But I noticed that our Lord, while stressing the terror of hell with unsparing severity usually emphasizes the idea not of duration but of finality. Consignment to the destroying fire is usually treated as the end of the story--not as the beginning of a new story.

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain


Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Jude 1:7













MISSION STATEMENT This blog is devoted to presenting biblically based evidence which argues for the extinction of the wicked as oppossed to their eternal torment in a place called hell. The usual case for extinction follows a familiar pattern: the wicked will be resurrected, suffer for a time in the lake of fire, then be extinguished. This blog takes a different view. It is the assertion here that all of the language in the Bible that refers to torment is in fact referring to earthly torment endured during the tribulation. The argument proceeds as follows: The Bible teaches a period of earthly torment (Mark 13:19, Rev. 4:10, 1 Thess. 5:2-3, Rev. 9:4-5), from which the just are exempt (Rev. 7:2-3, 9:4-5, 14:9-11), that consists of Christ shutting the door (Gen. 7:16), weeping (Amos 8:10, Zeph. 1:14), fire and brimstone (Rev. 9:18, 9:2, Isaiah 34:9, Malachi 4:1), smoke going up forever (Isaiah 34:8-10), and a form of retributive justice (Jer. 16:18, 17:18, Rev. 18:16, Psalm 69:27-28, 59:13, 83:17), which ends in extinction (Malachi 1:4, Obadiah 1:16, Psalm 37:20, Rev. 20:11-14, Matt. 25:46, Luke 12:48).



















Monday, January 17, 2011

IMAGES OF JUDGMENT--THE FURNACE OF FIRE

Matthew 13:38-42 states "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that soweth them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire; so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

The furnace of fire is usually taken to mean hell or the lake of fire, but this appears to ignore Rev. 9, which pictures the wicked in a furnace of fire: "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." The ensuing verses describe the torment; verse 18 has them killed by fire and brimstone. The torment described here corresponds to that described in Rev. 14:10, which is earthly torment, as evidenced by the fact that it occurs in the presence of the Lamb, whereas hell is described as a place outside of God's presence (Matt. 25:41). The fact that the angels do the separating or "gathering" also corresponds more closely to Rev. 9 than Matt. 25:32, where God does the separating, or Rev. 20:15.
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