Hell - Messianic Apologetics - God Honest Truth Live Stream 06/03/2023

In today's teaching, the focus is on what happens to the unsaved after judgment at the end times. The concept of Hell is explored, with different biblical terms being used to describe it. The mainstream teaching of Hell as a place of fiery torment is questioned, and alternative interpretations are presented. Scripture verses are provided to support the idea that the unsaved will face destruction or perishing, rather than eternal torture. The different modern conceptions of what happens to the unsaved after judgment are also discussed, including universalism, eternal torture, and annihilationism. The teaching emphasizes the need to base our understanding on Scripture rather than popular beliefs or myths. All right, so we're going to go ahead and get started. Like I said, the Drash for today is going to be on Hell. More specifically, not really does Hell exist or not, we'll be getting into that as well, but that's not the specific goal. Specific goal for this teaching is what happens after the judgment at the end times for the unsaved. That's what we're going to be focusing on and getting to in today's Drash. But think about what we think of as Hell now in today's day and age through mainstream churchyandery, etc., etc. The teaching that commonly goes around, especially in the background I came from, and probably most of y'all's background as well, I came from the Baptist tradition, the Baptist background. The teaching on Hell is that Hell is the place of fiery torment and torture that the unsaved go to when they die. Now, keeping that in mind, scripture can get kind of strange when you have that kind of concept of Hell in mind. For instance, we have Psalms 139, verse 8, and David writes here, if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in Hell, behold, thou art there. Why is David saying that he's going to make his bed in the place of fiery torment, right? Again, in Psalms 1610, for thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Again, why is David saying that his soul is going to be in Hell and that Yahweh will not leave his soul in the place of fiery torment? Again, kind of confusing when we go from that concept of Hell being a place of fiery torment. We're thinking of David as being one of the righteous, and I would wager that, yeah, he's going to be one of the saved and righteous that we'll see in heaven, so why is he saying that he's going to be in the place of fiery torment? Again, Psalms 89, verse 48, what man would live and not see death? All die, right? Who rescues his life from the power of Hell? So, he's saying here that everyone dies, right? But is he saying that everyone is going to go to the place of fiery torment? Well, this is why we need a teaching and get a better understanding about Hell and what happens to the unsaved at Hell, or in Hell, rather. Have a better understanding of where we go once we die and what that final judgment for the unsaved is. So, in order to do that and get a better understanding, we need to start out with some good foundations. And foundations, like everything, we start with terminology, find out exactly what things are, have a better understanding from the ground up. First things first, we need to find out what Hell is. The very word that we have, Hell, comes from an old, old word, which generally means to cover up, right? Now, that's an important thing to keep in mind, it's going to come into play a little bit later on. The very word itself, aside from its meaning, most likely comes from a Nordic word for the goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology. She was the daughter of Loki, and her name was, well, Hell. And there's actually a Hell in Sweden, I think it is, which is kind of interesting because that has a lot of snow, and it's kind of interesting to think that. Hell actually does freeze over, right? Hell in the Nordic lands there. But yeah, going back to the drush, Hell comes from the word for the Nordic goddess, Hell, who was the daughter of Loki. And again, see here, Hell coming from a Teutonic word to cover the meaning anyways, and that's what it originally meant. But here's some things to keep in mind, that Hell, generally speaking in scriptural usage, is used in place of both Hades in the Greek in the New Testament, or the Brit Hadashah, and for Sheol in the Tanakh, or the Hebrew scriptures. Also used for Gehenna. We're going to be getting into all these terms in just a minute, but like I said, this is the start of the confusion when Hell is used for four different terms in the scriptures. Number one, it's used for Sheol in the Tanakh, or Old Testament, it's used for Hades in the Greek or the New Testament, it's also used sparingly for Gehenna in the Greek or New Testament, Brit Hadashah, and also in one place for Tartaru, or in the pagan concept, Tartarus. There's a whole different mythology that goes behind that as far as the pagan concept goes. And normally I would advise against getting into the study of paganism and stuff like that, but it is relevant to come to find out how it is we got to where we think of Hell today. Not getting into that, sticking to scripture today, but that is an interesting study. Now for those of you out there who are nerds like me, here is your definition of Sheol from the Strongs and Jeseniuses. And basically what we get from the meaning of Sheol is either a grave, pit, tomb, something like that, meaning covered up, like in the earth, that was the traditional way of burial during that time was to, I said that wrong, let me go back, that was the traditional way of taking care of the dead was to bury them or entomb them, stuff like that. You don't really find that in scripture. And for additional information, here's the Brown Driver's Briggs entry on Sheol. And here is the Jastrow's Dictionary, which pertains more to the Targums, but still relevant in things like this. But again, the whole concept of Sheol is grave, pit, tomb, something like that, meaning covered up, basically in the ground in some way, some fashion, something like that. That tends to make more sense when we read things like the Psalms of David that we just read where it says that he will not, that Yahweh will not leave his soul in Sheol, right, he will not leave his soul buried, okay? Now when we get into the Brit Hadashah or the New Testament, the equivalent word for Sheol in the Greek is Hades. And this means basically the same thing, grave, pit, tomb, something covered up, encased underground basically. And here is your Strong's Definition and the Greek-English Lexicon. Here's your Thayer's Greek Lexicon, all pretty much saying the same thing. Now some of these entries I had to cut down to fit on the slide, but the full entry is on the notes that we have available for this post on Godhonesttruth.com. Now another word we get to in the Brit Hadashah is Gehenna. We see this used with Yeshua when he's speaking about the end result of the unsaved, which we'll get to in just a little bit later on. But Gehenna is also translated as hell in some translations also. And Gehenna tends to fit more with the idea of hell that we have today. Sheol in Hades definitely doesn't, but Gehenna does. Lake of fire, that's what is said in the book of Revelation. But like I said, we'll get to some more of that in just a little bit when we get into the scriptures, but you'll see that Gehenna, as defined here, fits more with the lake of fire than it does Sheol or Hades. And here's your Thayer's Greek Lexicon for Gehenna. And again, the full entry and more notes are on Godhonesttruth.com. Now when we get to Tartaru, as we find in scripture, there's really only one place, and that's in 2 Peter 2.4. This refers more to a prison, but not so much for human beings. It's more for the fallen angels than anything else. Not really a prison for Satan, right? And not really a prison for all of the fallen angels or demons, because we read of demon possession in scripture, especially when Yeshua cast out the demons into the pigs, right? So it doesn't really refer to all the demons, but definitely some, as we read in 2 Peter 2.4. And we also read in scripture about Satan going to and fro on the earth and being the god of this earth, etc., etc. So we know he's not imprisoned right now. He's out there deceiving people left and right. The concept that we have, or some people have, of hell and this horned red figure with a pitchfork poking people and torturing them, etc., etc., in no way comes from scripture. Most likely, this concept of hell comes from Dante's Inferno, okay, and that's not where we base our doctrine and theology on. We base our doctrine and theology on scripture, and there's going to be a whole lot of that. But as far as the etymology and the way it comes down to us today, various words are interesting to kind of think about. For instance, we get the modern name Jesus from the Greek Iesus, which originally came from the Hebrew Yeshua, okay? So it's kind of got a, it comes from pure roots, we'll put it that way. Really should not be Jesus, but we got into all that on the teaching on names and also the dossier we did on Yeshua as well. But suffice it to say, the modern name we have Jesus comes from Yeshua. Likewise, the word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach. It's just a transliteration into English, all right? The English language doesn't really have an equivalent for the Chet, right? So it kind of softens it down into Messiah rather than Mashiach. Likewise, we get the word, the modern word Christ from the Greek word Christos. I guess it's just easier to say Christ because we could say Christos in English, but I don't know. Suffice it to say, we have Christ from the Greek word Christos. However, when it comes to the word hell, that doesn't really come from a biblical word or biblical term. That comes from a Nordic pagan term, which is very, very interesting. So because of that in part, and because our modern concept of hell that's rather popular is going around, during this teaching, I will do my best to refrain from using the word hell and instead use the biblical terms that we have, Sheol or Hades, which means grave, pit, tomb, something like that, where everyone goes when they die, like we saw in scriptures before, and also use the word Gehenna to refer to something like lake of fire and Tartaru to refer to the prison for the fallen angels, just so we get a more accurate and specific concept of what happens to people or the unsaved after the judgment and the end times. So I know you want to get to scriptures, but one more thing, let's go over real quick, some modern conceptions about what happens to the unsaved after judgment. There's really three main ones today. Number one, we have the concept of universalism. We have the concept of eternal torture, which people like me who come from a Baptist background are more than familiar with. Even if you don't come from a Baptist background, you probably know this, might have been taught that when you went to church. There's also the concept of annihilationism. Now universalism teaches that everyone dies, everyone's resurrected, but the unsaved will be refined in the lake of fire until a certain point at which they will be saved. Now different universalists have different concepts about what will happen and how that will happen, but the overarching theme of universalism is that everyone of all time will eventually be saved. Then we have eternal torture, which you're probably familiar with, which goes along the concept of the unsaved will suffer eternal torture in hell forever until the end of eternity, which will obviously never happen. And then we have annihilationism. This is defined as the concept of the unsaved will be raised during the second resurrection or judgment and then be cast into the lake of fire where they will be destroyed or annihilated. That's where the term comes from. But in contrast to universalism, they will not be saved. In contrast to eternal torture, they will not be forever tortured for all eternity in the lake of fire. They will be destroyed as their punishment. They will die the second death, right? So again, to go over the modern conceptions just in general, universalism teaches that everyone lives forever and that eventually even the unsaved will be saved and they'll be refined through the lake of fire. Eternal torture teaches that everyone lives forever and that the unsaved, however, undergo eternal torture. Whereas annihilationism teaches that only the saved have eternal life and the unsaved are destroyed. They perish. They're annihilated, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, in the lake of fire. So now let's get into the exciting part, scripture. All right, now, to start out, as we all know, everyone dies. Hebrews 9.27 states that as it awaits men to die once and after this, the judgment. Okay? Now, this is important for two reasons. A, it says it awaits men in general, mankind, to die once. Everyone dies. Scripture tells us that. We can see that for ourselves in everyday life. But then the interesting thing, number two, is that speaking in general of all mankind, that awaits the judgment and there is going to be a judgment for both the saved and the unsaved. Acts 24.14-15 states that, and this I confess to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the Elohim of my fathers, believing all that has been written in the Torah and in the prophets, having an expectation in Elohim, which they themselves also await for, that there is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the righteous and the unrighteous. So, there is going to be a resurrection for the saved and the unsaved and there is going to be a judgment as well. But John tells us in 1 John 4.17, by this love, I'm sorry, by this love has been perfected with us in order that we might have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. So, we as the saved can have boldness and confidence in the day of judgment because we're saved. We know that our sins have been forgiven, washed over by the blood, however you want to put it, but we are going to have eternal life in heaven. And that's how we can have boldness. John 5.28-29 states, do not marvel at this because the hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have practiced evil matters to a resurrection of judgment. Again, two resurrections, one for the saved and one for the unsaved. And then one of the most famous verses of all time, John 3.16, for Elohim so loved the world that he gave his only brought forth son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but possess everlasting life. So, you see here, getting on the concept of the saved, that the saved will have everlasting life. Again, in Matthew 7.13-14, enter in through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter in through it because the gate is narrow and the way is hard pressed which leads to life and there are few who find it. Again, the narrow gate, speaking of the righteous, those of us who are saved, leading to life. But notice how it says here in the way that is broad, that leads to destruction. Keep that word in mind for the unsaved here. This comes straight from scripture, that the unsaved are headed towards destruction. Plain scripture, okay? Romans 6.23, again, for the wages of sin is death but the favorable gift of Elohim is everlasting life and Messiah Yeshua our Master. Again, speaking about the saved having everlasting life but for the unsaved it's death. Previous scripture we just read stated destruction, here in Romans 6.23, for the unsaved it's saying death. Important distinctions note because if we go back to John 3.16, we'll read it one more time, for Elohim so loved the world that he gave his only brought forth a son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but possess everlasting life. So here, again, it's still making a contrast like all the other verses we've read that the saved would possess everlasting life but that the unsaved would perish, okay? Perish, destruction, et cetera, et cetera, death. That is what awaits the unsaved and these are words that come straight from scripture. We just read them but notice here the word for perish is the Greek word apolloni, okay? So what does that mean? Well, get nerdy again. Here's the Strong's definition for Strong's G622, means destroy, die, lose, mar, perish, to destroy fully, to fully destroy. Here's the Thayer's Greek lexicon on that as well and I hate to beat a broken record but like you see here I've had to cut it down for the sake of slide space and you can find the full entry on God, Honest Truth for the post for this drosh. But again, utterly and fully destroy. Here's the Greek English lexicon entry on that, it calls destruction, to destroy, to ruin, right? Fully destroy. Well we find this word interestingly enough, not only in John 3.16 but also again in the words of our Messiah in Matthew 10.28 and he states here in some very interesting and relevant words, he says, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And that word for fully destroy, apollonim, is used here by our Messiah. It states don't fear man who can only kill the body. So he's saying fear him who can kill, kill, destroy, both body and soul in Gehenna. He uses the word Gehenna here. So who's he talking about that can kill both soul and body? Well that can only be Yahweh. Yahweh only has the power to do that. But if you also notice that it says here that the soul can be destroyed. That's the words of our Messiah that we see here. You can find it in any translation but it says the exact same thing, just different words. The meaning is all the same, that the soul can be destroyed. Matthew 3.12, some more interesting words to look at. It states his winnowing fork is in his hand and he shall thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the storehouse. But the shaft he shall burn with unquenchable fire. The word here for burn is katachio. This is going to be something that comes into play here. But here's a parable, a teaching about the end times. About clearing and cleansing his threshing floor. Well what does that refer to? It pretty much refers to the entire earth, the new earth that's going to be coming. He's going to gather the wheat into his storehouse to save the wheat, to protect the wheat. Who's that referring to? That's referring to the saved. But the shaft, that's referring to the unsaved that he shall burn with unquenchable fire. Burn the word here in Greek, katachio, again Matthew 13.30 and 40. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest I shall say to the reapers, first gather the darnel and bind them in bundles to burn, katachio, them. But gather the wheat into my granary. As the darnel then is gathered and burned, katachio, in the fire so it shall be at the end of this age. Again, another analogous teaching about the end times. And the darnels, or the unsaved, is being burned, burnt up, utterly destroyed, katachio. Is that really what it means? Well let's look at two different words here. We have the shorter word, kio, Strong's G2545, and then we have the longer word that we've been looking at, katachio, and that's Strong's G2618. Now kio means to burn, start a fire, kindle, stuff like that, a burning, right, doesn't really indicate anything of end or that there will be a completion to it, you know, something like that. It just means a burning. Whereas katachio, on the other hand, means to totally, wholly, fully burn up, consume, and destroy, to utterly burn up. A good example of this is in the Step 2 agent when we look at Exodus 3.2, and it states, And the messenger of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked and saw the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. We can see that the bush was burning, kio, was on fire, however, it was not fully consumed and burned up, katachio, right? But Yeshua states in the end times that the unsaved, the shaft, the darnel, will be completely burnt up, fully consumed, utterly destroyed. Then we get into some more of the Hebrew looking at Psalms 37, 38, for instance, and this even makes reference to the end times as well. It states that the transgressors shall be destroyed together, the latter end of the wrong shall be cut off. Now in the Tanakh, you don't really find much information on the lake of fire, however, you do find information on what will happen to the unsaved and the saved at the end times. We find in the book of Daniel about the resurrection, waking from sleep, etc., etc. Don't really find the lake of fire that much, but here we find in Psalms a glimpse of what will happen to the unsaved, or as it says here, the transgressors, that they shall be destroyed. This word used here is Strong's H8045, shamad, and that means to bring to nothing, bring to naught, to utterly destroy, to desolate, things like that, lay waste, and you see that in the Strong's definition and the Jesenius' Hebrew lexicon entry. We also see that in the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon as well, to exterminate, to annihilate, etc., etc., utterly destroyed. That is shamad, shamad, rather. The outline of biblical usage on Blue Letter Bible kind of boils it down to a good summary here for shamad, to destroy, exterminate, be destroyed, be exterminated, annihilate, be exterminated, be destroyed, be devastated, to annihilate, exterminate, to destroy. That's what shamad means, and in Psalms it says the transgressors, the unsaved, the unrighteous, however you want to put it, will be destroyed, utterly desolated, exterminated, utterly annihilated. That's what Psalms is telling us about the transgressors, the unsaved. Then going back to the Brit Hadashah, Hebrews 10, 26 through 27, for if we sin purposely after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a slaughtering offering for sins, but some fearsome anticipation of judgment and a fierce fire which is about to consume the opponents. Again, another glimpse of what's going to happen to the unsaved at the end times. Hebrews 10, 37 through 39, for yet a little while, he who is coming shall come and shall not delay, but the righteous shall live by belief, but if anyone draws back, my being has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to destruction, but of belief to the preservation of life. Again, drawing that contrast of the end times where the saved will have life and the unsaved will go to destruction. Second Peter 2, 12 through 13, but these, like natural unreasoning beasts, having been born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming that which they do not know, shall be destroyed in their destruction, being about to receive the wages of unrighteousness. Again, talking about the unsaved, the unrighteous, the unrepentant, being destroyed. This is straight from Scripture. I mean, there's very little comment tonight, or today rather. Straight from Scripture, what we're getting here. Okay, so some things to keep in mind real quick is to think about those three different conceptions that we went over at the beginning. And as we go through all the Scriptures and information in tonight's drosh, think about how that applies to each of those three concepts, universalism, eternal torture, and annihilationism. We've kind of hit on some Scriptures that would definitely apply already, but there's a lot more that we are going to go through, and there's a lot more that did not make it into today's drosh. There's also a lot of history to get into as well, however, history isn't something that we're presenting in tonight's drosh, it's straight Scripture and stuff like that. But again, I would highly advise you to go on, like always, do your own study, your own research for yourself instead of just taking one teaching as gospel, right? Do your own study, study for yourselves to show yourselves approved, right? Be like the Bereans. They tested everything that Paul said to the Scriptures, and that was the apostles who had a great miraculous vision of Yeshua. How much more should you test a simple human being, what they say to the Scriptures also? So do your own research as we go through here. But like I said, we have covered some Scriptures already concerning the three different concepts that would apply there. There are a lot more to go to, and one of the things that some of you out there are probably thinking about is the Scriptures that refer to forever or for eternal or stuff like that. So now let's focus on eternality in some of those Scriptures also, just to get a more rounded and a better view of what happens to the unsaved. Look at Isaiah 66, 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me. For their worms shall not die, and their fire not be quenched, and they shall be repulsive to all flesh. Now here it's talking about things not dying and things not being quenched, okay? And this is a verse that comes up a lot in the discussions of hell and what happens to the unsaved at the end of times. So let's break this down and look real quick. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Here we're speaking of the unsaved, the unrighteous, the transgressors. What's it say about them? That they are going to be corpses, okay? What are corpses? Well, dead bodies, not living bodies, not moving around, conscious, stuff like that. They're dead bodies. They're corpses. And then also, you notice later on, it says, for their worms shall not die. Well, the worms eating those corpses shall not die. The worms shall not die. And it says, their fire that they're being burned with shall not quench or shall not be quenched, rather. It's not speaking of the corpses or the living unsaved. It's talking about the unrighteous. The living unsaved. It's talking about the fire that can't be quenched and the worms not dying. Something important to keep in mind. Matthew 18, 8. And if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or crippled rather than having two hands or two feet to be thrown into the everlasting fire. So, if, okay, let's back up real quick. We know what sin is. Scripture defines sin as the breaking of the tor. Right? We went through that in 1 John. But it says here is that if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, then cut it off to keep yourself from sinning. Keep yourself from sinning. If your, it goes on later, says if your eyes tells you to sin, then cut it off to keep you from sinning. Right? But it's better to be crippled than to go into the everlasting fire. So, what does this have to do with the unsaved? Well, number one, it gives us a glimpse that the unsaved will be thrown into the everlasting fire. But notice here how it doesn't touch on whether the unsaved will be alive forever and ever for everlasting. It's saying that the fire will be everlasting. It's not referring either way to what happens to the unsaved. It's just the fire that will be everlasting. Matthew 25, 41, he shall then also say to those on the left hand, go away from me, accursed ones into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his messengers. Okay, we read in the book of Revelation that the devil and the beast and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire and be tortured forever and ever. We'll get to that in just a moment. But here, you notice he's talking about the unsaved though, and they'll be cast again into the everlasting fire. But again, it's the fire that's everlasting, and it's not talking about one way or the other about the unsaved, the accursed ones. Matthew 25, 46, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. Now, we're getting into some more of the meat of the eternal everlasting kind of concept. And here, it's making a contrast again between everlasting punishment and everlasting life. We see, as we know from other scriptures, that everlasting life is given to the saved, those who are in Messiah, right? But for the unsaved here, it's referring to everlasting punishment, although it doesn't go into what that punishment is one way or the other. Something to keep in mind though is there is a difference between punishment and punishing. Two different words can refer to the same thing, but there's a difference between punishment and punishing. Punishment is a way or a method of punishing someone. Punishing is carrying out the punishment, whereas punishment is the state and punishing is the action. Think about the death sentence that we have nowadays. The death sentence is the punishment, whereas the punishing part of the punishment would be killing them. In one way or another, firing squad, hanging, guillotine, electric chair, lethal injection, what have you. The punishing is the killing part, but the punishment is death, okay? And when it comes to our modern death sentence for where and when it does occur, the punishing only takes a little while, but the punishment of death lasts forever, right? Once they're dead, they're not coming back alive. I mean, not nowadays, people resurrected way back when, but I have yet to see or hear of anyone being raised from the dead in my lifetime. So, the punishment of death there lasts forever. That's kind of the point of the death sentence. Revelation 2010, and the devil who led them astray was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tortured day and night forever and ever. So, here we see, now keep in mind that Revelation is rife with metaphors and analogies and stuff like that, and word pictures about what's going to come later on. Revelation takes some study to find out exactly what it means, but here, one thing that we can know for sure is that it's talking about some torture that is taking place that lasts forever and ever, day and night, forever and ever, for all eternity. The torture, though, is being referred to here in this verse to the devil and the beast and the false prophet being thrown into the lake of fire, Gehenna. Their torture in this verse is being referred to as going on forever and ever. It's not referring to anyone else, just the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are. Now, you can probably assume that the other fallen angels will probably be there too, but we don't know because this verse doesn't mention them. But the important thing to know is that the forever torture in this verse is only being applied to the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. So, we've looked at, let's go back real quick, the difference between punishment and punishing, it's an important thing to keep in mind. But here in Matthew 25, 46, it's talking about, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment. Where do we see that again? We see that in Jude 1, 7, where it says, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, in a similar way to these, having given themselves over to whoring and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing judicial punishment of everlasting fire. We know that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed back in the days of Abraham, right? With fire and brimstone. But here it's referring to it as everlasting fire. Their punishment was everlasting. Those cities have not been raised back up from the ground. They have not been rebuilt, okay? Their destruction was everlasting. Their destruction was eternal. But they're still not, they're alive, continuously being burned with fire and brimstone, right? The fire that's speaking here, the everlasting fire, is not referring to a fire that is still going on in Sodom and Gomorrah, right? So, what is it referring to? What's referring to their punishment that's everlasting? Their punishment was being destroyed by fire. And that's the everlasting part that it's talking about here. Their everlasting destruction. Not their everlasting torment, their everlasting torture, their everlasting fire and brimstone raining down on them. It's talking about their punishment, which is everlasting. They were destroyed. Revelation 20, 14 through 15. And death and Sheol were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And if anyone was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Excuse me. So, here we see again the sentence for the unsaved. Death. How is this death carried out? Carried out by being thrown into the lake of fire. Now, we just read in the book of Revelation that the beast, the false prophet, and Satan were thrown into the lake of fire to be tortured forever and ever, day and night. Here, we see that the unsaved are being thrown into the lake of fire to experience the second death. Important distinction to make. Between death and torture or torment. Mark 3, 28 through 29. Truly, I say to you, all the sins shall be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they speak. But he who blasphemes against the set-apart Spirit has no forgiveness forever, but is subject to everlasting judgment. What is that everlasting judgment? Well, we just read it. We just went over in Scripture that it will be the second death. Being thrown into the lake of fire, Gehenna. And their judgment of death, their death sentence, that second death lasts forever. There's no more resurrection for them. Because they've already gotten that second resurrection, right? The resurrection of the unjust. Their death sentence is everlasting. Their judgment is everlasting. No more chances. That's what he's talking about here. When you put everything together. Now, kind of to keep in context with everything, and thinking about annihilationism, eternal torture, and universalism, how does that fit in with the rest of Scripture? When we know that these concepts for the unsaved at the end times are a, kind of within the realm of justice, we'll put it that way. Most of them think it's justice, right? Whether you're an annihilationist and you think that the justice is going to be death and annihilation, or whether you're in the camp of eternal torture, and you think that the torture is the justice that takes place. What does Scripture say about justice and the issuing out of justice? Well, we see in Genesis 6, 11 through 13, and this is the story of Noah and the flood, right? And it states, So, what did Yahweh do with the wicked, the unsaved, if you will? In Noah's time, he says they are going to be destroyed. He destroyed them, okay? Again, Genesis 7, 4 and 21 through 23. So, what is the justice that was done here for the wicked and the unrighteous? They were destroyed. They were killed. They died. They were wiped off the earth, okay? They weren't eventually saved. They did not go through prolonged eternal drowning in the flood. They were killed. They were wiped off the earth. Then we get into the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some more justice here. Genesis 19, 24 through 25 and 28 through 29. And Yahweh rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh out of the heavens. So, he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain. And Abraham looked and saw the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. Thus it came to be when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain that Elohim remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. So, what was the justice for Sodom and Gomorrah? They were destroyed with fire and brimstone or as it says here, sulfur and fire. Now, something to keep in mind here, like we read in Jude, that they were punished with everlasting fire. However, the fire is still not going, right? That is a way of speaking in scripture to state that their judgment of fire was everlasting. It was still not rebuilt, right? And we look again concerning the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Luke 17, 28-29. And likewise, as it came to be in the days of Lot, they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and salt on the city of Sodom and Gomorrah it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all, okay? It was a death sentence for Sodom and Gomorrah. They were utterly destroyed. They were annihilated. And again, we look at Jude 1-7. This is a reminder. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar way to these, having given themselves over to whoring and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing judicial punishment of everlasting fire. Their punishment was everlasting because they still haven't been rebuilt. They're gone. I mean, a lot of people have claimed to have found the locations of where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood. But even then you can find that they were utterly destroyed, burnt up, utterly consumed. They were annihilated. But again, it gets back to the difference between punishing and punishment. Okay? Their punishment, Sodom and Gomorrah, was to be destroyed and killed. But the punishing, the fire and sulfur raining down from heaven, that didn't take very long, but it did take a certain amount of time. But their punishment is forever. We look at Romans 9-29, and Yeshayahu said before, if Yahweh of Hosts had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. So here it's saying that once the people of Israel, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, were taken into exile, and they were attacked and stuff like that, if Yahweh hadn't if Yahweh hadn't protected and left a seed, then they would have been utterly destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. There would be no more Hebrews. It would not come down through the line to Yeshua. But Yahweh did leave a seed. But Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no seed left. There was nothing in them left. They were utterly destroyed, and that was their everlasting punishment. Second Peter 2-6, and having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who afterward would live wickedly. Again, completely destroyed, completely gone, not eternally being rained on by fire and sulfur from heaven. That is the justice that we're talking about there for Sodom and Gomorrah, and that was the justice that we looked at for the wicked in Noah's days, being wiped off the earth, being destroyed, being killed, dead. Some other forms of punishment in scripture. Of course, we know that the death penalty was a type of justice prescribed in scripture, and that is through various means, whether it be stoning or by the sword or through burning, et cetera, et cetera. But the death penalty was one form of justice as laid out in scripture. Another form of justice laid out in scripture is flogging. There are various fines and stuff for various transgressions as well. For instance, if you steal something from someone or if someone is injured but not dead, stuff like that. There's also indentured servitude as well. But that indentured servitude until the fine is paid off or the amount owed is paid off, the fine is paid off or the amount owed is paid off, that only lasts a certain time. It's either until the fine is paid off or what you owe is paid off or that six years mark. Even the slavery that is talked about in scripture is for a certain time only. Now, at the end of that time, the slave or the indentured servant can go to their master and say, I want to stay with you and be serving you forever. We could do that, but scripture prescribes six years for slavery or indentured servitude. Take quick notice what you see here. The justice meted out in scripture is death, flogging, fines, indentured servitude. Notice something that you do not see as justice prescribed in scripture. Have you noticed it yet? Torture is not one of the forms of justice that scripture prescribes. I mean, if you can find that in scripture, by all means, write us and let us know. But you don't see torture as a form of justice being used in scripture. Now, yep, so moving on, some other things that might come up that you're thinking about right now as pertaining to this is Lazarus and the rich man. And for those of you who don't know, just refresh your memory. We find that in Luke 16, 19 to 31. And Yeshua says, but there was a certain man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and live luxuriously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Eleazar or Lazarus being covered with sores who was placed at his gate and longing to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Indeed, even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to be that the beggar died and was carried by the messengers to the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man also died and was buried. And while suffering tortures in Sheol, having lifted up his eyes, he saw Abraham far away and Eleazar in his bosom. And crying out, he said, Father Abraham, have compassion on me and send Eleazar to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am suffering in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your life you received your good and likewise Eleazar the evil. But now he is comforted and you are suffering. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been set so that those who wish to pass from here to you are unable, nor do those from there pass to us. And he said, Then I beg you, Father, that you would send him to my father's house where I have five brothers. Let him warn them, lest they also come to this place of torture. Abraham said to him, They have Moshe and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they shall repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moshe and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded, even if one should rise from the dead. So that's the story that we find of Lazarus and the rich man that Yeshua stated in the book of Luke. Some people, when thinking about the end times and the result or the fate of the unsaved, think of this story that Yeshua told, and they take it literally. And there are problems with that, with taking it literally. For instance, Yeshua in this story never states that the rich man did anything wrong or what his sin was. It simply states that the rich man went down to the lake of fire. And there's a problem with this because being rich is not a sin. Okay. And being poor and sickly is not what makes you righteous. So, again, that's a huge problem right there. Scripture doesn't say be poor and sickly and you shall be saved, right? Nor does it say thou shalt not be rich. So that's the first problem with taking this story literally. Number two. Another problem is that the righteous or the saved that are up there in heaven, or as in the story, calling it paradise, they will be able to see the torment of those who are down in the lake of fire, what we refer to as hell. That would be a problem. If you're one of the saved and you're enjoying eternity with Yahweh and Yeshua and stuff like that, do you really think it's a good thing to be able to see others being tortured forever? Okay, so that's a problem. Problem number two. Problem number three. Why would anyone, including the rich man down in the lake of fire, think that even or just one drop would be able to quench a fiery torment? Okay, I mean, it's common sense. No one would think that one drop would have any sort of relief. Problem number three. Problem number four. The hell spoken of here, or more accurately, Hades, where the rich man goes, does not match up with every other scriptural example of Hades or Sheol, and does not match the Hades or Sheol where Yeshua was buried, because it says that Yeshua was in Sheol or Hades. And let's go back and look at this real quick. It says here that the rich man, ah, yep, and it came to be that the beggar died and was carried by the messengers to the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man also died and was buried, and while suffering tortures in Sheol. So, it actually doesn't use, you know, Gehenna here, or lake of fire. It uses Sheol, and as we've already seen, Sheol, or Hades, is where everyone goes, not just the sinners, okay? And the picture that we get from the rest of scripture doesn't match the Sheol or Hades that's being used here. The picture here matches up more with Gehenna, or the lake of fire. So, there's something else going on here, and that's the fourth problem with taking the picture of the rich man. The problem with taking this story literally. Number five, Hades, or Sheol, as we see in scripture, it refers to the intermediate state of the dead where everyone goes, okay? It doesn't refer to the end state of the dead, the unsaved specifically. It just refers to the intermediate state. With taking this literally. Now, remember, Yeshua also went to Hades. Why would the perfect sinless son of Yahweh go to what we think of as hell, right? For seeing this, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah, that his being was neither left in Sheol, Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. So, if we think of Hades as the lake of fire for the unsaved, we have problems when we realize that Yeshua also went to Hades or Sheol. But when we correctly understand that Sheol or Hades is the intermediate state for everyone until the end times, then everything lines up much better, much more accurately, it makes much more sense. So, going back to the problems with taking the story of rich man Lazarus literally, okay, that's another conflict there with taking it literally. So, where did this whole story come from? Why is Yeshua saying these things if it doesn't match up with the rest of scripture? Well, the thing to take away is that Yeshua was telling a parable. He wasn't relating something that actually happened or that was actually going to happen. Yeshua did not tell this story literally. He was telling a parable to teach. It was an analogy. And if you'll remember, in context, the story is being told to the Pharisees specifically, right? So, this is something, a story that the Pharisees would have been familiar with because they had stories like this already that was part of their tradition, but was not part of scripture, okay? Because you don't find these things in scripture, but you do find these things in Jewish writings like 4th Maccabees 1317. And here it says, for if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and that all the fathers will praise us. So, in Jewish tradition, they think that when they die, they'll be taken to Abraham, Abraham's side, Abraham's bosom, right? We also get other stories like we find in the legends of the Jews. As for these seven divisions of paradise, in the first division dwell the proselytes who embraced Judaism of their own free will. The second division, those who have repented. The third division dwell Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Israelites who came out of Egypt, and the whole generation that lived in the desert. Also, David is there in the third division. The fourth division dwells the perfect and the steadfast in faith. The fifth division dwells the Messiah on a palanquin. With him is Elijah. He takes the head of Messiah and places it in his bosom. In the sixth division dwell those who died in performing a pious act. And in the seventh division, those who died from illness inflicted as an expiation for the sins of Israel. So, that is a mouthful, and I even cut that down to fit on the slide. But yeah, part of the stories or the traditions that the Jews had was there were seven divisions. You can find this in the legends of the Jews. As I pointed out here, there are links to everything in the notes, our study notes. Go check that out on Godhonesttruth.com. But that's why Yeshua told this parable in the way that he did. It was for the Pharisees to teach them something and to tell a story. It was an analogy. It wasn't something literal. We also find this in the Talmud from Kiddushin 72b. Today, he is sitting in the lap of Abraham, our father, since he has just been circumcised. He added, today, Rav Yehudah was born in Babylonia. And we also find, again, as part of the legends of the Jews. So, Michael turned the chariot and brought Abraham to the place of judgment of all souls. Here, he saw two gates, the one broad and the other narrow. The narrow gate, that of the just, which leads to life. They that enter through it go into paradise. The broad gate is that of sinners, which leads to destruction and eternal punishment. So, again, this Jewish tradition being taken to Abraham on death, or as they would say, the righteous will be taken to Abraham anyways. And there's much, much more that goes into that, as far as the Jewish side is concerned, and why Yeshua told that parable in the way he did. But some people say that this is not a parable, that it actually is literal. And we went over five problems with that already. But we know that it is a parable because, well, we'll get to the notescript in a minute, well, we'll get to the notescript in just a minute. But back up and get some context on this is that, like I said, we find the story in Luke 16, 19-31. We back up to verse 14, and we see that the Pharisees were sneering at Yeshua because, you know, it's what they do, and what Yeshua had said before that. So, we find the Pharisees there, and then we find the story of Lazarus and the rich man. But we see in Matthew 13, 10-15, Because of this, I speak to them in parables. Because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Yeshayahu is completely filled, which says, Hearing you shall hear, and by no means understand, and seeing you shall see, and by no means perceive. For the heart of this people has become thickened, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart, and turn back, and I heal them. So, the disciples come up to him and ask him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And Yeshua tells them why he speaks to them in parables. And then we see in Matthew 13, 34-35, Yeshua said all this to the crowds in parables. He did not speak to them without a parable. So that what was spoken by the prophet might be filled saying, I shall open my mouth in parables. I shall pour forth what was hidden from the foundation of the world. So, we're plainly told here that when he's around the crowds, he speaks to them in parables and doesn't say anything to them that's not in parables. As we read through the Synoptic Gospels, read the stories of Yeshua and the disciples, he explains the parables to the disciples. He speaks plainly to them. But when it comes to the Pharisees and the crowds, he teaches them in parables. And Lazarus and the rich man is just another one of those parables. Because if you take it to mean something literal and not a parable, there are so many problems with that. Some that we went over, probably some that we didn't include. But it gets to be a very messy and confusing thing when you try and take the parable of the rich man and Lazarus literally. Now, we have just barely scratched the surface on this parable. For more on that, I would highly invite you to go over and check out the 119 Ministries video they did on this. It's from the Life After Death series. And this is their fourth video in that series. But they go over in detail, much more detail than we did here, on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. All of that, again, is in the notes that we took and provided for you on the post on godhonesttruth.com for this teaching of hell. So, in summary, let's go back over the modern conceptions real quick. We have universalism, which teaches that everyone lives forever and that the unsaved are eventually refined and saved themselves. Eternal torture, that concept teaches that everyone lives forever, that the unsaved undergo torture forever and ever through all eternity. Annihilationism teaches that only the saved have eternal life and that the unsaved are destroyed or annihilated. So, keeping these three concepts in mind, think about all of the scriptures that we went over. Read them for yourselves, in fact. Do some more studying and think of how the scriptures line up with these three different concepts and which concept lines up more with scripture. So, in summary, before I get started on the summary, this subject of hell, more specifically, what happens to the unsaved at the end times, this is not a salvation issue. So, if you come to a different conclusion than someone else, hey, that's great. We're all brothers and sisters. We just have a different interpretation on this subject. So, it's not a salvation issue. Neither should this be a fellowship issue, okay? This should not be something that you say to someone else, you agree with me or we're not fellowshipping, okay? We are all brothers and sisters in Yeshua. And this subject, as you've seen, can fall into different interpretations depending on who you are, where you come from, et cetera, et cetera, all that. So, with that being said, we're going to definitely lean toward our interpretation on this. But it's not a fellowship issue and it's not a salvation issue. If you disagree with us, great. We call you brother or sister. Let's break bread, okay? So, if you come to a different interpretation, that's fine. No judgment here. We're presenting it as we found it. And we hope that you come to your own conclusion based on your own study and prayer. And, again, if that agrees with us and lines up with us, awesome. If it doesn't, awesome. Either way, you're still our brothers and sisters. But, in summary, Sheol or Hades means pit, grave, tomb, something like that. It's the intermediate state of the dead until the end times. Gehenna or, more accurately, Ge'enna is a reference to the Lake of Fire and more accurately lines up with our modern churchianity concept of hell. Tartarou is the prison for the fallen angels, okay? So, just get the terminology right. And I would actually highly advise you to stop using the word hell because there's so much misinformation, misunderstanding about it. Instead, start using these words that scripture actually uses. Sheol, Hades, Ge'enna, and Tartarou. But, more specifically, or more commonly, you'd be using Sheol, Hades, and Ge'enna. Now, I'll go to Sheol or Hades in the intermediate state before the two resurrections. Remember, scripture speaks about a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust. So, even the unjust are going to be resurrected as well. And eternal life, as we've seen from these scriptures, is for those who are saved, is for the righteous, but not the unsaved. What is the reward for the unsaved or the unrighteous? Scripture states that is death, the second death. Both the unjust and the unjust will be resurrected, like we just stated and we read from scripture, right? And the unsaved will be burnt up or consumed, destroyed, those are the words we read from scripture, in the lake of fire. Okay? And that's just the God-honest truth. Again, this is something that's not a salvation issue. This is not a fellowship issue. And again, if you come to a different conclusion, or you come to a different interpretation based on your own study and your own prayers and stuff like that, great. You're still a brother or sister. We'll still fellowship with you. No judgment here. You're still welcome. Let's hug. Let's get together. It's not a big deal. It's not a salvation issue. 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