"Obviously, Jesus did not intend to contradict God's Word, which clearly states:
"The dead no longer know anything." Ecclesiastes 9:5, (NAB)
I don't think that little line in Ecclesiastes intends to contradict God's Word! God's Word which is very clear, very consistent, and extremely PERSISTENT! Eternal fire. Eternal Punishment. Eternal torment. These are primitive and inhuman concepts--but the message is not at all unclear or difficult to grasp.
29 And they cried out, saying, “ 1 aWhat business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before 2the time?”
8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony
28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” |
