What the Gehenna? (from Fall Retreat  questions) © 2022 WF Cobb TruthBase.net  DailyTruthBase.blogspot

I. Q. How to avoid Gehenna?    A. We should be asking “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” = how to get rewarded/blessed?

Why get tossed into Gehenna (=unprofitable servant weeping and gnashing teeth)? Ultimately it's cz one doesn't do what God wants.

 So what does God want? He wants to bless/glorify faithful holy disciples/servants, cz that's His purpose in creation. So unless you whole-heartedly believe He blesses those who whole-heartedly/diligently seek Him, weeping is in your definite default future.

 Heb 11:6 w/o faith it is impossible to please Him...comes to God must believe: He is & Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him

Dt 4:29 from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul

Mt 24:51 hypocrite 25:30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Note: Gehenna is not the lake of fire (where the unregenerate go for unbelief Rev 19), but always Day of Atonement Jews for unsanctification.

II: From 6/14/20 truthbase.net Glory-&-Motivation-Q-&-A-sermon-part-1

 A5. Gehenna is the garbage dump outside the city where the unprofitable works/branches are burned up (1Cor 3; Jn 15). The audience of Jesus in most of the NT and particularly Mt 5-7 are justified believers whose sins were covered/forgiven by the Day of Atonement. Thus there is no mention of the cross or blood sacrifice, but rather of blessedness or reward and treasure in heaven, vs being least in the kingdom or excluded from it (the banquet and blessings as in Mt 8:12!!!) Outer darkness is the destiny of the unprofitable, unfit for service in the Kingdom that comes from the Heavens/God. The lake of fire is the destiny of those who refuse God's forgiveness.

III. From: truthbase.net/sermons/title/revelation-20-the-Messiahs-millennial-kingdom-part-1-supplement-b2-end-time-explanations-Second-Death/

B. Faithful Overcomers will not be hurt/suffer loss by the Second Death (which is the Lake of Fire). Unfaithful losers will suffer loss.

Rev 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death

Mt 10:28 do not fear those who kill body-can't kill soul. Rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul & body in Gehenna Js 4:12

Palestinian Targum on Dt 33:6 “Let Reuben live in this world and not die in the 2nd death in which death the wicked die in the world to come”  2nd death means exclusion  from the resurrection. Not to die 2nd death means to rise again to eternal life -Johnson ExpBC

Targum on Isa 22:14 "This sin (refusal to repent and depend on God) will not be forgiven you until you die the second death."

Targum on Isa 65:6 “I will recompense to them the vengeance of their sins, and deliver their bodies to the second death.''

Targum on Isa 66:24 “and the ungodly shall be judged in Gehenna, till the righteous shall say concerning them, we have seen enough;''

Targum on Jer 51:17  "they (the dull-hearted without knowledge) shall die the second death and not live in the world to come"

Targum  Psalm 49:11 "He sees men wise in wickedness, who die a second death, and are judged in Gehenna”

IV. From: dailytruthbase.blogspot.com/2012/08/revelation-19-20-Return-of-King-of-Kings.html

The NT believer is given life in the Messianic Age as a result of their trust in Christ (John 3:16) but can forfeit it as a result of unfaithfulness (1Jn 3:15 see comments there). This does not mean they are no longer born again, nor were never born again in the first place, nor that their sins where never forgiven, but it does mean that they won't receive the blessings of the righteous. Most talk of “positional righteousness” as an attempt to explain righteousness and reward by works (as in passages like Rm 2:5-10) is mere talk. We are given life, forgiven and justified by faith in Christ, but experience abundant life by continued belief (Jn 20:31).

Unbelief and sin don't undo regeneration, but result in forfeiture of reward. We'll see more of this in the next chapter where the allotted portion or share in blessing of the unfaithful is in the lake of fire (they're not in the lake of fire, their reward is).

Those who equate Gehenna with the lake of fire have simply not studied the passages in the Gospels referring to Gehenna (often incorrectly translated “hell”) with an understanding of context, and with the removal of the glasses of their incorrect and uninformed biases (most fail to take into account the state of the forgiveness of the audience, e.g., in the Sermon on the Mount the audience were Jews who were forgiven on the basis of their participation in the Day of Atonement, as it had been for over a thousand years, and the fact that the Sermon is about being rewarded in the Kingdom, not getting one's sins covered by the blood of the cross).

Since ignorant biases die hard, may I recommend the use of a concordance, and previous posts in DailyTruthbase where the context of each use of Gehenna is explained? (Hint: not losing eye/hand does not result in loss of regeneration, but not entering Life/dominion)

Jn 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you...branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches;  who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. Cf Heb 6:8 useful...blessing from God;8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned

7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 21 whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me;

24 He/she who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.

11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 12 My commandment: love one another, just as I have loved you. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. cf Mt 28:20 teach to obey