Title: 8)
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Symcast

©è 2001  Joe Griffin				▼		01-06-17-B.JSH-498/

The Inscrutable Question: Unbelievers in Torments Will Be Arraigned before the Great White Throne at the Second Resurrection
8)	Thus, Lazarus is in Abraham’s Bosom, or the Paradise compartment of Hades, while the rich man is in the Torments compartment.
9)	It is also interesting to note that there was apparently an angelic escort for believers’ souls and spirits to Paradise following physical death.  We know from several passages that elect angels have supervisory duties of care and protection of believers of every dispensation.  You can compare several passages to establish this principle: Hebrew 1:14 identifies them as “ministering spirits” to believers.  Daniel 6:22, Acts 5:17-20, and 12:7-11 give examples of angelic protection for Daniel, the permanent-rank apostles, and Peter respectively.  Psalm 91:11 compared with Matthew 18:10 indicate that this protection begins at infancy and goes all the way to physical death.  Luke 16:23 points out that prior to the Church Age, those who died received an angelic escort to Paradise.
Luke 16:24 -	“And the rich man cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.’
v. 25 -	“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
v. 26 -	‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross from there to us.’”
10)	These verses give us information about the geology of Hades.  Paradise and Torments are separated by a great chasm, or great gulf.  It is too broad to span and too deep to cross but yet close enough that a conversation can be conducted across it.
11)	Paradise is a place of pleasant, inviting repose where believers enjoy fellowship and banquet.
12)	Torments, on the other hand, is a place of agony where insufferable heat causes unbearable thirst.
13)	We also learn that the rich man is a Jew since he refers to Abraham as “Father Abraham,” and Abraham refers to him as “child.”
14)	The rich man, unable to get relief, requests of Abraham that Lazarus be sent to his father’s house and evangelize his five lost brothers so they won’t have to endure Torments with him at their physical deaths.
15)	Abraham refuses, asserting that his brothers have Moses and the Prophets available in writing from which they can learn about salvation.
16)	But the rich man persists that if Lazarus was resuscitated and sent to them it would have such a great impact that his brothers would repent and believe in Jesus as Messiah.
17)	Abraham holds his ground and concludes:
Luke 16:31 - “‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”
	It is in this environment of Torments that this rich man and all other unbelievers of human history still reside.
18)	Their numbers grow each day as each unbeliever dies and his soul is transferred to this compartment of agony and thirst.
19)	It is in this compartment that all unbelievers will remain, including the last person to die in the Millennium, until they are arraigned in the courtroom of the Great White Throne Judgment.
20)	When they are brought before the Supreme Court of Heaven and Jesus Christ as presiding Chief Justice, they will do so by means of the Second Resurrection.
21)	When they are brought before the court it will be discovered that their names have been blotted out of the book of life and therefore, their eternal future is determined by their own accumulation of good works, recorded in a set of volumes, the Books of Works, which documents each and every one.
22)	Those who are part of the First Resurrection are said in Revelation 20:4c to reign “with Christ for a thousand years.”  Those who are not a part of the First resurrection are the subject of:
Revelation 20:5 - (The rest of the dead [ those in the Torments compartment of Hades ] did not come to life [ the Second resurrection ] until the thousand years were completed.)