STEVE7150 wrote:Jim, the so what is, the dead were never raised and the world was never judged and i don't see a lake of fire. Do you?
The dead were raised.
The old covenant world was judged.
And those that decided to stay in that old covenant world DID go to the "lake of fire."
Matthew 23:33-36 Serpents,
brood of vipers!
How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you,
all these things will come upon this generation.
Matthew 3:7-12 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “
Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore
bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore
every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but
He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The judgment came upon that generation just like Jesus said. If they weren't bearing fruit unto repentance, they were going to be thrown into the fire...the unquenchable fire. It was figurative language...a word picture that a first century Jew would have understood. Gehenna was the trash dump outside the city where maggots ate constantly and the stench of rotting burning flesh went up forever.
Go read about it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna
Old Covenant = Jerusalem from below = Lake of fire
New Covenant = Jerusalem from above = Everlasting life
Soon means later, Near means far, and at hand means countless thousands of years off in the future.
Hermeneutics 101, Dallas Theological Seminary
