John Baptist taught:
Matt 3:10-13
11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will
burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.
John says the wicked will
BURN UP. Not they shall live eternally in Hell. What does "unquenchable" mean? Apparently it means it is not able to be put out.....until it does what it is supposed to do. Why do I say that?
Jeremiah 7:20
Hear THE LORD declares his wrath against Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the prophet.
20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground;
and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
He says his wrath would burn against Jerusalem and it will
NOT BE QUENCHED!
Did this happen?
Jeremiah 52:
12Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,
13And burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:
True to his word YAH brought the judgment. His fury was unquenchable. But when it had worked its purpose it ceased. No one quenched it. The Jews whom it was directed against could in no way stop it.
Some 70 years later his people began to rebuild the destruction. His wrath came and was not quenched by anything. But then afterwards it must have ceased for Jerusalem and its temple were restored and at least a remnant of Jews came back to the city and found his favor again.
So when God says he will
BURN UP the wicked with unquenchable fire it does not mean they wil stand, sit, or lay in fire throughout eternity. It means they will as
CHAFF actually burn up.