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By Mark Farquharson
1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy is being abolished: death. {CLV}
Christ is to reign until all enemies are placed under His feet including death. Who are we to say that is not the case? However it seems there are those that teach that is not the case, that death will not be abolish, nor placed under his feet, for them it is to continue on for all eternity. If the last enemy is death, which is to be abolished then why is it that it is said to go on forever and forever.
The second death is the lake of fire, and it is this death that they have go on for all eternity. However death is an enemy, why would Christ have this enemy continue on for all eternity? Why would he not crush it under foot? Are we to ignore what is written in this verse?
The second death is not hell, it is the lake of fire, no where in the scriptures does it actaully state that the second death is hell. What then is hell and what then is the second death?
It seems that to the vast majority of teaches of the bible it is a place the unfaithful go when they die awaiting judgement, after which they go to again for all eternity, that burns the body for all that time. I have no idea how someone's body can be burned for so long, while they stay alive in tortured agony.
Would Christ the lamb, really torture most of humanity for all of eternity while the faithful live it up in heaven in their heavenly estates. Will the saved really look down on the unsaved, and think that it is just punish, that the unfaithful are receving at the hands of the lamb. Will they look down and not think that somehow this punishment is way over the top, that somehow it is unjust. Will the saved really go on living in heaven while the rest of humanity suffer great on going neverending torture.
Actually hell originally meant death or grave, and the words Hades, and Sheol, translate as hell, have also be translate as pit or grave or the unseen. When someone dies they are dead, they have not gone anywhere, they are not living anywhere, they are dead. They do not exist in some made up place called hell awaiting judgement. Where does one go when they die, the grave.
What then of the second death, for it to be abolished then it must be done away with, and therefore can not go on forever. Nor do the people in the lake of fire suffer on going torture, for that would be cruel, and evil.
What then of the fires of the second death? the lake of fire is not there to destroy or torture the person. For fire is not just destructive, it can also purify, and indeed the word fire comes from the Greek word pur. Notice the Greek word pur is the first part of the word purify. Thus the people in the lake of fire are purified. Not only does the fire purify them it also refines them. Think of gold and silver having being refined.
This is what also happens to believers, the faithful, although not in the second death, they are refined and purified in fire before that time, for all are salted with fire. Mark 9:49-50.
Once everyone in the Lake of fire is purified then it is of no further use, and thus is done away with having served it's purpose. What has happen to all those that were in that place, that is not a hell hole, they will be with the faithful. Thus all mankind will be alive, none will be dead.
Some teach that the dead will be no more after the Great White Throne Judgement, that God will just do away with them, like some mass slaugther of the guilty, for the crime of not believing in the one, the saviour, even if they never heard of him. I am not sure how death can be abolished if most of humanity stay dead forever.
Copyright © Mark J Farquharson 2018
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