This is a deep dive into insights from across The Bible about the Lake of Fire that burns with sulfur, somewhere on the new Earth The Lord has created. I have seen one too many errant teachings on this important topic. So this is my effort to shed light on it, not just from a few Bible passages, but from many. This is not the kind of teaching that can be grasped in a quick reading. Take your time, research, dig-in with me, and ask The Holy Spirit to guide and inspire what you learn. This post is for serious students of The Bible. Please do not attempt to read this lengthy post on a small device.
There‘s a lot of avoidable confusion,
And several un-biblical illusions,
About The Book of Revelation’s dark forecast,
For those who into the lake of fire will be cast.
If only we would let Scripture interpret itself,
We could hear what, to us, The Lord is saying, Himself.
So let’s take some time and try to listen
And perceive His grand strategic vision.
The lake of fire will be ‘outside’ The New Jerusalem, 1
On The Lord’s brand new Earth, in a brand new macrocosm. 2
In it will be unrepentant sinners, devils, Death and Hell. 3
All in an unquenchable sulfur fire that must be worse than Hell. 4
In immortal human form, devils and sinners both will be. 5
That’s The Lord’s clear, strategic plan for both groups, eternally,
For proof, research ALL Scripture verses in the footnotes below,
Use your strategic, spiritual mind, so His Truth you’ll know.
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1 Read Revelation 22:14-15 and Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 in the NKJ, CJB, AMP and YLT versions. (Biblegateway.com) Pay attention to all verb tenses The Lord uses. Confusion might arises in Christian circles when we ignore something as simple and basic as verb tenses. Though The Lord lives outside of the realm of time, most of His communications with us humans respects our sense of tenses: past, present and future, with a few exceptions. Though The Lord was speaking to John and us about a future event, I wonder if He may have purposefully used the present tense when describing this future scene. He does this often across the Old Testament, so be on the lookout for this unique style of communication. Take it from me, a former international strategic planner, it is highly strategic! Grammarians might call this the present simple tense. The Lord used the present tense when speaking in Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 (about 700 years before His virgin birth) and in Revelation 22 (around 100 AD) about the new heavens and universe that He was 'creating'. So the obvious question is, when might this creation process be or have been completed?! I suspect it may have been completed long before the resurrection of all 1st and 2nd ages saints from the upper (protected region of hell, as hinted in Matthew 27:51-53. What do you think??
Ponder this: If residents in the lake of fire will die as soon as they are cast therein, as many teachers erroneously teach, it would be a sleight of speech for The Lord to use the present tense when describing what these folks are doing, because they would be DEAD. The Lord is signaling to anyone who will read His words with a spiritual, not a carnal mind, that these folks will remain alive, forever! And He gives us MANY more such signals across The Bible. For more, see: Lake of Fire: Is This the Man?! (Poem)
2 Read Isaiah 65:17-18, 66:22, 2 Peter 3:10-13, and Revelation 21:4. Remember to pay attention to verb usage. Also, compare Revelation 21:4 with the last half of Isaiah 65, paying attention to the words, die and death. Revelation 21:4 says, on the new Earth, there will be no more death. Isiah 65:17 also refers to the new Earth, but this verse mentions death. Since we know The Lord is not contradictory, it is apparent that, both sections initially reference the new Earth, but these sections then speak about TWO DIFFERENT, new versions of Jerusalem, namely the reshaped and expanded Jerusalem on this current Earth during The Millennial Reign age, and later, the brand new perfectly cubed Jerusalem on the new Earth. Keep in mind, The Lord has the ability to ‘see’ the past, present and future as NoW. Using our imaginations, we can do something fairly close to that. Thus, as we read printed words on The Bible’s pages, we need to be alert and very attentive to shifting contexts in which The Lord speaks. Recall, ‘His ways’, especially in communicating, are soooo much higher than our ways. His is the most strategic mind that exists. So what does that suggest about how you must read The Bible, ‘The Mind of Christ’?? Don’t give up or in. Rather, dig in! For more, see: Earth’s Next Versions (Series)
3 First read Revelation 19:20 and 20:11-15. The perceptive reader will recognize these verses figuratively straddle The Millennial reign age AND the post-Millennial Reign age. Imagine that! That’s more than a thousand years, since we don’t know how long the post-Millennial Reign age will last. (Revelation 20:3) So it seems the anti-Christ and his prophet will be the first residents to be cast into the lake of fire, long, over a thousand years before every devil and every un-repentant sinner will join them. Now… read John 5:28-29 to recognize Jesus is outlining how His planned bodily resurrection and rapture experiences for all humans will work. Then read Matthew 27:51-53. These verses are the ONLY KNOWN record of His first, of several, global bodily resurrection and rapture experiences! Matthew could only record what he and others heard and/or witnessed in and around Jerusalem after Jesus was raised from the dead. There is no other historical record of this resurrection and rapture of all 1st and 2nd ages saints, period! It is amazing and very eye-opening to correlate this passage with the second points in Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8. It can and should serve as a foretaste of The Lord’s next, promised resurrections and rapture experiences at the end of the 3rd and 4th ages of human history, per 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and Revelation 7:14, respectively.
Within this context, we can now appreciate how Revelation 20:11-15 will be the LAST of such experiences, with a BIG twist. While His earlier global resurrection and rapture experiences will only target saints, this last one will include both saints and sinners! Yep! Revelation 20:3 says, at the end of The Millennial Reign, satan (his kingdom) MUST be released again on the Earth. See: Salvation in the Millennium (Series) for my detailed understanding of why this is so. Since this will be the only mixed group resurrection and rapture experience, The Lord will consult His trusted Book of Life to perform the sorting out He predicted in John 5:28-29. Got it? For more on this, see: The Rapture (Series). So from this, we can derive the phrase, ‘the first resurrection’, noted in Revelation 20:5-6, has nothing to do with the number, 1. Rather, it simply means the planned, several, phased resurrections to eternal life. (See: John 5:29) Have you noticed that The Bible does not speak of a 2nd resurrection?! Rather, it speaks of a resurrection to death, which is eternal LIFE in the lake of fire! Shouldn’t this give us pause about how we are to understand ‘the 1st resurrection’, just as it should give Jews and Muslims pause about how they understand the phrase, ‘God Almighty is one’, as in numerically, just a digit, and the lowest one at that?! My, my, what an insult, and denial of the many definitions of the word, 'one'. If only folks would look up that word in a quality dictionary!
4 Read Revelation 19:20, 20:10 and 21:8. Brimstone is sulfur. Hell and hades are synonymous. Hell must be uniquely different from the lake of fire since The Lord promises to cast hell into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14) Imagine that! This verse also affirms being cast into the lake of fire IS the second death, which does not mean dying again, as in humans’ first deathly experience. Yet folks typically ignore this verse and many others that affirm the immortality of all residents in this lake. Thus, many conclude the second death must somehow be just like our first death. How ludicrous. It is not. Moreover, Hebrews 9:27 declares, ‘It is appointed for men to die once, but/and after this, the judgment’. This appointment would be violated if/IF sinners will die as soon as they are cast into the lake of fire. Yes, this appointment must have been temporarily suspended in the case of those few who were raised from death during the 1st and 2nd ages of history, including Lazarus whom Jesus loved.
Ponder this: Do you know the last resurrection and rapture experience hints that sinners will have a hiatus from their fiery torment in hell? Since hell and the oceans/seas will ‘give up the dead in them’, it is clear that, during The Great White Throne judgment, these folks will NoT be in hell, but in the presence of The Lord to be judged, before He casts them into the lake of fire, along with hell, all devils, and Death. See: Hiatus from Hades (Poem).
5 Read Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, and Luke 13:28. A whopping 7 times (like 7 exclamation marks!) The Lord affirms, in the lake of fire, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In this, what emphatic, strategic message is He signaling to us?? As far as we know, spirits may not weep or have teeth, so all notions that devils will remain as spirits in the lake of fire, are questionable. Moreover, dead people have teeth, but guess what? They don’t gnash them or weep, forever!
Now read Isaiah 14:2-21. In the midst of this prophetic upbraiding of an ancient king of Babylon, The Lord injects an embedded or nestled prophecy about Lucifer, the likely spirit who was possessing this king. Embedding prophecy is a practice The Lord first did in Genesis 3:14-15 as He first cursed the serpent in Eden, then He cursed satan, the spirit who possessed the serpent. Some Bible teachers deny what’s right in front of their faces, and insist The Lord is not addressing satan, ex-Lucifer, in Isaiah 14, though The Lord calls him out …by name!!! We know this embedded or nestled prophecy starts in verse 12, but where it ends is open to speculation, verse 15 or verse 17. I intuit it ends in verse 17 given the seemingly global impacts that are mentioned. Some may intuit it ends in verse 15. Yet I realize the embedded prophecy might refer to king Nebuchadnezzar, who invaded Judah and captured many slaves, including Daniel and his 3 close friends. This king represented the head of gold in the statue mentioned in Daniel 2, as The Lord gave him a quasi-global hegemony. But there were more than one Babylonian kings named Nebuchadnezzar. Be on the look-out for The Lord’s embedded/nestled prophecies in the Old Testament, and be attentive to how you interpret them, adding a basic understanding of history.
Other key reasons I intuit the above embedded prophecy ends in Isaiah 14:17 are the clear, strategic connections between Genesis 6:1-3, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. These verses are The Biblical record of devils who ‘left their proper domain’ (as fallen angels), who married women, and who corrupted the human race in the 1st age of human history, the pre-flood age. Genesis 6 links these events to The Lord’s decision to send a global flood. While speculation on the first part of this chapter varies widely, teachers who deny this link often ignore the corroborating verses, 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. Join me in allowing Scripture to interpret itself. These rebellious angels were taken out of commission (deducted from the 1/3 who rebelled in Heaven and fell to Earth), and are locked away pending their final judgment, which will very likely be in the lake of fire. This strategically hints:
(a) these beings very likely remain in human form, since there is no Biblical record of them returning to their proper domain before or since they were locked away;
(b) they are not mortal, but immortal; and
(c) ergo, they likely have teeth and tear ducts to join immortal humans (and all other devils, who might likely become humans, before being cast into the lake of fire) in fulfilling what The Lord said about weeping and gnashing of teeth all across the lake of fire.
For me, all of the above points paint the likely picture of immortal devils in human form, forever in the lake of fire. Intuit what you will.
In Revelation 14:9-11, an angel affirms that humans cast into the lake of fire will experience torment, with no rest day or night. Though he is specifically referring to folks who will receive the dreaded mark of the beast, it stands to reason he is more broadly referring to all sinners who will end up in the lake of fire, since there is no indication of differential experiences in this place. So why would he predict this if they will burn-up as soon as they are cast into the fiery lake, as many Bible teachers erroneously teach?! See how dangerous it can be to read The Bible with our carnal minds, rather than with 'The Mind of Christ', which all true saints have been given. We well know being given/offered a spiritual gifts (e.g. salvation) , differs significantly from 'receiving such by faith'.
Read Matthew 3:12, 25:46, Mark 9:8, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Revelation 14:9-11, 22:15, and 2 Peter 2:17. These verses give us undeniable strategic hints that every person in the lake of fire will be an immortal being who will be forever in unquenchable anguish. Moreover, Mark 9:44, 46, 48 refer to folks’ ‘worm never dying’. These verses also trigger unnecessary confusion when they are read with a religious or carnal mind. In ancient times, the modern concept of ‘zombies’ did not exist! So The Lord strategically chose this phrase to communicate the notion of ‘the living un-dead’. Folks today who think ‘the second death’ is somewhat like the first death will TOTALLY miss this point, making every devil ...joyful!!! Can you hear The Lord still saying...My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge...?
Finally, read Revelation 20:20 and Isaiah 66:23, the latter especially in the YLT and CJB versions (Biblegateway.com). Pay close attention to the verb tenses The Lord used. If you, like many others, still believe sinners confined to the lake of fire will instantly die, and be consumed, as soon as they hit the flames (or vice versa), please answer this question:
Why would The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, tell John that the anti-Christ and his false prophet ‘are’ still (not were) in the lake of fire, over a thousand years after Revelation 19:10? And why would He tell Isaiah that, we immortal saints will go to the lake of fire (on the new Earth), and will see the residents in the lake of fire, in their eternal torment of unquenchable fire??
Friends, this is the culmination of The Lord's promise to the righteous, that we will see the reward of the wicked. (See: Psalm 91:8, and listen to my song, Reward of the Wicked). I intuit this might be an early, one-time experience after the Great White Throne judgment, since The Lord also promises, in Isaiah 65:17, that we saints, at some point, will have no recollection of our past lives on this current Earth.
In conclusion, I repeat, in Isaiah’s day, modern concepts of zombies, the undead, and the walking dead, likely did not exist. Thus, to convey such concepts to Isaiah, The Lord settled on the expression, ‘their worm does not die’. What an unusual expression to our eyes and ears today, and I imagine to folks in Isaiah’s day. What was The Lord trying to convey, if not the picture of: immortal humans beings, forever tormented, after/after they will have first experienced their mortal death, time in hell, then resurrection from their graves, and their rapture to stand before Him to be judged?? They will be committed to the second death experience, as un-dead, alive, immortal, sentient, tripartite (i.e., spirit, soul and body) beings in the lake of fire. And to ensure that we 'get His point, about 700 years after giving Isaiah this insight, The Lord became a Man, and publicly reiterated this rather weird expression three times! (See: Mark 9).
Disbelieve this core Bible point at your own, eternal peril.
Think~
