REASON #17
'Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' from Mark 9:43-47 can also be explained as REPUTATION. This text is often quoted by theologians as a ‘proof text’ promulgating the Hell dogma.
Here’s the way it reads in Mark 9: ‘43 And if your hand offend you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
45 And if your foot offend you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
47 And if your eye offend you, pluck it out: it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire: 48 Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.’
Here’s my question to promoters of the Hell orthodoxy (I call them ‘Hell-mongers’): What is left of a dead body after it has been dead for a day or two?
Worms. Just as these worms live on after the death of a body, so it is his reputation that lives on after his death. I still find people who knew my parents, over 25 years after their death. Their reputation lives on in the memory of others.
The 'fire that is not quenched' is another way to say the same thing. Jesus was likely quoting Isaiah 66:24 ‘And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’
They shall be abhorrent to all people because they got to this point in life by rejecting the Great God who gave them life and every possible opportunity, yet they still insisted upon permanent death rather than submit to Jehovah or the God who is the Master and Architect of all life.
This is disgust or moral outrage that will never disappear, not immortal worms and not eternal conscious torment in ever-burning flames. Their reputation will be mocked and scorned as the height of foolishness for all time to come! You and I do not want to go there.
Ask yourself why you believe what you believe. Is it because it is what you were raised with? It’s been a tradition now for over four hundred years. It crept into the Protestant church through its mother the Catholic Church. Maybe it’s what your parents, grandparents or church taught.
Have you really searched it out for yourself, prayed to God about it, listened for his reply and then found your answers in his Holy Bible? If not, may I suggest you do this? Believe only what you find in the Bible, as originally written. Don’t allow what men have made up to frighten you or deceive you. God would not do this.