28. Where/What is the
"lake of fire"?
(Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15)
LAKE OF FIRE
The "Lake of Fire" is decoded in the Book of Revelation." It is not left
to our imagination. It is not a place. It is a condition:
"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."
The first death is Adam's death, which everybody dies. "For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
(1 Corinthians 15:22)
Every descendant of Adam is guaranteed an opportunity to accept Christ's blood and have
life. Once anyone has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on his behalf—if he or she were
to reject it—they would be worthy of Second Death.
There is no redemption from Second Death. It is permanent. Fire represents
destruction. "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:26).
BEAST AND FALSE PROPHET
The "beast" and "the false prophet"—the papacy and Protestant
Federation—are destroyed permanently in Second Death—from which there is no
recovery (19:20). Just as the "beast" is symbolic, so is the fire.
Anything put in fire is consumed and destroyed. Fire represents destruction. In the
"little season" of freedom after the thousand years, the "devil" also
will be destroyed permanently in Second Death (20:10) as well as those who will not obey
during the thousand years, those "not found written in the book of life" (20:14,
15).
TORMENTED
Since the "lake of fire" means
extinction, how are the devil, the beast and the false prophet "tormented day and
night for ever and ever" in Second Death?
The word for "tormented" is BASANIZO
which is the verb form of BASANOS meaning "primarily a touchstone,
employed in testing metals, hence torment, is used" (Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words, W. E. Vine). In other words, the destruction of the false systems of
Christendom will forever be a standard of God's retributive justice.
