HELL'S END!--Every Age Has an End! DFO1465 France, 8/1/81
1. HERE ARE ALL OF THE PLACES IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT of which it speaks, according to the English translation, of "everlasting punishment", "punishment forever", "evermore", "ever & ever" etc. Here, according to the actual Greek, is what it actually says regarding such punishment.
2. 2 PETER 2:17: "TO WHOM THE MIST OF DARKNESS IS RESERVED FOR AN AGE". Jude 13: "To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for an age." Rev.14:11: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up to the age of ages." Now that is interpreted by Pridgeon as meaning "to the final Golden Age", until that age. In other words, until the Age of Ages. Until that final Golden Age when all will be reconciled.--The new Heaven on the New Earth!
3. THE AGE OF ALL AGES, OF COURSE, THE FINAL GOLDEN AGE, IS THE NEW HEAVEN & THE NEW EARTH "wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2Pe.3:13) in which the Holy City comes down, Space City, the time called by most people Eternity or the final Everlasting Life, etc., the Golden Age of all Ages! (Ps.90:2; 145:13; Re.11:15.)
4. EVEN THE MILLENNIUM IS AN AGE! But some of these people, like the Devil, are going to apparently be in Hell or whatever kind of punishment they're going to be getting, for a thousand years of Millennium! (Maria: That's a long time!) Well, it depends on how much they're guilty of, of course, whether they have to stay that whole time or not.
5. BUT ANYHOW, THE POINT BEING THAT THE FINAL RECONCILIATION WILL COME AT THE AGE OF AGES, the Golden Age, when "time shall be no more" (Rev.10:6), there won't be any more thousand year Millennium. Time shall continue throughout the Millennium--there will be no time for us, in a sense,--we'll be in our new bodies--but time will continue for a thousand years for the humans left. There wouldn't be years if there wasn't still time, right?
6. (MARIA: BUT IN THE NEW HEAVEN & NEW EARTH THERE WON'T BE ANY AGES?) That is the New Heaven--the Age of all Ages of the New Heaven & the New Earth is for ever, everlasting, eternal etc., that is genuinely forever, everlasting, eternal!
7. THE FINAL NEW HEAVEN, NEW EARTH HAS NO END, it is "World without end"! (Isa.45:17.) The Millennium has an end. (Maria: So by definition, you can say an Age does come to an end always?) Well, we don't really know, there may be some kind of a limit to that too in which we'll graduate to some new stage, we don't know. But Heaven's called the Age of all Ages!
8. I'M SPEAKING OF THE PLACES WHERE THESE TERMS ARE USED which people use to proclaim & preach a damnable eternal damnation forever & ever & ever & ever & ever & never to end--what it actually is saying. I'm reading from the original Greek meaning exactly!
9. "THE SMOKE OF HER TORMENT ROSE UP FOR EVER & EVER", that's Babylon. (Rev.19:3.) In other words, it may smoke throughout the Millennium. And the Devil & the False Prophet & the Antichrist etc. are "tormented day & night" it says "for ever & ever". (Rev.20:10.) Literally it says, "until the Age of the Ages"! So that won't even necessarily be everlasting!
10. NOW HERE WHERE IT USES THE WORD "EVERLASTING" : "Shall be cast into everlasting fire" (Mt.18:8), the literal translation from the Greek is "Age-lasting" fire, or fire lasting only for an Age! "Depart, ye cursed, into Age-lasting fire"! (Mt.25:41.) "These shall go away into age-lasting punishment". (Mt.25:46.) "To be punished with age-lasting destruction". (2Th.1:9.)
11. THESE ARE THE ONLY REFERENCES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT GREEK to what is translated in our Bible in English as everlasting punishment, punishment forever, punishment forever & ever, or forever. These are the only references, & every single one of them either literally says "Age-lasting", meaning "for an Age", or "unto the Age of the Ages", until the Age of all Ages, the Golden Age, you might say the Final Age, which is the New Heaven & the New Earth!--As far as we now know.
12. IT SIMPLY EXPRESSES IT THAT WAY, EVEN FOR THE FINAL STAGE. Even though the final stage is unending, it's considered the final Age. Now you can split hairs if you want to & say, "Well, if that Age doesn't have any end, maybe the "for-an-Age" punishment may come during that Age & not have any end either!" Well, all I'm doing is just reading you what the Greek says, literally.
13. REGARDING PUNISHMENT OR HELL OR THEIR TORMENT OR HELLFIRE, ETC., the Greek does not say either "forever" or "forever & ever" or "everlasting". That is absolutely not a correct translation, because in our language, that means there's no end. But in the Greek it speaks of it as an Age, lasting for an Age, only Age-lasting, or only unto the Age of all Ages. In others words, the End of all Ages, the Age which ends all Ages! They're going to be only punished until then, see?
14. THESE DIFFERENT WORDS ARE USED IN DIFFERENT PLACES. Some places it says that their punishment will be just for an Age, or Age--lasting! A few places it says until the Age of the Ages. (Maria: Just until that?) Yes. In other words, until that Last Final Age.
15. (MARIA: BUT NONE OF THEM SAY THROUGH THAT OR INTO THAT AGE?) No! Every single one of them is Age-lasting, for an Age, until the Age of Ages, all of which periods have an end! So very clearly, all punishment will eventually come to an end, understand? So, PTL!
16. THEN WHEN THE FINAL AGE OF ALL AGES COMES, well, that's really such an Age that it's endless! That's where our everlasting life & living for evermore & forever & ever etc. will really mean everlasting & forever, & forever & ever! So that's where the confusion comes, it's the difference in the literal meaning in our language of "forever".
17. THE LITERAL, MEANING IN GREEK DOES NOT SAY "FOREVER" MEANING ENDLESS, but "for an Age" or "until the Age of Ages", both meanings having an end! "For an Age" means only for that period of time or period of whatever. And "until the Age of Ages" means just until then, & then it's over--when the New Heaven really begins!
18. SO THANK GOD HELL WELL NOT LAST FOREVER, despite the English translation. Fire & brimstone & punishment even for the Devil & his angels & the Antichrist & the False Prophet & all the rest will not be eternal, but will be "for an Age" & "Age-lasting" or until the Age of Ages" when it says that then He shall have "reconciled all things to Himself". (Col.1:20.)
19. SO YOU CAN SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO, YOU CAN SAY WE BELIEVE IN THE SALVATION OF THE DEVIL IF YOU WANT TO! Well, I would say this, that if the Devil remains unsaved along with all of his angels that he led astray & along with all the people they led astray, then God's plan for Universal Reconciliation, eternal redemption of all, failed!
20. IT WOULD HAVE TO BE AN ADMITTED FAILURE OF GOD that He wasn't able really to save all of His creation & all of His creatures, including not only the wicked led astray by the Devil & his angels, but even the Devil & his angels themselves!
21. AND IT WAS OBVIOUS FROM WHAT THE DEVIL SAID TO JESUS that there was even a special time appointed for their torment that had not yet come! (Mt.8:29.) Well, if it had a beginning, then according to the Greek, it also has an ending, even for them!
22. EVIDENTLY ONE OF THESE DAYS EVEN THE DEVIL & HIS DEMONS ARE GOING TO BE SORRY, but it's going to be after much much punishment! A thousand years even during the Millennium is a long time! This is what Pridgeon & Dr. Kemper & all of us Universal Reconciliationists preach & believe. We interpret that usually as meaning during the Millennium.
23. THE ONLY PEOPLE RAISED BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM ARE THE CHRISTIANS, the righteous, the saved, they're the only ones who are taken up in the Rapture. None of the wicked are raised yet at all. The wicked are not raised until the end of the Millennium, a thousand years later, for the Great Judgement, (Re.20:5,11,12.)
24. (MARIA : SO IT'S JUST THE PEOPLE THAT CONTINUE LIVING & BEING WARNED DURING THE MILLENNIUM THAT ARE AROUND, PLUS US?) Yes, right! (Maria: Not the ones that have died already?) No, no, no, no! (Maria: They just stay where they are?) Right, they stay wherever they are in Hell or limbo or some kind of Purgatory or whatever--throughout the thousand-year Millennium!
25. ONLY THE UNSAVED WHO MANAGE TO SURVIVE THE WRATH OF GOD at the end of this present age will survive into the Millennium & live during the Millennium, they & their children. But apparently the birth rate's going to be very low & longevity very long.
26. YOU'LL BE CONSIDERED A CHILD EVEN IF YOU DIE AT A HUNDRED YEARS OF AGE! (Isa.65:20.) So there won't be any tremendous population explosion during the Millennium. It will be like it was during the period before the Flood when they lived to be nearly a thousand years old!
27. SO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING AFTER THE WRATH OF GOD which occurs between the Rapture & our return in victory to rule the Earth, those who live through that, whom God in His mercy spares & allows to live into the Millennium, gives them another chance in a sense, will be the only ones living then besides us. All the righteous of all ages will be alive then. We'll probably outnumber everybody else in the World, all the wicked & unsaved living!
28. (MARIA: BUT IF THEY LIVED SO LONG, COULDN'T THEY HAVE A LOT OF CHILDREN?) Well, they didn't in the days when they lived so long before. You have to go by the Old Testament records in the days before the Flood when they lived so long. They usually had no more children than they have today, in fact, not as many.
29. THEY USUALLY ONLY HAD TWO OR THREE SONS AS A RULE. From about three to half-a-dozen was usually about the limit during all that time, & that was usually only within about the first hundred years or so of their existence that they had any children at all. The rest of the time they had none, as far as we can tell from the record.
30. SO IN OTHER WORDS, THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE ANY BIG POPULATION BOOM DURING THE MILLENNIUM, there's not going to be any tremendous increase in population. We will be in our spiritual bodies, & as far as we have heard, there's no increase in population in the Spirit World through procreation.--
31. ALTHOUGH THE ANGELS WERE ABLE TO HAVE INTERCOURSE WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN & bring forth giants. (Gen.6:2,4.) This could still be possible in the Millennium, but it was rather rare & the number of children they had were few! Normally it seemed to be about from three to half-a-dozen, very few had more, & then they lived a thousand years!
32. SO EVEN IF ALL THE PEOPLE LEFT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM LIVED THE WHOLE THOUSAND YEARS, they're not apt to have more than three to half-a-dozen children for each married couple to the end! So there's not going to be a tremendous increase in population during the Millennium.
33. (MARIA: DO YOU THINK MAYBE THE REASON WHY THE LORD'S HAVING ALL OF OUR PEOPLE HAVE SO MANY BABIES RIGHT NOW is so they can get their child-bearing over with, because it says when that fearful Tribulation time comes, "to flee to the mountains" & "woe to them that are with child"?) (Mt.24:16,19.) Yes, I think that's a good point.
34. TAKE FOR EXAMPLE EVEN IN THE ANCIENT TIMES BEFORE THE FLOOD, they had virtually all their children within the first hundred years of their life, & then they lived to be a thousand! They had them when they were young & strong & healthy, & although they lived a long long time, they didn't seem to have any more children.
35. WE'RE CONTINUING OUR DISCUSSION & THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES on the matter of Hell & punishment hereafter. I call it punishment hereafter because it is not everlasting punishment nor forever, but only Age-lasting & for an Age, or until the Age of Ages!
36. I HAVE READ YOU THE ACTUAL GREEK MEANINGS, & most of those who know the Greek believe that this means most of this punishment would occur, for those who deserve punishment, during the period that they are in Hell during the Millennium for that thousand years. It will not necessarily all be hellfire either, but will be whatever kind of punishment they deserve.
37. THEN THERE'S THE FINAL GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM in which everyone is given their final judgement & assigned their final place which is the final judgement. (Rev.20:11,12.) A lot of those who have been in Hell or in limbo or in their place of punishment, whether light or heavy, during the Millennium, will then be judged regarding how they have reacted & how they have responded to this chastisement & this punishment & this correctional time, as to whether they have completely repented & really been sorry & received God's laws, etc.
38. THEN AT THE GREAT WHILE THRONE JUDGEMENT AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM, they will be judged according to all of their deeds, both living & dead so to speak, both in this life & in the afterlife, & how they reacted etc. They will then be assigned their final places in that Age of all Ages, which is a World without end, & just exactly what state they will be in or what level they will be on & what condition they will be in for the Age of all Ages.
39. AND AS YOU POINTED OUT, SINCE IT'S AN AGE OF ALL AGES, if it's an age, then it may have an end too! Who knows? Maybe it does have an end! Maybe then there will be another New Age beyond that! So I won't argue with you about it.
40. BUT THAT'S THE GENERAL OUTLINE OF, YOU MIGHT SAY, THE BELIEF OR THEORY of those of us who believe in eventual Universal Reconciliation of all men, & there are lots of Scriptures to back it up, oodles! I was going to go through the Bible someday & pick them all out, but I've never had time. Pridgeon picks an awful lot of them out in his book, but I'm amazed how many he missed that I've run across myself! So PTL! (Maybe you can!)
41. SO-CALLED "ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, ETERNAL HELL, EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT, HELLFIRE FOREVER & EVER", IS NOT GOING TO BE FOREVER & is not going to be everlasting, & it is certainly not eternal! It would be a horrible travesty on the judgement of God & his justice, much less His love & mercy, that He would allow His creations, both man or even angels or even the Devil himself, to suffer literally forever!
42. THERE WOULD NOT BE MUCH POINT IN IT, BECAUSE WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENT? Even the punishment of the penal codes of this life is for the purpose of either deterrence or correction. In other words, hoping for a change or to frighten them or scare them into stopping or to deter crime & to discourage crime & to bring an end to it.
43. TO HAVE THEIR PUNISHMENT LAST FOREVER WOULD BE PRETTY RIDICULOUS! There wouldn't be any point in it! I wouldn't say that that would be any great credit to God or His victory in the final analysis, in the final end!
44. IT WOULD BE A FAR GREATER CREDIT TO THE JUSTICE & THE LOVE & THE MERCY OF GOD, that after they have suffered sufficiently for their sins & sufficient punishment to reward them & pay them for their wickedness & have served their term, so to speak, & paid their debts to His society, that they should then be released in some way & their punishment come to and end.
45. HE SAYS IN ONE PLACE, "THE FEW STRIPES & THE MANY STRIPES". (Lk.12:47,48.) Well, whether the stripes be few or many, they come to an end! They are numbered, not numberless, not countless, but they are either few or many, not endless! So they will be eventually released from their prisons & their punishments & the worst cases from their torments, whatever they may be, & put in some kind of position & status on the New Earth, outside the Heavenly City, even in nations, as God's Word says, (Rev.21:26; 22:2.)
46. THERE WILL BE NATIONS OUTSIDE THE HEAVENLY CITY, & there will be kings even of those nations in the time of the New Earth! And we will still be helping those people be rehabilitated & healed, evidently, because we will be taking to them the Leaves from the Trees that are along the River of Life! It says those leaves which are "for the healing of the nations"! (Rev.22:2.)
47. IT SAYS THAT THE KINGS & THE NATIONS OUTSIDE WILL BRING THEIR GLORY & HONOUR TO THE CITY, in other words, pay their respects to the City. (Rev.21:24,26.) they will in a sense be like our subjects even yet, outside the City, even as the unsaved are our subjects during the Millennium.
48. THEY WILL CONTINUE TO BE OUR SUBJECTS, & all those that are resurrected, the resurrected unsaved, all the generations that have ever lived from the beginning of time & creation, will be resurrected at the end of the Millennium at the Great White Throne Judgement!
49. ALL OF THOSE RESURRECTED AT THAT TIME ARE ALL THE WICKED & THOSE NOT SAVED, all of them, no saved amongst them, because all the saved have been resurrected a thousand years before in the Rapture! These then shall be judged according to their works & placed according to whatever God thinks is necessary for them.
50. MOST, IF NOT ALL OF THEM, WILL HAVE ALREADY SERVED OUT THEIR TIME, paid their penalties & taken their punishment in God's prisons in the heart of the Earth where Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison (Mat.12:40; 1Pe.3:19; 4:6; Eph.4:9), & will be released to a new life in a New Earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness"--on Earth, in kingdoms, under kings, outside the Heavenly City!
51. BUT ONLY THOSE WHO RECEIVED JESUS & WORKED FOR THE LORD PREVIOUSLY are genuinely saved will be allowed inside the Holy City. We will still be the elite, we will be the cream of the crop! We will be their rulers & judges & even healers during that time, during the Age of Ages, the Golden Age of the New Heaven & the New Earth!
52. THEY MAY NOT BE SAVED IN THE SENSE THAT WE WERE SAVED, but they will be eventually & finally delivered to live on the surface of the Earth in nations under Kings. Perhaps they'll go back to their own peoples, who knows, & live a new life, a different life, entirely different from what it was before.
53. THERE WILL EVENTUALLY BE NOTHING BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS THEN--no more evil, no more wicked, no more wickedness, no more disobedience! "Every man everywhere will repent", "He calleth all men to repentance." (Ac.17:30; 2Pe.3:9.) It says that Jesus died for all men. (2Cor.5:14,15.)
54. THEY MAY NOT HAVE THE ELITE STATUS THAT WE WILL HAVE, they may not have the ultimate ecstasy of the glory of the Holy City that we will enjoy, because they may not even be allowed to enter it! But we will be allowed to leave it & reenter, we can go in & out!
55. THAT'S WHY IT HAS 12 GATES! If it was going to be a prison for us & we could never get out, we wouldn't need any gates, since the formerly wicked & the formerly unsaved will not be able to enter. They're not going to be allowed to enter anyhow, so why would it need any gates if we can't get out & they can't get in?
56. THE GATES ARE FOR US, THE SAVED, to go out of the Eternal City & to minister to these people. We won't have to witness any more like now, because they'll all know the Lord then, but we will have to help them, sort of help to rehabilitate them, carry them the Leaves of the Tree of Life for their healing!--The Word?
57. WHO KNOWS WHAT THE LEAVES OF THE TREE OF LIFE ARE? Maybe it's symbolic of the very Words of God, the truth of God! Maybe we'll go out & be teachers amongst the nations, to teach these millions who were raised from the dead after the Millennium!
58. THERE WILL BE MILLIONS STILL LIVING ON THE EARTH, millions of even the people who will survive the wrath of God & still be living on the Earth when we take over the Earth during the Millennium, the thousand year rule of Christ! This is to test them, & obviously some finally flunk the test, because they even then "when mercy has been showed to the wicked, yet they will not learn righteousness". (Isa.26:10.)
59. SO WHEN THE DEVIL RETURNS HE RECRUITS THEM AGAIN FOR HIS EVIL PURPOSES & HIS FINAL WAR OF GOG & MAGOG. He leads them astray again, they're deceived again & they believe his lies again! Think of it, after a thousand years of the reign of Jesus Christ & us personally over them, having learned what real righteousness is & the Kingdom of God is like, they still backslide & go back under the Devil!
60. WELL, LIKE A LOT OF OUR OWN PEOPLE DO WHO COME & LIVE WITH US, this is Heaven on Earth, yet they backslide back to the pit! (Maria: Do you any of them get saved?) Some believe there will be salvation during the Millennium. There will be at least some kind of repentance & some type of salvation.
61. DEFINITELY THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT NATIONS WHICH OBEY WILL BE BLESSED, & nations which disobey will be cursed! So if they're blessed it's some kind of a salvation, it's some kind of a saving, it's some kind of a blessing, at least. It may not be our kind of salvation which allows us a free ticket to the Eternal City, admission to the Eternal City, they may still not be allowed to enter there, but they will go through another stage.
62. THEN AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM, ALL THE UNSAVED THAT EVER LIVED WILL BE RAISED, millions of them, & then they will be judged at the Great White Judgement Throne of God, at which time each will be assigned to his particular place in the hereafter. Mind you, they have been so-called "dead", but in the other World "living in Hell or limbo or Lake of Fire or prison or whatever particular punishment they deserve, all during the Millennium!
63. BUT OBVIOUSLY EITHER MOST OF THEM OR ALL OF THEM WILL HAVE FINISHED THEIR PUNISHMENT BY THAT TIME, & none will last more than that! And then they will be released & be allowed to be assigned their particular position & condition on the Earth, the New Earth, outside the Heavenly City where we dwell.
64. THEY WILL LIVE OUTSIDE, & THE BIBLE PLAINLY SAYS IN REVELATION 22 that these former even evil people, the wicked & liars & fornicators & dogs etc. who were formerly all these things, will be living outside the City! It says so! (Rev.22:15.)
65. SO IT'S REALLY QUITE A PLAN, A TREMENDOUS DRAMA, & it's a thrilling thing that we are going to be a part of it, but thank God, as the inner circle who live within the City, the charmed City, living charmed lives as eternal everlasting beings, supernatural beings who will live in supernatural bodies designed for that purpose, the Eternal Age of all Ages!
66. THESE PEOPLE, OF COURSE, WHO ARE RAISED, even the wicked who are raised from the dead at the end of the Millennium in the Great White Throne Judgement, will be in a new immortal body of some kind. It may not be similar to ours, but it will be at least immortal & they will live, in a sense, forever, but outside the City!
67. SO THAT ALL MEN EVERYWHERE, ALL THE MILLIONS OR BILLIONS THAT HAVE EVER LIVED, WILL FINALLY BE RESTORED & RECONCILED & in a sense saved & live!--Either the elect, the elite, within the City, us the saved now, or outside the City in varying stages & conditions & level of either forgiveness or shame & contempt or whatever of those who were not saved now.
68. WE WILL STILL BE MINISTERING TO THEM APPARENTLY, & REHABILITATING THEM, & that's probably going to take quite awhile, getting everybody situated & everybody straightened out & everybody living happily ever after!
69. IT SOUNDS LIKE AN ALMOST MONUMENTAL OR ALMOST COLOSSAL, ALMOST UNIMAGINABLY GIGANTIC TASK, that God is finally going to in a sense save everybody, or at least reconcile everybody & restore everybody to some form of bearable existence on the Earth, at which time we'll continue to minister to them the Leaves of Healing, whatever they may be, & we shall go in & out those gates to administer & minister & to oversee & continue to rule the Earth after the Millennium!
70. BUT THEN WE'LL BE LIVING IN THE HEAVENLY CITY, the great, magical, mystical, marvellous mysterious Space City which will come down & rest here upon the Earth! Obviously it's going to be on the Earth or it wouldn't have gates! It might hang slightly above the Earth, since the only ones going in or out are us, & we can go in & out by flying!
71. I DON'T BELIEVE THE CITIZENS OF THE EARTH ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO FLY or be as supernatural & certainly not as powerful as we are! But they will live in nations & they will have kings & the kings of these nations will bring their glory & honour into the City & worship the Lord!
72. ALL MEN EVERYWHERE WILL WORSHIP HIM, all men everywhere will know Him, all the nations shall worship Him, fall down before Him & serve the Lord, everywhere, & the whole Earth will be restored! There will be no more sea, it'll all be land, so there'll be plenty of room for everybody! (Rev. 21:1.) Think of it! And things will be as God originally intended them to be completely restored Paradise.
73. EVEN OUTSIDE THE HEAVENLY CITY IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN, like man in his original state before he fell!--Not in a saved state, but like the original state, like the Garden of Eden, which is a paradise enough! In a sense, compared to the punishment some of these people have been going through, this will be Heaven on Earth for sure, Paradise found, & they'll be very glad to be there at all!
74. EVERYBODY WILL BE SATISFIED & KNOW HE GOT JUST WHAT HE DESERVED as his punishment, it was just what he needed. And his final end, his position, place, condition on Earth will be just exactly what he deserved or earned or merited or was rewarded according to his works & his words. (Mt.16:27; Ga.6:7,8; Re.22:12.)
75. THAT WILL ALL HAVE TO BE EARNED BY THEIR OWN PUNISHMENT & THEIR OWN DEATH, & in a sense, their own degree of repentance & obedience etc., but strictly outside the City on the surface of the Earth! Only their kings will bring their glory & honour into the City, but we shall rule over them all, we who live in the City.
76. WE WILL BE LIKE A SUPER-RACE WHO WILL BE ABOVE ALL THE REST! Ah, racism! Yes, God is a racist! He has a special elite race of supermen who are going to live above all others in the Holy City, the magical, mystical, mysterious Space City, 1500 miles long, 1500 miles wide & 1500 miles high, which is mysteriously lighted just by the Light of God, day & night, no night, no darkness, no suffering, no evil, nothing like that anymore!
77. IT DOESN'T MAKE IT CLEAR ABOUT OUTSIDE THOUGH, whether there will still be any suffering or whatever. But whatever it is, it will be mild compared to what we've already had or what even the wicked have already had, even the Hellish punishment during the Millennium that the wicked have already had!
78. IT WILL BE PARADISE BY COMPARISON WITH HELL & ITS PRISONS & its Lake of Fire & its torments etc., so that they will come in a sense to their final reward, depending on the degree of their sin, the degree of their punishment, the degree of their repentance, the degree of their reformation, you might say, or regeneration, reconciliation--but not within the Holy City, only outside.
79. THAT WILL BE THEIR EVERLASTING SHAME & THEIR EVERLASTING REWARD, is that they are never allowed to enter the City like we are! The City is reserved for God's elite troops, His elitist forces, & His very special super-race which will be us, who will rule over the rest of the World then in love & compassion & with healing & ministration & help them all get rehabilitated no doubt for as long as necessary until there's Universal Reconciliation!
80. AND WHEN THAT'S ALL DONE, WHO KNOWS WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR US? Maybe then there are other Worlds we are going to have to salvage & save & restore & regenerate, reconcile & teach & train & heal, etc.! Maybe God didn't tell that far because we didn't have to know that far!
81. HE WENT FAR ENOUGH EVEN TO TELL US THAT MUCH, that we're going to live for a Thousand Years after Jesus comes, here on the Earth ruling the survivors, & then we're going to live forever in the Heavenly City--or as far as we know, forever!
82. AS YOU SAY, THE AGE OF AGES MIGHT HAVE AN END TOO, when we get everybody straightened out & settled & rehabilitated & conditioned! But that will be in the Age of all Ages, the Golden Age of the new Heaven & New Earth & the Heavenly City, in which even outside it will be Paradise by comparison with what Earth has been like & what Hell has been like!
83. EVEN THOSE WHO ARE LIVING OUTSIDE THE CITY ARE GOING TO BE THANKFUL TO BE THERE, thankful that they're even in that World at all & restored & finally forgiven & eventually Universally Reconciled, finally completed rehabilitated, reformed, regenerated in some way, & in which time in a sense they'll all be new creatures! They may not be in Christ as we are, they will not be in the Heavenly City the way we are, but they will be there outside for us to supervise, administer & minister Reconciliation to.
84. I'M JUST SUMMING UP WHAT ACTUALLY IS RIGHT IN THE SCRIPTURE. I don't have time to read it all to you right now, but you can read a lot of it in both the Old & New Testaments & in the writings of Paul. Like I got that Scripture the other day. "The Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe!" (1Tim.4:10.)
85. NOW THERE ARE SOME PREACHERS THAT REALLY DIDN'T PARTICULARLY LIKE THAT SCRIPTURE, because it was hard to explain how come He's the Saviour of all men, especially those that believe! Well, we have a very special kind of salvation, it's very special & especially only we are especially saved that way, so that we will never have to endure any punishment, we will never have to go to Hell, we will never have to suffer any imprisonment or hellfire, we will never have to suffer for our sins hereafter.
86. WE ACCEPTED THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST & HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS AS THE PAYMENT FOR OUR SINS & our punishment, & we are completely relieved of all punishment, either here or hereafter. And what we suffer now on this Earth, we suffer not as much for our sins--although we still suffer some for our sins too right now if we disobey or have disobeyed--but we suffer for Jesus & for others.
87. WE ARE PARTAKERS OF HIS SUFFERINGS FOR OTHERS THAT WE MAY LEAD THEM TO CHRIST & get them saved so that they will be a part of our great Family of the Heavenly elite, the saved in the Holy City, ruling over the rest of the World who were lost & were punished, but now fully restored to whatever condition & position that God shall choose for them according to their works & according to their rewards--Universal Reconciliation!
88. SO THAT'S WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE DURING & AFTER THE MILLENNIUM & IN A PARADISE WORLD, the New Heaven & New Earth "wherein all is righteousness", TTL! PTL! that's my view in a nutshell of our doctrine of Universal Eternal Reconciliation of all men, men & angels, even in including Satan, poor fellow!--So there's even hopes for you, you ol' devil! GHU! He loves you! So why not get saved now & have fun for the whole Millennium?--all this & Heaven too! God bless you with such salvation!--In Jesus' name, amen!--ILY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family