Raising Hell | Ep 8: What About the Lake of Fire? @RaisingHell | Uploaded May 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Find this info helpful? Want to make this knowledge available for countless others? Buy me “a cup of coffee” (or help change the world for just $3/month!): patreon.com/RaisingHell. All Patreon subscribers will get a chapter each month from my upcoming book that deals with the hard questions after deconstruction of one's religious beliefs/worldview, such as if God really loves us so much, what about evil and suffering? How do we navigate paradoxes and contradictions? How do we keep from getting lost, off track, or duped again?
Share Freely:
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/raisinghell
The book: Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire
Free PDFs of all versions at: raisinghellbook.com (full length version, short and sweet version, and Spanish version)
Purchase or Review:
Full length version Amazon: amzn.to/2y4jCsc
Abridged version Amazon: amzn.to/2x58bBp
Spanish version (Controversia infernal) Amazon: amzn.to/2JlNwA4
In Revelation 19:20 and 20:10-15, we find a terrifying passage about the lake of fire that burns with brimstone and sulphur forever and ever. If hell isn’t true, what is the deal with the lake of fire?
1. The lake of fire is obviously not literal. Revelation is full of symbolism—a woman riding on a beast and red dragon with seven heads, and a crowd of people standing on a sea of glass, and everyone knows it’s symbolic. But get to the lake of fire and suddenly hello! We are told we must somehow take it literally…in order to support our hell doctrine. Not!
2. Throughout Scripture, fire is symbolically rendered as a purifying agent. Fire (Greek “pur”) is the word we get our English word “pure” from and almost always figurative or symbolic with the purpose of purifying, refining, and for accomplishing general good. When interpreting and gaining an understanding of the symbolism of the lake of fire, it’s helpful to check out how the word fire is used throughout Scripture.
• God is “a consuming fire” (Ex. 24:17; Deut. 4:24; Is. 30:27; Heb. 12:29)
• Believers are baptized and anointed with fire (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Acts 2:3).
• Jesus and His messengers appear in and are described as fire (2 Thess. 1:7; Heb. 1:7; Rev. 10:1).
• God will judge “all flesh” with fire* (Is. 10:17; 66:16; Rev. 19:15).
• Fire acts as a testing, refining, and purifying agent, removing the chaff from our lives (chaff is on the wheat; it is not the wheat itself (Is. 48:10; Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:7; Rev. 3:18).
• The Israelites were refined in a fiery furnace (Deut. 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Is. 31:9; 48:10; Jer. 11:4).
• Everyone must have the experience of being purified by fire: “Everyone will be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49).
3. The Second Death. In last week’s episode, we looked at what is the second death. The second death is what we all go through to put to death our old nature that perceives itself as separate from God and others, and is a good thing! (see episode 7 and Galatians 2:20).
4. Brimstone. According to Strong’s Concordance #2303, theion, the Greek word for brimstone is defined as, “divine incense, because burning brimstone was regarded as having power to purify, and to ward off disease.” Notice that brimstone (theion) shares the same root word as “God” (Theos).
5. Torment. The Greek word for torment in the verse above is basanizo. Basanizo (verb) comes from the root noun, “basanos,” which is defined by Strong’s #931 as: A touchstone. Originally, a black, silicon-based stone used as “a touchstone” to test the purity of precious metals (like silver and gold). In the ancient Greek papyrii, basanos also meant, “touchstone, test.” #931 (basanos)was originally (from oriental origin) a touchstone; a “Lydian stone” used for testing gold because pure gold rubbed on it left a peculiar mark.
And if we put all three of those more literal meanings together (purification, divine incense to ward off spiritual sickness, and testing), throwing out the dubious insertion of torture, we begin to get a distinctly different feel than endless eternal punishment taking place in Revelation.
6. The Book of Life. On page 262-265 in Raising Hell, I demonstrate that the book of life is a changing document with names being continuously added and erased, not a final guarantee of some heavenly club membership (or declaration of doom).
More verses on fire:
Isaiah 48:10:
Ps. 66:10–12: “For you tried us O God. You set us on fire as silver is set to the fire...we went through fire and water; but you led us unto respite” (Septuagint).
Zech. 13:9: “And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested (note the word “tested” in association with fire and gold—just like the Revelation passage above).”
Find this info helpful? Want to make this knowledge available for countless others? Buy me “a cup of coffee” (or help change the world for just $3/month!): patreon.com/RaisingHell. All Patreon subscribers will get a chapter each month from my upcoming book that deals with the hard questions after deconstruction of one's religious beliefs/worldview, such as if God really loves us so much, what about evil and suffering? How do we navigate paradoxes and contradictions? How do we keep from getting lost, off track, or duped again?
Share Freely:
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/raisinghell
The book: Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire
Free PDFs of all versions at: raisinghellbook.com (full length version, short and sweet version, and Spanish version)
Purchase or Review:
Full length version Amazon: amzn.to/2y4jCsc
Abridged version Amazon: amzn.to/2x58bBp
Spanish version (Controversia infernal) Amazon: amzn.to/2JlNwA4
In Revelation 19:20 and 20:10-15, we find a terrifying passage about the lake of fire that burns with brimstone and sulphur forever and ever. If hell isn’t true, what is the deal with the lake of fire?
1. The lake of fire is obviously not literal. Revelation is full of symbolism—a woman riding on a beast and red dragon with seven heads, and a crowd of people standing on a sea of glass, and everyone knows it’s symbolic. But get to the lake of fire and suddenly hello! We are told we must somehow take it literally…in order to support our hell doctrine. Not!
2. Throughout Scripture, fire is symbolically rendered as a purifying agent. Fire (Greek “pur”) is the word we get our English word “pure” from and almost always figurative or symbolic with the purpose of purifying, refining, and for accomplishing general good. When interpreting and gaining an understanding of the symbolism of the lake of fire, it’s helpful to check out how the word fire is used throughout Scripture.
• God is “a consuming fire” (Ex. 24:17; Deut. 4:24; Is. 30:27; Heb. 12:29)
• Believers are baptized and anointed with fire (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Acts 2:3).
• Jesus and His messengers appear in and are described as fire (2 Thess. 1:7; Heb. 1:7; Rev. 10:1).
• God will judge “all flesh” with fire* (Is. 10:17; 66:16; Rev. 19:15).
• Fire acts as a testing, refining, and purifying agent, removing the chaff from our lives (chaff is on the wheat; it is not the wheat itself (Is. 48:10; Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:7; Rev. 3:18).
• The Israelites were refined in a fiery furnace (Deut. 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Is. 31:9; 48:10; Jer. 11:4).
• Everyone must have the experience of being purified by fire: “Everyone will be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49).
3. The Second Death. In last week’s episode, we looked at what is the second death. The second death is what we all go through to put to death our old nature that perceives itself as separate from God and others, and is a good thing! (see episode 7 and Galatians 2:20).
4. Brimstone. According to Strong’s Concordance #2303, theion, the Greek word for brimstone is defined as, “divine incense, because burning brimstone was regarded as having power to purify, and to ward off disease.” Notice that brimstone (theion) shares the same root word as “God” (Theos).
5. Torment. The Greek word for torment in the verse above is basanizo. Basanizo (verb) comes from the root noun, “basanos,” which is defined by Strong’s #931 as: A touchstone. Originally, a black, silicon-based stone used as “a touchstone” to test the purity of precious metals (like silver and gold). In the ancient Greek papyrii, basanos also meant, “touchstone, test.” #931 (basanos)was originally (from oriental origin) a touchstone; a “Lydian stone” used for testing gold because pure gold rubbed on it left a peculiar mark.
And if we put all three of those more literal meanings together (purification, divine incense to ward off spiritual sickness, and testing), throwing out the dubious insertion of torture, we begin to get a distinctly different feel than endless eternal punishment taking place in Revelation.
6. The Book of Life. On page 262-265 in Raising Hell, I demonstrate that the book of life is a changing document with names being continuously added and erased, not a final guarantee of some heavenly club membership (or declaration of doom).
More verses on fire:
Isaiah 48:10:
Ps. 66:10–12: “For you tried us O God. You set us on fire as silver is set to the fire...we went through fire and water; but you led us unto respite” (Septuagint).
Zech. 13:9: “And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested (note the word “tested” in association with fire and gold—just like the Revelation passage above).”
