Lesson 21
The Truth About HELL
AMBASSADOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE‐ Dr. Keith Slough
INTRODUCTION
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OD IS MERCIFUL! THINK. WHAT PURPOSE WOULD GOD HAVE IN GRANTING immortality to the wicked? How would that serve God? Does that make sense to your logical mind? I once asked a friend in a certain Bible School I attended years ago, what he would do if Christ some day in eternity walked up to him and told him he could have his own world to populate with human beings made in his image. I explained that God might tell him he could come up with his own set of laws, rewards, and punishments. Then I asked, "Now if Christ told you that you could do anything you wanted to do in this world you yourself created, and a certain percentage of your created children rebelled through lack of understanding perhaps, and refused to accept salvation, what would you, as a loving, godly person, do to those who rebelled and refused to accept you?" He immediately knew what he would do. He said if it was up to him, he would simply put these sinners "out of their misery" so to speak ‐forever, and let them die. I then asked him if he thought God could be any less loving. The question presented a paradox to him. On the one hand he would never do that to his own children no matter how rebellious they might become. But yet he had been taught from organized religion in the world's churches that a loving, merciful God has actually granted immortality to all creatures and that we will be forced to live forever no matter what choice we make. This of course necessitates a "place" for these rebels to live eternally. The ancient pagan kings told their subjects that if they rebelled against the government, that they would live forever and would live in torment for ever and ever. The Roman Church borrowed this ancient teaching from paganism and brought it into organized Christianity. This teaching did not come from the Bible. Rather the Bible teaches that the soul can DIE and that the wages of sin is the second DEATH ‐ not the gift of eternal life for the express purpose of torture!! Human beings make God out to be so evil and horrible. Yet this teaching cannot be substantiated by the Bible. Yes, but what about the parable of Lazarus and the rich man? Doesn't that story prove that the wicked are tortured for all eternity because they are in some place called "Hell" right now ‐ right this very minute? Doesn't this parable make a statement about the "state" of the dead today? No. It does not. According to the New Bible Dictionary the parable of Lazarus and the rich man is not intended to make a statement about the current state of the dead. Notice: "Probably the story of [the rich man] and Lazarus like the story of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1‐9) [in the same chapter] is a PARABLE which made use of certain Jewish thinking and is not intended to teach anything about the state of the dead"! (page 388). It is time to put away the fables from childhood and even the false doctrines inherited from the "mother" of today’s' "Churchianity" ‐ Rome. It is time to get back to the Bible to find out the truth about these questions. Jude said that we should earnestly contend for the (true) Faith
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once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Are you willing to objectively study this subject with an OPEN MIND and an open heart? Are you willing to let God correct any erroneous beliefs from false teachings? God wants us to be like the noble Bereans and search the Scriptures whether these things be so (Acts 17:11). Don't simply reject a teaching because it is different from the norm. It is time that true Christians really PROVE ALL THINGS from the Bible. We should each pray and ask God to open our mind and to correct us from His Word. Are you willing to do that?
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What the Bible Really Teaches Concerning
HELL Is "Hell" a place inside the Earth? Or is it perhaps inside the Sun? Is it a geographical place somewhere, or is it a "condition" of mind? It is time to put away the myths of childhood and religious superstition and believe what JESUS said about Hell. The Bible DOES INDEED teach a real Hell Fire, but it is DIFFERENT than what most people have assumed! It is time you learned the Truth about the doctrine of Hell from your own Bible!
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HINK! Do THE SAINTS OF God who are in the Kingdom of Heaven see and hear the torment and torture their unsaved loved ones are entering in some place called Hell"? Will they be forced to gaze upon beloved family members who died "lost" and see them writhing in everlasting painful agony, frantically screaming for deliverance from this infinite and unending torture? What kind of happiness could you as a child of God in God's Kingdom have, if you saw your own best friend who had failed to make his peace with God before he died, in an eternal and infinitely lasting place of torment called "Hell"? What about your own unsaved mother or unsaved father who may have died? Or unsaved brothers and sisters who died without Christ? Are they right, at this instant, suffering the indescribable agonies of being BURNED ALIVE for every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for all the eons of all eternity? Yet this is what proponents of the doctrine of the "immortal soul" believe. In the last couple of lessons you have seen the Bible proof that man does not have an "immortal" soul according to the Bible. Rather our souls are very "mortal" ‐ subject to death. Ezekiel 18:4 says, "The soul that sinneth, IT [the soul itself] shall DIE"! So "souls" are not immortal, but are very mortal indeed and subject to death. They can and will die. Therefore where are the lost today? The Bible teaches that they are "ASLEEP" and will be awakened in the resurrection. "And many of them that SLEEP in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life [the saints], and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). Jesus taught this same doctrine when He said the day would come when" all that are IN THE GRAVES shall hear His voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: "Judgment"]" (John 5:28‐29). Jesus believed the Scriptures. Do you? So no one at this moment has yet "gone to Hell" where ever that may be. No one is right now writhing in eternal agony and conscious torment. The Bible says they are ASLEEP, knowing
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nothing, for "the dead know not anything" (Ecclesiastes 9:5). This understanding was made plain in a previous lesson of this Bible Study Course. But now we need to ask about the ultimate fate of the wicked. Will they be raised back to life for the express purpose of granting them immortality in order to force them to endure eternal tor‐ ment and punishing throughout the eons of forever? Remember, we must not believe a doctrine or tradition because we have heard it all our lives, or because our parents, grandparents, friends and loved ones have believed it. Tradition does not establish truth. God's WORD is Truth! (John 17:17). We are commanded to PROVE ALL THINGS (I Thess. 5:21) ‐to prove everything we have assumed to be true, every doctrine we have ever believed. We compare all the teachings of men to the Word of God to see if they can stand up in the light of the Scripture. If they cannot then such doctrines are proved to be false and should be discarded. Remember God tells us, "To the Law and to the Testimony [the Word of God]: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). We must compare all the myths and traditions of men with the Word of God. We may find that some things we have learned as children may indeed be true. But we will also learn (as all the students of this Bible course have assuredly learned by now) that many of the things we were taught from childhood by the world's traditions ‐ yes even the traditional denominational churches ‐ are in many cases in error and cannot be substantiated from the Word of God! Since we have learned from a thorough study in a previous lesson that the soul of man is not immortal but is indeed "dead" and that there is no consciousness in death, then we know that no one who has died is either in Heaven or in Hell (see also John 3:13). But, will God now suddenly grant immortality to the wicked lost so that He can punish them in conscious pain and torture throughout eternity? The Wages of Sin is Death! The Word of God teaches that the only way we can live forever ‐have eternal life ‐is by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord. Notice: "For the wages [or payment deserved] of sin is DEATH; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Notice Paul did not speak of a so called "separation from God" ‐rather he said the wages of sin is DEATH! Yet the churches of this world in their little "gospel tracts" will add the words "separation from God" beside the word "death" to change the meaning of what Paul said! Paul never mentioned "separation" from God. Rather he spoke of "death" being the ultimate reward of the wicked. What then did Jesus mean when He spoke of the wicked being cast into Hell?
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Three Definitions of Hell This English word "Hell" is actually used to translate three totally different Greek words from the New Testament. It is imperative that we come to understand their true meaning if we are to understand the Bible's own doctrine of Hell. One Greek word is tartaroo. This word is only used once in the entirety of the Bible and refers to a condition of restraint in which the fallen angels reside. You can read about it yourself in II Peter 2:4. The Bible indicates that Lucifer at one time was a righteous angel who rebelled against God and also persuaded a number of other angels to follow him in this sinful rebellion. God renamed Lucifer "Satan," meaning "Adversary." The fallen angels are now referred to in the King James Version as "devils" (modern language bibles usually translate the Greek term as "demons"). This Greek word tartaroo that is translated "hell" is therefore a reference to fallen angels only and in no way refers to human beings at all. However the next two Greek words do indeed refer to human beings and we should come to understand them thoroughly. Eleven times in the New Testament the word "hell" is translated from the Greek word Hades. Scholars agree that the word Hades agrees in definition with the Hebrew term Sheol that is translated in the Old Testament as "hell." In quoting the Hebrew Old Testament where the word Sheol was found, the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to use the Greek word Hades in its place. Notice Acts 2:27 which is a quotation of Psalm 16:10. Here Luke, the author of the book of Acts, uses the Greek word Hades to translate into the language of his day, this ancient Hebrew word Sheol ‐ which meant the GRAVE. Peter said that David's grave ‐tomb or sepulcher ‐ "is with us unto this day" and that David is still “both dead and BURIED"! (Acts2:29). Peter is contrasting David's own burial and sub‐ sequent corruption in the grave with his Messianic prophecy that Christ would not remain in the grave and therefore not experience corruption! For David fell ASLEEP (in death) and his body did see corruption (see Acts 13:36). From this prophetic scripture, we see that David was referring to the resurrection of Christ. But we also see the plain Scriptural meaning of this Greek word Hades translated as "hell." In this case it very plainly refers to the GRAVE where the body (if not soon resurrected) does in‐ deed experience "corruption" and deteriorates. The two words are therefore equivalent and synonymous. They mean the same thing. While Sheol is indeed translated "hell" it is translated more than 30 times as "THE GRAVE"! It is also translated a few times as "the pit." It refers to a hole in the ground that conceals something. This is actually the true etymological meaning of the English word "hell."
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English Definition of "Hell" From an article written by an anonymous author dated around the year 1900 comes this revealing insight into the English word "hell": "The word 'hell' in old English usage, before Papal theologians picked it up and gave it a new and special significance to suit their own purposes, simply meant to conceal, to hide, to cover; hence the concealed, hidden or covered place. In old English literature records may be found of the helling of potatoes ‐ putting potatoes into pits; and of the helling of a house ‐covering or thatching it. The word hell was therefore properly used synonymously with the words 'grave' and 'pit,' to translate the word sheol and hades as signifying the secret or hidden condition of death" (from What Say the Scriptures Concerning Hell? page 3, emphasis in the original). You can see therefore that when the Authorized King James Version was written 400 years ago in old English, the word "hell" carried the same meaning as the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades. At that time "hell" meant the grave. Not only is the Hebrew word Sheol translated "grave" more than 30 times in the Old Testament but the word Hades is not only translated "hell" but it is also translated as the "GRAVE"! (see First Corinthians 15:55 for the proof). All human beings are buried in this "hell" and will be raised from the dead in one of the two prophesied resurrections for mankind. What About Hell Fire? There is however one final Greek word that is translated "hell" which does not mean "the grave" but refers to a Lake of Fire. This is the "Hell Fire" that Jesus spoke of. . That third Greek word is the word Gehenna which is actually a translation of a Hebrew term meaning the "Valley of Hinnom." Anciently this area outside the city of Jerusalem was used to sacrifice children to the heathen god Molech. Later after Josiah brought the Jews back to God in his revival, this valley (Gehenna) was used merely as a garbage dump where the body of dead animals and even unburied criminals were cast and burned up ‐completely destroyed! This is the word translated "hell" that Christ used to depict the ultimate fate of the wicked! Notice Mark 9:43. Jesus stated that if your hand causes you to offend ‐or to sin ‐cut it off rather than allow your whole body to be cast into "hell" (the Greek word Gehenna is used here and refers to hell FIRE). Here Jesus gives two descriptions of Gehenna fire (one of the Biblical terms is "Hell"). He says that this hell is a place where there is a real "fire." And that this fire will never be "quenched." Also He states that it is a place where "their worm dieth not" (verse 44). Now think! Is Jesus teaching us that there are WORMS in Hell that have immortality?! Impossible! For the Scripture teaches, that God alone has immortality (I Timothy 6:16). Immortal worms? Such reasoning is absurd in the extreme! Nor is Jesus describing wicked people as "worms" that die not. No, read it carefully. He said
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THEIR worm "dieth not." What did He mean? Only by understanding what the Jews would have understood in His day about the literal site called Gehenna can we understand just what the ultimate fate of the wicked is. In Gehenna dead bodies were cast into the refuse and allowed to either rot or be consumed with the fires which burned. As garbage and dead corpses were continually being thrown into this refuse dump, some of the bodies were burned up immediately. But others were not burned in the flames but were allowed to rot! Remember the Bible interprets itself. A similar statement can be found in the Old Testament in Isaiah 66:24 which refers to the worm of "the carcasses [dead bodies] of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die"! Read it yourself. The lexicons in Hebrew and in Greek define this word "worm" as "maggot"! In other words, the bodies will be allowed to ROT and not even be buried when Christ returns! "And they [the corpses] shall be an abhorring [or, abhorrence] unto all flesh"! Jesus was not saying that these worms have immortality (which is laughable!) but was referring to the stages or life cycles of maggots, which feed off of garbage and rotting flesh, which then become flies which then deposit eggs into the rotting corpses which then give rise to additional larvae or maggots, which then become flies once again, thus repeating the cycle endlessly! Therefore their worms do not die due to reproduction and remain as long as the corpse remains. This is common sense. Christ is not teaching a doctrine that worms cannot die. God does expect us to have some common sense after all. So here is a description of utter judgment on the wicked where they are utterly destroyed! Remember Jesus said this about Gehenna, a literal locale outside the city of Jerusalem. We must therefore read these things literally and sensibly as Jesus was speaking of a literal place where the Jews were familiar with the dead bodies and literal, physical maggots that consumed those bodies. Secondly the fires were usually burning day and night. No one bothered to "quench" the fires of Gehenna. Rather Gehenna was allowed to bum continually as long as refuse was con‐ stantly being thrown into it. Of course when the last bit of refuse or a dead body was burned up then the fire did eventually go out! Currently, the Jews have control of this area just outside Jerusalem and it is not still burning today! So when the last piece of garbage or the last dead body was burned up, the fire did eventually go out. But it was not quenched by men. Jesus used the Valley of Hinnom refuse site to illustrate the ultimate fate of the wicked. The bodies of dead criminals were utterly consumed either by worms or by the burning fires! There was nothing left! What is "Unquenchable Fire"? But didn't Jesus say the fire is not quenched? Isn't Hell fire (or Gehenna fire) "unquenchable
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fire"? Yes it is! Jesus said so in Mark 9:43‐48. But let's be careful not read into the scripture our own interpretation. What does Jesus mean when He used this term? The Bible interprets itself. Is there any other example of "unquenchable fire" mentioned in the Bible that would define God's own meaning ‐ His own interpretation of this term? Yes there is! In Jeremiah 7:20 God warns the nation of Judah that if they don't repent He will burn Jerusalem with unquenchable fire! And notice this is in connection with the valley of Hinnom! (verse 31). What will the ultimate result be? In verse 34 we read that ''the land shall be desolate"! Utter destruction! Read Jeremiah 17:27. God warns that He will burn even the palaces of Jerusalem with a fire that "shall not be quenched”! Later in 586 B.C. this came to pass! The Jews were uprooted from their land and taken captive into Babylon. But are these "unquenchable fires" in Jerusalem still burning? No! Modern day photos of the area show they are not. Therefore we see the Bible's own interpretation of "unquenchable fire." Once all the combustible materials have been consumed, though the fire is so large it cannot be quenched, it nevertheless will go out of its own accord. (See Also Isaiah 1:31, Jeremiah 4:4, Jeremiah 21:10 and Lamentations 4:11). Understand. The Bible does indeed teach about a literal Hell fire for the unrepentant wicked but they will not burn forever in this unquenchable fire. Notice Matthew 3:11‐12 where John the Baptist uses "wheat" to symbolize God's people, the saved, while the wicked are symbolized by the worthless chaff. What happens to the "chaff'? Notice the "chaff' ‐ the unrepentant wicked ‐ are to "BURN UP" in "unquenchable fire"!‐not burn forever in eternal torment. Will you believe the Bible? Can the Soul be Destroyed? Some time ago I was having a conversation with a friend who asked, "Yes, but surely the soul cannot die in Hell, can it? After all, doesn't the Bible teach that the soul cannot be de‐ stroyed?" I asked her to get her Bible and look up Matthew 10:28 which I will ask you to do now. What did Jesus say? Did He say in your own Bible that the soul cannot be "destroyed"? Read it! Here the term "hell" again is the Greek word Gehenna which was used as an illustration of the final "lake of fire" (mentioned in the book of Revelation) that will consume the wicked. Notice what Jesus said. We are not to fear men who can indeed kill the physical body and take away our physical life. Rather we are to fear God who has the power to DESTROY both SOUL as well as body in Gehenna fire!! Hell fire DESTROYS the soul as well as the body! So said Jesus! The wicked therefore suffer the ''wages of sin" ‐the penalty of eternal death (Romans 6:23) by way of the lake of fire! Only those who believe on Jesus Christ will be given eternal LIFE which God tells us is a free gift (same verse!).
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Hell Fire is Eternal Fire! But wait. Didn't Jesus say that the wicked would be cast into an eternal fire? Yes He did. Notice Matthew 25:41. "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." The words "everlasting" and "eternal" mean the same thing and come from the Greek words aidios, aion, and aionios and are translated either "everlasting" or "eternal" at the discretion of the translators. Again we must not use our own interpretation of "everlasting" or "eternal" but must go to the Scripture for God's own interpretation. What does everlasting fire mean to God? Has He given us any example in the Bible by which we may understand His interpretation of "eternal fire"? Yes! Read it in Jude 7. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah "are set forth for an EXAMPLE, suffering the vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE"! There you have it! ‐ God's own interpretation as to what He means by this expression! When these cities were destroyed with fire and brimstone their destruction was everlasting! It was eternal destruction. God never allowed these cities to be rebuilt. To this day, archaeologists ‐ even the most skeptical among them ‐ find an abundance of brimstone in that area and have agreed with the Scripture that these cities did indeed suffer the fate recorded in the Book of Genesis! They were never rebuilt! Of course not. For the type of fire God used on these cities was EVERLASTING FIRE! The flames are not today burning everlastingly, but the destruction from that type of fire is everlasting or eternal! Do you see? Do you understand? This is the Bible's own interpretation of "eternal" or "everlasting" fire! And this is the fire that will consume the wicked at the end. Notice: "And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be CONSUMED and they shall both BURN together, and none shall quench them" (Isaiah 1:28+31). Of course! ‐for the fire will be "unquenchable" and yet the wicked will not live forever in that unquenchable fire. What does the Bible say will happen to the wicked in that fire? "But the wicked shall PERISH... into smoke shall they consume away"! (Psalm 37:20). Will you believe your own Bible? Everlasting Destruction Yes Gehenna fire will be "unquenchable fire" and it will be "everlasting fire" but it is a fire that is so huge it is called a "lake of fire" and therefore it cannot be put out, extinguished or quenched by man! Hell fire (Gehenna fire) will be "everlasting fire" in that the DESTRUCTION of
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the wicked is everlasting or eternal (see n Thess. 1:9) ‐ from which there will be no resurrection! Romans 6:23 tells us that the gift of God is eternal life ‐ which only comes through our Lord Jesus Christ to those who accept Him. But the wages of sin is the exact opposite of eternal life. What is the opposite of eternal life but eternal death? And this will occur when the Earth is engulfed in flames at the very end and the surface of the Earth is destroyed by fire ‐ called the "Lake of fire." Peter said that the surface elements of this planet will "melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein [including the wicked] shall be BURNED UP"! (II Peter 3:10). Even the oceans will be burned up in this massive, worldwide conflagration! (Revelation 21: 1). The planet Earth itself will not be destroyed as it will remain to be made new (II Peter 3: 13) and will last forever becoming the eternal abode of the righteous (Read carefully Revelation 21: 18). As the wicked are dead today, asleep in their graves, they are not in Gehenna (Hell) fire today, but will be cast into this Lake of fire at the end of the Great White Throne Judgment pe‐ riod after they have fully had a chance to hear and understand the Gospel and accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. But if they still refuse, then God will make good His promise! He will cast them into a Lake of fire and brimstone and they will suffer the penalty of eternal punishment. (See Matthew 24:46 where Jesus contrasts eternal punishment with eternal life showing that eternal punishment is therefore eternal death). And notice God calls this the second death (Revelation 20:14) for it will be eternal death as it is indeed eternal punishment ‐death for all eternity. Notice also Jesus nowhere refers to eternal punishing but eternal punishment ‐ death with no possibility of a resurrection ‐ not eternal conscious torture and torment which would serve no purpose. The soul does not live forever in hell. Jesus said those cast into hell fire have their bodies and their souls DESTROYED! (Matthew 10:28). Will you believe Jesus? "The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall DEVOUR them" (Psalm 21:9). They will be devoured ‐utterly DESTROYED ‐not permitted to live forever. But didn't Jesus say the wicked will suffer everlasting punishment? Yes! He said they would suffer everlasting punishment ‐everlasting death. Their souls as well as their bodies would be "destroyed" in Gehenna (Hell) fire (Matthew 10:28). "And these [the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment [not everlasting punishing]: but the righteous into life eternal" (Matthew 25:46). Notice that the wicked suffer the opposite of life eternal. They suffer everlasting death! Now do you understand why the lake of fire is referred to as the "second DEATH"? (Revelation 20:14).
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Satan Tormented Not Humans There are some scriptures that do elicit questions however. For example some have assumed that the Bible teaches that human beings will be "tormented day and night forever and ever." They base this belief on a careless reading of Revelation 20:10. Read it carefully. Does it say that human beings will be so tormented? No. It says that the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and he will be tormented. Notice that this is the same fire that the beast and false prophet were cast into at the beginning of the millennium (Revelation 19:20). The King James Version adds the italicized word "are" in verse 10. The inspired Greek text does not say that the beast and the false prophet "are" there, but rather implies they "were cast" there. Yet many have made a doctrine from this italicized word "are" to attempt to suggest these two men are still alive 1000 years later. Remember all italicized words in our King James Versions are words that have been added by the translators with the honest intention of making the meaning clearer when sometimes they should have used a different italicized word or words. Another scripture that is greatly misunderstood is Revelation 14 where we read that those who take the mark of the beast will be cast into the lake of fire to be punished. The smoke of their torment "ascendeth up forever and ever." It does not say the fire will bum forever and ever but the smoke ascends up into the atmosphere as a reminder of the ultimate punishment for sin. Now understand. The Gehenna fire is literal. It is real. It will actually "burn up" the wicked. But the fire's "eternal" nature is symbolic in that the destruction of the wicked is eternal. It is not the flames that are eternal (that part is symbolic) but the destruction which is eternal (or, everlasting). In the same way that fire produces not only destruction, but smoke, so an "eternal fire" must produce "eternal smoke" which would (symbolically) ascend up forever and ever. Do you understand? Fire produces smoke. Everlasting or eternal fire produces an everlasting smoke which ascends up forever. But again the fire will not continue to burn forever but is symbolic of its eternal result ‐destruction to the wicked. Remember. The Bible interprets itself. Read carefully Isaiah 34:8‐11. Here we learn that God's vengeance creates an unquenchable fire which produces a smoke that "shall go up for ever" (verse 10). Yet verse 11 plainly states that animals will afterward inhabit or possess that land, such as the cormorant and the raven which "shall dwell in it" (verse 11). So the fire which produces eternal smoke does not itself burn forever. Yes, Revelation 14: II mentions the torments the wicked endure, knowing they will be cast into Hell fire. But obviously these people will not survive this horrible punishment for very long for this occurs in the presence of Jesus Christ! (verse 10). And Christ promised that we would be with Him where ever He is (John 14:3). Now think: If these people are tormented forever and they are in His presence forever then He is there when this happens ‐presumably forever! Is Christ therefore in Hell forever and ever?
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And are we in Hell with them?! Obviously this would make no sense whatsoever. Besides we read in Psalm 68:2 that "as wax melteth before the FIRE, so let the wicked PERISH at the presence of God"! No, when they are burned in His presence they will “PERISH!” After the Great White Throne Judgment which occurs on this Earth after the Millennium, the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed. Meanwhile, while they are still living, before they have died, "they have no rest day nor night, who worship [Greek: "are worshipping"] the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name"(Verse 11). These are not people who have died, but people who are still living to worship the beast. They have no rest day or night, knowing that ultimately they will be cast into the lake of fire. The living wicked cannot rest but are troubled, neither can they be at peace (Isaiah 57:20‐ 21). In the last prophecy of the Old Testament we read that Christ will return to those that fear His Name "with healing in His wings" for God's people. But what will be the ultimate fate of the wicked? Will they burn forever in the lake of fire or be consumed? Notice: "For, behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall BURN THEM UP, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch" (Malachi 4:1+3). Utter destruction! TOTAL ANNIHILATION! God has no need to keep the wicked alive forever. Some have assumed, that the parable of Lazarus and the rich man implies that the wicked are alive right now, suffering in torment. As the soul is not immortal that simply cannot be the meaning of this parable. Rather the parable was meant to show ultimate reward and ultimate punishment. Lazarus will indeed be in Abraham's bosom (indicating a very close relationship in the Kingdom of God) in the first resurrection. And the rich man will indeed be raised from the dead in the last resurrection and cast into the final lake of fire at the end of the Great White Throne Judgment described in Revelation 20:11‐15. Today Abraham and the beggar are both dead and in their graves (John 5:28) ASLEEP, awaiting their respective resurrections (Daniel 12:2). You have now seen the truth concerning the Biblical teaching of Hell. God's mercy endures forever (Psalm 136:1‐26). If anyone refuses to repent, there is nothing more merciful that a loving God can do than to simply "put them out of their misery" and destroy them. They will no longer suffer, nor will they be around to pollute God's Kingdom for eternity. They will simply cease to exist. How great is God’s mercy! How great is His Love! How good are His judgments and wisdom!
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