AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH...

ARE THESE THE DAYS THAT JESUS WAS SPEAKING OF?

PART TWO

 

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

THE QUESTION BEFORE US IN THIS STUDY IS THIS: ARE THESE DAYS THAT WE LIVE IN THE DAYS THAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT IN LUKE 17?

In this second part of this three part study, we will look at what fate awaits those who taste of the Wrath of God in the Day of the Lord. What a fearful day that will be for those who stand before the Great Judge of all Humanity, as they wait to hear His sentence pronounced upon them!

Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever
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.
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.
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.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I have no sympathy for the beast, the false prophet and the devil that deceived the world, but I truly look with compassion upon those who are deceived by them, and whose eyes of understanding are blinded by the god of this world.

Some false teachers try to tell you that those who are told by the Lord to depart from Him into everlasting fire will not experience eternal torment. They teach you that they will just be dead.

This doctrine that teaches there is no place of eternal torment lulls people into complacency, and takes away the sense of urgency to warn people to flee from the Wrath to come. Because of false teachers who make the Truth of the Lord into a lie, multitudes are not being warned to flee from idolatry (1 Cor 10:14), from fornication (1 Cor 6:18), from covetousness (1 Tim 6:11), youthful lusts (2 Tim 2:22), and other forms of wickedness.

As a result, multitudes are headed straight into the deception of the devil and his angels, ultimately into the lake of fire, which Jesus Himself said was a place where the fire is not quenched, and “their worm dieth not” (Mark 9:43-48). When He spoke of the "worm" that wouldn’t die, he was referring to a maggot. If the maggots would not die, then it must be that there would be a continual source of sustenance for those maggots.

Many dismiss Luke 16:19-31 as a parable of the Lord. But whether the story contained therein is factual, or a mere parable, the Lord mentioned a place that the rich man went to after he died, where there was fire and torment. If the Lord hadn’t wanted people to believe there was such a place, I don’t believe He would have included this story in His teaching. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…” All the Lord’s words are True, and teach us the Way to enter into eternal Life.

If Hell is just a fictional place as the false teachers maintain, Jesus sure referred to it enough. It doesn't seem to me that the One Who I have committed my eternal well being to would teach things that are not true. At the very least, I an certain that He would have clarified in His doctrinal teaching SOMEWHERE that eternal torment does not await those who reject Him.

As we pointed out before, He mentioned a place where the fire would not be quenched in Mark 9. He said it was better to cut off your hand or your foot, or to pluck out your eye and to enter into the Kingdom of God missing those things that cause you to stumble, than to be cast into hell fire, where your (personal pronoun) worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

Again, if you have not been Born Again, and someday you were just going to die and never experience torment or have any consciousness at all, what would be the point in the Lord likening your fate after you die to being thrown into a rubbish pile outside of Jerusalem, where the fire burned continually? What’s the difference where your body ends up, whether it is in fire or in the ground? Obviously, the Lord thought it was important enough to warn people from such a place that He repeated Himself three times in Mark 9. Yet the false teachers of today lull people to complacency by saying that those who die without the Lord will just die and rot in the ground.

Along that same line, there are some false teachers who say that the soul and the body are the same thing. But Jesus, Who is the Truth taught this:

Luk 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Now notice two things here. 1) That there is a distinction in the Lord’s teaching between the soul and the body. 2) There is a warning to fear Him who AFTER he has killed, has power to cast into hell… If Hell is just the grave, why fear? If after they die, those who have rejected Jesus Christ are just dead, with no consciousness at all, what’s the big deal about dying? They will never know any different anyway! They might as well just keep on eating and drinking and having a party, because once they are dead, that's it, right?

No, Jesus said that it’s not the physical element of death that we should fear. He said that we should fear Him Who is capable of casting us into Hell, a place of torment that lasts forever and ever. Look at the parallel passage in Matthew:

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Can you see that the body and the soul are two different things? Men can kill the body, but they can’t kill the soul. But God is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell. Now the false teachers wrestle with words, and key in on this word “destroy” as proof that there is no consciousness of torment for those who die without Christ, because they are “destroyed”.

While it is true that the word used here CAN be translated in some places as “destroy”, it also carries with it the meaning of to perish, or to be lost or to lose something. To find the proper meaning of a word in Scripture, we must see how that word is being used in context of what is being taught. A prime example of that is found in the chapter in question.

Jesus used the same word when He instructed the disciples to go to the “lost” sheep of Israel in Matthew 10:6. Interestingly, He uses this word five times in the same chapter. The second time He uses it, He is referring to the soul and body being “destroyed” in Hell. The third and the fourth time He uses this word is in verse 39, where He says “He that findeth his life shall “lose” it: and he that “loseth” his life for my sake shall find it.” And in Matthew 10:42, He uses this word one more time:

Mat 10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise “lose” his reward.

I believe the Lord purposely used this word five times in this short space, so there would be no confusion as to what He meant in Matthew 10:28. He simply meant that God is able to cast both soul and body into eternal torment where they will be lost (not destroyed) forever.

We don’t have to wrestle with words to understand what the Lord has taught us about the fate that awaits those who reject Jesus in this life. Everyone wants to believe in Heaven, where there is peace and no more tears, and no more pain, but no one wants to believe in Hell, where there is torment and pain and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So in Luke, Jesus told a story in which a rich man was in torments in the flames of hell. In Mark 9, He warned us that we should desire to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven rather than experience the flames of Hell, and in Luke and Matthew He says to fear the One Who has Power AFTER He has killed you to cast your soul and your body into Hell. Look at Matthew and see another place where the Lord mentions torment in fire:

Mat 13:37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

See also Matt 13:50; Matt 24:51; Lk 13:27,28.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Those who deny the Word of God and who teach that there is no hell lean on their own understanding and argue that “a God of Love would never condemn a person to eternal torment…” But the simple fact of the matter is that God loved us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to tell us the Truth of what awaits the unrepentant sinner, and to warn us in so many ways to flee from the Wrath to come.

According to Matthew 25, our Lord Jesus Christ declared that the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. God never intended that any man should partake of that fire…but the fact remains that many will because they have rejected Jesus and His Will for their lives. The One Who declared Himself to be the TRUTH emphatically declared:

Mat 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

The word translated as “punishment” is translated as torment in 1 Jn 4:18.

Make no mistake…the Lord declared in many places that there would be some who would experience everlasting torment because they chose to reject Him, and to go their own way. What a terrible day the Day of the Lord will be for those who do not know Him! Which brings us to the final part of this study.

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