The main tenants of the Bible we teach are these:

• Mankind is by nature dead in trespasses and sins. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that doeth good, no not one. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God, and has the law of God imprinted on his conscience (Romans 2:14-15). Therefore, he knows there is a God that he has to answer to and is capable to some degree of knowing right from wrong. But apart from God doing a work of mercy in his heart, natural man is incapable of understanding the things of God or of pleasing God. 

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

• The wages of sin is death, and the death that God has in view is the second death, eternal damnation, everlasting destruction. The Bible uses terms like eternal fire, second death, lake of fire, eternal damnation, perish, consumed as stubble, everlasting destruction, blackness of darkness, lower parts of the earth, nether parts of the earth, pass away, wood, hay, stubble. Natural man is identified altogether with this sin-cursed earth and shall be destroyed along with this present earth when the sons of God are manifested at the last day (Romans 8:19-23). The Bible does not teach eternal conscious suffering for those who die in their sins. That would be contrary to what the Bible teaches concerning the nature of God. 

The Bible lays down the principle of placing a limit on the punishment, as for example, Deuteronomy 25:3

Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

In Luke 12 we read

⁴⁷ And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. ⁴⁸ But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.

The punishment is commensurate with the crime. To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. What about babies that are not saved? Shall they consciously suffer throughout eternity the same as the wicked who died in adulthood? No. 

When God declares in Revelation 22:15

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

This statement can only apply during the so-called day of judgment during which the unsaved shall suffer torment for 5 months upon this present sin-cursed earth. (Revelation 9:5,10) before the whole business is utterly annihilated.

The Bible exhorts believers to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect in Matthew 5

⁴³ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; ⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? ⁴⁷ And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? ⁴⁸ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Note in verse 48, believers are commanded, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 

Literally, in the Greek, this verse reads as follows:

you therefore shall be perfect, even as your Father in the heavens is perfect

God is exhorting believers to be perfect, and God is defining perfection as loving our enemies, that is, wanting the highest good for them, even as our Father in the heavens is perfect. 

This runs directly counter to the teaching of the churches that teach eternal conscious suffering and torment for those who die in their sins, which includes babies as well as adults.

When someone who is not God’s elect dies, their soul goes down to a place of silence (Psalm 115:17), to await the final judgment which is called the second death, the lake of fire, when they along with present creation shall be destroyed by fire. 

2 Peter 3

⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. ⁸ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

When God declares in verse 10, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up, those works include the unsaved who remain on this earth after the believers have been resurrected at the last day. We can’t separate the earth from the unsaved who are identified with this earth. That is why God uses the term “lower parts of the earth” or “nether parts of the earth” in describing those who are under the wrath of God. That is where God finds whose who do become saved:

Ephesians 4

⁸ Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. ⁹ (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

When the men of Sodom were destroyed by fire, we read

⁷ Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

They were destroyed and shall never have conscious existence. 

The church’s formula for getting someone saved during these hundreds of years emphasizes the wrath of God being poured out on the unsaved throughout all eternity, and then sell the idea that all that is required to be rescued from that torment is to “accept” Christ as Savior and follow the rules of the church. The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23,32; 33:11), and weeps for those that die in their sins, who were created in the image and likeness of God, and that salvation is not a matter of us accepting Christ, but of God choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not on the basis of our works, but simply by the grace and mercy of God. It is no surprise that a high percentage of those who follow the church’s formula were never saved. They were following a man-made plan of salvation. Those who were saved were frequently saved in spite of, rather than because of, the doctrines of the church. 

• Salvation is 100% of God, and was accomplished before the foundation of the world. It had nothing to do with our works. There is nothing we can do to initiate or guarantee salvation. If we think that there is any action that we can take or have taken that can contribute one iota to our salvation, like making a decision for Christ, we are still subject to the wrath of God. If we think that any action we take after becoming saved can add one iota to our salvation or make us more worthy, we are subject to the wrath of God. God will not share his glory with another. God’s work of salvation is entirely of grace. 

Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Ephesians 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

1 Peter 1

¹⁸ Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; ¹⁹ But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: ²⁰ Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,“

The booklet, First Principles of Bible Study, sets forth a few basic principles we should keep in mind as we study the Bible. May it be that we might have a fresh appreciation of the wonderful Word that God has given to us. This Word is the Bible.