Have you been told all your life that unbelievers would
spend eternity in Hell’s fires?
Practically the whole world believes this. I even find it
joked about on sitcoms. This erroneous belief may be the reason that only about
10% of the population of the world choose to believe in God. They think he is a
mean ogre and refuse to have anything to do with him. They think it is too
difficult to deal with Him; they could never live that way, so what the
heck. They ignore Him or spend their
whole lives being terrified of Him and afraid to die.
True God is a God of righteousness, and He hates sin. But He
solved our problem by sacrificing His own Son to pay for it. John 3:16 says Jesus
paid for all. I Timothy 2:4 It is not his will that any should perish. It is
his will that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. (Amplified
version)
The Greek word aion is the word that is used to translate
the passage in Mathew 25:46 for everlasting fire. The word aion would be better
translated “for an age”. It is my understanding after studying the issue that
people who chose to ignore God will spend some time in the fire. They may have
a sentence to serve. When it is served God will release them. In 1Corinthians
15 the real end of the story is presented. All will kneel and profess him as
Lord, and not at the tip of a spear in the ribs but because they wish to. They
can only profess Christ as Lord through the help of the Holy Spirit of
God.
God.
The word used in Greek for punishment is kolasis which in
olden times meant to prune a tree to make it fruit. So the whole passage might better be rendered
“an age of pruning”. Even this age of pruning will not be pleasant.. Jesus
warned us. But I am glad to realize that
God is still merciful and gracious, even to the most hardened sinners.
If there were no hope for the unrepentant dead, why did
Jesus go to the bowels of the earth and preach the good news to the unrepentant
who lived before the flood? 1 Peter 3:18-20, and 1 Peter 4:6.
1 Corinthians 15 says death will be done away with and God
will be all in all. If Hell is the second death as scripture says (Rev 20:14)
and death is destroyed then Hell will be destroyed. 1Cor15:26, 2Timothy 1:10.
So think of it, all those people who died that you thought
you’d never see again, you will see them again. They may have to serve out
their sentence in the fires of Hell but in the end all will be saved. All will worship him and be glad to do it.
