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dire evil, ... ABSOLUTE RUIN. So it
carne to designate the place of
future punishme nt."
He ll -a Place of Destruction
Gehenna was a place of DESTRUC–
TION and
DEATH- not
a place of
living torture! J esus was talking to
J ews who understood all about this
Gehenna o r Va lley of Hinnom.
Utter OESTRUCTION by fire was
complete. NOTHI NG was left, but
ashes!
Every text in the Bible translated
from this Greek word
gehenna
means complete destruction-not
living torture-NOT eternal LIFE in
torment! TH E Bibl e says, i n
Romans
6:23,
"The wages of sin is
OEA
TH"- not
ETERNAL LIFE in tor–
ture. The PUNISHMENT revealed in
the BIBLE is DEATH- the
cessation
of life. Eterna! life is the GIFT OF
Goo!
Then WHY have we been believ–
ing that PUNISHMENT is ETERNAL
LI FE in fire? And WHY have we
been believing we already
have
eterna! life and don 't NEED to come
to God through C hrist to receive it
as HIS GIFT?
The PUNISHMENT is OEATH. lt
is the
second
death, from which
there shall be no resurrection! The
PUNISHMENT is for ETERNITY–
OEATH for etern ity- ETERNAL
punishment- but NOwhere does
THE BIBLE say anything about the
PAGAN teaching of eternal punish–
ING. It's eternal punishMENT,
not
eterna! punishiNG!
When Jesus spoke of being cast
into "gehenna FIRE," he was using
this expression as an illustration of
the LAKE OF FIRE, which THE 8I BLE
reveals is to be THE PLACE of this
fina l punishment- th is second
DEATH. He referred to Revelation
20:14:
"And dea th and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the
second death."
THAT fire will be much
hotter
than Dante's imaginary HELL!
What Happen s to " He ll"?
Do people go at DEATH to the fict i–
tious hell of Dante's imagination to
be TORTURED by fl ames of fire
for–
ever- and
then are they to be
brought OUT, to go into a JUDG–
MENT, to see if God had made a
mistake in having punished them so
long in this " hell"?
August 1982
Notice Revela tion
20: 13-15:
"And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it; and death and
he//
delivered up the dead
which were
in them: and they were judged
eve ry man accordi ng to t heir
works. And
death and hell were
cast into the Iake of jire.
This is
the second death. And wbosoever
was not found written in the book
of life was cast into the lake of
fire." The LAKE OF FI RE which
JEsus referred to is a place of
OEATH, not of eterna! life-the SEC–
ONO DEATH- ETERNAL punish–
ment!
Notice what J esus said in Mat–
thew
10:28: " ...
fear him which is
able to oESTROY both soul and body
in [GEHENNA]." Here in plain la n–
guage JEsus said the souL could be
destroyed-and
that it would be
''
'The main features of hell
as conceived by
Hindu, Persian, Egyptian,
Grecian and
Christian theologians are
essentially the same'
(Encyclopedia Americana).
' '
DESTROYEO in this GEHENNA that
has been falsely translated by the
English word
he//!
Gehenna is a
place of OESTRUCTrON!
Again J esus used this wo rd
gehenna
as quoted in M atthew
23:33: " Y
e serpents," he said to the
Pharisees, " ... how can ye escape
the darnnation of [GEHENNA]?"–
the second DEATH-eternal PUN–
ISHMENT!
The ancient rebellious cities
Sodom and Gomorrah suffered, as
we read in Jude 7, the vengeance
of ETERNAL FIRE. But they are not
s till burning. They were burned
up FOREVER- e ternal OESTRUC–
TION!
Now what happe ns in this
"hell"~erived
from the Greek
wo rd
gehenna?
Let the H o ly
Word of Goo a nswer: " For ,
behold, the day cometh, that shall
burn as a n oven; a nd all the
proud , yea, a nd a ll that do
wickedly, shall be s tubble: and the
day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hos ts, that it
shall leave them neither root nor
branch . But unto you that fear rny
narne shall the S un of righteous–
ness arise with healing in his
wings; and ye shall go forth, and
grow up as calves of the s ta ll . And
ye shall tread down tbe wicked;
for t hey shall be ashes under the
soles of your fe.et in the day that 1
shall do this, saith tbe Lord of
hosts" (Mal. 4:
1-3) .
God l s Love - and Just ice!
God
is a God of
LOVE~r
MERCY,
as well as a God of ABSOLUTE
JUSTICE!
lf
he were the va in ,
angry, unjus t god pictured by the
pagans who invented this popular
conception of heaven and hell,
then, according to the common
belief of tbe illus tration of Laza–
rus and the Rich Man , saved
mothers up in heaven are hearing
the shrieks, seeing the indescrib–
able AGONY,
writhing,
of their
own lost children down
in
hell–
actually able to carry on a conver–
sation with them- yet UNABLE to
help them.
Would THAT be the heavenly
suss it is generally represented ?
Psalm
37
OUGHT to make plain
to us this matter of heaven and hell.
No
ti
ce!
" For evi ldoers shall be cut off:
but those tbat wait upon the Lord,
they shall inherit the earth. For yet
a little while, and the wicked shall
not be: yea, thou shalt diligently
consider his place, and it shall not
be. But the meek sball inherit the
eartb; and shall deligbt tbemselves
in the abundance of peace. The
wicked plotteth agains t the just,
and gnasheth upon him with bis
teeth. But the wicked shall perish,
and the enemies of the Lord shall
be as the fat of lambs: they shall
consume; into smoke shall they
consume away. For such as be
blessed of him shall inherit the
earth; and they that be cursed of
him shall be cut off. The righteous
shall inherit the land, and dwell
therein for ever" (Ps.
37:9-12, 20,
22, 29).
And now, Psalm
104:35:
" Let
the sinners be consumed out of the
(Cont inued on page 38)
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