Acts 7:39-42
"Our forefathers refused to obey him, but they pushed him aside and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron: ‘Make gods for us to go ahead of us. For we do not know what has happened to this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt.’ So they made a calf in those days and brought a sacrifice to the idol and began to enjoy themselves in the works of their hands. So God turned away from them and handed them over to offer sacred service to the army of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘It was not to me that you made offerings and sacrifices for 40 years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel?"
The ancient Egyptian religion taught about a fiery hell and about three separate "essences".
Over the centuries, the Jews were influenced by the religious beliefs of all the cultures around them and among them - Ammonites, Moabites, Babylonian, Greek, etc.
The Jewish sects absorbed the crazy doctrines of the different peoples. When Jesus came, he helped people see that those doctrines were false.
"So you have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said: ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshipping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”
@SeaBreeze, when my kids were little, I would tell them the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Sometimes when we were waiting in the car for a long time, they'd want me to tell it again and again. Sometimes I changed the story a bit and the three bears went out to get a pizza, or at the end they had a party, or something else. But all those times I told the story, my kids never, ever thought that the three bears and Goldilocks was a real story. They knew the difference between an illustration and reality, just like enoughisenough does.
@SeaBreeze, Jesus hates lies about God. He hated that the scribes and Pharisees were misleading the people and distancing them from God by means of all those horrid doctrines. It's the same today. Jesus said he is coming to dispose of all the false doctrines and remove those "fancy teachers" from their post. That's what he meant in those illustrations.
The parable about Lazarus and the rich man, the illustrations about the "fiery furnace" and "weeping and gnashing teeth", the plagues of Revelation, they are all figurative to show that very soon when Jesus is enthroned in heaven he will be changing things down here as regards true worship. The GB/FDS, the clergy of Christendom, the false doctrines about hellfire and disfellowshipping...all that stuff will be removed during the great tribulation. When the religious institutions are attacked, the "high ones" in those religious institutions will be humbled and their false doctrines will be destroyed.
"His disciples came to him and said: “Explain to us the illustration of the weeds in the field.” In response he said: “The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man; the field is the world. As for the fine seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom, but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels. Therefore, just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be in the conclusion of the system of things. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will collect out from his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and people who practice lawlessness, and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be. At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Let the one who has ears listen."
The "fiery furnace" is figurative. The GB/FDS/clergyofChristendom will weep and gnash their teeth during the great tribulation because they'll have lost all their income and prestige. That will be their figurative "hellfire". They will never be able to exalt it over the people again - they will be eternally prevented from lording it over others with lies.
"“Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced his judgment on her in your behalf!” And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: “Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again."
The "unending destruction" of religious institutions and their associated false teachings is just like Vanderhoven7 said: "descriptive of a destruction which is unending in the sense that it is eternally irreversible."
“Praise Jah! The salvation and the glory and the power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has executed judgment on the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves that is on her hands.” And right away for the second time they said: “Praise Jah! And the smoke from her goes on ascending forever and ever.”
