by Trent - originally posted Sept 19th, 2005
Let him who can withstand the Eternal Sea of Fire, do so.
The question is, not whether God would want the wicked to be endlessly miserable, but the question is about how much His enemies can withstand of God's wrath.
Remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They could hang in the fire, because of the Fourth person (the Lord Jesus) could stand the heat. To me this is a picture of the REVELATION that is made by the Fire, and what can withstand the presence of the fire (even as the guards that through them into the furnace were consumed.)
Now, spring forward to the day of Pentecost ... what did we see over the redeemed heads? Where they not as the bush (before Moses) that burned and was not consumed? And I know why the bush burned without being consumed: God was in the bush!
The redeemed have something in common with the bush that burned without being consumed. The redeemed have the Lord Jesus mingled within their innermost being. They have God within them through their oneness with the Lord. The redeemed are as the bush with God inside ... they may dance in the fire, even as the fire danced over their heads that day. For having Eternal life, makes the redeemed view the Eternal fire, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can view the fiery furnace ... we will be saved, because the One, Whom we worship and Whose blood flows within us, is not threatened by any flame.
Now to directly answer the question: the godless won't last long in the exposure to the sea of Fire, and are on the wide path to "DESTRUCTION." They will be as a bush that burns and IS consumed, for God is not in that bush, and "God is a consuming Fire."
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jn 3:16
It isn't duration of "suffering" that is at stake. It is a Life and death situation.
Who the Lord has cleansed is worthy of His purpose. Call him not defiled or unworthy. What the Lord has cleansed, in the blood of the Lamb, is a new creation...virgin. ~ God [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 2 - All Have Been Purchased, Few are Chosen]