Immortality or Resurrection (Updated), William West [black female authors .txt] 📗

your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest
to the field in the South; and say to the forest of the South, Hear the word of Jehovah:
Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall consume
every green tree in you, and it shall devour ever green tree in you, and ever dry tree; the
flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be
burnt thereby. And all flesh shall see that I, Jehovah, have kindled it; it shall not be
quenched" [Ezekiel 20:47-48].
Adam Clarke, "The forest of the south field is the city of Jerusalem; which was as full of
inhabitants as the forest is of trees. I will kindle a fire, i. e., I will send war; and it shall devour ever
green tree, i. e., the most eminent and substantial of the inhabitants; and every dry tree, i. e., the
lowest and meanest also; it shall not be quenched, i. e., till the land be utterly ruined."
The “unquenchable fire” was God using Babylonian to destroy Israel (Ezekiel 21:19;
Nehemiah 1:3). God’s judgment on Israel was unquenchable, no one could stop it, but it
ended when Israel was destroyed.
[4] Isaiah describes the desolation of Edom, "For my sword has drunk its fill in
heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to
judgment...For Jehovah has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of
Zion. And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into
brimstone, and the land there of shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched
night or day; and the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation
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it shall lay waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. But the pelican and the
porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein" [Isaiah 34:6-
15]. If this fire that "shall not be quenched night nor day" is the Hell that is taught
today, how is it that "none shall pass through it forever and ever," is their no one that
shall be in Hell but pelican, porcupine, owl, and ravens? This is clearly an earthly
judgment on Edom that has long passed, not an unquenchable fire in Hell after the
judgment day. After the unquenchable fire had done it’s work it went out and the land
became a desert inhabited by pelicans, porcupines, owls and ravens.
[5] For more examples of God's judgments in this world being spoken of as an
unquenchable fire see Isaiah 1:31; Jeremiah 17:27; 21:12; Amos 5:6; 2 Kings 22:26-17; 2
Chronicles 34:24-25.
THESE PASSAGES SHOW THAT THE WRITERS OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT USED "UNQUENCHABLE FIRE" AS A FIGURE OF A
JUDGMENT BY WAR AND FAMINE BOTH ON ISRAEL AND ON WICKED
NATIONS WHEN THEY SINNED. When Jesus was speaking of the fire and worms
of Gehenna, he was giving a description of the finality of the coming destruction of
Israel who rejected Him. His audience would know the way unquenchable fire and
undying worms were used in the Old Testament and would understand His use of them.
They would have known that Gehenna that He was speaking of was a foul place of
destruction where worthless things were disposed of, and would have known He was
saying the destruction He was speaking of would be like the destruction of the garbage in
Gehenna, like the destruction of Jerusalem by unquenchable fire and maggots in the Old
Testament. They knew they were being threatened with complete destruction just as the
trash in the city dump. Jerusalem was destroyed and burnt, and historian's say in AD 70
many dead bodies were burned and many were left unburied for the maggots. "The vision
of Isaiah the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem…And the strong man will
become tinder, his work also a spark, thus, they shall both burn together, and there will
be none to quench them" [Isaiah 1:1-31].
“There are some 70 cases in scripture where fire is used as judgment upon wickedness…never
was it used for the purpose of torture.” Curtis Dickinson, “A Place Called Gehenna”
Summary: The worm that dies not, and the unquenchable fire, as used in the Old
Testament and by Christ, proves UTTER DESTRUCTION, not everlasting torment.
GEHENNA IS BELIEVED BY THOSE WHO TEACH EVERLASTING TORMENT
TO BE THEIR STRONG HOLD, BUT THE SYMBOLS OF MAGGOTS EATING
DEAD BODIES ON THIS EARTH, AND FIRE CONSUMING UNWANTED TRASH
["dead bodies" Isaiah 66:24] ARE SYMBOLS OF DESTRUCTION, NOT SYMBOLS
OF TORMENT. MANY THINK THIS IS THE STRONGEST PROOF OF
EVERLASTING TORMENT IN THE BIBLE, BUT IT IS THE OTHER WAY
AROUND, IT IS A STRONG PROOF THAT THE LOST WILL BE EVERLASTING
DESTROYED. IT DOES NOT PROVE THAT A SADISTIC GOD WILL FOREVER
TORMENT ANYONE.
THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY OF GEHENNA
Gehenna was first mentioned in Joshua 15:8; 18:16 although it was never called
"Gehenna" in the Old Testament. Ahaz "burnt incense in the valley of the son of
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Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire" [2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Kings 16:3]. Manasseh
also burnt his children in the fire in this valley [2 Chronicles 33:6].
Jeremiah 7:31-32 Children of Judah burned their sons and daughters in the fire in this
valley, and Jehovah said, "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did
not command, and it did not come into My mind. It shall no more be called Topheth, nor
The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in
Topheth, till there be no place to bury. And the dead bodies of this people shall be food
for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them
away." [Note: Those who teach "Hell fire" are saying to God, "O yes it came into Your
mind. You have said You are going to burn most of Your children in a fire much hotter
than the fire in which they burnt their children."]
Jeremiah 19:1-15 "Thus says the Lord, Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and
take some to the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. Then go out to the
valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate; and proclaim there
the words that I shall tell you, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and
inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I am
about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it
will tingle. Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have
burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings
of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the
innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt
offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded nor spoke of, nor did it enter My
mind; therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place will no
longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of
Slaughter. And I shall make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I
shall cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who
seek their life; and I shall give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and
the beast of the earth. I shall also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing;
everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of the disasters. And I
shall make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will
eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those
who seek their life will distress them. Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men
who accompany you and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Just so shall I break
this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot again be
repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial. This
is how I shall treat this place and its inhabitants, declares the Lord so as to make this
city like Topheth. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will
be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they
burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out libations to other gods. Then
Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord has sent him to prophesy; and he stood
in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people; thus says the Lord of host, the
God of Israel, Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire
calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not
to heed My words." Jeremiah used the valley of Gehenna to warn Israel of their
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destruction as a nation. Christ also used the valley of Gehenna to warn Israel of
their destruction as a nation.
Many believe the angel of the Lord killed the185,000 Assyrians in this valley when
they were laying siege to Jerusalem [Isaiah 37:36]. They were killed near Jerusalem and
it could have been in this valley, but I can find no sure proof that it was. See Isaiah 30:31-
33.
Josiah "defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no
man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" [2 Kings
23:10]. This may be when it became the trash dump that it is in the New Testament.
It is also mentioned in Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 19:2: Because of their worshiping
other gods in it, God made it a place of destruction and death, not torment. Topheth
[Gehenna in the New Testament] literally means a place of burning, and a place of death,
"The valley of slaughter" [Jeremiah 7:31].
EVERY REFERENCE TO GEHENNA IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS TO
A PLACE ON THIS EARTH. NOT ONE OF THEM SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT
ETERNAL TORMENT AFTER THE JUDGMENT. It is admitted by all that
Gehenna in the Old Testament was not a place of eternal torment, and it was not changed
to "Hell" in any Old Testament passage, not even in the King James Version which is
sometimes called "Hell's Bible."
Henry Thayer, "Gehenna, the name of a valley on the S. and E. of Jerusalem...The Jews so
abolished the place after these horrible sacrifices had been abolished by king Josiah (2 k.xxiii, 10) that
they cast into it not only all manner of refuses, but even the dead bodies of animals and unburied
criminals who had been executed. And since fires were always needed to consume the dead bodies,
that the air might not become tainted by the putrefaction, it came to pass that the place was called
(Gehenna)." "A Greek-English Lexicon Of the New Testament" Page 111. He also said in "Theology"
"Our inquiry shows that it is employed in the Old Testament in its literal or geographical sense only,
as the name of the valley lying on the south of Jerusalem-that the Septuagint proves it retained this
meaning as late as B. C. 150-that it is not found at