We finish Luke and also John now, in our quest for some hint from Jesus that He will one day save all men. So far, we have found none.

Luke 16:19-31. Many claim that the story of the rich man and Lazarus is merely that, a story. But others believe that this was a narration of factual material. The fact that at least one of the characters has a name leads us to believe the latter. Whether another parable or indeed someone's history, the elements of it are a very compelling case against the whole notion of down-the-road reconciliation of God and all men.

We will suspend for now the whole discussion of how the rich man arrived at his fate. It's another topic, and an important one, but for now we are looking at his punishment.

In the first place, Jesus unapologetically tells us that the next life involved torment. The torment of flames.

It then becomes obvious that the torment is ongoing. Death did not end the suffering, but only began it.

Next we learn of the great gulf. Between Paradise and the place of torment is some sort of expanse or barrier that keeps residents of one from passing to the other.

Finally we hear that no intervention of any saint on earth will prevail to change the sentence of one confined to this punishment.

In one short and very tragic story Jesus puts to rest all the major heresies involving the next life. Soul sleeping, purgatory, Universalism, annihilation, are all exposed as lies to put to sleep otherwise very attentive humans who would avoid the wrath of God at any cost.

John 3:18, 36. For those expecting relief from an apostle of love, it must be very discouraging to meet instead a son of thunder, in fact, a man who is given the final revelation of judgment and hell and wrath in his famous Apocalypse.

It all starts in everyone's favorite chapter, John 3. Two verses after the hallmark John 3:16 we read that anyone who does not believe is condemned already. Condemnation is the default position of mankind since the fall from God's grace into sin. For all men to be lost eternally, they need to do nothing. They are bound for a well-deserved punishment in a hereafter that they have chosen if they reject Christ's offer.

Eighteen more verses, and the chapter concludes by informing us that the person who does not believe will never see life, but instead God's wrath will abide on him.

That's a permanent abiding, a forever thing.

John 5:28-29. Some day you will hear the voice of God calling you from the grave. That much I know about you and every human being who has ever lived. What I don't know is which resurrection will be yours. There are two. John tells us in the book of Revelation that there are 1,000 years between the two appearances from the dead.

The first resurrection is for God's holy special people. We call it these days "the rapture," and Paul the apostle has a lot to add to that discussion.

But what we are looking for in this series of studies is what Jesus says about that other resurrection. Sure enough, it is for wicked people. It is a resurrection that takes place purely for the purpose of publicly announcing the sentence of condemnation on the unforgiven. It is a resurrection of death, separation from God forever.

John 17:12. Jesus and Judas were friends for three years. The Father had not revealed to the Sonfrom the beginning of their relationship, who this man Judas was to become. Judas did not know who he was, either. Little by little there was a feeling of dissatisfaction, disappointment, disillusionment. Satan did not enter him until the end.

But friend or not, after Judas' Satanic deed, Jesus does not shrink back from saying before the eleven, that one out of only twelve men is lost. He claims to His Father that He had kept, and kept well, eleven men given to Him. But one He did not keep. He is gone. The implication, as in all these verses I share, is that that separation is an eternal one.