THE DOCTRINES OF CHRIST 
HOME PAGE: Greeting in the
glorious name of our God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ
ETERNAL LIFE MINISTRIES
The
Infallible Word of God the Highest School of Learning
“You
shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you FREE”
(Jn 8:32)
WHAT IS LOST MAN’S ETERNAL DESTINY?
Immediate
Annihilation, Eternal Torment, Torment for A Time and Then Salvation,
or
Torment for A Time and Then Annihilation
By HARRY A. PEYTON
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION (P. 6)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT (P. 6)
A WORD OF ADMONISHMENT (P. 7)
FOREWORD (P. 16)
PREFACE (P. 18)
INTRODUCTION (P. 20)
CHAPTER 1 THE FOUR TEACHINGS ON HELL IN CHRISTIANITY (P.
22)
The Doctrine of the Pharisees and Essenes: Eternal Torment
The Doctrine of the Sadducees: Annihilation
The Doctrine of Origen and Universalists: Torment for A
Time and Universal Salvation
The Doctrine of Ancient Rabbis and Christians: Torment for
A Time and Annihilation
CHAPTER 2 GOD’S JUST RETRIBUTION AGAINST SINNERS (P. 30)
CHPATER 3 ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, GOD’S ETERNAL SENTENCE
ON EACH SINNER WILL BE FINAL WITH NO
FUTURE APPEALS (P. 31)
The Hebrew Word “Dera’own” Does Not Mean Torment or
Annihilation, but Disgust or Abhorrence
The Greek Word “Krisis” Does Not Mean Torment or
Annihilation, but the Act of Judging A Person Concerning Their Innocence or Guilt
The Greek Word “Krima” Does Not Mean Torment or
Annihilation, but A Sentence Pronounced on A Person after Judgment Is Made
The Greek Word
“Kolasis” Does Not Mean Torment or Annihilation, but Punishment
CHAPTER 4 WHAT IS THE ETERNAL SENTENCE GOD WILL PRONOUNCE
ON THE UNSAVED AT THE JUDGNMENT (P. 39)
The Bible Teaches Different Lengths of Time of Torment, and
Then Annihilation:
Lucifer, His Angels and Demons, the
Antichrist, the False Prophet, and Many other Wicked Beings Will Be Tormented
in the Lake of Fire for a Very Long Period
of Time and afterwards Annihilated; How Long Is an Age.
CHAPTER 5 BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE DOCTRINE OF TORMENT
IN THE LAKE OF FIRE AS BEING PART OF GOD’S
ETERNAL SENTENCE (P. 58)
The Torments of the Lake of Fire:
(The Torment of Seeing the Righteous in
the Kingdom of God Happy and Full of Joy, with Their Bodies Shining Like the
Sun; The Torment of Being Surrounded by Evil, Filthy and Vile People; The
Torment of Inhaling Burning Sulfur Fumes as It Burns Your Eyes, Nose and
Throat; The Torment of Knowing that the Lake of Fire You Are in Is Never Going
to Get Any Cooler; The Torment of Seeing and Feeling Your Body Burning; The
Torment of Having Your Body Full of Great Pain; The Torment of Having Worms
Erupting Out of Your Body)
CHAPTER 6 BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE DOCTRINE OF
ANNIHILATION
IN LAKE OF FIRE AS BEING PART OF GOD’S
ETERNAL SENTENCE (P. 66)
YHWH, the One True God of the OT, Taught Annihilation
The Book of Job Does Not Teach Eternal Torment but
Annihilation
The Prophet David Taught Annihilation
John the Baptist Taught Annihilation
Jesus Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
The Apostle Peter Taught Annihilation
The Apostle Paul Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
The Annihilation of Man’s Spirit, Soul, and Body Is Called
Outer Darkness or the Second Death
CHAPTER 7 WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE? (P. 79)
Jesus Is Eternal Life
God Is the Only Being in the Universe Who Has Immortality
at this Present Time
Eternal Life Is Applied to All Three Natures of Man, Not
Just to His Body
What Did Adam Lose when He Sinned, If It Was Not Eternal
Life?
What Was It that Jesus Restored to Lost Humanity, If It Was
Not Eternal Life?
God’s Children Now Have Conditional Immortality or Eternal
Life
Some of God’s Children Will Lose God’s Gift of Eternal Life
CHAPTER 8 ARGUMENTS AGAINST LUCIFER’S DOCTRINE OF HELL (P.
97)
God Had A Redemption Plan for Man before He Created Him
God’s Foreknowledge of Who Would Believe and Obey His Plan
of Salvation
God Foreknew before the Creation of the World that the
Majority of All Mankind Would Die Lost, and Be Thrown in the Lake of Fire
CHAPTER 9 HISTORICAL PROOF FOR THE DOCTRINE OF TORMENT FOR
A TIME AND THEN ANNIHILATION (P. 104)
Ancient and Modern Day Rabbis Taught Torment for A Time and
Then Annihilation
Ancient Jesus’ Name Preachers Taught the Soul Is Not
Immortal
The Ante Nicene Catholic Fathers Who Taught Against the
Immortality of the Soul and Eternal Torment Doctrines
Noted Bible Scholars Have Taught Against the Doctrine of
the Immortality of the Soul
CHAPTER 10 THE ORIGIN OF LUCIFER’S ZOROASTRIAN AND
BABYLONIAN RELIGIONS AND THEIR DOCTRINES (P. 123)
What Does the Bible Mean by the Term Mystery Babylon?
When and Where Did the Mysteries of the Zoroastrian and
Babylonian Religions Begin?
Who Started the Mysteries of the Zoroastrian and Babylonian
Religions?
Lucifer Used Nimrod to Set Up the Zoroastrian Religion
Lucifer Used Semiramis to Set Up the Babylonian Religion
Lucifer’s Babylonian Mystery Religion Spreads throughout
the World
The Seven Mysteries of Lucifer’s Babylonian Religion:
A Summary of Lucifer’s Doctrines of
Mystery Babylon; Lucifer’s Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul; Lucifer’s
Doctrine of the Deity of the Androgynous Soul; Lucifer’s Doctrine of Sin and
the Fall of the Androgynous Soul from Heaven; Lucifer’s Doctrine of the
Salvation through Sex Orgies until the Soul of Each Person Can Find Its Other
Half; Lucifer’s Doctrine of the Reincarnation of the Soul; Lucifer’s Doctrine
of the Purification of the Soul in the Fires of Hades before Each
Reincarnation; Lucifer’s Doctrine of Eternal Torment of the Soul in Hades.
The Babylonian Doctrines that Catholicism Christianized
before the End of the Fourth Century
APPENDIX: Every Scripture Containing the Following Greek
and Hebrew Words Is
Presented in One or More English Translations; The Greek
New Testament, edited by Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce
M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren (GNT) or Robinson-Pierpont Majority Text of the
Greek New Testament (BYZ); the LXX Septuaginta (Old Greek Jewish Scriptures)
edited by Alfred Rahlfs (LXT); and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
(Hebrew Bible, Masoretic Text or Hebrew Old Testament), edited by K. Elliger
and W. Rudoph (WTT) (P. 176).
The Gehenna Passages (P. 176)
The Valley of Hinnom Passages (P. 179)
The Tartarus Passage (P. 181)
Greek Words that Denote Endless Life or Time: (P. 182)
Aidos avi<dioj –
Eternal, Everlasting, Without End, Perpetual
Akatalutou avkatalu,tou – Indestructible,
Imperishable, Not Subject to Destruction
Athanasia avqanasi,a –
Immortal, Immortality, Not Subject to Death
Aphtharsian avfqarsi,an and Aphthartos a;fqartoj – Incorruption, Not Subject
to Decay
Greek Words that Sometimes Denote Endless Life or Time: (P.
188)
Aion aivw/n – A Noun – Could Mean a Present, Past, or
Future Age or Endless Time,
Depends on Subject It Refers to, the Context It Is Used in, and the
Preposition Used with It.
Aionios aivwni,oj – An Adjective - Could Mean a Present, Past,
or Future Age or Endless Time,
Depends on the Subject It Modifies, the Context It Is Used in, and the
Preposition Used with It.
Hebrew ‘Owlam `~l'(A[ - Greek
Septuagint aionios aivwni,oj –
Both Are Adjectives – Could Mean a Present, Past, or Future Age or Endless
Time,
Depends on the Subject It Modifies, the Context It Is Used in, and the Preposition Used
with It.
Aionas
of Aionon aivw/naj
tw/n aivw,nwn –
Both Greek Words Are Nouns - Could Mean Ages of Ages (i.e. A Long Period) or
Endless Time,
Depends on the Subject It Refers to, the Context It Is Used in, and the Preposition Used
with It.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (P. 211)
ENDNOTES (P. 214)
Copyright May 30, 1996, by Harry A. Peyton under the title of “The Doctrines
Of Christ.”
A Note from the Author
BIBLICAL
HERMENEUTICS: The author emphatically believes that the Word of God
is INFALLIBLE only in the ORIGINAL LANGUAGE it was written in and all translations
of the Bible regardless of how good they may be are NOT infallible. Since this
is true, the author has performed Greek and Hebrew Lexical and Grammar studies
in all of his books, as well as compare scriptures in R. Young’s Literal
Translation, S. Morris’ Literal Translation, J. P. Green’s Interlinear Bible,
NAS, NIV, 1917 JPS Holy Scriptures (Jewish Publication Society), 1985 JPS
Tanakh, Hebrew Masoretic OT Text, LXX (Greek OT Septuagint), STE (Stephanus’ NT
Textus Receptus), and the NT Byzantine Textus Receptus by M. Robinson and W.
Pierpont with the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
The author whole-heartedly believes he has
formed his beliefs firmly on the truths of the Bible, and not on denominational
teachings. In other words, a real student of the Word of God must study the
Bible with an open and unbiased mind, comparing Scripture with Scripture and
then allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. This author uses the ancient
ANTIOCHIAN LITERAL-HISTORICAL METHOD of INTERPRETING the Bible. Therefore, the
author will interpret all scriptures in a literal exegetical fashion, unless
the language and the context demand a spiritual interpretation. I definitely
believe that the Alexandrian Allegorical Method of interpretation by means of
spiritualizing most scriptures is an abomination to our Lord (2Pe 3:15-16).
This heretical method was made popular by the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo
Judaeus (13 BC-50 AD), which was later adopted by most of the Ante-Nicene,
Nicene, and Post-Nicene Nicolatian-Balaamite Catholic Clergy.
THE REASON WHY
THE AUTHOR’S BOOK IS FREE: Since Almighty God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, gives His Salvation and His Word to all freely (Rev 22:17, Mt 10:7-8, 1Co
9:16-19), this book is given without charge. Therefore, fell free to download
it in digital form or copy it in written form and share it with others. Since
this book is copyrighted, the author forbids any alteration of its contents,
and the reproduction of it in any form for Marketing Purposes. This book may be
placed on anyone’s web page as long as the author’s Website Address is attached
to it and an email is sent to him stating the address of the website. This book
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THE AUTHOR’S
WRITING PREFERENCES: All capitalization in quotes from the Bible, History, or
Commentators will come from the author. All quotes from the Bible will be in
dark red and from the NKJ Version of the Holy Bible, unless another version is
stated. The author in most places will quote verses from the Bible instead of
commenting on a verse and giving a reference; for he believes that the written
Word of God has greater power to inspire and enlighten a heart to understand
and act upon truth than the elegant oratory, comments, or writings of any man.
If any of the author’s books have been a blessing to his beloved readers, and
they would like to send a love offering, feel free to do so.
If anyone wishes to send any biblical,
historical, or scientific materials relating to the Bible, send it to: Harry A.
Peyton; 148 Little Creek Hills RD, Alto, NM 88312; Email
address: doctrineofchrist@hotmail.com. Many
of the books written by the author are filled with Historical studies from the
Ante Nicene Fathers (100-325 AD), Jewish Rabbis (The Talmud), Jewish Historian
Josephus (95 AD), as well as other ancient historians.
DEDICATION
Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior
came to give eternal life to all who will enter into a covenant relationship
with Him through the New Birth and walk with Him in Spirit and truth. This book
is designed to reveal the truth pertaining to God’s judgment, punishments, and
hell. It is dedicated to all the courageous men, women, and children of the
present and past centuries who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and believed his
truths. I would especially like to acknowledge those who suffered social scorn,
loss of income, loss of property, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom for
their faith in Christ’s New Birth message and their monotheistic belief in
Jesus’ Supreme Deity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to acknowledge my Lord Jesus
Christ whose love, grace, and inspiration made this book possible; may He use
this work for the propagation of His gospel. I also would like to thank Bridget
Joseph for her loving and invaluable assistance in rubbing out some my grammar
errors and ambiguous phraseology. I would like to give a hearty thanks to Dr.
H. L. Ruata for his labor of love in translating this book from English to the
Mizo Version of the language of India, and for his suggestion to increase the
number of references in the historical chapter of this book. This Doctor of
Theology has served his God as a UPC Pastor for 14 years and was a District
Superintendent over some of the Churches in India. Dr. Ruata has also served
his people and nation as a Cabinet Minister in the State Legislative Assembly
twice, that is, in 1986-89 and 1994-98. I am very happy to call this Preacher,
Bible College Lecturer, and Author a fellow-minister in the great Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
A WORD OF ADMONISHMENT
Beware of False
Prophets: Beloved, permit me to ask you, why did God’s children in
Jesus’ day reject the truths He taught them? Did they not have God Himself as
their preacher and teacher? Did they not believe in the one true God? Did they
not believe that the Bible was God’s Holy and infallible Word? Did they not
attend church every Sabbath Day? The answer is obviously yes to all these
questions, so why did many of God’s children not believe the teachings of
Jesus?
The answer can be found in Second
Corinthians 4:4. This verse reveals that Satan blinds the minds of those who do
not believe the truth, meaning any of the truths that are taught in God’s Holy
Word. How did Satan blind the minds of the believers in Jesus’ day? He
accomplished this by using false prophets, who may be or may not be honest and
sincere, to fill their minds with false beliefs. It was for this reason, Jesus
warned all believers to: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
the Sadducees” (Mt 16:6). What did Jesus mean by the term leaven? In
verse 12 the Bible gives us the answer: “Then they understood that He did not tell them
to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] doctrine of the Pharisees
and Sadducees.”
Even though some of these false prophets
dazzled and mesmerized God’s Jewish children with their oratory and teaching
skills, their doctrines were still false. Our Savior spoke of these deceived
prophets when He said: “In vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men…. Making the Word of God of no effect” (Mk
7:7, 13). It is quite evident that these deceived men followed the traditional
teaching of some of their forefathers in their organization, and as a result
they also became false prophets.
Therefore beloved take heed, for even
though a teacher may be able to paint beautiful spellbinding word pictures, or
a preacher may be able to speak very fast and give fiery orations, this does
not necessarily mean what they are preaching or teaching is the truth!
Evidently not everything these Doctors of the Law and pastors taught was a lie,
for Jesus told them: “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things” (Mt
12:34)?
Since Jesus was the new and unknown
preacher in town, who resoundingly taught the Bible antithetically or contrary
to the theologians, pastors, and preachers of His day, the people chose to
believe the teachings of their pastors and religious organizations instead of
His teachings. It must have broken our Lord’s heart! It saddens me to say that
this is exactly what many sincere Christians do today, when they hear or read
some the truths that were taught by Jesus and His apostles.
When I understood how Satan blinds the
minds of believers, I soon developed a healthy fear that maybe I was not
studying the Bible with an open and unprejudiced mind. I subsequently
reexamined all my beliefs. I then discovered that several of my beliefs were
incorrect, and I needed to repent and change them. Even though I was afraid to
change my beliefs, being an Apostolic Pentecostal minister with a BA in
Theology, I made up my heart and mind to walk in the Light as He is in the
Light. I also came to the realization that I am not married to the doctrines of
any preacher, church, Bible College, or denomination, but to the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the Infallible Word of God and the Truth (Jn 1:1; 14:6).
Beloved, if you and I expect to hear Jesus
say to us: “Well done good and faithful servant” (Mt
25:21), then we must not be afraid to change our beliefs, when we perceive that
they are not in agreement with the written Word of God; for the Bible, not men
or organizations, is the only source of absolute truth. Let us not forget, the
people who hated the teachings of Jesus and His apostles, were not the sinners
among the Gentiles or the Jewish people as a whole, but the Church Officials
such as: the High Priest, Doctors of the Law, elders or pastors, and priests,
who were entrusted with leadership positions. These church officials were more
dedicated to the traditions of their organization than they were to almighty
God and His Word.
Therefore it becomes very evident that
none of these church officials were infallible teachers of the Bible, even
though their followers thought they were. Because God’s people blindly followed
the teaching of these officials of the church, they rejected our Savior’s
teachings and die lost. This cold but sobering fact should be a warning to all
believers today, to make no man or organization their infallible teacher. Now,
since my name, your name, your pastor’s name, your church’s name, and the name
of your denomination, are not written in the Word of God, none of us are infallible
teachers. Therefore it is senseless for us to make any man or organization our
infallible teacher, regardless if they call themselves: a pastor, a Doctor of
Divinity, an apostle, a prophet, a prophetess, the pope, the holy one, or the
little flock.
Every believer needs to love and respect
their teachers, but they should never place them on a pedestal and worship them
as their infallible golden calf, whereby everything that comes out of their
mouth is: “Thus says the Lord.” Most believers are not aware that this is
idolatry and God hates it. Beloved, when God saved me and delivered me from
this kind of idolatry, I made a vow to God that I would never again place my
faith in any preacher or religious organization, but only in the Lord Jesus
Christ and His Holy Infallible Word. I promised my God that I would not believe
anything about the Bible, until I could personally pray about it and search it
out for myself!
Now God has blessed me with some great
pastors and teachers, whom I love and respect even to this day, but I can
honestly say that I never worshipped any of them by making anyone of them my
infallible teacher. Please do not take what I am saying in the wrong way; I am
not condemning or belittling the biblical and holy office of a bishop, but I am
placing it in a biblical and historical context. Beloved, you may have a pastor
who is a good teacher, or even a great teacher, but I promise you he is not
infallible, and I am happy to tell you that neither am I.
Now someone might ask why you are happy
about not being infallible. Do you not want people to think that your teachings
or books are infallible? No, I do not! You might ask, why not? Because if I
lead anyone to think my teachings or books are infallible, I cannot change or
correct them, if I later discover that any part of my teachings are incorrect.
Therefore, I do not want to place myself in the position, where I cannot say:
“I am wrong, please forgive me. I make an honest and sincere mistake, but I
will correct it and teach it correctly.” As a pastor, an assistant to a pastor,
an evangelist, and a student of the Word of God for the last 32 years, I have
always admonished God’s people to become students of the Bible, and I would
challenge them prove what I taught them was the truth.
I
did this for two reasons: First, I wanted their faith to be in the Infallible
Word of God and not in fallible man; also I knew that the Word of God could not
get down deep into their hearts, unless each of them prove to themselves by
their own research, what is truth and what is error. Every child of God needs
to take their salvation seriously, for it is too precious to place it in the
hands of any man.
Second, I knew from the Word of God that I
was not the only mouthpiece God had in the Church. I knew every humble Holy
Ghost filled child of God could receive revelation of truth from God (1Co
14:26), if they were taught Biblical Hermeneutical Principles on how to study
the Bible.
Therefore God placed them there not only
for me to equip them: “For the WORK of the ministry,” or to
“become
able ministers or teachers of the gospel” (Eph 4:11-12), but also for me to learn
from them; for God gave them to me for my protection. If this is not the truth,
then who and what will prevent any pastor from going into false doctrine? Many
pastors think that God will use their fellow pastors, in their denomination, to
keep them from going astray, but this is a lie of Satan, for every pastor knows
that their fellow pastors, will never hear ninety-nine percent of what they preach
and teach.
Beware of
Nicolaitan Pastors: Beloved, it is a shame that many pastors have allowed, or
in some cases encouraged, their people to believe that they are the epitome of
knowledge, and every word that comes out of their mouth is straight from the
throne God. They are doing a great injustice to the people of God. It is a
shame that these men have made themselves the only mouthpiece of God in the
Church. As a result of this deception, Satan has placed a great fear upon these
pastors that their people will not respect or listen to them, if they change
any of their teachings of the past. Therefore fear and pride forces pastors to
close their minds to any teaching that is contrary to theirs; whereby they are
afraid to investigate the teachings of others.
As a result, many pastors, seminary
professors, and denominational officials have become Nicolaitan ministers. The
Nicolaitan Doctrine is one of the most misunderstood doctrines of the entire
Bible! Etymologically the word “Nicolaitan,” according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by Dr. James Strong,
is a compound Greek word that is derived from “nikos” and “laos.” Nikos
basically means, “a conquest or to conquer” or “to utterly vanquish,” and laos
means, “people” or “laity” [1]
According to the Bible, God and His Church
hated this satanic doctrine (Rev 2:6, 15). What is this doctrine? As one
meditates on the very meaning of this name, along with other prophetic
scriptures, and compares it with the information given in church history, one
can clearly understand the message that our God is communicating to us.
According to Church historians, the Nicolaitans were pastors who were out to
conquer the people of God, by trying to destroy the priesthood ministry of all
born-again believers in the Church (1Pe 2:2-10). According to this and other
scriptures, God has called and ordained all of His children to the priestly
ministry, whereby they should become preachers and teachers in and out of the
Church.
These Nicolaitan pastors tried to conquer
God’s Holy Priesthood, by making themselves “lords” over
them (1Pe 5:1-3; 2Pe 2:1-22). They misused their God given office as a bishop,
by repressing the move of the Holy Spirit, as IT manifested Itself in the Gifts
of the Spirit, and also in the teaching and preaching ministry of God’s people
in the Church. They goal was to become the sole teacher and supreme authority
in the church.
Around 90 AD, these Nicolaitan antichrist
pastors were either excommunicated or departed from God’s Church on their own
accord (1Jn 2:18-20). They then started a rival or opposing church in their own
city. In a short time these Nicolaitan apostates organized and established a
special PAID priesthood of pastors and ministers. This was the beginning of the
first church organization in history. It was called the Roman Catholic Church.
Reverend Marvin Arnold, in his work History
of the Christian Church, gave us some interesting insights into the
Nicolaitan doctrine. Arnold wrote:
DeHaan saw Nicolaitanism-Balaamism as a racket
formed in the hierarchical clergy [meaning Bishops].... It was the extreme,
expansive division between the clergy and the laity, two factors in the
universal-ecclesiastical orders.[2]
Reverend Clarence Larkin, in his Dispensational Truth or God’s Plan and
Purpose in the Ages, declared that the Nicolaitans:
Were not a sect [meaning Gnostics], but a
party in the [true Apostolic] Church who were trying to established a ‘priestly
order.’ Probably trying to model the Church after the Old Testament order of
Priest, Levites, and common people.... The object was to establish a ‘Holy
Order of Men.[3]
In other words, these men formed a
ministerial organization for Bishops and priests, who would become ordained to
the ministry by them. These were the “wolves” that Paul mention that would come after
his “departure,” who would teach “perverse things” and not spare the flock
(Acts 20:29-30). Because many pastors, seminary professors, and officials in
the hierarchy structure of denominations, are Nicolaitan ministers, they use
Satan’s method of correcting those under their authority, who they feel are in
error in their doctrinal beliefs. They usually give a strong rebuke to these
ministers or saints, and then expect them to repent or change their beliefs,
simply because they are the ones in authority.
These Nicolaitan ministers are either
ignorant of or willfully rebel against the Biblical guidelines, which God gave
in His Word to correct someone who may be in error. Because the love of God is
not in the heart of these Nicolaitan ministers, they will not take time to sit
down with those whom they are correcting, and say in a loving way: “Brother let us
prayerfully and scripturally examine your belief, and see if it harmonizes with
ALL the scriptures in the Bible that pertain to this doctrine” (2Ti
2:24-26). When one is looking for a harmony in scriptures and not for a debate,
knowing that the Bible is the infallible Word of God in the original language
that it was written in, it is not that hard for two people with opposing
perspectives to come to an agreement, if their true motive is to find truth.
The Bible declares: “Only by pride cometh contention” (Pro
13:10).
In one sense, denominational organizations
are like individual churches, they close their mind and heart to anyone who has
a different belief than theirs. Now this can be good in some ways and evil in
other ways. It is good in the sense that it prevents heresy from spreading in
the churches and in organizations, but it is evil and satanic when it is truth
that is prevented from spreading. Because they are close-minded and have lost
the spirit of investigation, they will never receive any more truth than what
they presently have; this is exactly the reason why Christianity has so many
denominations, which claim to be the true Church of Christ. They have gone the
way of the Pharisees and Sadducees and have taken refuge in their
organizations.
So, what is the answer to this church and
denominational dilemma? The answer can be found in God’s Word, for God said: “Let two or
three prophets speak, and let the OTHERS JUDGE” (1Co 14:29). Paul did NOT
say: “Let two or three Pastors speak, and let the other Pastors judge,” even
though Pastors are prophets also, but Paul is no doubt referring to entire
priesthood of God, for two verses down he proclaimed: “For you can
ALL prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (vs.
31).
In the very next verse, Paul reminded
God’s Holy Priesthood that their preaching and teaching must conform to the
written Word of God. Paul said it this way: “The spirits of the prophets are
SUBJECT to the prophets” (vs. 32). A prophet is someone who has
the Spirit of God in them, which gives them the power to speak under the
anointing and inspiration of Almighty God. Everyone is subject to the teachings
of the Old Testament Prophets and the New Testament Apostles. Any teahing from
anyone must be in harmony with what they taught!
Everyone in the Corinthian Church must
have been a teacher for Paul said, “For though you might have TEN THOUSAND
INSTRUCTORS in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I
have begotten you through the gospel” (1Co 4:15-16). Therefore God gave His
Children the responsible of knowing truth and judging what the truth is.
Because God does not want His Children to be deceived by Nicolaitan pastors,
teachers, and organizations, He commanded all of them to: “PROVE what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom
12:2, KJV); and “PROVE all things, hold fast that which is good” (1Th
5:21, KJV); and “STUDY to shew thyself approved unto God, a WORKMAN that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2Ti
2:15, KJV).
According to the great apostle Paul, the
Berean saints explicitly followed these God given commands, for he wrote: “Now the
Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received
the message with great eagerness and EXAMINED the Scriptures EVERY DAY to see
if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11, NIB). In other words, these
believers did not allow their love and respect for Paul, or any other teacher,
prevent them from examining their teachings with the written Word of God.
The only way to truly do and know the will
of God is by becoming a devoted student of the Bible. If any of my readers
would like to know the real truth concerning the Nicolaitan Doctrine, I invite
them to read my book entitled: “The
Heresy of the Nicolaitans.” This book can be downloaded to your computer
from my website: DoctrinesOfChrist.com. This book, alone with several of my
other books, is also given to all without charge.
Studying the
Bible: Beloved, if you claim to be a son or daughter of Almighty
God, you must hunger, thirst, desire, and love truth, more than life itself.
God has given all of His children the responsibility and privilege of knowing
and finding truth for themselves. If they do not take this God given
responsibility seriously, than God will allow them to believe a lie and be
lost. Because God’s Jewish children, in the days of the Lord Jesus, did not
take this responsibility seriously, they rejected the truths He preached and
died lost. They rejected their Savior and Messiah.
Our Savior warned all believers not to
follow the teachings of false prophets, who would deceive them concerning the
New Birth, which is how one enters into the straight and narrow path that leads
into Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus speaking of the results of a
false prophet’s ministry said, “Many will say to Me in that DAY [i.e.
the Day of Judgment], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast
out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will
declare to them, ‘I NEVER knew you” (Mt 7:22-23, cp with vss. 13-15).
Jesus taught that we would know false
prophets and false religious denominations by their fruits. One of their fruits
would be, they would place a LITERAL meaning on the scriptures they use to
prove their doctrine, and a FIGURATIVE meaning on the scriptures used by others
to prove their doctrine is false. This is what the Bible commanded us not to
do, when it stated that we should not ‘wrest’ or ‘twist’ or ‘pervert’ the
scriptures to our “own destruction” (2Pe 3:16). All scriptures must be taken
LITERAL, unless it is a Jewish idiom or the language and context demands a
spiritual interpretation.
A favorite saying among those who have
been deceived by false prophets is: “I know this teaching is not of God because it
brings in confusion.” Therefore many believers will follow the example of
their deceived teachers, for they also will place a literal meaning on the
scriptures they want to believe in, and a figurative meaning on the scriptures
that seems to bring confusion to them. Because they are NOT willing to change
their beliefs, they will NOT look for an interpretation that will harmonize
with ALL the scriptures on that subject; therefore they would rather believe a
lie, and spiritualize away or totally forget about the scriptures, which seems
to bring confusion to them. Hey friend, it is time to REPENT for handling God’s
Holy Infallible Word in a dishonest fashion!
I have discovered through my own
experiences that we are beings, who love to follow the traditions of our
elders, churches, and organizations. Since none of us likes change when it
comes to our beliefs, we react very negatively when someone disturbs our
feelings of security. Beloved, if we claim to be children of the Light, we must
then walk in the Light or “darkness will overtake us” (Jn
12:35-36, 46). If we truly love our fellow man as our Lord commanded us to,
then we will not be afraid to tell each other the truth, even if we momentarily
become offended. No surgery is pleasant while the doctor is cutting us open,
but after the tumor, cancer, or disease is removed and our health is restored,
what joy good health brings.
Since our God and Savior commanded us to:
“Buy
the truth, and do not sell it” (Pr 23:23), pastors and saints who
preach this great gospel, should always remember that there is a price to pay
to walk in truth! Rejection, loneliness, and heartache are often a part of this
great price; nevertheless everyone, who truly loves our dear Lord, will always
be willing to pay any price to walk with Him in truth! Therefore, I encourage
my readers to open their hearts and minds, as they open their Bibles in search
for the truth.
I furthermore admonished them to believe
that God said what He meant, and meant what He said. In other words, God
intended that we believe and understand “Every Word” He used to express His
infallible thoughts or teachings (Psa 12:6-7; Pro 30:5; Mt 4:4; 2Ti 3:16). God
NEVER intended for His Word to be interpreted by the imaginations of the mind
of mankind; it makes no difference if they are called pastors, prophets,
prophetesses, the anointed ones, or Doctors of Divinity. The Bible is a Book
inspired with all of mankind in mind, and God intended that it should be read,
studied, and understood by all of mankind, not just a selected few, for it is one
of our Heavenly Father’s great and precious gifts to us.
For this reason, let each of us become
students of the Bible, and eat: “Our daily bread” with an open and unbiased
mind. Let us not be lazy; let us study the Word of God for ourselves; let us not
be afraid to search out the teachings of other Christian ministers, who may not
belong to our denomination. Either we will believe Satan’s lie, that we can not
understand the Bible because of our lack of education in theology, or we will
believe what Jesus said: “If any man will do His [God’s] will, he
shall KNOW the doctrine whether it be
of God” (Jn 7:17).
Beloved, we do not understand the
teachings of the Bible by our intelligence, regardless how much or little we may
possess, but it comes by inspiration from God’s Holy Spirit. God only gives
revelations to us as we love, keep, hunger, thirst, dig, and pray for truth!
You must be willing to do your homework, and study the Word of God with an
open, unbiased, humble, and honest spirit!! You must have your mind made up
that you will settle for nothing less than truth in your walk with your Creator
and Savior!!! If we do not buy the truth because it is not popular, or it
offends our parents, relatives, friends, church, organization, and so on, then
we are selling our salvation for the favor and praises of men. We become
men-pleasers instead of God-pleasers. We will esteem men much more highly than
we esteem God.
A brother in the Lord once told me that
his dad, who was a denominational minister, told him that he spent four years
in Seminary School to learn the Bible and twenty years unlearning what he had
learned. In other words, because he was so thoroughly indoctrinated with the
beliefs of his denomination, it was a real struggle for him to lay aside his
biases, and to study the Bible with an open mind. Beloved, do not be afraid to
test or thoroughly examine your beliefs; for truth can be placed under a
microscope and thoroughly dissected, and it will shine brighter than ever; as
long as we follow some the biblical guidelines that are given in the Bible.
These guidelines can be found in my book entitled: The Infallibility of the Bible and How to Study It.
Therefore the author of this book is
asking his beloved readers, to prayerfully read this teaching to the end, so
that they may comprehend the entire teaching. After doing this, then dissect
and examine this book by looking for a HARMONY in all the scriptures that I
use, and also the scriptures you know of that pertain to this subject, as both
of us interpret them in a LITERAL fashion. After you have done these things,
then judge for yourself the validity of this teaching.
I challenge my beloved readers to try to
prove this and the following message in this book wrong! I do not say this in
the spirit of pride or in claiming infallibility, but I put forth this
challenge in hopes that they will earnestly and thoroughly examine these
truths. If anyone believes he or she has found an error in any portion of this
or the following teachings, I admonish him or her to love me enough to correct
me, and to show me how their belief is in perfect harmony with ALL of God’s
reveal will on this subject. Please email your response to: DoctrinesOfChrist@hotmail.com.
Beloved, truth is the greatest gift of
love that any preacher can give to those who listen to him or her speak, or
read his or her writings. The more truth any child of God places in their
heart, the more of Jesus they have, for He is the Truth (Jn 14:6). Beloved, you
cannot say you love Jesus and not love the Bible, for Jesus is the Living Word
(Jn 1:1) and EVERY WORD in the Bible are His Words, that is, in the original
language it was written in. My prayer for you is that the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is both the Son of God and the Almighty God, will open your heart and mind
to understand His message of truth. With all the above truths in mind, let us
begin our SEARCH FOR TRUTH!
Your
Servant in Christ,
Harry A.
Peyton
FOREWORD
From the time Adam and Eve fell from
grace, God, the devil, and man, have spoken profusely about death, life after
death, judgment, and hell. Judaism, Christianity, and pagan religions have
taught much about these topics. Man has written volumes of books pertaining to
these subjects. Many have claimed that God has given them dreams and visions of
the after life and the horrors of hell. There is only one book in all of
creation that can reveal to us the absolute truth about these sacred doctrines
and that book is the infallible Word of God, the Holy Bible.
The Bible is the greatest source of Truth
this world has ever known. It is not just a truth, but it is the Truth. Every
scripture as it relates to any given subject is the guiding light that every Christian
uses to judge truth, for the Word of God is the final authority regarding the
validity of anything that claims to be truth. The Bible is a magnificent work,
profound in structure and inerrant in content. It is the only source of
absolute truth when it comes to knowing the Creator. Death, eternal life, the
true nature of God’s judgment and His retribution against sin can only be
understood through it.
The Bible is God’s expressed word to
mankind, His written will that He has bequeathed to all who have become, or
want to become, His children. Every word on its holy pages is God-breathed.
This is why there is such an incredible and phenomenal harmony in every book of
the Bible, in spite of the fact that it was written over the span of many
centuries. Anyone who loves and studies its holy pages can easily recognize the
true Author of it. Truly, the Bible was indeed written by the Mastermind of the
universe, the selfsame One who made man and spoke the worlds into existence by
the Spirit-Words that came out of His mouth.
The author has not written this book in an
attempt to convert anyone to a church or an organization. Instead, he wrote it
in response to one of what he feels is Christianity’s greatest tragedies: the
failure of most of its religious institutions to understand these sacred
doctrines. They have mastered many of the great doctrines of the Bible, but
when it comes to these, the majority of denominational preachers have failed to
study it with an open and unprejudiced mind.
The author does not profess to be a fluent
writer, but he does avow to be a Man of God who has spent over a thousand hours
in the last forty years studying every facet of this subject. He has read many
books from Christian, Jewish, and Pagan sources. He has discussed the subject
of hell with many ministers, not for argument’s sake, but for the sake of
increasing knowledge. He firmly believes that one can learn more from those who
hold opposing views than those who agree. This gives one the opportunity to
objectively inspect every facet of the opposing perspective, as well as
re-evaluating his own.
The author has entered into these
discussions also because he loves people, and he does not wish to see anyone
believing the lies of the Babylonian Religion. The apostle Paul must have
believed this because the scripture declared that he disputed: “In the
synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily
with them that met with him” (Acts 17:17). Josh McDowell, in his book
entitled Evidence that Demands A Verdict,
speaking of Biblical apologetics wrote:
‘Always be prepared to make a defense to
anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with
gentleness and reverence’ (1Peter 3:15). The word defense (Gk. apologia)
indicates ‘a defense of conduct and procedures’.[4]
The author of this book is an
old-fashioned Apostolic Pentecostal Holiness Preacher. He will present the
truths pertaining to hell in a kind, loving, discreet, and systematic
dissertation. This book is not written in a novel style, but in an exegetical
fashion. This author firmly believes that the Lord Jesus Christ has called him
to write this book, although he does not enjoy writing. In fact, it has taken
him several years to compose this work. The author is asking his readers to
prayerfully read the entire message to the end to get an overall view of this
subject. Then study or examine this book by looking for a harmony in all the
scriptures as you interpret them in a literal fashion. After you have done
these things, then judge for yourself the validity of this message. My prayer
for you is that our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God and Creator, may open your
heart and mind to understand His doctrine of Hell.
PREFACE
Throughout this book, the author will lay
aside his theological biases and present a book based on investigative
research. After 40 years of studying the subject of hell and the doctrines that
are related to it, the author can honestly say he does not believe it exactly
the way he did when he first started. Some of the conclusions he has reached
are distinctly different from the earlier and later Catholic, Protestant and
Pentecostal viewpoints. It is also different from the Universalist, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and Seventh Day Adventists teachings on Hell.
The author is in agreement with some of
these religious systems, in their belief that sinners will stand before the
Lord Jesus Christ and be judged for the sins they committed in their bodies.
He, like them, also believes that all lost humanity will be cast into to the
Lake of Fire whereby they will experience great physical and mental torment.
The author’s disagreement with some of these denominations is in their
teachings on the immortality of the soul and eternal torment. These doctrines
have their origin, NOT in the Word of God, but in the Babylonian Religion,
which is called “Mystery Babylon” in the Bible. His disagreement with some of
the other denominations is in their teaching of immediate annihilation, whereby
sinners can escape all penalties of their wicked actions.
He believes in the Biblical teaching that
the length of time each sinner is punished will be different, for God’s
judicial sentence will be in proportion to the crimes that were committed in
their body. Everyone would agree that true justice is for the punishment to fit
the crime. Therefore, some will be tormented in the Lake of Fire for a very
short time, others a longer time, while the very wicked will be there many
thousands of years. After the set time of punishment is over their body, soul,
and spirit will be burned to ashes.
If sinners came to the realization that
every sin committed in this life against God and their fellow man only adds to
the time they will spend in Gehenna Fire, there would be a lot less sin in the
world. The doctrines of eternal torment and immediate annihilation actually
encourage sinners to sin. The sinner, who knows about the doctrine of eternal
torment, cannot believe that God will be unjust enough to torment the majority
of the human race in hell for eternity. Therefore, they lose their fear of God
and believe the Bible to be a fable. The sinner who has been deceived to
believe in immediate annihilation has no fear of God’s punishment in a future
life. Therefore, their motto in life is: “Let’s eat and drink [and be
merry], for tomorrow we die” (1Co 15:32 NAS; Lk 12:19-20).
The Bible teaches that “Gehenna fire,
the Lake of Fire, torment, burning, gnashing of teeth, perish, destruction,
burned to ashes, melt like wax,” and all other words denoting the penalties
of sin are absolutely certain, for God said what He meant and meant what He
said. Let always remember it is: “Impossible for God to lie” (Heb
6:18). Every sinner will indubitably receive the exact amount of punishment he
or she deserves. For the Almighty God declared: "The wicked
will not go unpunished," and “He that doeth wrong shall receive for the
wrong that he hath done; and there is no respect of persons” with
God (Pro 11:21, NIV; Col 3:25). These verses are just two of the scriptures we
will examine in the chapter entitle: “God’s Just Retribution against Sinners.”
I cannot help but believe that there are
preachers in every denomination that understand certain truths about the
doctrine of hell but are fearful to preach it. They may be afraid of
persecution from other preachers, or from their church organization, or of
financial loss. The author has no axe to grind with any preacher in any
denomination. He realizes that most them who preach eternal torment, like
himself who preached it for years, do it with a biased mind. Therefore, they do
not, and will not, examine every scripture on this subject with harmony in
mind. As a result, they only study the scriptures they know teach torment in
the Lake of Fire!
INTRODUCTION
In this section of this book, the author
will ask many thought provoking questions that he will fully answer and explain
in the chapters to come. What is lost man’s destiny? Have you ever wondered why
there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in the religious
world pertaining to the doctrine of hell? The word “hell” stands in the minds
of many as a synonym for eternal torment. Does the Bible teach
this doctrine of endless woe? Does it teach immediate annihilation after death
or the White Throne Judgment? Does it teach torment for a period of time and
then universal salvation for all? Does it teach torment for a period of time
and then annihilation? Which one of these beliefs is really the truth?
Are angels and humans eternal beings? IF God
created man as an eternal being or with an immortal soul, as some theologians
teach, how can He be a loving and merciful God, for the Bible reveals that
before the foundations of the world, God foreknew who would be saved and lost?
The apostle John speaking of God’s omniscience, which includes His
foreknowledge said that the “NAMES” of all those whom Christ knew would enter
into a covenant with Him, both in the Old and New Testaments were: “Written in
the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev 17:8, 13:8). Since
Jesus knew from the beginning of time whom would receive the promise of Eternal
Life, would it not be foolish to believe that He made men with immortal souls
knowing that more than 90% would die lost! It certainly seems unthinkable that
a loving and omniscient God would do this.
When one thoroughly examines the teaching
of endless torment, they will come to the conclusion this inhuman doctrine
defaces the character of God by robbing Him of His love, mercy, and justice?
They will also see that the teaching of immediate annihilation rob God of His
holiness, justice, and wrath? If eternal torment is true, how can God be just
if moral and wicked sinners receive the exact same punishment? What about the
millions of moral men, women, and children in Eastern and other world
religions, whom have died without hearing the name of Jesus, will they be
tormented in hell for eternity? If any preacher teaches they will give me book,
chapter, and verse in the Bible and I will believe it.
Some, like Origen (200 AD), teach that God
in His infinite love and mercy is going to save everyone in all religions
because of His death at Calvary. If this is true, then why did Jesus command
His children to: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature?” He then continued by saying: “He that
believeth and is BAPTIZED shall be
saved; but he that believeth not
shall be DAMNED” (Mk 16:15-16); and He also declared: “Except one BE born of Water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God!” (Jn
3:5, ASV). This is why the apostle Paul passionately preached: “If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are LOST” (2Co 4:3)! These are just three of many scriptures that
teach no one can have Eternal Life without entering into Christ’s death,
burial, and resurrection through the New Birth.
How can lost sinners who DO NOT having
Eternal Life have their mortal bodies burn in the Lake of Fire for eternity? IF
endless suffering is true, how can a sinner receive an incorruptible and
immortal body that can never die, when Jesus promised this gift to His Children
(1Co 15:42, 50, 53-54)? Our sweet Savior died a horrible death on Calvary’s
cross so He could give His Loving and Faithful Children an Incorruptible and
Immortal spirit, soul, and body. Will Jesus also give these great and precious
gifts to the lost that do not know Him, or those who hate Him? How can this
possibly be true?
On the other hand, if immediate
annihilation is true, where is God’s justice if there is no punishment for sin
in the life to come? This doctrine robs God of His just retribution against
sin. God’s promise of wrath against sinners would be nothing more than a lie.
IF this doctrine was true, this would mean men of great power and authority,
such as kings, emperors, popes, demons, and Lucifer himself, who have committed
great atrocities against human beings, would go unpunished. This would be
totally unthinkable! This would take wrath and vengeance out of God’s almighty
and just hands and place it in man’s hands, which is something God forbids!
Fear of present and future punishment has kept many of men, in all ages, from
becoming intolerable devils on the earth. In fact, without this fear,
civilization would collapse into anarchy many centuries ago!
Wikipedia encyclopedia gave
a basic belief system of the teachings of many religions on Hell when it
stated:
In many religious traditions, Hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict Hell as endless.
Religions with a cyclic history often depict Hell as an intermediary
period between incarnations….
Other traditions, which did NOT conceive
of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely described it as an
abode of the dead…. Punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed
during life… The Christian
doctrine of hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament, where hell
is typically described using the Greek words Tartarus or Hades or the
Arabic word Gehenna…. These three
terms have different meanings and must be recognized. Hades has similarities to the Old Testament term, SHEOL as ‘the place of the dead’. Thus, it is used in reference to both the righteous and the
wicked, since both wind up there
eventually….
GEHENNA is used in the New Testament as a metaphor
for the final place of punishment for the wicked after the resurrection. TARTARO (the verb
‘throw to Tartarus’) occurs only once in the New Testament in II
Peter 2:4, where it is parallel to the use of the noun form in 1 Enoch as the place of incarceration of 200 fallen angels.
It mentions nothing about human souls being sent there in the afterlife…. Some Christian theologians of the early Church
and some of the modern Church
subscribe to the doctrines of Conditional Immortality.
Conditional Immortality is the belief that the soul dies [SLEEPS] with the body
and does not live again until the resurrection. This is the view held by Orthodox Jews and a few
Christian sects…. Annihilationism is the
belief that the soul is mortal unless granted eternal life, making it possible to be
destroyed in Hell. [5]
CHAPTER 1
THE FOUR TEACHINGS ON HELL IN CHRISTIANITY
The Doctrine of the Pharisees and Essenes: Eternal Torment
The first teaching on hell is doctrine of
the Pharisees, who fervently and vehemently taught eternal torment. The
Pharisees were a group of Rabbis that lived in the time of Jesus, who hated Him
and fought against His teachings. Josephus, the world-renowned Jewish historian
who lived in the first century, spoke of the Pharisees’ doctrine of hell.
Josephus (95 AD), a Pharisee, in his history of the Jewish people entitled: The Works of Flavius Josephus wrote
they:
Believe that souls have an immortal rigor
in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments,
according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the
latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall
have power to revive and live again; on account of which doctrines they are
able greatly to persuade the body of the people.[6]
Josephus in his discourse to the Greeks
stated:
In this region [meaning Hades] there is a
certain place set apart, as a Lake of Unquenchable Fire, wherein we suppose no
one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day afore-determined by
God…. For all men, the just as well as the unjust, shall be brought before God
the Word… [Who] shall come as judge, Whom we call Christ…. [He will inflict on
those] lovers of wicked works eternal punishment. To these belong the
unquenchable fire, and that without end, and a certain fiery worm never dying,
and not destroying the body, but continuing its eruption out of the body with
never ceasing grief; neither will sleep give ease to these men, nor will the
night afford them comfort; death will not free them from their punishment.[7]
Hippolytus, a Catholic Bishop who lived in
225 AD, speaking of the Pharisees and Essenes doctrine of hell says:
They acknowledge that there is a
resurrection of flesh, and that soul is immortal, and that there will be a
judgment and conflagration, and that the righteous will be imperishable, but
that the wicked will endure everlasting punishment in unquenchable fire.[8]
By the time Jesus started His ministry,
the Pharisees had adapted the pagan beliefs of the immortality of the soul and
eternal torment. Because of these pagan teachings, our dear Lord had a hard
time reaching His people with the truth. Jesus definitely warned His people not
to believe in Satan’s false doctrines of hell. This is why He told them to: “Take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees…. Then understood
they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the
doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Mt 16:6, 12).
It is a shame that many good preachers
have been ensnared by Satan to believe these false doctrines of hell. There are
about six scriptures that theologians use to teach Lucifer’s immortality of the
soul doctrine, which use the word “eternal” or “everlasting”; they apply these
scriptures to the Biblical doctrine of torment in the Lake of Fire, so they can
teach Lucifer’s doctrine of Eternal Torment. We will thoroughly examine these
scriptures in the chapter entitled: “At the Judgment, God’s Sentence on Each
Sinner Will Be Final with No Future Appeals.” Not one of these scriptures or
any other teaches the doctrines of the Immortality of the Soul or Eternal
Torment! Those who teach the Pharisees’ and Essenes’ doctrines of the
immortality of the soul and eternal torment today are the Catholic, Protestant,
Trinitarian Pentecostals, and I am ashamed to say many of the Apostolic
Pentecostal Churches. These doctrines rob God of His love, mercy, and justice!
It also makes Calvary of no effect by teaching that all human beings receive
Eternal Life or Immortality at the natural birth. God’s gift of eternality can
only come from Christ through the New Birth! This will be discussed in more
detail later.
The Doctrine of the Sadducees: Annihilation
The second teaching on hell is the
doctrine of the Sadducees, who taught immediate annihilation of soul and body
at death. This group also lived in the days of Jesus who refuted their
teaching. The Word of the living God stated: “The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him” a questing on the resurrection. “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the
power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.’ But
concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to
you by God, saying, ‘I AM the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mat 22:23, 29-32). Jesus
based the doctrine of the resurrection on a verb tense, which was in the
present tense and not the past tense; in other words, Jesus did NOT say “I was their God when they were still
living”. This passage of scripture will be examined in more detail
later. Because these blind religious teachers did NOT believe in the
resurrection, they were “Sad you see”,
maybe this is how they got their name. Josephus says they taught:
Souls die with the bodies… but this
doctrine is received but by a few.[9]
Hippolytus (225 AD) spoke of the
Sadducees’ doctrine of annihilation when he wrote:
They
deny that there is a resurrection not only of flesh, but also suppose that
the soul does not continue after death…. (They insist) that after death one
expects to suffer nothing, either bad or good; for that there will be a
dissolution both of soul and body, and that man passes into non-existence.[10]
Those who teach this doctrine today are
the Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and others. They teach immediate
annihilation, either at the point of death or when the lost are thrown into the
Lake of Fire after the White Throne Judgment. This doctrine robs God of His just
retribution against sin, and makes God’s promise of vengeance and wrath a lie.
The Doctrine of Origen and Universalists: Torment for A Time and
Universal Salvation
Those who follow Origen’s doctrine of hell
are the third group. Origen was a Catholic priest who wrote commentaries on the
Bible around 230 AD. Origen taught that the fire of hell will purify the sinner
from sin and he or she will be saved afterwards. Origen wrote against the Pagan
Priest Celsus. He wrote:
It is in the precincts of Jerusalem, then,
that punishments will be inflicted upon those who undergo the process of
PURFICATION, who have received into the substance of their soul the elements of
wickedness… But the remarks, which might be made on this topic, are neither to
be made to all, nor to be uttered on the present occasion; for it is not
unattended with danger to commit to writing the explanation of such subjects.[11]
Since men are born united to a body,
whether to suit the order of the universe, or that they may in that way suffer
the punishment of sin; or because the soul is oppressed by certain passions
until it is PURGED from these at the appointed period of time, — for, according
to Empedocles, all mankind must be BANISHED from the ABODES of the BLESSED for
30,000 periods of time,’ we must therefore believe that they are entrusted to
certain beings as keepers of this prison-house.[12]
Professor Adolph Harnack, in
his work entitled History of Dogma,
revealed that Origen:
Rejecting the doctrine that
souls sleep, Origen assumed that the souls of the departed immediately enter
Paradise, and that souls not yet purified pass into a state of punishment, a
penal fire, which however, like the whole world, is to be conceived as a place
of purification. In this way also Origen contrived to reconcile his position
with the Church doctrines of the judgment and the punishment in hell; but, like
Clement, he viewed the purifying fire as a temporary and figurative one; it
consists in the torment of conscience. In the end all the spirits in heaven and
earth, nay, even the demons, are purified and brought back to God by the
Logos-christ, after they have ascended from stage to stage through seven heavens. [13]
The Universalists are chiefly those who
teach the doctrine of “universal salvation” today. They believe sinners will
experience torment in the Lake of Fire for a time and by the end of their
torment the fire will have purged these sinners from all their sins. At this
point, every sinner will be saved and hell will be done away with. This
doctrine robs God of His salvation! If mankind can be saved through their own
physical suffering, they do not need the sacrifice of Christ. This means man
becomes his own savior.
The Roman Catholic Church universally
adopted part of Origen’s doctrine, that is, 1) souls of the righteous
immediately go to heaven at death of the body; 2) all lost souls, who were not
wicked, go to Hades and stay there until their sins are purified by the fires
of Hades! This doctrine of works does away with the blood of Jesus as the only
way for lost souls to be purified from their sins, and makes salvation possible
to the lost by their own sufferings in Hades!
The Doctrine of Ancient Rabbis and Christians: Torment for A Time and
Annihilation
The fourth teaching on hell is the
teachings of some of the Jewish Rabbis of the past, especially Rabbi Hillel’s
(30 AD). A well-known Jewish-Christian theologian, Alfred Edersheim, in his
great work entitled, “The Life and Times
of Jesus the Messiah,” revealed that Rabbi Hillel, a noted Bible scholar
and contemporary of our Lord, believed in torment for a period of time and then
annihilation. Edersheim said it this way:
In regard to sinners of Israel and of the
Gentiles it [the Talmud] teaches, indeed, that they are TORMENTED in Gehenna for
TWELVE MONTHS, after which their BODIES and SOULS are BURNED UP and scattered
as dust under the feet of the righteous; but it significantly excepts from this
number CERTAIN CLASSES of TRANSGRESSORS ‘who go down to Gehinnom and are
PUNISHED there to AGES of AGES.[14]
This doctrine was taught by many rabbis of
the past and is still being taught by some rabbis today. Certain Apostolic
Pentecostals of today and the past taught that each sinner’s period of torment
in hell would be different. The length of time anyone is tormented in hell will
totally depend on the sins he or she has committed in the body: for some a
short time, for others a longer time, and for the very wicked thousands of
years. After each sinner has been thoroughly punished for his or her sins, he
or she will be totally and completely destroyed. This is the only interpretation in which God’s
attributes of love, mercy, forgiveness, foreknowledge, salvation, judgment, and
punishment can be interpreted in a literal
manner and harmonize perfectly
with each other.
In the history of both Judaism and
Christianity, there have been noted preachers who have taught similar views to
that of the author. Professor Hermann Olshausen, writing in the nineteenth
century on church history, stated:
The learned author, in his examination,
confines himself to Justin Martyr [150 AD], Titian [160 AD] and Theophilus of
Antioch [180 AD], who teach, upon the point in question [the immortality of the
soul], substantially the same things…. The Apologists, who taught the mortality
of the soul, by no means believed in absolute annihilation [immediately] after
death…. They rather believed that at death, there was only a loss of
consciousness [or soul sleep].... We must concede to those fathers, that it is
nowhere expressly taught in the Scriptures, that the soul is immortal.[15]
The noted protestant Professor Walter
Martin, in his book, The Kingdom of the
Cults, speaking on immortality wrote:
The English word ‘immortal’ has among
others a peculiar meaning of ‘not mortal.’ However, in most circles and also in
theology, the word generally carries the meaning of ‘exemption from death....’
Contrary to the belief of some, there is NO REFERENCE in Scripture that can be
given to show that man or his soul is immortal. To go even one step farther,
there is NOTHING in Scripture that states anything or anyone is immortal but
God Himself…. We see here that in the two places [1Co 15:53-54], where
‘athanasian’ is used in reference to man, it is clear that it is an immortality that is to be given in the future, NOT one possessed at the present
time. Similarly, when an ‘aphtharsian’ is used here and in Romans 2:7, [it is]
‘something sought for,’ and 1Pe 1:4,
‘reserved in heaven for you,’ it is
speaking of the incorruption of man to be given at some future date [to only
believers], NOT possessed at the present
time.... Only when immortality or incorruption is used with God, is it in
the present tense (1 Timothy 6:16, 1:17;
Romans 1:23). Therefore, to say that saints are [now] immortal, if by
immortality we mean athanasian or aphtharsian, we are NOT Scriptural. We must
say SAINTS WILL BE IMMORTAL.[16]
In other words, Dr. Martin using clear and
precise language declared that only God has immorality, both in the past and
now. This can only mean that God’s angels, Lucifer and his angels and demons,
and the whole human race are not immortal or eternal beings. At this present
time, God is the only being in the universe that cannot be destroyed. Drs.
Timothy and Barbara Friberg in their Analytical
Lexicon to the Greek New Testament defined the Greek word “athanasia” as:
“Immortality, endless existence, opposite to qnhto,n [death] (what is subject to death)”.[17]
Dr. James Strong defined athanasia as: “Deathlessness”.[18]
Since Dr. Martin used First Timothy 6:16
to prove that God is the only being in the universe that has immortality at
this present time, it would be beneficial at this point to quote it. Paul,
speaking of God, said that He: “ALONE is immortal
[athanasia] and… lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or
can see” (NIV). The New American Standard Version says it this
way: “Who ALONE possesses immortality.” Since the Word of God cannot lie, this
must mean that God’s earthly and heavenly Children at this moment have
CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY; this will be examined and explained later. In the
resurrection, God will give the gift of Eternal Life or Eternality to His faithful angelic and human Children as a
Permanent Possession.
Somehow
the word “only,” which is the Greek word “monos” in the
above verse, does not seem to have an impact on preachers who read it. I have
asked many of my preacher friends this question: “What part of the word ‘only’
do you not understand?” The Bible emphatically declared that God is the “only” being
who cannot die, who “ALONE” has Immortality or Eternality! This
means no other being in the universe now has Eternal Life but God. I have asked
my preacher friends to give me one scripture that teaches angels are eternal
beings. They could not! They felt so foolish. Like so many others, they ASSUMED
angels are eternal beings because they have existed for many ages. This verse
will be thoroughly examined in the chapter dealing with Eternal Life. All of
God’s angels and earthly children at the present time have Conditional
Immortality or Eternal Life, which they can lose if they do not love Jesus
until the end of their life!
Dr. James Hastings, a renowned Bible
scholar in his work entitled, Encyclopedia
of Religion and Ethics speaking of annihilation wrote:
Annihilation was an idea not altogether
unfamiliar to our Lord's contemporaries, not to mention apocalyptic
writings.... Annihilation has the indubitable advantages of 1) being possible
historically; 2) of giving an adequate meaning to anionios (Greek): ‘the wicked
are destroyed forever;’ 3) of providing for the final extinction of all evil,
moral and physical; 4) of thus establishing the absolute and unchallenged
supremacy of good.[19]
Even though their have been many noted
Bible scholars in the past who have taught similar views to the author, most of
the denominational ministers of this century still hold on to the
Babylonian\Catholic teachings on Hell. The author hopes that these few authoritative
quotes, of many more to follow, will help his readers to open their minds and
inspect this book without religious biases that will distort their judgment.
God’s awesome or sublime purpose for
creation, before time began, was to have a bride that would “agape love” Him.
To this bride, and to this bride only, He would give the power to become
eternal beings. His threats of just retribution in this and the afterlife is
His way of securing harmony and peace on earth for His bride, whereby men would
respect the rights of their fellowman. If my readers would keep in mind GOD’S
INTENT IN CREATION, which is God desires all beings He created to AGAPE LOVE
Him, this book will help illuminate their minds to understand God’s truth
pertaining to Eternal Life and Hell. Any person studying scriptures on the
subject of Hell, who has not allowed their beliefs to blind their mind with
bias, whereby they cannot study the Bible with an open and honest heart, will
acknowledge that there are specific scriptures in the Bible, which definitely
teach that the wicked and the lost will be tormented in the Lake of Fire (Mk
9:43-48, etc). On the other hand, they will also acknowledge that there are
many scriptures that teach the destruction of man’s spirit, soul, and body in
the Gehenna Fire (Mt 10:28; Ps 37:20; Job 20:7, 1Co 15:5 etc).
The ultimate prize every true Child of God
in both the Old and New Covenant sought to receive from God is Eternal Life
(Tit 1:2; Mk 10:17; Lk 10:25)! Eternal Life can only come from our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Endless Life is what He died on Calvary’s cross to give those who
would AGAPE LOVE Him to the end of their life (Jn 3:16). Now the Bible teaches
us that there are other benefits of Calvary, that is, forgiveness of sin, the
promise of heaven, and so on, but God’s gift of eternality is the true prize.
Therefore, there is absolutely no way God will give Endless Life to sinners,
unless they believe in the Gospel of Christ, repent of all their sins, and
enter into Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection through God’s New Birth
Covenant.
CHAPTER 2
GOD’S JUST RETRIBUTION AGAINST SINNERS
Does the God of heaven, who is perfect in
all His ways, have attributes that some believe are less than perfect? Some
preachers find it almost impossible to harmonize God’s attributes of love and
mercy with His attributes of justice and wrath, which contains God’s
punishments against sin and sinners. Are God’s attributes of justice and wrath
really attributes of imperfection? The answer is an emphatic NO, for all will
agree that God’s attributes are perfect in every way. Anyone who has given
God’s attributes of justice and wrath any serious thought can easily see in
them God’s protection and security for the human race. What kind of world would
we live in if we did not have laws, a group of people enforcing those laws, and
another group of people judging and punishing the violators of those laws?
Without these laws and those protecting agencies, we would live in a world
filled with anarchy. Who would want to live in a world like that, where hate,
murder, rape, stealing, and every other atrocity against mankind is the normal
order of the day?
Preachers, who believe in immediate
annihilation after death, do not believe in the Biblical doctrine of God’s just
retribution. God promised to repay all injustices, which man has done to his
fellowman. Almighty God said in His Holy Word: “He that doeth wrong shall
receive for the wrong that he hath done; and there is no respect of persons” with
God (Col 3:25); for God: “Will by no means clear the guilty” (Exo
34:7); also “Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful [i.e.
frightful] thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb
10:30-31). God promised in His Word: “The wicked will NOT go unpunished” (Pro
11:21, NIV).
Jesus, speaking to religious hypocrites in
Matthew 3:7 said: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the WRATH to COME?” He also said: “He that believeth on the Son has Everlasting
Life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall NOT SEE LIFE; but the WRATH of
God abides on him” (John 3:36). The prophet Job, speaking of God’s wrath,
said the eyes of the wicked: “Shall see his DESTRUCTION, and he shall drink
of the WRATH of the Almighty” (Job 21:20). Paul declared: “The WRATH of
God [abides] on the children of disobedience” (Col
3:6).
God vowed to judge all men, for the
scripture says: “It is appointed for men to DIE once and AFTER this {comes}
judgment” (Heb 9:27, NAS). This is why the apostle Paul reasoned
with Felix: “Of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to COME” (Acts
24:25). King Solomon warned sinful young men of God’s judgment when he wrote: “Know that for
all these [sins] God will bring you into judgment” (Ecc
11:9, NKJ). Solomon admonished all men to: “Fear God and keep His
commandments…. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every
secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecc 12:13-14). Jesus warned all sinners
of judgment to come when He said: “I say unto you, that EVERY IDLE WORD that men
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment” (Mt
12:36). Since God declared that He will judge every sinful deed or act everyone
has done, every useless or worthless word that has been spoken, and every evil
thought one has meditated on, which is not repented of and under His Holy
Precious, Sinless Blood, the punishment or sentence God will pronounce at the
Judgment must be in direct proportion to the sins they have committed in order
that God be a just God.
Conclusion: Since
God promised to right all wrongs, to repay all injustices, and to take
vengeance for all crimes anyone committed against his fellowman, God’s
attribute of justice, which contains His promise of punishment and wrath, is a
good attribute and not evil; for it is God’s way of keep the world from
anarchy, and keeping His Children’s spirit and soul free from resentment,
bitterness, and hate for those who have done them wrong!
CHAPTER 3
ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, GOD’S ETERNAL SENTENCE ON EACH SINNER
WILL BE FINAL WITH NO FUTURE APPEALS
The following Scriptures do NOT teach the
doctrines of immortality of the soul and eternal torment of all lost sinners as
some theologians and pastors claim! They also do NOT teach immediate
annihilation as others have claimed. What they do emphatically teach is that
God will hold court, judge, and pronounce a determination on all of the unsaved
and also the lost Children of God of all ages, which will include in it an
ETERNAL SENTENCE. This Eternal Sentence can NEVER be changed, altered,
modified, revised, or reversed. The following verses explicitly and expressly
teach that there will be NO SECOND CHANCE for those who have been judged to
reform, rehabilitate, or amend their ways. So with this truth in mind, let us
examine these scriptures without adding to or taking away from what they teach.
We must NOT allow Satan to blind our minds against this truth by our biases or
preconceived beliefs (2 Co 4:4). Let us always remember that many of God’s
Children in Jesus’ day could not believe the truths He taught, because their
religious teachers, especially the Pharisees, filled their minds with false
teachings concerning the Law and the prophets. Therefore, Jesus told them: “If ye believe
not his [i.e. Moses’] writings, how shall ye believe My words” (Jn
5:47)? Let us take Jesus’ warning seriously, and therefore keep our mind open
and be willing to inspect the truth.
The Hebrew Word “Dera’own” Does Not Mean Torment or Annihilation, but
Disgust or Abhorrence
Daniel, speaking of the resurrection of
the saved and lost Children of God that were in the Old Covenant, prophesied
that many of those who: “Sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to Everlasting [`owlam] Life, and
some to shame and Everlasting [`owlam] Contempt [dera’own]” (Dan 12:2). The Hebrew noun “`owlam” can refer to a “period of time in the past, present, or
future,” and it can also refer to “endless time,” depending on the subject it
refers to, the context it is used in, and the preposition used with it. Since
God uses the phrase “Everlasting Contempt” in the same context with
“Everlasting Life,” I believe “`owlam” refers to “endless time” in both phrases in this
verse. Drs. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., Bruce K.
Waltke in their Theological
Wordbook of the Old Testament defined “`owlam” this way:
Probably derived from
‘alam I, ‘to hide,’ thus
pointing to what is hidden in the distant future or in the DISTANT PAST…. Jenni
holds that its basic meaning ‘most distant times’ can refer to either the
REMOTE PAST or to the FUTURE or to both as due to the fact that it does not
occur independently (as a subject or as an object) but only in connection with prepositions indicating direction (min ‘since,’ ‘ad ‘until,’
l® ‘up to’) or as an
adverbial accusative of direction or finally as the modifying genitive in the construct relationship…. In the latter
instance `owlam can express by itself
the whole range of meanings denoted by all
the prepositions ‘since, until, to the most distant time’; i.e. it assumes
the meaning ‘(unlimited, incalculable) continuance, eternity’ (THAT II, p.
230). J. Barr (Biblical Words for Time (2 1969), p. 73) says, ‘We might
therefore best state the ‘basic meaning’
as a kind of range between ‘remotest
time’ and ‘perpetuity’ …. The LXX generally translates `OLAM by AION which has essentially the same range of meaning.
That neither the Hebrew nor the Greek
word in itself contains the idea of endlessness is shown both by the fact
that they sometimes refer to events
or conditions that occurred at a definite point in the past.[20]
Dr. Strong declared that the Hebrew word
“dera’own” means: “to repulse, an object of aversion”.[21]
Dera’own is only used twice in the scriptures, once here and once in Isaiah
66:24; but in both places it means to be disgusted with someone or at
something. It does NOT mean to torment someone or something. If God wanted the
prophet Daniel to teach eternal torment, He would have had Daniel to use the
Hebrew word “ke’eb”, which is used in Jeremiah 15:18 and means: “suffering
physical or mental pain”.[22]
NOWHERE, in Daniel’s prophecy, are the
words “everlasting torment” or “immediate annihilation” are found or even
implied. Daniel did NOT say that the lost would experience “everlasting
suffering [ke’eb], or immediate annihilation,” but “Eternal Contempt or Disgust
[dera’own]!” Therefore, if any preacher says this scripture teaches “eternal
torment” or “immediate annihilation,” they are allowing their belief to blind
them to the true meaning of this passage. God is telling all those who have
eyes to see and ears to hear that His contempt or disgust for sinners will last
throughout eternity. God is Holy and because of this He hates sin; therefore
His contempt for the sins that sinners commit will not be a spur of the moment
reaction, but will be an everlasting one. Whatever sentence God pronounces on
sinners will be final. This means He will NOT change His mind and give them a
second chance later!
The Greek Word “Krisis” Does Not Mean Torment or Annihilation,
but the Act of Judging A Person Concerning Their Innocence or Guilt
Jesus, referring to the prophecy of Daniel mentioned above,
said those in the grave will hear His voice and: “Shall come
forth; they that have done good, unto the Resurrection of Life; and they that
have done evil, unto the Resurrection of Judgment [krisis]” (Jn 5:29, ASV,
NAS, RSV). Jesus also said that those who blaspheme the Holy Ghost: “never has forgiveness,
but is subject to Eternal Condemnation [krisis
i.e. JUDGMENT]” (Mk 3:29, NKJ). Drs. Friberg defined “krisis” as:
The
action of a judge, a DECISION, JUDGMENT (JN 5.29); esp. as the activity of
God in a final time for judging… [i.e. the] Day of Judgment (MT 10.15).[23]
Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Drs.
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida defined “krisis” this way:
To DECIDE a question of legal right or wrong, and
thus determine the innocence or guilt of
the accused and assign appropriate punishment or retribution - 'to decide a
legal question, to act as a judge, making
a legal decision, to arrive at a VERDICT.[24]
In these passages of scripture, Jesus is
very clearly warning mankind of a future judgment - in fact, an Eternal
Judgment - if they die lost. In other words, lost humanity will be “judged” by
Almighty God for their sins in a future age. None of the lost will escape the
“Day of Judgment” or “God’s Judgment.” If Jesus wanted John or Mark to convey
the idea of Eternal Torment to their readers in the above passages, then why
did He NOT inspire them to use the Greek words “basanizo” or “basanismos”,
which definitely means torment? If God want them to teach Eternal Annihilation
in the above passage of Scripture, He would have inspired them to use the Greek
word “apollumi”!
It is obvious that John and Mark knew
these Greek words, for they used them in their Gospel to teach “torment” and
“annihilation”. The following Scriptures are examples of their use of these
Greek Words: John speaking of annihilation recorded our Lord as saying: “I
give Eternal Life to them, and
they shall NEVER
PERISH [avpo,llumi apollumi]” (Jn 10:28, NAS). Mark also spoke
of annihilation when he declared that the demons spirits in a man cried out: “saying,
‘What do we have
to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to DESTROY [avpo,llumi apollumi]
us” (Mk
1:24, NAS)?
John speaking of the torment of the
locusts from the bottomless pit said: “And to them it was given that they should not
kill them, but that they should be tormented [basanizo] five months: and
their torment [basanismos] was as the torment [basanismos] of a
scorpion, when he striketh a man” (Rev 9:2-5). Mark, speaking of torment, wrote that one of the demons in a man
spoke to Jesus and said: “I adjure thee by God, torment
[basanizo] me not” (Mk 5:7, ASV). The Greek word “basanizo”
is used 12 times in the New Testament and it always means “to torment, torture,
or issue pain” and is translated as such. “Basanismos” is used 6 times in the
NT and it always means “to torment” and is translated as such.[25]
“Krisis” is used 48 times in the NT and is
translated 41 times as “JUDGMENT” in the KJV.
Nowhere in the above passages where the Greek word “krisis” is used, do
we find out what sentence or punishment Jesus will pronounce at the Judgment!
Therefore, no one can substitute the words “eternal torment” or “immediate
annihilation” for “krisis”! No one can teach the doctrine of the immortality of
the soul, or eternal torment, or immediate annihilation from the above passage
where “krisis” is used without destroying the true meaning of these verses. In
other words, almighty God will Judge lost humanity in which they will receive
an Eternal Judgment. Let us not forget that Revelation 20:12-13 reveals that
God’s Judgment of the lost will be: “According to THEIR WORKS,” that
is, by the “good and evil things” they committed in their lifetime. God’s
Judgment will not only be Eternal but also JUST. One of God’s many attributes
is JUSTICE; therefore it is impossible for God to be unjust in any of His
dealings with angels or mankind!
The New Testament writers used “krisis” to
refer to a Judgment, not torment or annihilation. Jesus told the Pharisees that
they: “Pass over Judgment [krisis – not damnation, torment, or
annihilation] and the love of God” (Lk 11:42). He also told them to: “Judge
righteous Judgment [krisis – not damnation]” (Jn 7:24). Paul declared: “It is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment [krisis
- not immediate annihilation or torment]” (Heb 9:27). This verse definitely
teaches that God’s “Day of Judgment” can only come sometime after death.
The above argument is called “the Argument
of Silence,” which can be stated as thus: “Since the New Testament writers, who
wrote their gospels and epistles in the Greek language, knew the Greek words
for torment and annihilation and did not use them in the above verses, they
obviously did NOT connect an ‘Eternal Judgment’ with ‘Eternal Torment” or
“Immediate Annihilation”. This is a very powerful argument, and I will use it
again to help my readers maintain an unprejudiced mind, as they examine the
above and following passages of Scripture. As one examines the Greek word
“krisis” in the following scriptures, they will discover that NONE of them
teach Eternal Torment, Immediate Annihilation, or the Doctrine of the
Immortality of the Soul: Mt 5:21 &
22, 10:15, 11:22 & 24, 12:18, 20, 36, 41 & 42, 23:23 & 33; Mk 3:29,
6:11; Lk 10:14, 11:31, 32, 42; Jn 3:19, 5:22, 24, 27, 29, 30, 7:24, 8:16,
12:31, 16:8, 11; Acts 8:33; 2Th 1:5; 1Ti 5:24; Heb 9:27, 10:27; James 2:13; 2Pe
2:4, 9, 11, 3:7; 1Jn 4:17; Jude 1:6, 9, 15; Rev 14:7, 16:7, 18:10, 19:2.
The Greek Word “Krima” Does Not Mean Torment or Annihilation,
but A Sentence Pronounced on A Person After Judgment Is Made
Dr. Luke used the Greek word “krima” this
way: “How the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the SENTENCE [krima] of death, and
crucified Him” (Lk 24:20, NAS). The apostle Paul taught that one of the
doctrines of Christ was an “eternal sentence” that God will pronounce at the
Judgment. He said: “Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and
of resurrection of the dead, and of Eternal Judgment [krima]”
(Heb 6:1-2). Drs. Friberg defined “krima” as:
an administrative decree, the result of kri,nw
(evaluate, judge) a judgment, a VERDICT, a SENTENCE (Lu 24:20).[26]
Drs. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott
in The Abridged Liddell-Scott
Greek-English Lexicon defined “krima” as:
1. a DECISION, judgment, N.T.: SENTENCE….
2. a matter for judgment.[27]
Using “the argument of silence” again, if
God wanted the apostle Paul to teach eternal torment in the above verse, He
would have inspired him to use the Greek word “basanizo or basanismos.” If God
want Paul to teach immediate annihilation He would have inspired him to use the
Greek word “olethros” as He did in 2Th 1:9, i.e. the unsaved will be
“punished with Everlasting DESTRUCTION”. Since
God inspired Paul to use the Greek word “krima”, He obviously wanted Paul’s
readers to understand that He was going to pronounce on each unsaved person an
“ETERNAL SENTENCE” that could never be changed.
Therefore, if a preacher says the “Eternal
Sentence,” mentioned in the verses above, will be “eternal torment” or
“annihilation,” he has NO support from these scriptures to confirm his or her
belief. The most anyone can say is that the VERDICT God will pronounce on all
sinners will be an Eternal SENTENCE and God will NOT change His mind in the
future and give a lesser sentence! Krima is used 28 times in the NT: It was
translated as judgment 13 times in the KJV. As one examines the following
scriptures, which contain the Greek Word “krima”, they will discover that none
of them teach eternal torment, annihilation, or the doctrine of the immortality
of the soul:: Mt 7:2, 23:14; Mk 12:40; Lk 20:47, 23:40, 24:20; Jn 9:39; Acts
24:25; Rom 2:2, 3, 3:8, 5:16, 13:2; 1Co 11:29, 34; Gal 5:10; 1Ti 3:6, 5:12; Heb
6:2; Ja 3:1; 1Pe 4:17; 2Pe 2:3; Jude 1:4; Rev. 17:1, 18:20, 20:4.
The Greek Word “Kolasis” Does Not Mean Torment or Annihilation, but
Punishment
The apostle Peter informs us that God’s
punishment on the lost will come after He judges them on the Day of Judgment,
not immediately after death as many teach. He said: “The Lord” has set
aside or reserved “the unjust to the Day of Judgment [krisis] to be
Punished [kolazo]” (2Pe 2:9, DBY).
Let my readers take note, the apostle Peter contrasted “krisis” the word
for “judgment” or the “act of judging” with “kolazo” a word that means
“Punishment.” Therefore, these words should not be confused, for they have
totally different meanings.
Jesus said that lost sinners: “Shall go away
into Everlasting Punishment [kolasis]: but the righteous into Life
Eternal” (Mt 25:46). Take note that Jesus said “Everlasting
Punishment” and NOT “Everlasting Torment [basanizo]” Drs. Friberg
defined “kolasis” as: “an action, retribution, [or] Punishment (MT 25.46)”.[28]
“Kolasis” is used twice in the New Testament, the other being in 1Jn 4:18,
which reads: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves punishment [kolasis], and the one who fears is not
perfected in love” (NAS). The NIV, ASV, NAS, RSV, and other versions of the
Bible all translate “kolasis” in this verse as “punishment” and NOT as
“torment” or “annihilation.”
Using “the argument of silence” again,
allow me to ask: if Jesus wanted the apostle Matthew to convey the idea of
“annihilation” He would have inspired him to use the Greek word “apoleia” as He
did in Mt 7:13: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is
the way that leads to DESTRUCTION [apoleia], and there are many who go in
by it”. IF Jesus wanted Matthew to convey the idea of torment or torture in
the above verse, then why did He inspire Matthew to use the Greek word
“kolasis”, instead of “basanizo?” This should be sufficient proof that Jesus
was NOT teaching Eternal Torment.
It is obvious that Matthew knew the Greek
word “basanizo”, for he used it in his gospel to teach torment. According to
Matthew, the Roman Centurion told our Lord: “My servant lies at home
paralyzed and in terrible SUFFERING [basanizo]” (Mt 8:6, NIV). All New
Testament gospel writers used “basanizo” and NOT “krisis, krima, or kolasis”
when they wanted their readers to understand that someone was in PAIN or that
someone would experience TORMENT in the future (Lk 8:28; 2Pe 2:8; Rev 9:5;
11:10, 12:2). These men were obviously familiar with these terms and knew that
“basanizo, basanismos, apoleia, and olethros” have an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT
MEANING than “krisis, krima, and kolasis”.
If any preacher says “kolasis” means
“torment” or “immediate annihilation,” or teaches the “doctrine of the
immortality of the soul,” they are adding a meaning to this and the other
scriptures that God Almighty never intended. There is nothing in the above verse and any of the other verses, which
use “kolasis,” that tells us what this punishment is. Therefore, the most
anyone can say about this passage is that Jesus will judge and Pronounce a
Sentence on each sinner that will include in it an “Eternal Punishment” that
can never be changed. Whatever this punishment is it is an eternal one! If this
punishment is “Torment” and nothing else,
then it refers to “Eternal Torment.” If this punishment is “Annihilation” and nothing else, then it refers to “Eternal
Destruction or Eternal Annihilation.” If this punishment is “Torment for a
Period of Time and then Annihilation,” then this will be the sinner’s “Eternal
Punishment.” No one can argue against the fact that “torment” and
“annihilation” are both considered as punishments.
Conclusion: The very
noted Drs. Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey W. Bromley in their Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,
gave the basic meaning of the Greek word “krisis and krima” to be: “kri,sij krisis (judgment), kri,ma krima
(decision)”.[29] It is obvious
to any candid reader that God did NOT inspire Matthew, Mark, or John to use
“basanizo” because He did NOT want them to convey the idea of “eternal torment”
to their readers! God also did NOT want these gospel writers to convey to their
readers the idea of “immediate annihilation,” therefore He did NOT inspire them
to use the Greek word “olethros.” Since God did inspire them to use “krisis,
krima, and kolasis,” He evidently wanted them to teach that all lost sinners
would be judged, sentenced, and punished by Him at the judgment. This same
truth also applies to Daniel’s use of the Hebrew “dera’own” instead of “ke’eb.”
Let us remember that in John 5:29, Jesus is quoting and interpreting Daniel’s
prophecy. Therefore, whatever judgment,
sentence, and punishment God will pronounce on each lost sinner, it will be an
eternal one. In other words, God will never change His mind about these
things. There will be no second chances! God will never repent and later change
His judgment or give a lesser sentence or punishment.
CHAPTER 4
WHAT IS THE ETERNAL SENTENCE GOD WILL PRONOUNCE ON THE UNSAVED
AT THE JUDGMENT?
The Bible Teaches Different Lengths of Time of Torment and Then
Annihilation
Since the Bible emphatically declares that
all the lost will be thrown violently into the Lake of Fire, by God’s mighty
angels, is Jesus Christ going to sentence all of the lost to the same amount of
punishment? Will anyone dare say that our God, who is a holy, just, loving and
merciful, will punish good moral sinners with the same degree of punishment as
men like Hitler, or the Roman Emperors like Diocletian, Galerius and others, or
Roman Church leaders like Pope Innocent III and others? As you know, history
undeniably records that Hitler killed millions of Jews and Christians. The
Roman Emperors Diocletian, Galerius, and others butchered and tortured to death
a million or more of God’s Children. Lucifer’s son Pope Innocent III, of the
twelfth century, formed the demonic Inquisition for the purpose of
exterminating God’s Children, whom he called heretics. He and all the popes
that followed him ordered, approved, commended, and encouraged the Inquisition
in their satanic activities. This heartless, cruel, inhuman religious
organization for 500 years brutally tortured a million or more of God-fearing
and Christ-loving men, women, and children by every demonic device that could
be devised by the imagination of demon-possessed men.
Of course, the Vatican and its hierarchy
claim they did these things in order to save these so-called lost souls.
Lucifer had them convinced that by torturing them, they could persuade or force
them to accept Lucifer’s Babylonian Catholic Religion. This obviously meant
they had to renounce God’s Truth to prevent being tortured to death. Some of
the tortures mentioned in history were: ripping and cutting babies out of the
wombs of their mothers and then smashing the baby’s head against the ground,
laying their victims on iron spike beds, covering the bodies of God’s Children
with pitch and burning them alive, and many other horrific satanic tortures.[30] If these demonic men receive the same amount
of punishment as good moral sinners at the White Throne Judgment (i.e.,
immediate annihilation), where is justice? On the other hand, if good moral
sinners and these satanic men both receive the sentence of eternal torment,
then where is justice on this side of the spectrum? Jesus Christ, the one and
only true God, is a just and righteous God. Therefore, would not those who
teach that all sinners are given the same punishment, that is Eternal Torment,
be robbing our Holy Savior and King of His love, mercy, and justice; and those
who teach against Torment for a Time would they not be robbing Jesus of His
vengeance and wrath against sinners who have violated His Word and committed
atrocities against their fellowman?
The following scriptures definitely reveal
that the Lord Jesus Christ will unquestionably pronounce a judicial sentence on
each lost sinner that will be in PROPORTION to the sins he or she committed.
Jesus said: “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if
the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in [the
sinful cities of] Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be MORE TOLERABLE
[anektoteros] for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment, than for you” (Mt
11:21-22). According to Louw-Nida
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament the Greek adjective
“anektoteros” pertains to:
What can be borne or endured - 'bearable,
endurable, tolerable….’ In some languages ‘it will be more tolerable’ in Mt
11.22 may be satisfactorily expressed as ‘it will be easier to bear’ or ‘the
SUFFERING will be LESS’.[31]
Dr. Luke recorded this passage this way: “But I say
unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that
city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty
works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a
great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be MORE
TOLERABLE [anektoteros] for [the people in] Tyre and
Sidon at the Judgment, than for you” (Lk
10:10-14). Jesus also declared: “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto
heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been
done in thee, had been done in Sodom [they would have repented and] it would have
remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be MORE TOLERABLE [anektoteros]
for the [people in the] land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment, than for thee” (Mt 11:23-24; also 10:15). Jesus told
his apostles and disciples: “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you,
when ye depart hence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony
against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be MORE TOLERABLE
[anektoteros] for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, than for that city” (Mk 6:11).
These scriptures obviously teach that God
will judge, on “Judgment Day,” people in these various cities for
their sins. Surely no one would be foolish enough to believe that God will
resurrect and judge cities at the Judgment, which are compose of different
building materials? Now anyone whose mind is blinded by his or her belief in
“eternal torment” or in “immediate annihilation” will not be able to take
Jesus’ words literally. Jesus, who cannot lie, emphatically declared that on
the Day of Judgment, some sinners
would receive a punishment that would
be “MORE TOLERABLE” or the punishment they would “SUFFER would be LESS” than
other sinners. If these scriptures do not teach the above fact, then they have
no real meaning; they become nothing more than words without any real meaning!
If the doctrine of eternal torment or
immediate annihilation is true, how will it be MORE TOLERABLE for some than
others? Since the Bible teaches that those who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah are
going to be cast into the eternal fire as well as the sinners that were in
Tyre, Sidon, Chorazin and Capernaum, how will it be MORE TOLERABLE for those in
Sodom than those who are in those other cities? Will the Lake of Fire be cooler
for some than others? If so, where are the scriptures that prove this
assumption? There are none! The Word of God speaks of weeping, wailing, and
gnashing of teeth that ALL lost sinners will experience as they burn like lime
in a fiery oven (Mt 13:41, 42, 50).
There will be no rooms with
air-conditioning in the Lake of Fire. There will be no wild, drunken, drug
crazed, sex parties in hell! The Scripture certainly does not portray Gehenna
Fire as a place where people will sit around a ‘fireplace’ eating, drinking,
and partying. Some have imagine the punishment will be like that of Tantalus of
Greek mythology: “Whose punishment in the lower world was eternal hunger and
thirst: he was doomed to stand in water that always receded when he tried to
drink it, and [he stood] under branches of fruit he could never reach.” These
advocates of mythology do not have any scriptural proof for their doctrine in
God’s Holy Word.
Jesus unquestionably preached that it
would be “MORE TOLERABLE” for some then others in the Lake of
Fire. These very words eliminate the very idea that all will receive the same
punishment. Jesus told His disciples: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk about
in long robes, and salutations in the marketplaces, and first seats in the
synagogues, and first places at suppers; who devour the houses of widows, and
as a pretext make long prayers. These shall receive a SERVERER
[perissoteros] JUDGMENT [krima – SENTENCE]” (Mk 12:38-40, The
Darby Bible by Professor John N. Darby; cp with Lk 20:47; Mt 23:14). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
by Harvard Professor Joseph Henry Thayer defined the Greek adjective
“perissoteros” this way:
From Hesiod down, the Septuagint… etc.; EXECEEDING
some number or measure or rank or need; 1. OVER and ABOVE, more than is
necessary…. 2. Superior, EXTRAORDINARY, SURPASSING… a SEVERER, HEAVIER
JUDGMENT, Matt. 23:14 (13) Rec.; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47.[32]
The Holy Bible, New Living Translation translated
verse 40 this way: “Because of this, they will be MORE SEVERELY [perissoteros]
punished
[krima – Gr. Noun not verb - SENTENCE]” (2nd ed.). In other
words, Jesus speaking in clear and precise language, told His disciples that
the wicked, like the above Scribes, would receive a GREATER SENTENCE pronounce
on them on the Day of Judgment than other sinners! This applies not only the
Scribes but to all false prophets and some believers in Christ who preach
against the truths of the Bible, such as: the New Birth, the Godhead in Christ,
and Holiness. Jesus emphatically declared that all false teachers and preachers
would receive a “GREATER SENTENCE” than other sinners at the Judgment.
James said the same thing when he warned
God’s Pastors by saying: “Not many of you should become teachers, my
brothers, since you know that we will be judged
[krima – noun not verb - SENTENCE] MORE SERVERELY [meizon]”
(Ja 3:1, Complete Jewish Bible). Professor Darby translated this verse this
way: “Be not many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive
GREATER [meizon] judgment [krima -
SENTENCE]” (DBY). Dr. J. N. Young in his English Young’s Literal Translation of
the Bible translated it as: “Many teachers become not, my brethren,
having known that GREATER [meizon] judgment [krima - SENTENCE] we shall receive”. Drs
Louw & Nida defined the Greek adjective “meizon” as: “a large quantity,
involving extent”.[33]
As I stated before, if all sinners will be
tormented throughout eternity, or will be immediately annihilated at death or
the Judgment, how will the sentence given to false prophets of God be any
greater than any other sinner’s sentence? Jesus speaking of Judas said: “Woe to that
man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had NOT been born” (Mk 14:21, NIV). Jesus
knew that it was prophesied in the Old Testament that someone would betray Him.
He knew that someone was Judas. So with this in mind, what did Jesus mean when
He declared that Judas would have been better off if he “had NOT been
born”? If Jesus believed in the doctrine of “immediate annihilation” of the
lost, His saying would make no sense, for all lost sinners will eventually be
annihilated. If He believed in “eternal torment” for the lost, then this saying
could also be applied to more than 90% of the human race who have died lost and
will be lost; for surely, it would have been better if none of them were born.
If Jesus believed in Torment for a Period of Time and Then Annihilation, then
this saying would mean that Judas would experience a “LONGER TIME of TORMENT in
Gehenna Fire than most of the human race. In Jewish writings, we can read
statements about the lost Children of God that are very similar to what Jesus
said about Judas. In Shemoth Rabba, we can read this:
Whosoever knows the law, and does not do
it, it had been BETTER for him had he NEVER COME into the world [Section 40,
fol. 135, 1, 2; in Vayikra Rabba, the same truth is expressed this way:] It
were BETTER for him had he NEVER BEEN created; and it would have been BETTER for
him had he been strangled in the womb, and NEVER have seen the light of this
world [Section 26, fol. 179, 4].
If Jesus and these rabbis were not
referring to God’s lost Children receiving a GREATER SENTENCE and PUNISHMENT at
the Judgment, than this scripture and these writings would make LITTLE sense.
The Bible expressly and explicitly stated that Jesus would: “JUDGE every
man according to their WORKS [ergon]” (Rev 20:13). Drs. Friberg gave
the following as one of the definitions of “ergon”: “anything done or to be done deed,
work, action (JN 3.21).” [34]
Jesus also said: “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the Day of Judgment” (Mt 12:36). Solomon declared: “For all these
things [sins], God will bring thee into Judgment” (Ecc
11:19), and “God will bring EVERY WORK into Judgment, with every secret
thing, whether it be GOOD, or whether it be evil” (Ecc
12:14).
Since Jesus will punish or reward every
thought, word, and act, whether GOOD or evil
of lost mankind, then God’s Eternal Judicial Sentence must be based on the
sinner’s conduct in life. Therefore, the sentence pronounced on them must fit
the crimes and good deeds committed by each sinner. The inerrant Word of God
emphatically declared that Jesus Christ is the righteous and just Judge
of the Universe. What could possibly be the rationale for God judging all the
unsaved by their WORKS or DEEDS, if every man is going to receive the same
exact sentence? If this is not the absolute truth, than why have a Day of
Judgment at all?
Jesus informs us that we need to make
amends with those whom we have sinned against or we will be punished until the
debt is paid. He said: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily, I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast
paid the uttermost farthing” (Mt. 5:25-26).
The above laws, by which justice and
judgment operate on earth, are the same laws God will use in the Judgment.
There are scriptures in the Bible that have a dual application. Such as
Revelations the second and third chapters that speak of seven literal churches in
Asia Minor and types them to Seven Church Periods in the Church Age. Let us
examine the spiritual application of the above verses and see if they make any
sense in helping us to understanding God’s justice and judgment. As we apply
these verses to God’s Judgment, the adversary would represent those whom we
have offended or sinned against God and their fellowman. Jesus would be the
Judge and the officer would refer to the angels. The prison would be the Lake
of Fire, where God’s angels will cast all lost sinners. Therefore it follows
that the lost must stay there until they have paid for all of their crimes.
This would then be teaching Torment for a Period of Time instead of eternal
torment for the lost; for when the uttermost farthing is paid, deliverance from
the torment of prison or the Lake of Fire will take place. Destruction of their
spirit, soul, and body in the Lake of Fire will be how God will set them free
from their torment!
Jesus implied the above truth when He
said: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness [a;fesij aphesis
– i.e. will not be RELEASED] UNTIL [eivj] the AGE [aivw/na aion i.e.
their TIME is FINISHED], but is liable of an Eternal JUDGMENT [kri,sewj krisis]”
(Mk 3:29, The Simple English Bible – NT
[a Literal Translation] by Dr. Stanley Morris). BYZ Greek New Testament records
this verse this way: “o]j dV a'n blasfhmh,sh| eivj to. pneu/ma to. a[gion( ouvk e;cei a;fesin eivj to.n aivw/na( avllV
e;noco,j evstin aivwni,ou kri,sewjÅ”
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Drs. Gerhard Kittel,
Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey W. Bromley defined the Greek noun “aphesis” this way: “aphieÃnai means ‘to let go,’ ‘to leave’ (Mk. 1:20; 10:28-29; Jn. 4:3; 16:28)”.[35] In other words, sinners will be Judged by Almighty God and they
will not be RELEASED from the Lake of Fire until their time of TORMENT is
FINISHED, then they will experience the Eternal Judgment of God as they are
ANNIHILATED throughout ETERNITY!
Conclusion: As I
said before, if God’s sentence on every man is eternal torment or immediate
annihilation, what real difference would it make if they were good or evil
sinners, sinned a little or a lot, were moral or immoral, kind and loving, or
tortured and murdered millions of people? In fact, why judge them at all if
eternal torment or immediate destruction is true? If eternal torment is true,
why not just resurrect the spirit, soul, and body of all lost humanity in the
Lake of Fire immediately after death? If annihilation is true, why have a
resurrection at all? The doctrines of eternal torment and immediate
annihilation of all the lost, when thoroughly examined and understood,
eliminates the need for a judgment. Certainly the light of Truth focused on
this subject of eternal torment and immediate annihilation has thus far allowed
my readers to begin to perceive the folly of the Luciferian, Babylonian,
Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal doctrine of eternal torment, and also the
doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others on immediate annihilation.
With these truths in mind, how can it be
“MORE TOLERABLE” for some at the Judgment? How will God’s eternal sentence that
He will pronounce on false religious leaders and Nicolaitan Pastors be any
greater than that given to anyone else? The Word of God must therefore be
teaching that the torment part of God’s punishment of each sinner is different
not in various types, or degree of intensity of heat, but LENGTH of TIME. It is
the author’s belief that God will sentence each unsaved person to a DIFFERENT
LENGTH of TIME in the Lake of Fire and then ANNIHILATION will follow (Mt
10:28). The punishment will fit the crimes or sins each sinner had committed.
After more than a thousand hours of prayer,
study, and meditation on this subject, the author is convinced that this is the
only position that can be aligned in perfect harmony with every single
scripture in God’s Word; whereby, the student of the Bible can place a literal
interpretation on all scriptures, instead of spiritualizing or applying
unwarranted figurative meanings to the majority of them. This is the only
position that will be in perfect harmony with the entire plan and purpose of
God in creation, and not violate some of God’s attributes such as: love, mercy,
justice, righteousness, holiness, wrath, etc. Let us always remember that God foreknew before the creation of the
universe, the very names of those who would respond to His plan of
salvation through animal blood sacrifices that He offered in different ages; He
also knew the names of those who
would NOT respond to His grace of Calvary or His sinless Lamb (Rev. 17:8; cp
with 13:8)! This is NOT the false doctrine of predestination, but God
definitely has foreknowledge of future events as well as the destiny of all
human beings.
Lucifer, His Angels and Demons, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and
Many other Wicked Beings
Will Be Tormented in the Lake of Fire for a Very Long Period of Time
and Afterwards Annihilated
The Torment and
Annihilation of Demons: None of the above scriptures give us the
answer to the question, what sentence God will pronounce on the lost at the
Judgment? By comparing the following scriptures with each other, my readers
should be able to discern the truth about God’s eternal sentence and
punishment. The apostle Matthew informs us that PART of the Eternal Sentence will be torment in the
fire of Gehenna. The Bible declared that demons: “Cried out,
saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come
hither to TORMENT [basanizo] us BEFORE the time” (Mt
8:29)?
These demons obviously knew that God’s
just retribution and wrath was going to fall on them in a future age for all
the misery they have caused the human race. Demons will do their best to
deceive men about the reality and the torment of the Lake of Fire, but they
know all to well that Gehenna Fire is their future destiny. There is nothing in
these verses that tells us how long they and the lost will be tormented in the
Lake of Fire. Demons not only know about their future torment in hell, but they
also know about their complete
destruction in it. For some of them cried out to Jesus: “Saying, let
us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come
to DESTROY [apollumi] us” before our time (Mk 1:24)? This Greek
verb is in the middle aorist tense, active voice, and infinitive mood. The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament
edited by Drs. Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider defined this verb as:
Apollymi destroy; lose; die; be lost… destruction,
waste, ANNIHILATION…. Both vb. and subst. are richly attested in secular
Greek…. The basic negative meaning of the entire word group, frequently with a
violent tendency, aims to express loss, destruction,
and ANNIHILATION (e.g., of wealth) in a very general sense, which can extend to
the FINAL DESTRUCTION of the HUMAN BEINGS in death (Homer, Herodotus, Plato,
Xenophon).[36]
It is obvious from the above two passages
of scripture that these evil spirits know that God promised to fully destroy or annihilate them after they had been tormented in the Lake of Fire
for “ages of ages” or “thousands of years.” Therefore, no one can teach the
doctrines of eternal torment or immediate annihilation or immortality of the
soul from these passages of scripture; but they can teach Torment for a Period
of Time and then Annihilation.
The Antichrist,
the False Prophet, and Lucifer Are Cast into the Lake of Fire: John
speaking of this says: “The Beast [Antichrist] was taken,
and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he
deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped
his image. These both were cast alive
into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone” (Rev 19:20). According to John the
Antichrist and the False Prophet were alive when they were cast into the Lake
of Fire; and this took place at the end of the Great Tribulation period when
Jesus came back to earth with His angels and saints. After the Millennial Reign
of Christ, that is, a thousand years later: “The Devil
[Lucifer], who is leading them astray, was cast into the Lake of Fire and
brimstone, where are the Beast and the False Prophet, and they shall be
TORMENTED day and night -- to [eis – INTO] the ages of
the ages” (The English
Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible by Dr. J. N. Young). The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by
Dr. Jay P. Green SR. translated this verse this way: “They were
tormented day and night for [eis – INTO] the ages of
the ages”; also “They shall be tormented day and night for [eis –
INTO] the ages of ages” (The
English Darby Bible by Dr. John N. Darby); and “They will be
tormented day and night to [eis – INTO] the ages of
the ages” (Morris’ Literal
Translation by Dr. Stanley Morris).
In the Greek language the last part of the
above verse reads this way: “eivj tou.j aivw/naj tw/n aivw,nwn”. The
preposition “eis” means “INTO” and it
is in the accusative case. The Greek noun “aionas” means “ages” and is
in the masculine gender, plural number, accusative case or a direct object. The
Greek noun “aionon” means “of the ages” and is
masculine gender, plural number, and genitive or possessive case. Therefore, a
literal translation of this phrase should be: “INTO the ages of ages”. There
is NO such thing as “into the eternities of eternities.” There
can only be one eternity. Therefore, according to the above verses Lucifer, the
Antichrist, the False Prophet, fallen angels, demons, and very wicked men will
be tormented in the Lake of Fire “into the ages of ages” NOT eternity.
Lucifer Shall Be
Annihilated or Burned Up and Reduced to Ashes after He Is Tormented in the Lake
of Fire for Many Ages: When speaking of the King of Tyrus in the following verses
God is not referring to a man but to Satan himself. The entire context gives
reference to Lucifer, who was God’s anointed cherub, created perfect, not
begotten of a woman, was in the Garden of Eden, walked on God’s holy mountain,
and cast down from heaven to the earth. No earthly being can fit this
description.
Let us read what God has to say about
Lucifer and the Eternal Sentence He
pronounced on this self proclaimed god. God told the prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man,
sing this FUNERAL song for the King of Tyre. Give him this message from the
Sovereign LORD: ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite
in beauty. You were in EDEN, the GARDEN of God…. They were given to you on the
DAY you were CREATED. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty ANGELIC
guardian. You had access to the Holy Mountain of God and walked among the
stones of fire. You were blameless in all you did from the DAY you were CREATED
until the day evil was found in you…. You defiled your sanctuaries with your
many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought forth a FIRE from the midst of
thee; it hath DEVOURED thee, and I have turned thee to ASHES upon the earth in
the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the
peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and thou shalt
NEVERMORE [lo] have ANY BEING [hayah]” (Eze 28:12-19, American Standard Version). According to
Dr. Strong, the Hebrew word “lo'” is a:
primitive particle; NOT (the simple or
absolute negation)”; [37]
[and the Hebrew word “hayah” is:] A primitive root… to EXIST.[38]
The English Translation of the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament by Sir
Lancelot Brenton reads this way: “Because of the multitude of thy sins and the
iniquities of thy merchandise, I have profaned thy sacred things; and I will
bring FIRE OUT OF the MIDST of THEE, this shall DEVOUR thee; and I will make
thee TO BE ASHES upon thy land before all that see thee. And all that know thee
among the nations shall groan over thee: thou art gone to DESTRUCTION, and thou
shalt NOT [ou] EXIST ANY LONGER [huparcho].” Drs. Friberg
defined the Greek word “ou” as:
An adverb negating an alleged fact, used predominately in the NT with the
indicative mood NO, NOT… a negative
to emphasize a POSITIVE NOT… in quotations from the Septuagint… to produce a strong negative or prohibition NEVER,
not at all, by no means, certainly not.[39]
Dr. Strong defined the Greek word “u`pa,rcw” or “huparcho”
in the Greek Septuagint to mean:
To begin under (quietly), i.e. COME INTO
EXISTENCE (be present or at hand); expletively, TO EXIST (as copula or
subordinate to an adjective, participle, adverb or preposition, or as auxil. to
principal (verb).[40]
The Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Dr.
Walter Bauer defined “huparcho” in the LXX as:
The basic idea: COME INTO BEING from an
originating point… to really be there, EXIST.[41]
In the Holy
Bible New Living Translation the above verses read this way: “You defiled
your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought
FIRE out from WITHIN you, and it CONSUMED you. I reduced you to ASHES on the
ground in the sight of all who were watching. All who knew you are appalled at
your fate. You have come to a terrible end, and you will EXIST NO MORE.” In 230
AD, Origen translated these verses in Ezekiel this way: “Thou shalt
exist no longer for ever.” Origen also declared that the prophet
Ezekiel could not be talking about any earthly man. He says:
From the day when thou were CREATED with
the cherubim, I placed thee in the Holy Mount of God.’ [Who] can so enfeeble
[or make ineffective] the meaning as to suppose that this language is used of
some man or saint…? Or what fiery stones can he imagine in the midst of which
any man could live? Or who could be supposed to be stainless from the very day
of his creation, and wickedness being afterwards discovered in him, it be said
of him then that he was cast forth upon the earth? For the meaning of this is,
that He who was not yet on the earth is said to be cast forth upon it.[42]
Therefore, these verses must be talking
about Lucifer and NOT some man who was supposed to be a king in Tyre. Let my
beloved readers also take note to the fact that the fire that burned Lucifer to
ashes did not come from the Lake of Fire, but came from WITHIN Satan. This can
only mean that Lucifer’s own spirit became a fire and burned up his very being
to ashes. Therefore, according to these verses, even Lucifer shall be
annihilated at the end of time. Since God Almighty Himself undeniably and
unquestionably made a proclamation or a decree that Lucifer (the Devil or
Satan) would be burnt up to ashes, which will terrify him because he will have no more existence as a living
conscious being or entity, the phrase “into the ages of ages” in Rev
20:10 must be referring to a very long period of time, but not eternity.
How Long Is an Age?
According to some astronomers an “AGE”
could be around TWO THOUSAND YEARS. They believe that the changing of an age is
due to what is known as the Precession of the Equinoxes. Scientist Dr. David P.
Stern, NASA’s Science Answer Man, in an article entitled “The Dawning of the
Age of Aquarius” revealed that the Age of Pisces, who sign is the FISH, began
in astronomical year of 1 BC or 2 BC under the Julian Calendar, which I believe
is the year Jesus was born. In an answer to someone’s question, he stated:
Hipparchus [125 BC] concluded that the intersection
marking the equinox slowly crept forward along the ecliptic
[i.e. a great circle on the celestial sphere], and called that motion
‘the Precession of the Equinoxes.’ The rate is about one full circle in 26, 000
years…. Around the YEAR 1 [using NASA’s Astronomical Calendar] IT
moved into the constellation of Pisces and CURRENTLY it is again
in transition, to the constellation of Aquarius [i.e.
before or around 2020 AD]…. To astronomers precession is mainly another factor
to be taken into account when aiming a telescope or drawing a star chart; but
to believers in astrology, the ‘DAWNING of the AGE of Aquarius’
is a great portent [i.e. sign] and may mark the beginning of a
completely NEW and different ERA [i.e. AGE]. [43]
In other words, during the great cycle of
the Precession of the Equinoxes our sun makes a journey through
the twelve constellations of the zodiac, which is approximately every 26,000
years. If we divide 26,000 years by 12 or 13 constellations we have 2,167
YEARS, more or less; if we divide 26,000 years by 13 constellations, we have
2,000 years for our sun to move out of one constellation into another; it
depends on the size of the constellation. It other words it can take anywhere
between 2,000 through 2,167 years for this alignment transition to take place.
When it comes into an alignment with a particular constellation, it is claimed
that a NEW AGE BEGINS.
In
an article in the Planetarian entitled “The Real, Real Constellations of the
Zodiac” by Professor John Mosley of the Griffith Observatory, he declared that
there are 13 not 12 constellation in the Zodiac. He wrote:
In
1977, Lee Shapiro, then Director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State
University, published in article in the Planetarian titled The Real
Constellations of the Zodiac. I felt the article was so important and so useful
that it is one of the few I have posted at the Planetarian web site. Dr.
Shapiro… points out that the sun passes through 13
constellations, rather than the 12 of traditional astrology, and he asks,
‘How often have you referred to the twelve constellations that the sun passes
through during a year? The number twelve is correct only if one is using
astrological constellations. There are thirteen
astronomical constellations that cross the ecliptic. Whenever you refer
to the zodiac use the number thirteen…. The ones we use are the official
constellations of the International Astronomical Union.’ Dr. Shapiro provides
the actual dates when the sun is in each of the 13
constellations. [44]
The 13 eliciptal constellations in our
Zodiac are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiuchus,
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac
Ophiuchus is a large constellation located
around the celestial equator. Its name is from the Greek Ὀφιοῦχος
‘serpent-bearer’, and it
is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the
constellation Serpens.... It is located between Aquila, Serpens and Hercules,
northwest of the center of the Milky Way. The southern part lies between
Scorpius to the west and Sagittarius to the east. It is best visible in the
northern summer and located opposite Orion in the sky…. Ophiuchus is one of
thirteen constellations that cross the ecliptic. It has therefore been called
the ‘13th sign of the zodiac’. [45]
For more details on the Age of Aquarius
and the birth and rise of the Antichrist, see my book: The Mysteries of Prophecy Revealed. I definitely believe that the
earth is much less than 26,000 years, and the Precession of the Equinoxes has
only happen THREE TIMES from the creation of Adam to this present time in the
Age of Pisces, which is now closing. I also believe the Age of Aquarius will
begin very soon, maybe in 2020 AD! According to my understanding of the
calendar, a little less than 6,000 years has past since the creation of Adam
(see my book entitled: A Calendar of
Biblical and Historical Dates and Events Beginning with the Creation of Adam.
An Age Is Not A
Generation: “Which [wisdom] in other GENERATIONS [genea] was not made
known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and
prophets in the Spirit… to bring to light what is the administration of the
mystery which for AGES [aivw,nwn - AION] has been hidden in God, who
created all things” (Eph 3:5-9). Since the apostle Paul spoke of PAST “generations” and “ages” as two
distinct and separate events, a generation cannot be an age! Therefore an age
must be a longer period of time than a generation, which could be 30, 40, 70,
or 120 years.
The Ages Began
Sometime in the Past: Paul proclaimed: “And wisdom we speak among the perfect, and
wisdom not of THIS AGE [AION], nor of the
rulers of THIS AGE [AION] -- of those becoming useless, but we speak the
hidden wisdom of God in a secret, that God foreordained BEFORE [pro. -
PRO] the AGES [aivw,nwn - AION] to our glory, which no one of
the rulers of THIS AGE [AION] did know, for if they had known, the Lord of
the glory they would not have crucified” (1Co 2:6-8, YLT). The apostle declared
that the ages had a beginning and he
compared it to the age he lived in,
which revealed that he was speaking of two different ages or time periods.
Past Ages:
According to Dr. Luke God: “Spoke through the mouth of His [autos] holy prophets
from [apo] the age (before)” (Lk 1:70, Interlinear Greek-English New Testament). Now the question we
should ask is: “What Age?” Was the age of the New Testament a PART of the age
that began with the prophet Enoch or the prophets in David’s day, that is, did
the age of the Old Testament prophets begin BEFORE the NT began? Dr. Green
seems to imply by his insertion of the preposition BEFORE into verse 70 that
the age of the prophets was BEFORE the NT?
The Greek preposition “apo” in the
above verse is in the genitive or possessive case, which indicates that the age
that God spoke through the mouths of the Holy Prophets began in the OT. Some of
the ways Drs. Friberg defined this preposition are:
avpo, preposition
with the genitive, with the basic meanings separation off, motion away from;
(1) to denote separation from a person or place from, away from (LU
16.18); (2) to denote a point from
which something begins (#2826).
According
to Scripture: “He then would have had
to suffer often since the foundation of
the world; but now, once at the END of the AGES [aionon
– genitive case, plural number], He has APPEARED to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb 9:26, NAS; cp with 1Co 10:9-11). In other words, Jesus appeared or
was born at Bethlehem at the END of TWO AGES, so He could to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross of Calvary!
Future Ages: “He [Christ]
might
show, in the AGES [AION] that are COMING, the exceeding riches of His
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7, YLT). In other
words, the apostle Paul definitely believed there were more ages to come!
Summary of
Facts: With all the above in mind, I now ask my readers: “What
length of time does the Greek AION and its Hebrew counterpart OLAM cover? Is it
an endless period of time or an unspecified
period of time? It is clear from the above passages, and as every Greek
scholar knows, the Greek word AION means an UNSPECIFIED PERIOD OF TIME,
regardless what case it may be in. The Bible and lexicographers reveal that
AION and its Hebrew equivalent OLAM does NOT mean eternal in itself. The only time any of these words denote endless duration
is when it is connected with a subject that is endless. When this is the case,
AION and OLAM then take on an acquired or added force from its subject and the
prepositions used with it. Because this is such a vital point in understanding
God’s judgment on sinners, let us take a brief look at how ancient and modern
lexicons define these words.
Hesychius, who wrote around 400, is the
oldest lexicographer. He defined aion as “The life of man [or] the time of
life.” Dr. Schleusner says it is: “Any space of time whether longer or shorter,
past, present, or future, to be
determined by the persons or things spoken of.” Dr. Edward Beecher in his History of Future Retribution declared:
“All attempts to set forth eternity as the original and primary sense of aion
are at war with the facts of the Greek language for five centuries, in which it
denoted life and its derivative senses, and the sense eternity was unknown.”
Therefore any honest Bible translator, when translating the Greek word aion or
the Hebrew word owlam, must do so by examining the context that God has placed
it in and not by his or her own religious bias. In other words, aion and owlam
can only carry the meaning of endless or eternal when the subject it refers to
has eternality. Therefore, the phrase “ages of ages” cannot mean “eternities of
eternities” because there can only be one eternity! Dr. Alfred Edersheim in his
book entitled, The Life and Times of
Jesus the Messiah spoke of the Jewish belief in Torment for a period of
time and then Annihilation. He declared:
The view of the School of Hillel (u. s. 17
a) in regard to sinners of Israel and of the Gentiles it teaches, indeed, that
they are tormented in Gehenna for twelve months, after which their BODIES and
SOULS are BURNT UP an scattered as DUST under the feet of the righteous; but it
significantly excepts from this number certain classes of transgressors ‘who go
down to Gehinnom and are PUNISHED there to AGES of AGES…. It is at least
conceivable that the expression might refer to the END of ALL TIME.[46]
The end of all time will be when: “Then comes the
end”, that is, the END of
ALL TIME is when “the
last enemy” is “destroyed” that “is DEATH” (1Co 15:24-26). Using the argument of silence again, if
God wanted John to teach the doctrine of eternal torment in Revelation 20:10,
or in any other verse dealing with torment in the Lake of Fire, then why did He
not inspire him to use the Greek expression “aidios basanizo,” which means
“eternal torment?” Drs. Friberg defined the Greek word aidios as:
Everlasting, eternal, ALWAYS EXISTING.[47]
[Dr. Bauer gave the following meaning and usage of “aidios” in ancient
history:] “ETERNAL… (of God)… Ro 1:20… (Hom. Hymns, Hes. et al.; ins; PSI 1422,
16; Wsd 7:26; 4 Macc 10:15; a favorite w. Philo: Jos., Ant. 4, 178; 17, 152;
Just., AII, 11, 5; Tat. 14, 2; Ath.; Mel., P. 2f, 20).[48]
Aidios always means endless, eternal or
eternity. It was universally used in our Lord’s Day to express the idea of
“endless time or time without end” when speaking of eternity, or “the eternal
God or gods” when speaking of deity. In fact, the heathens in Greek pagan religions
used it to teach their doctrine of “endless torment in Hades.” Since Jesus,
John, the apostles, and disciples knew of this pagan doctrine and their use of
aidios to describe this doctrine of hell, why did they not use aidios in their
teaching on torment in Gehenna Fire or the Lake of Fire? The very fact they
never used aidios is proof they did not believe in this demon-inspired doctrine
of hell!
Paul and Jude used aidios in their
writings only one time, but never in connection with “torment in hell.” Paul
used it to describe God’s power when he said: “For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal [aidios] power and Godhead” (Rom
1:20). Jude used it to describe the chains that kept some of the fallen angels
bound, not tormented in fire, as they waited to be judged at the judgment. He
said: “The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting [aidios] chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6).
If John had used “aidios” instead of
“aions of aions” in Revelation 20:10 no one would have ever doubted that he
meant “eternal torment.” With all the above evidence in mind can any honest,
unbiased student of the Word of God believe that Jesus, His apostles or
disciples, taught the doctrine of eternal torment? I do not believe so! Since
there can only be one eternity, the phrase “eternities of eternities” would
make no sense at all if the phrase “ages of ages” meant eternity. Obviously
John wanted his reader to know that these beings were going to be tormented for
many ages, but not throughout eternity.
What is this fire that will burn inside of
Lucifer, which will cause his entire spirit being to literally burn to ashes?
Could this be saying that God would cause his spirit to burn with such
intensity that it will literally burn his very being to ashes? Could this be
the way in which God will annihilate not only Lucifer but also his angels and
lost humanity as well? In the case of human beings, could the Bible be
suggesting that God will cause their very spirit to literally burn up, thereby
annihilating their spirit, soul, and body, reducing them to ashes? The Prophet
Isaiah speaking about the wicked said your: “Breath [ruwach
- spirit] as fire shall devour you. And the people shall be as the
burning of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire” (Isa
33:11-12). Job said it this way: “The flame shall dry up his [the
wicked] branches, and by the breath [ruwach - spirit] of his mouth
shall he go away” (Job 15:30). The Word of God does tell us that God made:
“His
angels spirits [ruwach], His ministers a flame of fire” (Psa 104:4;
Heb 1:7). Could these scriptures be suggesting that the spirit of angels and
men may be made of some type of spiritual fire? Could it be that the fiery
spirit of angels and men are capable of destroying them, if God so willed it?
Whereby, man’s spirit would not only burn itself up but also his soul and body
as well.
There are documented occurrences known in
Human history as “Spontaneous Human Combustion”. There have been cases where
human beings have burst into flames and the fire that came from inside of their
very being was so hot that it burned the entire body to ashes in a few minutes.
Bones do not burn to ashes without a tremendous amount of heat being applied. To incinerate a human body and bones to
ashes, it takes a temperature over 3,000° F. There is no known scientific reason that can
truly explain this supernatural phenomenon. Medical doctors do not know
what to make of it. Here are four articles on this horrific event. Encyclopedia.com speaking of Spontaneous Human Combustion
stated:
In December
1956, Virginia Caget of Honolulu, Hawaii, walked into the room of Young
Sik Kim, a 78-year-old disabled person, to find him enveloped in blue flames.
By the time firemen arrived on the scene, Kim and his easy chair were ASHES. Strangely enough, nearby
curtains and clothing were untouched by fire, in spite of the fierce heat that
would have been necessary to consume a human being…. On September 20, 1938,
in Chelmsford, England, a woman
burst into blue flames in the midst of a crowded dance floor. No one was able to extinguish the blaze that
seemed to be fed by her own flesh, and in minutes
she was but a heap of ASHES.[49]
Softpedia.com spoke of this horrifying
event this way:
In the month of December of the year 1966,
the body of 92-year-old Dr. J. Irving Bentley was discovered in his
Pennsylvania home by a meter reader. Actually, only part of Dr. Bentley's leg
and slippered foot were found. The rest of his body had been burned to
ASHES. A hole in the bathroom floor was the only evidence of the fire that had
killed him; the rest of the house
remained perfectly intact. It was impossible
to explain how a human body could have caught fire and eventually burn
almost completely, without any source of flame or heat, but most of all, without igniting any of the objects around
it?
Dr. Bentley's case was not the only one, hundreds of similar phenomena being
recorded and then labeled as ‘spontaneous human combustion’ (SHC). Although he
and other victims of the phenomenon burned almost completely, their surroundings, and even sometimes their
clothes, remained virtually untouched. Is it possible for people to
burst into flames, spontaneously and without any apparent cause? Many people
around the world people think spontaneous human combustion is a real fact,
while most scientists remain skeptical about it. The one thing that really
makes this phenomenon strange is the fact that the human remains in the photos
of human combustion have often intact extremities. Mostly the head and torso
are burnt beyond recognition, while the hands, feet, and part of the legs may
remain untouched.[50]
Wikipedia encyclopedia gave the following
information about Spontaneous Human Combustion:
Spontaneous human combustion (SHC)
describes alleged cases of the burning of a living human body without an
apparent external source of ignition. While there have been about 200 cited cases worldwide over a period of
around 300 years…. Objections to natural explanations typically refer to
the degree of burning of the body with respect to its surroundings. Indeed, one
of the common markers of a case of SHC is that the body — or part of it —
suffered an extraordinarily large degree of burning, with surroundings or lower limbs comparatively undamaged…. Some
cited cases include: Polonus Vorstius: Italy, 1470; Nicole Millet: France,
1725; Cornelia di Bandi: Italy, 1731; Phyllis Newcombe: United Kingdom, 1938;
Mary Reeser: United States, 1951; Anna Martin: United States, 1957; Helen
Conway: United States, 1964; John Irving Bentley: United States, 1966; Robert
Francis Bailey: United Kingdom, 1967; Ginette Kazmierczak: France, 1977; Henry
Thomas: Wales, 1980; Jeannie Saffin: England, 1982; George I. Mott: United States,
1986.[51]
In None Dare Call It Witchcraft, Gary North speaking of “Spontaneous
Human Combustion” stated:
According to Professor
Wilton Krogman, a physical anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, it
takes EIGHT HOURS in a crematorium at temperatures of 2,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT
to reduce a body to bones. To turn the bones to ASH, temperatures of OVER 3,000
DEGREES are required…. Lester Adelson, pathologist to the coroner of Cuyahoga
County, Ohio… define the problem in the March-April 1952 issue of Northwestern
University’s Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science:
‘Spontaneous human combustion is that phenomenon wherein the body takes fire
WITHOUT AN OUTSIDE SOURCE OF HEAT and is rapidly reduced to a handful of greasy
ashes. Paradoxically, inanimate objects nearby escape relatively unharmed….’
July 1, 1952, St.
Petersburg, Florida: Mrs. Mary Reeser, a sixty-seven-year-old widow, was
visiting in her room with her neighbor, Mrs. P. M. Carpenter…. Although both
windows were open, the room was hot. In front of an open window were some
ashes: a chair, an end table, and Mrs. Reeser. All that remained of her were a
few pieces of charred backbone, a shrunken skull the size of an orange, and a
wholly untouched left foot, still in its slipper. Her foot was generally
unaffected, except for some melted wax candles and melted plastic fixtures….
There were no embers and no smell of smoke….
Professor Krogman… said…
‘The skull should have exploded, not shrunk…. Never have I seen a skull so
shrunken or a body so completely consumed by heat. This is contrary to normal
experience and I regard it as the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen As I review
it, the short hairs on my neck bristle with vague fear. Were I living in the
Middle Ages, I’d mutter something like ‘black magic’…! What of black magic?
What of the demonic? Do these worlds really exist…? The question has validity,
especially at temperatures of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit that do not burn
curtains, wheelchairs, and slippers! [52]
There is no way of knowing if the above
horrifying events of history were caused by the same thing that will cause
Lucifer’s entire being to burn to ashes. Could it be that Spontaneous Human
Combustion are examples of man’s human spirit burning up his body? One thing is
for sure, God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel undeniable and
unquestionable declared that Lucifer would be burned up to “ashes” and “cease to
exist” (Eze. 28:18‑19). Therefore, as one examines all the above
scriptural facts, an unbiased intelligent student of the Bible should have no
problem believing that moral sinners will be tormented for short length of
time, while evil beings will be tormented for a very long period of time; and
after their time of torment in the Lake of Fire is completed, God will
“annihilate” or “destroy BOTH soul and body in hell [Gehenna]”
(Mt 10:28).
CHAPTER 5
THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE DOCTRINE OF TORMENT IN THE LAKE OF FIRE
AS BEING PART OF GOD’S ETERNAL SENTENCE
There are twelve passages in the KJV in
which the Greek word “Gehenna” is translated as “hell.” We will examine them in
this chapter. We will also examine other words and phrases that are used in the
Old and New Testaments to describe the torments of the Lake of Fire. Jesus
speaking of God’s wrath and just retribution said: “The wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not the Son” (Jn
3:36). The apostle Paul confirmed this when he declared: “The wrath of
God cometh upon the children of disobedience” (Eph. 5:6), and the “Wrath of God
is upon all them that forsake Him” (Col 3:6). Jesus said that if anyone
says to his brother: “Thou fool!’ shall be in danger of hell
[Gehenna] fire” (Mt 5:22). He also taught that religious
leaders who knowingly or unknowingly deceived God’s people would be cast into the
Lake of Fire. He says: “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
Because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and
whenever it may happen--ye make him a son of Gehenna twofold more than
yourselves…. Serpents! Brood of vipers! How may ye escape from the judgment of the Gehenna?” (Mt 23:15, 33, YLT). James said the tongue was: “A fire, a
world of iniquity,” and compared it to the “fire of hell
[Gehenna]” (Jas 3:6). In these four passages where the word Gehenna or hell is
used, there is no mention of endless torment or annihilation in them.
Those who deny that God will take
vengeance and repay all wrongs ask: “Would God create men with immortality and
then create a hell for them to be tormented in throughout all eternity, and keep
it a secret from the world for four thousand years?” By this statement, they
declare that the Old Testament does not teach the doctrine of eternal torment.
I agree! But they are wrong when they claim that the Old Testament does not
teach the doctrine of torment in the Lake of Fire for a period of time. The
following scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments definitely teach the
doctrine of God’s just retribution and the extreme torment the lost will
experience after they are resurrected, judged, and violently cast in the
Gehenna Fire. Let us examine these passages to understand the kinds of torment
a sinner will experience in hell and determine if any of them teach eternal
torment.
The Torments of the Lake of Fire
The Torment of Seeing
the Righteous in the Kingdom of God Happy and Full of Joy, with Their Bodies
Shining Like the Sun: Jesus speaking of those who thought they were saved but
were not said: “There shall be weeping and GNASHING of TEETH, when you
shall SEE Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom
of God, and you yourselves thrust out” (Lk 13:23, 28, cp with Psa 112:9-10). It
is obvious from this passage that lost Children of God, who were resurrected,
judged, and casted into the Lake of Fire, just before the Millennial Reign of
Christ begins, will be able to see the saved in the kingdom and vice-versa. The
torment these lost Children of God will experience in this passage is both
mental and physical. They will weep and gnash their teeth in bitterness and
grief knowing that they could have had the joy, peace, blessings, and eternal
life Jesus offered them. Probably the worst suffering they will experience is
seeing their own family members in hell with them. Knowing if they had lived
for God their loves ones might have been saved. If you or I died lost, can you
imagine the heartache and grief that we would experience seeing our loved ones
in excruciating torment? There is no mention of the duration of suffering or
annihilation in this passage.
If my beloved readers desire to know more
about the two different resurrections of the lost, that is, the one for the
lost Children of God of all ages at the end of the Great Tribulation Period,
and the other a 1000 years later at the White Throne Judgment for those who
never were in a covenant relationship with God, I invite them to read my book
entitled: The Mysteries of Prophecy
Revealed. This book is given away on my website: doctrinesofchrist.com.
The Torment of
Being Surrounded by Evil, Filthy and Vile People: John told us the character
of some of those who would be in the Lake of Fire: “The fearful,
and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the Lake,
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev
21:8). In hell, no one will be able to select his or her own friends. The
vilest people that were ever born of a woman will be your associates in hell.
There is also nothing in this passage that teaches eternal torment or
annihilation.
The Torment of
Inhaling Burning Sulfur Fumes as It Burns Your Eyes, Nose and Throat: John
speaking of this says: “And another, a third, angel followed them,
saying with a loud voice, If any one do homage to the Beast and its image, and
receive a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the
wine of the FURY of God prepared unmixed in the cup of His WRATH, and he shall
be TORMENTED in FIRE and BRIMSTONE [theion] before the holy angels and before
the Lamb. And the SMOKE of their torment goes up to [eis -
into] AGES of AGES, and they have no respite day and night who do homage to
the Beast and to its image, and if any one receive the mark of its name” (Rev
14:9-11, DBY).
The Greek noun “theion” means: “sulphur”.[53]
Sulphur is a pale-yellow, nonmetallic chemical element found in crystalline or
amorphous forms. It is used in a variety of things from matches to gunpowder.
It burns with a blue flame and when the smoke of it is inhaled in a sufficient
amount it will burn the eyes, nose, and throat. It will cause nausea,
suffocation, and even death. The Word of God teaches one of the greatest
torments is not only the fire, but also the great amount of smoke that will be
produced from hot burning sulfur rocks. Just imagine burning trash in a barrel
and having the smoke go up your nose or into your mouth. Can you even fathom
what this nauseating suffocation and intensive heat would feel like, even for a
short period of time?
The infallible Word of God declared the
“smoke” shall ascend into many ages, not throughout eternity. It did NOT say
that they were tormented for eternity or immediately annihilated. The smoke from the burning sulfur rocks will
ascend up for ages of ages, just as it will when God destroys the City of
Babylon. John speaking of this wrote: “Her smoke goes up to [eis -
into] the ages of ages” (Rev 19:3, DBY, cp with Isa 34:10). No
one believes that the City of Babylon, which is compose of brick and other
volatile materials will burn for thousands of years, but the burning sulfur
rocks that cause her to burn will burn and give off smoke that will ascend up
for ages or ages. The phrase, “ages of ages,” is in the plural number and
therefore does not mean eternity for there is no such thing as “eternities of
eternities.” This passage and others using this phrase will be discussed in
more detail later. These scriptures most definitely teach that a sinner will be
tormented in the Lake of Fire, but they do not declare how long they will be
tormented. It definitely does not teach eternal torment or annihilation.
The Torment of
Knowing that the Lake of Fire You Are in Is Never Going to Get Any Cooler: John the
Baptist said that the unsaved will be like: “CHAFF he will burn
with fire unquenchable” (Lk 3:17). The Bible nowhere teaches that unsaved people
burning in hell will be the fuel that keeps the fire of Gehenna burning. In
fact, the Word of God declares that hot sulfur rocks will be the fuel the Lord
will use to keep the fire burning. The core of the earth has been burning for
several thousand years and it is still burning even today. Therefore, the fire
will never go out and get cooler. The lost will burn in hell until the day they
are burned up or destroyed as CHAFF, which will burn up into ashes. There is
nothing in this scripture that tells us how long a sinner will burn in Gehenna.
The Torment of
Seeing and Feeling Your Body Burning: David described the torment of the sinner
in Gehenna Fire this way, God shall: “Make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them
up in His wrath, and the fire shall DEVOUR them” (Ps 21:8-9). If you died
lost, can you imagine what it would be like feeling and seeing your body on
fire and not be able to do anything to put the fire out? Can you imagine how
helpless you would feel? All you would be able to do is cry and wail and maybe
roll on the ground or run barefooted on the hot sulfur burning rocks. Hell is
not only a reality in the Word of God, but it something none of us like to
think about. This passage of Scripture says nothing about how long sinners will
be in the Lake of Fire before they are devoured
or annihilated.
Isaiah described the torment of the lost
as: “Your breath [Heb: ruwach - spirit], as fire, shall DEVOUR you. And
the people shall be as the burning of
lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.... The sinners in
Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall
dwell with the DEVOURING fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting [`owlam] burnings
[mowqed]” (Isa 33:11-14)? The Hebrew word mowqed is used twice in the OT and The
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by Drs. R. Laird Harris, Gleason
L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke defined it as: “burning [or] hearth.”[54]
A hearth is a fireplace. Since it is in the plural number it refers to the
continuing unquenchable fires of hell. David compared the sinners bones burning
as a hearth or stones in the floor of a fireplace. He said: “For my days
are CONSUMED like SMOKE, and my bones are burned as a hearth
[mowqed]” (Psa 102:3). Therefore, mowqed, as Isaiah used it, refers to
brimstone or the burning sulfur rocks that are in the bed of the Lake of Fire.
According to the above scripture, the prophet Isaiah stated that the Lake of
Fire would be a place that will strike horror and fear in the heart of the
sinners. The sinners will have their bodies burned as lime in the midst of the
fires of Gehenna. Let my readers take note that endless torment or woe is not
taught in these passages but annihilation
is. According to Isaiah and David, their spirit at some point in time will be
“burned up” or it “shall devour them.” This scripture does not teach eternal
torment, but it does teach annihilation.
The Torment of
Having Your Body Full of Great Pain: Jesus gave us a very vivid description of
the intensity of the pain that sinners will experience in the Lake of Fire when
he said: “And if your hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off; it
is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go
into hell [Gehenna], into the unquenchable fire, where
their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter
life lame, than having your two feet, to be cast into hell [Gehenna], where
their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to
enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into
hell [Gehenna], where their worm does not die, and
the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:43-48, NAS).
This same passage is quoted in Mt 5:29-30
where Gehenna is used 2 times, and in Mt 18:7-9 where it is used once in
connection with “everlasting fire.” It is also used twice in Mt 23:15, 33; once
in Mt 5:22, and once in Jas 3:6, which we have already examined. This accounts
for 10 places where Gehenna is used. As I have already said, these scriptures
very definitely teach extreme torment in the Lake of Fire but it does not teach
eternal torment. The truth Jesus is teaching in these passages of Scripture can
be summed up as: Christians should embrace the Christian life with their whole
spirit, soul, and physical strength. This means they should be willing to make
whatever sacrifices it calls for, especially the mortification of fleshly lust.
If one does not die out to sinful fleshly lust, then the horrible torment of
Gehenna Fire will be their punishment for a period of time.
Because of the graphic description of the painful process of
inflicting bodily harm on oneself in Mark 9:43-48, there can be no doubt that
Jesus was teaching that the unsaved would experience great physical pain in the
Lake of Fire. There can be no doubt that this passage teaches torment in
Gehenna Fire, but it does not teach endless torment. The Lord Jesus, in His
great love for lost humanity, gave a very strong warning concerning the torment
of the Lake of Fire. In this passage, He is NOT telling anyone to cut off their
bodily limbs or pull out their eyes, but He is telling them it would be MUCH
LESS PAINFUL for them to take a dull knife or saw and cut through their flesh,
muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, veins, arteries and bones of their
hands and feet, then to burn in the fiery sulfur rocks of Lake of Fire, even
for a short time. Jesus also said it would be MUCH LESS PAINFUL for a sinner to
take his or her finger and stick it into his or her eyeball and pull out the
cornea, pupil, iris, lens, retina, and the optic nerve of his or her eye, then
to burn in Gehenna fire. If saints and sinners would meditate, for about five
minutes, on how much pain they would feel by doing these things, and imagine
how they would feel experiencing this same pain twenty-four hours a day for as
long as they exist, he or she would repent of their sins in a heartbeat!
The Torment of
Having Worms Erupting Out of Your Body: In the above passages of Scripture, Jesus
mentioned the phrase: “Where their worm [skolex] does not die,
And the fire is not quenched”. Jesus undoubtedly was quoting Isaiah’s
prophecy, which states: “It shall come to pass, that from one new moon
to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the CARCASSES [Heb.
peger, Sep. skolex] of the men that have transgressed against me: for the worm [towla] shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched: and they shall be an abhorring unto
all flesh” (Isa 66:23-24).
According to Josephus the Jews believed
that one of the punishments that lost men and women would experience in Gehenna
Fire would be: “a certain fiery worm never dying, and not destroying the body,
but continuing its eruption out of the body with never ceasing grief; neither
will sleep give ease to these men, nor will the night afford them comfort”.[55]
Does the undying worm that Jesus and Isaiah mention in these passages teach
eternal torment? What did Jesus and Isaiah mean by the undying worm? Was it
referring to the spiritual soul of man as some teach or to the natural worm
that springs forth from man’s dead, decaying carcass as the Bible teaches? If
any preacher says it refers to the soul of man, then let him or her produce one
scripture that teaches that lie. Since they cannot, who gave them the authority
to place a private interpretation on the Word of God? The Word of God declares
it was a NATURAL WORM. The Hebrew word towla` is used 43 times in the OT and is
translated as “scarlet” 34 times, “worm” 8 times, and “crimson” 1 time. It is
translated as scarlet and crimson because a red color dye was made from the
dried body of the female worm or “coccus ilicis.” The Greek word skolex is use
3 times in the NT and according to Louw-Nida
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament it means:
‘maggot, worm…’
‘where their worm does not die’ Mk 9.48. In Mk 9.48 the reference is clearly to
the type of MAGGOTS which feed on refuse.[56]
As one compares Isaiah 66:24 with Isaiah
14:11, there can be no doubt that worms refer to the maggots that come from a
dead body. (Also compare the worms mentioned in Exo 16:20, Deu 28:39 &
Jonah 4:7). In Job 25:5-6, Psa 22:6 & Isa 41:13, man is compared to a
helpless worm in his human strength or to his lowly condition. There is no way
any preacher can teach that the Hebrew word “towla” in any of these passages
refer to the soul of man. If they think that they can, let them substitute the
word “worm” for “soul” and see if these scriptures make any sense. God’s
message in this verse is that people will despise what they see. It will make
them want to vomit as they look upon these maggot-infested bodies in the Lake
of Fire! Our Lord quoted and confirmed this prophecy in Isaiah, concerning the
worms that continually multiply and prey on the bodies that are cast into
Gehenna fire. This no doubt will be a very painful experience! I cannot imagine
how one would feel to have worms erupt or burst out of their body.
The Hebrew word “peger” always means a
“dead body” that has no life in it. This Hebrew word is used 22 times in the OT
and is translated as “carcass” 14 times, “dead body” 6 times, and “corpse” 2
times. The prophet Isaiah and the Savior both referred to the NATURAL WORMS
that breeds in the filth of Gehenna. This worm that filled Gehenna is something
every Jew definitely knew about. Let us not forget what our Savior declared: “And
do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear
Him who is able to DESTROY
both SOUL and BODY in hell” (Mt
10:28). Therefore, the above passages of scripture cannot be teaching eternal
torment. Jesus also described the pain sinners would feel in the Lake of Fire
as: “Wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:40, 42). Jesus said the torment
that sinners would experience would be manifested by strong, loud, lamenting,
blood-curdling cries, which would cause them to gnash or grind their teeth
because of the dreadful, hideous, horrendous pain they would feel all over
their body.
CONCLUSION: We have
thus briefly examined and explained eight of the passages in which Gehenna
occurs and all of the passages that speak of the torments sinners will
experience in the Lake of Fire. The same Bible that teaches the lost will
experience pain or suffering in Gehenna also teaches annihilation of the soul
and body after the period of torment is completed. Paul declared he: “Shunned not
to declare the whole counsel of God” to the Children of God. If Paul or any
other apostle believed in a place of endless torment would they have been
utterly silent in reference to it in their preaching or writings? Their utter
silence in addressing this subject is absolute proof that they had NO faith in
it, though heathen religions all around them preached it and believed it
implicitly. As my readers can perceive by now, God’s apostles and Old Testament
prophets did not teach the doctrine of endless torment. It would be impossible
to explain such inconsistency if the doctrine of eternal suffering and woe was
true. Therefore, all the facts are definitely against the supposition that
endless torment is taught anywhere in the Word of God.
The belief in eternal torment was a
doctrine that some of the backslidden rabbis brought back from the Babylonian
Captivity. The doctrine of endless woe can be traced back to the ancient
Babylonian religion or Mystery Babylon, and may be found in the older Zen
manuscripts that were written many centuries before Judaism or Christianity. In
fact, the sacred doctrines of this satanic religion were called the “Mysteries.”
The main doctrine of the Mysteries was the doctrine of the Deity and
Immortality of the Soul, in which all other doctrines were founded on; some of
the other doctrines were the Reincarnation of the Soul, Torment of the Soul in
the Fires of Hades for Purification purposes, and Eternal Torment of the Soul
in Fires of Hades, if the soul did not live a Sinless Life after many
Reincarnations.
CHAPTER 6
THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE DOCTRINE OF ANNIHILATION IN THE LAKE OF
FIRE
AS BEING PART OF GOD’S ETERNAL SENTENCE
From the above chapter, my readers should
be able to perceive that sinners will experience tremendous torment, but not
eternal torment, in the Lake of Fire. In this chapter, they will learn that
annihilation will also be part of the “eternal punishment” Jesus
will pronounce at the Judgment (Mt 25:46). If my readers will interpret the
following scriptures on annihilation in a literal fashion, as I did the
scriptures that taught torment in Gehenna Fire, then they should have no
problem understanding the Bible’s teaching pertaining to annihilation. Let us
not forget, God put a curse on those who twist or spiritualize away the literal
meaning of His words, for He said what He meant and meant what He said. Truly “EVERY WORD of
God is pure,” and “The WORDS of
the LORD are pure WORDS: as silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times,” and “Man doth not
live by bread only, but by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the mouth of the
LORD doth man live” (Pro 30:5; Psa 12:6; Deu 8:3).
YHWH, the One True God of the OT, Taught Annihilation Not Eternal
Torment
God Himself tells us what happens to
sinners after they are burned up. He said that they would become ashes. God the
Father says: “All
who do wickedly will be stubble. And
the day which is coming shall burn them
up,’ Says the LORD of
hosts, ‘That will leave
them neither ROOT nor BRANCH…. They shall be ASHES under the soles
of your feet on the day that I do this,’ Says the LORD of hosts” (Mal 4:1, 3). Almighty God,
who can not lie, explicitly, expressly, and emphatically proclaimed for all to
hear and understand that He would burn up the sinner to ashes, whereby there
will be nothing left of his or her spirit, soul, and body. What can be clearer
than God’s analogy of the root and branches of a tree being burned up to ashes?
What else can it be teaching except total annihilation of the stubble or
sinners? An objective and unbiased attitude of mind would make these scriptures
relatively easy to understand. For many years, the author was blinded by his
bias believed in Lucifer’s Babylonian immortality of the soul and eternal
torment doctrines; after years of spiritualizing or twisting scriptures in
order to support these erroneous doctrines, God in His great mercy convicted me
of this hideous sin. I made a vow to God that day that I would not commit this
grievous sin against Him any longer in any doctrine of the Bible I would
study.
Those who believe in eternal torment have
Jesus bestowing eternal life to the souls of sinners when they are born into
this world, which destroys the entire plan of salvation that Jesus provided at
Calvary. This is blasphemy! In accordance with the Word of God, the souls of
God’s Children receive conditional immortality or eternality at the New Birth.
Contrary to this biblical truth, religious denominations such as Catholicism,
Protestantism, and most Pentecostalism teach that eternal life is given to all
men at the natural birth. These preachers unknowingly teach Lucifer’s doctrine
that human beings do not need the blood of Jesus to become eternal beings. All
preachers who ignorantly preach Satan’s inspired doctrines of the immortality
of the soul and eternal torment are promoting the devil’s will and not God’s
will. Eternal destruction is the exact opposite of Eternal Life; therefore no
amount of spiritualizing scripture can make eternal destruction into eternal
torment.
The Book of Job Does Not Teach Eternal Torment but Annihilation
Job’s friend Zophar declared the wicked: “Shall perish [abad] for ever [netsach – throughout eternity], like his
own dung” (Job 20:7, KJV). The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the
Old Testament by Drs. Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner defined the
Hebrew word “netsach” as:
duration… throughout eternity (cf. Da 718) Is 3410…
to become endless Jr 1518.[57]
The Hebrew word “abad” is used a 184 times
in the Old Testament, it is translated as “perish” 98 times, “destroy” 62
times. In the analogy that is used, the annihilation of the wicked is compared
to human feces that are here one day and completely gone or consumed in a short
time. All of the preachers who believe in the demonic doctrine of eternal
torment will have to believe in the eternality of the human feces also. For if
a sinner is an eternal being then human feces must possess the same
characteristic of eternality as well. Since all agree that a human’s feces is
perishable, then no one could reasonably disagree that a sinner’s spirit, soul,
and body are likewise perishable. This is the only reasonable way this scripture
can be interpreted within the context that it was written. If a sinner’s entire
being does not perish at the end of his or her period of torment in the Lake of
Fire, then the burden of proof is on the theologian to scriptural show what
part of their being will perish forever. Since those who believe in the Eternal
Torment doctrine teach the sinner’s entire being will live forever in the Lake
of Fire, they will have to twist or spiritualize this passage and all the other
passages of Scripture that teach annihilation!
Therefore, the Book of Job teaches that
the soul and body of man can consume away to nothing. According to this verse,
how long will a sinner’s spirit, soul, and body remain in an utterly perishable
or nonexistence state? The Word of God teaches “throughout eternity!” Pastor,
what do you teach? The Hebrew word abad, as it relates to the destiny of the
unsaved, can also be founded in: Jud 5:31; Job 4:8-9, 4:20, 8:13; Psa 1:5-6,
5:5-6, 9:5-8 & 73:27.
The Prophet David Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
David speaking of the annihilation of the wicked
proclaimed: “Let them be ashamed and
troubled for [eivj eis INTO] evermore [to.n aivw/na tou/ aivw/noj - the AGE of the AGE]; yea, let them be confounded and DESTROYED [Heb. db;a' 'abad; Grk. Sep. apoleia]” (Psa 83:17, LXE). LXT Psa 82:18: “aivscunqh,twsan kai. taracqh,twsan eivj to.n aivw/na tou/ aivw/noj kai. evntraph,twsan
kai. avpole,sqwsan”. A Literal translation would be: “Let
them [the wicked] be put to shamed and
terrified into the AGE of the AGE, yes, and let them be embarrassed and DESTROYED [Heb. db;a' 'abad; Grk. Sep. avpw,leia
apoleia]”. The
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by Drs. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr.,
Bruce K. Waltke commenting on the Hebrew verb “abad” stated:
db;a'
(°¹bad) Perish, be
destroyed; Piel and Hiphil
destroy…. It is not far-fetched therefore to think that terms like ‘perish,’ (°¹bad or d¹mâ II q.v.), or ‘their tombs their houses forever’ or ‘decay
in the grave’ (NIV) or ‘death will feed on them’ may well refer to EVERLASTING
DESTRUCTION. Psalms 83:17 [H 18] is perhaps not as clear as the others, but the
emphasis on the total overthrow of the wicked is impressive.[58]
The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament by Drs. Horst Balz & Gerhard Schneider gave the following
definition for “apoleia”:
avpo,llumi apollymi destroy; lose; die; be lost [and] avpw,leia( aj( h` apoleia DESTRUCTION, waste, ANNIHILATION. 1. Both vb. and subst. are
richly attested in secular Greek…. The basic negative meaning of the entire
word group, frequently with a violent tendency, aims to express loss,
DESTRUCTION, and ANNIHILATION (e.g., of wealth) in a very general sense which
can extend to the FINAL DESTRUCTION of the human being in death (Homer,
Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon)…. 2. In the NT the vb. occurs ca. 90
times, the subst. 18 times…. The dimension of God's activity is expressed in
the salvation-historical outline in the parables of the husbandmen (Mark 12:9)
and the wedding feast (Matt 22:7), and that of Jesus' activity in connection
with the unclean spirit (Mark 1:24) [in all of the above Scriptures Jesus spoke
of the destruction of men and evil spirits]…. Paul uses the vb. in a similar
sense… [in] an eschatological state (1 Cor 15:18). The guilty thought finds
expression esp. in 2 Thess 2:10: those who allow themselves to be deceived into
unrighteousness and refuse to love the truth will PERISH [i.e. be DESTROYED]….
The subst. avpw,leia (intrans.) displays a significantly
deeper meaning in connection with ultimate
human ruin [i.e. ANNIHILATION], for which mankind is to blame (Matt 7:13 ;
here the counterpart is ‘life’: v. 14),
esp. in Paul (Rom 9:22; Phil 1:28;
the counterpart here is ‘salvation’: Phil 3:18). Persons who have fallen into
this state are called ‘son(s) of perdition’ (2 Thess 2:3; cf. John 17:12; 18:9
and the Qumran literature à 1). The entire eschatological scenery and tension
in 2 Peter is characterized by this word (6 occurrences): deceivers as well as
deceived are on the way to ruin, not least of all because of their false
interpretation of Scripture (2 Pet 3:16).[59]
David, speaking of God’s judgments on lost
sinners says: “The wicked will He [God] DESTROY
[shamad],” and they “Shall be DESTROYED [Heb. dmv: shamad,
Grk. Sep. evxoleqreu,w exolethreuo] for ever…. Thine enemies shall PERISH” (Psa 145:20;
92:7, 9, KJV). The Hebrew word shamad is used 90 times in the OT. It is
translated 83 times as “destroy,” once as “destruction & perish,” and 5
times in miscellaneous ways. The
Hebrew-Aramaic and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Drs. F. Brown,
S.R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs defined it as to: “dm;v' (sh¹mad) Be
DESTROYED, be EXTERMINATED… to be ANNIHILATED”.[60]
The Theological
Wordbook of the Old Testament by Drs. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer
Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke gave the following definition for the Hebrew verb
“shamad”:
Sh¹mad occurs sixty-three times, there are a number of Hebrew
verbs whose semantic range includes the meaning ‘destroy’ (thirty-eight are so
translated one or more times in the KJV), but many of them take on this meaning
only in certain contexts…. Sh¹mad, on the other hand, always means
‘to destroy’ or ‘ANNIHILATE.’ It is always used in passages dealing with vengeance or with the judgment of God.[61]
The Greek Septuagint
“exolethreuo” is the Hebrew equivalent of “Shamad”.
Professor Walter Bauer in his Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, edited
by Dr. Frederick William Danker defined
this Greek word as: “evxoleqreu,w... to eliminate by DESTRUCTION,
DESTROY UTTERLY... Ac 3:23”.[62] David
did not say the wicked shall be tormented forever, meaning that the wicked will
exist for eternity, but that they will be destroyed, annihilated, or cease to
exist for eternity. These scriptures leave no room for doubt concerning the
plight of the lost being destroyed not eternally tormented. David, speaking of
the destiny of all of God’s backslidden Children says: “They that are far from Thee shall PERISH [db;a' 'abad; Grk. Sep. apoleia]: Thou hast
DESTROYED [tsamath Grk. Sep. evxoleqreu,w exolethreuo] all them that go a whoring from Thee” (Psa 73:27). Let
my readers take note that David said: “God would annihilate all of His lost
Children,” not let them “live forever in torment in hell.” Therefore David,
like the prophets before him, must have also believed that the soul and body of
man can be totally destroyed or annihilated. According to Drs. F. Brown, S.R.
Driver, and C. A. Briggs the Hebrew verb “tsamath” means:
Put an end to… EXTERMINATE, ANNIHILATE, c. acc. pers., subj. Psalmist Psalm 18:41 = 2S 22:41 (read
as in Psalm), 101:5; 101:8; his foes Psalm 69:5; 54:7; 73:27; 94:23; 94:23;
143:12.[63]
The apostle Peter told the
people of Israel: “And it shall be that every soul that does not heed
that prophet [i.e. Jesus the Messiah] shall be utterly destroyed [evxoleqreu,w exolethreuo] from among the people” (Acts 3:23, NAS). In other words, anyone who rejects the Gospel of Christ will never
obtain Eternal Life but bring upon themselves total or complete destruction of
the spirit, soul, and body in the Lake of Fire. King Solomon
proclaimed: “The lamp of the wicked will be put out” (Pro 24:20). Lamp here no doubt represents
the human spirit as Solomon declared:
“The spirit
of a man is the lamp of
the LORD” (Pro 20:27). Solomon was not
speaking of all men be annihilated but only the wicked.
David, speaking of God's fiery wrath that
will devour the sinner says: “The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume [kalah]; into smoke
shall they consume away [kalah]” (Psa 37:20). Drs.
Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner says the Hebrew word “kalah” means: “To VANISH, fade away: Is 156,
164, Ps 3720, man 3911 7113 907
Jb 49, Pr 301”.[64]
In this analogy, David compared the annihilation of the wicked to grease being
consumed in a frying pan as it becomes extremely hot, which results in the fat
or grease being burned up in smoke. There is no other meaning anyone can give
to the above explicit and graphic analogies except annihilation. It is high
time that preachers have their eyes anointed with eye salve so that they might
see beyond the bias of their adopted Babylonian-Catholic doctrine of endless
torment. This graphic analogy very accurately portrays the ultimate state of
the lost as they are tormented and then cease to exist. David, speaking of the
annihilation of sinners in another place says: “As wax melteth [macac] before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God” (Psa
68:2). The Hebrew word macac means to “liquefy”.[65]
In this analogy, David compared the annihilation of the wicked to wax that
becomes liquefied when it is heated.
David definitely taught that sinners would
be tormented in the Lake of Fire before they are burnt up. He wrote: “The wicked
shall SEE it [the happiness of God’s Faithful Children in the Kingdom of
God] and be grieved; he shall gnash
with his teeth, and melt [macac] away. The
desire of the wicked shall perish” (Psa
112:9-10). When and where will the wicked gnash his teeth before they become
liquefied or burned up? David, speaking by God’s prophetic Spirit, said it
would be sometime after they see the Faithful Victorious Children of God
exalted with Eternal Life. If anyone has any doubts that David is speaking
about the Lake of Fire in this passage, then permit the Lord Jesus to interpret
this passage for you. Jesus said: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall SEE Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you
yourselves thrust out” (Lk 13:23). He then said in verse 28 that the angels: “Shall cast
them [all lost sinners] into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” In
view of these passages, there can absolutely be no doubt that the sinner’s
spirit, soul, and body will be burned up or annihilated after their period of
torment in hell is finished.
John the Baptist Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
John in his striking analogy compared the
unsaved to chaff that is consumed wholly or burnt up by fire. John the Baptist
declared Jesus: “Will burn up [katakaio] the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12; also Lk 3:17). John did NOT
say that Jesus will “eternally burn” the lost, but He will “totally burn them
up.” This is why he compared the lost sinners to chaff, which can be burned up to ashes. Drs. J. P. Louw and E. A.
Nida defined “katakaio” to mean:
to destroy something by burning – ‘to burn something down,
to burn something up, to reduce to ashes’. [66]
John the Baptist, like David, declared that
the sinner’s spirit, soul, and body will be burned up or be consumed wholly
when it is time for them to be annihilated. No one can teach endless torment
from this scripture without taking it out of context or spiritualizing it, for
burned up or annihilation is the exact opposite of endless torment. You cannot
torment someone who has ceased to exist as a living personal entity.
Jesus Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
Jesus said in very clear and
understandable language that His Children should not: “Fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear
Him [God] who is able
to destroy [apollumi] both soul and body in hell
[Gehenna]” Fire (Mt 10:28, YLT). Dr. Strong defined “apollumi” to mean: “To
DESTROY FULLY”.[67] This
passage of Scripture without doubt definitely teaches annihilation, which no
honest-hearted Child of God can deny. Let my readers pay attention to the
apostle’s choice of words to express the Lord’s teaching. Matthew contrasted
the Greek word apokteino (“to kill”) with that of apollumi (“to destroy”).
Therefore, according to the context of this passage, these words cannot have
the same meaning. When Jesus described man’s power to kill the body He used the
Greek word apokteino, which is used 75 times in NT. It was translated as “kill”
55 times, “slay” 14 times, and “put to death” 6 times. When Jesus described God
power to annihilate the spirit, soul, and body in Gehenna Fire, He uses the
Greek word APOLLUMI, which is used 92 times in the NT. It was translated as
“perish” 33 times, “destroy” 26 times, “lose” 22 times, “be lost” 5 times,
“lost” 4 times, and “miscellaneous” 2 times.
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Drs. Gerhard
Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey W. Bromley defined the Greek verb “apoleia”
as:
avpo,llumi apollymi (to
DESTROY), avpw,leia apoleia (DESTRUCTION),
‘Apollu,wn ApollyÃoÒn (Destroyer)…. Mk. 1:24… in view [i.e. of the destruction of demon spirits] is not just physical destruction but a hopeless destiny of ETERNAL DEATH. Apoleia… in the NT the curse of Acts 8:20 has an OT ring. ETERNAL
DESTRUCTION is signified in Mt. 7:13; Rom. 9:22; Phil. 1:28…; 2 Pet. 2:1; Rev.
17:8, 11.[68]
Jesus comparing Eternal Life with Eternal
annihilation proclaimed: “Enter through the narrow gate. For
wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to DESTRUCTION [apoleia], and many enter through it. But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to Life [Eternal], and only a few find it.” (Mt 7:13, NIV; also 22:7). Jesus
defined the Greek word apollumi to mean annihilate when He used it in the
context of hell. He says: “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should PERISH [apollumi], and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell” (Mt 5:29). It is very obvious from the context that
“apollumi” means “destroyed, annihilated or cease to exist any more.” No one
can substitute the words “lose, ruin, or kill” for “apollumi” and have it make
any sense. Louw-Nida Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament defined “apollumi,” as:
To destroy or to cause the destruction of
persons, objects, or institutions’… (Mt 10:28)… ‘objects of his wrath destined for DESTRUCTION’ Ro 9:22.[69]
If you or I were going to cremate a dead
animal in a fiery barrel, we would not say we were going to lose, ruin, or kill
the animal, we would say we were going to destroy or burn it up to ashes. There
is not a speck of evidence in the above verse or any other that supports eternal
torment in Gehenna. This verse most definitely teaches annihilation. There can
be no doubt that our Lord’s teaching on the “annihilation of soul and body”
meant the “utter extinction or complete
destruction of the entire being of man!” From the teaching of our Lord’s
apostles and disciples, this is obviously how they understood His words.
Jesus’ teaching on the ultimate end of the
wicked, at the end of the world, definitely confirmed what Job, David, and
other men of God taught about annihilation. Jesus taught that sinners will go
through a time of weeping and wailing in the Lake of Fire before they are “burned up [katakaio]” or “consumed wholly” (Mt
13:38-42). As stated before “katakaio” means: “To destroy something by burning – ‘to burn something down,
to burn something up, to reduce to ashes’ ”. [70]
Jesus, who could not tell a lie if He wanted to because He is the
Truth, boldly declared that He would fully destroy or annihilate every sinner’s
soul and body in the Lake of Fire. Jesus has a sure reputation for meaning what
He says and saying what He means.
Some who are the followers of Philo or
those super spiritualizers of God’s Holy Infallible Word will want to twist
this scripture and all the above scriptures by making them symbolic. No matter
how much effort is put into diminishing and rendering these scriptures to mean
eternal torment instead of eternal annihilation, it will prove fruitless. The
only way anyone can teach endless torment from any of these scriptures is by
twisting or spiritualizing away the literal meaning of these passages, which
would bring the curse of God on them as a False Prophet!
Jesus compared eternal life with eternal
destruction or annihilation when He said: “Whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish [apollumi
- be destroyed], but have Everlasting Life” (Jn 3:16). Jesus will give
His Children: “Eternal Life, and they shall never perish [apollumi]” (Jn 10:28). Jesus contrasted the term Eternal
Life with Eternal Destruction or Annihilation, not Eternal Life with endless
torment. Eternal Life is God giving to His Children the ability to live
throughout eternity so they will never be destroyed or cease to exist. Since
Eternal Life means life without end or endless life, to perish eternally or to
be destroyed eternally must mean to be eternally dead or to be without life for
eternity. No one who does not have the Eternal Life that Jesus offers can
expect to exist eternally. All sinners, whether they are fallen angels or
humanity, will exist as long as Jesus permits them to live, and then they will
utterly destroyed or cease to be a conscious being or entity.
The apostle Paul, speaking under the
unction of the Holy Spirit revealed that the Greek word apollumi, as it refers
to the lost, without a doubt means “to be
annihilated.” Paul, like Jesus, contrasted temporal death and eternal
destruction in the following scriptures. He says: “If Christ be
not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also, which
are fallen asleep [died] in Christ are
perished [apollumi],”
that is, “Have been fully and completely destroyed or do not exist any longer” (1Co
15:17-18). The great apostle told God’s people, in very precise language, that
if there is no resurrection of the dead then all of God’s Children whose souls
are sleeping at this present time, and waiting for the resurrection, are not
just sleeping but have actually been completely destroyed, annihilated, or have
ceased to exist as personal entities any longer. What can be clearer than this?
Paul draws a sharp distinction between temporal death and eternal death. If
Paul’s use of apollumi in this passage did not mean total annihilation of the
spirit, soul, and body, then his argument for the resurrection would have been
foolish and worthless.
Jesus most definitely taught annihilation
of all the wicked and not eternal torment. Demon spirits cried out to Jesus: “saying, ‘What do we have
to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to DESTROY
[apollumi] us” (Mk
1:24, NAS)? There
is no way in this verse “apollumi” could possible mean to kill or ruin, or
cause someone to lose or be lost, for these demon spirits were already lost,
and they did not have a body that could be killed. Therefore, the only
interpretation that would make any sense is they were pleading with Jesus not
to DESTROY or ANNIHILATE them at that time! Jesus, speaking in the
Parable of the Vineyard, declared that He would “What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? he will
come and DESTROY [apollumi] the husbandmen,
and will give the vineyard unto others” (Mk 12:9, ASV; also
Mt 21:41 the Parable of the Householder). Both of these parables teach that God’s preachers did not
take care of His children; therefore He will destroy them sometime after the
resurrection. From the above scriptures, it should be very obvious to any
sincere believer that Jesus taught annihilation not endless torment in hell.
The Apostle Peter Taught Annihilation Not Eternal Torment
The apostle Peter warned the ungodly of God’s wrath proclaimed: “But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction [apoleia] of ungodly men…. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to PERISH [apoleia] but for all to come to repentance….