thethinkingrebel
Member
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According to the Lord's testimony as an expert witness in all matters pertaining to the afterlife, no one can either see nor enter the kingdom of God without first undergoing a second birth; which means that Noah, Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Samson, Deborah, and all the prophets, et al; have to undergo a second birth too: no exceptions. In point of fact; Nicodemus was supposed to already know about second births so the Lord's teachings weren't all that new even in his day. So then the answer to your question is YES.
You're correct in insisting that a normal human body cannot possibly survive in blazing flame. I know that from personal experience because I was a professional welder for 40 years and I've seen what contact with fire and molten metal does to the flesh of a normal human body. However, the flames of hades aren't normal: they're supernatural; and the people in those flames right now aren't normal either. They exist there in a supernatural condition.
In the future, people being warehoused for now in hades will be resurrected to stand trial at the Great White Throne of Rev 20:11-15 after which they will undergo a second death by immersion in a reservoir of liquefied flame. However; according to Isa 66:23-24 and Mrk 9:47, though their resurrection bodies will be killed in the reservoir, their corpses won't be annihilated but will perpetually exist to provide nourishment for a very unusual fire-proof species of worm.
So then, when you think of hell, you have to think outside the box; viz: think of it as something beyond the limits of empirical evidence; and you have to think of it as supernatural rather than natural; viz: hades is a supernatural place, it's fire is supernatural, and it's prisoners are all incarcerated there in a supernatural condition.
The afterlife is really scary because it's all so strange and unusual. Take for example the burning bush that Moses encountered in the desert. Though the bush was ablaze, it wasn't consumed. That isn't normal; no, that is utterly abnormal. I grew up in San Diego and I've seen for myself what fire does to chaparral. By all rights that bush should have roared out of control— snapping and popping and shooting up sparks until it turned into blackened charcoal; but it didn't because the fire that Moses witnessed was supernatural.
If you're asking me for a precise historical date in the past when God announced His intentions to incarcerate sinners in flame; about the best I can do is sometime around the 8th century BC because that's when the experts say the book of Isaiah was written: hence the passage below.
†. Isa 66:23-24 . . All humanity will come to worship me from week to week and from month to month. And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me. For the worms that devour them will never die, and the fire that burns them will never go out. All who pass by will view them with utter horror.
Cliff
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All this post is evidence of what happens when you let other people teach doctrine for you, instead of reading and studying the scriptures for yourself.
Not only is this stuff unbiblical, its inherently blasphemous, heretical, and any other word that relates negatively to disrespectful and demonic teachings.
Not only does this misrepresent God, it wholly depends on philosophy and doctrines from churches and nations that ALSO misrepresent God.
Scary stuff, and I feel for you believing in a god that does this stuff.