Disasters, Blessings or The Purge - Final
Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison, and there wouldn't have been any point in preaching to them if it hadn't been possible for them to repent and be sorry for their sins and to receive some kind of opportunity thereby to get forgiveness and to find a better life, to be delivered from their imprisonment in the heart of the Earth. Whatever it was or what it was like is not clear, but if it's spoken of as a prison, that's bad enough! (Mt.12:40; 1Pet.3:19; 4:6; Eph.4:9.)
But for Jesus to come and preach to them, it was obviously to give them an opportunity to believe and receive which they had not had, and to be released or saved. That's obvious, you don't even have to argue about it. Theologians argue about it because it doesn't fit their particular doctrine, but it's right there in the Bible plain as day! Why else would Jesus have gone to the trouble to preach to them unless there was a second chance in some way--really their first chance--and an opportunity for them to be sorry and repent and be forgiven and released?
God probably has as varied terms and means of punishment and correction in the afterlife as there are in this life under the System and its laws, etc. He's probably got a great and wide variety to show people how wrong they were and give them an opportunity of repentance and change--as has been manifested in many near-death experiences or of people who have had death experiences.
God actually let them leave this life temporarily to show them their mistakes when they couldn't learn any other way; to actually come face to face with the Judgement Angel and be told and showed and taught where they were making their mistakes and what they were doing wrong, with the opportunity to correct their life and even allowed to go back and live again in order to change!
Well, if God will do that for the living, then why not also for the dead? If there's no further opportunity or possibility of them learning and repenting in this life, then He takes them on the other side permanently to show them and teach them--and there's no point in showing them unless there's opportunity of repentance and some chance that they'll be able to change.
And if there's a chance to repent and change not only here but there, then there must be some opportunity for forgiveness and release from punishment and from chastening and such purging as Purgatory. Purgatory, as the Catholics call it. I'm a firm believer in Purgatory, but not necessarily their kind of Purgatory, whether it's Hellfire, Lake of Fire or whatever, it's a purging.
It seems from all I can gather from the scripture, that the lake of fire is pretty bad punishment for the very worst! To be cast in the Lake of Fire you've got to be a pretty wicked sinner who has been really defiant of God and every opportunity God has given you to repent, and have really done a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people; like Hitler and some others, someone who has turned many astray.
So that's the kind of people the lake of fire is reserved for--including the Devil and the False Prophet and the Antichrist and all his crowd! That's very plain in the Scripture. (Rev.14:11; 19:20; 20:10,14-15; 21:8.) The very worst and the ultimately wicked who just are horrible and have slaughtered millions and destroyed nations and killed babies and innocent women and children, Hell could hardly be bad enough for some of those people, and it'll be plenty bad!
These folks, they not only didn't know it was their Master's will, they didn't even know there was a Master, possibly! But if they didn't know their Master's will and did things worthy of stripes, they're still worthy of some punishment. Because the Lord Himself in His Word says "This is the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World!" (Jn.1:9.) Everybody is given some light.
**
Rev.12:10
DeepTruths