DEATH, THE INTERMEDIATE STATE, THE RESURRECTION AND THE FINAL DESTINY — page 16

Earth

After the Lord calls His heavenly saints to the Father's house (in the Rapture), He will begin a work on Earth to save a remnant of Israel and a great multitude of Gentiles who will have their portion on Earth during the Millennium (Rev. 7). These are God's earthly saints who will have an earthly inheritance and an earthly destiny (Ps. 37:9). They will live and reign with Christ on Earth in the Millennium.

After the Millennium ends, these earthly saints will be glorified and transported to "a new Earth", where they will live eternally in fellowship with the Lord (2 Pet. 3:13). This is their eternal destiny.

Hell

"Hell" is the final and eternal dwelling place of the lost. God did not intend for any human being to end up in hell. It was prepared for "the devil and his angels", but it is sad to say that many human beings will have their end there because they refused every gesture of God's grace toward them.

"Hell" is the Portuguese word for the Greek word "gehenna". "Gehenna" refers to the valley of Hinnom, which is a valley outside Jerusalem (to the South) where the dung gate led. It was the place where the city's inhabitants burned their refuse. There was a fire there called "Topheth", which burned constantly, day and night, for this purpose (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31-32). Since the fire in the valley of Hinnom never went out, it was a fitting figure for the eternity of hell.

The Lord was the first to reveal the truth of the final state of the lost. He is the only one in the Bible who ever used the word "gehenna", except His brother James, who used it only once (James 3:6). As mentioned, "gehenna" is generally translated as "hell", but on some occasions (in the KJV) it is translated as "hell fire", which is quite appropriate, because "fire" in Scripture is a figure of judgment.

As stated earlier, the King James Version (and most in Portuguese) incorrectly translates the Greek word "hades" as "hell" and this has caused some confusion. We are grateful to say that this same version correctly translates the Greek word "gehenna" as "hell" or as "hell fire", as we see in the following passages: Matt. 5:22, 29, 30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. (All the other places where "hell" appears in the KJV are incorrect and should be translated as "hades".)

"Hell" (gehenna) and "the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14-15) are the same place. It is the final dwelling place of the lost. "The lake of fire" is a symbolic expression indicating eternal judgment. A "lake" is a place of confinement; water flows from rivers and streams to there where it is confined. "Fire", as we said, is a figure of judgment. Therefore, "the lake of fire" is a place of confinement under God's judgment.

Incalculable damage has been caused by preachers who expanded the terms used in Scripture to describe eternal punishment in a literal sense. This leads to many contradictions. For example, if the "fire" were literal, the bodies of the lost thrown into the lake of fire would burn up and disappear. A person would not be in hell forever. Another description of this final destiny of the lost is "outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). But this description, if taken literally, contradicts the first. Fire, as we all know, produces light, which means that, after all, there would be no darkness there! Furthermore, we are told that the lost will be "bound hand and foot" and thrown into hell, where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 22:13). If the fire were literal, it would burn their bonds and they would get loose. And how could they weep and gnash their teeth if their bodies were burned?

The answer, of course, is that all these terms are symbolic. We have already explained the (symbolic) meaning of a "lake" and a "fire", so let us go over some of the other figures. "Outer darkness" means extreme solitude. Every individual in hell will never see another person again! People talk about having many friends there, but there is no truth in that. Being "bound" indicates that the person will not be free to do his own will. On Earth, they lived to do their own will in independence from God; in hell that freedom will be taken away forever. There will be "weeping", which indicates self-pity. And there will also be "gnashing of teeth", which is the hurling of insults and curses against God (Matt. 8:12, 13:42, 50, 24:51, 25:30). Compare Acts 7:54 and Revelation 16:10-11.