Originally posted by Tri Unity,
Hell as a metaphor does not deny the doctrine of hell. It only questions how the terms are to be understood.
Exactly Tri Unity. People are so brainwashed by the
"eternal torture chamber" ruse that they twist and conform any and every mention of the mistranslated word(s) to their own preconceived ideas.
First of all, the words
"Eternal, Everlasting, Forever," etc., in the English Bible, signify endless duration. The original Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, by 70 scholars, and hence called
"The Septuagint," B.C. 200-300, and the Hebrew word
Olam is, in almost all cases, translated
Aión,
Aiónios etc.,
(AÃwv, AÃwvios,) so that the two words may be regarded as synonymous with each other. In the New Testament the same words
Aión and its derivatives, are the original Greek of the English words,
Eternal, Everlasting, Forever, etc. The Greek
Aión -
Aiónios does not denote endless duration, and endless punishment is not taught in the Bible. There is nothing in the derivation, lexicography or usage of the word to warrant us in understanding it to convey the thought of endless duration.
Are the judgments of God permanent? Isaiah says,
"When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9). And Matthew 12:20 says,
"A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory."
Judgment, therefore, is not an eternal condition, but it is given to produce that victory. Judgments of themselves do not save anyone, but they are used by God to bring one to one's self, to effect a change of attitude and will, to consume away the stubbornness and rebellion of men.
An ounce of common sense should be sufficient to understand.
DEATH IS TO BE ABOLISHED. Paul declares;
"The LAST enemy that shall be destroyed is DEATH" (1 Corinthians 15:26), overthrows the whole structure of accepted, but unproved, theology which shuts up the mass of the human race in
"eternal torture, or eternal death." When the
"last" enemy is abolished it is self-evident that
none remains. The self-righteous religionists who demand the endlessness of death, who argue for eternal torment in the lake of fire, the second death, do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. The lake of fire
MUST END because death and hell are cast into it, which is the second death, and in the end
THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH.
No more death! No more first death. No more second death. No more of any kind of death. To say there is no more death is to say that there are no more sinners, for sinners are DEAD MEN, dead in trespasses and in sins. To say there is no more death is to say that God has not "burned up" all the wicked and left them dead, or in hell, for as long as any creature of God is in a state of death, death is not abolished. To say there is no more death is to say there is no more hell, for hell
(Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, Tartarus, The Lake Of Fire) is
"the realm of the dead." To say there is no more death is to say there is no more a lake of fire, for the lake of fire IS the second DEATH. To say there is no more death is to say there is no more sin, for
"the wages of sin is DEATH." Yet most of Christendom cannot understand three words:
NO MORE DEATH!
Most Christians have never stopped to think about the amazing words written in
Revelation 2:11:
"He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the Churches; He that overcomes shall not be HURT of the second death."
The word
"hurt" is from the Greek
ADIKEO meaning to
be unjust, do wrong, injure or
offend. Thus Revelation 2:11:
"He that overcomes shall not be done an injustice, wronged, injured or offended by the second death." This passage does not say that the overcomer experiences nothing of the second death, that he does not pass through it, or that its work is not employed in his life; but it says that he will not be
"hurt" by it. It is possible to pass through the most terrible experience and not be hurt by it; the Bible verifies this:
"And these three men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spoke, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they HAVE NO HURT; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:23-25).
We can pass through the darkest night or the hottest fire and not be hurt by it if Jesus goes with us - as the book of Isaiah tells us:
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you" (Isaiah 43:2).
The difference between the unbeliever and the child of God is that the unbeliever is taken hand and foot and
"cast" into the lake of fire, fighting, kicking, screaming, cursing, and resisting all the way, while the child of God willingly and obediently walks into the fiery processings of God hand in hand with his blessed Redeemer; knowing that in the end, it is beneficial and necessary. And, one way or the other,
ALL MEN MUST DIE UNTO SIN.
But alas; the church's thinking is so narrow and dim that it cannot see past the primitive fleshly delusions it has created.
