilliance!)
This day and age, whole schools and universities exist in which the fresh minds of young adults are taught these same doctrines (for big bucks nonetheless), time and time again, all in the Name of Christ.
Why? To create more teachers, in order to spread this doctrine that a few men once decided upon long ago.
Don't believe me? Read for yourself... this is nothing new. Paul told us this very thing would happen!
Quite a while back, my heart was convicted and I stubbornly dug in Scripture to prove the ideals (that I'm about to share with you) were lies! I couldn't believe that I'd been lied to all these years!
Little did I know that what I would find... challenged me deeply. Enough so, that I almost gave up on my faith because I have since found, what I believe to be, Truth. Truth in unison with the entirety of Scripture - no loopholes.
Little did I know that what I would find... challenged me deeply. Enough so, that I almost gave up on my faith because I have since found, what I believe to be, Truth. Truth in unison with the entirety of Scripture - no loopholes.
My hope is that at least one person will also be convicted enough to turn away from this horrible blasphemy against our Father.
Ok... off of my soapbox and moving on...
__________________________________
Rev 20:14 And death and hell WERE CAST INTO the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Death and "hell" are cast into this Lake of Fire at some point in our future. I'm not going to discuss when yet, but I want to draw your attention to the next sentence:
"This is the second death".
What does that mean?
Second death?
See What is the Lake of Fire - Part 2... coming soon.
Death and "hell" are cast into this Lake of Fire at some point in our future. I'm not going to discuss when yet, but I want to draw your attention to the next sentence:
"This is the second death".
What does that mean?
Second death?
See What is the Lake of Fire - Part 2... coming soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment