The Lake of Fire.2
Three False Assumptions
Fundamentalist Christians are the largest group who hold three bedrock doctrinal teachings, which are really only assumptions, regarding the lake of fire:
The "lake of fire" part of this verse must positively be taken LITERALLY.
This lake of fire and second death are just other terms for HELL.
All the wicked, unsaved, and unbelieving sinners will be consciously TORTURED in this lake of fire hellhole by having their flesh barbecued FOR ALL ETERNITY, which is said to be "the second death." Are any of these three assumptions true or Scriptural? Absolutely and unequivocally NOT!
In our journey we will clearly see that these verses are NOT to be taken literally, and they do NOT represent a place called hell, and God will NOT torture anyone for all eternity.
We will also see from the Scriptures that God never punishes for the sole purpose of torturing. God always punishes and chastises for the ultimate purpose of correcting, righting, amending, changing, fixing, rectifying, redeeming and saving. That God can and will accomplish these things with every creature in heaven and earth is fully substantiated by hundreds of Scriptures in His Word.
And there are no Scriptural doctrines or teachings to the contrary. NONE! This IS the Good News Gospel which precious few on this earth have ever heard. It is God’s "WILL" that all mankind be saved (I Tim. 2:4), and God’s "will" WILL be done (Matt. 6:10 and Isaiah 46:10-11)!
But seriously, don’t these Scriptures (at least in the King James Bible) sound like the beast, the false prophet, Satan, and all who are not found written in the book of life will be tortured for ever and ever in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death? Granted, in King James translation, it does definitely sound that way. But when we remove a few unscriptural assumptions, a few pagan traditions, and a couple of totally mistranslated words, words that never appear in the Greek manuscripts, we will discover an even more profound love that God has for His creatures, rather than some monstrous god of eternal hatred which has been concocted by theologians and promulgated through bad translations for centuries.