“Can one repent in the lake of fire?”

February 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Lord’s Parable In Matthew 25:31-46
1. Do the goats that go into the lake of fire get cleansed and eventually saved?
2. Is the lake of fire a third judgment?
3. If God is all and in all, do the ones who reject Jesus have a chance to repent in the lake of fire?

ANSWER:The brief answer to each question above is an emphatic NO!

This parable of the Lord’s refers to the judgment of the living nations on earth when He comes back to this earth in power and glory at the end of the tribulation. During the awful years of tribulation, the Lord will again take up His dealings with Israel. According to Romans 11, Revelation 12, the last chapters of Zechariah and many other passages, there will be a remnant who turn to God and spread the everlasting gospel of the coming kingdom, mentioned in Revelation 14:6-7. These will spread this gospel throughout the world.

According to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, all who have refused to accept the gospel and be saved in our present age of grace will be sent a strong delusion of a lie so that they will not have a second chance to be saved then. But many who have never turned down the gospel will accept the message the converted Jews will proclaim.

These believers will refuse the mark of the beast and will therefore be cut off from normal commercial dealings. Worse yet, they will be persecuted and have to flee for their lives. Some nations will harbor them; others will refuse them. The Lord will judge these nations when He sets up His kingdom. The determinant will be how they have treated those whom He calls His brethren while they were being persecuted. The ones who sheltered and helped His people are the “sheep” in the parable; those who did not do so are the “goats.”

The sheep will continue to populate the earth. The goats are sent “into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41), the “everlasting punishment” (v.46). What a dreadful doom! Speaking of this place, Revelation 19:20 calls it “the lake of fire burning with brimstone” and verses 14 and 15 of chapter 20 both say, “the lake of fire.” Revelation 21:8 refers to it as “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.” The Lord mentioned hell six times as “the fire that shall never be quenched” or “the fire is not quenched” in Mark 9:43-48.

This fire is not for cleansing. It is for judgment, and it is everlasting. There is no graduation, escape or release from hell. Just as everlasting life for the believer is without end, so is the punishment of the unbeliever – the person who has refused the Savior, who has insulted God and despised and refused the salvation wrought on Calvary’s cross by the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who has refused the Savior in life will not be able to evade or escape the punishment God designed for the Devil and his angels.

Even this is an evidence of the mercy of God, for if the one who has refused the Savior and God’s offer of free salvation in life were to be in heaven where all join together in praise to God forever, he would desperately but in vain be seeking a place to hide. In hell he will have it the way he chose for himself – to be without God forever and ever! Remorse is there in hell – weeping and wailing – but no opportunity to repent. Once there, any chance to be saved has forever ended. Hell is eternal, everlasting, endless separation from God. It is impossible to overemphasize the awfulness of hell. The Lord spoke of it as a place of outer darkness. People sometimes joke about having a hot time with their friends there; but no, it will be a place of misery. It will be a place of utter aloneness!

The lake of fire is called “the second death” in Revelation 20:14. Death is separation. What we normally call death is when the soul and spirit are separated from the body that housed them throughout the life of the individual. The second death is eternal separation of the complete individual – spirit, soul and body united together again at the resurrection of condemnation – from God. There is no third judgment. The second death is final.

The three accounts the Lord gave in parables in Matthew 25 speak of things that will happen after the rapture:

1. The bride of Christ, the Church or more correctly, the Assembly, will be complete and He will take her to Himself. It will be too late then for unsaved professing Christians to be saved.
2. The faithful servants of Christ will be rewarded for what they have done with that which He has entrusted to them.
3. The living nations will be judged on the basis of how they have treated His brethren, His witnesses, while they were being persecuted during the tribulation.

The Lord will then set up His earthly kingdom and rule for 1,000 years. This kingdom will not be conquered or superseded by any other, although when Satan is released from imprisonment in the bottomless pit where he will have been confined during the thousand years, he will gather and lead a rebellious army against the Lord and His saints. Their attempt will be stopped by God’s sending fire down from heaven upon them, His judgment on their wickedness. The Lord Jesus will then turn over the kingdom He has ruled for a thousand years to God, who had set Him over it. The final judgment we have looked at takes place at the great white throne. Then God is all in all. God will dwell with man. Evil is forever confined to hell. We find these things in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 and Revelation 20 and 21:1-8. Repentance is not possible after death. Now is the time for repentance!

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.