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Just because other children are wrong to tell you there are monsters in the dark, that doesn’t mean dark holds no danger.
Just because tradition is wrong to tell you God’s mercy lasts only the tiny slice of eternity we are on Earth, and then for all eternity He tortures His enemies with infinitely more suffering, in each moment, than the most ruthless tyrant achieved in his whole lifetime, that doesn’t mean Hell isn’t real, eternal, and terrible.
If your hard heart resists good, God, light, love, truth, evidence, life, and grace, now – doubting God’s promises and coveting the fruits of darkness – what do you think will happen between now and Eternity to stop your pushing away God forever?
Hell Fire is spiritual reality. It is justice. It is your debt which you must “pay” if you forfeit Grace – Matthew 18:34 – as huge as your heart is hard: up to twice the cruelty, of word or deed, you do or wish upon others; twice the suffering of others you might ease but flip off; twice the kicks you aim through the door when Love and Innocence come to help; twice the ignorance you earn by resisting correction; and twice the chains of the withering, from disuse, of your wisdom, talent, and potential. Up to forever, if you remain as stubborn as you are now.
Heaven does not provide Hell to hurt you. Hell is not the chaotic brainless destruction of the terrorist’s bomb, but the intelligent soul-saving slicing of the surgeon’s knife. The flames which torture, in Hell, those who hate God, are the same kind of flames which purify God’s beloved saints – two different fires are never described in the Bible – just as the Light which cowardly Christians hide is the same Light from which sinners hide.
This is a companion book to The Prehistoric Angel Diary by Dave Leach, narrated by an angel. (A fictitious angel, but an angel nonetheless.) This book grew from the beginning of that book, which told of Satan's pathetic war with God.
12 Bible Reasons to Question Tradition :
1. When the Bible talks about a purpose for fire, it is correction, Hebrews 12, a synonym of purification, Hebrews 12:29, Malachi 3:2, 1 Peter 4:12, Acts 2:3. Fire consumes dross from gold, and chaff from wheat, Matthew 3:12, which is an aspect of purification. The Greek word for fire is even spelled “pur”. Never does the Bible specify that God uses any kind of fire, anywhere or at any time, without this purpose. Certainly the doctrine, that each and every person who goes to Hell will remain there forever, implies that Hell never rehabilitates or purifies, since it would seem unreasonable for God to keep someone in Hell who has been purified. But the assumption that Hell’s purpose is pure torture, without any potential purification or rehabilitation of any kind, imposes on theology a purpose never given by God and contrary to the only purposes God ever gave.
2. When the purpose of God’s punishment is specified, it is always rehabilitation and restoration, Deuteronomy 28, Proverbs 19:18, 13:24, 22:15 23:13-14, 29:15, 17. God compares His purpose for punishment with that of loving parents, in Hebrews 12, concluding the chapter by calling Himself “consuming fire”.
3. The Greek word qeiou (theiou) for “brimstone” in the “lake of fire (purification) and brimstone”, Revelation 14:10, 20:10, 21:8, means “divine” as well as “sulfur”. The word means both because Greeks used sulfur for incense in their temples. Thus the phrase literally means “lake of divine purification”.
4. “Fire” is the experience of saints and sinners together, Mark 9:49 and 1 Peter 4:12. Nowhere is the fire that purifies saints described as a different fire than what “torments” the damned. Mark 9:43-50 treats them as the same kind, except that in Hell it is not “quenched”; yet saints should welcome it perpetually.
5. Jesus said what distinguishes fire in Hell from fire upon saints is that fire in Hell is “not quenched” (KJV) or extinguished, (meaning, before the fuel is consumed), which encourages the expectation that the after the fuel is consumed, the fire will go out.
6. God used a word for “torment” which literally means “touchstone”. Gold was tested by rubbing it on slate, and comparing the color of the resulting streak with the color left by pure gold. We are “rubbed” on the same kinds of trials. See also 1 Corinthians 10:13.
7. The debtor in Matthew 18:34 will stay in Hell “till he should pay all that was due”. Why didn’t Jesus say “forever”? Why the analogy of a debtor’s prison? Debt is finite. (Although really huge.)
8. Jesus implied the possibility of forgiveness, for some, in “the world to come”. (Mat 12:32) He has the “keys of Hell”, Rev 1:18 – power not only to shut but to open, Isaiah 22:22. The Bible indeed describes people in Hell forever, but never specifies that not one soul will be restored from Hell to fellowship with God. (See Part 4.)
9. Mark 9 describes “their (plural) worm (singular)” in Hell, alluding to a parallel passage in Isaiah 66, in which God could have mentioned a simple maggot, or any other worm, but instead specified the “crimson worm” whose blood sacrifice for its young on a piece of wood is a perfect metaphor of Jesus’ shed blood for us on the Cross, suggesting that Jesus’ cleansing blood is available even in Hell for the redemption of the damned who will finally turn to Him.
10. God gave no higher proportion, for how much greater Hell’s torments will be than any sinner’s torments of others on earth, than “double”, Rev 18:6-8, Isa 40:2, 61:7, Jer 16:18, 17:18, Zec 9:12, or even less: “according to their works”, Pr 24:12, Mt 16:27, 2Ti 4:14. Also Gal 6:7. And what happens after “double” has been paid? “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
11. Greek tenses in Revelation 14:9-12 are inconsistent with the traditional view – producing tense disagreement from one modern translation to another – but consistent with Potential Purification.
12. 1 Timothy 2:4, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” This may not mean God will “sentence sinners to salvation” who would rather flee from God’s love, but it seems a strong assurance that it will never be God shutting the door to salvation in any repentant sinner’s face. (Similar passages: 2 Peter 3:9. “willing...that all should come to repentance.” John 6:44, 12:32, “I...will draw [drag, or lift, or inspire others to choose] all [men] unto me.” Acts 3:21 “...the restitution of all things...” 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 “...in Christ shall all be made alive...and when all things shall be subdued unto [shall obey] him....” [all things are already subject to Him physically; the only thing left to be subdued is willing obedience] Philippians 2:9-11 “...that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord...” 2 Corinthians 5:19 “...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” [This disproves the theory that God’s Holiness makes Him unable to endure the presence of evil, so Jesus had to suffer the infinite torture demanded by God while God stayed away. If God’s keyword on Earth is “reconciliation”, how can His nature reverse itself just because we die?
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