 |
| THE END OF THE WORLD |
The way each person thinks and believes is a product of the ideas he has accepted to be true and trustworthy. These ideas may have been presented to him in the past or they may be new ideas that are presented today. As additional ideas are presented, they will be filtered and tested in the light of the ideas that he has already accepted to be true and trustworthy.
This is certainly the situation that exists when it comes to religious understanding. Once we have learned certain religious ideas, and we have accepted them as truth, it seems impossible to accept any ideas as truth that are not in agreement with the ideas that we have already accepted as truth.
Thus, the well-trained Roman Catholic ordinarily will remain a Roman Catholic, the Baptist a Baptist, the Buddhist a Buddhist, etc. This is why most of the dear people who are members of a church cannot accept the idea that God is finished with the churches, and He has commanded people to flee from the churches, and that Satan has been installed to rule there, and that the Holy Spirit has abandoned the churches so that no one under the authority of any church can become saved.
These dear people have been taught, and have accepted as truth, that their local church is a divine institution, that God reigns over it, and so, the gates of hell can never prevail against it. That understanding has become locked into their thinking as an undebatable truth. Therefore, any idea presented to them from the Bible is filtered through and tested by their doctrine, which they are absolutely certain is the truth.
When they are presented with new ideas from the Bible that teach that we have come to the end of the church age, they are incapable of examining them with any objectivity. However open they believe they are to the truth of the Bible, in actuality, they are altogether unable to come to new truth. That is why in our day, so few people are leaving the churches in obedience to God’s command to flee from them.
This situation has become extremely serious in our day because of at least three very significant reasons. They are as follows.
1. We are living in a world that is very near the end of time. And at the time of the end, God planned to take off the seals that He had placed on a great amount of end-time information in the Bible. Therefore, we should expect that a great amount of information that previously we had considered to be truth from the Bible, now must be restudied.
2. We are in the time period called the great tribulation, when God is testing those who claim to be true believers. The nature of the true believer is that he wishes to be true and obedient to anything and everything in the Bible.
2
3. By means of these tests, God is separating the wheat, that is, the true believers, from the tares, those who trust that they are true believers, but they have not become saved.
This time of testing encompasses the entire 8,400-day (23-year) period of the great tribulation, which began on May 21, 1988, and continues until May 21, 2011. On that day, the day of judgment begins, and it continues until October 21, 2011.
The Bible is a spiritual book, and the only way that anyone will correctly understand truth from the Bible is if God opens his spiritual eyes. Therefore, knowing that we have accepted as truth some preconceived and false ideas, which we of ourselves will never be able to surrender, we must go to God, pleading for His mercy, praying that He will unlock our minds from any thought or idea that is contrary to His Word.
The problem of our inability to surrender ideas that the Bible presently shows us to be false is very grievous in our day also in connection with another important area of truth, that is, the time information in the Bible. The fact is that a lot of us analyze the problem of time by using the Bible’s time information as an illustration.
The 70-page book We Are Almost There! is a product of 50 years of earnest Bible study concerning the timeline of history. In addition, the material in that book has been subjected to thousands of hours of discussion on the Family Radio program, the Open Forum. The conclusion of all this study is the truth that Christ will not come as a thief in the night, but on a day, a month, and a year that God has disclosed to His true believers in the Bible.
Now, suppose that the book We Are Almost There! is given to an intelligent, devout church member who has always been taught that Christ will come as a thief in the night. He agrees to read this book and give it a fair, honest appraisal. After reading the first few pages, he discovers that it does not teach that Christ will come as a thief in the night. Immediately, his defenses are alerted, and he might think, “This book is heresy. I know too many verses that teach that no one can know the time of Christ’s return. It would be wrong for me to read any more of this heretical book.” And in his heart, he feels he has made an honest, fair appraisal of this book.
What he fails to realize and cannot realize because of the lock that is on his heart, is that, indeed, throughout the church age, all that God permitted any true believer to know about the end was that Christ was coming as a thief in the night. Already, in Acts 1, the apostles asked the question, as we read in verse 6:
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
They wanted to know when the kingdom of God would be completed. And Jesus answered them, as we read in verses 7 and 8:
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
3
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
In other words, there is a job to be done, which is to bring the Gospel into all the world. That was the task of the church during the church age, and they were not to be preoccupied with wondering about the time of the end.
Therefore, God made it very clear that all that could be known throughout the church age was that He was coming as a thief in the night. No one could know the day or the hour of His return. For approximately 1,900 years, during the time of the church age, there were no clues.
But the true child of God continually reads his Bible and always wants to know more of God’s truth. And then he discovers from Ezekiel 3:17 and Ezekiel 33 that he is a watchman who must warn the world of the time of Christ’s return. And then time information begins to surface, beginning with the information that the year of creation was 11,013 B.C. Slowly, the timeline of the world’s history opens up. He can begin to understand the importance of time information in the Bible.
This is surely a way in which God is helping many people to test themselves, to see whether they are actually serving a god that is their church, their pastor, their creeds, or anything other than the God of the Bible. This, indeed, emphasizes that we are all utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth. How wonderful that we can humbly pray, and admit that in our own ability and wisdom, we know nothing. We can beg the Lord to open our eyes to truth.
There is an additional major testing program that God has placed in the Bible that is taking place during these 23 years (8,400 days) of the great tribulation. It has to do with God’s judgment process.
Throughout the church age, the normal understanding of God’s righteous judgment upon the wicked could be summed up by the idea that on the last day, Christ will sit upon a judgment throne. Each of the wicked who had previously died will be alive again to take their turn, along with all of the wicked who had not died, to be individually judged by Christ. They will be found guilty of innumerable sins and be sentenced to a place called hell, where they will be in torment forevermore.
Basically, that is the locked-in mind set of most of the peoples of the world who have any trust in the Bible at all. It is true whether they are still in a local church or whether they have left the church because they understand that the church age has ended. That has been the basic understanding of most of the churches throughout the church age. These dear people, therefore, believe that they can, in an unbiased, objective way analyze any verse of the Bible that might relate to judgment and come to truth. However, without the Holy Spirit unlocking their minds, they cannot come to truth.
But at this time, when we are so close to the end of time, and God has revealed an exceedingly great amount of new truth about the church age and the timetable of the end, He has also revealed much new truth about the judgment process. In fact, we will discover that the traditional understanding of Christ as Judge on the last day, that He would send the wicked to hell to forever suffer the agony of God’s wrath, does not identify with any precision at all with the true teachings of the Bible concerning God’s judgment process.
4
One other problem should be noted as we try to understand, as accurately as possible, the truth of the Bible. It was God’s intention to withhold, until very near the time of the end of the world, the revealing of much truth concerning the timetable and nature of God’s Judgment process. Therefore God wrote the Bible so that it has many complex verses that are not at all easy to understand.
One method God used to make it very difficult to come to truth was to write verses in such a way that, grammatically, they can be understood to teach two opposing ideas, both a right and a wrong idea. For example, God wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, “…which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.” Grammatically it is altogether correct to understand from this verse that it is the church that is the pillar and ground of truth. This, incidentally, is the way the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed churches teach this verse.
However, it is equally grammatically accurate to understand that this verse is teaching that the living God is the pillar and ground of truth. This verse has been carefully structured by God so that it is a trap. By following God’s rule of carefully searching the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can know which of these two understandings is the correct one. If the church is the pillar and ground of Bible truth, any local congregation has the spiritual right to teach, and possibly even to modify, what any verse in the Bible is teaching, because the church is the foundation of truth. On the other hand, if God is the pillar and ground of truth, the only way we can discover what a difficult verse is teaching is by careful searching of the Bible, accompanied by much prayer to God that He might, through His Word, the Bible, reveal the correct truth. Obviously this has to be the only correct teaching of this particular verse.
In the same way God has hidden a great amount of truth in the Bible that relates to God’s judgment plan. A number of verses appear to teach very plainly and accurately the traditional view that at the end of the world, God will cause each and every non-elect unsaved dead person to be resurrected to appear before Christ as the Judge. They will be found guilty, and will be sentenced to awful torment, that they will experience in the future in a place called Hell.
These same verses, however, can also be accurately understood to teach the correct understanding that perfectly agrees with the teaching that on October 21, 2011, the entire universe, together with all the non-elect unsaved, will be completely annihilated.
For example, the Bible speaks of “eternal damnation” or “unquenchable fire.” These phrases can be understood to mean damnation or fire that is to be experienced continuously for evermore in the future. Or they can also be correctly understood to mean that damnation or the fire is of such a nature that the person subject to this damnation or fire will be completely annihilated, so that throughout any time in the future they will never, never live again.
How can we know which is the correct understanding? The correct understanding should be obvious when we search the Bible and find that the word “life” or “living” is never used in connection with those who have physically died as unsaved persons, and who are resurrected (see “The Resurrection of the Unsaved,” pages 49-51). We must remember that a person must be alive in order to endure the suffering of torment.
5
Moreover, God in His wonderful kindness gives us an example of eternal fire. When Sodom was destroyed, that fire literally burned, at most, a few days. Yet the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is spoken of as “eternal fire.” We read in Jude 7:
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner,
giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Therefore, we can be assured that for these reasons and other Biblical reasons, we can know that the traditional view of eternal damnation is bankrupt. When a non- elect unsaved person dies, he is forever dead, both in body and soul.
truth will be further developed
During the past few years, we have learned that just before the day of judgment there is an 8,400-day (23-year) period called the great tribulation. During this period of time, God is especially testing all the people in the churches, are they true believers or not. That is, are their minds locked into preconceived ideas held by their church, or are they ready to listen to and obey all that the Bible teaches, even though many doctrines are only now being revealed.
During the great tribulation period, in which we are now living, we discover that God uses many tests that serve to separate the wheat from the tares. This time of testing is decreed in Revelation 3:10, where we read:
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
In this verse, the phrase “the hour of temptation,” or trial, identifies with the 8,400-day great tribulation. During this time, many trials or testings are taking place. Some examples of the things we have learned are as follows.
1. The church age has come to its end.
2. The precise date of judgment day.
3. A correct understanding of God’s judgment process.
4. A correct understanding of all that is involved in becoming saved.
5. An understanding that God had hidden many important truths in the Bible that would be revealed only near the end of time.
6. We are to send the message to the world that salvation is still possible today, and will continue to be possible until the last day of the great tribulation, May 21, 2011.
7. We must warn the world that when judgment day comes, there never again will be the possibility of salvation or any aspect of God’s mercy.
The Bible is exactly the same today as it was when it was completed, about 1,900 years ago. However, until our day, no one, regardless of how brilliant and faithful they were, or how humbly they served God as their Savior, no one was able to accurately determine from the Bible the year of creation, the year of the Noachian
7
flood, or the date of the birth of Jesus. Likewise, no one was able to accurately understand the many details of God’s judgment process.
Consequently, as previously noted, throughout the church age the common agreement among the most dedicated theologians and Bible students was that one could not know, with any precision, the time of Christ’s return at the end of the world. It was generally agreed upon that the statement in the Bible that Christ would come “as a thief in the night” (I Thessalonians 5:2, II Peter 3:10), settled the question of the time of Christ’s return.
Likewise, in regard to the nature and character of God’s judgment on the unsaved, it was commonly understood that at the end of time, Christ would visibly appear to judge all of the unsaved of the world. Those who had died would be resurrected to conscious existence in order to be judged. And then those who are alive at the end of time and those who were resurrected would be found guilty and sentenced to eternal conscious suffering somewhere in a place called hell. Passages such as II Corinthians 5:10 and Romans 14:10-11, and others, appeared to plainly teach that.
But God made a promise in Ecclesiastes 8:5-6, where we read:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
And God declared in Daniel 12:9:
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Since time and judgment are intimately associated with the time of the end, we can therefore expect that because we are so very near the end, we will at this time know much more about the timeline of history and the details of God’s judgment process.
Indeed, we have already learned, entirely from the Bible, the precise day, month, and year when the rapture will occur, that is, when all the believers will be caught up into heaven. We also have learned, with great precision, when the universe and the earth and all its works will be completely destroyed by fire.*
In a similar manner, at this time, God has opened up our understanding so that we can know far more about God’s judgment program. God has revealed with great clarity the timeline of the events of the end of the world, and that assists us so that we now have a more accurate understanding of His judgment program.
We will discover that God’s judgment program began before sin entered the world, and it will be completed when the earth and all of its works are burned up (II Peter 3:l0).
8
As we carefully examine God’s judgment plan, we will examine some key words, like “death” and “destruction,” and also, things such as shame, loss of inheritance, great physical pain, and finally, annihilation. However, before we do that, we might take note of some of the fallacies and difficulties that are an intrinsic part of the traditional understanding of God’s judgment process.
Virtually every church throughout the church age believed that one of its primary tasks was to teach people how to become saved. Therefore, every church developed an altogether unbiblical plan, which they believed was fully in agreement with the Bible, whereby they taught that salvation could be assured to those who followed their plan.
An exceedingly important part of their plan was the stern reminder that the alternative to salvation was eternal damnation. Their usual understanding of eternal damnation was that the unsaved would be tormented under God’s wrath forever and ever in a place called hell. They believed that such a horrible consequence of sin should greatly assist and encourage people to understand their great need for salvation.
People were told that they could receive this salvation, and consequently, be guaranteed that they would never have to suffer hell, if they faithfully followed the salvation plan being taught by the church or the evangelist. It might involve things such as water baptism, the sinner’s prayer, a profession of faith, church membership, giving of tithes, observance of the Eucharist or the Lord’s table, accepting Christ, etc. Once they were assured by the church pastor, priest, elders, or deacons that they had become saved, they also received the enormous comfort that they would never end up in an eternity of hell.
Very early on, a problem arose. Suppose a child died unsaved. Since even one sin makes man as guilty as if he had broken the whole law (James 2:10), then according to that doctrine, the unsaved child who died would suffer in hell forevermore. This would mean that a little child would receive infinite torment for his childish sins.
Is it really true that a merciful, just God would bring that child into such terrible suffering forevermore because he or she had died unsaved? This serious question was faced by the church theologians, and various solutions to this question were developed and became an important part of each church’s dogma.
For example, the Roman Catholics developed the idea that if the child was baptized as an infant, that would wipe away any guilt from the original sin of Adam. It would also place the child under the care and security of the church, which, if its rules were carefully followed, would guarantee that God’s wrath would never come to that person.
The Reformed churches followed a somewhat similar plan, even though they were far closer to truth than the Roman Catholics. They also believed and taught that the baby that was baptized by the church came into a spiritual covenant relationship with God, so that if the rules of the church were faithfully followed, salvation would be assured.
The churches that followed the Arminian doctrine of free will, such as the Baptist churches, developed an entirely different solution. They decided that the Bible taught that there is an age of accountability. That is, until a child reached a certain age, it was not accountable to God for any sins, and therefore, could not be threatened
9
by hell until it reached a certain age. Thus, if a child died before he reached that age, he or she would not be punished by God.
All of the above doctrines have no Biblical validation, even though to the present day, they are taught with utmost sincerity in churches throughout the world.
Where Is God’s Mercy?
And another problem arose in connection with the conclusion that the punishment for sin is to be tormented forevermore in a place called hell. A great many people who ridiculed the Bible raised a very plausible question, “You say the God of the Bible is merciful and just, so, do you really believe that a merciful and just God would torture a person who has lived a decent, moral life by placing that person in a place called hell, where he or she will intensely suffer forevermore? What kind of God is your God of the Bible? And how does that idea agree with the statement in the Bible that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked?” (Ezekiel 18:23 and 32).
These kinds of questions have been seriously considered by many churches. As a consequence, they have developed another approach to encourage people to accept their do-it-yourself salvation plan. Instead of emphasizing the negative, that is, an eternity of suffering, they changed their salvation presentation to emphasize the positive and said, “God loves you, and He has a wonderful plan for your life. You can be a part of this plan by accepting Jesus.” In other words, “Join us, and then you no longer have to worry about the fear that, from time to time, comes into your mind and heart because you know that there is a God, and someday, you must answer to Him.” These churches had not abandoned the idea of eternal suffering, but for them, it is simply ignored insofar as being something about which they should be seriously concerned.
We might further note that the Bible teaches that, “the wages of sin is death . . . “ (Romans 6:23a). The typical, traditional teaching effectively declares, “The ‘wages of sin’ means that on the last day, any who are not God’s elect (those who did not become saved) must come to life so that they can stand before Christ as their Judge. There they will be found guilty, and therefore, sentenced to an eternity of endless pain and agony in a place called hell.” Those who hold the traditional position will not admit this, but to be consistent with their understanding of judgment, it also means that because we are conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5), every non-elect baby who is aborted, and every baby who dies, and every non-elect young child who dies, also must be subject to this terrible judgment process.
The horrible man-made traditional idea of God’s judgment process is in terrible denial of the law of God. The idea was designed with little or no understanding that the entire Bible, which is the Word of God, is therefore, the law of God. Effectively, statements like “the wages of sin is death,” and “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” are looked upon as instructions from the mouth of God, rather than as the very law of God.
It is absolutely imperative that we understand that the Word of God is completely identified with Christ Himself. God says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a). The Word of God is absolutely as authoritative as Christ Himself. Hebrews 4:12-13 declares:
10
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Thus, when God told Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden tree he would die, God was declaring His law to Adam. That law had the full authority of Christ Himself over Adam, so that when Adam disobeyed that law, Adam instantly was condemned by that law to death.
When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the world of Noah’s day, those people did not need to first stand before Christ as the Judge so that they could be sentenced to death. They had broken the law of God, and each time they sinned, the law of God again condemned them to death.
In fact, the moment any unsaved person dies, regardless of how he dies, it is actually the moment that he is being executed as payment for his sins. Because the traditional teaching of God’s judgment plan did not take into account that the entire Bible is the law of God, and that each word is as authoritative as Christ Himself, it is a judgment plan designed in the mind of man. Because God’s plan was to hide many truths about time and judgment so that they would not be revealed to mankind until very near the end of time, the Bible was written in very complex and confusing language. It was God’s intention that no one could understand all that the Bible teaches about time and judgment until our day. It was God’s plan that these important truths would not be understood until the world was near the end of time. Thus, God allowed the incorrect traditional understanding of God’s judgment process to be taught in the churches, even as He allowed churches to teach a do-it-yourself salvation plan.
So, even today, there are earnest, well-meaning Bible students who continue to try to justify the traditional understanding of God’s judgment plan by carefully examining phrase after phrase found in the Bible. However, they filter these phrases through their preconceived traditional and incorrect understanding of God’s judgment program that they believe to be correct. It is an impossible and hopeless task because the traditional judgment plan does not recognize the complete authority of each word in the Bible as being the law of God.
In summary, we can certainly say that throughout the church age, there were unresolved issues in connection with a true understanding of the punishment for sin. This is entirely understandable when we remember that a great amount of information concerning the details and character of the end of time had been sealed in the Bible so that it could not be understood. God made the language of the Bible very complex and difficult to understand so that these truths would remain hidden until very near the end of time.
However, as we approach the end of time, it is God’s intention that a great amount of information of this nature would become known. Sadly, the truths that are now being revealed will be resisted by the churches, which are trusting altogether in their confessions, dogmas, and theological conclusions. This is especially so because we will find that the idea of suffering eternally in hell as a consequence of sin is not
11
true. Thus, a major means or cudgel that was used to encourage people to become saved has been removed.
Moreover, churches are very content with their present understanding of the Bible. They do not understand, or wish to understand, that it was God’s plan that in these last days, much additional truth would flow from the Bible. For example, we learned earlier in this study that throughout the church age, the churches concluded, based on their careful study of the Bible, that Christ would come as a thief in the night. However, now that we are very near the end of time, God has given the true believers sufficient information, which has come only from the Bible, so that we know with great accuracy the day, the month, and the year of the end of time.
Likewise, we are now learning from the Bible a great amount of more clearly detailed information concerning judgment. Remember what we learned from Ecclesiastes 8:5-6, where God says:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
We should not be surprised that the churches continue to resist the conclusions concerning time, which we have learned from the Bible, and that they will resist the conclusions that concern the character and nature of judgment, which also are a result of careful Bible study. But we should rejoice that since we are so near the end of time, God is revealing to the true believers much Biblical truth that had been hidden in the Bible for the past 1,900 years.
Man’s Love for Man
Before we leave our present examination of the traditional understanding of God’s judgment process, we will look at one other matter that focuses on this subject. It relates to God’s command that we are to love our neighbor.
In Matthew 22:36, Jesus was asked:
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
In verses 37 to 40, we read Jesus’ answer:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Based on John 14:21, we know that to love God is to keep His commandments. There we read:
12
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
We also know that His commandments are the entire Bible. The saved person, the true believer, therefore, has an intense ongoing desire to be obedient to the entire Bible.
However, in the same setting that God says to love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind, He gives the command that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Thus, God is singling out one aspect of our love for God by emphasizing the need to love our neighbor. Not only is He calling special attention to our love for our neighbor, but He is also giving us a standard by which we are to measure our love for our neighbor. That is, our love for our neighbor is to be equal to our love for ourselves.
We learn from the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), that our neighbor is anyone who needs help. This, of course, assures us that anyone who is not saved needs spiritual help, and thus, is our neighbor. Therefore, in actuality, our neighbor is anyone in the world. That is why we send the precious Gospel into the world. Anyone who is not saved needs our help. And of course, God utilizes the Bible to save those who are chosen to be saved.
Since we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we are to truly desire the highest good for them. That highest good is salvation. However, what is the situation if a person dies unsaved? Do we still love him? The Bible answers that question in Matthew 5:44, where we read:
But I say unto you, 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;
The likelihood that many of these enemies will become saved is exceedingly remote. And yet, we are to love them. Our love for the unsaved even after their death is demonstrated by David and by Jesus. For approximately the last 15 years of King Saul’s life, he tried every way possible to kill David. And yet, when King Saul died, David expressed his sorrow and love in verses such as II Samuel 1:19 and 24, where we read:
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! . . . . Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
And in II Samuel 2:5, where we read:
And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabeshgilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him.
13
David showed love and respect for his dead enemy, King Saul, but he expressed his love even more greatly for his very wicked son, Absalom. When Absalom was about 25 years of age, he began to plot against his father, David. His desire was to take the throne of Israel away from his father. In fact, his rebellion and the resultant anarchy became so pronounced that David was forced to flee from Jerusalem so that Absalom would not kill him.
However, David’s abiding love for his wicked, treacherous son, who finally was killed by a general in David’s army, is keenly expressed in II Samuel 18:33, where we read:
And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
David’s love for Absalom expresses the love we are to have for our neighbor. We are not to rejoice over the death of an enemy, but we are to be saddened that they experienced the punishing wrath of God that comes upon all the unsaved.
Even more dramatically, we see the love of Christ for those who must experience God’s wrath. In Luke 19:41-44 we read:
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
In these verses, we read that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, which in this context represents all the unsaved within national Israel and all those who remain in the churches, who will experience the full measure of God’s wrath for their sins. They have been especially blessed because of what they have learned from the Bible. They have learned so much about God’s love and mercy. But they have twisted Bible truths into doctrines that are more pleasing to them. They have continued to walk in their pride. We might look upon them as being spiritual anarchists, who most certainly deserve the wrath of God.
But Jesus weeps over them. Imagine, God Himself weeping because He must punish those who are in rebellion against Him. It is no wonder that we read in Ezekiel 33:11:
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; . . . .
We are learning that God must bring punishment upon our unsaved loved ones and friends, and upon everyone in the world who remains unsaved, and that fills
14
us with sorrow and sadness. But that sadness is greatly reduced because we know our friend can no longer suffer once he is dead. However, if the traditional understanding is correct, that is, the unsaved will be eternally tormented in a place called hell, we should indeed be grief-stricken when our unsaved friend dies. If our friend had carelessly lived in this world, enjoying all the fun and pleasures the world provides, but despising the Bible, we would continue to grieve long after his death when we thought of his eternal, continual suffering.
But now, the Bible provides correction to our understanding of judgment. Even though our friend died despising the Bible, even though it is terrible that he has been denied the wonderful inheritance of eternal life and the joy and glory of being joint-heirs with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth, and even though it is terrible to realize that his death is a shameful execution under the curse of God, there is good news. At least we can be absolutely assured that the death of our friend means that he will never again be subject to pain and suffering. For his life, there has been closure.
Sadly, many people who truly believe that they are saved have become exceedingly angry at the teaching set forth in the Bible and described in this book. We cannot help but be puzzled by their angry reaction. We know that there are a great many people who are convinced they are saved, but who are actually not saved. However, because they are fully convinced they are saved, they try their best to live like a saved person. But because they are not saved, it means that both in body and soul, they love this world and all of the joys it can bring. Therefore, to try to live as a saved person is a constant uphill climb. In their hearts, they love the world, and because they believe they are saved, they know they are not to love the world. So, life is quite difficult and unhappy for them. They must live like they do not want this world, and yet, they desperately want this world.
The problem arises when a friend dies, a friend who could not care less about the Bible, and who freely enjoyed all the happiness this world can bring. This friend must pay dearly for the happiness he enjoyed from this world. By the traditional view of judgment, he should be in eternal torment in a place called hell. Has the one we are considering, who believes he is saved but actually is not, considered the terrible thought that if he, himself, is still unsaved, then according to the traditional view, he must be punished forevermore in a place called hell? How terrible that would be.
However, now we learn that the traditional view of God’s plan for punishment upon sin is bankrupt. It entirely denies the mercy, the compassion, and the justice of God. It is entirely designed after the wisdom of man. There is no truth in it. The traditional view discloses the inherent cruelty and lack of mercy that is part of the nature of unsaved mankind. It may be appropriate to warn that we must never try to supplant God’s plan of mercy and justice with our concept of mercy and justice.
God gives this gracious promise in Ecclesiastes 8:5-6:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
15
For thousands of years these words have been read by theologians and Bible scholars without understanding. This is because time and judgment have everything to do with the end of time, and it was God’s purpose to seal this kind of information, and only reveal it at the time of the end (Daniel 12:4). God assures us of this as we witness how God, at this time in history, when we are so very close to the end of the world, has revealed with many proofs the very day and year when this world will end. Thus, today, every wise man, that is, every true believer, can know from the Bible about God’s timetable of history all the way to the last day (see We Are Almost There!).
But this promise of Ecclesiastes 8:5-6 also speaks of “judgment.” The word “judgment” is sometimes used as a synonym for the words “law” and “commandments” and “precepts.” For example, we read in Psalm 119:106, “…I will keep thy righteous judgments.”
However, ordinarily, the word “judgment” or “judgments” is used to signify the consequence of breaking the law of God. This is the way it is used in the verses in Ecclesiastes that we are presently examining, where we read, “Because to every purpose there is time and judgment.” That is, to every purpose there is both a time when it will be accomplished and a consequence that results from the accomplishment of that purpose. That consequence is judgment or punishment, if what was done violated the law of God.
We have learned that the major teaching of the time information in the Bible focuses on the end of time, when all of God’s judgment activities will be completed. Therefore, we can readily understand why time and judgment are linked together in these verses. All of God’s judgment processes will be completed at the end of the world.
We are not surprised that the traditional position that most of the churches have taught throughout the church age (i.e., Christ will come as a thief in the night, II Peter 3:10), has been altogether supplanted by the additional revelation God has given us. Strictly from the Bible alone we have learned that we can know the very day, month, and year of the end-time events. However, throughout the church age, it was God’s intention that the churches were to teach that Christ would come as a thief in the night. We know that this is true because of what we read in Acts 1:6:
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
The apostles, who headed up the early church, wanted to know when God would complete the restoration of the kingdom of God. In their minds, they were looking for Him to set up an earthly kingdom. Christ answered them, as we read in Acts 1:7:
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
Then Jesus teaches more about the character of the kingdom. Acts 1:8 states:
16
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
These three verses instruct us that during the church age, there would be great curiosity about the timing of the end. However, the church throughout the church age was not to be interested in that question, but they were to focus entirely on the mandate given to them, that is, to send the Gospel into all the world. Therefore, throughout the 1,955 years of the church age, they were to understand that no one could know the time of the end, but that Christ would come as a thief in the night.
However, near the time of the end of the world, the true believers had to be given the precise timing of the end. Therefore, in our day, God has opened our eyes to an accurate understanding of the entire timeline of history so that we can know the precise day, month, and year of the end. This enables the true believers to carry out our responsibility to warn the world. Every believer is a watchman. We read in Ezekiel 33:2-7:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
In I Thessalonians 5:2-6, we read about the shift from teaching that Christ is coming as a thief in the night to the teaching that we are watchmen. Therefore God’s program called for a knowledge of time and judgment.
Since time and judgment are so closely linked together, does this mean that the traditional teachings on judgment are also to be supplanted by the new teachings from the Bible?
This is precisely what we are finding to be true. The key to this truth is that time is completely interwoven into the fabric of God’s judgment processes. Therefore, the secure knowledge of the final timetable of earth’s history has necessitated an entire re-analysis of any traditional view of God’s judgment processes.
In other words, it was impossible to have a Biblically correct view of judgment until we first learned, strictly from the Bible, an altogether correct view of time. Since God revealed so much new time information, we should not be surprised at the tremendous new truth we will now learn.
17
When God finally revealed to us the precise timetable of the events of the end of the world, we discovered not only the exact end of the church age (May 21, 1988), and the exact duration of the great tribulation (8,400 days or 23 full years), but also the time of the day of judgment (May 21, 2011 to October 21, 2011). With this precise time information, we also very quickly began to learn more and more about God’s entire judgment process. This is not surprising because, as we have already noted, the Bible links time and judgment together.
Before we examine God’s judgment process more closely, it would be in order to make a few comments about the great tribulation period, which is so closely tied to the day of judgment. Remember, the church age ended May 21, 1988, which was also the first day of the 8,400-day period of great tribulation. In turn, the great tribulation is to end on May 21, 2011, which is the first day of the 153-day period of the day of judgment.
There are two verses in the Bible that appear to make the great tribulation period a part of the day of judgment. The first is Luke 21:22, where we read:
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
The second is I Peter 4:17:
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
The “house of God” is a reference to all the local congregations, which have been abandoned by the Holy Spirit and placed under the rulership of Satan. They are being punished because they have departed greatly from the true Gospel. Thus, they are under judgment. But that is far different from the day of judgment, the five- month period from May 21, 2011 to October 21, 2011, when each and every human being all over the entire earth will receive the final punishment for his sins. This punishment, of course, will not come upon the true believers, who will be raptured, or caught up in the air to meet Christ, on May 21, 2011.
The great tribulation is a time of testing, particularly in the churches, but also in all the world, when God is separating the wheat (the true believers) from the tares (those who believe they are saved, but in actuality, are not).
Revelation 3:10 describes this period as “the hour of temptation.” The word “temptation” can also be translated “trial” or “testing.” We have learned of many tests that God has caused to be in evidence during the last few years. They include important doctrinal subjects and questions such as the following.
1. Can a church show someone how to become saved?
2. Do we understand that at this time God is revealing a great amount of new information from the Bible?
18
3. Do we clearly understand that every word in the original languages of the Bible came from the mouth of God?
4. The entire Bible is God’s law book to the human race, and it will bring condemnation if not obeyed.
5. The church age ended in 1988, so, no one can become saved while under the authority of a local congregation. In fact, God has placed Satan in the churches to rule there. Thus, God has commanded those who desire to be obedient to God to come out of the local congregations.
6. Throughout the church age, it was God’s intention that the true believers should think that Christ would come as a thief in the night. But now, the true believers should know the precise day, month, and year of His coming. This allows them to faithfully warn the world of the time of the end. If people continue with the idea that He is coming as a thief in the night, it will only lock them in to a path that leads to sudden destruction coming upon them (I Thessalonians 5:1-4).
7. Throughout the church age, God allowed the traditional and completely wrong idea of God’s judgment process to prevail. But now, God is giving us far more insight into the true nature of God’s judgment process. It is also a testing arena, do we truly love our enemies?
8. The whole world is being tested in that they are being warned of the impending end of the world. Will they continue in a state of denial, as did the world in Noah’s day, or will some individuals react to the warning, as did the Ninevites when Jonah warned them of impending destruction?
God declares in Revelation 3:10 that He will keep the true believers from this hour of trial. For the true believers, who dearly wish to obey all of God’s commands, the tests listed above are not a trial because the believers have a desire to be obedient. But for non-believers in the churches and in the world, each one of these tests or trials should tell them that if they refuse to obey, then they are in deep trouble with God.
Wonderfully, the last 6,100 days of the 8,400-day great tribulation period is a time when a great multitude, which no man could number, is being saved.
However, we should now return to the study of a more accurate understanding of God’s judgment process.
God, The Judge of All the Earth
In this study, we are trying to learn as accurately as possible God’s judgment plan for this world. A judgment plan obviously must include a judge. That Judge is God Himself. In our minds, we immediately picture a judge before whom an accused person stands. The judge carefully listens and considers testimony from various witnesses and from the accused so that he can determine the guilt or innocence of the accused person, and then assign the appropriate legal sentence if the accused is found guilty.
That is very similar to the traditional view of the Biblical judgment process. In that view, the Judge will be Christ. The accused will be each and every unsaved person. The time will be the end of the world. The sentence will be torment forevermore in a place called hell.
We are now learning that the traditional view is utterly bankrupt. While that view was held by almost all churches throughout the church age, it is founded on man’s understanding of justice rather than the truth of the Bible.
In fairness to those who have held the traditional position, we must realize that it was fostered by the way God carefully wrote the Bible. We have learned that it was not God’s intention to reveal the details of God’s plans for the end of the world until the world had almost come to its end. Therefore, because we are at that time, when the end of the world is very imminent, we now know the precise time of the end. Likewise, it is only now that God is revealing in an accurate way the details of His judgment plan. Therefore, at this time, when God is opening our eyes to Biblical truth that was never revealed in the past, we should learn about the Biblical role of the Judge.
In the Old Testament Book of Judges, we learn about the activities of judges like Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, etc. We find that their chief occupation was to destroy the enemies of Israel. That is, they were expected to provide peace and safety to the nation.
In I Samuel 8:20, we read that Israel asked for a king:
That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
And in Judges 2:16, God declared:
Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled [plundered] them.
We see this also in statements such as the following.
Psalm 7:8: The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, . . . .
20
Psalm 7:11: God judgeth the righteous, . . . .
Psalm 9:19: Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
Psalm 26:1: Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.
Psalm 67:4: O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
Psalm 72:1-4: Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. . . . He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
Psalm 103:6: The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Romans 14:10-11: . . . we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
II Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; . . . .
Revelation 20:12: And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
From these verses we learn that the judge has the task of ruling, or governing, the people. Of course, it includes the task of ascertaining guilt or innocence in the event of a trial. We are already learning that God, as the Judge of all the earth, has given the law of God, the whole Bible, to carry out the task of finding people guilty and sentencing them to the condemnation of hell. (Later we will learn that hell is death.)
However, it should be clear that as God rules the world, every human being throughout his lifetime is standing before God as the Judge of the world. It is God who protects the poor and the fatherless, spiritually speaking, and through His Word brings condemnation each time a sin is committed. As God reigns as the Judge over all the earth, He takes many actions to carry out His Kingly desires. Some examples are as follows.
1. God judged the elect before the foundation of the earth. He put their punishment on Christ who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
21
world (Revelation 13:8).
2. God wrote the law of God (the Bible), identifying it altogether with God Himself (the Word became flesh, John 1:14), thus giving the Word of God equal authority with God so that the Word of God condemns.
3. He established the law that Jesus Christ was to be the High Priest who offered the Lamb, and He was also to be the Lamb that was offered.
4. He established the awesome fact that the shame and the curse that Jesus the Lamb of God endured, as He paid for the sins of the elect, were to be viewed in the sight of all the peoples of the earth. God records details of this demonstration in the Bible so that the entire world can read about it.
5. He has decreed that the result of the obedience of the true believers, particularly as shown in the rapture, is a judgment on the unsaved, particularly on those who have had the Bible.
6. He puts down kings and raises up kings.
7. He governs all the affairs of each human being.
8. He determined the timeline of history and established the full judgment process.
9. There is nothing that happens anywhere in the world, at any time in the history of the world, that is outside of His complete knowledge and authority.
10. We will learn that the focus of all the activity of Christ as the Judge of all the earth on the day of judgment will be to deliver all of the true believers safely into heaven, and also to cause the completion of His punishment upon all of the unsaved of the world.
11. As Judge and Ruler of the world, He gave Satan certain ruling responsibilities and allowed him access into heaven during the first 11,000 years of history. Christ also cast Satan out of heaven and took away many of his ruling activities, giving him a deathblow, etc., at the time of the cross.
12. God also installed Satan in the churches to rule over each and every church during the 8,400-day great tribulation and during the 153 days of the day of judgment.
Indeed, in God’s role as Judge and Ruler, His task is far greater and wider than that of a human judge who is assigned the task of discovering the guilt or innocence of the accused.
22
God’s Judgment Process
Now that we have learned about the wide range of activities that are included under the heading of God as the King, as the Governor, and as the Judge of all the earth, we should now determine the punishment God has decreed for sin. We learn from the Bible that there are five major aspects of that awful punishment. They are as follows.
1. The death of “life in Christ.” Mankind was created with life in Christ, which we call spiritual life. It was the spiritual life with which Adam, and therefore, all mankind, was created. However, it was given to mankind conditionally. If they sinned they would lose this life and become spiritually dead. It is the same kind of life we receive at the moment God gives us a new resurrected soul, except then it is called eternal life because all of our sins have been covered by the blood of Christ. But when Adam disobeyed, he became spiritually dead. He no longer had any life in Christ. He and all mankind who were in his loins became spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins.
2. Death of body and soul, which we can call physical death.
3. Enormous shame.
4. Loss of the inheritance of the kingdom of God, in which we would have lived eternally with Christ.
5. Destruction that guarantees that the person judged could never again come to either spiritual or physical life.
In Revelation 20:11-13, we read:
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
This is a tableau (a three-dimensional picture), of the non-elect (those whom God never intended to save), standing before God. There is a great white throne, which can identify only with God as the Ruler, the Judge of all the earth. The One who sits (rules) upon the throne can be only God, who as the supreme Ruler will bring an end to this universe, from whose face heaven and earth fled away.
The dead are standing there before God. Each and every person in the human race, throughout his lifetime, stands before God. In this context, they are all the non-
23
elect who are spiritually dead from the time they were in Adam (in Adam all die, I Corinthians 15:22). This means that though they are physically alive for a time, from the moment of conception they have no life in Christ. They are spiritually dead. In this tableau we see opened books that obviously have a record of their sins. These people are condemned each time they commit a sin. This is so because the law of God, which is the whole Bible, is used by God to bring condemnation. They are judged by the law of God each time they commit the sins that have been recorded in these books.
There is also a book of life. Their names are not found in the book of life. Therefore, it is not God’s intention to save them. They are all under the sentence of death, and eventually, it will become absolutely certain that they can never become alive again as they are cast into the lake of fire. In Revelation 20, in both verses 12 and 13 the verb “were judged” is in the aorist passive indicative tense, which means they were subject to the continuous past action of being judged. Thus, verse 13 is teaching that in this tableau, the unsaved who have already died and are in the grave, in their lifetime had been continuously under the judgment of God as the Word of God condemned them. As a final part of God’s continuing judgment process in the day of judgment, they will be thrown out of the graves to receive the final shame, and then their remains will be destroyed forever.
In Revelation 20:13 we read about those in the sea. This could be a reference to the spiritually dead who are physically alive and typified by the waves of the sea (Isaiah 57:20; Jude 13). Or it could refer to those who perished in the sea, like those who perished in the flood of Noah’s day. In addition, those in death and hell, or in death and the grave (that is, those who are still physically alive but spiritually dead, together with those who had previously died and had been buried), are also brought to final shame before God during the day of judgment.*
Finally, death and hell, or death and the grave, are thrown into the lake of fire. In I Corinthians 15:26, we read:
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Later we will learn that the lake of fire is called the second death, and it emphasizes that the unsaved will never, never again come to any conscious existence or life. They will have ceased to exist.
What Is Hell?
The word that is most often associated with the judgment of God upon sin is the word “hell.” What can we learn from the Bible about this word? In the Old
24
Testament it can be found more than 30 times and is always the Hebrew word “sheol.” The word “sheol” is also translated more than 30 times as the word “grave” and three times as the word “pit.”
In the New Testament, the Greek word “hades” is usually translated “hell” but also can be translated “grave.” Additionally, a few times, the word “hell” comes from the Greek word “gehenna” and once from the Greek word “tartaroo.”
The Hebrew word “sheol” and the Greek word “hades” can be translated as the word “hell” or as the word “grave,” depending upon the context. At times the context will permit either translation, which indicates the close relationship of the words “grave” and “hell.” Both words are intimately associated with death. This is very understandable when we read, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “The soul that sinneth, it shall die…” (Ezekiel 18:20). It agrees with the concept given in I Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” It also makes Revelation 21:1 understandable, and there we read:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
The word “sea” in the Bible is frequently used as a picture or representation of “hell.” For example, the 2,000 pigs, into which the evil spirits entered, were destroyed in the sea (Mark 5:13). When God’s judgment plan is finished there will be no more death, no more hell. Death and hell will no longer exist.
Thus, we must understand that hell is the same as the grave, in that the grave is entirely identified with death. This brings us to the next question: What is the lake of fire?
The Lake of Fire
In five verses of the Bible, reference is made to the lake of fire. They are as follows.
Revelation 19:20: And the beast 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.
Revelation 20:10: And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:14-15: And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and
25
all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Significantly, Revelation 20:14 declares that death and hell (or death and the grave) were cast into the lake of fire. Remember we learned from I Corinthians 15:26 that “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” But in these verses we learn that death is cast into the lake of fire, which in turn is called the second death (Revelation 20:14). Moreover, we have learned from Revelation 21:1 that when the new heavens and the new earth come into existence, the sea (hell and death) is no more. Thus, the lake of fire emphasizes a total end.
Later in this study, we will learn that the Lord Jesus Christ died twice in connection with the atonement. He died before the foundation of the world as the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 13:8). He also died when He was on the cross, demonstrating to us and the world how He paid for our sins. The doubling of His punishment agrees with the principle set forth in Genesis 41:32, that is, that which is doubled is established by God.
Likewise, God speaks of doubling the punishment of the unsaved in Jeremiah 17:18, and in Revelation 18:6, where we read:
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
God declares in Revelation 18:8:
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
In this verse, God teaches us that in one day, which would have to be judgment day, there shall be death and famine, and she shall be burned with fire. Burned with fire identifies with II Peter 3:10, where we read:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
The burning with fire, which is the second death, links the second death with the lake of fire. It is the final end that guarantees that never, never again will there be any possibility of life. It links up with the Greek work “gehenna,” which is found in a few places in the Bible, and has been translated as the word “hell.” For example, we read in Mark 9:43-44:
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [Greek, gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
26
The fire that shall never be quenched is the lake of fire. References to fire in the Bible identify with Hebrews 12:29, where God is called “a consuming fire.” When a person is consumed by the fire of God, that person can never exist again.
Later, we will learn that in the phrase “worm dieth not,” the word “worm” is completely identified with shame. That it dieth not simply means that the unsaved are shamefully executed, and it is never possible for that shame to be removed. Likewise, the phrase “the fire is not quenched” signifies that he can never, never become alive again.
We must remember that in Adam, mankind was created to live forever, although that was conditional. However, because of sin, mankind became subject to death. But inasmuch as he was created in the image of God to live forever, is it possible that at some time in the future, after having paid for his sins, he could come to life again? The answer is no! To emphasize this solemn fact, God speaks of a lake of fire, of fire that cannot be quenched, of everlasting damnation, of the worm that dieth not, and of the smoke of their torment ascending up forever. All of these phrases relate to the second death, the lake of fire. The fire, the damnation, the smoke, and the worm are eternal, in that never, never again will there be life.
These phrases indicate that it is absolutely guaranteed that there never again shall be life for the unsaved people. The fact is that they are completely burned up, so that in no sense do they exist any longer. The concept of the cessation of existence of the unsaved is emphasized in many verses of the Bible. For example, in the following passages.
Nahum 1:6, 8: Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. . . . But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
Malachi 4:1: For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Isaiah 10:23: For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.
The Hebrew word that is translated as “consumption” is also translated as “consume” or “full end.” In Jeremiah 46:28, we read:
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
Moreover, the word “perish” is used about 100 times in the Old Testament
27
and about 30 times in the New Testament. In each verse, it emphasizes a cessation of existence. For example, Job 4:20 declares:
They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
Furthermore, forms of the words “destroy” and “destruction” are used more than 500 times in the Bible.
On the other hand, the word “torment” is not found at all in the Old Testament, and only 22 times in the New Testament. We discover that the context in which this word “torment” is used can range anywhere from among the following.
1. The torment of the unsaved as they hear the true Gospel (Revelation 11:10).
2. The torment of suffering from illness (Matthew 8:6; Matthew 4:24).
3. The torment of stinging scorpions (Revelation 9:5).
4. The Greek word usually translated “torment” is also translated “vexed,” when the Bible speaks of Lot’s righteous soul being “vexed” by the sins of Sodom (II Peter 2:8).
5. The Greek word that is translated “torment” is also translated “sorrowing” (Luke 2:48; Acts 20:38).
6. Torment with fire (Revelation 14:10; Luke 16:24).
We have learned that the final end of God’s judgment process is death. This concept is thoroughly supported by the Bible’s generous use of words like “perish,” “destroy,” and “destruction.” Incidentally, it might be noted that words like “death,” “dead,” and “die” can be found more than 1,300 times in the Bible. It is no wonder then that the Bible declares that the last enemy to be destroyed is death (I Corinthians 15:26).
The Rich Man and Lazarus
We will now review the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that is recorded in Luke 16. Improper understanding of this parable has resulted in a wrong understanding of God’s judgment process.
The parable describes two individuals. The rich man has all of the joys and comforts this present world can bring, but he is not saved. The poor man, Lazarus, has none of the good things of this world, but he is a saved man. Finally, both men die. The rich man is buried, and Lazarus is carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). To be in the bosom of Abraham is a picture of being in the highest blessing in the presence of God. To be buried is to be placed in a grave.
28
The parable then continues with a conversation between the dead rich man and Abraham (God), who is in heaven. Remember we learned that the grave and death are the same as hell. Therefore, it is not incorrect to say that the rich man was in hell (Luke 16:23). But we must understand that lifting up his eyes and seeing Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, and speaking to Abraham, are all hypothetical. That is, God has set up a completely imaginary tableau, or three-dimensional picture, in order to convey spiritual truth. These truths include important doctrines such as the following.
1. The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus with a drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24). There is no mercy or grace to those who have died unsaved.
2. There is a great gulf between heaven and hell. Heaven is eternal life. Hell is death forevermore. Never, never will those who are dead ever come to life again.
3. The rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers because he thought that such a miracle will cause them to become believers. The truth is, they have Moses and the prophets, the Bible. If they will not believe the Bible, then they will not believe even if they witness some great miracle.
4. The rich man is tormented in this flame. The Greek word that is translated “tormented” is used only in verse 24, in verse 25 (“thou art tormented”), in Luke 2:48, and in Acts 20:38. The word “flame” emphasizes the rich man is being punished by God, who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). The word “torment,” which is defined by its usage in Acts 20:38 and Luke 2:48, indicates the nature and character of the torment he is experiencing. Therefore, we will look carefully at this word as it is used in these two other verses.
Acts 20:38: Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.
Luke 2:48: And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
In both of these verses, the word that is translated as “tormented” in Luke 16 is translated as “sorrowing.” This sorrowing has nothing to do with physical pain. It is the sorrow of not seeing a loved one again. The rich man was in torment because he was sorrowing that he could never again have the joys and comforts he had experienced in his life on earth, while Lazarus was safe and secure with the greatest blessings forevermore.
29
In other words, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us nothing at all about eternal pain in a place called hell. It is teaching us about the penalty of losing all the blessings of this life, and gaining none of the blessings of eternal life. This parable helps us to understand the experience of Esau. He was the firstborn. Therefore, he owned the birthright, which included the right of the double inheritance. Yet he despised his birthright and traded it for a bowl of soup (Genesis 25:29-34).
In Adam, every human being had the right of the firstborn, the birthright. Jesus explains this in the parable of the prodigal son. The elder son was told in Luke 15:31, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” The birthright included the double inheritance of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:17). And “all that I have is thine” includes eternal life and being joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).
Because of our sin, which is typified by the bowl of soup, we have lost our birthright. We have lost the right to life in Christ, which we call spiritual life, and which for the saved is eternal life. We have lost the right to be co-inheritors with Christ of the new heavens and the new earth. That is an integral part of the enormous penalty that we must pay for our sin.
Words cannot adequately describe the stupendous loss the unsaved person experiences when, because of his sin, he loses eternal life with Christ, and he will not reign with Christ throughout eternity, and he will not be joint-heirs with Him of the new heavens and the new earth. That will certainly be a large part of the torment that those who enter into the final five months of the earth’s existence will experience. And they will realize that because they were left behind when the rapture occurred, they will never receive any part of their birthright.
The torment of the sorrowing of the rich man in the grave, which also can be called hell, surely gives us some idea of the great torment (sorrowing) that will be present amongst the millions of church people who had been convinced that they were saved, but at the time of the rapture, they are left behind. No wonder, as we will presently learn, they are weeping and gnashing their teeth and blaspheming God. We are learning that the main reaction of those who realize they are eternally outside of the kingdom of God is a reaction of intense sorrow. This is also taught by the reaction of Esau who despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a bowl of soup. In Hebrews 12:16-17 we read:
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
About two billion people living today call themselves “Christian,” and most of them are identified in some manner with a local church. As we look at the local churches all around us, almost all of these church people fail to believe the Bible’s admonishment to leave the church because God is finished using the churches to send forth the Gospel. Most of them still believe that Christ is coming as a thief in the night, and that we cannot know the precise date of the end of time. Most of them trust in a man-made do-it-yourself gospel, and they have no true understanding of the principle that Christ has done all the work required to save us. Most of them still
30
believe in the traditional understanding of God’s judgment process, which wrongly teaches that on the last day, the unsaved will be sentenced to terrible torment that they will experience continually forever in a place called hell.
Nearly two billion of these church people will discover on May 21, 2011, that they have been left behind. The Bible records that their sorrowing will be as the sorrows (torments) of the rich man in the parable we have just examined. We read in Luke 13:28:
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.
When the day of judgment begins on May 21, 2011, all over the world, millions of true believers will be changed instantly into their eternal, spiritual bodies and caught up into heaven, in full view of those who are left behind. Additionally, all over the world, graves will be thrown open, and the bodies of the true believers will be changed, and they also will be caught up into heaven. This includes the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The church people who are left behind will be in shock as they realize they are still completely under the wrath of God. In their great sorrow, they will be weeping, and yet, also, they will be gnashing their teeth, showing their great anger at God. It will indeed be a time of immense sorrow for all of the church people.
God records this in a number of verses, for example, Matthew 8:11-12; Matthew 13:49-50; Matthew 13:41-42; Matthew 25:30. Some of these verses emphasize that where the weeping and gnashing of teeth take place, it is called a furnace of fire, “And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:50). This is parallel to the rich man’s complaint in Luke 16:24: “…I am tormented [sorrowing] in this flame.” Remember, God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12: 29). To be under His wrath is like being in a burning furnace.
Thus, we learn that by means of this parable, in which a dead man is pictured speaking to God in heaven (Abraham), we are given much information about the seriousness of the wrath of God.
The most shameful, horrible punishment for any crime is capital punishment. There may be virtually no physical pain of any kind associated with execution, and yet, it is regarded by mankind as the ultimate punishment. Why is this so?
This is so because the person who has been executed has shamefully had his right to life taken from him. He can decide to take his own life by suicide. He can risk his life on the battlefield or by engaging in mountain climbing. He can pay for his crimes by spending years in prison. But the moment his fellow humans decree that shamefully, his life is to be taken from him, he is subject to what is regarded as the most terrible and shameful punishment.
We may not be aware of this, but this earthly execution is an echo or reflection of the punishment God has decreed for sin. In fact, God records in the Bible the most shameful execution we can ever imagine, and that execution has everything to do with our salvation. Of course, we are speaking of the death of our blessed Lord and
31
Savior. Therefore, we should very carefully look at His death because from it, we will learn not only how shame fits into the judgment process, but we will also learn much more about God’s entire judgment upon sin
Salvation
Who or where are the sinners who cannot be sent to hell? Nobody knows. The only time we can truly know we are one of God’s chosen people is when we receive from God a new resurrected soul. When that occurs, we will know it happened only because God had elected us to become saved, and He had completely provided for our salvation. We will know that our salvation is altogether the grace and mercy of God, and that we had nothing at all to do with our becoming saved.
When God gives a person a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26), God is preparing that person to live eternally with Him. The new heart, or new spirit, which we also call a new resurrected soul, transforms our life so that we have an intense ongoing desire to do the will of God. Moreover, we are deeply troubled when we sin, but it is still possible to sin because we are living in an unsaved body. Therefore, before we become eternal citizens of the new heavens and the new earth, we also will be given a new spiritual, resurrected body. God can give a new soul to anyone whom God had elected, at any time in an elect person’s life. It can be before birth or a minute before death. It is an action entirely programmed by God.
However, it will take place while that elect person is under the hearing of the Word of God (Romans 10:17). That is why we try to encourage everyone in the world to hear the Bible. In fact, we are commanded by God to send the Word of God into the whole world, so that everyone may be under the hearing of the Bible.
To place people in the environment of hearing the Word of God is to place them under God’s commands to mankind to obey the Bible. To obey the Bible requires that we read or listen to the Bible. We are commanded to become saved. We are commanded to repent of our sins. We are commanded to pray for God’s mercy. The unsaved person is commanded to strive to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 13:24). The word “strive” is from a Greek word that means to agonize. It is like a runner who agonizes or strives to be the winner of a race.
This is where the mystery of salvation exists. Because God created man in His image and His likeness, even though man is spiritually dead, he is to attempt with all his strength to follow the commands of God. He therefore carefully listens to the Word of God, trying to be obedient to the commands of God. How God interrelates with this striving is a mystery. Certainly, we must never believe that my striving to enter into the kingdom of God is meritorious in any way. Nor does my striving in any way guarantee that I will become saved.
It is true that in my striving, I will become better acquainted with God’s law book, the Bible. It is true that in my striving, I will increasingly seek God’s will, rather than my will. It is true that in my striving, I will find myself humbly crying to God for His mercy. It is true that in my striving, I will increasingly realize that I must wait entirely upon the Lord, if indeed it is His plan to save me. It is true that in my striving, I have a great hope that I, too, could possibly be one of God’s elect. It is true that today, God is saving a great multitude, which no man could number, and I, too, might possibly be included in that number.
73
It is also true that God rules over the unsaved as well as the saved. That is, ultimately, God can cause an unsaved person to do His will from time to time, even though God has no plan to save that person. Likewise, as an unsaved individual is striving to enter the kingdom of God, anything that he does that is obedient to God may be God working in him, even though he is not one of God’s elect. Or it may be that individual’s own attempt, altogether by his own efforts, to obey God. Or it may be a combination of both God’s action and man’s action. Only God knows precisely what is going on in a person’s life.
But all of the above is God’s business. The unsaved person does not have to determine whether it is God’s action or his own action that is occurring in his life. All he knows for sure is that if he becomes saved, it will be entirely by the work of Christ. In Joel 2:12-13, we read:
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
If an unsaved person finds that, increasingly, he hates sin and is far happier when he is doing the will of God, and that he has an eager, ongoing desire to be obedient to all the commandments of the Bible, it may be that God’s Spirit is witnessing with his spirit that he has become saved.
We must remember that God has a legal right to command mankind to obey His laws. Because mankind was created in the image and likeness of God, mankind, like God Himself, is completely subject to the law of God, the Bible. If a person lives in this world and has not heard anything from the Bible, God must arrange for that person to come under the hearing of the Bible if the person is one of God’s elect. That can happen at any time in the lifetime of that person.
However, the Bible is greatly concerned about those who read the Bible, or who hear God’s commands with their physical ears, but are not hearing the Bible. How can that be? In Deuteronomy 28:45 we read:
Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
And in Jeremiah 29:17-19, we read:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations
74
whither I have driven them: Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.
The word “hearken” in these two warnings, which are typical of many similar warnings recorded in the Bible, means to listen and obey. God is teaching that if we hear the words of the Bible with our physical ears, but do not try to obey that which we are hearing, it is equivalent to not hearing the Word of God. Such people have deliberately placed themselves outside of an environment in which God is saving. Their preconceived ideas concerning salvation or any other teaching of the Bible prevent them from humbly listening to, and desiring to obey, the commands and truths of the Bible.
However, there is hope, wonderful hope, for those who now humbly admit their sins and who turn away from their preconceived ideas, who earnestly strive to be obedient to all of the Bible, and who humbly cry to God for His mercy.
It is true that the Bible teaches that God’s wrath is now on every one of the churches that are found throughout the world. For 1,955 years, churches had been God’s official external representatives of the kingdom of God. Sadly, in the name of God, and while claiming that the Bible was their authority, they taught, and continue to teach, many doctrines that are contrary to the Bible. Moreover, Satan rather than Christ is now their spiritual ruler. Today, there is no hope for any of the churches that exist throughout the world. Those who remain within them are being prepared for their entrance into judgment day.
Only by turning away from the condition of spiritually serving Satan, and by fleeing from the local churches, and going with spiritually broken hearts to the God of the Bible, and being under the hearing of the Word of God, is there hope for anyone.
