Hell – The Juxtaposition Of Postulation & Reality (Part 2): Sermon By Bishop Gobanga
Recap:
Helle is a god worshipped in Northern Europe. Hell and its all concepts were introduced into the English language from the pagan practices in Northern Europe. The accurate meaning in the Bible for hell is Sheol and the grave in Hebrew.
Gehenna in Greek is the Lake Of Fire. This is the second death.
The word forever as used in the English Bible is not as was used in the original meaning. Aion in Greek, or Eon, it is an unspecified duration of time like an age or dispensation. It does not mean forever. It doesn’t imply that it will take place from everlasting to everlasting.
Then the devil who had led them astray [deceiving and seducing them] was hurled into the fiery lake of burning brimstone, where the beast and false prophet were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (through the ages of the ages).
Revelation 20:10 (AMPC)
The Scripture implies that the fire will come to a stop.
And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly.
2 Peter 2:6 (AMPC)
This was to be a type of the eventual destruction of the wicked. Sodom and Gomorrah is not still burning today.
The effect/result of the fire is permanent but the burning process is temporary.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
2 Peter 3:10 (AMPC)
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah depicts the fall of the wicked on the earth. The fire will consume everything that will be existing in the heavens and on earth. The results of the fire will be everlasting then there will be a new heaven and new earth.
But if you will not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem [with one] on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Jeremiah 17:27 (AMPC)
The fire referred to is unquenchable but will not burn forever and ever. The fire will not be quenched until its divine purpose is accomplished.
To deal out retribution (chastisement and vengeance) upon those who do not know or perceive or become acquainted with God, and [upon those] who ignore and refuse to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.Such people will pay the penalty and suffer the punishment of everlasting ruin (destruction and perdition) and eternal exclusion and banishment from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 (AMPC)
Everlasting punishment refers to the effect of the destruction of the wicked that cannot be reversed. The process of punishment will come to an end but the effects will be permanent.
You can joke about anything in life but not about the purpose of God – if it favours you, you prosper. The speaking of God’s word is preceded by purpose. The Word is what gives expression to the purpose of God.
Why God Ordained Hell
1. For Justice & Restitution
Hell’s existence wasn’t for retaliation. Many have assumed that God created hell to get back at those who did wrong. This is not how God operates.
The Bible will only speak if you’re Spirit-filled. The Spirit of God enables us to search the deep things of God.
The purpose of God’s judgment was to bring out the righteousness of God through restitution. Restitution is reconciliation and reconstitution of things back to unity with the person of God. There is a prophetic purpose of restoration.
Sin created a separation between mankind and God and between creation and creation. The elements of nature were at war with each other.
As a result of sin, there was a separation between the 1st and 2nd heaven and the 2nd and 3rd heavens. God also wants to restitute that which is in the spiritual realm.
God wants there to be a balance between that which is in the earthly realm and that which is in the spiritual realm. God wants us to go back to eternity and be reconciled to Himself.
God wants us to be concerned about the Kingdom and our corporate expression and not on ourselves. In the new heaven and earth, there will be no preferences, opinions or perceptions. What will matter is what is in the mind of God just as the Trinity operates.
The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – submit themselves one to another. In the Trinity, there is 1 mind, not 3. In heaven, it is strange to talk about 3 persons of God. It is hard for the angels to make a distinction or separate the persons.
Restitution is bringing everything in union with Christ. Restitution is the evidence of repentance that the wicked declined to pay for their sin.
2. To Execute Judgment On The Wicked
The wicked are judged in the Lake Of Fire. When one sins, one will reap the consequences of sin.
Hell exists for the earth to be purified as the 1st earth will be destroyed. Destruction is physical and spiritual.
The old earth and old heaven is the old order and pattern. Everything that happens in the physical is representative of that which is in the invisible realm.
If a system is not destroyed, it can be rebuilt. Mindsets, opinions need to be destroyed for Christ to reign.
The amount of sin one commits will determine the amount of suffering one will face in the Lake Of Fire. The justice of God will ensure that the suffering that one goes through will ensure that everything is restituted.
Sin destroys individuals and has a damaging effect in the spiritual realm. Life is controlled in the spiritual. For anything to happen in the physical, there needs to be a spiritual structure. Satan has stolen the principles of God and used them for his purpose.
For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
Ephesians 6:12 (AMPC)
For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
Colossians 1:16 (AMPC)
God is not just interested in the destruction of Lucifer and the 1/3 of the fallen angels. He is also interested in dealing with the structure which Lucifer has perpetuated.
Man was created as a replacement for Lucifer and the angels who were ruling the earth. God destroyed the 1st world, but evil was not destroyed. The system remained.
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but evil still remained. The Lake Of Fire will obliterate evil and the system the enemy has used to perpetuate evil before God destroys the devil.
In the 2nd destruction, God will destroy both the structure and the perpetrators – Satan and his agents. Every wrong will be atoned for and He will resurrect those that are good and those that are bad. The enemy’s work is to destroy the purpose of God vested in individuals.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (NKJV)
The Scripture says “should not perish” not “should perpetually suffer:.
For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (AMPC)
The Scripture says the wages of sin is death not eternal punishment.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).
Matthew 10:28 (AMPC)
Matthew 10:28 recounts that the soul is destructible because it is as a result of God’s breath in man’s body. The soul of mankind can be destroyed just as the body of man.
Man needed a body to live on Earth. Yet, principally man is a spirit. Once in a body, he became a living soul.
Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins shall die.
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Ezekiel 18:4,20 (NKJV)
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help. When his breath leaves him, he returns to his earth; in that very day his [previous] thoughts, plans, and purposes perish.
Psalm 146:3-4 (AMPC)
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; and they have no more reward [here], for the memory of them is forgotten.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (AMPC)
Take notice! I tell you a mystery (a secret truth, an event decreed by the hidden purpose or counsel of God). We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed (transformed) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the [sound of the] last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will be raised imperishable (free and immune from decay), and we shall be changed (transformed).For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us, this nature that is capable of dying] must put on immortality (freedom from death). And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished forever) in and unto victory.
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (AMPC)
God can’t allow something to happen that is not necessary. God is a God of restitution. The Lake Of Fire cannot burn throughout eternity because He cannot allow wicked people to be punished beyond the point of restitution. He does not delight in the thought of eternal punishment of those made in His image and likeness.
The Law that governs God’s nature will not punish people beyond the point of the achievement of restitution.
The pain that Jesus suffered on the Cross was spiritual as He was separated from the Father. Jesus’ suffering occurred as a result of carrying sins in the past, present and future. The Lamb of God was slain from the foundations of the world (that He laid after the destruction of the pre-Adamite race).
Justice would demand that punishment is commensurate to the crime. Tyrants delight in people suffering. God is not one. In the Lake Of Fire, there are limits of destruction for the purpose of God to be achieved. Lucifer and demons will suffer longer.
In the grand scheme of things, the Lake Of Fire will not last forever.
Everlasting refers to the process and denotes that which will be the result of purpose – that evil will never again exist.
Endless expresses the idea of the existence of God. It doesn’t talk about what God is going to do. Endless derives substance when making reference to God.
Greatness pertains to that which God has created at different degrees. Greatness in reference to God is infinite.
God does not orchestrate a process of judgment that lasts forever. Just because He created heaven and earth does not mean they will last forever. They are all a factor of heaven.
God does not live in heaven, but in the uncreated expanse. He projected Himself in heaven so that He can interact with angels and the hosts of heaven and then from heaven He can interact with humanity.
Infinite Fellowship Ministries 
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