To all of my friends around this planet,
The Arizona wildfire and the Chile volcano have made me think about what the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:12, "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" and Revelation 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." Then only reason that God will burn up sin and those who choose rebellion will be to eradicate sin forever and secure His universe. Nahum 1:9,10 says,"What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction(sin) shall not rise up the second time. For while [they be] folden together [as] thorns, and while they are drunken [as] drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. God must destroy sin forever!
If you haven't read part 1, please try to do so before proceeding:-)
The Videos show some Arizona Wildfire footage, and also updated Chile volcano footage.
Roger Morneau wrote the book, Incredible Answers To Prayer, and became a prayer warrior with 40,000 names on his prayer list when he died. At 7 years old, Roger overheard people talking about he and his parents' good neighbors, who had just been killed in an auto accident. He heard the adults say that the couple that had passed away would be suspended in purgatory forever because they were too poor to pay, to get out of purgatory. What he heard in his 7 year old ears made his heart begin to distrust and hate God. He eventually got into demon worship. There was a Christian couple praying for Roger, and through a series of miracles, God led him to someone who led him to Jesus, the very week he was contemplating becoming active in the demon worship group. God completely delivered Him from darkness, praise God!!!!!!! The very belief that people are tortured forever made a 7 yr. old kid distrust and even hate God. Every truth in the Bible should lead us to trust God more, not the opposite. I do not feel the teaching that people will be tortured forever is the truth. As I said before, in my humble opinion, this one belief has made many an atheist, many an agnostic, has kept many away from Jesus and has led many to darkness. Jesus is not going through eternal torture for us, in our place. He went through and overcame death for us, in our place, so we can live eternally, when He comes. The result of what He did for you and I is eternal.
There are three words in the New Testament for the word Hell, and they are Tartarus, Gehenna and Hades. Tartarus occurs only once in the New Testament and is in 2Peter 2:4 which says, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; Notice it says to be reserved, which means in the future, not a place of punishment right now. Tartarus means "dark abyss" or "place of restraint." Next, Gehenna, in Bible times, was a trash dump where they burned trash, filth and dead animals. Jesus spoke in Matthew 22 of hell fire, and Matthew 13:40-42 tells us when this fire will burn, "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. So this fire is at the end of the world. Hades means "the grave." 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, "O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory? If you look up the word grave in a Strongs concordance, for that verse, it says, "hades." In the context of the verses that precede this one, it is obviously talking about the resurrection at the last day, or Jesus' second coming, so it is talking about those who will be coming out of their graves. Acts 2:31 says, "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell(hades or grave), neither did his flesh see corruption. This is where Jesus' body rested until He was resurrected.
Some of the above was quoted from Steve Wohlberg, and you can click on his link, White Horse Media, top right, for much more on this topic! When you get to his website, just click on Death & Hell. You will see why some verses say forever and ever, and what that really means when looking at the context of the verse, and at the Greek or Hebrew meaning, and also when looking at this subject in the whole Bible, not just a little part of it. You will be glad you did.
I am going to start taking a look at different Bible stories, in my next few blogs, and how they are relevant for you now:-)
God B in U & through U, Joy J
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