Great White Throne, Follow-Up

Q

I just read your answer to the person asking about The White Throne Judgment. Isn’t Sheol and Hades the Grave?And does the Lake of fire not symbolize total destruction? Doesn’t the Bible say that the wages of sin is death?If when we die we are unsaved sinners, haven’t we paid our debt by losing our eternal life? Please give me your reason for your answer.

A

Hades and Sheol are sometimes translated Grave. But the grave as we know it is only the final destiny of the physical body. The part of you that’s really you won’t cease to exist when your body dies. It will live forever and at the resurrection will receive a new body that will never die.

Unbelievers don’t get new bodies but their spirits are eternal just like ours. Luke 16:19-31 tells of the rich man going to a place of torment in Hades after he died, where he was conscious, experienced discomfort, and recognized others. Rev. 20:12-15 shows the unsaved dead from all ages standing before the throne where every one who’s name was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire. In Rev. 20:14 the Lake of Fire is called the second death, but it’s not a place of total destruction. According to Rev. 20:10 The anti-Christ, the false prophet and Satan will be tormented there forever, and Isaiah 66:24 hints that others who wind up there won’t be immediately destroyed either. In short, most evangelical scholars believe the lake of fire is a place of eternal torment just like Heaven is a place of eternal bliss.