January 18, 2009, 11:45 am by dc-agape.

The third part of my Biblical Topics to hell is the “lake of fire”.  I hope you do not feel short changed…this lake is only mentioned three times in the Word.  Both references are in Revelation, so only one man wrote about it.  Neither Jesus not Paul said a word about the “lake of fire”.  That in itself should tell you something about the “lake of fire”.  The author was most likely either John the Presbyter or John of Patmos.  The book itself was most likely written in 95AD, some 60 years after the death of Jesus and Paul had been dead for at least 30 years earlier. We can be sure that this John was not the Apostle John, because the Apostle was in Rome in 95AD standing trial and then imprisoned for at least a year.  When the Apostle John was released he went to Ephesus not Patmos where the Book of Revelation was written (Rev 1:9).  So we can also be sure that the author of this book was not an intimate follower of Jesus. Maybe John was a follower of Paul, even though 30 years between Paul’s death and the writing of this book would make that somewhat unlikely.  John, the author of Revelation, was most likely a follower of the Apostle John.

So what exactly did this John say about the “lake of hell”.  Here it is, in all its fullness:

Rev 20:14-15 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Two verses, three occurrences of the phrase “lake of fire”.  That is all YHWH wanted to say about the matter.  This is it, to cop a phrase…

I have not tackled the topics of death, Hades, or the second death, yet.  These are important topics that I will cover in the next two posts on hell.  Do notice what is thrown into the “lake of fire”.  The three things thrown in the “lake” are death, Hades, and the people YHWH has chosen to through in the “lake”.  You must also notice when these things are thrown into the “lake of fire”.  No one is in the “lake of fire” until right before the New Jerusalem is ready!  That is after the Tribulation, the Rapture, and the 1000 years of peace. 

The “lake of fire” is permanent destruction.  It is not pain and suffering.  It is not everlasting.  It is not even separation from YHWH…it is complete annihilation!  As a gay Atheist, whom YHWH has not chosen, this sounds good to me!

Posted in Hell, Biblical topics | Print | 7 Comments »

January 18, 2009, 10:19 am by dc-agape.

Genesis 47:13-31

Without a doubt, the famine of the Bible was man-made.  This is the story of how Joseph made all the people of Egypt (I wonder if that included his family) into slaves to the Pharaoh.  Now Joseph is forcing the people to buy back the stocks of food that Joseph forced the people to give to him.  Talk about corruption!  They paid a “tax” to Joseph to prepare for the famine and now they have to sell their livestock, land, and bodies to Joseph to get their food back from Joseph!  Have you ever seen such a scam?  So this is a Biblical value?  He did not prepare for the famine to help the people of Egypt; he did it knowing full well that if he charged a high enough price (for the grain the people grew themselves) he would force the people of Egypt into slavery!

I wonder if this verse is still true:

Gen 47:26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt – still in force today – that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh.  It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.

It would seem that this law has been changed drastically since Joseph’s time!  So here is another case of the inerrancy of the Word of God is proven wrong.  For a purely literal interpretation of this verse…there is no Pharaoh at all.  So either translation of this verse proves that the Word of God is not inerrant.

In the last part of this story Jacob Israel makes Joseph promise not to bury him in Egypt.  Here YHWH has both forgotten that he changed Jacob’s name and that he had decreed that man’s life would be 120 years.  Israel was 147 years old when he forced Joseph to make the promise to bury Israel in Machpelah.

In doing a little research on the web, Google Book has an interesting tidbit on the authenticity of the first chapters of Genesis, which include Machpelah.  The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives, Chapter 10, p295 (by Thomas L Thompson, Continuum International Publishing, 2002) has a great look at the research that has gone into proving/disproving the Biblical inerrancy of the land sale of Machpelah.  The Traditions of Men claim this Machpelah as a holy site, but research cannot prove this point.  In fact, research cannot pin down the date of the Patriarchs.  This book by T L Thompson looks like a valuable read to me!

Posted in Joseph, YHWH & slavery, Genesis, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »