Hey,

I’m having a hard time understanding the lake of fire and what it will consist of for the ones that will have to partake of it. I hope I’m not one of them. I try really hard to understand God’s word, and I am a believer, but there are some sins in my life that I can’t, by myself, just stop doing. I grew up being taught in churches, mostly Pentecostal churches about eternal hell and damnation and paying tithes and how you should dress and whether or not men should have beards. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I guess my main question is… I believe the scriptures, even though they are not the original scriptures and there are bad translations of the scriptures, but do you think I would make it to heaven if I should die?

Let’s say I don’t make the first resurrection, what then? Will I be dead for a thousand years and then resurrected to the great white throne judgment and then what? Where will all of this be taking place? In a place that human eyes can’t see? I am 40 years old and for my whole life I have been afraid of burning for eternity. But I just can’t believe in my heart that God would punish people with flames with no end. I think my God is bigger than that. I just don’t have an understanding of his word, but I want one. I daydream sometimes, thinking how nice it would be if we could talk with God, like he talked with men and women in the bible.

R____

Hi R____,

Thank you for your questions.

You have asked me where I think you will end up if you were to die now.

I do not know you well enough to answer that question, but you might find it interesting to discover that God has had what you will do in every day of your entire life written in His book before you were ever born. The fact is, He knew you and everything you would do before He ever created the world. That is what the scriptures actually teach:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

How early does God know us? We can’t say any more than the scriptures reveal, which is:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

It would be one truly monstrous God to have the activities of our lives all planned out in advance, a life He calls “a vapor which appears for a moment and then vanishes away”, just to cast the vast majority of us into flames of eternal torment. Where is the justice in giving your poor children eternal torment in literal fire for a life which is but “a vapor which appears for a moment”?

That is not going to happen, and you can read these links to understand why that is:

What Is Aionios Life?
Difference Between Aionios and Immortality
Do The Aions Come to An End?
Can Aionios Ever Mean Perpetual or Eternal?

But let it never be said that grace gives us a license to sin. Such is not the case, and having attempted that bit of stupidity, I can tell you with great authority that God will punish you for going down that route, and that punishment will make you wish you had never had such a thought.

Rom 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Rom 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

The judgment of God is against any who think that His grace gives them a license to continue in sin. You and I will not be perfected in this age, but we can be granted to dominate sin in this age. We are not given to exterminate sin until we are given our spiritual bodies at one of the two resurrections, but we are, at this time, given “the earnest of His spirit” (Eph 1:14) which gives us the hegemony or the dominion over sin in our lives.

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

What I hope you come to understand is that grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present age, as Paul tells us in Titus 2:

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching [Greek: paideuo, chastens] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

That is the function of grace, and it gives new meaning to this verse of scripture:

Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

What God is telling us is what I told one of my children at a particularly rebellious moment: “You, my dear child, are no where near as stubborn or as strong as your father, and whenever you and I butt heads, you will always lose that battle.”

So when our sins abound, this is how we are told God, our loving heavenly Father, deals with our sins:

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [Greek: paideuo], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

All men of all time will have the same experience. The experience of those who are “cast into the lake of fire” will be the exact same experience into which you and I have been cast at this time:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

The righteous will experience the same fiery experience as the wicked. “All things come alike to all: there is one [fiery] event to the righteous and to the wicked.” The only difference is that the righteous are being put through their fiery trials and are being judged at this time. The unrighteous will go through fiery trials with us in this age, but they are not now being judged and given to know that God’s grace chastens. Rather, they are being lied to and told that grace is simply unmerited pardon and has nothing to do with God’s chastening to drag us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present age. Be sure to read this link on this subject of the function of the grace of God:

Grace Turned Into Lasciviousness

There being “one event to the righteous and to the wicked”, we should expect the scriptures to tell us that we, too, if Christ is within us, must also endure the same ‘fire’ as those who will be “cast into the lake of fire”. Is that really what the scriptures teach? Indeed, that is exactly what the scriptures teach is true “for every man”:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Whether it is now or later, “every man… shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” It is the very same ‘fire’ whether it is the fire of the judgment we are now enduring to be in the first resurrection, or whether it is the fire of the great white throne judgment, which is the second resurrection. Both ‘judgments’ are seasons of chastening in ‘fire’, and that ‘fire’ is the word of God:

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Jer 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

If God’s Word is in a person’s mouth, that person is the fire of God which will devour all the symbolic “wood, hay and stubble” to be found in the works of “every man”. But while there are billions who profess the name of Christ, there are “few” who are willing to be faithful to the Word of God and actually live by the Words of Christ and to follow in His footsteps:

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

There were “few, that is eight souls… saved… in the days of Noah.” There were three souls saved “in the days of Lot” out of all the cities of the plain which were destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Immediately after making this dire prophecy, Christ concludes with these sobering words:

Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

That is why the “lake of fire” is called a lake instead of ‘many waters’ or a ‘great sea’. The “lake of fire” consists of those few in whom the fire of the Word of God resides and out of whose mouths it proceeds. So we are plainly told…:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

…what [the lake of fire] will consist of for the ones that will have to partake of it.

Those are legitimate questions. “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” And the answer is very clear who it is who dwells as comfortably in those flames as Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego. It will be the few who “walk righteously and speak” the fiery words of God who will make up that small “lake of fire” and who will be used by God to judge all men of all time.

I hope that serves to answer your first question. You asked:

“What.. will [the lake of fire consist of for the ones that will have to partake of it?”

It will consist of those who teach the commandments of God, just as it does today. There are many thousands who claim they are teaching the commandments of Christ, and those are the very people who most despise a Savior who actually died keeping His own commandments to “resist not evil… love thine enemies”, and “freely you have been given, freely give”. It will be the very same “fiery trials” which those who are being judged in this age are even now enduring:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
1Pe 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We need not guess the answer to Peter’s question. Those who do not in this age “obey… the gospel of God” will be “cast into the lake of fire” at a later “judgment”, the great white throne… judgment”:

Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

“Whosoever was not found written in the book of life” are those who Peter asked about when he said:

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

This is a “white throne judgment”. It is not a ‘black throne judgment’, and this is what all judgments accomplish:

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

The ‘condemnation with the world’ is simply a matter of being condemned to the later, “white throne… judgment”, which is simply a later, less desirable resurrection to judgment, which is God’s fiery chastening.

I hope you now know of what the lake of fire consists and what happens to those who are cast therein. They will be chastened, and their works of wood, hay and stubble will be burned out of them just as ours are being burned out of our lives in this age.

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

“Every man” mean every man.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Every man in his “appointed time”:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth [“Who will have all men to be saved”], even that he doeth.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [not exclusively] of those that believe.

God is capable and has devised means “that His banished be not expelled from Him.”

2Sa 14:14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

What that means is that He is capable of causing all men, “every man in his own order”, to become one “of those that believe”.

So this is the simple, glorious, good news of “the [true] gospel of God”:

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

I hope this has served to demonstrate that whether you die now and are destined to be in the second resurrection to be cast into the lake of fire, or if you are granted eyes that see and ears that hear and receive the chastening grace of God in this age and are granted to be called forth from among the death in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection”, in either case you will be put through the fiery trials of the judgments of the fiery Word of God, and you yourself “shall be saved; yet so as by fire”.

1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Your servant in our Lord’s service,

Mike