124 What is hell | nazareneisrael2house

What is hell?

Millions of people are confused about what ‘hell’ is. Is it a literal place or perhaps a condition? Almost everyone imagines one of two extremes about ‘hell’. Some people deny its existence, whilst others, including most Bible fundamentalists, picture hell as a terrible place of never-ending torment, where Satan rules and his demons ‘roast’ sinners like sausages on a barbecue spit. There is bitter weeping and wailing, cursing and screams from those being tormented. This is the idea mostly held by Christians, Hindus, Egyptians, Persians and Muslim theologians.

The question is: why have people come to believe what they do? A few prominent Christian religious leaders of the so-called ‘Dark Middle Ages’ recorded teachings which were universally believed and became accepted doctrine of the professing Christian world. Two of the most prominent of these influential writers were Augustine (234 – 430 CE.) and Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321 CE.). Dante wrote a very popular poem called: ‘The Divine Comedy’, in three parts – hell, purgatory and paradise. Dante had a great influence on the course of civilization and his poem caught the attention of the world. It had a tremendous influence on Christianity. His ‘Inferno’ was based on Virgil and Plato. Virgil was a pagan poet (70 – 19 BCE), whilst Plato was born in Greece (427 BCE) and became a student of Socrates. Plato’s famous literary work ‘Phaedo’ taught the immortality of the soul. Therefore the world’s idea of ‘hell’ is admittedly a product of human philosophy and not based on Scriptural truth. Literally billions of people have lived and died without any knowledge of salvation, since they have never studied Elohim’s manual for mankind, namely the Scriptures. The most populous countries on the earth, namely, China, India and other parts of Asia have never heard the only name (Yahshua) by which man may be saved (Acts 4: 12), despite all the efforts of Western missionaries. Let’s consider what this means. If, as Christianity and others believe, the ‘unsaved’ immediately goes to ‘hell’ upon death, then more than half the people who ever lived have been condemned to this terrible punishment without ever having had a chance to escape. Do you really believe that is how an all-wise merciful, loving Father will treat the people He created? The Scriptures describe two resurrections in the future; the first resurrection to life for those who are called and chosen at this time, and who remain faithful until Yahshua returns; and the second resurrection to judgment. The resurrection to judgment will be one thousand years later. At that time the wicked and unsaved dead will be resurrected at the Great White Throne Judgment. However, it is important to understand that YHVH our Elohim does not have double standards – the unsaved billions deserve to have the same chance than those who are called at this time. Make no mistake, they will only be judged on what they did, after they learned about the salvation truth of Elohim. Nevertheless, numerous theologians and ministers of religion, being deceived themselves, try to imagine that Elohim will only save their ‘friends’ and relatives who were Christians, but will let the multitudes from ages past perish, without them ever coming to real repentance and true surrendering to the living Messiah. These religious leaders could not be more wrong.

The damnations that we read about in the Scriptures apply to the Jews who knew Torah and therefore what sin is, but also those of us from the lost sheep of the house of Israel (including some real Gentiles) who are being called and chosen during this age, whilst they are given salvation truths. We are being judged at this time and if we do not make it, will be burned to become ashes under the feet of the righteous as witnessed in Malachi 4: 1, as follows: “For behold, the day is coming (after the Great White Throne judgment period), burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says YHVH of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” For the unsaved billions of Buddhists, Muslims, Shintoism and those who believed in a false messiah, who came to do away with his Father’s laws, both at present and in the past, the Scriptures will be opened to their understanding after the second resurrection. This will be similar to the way Yahshua opened the Scriptures to the understanding of His disciples, after His resurrection in Luke 24: 44 & 45, in this way: ‘Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (45) Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.’ This is therefore not a second chance – since these people were blinded by YHVH Himself in the past, as we will soon see. This will truly be the second harvest of human souls into Elohim’s everlasting kingdom.

Elohim’s purpose remains, He is not trying to save everyone during this age; if He was they would not all be saved. He is only calling out first fruits to rule under Yahshua during the Millennium and into eternity. The vast majority of blinded individuals will be brought back to life during the Great White Throne Judgment, when YHVH will open the books of the Scriptures for their spiritual understanding and will fill those who are willing with His Set-apart Spirit as may be read from Isaiah 25: 7 – 9, as follows: ‘And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. (8) He will swallow up death for all time (this tells us that this will occur after the Great White Throne judgment when death and the grave will be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone described in Revelation 20: 14), and YHVH Elohim will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for YHVH has spoken. (9) And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our Elohim for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is YHVH for whom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” YHVH will grant these people salvation in His everlasting kingdom, but those who reject Elohim’s way of life will be burnt to ashes, with the wicked and those who sinned willfully after being called and given the knowledge of truth during this age, since there is no second chance, as witnessed in Hebrews 10: 26 – 28, in this way: ‘For if we go on sinning will-fully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. (28) Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

Now, let’s consider what YHVH has to say about ‘hell’ in the Scriptures? Yahshua our Messiah warned His disciples about the punishment those who know the truth would receive if they do not stop sinning in Mark 9: 43, saying: “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.” The word ‘hell’ is an English word and If Mark wrote Messiah’s words in Greek, he would have used the word ‘Gehenna’. Since in this verse Messiah said that sinners will “go into hell, in unquenchable fire”, it follows that those who go to ‘Gehenna’ will receive punishment by fire. Human beings made from physical matter and without having received the Set-apart Spirit of Elohim at repentance and immersion do not have eternal life in them and are not immortal. When physical matter is thrown into fire, it burns until it becomes ashes, leaving ‘neither root nor branch’ as described in Malachi 4: 1 (quoted before).This tells us that when the wicked are thrown into the fire, after the second resurrection, they will not burn forever, but will be wiped out from remembrance. So we see eternity in an ever-lasting fire cannot be the fate of un-repented human beings. To further explain the point, herewith an explanation of a Hebrew and three Greek words translated as ‘hell’ in most versions of the Scriptures:

Sheol: Sheol is the Hebrew word translated as ‘hell’ throughout the Tanach. It refers to the state and abode of the dead; hence the grave in which the body rests until it is resurrected one day. Considering the true meaning of the word, many more-recent versions of the Scriptures translate this word as ‘the grave’ (New International Version) whilst others leave it as Sheol (New American Standard Bible). We read that among those who knew that they were going to the grave or Sheol, were Jacob (Genesis 37: 35), Job (Job 14: 13), David (Psalm 88: 3) and Hezekiah (Isaiah 38: 10). It is therefore clear that Sheol or the grave is not a place of torment.

Hades: The Greek equivalent of Sheol is Hades and also refers to the grave in four verses in the Renewed Covenant. The word Hades appears in Matthew 11: 23; Luke 10: 15; Acts 2: 27 and 31. As with the word Sheol, Hades simply means the grave and is rendered as ‘the grave’ or ‘death’ or left un-translated as Hades in some recent versions of the Scriptures. Hades is also not a place of fiery torment. In Acts 2: 27 and 31 we see that Yahshua was in ‘Hades’ or ‘hell’ during the time that He was in the grave, prior to His resurrection.

Tartaroo: Another Greek word also translated as ‘hell’ in the Renewed Covenant is Tartaroo. This word is used once in 2 Peter 2: 4 and refers to the place where the fallen angels are restrained before their judgment. ‘The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words’ explains that Tartaroo means ‘to confine in Tartaros.’ ‘Tartaros’ was the Greek name for the mythological abyss in which rebellious gods were confined (page 337). Kepha used the reference to the mythology of his time; to show the fate of sinning angels. YHVH “committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.” The angels were restrained awaiting the ultimate judgment for their part in the rebellion against YHVH and for their influence on mankind. Tartaros only applies to fallen angels or demons and never refers to a fiery hell in which human beings are punished after they die.

Gehenna: The only other word left, which is also translated as ‘hell’ is the Greek word Gehenna. Gehenna is derived from the Hebrew word Ga-Hinnom, meaning Valley of Hinnom. According to 2 Kings 23: 10, 13 and 14, Josiah defiled the valley of the son of Hinnom, with human bones and other corruptions to prevent the Israelites from making their sons and daughters pass through the fire for Molech (a pagan god). Because of this evil reputation, this valley bordering Jerusalem came to be used as the city’s garbage dump. Trash was burned there along with bodies of dead animals and criminals. Fires that were stoked day and night burned the refuse. Gehenna is used 12 times in the Scriptures, with 11 of those being when Yahshua spoke about it. At the time, His listeners knew that this ‘hell’ was a consuming fire in which rubbish and the bodies of criminals were destroyed. He warned that this fire would be the fate of the hopelessly wicked sinners (see Matthew 5: 22, 29 – 30; 23: 15, 33; Mark 9: 43 and Luke 12: 5). However, when will this happen? The people who opposed Yahshua’s teachings were amongst the religious leaders of His time; they were not treated as criminals and their bodies were not burned at the city dump. But we see from Revelation 20: 15 that unrepentant sinners will ultimately die after the Great White Throne Judgment.

In most of the passages of the Renewed Covenant where we see the word “hell,” the original Greek word is not Gehenna. Most often it is hades, which does not refer to fire at all, but to a grave, a hole in the ground. Yet the translators have confused and obliterated the two entirely separate meanings of these words by indiscriminately rendering them both by the same English word “hell.” The original Greek word which is translated by the English word “hell” in Acts 2: 31 is Hades. Hades means “grave,” as its usage in this verse clearly shows! We can plainly see that the English word “hell” can have different meanings! So when we come to the word “hell” in the Renewed Covenant, we must keep in mind these two vastly different meanings and carefully determine by the context whether it refers to destruction by fire, or the grave where the dead lie buried. Whenever you are in doubt about the intended meaning of the word “hell” in the Renewed Covenant, look it up in an exhaustive concordance, such as Strong’s or Young’s, to see which Greek word it was translated from, and therefore it’s true meaning. In our recent two part sermon: ‘What happens to us after death’, we’ve learned that when a person dies and is buried in his grave, he knows absolutely nothing (Ecclesiastes 9: 5), but merely lies quietly there as if “sleeping”, totally unaware of anything.

Let’s now review this important truth. We see from Ecclesiastes 3: 19 & 20 that death befalls both man and beast and that they both go to the same place when they die, since both are made from dust, they also return to dust, as YHVH also told Adam in Genesis 3: 19. We see from John 1: 14 that Yahshua who was the Word of Elohim, before His human birth also became mortal flesh, as recorded in Hebrews 2: 14 & 15 as follows: ‘Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil; (15) and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.’ However, we also see from Acts 2: 31, that He was resurrected, in this way: ‘He (meaning King David) looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Messiah, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID HIS FLESH SUFFER DECAY.” From what we have learnt, we know that the Greek word hades simply means the “grave.” Yahshua’s body did not see corruption (did not decompose in the grave) because He was resurrected after three days! You may have heard ministers preach that sinners go directly to the fiery tortures of “hell” when they die, but, that would mean they are condemned to “hell” before they were formally judged and sentenced! Nevertheless, we see from John 5: 28 & 29 where Yahshua taught that the wicked will only be judged after they are resurrected one day, saying: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, (29) and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” Yahshua clearly said that the judgment of the wicked dead, who are now in their graves, is yet in the future. Then how could they now be receiving punishment when they have not, as yet been judged? The two beliefs clearly contradict each other! The dead will only be judged once they are resurrected and as Revelation 20: 13 prove there will also be a future resurrection to judgment. We also see from Revelation 20: 13 that those who are in watery graves (the “sea”), those who were killed by other means and left unburied and those who are in earthy graves are all to be resurrected at that time. It is clear therefore, that all the wicked dead on land or in the sea, wherever they may be, will be resurrected to “Judgment” in the future. That is when YHVH will formally sentence them! No one is, or ever has been, down in a fiery “hell” screaming in terror and torment! Elohim’s time for judging and condemning the wicked has not arrived yet, and the idea that the ‘souls’ of the wicked are right now suffering torments in a fiery hell is a false pagan myth.

However, don’t be mistaken, the ultimate penalty or wages of sin is death, as Rav Shaul wrote in the first part of Romans 6: 23. “Death” is the opposite of “life” and the final wages the irredeemable wicked will receive, will be the complete termination of life. As we’ve read from Hebrews 10: 27 & 28, those who receives the knowledge of truth in this life and go on sinning willfully can expect judgment ‘and THE FURY OF FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.’ Yahshua compare false ministers who don’t bring forth good works, to trees that don’t bring forth “good fruit” in Matthew 7: 15 – 19. In verse 19 He said that: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” We know that wood put into a fire is not tormented eternally, but is burned up. Messiah clearly shows that all people who do not bring forth good fruit will likewise be cast into fire. In addition we read Yahshua’s own words, about what would befall unrepentant sinners in Matthew 23: 33, saying “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? Those rebellious and stubborn religious leaders of Messiah’s time understood Messiah’s analogy well and they knew they were being threatened with complete destruction as just so much rubbish! Yahshua warned those who refuse to repent in Luke 13: 3, saying: “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The word ‘perish’ means to cease existing and does not mean to continue living. Life in eternal torment is not what YHVH has decreed for irredeemable sinners. Yes, the punishment revealed in the Scriptures is death, termination of life eternally. Eternal life is something we were not born with; it is a gift of YHVH which He will give to those who obey Him, during the first resurrection. Eternal life and death are contrasted throughout the Scriptures.

Yahshua clearly showed by His parable of the tares in Matthew 13 that there is to be a future harvest and likened the earth to a “field” (verse 24), the obedient people to “wheat” (verses 25, 29), and the disobedient to “tares” (verses 25, 29, 30) that will be burned afterward. Psalm 37: 20 also shows that the ultimate fate of the wicked will be destruction by fire. According to Malachi 4: 1 (quoted earlier) there is a day coming during which the wicked will be consumed in an extremely hot furnace that will leave them neither root nor branch, but ashes (as per verses 1 and 4). So, contrary to what many believe, it will not be Satan who will burn the wicked to ashes, but YHVH of hosts (as per verse 3). The “hell fire” that the Scriptures speak about will be thousands of degrees hotter that the imaginary “hell fire” of most preachers which is only hot enough to torment. The Scriptural “hell fire” will totally consume the disobedient, never to exist again. The Scriptures clearly show that those who have known Elohim’s truth and still refuse to obey it, or willfully disobey, will reap the wages of sin, which is eternal death! The Scriptures mean what it says and the attempts of ministers of religion to “explain away” death and to “interpret” it as mere “separation from Elohim” cannot be found anywhere in the Scriptures. Death clearly does not mean “eternal life” in the horrifying torments of an eternal “hell.” The instigator of this pagan deception is none other than the father of lies, Satan the devil, as Yahshua called him in John 8: 44. If you have gullibly believed this false doctrine in the past and have suffered mental torment because of it, thank YHVH that He has opened your mind to understand the truth.

The burning question at this time is: What is the Gehenna fire and when will it occur? Most of us coming from other religions need to forget everything that we have learnt about this subject before and trust only the Scriptures to provide us with a truthful answer. We see from Revelation 21: 8 that whoremongers, murderers, liars all who break Elohim’s commandments will ultimately find themselves in a “lake of fire and brimstone” to be destroyed in the second death, as follows: “but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” It is clear therefore that Gehenna and the lake of fire in Revelation 21: 8 are the same and would have the appearance of a fiery lake. It will cause the second death to the wicked after the Great White Throne Judgment. As mortals we all die once, but if anybody dies again the second time, such a person will have been judged by YHVH because of persistent disobedience and irredeemable rebellion, to die the second death. Revelation 20: 13 & 14 confirms that all irredeemable sinners will be cast into the lake of fire at that time and not at the time of their death. In the end, we see that all people, whose names have not been entered into the book of life, will at that time be cast into the lake of fire. We see from Revelation 19: 20 that the lake of fire will begin, after Yahshua our Messiah has returned to earth when the beast and false prophet will be seized and thrown alive into the lake of fire. Yahshua telling His disciples about the judgment of both the righteous and the wicked in Matthew 25: 41 also told them that the lake of fire will be an eternal fire, saying: “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accused ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” However, the word ‘eternal’ or ‘everlasting’ is ‘aionion’ in Greek and is derived from the root word ‘aion’ which also means ‘age’. In this case the correct translation into English should be ‘age-lasting’ fire, indicating that this fire is going to burn throughout the Millennium, the ‘age’ of Messiah’s rule.

During the millennial reign of Messiah and His chosen people, the Valley of Hinnom will be kept burning continuously and the irredeemable wicked who will not ultimately bow before Yahshua the Messiah in rebellion against Elohim’s Laws will be thrown into the lake fire, as a witness to the rest of mankind. Later, after the Millennium the flames of the lake of fire will be used to purify the surface of the earth, as Rav Kepha wrote in 2 Peter 3: 7, saying: ‘But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.’ At that time, everything physical, including the people whose names were not found in the book of life and death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire to be destroyed. This is the Word of (YHVH)’s description of what the final “hell fire” will be like. It is still future and has not occurred yet. We see clearly that the wicked will be burned to become ashes and once they are reduced to ashes, they cannot be tormented any longer. The death they will have suffered will be an eternal, everlasting punishment, not an everlasting punishing by torment. There is a big difference between punishment and punishing. Yes, the wages of sin is death (as per Romans 6: 23), not eternal life in hell fire. Satan will be cast into the same fire that will destroy all irredeemable mortals, but because he is a spirit being, he will be tormented by the flames and not be destroyed by it. Satan himself will be cast into the lake of fire and will not play the role of torturer as he is often presented by the religions of the world. We see clearly from Revelation 20: 10 that Satan himself is to be tormented ‘forever and ever’. Even though Satan’s torment will last forever, the lake of fire will not. It will only last as long as there remains physical material to be burnt. Satan’s torment will continue forever as a mental anguish resulting from seeing all he has striven toward, worked for, plotted for, burned up as the earth is purified by fire.

The word “are” in verse 10, The King James Version of the Scriptures is in italics, showing that it was inserted by the translators. It is not found in the Greek manuscripts and the sentence should read, “Where the beast and the false prophet were”, the unwritten verb being understood to be in the same tense as the verb in the first half of the sentence. The Amplified Version of the Scriptures has it correct. These two mortal beings will have been destroyed more than a thousand years before Satan will be thrown into these flames. We see Yochanan the Immerser spoke about an unquenchable fire, saying that it will be Yahshua, not Satan who will burn the wicked in the lake of fire in Matthew 3: 11 & 12 as follows: “A for me, I immerse you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will immerse you with the Set-apart Spirit and fire (12) And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and he will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” In Mark 9: 43 – 48, Yahshua used the phrase: “Where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED” three times. However, from this, people carelessly assumed that ’the fire that never shall be quenched’ shall burn forever into the future. But, this idea is absolutely incorrect, as may be seen from a prophecy YHVH gave through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17: 27 in this way: “But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I shall kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched,” This fire occurred a few years later, and it destroyed all the houses of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52: 13). Since Elohim said this fire “shall not be quenched” and since it is not burning today, it obviously went out by itself after destroying all the houses in Jerusalem, when everything that could burn, burnt out. We see from the punishment that Elohim meted out to Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19: 24, that it was a literal fire that destroyed the inhabitants and the homes in these two cities. We read about the event from Jude 7, as follows: ‘Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.’ The expression “eternal fire” used in Jude 7 means the results of the fire was permanent or everlasting, not a fire that burns forever. Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly destroyed centuries ago and are not burning today. After these fires burnt up all the combustible material in these cities, it died out in a similar way that the fires that burned in the Valley Hinnom to consume the wicked, eventually died out after everything was consumed by it. These fires were never quenched by anyone, the flames merely died out after everything was burnt to ashes. Similarly will the final Gehenna fire not be quenched, but it will finally burn itself out.

However, there is another statement found in Mark 9: 44, 46 and 48 which is often misconstrued by the teachers in the churches of the world. In these verses, Yahshua also spoke about a worm that “does not die.” The question is: Are there really immortal worms? Some think Yahshua was referring to people as worms, and that He was trying to say that these “people” never die but live on forever in agonizing torment. But those who believe this fail to notice that what Yahshua spoke about here was “their worm”. So the wicked themselves are not the “worm”. Yahshua clearly quoted from Isaiah 66: 24, where a similar statement is made about “their worm”, the worms that one finds in dead “carcasses”. For those of us who have ever seen a decaying animal carcass, the answer should be obvious. To put the matter beyond all doubt, we find that the Lexicons define as grub or maggot both the Greek and the Hebrew words translated as “worm” in Mark 9: 44 and Isaiah 66: 24. When a dead body occasionally gets stuck on a rocky ledge above the garbage fires of the Valley of Hinnom, it was soon infested by maggots which hatched out of eggs laid by flies. It was simply these maggots or worms to which Messiah referred when He said, “their worm does not die”. Yahshua did not mean that these worms continued to live forever, but the maggots, would hatch from eggs, eat the flesh, continue in the larval form for a few days, then go through metamorphosis and finally become flies. The worms did not die, they became flies and the flies later died. Any student of biology knows these facts, and Yahshua who created everything was also familiar with it.

Yahshua’s parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16: 19 – 31 is one of the most outstanding texts used by those who attempt to prove there is an eternal hell fire. By carefully studying this portion of the Scriptures, we will understand the lesson Yahshua was aiming to teach using this parable. We see from Luke 16: 22 that Lazarus, a poor righteous beggar died. Later he was carried to ‘Abraham’s bosom’. We know according to Galatians 3: 29, that If we belong to Yahshua, YHVH considers us to be Abraham’s “seed” or children, and we become heirs with Abraham to receive the promises Elohim made to him and his descendants. Through faith in Yahshua, Abraham’s one seed, we the members of the lost ten tribes (plus a number of real Gentiles) may become heirs of Abraham once again (Galatians 3: 7). This is an intimate relationship with Abraham, a bosom relationship, spiritually speaking. We are to be in close contact with him in sharing faith in the promises to become Spiritual born again children of Elohim, at Messiah’s return. This is the way in which righteous Lazarus was taken to “Abraham’s bosom”. But, when will Lazarus and Abraham receive the fulfillment of the promises that YHVH made to Abraham. We read the answer in Hebrews 11: 39 & 40, when Abraham and others who qualified to be in the coming Kingdom of Elohim, be resurrected as Spiritual children of Elohim, as follows: ‘And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, (40) because Elohim had provided something better for us, so that, apart from us they should not be made perfect.’ But, what will happen to the sinful rich man?

We see from Luke 16: 22 that the rich man also died. Next we see him lifting up his eyes, showing that he has been resurrected and calling to Abraham for a few drops of water on his tongue. He is in mental agony since he realizes that he was resurrected as one who knew Torah, but lived a sinful life and will as a result be burnt to death. The rich man is pictured at the very moment of his coming up out of his grave in the second resurrection. Abraham and Lazarus will have already inherited eternal life in the Kingdom of Elohim, as witnessed in Matthew 25: 34, in this way: “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” They will have been immortal for over 1 000 years before the wicked rich man is resurrected to be burned in the lake of fire, as witnessed in Revelation 20: 4 – 5, 15, as follows: ‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Yahshua and because of the word of Elohim, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Messiah for a thousand years. (5) The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. (15) And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.’ Until then, the rich man will have been dead in his grave for many years, having no consciousness of the passing of time, as recorded in Ecclesiastes 9: 5, in this way: ‘For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.’ At his resurrection, the rich man will see the flames of the lake of fire beginning to surround him. He knows these flames will destroy him forever. Being in great mental agony, he asks for just a little water to cool his tongue which has become dry from his mental anguish, but knows his request would be denied.

We read Abraham’s answer to the rich man in Luke 16: 25 – 26, as follows: But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. (26) And besides all this, between us and you is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ The great “’chasm” between the two resurrections will be the difference between mortality and immorality. Those who will have been made immortal shall never die because they will have been born of Elohim. Abraham and the beggar will be on the immortal side of this gulf, the mortal rich man on the other side facing imminent eternal death by fire. Many of the condemned, like the rich man, will want their relatives warned, not realizing that more than a thousand years have passed since they died, and that all other people will already have had their chance to receive salvation. This parable of Lazarus and the rich man does not prove eternal life in a hell fire, but Yahshua is teaching His audience about the two resurrections from the dead for the righteous and the wicked, the one to eternal life and the other to the lake of fire.

YHVH created mankind from physical matter, to develop His set-apart, righteous character in them over time and to make them eligible to receive the gift of eternal life as children of Elohim. He created us from the dust of the ground, subject to death, so that if we fail to develop righteous character we could be released from our misery by death. YHVH has no desire to torment or torture anyone, He is love and will condemn no one because of ignorance, but will ensure that every single human being will ultimately learn the truth and have a real chance for salvation. If YHVH granted eternal life to those who persistently rebel and fail to develop righteous character, they would simply bring misery on themselves as well as others for all eternity, like Satan did. Think about it!