What Happens When the Wicked Die?
I have a question about burning in hell fire forever. If, at death, the body goes to the grave and the spirit goes to God who gave it, where do the spirits of the lost go, and what is it that burns in hell forever?
Can a spirit burn?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Peter tells us the outline of what happens to the unbelieving in 2 Peter 2:
For if God did not spare angels who sinned, but cast them into the pit and delivered them to chains of darkness, being kept for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and [if] He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing [them] to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly [lives] thereafter; and [if] He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard [that] righteous man, while living among them, felt [his] righteous soul tormented day after day by [their] lawless deeds), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in [its] corrupt lust and despise authority.—2 Peter 2:4–10a LSB
We aren’t told the details, but we do know that the spirits of the wicked are kept “under punishment for the day of judgment”. The second resurrection—the resurrection for judgment of the wicked—is a physical resurrection. People are resurrected for the lake of fire. We don’t know, again, exactly what that will look like, either. Peter calls hell the “black darkness” (2 Peter 2:17) and says that darkness is being kept for false teachers and prophets.
John 4:28, 29 describes the resurrection for judgment this way:
“Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”—John 5:28, 29 LSB
So whatever hell actually is—people are resurrected for it just as the righteous are resurrected for eternal life. We know that God is called “a consuming fire”, and however He manages or oversees hell, He is in charge of it. An eternity of being unable to be in relationship with the Lord God would be hell; the experience would be worse than fire. To be able to see the reality of God who is sovereign over all creatures including the lost but be unable to be at peace with Him would be devastating.
I can’t answer your question with details, but Scripture does tell us that God keeps the wicked under punishment while waiting for judgment, and it further tells us that God resurrects the wicked for judgment (Jn. 5:28, 29, Revelation 20:11–15).
Why Do You Keep Using the Name “Adventist”?
It is kind of sad that your Youtube name [Former Adventist] still has Adventist as frame of reference.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Response: If we didn’t include the name “Adventist”, no one would know who we are. We are qualified to speak because we KNOW Adventism. We loved it and lived it, but we didn’t know the real Jesus. When He revealed His gospel and His finished work to us, we had to follow Him—out of Adventism which eclipses our Lord Jesus and His completed atonement. Our prayer is that God will expose the deception of Adventism and call Adventists to know and trust Jesus ALONE. †
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