SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/22/2015
My Worship Time
Focus: The Sentence
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Revelation 20:14-15
Message
of the verses: “Then death and Hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was
thrown into the lake of fire.”
Verse fourteen says the death and
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
We have mentioned that Hades is the place of torment where souls go
after death but unbelievers do not have a new body while in that place. People standing before the Judge, the Lord
Jesus Christ will by this time be resurrected having a new body, a body that
when the go into hell will be suitable to receive the punishment that is given
to them. Hell has not been occupied before
this sentence will be carried out.
Remember that Jesus said that hell is created for the devil and his
angels.
John MacArthur writes the
following: “The clearest and most vivid
of the New Testament terms used to describe the final hell, the lake of fire,
is geenna (Gehenna). Gehenna is the New Testament word for
the valley of Ben-Hinnom (also called Topheth; 2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer.
7:31-32; 19:6), located southwest of Jerusalem.
In Old Testament times, idolatrous Israelites burned their children in
the fire there as sacrifices to false gods (Jer. 19:2-6). In Jesus’ day it was the site of Jerusalem’s
garbage dump. The fires kept constantly
burning there gave off foul-smelling smoke, and the dump was infested with
maggots. Sometimes the bodies of
criminals were dumped there. The valley
of Ben-Hinnom was thus an apt picture of eternal hell, one used repeatedly by
Jesus (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke
12:5). Hell will be God’s eternal cosmic
dump; its inmates will be burning as garbage forever.”
We have talked about the first resurrection
which is only make up of believers, and were cautioned in the Scriptures about
the second death “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first
resurrection; over those
the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of
Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years (Rev. 20:6).”
John MacArthur states that fire is
used more than twenty times in Scripture to depict the torment of hell. I will list those Scriptures here: Revelation 20:10, 15; 14:10; 19:20; 21:8;
Matt. 3:10-12; 5:22; 7:19; 13:40, 42, 50; 18:8-9; 25:41; Mark 9:44; Luke 3:9,
16-17; John 15:6; Heb. 10:27; Jude 7.
When I was a child I did not really want to read from the Bible because
I did not understand it at all. Once I
became a believer I had a hunger, a God given hunger to read and begin to
understand the Bible. My prayer is that
those who read this and do not realize what the Bible has to say about hell
will look at these verses to see that hell is a real place and will be occupied
by real people, but if one decides to accept the forgiveness that the Lord
Jesus Christ has to offer then hell will not be occupied by the person that
does that.
John MacArthur ends his commentary
on chapter 20 by giving a quotation from Hebrews 10:26-31 which goes along with
what I just wrote: “For if we go on
sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the
fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses
dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he
will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as
unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted
the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who
said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’
And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.”
Lord willing, we will begin to look
at the second to last chapter in the book of Revelation in our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Learning
more about hell has caused me to be more thankful for the salvation that I have
in Christ Jesus.
My Steps of Faith
for Today: Trust that the
Lord will use the words that I write to be used by the Holy Spirit to speak to
the heart of an unbeliever so that that unbeliever can then become a believer
and not have to spend eternity in hell.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “The
rainbow” (Genesis 9:15).
Today’s
Bible question: “Why did Abraham go to
Egypt?”
Answer
in our next SD.
10/22/2015
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