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Revelation 21:6-8 (WEB)
6 He said to me, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
*Sigh* You have no idea what this verse means. You haven't studied your Bible thoroughly and you have listened to deceived preachers teaching deception.
The Lake of Fire is God's love. It is a METAPHOR, not a reality. In order to discover what the metaphor is, you have to know what fire does in the Scriptures and you have to know more than one verse. Fire is spoken of as refining. Do you know what refining is? It is taking the base metal, which is precious, such as gold, and refining out all the impurities. Such refining is spoken of in many places in the Scriptures.
Unfortunately, the Medieval Church developed these strange theories that the fire is a real and actual fire like the one we are familiar with here on earth. Then they came up with other strange ideas like it burns but never destroys, so that the soul is tormented forever. These men were demented and in darkness, not knowing the Scriptures, but rather approaching them with presuppositions and then bending the meaning of Scripture to fit their sadistic ideas of a God more like Molech than Jesus.
Protestantism didn't cast this off either. In their own spiritual darkness, they went right along with it.
This verse is teaching what happens when the soul is judged. Those who have followed Christ and conformed themselves to Him will enter into the New Jerusalem and enjoy fellowship with Him. But those who need to be purified will find that the presence of Christ is a lake of fire to them. It will burn all that is not like Christ until nothing remains of the evil within but ashes.
The image of God is the precious gold that is in every human being, no matter how they cover it over with the filth of sin. Under all that filth is the image of God, waiting to receive its inheritance. The removal of that filth will be terribly painful, the degree of pain corresponding to the degree of sin in the soul.
If you found a Monet painting, worth millions, covered in grime and mold, would you just toss it away? Or would you bring it to be restored to its full glory? How much more precious than a Monet painting is the soul of each and every man. You don't believe this. You believe what Augustine taught, that we are depraved and only worthy of hell. That is not what God sees. He sees His image in every sinner, and as a master restorationist, He will cleanse each and every soul so that it comes forth shining.
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