Yet Christ speaks of it the same way. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 17/09/2010 05:18:23 AM
I was going to burn there forever before. A couple of times. But I have met very few people that actually believe that...at least ones that will admit it.
They think fire and brimstone and eternal torment are what waits right after death. I think it was in John where we're told to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord... but that's just as I recall it.
What those people are doing is conflating "hell/sheol/the afterlife without God" and the Lake of Fire spoken of in The Revelation of John. In his vision, John sees the end of time, the end of existence, when all that God Created is judged, and when the accuser, his demons, and all those not found in the Lamb's Book of Life are put into the Lake of Fire for eternity.
The question, then, is John's vision a literal reality? Most of the rest of his revelation is given is terms that would make sense to a dreaming mind, or that could be allegorical/metaphoric. For that reason, I'm not sure the Lake of Fire with eternal torment is literally what waits for those who didn't accept Christ.
It could be literal, or it could be John's attempt to explain something he didn't understand or couldn't put into words.
That said, most Christians don't realize that there is a difference between where you go when you die and the Lake of Fire mentioned by John.
"'And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, nto the fire that shall never be quenched—where
"Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched."’"
Three times He says this in Mark (except in the Greek text) but is Jesus being metaphorical? He's actually quoting Isaiah,
"'And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me, ' says the LORD.
'And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. '"
Still apocalyptic, predating the Resurrection by centuries. Metaphorical? Probably, but WTF knows? In the end it really doesn't matter.
