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false prophet ARE.” After a thousand years they are still there, alive. We cannot, therefore, teach that hell is annihilation. It is not in any sense a burning out of existence. So far then, we have two groups in the lake of fire. At the beginning of the thousand years, the beast and the false prophet are cast into hell. One thousand years later Satan is also cast into the same place with them, and then soon to be joined by all his wicked followers, the unsaved and the lost. In the last verse of this same chapter we read: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. 19:15 While the Bible has a great deal to say concerning the subject of hell, there are some things which our Lord has not seen fit to reveal to us at this time, and on which the Bible is either silent or only gives the faint est suggestions. We do not know, for instance, when hell was created, nor where it is located. As to its origin, we can safely say, however, that it was not a part of God’s original creative act. In Genesis 1:1 we have the account of the original creation. Before the first verse of Genesis 1:1 there was nothing, of course, except God. God all alone in that perfect holy, family love-life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this beginningless life of the great eter nal “ I Am,” God planned a creation to be called into being at a time that He Himself in sovereign wisdom should choose. In the plan of this original creation de scribed in Genesis 1 :1, hell was not included. That must have been a subsequent provision. In Genesis 1:1 we read, for instance: “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen. 1:1 Now will you please notice very carefully that this was the beginning of the creation—not the beginning of the existence of God. In John 1:1 we are distinctly
“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had re ceived the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim stone.” Rev. 19:20 I N t h i s t e r r i b l e , a w e s o m e v e r s e we have the record of the first occupants ever to be thrown into hell. These two men, the beast and the false prophet, are the first individuals ever to be cast into the lake of fire. Hell today is completely empty, totally devoid of all occupants. The lost are in hades according to the Word of God. The fallen angels are in the special place called “ tartarus” in 2nd Peter 2:4. After the tribulation period and at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory to this earth, these two men, the beast and the false prophet, will be cast into this place called the lake of fire. Here they remain for a period of one thousand years, and then a millennium later they are joined by their master, Satan and the Devil. We have the record of this casting of Satan into hell in Revelation 20:7: “ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. .......... and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Rev. 20:7, 9, 10 This is an important passage which must not be overlooked. For one thousand years these two men, the beast and the false prophet, are in the lake of fire, but they are not destroyed. After one thousand years when Satan joins them we read definitely, “ And the Devil was cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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