Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
No one is treating the righteous and the wicked alike; there are stages in righteousness as well as stages in punishment. Notice our spirit returns to God who gave it, our soul needs to be saved. Nor is fire a judgment for eternity. God used cloven tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost at the beginning of the church age, because we are not perfect, and at the end of the church age he will use the lake of fire to punish the wicked. But not forever. You want to understand God’s fire look at scripture.
I am not perfect and have not arrived and understand my God is a consuming fire and that is a good thing. Those who love the Lord and long to see His purpose fulfilled in their lives, are willing to accept Him as a refiner’s fire, as a thresher of wheat, as a presser of olives, as a crusher of grapes, and as a scourging Father! We accepted Him as Saviour, Baptizer, Healer, and Blesser; now we are accepting Him as the Lord of the fires! Our Father has made us willing to embrace the means He uses to perfect us. He perfects us in the crucible of adversities. The tribulations He sends us are not punishments for past failures, but divine tools to conform us to His image. Paul’s thorn in the flesh, Job’s loss of all his possessions, family, and health, Joseph’s betrayal by his brethren, his being sold as a slave, and later his being falsely accused and thrown into prison, were all for a divine purpose.
You know Jesus God a dove when He was Baptized in the river Jordon; on the day of Pentecost believers got cloven tongues of fire. Jesus is perfect; we are not. The word fire comes from the Greek word “pur’ which we get our English word pure, purify, purge and the good old catholic purgatory.
Don't forget Daniels friend’s thrown in the Fiery Furnace in Babylon. Only their bondages were burn. Does not Baby lon speak of the religious/political systems of man? They were in Baby lon.
Dan 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 24Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, 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. 25He 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.
Gehenna: Referring to the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna which is the city dump outside the walls of Jerusalem; a place of constant burning of refuge. Those who go to Gehenna are not sinners of the world; but are sinners of God’s people. (how precious is this a type of purification outside of God’s holy city. All things that are not of God will be purified in God’s holy judgment. The point is simple in the 12 or 13 times that the Bible is referring to the word Gehenna it is directed towards God’s people and how important is to overcome sin.
Matthew 5:22 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, `Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his
brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to
his brother, `Rica' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, `You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell (Ge-hen-na).
mdo757 said:
ForeverTrue said:
While studying, my husband and I came across several instances where words had been replaced with hell. For example, Gehenna (Gehenna meant a place of burning, a valley where rebellious Jews had been slaughtered before and would be again if they didn't repent, as Malachi, John the Baptist, and Jesus urged them to do), Topheth, Hades.
Hell has replaced Gehenna:
You should note that Orthodox Jews have never believed in a Hell, and that the concept is foreign to the Old Testament. Since the days of Yahshua, Christianity has been combating Paganism and Gnosticism. Hell and Hades are part of the Pagan religion. The word "fire" in scripture is often parabolic for "judgement." The "eternal fire" is not a literal fire that burns forever, but it is a judgement for all eternity. What happens in the final judgement is that Yahwah takes away the life of the condemned, and they no longer exist.
Genesis 18:25
Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
