Do you believe the fire in the Lake of Fire and/or hell is literal fire?
Hell and the Lake of Fire are clearly taught in the Scripture. Sometimes hell is referred to as outer darkness, at other times a place where the fire is not quenched. What is your understanding about this? Feel free to share comments and insights.
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One problem with “literal” is that many use the term to mean “normal in every way” or “the exact same thing we usually experience.” But ordinary, every-day fire requires a physical substance that is consumed to generate the flames. The “fire” of “The Lake of Fire” and “fire is not quenched” is clearly special in some way.
Those in the place of wrath have died. Their earthly bodies are gone. So what is burning? And if it is burning, how does it not burn up? Potential (but uncertain) answers are easy enough to imagine, but they seem to require that the place be special or the bodies be special or the fire be special. Something is not “literal,” as many (most?) use the term.
Worth noting also: “literal” fire also gives off light, but Jesus uses the phrase “outer darkness” multiple times (Matt 8:12, 22:13, 25:20) to describe the place of wrath. What does a dark lake of fire look like? I suppose if the fire is the only light source, it’s relatively dark. But then is the darkness “literal” darkness?
I’ve often wondered: Is there even still such a thing as time in the eternal state? Parts of Revelation certainly sound like there is at least sequence, which is pretty hard to imagine without time. But how much do we really know about how time passes in Gehenna/Lake of Fire/Outer Darkness?
I think we have to acknowledge that it is a place that is in at least some ways unlike anything in our experience.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Now granted, it's a parable told by Jesus, so you can probably take it much further than it actually goes, but Luke 16:19-31 notes a case where the rich man in Hell appeals to Abraham for mercy for himself, and then for his family. The setting is apparently one where Lazarus, in Abraham's bosom in paradise, is seen by the rich man from his torment, which suggests that Hell might be visible from Heaven. In which case it is an extraordinary job of HVAC in the afterlife to keep the heat and sulfur smell out of Heaven.
One might infer that the worst torture is not the heat and smell, but possibly the prospect of eternal separation from God while one can yet see Him. Akin in a sort of way to the young man who falls in love with the girl he can never have, and is tormented to see her all the time.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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