How do you explain Matthew 5:29-30 ? Or Mark 9:48 ?
Nobody is adding to the words of God there.
We shall attempt to explain these verses howbeit you will have to accept that this comes from a false prophet according to CoreIssue, and he should know being he’s an authority on false prophets, or so he imagines, nevertheless a truth spoken is still a truth even if it be spoken by the Adversary himself.
“
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (
Gehenna).
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell (
Gehenna).”
Matt 5:29-30
These are the same words our Lord used in
Matt 18:8, 9
Did our Lord advocate self-mutilation? Obviously not he healed men, he restored their hands and feet and eyes. We must therefore conclude that symbolic terms are being used here.
The scripture simply and powerfully teaches that it is better for a Christian to cut off and eliminate from his life things as dear to him as a hand, foot, or an eye if such things would prevent him from making his calling and election sure. Such eradication would be better than to fail of his calling and lose his eternal existence in the
second death (hell fire, the lake of fire).
Rev 20:14; 21:8 gives the proper explanation as to what the lake of fire actually is, “
This is the second death”, from which there is no resurrection.
The lake of fire is the symbolic expression denoting destruction, permanent destruction, annihilation, or extinction of being.
The word “
Gehenna” rendered “
Hell” in the following passages (
Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Jas. 3:6)
is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words, which are, translated "
Valley of Hinnom." This valley lay just outside the city of Jerusalem, and served the purpose of sewer and garbage burner to that city. The offal, garbage, etc., were emptied there, and fires were kept continually burning to consume utterly all things deposited therein, brimstone being added to assist combustion and insure complete destruction.
But no living thing was ever permitted to be cast into Gehenna.
Corpses were thrown in Gehenna, not live bodies.
Therefore, the idea of eternal torment (
conscious suffering)
IS NOT taught by the Valley of Hinnom. The remains were destroyed.
When we consider that in the people of Israel God was giving us object lessons illustrating his dealings and plans, present and future, we should expect that this Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, would also play its part in illustrating things future.
While Gehenna served a useful purpose to the city of Jerusalem as a place for garbage burning, it, like the city itself, was typical, and illustrated the future dealings of God in refusing and committing to destruction all the impure elements, thus preventing them from defiling the holy city, the New Jerusalem, after the trial of the Millennial age of judgment shall have fully proved mankind and separated with unerring accuracy the "
sheep" from the "
goats."
So, then, Gehenna was a type or illustration of the Second Death--final and complete destruction, from which there can be no recovery; for after that, "
there remains no more sacrifice for sins,"
but only "
fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." (
Heb. 10:26)
Our next text:
“
And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell (
Gehenna),
where ‘
the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” (
Mark 9:47-48)
Once again the proper rendering is
Gehenna not “
Hell” in this text. Likewise the same lesson is being taught.
If our hand, foot, or eye causes us to sin, we are to get rid of it,
figuratively speaking. If one of these is cut off, there is a lack, but if two (both) are cut off, the implication is
Second Death.
Why? Because the person has not attempted to curb the problem,
an ingrained character fault or defect must be uprooted.
Verse 48 is based on Isa 66:24 (the last verse of the Book of Isaiah),
which refers to the destruction of Gog and Magog at the end of the Gospel Age. A cemetery in Israel will be called Hamon-gog.
In regard to the worm not dying and the fire never being extinguished—this is to be an everlasting perpetual lesson. As the people go by, they will see the cemetery, and most likely some kind of audiovisual record will tell why and how God destroyed Gog and Magog. While a worm literally dies and a fire can be extinguished, the lesson itself will continue.
Hence the worm and fire are figurative.
Who would ever think that a worm could be immortal?
When dead bodies were thrown in the Valley of Hinnom, most were destroyed with fire, but if a body landed on a ledge, worms destroyed the body. Thus the Valley of Hinnom is a good picture of Second Death.
Here in Mark the worm and the fire are associated with Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, i.e., Second Death, which will never be destroyed. Adamic death will be destroyed but not Second Death. God will always have the prerogative, if He so desires, to expunge a life.