Bible Study Seattle

“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 20:10

“This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14

“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” Revelation 14:9-11

What is going on here? If a person is thrown into a burning lake, they cannot live forever. Surely God does not mean that we will become like Moses’ burning bush that though on fire, wasn’t burned up.
There are at least two problems with most translations. First, the word translated torment is basanisthesontai, which literally is the stone used to test for gold purity. The other definitions involving torment or torture are connotations that God doesn’t have much use for. Certainly, a wicked person could be tormented living amongst holy people. But we get the idea that God likes to torture people. Satan has done a brilliant job of making people think God has Satan’s characteristics. Testing is what God is after.
The second problem is with the word aeon. Most translations use eternal which gives the idea of infinite time. But the idea here is a long but defined period. The Bible is clear that evil will ultimately be totally stamped out. This is illustrated in Deuteronomy 13-24 where the phrase “you must purge the evil from among you” shows up nine times.

A better translation for the end of Revelation 20:10 is “and they will be tested for age after age.”

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-4

What harm would have come if Jesus turned the stones to bread? What’s wrong with satisfying hunger after a forty day fast? Nothing, but Jesus answered the question. Evidently Jesus was relying completely on the Spirit of God to tell him what to do. Breaking that would have harmed his relationship with his Father.

Likewise, someone may say, “I don’t see the harm if two men want to marry and be faithful.” Which is like the question above. It seems that no harm is done. But at the very
Least, Marrying would harm their relationship with their Father. Ultimately we will all Individually give account to God, and there is no favoritism. What is not generally understood is that we get up to two lives to reform. Many people do not see the errors of their own way, both Christians and nonChristians alike. It is easy to see problems in other people, sometimes less so of ourselves. Everyone sins. In fact, the whole of creation is subject to decay. This is why Paul says, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:19-21

Who will rescue us from our impossible situation? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Romans 7:24-25

Footnotes:

“ ‘Now these are to you the unclean among the swarming things which swarm on the earth: the mole, and the mouse, and the great lizard in its kinds, and the gecko, and the crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand reptile, and the chameleon.  These are to you the unclean among all the swarming things; whoever touches them when they are dead becomes unclean until evening. Also anything on which one of them may fall when they are dead becomes unclean, including any wooden article, or clothing, or a skin, or a sack—any article of which use is made—it shall be put in the water and be unclean until evening, then it becomes clean.  As for any earthenware vessel into which one of them may fall, whatever is in it becomes unclean and you shall break the vessel.”  Leviticus 11:29-33

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, also for his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself.  He shall not defile himself as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself.”  Leviticus 21:1-4

“ ‘The priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes; nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother;  nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the Lord.”  Leviticus 21:10-12

Why was God so concerned about touching dead people?  Because when Christ’s work is complete, the temple (and heaven and earth) will be totally pure.  These Levitical rules are meant to foreshadow this.  Notice that the most extreme regulations were for the high priest.  He was not allowed to even touch mother or father nor leave the sanctuary.  This also prefigures the future.  Jesus is our high priest.

“The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.”  Revelation 3:12

Now, some may argue that Jesus did touch dead people:

“While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.”  Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.  Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.  She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”  Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.  When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.  After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.  News of this spread through all that region.”  Matthew 9:18-26

Jesus may have touched the dead girl, or she may have been revived and then Jesus touched her.  For one thing, Jesus was not an Aaronic priest, so he did not violate Levitical laws.  (He was a Melchizedek priest).  But also, he was doing this before heaven and earth have been fully purified.  In fact, when that is accomplished, it will be impossible to touch a dead body:

“For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that will be abolished is death.  For He [Jesus] has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He [God the Father] is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.”  1 Corinthians 15:25-27

“Amen! the blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honour, and the power, and the strength, [are] to our God — to the ages of the ages! Amen!'”  Revelation 7:12

Many translations translate the greek aeon as eternity, but we don’t think that’s accurate.  Eons or aeons is more accurate.  Jesus puts this in context:

“Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”  Matthew 12:32

What is this future age?  The Millennial or Jubilee Sabbath.  But apparently there are ages even past those.  We have virtually no information other than the saints reigning in those times:

“But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’”  Daniel 7:18

“‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’” Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.”. Zechariah 4:7-9

Jeconiah and his son Zedekiah were the last kings of Judah. Jeconiah’ strand son Zerubbabel was apparently next in line, but he was never king since Judah was a vassal of Babylon then. Zerubbabel was made governor. But what if the above passage is a prophecy? The temple was rebuilt after the captivity, and perhaps shouts went out when the capstone was placed. But will this happen again in the resurrection? What mountain became a plain in Zerubbabel’s day? I can’t think of any. But in the future:
“A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
“Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:3-5

When the Messiah appears, the area around Jerusalem will become a plain. Will Zerubbabel be one of the leaders then? Will he have completed the temple prior to this? Will he have anything to do with the refinishing of the surface of the great pyramid and its topstone? Time will tell.

“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
“Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways’;
As I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’” Hebrews 3:7-11

This is referring to the faithless generation of Israelites of whom God swore would not enter the promised land. Some might see these chapters in Hebrews and conclude that some people won’t be resurrected. They will equate God’s rest with the Sabbath Millennium. But other scriptures make abundantly clear that, “there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” Acts 24:15

So how do we solve this conundrum? With the Jubilee. God structured the Jubilee to partly overlap the Sabbath. The Jubilee starts on the day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, slightly past half way through the Sabbath year. Everyone will be resurrected in the ‘evening’ of the Sabbath Millennium. But there will be a rebellion such that God will have to supernaturally intervene. This is the battle of Armegeddon and the deaths may run into the billions. So much blood will be spilled that, “They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.” Revelation 14:20

This will be second death for many of those, and they will truly not enter into God’s rest in the later part of the Sabbath and first part of the Jubilee. Some of the dead may be their first death, in which case they will be resurrected in the Jubilee. They still may be snared by the trouble at the end of the Sabbath when Satan is loosed for a little while. (This part I’m not sure about).

Some Christians are under the thinking that Christ has washed away their sins and therefore judgment has passed.  Not so:

“But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  For it is written:

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.  Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.”  Romans 14:10-12

Paul is saying this to Christians!  Paul himself knew that he himself would be subject to judgment.  But this is not some kind of Mafia-finger-breaking condemnation in a dark room.  That is Satan’s version of judgment.  Rather God’s judgment is like this:

““Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”  Isaiah 42:1-4

The Lord Gives Dominion to the King.

A Psalm of David.

“The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
Your youth are to You as the dew.
The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.
He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head.”  Psalm 110

How can the Lord say to my Lord?  Are there two Lords?  Yes.  Father and Son.  Jesus is at the Father’s right hand.

“and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:56

His enemies will become His footstool:

“In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”. Zechariah 14:4

“In holy array, from the womb of the dawn.”  Psalm 110:3

Isn’t that an interesting expression?  This is a hint that the battle will be with resurrected ones (womb) at the dawning of the new Day (half way through the thousand year Sabbath).  The last part of this Psalm tells of the mighty destruction Jesus will bring:

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”  And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.  And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.  And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”  Revelation 19:17-21

“The sons of Jeconiah, the prisoner, were Shealtiel his son, and Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah.  The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel…”   1 Chronicles 3:17-19

“Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel…”  Ezra 3:2

Which was it?  Pedaiah or Shealtiel?

“Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel,”. Nehemiah 12:1

“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak,”. Haggai 1:12

“After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.”. Matthew 1:12

Most scriptures have Shealtiel as Zerubbabel’s father, but this shows that the scriptures are not 100% accurate.  However, they are accurate enough that we can have confidence.  The fact that we can check scripture against scripture increases our confidence.