If you’re seeking to attach an entity to what represents “death” and ‘Hell,” Satan would be your guy. If you’re looking for the Scripture that coincides with “death” and “Hell” your translation is incorrect as “Hell” does not accompany death but death and “Hades” are relegated to Hell.
Death represents the “second death” of those who died rejecting the grace of the Father in Jesus our Messiah, Hades – torments is the holding place for the unrighteous Old and New Testament rebellious (Luke 16) who died rejecting Jesus…these are resurrected at the initiation of the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15) and they receive a resurrected body of corruption and stand before Jesus for adjudication; they are subsequently adjudicated guilty for their works and death, Hades, are cast into the Lake of Fire (Hell) where they will cease to exist, eternally, as no place if found for their iniquity in the Kingdom (Rev 21:27).
Sabbatarian asked: “If the Sabbath was kept in the Old Testament and it will be kept in the Millennial Kingdom, why do Christians say the Sabbath is not relevant in the New Covenant?”
The Sabbath that will be celebrated in the Millennial Kingdom is the Sabbath given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 i.e., the OLD Covenant. The Millennial Kingdom will host elements of the Old Covenant’s sacrificial requirements as the Millennial Kingdom will glorify our resurrected Messiah as He will be given the Kingdom denied Him at His First Advent.
Neither the Old Covenant or its celebration and fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom are relevant concerning the New Covenant of Grace. In the New Covenant, those redeemed by faith in Jesus, are not under law, days, diets, traditions, clothing mandates, but the “law” in the New Covenant is the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been written upon the heart of human kind beginning on Day 6 of Creation as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim and thereby received certain divine communicable attributes from Elohim that separated Adam from the beasts of the field.
This spiritual law, in the New Covenant, is enlivened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who walks the redeemed in Jesus in daily Christian sanctification and through His anointing, He produces divine fruit (Galatians 5:15-23) through the redeemed and this fruit fulfills all law; both, codified and spiritual, and this fruit pleases the Father and proves one to be a faithful disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
In the New Covenant, the redeemed are not under the laws, days, diets, traditions, of Sinai or Moses (Romans 6:14) and in the New Covenant, the redeemed honor the Sabbath’s intent through faith in Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the Sabbath Day foreshadowed.
How is the Gentile “grafted” into Israel and what is the relevance of this “grafting?” (Romans 11)
The Christian’s “grafting” concerning Israel is relevant initially and primarily due to the promises Elohim made to Israel through Abraham (a Gentile); that is, through Abraham would come One who would be a blessing to every family of the Earth (Genesis 12:3); both Jew (Israelite) and Gentile.
The blessings promised Israel through Moses’ inspired writings (Torah) were, in large part, contingent upon National obedience (Deuteronomy 28); unfortunately, Israel failed Elohim; Israel conspired to murder their Messiah upon a tree and rejected the New Covenant, the Gospel, the Great Commission thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit and insulting the Father; therefore, Israel has fallen under divine judgment (Romans 11:25); consequently, only a mere “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape destruction in Hell due their rejection of Messiah (then and now) and their ancestors insistence that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27; Matthew 27:27).
The promises and covenants relevant to Israel and the “grafting” of the Gentile into those promises and covenants are ALL fulfilled in Jesus and their divine fulfillment is realized in the life of a Christian ONLY by faith in Jesus as Messiah and the daily work of sanctification via the indwelling Holy Spirit as promised in the New Covenant spoken of by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel; therefore, the only true “grafting” has manifest through the Messiah and the promises made to Israel have been realized through faith via the Gospel; this, having little to do with one’s identification with Israel but ONLY through the Messiah who emanated through Israel’s child, Judah. I am NOT saved from Hell by Israel or his children, I am saved and grafted into the promises of Elohim through faith in Messiah Jesus who chose to enter Time through Israel’s offspring…this is my “grafting” as a Christian.
What is the “true” grafting?
The true, divine, grafting is the imputation-gifting of Jesus’ divine perfection over my life by faith in Jesus as LORD by which I am declared “not guilty” by my Heavenly Father and consequently welcomed into the family of Elohim as His child (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Somehow and for some reason, perhaps innate narcissism due the Adamic Fall, humanity considers itself far more relevant and important than same actually is. You think yourself something special in the grand scheme of things concerning our Creator, His creation narrative, Elohim’s eschatological will concerning the current war between good v. evil that rages around us and permeates our very existence. YOU ARE NOT!!!
You were born into war for a specific purpose; you were born in Time because of war and you will die in Time and your body will rot away due WAR and its consequences; you might NOT like it, you obviously don’t understand it or believe it but the reality of this Spiritual War exists and that war has been relegated to Time and physics (Genesis 3:15; 1 John 3:8b); fact is, you’re fading away by the minute like a vapor breathed upon a mirror on a cold winters morning (James 4:14) – YOU ARE IRRELEVANT in the grand scheme of things as Elohim restores order and peace to His Kingdom as a result of the hate and rebellion and death and destruction of the god you serve in your foolish atheism, nihilism, unbelief; your god’s name is Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4).
You have been provided an opportunity to enjoy victory over Satan through faith in Jesus and His death for your sin and shame and uselessness (John 3:16; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Because of Jesus’ faithfulness, you can be something of relevance in Eternity due what Jesus has done for you in this very temporary Realm of Time; otherwise, you will rot in nihilism (Revelation 20:11-15).
Those who reject Jesus as Messiah are a foolish stooge of deceit and lest one repent and find Truth in Jesus, they will rot in shame. Elohim’s Reality is NOT concerned about YOU or your pitiful life when that life is lived in servitude to Elohim’s enemy, Satan. True life and meaning are only possible through faith in Jesus and receiving the indwelling Holy Spirit as your Teacher, your Wisdom, your Discernment! You must be “born again” through faith in Jesus apart from this life of war and destruction; otherwise, you have no hope (John 3).
It is a valid statement that you did not ask anyone to die for your sins. Neither did you ask anyone to be placed within the constraints of Time and physics in a body of flesh subject to decay and death but here you are!
There is much that you have absolutely no control over but what you do have authority over is your eternal destiny and that two-fold destiny, eternal life or eternal death, was made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus our Messiah. You might not fully understand why Jesus died for you, why Jesus created you, your divine purpose within the temporary Realm of Time, but you do understand this one most relevant truism, Jesus is recorded in the Scriptures as paying the price for the sin of humanity via His shed blood (Matthew 26:28) and by trusting-believing in Jesus as your Messiah who died for you, you are able to escape the eternal penalty for sin, disobedience, against our Heavenly Father’s divine will (John 3:16). You possess the free will, volition, to choose Jesus and live eternally with Jesus in the New Jerusalem or reject Jesus and die in Hell in your sin (Revelation 20-22).
How does one “break the Sabbath” in the New Covenant?
The Genesis Sabbath (Genesis 2:3) and the Sabbaths given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 all foreshadowed the divine “rest” that would be made available through the Messiah, Jesus our Lord and God/Elohim (Genesis 1; John 1; Hebrews 1; Hebrews 4; Colossians 1); therefore, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Sabbaths foreshadowed (Colossians 2:16; Hebrews 4); therefore, in the New Covenant, one breaks the Sabbath by denying Jesus as Messiah, a denial of Jesus’ sacrifice for their sin, a sin-burden that weights man soul to the depths of Hell…a denial of divine rest from the condemnation of sin, a divine rest from self-righteousness/legalism, a sin that cannot be forgiven if one dies in body having rejected Jesus as Messiah by faith (John 3; John 8:24).
What is the divine “IMPUTATION” that saves man’s soul from death in Hell?
Humanity IS certainly imperfect but the One who entered Time from Eternity and walked among us for 33.5-years was and IS perfect in His divinity and He gave Himself as blood atonement for your benefit in order that the mandates of forgiveness for sin could be made manifest in accordance with Leviticus 17:11 (1 Peter 1:18-19); this sacrifice provided you by Jesus initiates the IMPUTATION-gifting of the perfection of Jesus over your life and though YOU are not perfect in the flesh, our Heavenly Father declares you “perfect” – adjudicates you “not guilty” by New Covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12); this, not because of your own self-righteousness or behavior or work or efforts, but on account of Jesus’ faithfulness and HIS perfection…this is why Jesus is our “propitiation” for sin…Jesus is our “substitute” in that Jesus took upon HIMSELF what was due us for our sin i.e., death; therefore, in response to the faithfulness of Jesus, the Father’s New Covenant promise is to remember your sins no more (Hebrews 8:12) and from the moment you acknowledge-believe-confess Jesus as your Messiah who died for you (John 3:16), when the Father sees YOU, He only sees His dear Son IN YOU…not your sin but His Son’s perfection (perfection in flesh and in divinity), forever. Jesus, who knew no sin, became the object of sin for our benefit that we might become the righteousness-perfection of God through Jesus…this a divine gift-promise of the Father that cannot be earned by humanity – a Gift that can only be acknowledged-received by faith-trust in Jesus as one’s Messiah (John 3).
Perfection is required for salvation from death in Hell…How can we be “perfect?”
Our Heavenly Father requires absolute perfection in word, thought, deed, in order to enter His Kingdom; problem is, we’ve all failed (Romans 3:23) as we’re all sinners patterned after our first father, Adam (Romans 5:12)…but…the “good news (the Gospel) is…Jesus entered the Realm of Time and walked in perfection before the Father via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit and Jesus gave Himself as blood atonement for our sin and the Father has entered into a New Covenant agreement with all of human kind that anyone who trusts-believes in what Jesus did for us on a Roman Cross by dying for our sin in our place, the Father forgives them of all sin…past-present-future…and the Father declares them not guilty (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12) and the Father endows them with the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and Seal of New Covenant relationship with Him (Ephesians 1:13-14); this is made possible through the promise of the “imputation” or gifting of Jesus’ perfection/righteousness over the life of the one who believes Jesus is our Messiah; that is, the Father agrees to only see the perfection of His dear Son in the one who believes Jesus is Messiah; therefore, we can be made “positionally right” with our Heavenly Father through faith in the Son, Jesus our Messiah, believing in what Jesus has done for us and not we can do for ourselves…this is the KEY, the right-to-passage into God’s presence, offered each of us who exists in a body of flesh within the temporary Realm of Time (John 3:16).
Therefore…
If you desire this forgiveness, anointing, and eternal life, sincerely “believe in your heart” and “confess with your mouth” (Romans 10:9-10) that Jesus is Messiah who died for you…carefully read the “Gospel of John” and begin an eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father and daily walk by the indwelling Holy Spirit and enjoy a life of peace, assurance, contentment, purpose, love. Jesus IS our “perfection”…trust in Jesus as your Messiah and honor-receive-enjoy the Father’s promises of eternal life, eternal peace, eternal assurance, eternal completion and contentment.
Pleasing Elohim (Genesis 1:1) through works, behavior, obedience?
What is the KEY to pleasing our Creator and engendering New Covenant relationship with Him for Eternity?
Answer: RELATIONSHIP
The Biblical Truth is that mankind can strive, work, labor, to be sufficiently good, lawful, observant, and die in Hell in vain because until a man or woman initiates New Covenant RELATIONSHIP with the Father by faith in the Son (John 6:29), Jesus Christ, they are NOT family, they are not the recipient of New Covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12).
All that which humanity does and seeks and labors for concerning righteousness and appeasing the divine given conscience will ultimately culminate in vanity and chasing after the wind lest one becomes the Father’s child through faith, belief, in the Son and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and the Seal of New Covenant relationship (John 3:5; Ephesians 1:13-14).
Why the Millennial Kingdom? Why 1000-years of World-peace?
The short version is this: the previous 6000-years of horror, war, famine, murder, perversion, discord, hate, all stand as an example to the faithful angelic creation, those that did not follow Satan in the rebellion, and as an example for the faithful in Jesus who will spend eternity with Him in the New Jerusalem, the consequences of disregarding the divine moral law and the divine will of our Creator concerning Messiah and this previous 6000-years of Hell on Earth will act as a bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom where free will exists by necessity in the New Jerusalem. The Millennial Kingdom’s purpose extends far beyond the temporary Realm of Time and humanity and Elohim’s divine, intimate, relationship with His faithful angelic creation is at the eschatological root as Elohim restores holiness and peace to His eternal Kingdom disrupted by Satan’s coup d’état…that coup d’état as the root cause for the Genesis creation narrative.
The 1000-years of prevailing peace upon the Earth; this, while Satan is restrained and made impotent; this, during Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom, will provide a stark, undeniable, comparison/contrast to the previous 6000-years of sinful-suffering Hell on Earth; again, providing proof to the faithful angels and observant humanity that Satan is the demonic root of all horror (John 8:44) and it’s important to note that Jesus entered the temporary Realm of Time specifically “to destroy the works of Satan” (1 John 3:8b) via a battle strategy (Genesis 3:15) revealed as the Gospel first in Genesis 3:21 and through Jesus’ victory over Satan’s works (death-Hell-the grave) at Golgotha via the New Covenant (Matthew 26:28); this divine victory via the Gospel was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10).
The 1000-years of pervasive peace during the Millennial Kingdom will provide an undeniable stark comparison/contrast relevant to obedience=peace/disobedience=suffering and to add a final evidentiary proof to all living creatures that Satan is the demonic author of all wickedness, Satan will be released from captivity at the culmination of the Millennial Kingdom and once again Satan will deceive the Nations and inspire mankind to rebel against Elohim (Revelation 20:7-9); this time, Elohim will destroy the aggressors by fire; hence, the “Judgment of the Condemned” that follows the final rebellion (Revelation 20:10-15) where Sheol-Hades/Torments will give up the dead via the “resurrection of the condemned” (John 5:29) and those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will suffer commensurate with their sin committed while in body and ultimately die the “second death” in Hell, the Lake of Fire as the Earth is purified by unconscionable heat (2 Peter 3:10), purified, from which a New Earth and New Heaven will manifest (Revelation 21).
Ultimately, finally, the entirety of the faithful angelic creation will concur with Elohim that their former “boss,” Satan, does indeed deserve suffering-torment forever in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41); hence, Elohim will have destroyed evil and restored holiness to His eternal Kingdom via His own selfless love as demonstrated at Golgotha via Messiah (John 19:30).
~1 Peter 1: 19 ~ Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. ~ Revelation 13:8~ Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 