Teapot's Theory about Hell

I seemed to have caused quite a stir when I mentioned I had come up with a personal theory concerning eternal punishment for those who do not accept Christ. This is truly just a personal study. I didn't get this from anyone. It isn't a revelation that came in a dream. It's just my study, and my thinking about what I have gleaned from my reading. With that said, I had a few readers ask me, with good reason, if I still believed in a literal Hell. 

To start off, yes I do. I'm including a sampling of verses from my study. It's not all inclusive by any means. All quoted verses are from the English Standard Version.The Scripture is clear that there is a place of punishment for those who do not accept God's gift of eternal life. One of the most obvious references is in the story of Lazarus in Luke 16: 23: "And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side." Matthew 13: 41-42 states: "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." That's very clear. No change in translation or context for these verses, they say what they say.

One of the counter verses that comes up is I Thessalonians 1:9: "They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." I see the words "eternal destruction, I do. But from other studies of God's grace and love, it was hard for me, personally, to believe that God would make any of His creation suffer for eternity. I am imperfect and petty, but my human thought process could see no reason for eternal suffering for anything or any being. And as I continued my search, I saw a pattern emerge.

It was the words "away from the presence of the Lord" that caught my attention. To be without the light of His love, and have the mantle of his Grace yanked away seems a terrible thing to me. So I reviewed verses concerning the fate of Satan and his followers. And the pattern that emerged was one of opposites.

Matthew 10:28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Psalm 145:20 "The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy."

John 3:16“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Finally, the wording from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jude 1:7 "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." Sodom and Gomorrah no longer exists. Those cities are gone. But, the description says "eternal fire." As far as my limited knowledge of Greek and Hebrew takes me, the term "eternal fire" does not change from verse to verse.

In looking at this contrast, I see that eternal LIFE is the opposite of eternal DEATH. The verses concerning eternal damnation and eternal suffering all seem to me to show that the final end of Satan and his followers is annihilation when they are cast into the lake of fire mentioned in the book of Revelation. They will be destroyed. Gone. Cease to exist. Making their efforts until that point useless and empty. What a terrible thing to realize that everything you have ever done resulted in nothing, and you will not be remembered. You will be gone.

This theory hasn't changed my drive to serve God or to share the Gospel with others, and it should not change yours. No matter if I'm right or wrong, I know one thing for sure. Our God is just, holy, omniscient, immutable, and omnipotent and He will do what is right. Period.

Serve God,

Love Others!

Teapotjan

Nothing-----I mean ----NO ONE Between My Soul and My Saviour

I dearly love my father. He lives with me, and my family. He will be eighty-eight years old on St. Patrick's day this year. I am his only child, and he still watches over me as fiercely as his did when I was little. He is my hero.

Dad with his favorite dessert,
banana pudding.

He was saved in his early thirties, not long before he married my mother, and about two years before 

I was born. My folks were learning Christians when I was born. And being in the south, and being in the Bible belt, they grew in the Lord through fundamentalist churches. Yes, that is possible. God works in spite of human failings and misinterpretations. And I grew up as a "born-again, KJV Bible-believing, rapture-expecting, in-church-every-time-the-doors-open, marching-in-the-Lord's army, no-pants-wearing, no-cartoon-watching-or-unecessary-work-on-Sunday, don't-question-the

Shook his sweaty hand so much
his ring would fly off and hit
someone. Saw it firsthand.

'man of God,' independent Baptist, daughter-of-the-church-pianist, treasurer, deacon and adult Sunday school class teacher and his lady-fellowship-speaking, sing-in-the-choir, teach-the-little-kids Sunday school teacher." Can I get an amen? (At this point, if I were one of my old pastors, I'd wipe my brow with a large handkerchief and take a sip of water from the cup that one of the deacons had hidden in the pulpit). 

That being said, my dad is a loving and kind man. While he was, and is, part of the fundamentalist camp, his walk with the Lord has always been tempered with love. But even now, I see some of that old learning creeping into our conversations.

Today, we were talking about what the Bible actually says about the fate of those who do not choose God's gift of eternal life. I told him that I had been putting a lot of deep thought and study into it and had come to my own conclusions. That conclusion was contrary to the idea of eternal suffering and pain that we had always been told was a solid tenet based on Scripture. I gave several verses, peppered with a few greek word translations, and he listened intently. When I was done, he looked at me and asked, "did someone tell you this and you are buying into what they say?" I told him that to the contrary, this was my own study and my own interpretation of what I had read. And then it happened. My father shook his head and said "Deep thinking is a tool of Satan."

NO, NO, NO!

It all came back in a sweeping flood of doubt and confusion, a feeling that I should not have questioned what I had always been taught. That I should take some preacher man's word for what I believed. I'm a woman after all and I should be submis. . . . wait. The flood halted.

My conclusion did not contradict Scripture. It didn't change that we need to witness and bring all into God's grace that we can. It only changed another person's interpretation of Scripture that isn't as set as I was led to believe. That's all.

 And I stand before God as myself redeemed by Christ's sacrifice. He is my only advocate to God. Not my husband. Not a preacher. Not any other human. Me. Janet, deep-thinker and servant of God. No one between.

Teapotjan,

Beloved of God, and 

child of the King