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I want to attempt to continue this topic, but from a different angle. I want to approach this subject from a common-sense standpoint.
This is because the greatest problem people have with accepting His Word has nothing to do with information, but perspective. Actually, as far as those outside of faith are concerned, the greatest issue with comprehension is that they are still under the curse of a “famine of truth”.
Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:”
In any case, I believe a common-sense approach can be beneficial since lots of supporting Scripture provided previously, together with this, only helps to aid understanding (in a human sense).
It’s true, sin can keep you out of Heaven. But does the Bible teach that the lost burn forever in hell?
To embrace the idea of eternal hellfire, one must sacrifice any ideas of human compassion, feeling and all reason to this “God of fire”.
As a Christian, it’s one thing to say with conviction “the wicked burn forever”, and another thing completely to conceive of it being your own wife or husband or child.
Wouldn’t you hate, rather than love a god who would do such a horrible thing to the love of your life?
Say it were true that God did in fact burn people forever. Think about it. Have you ever burned your hand on a hot stove? How did it feel? Can you imagine then, your whole body burning in a blazing hot fire for eternity?
First of all, no human being could mentally endure that much torture. A person would pass out and eventually go insane!
Furthermore, the vital life force of the body would give way to death.
But if by some miracle you lived in the fire forever, what do you suppose you’d be thinking about God during your endless suffering? Knowing that for a brief 70 or so years of sin, you must suffer one of the worst forms of torture known to man, forever. Wouldn’t your hatred for God only grow deeper as eternity rolled on?
But wait! Doesn’t the Bible say the wicked perish? How can the wages of sin be death if the wicked, in fact, never die?
If there was an eternally burning place called hell, sin and sinners would have to be miraculously suspended in a state of extreme torture, forever. Where their curses against God would continue as long as He exists. Thus, God would immortalize sin and sinners for eternity.
And the infallible Word of God says that after Satan, his demons, and those who follow him burn up, sin would never rise up for a second time, does it not?
Nahum 1:9 “What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.”
Have you ever thought about how fire works? The chemical reactions in fire are self-perpetuating. The heat of the flame itself keeps the fuel at ignition temperature. So, it continues to burn as long as there is a fuel source. In this case, the wicked. So, it releases gases. The flame ignites the gases and proceeds to spread.
Fire is self-perpetuating. Which means as long as there is fire, it will burn until nothing is left.
So, here is the logical conclusion: in order for people to live more than a few minutes or seconds in a fiery furnace, God would have to create a miracle to keep the physical body from being consumed by the fire. Otherwise, no one could live more than a few moments.
No human being has the vital life force to withstand that kind of pain for more than a few minutes. IT IS LOGICAL TO CONCLUDE THEN, THAT TO BELIEVE IN THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL HELLFIRE, YOU MUST ALSO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT GOD TORTURES PEOPLE FOREVER!!!
Can there be any stretch of the imagination or logic where one can reconcile these two realities: that God is love … and God burns people??? These ideas are mutually exclusive!!!
Either God is love, in which case He would never burn people; or He is not a god of love, in which case He may consider burning people.
How many billions of people have gone to Christ-less graves? Are they all doomed to suffer the wrath of God for eternity? And further, could you even love or trust a God like that? A God who says, “if you don’t love and obey me, I will burn you forever”.
Could a woman ever love her husband if he told her, “honey, if you don’t love me I will torture you as long as you live”? Wouldn’t the very thought of “love” for her husband be destroyed by such a statement!?
How then, can we expect people to love God with the same sentiment ringing in their ears?
According to the Bible, God would NEVER do anything that wasn’t just and righteous.
The very character of God is MALIGNED when we say, “God burns people forever”. And that is EXACTLY what the enemy wants!!!
Another question: would justice be served by burning a human for eternity in pits of fire for the bad things they did in life? Note God’s comment on the subject.
This is what the Lord Almighty said:
Zechariah 7:9 “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:”
Moses said: Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
Job said: Job 37:23 “Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.”
God’s own testimony about Himself is that He only acts in a just way.
And shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime? Even a Godless secular society understands this obvious fact.
If a shoplifter steals lipstick and another person kills someone, shouldn’t the punishment be different? How just is it then to say “any human who commits one sin and does not repent will burn forever”?
Malachi 4:1,3 “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. 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.”
This passage is true in a literal sense! When fire reduces a substance to its final chemical state, all that is left is carbon/ash. The earth is recreated after the fire does its cleansing work and the wicked will literally be reduced to carbon.
Well, what about the “eternal hellfire” spoken about in the Bible? The answer is simple!
Jude, regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone said:
Jude 1:7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Peter said: 2 Peter 2:6 “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;”
Luke said: Luke 17:29 “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
So, likewise, when the wicked suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, it will destroy them as well.
Is the eternal fire still burning the people of Sodom and Gomorrah today? Obviously not!
What, then, is meant by Jude when he said, “the people of Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire”?
Simply understood, the expression “eternal fire” means that the RESULTS of the fire are eternal!!! That the lost perish in the fire, never to live again! Eternal death by fire. Fire that destroys forever.
When Christ’s disciple said, “Jesus, show us the Father”, Jesus replied:
John 14:8-9 “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”
Jesus prayed that His Father would forgive those who were crucifying Him. Jesus said:
Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
In all of Christ’s life, did He EVER manifest a spirit that would warrant the idea that He would burn people forever, who didn’t love Him?
Why then would His Father in Heaven do anything different?
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
If we could learn but one thing from the life of Jesus, and what His life tells us about His Father in Heaven, it is this:
God is love
This is good news!!! God is love, which means:
There is no eternal torment for the lost, but a cleansing of the earth for the curse of sin!!!
And that, brothers and sisters, is the simple truth on hell.
4 and 7 Ministry 