The Beginning
of The End of All Things
Part 11
#189.06
The Lake of Fire That
Men Built
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
cast into the lake of fire." Revelation
20:15.
Due to centuries
of defacing the truth by influential people of what the lake of fire is, quite a
number of people have problems with this verse; but a few seem to delight in
those absurdities, so much so that eternal torment for most of humanity is their
primary foundation of teaching. And this is strange, for the majority who
believe they are born of God and are made in His likeness and image would not
subject their worst enemies to such a fate, much less their own children and
loved ones. But they accuse the God of love for do so.
Even if their
most innate perception tells them otherwise, they find it hard to voice their
concern or objections. For who are they to say that they are right and a
multi-million membered, God ordained, religious system can be wrong? With such
odds against them, for the most part, they remain silent and conclude that since
God is God He can do anything that pleases Him regardless of how inhumane and
unrealistic it may seem.
It is not unusual
for supporters of this doctrine to say that God really does not want to judge
people so harshly; but since men have been given free will, and they
have been warned what their punishment will be if they refuse to obey the
guidelines (some simple, some impossible), He has no choice to do otherwise.
They are conditioned to see God’s omnipotent hands being tied by men’s free will
to sin.
Perhaps
they have forgotten, or were never told, what the apostle Paul said about God’s
will. Of course, some chose to ignore it altogether. To be reminded, he said,
God works out all things after the (1)
counsel of His own will Ephesians 1:11. And
"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who
will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
1 Timothy 2:3-4.
Simply stated,
whatever God does, He does it out of His own will and volition. He is not forced
to do so because of people having some sort of sovereign free will that
opposes God’s omnipotent will. If such were true, it would make the
creature greater than the Creator. Such ascriptions of God are
nonsense!
A
large number of Christian denominations are known for having the lake of fire as
a major part of their foundational beliefs. Their lake is most often called
(2)hell,
which is not true at all. If they were the same, we would have to strike
Revelation 20:14 from the Bible; for it says that hell is cast into the lake
of fire. This alone should stop the notion that the two are the same; for
if the two are the same -- how can hell be cast into itself, the lake of
fire, as the scripture states?
Notwithstanding, if the hell they believe in were removed from their
foundation, their theological buildings would fall in a heap. For instance, a
friend of ours who had been a minister for over fifty years in one of the
fundamental denominations told me that her theological building came painfully
down after I shared what I saw concerning the lake of fire and God's sovereign
will for His creation. She said that everything she believed in was tested unto
death; for every facet of her theology was either founded on or connected to the
common teachings of the lake of fire. And to destroy those beliefs, she said,
destroyed everything else she had held so dear and true. The thought of having
to rebuild everything was too painful to imagine. With all resolve and
vehemence, she resisted. She quoted scriptures to God and herself in defense
against His prevailing word. She tried to block out what she had heard, but to
no avail. After literally spending three months of agonizing torment on her
death-bed, she relinquished her hold on that which was going up in God's
consuming flames and she received the love of the truth. She then rose from her
near death, revived, and lived for the first time in over seventy years.
Some may think that eternal hellfire that burns with sulphuric
brimstone is perhaps an isolated view, but not so. Listen to one of their
authorities, someone whose word is accepted as being sound by those in that
field of religion. This man does not speak for them all; but what he says is not
a foreign belief to many of the others. Ted Haggard, president of the National
Association of Evangelicals, said, "'Hell is central to Christian
belief.' He also believes wholeheartedly in what he says is a strictly
Biblical definition of hell: a real place, with real and eternal torments for
the unsaved. Haggard heads the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado
Springs." (MSNBC Dateline, August 13, 2006).
Although it should be Jesus who is central to every person born of God,
sadly, this is not always the case, and when He is not, error will be the fruit
that grows from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Out of ignorance or
a careless a disregard for the scriptures, hell is believed to be the
same as the lake of fire. When this happens, a misrepresentation of the
verses that have to do with the lake of fire becomes that which is served to
their congregations and television audiences.
You
see, there is nothing in the apostle's words about hell whatsoever. He plainly
says -- the lake of fire, not hell. Many
mistakenly believe the two terms are synonymous and can be interchanged. For
instance, a well educated medical doctor has devoted much of his life to
revealing what he feels to be religious error that will send the vast
majority to hell forever. This credited writer makes the same common
mistake:
"Hell," he says, "is described in the Bible as
'the lake of burning sulfur,' where the beast and the
false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and
ever" (Re.20:10, 14:10-11)... and one of the worst torments of each one
of the condemned will be to realize the fact that he had in his only life on
earth a thousand and one opportunities not to go to Hell, and he rejected them
all....Every time it talks about how many will go to 'Hell,'
the word
(3)'many' is used... 4 times! (Matt. 7:13-14, Matt. 7:21-23,
Matt. 22.14, Luke 13:23-29)." He then adds, "To be in error in religion, is to
have a 'cancer in the soul.'" (Jerome Domínguez, M.D, World
Religions and 101 Cults and Sects).
It
has been estimated by various religions that roughly 98 percent of humanity's
destiny will be burning in fire, or freezing, whether physically or mentally,
and a grave number of them believe it will be without remedy and without end.
Some carry the fallacy to the horrid religious end of rejoicing at the thought.
After reading what one religious leader said, tell me if the spirit of religion
is not evil to the core:
"'If my own mother were being carried to the mouth of HELL I would stand
and applaud.' A professor in a mainline denominational seminary, explaining that
hell will be 'understandable,' and the saved will rejoice in the misery
of the unsaved, once the saved see the glory of Christ and the justice of God."
(Four Views on Hell, by John Walvoord, Zachary J. Hayes, Zondervan, 1996,
p. 48).
One
man who has influenced tens of thousands since the early sixteenth century made
this statement:
"I
ask whence it happened that the fall of Adam involved, without
remedy, in eternal death to so many nations, together with their infant
children, except because it so seemed good to God? A
decree horrible, I confess, and yet true." (John Calvin, 1506 -
1564).
We
are amazed that people will openly declare how God has made such a horrible
decree, and then claim to worship Him.
We
can only conclude that it must be out of utter fear that a god of this sort is
worshiped, or else, the same evil they have ascribed to God is harbored in their
hearts. Some, of course, worship such a god out of fear. They will believe in
Him and serve Him; but they will most likely never really love Him, unless they
can love an indifferent, fiendish tormentor of good people who failed to say the
sinner's prayer before breathing their last breath. As I quoted Forest Gump in
our previous article, "Stupid is as stupid does," and if our Father,
who is love, did such a stupid thing as burning the children of His love
forever, He should be called stupid. Moreover, I am not sure I would like to
keep company with a god of that caliber. For that matter, I know I wouldn't. Let
me ask, could you love and have warm affections toward your natural father who
tortured and killed all your brothers and sisters for failing in various ways,
and spared only you because you told him that you loved him and would always do
whatever he wished or demanded, even unto to death? Again, stupid is as
stupid does, and such would not only be stupid, but insane, and that is
what they are saying about our Father!
As
feeble as they are, I am sure that many ministers believe and teach their
congregations these sordid views of God only because these doctrines are
accepted by their churches, and accepted doctrines are very seldom questioned.
They go so far as to say that even if a person has never heard that there is a
living God, or has never known He has a Son who died for them, and if he hasn't
been baptized (in the right manner), or joined the "church," he is doomed to
burn in hell forever. Others believe God will have mercy on a man if he is a
good man, since it is logically beyond his control to confess to a Savior he has
never heard of. They do, however, say that if he has heard and fails to measure
up to all the requirements imposed on him, he will suffer God's eternal
judgment. This reminds me of the Eskimo and priest:
Eskimo: "If I did not
know about God and sin, would I go to
hell?"
Priest: "No, not if you did not know.
Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"
I
spoke with a man several years ago who expressed how greatly and grievously he
was tormented by what he was taught about God and hell. He recently
wrote about it, and Gary Amirault posted it on his web site:
"I
did not know in 1939 that my life would take a whole new turn following a
nervous breakdown lasting six months. This was totally and directly a result of
earlier religious teachings.
"My
youth consisted of much horror and mental anguish due to messages of
well-meaning ministers who presented, for the most part, a god of endless anger
and vengeance. Judging from how few people really lived a Holy life and how few
Christians actually laid their lives down to save people from the awful fate, it
appears few people really took the threat of everlasting punishment seriously. I
was not one of them. I took it VERY seriously--so seriously that I vowed never
to have children, so as to be sure none of mine would go to hell. After all,
based upon the churches own statistics, 98 percent of humanity was doomed to be
tortured forever and ever and ever by their loving god. I had a vasectomy to
insure that I would not bring into this world a child doomed to be among the 98
percent of humanity which would find itself burning alive forever.
"Like I said, most people in my church and other churches must not have
taken the Hell teaching to heart or else I think they all would have gone mad.
And I believe those who truly DO take it seriously DO go crazy. A friend of the
family had committed suicide because of the same hellfire and damnation
teachings. There are countless stories of mental disorders which led to
disastrous results due to this terrible doctrine. In years past, I often prayed
that God would take me 'Home' (kill me) so I would not be lost." (Mervin
Behlen). (For complete testimony go to http://www.tentmaker.org/testimonials/MervinLBehlen.html)
As
dreadful as the doctrine of hell can be, Christianity has not by any means been
alone in believing it. If there is a religion in the world that does not have
some form of a tormenting hell in their doctrines, I am not aware of
it. As it is with the Christian faiths, some believe it will be endless while
others believe there will be an end to the torment; but most believe it will be
for a very, very long time. For instance, the Buddhists believe in sixteen hells
(eight cold and eight hot) to which a person will be subjected, depending on the
severity of their sins. One of those hells is called the Arbuda,
or the blister Naraka. It is
said to be a dark, frozen plain surrounded by icy mountains. It is continually
blown over by ice storms and blizzards. The unlucky inhabitants of this world
abide there naked and alone while the cold raises caustic blisters all over
their bodies. The length of time in this realm of hell is said to be the time it
would take for a sparrow to empty a barrel of sesame seeds if the bird took a
single seed every hundred years. This is not forever, but it is a very long
period of time, and is another manmade hell to scare people into remaining
obedient subjects of their manmade religions that are always inspired by the
dragon of the air.
Whether forever or for a very long period of time, it is commonly
believed that the punishment in the afterlife for unbelievers and evildoers is
incomprehensible. One such manmade hell says that fire alone is not enough. We
are told that demons will also be there to torment the damned forever, and the
devil, the fallen
archangel Lucifer, of course, is commonly portrayed as the elated ruler
over the infernal mess.
Almost all religions regard hell as the absolute, ultimate, worst case
scenario. However, purgatory, as believed by most Catholics, lifts the eternal
burden to a small degree. Purgatory was proclaimed as an article of faith in
1439 by the Council of Florence, and was later confirmed by the Council of Trent
in 1548. It is said to be a place of penance for sinners who have achieved
salvation but have not paid penance (self-abasement) for the sins that they
committed prior to dying. Whether by design or an oversight, these two councils
failed to include in this article of faith how long certain classes of people
would be held in purgatory. Moreover, they did not appoint anyone, not even the
Pope, who could say when they were released and carried to heaven.
Therefore, with millions of masses having been performed since the
Florentine Council, and with tens of billions of dollars worth of indulgences
having been paid for the dead, there is not one person who can say if anyone has
been released from purgatory. Even after a thousand generations of people have
prayed their rosaries on behalf of dead, there will be no one who can tell you
if anyone has ever made it to heaven.
Hinduism has beliefs of various hells. These are places wherein sinful
people are punished. In many of the Hindu hells, the residents are tortured by
demons; however, these hells are not final dwelling places. They are much like
purgatories where sinful souls experience suffering, but for a limited season.
Afterwards, even the most evil person is released to once again be reincarnated.
This differs from Catholicism's belief where the very evil will burn in hell
forever.
If
we wanted to find a common thread that has been woven through the fabric of most
of the religions of the world, it would be this one point of blasphemous torture
for most of God's creation. This God that they lower to such a loathing level is
my Father, and yours, and it is, therefore, very easy for me to call them the
generation of vipers that they are, and I know most of you feel the
same.
Fortunately, not everyone blindly follows the blind and falls into the
ditch with them. Let us note the insight of a few among the millions who could
think outside of religion's walls and had backbone enough to question the
deplorable caricature of our God who is infinite love:
"God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn a large majority
of the human race." (Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll, 1833 - 1899).
"Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in
themselves." (William Somerset Maugham, 1874 - 1965).
"God says, 'Do what you wish, but make the wrong choice and you will be
tortured for eternity in hell.' That sir....would be akin to a man telling his
girlfriend, do what you wish, but if you choose to leave me, I will track you
down and blow your brains out. When a man says this we call him a psychopath and
cry out for his imprisonment/execution. When God says the same we call Him
'loving' and build churches in his honor." (William C. Easttom II).
Regarding Michelangelo's Last Judgment painting: "……Look at the
lower parts of the picture, where with pitchforks men are by devils being cast
into cauldrons and into burning fires, where hateful fiends are gnawing at the
skulls of suffering sinners, and where there is hellish cannibalism going on.
Let a man look at that picture and the scenes which it depicts, and he sees what
were the ideas which men once had of Hell and of divine justice. It was a
nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the hellish brood itself; and it
was an atrocious slander on God……I do not wonder that men have reacted from
these horrors--I honor them for it." (Henry Ward Beecher, 1813 - 1887, prominent
theological American Congregationalist clergyman and social
reformer).
It
is mind-boggling, to say the least, that brilliant men with high degrees in
theological education refuse to hear and speak the truth. If someone like
myself, with limited formal education, can search out God's truths that are so
simple that a child would not err therein, you would think they could do better,
but we have not seen that happening.
For
instance, it would not be difficult for them to discover the origin of this
doctrine that drags the character of our merciful God through the mud, and the
revelation of it may change a few in the way they believe. I did a quick search
on the origin of hell and found this among too many to include in this short
article:
"Polybius (203-120 B.C.), the ancient historian, said: 'Since
the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and
violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear
and terror of the invisible world; on which account our
ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring
into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal
regions.' B. vi 56....
"Plato, in his commentary on Timaeus, fully endorses what he
says respecting the fabulous invention of these foreign torments. And Strabo
says that 'Plato and the Brahmins of India invented fables concerning
the future judgments of hell' (Hades). And Chrysippus
blames Plato for attempting to deter men from wrong by frightful stories
of future punishments.
"Plato himself is exceedingly inconsistent, sometimes adopting, even in
his serious discourses, the fables of the poets, and at other times rejecting
them as utterly false, and giving too frightful views of the invisible world.
Sometimes, he argues, on social grounds, that they are necessary to
restrain bad men from wickedness and crime, and then again he protests against
them on political grounds, as intimidating the citizens, and making cowards of
the soldiers, who, believing these things, are afraid of death, and do not
therefore fight well. But all this shows in what light he regarded them; not as
truths, certainly, but as fictions, convenient in some cases, but difficult to
manage in others." (Thomas B. Thayer, The
Doctrine of Eternal Punishment).
When renowned church leaders ignore such basic facts of history that are
so easily obtained, and refuse to heed proper translations of the scriptures, we
cannot help from believing that they are so lacking in the Spirit that it is
impossible for them to see the obvious, or else, they see but deliberately
refuse to receive the love of the truth and will do everything in their power to
destroy it.
Ray
Prinzing certainly understood this and wrote about receiving the love of the
truth:
"Two ways are set before us here: receiving the love of the truth to work
into us into salvation; or, receiving a strong delusion, literally, an inworking
delusion, so that we believe a lie. Interestingly enough, God sends them both.
He brings forth vessels of mercy, and vessels of wrath.
"Those who refuse, who receive not the love of the truth, in turn will
receive an inworking error, and then have to pass through a judgment to be
purged of that error. This is learning the lesson the hard way, having to go
through a process of correctional chastening, until they learn that it is far
better to receive the love of the truth. Yet God retains sovereign control over
this entire process. 'I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their
fears upon them, because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did
not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I
delighted not.' (Isa. 66:4). God knows exactly which inworking delusion will
subdue and teach that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake the way of the
Lord.
"There is a love to be received along with the truth, for knowledge alone
will not hold you. When the vision tarries you soon become entangled in all
sorts of strange diversions, and a prey for those spoken of in Daniel 11:14,
'the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision - as
if they were able to fulfill it, but they shall fail. When you have a LOVE FOR
THE TRUTH you will not want to exert any self-effort, destroy, mar, or try to
fulfill it after the flesh. You will wait with an eye single to God knowing He
will fulfill His Word. 'Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing
shall offend them.' (Ps.119:165)." (Daily
Overcoming Devotionals, August
26).
Regardless of the reason for not receiving the love of the truth, it is
clear that the hell which is taught in the mainline Christian churches
is made by men. To compound their folly, they carelessly say that this manmade
horror is in fact the lake of fire. While doing so, they never mention
that it is actually the all consuming glory of God's presence which brings an
end to all sin and death on every level. The very thing that marks the end of
all evil, conflict, rebellion, inordinate passions, sorrow, and suffering, they
say is endless suffering.
My
Lord and my God! Where is their love, not only for their own, but for their
enemies as well?
Jesus said to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you" Matt. 5:44. But those of the church
system, those who have been bitten and smitten by the ancient serpent say
otherwise. Although without authority, they pronounce eternal judgment upon the
lost and forlorn of the world. This wayward decree never forgives them, and
consigns them to burn in hell forever with no hope of remedy or escape.
Brethren, there is something vastly wrong with this picture. Nevertheless, this
is how it is portrayed by those who say they are in the image of
Christ! Do you suppose they have not only created a lake of fire after their own
hearts, but have also created a god after their own image and likeness? And do
you suppose it is this fearful god that they worship, and to whom they sacrifice
their children? The answers are a resounding yes! That is, if
they worship such a god and teach their children to do the same.
Paul echoed our Lord's words in Romans
12:20. "If your enemy hungers, feed him, If he thirsts, give
him drink; For in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head." I have
heard this verse quoted more times than I can remember by Christians who are
praying for their enemies, but for the purpose of vengeance and wanting God to
torment them by burning down their home, setting up a car-wreck, or some other
calamity that will serve them right. As vindictive as these coals of fire may
seem, listen to what a well-known Baptist minister said about them. He is a man
I would like to know:
"In
conversation with a wife who was embroiled in a domestic conflict I asked if she
had ever tried heaping coals of fire on his head. She confessed she had not but
that she tried throwing boiling water on him once.
"What does it mean?
"The two opening statements in this verse obviously teach we are to do
more than is required to help those in need. "In the biblical era fire was a
valuable commodity. Often a person would go to a neighbor and ask for a coal
with which to start his fire. This expression means don't just give him the
basic essential. Instead give him so many coals that they are so heavy he has to
carry them on his head as was the custom with heavy loads. Thus, we are taught a
lesson in helpful generosity." (Dr. Nelson L. Price).
If
those who read these few pages truly believe in a god who will torment the
majority of his own creation forever in a literal lake of fire that burns with
literal flames, then please hear me, and harken to my sobering words:
If
you are a male, do as Mervin Behlen did -- do not delay, but rush to your doctor
and get a vasectomy. If you are a female of child bearing age -- do not delay,
but rush to your doctor and have your tubes tied. Whatever you do, don't
have any babies, and if you already have some, don't have anymore. If
you bear children after reading this, I must conclude that you either don't
believe the damnable doctrine of eternal punishment, or you will gamble with
their lives in hopes that they will jump through a religious hoop and get
saved before they die. If neither of the two are accurate, and you
still believe in everlasting doom for the lost, can it be that you don't love
your children enough to care what their eternal fate might be?
If
you truly love your children, and you believe that there is one chance in a
million that at least one of them could possibly fail to be saved after the
age of accountability, what would stop you from doing the unthinkable? For
example, Andrea Yates, a Houston, Texas mother who drowned her five children
said, "I killed them so their souls would go to heaven." Her defense attorney
said almost the same on her behalf: "She didn't know what she was doing because
she thought she was saving her children's souls by sending them to
heaven."
How
many other parents have done the same? The thought of eternal damnation has
driven countless people insane, and perhaps this woman as well; how many others,
we may wonder, have killed their babies to insure their eternal
security.
I
have made pointed statements, sober suggestions, and asked thought-provoking
questions. Now, if you can still hold to such teachings that are so far removed
from God as the east is from the west, before casting my proposals into a
manmade hell, will you think soberly and make some sobering decisions? Perhaps,
to rethink your beliefs and receive the love of the truth. I sincerely hope you
do; for it concerns me greatly when people professing Jesus as their Lord so
impudently malign my Father.
I
can see clearly why Jesus was so critical of the religious leaders. They were
dragging the intent of the God's holy Law through the mud of legalism; but not
only that, they had degraded the Living God, His Father, and made Him one to
fear and avoid at all cost, which seems very similar to what we see today.
Some will, no doubt, be disturbed by my unminced accusations toward those
who speak evil of my Father; but anyone who sits idle when their father, natural
or spiritual, is called worse than a diabolical infidel, must be pitied for
their complacent gutlessness. Furthermore, I don't know of anyone, past or
present, who was more blistering to the religious rulers than was Jesus, and
they accused Him of being a bastard, and attributed His deeds to the working of
demons.
He
responded by calling them whited sepulchers full of dead men's bones and all
uncleanliness. And no less than four times He called them a generation of vipers
who neglected the weightier matters of justice, such as mercy and faithfulness.
Therefore, by seeing the same spirit working in the majority of the
religious figureheads today, let it stand -- they will have their part in the
lake of fire; but be sure to know, it will not be the lake that they have made.
And they can thank God for that!
We have only skimmed the surface of the lake of fire that men have
made; but we trust that little more needs to be said about such a dark and
dismal subject. Now that we have dealt a little about the inspired fruit of the
religious dragon of the air, hopefully, we can now take more time and see
the glorious lake of fire that God has made!
To be continued...
Elwin R. Roach - www.godfire.net
1. counsel: Grk. boule; from
G1014; volition, that is, (objectively) advice, or (by
implication) purpose (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance).
2. hell; Greek, hades, meaning
unseen. The English word hell comes from the Teutonic
hel. This word originally meant to cover; such as, "We must
hell the roof before the rain comes." Hel later referred to
the goddess of the Norse underworld, which was also called Hel. In the
Christianized form of the myth, Hel became Hell. And we have
the Anglo-Saxon helan, and the Latin celare, which mean to
hide, to cover.
3. Hell is neither used nor inferred in
any of these four passages.
http://hellbusters.8m.com/
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