9 Comments

  1. Marcel

    Death is seperation from God.
    God is life…. so if you are in Jesus, you are in life and you will live.

    If you refuse Jesus and are thus not in Him… you are dead… and stay dead for eternity.

    So yes death is seperation from Live (God)… but its not seperation in an alive concious state. As dead is dead.

    So the statement is correct… the way of thinking is wrong for them that say seperation is to be living seperated from God.

  2. Todd

    Maybe the definition of life is just as important as the definition of death. If true, eternal life is not so much defined by duration but by God himself, then death is the absence of this divine life. Not all who believe in a literal, eternal hell believe it is a “fiery” torment. Rather the torment is that of desire eternally unfulfilled. It is the eternal growth of anger, hatred and bitterness toward God. Just as the believer will experience an eternal growth of joy and love toward God.

    • Dirk Waren

      Hi Todd.

      Thanks for the comment.

      Your points are addressed at length in other parts of HELL KNOW, which I encourage you to breeze through for details.

      Chapter Four shows in the section Eternal Life (Aionios Zoe): What is it Exactly?) and the following section that “life” is the Greek word zoe, which James Strong simply translates as “life” and, W.E. Vine points out, refers to the life of animals as well (the Hebrew equivalent, chay, for instance refers to the life of animals in the Bible, e.g. Genesis 6:17 & 7:15). Paul plainly proclaimed that God “gives all people life (zoe)” (Acts 17:25). So even unbelievers have zoe, albeit temporal zoe. Eternal life is only obtained through the gospel, which is why it’s good news (2 Timothy 1:10).

      The word ‘eternal’ in the phrase “eternal life” is aionios (ay-OH-nee-us) which means “perpetual” or, more literally, “age-lasting.” The latter is understandable since aionios is derived from the parent noun aion (aay-OHN) meaning “an age.” So eternal life in the Bible means age-lasting life, referring to the age-to-come (Revelation 21:1-4), which is perpetual, so translators render it “eternal life.”

      Not all who believe in a literal, eternal hell believe it is a “fiery” torment. Rather the torment is that of desire eternally unfulfilled. It is the eternal growth of anger, hatred and bitterness toward God. Just as the believer will experience an eternal growth of joy and love toward God.

      People believe all sorts of things. What matters is what the truth is; that is, reality (John 8:31-32). What you are advocating here is basically a watered down version of eternal torment, which doesn’t match the biblical descriptions of incorrigible people suffering “everlasting destruction” as they are “consumed by raging fire” (2 Thessalonians 1:9, Matthew 10:28 & Hebrews 10:26-27,31,39). Christ likened damned souls to “weeds” that “are pulled up and burned in the fire” and added “so it will be at the end of the age” (Matthew 13:40). What happens to weeds that are pulled up and thrown into fire? They burn for a bit, but ultimately burn up. “So it will be at the end of the age.” What about Christ’s crystal clear example from Luke 19:27? The idea of incorrigible people existing forever tormented by “desire eternally unfulfilled” doesn’t fit.

      For more details on the basic argument you presented see the section ‘Torment is not Torture’ in this chapter (scroll down to it), as well as the following two sections.

      God Bless You in your studies, Brother! 🙂

  3. Grace Receiver

    Thank you, sir.
    I am wondering if anyone else besides Amazon carries your books? I am unable to make purchases from amazon.com, and on amazon.ca your book costs about $60.00. (I’m sure it’s worth that and more, but it’s a little out of my price range!)

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