Is the Unbeliever Not Being Judged Twice - First in Burning Hell and Then Second at the Lake of Fire?
No. It’s not two judgments. The unbeliever is condemned already, held in a place of torment now, and then brought up for one final judgment at the Great White Throne and cast into the lake of fire—the second death.
The Bible says, “He that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18). After death there is a holding place of torment—“in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23–24)—and Scripture speaks of “spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). But the formal judgment is future: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). At the Great White Throne, “the dead…were judged… and death and hell delivered up the dead… and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Revelation 20:11–15).
Now notice the simple truth: prison is not the court. A man may be held in jail awaiting trial—that’s not a second judgment. So the torment in hell is the holding of the already-condemned; the Great White Throne is the court where the sentence is set and executed; the lake of fire is the final end, the second death. The wicked are burned up, not given eternal life in flames (Malachi 4:1,3; Ezekiel 18:4).
So it’s not double judgment. It’s one condemnation carried from prison to court to execution: hell now as a holding place, the White Throne as judgment, and the lake of fire as the final, second death.
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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
What is the attraction on the mountain?
65-0725E §48
Let us turn over to another scripture in the Old Testament---Malachi, the fourth chapter---and read that little fourth chapter. ...behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, ... all that do wickedly, shall be as stubbles:... Now, this is not ... that's Malachi 3 was the first coming, now here's the next coming. Even Dr. Scofield here, I certainly don't agree with him in his footnotes, but he's got it lined out here right: the commission of John, to Malachi 3; and the second coming o...
Christianity versus Idolatry
61-1217 §33
And then if this fire-walker, if he gets scared and runs through the fire, he brings reproach upon himself. But he must walk slow and steady through these coals of fire. And sometimes they're as many as fifteen feet deep, these coals of fire. And maybe fifteen feet deep and maybe thirty yards or forty yards long, and about, oh, maybe eight or ten feet wide. And they are white hot. And he has nothing on but a clout, which is a little loincloth-like wrapped around the midst of him. And he gets out there, hanging with...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
63-0627 §67
Now, look. "As it was in the days of Sodom," that's when the Gentiles was burned, burned up. Now in Noah, He mentioned Noah. That was the morals of the people. They went in. But notice, the Gentiles, just before the fire fell to destroy the Gentiles (the Sodomites, and Gomorrah, and the cities around it). Notice, Abraham, a type of the Church, free, the spiritual Church; Lot, the type of the church, lukewarm, in Babylon (or not in Babylon, Babylon today, but in Sodom then); and then the Sodomites, the unbelievers....
Looking unto Jesus
64-0122 §45
Noah---they couldn't see nothing. What did they do after doing that? Ignored the Word of God and brought judgment upon themselves. Correctly. I say with Jack Moore (not quoting him but saying this for I think it's seasonable now), Jack Moore said, "If God don't sink America and burn her up, He'll have to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize for burning them." And that's the truth. God is just. His Word---it has a just recompense. And He certainly will judge the world for its action against his Word today. No m...
Souls that are in prison now
63-1110M §15
Now, in II Peter, the 2nd chapter beginning with the 4th verse, which will be just a book or two behind it, see. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah and eight persons, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; ^^ [Spared not the angels---put them in chains of darkness and condemned the whole world by the destruction of No...