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wailing and gnashing of teeth"
(Matt. 13:40-42).
When
does J esus say that the
wicked will be cast into the fire?
" In the end of this world"!
Where, then, are the wicked
now?
Understand this : the Bibl e
teaches t hat the dead- a// those
billions who have ever lived and
died, whether righteous or wicked,
of whatever creed or faith- are at
this moment sti ll
in their graves.
"asleep in the dust of the ear th."
They lie unconscious beneath the
ground- in
hades-oblivious
to
all sensory perception (Ecc. 9:5,
10). They are "on hold," as it
were, awai ting future judgment.
The majority of tbese buried bil–
li o ns ·are n ei ther " lost" nor
"saved." Most--deceived and mis–
led during their lifetimes by Satan,
"who deceives the whole world"
(Rev. 12:9)- await in tbeir g raves
a futu re resurrection back to physi–
cal Iife, and their first real chance
fo r salvation! (See ..Who Says
Time ls Closing in on You?" in the
March 198 1
Plain Truth,
U .S. edi–
tion, or request our free booklet
The Three Resurrections.)
1t
will be only those incorrigi–
bly wicked- most of whom are
yet to be resurrected and given
their first real chance to qualify
for immortality but who will
turn
it down- who
will ult imately be
cast into the lake of fire at t he
time of their judgment. These,
along with those few during the
past 6,000 years who have
know–
ingly
defied and rejected God,
will suffer the "second death ."
We read of these unrepenta nt
individuals in Revelation 20: 15:
"And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fi re."
The Second Death
What, then, will become of these
wicked? Will t hey writhe in ftames
for eternity? Does tbe Bible say
t hat t he punishment of the wicked
will be eternal torment?
No!
The wicked will be
burned up
in
the intense heat of the coming
gehenna fire on earth. They wi ll be
consumed, annihi/ated, destroyed!
This punishment will be
ever/ast-
36
ing-permanent and fi nal. The
Bible calls it the "second death"
(Rev. 20: 14; 2 1:8)- from which
there is no poss ibility of a fu rther
resurrection.
The Bible does teach eterna!
punishment, but not eterna! pun–
ishing.
As the apost le Paul declares in
Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is
death"-not
everlasting torture in
hellfire! Death is the cessation of
life. The prophet Ezekiel said it
plainly: "The soul that sinneth, it
shall
die"
(
18:20).
The prophet Malachi provides a
graphic description: "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
~ometb
shall
burn them up ... "
(4: 1) . To
the righteous, God says that the
wicked sball be
"ashes
under tbe
soles of you r feet ... " (Mal.
4:3).
The apostle Paul writes of tbe
"fiery indignation , which shall
devour
the a dversaries" {H eb.
10:27) . Jesus Christ himself de–
clared that God "is able to
destroy
both soul and body
in hell" (Matt.
10:28).
Flery Annlhllatlon
These scriptures and many otbers
leave no doubt! Hell fire is not a
place wbere the condemned
live,
but where tbey DJE- body and
soul.
(If
you want to know the
truth about the soul- whether it
is immortal- write for the eye–
opening brochure " What I s
Man?")
The biblical hell fi re is a place
of OESTRUCTION and OEATH–
death for
al/ eternity.
This utter
a nd complete annihi lat io n is
referred to in t he oft-repeated but
little understood passage of Jobo
3:16:
"For God so loved the world tbat
he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should
not
perish,
but have everlasting
life."
The fire from the valley of Hin–
nom in which the wicked perish
will ultimately engulf the whole
world.
It
will cover the face of the
e ntire earth, purging away tbe
dross and refuse of ages and creat-
ing a new earth ( 11 Pet. 3:7; Rev.
2 1:1). It wi ll be a fire that cannot
be quenched.
lt
will burn unt il it
burns itself out by melting this
earth and turning to ashes the
bodies of all "t he wicked.
Then comes the stupendous act
of recreat ion- a new heaven and
earth to be man's inheritance for–
ever. (See Revelation 21 .)
Merclful Solutlon
This is t he quick and merciful
sentence of a merciful God. Tbe
torment of the wicked-largely
mental a ngu is h-will be brief.
They will
cease to exist
in gehen–
na fire. God in his merey will put
tbem out of their self-imposed
misery once and for all time.
God does not take delight in
seeing meo suffer. He does not
take vengeance on bis adversaries
by roasting them for eternity in a
subterranean Dachau or Ausch–
witz. Those who claim t hat God,
in the exercise of sorne sort of
" mysterious" and " unfathomable"
sense of justice, would ordain
eterna/ tort ure
simply do not
know the mind of God! The false
" hell" of traditional Christianity
is actually a concoction of tbe per–
verted mind of
Satan!
Tbe Bible reveals a very d iffer–
ent God t han t he one so often
preacbed tod a y. Yet millions
remain deceived- by mistransla–
tions and misinterpretations- and
continue to impute to God a sadis–
tic character that is really Satan's.
Few have the spiritual courage to
reexamine long-cherished r e li–
gious beliefs, such as the beathen
doctrine of eterna! torture.
God is not willing that any
should perish. He wants all to
come to repentance and eternal
Jife ( 11 Pet. 3:9-1
O;
1 Tim. 2:4;
Luke 9 :56). The wages of sin
is
death . "But," as Romans 6:23
conti nues, "the
gift of God
is
eterna/ lije
through• Jesus Christ
our Lord."
The re is no need to live in fear
of tortures to come!
For more information on tbe
subject of hell and related topics,
request our free booklets
Lazarus
and the Rich Man, Why Were
You Born?
and
What Wi/1 You
Be Doing in the Next Life?
o
The
P~IN
TRUTH