Monday 21 May 2012

When it's all over, they're still there

This will be brief, but it's another post on the subject of eternal punishment.

I was reading through Revelation again recently and noticed that in chapter 21 we have in the first eight verses a description of the eternal state.  At the end of verse 4 we read that there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away - all the things from the old order of creation have gone forever, but in verse 8 we discover that the lost have not passed away, they have not ceased to exist:
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death
In this description of the eternal state the last word is about the lost having their portion in the Lake of Fire.  You may like the idea that you will not be consciously lost forever (who would like that idea?) but we don't live in a world of make-believe, and you're not going to a world of make-believe.  Without Christ as Saviour you're going to an eternal world of conscious punishment.