Hi Mike,

I hope that this isn’t a silly question. Is it possible/ likely that any of the elect over the generations could have died believing that their God would burn sinners forever?
Thanks for your site and efforts,

D____

Hi D____,
Thank you for your question, and it is not “silly” at all.
You ask:

Is it possible/ likely that any of the elect over the generations could have died believing that their God would burn sinners forever?

In answering this or any question my greatest concern is to never speak above what is written.

1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [ to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [ of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

But God’s Word does indirectly answer this question. What I mean by that is that we are told that all who believe in Christ, have life eternal.

Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

“Eating Christ’s flesh, and drinking His blood” is explained in this same chapter as believing Christ’s words.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Then we are also told what is life eternal, so we can deduce our answer to your question from the scriptural definition of what life eternal is. Here is the definition of life eternal:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Joh 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Joh 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

In this context, God’s ‘name’ is not speaking of whether we should address Him as ‘God’ or ‘Yahweh’. What Christ is speaking of here is knowing who His Father is. Knowing who anyone is means that you know that person’s character and their spirit.
If I claimed to know you, and I went around telling everyone who would listen that you were the type of person who would burn a person in literal flames for all eternity over mistakes made in a life which God himself calls “a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes away”, would you say that I know what kind of person you are?
In posing this question, I am assuming that you are not that kind of person. But my point is that if “life eternal is knowing God and Jesus Christ”, then the Biblical answer to your question is, no, no one who dies believing that the God of the Bible is the kind of God who will burn people alive in literal flames for all eternity could possibly be God’s elect who will come up in that blessed and holy first resurrection to rule and reign with Christ through the millennium and the great white throne judgment. That person is the very kind of person who will come up in the second resurrection and will, by the mercy of those who have known the true God and His mercy, be shown the same mercy they have received and known from their heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

The very purpose for judgment is to have all such blasphemous doctrines burned out of us to prepare us to be the representatives of our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, as rulers over those who are yet to receive our mercy. Here is how we know that anyone who believes such lies about our loving heavenly Father will not be God’s elect who are chosen to be in that “blessed and holy first resurrection”.

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

God’s “fire” saves even as it burns up our blasphemous works. The very purpose for this life of “fiery trials” in these vessels of clay for God’s elect is to have all such false and blasphemous doctrines or “works” burned out of our hearts and minds and to be purified of all such blasphemy while yet in these “earthen vessels”. It is this life of fiery trials which makes us the “fire” of the lake of fire.

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

It is living by the fiery words of God, and having all these blasphemous lies against the character of our loving heavenly Father, that qualifies us to become the fire that will purify the lives and hearts and minds of those who do not in this life believe and know the true God of the Bible and His Son Jesus Christ.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

God’s elect are judged and purified in this life. Therefore they cannot believe such lies against their own heavenly Father or His Son.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

It is being judged by the truth of God’s Words, which burns out of us all the lies against our heavenly Father and His Son. “The end of those who believe not the gospel is to be judged in the lake of fire, where all men of all time will be purified of all such false and blasphemous doctrines.

1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire [ the lake of fire].

Anyone who believes that the God of the Bible would sustain a hell of literal fire for all eternity just so He could sustain and torment His creation for all eternity, does not know God or His Son, and therefore does not have life eternal abiding in him.
I hope these scriptures have answered this question to your satisfaction.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike