Leroy Saves Bubba from Hell

Introduction

       In this book Leroy and Bubba are on a quest to discover the genuine truth about hell. They spend hours researching the doctrine in order to get the real sense of the truth. Many questions arise in their search, causing a laughter filled journey into the depths of the fear filled doctrine.

       The simplicity of their backwoods approach brings understanding down to a level most anyone can enjoy. Their innocence is refreshing when it comes to the Bible and doctrines and they search for the bare truth without any agendas.

Join these two in their quest to understand the doctrine of hell. It will make you laugh, but it will also make you question your long-time beliefs.

A special thanks to Julie Stefek and Linda Boyd for their tireless help with the editing this manuscript.

All scriptures are NKJV unless stated otherwise.

Leroy Saves Bubba from Hell!

By Ron Harmon

&

The Tomorrow’s Church of God

       Poor ole Bubba, he’s gotten so turned around, he almost met himself comin through the front door.  He was rattled to the bones over what his preacher done told him.  You know what that preacher did, he stood up behind his Sunday preachin podium while lookin right at Bubba and sayin ifin those sinners don’t get right by God, they’re headin straight for hell.

     That got Bubba worryin about that six-pack of beer he had done drunk the day before while playin hooky from work.  He done got it in his head he needed to be a fishin and just got up in the mornin and went to the river.  

Bubba was a thikin that preacherhad gotten word from his boss and was tryin to straighten him up before he had to do something drastic like lettin Bubba go.  He needed Bubba to straighten up and fly right.  Now, that smooth talkin pulpiteer had Bubba in his crosshairs and was makin him sweat like a horse after a five-mile ride in July and it was a workin.

     Bubba was thinkin his wife might be on the side of those traitors as well.  She was wantin to get him to quit drinkin and smokin, and go to work on a regular basis.   She done went and wrote about all this on Hickbook to all her friends, and man the uproar she got started had the whole town wopper jawed.  She was sayin Bubba aint worth much while spendin most of his time fishin and huntin, drinkin, and smokin.

     Ever since they started that Hickbook thing at the drugstore, poor ol’ Bubba can’t get away with nothin. 

Bubba never thought much about hell or heaven.  He had heard all about goin to hell for sinnin but he never thought he had a ticket.  He didn’t worry cause he had always been told all he needed to do was believe in that Jesus feller and everythin would work itself out.

Bubba told me, he thought the reason all them little old ladies gabbin on Hickbook had white hair, was cause they just got scared God knew all their buried secrets, but that just worried Bubba about his own secrets he was tryin to keep.

     He believed in God plenty enough, and he sure didn’t want any part of that hell place that preacher was speakin about.  The way that preacher described it, twas like the biggest barbeque in ten counties for those that got posted on Hickbook by their wives or preacher.

That place was supposed to be hotter than the hood of a pickup truck at noon on a summer’s day.  It’s so hot, he said, them folks would burn right up with a snap, crackle and pop.  Then come back to life and burn up again and again for a longer time than it took to wrestle a greased hog. 

That preacher went on sayin folks would pop and blister like bacon on a Sunday mornin cookout and there was no hope for them, for eternity.  But Bubba was somewhat confused, cause he just went to his cousin’s funeral who died from sittin too long.  It seems he was the driver in a getaway car for three other fellers robbin a bank, and he sat there too long and the cops showed up, his cousin didn’t make the getaway.

But all them folks in Bubba’s family done went had a huge funeral for his cousin.  All them good folks kept tellin his mama that boy was in a better place.  Bubba scratched his mangy head, cause he was sure his cousin was in hell if anybody was.  Bubba not bein the sharpest tool in the shed, had to ask himself how could his cousin be in a better place?  That thought worried the heck out of poor Bubba and he began a wonderin ifin everyone would believe he would be in a better place once he wander to the other side.

       I felt sorry for poor ole Bubba as he told me about that church meetin and the postins on Hickbook, I wanted to help the ole boy if I could, help him get the cotton outta his head.

       So, I made the suggestion, we check out the words that preacher done shouted in church, just to make sure, especially since fishin, drinkin, and huntin was on the line.  That was a good idea Bubba thought, he didn’t trust that pushy preacher anyway.

     So we grabbed a sixpack of root beer and made our way to the readin place, called a liberry or somethin like that.  Once we got there and the lady behind the desk pointed us in the direction to where they kept the religious stuff.  Me and Bubba began perusing through the books on religion, and history while sipping root beer through a straw.

     We wasn’t movin or readin real fast on account neither of us had a bunch of schoolin, but both of us knowd how to read and write from the early age until we graduated at the age of twelve.

     We spent that whole Friday afternoon lookin and a checkin, and we found some real interestin stuff about that place called hell.

       After readin a bunch of them books from so-called experts, we both done decided the whole thing was split into three parts of the same subject.  Like a gettin three fence rails outta one log with one whack of the ax.

       It’s not just about goin to hell or heaven after one dies, it was also about havin an immortal soul so you could make the trip.  A fella or gal gots to have one of them immortal souls before they can go to heaven or hell, them books say and also accordin to them preacher fellers.

So, we took one part at a time, hopin to find a good answer that would let poor Bubba off the hook.  We started with humans havin an immortal soul and what that soul thing was. You know, we looked harder than tryin to find fishin worms on solid rock and couldn’t find that sayin in the Bible.

       Nope, you sure don’t, nowhere does it say we are born with an immortal soul.  Now, I never knew that, but then again, I didn’t know anything about us havin a soul to begin with seein as I ain’t spent much time in church. 

I knew about soul music because of my friend Jarvis, he used to twist like a snake on hot coals dancin to that soul music.

So, me and Bubba sat down and did some diggin, and found out what a soul was accordin to somthin called a concordance, man that’s a big word.  It was writ by a feller named Strong’s, kinda weird but catchy.

     Now I did go to church for a while when I was a  youngin about fourteen.  On Sunday mornins in our local church there was many times I heard Jesus was comin back at any moment.  We was supposed to be ready for that moment cause it was gonna come like a thief in the night.

       I never was really too clear as to what we were suppose to be ready for but I kept an emergency go bag ready for anythin.  Turns out, I was a little confused about everythin them preachers kept sayin about bein ready over and over.

      Despite all that, I got fired up over the preachin one Sunday and wanted to get myself ready.  So, I got the courage up one Sunday and asked that preacher feller, how does a young feller like me get ready?  He pointed me toward one of them deacon fellers and said you need to go and have a talk with him.  That feller had a look of determination on his face especially when he saw me a comin towards him.  It was kinda like a bird hunter looks when he sees a flock of ducks flyin low, he lowered the his sights on me.

       As I stood before that feller, he says to me, I needed to be ready in a spiritual sort of way, so thata way I could be in the rapture of them saints.  To do that though I needed to be saved, so I had to follow his instructions to the letter and get it done right.

        I really wanted to be one of them folks waftin off to heaven so I listen extra hard as that deacon feller told me.  I first needed to give myself over to the Lord and quit wastin anymore precious time on things here on earth.

       Well, I did like that fella told me and repeated the words he told me to, then he stood straight up all sudden like pronouncin in a loud voice, I WAS SAVED!  And then there was a Hallelujah!!!  I stood up all excited and shouted Hallelujah!  Then I looked at the feller and said, “What Now?”

       He smiled and said “nottin, you’re saved now, you done acknowledged Jesus as your personal savior.”  To be truthful, I remember thinkin there should be more to havin bein saved.  I felt like I should go home and pack my bags or somethin like that.  Come to find out, there was some more, but I was told that came a little later.

A couple of Sundays later, I was to be baptized, which would brand me like a spring calf, makin sure I could join the herd of lucky ones who would be carried off to heaven when that Christ feller came back.

       I was told, that place was like nothin here on earth, I was told we would float round on clouds playin a thing called a harp and walkin on them golden streets.  No more tears, no more hurt, no more gripin, arguin, fightin, and dumb stuff like that.

     Walkin home that day and thinkin about all that stuff and how excitin it were, made me think real hard about them words they spoke to me.  It was goin over and over in my mind like a scratched phonograph record repeatin itself.  As I was givin it a good thinkin on, a curious question came into my brain.  If I was needin to be saved before I was baptized, then why did I need to get baptized?  Wasn’t I saved through God’s grace, like that deacon feller said?  If that was true, why did I need a bath afterwards, when it wasn’t even the 1^st Saturday of the month?  You know, they couldn’t answer that question neither, they just said it was some mystery or somethin, go figure.

     They were also a sayin ifin I needed to know some more about it, there was movies done by Hollywood people showin just how this event was gonna happen. 

Bubba was a sayin he watched one of them movies on the Ya’ll tube and he felt it was done to scare folks dumb ugly stupid.  It showd a town where folks was a standin around mindin their business and bang, some were just gone all a suddin like. 

Happen’d just like that preacher was sayin, the next thing anyone knows trains are goin off their tracks plowin through saloons; planes are fallin from the skies into your neighbors’ ponds and pickups are crashin all around scatterin hay and lumber all over the roads.  This all happens cause those drivin them vehicles are part of this  rapture thing.

Them movie maker folks said at the end, ifin you didn’t get with the program, your family members, co-workers, and friends would suddenly just vanish from earth, and you would be left standin there on the ground with only a grin on your face, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

This whole rapture thing got me and Bubba wonderin about the folks who are in the planes, trains, and autos that wasn’t raptured, seems they was left at the mercy of God when those vehicles suddenly go out of control.  Me and Bubba was a wonderin, don’t those folks’ matter to God, even if they ain’t perfect?

     Bubba reminded me of a preacher he was a listin to one day on the radio, while workin in his garage; he said the folks left behind after that rapture thing wouldn’t even remember those that were taken up into heaven.  That rapture thing would happen and it would be like them folks never existed at all here on earth.

     Someone who was as sharp as a whip, asked that preacher a good question, “What if your parents were raptured and you weren’t, wouldn’t you be a wonderin where you came from?”  Bubba, in his country like thinkin said, “Maybe, you would be thinkin you come from an egg or somethin like that.”  As completely dumb as a bag of hammers that statement was, it made more sense than what that preacher said, cause everyone knows you have to have a chicken before you have eggs.

     That preacher feller was perplexed; he had no answer to that question because he hadn’t givin much thought over why someone all of a sudden wouldn’t have a Mama or Papa.  You would be thinkin folks would be wonderin how they could just be here from nothin and askin where they came from.  That would make you wonder on other things makin your brain feel tighter than a banjo string tryin to figure it out?

     It kinda looks like, them mainstream religions fellers haven’t given this rapture stuff much thought at all.  Worse yet, them rascals have covered over the truth like a tarp over an old pickup in the barn when it comes to them resurrections them scriptures be talkin about.

     Me and Bubba figured that out pretty quick  even with a combined IQ of 100, showin we was the smartest in our families.

      First off, one has to ask themselves, is Christ comin back as one of them spiritual fellas to get everyone who says they believe in Jesus, as the  preacher says?

       The short answer was, yes, but after readin the scriptures, me and Bubba was thinkin it was a different group of folks called the Messiah’s church or Jesus’ Bride?  Bubba had one of them “eureka” moments people get sometimes, “Yep!  He’s comin for His church, because the Bible says so!”

So, when this fella comes back, where’s He goin to haul that church off to?  Are them folks goin to Heaven, or some other place?  Ifin they are headed to heaven are the ones left behind goin to that overheated resort with a bad program manager called Satan, in a place called hell?

A place, Sunday preachers say all sort of folks wind up in, family, aborted babies that never had a chance to know Jesus.  All them others throughout history that never had a chance to ever know the name Jesus.  That them, through no fault of their own, are now bound for eternal torture in hell.

       Someone asked a preacher about those babies and peoples that never had a chance in life, and he said those folks would automatically be saved, or somethin about an age of accountability.  We looked for that in them scriptures, and we couldn’t find it in the Bible even though we asked the librarian to help us.  But we figured it was a way to explain away all that stuff that makes folks feel really bad, that’s comfortin ain’t it?

       Bubba had another one of them genius thoughts, “Well, why are we sendin Bible folks all over the world to help them ‘automatically saved folks with a chance to be lost and wind up in hell?  Why not just leave ‘em alone, so they can be saved automatically?”  That question kinda side railed that feller and his thinkin.

     But that place, called hell, is portrayed like that every week in them Sunday churches around the world, and I think a lot of ‘em Sunday preachers knows the truth.  They just like scarin folks so they’ll give more money in that dinner plate they pass around two or three times a service.

     Me and Bubba lookin in some of them religious books stumbled upon these verses that seem to be some of them  scriptures used for those  preachin the rapture and hell.

1 Thessalonians. 4:15-18, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

     Like Bubba on Saturday night, on its face, it seems to back up the rapture; it does say Christ is returnin, but let’s get a spiritual shovel and separate stuff that’s a needin to be sorted through.

      It’s interestin when you hear them scriptures read from the pulpit they always begin at verse 17, not in 15 where I started readin.  Maybe, because they don’t want to have to answer questions about verses 15 and 16 which in my mind has to be figured out first if you add them verses to a sermon and preach them to a bunch of folks.

     It says in verse 15 those that them that are raptured in the end will NOT preceded those that are currently asleep. I thought them folks was already in heaven havin a good ol’ time?  What does it mean, those that are asleep?  Is it folks in their beds snorin away, waiting for the alarm clock to ring?  Bubba thinks it could be those that have died, they sort of look like they’re sleepin.

I ain’t some really smart or brilliant type of fella as we have already established, but I can read them verses for myself.  It says those that are ASLEEP, not in heaven waitin for Jesus to do somethin?

      Now ifin they was in heaven, what’s goin to happen when that Jesus feller returns all them folks?  All those who died all them thousands of years before Jesus comes back. They be a mindin their own business floatin on clouds and playin harps, then all a sudden like they now have to come back to earth?

      How’s a feller or gal goin to get back in time for the rapture, one has to wonder, and is all them folks comin back down into their old bodies or new ones?  Is they goin to be put back in graves and the sea, and then raised from the dead? He makes all this happen so as to join with Jesus in the air and head back up to heaven. WHY?

That thinkin had me and Bubba spinnin around like some chickens with our heads chopped off.  We settled down some with some more root beer and then happen upon this scripture that really put me and Bubba in a tailspin. 

It’s in those verses just before that real famous one, you know John 3;16, the one on all them bumper stickers and billboards and the side of overpasses written in graffiti.

John 3:16, 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.

Three verses before that famous one is this verse, in red letters, to boot; that librarian even told me that meant it was actual words Jesus spoke.  So, me and Bubba took a big swallow of root beer and read these words in,

John 3:13, ¹³ No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

        Me and Bubba both read that scripture, he looked at me kinda puzzled like and I looked back in the same way, cause we was both real puzzled.

     Why does that Jesus fella say nobody’s in heaven? Specially when them preacher fellers say everybody’s in heaven when they die.  Come to think of it, have you ever heard of a preacher sayin someone’s in hell at their funeral?  Me and bubba was a thinkin somethin was wrong, We both just know’d it, kinda like when the hammer hits your thumb.

     In my way of figurin, someone has got to be a fibbin, and I don’t think it’s that Jesus fella, cause there are some other verses that seem to say pretty much the same thing.

Try this one for instance,

Ecclesiastes 9: For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.

       So, them dead folks don’t know ifin they are in heaven havin fun or hell as main attraction at a  barbecue?   I know folks say me and bubba don’t know nothin, but we still have heartbeats and can go fishin and huntin.

     So, where are these dead folks? Are they just misty lookin spirits floatin about, but then, wouldn’t spirits know they was spirits?  Wouldn’t they at least know they was once human, like some folks believe spirts act.  Try one more verse on for size, see how it fits in this whole stirred up mess.

This section of the Old Testament says this in that book of Daniels:

Daniel 12:1-3, “At that time Michael shall stand up,

The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble,

Such as never was since there was a nation,

Even to that time.  And at that time your people shall be delivered, Everyone who is found written in the book. 

² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

³ Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness

Like the stars forever and ever.

       We keep runnin into this problem of good folks and bad folks bein in the same place after death.  Now bein the thinker I am, it seems to me we got to do some real refigurin.  Kinda like Bubba trying to put a fence on his property line and it runnin through a river, he was a tryin to keep the neighbors fish on his side of the fence.

       But take a look at what was said about this David feller by ol’ Peter talkin to all them other nations in that Acts book. Acts 2:34-35, “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, ³⁵ Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’

       Well, that David fella who is famous for killin that giant with a slingshot, he ain’t in heaven.  Ifin he didn’t make it through them pearly gates, how is someone like me or Bubba goin to make it there?  Cus, that particular fella will be sittin at the right hand of God someday the Bible says.  Ifin we’re like that King David feller then what we can look forward to is a long nap waitin on God to wake us up, like mama tellin me to get out of bed at 7 on Sunday mornin to milk the cows before church.  Another scripture that kinda says the same thing.

1 Cor. 15:51-52  seems to backup this notion as well.

 ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Just like me and Bubba, we all sleep on a daily basis, me and bubba probably more than most anyways.  Like most folks when the chickens go to bed, we go to bed, and when mama starts crowin we get out of bed.  We rise up after many hours of peaceful slumber, knowin not a single thing while we was sleepin like a log.  We then get up and go to work or hopefully fishin or huntin.  Bubba says, “It’s like time done stopped and we lost our arm-watch.  We don’t know one second from one year, or even a thousand years, ain’t that a hoot?”

     This backs up the thinking that when we die, we is simply sleepin, waitin out time so all His church could be with Christ when He returns to get them souls.  But wait, don’t these same people who believe in the rapture also say when you die you go to heaven or hell right straight away depending on if you was a sinner or a do-gooder?

       So, help me figure this out, our souls are either in heaven or hell when we die but when Jesus comes back he raptures only them folks who are good and here on earth but not the souls already in heaven?  The ones in hell are lost forever because they done sinned against God, so they’re nowhere to be found.  They’re in hell payin for their sins and sinning is a bad thing to do, but what’s sin? Bubba and I found 2 verses on what that sin was that sent folks to hell.

1 John 3:4,  Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

Also in:

Romans 4:15,  because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

So, sin is the transgression of the law, but whose law, man’s law or God’s law?  That Bible book speaks of God’s holy law, not man’s, but it does say.

Romans 13:1-7,  Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.  ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.  Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority?  Then do what is right and you will be commended.  ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good.  But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.  They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.  ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

⁶ This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Now, man has all kinds of dumb ideas about laws.  They use them to enforce their will on man and govern man, good or bad, they’re man’s laws.  But sin in the Bible is goin against God’s laws, disobeyin man’s laws can result in sin at times, but goin against God’s laws is sin everytime, cause it says in:

James 2:10,  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

There are some stuff that falls under traditions but that all falls under man as well.  It seemd to me and Bubba traditions are a big thing with men when it comes to believing in that Jesus feller.

     But the feller done went and spoke bad about them traditions, he said we put them before God’s commands. He said that in the scripture:

Matthew 15:6-9, Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.  ⁷ You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ⁸ “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

⁹ They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.

       So, the scriptures say we only honor God with our lips and not our hearts.  Me and Bubba got to wonderin if that went deeper than just the law?

     Like that old train on bad tracks, we done slid off the rails again, so let’s get back on.  Another verse done jumped up about the soul that seemd to confuse me and Bubba somewhat.  You know it says in:

Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.

It also is a sayin in:

Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.  The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

     Now me and Bubba was a wonderin about this verse, cause if a soul can die, is it immortal?  Well we did some real heavy figurin on that question.  Me and Bubba done decided, it can’t be an immortal thing we are born with, especially ifin it can die and it belongs to God.

     We just couldn’t figure it any other way, God says a soul that breaks God’s law, is a sinner and dies.  The scriptures don’t say it’s goin to hell, and nowhere could we find where it says the good ol’ folks are goin to heaven.

     Me and Bubba figured we better check that Strongs feller out and see what he says a soul is, a total person, body and spirit, but here is what them words say.

Strong’s concordance:

H5315 nephesh neh’·fesh soul, life person, mind, heart, creature, body, himself, yourselves, dead, will, desire, man, any, appetite, misc.

H5397nĕshamah nesh·ä· mä’ a puff, i.e. wind, angry or

vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect. or (concretely)

an animal:–blast, (that) breath(-eth), inspiration, soul,

Spirit.

The soul can be just a whole bunch of stuff, not just some type of spirit.  So, when folks use the word soul to describe someone they believe is dead and gone forever, it ain’t really eternal then, is it?  Cause it can be a fish some kinda creature or just plain ol’ breath.

     Many honest hard-workin everyday plain livin folks insist on believing there is a place called hell.  They’re sure as the hat sittin on one’s head it’s one of two places a feller can end up after we leave this physical world. 

It’s one of them depictions of a place full of  intense, consuming fire; made just for those wicked folks who won’t ever repent.

     A place filled with demons and devils and the like you ain’t never seen, where tortured souls of past lives and transgressions, live out eternity in utter anguish.  All the while, Satan is sittin on his throne in the midst of all this horror, describe as having a red bodysuit, horns, pitchfork and a pointed tail.

     As we already said a couple of times, it’s also a place for the unfortunates who never had the opportunity to know who Jesus the Christ is and His message so that they might believe.  These downtrodden folks have no future other than livin an eternity with the creature that set all this in motion.  It’s like livin peacefully on the other side of town and the police come and arrest you for a crime you had nothin to do with and they know it.  It’s a teachin by Sunday preachers, a place (if real) that is opposite to what we believe God represents.  Why would a lovin God create such an awful place for those unfortunate souls, even if they was wicked?  How did we get the vision of hell we see in cartoons, movies and churches today?

The English word comes from either of, or from both the Old English (ultimately Anglo-Saxon) and Old Norse word hell meaning the nether world, the underworld, or land of the dead.

     Me and Bubba did some real hard readin and found all through history, many authors have written about that place.  There was a book called Dante’s Inferno, is probably the most famous, and it said.

Inferno (Italian for “Hell”) is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the “realm … of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen”.

Some poem written by a feller in the 14^th century and now we get stuck with bein threatin to go to hell when we die..

     Now there is a story in them scriptures me and Bubba come across that seems like God done throwed a bunch of people into hell all at once good and bad.  It’s about a fellow named Korah and some of his friends and family.  Korah was the elder son of a fellow called Izhar of a tribe called Levi.  Now, this Korah feller, was of the same tribe as Moses and Aaron who God says was the leaders.  This feller got all heated up cause he felt he should be a leader and he led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, accusin them of being all uppity and exaltin themselves above the congregation of the Lord.

     Korah had a lot of encouragement from his beer drinkin buddies, and they said they’d back his play.  So Korah and 250 other of his gang got together to challenge Moses.  They yelled at Moses “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them.  Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

Now this Moses feller challenged them boys to a test to see who God wanted in charge of things.  Now to make a long story short, Korah and his beer drinkin buddies didn’t win the test, then God opened up the earth and swallowed all those good-ol’-boys, even their families, and all they owned.  What’s more interrestin, “fire came out from the LORD” and consumed the other 250 men who were party to Korah’s rebellion.  The rest of the Israelites standin around gawkin were so scared they took off and denied knowin any of them folks.

     The followin day after they got enough liquid courage in them, them folks came back complainin that they had “killed the LORD’s people.”  Now, most right thinkin folks would let sleepin dogs lay, but cause they went and done this, God threatened to destroy the whole bunch, not sparin a single one.  God sent the plague among them cause He was pretty well fed up with that kinda attitude.  But that Moses and Aaron stepped in askin God for some mercy for them rebels and God said, okie dokie cus you fellers asked.  But you know 14,700 of them hard headed Israelites died before they could get it stopped.  Them Israelites learnd somthin that day, you keep skunks and bankers at a distance, and don’t be a listenin to folks who think they got all the answers.  The story is in that book called Numbers in chapter 16, but the interestin part of that whole story is in:

Numbers 16:30-34,  But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.”

³¹ Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods.  ³³ So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.  ³⁴ Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up also!”

God created a new thing, that shouldn’t be too hard to understand for most folks.  Cus, God don’t normally go around opening up holes in the ground and droppin folks with their families in them.  Moses and those people hadn’t seen nothin like that before and it scared them into a right way of thinkin, ifin you know what I mean. 

When it says they perished in verse 33, it meant: they simply died that day and were buried there by the ground openin, then closing in on top of them, as I said, it was an unnatural event.

       But perish doesn’t have some spiritual meanin like some smart folks believe, they are a sayin, those folks were sent to hell.  But that would mean they took their tents, shoes, tent pegs (got to hold the tent up) household goods and everything they owned with them. Why would they need all that stuff in hell, wouldn’t it just burn up in the flames?

       Me and Bubba tried lookin that word perish up in that Strongs feller commentin book, and he didn’t have nothin to say about perish in that verse.  Looked in a couple of other feller’s books and they don’t say much about it neither, so we looked in other Bible translations and the Modern one used the word vanished instead of perish. 

So, it would say they vanished from among the assembly, we figured that probably makes a whole lot more sense, a hole open up in the ground and they vanished.  Sort of reminded me of a time when Bubba fell out of the boat, he just vanished under the surface of the water.  Least ways not until he popped up a few yards away with a bass hanging out his shirt.

       Hell, we was a thinkin, me and bubba that is, is gettin  a bad rap, sort of.  So we figured we had better begin tryin to see what hell was all about in them scriptures, cuz ifin we was headin there, we needed to know what to bring along.

       Now, them scriptures use several fancy words includin hell and them words mean this is where them bad folks wind up.

       One of them words is Sheol and thisis the Hebrew underworld, abode of the dead, the netherworld · the land/abode of the dead · the infernal regions · the Inferno the nether regions  the abyss · the abode of the damned. 

That sounded a whole lot like the bar Bubba and I go to on occasions when we need to get some refreshments.  One might say that bar is the land of the dead, and if you ask most of the wives of the men that go there, they’d agree. 

Also, it said this in another place, “The Hebrew word Sheol is probably derived from a root “to make hollow,” kinda like Bubba’s head, and was seen as the common receptacle of the dead and in the great many places the word appears in the OT, Theword Hell, in the Old Testament, is always a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol.

       We read another Hebrew definition and it said, She’ol, in the Hebrew Bible, is a place of darkness to which all the dead go, both the righteous and the unrighteous, regardless of the moral choices made in life, a place of stillness and darkness cut off from life and from God.  The inhabitants of Sheol are the “shades”, entities without personality or strength.  Under some circumstances they are thought to be able to be contacted by the living, as the Witch of Endor contacts the shade of Samuel for Saul, but such practices are forbidden.

Now that was their idea of what this word meant, not ours, but the thing was, that confused me and Bubba cause it said they believed both the good and the bad would go there.  Now that really did scare me and Bubba, we thought we had a chance there for awhile, but things ain’t lookin so good now.

We found, Sheol is in the Bible sixty-five times.  It is translated “the pit” three times, “the grave” thirty-one times, and “hell” thirty-one times.

       So, we figured we would go into one of them other books and do some double checkin.  We found the Bible uses the word Hades just like it does that word Sheol.  Now accordin to the way people use these words, Hades is a lot like sheol and, it’s the underworld; the abode of the spirits of the dead.

     Now, you’d be thinkin that’s where that Satan feller lived most of the year, but you’d be wrong accordin to them ancient fellers. 

     That word Hades has been taught in many sort of ways by scholarly folks, sayin them Ancient Greeks figured hell as being some underground world.  Me and Bubba was a wonderin again, was there really an underworld?  We done decided we was a gonna stop digging wells for folks, cause ifin in actuality, it was just beneath our feet we didn’t want to accidentally fall in, bad enough we might get sent there.

       By their account, we all will exit this life one day or another, no mystery there.  What the mystery to them is, what happens after death?  I got to tell you, it’s a mystery to me and Bubba too, cus that kinda concerns a lot of folks around here.

       So the Greek fellers had their word for hell, it was called Hades and is used eleven times, being rendered “hell” ten of those times and “grave” once.  One of the commentaries was sayin Hades was a New testament word. This word only occurs in the NT and is used just like the Old testament word “sheol.” 

     But we done seen where they sent the good and the bad to that place called Sheol and as a matter of fact, it’s the same as Hades. Now lookin through all that stuff we come across this verse  just a layin there:

Psalm 86:13

¹³ For great is Your mercy toward me,

And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

A feller might be askin themselves, can God jerk someone out of the flames of an ever-burning hell fire when they were put there for sinning a whole bunch?  I guess He could, after all, He is God; but why would He?  We thought them folks was called the irredeemable or something like that, and they went to hell so nobody had to deal with them no more.

     Bubba felt if you believed in the way folks think of hell, the way that preacher feller described it, one must believe hell can’t be a permanent place for them ifin God can pull you out.

Bubba found a place where it talked about the Jesus Messiah usin that word Hades four times in the Bible. First one bein in:

Matt. 16:18,And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Now this was what a smart feller would call a symbolic meanin cause they were a speakin in a town called Caesarea Philippi, somewhere no mama would want their child to go.  It was a heathen city filled with immorality and corruption.  So much so it would make one’s hair stand on end, just like when Bubba’s sister ask me out on a date.

     Them Pagans believed that water flowin out of a cave in the side of a mountain meant there was an abyss in  there, the word alone scared me silly.

       Two things about this, the Greeks believed that the underworld was very much a real place and that the lucky few, blessed by the gods, could venture into.  Why?  Can’t say, have to ask the preacher.

       But them books gives us an example, a feller called Ulysses, not like the union general whom we don’t name our children after.  Nope, it was some Greek feller who went on somethin called a quest to return to his wife and family to some island called Ithaca after the Trojan War.  It must have been some further distance south, since I never heard of it.  Well, this ole boy visited the underworld, meetin with the spirits of his dead father and the dead spirit named Achilles.

But the folks was so confused as to where they was, they thunk the underworld was located in the west, beyond the someplace called the pillars of Heracles.  Now, me and Bubba went to the falls on the west side of the state one time and ain’t never ran across any road signs pointin to a place like that.

Another feller called Hesiod, well he was a sayin the underworld was somewhere in Oceanus, but he was a callin it something else, the Atlantic Ocean, which he said this was where that Hades spot was.

     Now how can a place that is full of ever-burnin, unquenchable fire be in a big ol’ ocean?  Don’t make no sense to me or Bubba who is only slighly dumber than me.  It had my tongue twisted around my eye teeth and I couldn’t see what I was sayin or thinkin tryin to figure that one out.

     In a thing called the Odyssey, says it’s a myth datin back to some years back in the Heroic Age of Greece.  A feller called Homer, we have a neighbor called Homer, real skinny feller and quiet around folks, dogs don’t like him much either.  Well, this Homer feller says the underworld is a gloomy realm of deceased spirits and shades.  Bubba was a wonderin why they sent the livin room blinds along with someone to hell.  Come to find out shade means the spirit or ghost of a dead person, residin in the underworld.  But you know what, in them myths and stories, they depict in the past as Hades bein described as an abode of the living not just the dead.

       This book done went and give an example, in the myth of the Titanomachy, ifin you can say that word, you got more smarts than me and Bubba.  It was the war between the Titans and the Olympians, Zeus, son of Kronos, rebelled against his father and the Titans, the elder race of gods, and emerged victorious in a ten-year-long war.  That was what we call a dysfunctional family back in the holler.

       Upon his victory, this Zeus feller imprisoned the defeated Titans in another place called Tartarus. But they are a sayin there is no mention of spirits, shades, and ghosts in this version of Hades, whatever all them things are.  It also says, if Hesiod, some other feller, had called Hades and Tartarus by another name, no one would even know that this war between the Titans and them Olympians was in any way in a spiritual realm.

Now, this Hesiod feller also talks further about hades and he gets real interestin about this mysterious realm.  He says in that place where Zeus imprisoned then beat them Titan neighbors up; he did it in Hades.  He was a sayin an anvil could be dropped from the earth would take nine days to fall to Hades, and another nine to finally reach Tartarus.  Also, in a writin called the Iliad, Zeus asserts that Tartarus is as far beneath Hades as Heaven is above the Earth.

       So about this Tartarus place, that book done described it this way, it was a mythical Greek place, and was both a primordial deity that existed before the Olympians, as well as a name to describe a region of the Underworld.

       Over time, and with the passage of generations, the true nature of Hades as the resting place of the souls had become corrupted into the final resting place of all souls as we have seen by their very definitions.

       We need to be a gittin back to our Bible story and lasso all this together.  Them Greeks and Jews of Caesarea Philippi believed all them caves were an opening to the underworld where all kinds of crazy stuff happened.  Them half man and half goat fellers stayed there and only come out every so often, I think they was a callin it a god named Pan.  This thing was a bad nightmare from too much drinkin and it was some kinda pagan god to these unbridled heathens.

Caesarea Philippi stood near the openin of that cave with spring water good enough to make prime moonshine flowin from it.  Superstitious as the folks was, they naturally figured the cave was some gate to that Hades place, the underworld of the dead.

Caesarea Philippi was the worst place one could imagine that book says, all kinds of evils, and just plain bad dudes and dudets; that spot was filled with idols, shrines, and them folks was doin all kinds of immoral worship stuff.

Stuff I wouldn’t even whisper to my best friend ifin we was alone in the woods.

       On a warm sunny day, Jesus took them impressionable young disciple fellers to that place while a wild party was happin and made a real loud speech. 

Jesus got pretty worked up when he was a speakin to them boys; he wanted them and the folks stadin around to hear what he was a saying.  He got right up in front of everybody and challenged his young disciple fellers to confront them “gates of Hades.”  He told that Peter feller, he was a rock and them gates wasn’t a gonna prevail against any church he done built, not even them goat fellers.

       In that wicked place Jesus promised them young fellers that the “gates of Hades” would not be able to stand against the power of God’s people, they woulda fallen, just like that Korah feller and his folks.  So, we done figured, them folks believed Hades is a place on Earth and there is a gate you could walk right through if you like doin that sort of thing.  All this still don’t fit the definition of today’s ideas of hell and what that preacher was a sayin.

       There are several other goin-ons in the Bible a feller might look at, examples cause it was busier than a cat tryin to walk on a hot tin roof in the middle of summer around that country.  But if you go and turn them pages to: Acts 2:25-28, For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

²⁶ Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;

Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.  ²⁷ For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

²⁸ You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

       Not only did King David not go to heaven when he died, he seems to be a sayin, his soul is in Hades.  If you believe Peter made a mistake when he said this, look at this Psalm by David himself.

Psalms 16:9-11, Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.  ¹⁰ For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.  ¹¹ You will show me the path of life;

       But was this writtin by that King David feller or a prophecy of the Messiah?  This whole thing is gettin messier than multi-car pileup on an icy road on Saturday night after the bars close.  But it does seem to back up them ancient Hebrews’ idea about the good and bad goin to Sheol or Hades.

Now Jesus, the real Messiah feller, tells that John feller  in the last book of the Bible, He has the keys to this place called Hades, not Satan. It’s in:

Revelation 1:18, And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Now, that don’t make no sense, kinda like tryin to make a pickup out of a Volkswagen.  Where did them keys come from, we know where the gate was, but no one was sayin you needed some keys.  In fact, all them preacher fellers a sayin all you need to do to get in was act real bad on this Earth and you got throwed in.  Now you think all that is crazy, take a good look at these words.

Revelation 6:8, So I looked, and behold, a pale horse.  And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him.  And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

This reads like a scary book of some sort like the headless horseman from the farm next door.  Here we got a figure called death ridden around killin all sorts of folks and hell followin behind waitin to scoop them up.  Me and Bubba was a wonderin if that was just the bad folks or good ones as well, it didn’t say.

     Bubba had another one of his crazy thoughts; is this hell’s version of the rapture, the good goes one way and the bad the other in a twinkle of an eye?  Well, it gets even weirder than that, check these verses out.

Revelation 20:13-15, The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.  And they were judged, each one according to his works.

The sea gave up the dead, I thought they was in heaven!  Also, them folks got judged after they was sent to Hades or Hell, one would think they would be judge before they went into the fiery flames, but we need to keep on readin.  It also says they was judged accordin to their works, WHAT works, our preacher man done said we didn’t need no works, all we needed to do was just believe in that Jesus feller.  Ifin we need some kinda works, me and Bubba decided we need to know where we could go and apply for a job.

     We’ll get on that after we get through this, and then, Hades done went and gathered all them folks up.  Like two buddies walkin down a road, death and Hades was a  travelin around grabbin folks for some mysterious reason.  Whew, this is hard tryin to get to the bottom of all this, seems like we were a goin in circles.  But if that done something to your thinkin process, makin you dizzy, get a load of this.

 ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  ¹⁵And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

       Bubba done got all excited, jumped up and yelled, “Answer me a question please, how does hell get thrown into hell?, don’t make no sense.” We figured it must be another one of them mysteries.  Me and bubba was gettin real confused by this time cus, none of this stuff was a makin any sense.

Bubba was sniffin around that library and found a book called Vine’s expository dictionary of NT words:

so he looked up them words Hades and Sheol, and it said this:

 Hades “the region of departed spirits of the lost” (but including the blessed dead in periods preceding the ascension of Christ). It has been thought by some that the word etymologically meant “the unseen” (from _, negative, and, “to see”), but this derivation is questionable; a more probable derivation is from, signifying “all receiving.” It corresponds to “Sheol” in the OT. In the KJV of the OT and NT; it has been unhappily rendered “hell,” e.g., Ps. 16:10; or “the grave,” e.g., Gen. 37:35; or “the pit,” Num. 16:30, 33; in the NT the revisers have always used the rendering “hades”; in the OT, they have not been uniform in the translation, e.g. in Isa. 14:15 “hell” (marg.,“Sheol”); usually they have “Sheol” in the text and “the grave” in the margin. It never denotes the grave, nor is it the permanent region of the lost; in point of time it is, for such, intermediate between deceased and the doom of Gehenna.

It says at the end it don’t mean the grave, but in the definitions it does say the grave, wish they’d go on and make up their minds about this stuff, does it or don’t it mean the grave?

       Another one of them smart book witted fellers gave a definition of that Tartarus place, he says its:

“The infernal regions of ancient Greek mythology.  The name was originally used for the deepest region of the world, the lower of the two parts of the underworld, where the gods locked up their enemies.  It gradually came to mean the entire underworld.  As such it was the opposite of Elysium which is an equivalent of Heaven. 

Just another version of a myth called hell.”

They keep a callin these places myths but talk like they really do exist at the same time, them fellers are more confused than me and Bubba.

       Maybe it means there’s some place in between the grave and going to heaven or hell?  A place to stop for a drink and bathroom break along the way.  Them book witted fellas must be a believin that might be the case,  cus they’re callin that place Gehenna.

So once again, me and Bubba done went and scrounged through some more books about that place called Gehenna, same ways as we go a lookin for a new car in a junkyard.

Searchin through them books we found one written by a fellow named Unger, and he said the following about that  Gehenna place.

GEHEN´NA (ge-henʹa; Gk. geenna, for the Heb. hinnōm, the “Valley of Hinnom”). A deep, narrow glen to the S of Jerusalem where the Jews offered their children to Molech. The OT renders “valley of the son of Hinnom,” or “Ben Hinnom” (2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:31; 19:2– 6). In later times it served as a receptacle of all sorts of putrefying matter and all that defiled the holy city, and so became the representative or image of the place of everlasting punishment, especially on account of its ever-burning fires; and to this fact the words of Christ refer when He mentions “the unquenchable fire.”

What me and Bubba done figured out about that Gehenna place is that it was a real place then and now cause we looked on a map of Jerusalem.  This very day you can get on a horse or in a some kinda vehicle and go there.  In the day of Jesus and before, it was a trash dump, like cousin Bernie’s junkyard in the country.  It’s a place where they burned up their trash and junk they don’t need no longer.  In Jesus’ day, it also was a place where them Roman fellers would throw bodies of prisoners after they was executed.  So, it became a place where the condemned would find themselves, ifin their bodies weren’t claimed by immediate family members.

       So, as usual, I’m a bit fuzzy headed over this new information, not to mention bubba bein worrisome over hell. After that last bit of info, he spent several minutes soakin his head in the water fountain tryin to clear his brain.  Them folks at that library place was none too happy about that neither, seems he left a ring around the edge.

       We have a place called hell that all them supposedly good folks wants to throw them bad folks, cause they don’t behave properly.  Even them babies and folks that never heard the name of Jesus mentioned, gotta keep throwin that in, cause we done seen on the news where folks is now a killin full born babies.  Bubba was a sayin, you might get thrown in jail for killin animals after they was born, but in some of them big cities, you can now kill babies and folks just cheer and have a big-o-party cause they can kill little defenseless full born babies.  Guess it would be better to be born as a dog or cat than a human in them towns.

       The innocent are unable to fend for themselves, God says we’re supposed to take care of them tiny folks and He was a real serious about that.

Matthew 19:13-15, Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ¹⁵ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Guess them big city folks don’t go to church much, or read them scriptures about them tiny ones.  Kinda like when we was kids, ifin me and my brother were a fightin outside and makin a ruckus, or all the kids done went and got in trouble for no reason.  Mama would stick her head out the door and yell for us to come inside cause the yard was no place for fightin and yelling, so we go inside and fight and yell.

The point bein the good done went and got caught up with the bad it seems and that don’t seem fair.  I always believed God was fair, if nothin else, He wasn’t like mama.  God knows how to sort out the good from the bad, folks, we just don’t seem to know how.  This Jesus feller, the son of God, He’ll make it alright and them big city folks will have to be a answering for their thinkin.

       Let’s get back to that nagging ol’ word, hell and like a broke shovel, try and get a handle on it.  As we done went and seen, Hell represents the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom (the valley of Tophet) same as a Aramaic kinda language word; says it’s found twelve times in the NT, eleven of which are uttered by Jesus Himself.  He who says to his brother, Thou fool (see under FOOL), will be in danger of  “the hell of fire,”

But in Matthew 5:22; it says this:  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.  Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court.  And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

       Simply for calling someone a fool can land you into a forever burning hell fire, what kinda God would do this?  Me and Bubba was sort of wonderin ifin this was the Savior of mankind as repeated by so many people claimin to be God’s people.  Ain’t there any mercy left to give to the ones not deserving of this fate?

Matt. 10:28, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

       This don’t make no sense neither, thought just the eternal soul went to hell, not the body too.

So, let’s line all this up like shootin at empty bottles on a fence, and see what we done got.

Hades, Greek word, good and bad go there, an underground abode.

Sheol, Hebrew word, good and bad go there, an underground abode.

Gehenna fire, a place outside Jerusalem where trash and condemned criminals were burned.

Hell, a place where the body and soul goes, for the smallest of unrepented infractions.

Hades will be cast into the lake of fire it says in Revelation, still pondering that one over in my ackin head.

Tartarus, a place where some mythical gods spent most of their time fightin.

Perish, meanin to go away, or disappear.

So what is this lake of fire place? We haven’t actually spoke about that, so Bubba and I did the thing we are getting good at, we dug down some more and drank some more root beer.

In Revelation 19: 19-21,  Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army.

 ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf.  With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.  The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

       These two fellers were thrown alive into that lake of fire, says the other bad fellers were kilt with a sword, we was a wonderin why that was?  Why not throw the whole bunch in the lake of fire and be done with’em my pa would say?

       I figured we better go on ahead and read the next chapter to try and understand this better, after all it was still light outside and that nice librarian lady was still cleanin the water fountain.

Revelations 20: 1-15, ¹ And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.

There’s this abyss place again. What kinda place is it? Bubba and I figured it must be hard to get out of, it takes that Dragon a thousand years to get out accordin to the next verse, when he’s let loose to deceive a bunch of folks. ² He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³ He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended.  After that, he must be set free for a short time.

This Jesus feller wasn’t gonna let the evil creature know’d as Satan to deceive them good peoples, only for for a short amount of time.  Me and Bubba sat around tryin to remember when folks wasn’t deceived. We all got deceived over my aunt tryin to pass duck off as a thanksgiving turkey and we all got deceived when cousin Jacob announced he was a comin out of the closet, turns out he wasn’t a mechanic after all.   He didn’t know nothin about fixin cars, just a foolin all us.

       So, this deception thing must be some kinda religious thing based on religious stuff, and I’m a thinkin a whole bunch of folks are bein fooled by all kinds of folks right now.

     Let’s keep a goin like I’m a always sayin to my favorite mule: ⁴ I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.  And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.  They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or in their hands.

       Now, how on earth do you behead a spirit ifin it is a eternal soul?  How does one do that and why would someone want to anyway, they bein already dead?  Got to think about this some more, must be physical because they was beheaded, cause a spirit would just grow another one, that was all I could figure anyway.

     They was good souls cause they stuck up for that  Jesus feller and wouldn’t let them others bully him around, but who are them folks and what happens to them?  They must be these guys in the next verses.  They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)

       They come up after a thousand years, but we was a wonderin, why?  What this book was a sayin to me and Bubba was there are a couple of groups of folks.  Some folks in one group and their families is gonna live somewhere for a thousand years, that somewhere is on planet Earth.  That would seem to be after that Jesus feller returned for His church, (bride).  But durin that thousand years there’s gonna be physical people on Earth.  Then after a thousand years, they’d be a whole different group of physical folks bein resurrected.  But the first one is the one all the folks today are a waitin for.

This is the first resurrection.  ⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.

       Now we done went and got us a first resurrection, which means there must be a second one which we done talked on some, and it says there is one after that thousand years are done.  Me and Bubba’s question is, why two?  We was a figurin we’d be gettin an answer if we keep our noses in them books so let’s go on.

The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

       Bubba was a sayin he didn’t want to die the first time, much less a second time, so he wanted to be part of that first resurrection.  It sounded like the grand prize at the country fair.  Bubba asked me ifin I was a thinkin this was that rapture thing?  I thought on it some and figured the first resurrection just might be when that Jesus feller comes back and gets His bride.  Them folks a waitin on that Jesus feller to return call it the rapture, and that might be a word for it, but it ain’t nothin like what they is a thinkin it is.

       Like a car in neutral, let’s keep a rollin on, ⁷ When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle.  In number they are like the sand on the seashore.

       Here’s where they done gone and let that Satan feller lose after the thousand years and all the deceivin stuff starts all over again.  All kinds of bad stuff begins to happen when that Satan feller gets his way, just read the next verses.

⁹ They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves.  But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

¹⁰ And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.  They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Now it says that Satan feller was lassoed and thrown into that lake of fire place we been talkin about.  That’s so that feller won’t get lose no more and be a botherin folks.  Accordin to my count and I’m usin my toes and fingers, that only makes three gone into the lake of fire.

So what’s gonna happin to the rest of them folks leftover who done come up in that second resurrection?  Maybe we’ll find out in the next verses.

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.  The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the book of life.  The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.

     This is the second resurrection Bubba was a sayin, he figured all those poor folks who got left out of the first resurrection and babies that never heard the name of Jesus, who was aborted or died was a gonna come up in this one.  This is judgment day for all of mankind, a time of reckonin.

     If you read the next verses you see ifin them folks can’t get their acts straight, then they get thrown into this lake of  fire and that’s the second death.  Why’d they call it the second death, me and Bubba was a puzzelin over.  We done figured it was a fire that kilt both the physical and spirit in man, so you’d be no more for all eternity. 

It’s kinda like sink or swim time for the whole world, they’re either gonna accept this Jesus feller, or take the plunge.

The lake of fire is the second death.  ¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

       Me and Bubba figured we better find out how one gets their name writtin in that book, we sure don’t want to go skinny dippin in a lake filled with unquenchable fire.

But here in Matt. 8:12, “but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

What is this outer darkness place?  Me and Bubba figured there is no darker place than death and the grave, a place where time don’t even exist.

     It’s a realm of absolute blackness, where the whole person, soul and body are oblivious to time and circumstances, it’s death, it’s a nothin at all.  It says there’s gonna be weeping and a gnashing of teeth, but Bubba’s sister ani’t got no teeth, what then.  Bubba said they’d be false teeth given to them folks.

    Now I’m not good at makin things up, never have been.   I need a road map just to get on the other side of the farm, so I have to look stuff up and go by what it says, like the Bible.  This verse in that Bible book seems to backup everything I was readin.

Acts 24:15,  I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.

Now, all them folks are a comin up together, in the time of the second resurrection, them preacher fellers don’t say nothin about this.  It is for the just and unjust. Well don’t the just come up in the first resurrection?  But, it says they are a gonna be judged accordin to their works.  So, it must have to do with how folks is a actin, good or bad.  Scriptures even say there is an order as to how the resurrections is goin to happen, not all them folks is resurrected at the same time.  I’m not kiddin neither, and I ain’t been drinkin, not for a couple of days anyway.  Read this Bible verse for more road map like verses.

1 Cor. 15:20,  But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. ²³ But each one in his own order:

Here is the order I’ve told ya’ll about:

Christ the firstfruits, That Christ feller was the first one, and the only one up to this moment in time, no other folks been resurrected yet, all them dead folks are asleep waitin for that heavenly alarm clock to go off which the next verses say.

 afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

The next resurrection to happen, the Bible says, are of those that are Christ like folks, you know the just ones, or the righteous ones.  Good folk, God fearin, Bible totin, scripture readin folks.  Everybody wants to be on that bus, and they’re trying to get themselves a one-way ticket to Heaven.  The whole world is on tiptoes waitin for what they believe will be their ride to paradise.

These here verses is that resurrection of those folks part of the return of that Christ feller, it’s in:

Rev. 19:6-8, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia!  For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  ⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  ⁸ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Now they call them folks saints, some other verse call them folks the elect.  My mama always told me I was no saint, but if I’m a gonna be in that resurrection, I need to learn how to be one.  Bubba done figured those were the ones the Bible says is part and parcel of the church of God, His holy people.

But how we get a ticket to that one is a puzzle, ain’t  we a part of the church?  We can think through this when we read verses like this one.

1 John 5:1-5, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.  ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.  ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.  ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.  ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Me and Bubba figured we could believe this Jesus feller is the son of God, but ifin we don’t be a keepin His commandments, we be a sinners, and might just wind up in that lake.

But back to that scripture in 1^st Corinthians 15 where it says there is one other resurrection no one preaches about and it is the next one in the order, read in verse 24 of : 1 Corinthians 15:24-26,  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.  ²⁵ For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.  ²⁶ The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

The truth to me and Bubba is like walkin into a low hangin beam, knocked some sense into our heads.  It was painful to learn, but the knot on our foreheads says it’s there.  It’s those folks I spoke of earlier in that great White Throne Judgement thing.  They died doin wrong, the unjust folks.

       There are plenty of verses in the Bible that speak of more than one resurrection, but them Sunday teachin churches only preach about one, why?  All they want to do is say them folks is in a better place, and ifin you don’t stop sinning you ain’t goin to join ‘em.

     Me and Bubba kinda figured it don’t fit their agenda to explain all this.  It seems to us they ain’t gonna get as much money in the offerin plate if they teach about the all the stuff in the Bible.  Guess it’s just easier to leave out the stuff that goes against what you been a preachin.  Them preachers rarely read scriptures that say there will be a resurrection of all mankind in a huge get-together with the Jesus feller and His Father after a thousand-year reign and with His blushin bride.  Bible says them two are gonna reign together on this Earth for all that time and rule so they can clean up the mess man has made for the last six thousand years.  Cause that Christ feller says in:

John 14:1-4, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Now where is the Jesus feller goin after He comes and gets His bride (the church)?  We’re in luck, Bubba and I found a scripture that tells us where He will be, its in: Zechariah 14:1-5,  A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls. ² I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped.  Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.  ³ Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.  ⁴ On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.  ⁵ You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel.  You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.  Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

It also says in:

Joel 3:12-16, “Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side.

¹³ Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full

    and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!”

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

¹⁶ The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. 

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

It’s a gonna be right here on earth where Christ rules and where He sets up His civil government, for those that need some guidance, like Bubba.  I know folks don’t think about them words in the Bible when they read them cause they just go on and do what the preachers of this world says.

But, if you look real careful like me and Bubba went and done, you’ll see in Isaiah where He has a government on this Earth at the end time.

Isaiah 9:6-7, For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Now that Jesus feller never got to do any reignin while He was on the earth, so ifin this is about Him, then it has to be when He returns.

     In that John book I done told you about, ifin you’ll notice what it says at the end, ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

     We’ll be with Him and rule with Him on His throne,  ain’t that somethin?  It says we have to overcome though, and we has to do right by God, me and Bubba done figured that part out.

     Cause it says in Revelation 3:20-22   ²¹ To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.  ²² Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Folks don’t seem to like good news, they just nail down on one set of verses that speak contrary to the rest in the Bible.  They want to believe there is something called hell where they can throw those folks into that make them mad.

They don’t want to believe a person’s spirit is asleep waitin on a time when they be called to either the first or second resurrection.

Back to that thousand-year thing, it’s called the great White Throne Judgment in case you was wantin to know.  This is where folks are supposed to finally get a chance to know that Jesus feller and have some chance at eternal salvation.  That’s those that never had a chance to know all them Bible truths before and the name of that Jesus feller.  You know, all those aborted babies we done talked about that never had a chance in this ol’ world, them people in China, all those that never heard His name or knew His truth.

Now that librarian lady done went and bought something else up just so she could get back at Bubba for leavein that dirt ring in the water fountain.

     It was a verse she was always a contemplatin over and just couldn’t figure out how it could be a talkin about anything but hell.  It’s in that book writtin by that Luke feller, Luke 16: 19-31 and this is how it reads:

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.  ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  The rich man also died and was buried.  ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’  ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.  ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

²⁷ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’  ²⁹ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’  ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’  ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’

Now to be truthful, me and Bubba was torn over these Bible verses, cause we done figured that, that hell place was a myth by all accounts.  Me and Bubba done got in our minds the Bible is a speakin about folks dyin and bein a put in holes in the ground so’s they could sleep.

       This here scripture was makin us a wonder ifin we done jumped the gun on that thinkin.  So, we still had a hour before that book place closed and we begun a huntin some kinda explanation for this.  We found a feller named Bryan T. Huie in some writtins and we read what he had to say on this Luke 16.

     It ain’t viewed as a parable to a lot of folks. Me and Bubba knew it was though cause it said it was a parable in our Bibles.  Them real Christian folks and preachers think it’s a true story.

     It’s thought that it shows what happens to bad people and the punishment of sinners being cast into that hell place, you know the mythical one.  Most folks think the Jesus feller was a tellin a true, literal story. That Huie feller said, If you gunna believe this as well, you gotta overlook several facts to arrive at that conclusion.

        He also said, “A more thorough, examination of this story will show that the generally accepted interpretations of this passage are misleading.”

       Now that Huie feller just went on and outlined the whole thing for us, so I’ll let him do most of the talkin from here on in, cuz I don’t like chewin my tobacci twice as Pa would say.  But, I can’t stop Bubba from makin comments, you knows how he is.

       First, thing he went and done, he was a sayin the Messiah never accuses the rich man of any sin. He is simply portrayed as a wealthy man who lived the good life.

       To add to that, Lazarus is never proclaimed to be a righteous man neither.  He is just one who had the misfortune to be poor, unable to care for himself.  If this story is about a real person, then the logical implication is that all the rich are destined to burn in hell and poor folks will all be saved.

     That Huie feller figured, If hell is truly as it is pictured in this story, then the saved will be able to view the lost who are burnin there.  It would kinda be like watchin your pickup goin through the wash while watchin through a glass window.

     Could anyone enjoy their own eternal existence if they were able to see lost friends and family, being burnt up in hell, eternally?

     That is ifin hell (as it’s  traditionally taught) is an abyss of fire and brimstone where sinners are tormented forever.

     Now Huie asked, does anyone really believe that one drop of water would relieve the pain and anguish of someone sufferin in hell’s flames?  Kinda like Hades bein in the Atlantic ocean, don’t make no sense.

If the story is completely true, then all of them things Christ said must be factual.  If all the points of the story ain’t literal, then we got to view this here tale as one of them analogy things.  Jesus used them analogy and allegory things to teach larger spiritual truths.  Christ says   his purpose for speakin to the people in parables was to hide the real truth.

     I know we teach about swmmin and about them alligators, they can be dangerous ifin folks don’t know they’re there.  Mr. Huie done went and give us an example, Matthew 13:3, 10-15, ³ Then He spoke many things to them in parables . . . ¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”  ¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  ¹⁴ And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; ¹⁵ for the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'”

Now, that Jesus feller, he spoke to the people in parables to hide the deeper spiritual meanins of what he was sayin.  Christ as He is called, intended for his people, those who keep His commandments, to understand what the parables truly meant.  It is no wonder, then, that so many have misunderstood what Christ was teachin.  Especially with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

Me and Bubba done seen what He was a talkin about after lookin hell up in all them books, seems the truth is hidden from folks.

Let’s do the Leroy and Bubba thing and take a deeper look and see if there is another explanation, let’s also consider context as we mosey along here.

That Luke feller tells us that all them tax collectors and sinners were a comin to Christ to hear what he was a sayin.

Luke 15:1-3, Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.  ² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”  ³ So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

Before Christ gave the parable of Lazarus and the Rich man, he gave four other parables: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, The Lost Son, The Unjust  Steward:

The first three of them parables got one thing in common.  They’s about losin somethin and findin it again, they’s all about repentance.  This made them Pharisees and scribes stompin mad and angry-like, cuz they  know’d the words makin them look bad cuz it was about them.  They was probably envious of Christ’s growin fame, afraid that his popularity wouldn’t look right with their own authority and prestige.

The Messiah first spoke a three-part parable (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son) to them gathered around him.

Now this Huie feller says, them parables were designed to show them tax collectors and sinners (as well as them Pharisees) that God was concerned for them.  God would seek out the lost and welcome them into His family when they repented and turned back to Him.

       We always was needin to be a turnin back to him Bubba pointed out, cause folks is the same today as they was then.

     You can throw in them self-righteous, Pharisees and scribes, who were constantly accusin that Jesus feller.  Now we gonna give a caution: Christ did acknowledge them as the legitimate religious teachers, they shoulda been the ones tellin them people of God’s love for them, before Christ came.

Matt. 23:1-3, Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, ² saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.

Them fellers was the ones that shoulda been the ones teaching them sinners, tellin them to return to God to receive His love and forgiveness.  But, they ain’t doin what they said they was a suppose to.

Their own uppitiness and contempt for them  tax collectors and sinners who didn’t measure up to their ways looked down upon.  Them Pharisees and scribes didn’t want anything to do with them other fellers, they figured they was accursed.  An example of their disdain is in:

John 7:47-49, Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived?  ⁴⁸ Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?  ⁴⁹ But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

Afterward, speakin primarily to his disciples but with the Pharisees (and probably the crowd) still a listenin in.   Christ told the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13).

In Luke 16:14, showed it got kinda heated, cause them scribes and Pharisees realized that was aimed right at them, verse: ¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.

With this parable stuff, them ole boys got real mad.  They scoffed and kicked their feet makin all kinda noise at Jesus.  This Christ feller ends His response to the  sneerin of the Pharisees and scribes with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.  Now let’s give a right good lookin over to this parable, like we would a prize cow at the county fair.  We’ll look at the whole cow in detail, that would be with the other 4 parables in mind when it comes to this parable.

Luke 16:19, “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.”

We begin by scrutinizin the description of the rich man.  First, we was told, this man is clothed in purple and fine linen.  Ain’t no one we knows wears that kinda clothes, they’d be laughed right out of town.

But them folks would wear that stuff cause it was the type worn by the wealthy or rich back in yonder time.   Them well to do folks don’t get embarrassed much it seems.

     Wearin all the bright stuff, says that feller is a person of importance.  He’s got a few dollars left after payday.  But, it meant even more than that, them duds also got a  symbolic meanin.

The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary says: “The wearing of purple was associated particularly with royalty . . .” (“Purple,” p. 863).

The New Bible Dictionary tells us: “The use of linen in OT times was prescribed for priests (Ex. 28:39).  The coat, turban and girdle must be of fine linen.”  (“Linen,” p. 702).  We see that them garments worn by this rich man were symbolic of royalty and the priesthood.

With that sittin on the brain, let’s see what God done told Moses just before giving them Israelite fellers the Law on Mount Sinai.

 Exodus 19:6, And ye shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these words shalt thou speak to the children of Israel.

So, that there duds of the rich man done identified  him symbolically with them people of Israel, who God done chose to be a special people.  Them was God’s words, not that Huie feller or me or Bubba’s.

It says in them verses, they were called to be a witness to the nations surroundin them, makin sure the blessins were available to them who would obey God and keep His laws.

But them rascals called Israel rarely lived up to the high callin given to them by God.  Eventually He had to have them trucked off into captivity for their refusal to honor their part of the covenant that done been ratified at that Mount Sinai.

Here’s the kicker, the rich man in this here parable represents the Jews of Jesus’ day, the religious teachers and rulers best known as Pharisees and scribes.

Verse 19 also tells us that the rich man “fared sumptuously every day.”

So this seems to be a picture of the magnificent spiritual feast available only to the Jews, bein the only ones remainin that was part and parcel of God’s called out folks, Israel.  In the first century A.D., them was the only people on earth who done had the true religion and they was a supposed to be a preachin it.

     Kinda like today with the preachers we got, they done got the bloomin truth right there in front of them, but don’t preach it for some dumb reason.  That Paul feller says them Pharisees and Sadducees was high up on the ladder in the house of Judah.

Romans 9:3-5, For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race.  ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; ⁵ to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ.  God who is over all be blessed forever.

He says them Jews were well off, feastin on God’s spiritual blessins.  Yet, them same wonderful things was what made them stumble because they were afflicted with self-righteousness.  They was all wrapped up in the gifts, without glorifyin God the Father who gave all that good stuff to them.

     Instead of being a “royal priesthood” that was a blessin to all nations, they instead loathed and despised the surroundin Gentile peoples.  Certainly, as Paul wrote, “their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them” (Rom. 11:9).

Back home we know about snares, we catch all sorts of vermin with them, but let’s a keep on truckin.

Luke 16:20-21, “But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.  Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.”

Now comparin this fellers troubles to that rich feller, we now see Lazarus and his situation, and it ain’t good.   Right off in this story we see he’s a beggar and  ain’t got nothin to his name.

     That Huie feller says this is an apt description of the Gentiles who “laid at the gate” of Judah.  Paul describes the predicament of them Gentiles before they received Christ in.

Ephesians 2:12

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

     So that Paul feller has to remind them boys they was once in a fix themselves so Huie says, “It’s a fittin representation of the Gentile nations before the Messiah’s sacrifice for the world’s sins.”

They were certainly “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel,” “strangers to the covenants of promise,” and “without hope and without God in the world.”

     The Gentiles were beggars, located outside Judah, longin to be fed spiritual crumbs from the table of the divinely blessed Jews.

     Addin to all that, we are told that dogs came and consoled Lazarus in his misery, licking his sores.  We had dogs, but mama would have a fit ifin they done licked on us like that.

     The Jews considered the surrounding Gentiles to be unclean “dogs.”  Even that Jesus feller used this unflatterin comparison when he conversated with that there Greek woman around that city called Tyre.

Mark 7:24-30

²⁴ From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  ²⁵ For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, a “Syro-Phoenician” by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

²⁸ And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

     Mr. Huie must’ve read a lot of them same commentin books me and Bubba did, cause he says. “This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew Eleazer, and it literally means ‘he whom God helps.’”

     The use of this name is very significant to the message of the parable.  The Gentiles were to become “those whom God helped” through the sacrifice of His son.

Luke 16:22, “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  The rich man also died and was buried.”

     The next things that happen in this here parable thing are the deaths of Lazarus, then the rich man.  Both them ol’ boys done went belly up at about the same time, ain’t that something?

     Once more we have to use what that Huie feller says, “since the parable has been figurative up until this point, there is no reason to assume it now becomes literal all of a sudden.”

     So, to prove that this here language is that symbolic stuff and not meant to be taken literally, let’s look right close at exactly what we was told by Christ.  He says that first off, Lazarus dies and is taken to the bosom of Abraham.

     Me and Bubba done noticed, they don’t talk about that fellers funeral, so he must be in a better place, like them others we done talked about.

     But some time in the story that there rich man dies, he got a wingding funeral and got buried (in Hades, according to verse 23).

     Here’s that word me and Bubba done had all kinds of consternations over, we done study this word to death.  I reminded Bubba, them folks believed the good and the bad, the just and unjust could be in hades.  But, we done gone through all that, so ifin you want to see it again, just go back some.

     So we done got a timeline indicatin that upon his death, that Lazarus feller was taken immediately to Abraham’s bosom without even a word spoken over him at a funeral.  Afterward the rich man was buried in Hades after his death, with a grand ol’ send off.

     If this story is literal as them smart fellers say, then we have somethin called a contradiction in the Bible.  Lazarus is shown to have immediately received the promise of eternal life.

Yet the author of Hebrews clearly tells us that Abraham, as well as all the other Old Testament saints fellers, ain’t yet received the promises given to them by God.

Hebrews 11:39-40, All them Abraham, Noah, Abel, etc. fellers died in faith, without receivin the promises, but havin seen them and havin welcomed them from a distance, and havin confessed that they was strangers and exiles on the earth.  ³⁹ And all these [including Abraham], having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

     The great men and women of faith listed in Hebrews 11 ain’t yet been made perfect and given that eternal life thing.  They, along with all them saints of God from every age, is currently sleeping in their graves.

     I can give ya’ll a list of them verses that back that up but time ain’t gunna  allow it. well…Maybe a couple: (Job 3:11-19; Psa. 6:5; 115:17; Ecc. 9:5, 10; I Cor. 15:20; Isa. 57:1-2; Dan. 12:2; Acts 2:29, 34; 13:36).

Them  saints are awaitin the first resurrection, which will take place when the Messiah returns at the soundin of the seventh trumpet (Matt. 24:30-31; I Cor. 15:51-52; I The. 4:16; Rev. 11:15-18).

     To be sure, there ain’t  no way to get them scriptures to line up with one another or them scriptures with a literal understandin of the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

     Me and Bubba was a wonderin what does the death of them two men really mean?  What do they represent?

     Well, me and Bubba along with that nosey  librarian gal figured the deaths of both the rich feller (who represented the Jews) and Lazarus feller (who represented the Gentile nations) are symbolic like in that parable.

     Their untimely demise sure is a lookin like  a real change in the status and position of them two groups which that Jesus feller was a really talkin about.

To be absolutely sure about all this, let’s look at the meanin of Lazarus being “carried to Abraham’s bosom.”

The figurative meanin of bein in one’s bosom is to be in a position of closeness, to be highly regarded.

You know there was this ancient practice of having guests at a feast recline on the chest of their neighbors.  Back home we can’t even get some of ‘em in the same room shakin hands, much less lean on another’s chest.  Them folks considered it a place of highest honor given to the one seated next to the host, and there is an example of John at the Last Supper

John 13:23

Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.

Now that Paul feller says them gentile folks in that book called Galatians 3:6-9 could be in this place of highest honor of God Himself.

GALATIANS 3:6-9, Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”   ⁷ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”  ⁹ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

The faith of Gentiles allows them to no longer be, “strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”

Eph. 2:19-22

¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

     For a real long time, the Jews had received the benefits of bein God’s chosen folks by simply bein Abraham’s physical descendants.  After the sacrifice of that Jesus feller, this place of honor and blessin would be given to the people represented by Lazarus in this story.  This is the meanin of bein “carried to the bosom of Abraham” in this parable.

     On the other side of the coin to Lazarus, the rich man was buried in Hades.  Now that Huie feller talks some about what Hades means, in case you missed it when me and Bubba was goin through it.

     Hades is a Greek word and Huie says it was necessary to grasp the message of the parable.  The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology states that Hades “. . . comes from idein (to see) with the negative prefix, a-, and so would mean the invisible. 

In the septuagint, something me and Bubba done run across a couple of times, but ain’t done no investigatin in.  Says, Hades occurs more than 100 times, and in the majority of instances it translated to Hebrew. Sheol, on the other hand, is the underworld which receives all the dead,  It is the land of darkness ….

Most likely, he says, Hades originally meant “unseen.”  Later, it came to refer to the hidden state of them buried in the earth.  Symbolically, this parable shows that a point would come when the house of Judah would become “unseen” by God becuz of their attitudes.

     There would come a time when them Jews as a whole would no longer be God’s favored nation.  Their hard hearts would lead them to reject their Messiah.

John 1:10-13, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  ¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now, back to Luke 16:23, “And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

What was that Jesus feller sayin here?  Was he a sayin that the rich man was in “torments in Hades” forever and ever?

The key to discovering the symbolic meaning of this verse is the Greek noun “basanois”, translated “torments” above.

According to Friberg’s Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, basanois, which is a form of the noun basanos, means “strictly, a touchstone for testing the genuineness of metals by rubbing against it . . .”  It means the checking of calculations, which develops naturally out of the basic sense of [basanos, basanizein].  In the spiritual sense it has the figurative meaning, as a means of testing . . .In its proper sense, it is a means of testing and proving.  In this verse, basanois simply conveys a sense of testing and proving through punishment.

When this understanding is combined with a proper discernment of the symbolism of Hades, shows the house of Judah would to be cut off. That Messiah feller was a gunna replace them uppity Pharisaic fellers represented by the rich feller with those Gentiles folks who by faith done accepted the sacrifice of the Messiah.

Ifin them Pharisees and scribes got the jist of this prophetic parable, it must have upset them boys real bad and plum astonished them who listened as that Jesus feller spoke.  The story was an implication that the house of Judah and the Gentile nations were a gunna change places, and that wasn’t sittin well with them boys.  It meant them Jews becomin alienated from God while the Gentiles were  becomin the “seed of Abraham,” and that  got plum impossible for them to take in.

LUKE 16:24

“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'”

Notice if you will, that the rich feller identifies Abraham as his Pa, just as the Pharisees did.  There’s  another set of verses where them fellers was a claimin they had the same Pa, but that Jesus feller done went and set them straight.

John 8:39-41, They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”  Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.  ⁴⁰ But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this. ⁴¹ You do the deeds of your father.”

       It would seem you don’t want to a bein mixin words with that country feller, he’ll set you straight, real quick like.  Huie says that rich feller (Judah) is now shown to be undergoin reproof, testing, and punishment in “this flame” (singular, not “these flames”).

Seems obvious to me and Bubba that the flame ain’t  literal, because a wet fingertip on the tongue would do nothing to quench the pain inflicted by real flames.

The next word rendered “torment” here is a form of the Greek verb “odunao,” which literally means “grief,” “pain,” or “suffering.”  Predominantly, it conveys the sense of mental anguish, not physical pain.  Forms of this word ain’t found but only four times in the Scriptures..It appears twice in this Luke 16 parable, in verses 24 and 25.

In Luke 2:48, describin the anxious distress that Mary and Joseph felt after they discovered the 12-year old Jesus missin on the trip home from Jerusalem after the Passover feast.  If I was to have disappeared like that, my Pa would have blistered my britches real thorough like.

Also, In Acts 20:38, it rightly shows  the sorrow them elders of the Ephesian Church felt at Paul’s farewell  hollerin, afearin that they would never see him again.

     So that wicked ol’ rich man cries out from the symbolic darkness of Hades for comfort because of the suffering caused by them flames.

Onto Luke 16:25,“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.

Ol’ Abraham clearly points out that rich feller as one of his youngins by callin him “son.”  He’s a tellin him that things done changed in the land of Israel.

When them Jew fellers were God’s chosen people, they enjoyed all the spiritual blessins tied to them like a rope to their status as youngins.  But now, Ole Abraham says, Lazarus who ain’t one of his youngins is now enjoyin them blessins while the rich feller is grievin and makin all sorts of noise cause he is awful sorrowful.  They  is bein all kinds of  tormented now.

Luke 16:26,  “‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'”

     Here we go with that abyss or gulf thing as they is a callin it, but what is that  “great gulf” thing which stands between the rich feller and Lazarus?

     This is the part where many drive their trains right off the rails.  Paul explains it to us in the eleventh chapter of Romans.  He tells us that because of the Jews’ unbelief, “God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day” (Rom. 11:8).

     Paul goes on to say that “a partial hardening would happen to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles had come in” (Rom. 11:25). In II Corinthians 3:14-15, Paul tells us that the Israelites’ “minds were blinded.  For until this day the same veil remains uplifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.  But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”

Best we could tell, the “great gulf” mentioned by Abraham is nothing less than God’s blinding of the Jews as a whole about their Messiah!

It’s not that the Jewish nation won’t acknowledge that Jesus feller, they won’t let themselves recognize His true identity because of their unrighteous actions. Yet because of the Eternal’s great mercy, this state of affairs will not last forever.

Luke 16:27-28, “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'”

The rich man finally pleads with him to send someone to warn his brothers, so that they may escape “this place of torment” (basanou), the testing and punishment that he was undergoin.

Now, the fact that the rich man has five brothers is a real solid clue to his true symbolic identity, verifyin what we been sayin.

Now wrap your head around this, Judah, the progenitor of the Jews, was the son of Jacob through Leah (Gen. 29:35). He had five full-blooded brothers from the same ma: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zebulun (Gen. 35:23).

That little tidbit of gosip certainly didn’t escape the notice of them Pharisees and scribes fellers, you can bet on that.

They was so called experts at their family’s backgrounds and where they had come from, and they knew their pa and their pa’s pa, and so on and were extremely proud of their roots.

That Jesus feller wanted those self-righteous Pharisees to know exactly who He was referring to with this parable.  Make no mistake, this small detail shows the identity of the rich man as the house of Judah, the Jews!

 Luke 16:29 “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'”

Once again that Ol’ Abraham refuses the rich man’s request, telling him that the brothers already have a witness in the writings of Moses and the prophets, recorded in the Torah.  Them fellers were plum proud of their lineage, it’s what they learned as boys and lived by as men.  He was a tellin them, them brothers have all they need to be righteous men, everything that is, except faith.  Following the letter of the law, would normally be enough to allow them to escape the same fate, but they weren’t gonna see salvation for love nor money cause they didin’t do what they preached, nor did they recognize the Messiah.

As the Scriptures show, them Jewish leaders of Christ’s day failed to recognize the very one that that Moses feller wrote about in: Deuteronomy. 18:15-18,

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.  Him you shall hear, ¹⁶ according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

¹⁷ “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good.  ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

       That was the vision Jesus was tryin to paint for them fellers, he was tryin to show them words assembled into a parable what the people of Judea had become, especially the leadership of that nation.  But that Jesus feller wanted to cover all the objections they could come up with, so he spoke to another point of contention.

Luke 16:30-31, “And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’  ³¹ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'”

Them ol’ boys won’t even believe what happens before their very eyes, even after runnin well water over them.  So that Jesus feller uses the last two verses of this parable as an amazing prophecy of his pending resurrection from the dead.

The rich  feller says that although his brothers may not accept Bible evidence for the identity of the Messiah.   They will accept the evidence of one who is raised from the dead.  No, they won’t, and they ain’t acceptin it as of this very minute, for whatever reason they concocted.

But Abraham bein real firm like, answers and plainly tells him that anyone who rejects God’s Word about the Messiah will also refuse to acknowledge the evidence of a miraculous resurrection.

     This last verse is a sad prophecy about the Jews and about all the Israelites.  Despite Christ’s resurrection  from the grave, they refuse to this day to recognized Christ as the Messiah.

CONCLUSION

     The parable of Lazarus and the rich man, has long been used by mainstream ministers to teach a falsehood of “hell.”  This parable isn’t about punishment or reward of a soul in the afterlife.

     That Jesus feller used this story, to show the fate that awaited the Jewish nation because of their unbelief.  Them fellers attitude led them to reject that Christ feller as the Messiah, a fate they still suffer from to this very day.

You know somethin, we is  just like them gentile fellers..  We need to see this story for what it’s teachin, not what we’ve always thought it was talkin about. Is a lovin God really goin to throw someone into an ever-burnin hell?

It’s really a story about hope for all mankind, not a story about throwin bad people or people that never had a chance into spiritual torment.  It’s a story about salvation and who it’s goin to be offered to in the future.  Another lesson buried in the words; don’t get lost in traditional beliefs as the Pharisees and Scribes did.

These Bible verses seem to wrap everything we was a sayin in a pretty neat bow.  Bubba wanted to know why they don’t preach these words in church?  We asked a preacher the next Sunday, and he says them scriptures are a mystery and me and Bubba are gettin ourselves all messed up in the head readin them and listin to folks other than him.

     Now as I was a sayin before I got myself interrupted.  We done figured there was a lot more simpler explanation about hell than what that preacher feller Huie was a talkin about.

     It had to do with doin right by God, obeyin Him by studyin  His word  and  gettin  a right understandin of Luke 16.  It wasn’t all about a person’s spirit goin someplace when you die as much as it was who is God workin with, and why.  But folks is all wrapped up in that rapture thing and can’t  shake it, like a bad cold in the middle of winter. Is there a resurrection gonna happen?

YES! In fact, there are three resurrections spokin of in the Bible, but it isn’t the main point of Luke 16.

So what did that Jesus feller say when all this was a gonna happen. Matt. 24:3,  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

One of those things we are a waiten to see in the future is the Temple in Jerusalem and the words of Daniel be fulfilled. Verse 15, “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),

This happened at a time in the past the commentin books said.  A feller called, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, he was a real rascal, he wouldn’t let them Jew fellers worship or do any of their Jewish stuff.  Now, that Antiochus IV Epiphanes feller done went and set up a statue of some god feller called Zeus and did a sacrifice of a pig on their alter.  This was what some was a callin a prelude to the time of the end but this hasn’t happened yet.  Now we are gonna have a hint that Jesus feller is about to return when we see this event occur again.

Matthew 24:32-35, “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  ³³ So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!  ³⁴ Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Editor’s Notes:

If one wishes they can clearly see for themselves, there is an order, and purpose for all resurrections and there are clear signs when that is about to occur.  Even though the scriptures say in Matthew 25:13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. We can look and at least know we are close to our Savior’s return.

       It’s fun to portray the truth in the minds of Leroy and Bubba, they give a simplistic idea of ordinary folks trying to make some sense of what is being taught in churches every Sunday.

       We want to believe the truth is some complex matter of parables and doctrines buried in ancient scriptures, and only those with theological training can unlock them.  That belief is unfounded and simply NOT TRUE.  The most ordinary person among us can unlock the truth of the scriptures if they’re willing to believe what they read, and not what they’ve been told all their lives.  It’s an unfortunate circumstance of truth being twisted with cords of tradition and deceit that we find ourselves believing in total falsehood in the name of Jesus.

One might ask at this point, have I been fooled or lied to?  I don’t know the answer to that question, because I don’t know where you got your understanding of the scriptures.  But let me say this, there is no shortage of men and women willing to bend the truth for the worth of a measly dime.  They will willingly take yours and anyone else’s money to line their pockets while twisting God’s holy words to accomplish their deceit.  In the process they have marginalized God’s word and His authority in place of their own.  This will not go unheeded by Jesus, or the Father in Heaven, and it says as much in the scriptures.

 Jeremiah 23:11-23,  “For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord. ¹² “Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on, And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them,

The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

¹³ “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria:

They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err. ¹⁴ Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness.  All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

¹⁵ “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,

And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.  They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart,

Not from the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷ They continually say to those who despise Me,

‘The Lord has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

¹⁸ For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,

And has perceived and heard His word?

Who has marked His word and heard it?

¹⁹ Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.  ²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.  In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

²¹ “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.

²³ “Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord, “And not a God afar off?

       God the Father is not far off from any of us and will answer the prayers of the righteous.  He won’t look favorably upon those that spread falsehoods in His name.  There are those who are not ministers that literally throw gas on the flames, (no pun intended) to keep this sort of deceit going.

 Isaiah 30:8-11,  Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come,

Forever and ever:  ⁹ That this is a rebellious people,

Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; ¹⁰ Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”

And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;

Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.  ¹¹ Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”

       Are you one of those that loves traditions so much they are willing to disobey God?  Does the comfort of your beliefs keep you from seeing the truth, and doing what is right?

       We have warnings from God as to what our fate will be, and you can be assured with coming up in a physical body at the second resurrection, or you can be spiritual in the first resurrection.

       The question boils down to this, do you have God’s mark Exodus 31:12, or do you have Satan’s mark?  God’s holy mark on His people is this: ¹² And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.  ¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you.  Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.  ¹⁵ Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord.  Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.  ¹⁶ Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.  ¹¹ It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ”

       Now contrast that to what the Bible says in:  Revelation 14:9-11, “And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  ¹¹ “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”” 

These are men and women, unrepentant, who will not bow to the will of God in this world because of their self-imposed blindness.  What kind of God do you believe in?  One that is loving and merciful, or one that would throw people into a place like hell?  How hurtful it must be to God to have so many believe He is such a being that would do such a thing for pleasure.

     Our savior wants folks to do as He asks, he has no pleasure in seeing one person perish in the Lake of Fire.   Truthfully, He will have no other option but to have the unrepentant destroyed.  This is the unquenchable fire that destroys both the body and spirit, leaving nothing.  It’s not for them to suffer for eternity, they simply cease to be, which is described as a torment, they won’t be conscious beings with life ever again at this point.

     The true God is a merciful God.  The merciful thing to do is wipe away the existence of the unrepentant, not make them suffer eternal damnation by burning 24/7 in a horrible place set aside for the condemned.

     I’ve heard I shouldn’t be irreverent in my writings, but I would be more serious if Christians as a whole were serious about their salvation.  So-called Christians advocate studying the Bible or looking up truth.  They are men and women who claim to be representatives of God.  My experiences teach me Christians as a whole are spiritually lazy people; I’m sorry if that stings, but that is the truth.  How else do you explain all the different interpretations of the Bible and so many willing to follow blindly down almost any trail or follow false prophets calling it God’s path.

       As it asks in Isaiah 28:9-10

“Whom will he teach knowledge?

And whom will he make to understand the message?

Those just weaned from milk?

Those just drawn from the breasts?

¹⁰ For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”

Back to Leroy: Just like pickin wild grapes on fence lines in the country; you spend a lot of time serchin the vines for grapes worth pickin.  No one points out the grapes for you, you have to do all that yourself.  You’ll notice in these verses, it doesn’t include a preacher feller telling you what to think or say.  God’s way is for you to do that for yourself, and if you choose to let someone else do it for you, then like pickin grapes, your basket will be full of bad ones.

Back to Editor Again:

     So, it’s like a newborn calf that’s being shunned by his mama for some odd reason, it needs bottle feeding.  If you’re a newborn into the family of God you get a little bottle feeding at first to help you along your way, but somewhere along the line, you’re supposed to stand on your own two feet and feed yourself.

     Are you a babe in Christ and can only eat or drink what someone else tells you? Is swallowing just spiritual milk and not  eating spiritual meat  the limit of your religious life?  Because if it is  , you don’t know much about God and His holy words according to the Bible,  

Hebrews 5:12-13, For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

After you come away after reading this book about Leroy and Bubba and you find yourself searching for God and you think you would like to know Him better, then get your Bibles out, blow the dust off and dig in.

     Show the boys, where they are wrong or right, go on a journey to find God for the first time in your lives.  Caution though, if you go not thinking you’ll find something different, then you won’t, have an open mind going in.  Do you truly think God cares one little “whoop!” if you say you believe in your heart YOUR religious way of believing in Him is right?

You need to think seriously about that question, because we are talking about the Creator of the universe.

1Cor. 6: 1-6, If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?  ² Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?  ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!  ⁴ Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?  ⁵ I say this to shame you.  Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?  ⁶ But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

     You are in the process of becoming judges capable of judging the world and angels, give that a moment to soak in. 

     The power you can have is more than  your imagination can fathom.  But that won’t come to you by doing your own thing in this world.  You must let your heart be opened to the word of the true and living God as it says in Jeremiah 17:9-10,  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?  ¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

To fully understand God, one must believe in God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.

As I say in my other writings, I’m not doing this to create a following or make money, only to help open the minds of those seeking God.  If you’re not seeking God, then give this book to someone who is.

       There is No physical man alive today that can give you salvation, if you want salvation, then you must work hard for it by finding the right way by following our God, Creator, Messiah, and King.

God bless you on your journey through life.

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Leroy -vs- The law

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Two Gods, Two Churches, Two Doctrines, which do you belong to?