From Newsgroup: alt.bible
OK to burn your children?
Of course not. If any person is caught doing that, he would be
arrested then prosecuted. Yet many people accuse God of doing just
that; punishing His children by burning them. And not for a short
time, but eternally.
But you can rejoice in that the true God of the Bible does no such
thing. He is a God of love as well as justice. (1 John 4:8) Torture is
for sick maniacs. And sadly there are many of those around.
Most people of good conscience would find this form of punishment
repugnant. They would be reminded of the atrocities committed by Adolf
Hitler under his Nazi regime.
A simple definition of "torture" shows the negative connotation
attached to it:
"Torture is the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental
pain or suffering by, or with the consent of, a public official to
extract information, punish, intimidate, or discriminate. Legally and universally, it is classified as a severe human rights violation and a
war crime." (AI Overview)
But someone may say, "Yet the Bible teaches that God does that". If
you twist and bend the Scriptures, you can make it say just about
anything. So you have to be careful in quoting Scripture:
(1) The Lake of Fire.
Comes from a book that is symbolic as it can get; Revelation.
"The Book of Revelation relies on symbolism rather than literal,
chronological reporting. Written in an ancient literary style called apocalypse, it uses vivid imagery, metaphors, and numerology to reveal
heavenly perspectives on earthly realities". (AI Overview)
"Torture is the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental
pain or suffering by, or with the consent of, a public official to
extract information, punish, intimidate, or discriminate. Legally and universally, it is classified as a severe human rights violation and a
war crime." (AI Overview)
So torture is considered a WAR CRIME. That info comes from life forms
made in God's image. If the image of God calls it a CRIME, what about
whom the image represents; God Himself?
(2) Gehenna. (means valley of Hinnom)
Jesus used Gehenna to symbolize eternal destruction, not eternal life
of torture. Gehenna was Jerusalem's garbage dump. Fires were
continual, and things tossed in there were forever destroyed. (cease
to exist anymore)
(3) Hell. (Hebrew sheol; Greek Hades)
Commonly referred to as "hellfire". Hell in the Bible is the GRAVE.
For proof, see Job 14:13:
-- Revised Standard
Job 14:13 Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldest
conceal me until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a
set time, and remember me!
Now notice the KJV:
-- King James
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou
wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest
appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Here we see "sheol" means the "grave". In other words, Job was
agonizing so much, that he wanted to get rid of the pain by dying. And
by dying, one ceases to exist:
-- King James
Psalms 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in
that very day his thoughts perish.
The Hebrew word for "thoughts" is "rayown". Strong's Concordance
defines it as:
"Strong's Ref. # 7476
Romanized ra`yown
Pronounced rah-yone'
(Aramaic) corresponding to HSN7475; a grasp. i.e. (figuratively)
mental conception:
KJV--cogitation, thought."
Thus when you lose all your thoughts at death, you cease to exist. But
if you kept living as an 'immortal soul' thing, you would still have
your thoughts. But that is NOT the case according to the Bible.
The 1999 World Book Encyclopedia says:
"In Old Testament times, the Israelites believed that all the dead,
both good and evil, went to a dark, unhappy place called Sheol."
Sheol is hell, the grave. (see above)
The Bible says the penalty for sin is death. Not a life of torture.
Under inspiration, the Apostle Paul tells us in Ro 6:23,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord." (NIV)
If a person dies he has paid for his sins. No further punishment is
needed. Paul says this at Ro 6:7,
"because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (NIV)
The majority of mankind that have died are awaiting a resurrection.
Under inspiration, the disciple Luke wrote at Ac 24:15,
"and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked." (NIV)
Notice that the "wicked" are not burning in some 'hellfire' place, but
are awaiting a resurrection. And when they are resurrected God won't
hold them accountable for their past sins, because God had Paul write
the Bible truth, that "anyone" who "died" is "freed from sin". (Ro
6:7)
But some may object and point to Re 20:14,15 as 'proof' of hellfire.
Re 20:14,15 reads,
"14. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake
of fire is the second death. 15. If anyone's name was not found
written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
(NIV)
Does this not speak of a literal "hellfire"place?
No. Notice that two items are thrown into this "lake of fire", death
and Hades. Can death be burned? Death is an abstract concept, not a
literal thing that can be picked up and set on fire.
Also Hades is tossed into this "lake of fire". What is Hades? It is
the word that is translated as "hell" in the King James Bible. The KJV
Bible reads Re 20:14 this way: "And death and hell were cast into the
lake of fire. This is the second death."
Would tossing a fiery hell into a lake of fire do any harm? If Re
20:14 is to be taken literal, then there must exist two hells and one
will eventually be tossed into the other.
Staying literal, we would have to conclude that the wicked dead will
eventually get out of hell. Re 20:13 says, "...and death and hell
delivered up the dead which were in them...." (KJV)
But what about the rich man and Lazarus? Doesn't that show hell to be
a fiery place? Yes, it shows that. But Most Bible scholars call it a
parable. And in a parable, any thing can happen to drive home some
moral point.
The Bible always contrasts life and death, not life, and life of
torture.
The Bible clearly tells us the final outcome for people. 1 Jo 2:17,
"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of
God lives forever." (NIV)
Notice that 'living forever' is the reward for doing the will of God.
Now, if people are supposedly being tortured in that burning fire for
all eternity, they are still 'living forever', just not under the best
of conditions. But 1 Jo 2:17 says that only a person who does God's
will "lives forever."
Thus the 'hellfire' doctrine is not founded in Scripture, but in the
teachings of imperfect men. (Job 14:4)
The Kuserow family of persecution
by the Nazis.
Go to: jw.org (6/29/2026)
zebrabible@proton.me
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2