Is Hell a Permanent Suffering for Men?
Quote:
Originally Posted by garry2
The rich man and lazarus is a story, but if it were true, lazarus will be caught up to Christ before then. From memory no one is caught up to Christ in the clouds at the seventh (revelation) trumpet.
There really was this rich man and a man named Lazarus. It's not a story. It's real. There was "a certain rich man" (Luke 16.19). "There was a certain beggar named Lazarus" (v.20). And the 7th trumpet hasn't happened yet, not even the first trumpet of the Tribulation.
Nobody is in heaven yet, "shall not prevent them which are asleep" (1 Thess. 4.15). "The dead in Christ shall rise first" (v.16). Not even David is in heaven yet, "for David is not ascended into the heavens" (Acts 2.34).
The first trumpet has not sounded yet because this has not happened yet, which occurs before the trumpets of Tribulation, "stood before the throne" (Rev. 7.9) in third heaven. "And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound" (8.6).
Hades is not hell, for hades is the place of soul sleep, while hell is the place of the unsaved resurrected and fallen angels. God can destroy your body and soul, but he doesn't. What he does do is place you in hell for all eternity to suffer punishment and torment along with Satan and his fallen angels, because that is the choice of the unsaved. That is what they want ultimately.
Rev. 14.9, "If any man worship the beast", "he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone" (v.10). You may desire to cease to exist for all your horrible sin as the worse possible consequence, but God says you will be punished in hell for all eternity and never cease to exist in that pain and suffering. It "will never burn out" (Matt. 25.41). It burns always forever for the wicked and unsaved.
How silly to throw the hell into the lake of fire when hell is the lake of fire.
If the worm does not die, how much more will man never cease to exist in hell?
"For their worm shall not die" (Is. 66.24). And, "neither shall their fire be quenched," for they will be in it forever. The fire can't go out because the person does not cease to exist.
