'I'll take Door No. 1' (paradise)

Malachi 4 says, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” When something burns as an oven it burns very hot and He’s going to burn them up as stubble. Notice these people are physically burned up. Verse3 says, “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” Jordan explains, “This is not hell and the lake of fire. This is Jesus Christ’s coming at the end of the tribulation period where He pours His wrath out on some people fighting against Israel. Sometime people use these verses and say, ‘Well, this is a description of hell and in hell people burn up.’ But this is not hell; this is the Second Coming of Christ literally back to the earth to destroy His enemies and to ‘recompence tribulation on them that trouble you’ and He’s going to do it with a physical burning that just leaves ashes where they were. “If you’re unsaved, when you get cast out of your body your soul goes to hell and stays there until it faces the Great White Throne Judgment and then it’s cast into the lake of fire. This verse isn’t talking about that but you see how people will take it and say, ‘Well, it says they’ll be burned up and ashes will be left so there’s no soul; you’re sleeping in the dust of the earth.’ “That thing in II Thessalonians 2 about the Antichrist who will ‘destroy with the brightness of His coming and with the breath of his mouth’ is a direct allusion back to the passage in Isaiah 30:27. “You talk about earthquakes. This is going to be the Lord Himself ‘treading the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty God.’ Isaiah 30:33 says, ‘For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.’ (Rev. 19) “Boy, when you talk about Tophet people get all fired up about what that is. The word means a place of fire. The Greek word used in the New Testament for it is Gehenna. ‘Prepared’ means it’s prepared for the Antichrist. Actually it’s prepared for the devil and his angels. “What I want you to see here is that when Christ comes back at the end of that tribulation to personally destroy Satan and his host, that is His Coming. Satan’s revealed with his angels in flaming fire. That takes place right there. That’s the personal pouring out of God’s wrath and indignation at the end of the 70th week, and that’s what Paul’s alluding to over there when he talks about God ‘recompencing tribulation.’ “What God’s going to place upon them is ultimately going to lead them through their following of the Antichrist right here to the place where He destroys the Antichrist and all those who join with him. “He’s going to put that hook into their bridal (their jaws) and cause them to believe the Lie—send them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. Why? Because they received not the love of the truth. Deuteronomy 32:22 says, “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” “Look at that verse and take a dare for a minute to believe that verse means what it says. It’s not symbolic or a metaphor but just means what it says. In the center of the earth is hell. That verse says God is going to light a fire in His anger. He does that right there. “Isaiah 30 told you that the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, is going to come out of His mouth, right there when He comes and it’s going to LIGHT Tophet. Deuteronomy 32:22 reminds you of Jonah, who said the bars of the mountains compassed him about and when he died and went to hell it was like going down to the bottom of the mountains. Well, hell, if it’s in the center of the earth, would be down at the foundation of all that. If you’re up here, and you set a fire and consume the earth, you would burn out this opening that would take you right down into hell. ***** “On the face of the earth there are a number of openings, hallways, shafts, whatever you want to call them. Passageways from the earth down into hell. Jesus talks about the GATES of hell in Matthew 16. Revelation 1 says He has the keys to death and hell. “What do you do with a key? You open a door. Well, if there’s a door, there’s a doorway, and if there’s a doorway to get in and out of hell, open up a door and let people in. If you can open up the door and let some folks out, then there has to be a way from up here to get down there. “Now, what’s happened in time is because this way is in the realm of a spirit, that shaft, or opening, is covered up with earth and your soul when you die isn’t going to need the earth to get out of the way for you to get down there! “In time past in Moses’ day, this hell down here had two compartments to it. One is called paradise and the other’s called torment. After Jesus Christ is resurrected and ascends into heaven, He takes these people into the Paradise side and paradise is moved to the third heaven (Hebrews 12). “Hell, Isaiah said, ‘hath enlarged herself.’ The torment side has taken it all over now. But back before the paradise side was transferred, there were two sections. That’s why I said, ‘Open the door and let some people out.’ You can’t get out of the torment side but you could get out of the paradise side. “In that fire coming He’s going to kindle a fire that’s going to burn down to the lowest hell, taking all that earth out and melting it out. “Nahum 1:3 says, ‘The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.’ He’s making reference there to things in Scripture that tell you how He operates. Verse 5 says, ‘The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.’ Nahum is talking about His coming to punish and destroy Nineveh, one of the strongholds of the Antichrist in the ‘last days.’ “That fire is literally going to turn this part of the earth into molten lava and it’s just going to ooze on down and leave a hole in the earth. Now in the Kingdom, this shaft right here has a location right south of the Dead Sea. And people, when they come to Jerusalem from all over the earth to worship, they’re going to look at the souls of hell; literally look down in that shaft and see the torment! “In Mark 9, he quotes the last couple of verses in Isaiah that also describe the mechanics of this. Verses 9:42-44 says, [42] And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. [43] And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: [44] Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. When you read that you say that’s like it was right there in front of them!’ “That verse, where it talks about ‘the worm dieth not and the fire’s not quenched,’ is an allusion to Isaiah 66:22. The fire not quenched is Tophet; that’s Gehenna. People say Gehenna is the garbage dump. It’s more than a garbage dump. It’s the garbage dump of the universe. Gehenna is that place where that shaft goes down in there and that thing gets opened up when Christ comes back at His Second Advent and people literally go out and view the damned. “That’s why in Revelation He talks about those people who take the mark of the beast, the smoke of their torment ascendeth up day and night and people say, ‘Well, how can there be day and night in hell?’ But that verse is talking about day and night on the face of the earth up here in the Kingdom when people are seeing what’s going on down there, and day and night the smoke’s ascending up.” (To be continued tomorrow…)