George Witzke presents several Biblical prophecies, keeping foremost the principle that people do not receive the word unless they go out to seek it.

Death By Fire

What is the ultimate penalty—the "wages," or reward—of sin? Is it eternal life in torment? Or is it eternal oblivion? What is the ultimate FATE of the wicked? The Bible makes the truth very clear.

1. What is the "wages of sin"? Romans 6:23.

2. What does Paul warn will be the judgment or sentence of those who, knowing God's commands and having tasted of His way of life, willfully sin against Him? Hebrews 10:26-27. Will such persons live on in torment in fire—or will they be "devoured" by it? Verse 27. Notice that this judgment comes on people because they sin willfully.

3. Does Jesus compare false ministers who don't bring forth good works to trees that don't bring forth "good fruit"? Matthew 7:15-19. What did He say would happen to such people? Verse 19. Is wood put into a fire to be tormented-or to be burned up? Did Christ clearly indicate that all people who do not bring forth good fruit will likewise be cast into fire? Matthew 7:17-19.

4. What did Christ say to the unrepentant scribes and Pharisees of His day? Matthew 23:33.

5. What did Christ warn would happen to those who will not repent of their sinful ways? Luke 13:3.

6. Did Christ show by His parable of the tares that there is to be a future harvest? Matthew 13:30. Did He say the evil people—the "tares"—will afterward be BURNED? Same verse.

7. Does Psalm 37:20 also show the ultimate fate of the wicked will be destruction by fire? Is there coming a time that will be extremely hot—so hot that it will burn up—CONSUME—the wicked? Malachi 4:1. What will be left of the wicked? Malachi 4:3. Who will burn the wicked up—Satan and his demons, or the Eternal God? Same verse.

The "wages of sin is DEATH." "Death" is the opposite of "life"! The final wages the incorrigible wicked will receive, then, is simply the complete cessation of life.

Note: The original Greek word translated here as "hell" is gehenna—meaning the Valley of Hinnom. Christ used the fire that burned up refuse in the Valley of Hinnom as a type of the final fate—complete destruction—of the wicked by fire. Those rebellious and stubborn religious leaders could well understand Christ's analogy. They knew they were being threatened with complete destruction as just so much trash!

"Perish" means to cease existing. It does not mean to continue living. Life in eternal torment is not what God has decreed for incorrigible sinners!

The punishment revealed in the Bible is death—cessation of life forever. Eternal life is something we were NOT born with. It is a gift of God which He will bestow at the resurrection to those who obey Him. Eternal Life and death are contrasted all through your Bible! The "hell fire" that the Bible speaks of will be thousands of degrees HOTTER than the imaginary "hell fire" of most preachers—which is only hot enough to torment. The Biblical "hell fire" will totally consume the disobedient! Never will they exist again. The Bible plainly shows that those who have known God's truth and still refuse to obey it, or willfully disobey, will reap the wages of sin—eternal death! (Romans 6:23). This scripture means what it says. The attempts of many theologians to "explain away" death and to "interpret" it as mere "separation from God" cannot be reconciled with Scripture. Death clearly does NOT mean "eternal life" in the horrifying torments of an eternal "hell." The author of this pagan deception is none other than the father of lies—Satan the devil! (John 8:44). If you have innocently believed his doctrine and have suffered mental torment because of it, thank God that He has opened your mind to understand the TRUTH!

What Is the "Lake of Fire"?

And now comes a most interesting revelation! Exactly what is the gehenna fire that will consume the wicked? When and where will it occur? Forget all the ideas you may previously have been led to believe. Read now in your own Bible what God reveals. For "hell fire" does not even exist yet! We've already seen that the fate of the wicked is gehenna fire. So gehenna and the lake of fire are the same. A very large fire would have the appearance of a fiery lake, hence its description

1. Are all who stubbornly refuse to repent and persist in breaking God's commandments ultimately to find themselves in a lake of "fire and brimstone"? Revelation 21:8.

2. Will it cause the death of the wicked? Notice Revelation 21:8 once again. Which death will it cause? Same verse.

3. Does Revelation 20:13-14 verify the fact that all who are incorrigible will be cast into this future lake of fire—not now, but after the coming judgment? Will all mortals whose names will not have been written in the book of (eternal) life be cast into the lake of fire? Verse 15.

4. When does the lake of fire actually begin—at Christ's second coming? Revelation 19:20. Will the two chief enemies of Christ be cast into it at that time? Same verse.

5. How long will this fire last? Matthew 25:41.

6. Much later—after the Millennium—will the flames of the "lake of fire" purify the earth's surface, burning in one vast worldwide holocaust? II Peter 3:10. Will all the things man has created be burned up, as well as the rest of those People who will not have received salvation and eternal life because of willful rebellion against God? Same verse and Revelation 20:15 once again.

7. Are the wicked to be reduced to ashes by the fire which will consume the earth's surface? Turn to Malachi 4:3 once again. Can ashes be tormented forever and ever? Of course not! The death they will have suffered will be an eternal, everlasting punishment, not an everlasting punishing by torment. There is a big difference between punishment and punishing! The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), not eternal life in hell fire!

8. What is meant in Revelation 20:14 by the words, "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire"?

9. What will Satan's part be in this coming "hell fire"? Revelation 20:10.

10. Will the "beast" and "false prophet" still be in this fire? Revelation 20:10.

Mortals naturally die once, because we just "wear out" (Hebrews 9:27). But if anyone dies the second death, that individual will have been judged by God to be guilty of persistent disobedience and incorrigible rebellion. The second death will be for all eternity!

Note: The word "everlasting" is aionion in the Greek. Aionion comes from the root aion which often means "age." In this case, the correct translation into the English language should be "AGE-LASTING fire." This "lake of fire" is going to be burning all during the Millennium—the "age" of Christ's rule.

During the millennial reign of Christ and His saints, the Valley of Hinnom will once more be kept perpetually burning—and the incorrigibly wicked ones who set their WILL to persist in rebellion against God's laws will be THROWN INTO this fire as a stern witness to all the rest of the world! (Isaiah 66:24).

Here is God's—not man's—description of what the final "hell fire" will be like! It is yet in the future. It has not yet occurred. Nothing is said anywhere in the entire Bible about "souls" descending beneath the earth into "hell fire," or of torture for all eternity! Rather, the Bible shows that all incorrigible human beings and their works will suffer destruction once for all eternity. All other teachings to the contrary have come to us from paganism!

Note: The original Greek word here translated "hell" is hades. Only unrepentant sinners—those who refuse to obey God—will still be mortal at the time of this resurrection. There will be no one else who could die. Therefore, death and the grave will both cease to exist when the lake of fire engulfs the entire surface of the earth.

Satan will be cast into the same conflagration that will destroy all incorrigible mortals. But since he is a spirit being, he will not be destroyed by the flames (see Luke 20:36).Notice that Satan himself will be in "hell fire." He will not play the role of torturing people as he is often represented by the doctrines of this world. Revelation 20:10 shows Satan himself is to be TORMENTED unto the ages of the ages—"FOREVER AND EVER"! His torment will last forever. But not this fire. It will last only as long as combustible material remains to be consumed. Satan's torment, however, will continue forever as a mental anguish resulting from seeing all that he has striven toward, worked for, plotted for, burned up as the earth is purified by fire!

Some Bibles use italics to show that the word "are" in this verse was supplied by the translators. It is not found in the Greek manuscripts. The phrase should read, "where the beast and the false prophet were"—the unwritten verb being understood to be in the same tense as the verb in the first half of the sentence. The Amplified Bible has it correct. These two mortal individuals will have been destroyed over 1,000 years before the time Satan is put into these flames.

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