Contrary to popular belief, there is no one that is being punished in hell at this moment. According to the Scripture ,“The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of Judgement” (2 Peter 2:9). Here the unjust are “reserved” for a future day of Judgment. And the day of judgement does not happen at death but is at a future time.
Jesus explained when the sinners will be cast finally into hellfire, “As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:40-42).
Another fallacy is that the fire of hell originates from the center of earth. Yet, the Bible teaches that, “fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them (wicked)” (Revelation 20:9). Sin and sinners will be” devoured” or destroyed by fire. To the wicked,” God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). The result of the final judgment is that the wicked “shall be ashes under the soles of your(saints) feet” (Malachi 4:3). The Scripture also add, “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner” (Proverbs 11:31).
From these verses, we learn that there currently is no place where the dead have been cast into fire to be killed. All the dead are asleep in the graves awaiting the resurrection of life or the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29). Not until the final judgement will the wicked be cast into ta lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
