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● Mark 9:47-48 . . If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It is better to
enter the kingdom of God half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown
into hell; where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out.
Christ's instructions didn't reveal anything new. He simply reiterated
information that had already been released by an Old Testament prophet
roughly 700 years before.
● Isa 66:22-24 . . From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to
another, all mankind will come and bow down before me-- speaks the Lord.
And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled
against Me: their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they
will be loathsome to all mankind.
That rather ghastly scene depicts a sort of tourist attraction similar to the La
Brea Tar Pits museum in Los Angeles where the remains of prehistoric
creatures, excavated from ancient asphalt deposits, are on display.
A worm that thrives in flame is pretty amazing, but not unreasonable. The 4
inch Pompeii worm lives in sea water temperatures of 176° Fahrenheit, hot
enough to kill salmonella and sanitize an egg. So I guess if God could create
a worm like the Pompeii, it shouldn't be too difficult for Him to create worms
that like it even warmer.
Q: The human body is organic. So then, how can it survive in flame as
perpetual nourishment for those worms?
A: The laws of nature are not absolute. They were created in the first
chapter of Genesis to control the behavior of created matter, and as such
are easily manipulated by the one who designed them.
For example: fire totally incinerated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but
left unscathed a desert shrub that Moses encountered in the Sinai outback
while tending his father-in-law's sheep. (Ex 3:1-3)
Compare Dan 3:8-27 where a blistering hot fire left didn't even so much as
singe the clothing of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego while slaying the
guards that threw them in the furnace.
Q: Won't the worms eventually exhaust their food supply?
A: There are incidents in the Bible where small amounts of food stuffs were
miraculously multiplied. One example is 1Kgs 17:8-16 where a tiny bit of
flour and oil nourished Elijah and a widow woman, and her son, for a good
many days during a time of prolonged drought.
Another incident is at 2Kgs 4:1-7 where a certain widow's husband died and
left her deeply in debt. God multiplied her last pot of oil sufficiently to sell
enough to pay off her debts, thereby saving her two sons from slavery.
No; I'm pretty sure those worms won't need to worry about running out of
human remains with which to sustain themselves.
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