The Truth about Hell.

God is going to get you.

He's angry and He's had just about enough out of you, and now He's taking off the padded gloves, and buddy, no more GRACE, nuh-UH, you are going to learn a thing or two about pain, about suffering -- and it will be a lesson that will last forever! And maybe a moment will come, oh two or three millions of years in the future, when you will finally GET IT, you know, that "God is love," and in your pain and suffering you'll slap yourself on the forehead and think: "I was wrong. God was right." And then through the flame you'll see God, the Creator, and He'll be turning up the heat on that big ole eternal oven, and you'll know, OUCH, this ain't over yet. This will never be over.

Am I getting through to you?

You've been burned before, maybe your finger, maybe the water's been too hot, you accidentally brushed up against the oven door when you were removing the pizza, AND IT HURT, didn't it? An hour later it hurt. Pain ain't fun.

Well, have you imagined suffering that pain, all over your body, even on the surface of your eyeballs, in your ears, fire up your nose, and yet you are never consumed, the fuel never runs out, your flesh just uh-keeps uh-on uh-burnin', just uh-hunka uh-hunka burnin' love, that'll be you, you SINNER! YOU GONNA BURN!

Now, I'm passing the plate around, and I expect you to GIVE, and I mean A LOT. Ben is way more appreciated than George, and how. Cough it up, sinner, remember the fire! Fireproof suits for sale, just toss a few extra bills into the plate, Kate.

At one time the "church" at large sold what they called "indulgences." You drop a Grant in the offering plate, and it's not so bad that you have that stack of Playboys in the closet (come on, I only have them for the articles, you know, the cutting-edge journalism about fashion and electronic gadgets). Indulgences, what a concept. You pay, you indulge. Yummy. Bring on the chocolate. You pay God, and He indulges you.

Hey, it's a way to pay, you know, for your sins. You indulge in your sin, and you don't have to have all that blasted fire flash up your orifices on Judgment Day (that could be, um, rather uncomfortable).

Over the last 2,000 years, hellfire and damnation has been one of the big money-makers. Pastors and preachers and popes have loved shaking their money-maker. People throughout history and especially today, have urged you to purchase what they call "fire insurance." You just say the "magic words" (I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, please forgive me for breaking the ten commandments that You destroyed on the cross) and drop ten percent of your income into the offering plate (well, tip a little bigger, and you just may get a bigger mansion in heaven), and BAM!

You're in. You're safe.

Follow the formula...

...and you're in like Flynn. Not a bad deal, huh?

There was a whole institution created for this message of eternal flame -- it was called "The Old-Time Hellfire and Brimstone Gospel Show," and fat preachers used to travel the byways and back roads, screaming and ranting and sweating under big-top tents, staggering about before gaping farmers and their pale families who squirmed and sweated upon folding tin chairs, and then the baskets were passed out, and the people paid, and they paid big. Purchasing their fire insurance, and the big fat preacher man beamed, pleased in his service of the Lord.

Because no one appreciates the idea of sitting around in fire for a few seconds, let alone years, decades, centuries, millenia -- FOREVER, in short, although there's nothing short about forever.

Take a guy like Hitler. Very bad man, everyone should concur, if anyone deserves to roast for eternity, it's Hitler. But let's look at Hitler and his debt from a mercenary standpoint (as the church often loves to do, just pass the plate and praise the Lord! oh, and yeah, point to Hitler). Let's say Hitler is going to pay a million years in fire for every life he terminated before its time, not just the six million Jews exterminated in his hellish death camps, but all the soldiers that went to war because of him, we'll even throw in the deaths of the Nazis that slavishly followed him. Every single life goes onto Hitler's account. But let's not be stingy with Hitler, we'll throw in a million years for every single hateful thought that exists today, the skinheads and the neo-Nazis and everyone who thinks about commiting a hate crime (and we'll make it a million and a half years for everyone that actually commits a hate crime) -- how much does Hitler owe by this time?

I'm not good at math, but it's got to be over a zillion years (to stick with a nice, round, juicy number), and we haven't even figured in the time he needs to spend for "not accepting Christ," and those "lustful thoughts" he must have experienced in his life, and every time he got angry with his brother and mentally shouted "Dumkopf!"

It's a lot of time, wouldn't you agree? But so that we're all comfortable, let's DOUBLE Hitler's time, the price he needs to pay for all the evil he unleashed in the world (think of all the generations of people that were never born, the children that would have been born if Hitler had not released his hatred, the children of those children, we should do a x10 for every one of those children that never got to see life).

Hitler owes a lot of time in writhing torment, doesn't he? So here's Hitler, burning and screaming, cursing and writhing as fire washes through him, forward and backward, from top to bottom. He's in a world of pain with absolutely no comfort. He's one of the damned, shrieking. Damn that guy, hot damn, Hitler is in hell right next to those terrorist guys who thought they'd be met with perpetually defilable virgins, with very few happy thoughts, as liquid acid ignites throughout his being . . . for . . . well, for FOREVER.

Preachers of today have taken to calling this idea: "eternally separated from the love of God." (Wouldn't you agree that "separated from the love of God" has a better ring to it than "eternal torture in hellfire?") They mean the same thing, of course, but Hitler is "eternally separated from the Love of God." A few preachers add in: "Uh, like, by his own choice, of course."

(of cough, of cough)

We are all "immortal souls," they preach. Each of us are "little gods," they roar. Because the Bible teaches that only God is immortal, and if a part of us, that true essence that swims and hovers just behind our eyes, is immortal -- our spirit, our soul, our soul ball -- then we must be god, because only God is immortal! It makes sense, doesn't it? You are immortal! You shall LIVE forever, isn't that true? You are a god, uh, you know, with a little "g." You have eternal life, RIGHT NOW, swear the New Age Gurus, the Andrew Wommacks and the Rod Parsleys, the Creflo Dollars and Kenny Copelands.

And if we are immortal AND "eternally separated from the love of God" then we are eternally writhing in the pain and torment and torture of our own choosing, aren't we? Isn't this what the Bible teaches?

Or does it?

Maybe you've come across the "Harmony" books by Philip Gulley. Gulley is a Quaker pastor who believes with all his heart that God is merciful, that God is the ultimate Lover, that God actually loves His creation, and we are all His creation, and that His grace is so miraculous that every single person that He has ever loved will one day be saved, and live with Christ forever -- that no one will be eternally separated from God.

Including Hitler.

This is kind of nice, isn't it? And God is definitely not THAT nice, could He be? Isn't that pressing it too far? God CANNOT be nicer than us, He cannot be more humane, because . . . well, you know, because He is God. To be humane, well, that's in the realm of "humanity" (hint, you and me, uh, except, yeah, that we are "gods," with a little "g," so we shouldn't be humane at all, we should be like God, right? Only atheists and evil Hitler type guys are humane, they are the humans, not us).

Hmmmm, do you believe it? Whom DO you believe?

Kirk Cameron (of "Growing Pains" fame, and also "Secret Rapture" shame), on the other hand, goes on TV nowadays in a kind of religious infommercial and looks deadpan into the camera and smirks as he says: "If you say that your God won't burn anyone in hell, that's because you have created a false god up here," as he taps his temple (uh, you know, the soft spot on the side of your head between your ear and your forehead, I didn't mean that he was tapping his, uh, oh just forget it!). We can assume he means in the brain (it IS the general vicinity of the brain, isn't it?). He says that only a fake god could have the kind of grace that Philip Gulley imagines, overwhelming grace, something finer and more powerful than mere human beings can hardly conceive, let alone accept.

Come on, I mean GRACE? Grace is for wimpy ballerinas in their diaphonous tutus (and diaphonous, let alone "tutu," come on we ain't none o'that wimpiness, no we are gods and we gotz the powuh, the powuh to speak reality, and to crush others, along with the Almighty God, can I get an "Allrightythen?"). Grace, get off the grace boat, that's only for . . . THE CHOSEN (and Hitler and bad guys and ballerinas ain't the chosen, are they...?).

I admit it, I am probably closer in my beliefs to Kirk Cameron, of all people, than I am to Philip Gulley (isn't that a shame, how is it even possible?). From my Bible readings, I DO see God destroying the wicked, in very real fire. But time and time again I see something that the fat preachers can't allow in their version of scripture, in their gleeful "traditions of the elders," that they refuse to see or even consider. That the Bible says "eternal destruction," and not "eternal destroying." Everyone from John MacArthur to Hank Hanegraaff to Chuck Colton to even the comicals John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Joyce Meyer Jesse Duplantis -- they all convert the word from "destruction" to "destroying."

Check it out. It's true. Time and time again, they turn "end of sin" into "sin kept in hot bot, somewhere off separated from God."

God says He will put an end to sin, and the preacher men of today, and yesterday too, won't let God off the h. They say, "No, God, You will not put an end to sin, it must exist forever, only it must be separated from you, forever!"

The Bible actually says that only God is immortal, but "teachers" such as New Age guru Andrew Wombat "teach" that every single person is immortal, thus agreeing with that ancient serpent that hissed: "Thou shall not surely die!"

Think about it. It's not the Bible, not by a long shot. It is their REVELATION (and Andrew Wombat even admits he has new age revelations that no other "teacher" gets, or gots, or ever thunk up before, it's all completely brand spanking new, except of course for the serpent, you know, in the Garden of Eden).

God says you will die, the serpent and his followers say "you won't REALLY die." God says He sent His son and if you accept Him, you will live, and if you do not accept Him, you will perish. But the serpent and his followers say "Well, you won't perish, you will exist forever, except you'll be separated by your own choice from the love of God." God says you will suffer the "second death," the serpent and his followers say that is utter hogwash, you won't die, you will be alive and conscious and screaming (uh, they mean, of course, that you will be separated from the Love of God, but alive nonetheless, and screaming, don't forget the screaming, lots of that screaming, best not to forget the screaming, cuz think about it, there's a hell of a lot of money in the screaming, and yes I do mean "hell").

Remember, there is a universal teaching abroad that we are all immortal, little gods, and we cannot die. The Bible, on the other hand, says "thou shalt surely die," but this universal teaching replies: "Surely? NOT!" The Bible says that we have two options: believe, or perish (see John 3:16, and I'm not talking about some hick holding up a beer and a placard at a football game). But the universal teaching rockets back: "Perish? Yeah, but not really, because you're, like, you know, immortal." The Bible says that only God is immortal, but the universal teaching must know something that God Himself is unaware.

See, you do THIS. You make God into a man. That's not hard to do, is it? Because the Bible says that God made man in His own image, so God MUST be a man. And then, to complete the neat trick, you turn man into a god (and if it makes you uncomfortable, will keep it with a little "g," gee!). See, man is now god, and God is now man! WEEEEEEEE!

Hey, maybe this "universal teaching" is like, you know, a product of the "universal church?" Could that be? Would it matter if it was? It was good for your papa, it was good for your mama, so it's gotta be good enough for YOU, right? Do you have a pope in your pocket? (Or are you just happy to see me?) Gimme dat ole time religion! Yee-haw.

But back to Hitler, who has been wriggling in pain for seventy times seventy trillion-bah-dah-billion/zillion(x3) years to the third power, by now his little moustache is a little singed, and he doesn't have any eyebrows. And did I mention that he is not in a very good mood? Over a humungouh-guh-gillion years is quite a long time, and he's got 21 trillion years to go, so he's cleared away about a third of his hellish inferno. Or wait a second, what could THAT mean, cleared away?

(Well, this is all imagination, anyway, so we're just imagining that he is literally "paying for his sins," dig? Good, I knew that you could.)

Would someone get used to the fire by now? Would they discover some kind of LIFE in the flames? Perhaps Hitler and a few rich men have even learned to play poker with flame-retardent cards. Or would they be screaming just as insensibly as they had begun in the first five minutes of the torture? Maybe a million years in to their eternal torture, they found that they could have a sort of conversation between all the screams and shrieks. Hey, how you doin'? Me, well I'm (scream, scream) doin' not too (scream) bad, how 'bout you? Uh, weird, but kinda the same. OUCH! Howz come that still hurts so much?

After the last minute of the final trillion years has passed, and God steps up to the barbeque, and Hitler looks up, scorched and smoking -- guess what?

That is just Day One

in the clockwork

of Eternity.

(Okay, so I'm a geek, going through all that build-up for the lil punchline, that ain't all that original in the first place.)

And right next to Hitler is the atheist who never killed anyone, or stole anything, but all the same a guy who never said the magic fire-insurance words. He never cheated on his wife, never commited a terrorist act, never once even cheated on his taxes or looked with lust at the next-door neighbor's wife. Look! It is Isaac Aasimov, not even all them A's in his name could save him.

Yet there he is, that poor atheist, screaming and shrieking right along with that most evil of men, Adolph Hitler. And there's a handful of your favorite cult members, you know, the ones that you hate, that don't believe the right stuff, their doctrine is all messed up, yeah sure, they shouted "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" more than you did, but they never quite had the magic ingredients, they claimed to be "Christian" (but they didn't have the stomach to sit through all them terrible Left Behind movies, curse them to hell forever!) and now here they are roasting right next to screaming Hitler and the shrieking atheist, and look at all the gentle Buddhists, boy are they getting theirs now, huh?

Is it true? Does the Bible actually teach this, that God created Hitler AND the atheist, and all those others that never committed crimes, and that He knew beforehand that they would never say the "magic words" that might ensure golden streets and Harping 101 on cumulus clouds (think about it, the Universal teaching is that you either say the Magic Words, or you fry, no in-between, no middle ground), that God will throw His creation into flames and keep them alive, singing, in torment, utter torture, forever and forever and forever? That God created these folk, Hitler and Joe Atheist and cult members and Buddhists, SPECIFICALLY FOR ETERNAL TORTURE IN UNENDING FIRE?

That God, Who doesn't make mistakes, actually planned this all out, before the world was ever created, He set up this puppet show, He prefigured every rape, every murder, every senseless act of unkindness . . . and see that this, all of this, that this was Good? That this IS GOOD?

Think about it, did God, before the foundations of the world were laid, think up in His heart Hitler and Joe Atheist and the cult members and the Buddhists, and lay down all the programming for these sad sons of bungs to spend a range of years between 20-80 on Earth, and then ETERNITY in tormenting torturous fire?

You have the Universal Teaching about hell, and then, as I briefly mentioned, Philip Gulley's version (well, he didn't quite invent it, it has been around since the time of Jesus, it used to be the A-#1 Hot Topic, that God would/could do the impossible and save everyone), let's call it, oh, how about Universalism? That God willed that every human be saved (who thought THAT up, anyway?).

The Universal Teaching versus Universalism. A God of torment and eternal torture versus a God of blissful love, a God Who desperately wants to save every single human being, and yes, that would include Buddhists and Hindus and karate devotees and all the merry cult members, and even Baptists (am I pushing the envelope with that last one? just kidding!)? Come on, "God is love" can't mean all that, can it? All that wimpy, mushy, squishy stuff? Ballerinas in tutus, gimme a break, we uh-want the uh-fire, uh, in the uh-LAKE! (UH!)

The sad point here to mention is that Universalists (those that embrace Universalism, not the Universal Teaching) freely admit that they don't quite understand HOW God can do it, and they even freely admit that there are plenty of Bible verses that handily deny Universalism, but that possibly we just don't understand those verses, just maybe some of them thar Bible writers just plain didn't understand God, and got it wrong, just jotted down a few ink blobs that don't quite jibe with "God is love."

I agree with the Univeralist that the Universal Teaching doesn't jibe with "God is love;" however, I am sad to tell you, from my heart, that I cannot agree with the Universalist, that the Bible was written wrong, or that we might not quite have captured the gist of what the scriptures are actually teaching. I think the Universalist AND the Universal Teaching are both wrong, one slightly wrong while the other is bass-ackward wrong, and purposely so too.

Here's another heart-felt admission. I hope, I hope with my whole heart, that the Univeralist is right. I hope that I am wrong, and that the Bible is wrong, and that God just proves to be much more merciful than I can imagine. That love is bigger and better than I can conceive. But frankly, in my own nasty little human-being-type heart, I can't imagine Hitler getting off the hook, not ever (and a part of me is quite happy imagining him shrieking and screaming forever right next to the camel jockey with the nitro glycerin wound about his sunken chest).

I fully KNOW, from scripture, and from reason (it is amazing how well those two work together, reason and scripture) that the Universal Teaching and the Universal Teachers are wrong, DEAD WRONG. That their most cherished dogmas are "doctrine of demons," that a being much smarter than me came up with the whole idea of eternal torture, and this being is probably still surprised just how well greedy human bastards, um, I mean human BEINGs have manipulated this evil doctrine to become wealthy, unhealthy and to hypnotise. The Universalists, on the other hand, I do not feel have been tainted with evil, but are blindly clinging to HOPE (and hope IS from God). I can only hope the Universalists are right, against what I read in Scripture, but I certainly agree with the Universalists on one very strong point...

...that point IS, that I know from scripture, and from reason, that God will NOT torture people, not even for an instant. I know from scripture, and from heart-felt reason and the most simple logic, that God IS more humane than humans, that humans in comparison to God are simple, hairy, nasty brutes (and I include myself in that hairy, nasty, simple brutiary). Anyone who imagines they are god with a little "g" are about as stupid as the most ignorant cell on the foulest orifice of my body, they are as hugely mistaken as was the evil man, Hitler, himself, and boy are they in for a big surprise (but God, thank God, is more merciful than am I).

God is nicer than me. He's nicer than you. He's nicer than our best remembered loved one, be that Grandma or hired care giver, God is bigger and better, and there will come a time, blessedly, when sin is ended (God is not going to keep it around like a dangerous pet scorpion, tucked away in a flaming box).

Biblical Truths that have been hidden from you:

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. But unto you that fear my name shall

the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;

and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be

ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall

do this, saith the LORD of hosts. Remember ye the law of

Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in

Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the

coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,

and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come

and smite the earth with a curse.

Malachi 4

Malachi presents quite a few eye-opening facts about the reality of hell, and probably this verse has been hidden to you by those who preach their hellfire and brimstone circus sermons, those teachings to make you sweat and fidget and worry about your "eternal destiny," and how you just very well COULD end up frying forever and forever. And yet here in Chapter 4 of Malachi, we see that #1. there will be fire, and #2. it will consume, "burn them up," all those that do wickedly, the proud -- it will leave them neither root nor branch. There is no mention of an eternal soul ball bouncing about in the fire. Then, right on top of what God warns about those that stand against Him, He also cautions about those that will receive the healing that is in His wings -- the righteous will go forth, and the ashes of the wicked people will be ground beneath their feet. And as in the Ten Commandments, God says: "Remember."

Remember the law of Moses my servant, with the statutes and judgments. Do you remember? God will even send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not

God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the

presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when

He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be

admired in all them that believe (because our testimony

among you was believed) in that day.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-10

Everlasting destruction. Lock that in your brain. Think about it. Everlasting destruction. It means to be destroyed, and for that destruction to last forever. And what does that everlasting destruction accomplish? It removes the sinner from the presence of the Lord. Think about it, if the sinner was alive, and in torment, screaming and wailing, he would be in the presence of God -- because there is absolutely NOWHERE you can go to be out of His presence. The false teachers "teach" that there is a place called "hell" where God doesn't go, where He doesn't reach, a place "separated from God," but the Bible teaches that God is everywhere, that there is no place you can go to be separated from God.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee

from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art

there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

Psalms 139:7-8

2 Thessalonians 1:9 is SAYING, distinctly, and clearly, that the sinner will be removed forever from the presence of God -- not by being put in a place that God cannot or will not go to, but by destroying the sinner, turning the sinner into ashes. It is a punishment, to be separated forever from the glory of God's power, and the Bible clearly calls it everlasting destruction. You are destroyed, and gone forever. That's what the Bible says. Yet the false teacher "teaches" that it is not REALLY "eternal destruction" as the Bible teaches, but that it is REALLY "eternal destrOYING," so that the process of "destruction" goes on forever, the process lasts forever, not the punishment, or that the punishment is IN the process, rather than the destruction itself.

WHY do the false teachers "teach" this "damnable heresy?" POWER. If they can make you believe it, then they have power over you. They take the keys to the kingdom out of Jesus' hands, and they waft it under your nose, they hold up a big stick to scare you, and the carrot to entice you. People like Kirk Cameron and his little friend Ray Comfort even admit to it, calling it a "firesuit" that you can wear, and even if everyone laughs at you for wearing it, you gotz de safety, you gotz the eternal SEE-CURE-EYE-TEE of their carrot, that only they can give to you, you need them, you need the middleman, to get to Jesus, to receive salvation.

And you don't think this is power? What will you believe, the "eternal destroying" of the false teachers? Or the "eternal destruction" of the Bible? There is a world of difference in the two, a world of difference and beyond.

There is an eternity of difference.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,

If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his

mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink

of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without

mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be

tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the

holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the

smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and

they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and

his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep

the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Revelation 14:9-12

BLAMMO! Here is another verse grossly turned inside-out by the false "teacher." And you'll notice a homogeny with all the other verses examined thus far, about turning scriptures backward, making them say the opposite of what they really say, and how the Bible itself agrees with itself, and thus the mountain of evidence builds and expands.

People point to Revelation 14:9-12 and say: "Hell! Yeah bay-bee, it lasts forever, it is being separated forever from God in a little pocket of the universe that God cannot go to, it is pain and suffering and screaming and shrieking, can ya dig it?"

But read again what the Bible actually says.

These are living people, here mentioned in Revelation 14:9-12, not "soul balls" bouncing around in heaven or hell. The first group is that which receives the "mark of the beast," it says "the smoke of their torment asendeth up for ever and ever" and also that "they have no rest." Think about it. In comparison, the antithesis of those that have the mark of the beast is the Remnant, those that have the patience of the saints, those that keep the Commandments of God and have the Faith of Jesus. These are those that have REST.

What about the smoke that ascends for ever and ever?

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a

golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense,

that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the

golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke

of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints,

ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

Revelation 8:3-4

Here are the prayers of the saints, ascending before God. Now a New Age guru like Perry Stone will "teach" that this means that when a Christian prays his prayers turn into smoke, or that they are collected in little bottles, or some other such ludicrous dumbing down of Scripture. But the Bible is making a comparison, that the prayers of the saints rise like smoke, that the prayers are ever before God, that God does not forget your prayer, that what you say to God will last forever -- not that it will in some ludicrous fashion waft about like smoke -- this is what is called metaphor, comparing one thing to another, a simile, to say this is like this, symbolism. It is symbolic.

So the smoke that ascends for ever and ever? In a symbolic fashion we are told that God isn't going to forget the sins of the those that receive the mark of the beast. Nor will their pain and suffering come to an end, while they are here, alive, persecuting their opposite number, the Remnant of God that keep the Commandments of God and have the Faith of Jesus. But then again, this is not talking about people in hell, as the false New Age "christian" guru teaches.

THINK about it. Here is what the Bible actually SAYS: "...shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb..." And then what does the false teacher "teach?" That these poor souls are "separated from God," and THAT is why they are tormented, that to be separated from God is to be tormented in hell -- but the Bible says these people with the mark of the beast will be tormented with fire and brimstone IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LAMB.

Lock that in your brain.

And think about it, just as "smoke" is used here in a symbolic fashion, so too is the fire and brimstone. Think about it, to be in the presence of God, it would be like a fire. To be unrighteous and to stand in the presence of righteousness, ultimate righteousness -- symbolically speaking, it would hurt like hell! A good comparison is this:

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting

upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the

temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six

wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he

covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried

unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of

hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts

of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the

house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am

undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in

the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have

seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the

seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which

he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid

it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips;

and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Isaiah 6:1-7

Isaiah, a holy prophet of God, receives a vision of God sitting in heaven. And the "house" is filled with smoke. And Isaiah, a pretty good guy by our standards and definitions, is in reality a sinner, just like all of us. So an unrighteous one, seeing the Righteous One, is tormented, he is filled with pain and suffering. This is because he is in the presence of God, not because he is separated from God.

Keep this in mind. If you, as a sinner, were to stand it God's presence, you would cry out, because of His goodness, and your inability to comprehend His goodness. It would not at all be that God would be mean to you, or treat your poorly. He wouldn't squish you, or pull your arms and legs off. That is not what is meant by torment. It is a sinful being looking upon a perfect being -- this is torment.

Symbolically, a coal from the fire is placed upon Isaiah's lips, to cleanse him, to take away his iniquity (iniquity means "lawlessness"). to purge his sin (sin means "breaking the law").

Note, God is not torturing Isaiah. God is not sticking him with a pitchfork, or allowing the devil to poke Isaiah. It is Isaiah's innate sinfulness that causes him to feel tormented, it is being in the presence of God that makes a sinful being feel "on fire," burned, flaming, fire and brimstone -- these are all symbolic ways to describe a powerful vision. Just as Isaiah sees a powerful vision of God, so does John the Revelator see the same vision, and both use the same words to describe their vision. God is holy, He is on fire, He is flaming, filled with coals, shooting out smoke -- thus it is depicted throughout the Bible, not because God really is on fire, or because He shoots flaming arrows out of His mouth or eyes, but because that is how it SEEMS to a sinful being that is looking at God, attempting to describe Him. If you are sinful, and you stand in the presence of God, IT HURTS. Because of the goodness, it hurts. You could say, it hurts so good, although it does not appear to be enjoyable.

(If you would like to spend some time looking at verses in the Bible that employ such language, try these: 2 Samuel 22:8-10, Psalms 18:7-13 -- this is symbolic language, it creates a picture in your head, a movie, it is a drama that presents truths to your mind that you can grasp and understand.)

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and

compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved

city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and

devoured them. 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. 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. 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 20:9-15

The judgment of the wicked, this is after the millenium. The Bible clearly depicts the wicked dead raised up, judged, and only then are they consigned to . . . the lake of fire. But look, it says that death and hell itself are cast into the lake of fire. They are burned up. So FINAL is this action, it is called the Second Death. Note, it is not called "The Second Life of Shrieking and Screaming." Further, the Bible says that those not found in the Book of Life were cast into the lake of fire.

They are GONE. They are not alive. They are dead, the second death, which is final. Hell is gone. That's what the Bible says here, hell was cast into the lake of fire, and this is the Second Death. Hell DIES. DEATH DIES. Meaning there will be no more death, no more hell, no more sinners.

What remains? The Bible says here that those found written in the Book of Life are those that remain.

The Beast and the False Prophet were cast there, into the lake of fire. And their "torment day and night for ever and ever?" It means it will NOT be stopped. They will be gone, forever, and only the memory of them will remain, just as the "smoke of their torment shall ascend." It does not say that THEY will remain, but only the smoke of them will remain, symbolically a memory, on a shadow of the reality.

The reality is, sin is gone, death is gone, sickness is gone, hell is gone.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,

and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall

be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is

swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?

1 Corinthians 15:54-55

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will

wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people

shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath

spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God;

we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord;

we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in

his salvation.

Isaiah 25:8-9

Death swallowed up in victory. Death, and hell, and sin, gone forever, not tucked away somewhere in a corner pocket where God never plays billiards in the cosmos.

And what of the SOUL? Does it bounce around like a ball, always alive, shrieking and screaming and wailing? We don't have to speculate. Jesus answered the question:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to

kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy

both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28

Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Only God can destroy both soul and body, and that's what He does. There is no torment, no screaming and gnashing of teeth -- not beyond death. After the second death, there is NOTHING. It is gone. Hell won't keep burning, bodies won't keep roasting, and soul balls won't keep bouncing.

Another point the false teacher does not wish you to KNOW, and that is that "hell" in the Old Testament is synonymous with grave, or pit. Sheol in the Old Testament, and Gehenna and Hades in the New Testament:

NT:1067 geena (gheh'-en-nah); of Hebrew origin [OT:1516 and OT:2011]; valley of (the son of) Hinnom; ge-henna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment:

KJV - hell.

God is not about pain. He is not about torture. The Bible never describes God as hate, but as Love. Yes, hell is real, but it is not about pain and torture and eternity. It is about eternal consequences, it is about as John 3:16 says, living forever, or perishing. That is the only choice.

You either live forever, eternal life, with God, or you PERISH.

When a sinful being is brought into proximity with Righteousness, it suffers. God will end all suffering. He will wipe away all tears. He will put an end to sin. He will put an end to sinners. He will put an end to death. He will put an end to hell. He will put an end to the grave.

Using your brain, you can investigate each and every verse about hell, and reading carefully, prayerfully, you will learn, with some alarm, that what you have been taught as "TRUTH" is not really the truth at all, but something rather close, like "TRUHT."

Leave off the false interpretations, leave behind the "anointed ones" and their barkings, their babblings, their blasphemies against God. Trust God, and His Word, He and His Word will not let you down.

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