Quote:
Originally Posted by coksiw
[ Rev 14:11 KJV] 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Could you guys please explain this one? |
How long is forever? That is where the answer lies. It
CAN mean in the sense of without end but does not have to.
According to Jesus in one context
FOREVER was speaking of 3 days.
Remember when Jesus mentioned Jonah being in the fish belly for 3 days?
Matt 12:40
For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Lets see how that squares with the prophet Jonah.
Jonah 1:17
17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
So in straight face Jonah was there 3 days and nights.
Yet look at what he wrote about his experience.
Jonah 2:6
6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me
for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
Jonah said he was there
FOREVER.
In chapter 2 he says it was "forever".
No doubt it seemed like forever as he languished in the belly of a whale!
And the Holy Spirit could be using the same kind of language (hyperbole) in portraying the punishment of the wicked in the lake of fire until their eternal destruction.
If 3 days could be forever in the Holy Spirit doesnt that remind us of this?
2 Peter 3:8
8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Isnt that amazing? Time is measured differently with God.
This allows God to pass a just sentence on every human being. He knows how to give us according to our works. Some may spend much more time in the lake than others. But whoever is there to them it will certainly seem like forever.
Let me do a follow up on this one.