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 Presentation # 19 - Burn Them Tuesday 1, June 2010
Title: Burn Them
Topic: Hell Fire
Introduction:
God is good - and – All life is from God.
So will a loving God keep sinners alive to torture them in hell for eternity? I don’t think so.
A Bit of History
Do you remember the aftermath of the first conflict in Iraq, Hussein had invaded Kuwait – The war was called Desert Storm.
Kuwaiti citizens on the morning of February 23, l991, were greeted by a horrifying sight. Iraqi engineers had begun igniting Kuwait’s vast oil fields. Almost 90 percent of that country’s producing wells were turned into roaring blowtorches. Sixty million barrels of crude oil a day were going up in smoke. This was Saddam Hussein’s parting shot at a land which he couldn’t keep. What resulted was one of the worst man-made ecological disasters of modern times. Hundreds of blazing oil-wells in the desert of Kuwait had to be somehow extinguished.
Men had to be found who would brave the searing heat and hoist a barrel of dynamite over the exploding oil.
One extraordinary team of oil fire specialists, called “Boots and Coots” took on some of the most dangerous of the wells. Their ordeal has been described as “Six Days in Hell.” Let’s try to get a clear picture from the Bible of what will happen when the wicked are destroyed.
Biblical Description of what will happen at the end of the millennium
First let us look at what will happen at the end of the millennium:
Revelation 20:7-8 talks about what happens at the end of the millennium, the thousand-year period.
What will happen to Satan?
He will be released from the abyss:
Revelation 20:7
He will be cast into the lake of fire:
Revelation 20:10
Then what will happen to the wicked.
The wicked dead that did not rise with the first resurrection:
Revelation 20:5
Revelation, chapter 20:9; 12-14 describes what will happen to the wicked.
The Lake of Fire
Now, it’s possible to imagine that there is a lake of fire somewhere out in space. But Scripture tells us that the lake of fire will happen on this earth. This is where the final battle is waged, where the dead come forth to judgment, and where fire from heaven strikes and devours. We have no hint of any other place of destruction called “hell” other than this earth. Now you’ll recall that a lake of fire—on the earth—is described in Revelation 20:10. Think about it. This presents a big problem. If that is smoke of torment ascending, continually, there will still be a great deal of mourning and crying and pain. The old order will definitely not have passed away. How is God’s promise to be fulfilled? To put it simply, you can’t have hell and heaven in the same place. What about the Everlasting Fire?
To illustrate, let’s take a closer look at those raging infernos in the Kuwait desert. The “Boots and Coots” team of oil-fire specialists were assigned to B.G. 360, an especially dangerous well.
The thunderheads of smoke erupting from it were the size of several football fields. One fire fighter circled the well at some distance, trying to get a glimpse of the wellhead. It means one thing: total and complete destruction. They’d seen the remains of those who perished in intense fires: there wasn’t much left, just a few bone fragments fused to metal. They knew that, to get close to an intense inferno, is to be consumed.
Now let me ask you. What is going to happen to those who are thrown into a lake of fire? How long will they survive? Isn’t it true that, the bigger the fire, the quicker the death? If you want to torture someone for a long time you need a very small flame, not a great conflagration. Could the Bible be trying to tell us something by calling this lake of fire the second death? Scripture tell us that the lake of fire is the second death.
“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”Revelation 20:14
What the Bible has to say about Final Destruction
Let’s let the Bible speak for itself. Here’s what Scripture declares about the final destruction of the wicked:
Malachi 4:1
Notice these two clear facts:
1. The wicked will be burned in the future. Hell is not a hot spot burning in the center of the earth or somewhere in space today. 2 Peter2:4 2. The wicked will be consumed, burned up and turned to ashes. Psalm 37:20 But if the wicked are going to perish, what about that smoke of torment that goes up forever and ever?
Let’s look at some other verses in the Bible which will shed some light on this: Hebrews 9:12 states that Jesus obtained “eternal redemption” for us. Hebrews 6:2 speaks of “eternal judgment.”
Now we know that Christ’s great act of redemption took place at one specific time. And we know that the final executive judgment takes place at one specific time, that is, it won’t go on forever. But still they are referred to as “eternal redemption” and “eternal judgment.”
Why? Because the results of redemption and judgment will be everlasting. So it will be with “eternal punishment.” Just what is eternal about the fire and the torment? It is the consequences that are eternal. The end result is eternal death, the second death. Eternal punishment, not eternal punishing. Let’s look at a verse in the very brief book of Jude. The author describes the wickedness of those who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, and then he states that:
Jude 1: 7
there’s that phrase again: “eternal fire.” But Sodom and Gomorrah aren’t still burning. That “eternal fire” went out long ago. The biblical record suggests that fire came down from heaven and rather quickly turned those cities into ashes. Peter expresses it in this way:
2 Peter 2:6 Sodom and Gomorrah were burned up with a fire whose effects were eternal. The fire was an all-consuming fire which turned these wicked cities to ashes.
These are enemies of cross of Jesus.
Enemies of the cross of Jesus
Paul said this concerning those who’d become enemies of the cross of Christ: “Their destiny is destruction” (Philippians 3:18-19, NIV). The Greek word, translated as “destruction,” is the strongest word that could be used, meaning utter loss of existence.
Jesus Himself warned: “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13, NIV). Throughout the Bible one dominant picture of the destiny of the wicked prevails. This is Death.
Prophets and apostles unite in making the picture forceful. The wicked, they all affirm, will die, perish, be burnt up, utterly consumed, become ashes, become as if they had never existed. These are the words used to describe their fate: The wicked will die - Romans 6:23
The wicked will perish - Luke 13:3 The wicked will be burnt up - Malachi 4:1 The wicked will be utterly consumed - Psalm 37:20 The wicked will be turned to ashes - Malachi 4:3 The wicked will be as though they had not been - Obadiah 16 Satan himself will be utterly consumed and totally destroyed - Isaiah 47:14 Scripture is clear, the wages of sin is death, not eternal life of torment in a place called hell.
Here Jesus describes hell as:
“. . . the fire that shall never be quenched—where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:43). What does this mean? Many believers think these pictures an eternally burning hell. But it is not. The wicked will die in the fire.
Jesus is here quoting a passage in Isaiah.
The prophet speaks of the fate of the wicked and uses those phrases: “Their worm does not die” and “their fire is not quenched” (Isaiah 66:24). But do you know what Isaiah is referring to there?
Here is what precedes those phrases: “The corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me” Isaiah is talking about dead people. What does it mean, “their worm does not die?” This is a picture of worms consuming a dead body. The picture is of a corpse being totally consumed, totally destroyed.
And what about “their fire is not quenched.” Let’s think about it. In that culture as with many today, the fate of unclaimed corpses is fire. Here the fire is not quenched, it burns completely, and it destroys completely. The dead bodies are burned up. This is a picture of corpses being destroyed. Let’s look at the passage in Jeremiah that speaks of unquenchable fire.
The prophet is warning about what will happen to those who persist in rebelling against God: (Jeremiah 17:27). Eventually this prophecy was fulfilled. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman general Titus in AD 70. The palaces of Jerusalem were burned, burned to the ground. Those were unquenchable fires.
Is Jerusalem still burning today? No, of course not. What the passage means is that the fires would totally destroy; they would not be put out before they’d burned everything up. But some believe that Satan and sinners will be tormented “forever and ever:”
Revelation 20:10 “Forever” in the Bible can be translated to mean “until the end of the age.” The wicked are consumed, burned up, and turned to ashes. The old age of sin and death ends. God ushers in a new age. “Forever” in the Bible is often a limited time, such as long as one life. Speaking of a slave: “. . . and he shall serve him forever” (Exodus 21:6). What does Scripture mean? Simply, as long as he lives. Hannah brought her son to the temple to dedicate him to the Lord, and she said: “I will take him that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever” (1 Samuel 1:22). Then Hannah adds: “As long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:28). Appeal:
Friend, Jesus took the penalty of our sins forever. (Until the end of time)
He experienced sin’s wages in His own body. Those who place their faith in Christ won’t be touched by that final, blazing inferno. God does have a plan for cleansing our universe of sin, completely, irrevocably, eternally. He will wipe away every tear and end all suffering. I’m sure you want to be among those who enjoy the New Earth with God and not consumed in the old world with Satan. Think of it, the loss of being separated from God and from loved ones forever and ever and ever.
God is a God of love who has prepared eternal joys for the redeemed. No one need miss out on heaven and the new earth. All we must do is place our faith in Christ as Savior and entrust our lives into His hands. These words of hope refer to life on the New Earth. No more death, no more pain. The old order has passed away. Let’s move on to chapter 21.
John saw a new heaven and a new earth:
Revelation 21:1
God creates a new heaven and a new earth with no more crying, death, sickness or pain.
Verse two describes New Jerusalem descending to the earth.
Revelation 21:2 In verse 3 John tells us:
Revelation 21:3
Then the promise of grace we have been waiting for in verse four. Speaking of God, John writes: Revelation 21:4 Don’t you want to inherit it today?
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