The Lake of Fire: The Final Defeat of Death | Rethinking Hell, Week 6

Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where

we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters

of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.

Let's jump in to today's episode. All right,

guys, welcome back for another week of rethinking

hell. This week, we're going to be talking about

the lake of fire and kind of what does it actually

mean? because the lake of fire is not the triumph

of wrath. It is the final defeat of death. Last

week, we kind of explored the meaning of judgment

and saw that biblical judgment is not revenge,

but more along the lines of restoration. So a

thought to wrestle with before we kick this one

off is what if the lake of fire is not about

God tormenting humanity? but about God destroying

death itself. Just a thought to consider as we

begin to dive into this. And so as we do this,

I want you to think about the rethinking end

time series that we did and remember what we

learned about the book of Revelation. That it

is full of symbols when it talks about beasts,

dragons, horns, crowns. cities, all these different

things, there is a lot of symbolic language.

And the problem is if we read symbolic language

as literal language, we misunderstand the message

entirely. And so if you think back to the revelation

discussion about what do these symbols mean,

if you remember, we discussed and you can go

back and listen to this. We discussed beast equals

empires, horns would equal rulers, fire would

equal judgment, and different things of that

nature. But if you look at Revelation chapter

Revelation 20:14

20 verse 14, it says this, then death and the

realm of the dead were cast into the lake of

fire. for the lake of fire is the second death.

So I want you to notice something about this

is that death and Hades is that word there. One

of those words for hell. The realm of the dead

is what it is. Death and the realm of the dead

are both thrown into the fire. So now we have

to ask ourselves a very real and genuine question.

Are death and Hades people? And the answer to

that question is no they are enemies they are

concepts they are forces the lake of fire is

about destroying what destroys humanity think

about that let's look at um first corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:26

chapter 15 verse 26 and it says and the last

enemy to be subdued and eliminated is death itself

so the final enemy is not people the final enemy

is death All right, we can look at Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 25:8

25 verse 8 in the passion translation. It says

it is the gloom of death He will swallow it up

in victory forever and God Lord Yahweh will wipe

away every tear from every face I'm just looking

here to see there's some notes on that verse

I don't believe any of those are important for

this conversation at the moment, but so let's

read that again It is the gloom of death, he

will swallow it up in victory forever and God,

Lord Yahweh will wipe away every tear from every

face. So the lake of fire is the image of death

that is being swallowed. It has absolute zero

to do with human endlessly burning, with humanity

burning. the wicked burn none of that it has

nothing to do with humans endlessly burning it

is death that is ending all right let's look

at some other scriptures here let's look at first

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to read

verses 54 through 58 and it says this then when

our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies

that will never die This scripture will be fulfilled.

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where

is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

For sin is the sting that results in death, and

the law gives sin its power. But thank God. He

gives us victory over sin and death through our

Lord Jesus Christ. So my dear brothers and sisters,

be strong and be movable. Always work enthusiastically

for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do

for the Lord is ever useless." I'm going to read

those same verses in the mirror paraphrase. It

says, Your victory is not a maybe because of

the magnanimous doing of Jesus Christ. It is

a given. For this reason, you can afford to be

absolutely settled and rock solid and face persuasion

and always ready to go beyond where you would

have gone before. Your doing now is inspired

by your knowing that you are in Him. If His resurrection

is yours, then His victory over sin and death

is equally yours. My friend, because we are included

in that finished work of Christ, His resurrection

is our resurrection. His victory is our victory.

So when I believe it's Paul that tells us in

Colossians that Jesus has removed the power of

guilt, sin, and shame, He didn't just remove

that from Himself. You can walk in that victory

just as much. And that's good news. Here's another

long scripture we're going to read. We're going

to read Hebrews chapter 2. I'm going to start

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

in verse 7, and we're going to read several verses

here, but I think it's important as we're talking

about this. It says, It seems that man briefly

descended to a less elevated place than Elohim,

yet he is crowned with God's own glory and dignity

and appointed in a position of authority over

all the works of his hands. God's intention was

that human life should rule the planet. He subjected

everything without exception to His control.

Yet looking at the human race, it does not seem

that way at all. Verse 9, But what is apparent

is Jesus. Let us then consider Him in such a

way that we may clearly perceive what God is

saying to mankind in Him. In the death that he

suffered, he briefly descended to a seemingly

less elevated place in Elohim in order to taste

the death of the entire human race. And in doing

so, to fulfill the grace of God and to be crowned

again as a man representing all of mankind with

glory and highly esteemed honor. He towers in

conspicuous prominence far above all things.

He is worthier author and their conclusion. All

things exist in him and through him he now triumphantly

leads everyone as sons to glory through a perfect

salvation. The extent of the suffering he bore

is the measure of the perfection of the salvation

over which he presides. Because both he who carried

out the rescue mission as well as those he saved

and restored to innocence, which is us, you and

I, originate from the same source. Therefore,

he is not ashamed to introduce each and every

one individually as his siblings. He says, I

will reveal your name to my brothers and sisters,

their own in this great family reunion. I will

celebrate you in song. I will rest my confident

trust in him. I am surrounded by the children

whose God has given whose which God has given

me. I am one of them. The fact that the children

are flesh and blood beings by design Explains

the incarnation in the genius of God the word

was always destined to become flesh He lived

and died in a body as fully human as ours Dying

our death was his doorway into our deepest fears

He thus disengaged the dominion of the death

that trapped the human race in a fallen mindset

As a fellow human, he redefined death and delivered

them from the lifelong dread of death. Last part

here. This is why it is so relevant to understand

that Jesus did not arrive on the planet in a

celestial form. He is the seed of Abraham. He

therefore completely assimilated every detail

of this human family so that as chief priests

standing face to face before God, his compassion

and unwavering faith would prevail effectively

over the lies that they believed about themselves.

having fully accomplished their at -one -ment.

He experienced mankind's temptation with the

same intensity and under the same scrutiny and

powerfully represents them with immediate effect.

So Christ defeated all of this. Understand, I

tell our group this all the time, that prepositional

words are important. He didn't just defeat this

for us. Christ defeated death as us. We are now

one with Him. Whatever He did, we were mystically

included in the finished work of the person of

Christ. So when He defeated death, He was not

just doing this for us. He was doing this as

you and I. So what is the point of this? Death

has effectively been defeated and it's going

to be destroyed in the lake of fire. That's important

for us to understand that death and Hades again

Hades often translated into hell is going to

be destroyed in this lake of fire All right,

let's move on. Let's look at Revelation chapter

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

21 And we're just going to read verses 1 through

5 It says then I saw a new heaven a new earth

for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared

and the sea was also gone and I saw the holy

city the new Jerusalem Coming down from God out

of heaven like a bride dressed for her husband

I heard a loud shout from the throne saying look

God's home is now among his people He will live

with them and they will be his people God himself

will be with them He will wipe away every tear

from their eyes and there will be no more death

or sorrow or crying or pain all these things

are gone forever. And the one sitting on the

throne said, look, I am making everything new.

And then he said to me, write this down for what

I tell you is trustworthy and true. Verse three

in the mirror says in a glorious announcement

was Harold, Harold, excuse me, heralded. out

of the throne behold God's tabernacle is with

humanity he has taken up permanent residence

in human skin to be with them and the closest

possible associate of oneness they are his own

possession his tribe and he is their God inseparably

pay attention to the language here I love this

inseparably entwined with them so after the lake

of fire in Revelation chapter 20 we have this

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

in Revelation chapter 21 and what appears but

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

a new creation not eternal chaos it's not endless

torment but this is renewal so fire is not the

end of the story restoration is okay let's look

at this Revelation chapter 20 verse 14 says then

Revelation 20:14

death and Hades the realm of the dead were cast

into the lake of fire for the lake of fire is

the second death so let's talk let's take that

verse again and go look at what is death ask

yourself what is death death is simply the separation

from life death is destroyed in the fire pay

attention to the language it's destroyed why

does that matter because so many people were

taught to fear this lake of fire. But what if

the lake of fire is not the terror of humanity,

but it's the triumph of God's victory? What if

the fire that you feared is actually the fire

that removes that which is destroying you? That's

something for us really to wrestle with and to

consider. when we're discussing this lake of

fire because it's in this lake of fire that death

in hades is destroyed so okay here's another

question just to consider if hell is supposed

to be eternal because again The word Hades go

back to the beginning of this series and we discussed

Hades, Sheol, Gehenna, and Tartarus. All four

of those words translated into our English word

hell. Hades and Sheol were... Let's see, let

me think here. Sheol would have been the Hebrew

version. Hades would be its sister word, I guess,

in the Greek. Both of them simply meaning the

realm of the dead. But if that place is destroyed

in this lake of fire, how can hell now be eternal

if it is in fact destroyed with death in this

lake of fire? Again, don't check your brain at

the door. Learn to wrestle with these questions.

Again, not important that you come to the same

conclusion I have. That's not the purpose of

this. My purpose here is to bring you a different

viewpoint, a fresh set of eyes, if you will,

and to give you hope in the situation and not

to be what we've done in the Western world and

use this as a manipulative terror tactic to get

people to repeat a prayer so we can have more

people praying the prayer. This is not supposed

to be a manipulation game Again, if hell was

as big a deal as we make it in the Western Church

Then acts fails to do the job and quite frankly,

so does the Christ so does Jesus Because he does

you know, I've grew up hearing things I've grown

up hearing things such as Jesus talked more about

hell than he did anything and that simply not

True. At all. Hear me very clearly. If you go

and study this stuff, that is not his primary

topic. So we have to stop and pause and learn

to ask questions and wrestle with these thoughts.

and really learn to have a more hopeful outlook

in life and trust that the Holy Spirit is big

enough to do what the Holy Spirit needs to accomplish.

The Holy Spirit knows how to speak to you and

I as one that is one with Him. He knows how to

speak to us. He's not up there going, how do

I speak to this child? He's one with you. You're

one with Him. He knows how to get your attention.

We've got to trust that the Holy Spirit is actually

big enough to do the job that's been entrusted

for the Holy Spirit to do and to bring the transformation

within you and I. But yet, it's like I have said

many, many times, we seem as the body of Christ,

at least in the western part of the world, to

have more faith in what Adam did than what Christ

undid and what Christ completed. And I promise

you one of those had a greater impact than the

other one. And I will just let you wrestle which

one had the greater impact. Something to really

think about. So short episode this week. but

it was about learning that the lake of fire is

not some kind of celebration of punishment it

is the destruction of death and if that's true

which again I believe it is then death does not

win and hell does not win but Christ does every

single time it goes back to a saying I like to

use light overcomes darkness 100 % of the time

And another illustration I like to use is love

overcomes evil 100 % of the time. It's like Jason

Clark says from the Rethinking God with Tacos

podcast, I challenge you, if you're listening

to this, go look that podcast up and listen to

the many different conversations on there. But

a thing that Jason Clark says many times is love

is the long game. Remember and I think we've

discussed this before I really don't remember

going back but Remember that the kingdom is like

a seed and a seed takes time That's important

for us to remember a seed takes time Love will

overcome evil a hundred percent of the time,

but love is also the long game We're not looking

for instant movement in that moment It's a seed

planted, it's a seed watered, and it's a seed

beginning to grow. So I'm hoping that this is

helping you to get a more hopeful outlook as

we think about the topic of hell. It's not supposed,

listen, anything that brings you fear or worry

or anxiety, you have the responsibility to challenge

that. Because perfect love comes to cast out

all fear So perfect love is casting out all fear

and something like this is bringing you fear

wrestle that out Because it's not from God So

my friends, I hope this week helped on discussing

the lake of fire and what it actually Is doing

it's destroying hell and it's destroying the

the realm of the dead So I'm hoping this kind

of help bring some clarity to that and about

the second death and all that kind of stuff Next

week. We're going to Look at something different

on the concept of hell. So I will see you next

week. Be blessed my friends Thanks for spending

some time with me today on the kingdom family

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Kingdom Family Ministries. Until next time, live

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Kingdom.