Eternal Punishment?

Here's a great question someone posed to me recently. What happened to people in the times of the Old Testament when they died? Also, here is a link to the doctrinal position of The Assemblies of God regarding eternal punishment. I find their site has doctrinal positions that resonate deeply with me, as well as a host of positions papers on contemporary issues.

http://www.ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/pp_downloads/pp_4172_eternal_punishment.pdf

There is a place of paradise and a place of suffering where the righteous and the unrighteous go after death. How we understand the difference between the times of the OT and the NT is still and will always be slightly elusive because we just do not fully know, yet! (1 Corinthians 13:12)
However, Luke 16:19-31 is a great source of at least some understanding. It is clear here too that before Jesus, there was a means to paradise through the general revelation of God of Himself to the world. There was just not yet any way for the Spirit of God to dwell within the spirit of man until after Christ's death.

Some argue that before Jesus' death, this place of paradise for the OT righteous was not yet in the "full" presence of God...like a waiting room and that after Jesus' death, it was possible for them to be in His full presence, no longer vulnerable to His holiness because of the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. Those waiting in a place of suffering is not as confusing. The Bible is clear they will continue to wait in their suffering until their final judgement and what we term as the "second death" when they are cast into internal separation from God.

Others believe that paradise for OT and NT has always been the same and that how people from the OT could have been in the presence of God's holiness before Jesus' death is a mystery we will not fully understand until we get there ourselves. The one thing we know is not true is that after death we "sleep" or in some sort of holding phase...Luke 16 clearly rejects this. We also know that just as the suffering of the unrighteous will be transitioned from where they are now to a different place (see article above), that the paradise the Bible speaks of now will also transition. Jesus is at work creating a new heaven, a new paradise for all the righteous to enter into with Him for all eternity after the final judgement. (see the Assemblies of God web-site for a more detailed description of these, under the 16 Fundamental Truths, numbers 13, 14, 15, & 16).

Regardless of where you shake out on this, remember, eternal paradise and eternal punishment are our only two choices and the difference is based on a single choice we make in this life...embracing Jesus fully and being a devoted follower of His now. I hope you'll take the journey with us, so you can discover the full depth of life now and have the hope of paradise at your departure!

Pastor Fred