2nd Coming of Christ, 4of5

~ Unbelievers Will Be Judged ~

Consider the punishment of unbelievers…

Their Punishment Was Foretold By Patriarchs  ~  “For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains” (Deuteronomy 32:22).  “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; for a large ransom would not help you avoid it” (Job 36:18). 

Their Punishment Was Warned Of By Prophets  ~  “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).  “Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it” (Isaiah 5:14).  “Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations” (Isaiah 14:9). 

Their Punishment Was Described By The Lord  ~  Jesus said, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:44).  Jesus also said, “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire” (Mark 9:47). 

Their Punishment Was Taught By The Apostles  ~  “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).  “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29). 

Their Punishment Was Unveiled In Revelation  ~  “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.  He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name’” (Revelation 14:9-11).  “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.  And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.  And they were judged, each one according to his works.  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-15). 

Their Punishment Has Been Denied By Scoffers  ~  “But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 17-18).   “Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?  For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’  For this they willfully forget: that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.  But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same Word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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