i found this quiz on the website of bible scholar edward fudge. i thought it was informative. check it out. for the answers click here
1. According to the Bible, the human being is:
a. a mortal body housing an immortal soul;
b. a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury;
c. a perishable creature wholly dependent on God for existence.
2. Two historical events which biblical writers use most often to illustrate God's
final judgment against the wicked are:
a. expulsion from Eden and the collapse of the Tower of Babel;
b. the fall of Jerusalem and the defeat of the Spanish Armada;
c. the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3. Based on an actual event, the Bible uses the expression "eternal fire" to signify:
a. fire that destroys forever (Sodom and Gomorrah);
b. fire that cannot destroy what is put in it (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego);
c. fire that continues to burn indefinitely (the Burning Bush of Moses).
4. The "brimstone" in "fire and brimstone" is:
a. a symbol of terrible torture;
b. burning sulfur that suffocates and destroys;
c. a preserving agent that keeps someone alive forever.
5. Throughout the Bible, "gnashing of teeth" denotes:
a. excruciating pain and agony;
b. gingivitis;
c. extreme anger and hostility.
6. When the Bible portrays "smoke rising" to warn of judgment,
we should think of:
a. people suffering horrible pain;
b. a completed desolation or annihilation;
c. a closed arena when cigarettes were still allowed.
7. When Scripture speaks of smoke rising "forever," it signifies:
a. a destruction that will be irreversible;
b. conscious torment that never ends;
c. a battery-powered rabbit that short circuited.
8. The "worm" in the expression "worm that dies not" is:
a. a maggot that feeds on something dead;
b. a symbol for a pained conscience;
c. a figure of speech standing for everlasting agony in torment.
9. Throughout the Bible, the expression "unquenchable fire" always signifies:
a. fire which burns forever but never burns up what is put in it;
b. fire which comes from a volcano;
c. fire which is irresistible and therefore consumes entirely.
10. The Old Testament's final description of the end of sinners states that:
a. God will put fire and worms in their flesh and they will feel their pain forever;
b. they will be ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous;
c. neither of the above.
11. John the Baptist warned of "unquenchable fire," by which Jesus would:
a. burn up the "chaff";
b. torment the lost forever and never let them die;
c. purge sinners of all evil and then send them to heaven.
12. Jesus compared the end of the wicked to:
a. someone burning chaff, dead trees or weeds;
b. a house destroyed by a hurricane or someone crushed under a boulder;
c. all the above.
13. Jesus personally described Gehenna (hell) as a place where:
a. God is able to destroy both soul and body;
b. God will perpetuate the soul in everlasting agony;
c. Satan reigns over his evil subjects and tortures damned humans.
14. The phrase "eternal punishment" signifies:
a. punishment which occurs in the Age to Come rather than during this life;
b. eternal life in horrible agony and pain;
c. punishment which has everlasting results;
d. (a) and (c) but not (b).
15. The context and "punch line" of the story of the Rich Man and
Lazarus talk about:
a. what happens to the wicked after resurrection and judgment;
b. the urgency of responding to God while there is opportunity;
c. details about the "intermediate state" between death and resurrection.
16. Throughout his writings, Paul says that the lost will:
a. go to hell and burn alive forever;
b. die, perish, and be punished with eternal destruction;
c. go to heaven but hate every minute of it.
17. The New Testament uses the adjective "immortal" to describe:
a. the soul of every person, good or evil;
b. the resurrection bodies of the saved but not of the lost;
c. no human being now or hereafter.
18. The Jewish-Christian books of Hebrews and James contrast salvation with:
a. unending conscious pain;
b. inescapable destruction;
c. going "gently into that good night."
19. Peter's epistles say that the lost will:
a. be burned to ashes like Sodom and Gomorrah;
b. perish like brute beasts;
c. both the above.
20. John interprets his vision in Revelation of a "lake of fire" as:
a. a picture of indescribable, everlasting torture;
b. a place Eskimos might like to visit;
c. the second death.
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7 comments:
Of course that quiz makes no mention of the many verses that say hell is an everlastion torture... Let's hope it is not!
I swear my fingers have a mind of their own when I am typing... that word is "everlasting"
well it's based on a book the author did where he supposedly covered every verse on hell, judgment etc... so what verses do you have in mind?
Here are a few I found quickly... there are probably others I am missing...
Daniel 12:2
Matthew 18:8-9
Matthew 25:41, 46
Mark 9:43-48
Jude 1:13
well, he did deal with at least a few of those verses. the one's in matthew and mark for sure. but i don't think that if you're going to refute the contents of this quiz that simply listing verses will do the trick, because i'm sure fudge would interpret all of them in a way that supports his view.
so i guess what i want to know is why you think his interpretations are wrong, rather than you just saying he's wrong and then listing a bunch of random verses.
Like I said, I hope he is not... But sometimes it is hard to read the text, even in the original Greek, and see past what it says. I would like to see how he deals with the 3 gospel passages I mentioned. Because they are pretty clear on the eternitity of the suffering, not just the finality of it.
Matt. 18:8-9 speak of the gehenna of fire and of the eternal fire. The first phrase comes from a literal valley of destruction by smoldering fire (not raging flames) and gnawing maggots. The original biblical reference to it, unnamed, is Isaiah 66:24, which Jesus quotes in Mark 9:43-48 (in phrases "worm that dies not"; "fire that is not quenched). Better to lose an eye or a limb than go there, where God totally destroys ("both soul and body") forever!
Matt 25:41,46 also repeat "eternal fire" or "eternal punishment." The word "eternal", especially in Matthew, connotes that something has the quality of the Age to Come. This is not "this-world" punishment or "this-Age" fire. It is fire and punishment of the eternal order. But the phrase "eternal punishment" also has quantitative sense == this "punishment" (whatever it is)is everlasting. What Jesus refers to here (eternal/everlasting punishment"), Paul describes more specifically and clearly in 2 Thes 1, where he says God will PUNISH the wicked with "everlasting DESTRUCTION"). It is indeed eternal and everlasting because the wicked, once destroyed ("both soul and body", remember - Matt 10:28),will NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN.
The phrases from Isaiah 66:24 quoted in Mark 9 must be interpreted in light of the whole picture in Isaiah. This last chapter speaks of a time when God will execute judgment on the wicked with fire and sword, and "the SLAIN of the Lord will be many." The chapter ends with a picture (not literal) of the saved going out from the holy cityand looking on the CORPSES of those the Lord has slain, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. This Gehenna fire, a city-dump in the literal version, never is extinguished. It keeps burning and burning, and the maggots keep gnawing and chewing,until nothing is left.
There are no verses anywhere in the Bible that speak of humans undergoing "eternal torment."
Check out interviews, articles, gracEmails, the quiz already mentioned , and books on this subject -- at www.edwardfudge.com/home.html and at www.edwardfudge.com/written/written.html .
Cordially,
Edward William Fudge
Edward@EdwardFudge.com
(I'm not anonymous but that was the easiest way to comment here!)
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