We have the Holy Spirit of Truth in us and with us as our guide. We have Jesus, the way, truth and life, in us and with us to disciple us. We have our loving Father in us and with us to Father us into sonship. Agape love should be what we use to measure and test everything against.
The 4 streams of thought that are converging into one mighty river are: Mystic sonship, Realized eschatology, Universal reconciliation, Energy frequency healing. Realized eschatology inevitably leads to universal reconciliation because all Jesus prophesied about Gehenna was fulfilled in AD70, not a distant future.
We will continue looking at the inevitable connection between eschatology and universal reconciliation and restoration in Jesus’ teaching, to that Old Covenant audience, in that generation, with the parables that are used to affirm “hell” as ECT (eternal conscious torment).
Matt 25:31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. :34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
Matt 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jesus’ meaning was obviously not literal but figurative. Sheep and goats are figurative language. The sheep and goats were nations or groups, not individuals. The cause of the separation was good works or no good works: this cannot be relating to salvation as it would be by works and not grace and faith.
This is not describing a corporate judgment where entire nations themselves are sent to heaven or hell in the future. It is not about the last generation of nations where people are to be judged based on how they treated the Jews (or Christians, depending on what version you have heard).
Jesus said it would happen in that generation. This great tribulation is not in our future but in our past. It is not about nations being judged based on works as that would mean there are two ways of salvation: good works, and grace and faith.
It makes more sense if this was speaking of the religious unbelieving Jews who instead of serving the least of these “my brethren”, the believing Jews, they were killing them and imprisoning them instead.
They continued to persecute the early church throughout that generation. The separation of the figurative sheep and goats actually took place in AD70. When the believers left Jerusalem as Jesus warned them and Hundreds of thousands of the figurative goats (people of different nations in Jerusalem) ended up literally in the fires of Gehenna.
We also need to look at the real meaning of the words eternal fire and eternal punishment in their true context.
I believe that the not-yet believers, when they die go into the consuming fire of God’s love, but can be released from that captivity, just like Jesus descended into Sheol and set the captives free, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom to them, and they received Him as their Lord and Savior. Every knee shall bow in surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.
The actual original Greek meaning will reveal that what seems obviously to mean “hell” is actually far from it. Religion has used “hell” to create a fear of God by creating an angry God. Religion has tried to scare people into a relationship with God and then uses legalism and fear to keep them in line.
The churches doctrine of Hell, designed from religious spirits operating in preachers, is designed to provoke the wrong kind of fear of God so that we keep our distance from Him. Lack of trust, fear of His discipline and fear of change and transformation results.
The fear of God that comes from being in the manifest presence of God, as He convicts you of certain sins conveys His love also in it, you can feel it, even though your body may be shaking.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
1 John 4:8 … for God is love.
Fear of every sort robs us of our righteousness, peace and joy in Holy Spirit. Let’s engage God as perfect love and let Him remove all fear from us.
The parable of the sheep and the goats in context, was a warning to the religious leaders that the Old Covenant order was coming to an end and the kingdom was going to be removed from them. This was similar to the warnings about outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth from being outside of God’s covenant.
Jesus often uses Subversive (seeking or intended to subvert an established system) language towards the common ideas of the Rabbis, Pharisees, Zealots, Essenes etc.
“You have heard it said, now I say unto you” He uses parables to subvert (overthrow) the traditional thinking and understanding by using them to contrast kingdom values. When we read them we need the Holy Spirit to lead us to the truth relationally and experientially.
Matt 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels’ …
45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
“Eternal punishment” and into the eternal fire originally for the devil and his angels – surely these must mean “hell”? What else could it mean?
The overall point of the parable is a warning that when Jesus is enthroned, treating believers wrongly will result in the fire of Gehenna (when Jerusalem was destroyed at the end of that age).
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD70 by fire was figuratively the fiery pit of literal Gehenna, not a “hell” concept.
The words used in this parable have been used to validate the “hell” concept; so we need to know the true and literal meaning of the original words used:
Eternal, everlasting, forever, punishment, fire, torment, judgment, wrath. It is vitally important to understand the meaning of these words not just in this parable but in whole of the New Testament writings.
These words can be translated differently depending on the paradigms used and if the root meanings are used rather than common or modern idioms. Using the direct meaning of the words we will see that they don’t mean eternal and they don’t have to mean retributive punishment either.
It is religious tradition that conditions us to believe in a “hell” that God uses to punish and torment His children forever. We have been taught that there is eternal, everlasting, forever and ever judgment that results in many of God’s children being separated from Him in the fire of “hell”, being punished as a result of the verdict of an angry, unforgiving Judge. We will see that this deception is caused by the mistranslation and misinterpretation of the words eternal and punishment.
Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Judgment – is often association with other words: justice, penal, penalty, punishment, condemnation, custodial sentence Those words are man’s idea of judgment; but do those words have to be associated with God’s judgment?
If you have to go before a judge or magistrate, there will be a verdict given based on the evidence. You hope that verdict will be not guilty. Judgment (Greek krimatos, krima, krino) means a decision, a verdict, a discernment, but not a punishment. The “Hell” concept assumes that God the judge’s verdict is everlasting damnation (torment) for the unredeemed lost and eternal safety for the redeemed saved.
Krino – judge, decide, think good, to separate (distinguish), i.e. judge; come to a choice or decision by making a judgment Judgment is to decide and select There is no punishment indicated here, contrary to religious opinion, just a verdict.
Krisis: decision, declaration.
Krima: decision, decree.
Krino: distinguish or decide.
Judgment means to decide, determine, decree or declare. We are conditioned to assume that judgment must always bring punishment?
You must be found guilty to receive a negative judgment and be sentenced. Is there evidence against mankind that requires God to give us a custodial sentence?
2 Cor 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Col 1:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
How can there be punishment if there is nothing held against us?
If everyone has their transgressions taken out of the way and all debts are cancelled, how can there be a negative judgment and eternal punishment?
A sin-behavioral focus came through the law, but we are not under the law. Rom 5:13 … for until the Law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 6:14 … for you are not under law but under grace.
Heb 8:13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. When God, as a righteous judge, makes a verdict, it does not come with condemnation: it always comes with an opportunity to respond. God judges something wrong so we can choose something right. God’s judgment of our lives is always to bring life not death. Dikaiokrisias just, righteous, impartial judgment is based on God’s love, mercy and grace. Justice is based on the finished work of the cross; it does not excuse sin or mean there are no consequences for our behavior. Age-enduring judgment can therefore only be an opportunity for a continuing choice to accept Jesus that never ends even by death. If anyone chooses death and not life, God respects their choice but never gives up on them. Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds.
This seems to indicate an angry God.
Rom 2:5 A calloused heart that resists change accumulates cause to self-destruction, while God’s righteous judgment is revealed in broad daylight. (The gospel openly declares that God declared mankind innocent.) 6 By resisting him you are on your own; your own deeds will judge you.
Wrath orge- anger, wrath, passion from oregomai violent passion. God has passionate feelings against the sin that so easily entangles us, but not against us as His children. God is a consuming fire; He is passionate against anything that robs us of our sonship identity. God’s wrath, His passion, will consume the sin – not the sinner, who is not guilty. Why do we assume that God would make a judgment and then take away our ability to respond to it?
Because God has been wrongly portrayed as being angry and wanting to punish us forever. Judgment krimatos, krima, krino- Judgment here was the discernment that makes a judicial verdict based on God’s precepts, character and nature based in love. There is no punishment!
God’s judgment is always for life and not death because the Lamb died before the foundation of the world.
God the judge is our Father, and the evidence used is what Jesus did for and as us on the cross: the verdict is ‘not guilty’.
Reconciliation, not separation.
Restoration, not retribution.
God does not count our sins against us therefore there is no punishment; but there are consequences and there is a consuming fire of His presence.
Eternal in English means lasting or existing forever; without end. Everlasting, never-ending, endless, without end, perpetual, undying, immortal, deathless, indestructible, imperishable, immutable, abiding, permanent, enduring, infinite, boundless, timeless;
Eternal in Greek aioniou, aionios –means eon or age; but there is no concept of without end, infinite or timeless.
No focus on the future, but rather on the age (aiṓn) it relates to.
Believers live in “eternal (aiṓnios) life” right now, experiencing the quality of God’s life now as a present possession.
In Greek, an age could refer to a generation, a lifetime, or a longer, finite length of time. It’s where we get our word “eon”: it is not infinite or eternal. It also correlates with the Hebrew word Yom, which denotes anything from a 24-hour period to an epoch or season.
Greek translations use the present tense of having eternal life now in John 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; Rom 6:23.
Aiōnios actually refers to the length of an age, “from age to age” or age-enduring Life that can be experienced continually and continuously now, not just in the future. If it does not mean ‘eternal’, does that not diminish the life we have in God? If it does not mean ‘everlasting’, does that mean it can end? No, it only enhances it by not putting it off to the future and makes the quality and abundance of the life we have now. The focus is not the length. Aionion, aiōnios never means eternal, forever or everlasting in relation to anything, let alone to “hell”, punishment or torment.
This is a wrong interpretation, influenced by a wrong view of God and the nature of His judgment, associating it with punishment. Aionion, aionios is not translated eternal, everlasting or forever in a literal Bible version such as YLT. The true meaning is therefore age-enduring.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 but may have life age-during YLT.
Perish does not mean ‘be punished’, but ‘be in a state of lost identity’.
John 3:16 The entire cosmos is the object of God’s affection! And he is not about to abandon his creation – the gift of his son is for humanity to realize their origin in him who mirrors their authentic birth – begotten not of flesh but of the Father! In this persuasion the life of the ages echoes within the individual and announces that the days of regret and sense of lost-ness are over!
John 17:3 This is eternal (age-enduring) life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
This life is not the quantity of life but the quality of knowing who God really is, through knowing who Jesus really is; and therefore knowing our sonship identity in a wonderful love relationship.
Punishment epitima, timoreo Epitima, translated punishment, actually means “to turn a situation in the right direction” – the fitting (appropriate) response necessary to turn someone in the right direction, there is one use of it in 2 Cor 2:6, but it is not used in relation to “hell”.
Timoreo- authorized to administer recompense, punishment meted out from the view of the offended party. The Greek word timória is used for punishment, penalty, vengeance and is never used in connection with God; Heb 10:29.
Strong’s translates kolazo as punishment but adds condemnation, damnation to the correct meaning. It is not condemnation or damnation: that is not its real original meaning.
The root word for punishment is actually derived from a word kolos that means to correct by pruning or restricting.
Punishment – kolasin, kolazo, kolos NASB lexicon definition: to lop or prune, as trees and wings to curb, check, restrain to chastise, correct, punishment. Strong’s says chastisement, punishment; it then adds torment, perhaps with the idea of deprivation. Penalty of a punishment which brings torment or being restrained for disciplinary correction? Which idea better reflects God’s character and nature? Do you think God wants to punish or correct?
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
If there is any sense of a period of punishment or torment in the afterlife as a result of our choice, who administers it? Torment as a result of God’s punishment? Or anguish of soul and regret as a result of recognizing the consequences of our past behavior and choices?
I would more likely be tormented by my own stupidity than by God.
Sin is the loss of our identity and original image: it does have its own consequences, mostly now.
Matt 18 parable: unforgiveness brings torment or even torture now; not in the future, and not by God. God does hand a person over to the consequences of their own choices (Rom 1) but He does not torment. Jewish people viewed sin as self-inflicted judgment. In other words, when you sin, you inflict judgment upon yourself. Sin has its own reward: living with no identity, in anonymity, without relationship with God is really “hell on earth” but not in the afterlife. Sin isn’t meaningless: it’s literally inviting “hell” into your life now, living ‘less than’. Any time we see the term “eternal life” in the New Testament, it should actually be translated as “life of the age”. It means that this phrase “eternal punishment” could more accurately be viewed as “discipline or correction for the length of the age”. Matt 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” A literal translation of this could be: And these shall go away to age-during correcting discipline, but the righteous to age-during life. This paints a very different picture than the one we are used to seeing. There is a huge difference between restorative punishment and retributive punishment. In the Western world judicial system we operate based on retributive justice, ‘an eye for an eye’. You commit a crime: you are punished by going to jail or are fined. If you murdered someone: you are put to death or sent to jail for life.
These punishments are not delivered positively; they are not intended to rehabilitate or restore. ‘An eye for an eye’ was to limit vengeance by people, not to express God’s heart. Punishments are society’s retribution upon the perpetrator, intended to punish and perhaps discourage others from wrongdoing for fear of punishment. Does this reflect the character and nature of God, whose love is stronger than death?
God desires reconciliation and restoration through what Jesus did on the cross, not separation and punishment.
Eternal fire – Lake of fire of Revelation? In context of the parable, this was fulfilled at the end the old age or covenant, which goes into the fire figuratively to be transformed by fire into the new covenant.
In its overall meaning, it is the consuming fire of God’s passionate love, stronger than death (which now has no sting for mankind). Fire Greek pyr or pur means fire, trials, burning, fiery. Fire does not destroy; it transforms or changes the object’s form. Wood into smoke and ash. Pur is where we get our words purify, purity.
God is Himself described as a consuming fire that consumes the negative to reveal the positive through refining by fire.
Heb 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Mal 3:2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.
Matt 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” To be baptized in fire would make no sense if it was to destroy us; to purify by refining is the more obvious meaning. We will all go through the fires of purification to restore us to our original design and identity as sons by removing anything that distorts that image.
1 Cor 3:12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:13 Everyone’s work shall be tested in the scrutiny of real life; it shall be made apparent as in broad daylight just as gold is tested in fire: what you teach will either burn like stubble or shine like gold. (The revelation of mankind’s co-crucifixion and co-resurrection with Christ is the gold of the gospel!).
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Realize that your life is God’s building; his sanctuary, designed for his permanent abode. His Spirit inhabits you! (He designed every cell in your body to accommodate and express him.) Just like fire would burn away the dross, any defilement of God’s temple would be destroyed in order to preserve human life as his permanent sanctuary.
The parable of the sheep and goats is not referring to “hell” as eternal punishment. It refers to the end of the Old Covenant age and this fire is limited until the old age is over. There is a fire which refers to the afterlife, but it is for purifying and correcting; and even those who rejected Jesus while alive still get to choose after death.
Fire of God’s consuming love. Experience the passion of God’s love that is stronger than death. A love that will not relent, will not give up, and will never let go of His children. Expressed in a river of fire, the judgment seat of fire, the fire stones, the fire of the altars, the passionate fire of God’s presence, your personal burning bush.
The wrong concept of “hell” has made fire something to be feared and to be avoided. We can embrace the consuming, purifying, correcting fire of God’s presence where we are all tested.
Today I have engaged all those places of fire in my personal experiences in the heavenly realms. The fire consumes selfish motives and burns up our deepest regrets. There is fire in His eyes that penetrates deep into the very core of our beings with the most piercing, passionate love.
Let’s embrace the fire of God’s presence to consume everything that robs us of our identity and relationship. The meaning of the original word’s eternal, punishment, fire, and judgment used in parables and other teachings don’t have to relate to an angry God. There is one phrase that it is worth explaining. Eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Fire prepared was Gehenna and would be fulfilled in AD70 when Jerusalem, the temple was destroyed by fire and the Old Covenant finally ended. Those who ignored Jesus’ warnings ended up in Gehenna in the fire. This is the same as the lake of fire referenced in Revelation. The Fire prepared for the devil and his angels- diabolos properly, a slanderer; a false accuser; unjustly criticizing to hurt (malign) and condemn to sever a relationship. Malicious gossip, Backbiter to bring down. Angelos- messenger, envoy; can refer to a human messenger (John the Baptist), as well as angelic messengers. The chief priest and his representatives would be seen as slandering the truth and persecuting believers. Jesus said to Peter “Get behind me, Satan” (or ‘accuser’) – figurative, not literal. Meaning ‘His messengers’ would be the Pharisees and the Judaizers, the infiltrators of the church, who were trying to get people back under the law
There are other parables and teachings to look at: Lazarus and the rich man. God’s wrath. Lake of Fire. The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
The parable of Lazarus in Luke 16 offers us the only true visual view of afterlife torment found in Scripture.
Luke 16:11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
Luke 16:19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores… 22 Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:28 …for I have five brothers – in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) seems to indicate eternal conscious torment and separation from God. It is a parable, a story that is meant to get over a primary meaning that is not “hell”. The parable also represented what might have existed before the resurrection: it does not indicate the future. Similar message to other parables. Good Samaritan Invitation to the banquet Wise man and foolish man. Camel through eye of a needle. Losing your soul for temporal gain Cost of materialism Self-righteousness.
This parable is using what was culturally accepted before the cross and resurrection. Abraham’s bosom is not a biblical phrase but a mythological or cultural one. The idea of Abraham’s bosom came from something they picked up while in captivity in Babylon and is found in the Babylonian Talmud. The Idea is of two places in Sheol, one for the righteous to await resurrection (Jesus referred to it as Paradise, where the thief on the cross would be with Him that day). The other place for the unrighteous to await judgment. Jesus went there and preached. The parable is not looking at some future judgment event but is using their current views of what happened to people after death.
As it is a parable, it is not confirming that as the truth but using a common narrative to make a point. We are not supposed to make a doctrine out of this parable either. The rich man is in hades, corresponding with the Hebrew Sheol – the place of the dead or the grave, prior to the resurrection. The rich man’s desire to send a warning to his brothers before it is too late. This obviously can’t be a final place like the infernalist’s typical everlasting view of the ‘lake of fire’ because that could not possibly happen after any final judgment.
Do we really think there is literal communication with Abraham across a literal chasm?
Is this also the literal Abraham?
“Does everyone there have a direct line to Abraham? Do the millions in his care take turns snuggling with him? Or is his bosom big enough to contain us all at once? How big he must be!” Are these literal flames? Since hades precedes the resurrection of the body, do we have literal tongues with which to feel thirst? Does someone being incinerated in a furnace really care about thirst? This is a parable, It is not supposed to be taken literally.
Do we think that we will see our loved ones in hell and talk to them but offer them no hope, yet we are going to be happy and call heaven a place of peace?
Are we going to eternally see your mum or grandmother or a child who died at 16 years old in an accident and then be filled with joy?
What is the point of the parable, if not “hell”?
Jesus came with ‘you have heard it said’ (rabbinical tradition) ‘and now I say unto you’. In other words, Jesus was about to turn their traditions on their head. Jesus’ parables do the same thing, often referring to Jewish beliefs in order to challenge them.
Jesus’ purpose in this parable was not to bring the definitive revelation on the nature of hades. He is incorporating some contemporary Jewish imagery to make a profound and prophetic ethical point. From the beginning of Luke 16, the immediate context of Jesus’ discourse is the management of wealth, the idolatry of mammon and the perilous state of the rich.
Jesus was saying the same as in a rich man cannot enter kingdom by his riches, camel can’t pass the eye of a needle which is a play on a gate in Jerusalem. Jesus was also saying that looking out for the poor is part of the good news:
Isa 61; loving our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus shared many messages that address the ethics of worldly wealth. Jesus confronts those who are rich and powerful now but abuse their position. The context of this story is Jesus talking to the Pharisees about trusting in Mammon or wealth. What profit is there in having the whole world and losing your soul? Jesus was telling the Pharisees that just because they were natural descendants of Abraham, that did not mean they were going to get the spiritual inheritance of the kingdom. Their abuse of money (in the same context) could be seen in how they were putting away their wives (not divorcing them) to avoid giving up the dowry, leaving them destitute; and if they remarried, it caused them to commit adultery.
Jesus challenged that also in Luke 16:18, the previous verse Jesus was speaking of the great role reversal which would soon take place when the sceptre was taken out of the hands of Judah and officially belonging to Jesus alone who would then give the kingdom to His New Covenant people (Ekklesia). This happened in AD 70 when the natural kingdom was taken away and the kingdom of God became spiritual in that Christ is ruling from heaven, not physical Jerusalem.
James 5:1-3, “come now you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you… you have heaped up treasures in the last days!” is the same warning.
This chasm is/was culturally symbolic of the great cultural divide between Jew and Gentile.
Most likely it is a reference to the Jordan Rift Valley where the land Abraham was promised was separated from the Gentile lands.
Uncircumcised Gentile proselytes of Judaism were referred to as “gate proselytes” or “strangers inside the gate.” They enjoyed certain rights and privileges under the Mosaic Law. Is the parable condemning the rich man for leaving Lazarus outside when the Law obligated Jews to provide for foreigners inside?
This is a parable about racial division and about the way that the rich treat the poor. It’s not about heaven and hell, words that aren’t even mentioned in these passages. When Jesus tells them the story, He quite literally means that the rich and poor in this age will see a reversal of fortunes in the next.
Rest is the key to restoration and revelation. Start to focus on your breathing, slowing it down. And start thinking of the name of God, YHVH. Breathe in deeply and exhale slowly: Yod- Breathe in: Hei-breathe out: Vav-beathe in. Hei-breathe out. Repeat.
Be still and know that I am God, I am love, I am joy, I am peace.
Invite love, joy and peace to flow in you and through you to create an atmosphere of rest around you. You are in a safe place. Start to think of an open heaven and set your desire upon it. Steps like Jacob’s ladder leading up to heaven. Hear the invitation to come up here. Shift the focus of our mind. Walk up those steps to the door. Now step through the veil into the kingdom realm. Jesus is standing in the doorway. Present yourself to Jesus, your High Priest, as a living sacrifice. Let Him take you by the hand. Ask Him to reveal restoration and the oracles of the Father’s heart. Ask Him to reveal the truth about eschatology and Gehenna. Jesus, please take each person and show them what they need to receive the revelation about restoration. Go wherever He takes you.