The Lake of Fire

The Lake of Fire

A Brief Overview

Part One

“For everyone will be

salted with fire.”

Mark:9:49

Where do bad folks go when they die?

They don’t go to heaven where the angels fly

They go to a like of fire and fry

Won’t see em’ again until the 4th of July

Lake of Fire ByNirvana

There are three teachings that are common when dealing with the Lake of Fire.

Out of the three the most common teaching is that the Lake of Fire is the last place most of humanity will spend eternity in. While there (for eternity) they will suffer unimaginable horrors. And the main reason (traditionalists believe) for this nightmare of existence is; they never made the right decision to believe in Jesus.

It’s never their lack of understanding, or lack of seeing the need, or their observations of those who claim to have the truth regarding the requirements needed to escape the fate of the Lake of Fire,that has caused them to want nothing to do with Jesus. It’s their failure to exercise their free will to accept the offer of salvation that has brought them to this place of fiery torment, so we are told.

Along with their sin and unbelief, God at the time of their resurrection (from hell, where they are already experiencing unimaginable horrors) will give them a body that will cause them to feel more pain from the fire for all eternity, without the capacity to get any relief, ever.

At this time I think all who believe this should stop for a moment and sing the hymn;

Jesus loves me.

And He does.

Justnot those people who never made the right decision to love Him back, (as far as their traditions are concerned).

As was written above, there are three views in regards to the Lake of Fire.

Greg Deuble describes them like this; Burn On, Burn Up, Burn Through.

Here is a quick overview of the three views.

The most common is: The Burn On teaching which claims that God will raise unbelieving mankind from hell, judge them at The Great White Throne, find them guilty of sin and unbelief, (which they teach is the reason they are in hell already) then cast them into the Lake of Fire to be tormented for ever and ever. Kind of senseless when you see it for what it is. Why not just leave them in hell?

The Burn Up teaching claims God will raise unbelieving mankind from death, judge them at The Great White Throne, find them guilty of sin and unbelief, then cast them into the Lake of Fire where they will instantly burn up and disintegrate never to be seen again. Again, what’s the point, they are already dead.

Some who believe in the reconciliation of all believe that is the purpose of the Lake of Fire as well, the difference being; they teach the unbeliever is judged and brought into an understanding of God at the Great White Throne, then they are cast into the Lake of Fire and instantly killed,later, at the consummation of time, they are again resurrected to live with God for all eternity.

The Burn Through teaching claims that God will raise unbelieving mankind from death,and thenjudge them atthe Great White Throne. The Lake of Fire is part of the process where they will be subjected to God through Christ. When all that is false has been purged from them they will eventually become free of all their impurities and be brought into fellowship with God.

The first two of these views teach the Lake of Fire is a literal Lake of Fire.

The Burn Through teaching teaches the Lake of Fire is figurative, that it is the Fire of God cleansing mankindto make them fit for their place in Gods future program.

I’m not going to bother with the first view, you can ask ninety nine percent of Pastors, Priests, theologians and their followers about their thoughts on the Lake of Fire, they will describe their common teaching in far more unscriptural phantasmagoria then Dante’s poem .

The Burn Up view is just that,unbelievers will be shown the error of their ways at The Great White Throne then are tossed into the Lake of Fire, gone. Much more humane then the Burn On view, but still doesn’t fit with the character of God, that being Love.

Every word in the scriptures has to have that in mind, God’s Love.

All of His ways and dealings with his creation have to end with only one thing left, God’s Love.

Everything else will be gone.

Not only will Evil, Sin and death be gone, but, grace, mercy, forgiveness, faith, hope, expectation, preaching and teaching, as well as anything else that God is using now to bring His creation to its final destiny will be gone as well. There will be no need for any of these actions as they are transient; the only thing that will remain is God’s Love, because at that time God will be All in all.(1 Corinthians 15:28)

The Fire of God and the Believer

“What may we be doing that we

may be working the works of God?

Jesus answered and said to them;

This is the work of God, that you may

be believing in the One Whom He commissions.”

John 6:28-29

The believer will be the first to face the fire of God; that will happen at least a thousand years before the unbeliever.

Paul tells us that; “Consequently, then, each of us shall be giving account concerning himself to God.” Romans 14:12

The old saying; “Practice makes perfect”, should never be applied to religious practices.

Our perfecting is now in the process, and will later be completed by the fire of God.

Are any who call themselves believers already perfected!

Can anyone claim they know all there is to know about God!

Most of us, at best, have a veiled conception of who God really is.

This is why Jesus said we are to search the scripture for they speak of Him.

It’s only when we stop searching and set up camp that God stops revealing Himself.

Not even Paul, who had been shown some of the highest truth ever given to mankind, had obtained perfection while walking the earth; he tells us this in Philippians 3:12;

“Not that I already obtained, or am already perfected.”

Paul knew his perfection would only come at his resurrection, when he stands before God.

The believer is now viewed by God through Christ, their sins are not an issue, when God see’s us He see’s Christ, Paul tells us to;

“Be reckoning yourselves to be dead to Sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

Romans 6:11

To reckon something means to consider, regard as being, or estimate.This is how we are to consider ourselves to be, dead to Sin, not that we are sin free, but we will be one day. We will be free from everything we struggle with, until that time that keeps us from being in full harmony with God.

Peter also tells us that various trials that test our faith at present are a big part of our faith building;

“Being sorrowed by various trials, that the testing of your faith, much more precious than gold which is perishing, yet being tested by fire, may be found for applause and glory and honor at the unveiling of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7

The trials we now go through are all part of the process of God molding us into the person He wants us to be.The perfecting of us won’t happen in this lifetime, the perfection will be completed at the throne of Christ.That perfection will be a total knowledge of God.

The Fire of God, that the believer will experience, isn’t going to burn up all our bad habits, like smoking and drinking and swearing, or anything that we do that religion calls sin. Every sin we committed in the flesh has been done away with at the cross; they no longer stand in our way. Even the so called sin of unbelief, that is said to damn the majority to the Lake of Fire, was done away with at the cross. We will continue to labor with Sin our whole lives because we are flesh and blood, mortal. One person told me I would be easy to recognize in heaven, he said; you’ll be the one with a bar of soap in your mouth.

Many of us now struggle with shortcomings. We all have flaws we try to hide from others.Flaws that cause us to stumble in our walk, none of our flaws are hidden from God, many of them He leaves us with, not to struggle with, but to let us know that He is God and we aren’t.At the resurrection those sins will have no jurisdiction over our bodies; they will never hinder anyone at that time. They are sins of the flesh, sins of this world and life, if you want peace; reckon them dead, God does.

The purpose of the fire of God is to burn away all of our fears and anxieties, our doubts and disbelief, especially all that is false concerning our understanding of Who God really is. The fire will never injure anyone; it will only destroy all thatwhich hinders us from being in full harmony with God, and hinders us from standing in His presence. The fire will also destroy everything in us that hinders us from being in harmony with the rest of His creation. No one can harbor any ill toward another and be fit to be in that oncoming eon.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3: 10-15 about what believers can expect when theystand before God.

“According to the grace of God which is being granted to me, as a wise foreman I lay a foundation, yet another is building on it. Yet let each one beware how he is building on it. For other foundation can no one lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone is building on this foundation gold and silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, each one's work will become apparent, for the day will make it evident, for it is being revealed by fire. And the fire, it will be testing each one's work -- what kind it is. If anyone's work will be remaining which he builds on it, he will get wages. If anyone's work shall be burned up, he will forfeit it, yet he shall be saved, yet thus, as through fire.”

The believer isn’t saved by works; we are saved by grace through faith. We aren’t securing and building up our salvation by our works, it’s an understanding of God, and Who He is, that is what we are to build on because that is what brings us into harmony with Him. When we stand before God will anyone really believe they had some work that contributed to their salvation? If that is so then Paul will have to apologize to the Galatian ecclesia who he asked;

“O foolish Galatians! Who bewitched you...... Undertaking in spirit, are you now being completed in the flesh?”

The Galatians were starting to believe that adhering to certain religious laws were necessary for their salvation to be complete.

Believer’ will have to be purged of, not what they have done for God (the things we do in the flesh are rewarded as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:10), but misconceptions they have believed about God. That is what will stand or fall when the fire of God tests us, what we believed, not what we did. What we did was done in the flesh, what we believe is from the spirit.

The false; wood, grass and straw will immediately burn up, the truth; gold, silver and precious stones will be purified so to be made perfect.

A.E. Knoch explains 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 in this way;

“Paul had laid the foundation in Corinth. Apollos and others were building on it. The gold and silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, represent the character of the doctrines with which these teachers seek to edify the ecclesia. It is not a question of quantity but quality. Wood, hay and grass would easily make an imposing pile, but they will not stand the fire in the day when each one's work will be tested. They doubtless represent the human philosophies and base additions to the truth which today almost cover up the great verities of divine revelation. Gold stands for that which is divine, silver for redemption, precious stones for those gems of grace which adorn them, especially the secrets at which Paul has been hinting.” Concordant Commentary of the New Testament

Look at the hundreds of different sects of Christianity alone whose understanding about God differs from one another. Even with those who believe in reconciliation of all there are differences of how God will bring His creation to an understanding of who He really is.

Paul taught that there will come a time when all will be known, he tells us this in 1 Corinthians 13:12;

“For at present we are observing by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet then, face to face. At present I know out of an installment, yet then I shall recognize according as I am recognized.”

Burn Through

“For our God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:29

The Christian era over the last seventeen hundred years has forgotten one key element regarding the judgments of God; “The Cross”. Because of what happened on that day (And I, if I should be exalted out of the earth, shall be drawing all to Myself), and what was abolished on that day (The Lamb of God Which is taking away the sin of the world), all the judgments of God will only lead to correction.

The scriptures say in Revelation 20:5 that the unbeliever will be dead at least a thousand years after the believer is resurrected, at that time they will be raised to stand before the Great White Throne. Daniel gives us a description of this throne;

“I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was white like snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out before him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were open.” Daniel 7:9-10

John in the book of Revelation also gives us a description of the scene;

“And I perceived, a great white throne, and Him Who is sitting on it…..And I perceived the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne…. And the dead were judged by that which is written in the scrolls in accord with their acts.” Revelation 20:11-12

Mankind has to be prepared for eternity, that is the purpose of the Great White Throne, and the second death which is theLake of Fire. Those who stand before the Great White Throne are said to be judged according to their works. The Lake of Fire will purify the qualities that are good and obliterate all character flaws. This is where the weeping and wailing comes in. Just as anyone addicted to a substance knows what it is like to detox, the detoxification of a mind at enmity can in many ways be similar, and after the period of cleansing is completed a new person immerges, clean of all impurities.

Because the Lake of Fire is called the second death, some believe it to be the same as the first death. But in the eon of the eons, the last great eon before eternity, John tells us literal death will be no more in the last eon, it is destroyed in the Lake of Fire.

John in Revelation 21:1 tells us what he saw after the casting of those not written in the book of life into the Lake of Fire.

“And I perceived a new heaven and a new earth….and God Himself will be with them. And He will be brushing away every tear from their eyes. And death will be no more….”

The question to be asked; is the Second Death, which is the Lake of Fire, just another death, or is the Second Death which is the Lake of Fire the death of death?

God’s seconds are never the same as His firsts.

An example would be the first Adam who brought on death; and the last Adam (Christ) who brought life from death.

“The first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last Adam (Christ) a vivifying (life beyond death) Spirit…..For since, in fact, through a man (Adam) came death, through a Man (Christ), also, comes the resurrection of the dead.” 1 Corinthians 15:45, 21.

If the second death is like the first death it would have been called that. The first death isn’t anything like the second death, it destroys death.

“And death and the unseen were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14

Death is the last enemy that has to be abolished if anyone is to stand before God. Death for the believer is abolished at their resurrection, so will it be at the unbeliever’s resurrection. Both will experience the Fire of God to some degree, and you can’t experience it if you are dead.

Also, if the second death is the same as the first death there wouldn’t be verses that describe the second death such as: “Where the beast and the false prophet are, where they are tormented day and night for the eons of the eons.” Unless it is believed these are supernatural beings that can never die, and scripture never tells us they are.