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The American Wisdom Series

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Let's talk about the eternal torment theory taught in most Christian churches of our land.

Revelation 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 for ever and ever.

And on the surface that's what it sounds like, but read on!

But first let's talk about us, and how we got/will get here in this earth age in flesh and blood (animal) bodies; And let's talk about Satan and who he was and what he did and what God has already decreed about his (Satan's) future.

To understand this, we have to go back into the first earth age, prior to the time that our (men's) souls lived in flesh bodies. In Hebrews 2:14 Satan's name is "death", because Satan has already been sentenced to death. Satan is going to die, and there is no further chance of repentance, anymore for Him, for all hope was taken from Him in the first earth age. Ezekiel 28:12 tells us that our Heavenly Father created Satan [the king of Tyrus], and that he was one of God's sons, just as you and I are. Except, God made Satan the full pattern of beauty and wisdom in that first earth age.

Ezekiel 28:12 "Son of man [Ezekiel], take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus [Satan], and say unto him, 'Thus saith the Lord God; 'Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty."

Ezekiel 28:13 "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabreths and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."

Satan was a created soul; created at the same time all of our souls, including you and me, were created before the first earth age.

Ezekiel 28:14 "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."

Back in the thirteenth verse there are ten precious stones mentioned, and each of these stones are on the breastplate of a high priest. Before Satan's fall, he sat in an extremely high position of responsibility. Satan was anointed by God to fill that high position, and it was no accident that Satan held that position. Satan was created and anointed for that position.

The position of "cherub" is to protect the mercy seat of God. "Covereth" means to guard, in the Hebrew text. God is saying that "I set you there on mine own altar, and you walked before me." It is because of Satan's vanity and pride that he turned against God, and this pride caused Satan his sentence of death. When Satan fell, he took one third of all (us) created souls with him. We/they chose to follow Satan, rather than worshipping God. It was because of this that God also allowed for His own Son to come through this earth age in a flesh and blood body, live the perfect life, and die a sacrificial death. God Himself, through His son Jesus, would pay the price for those souls that sinned and fell then, so that those that fell from God's grace can return to Him

Ezekiel 28:15 "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."

Ezekiel 28:16 "By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou has sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."

This is the over-throw of the world that then was, in the first earth age. God told Satan that he was to be removed from the altar of God.

Ezekiel 28:17 "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee."

Satan was created a child of God, just as all of us, God's children, were , however when God created Satan, He built within him the full pattern of beauty and wisdom. Satan is a child of God because all souls were created by the Father. Satan was elevated to the highest position in God's kingdom, to archangel and the protector of the arch itself. He was one of the covering cherubs that protected the very seat of God [the mercy seat]. Satan, however, went bad because of his pride in his great wisdom and beauty.

In as much as God is always as fair to one of His children as to another, if and when a soul (one of us) that followed Satan in that first earth age enters into this age of the flesh through conception, God has prepared a way for that soul to be salvaged, through repentance and belief in His son Jesus Christ. God decreed that each soul (every one of us) would enter this earth age in innocence, void of any knowledge of the first earth age, through the womb of a woman after conception. Then in this life in a flesh and blood body, choose whether we would follow God or Satan.

John 3:17 - KJV – For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

However many of us, even in this earth age, simply will not choose to do so because the truth of God's Word is not sealed in our heart, (in many cases because of our own neglect or because God has not given us eyes to see or ears to hear the truth of His Word, for our own protection when Satan comes as the spurious messiah, and in other cases because the Kenites (the grand sons of Satan, through his son Cain,) have corrupted God's Word as taught in our churches and the newer versions of our Bibles, therefore, we haven't learned truth.

Matthew 13:15 - KJV – For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

That is why there will be the Millennium age, when Jesus Christ will return and set up His kingdom of teaching correct doctrine and discipline, right here on earth. During the Millennium all souls will no longer be in their corruptible flesh and blood (terrestrial) animal type, bodies, but back into an incorruptible spirit (celestial) body, and will again have full knowledge of both earth ages, plus the advantage of having seen and experienced the permanency death, in the flesh, of our loved ones. And after that thousand year period eternal life still can be granted to us, based on our works, during the Millennium. (but, not by faith anymore, because Christ will have been here with us the whole 1000 years)

Many who did not follow Satan in the first earth age, God elected to use to further His plan. God uses them for special assignments during this earth age. They, along with others of us who in this earth age repented of our sins, accepting Christ's offer of grace, will receive their/our rewards at the beginning of this Millennium age, which includes the first resurrection to eternal life.

Satan had every opportunity to repent in the first earth age, that all souls have had or will have in this earth age, but he refused. Because of Satan's refusal, God has placed the sentence of death on him, and this sentence will be carried out at the end of the Millennium age, after the great white throne of judgment of God the Father.

Ezekiel 28:18 "Thou (Satan) hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thy iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; there will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."

Ezekiel 28:19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

John's Note. That last phrase in verse 19 sure does rule out the eternal torment theory taught in most Christian churches of our land, doesn't it! They get that from the verse in Revelation 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 for ever and ever. And on the surface that's what it sounds like, but read on!

Revelation 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Revelation 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

When Satan has gathered all who will join him and they have compassed Jerusalem then it's lake of fire time for them. No need to even open up the book of works on these folks for they have totally and completely failed the final exam. They will not graduate into eternity. Bye!

Here we come to the favorite verse of Dante, who gave us graphic descriptions, complete with illustrations, of an everlasting Burning Inferno, known as Dante's Inferno, where poor souls who didn't repent weep and wail and writhe in pain and agony and torment forever and ever while the saints sitting on the clouds with their harps look upon them and sing the refrain "Burn, suckers, burn, we told you so, we told you so"! Some concept of heaven, eh?

Well it ain't so! First of all, it is documented time after time after time in the Bible that the fate of the wicked is to PERISH, to die the second death, which is the DESTRUCTION OF THE SOUL! We've already quoted John 3:16 earlier as well as Christ's own words in Mat. 10. But let's read again His words:

And how about Satan's soul? Did we just read that Satan will be tormented for ever and ever? No we did not, because we read an idiom of another language translated into our English which completely lost the meaning. It would be like translating the English expression "She got cold feet", meaning "She lost her nerve" to do something, into French. But in the French language there is no such expression and so the best the readers of the expression can determine is that the actual temperature of her feet much approach that of ice!

The root of the word "torment" in verse 10 is the Greek word basanos from where we get our word "basis", and it means (through the notion of going to the bottom). But the whole expression together simply means that Satan will be consumed, debased, gone, day and night (for all eternity), forever and ever (to be no more).

For further documentation, let's look at a second witness, another account of Satan's ultimate fate, found in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel. Here's how he DIES! He perishes by fire!

Satan will BE NO MORE! You just read it! His very name in Greek is "Apollyon" which means PERISH. That is why he is called the "Son of Perdition", i.e. the son who will perish!

The same fate that awaits all of us who don't have part in the first nor the second resurrections.

Do you realize that Satan has succeeded in taking a few mistranslated verses and created an almost universally accepted Christian doctrine so heinous that it even defies the nature of human love. We have laws in human society against torturing both animals and people. Even a parent of a child who became a despicable evil murderer could not imagine nor accept and would certainly never decree that the child be heinously singed with fire, poked with hot coals, and roasted in an oven. What parent, brother or sister could look upon one of their own being treated as such? They could perhaps accept the humane execution of the child, to put him or her out their torment for ever and ever, for the protection and good of society. And guess what? God says in Jer. 32:35 that He never ever thought of torturing children in fire! Such is the doctrine of Molech! NEVER EVER! And yet today it is a doctrine in most Christian churches. But it is a tradition of men like Dante and not of God's Word!

And as it is written, Death is exactly the punishment God decrees for the murderer in the flesh body, and as it is written, Death is exactly the punishment God decrees for the wicked in the spirit body. And just as we don't have to put up with the evil (flesh) person anymore on earth when they are executed (the first death), so we will not have to put up with the wicked anymore for all eternity when they are executed (the second death).

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals. We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.