Hess Road Wesleyan Church

Jimmy Strong memorial service

Q&A FRIDAY When was the Lake of Fire Created? The phrase 'lake of fire' only occurs three times in Scripture, all 3 of which are located in the same paragraph near the end of the Bible (Revelation 20:14-15). A similar phrase, the 'lake of burning sulfur,' is used just before and after this in Revelation 20:10 and 21:8.... These passages seem to suggest that at the time of the final judgment, death and the grave will no longer have a role to play in God's world. They will give up their captives (the dead) and be burned up in a lake of fire. They'll be no more death and no more graves from that point forward. Death itself will have been defeated. The grave will be buried once and for all. But it's not just concepts like 'death' and 'the grave' that will cease to be. After those who have died are released from death and the grave, each individual will be judged. A negative judgment will result in one being thrown into the lake of fire along with death and the grave. The passages define this experience of the lake of fire as 'the second death' (seeing as how everyone thrown into it had already died once). So we're not told when this 'lake of fire' was created, but it seems to me that it has no role to play until Judgment Day. I'd suggest, then, that it does not yet exist. The author of Revelation was simply seeing a 'vision' of what would take place on Judgment Day. How long the lake of fire will exist isn't altogether clear. Revelation 20:10 seems to envision an eternal role for the 'lake of burning sulfur' when it comes to 'the beast' and 'the false prophet' and their enduring torment. But the description of the lake of fire as 'the second death' seems to suggest a finality for entities like 'death' and 'the grave' and, perhaps, for individuals who are thrown there.

Our Eggcellent Adventure Hunt is officially over! We hope you enjoyed traveling around the community, laughing over Easter bunny jokes and learning a bit about Jesus' story through the photo challenge. The secret code phrase you unscrambled was JESUS IS ALIVE!! We will draw our prize winners from those that completed the challenge soon, but first we wanted to extend a special thank you to the businesses and organizations that partnered with us by being a stop on our egg hunt.... Sunset Stylz Barker Public Library Pizza Wings & Things Faith United Methodist Church Niagara Shores Campground And Conference center The Boho Siren & Lakeview Village Shoppes The Prickly Pear Olcott Fire Company Niagara Implement Inc. Imagine That Studio & Gifts The Brookside Thank you for your help!

Have you tried our Eggcellent adventure yet??? You just have until noon on Thursday to start! We have TWENTY PRIZE BASKETS we will be doing drawings for from those that find all 12 eggs, unscramble the secret code phrase, and submit their answer on our website. Free family fun, from our family to yours :-)