Steps to Life

Prophecy Seminar

Session 14: Hell

This is a continuation of last night’s seminar: "Does the Bible Explain the Mystery of Death?" The last part of Revelation talks about death, hell, and the millennium. In order to understand this part of Revelation, it is necessary to understand what the Bible says about death and hell.

Of the prophecies about the future, nothing is of more concern to the average person than "What is going to happen to me after I die?" Many are concerned about where their relatives are—are they in heaven or hell? Some, like Uncle Jake, who drank and swore and never went to church, they are quite sure are in hell. But what about 13-year-old Sally who died in an accident but who had never accepted Jesus? And even Uncle Jake had some good qualities. They rather liked him. Is he destined to burn forever and ever? "Is God really loving," they wonder, "to burn someone forever just because he never accepted Christ? Is it justice to burn someone for a billion years (just for a start) just because one never accepted Jesus Christ?" Have you ever had a bad burn? It hurts doesn’t it? Just think of what it must be like to have the whole body on fire, forever and ever, time without end, with no hope! It could make you go insane just thinking about it? Alas! What kind of God would that be?

Some people would call someone who unmercifully tortured someone else, just because the person did not believe him, a tyrant. In the back of many people’s minds, that is what they really think of God. Of course, they don’t express such thoughts for fear of ending up in that terrible torture pit if they did, but that is what they think anyway. Yet if it’s true, it’s true. Let us find out what the Bible says.

Review From Our Last Lesson

Before we begin this subject, let us have a brief review from last night. First, you will remember, we studied about how to find the real truth in the Bible.

John 8:31 "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Jesus said we can know the truth. He doesn’t say we will have a good idea of what truth is, or that we will think it is probably so. No! Jesus said we can know truth! I like that, because eternal life is too important to be just a matter of chance and guess-work.

If we continue in the revealed truth we already have, even though we may not understand it all or comprehend why it is so important, nevertheless, if we obey, the Holy Spirit will teach us more truth. He will make it clear and understandable. A second principle the Bible gives to help us find truth is to compare everything the Bible says on a given subject.

Isaiah 28:9 "Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?"

The Bible says, "Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message?" That is a good question. That is the question we want to know the answer to. Would it be "Those just weaned from the milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?" Some translations make that a statement instead of a rhetorical question; you will notice that the word "just" is in italics, which means it wasn’t in the original language but has been supplied by the translators. Who would God teach truth? He will teach those who have been spiritually weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. In other words, He will teach truth to those who are spiritually mature. What does it mean to be spiritually mature? The next verse tells us:

Isaiah 28:10 "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."

We must compare everything the Bible says on a given subject to know the truth. Those who stubbornly stick to one or two texts in order to maintain a preconceived idea, refusing to investigate everything else the Bible says on the subject, thereby letting the Bible interpret itself, CAN NEVER KNOW TRUTH—NEVER! The Bible says that God cannot teach such people truth.

Peter even says in 2 Peter 3:16 that some people are actually lost because they are determined to hold on to one definition of a text of Scripture—"twist(ing it) to their own destruction"—because they refuse to learn and be taught everything else the Bible says on the subject.

Even the Devil can quote Scripture. Any single text of Scripture can be misapplied, misunderstood, or taken out of context. But when we study everything the Bible says upon a subject, then the Bible explains itself and we arrive at unequivocal truth.

In our last lesson we learned that if we use this principle in our study of the dead, the Bible overwhelmingly and unequivocally teaches that the dead sleep an unconscious sleep until Jesus comes. This is the plain teaching of both the New and the Old Testaments, and of Jesus Himself.

In fact, of all the texts of Scripture on death, there are only about three or four that can be understood differently. We looked at two of these yesterday: 1) the thief on the cross, where a comma was misplaced; and 2) the rich man and Lazarus.

Now the question is, do we interpret a hundred obvious texts by the details of one parable, such as the Rich Man and Lazarus, or do we understand the one parable by the teachings of the hundred obvious texts? If the Bible is going to interpret itself, and if we are going to study everything it says about a subject, then we must allow the rest of Scripture to explain the details of a parable or prophecy. Jesus taught that if we do not do this, we will misunderstand the parable (Matthew 13:10-13).

However, there is one other text of Scripture that has to do with both the state of the dead and hell, which we did not have time to study in our last lesson, that needs to be looked at. Like the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and Jesus’ statement to the thief on the cross, on first appearance this passage also seems to contradict the rest of the Bible. Actually it does not contradict the rest of the Bible at all, but it depends on how you read it.

Jesus Preaching to Souls in Prison

1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water."

On first reading, it sounds as if Jesus went unto spirit souls in hell (though it does not use the word "hell") while He was in the grave. But the Bible says that those who are in the grave are unconscious and "know nothing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

What Peter is really saying is that Christ died for the unjust. Thus He was "put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." When was Christ "made alive?" He was made alive on Sunday morning. He lived again by the power of the Spirit of God.

This is what God wants to do for everyone of us through baptism (see verse 21). Baptism represents death to our old way of life, death to sin; and resurrection by the Spirit of Christ to a new way of life, to a life of righteousness. We are resurrected to a new way of life by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (see Romans 6:3–8).

Peter uses the Flood to represent this death and resurrection (verse 21). Noah and his family were, as it were, baptized in the Flood. The Flood destroyed their old world and when they emerged it was a totally new life. It was Christ’s Spirit, the same one that raised Him from the dead, that saved Noah. It was Christ’s Spirit that preached through Noah before the Flood, not while Jesus was in the grave. It says, "By whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison" (verse 19). Christ preached through His spirit, unto Noah and through Noah, to all the antediluvians (those who lived before the Flood). There is nothing in 1 Peter 3:18–22 that says that Jesus preached unto these people WHILE HE WAS IN THE GRAVE. The passage doesn’t say when He preached to them.

What are the Spirits in Prison?

Isaiah 42:5 "Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: 6 ‘I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, 7 to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.’ "

Thus, a spirit in prison is the spirit of a man who is in Satan’s prison house of sin.

John 8:34 "Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.’ "

Jesus came to free us from sin. Jesus tried to free the antediluvians from sin by His Spirit, too. And there was power in His Spirit to do so, but the antediluvians refused to yield. Notice, Moses says the same thing as Peter, that Jesus’ Spirit strove with the souls of men in order to try to save them before the Flood.

Genesis 6:3 "And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ "

The text says God’s Spirit would preach to these souls in the prison house of sin for a hundred and twenty years AND NO LONGER.

Jesus is also trying to save us, just as He did the antediluvians.

Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

Yes, friend, Jesus tried to save the antediluvians. He pleaded and preached, but most refused to die to self and sin and to be raised, by the power of Christ, to a new way of life. Sad to say, thus it will be before Jesus’ second coming: "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:38). May it not be true of us.

Those souls that perished in the Flood, as well as all other people who have died without accepting salvation, are now sleeping unconsciously, awaiting their resurrection and their final damnation. No one at this time has received his final punishment.

When Do Sinners Receive Their Punishment?

John 5:28 "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy (hagios) angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. . . . 41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’: . . . 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Jesus is coming back with all of His holy angels. In the original language, the word "holy" is from the Greek word "hagios." Hagios can be translated as "holy ones" or as "saints." The Bible translators render it both ways. Jude 14 says, "The Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints (hagios)." These are His angels. The angels are always the ones who are spoken of as coming back with Jesus; and they are called "hagios"—saints, or holy ones.

Our passage above from Matthew 25 says that when Jesus comes with His holy angels, then the lost will be sent into "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (verse 41). It is also called an "everlasting punishment" (verse 46).

An "Everlasting Fire"

What is the "everlasting fire"? According to Hebrew expression, an "everlasting fire," "eternal fire," "perpetual fire," or a "fire that cannot be quenched," was a fire that no one could put out but that burned everything up. It was a complete, unquenchable fire. To the Hebrews, it did not mean a fire that burned forever, but rather a fire that burned until everything was consumed.

The Bible says that God set forth Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the final hell of fire. It says that they suffered "the vengeance of eternal fire."

Jude 7 "As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

The fire that burned up Sodom and Gomorrah is not still burning today, but it could not be put out until it had completely consumed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the inhabitants thereof.

2 Peter 2:6 "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly."

The problem is in understanding figures of speech. Each language has its idioms and colloquialisms and figures of speech. In America we might say, "Mrs. Brown has gotten in a rut fixing breakfast." If this were translated into another language, they might picture her fixing scrambled eggs over a rut in the driveway, unless they understood our figures of speech. We might say, "Mr. Jones is really on the ball." If this were translated into another language, they might picture Mr. Jones standing on a basketball.

One of the figures of speech of the Hebrew people was "an everlasting fire," which was a fire nobody could put out. It referred to a fire that burned until everything was consumed, but not to a fire that literally burned forever.

Suppose Shakespeare had talked about a building burning with fire that could not be put out. Would anyone understand that literally, as though the fire were still burning today? No, we would understand it to mean that it could not be put out until it had burned the building up. That is exactly what the Hebrews meant.

Ezekiel 20:47 "And say to the forest of the South, ‘Hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it. 48 All flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’ "

Jeremiah 17:27 "But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."

That prophecy was fulfilled in the following passage:

Jeremiah 52:12 "Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great men, he burned with fire."

Many people suppose that the wicked are going to burn forever and ever and ever. But if we "compare scripture with scripture, here a little and there a little," which the Bible says to do if we are going to know truth, we will find that this is not the case. Let us look at the plain Word of God. Does a man’s soul continue to live in misery?

The Soul of the Sinner Will Die

Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die. . . . 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

The word "soul" is actually in the neuter case in these verses, and as such is translated in the KJV as, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The soul is going to die.

Matthew 10:28 "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."

Notice, the sinners will have bodies in hell. They will be resurrected first. As we noticed last night, when our bodies are laid in the grave we are unconscious. The soul is not conscious without the body, but when the body is destroyed in hell, then the soul is destroyed also. This is the second death (Revelation 20:14). In the first death, just our bodies are destroyed and our souls remain unconscious until the resurrection. But in hell, both the body and the soul are destroyed. They do not continue to live in perpetual misery.

The Bible does talk about a hell. The SS men of Nazi Germany who tortured 6,000,000 Jews to death could not get by scot-free, unless they repented and changed their characters. The slave traders, as pictured in the book Roots, are not going to get by scot-free, unless they were converted and accepted forgiveness. Hitler has a record to meet. Though government has a duty to perform, we personally do not have to worry about paying back the rapist, we do not have to become bitter with resentment. God is just, and the pain that they inflict on other people, God will inflict like pain back so that they can feel what they have done to other people—they will receive their just rewards. It will not be an ever-burning hell (that wouldn’t be just), but there is a hell.

In hell, the wicked are completely consumed and "destroyed." They "perish." They become as though they never were. That is not too pleasant a prospect, but it is the best thing God can do and have a happy, peaceful universe. Annihilation is a lot better than writhing in anguish for billions of years, for a start, with no end in sight.

Immortality

The wicked are not immortal. Only God is immortal.

1 Timothy 6:15 "He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."

Man is naturally mortal, not immortal. God gives immortality only to the righteous, and that happens at Jesus’ second coming.

1 Corinthians 15:51 "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ "

Not even once in all of Scripture is man, man’s soul, man’s spirit, man’s memory, or anything else of man called immortal. It is like the text about keeping Sunday holy—it just isn’t in the Bible. You can search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and it will not be found.

The First Big Lie

This was the first big lie that Satan ever told man, and he is still telling it today.

Genesis 3:4 "And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’ "

This was exactly the opposite of what God had said.

Genesis 2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

Now Satan said one thing and God said another. I wonder who told the truth? Most people think Satan told the truth and that God told the lie, but the Bible supports what God said. I believe He was right, don’t you?

Eternal Death

The Bible pictures death as the result of sin, not eternal torment.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Notice, the wages of sin is death—not eternal torment, not eternal life in hell, but death.

Psalm 145:20 "The Lord preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy."

Psalm 37:38 "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off."

Some people think that God is going to get some fiendish, devilish joy out of watching people suffer (and suffer and suffer and suffer. . .). No! That would not be love or justice either one. It would be most unjust to force someone to suffer a billion years (for a start) because someone lived a few years on earth without Christ. That would be unjust, cruel, and unkind. And it is untrue. It is the Devil’s way of maligning the character of God.

God Is Not A Tyrant

I am happy to tell you, and I am sure you are overjoyed to hear (for we may have some loved ones who end up in hell) that God DOES NOT torture people throughout eternity. He is a God of Love. He IS NOT a tyrant. If there is any error I can give up, it is this abominable doctrine of an ever-burning torture pit. God’s character has been maligned by the teachers of religion.

I want to go to heaven, but I do not want to have to be scared into going. I want to go because I have been loved in by the Lord Jesus Christ. When I get there, I do not want to have to think about some loved one being tortured throughout all eternity while I am trying to enjoy myself.

Someone once told me that, though hell will be going on throughout eternity, we won’t know anything about it. If God is going to keep this kind of scandalous knowledge from the righteous, what else has He not told us? Could you really trust someone like that?

God is Love

"God is love" (1 John 4:8). I like that text, don’t you? The wicked will be destroyed in hell, but God finds no pleasure in this at all.

Ezekiel 33:11 "Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ "

The Devil Himself Will Be Destroyed

Even the Devil, who will also be destroyed with the fires of the last days, will not burn forever. He, too, will be completely destroyed.

Ezekiel 28:14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers. . . . 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. . . . 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. . . 18 You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. 19 All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever."

The true Hebrew here is such that it can be translated as either an event to take place in the future or an event that has already taken place in the past. Some modern Bible translators have made this an event that has already taken place, but it is very evident that Satan has not been destroyed yet. The King James Version had it translated correctly here: "Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes. . . . and never shalt thou be any more." Even as bad as the Devil is, he is not going to burn forever.

As Satan will be destroyed, so will all his followers—his "branches."

Malachi 4:1 " ‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, 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.’ "

True enough, Revelation talks about a fire burning forever and ever. But like the parables, so symbolic prophecy must be understood in relationship to the rest of the Bible. Again, we must compare "scripture with scripture." As we have already noticed, "forever" in the Bible means as long as there is life (see Exodus 21:6).

When the fire is through, and there is nothing left to burn, then it will go out and Christ will recreate a new heaven and a new earth. Notice, when everything is consumed, then the fire goes out:

Isaiah 47:14 "Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; it shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before!"

The wicked will be forever destroyed at this point. There will never again be another sinner. All the wicked will have received their eternal punishment oblivion, death, eternal death.

Nahum 1:9 "He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time."

Obadiah 15 "For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; as you have doen, it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head. 16 For as you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; yes, they shall drink, and swallow, and they shall be as though they had never been." (The Prophet is talking about drinking the cup of wrath, see Jeremiah 25:27–33.)

God will make an utter, or complete end. Sin will not continue in some secluded torture pit of the universe, but God is going to make a complete end, and sin will never rise again. It will not arise again, not because we could not sin, but because we will never choose to sin again. When a person has been cured of leprosy, and sin is leprosy, he never wants it again.

A Peaceful End

There is coming a time when all will be peace in the universe.

Revelation 5:13 "And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ "

"Every creature" in the universe was heard praising God—no discordant wails and screams and cursing from some sequestered pain center. All sin and sinners will have been destroyed with all the reminders of rebellion and suffering.

Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind."

Yes, the earth will be recreated after hell has died away. We will study more about this in our lesson on the millennium. There we will see that though Christ’s eternal plan for this earth has had an interruption, a 6,000 year interruption of sin and suffering, it is going to be completed at last. God’s purpose will be accomplished, praise His name!

Psalm 37:9 "For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. 10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look diligently for his place, but it shall be no more."

One of my favorite texts is that old favorite:

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

The wicked will "perish," not burn forever. As we compare ALL that the Bible says on hell, it is evident that a God of love will not burn people forever. Satan has slandered and misrepresented the character of God. Aren’t you glad that you can enjoy heaven without worrying about one of your relatives being tortured throughout eternal ages, while you are trying to be happy regardless? Does this wonderful truth help you to understand God’s love more?

When sin is fully developed, it is a miserable existence. "There is no peace," God says, to "the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21).

God gives every person an opportunity to decide whether he wants to live according to the law of God. God’s law is called a law of liberty, it sets you free from the slavery that comes when you break it. If you choose to keep God’s law, He has promised through the Holy Spirit to give you a new heart and the power to do it. (Romans 8:1–16). God is the author of life, His law is a description of His character; if you deliberately choose to break God’s law, then you have chosen the path of death and destruction. Jesus, the Prince of Life, said, "All those who hate me love death." Those who keep God’s law are promised the gift of eternal life, and as we already have seen in the book of Revelation, over and over again it is pointed out that God’s people in the last days will be commandment keepers. Revelation 14:9–12.

Moses put the choice that we all must make before the children of Israel. He said:

Deuteronomy 30:11–20 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Friend, in the prophecies in Revelation as well as Daniel, the message comes through, simple, and crystal clear. There is a great controversy going on in this world. God has already won the great controversy in every other world of this universe and in heaven itself. But down here the controversy is still going on and when you get right down to the bottom line, it is just one question, Jesus loved us enough to wash us from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5) and the one question God has after giving us His love without measure, is simply this, "Do you love Me enough to obey My law?" or in other words God is saying, "Can I trust you? I would like to give you the gift of eternal life, but I cannot give life to those that break the laws of life."

Do you love Him enough to obey Him? Jesus said, "If you love me, keep My commandments" John 14:15. You cannot call yourself a commandment-keeper if you do not keep the fourth commandment, because if you break one you are guilty (James 2:10). And God is going to have a group of people in the last days that honor Him and keep all of His law. Revelation continually insists on this. Revelation tells us that they will be greatly in the minority as far as the world population is concerned, but that doesn’t matter.

When my son was small and I admonished him against doing certain evil things, he responding once by saying, "But Dad, everybody’s doing it." And I said to him, "If those people who are doing it do not repent and someday burn up in hell-fire because they refused to repent and stop sinning, do you want to burn up with them?" He said, "No."

I don’t want anybody to burn to death in hell-fire; but friend, God has made an unalterable decree that all the churches and theologians and governments of this world cannot change—that sin, the breaking of His law, is going to be destroyed because it is a ruinous evil. It is because of sin that we have sickness, sorrow, strife, and death.

Somebody says, "Well my great-grandfather Harry didn’t know about the Sabbath and he was a good Christian." That’s fine, but friend, your great-grandfather, although he lived up to all the light he had, he did not live to see Jesus come, he did not live to see the mark of the beast enforced and God’s remnant people pointed out in Revelation as those who keep God’s commandments, he will be judged according to light he had available to him. But friend, you and I are living just before the end of the age, in that time when God is gathering a special people to Himself who will live to see Jesus come and be translated and never die, and friend, in order to be part of that group described in Revelation 14 and Revelation 12, you must be a commandment-keeper. When the world ends as we will see tommorrow night, there will only be two groups of people living in the whole world—those who keep all of God’s commandments and those who have received the mark of the beast, which will be Sunday-keeping and Sabbath-breaking—honoring the papacy over the God of heaven.

God does not desire the destruction of any.

Ezekiel 33:11 "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn , turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?"

Throughout the period of probationary time, His Spirit is entreating men to accept the gift of life. It is only those who reject His pleading that will be left to perish. God has declared that sin must be destroyed as an evil ruinous to the universe. Those who cling to sin will perish in its destruction. Tomorow night we will see when and how sin will be destroyed in hell-fire.

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Last Updated: 06/18/03