Hell's Refining Fires?

1.  I heard that the fires of Hell were refining fires?

Answer:

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day" (2 Thessalonians 2:7-10).

No amount of wishing could ever change the clear truth of God.  It is mere fancy to suppose that sinful men could be refined.  There is nothing in them to refine. The Bible teaches,

"They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:12).

But those who have faith in Christ are called,

"A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

What makes us different?  Only what God gives, the faith that we have in Christ,

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

There is nothing in the Bible about the lost going through a refining process or purgatory.  Fire is a means of punishment, not correction.  If a father told his child not to put his hands into a hot fire, the child would listen and obey his father who knows better.  Are we not to obey God and take heed to His warnings of Hell fire or are we to believe the words of the serpent, who said,

"hath God said" (Genesis 3:1).

Hath not nature revealed to us that fire is burning hot?  And hath not God said that the lost are going to a hot place?

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15).

If someone told you to take a swim in a lava lake called Nyiragongo Crater, would you not say he was nuts?

But then he went on to say that the true substance of the lake was not lava at all but only the color of orange water. And that those who called it a lake of lava were only referring to its color.

The fact is Nyiragongo lake is the biggest lava lake in the world, an estimated 282 million cubic feet of lava.  Yet in the Word of God, many presume that everything God says means something else other than what is clearly written.

In nature, there is a literal lake of fire; however, when God mentions a lake of fire it is described as symbolic or figurative language, "The fire of His love" or, "the refining fire that makes a sinful man perfect." Not taking the Bible literally is as nutty as believing you can swim in Lake Nyiragongo.