The Furnace of Fire and the Wrath of God
EXAMINING THE MISAPPLICATION OF END-TIME PROPHECY
TO THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL TORMENT
PART THREE - IS THE
FURNACE OF FIRE
AN EVERLASTING FIRE?
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
RAIN UPON SODOM
In both Matthew 13 and Revelation 14, the harvest is said to be the instrument for punishing the wicked who are alive on the earth at the end of the age. Just as the flood in Noah's day destroyed that wicked generation, the events which comprise this 'harvest' are to be absolutely cataclysmic in their destruction of the wicked at the end of this age. The wrath of God which is to be poured out upon that particular generation of men and women who are found worshiping the beast or have taken its mark will never be forgotten. The generation in which these events are to take place is to be both the culmination of the wickedness of mankind, and of the wrath of God against sin.
Some will feel that by teaching that these
warnings only apply to one specific generation, we make them of
little or no practical value. After all, if they only apply to
men and women living at the end of the age, then we really do
not have much reason to pay them much attention, right? As we learned in part two of our series, the common phrases 'furnace of fire' and 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' from Matthew 13 had no reference whatsoever to hell, but will ultimately apply to a specific class of people at a very specific time; the wicked generation that will be living just prior to the second advent of our Lord and Savior. We learned that in the end of the age, the 'tares' of Jesus' parable in Matthew 13 prove to be those who will worship the beast, its image, or take its mark. These will be made to endure the wrath of God which will be poured out in the seven bowl judgments. But ultimately their suffering will come to an end when they are killed at the battle of Armageddon. These are facts which are ascertained through a careful and consistent comparison of scripture with scripture. On the contrary, a theological system which attempts to reconcile these passages with the doctrine of eternal torment is a monstrosity built only upon centuries of tradition and assumptions. Many of course, will read of these things and scoff. To them there can be no place for a teaching which applies the 'furnace of fire' or the 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' to anyplace but hell, and to any time period less than all eternity. Doubtless, some will call me a 'liberal' or a 'modernist' who's only goal is to attack one of the fundamentals of the faith and do away a Bible 'truth' that has been held for many generations by many fine and sincere people. On the contrary, my goal has never been to attack, or to 'explain away' ANY Biblical truth, but to show that these passages NEVER had anything to do with a teaching which should have never found its way into the body of Christian belief to begin with. Our appeal has been, and with the Lord's help always will be firstly to the scriptures alone and not to traditions, emotions, our own opinions or the opinions of others. While we respect the opinions and the thoughts of others on this subject, the final authority must always be the scriptures. In the final analysis, who really is the liberal or the modernist? All rhetoric aside, a true fundamentalist is someone who teaches what Jesus and the apostles taught, while the modernists and the liberals are those who deviate from their teachings. Our Lord's warnings concerning the fate of the wicked are serious, and they should cause each of us to pause and consider our duty to warn mankind of destructiveness of sin, and that ultimately, retribution will come upon those who choose to live a life apart from God. But blanket statements which make nearly every New Testament reference to 'fire' into an eternal hell help no one. We hear from our preachers that we must take Jesus' warnings very seriously. While this is unquestionably true, an exposition which makes all these passages apply to hell without any further investigation is simply careless. Have we taken Jesus' words serious enough to take the time to really study them carefully? In this present inquiry, we must take up yet another facet of this debate. It is common among preachers, when describing the horrors of hell to quote Jesus' words from Matthew 13 ('a furnace of fire' 'weeping and gnashing of teeth') along with the phrase 'everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels' from Matthew 25. The task we have before us is to determine if the fire from Matthew 25 is the same fire spoken of in Matthew 13. Countless Christians, without question or further investigation apply both these passages to hell. However, as we have attempted to show, making assumptions such as this on a subject as important as this is a very dangerous thing to do. If these two passages really refer to one and the same 'fire', then a careful investigation of both passages will bear this out without our having to make assumptions. Truth never has anything to fear from a careful and scrupulous investigation. However, should our inquiry show the impossibility of the fires of Matthew 13 and 25 being one and the same, then we must make a choice between our traditions and the Word of God. If it can be proven that these passages refer to two different fires at two different times, then they ought never again be quoted together in support of an eternally burning hell.
|
A PERPLEXING PASSAGE In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks two phrases that are almost universally applied to the doctrine of eternal torment:
Once again, when we quote phrases like this entirely out of context, they may sound impressive, but they are meaningless unless considered along with the entire passage in which they appear. These phrases are taken from Jesus' story of the 'sheep and the goats':
The proper interpretation of Jesus' parable of the 'Sheep and the Goats' has been widely debated among Bible Scholars. The main issue seems to be that this passage is not easily reconciled with modern evangelical teaching which states that salvation is by faith apart from works. The popular teaching affirms that no one is saved by their works, and that no one will be damned by their works. To the contrary we are saved only by our faith in Jesus, and we will be damned only by rejecting him. Even a brief amount of reflection will serve to show why then this parable of Jesus has caused so much controversy in evangelical and fundamental circles. We have here described for us a judgment which is clearly based on works. This has led many to automatically assume that this parable simply cannot have reference to the last 'Great White Throne' judgment which is described in Revelation 20. We have taken up these issues in detail elsewhere where we give our scriptural reasons for believing that this parable does indeed refer to the last great judgment of mankind. Please see our Chapter The Day of Judgment for detailed information, or the addendum below where we briefly answer the major objections to our reasoning. The purpose of our present inquiry is to determine whether or not the fate of the wicked described in this parable, 'everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels', is the same as the furnace of fire in Mathew 13 that brings about 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'. It is our contention that our modern theology has been very careless in applying both of these passages to 'hell', a word which does not exist in the context of either. THE TIME ELEMENT The first question we must concern ourselves with is that of a time element. We learned from Mathew chapter 13 that Jesus set a very specific time element when he gave the parable of the 'wheat and the tares'. We found that he was describing a time period which was both the end of this current age, but also one in which the Kingdom had been established. The events were culminated by a 'harvest' in which the angels cast those wicked (those living in this specific time period) into a 'furnace of fire'. According to Jesus, these are the events which are to close the age in which we currently live.
Once again I cannot stress enough that the reader must grasp this one simple truth; that the 'furnace of fire' described in Matthew 13 takes place at the end of this age, not before and not after. This is a basic fact which is almost completely overlooked by most modern expositors of this passage. Now, we must ask ourselves if there is a similar specific time element in Jesus' parable of the 'sheep and the goats', and if so, are we dealing with the same time period which is described in Matthew 13. Indeed, the very first sentence of this parable contains the very time element we are looking for:
Then of necessity, all the remaining events described in this parable take place after the time element given in this very first sentence. The events are very clear. First Jesus must come, and then after his coming must sit down on the throne of his glory, and THEN the described judgment begins. Nothing could be clearer than these simple facts. Once again it may be helpful to look at the order of these events as given in the book of Revelation.
Now notice very carefully that the second coming of Jesus which brings about the Battle of Armageddon follows the seven bowl judgments. When we consider this fact along with the time element which Jesus gives in his parable of the 'sheep and the goats', one thing becomes very clear; THE FIRE WHICH IS DESCRIBED IN MATTHEW 25 (EVERLASTING FIRE PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS) SIMPLY CANNOT BE THE SAME FIRE AS THE ONE DESCRIBED IN MATTHEW 13 (A FURNACE OF FIRE WHICH BRINGS ABOUT WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH)! In Matthew 25 we read that Jesus must come, then he must sit down on his throne, then he must gather all nations before him for judgment, and then, only after all these events do the wicked go into 'everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels'. Clearly this fire, whatever it may be, cannot have any reference to a fire brought about by the harvest if this harvest precedes the second coming! The fire of Matthew13 precedes the close of this age, the fire of Matthew 25 follows not only the close of this age, but that of the age to come. The time elements given in Matthew 13 and Matthew 25 simply do not match. These passages are not parallels of each other, and as such the fires are also different. When a preacher tells his congregation that 'hell' is described as both 'a furnace of fire in which there is weeping and gnashing of teeth', and 'everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels', he is simply being dishonest. This type of reasoning exists only on the assumption that all references to fire must refer to 'hell', even though the word 'hell' exists nowhere in the context of either. WHICH FIRE
WAS PREPARED Someone may reason that although the time elements of these passages are not the same, the fires are because they both simply refer to hell; some are sent to hell at the close of this age, and then some later, but the fires are the same. Could this be the case? Every evangelical scholar will be forced to admit that their theology admits the existence of two hells. One of these would be designated by the Greek word Hades which they believe to be a temporary place of punishment for the wicked prior to the 'Great White Throne Judgment', and the other which is designated by the Greek word Gehenna which represents the final resting place of the wicked, or the 'lake of fire'. In Revelation 20:14 we read that Hades itself is to be cast into this lake of fire, which clearly indicates that Hades and Gehenna are two very different and distinct things. Which fire was prepared for the Devil and his angels? We read in Revelation 20:10:
Clearly then it is the 'lake of fire' that was prepared for the devil and his angels, and consequently it is this same lake of fire from Revelation 20 which is referred to in Matthew 25.
Now consider for a moment that no human goes into this 'lake of fire' prior to the 'Great White Throne Judgment'. Because the events of the 'harvest' described in Matthew 13 precede the great white throne judgment, then the fire these wicked are cast into as a result of this harvest, the one which brings about weeping and gnashing of teeth, cannot be the same fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels as stated in Matthew 25! No matter how we look at these two passages we must always come to the conclusion that fires described in each are clearly not the same. Once this distinction is recognized, some very interesting facts come to light. Once we realize that the 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' from Matthew 13 has no reference to that lake of fire in Revelation 20 which was 'prepared for the devil and his angels', it becomes obvious that NO reference to 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' applies to Revelation 20 either. Why is this significant? Because the lake of fire is the only permanent and final condition of the wicked, with all other judgments prior being temporal. Every scriptural reference to 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' is of a temporal nature and represents judgments which can only be inflicted upon living men and women. I challenge any believer who professes to stand on a scriptural foundation to prove otherwise! I respectfully submit that it simply cannot be done! There are only three condition which are said to bring about 'weeping and gnashing of teeth': 1) 'A furnace of fire' (Matt 13:42, 13:50)- We have commented on these passages extensively in part two and shown what we feel is conclusive proof that the 'furnace of fire' refers to the seven last great 'bowl judgments' of God which are described under the figure of a harvest just before the second coming of Jesus. These judgment are poured out upon the earth on living men and women who are worshiping the beast. There is not one scriptural statements which would indicate that this is a condition which continues beyond this life. 2) 'Outer Darkness' (Matt 8:12, 22:13, 25:30 cf. Luke 13:28)- All have reference to people in general, or the Jewish nation in particular, who though they had held a favorable position in God's sight, fell into judgment through disobedience or unfaithfulness. They experience 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' once they see others attain to the position of favor once afforded them and realize that they themselves are under the judgment of God. In some cases (Matt 22:13) this refers to the Jewish nation, who by rejecting their Messiah were thrown into a condition of outer darkness for 20 centuries. Can anyone deny that the Jews have endured bitter persecution and weeping and gnashing of teeth? In other cases (Matt 8:12) it refers specifically to those
national leaders who rejected Jesus. He informs them that they
will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob come and sit down in the
kingdom, and they themselves cast into 'outer darkness'. This
can only happen in the context of a resurrection during the day
of judgment (see
detailed discussion) when these men realize the position
that was offered to them, but which they rejected. In the remaining cases (Matt 25:30, Luke 13:28) we have general warnings toward those who would presume they had attained to a favorable position without watchfulness or obedience. But once again these can only be understood within the context of the resurrection and in the day of judgment when every man will be made to give an account to God. Those who had presumed they stood in God's favor will weep bitterly once confronted with the truth of their unfaithfulness and disobedience. Once again, there is nothing in the text to indicate that these conditions happen upon any but living men and women, howbeit in the resurrection, and nothing to indicate that such conditions continue beyond the judgment. 3) 'The portion with the hypocrites' (Matt 24:51)- This has reference to a servant who is not watching for his Master's return. Jesus warns that this servant will be caught off guard, scourged severely (cut asunder- indication the most severe and cruel form of Roman torture), and appointed his 'portion with the hypocrites'. Hence, the passage is dealing with those 'evil servants' who are alive at the second advent. In part one we proved that these were same group as the 'tares' and had reference to this same furnace of fire in Matthew 13. Once again, the judgment is of a temporal nature and only happens upon living men and women. These three cases and seven verses record the ONLY circumstances which bring about 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'. NONE of them say that these conditions happen upon anyone beyond this life. NONE of them say that 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' takes place in 'hell'. NONE of them say that 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' goes on for eternity. While some represent the conditions of some during the judgment NONE of them speak one word of anything following the judgment. There are four terms which describe the
final and the only permanent state of the wicked;
Everlasting Fire, Gehenna Fire (or Hell fire in the KJV), The
Lake of Fire and the Fire That Shall Not Be Quenched.
None of the passages in which these
terms appear speak of any pain or suffering for mankind other
than their final destruction. In particular, the phrase
'weeping and gnashing of teeth' is never used in conjunction
with any of these to describe the final state of the wicked.
This is highly significant. Not only do those seven passages
which speak of 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' NEVER
mention hell, but those passages which clearly do speak
of the final state of the wicked NEVER mention 'weeping
and gnashing of teeth! This is a fact which simply cannot be
brushed aside. THE AMAZING HARMONY OF GOD'S WORD Once we drop our preconceived ideas and let the Bible speak for itself, one cannot help but be struck by the remarkable harmony of God's word. What once seemed to be a mass of disjointed passages which all referred to hell, at once becomes a clear panorama of those events immediately preceding and following the second coming of our savior. When we realize that Matthew 13 and Matthew 25 are not attempting to give us vague warnings about hell, but both contain time elements in addition to their warnings, we are able to put them side by side and see the big picture. But even beyond this, the order of events and the time elements given in these two passages match perfectly with those given in the book of Revelation.
We can be more than confident that many passages of scripture have been wrongfully applied to the doctrine of eternal torment Why is it that so many people accept such twisted explanations of scripture without question? Why do people just refuse to ask questions and go beyond the assumptions of what they have been taught? No dear reader, 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' does not take
place in hell. But, it will come upon those even today
who sit safe in their theology, too lazy to search out the truth
for themselves simply accepting the errors which they have been
taught. Have we refused to study these warnings because we feel
they cannot apply to us? Brothers and sisters, they most
certainly WILL apply to us unless we can get past this smug
attitude that we must have the truth simply because our teachers
tell us so. Can we pretend to be faithful when we spend more
time in front of the television than in God's word? Can we
really proclaim to know the truth when our Bibles collect dust?
May God help our generation to wake up and forsake these God
dishonoring traditions which have kept mankind in bondage for so
long. Many evangelical scholars reject the notion that Matthew 25 could be describing the final 'Great White Throne' judgment of the wicked. It is our sincere conviction that Matthew 25 and Revelation 20 are indeed describing one and the same judgment and that the misunderstanding rests not upon any contradiction in the Word of God, but only with those pre-conceived ideas that many bring to the text. We submit below a summary of the major objections to our position, and a brief response to each.
The problem here is simply an imagined one. I would ask, in what way do you judge nations at all, without judging individuals? Also take into consideration the following verses:
These are verses which the evangelicals have no trouble applying to the 'Great White Throne' judgment, yet don't these verses also speak of nations and not individuals? Why is it that evangelical scholars have no trouble applying these passages to the 'Great White Throne' judgment but not the parable of the 'Sheep and the Goats'? Simple, because their pre-conceived notions of what they feel MUST be true dictates that they do so.
Once again there is no real problem here other than one that
exists in the imaginations of evangelical theologians. One might ask the
question, if the 'Great White Throne' judgment does not take place on earth, and
it does not take place in the heavens, then where does it take place?
Quite to the contrary, although Revelation 20:15 states:
additionally Revelation 20:13 states:
Therefore such an argument is meaningless.
This is an assumption which has no authority other than the pre-conceived theology of those who have already made up their minds that these two judgments cannot be the same. On the other hand, without making such an assumption, Revelation 20 seems to imply that some are indeed saved in the 'Great White Throne' judgment . Revelation 20:15 states:
This is a far cry from saying that everyone in this judgment is damned, and the language would seem to imply exactly the opposite. There would be no point whatsoever in saying 'whosoever was not found written' if none were found written there.
Once again we are given an argument that rests entirely upon an assumption or an argument from silence and not a careful scriptural investigation. The careful Bible student would ask; since the judgment of Matthew 25 follows the battle of Armageddon in which all the wicked nations are destroyed, where do these nations come from which appear for judgment? This is a problem which seems to be known to some evangelical theologians. The 'Defender's Study Bible ' states:
Notice how the author admits that the Bible doesn't seem to teach his doctrine, but maintains that his interpretation MUST be true anyway. But contrast this with the words of Paul:
Does Jesus' description in Matthew 25 fit with the theory that this judgment is over a mere remnant which somehow seemed to escape the wrath of God during the harvest and Armageddon? The question remains; where do these nations come from if not by resurrection? We let the words of Jesus answer:
The fact that no resurrection is mentioned in Matthew 25
becomes meaningless once we consider all the scriptural evidence which
explains that a resurrection is most definitely implied here.
|