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would be cut off-destroyed. Jesus
told his disciples: " ... wide is the
gate, and broad is the way, that
leadeth to destruction [not eterna)
life in "hell-fire"], and many there
be which go in thereat" (Matt.
7: 13). Then he said, "Every tree
that bringeth not forth good fruit is
hewn down, and cast into the fire"
(verse 19). What happens to a tree
when it is cast into the fire? Why,
it is burned up-destroyed.
Speaking of the harvest of the
righteous and wicked, Jesus said he
would tell the reapers, "Gather ye
together first the tares, and bind
them in bundles to burn them: but
gather the wheat into my barn"
(Matt. 13:30). The tares, of course,
refer to the wicked, and the wheat
to the righteous. When literal tares
are burned, they are
BURNED UP.
What about these types of sinners
which are burned up? Was Jesus
using wrong examples, or did he
mean what he said?
The obvious answer which any
honest person can find is that Jesus
meant exactly what he said. The
fate of the wicked will be gehenna,
or the lake of fire which the Bible
mentions. But this fire is a lot hot–
ter than most people think!
The wicked are human, mortal
beings. Flesh and blood is subject
to burning up. When the wicked
are cast into the lake of fire, they
will be burned up-destroyed!
From Genesis to Revelation, life
and death are set as the two oppo–
sites-the fate of the righteous and
the wicked respectively. God told
Adam, " ... dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return" (Gen.
3: 19) . No mention here of being
plunged immediately into "hell–
fire." The reward for disobedience
was death.
Later, David wrote of the
wicked, " ... into smoke shall they
consume away" (Psa. 37:20) .
Still later, Malachi speaks of
the fi re that will burn the wicked:
"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. And ye shall tread down
the wicked; for they shall be ashes
18
under the soles of your feet in the
day that
1
shall do this ..." (Mal.
4:1, 3).
Can anything be plainer than
that the wicked are to be burned
up-completely destroyed? That
is why Jesus said, " ... fear him
which is able to
DESTROY
both
soul and body in hell" (Matt.
10:28).
Wages of Sin
The apostle Paul summed up the
whole matter of man's reward for
sin when he wrote, "For the
wages of sin is
DEATH;
but the gift
of God is eterna! life through
Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom.
6:23).
If
you believe this scripture
means what it says, then you
know the truth. But, unfortunate–
ly, theologians often fail to under–
stand what Pau1 said.
Could anything be more clear
than this scripture? The wages, or
reward, of sin is shown to be death,
and eterna] life is stated to be a gift
from God-not something we
already have.
Death means just that-the ces–
sation of life and consciousness–
total oblivion! In spite of the vain
attempt of many preachers to make
death mean separation from God,
you cannot reconci1e this with
scripture. Neither does death mean
eterna! life in the horrifying, night–
marish torments of an imaginative
"hell ."
This "hell-fire" doctrine which
is used to frighten so many igno–
rant human beings is a
LIE.
Its
author is the father of lies-Satan
the devi1! lf you are one who has
gullibly swallowed that doctrine
and suffered mental agonies from
the fear of a man-made "hell-fire,"
God help you to study all the scrip–
tures on this subject and find bis
truth.
But remember that the penalty
of death will be caused by fire.
Paul warns in Hebrews 10:26-27,
"For if we sin wilfully after that
we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sins, but a cer–
tain fearful looking for of judg–
ment and fiery indignation, which
shall
DEVOUR
the adversaries."
Here we find that those who,
knowing the truth, sin willfully or
deliberately, will be devoured by
fire- they will be totally burned
up and consumed.
This is a
FEARFUL WARNING
to
those who know God's truth and
still refuse to obey it! This is not an
unreasoned fear of a harsh, stern
God who delights in punishing sin–
ners. Rather, it is the sober realiza–
tion that unless we surrender to
God's will and his way of 1ove, and
refuse to let anything turn us aside,
God will take away the life he has
given us.
Yet this same passage shows
God's infinite
LOVE.
He will not
take away anyone's life because of
ignorance or weakness, but because
they willfully and knowingly refuse
to obey their Creator. This rebel–
lious attitude in itself would bring
them, and those about them, noth–
ing but eterna) trouble and misery
if they were allowed to live forever.
So God in his merey and supreme
wisdom has decreed the penalty of
DEATH
for sueh people.
The Lake of Flre
When the Bible says, "The wages
of sin is death," it is not referring
to the death we see around us every
day. This death is referred to in 1
Corinthians 15:22, which says, "in
Adam all die," and in Hebrews
9:27, which says, "And as it is
appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment." These
passages describe the first death-a
death caused by a person wearing
out physically and from which he
can be resurrected.
Revelation 20 shows the time of
later resurrections, and when the
wicked are cast into the 1ake of fire.
Study it carefully. The first three
verses describe Satan being bound
for a thousand years, and the resur–
rected saints, who are in the first
resurrection, ruling the world
under Christ.
The first part of verse 5 is an
inserted thought which tells us, "But
the rest of the dead lived not again
until the thousand years were fin–
ished." So the heathen, the atheists
and all who were not called to a full
knowledge of God's truth, are not
resurrected until after the thousand–
year reign of Christ. This is the sec–
ond resurrection. For them the book
(Continued on page 21)
The PLAIN TRUTH