Don't forget this verse. Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and has burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell you.

And this one, Isaiah 33:14-15 AKJV The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 15 He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;

And this one: Ezekiel 28:18-19 You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the middle of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. 19 All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you: you shall be a terror, and never shall you be any more.

GC, I'm not sure if APL is unwittingly doing the work of Satan. One thing is certain - he refuses to answer questions and address comments. I suspect his goal here is to teach and to win converts to his view of punishment. This may be why he refuses to answer questions and address comments. He is not here to study. He is here to teach. His style of teaching is not my favorite. It is not winsome. But, more importantly, it is not informing. It does not convey information.

I have gone back of a number of years and read your comments MM. I see no change. You refuse to answer questions also. You refuse to see how God has interacted with the people in the OT and see any relevance to the end time. You have your ideas, and to you they can't be wrong. I was astonished reading back over your posts where you say we will not remember our actions in the world to come. It is like we will learn nothing from this current experience, we won't remember it! And reading the OT, if we can't remember or understand how God has dealt with sinners in the OT, we will not understand how He will deal with them in the end.

APL, and still you refuse to explain the lake of fire.

And you fail to see the light in the OT, the real character of God...

Why does it matter what I believe? I am simply asking you to explain what you believe. Please explain the lake of fire.

Please post a website that explains the lake of fire. But please make sure it doesn't contain info and insights you don't believe.

PS - I have viewed websites you linked. However, one of them, a video, the guy believed the world was populated by beings before Jesus created Adam.

The belief that God does not punish for sin is a movement within the SDA church that has manifested itself in the past 5 years.

They are extreemists who teach that God does not even execute justice in the life of believers. There are no direct interventions, He just causes His support to fail and the earth opens up and kills them. They say God has absolutely no part to play in the execution of judgment, trying to make God impotent.

They have no idea how far this belief goes in the quenching of faith.

God directly interveins on our behalf every day. His support is critical to life here. If His influence is so valuable for every aspect of existance, then what holds the world together at the second resurrection? The wicked are resurrected and even the earth is angry at them, I get that, but death flees them. No one gets to hide from the wrath in that day. They are sustained in their pain even. They are tormented in perfect ballance to the intensity of their guilt.

How does the removal of the presence of the Father have any effect on the hearts of the unconfessors? This is the effect of the end of probation. They are still alive, being sustained by the earth that God sustains, but they are tormented with plagues, and when Jesus comes back they melt away, to be resurrected and go through the second death. There is no other way to put it, God executes justice, and He is not stained in the action. And this is what I don't get, is how they could take a few quotes and contradict so much in scripture and the Testimonies. God comes right out and says that His strange act is the death of the wicked, but they want to make God a liar it seems.

At the second resurrection those outside the gates martial an army without His help or guidance. They are defiant, coming to do battle with God to eat of the fruit, and then God's anger is not only at Satan but at men, and they are punished for EVERY sin because they did not confess and be born again. The lake of fire is divine because it is the glory of God through the angels... Angels execute God's commands as if it was Himself doing it.

I think he has in the past. However, you do not see him as answering your questions as he is using a false premise. His answers are based upon the premise that you understand the difference between right and wrong. Until you make a distinction between right and wrong actions, no matter who is doing those actions, you will never understand his responses to be answers to your questions.

Would you feel God let you down if you found out at the 2nd coming that God doesn't kill? Would you feel disappointed?