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When God formed man out of the dust of the earth, the Bible says… 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  Genesis

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Yes, man became a living soul.

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And yet, when the day came that our first parents sinned, the following curse was pronounced… 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.  Genesis

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So here was the original curse pronounced upon all mankind. We are dust and unto dust shall we return.

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So where did this idea come from that all unsaved mankind will suffer eternal torment?

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Well, about 50% of this idea comes from the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in which the rich man was roasting in the fires of Hell.

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But the problem with this parable is that it makes little sense if we attempt to interpret it as a literal event

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In the first place, Jesus was speaking this parable to the sect of the Pharisees who no doubt enjoyed scaring the multitudes with stories about the fires of God’s judgment for all those who refused to submit themselves to these Pharisees.

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But Jesus turned the tables on those Pharisees by casting the rich man into those flames. You see, the Pharisees supposed that because of their morality and earthly prosperity that this was clear evidence of God’s blessing. And conversely, they supposed that those who were poor were suffering the wrath of God.

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But Jesus told this parable to make the point that such a pharisiacal prosperity gospel was merely borne of their selfishness.

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But this isn’t the only thing that makes little literal sense in this parable. One more evidence that this was a parable and could not be literal was that the rich man, while in Hell, still had a body. Here it speaks of his eyes and of his thirst for water.

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But if unsaved mankind finally returns to the dust, then it is a ridiculous notion that the rich man in Hell still had a body.

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The fact is, parables are stories which are comprised of earthly events and objects, to make some spiritual truth more clearly seen and understood.

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For instance, the parable of the ten virgins called to awake and go into the wedding supper cannot be understood literally. It is a parable. It must be understood spiritually.

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The ten virgins represent the two divisions of the Church: the church-faithful and the church-apostate. The lamps represent God’s Word. And the oil represents the Holy Spirit.

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And so it is with the parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. The rich man represents those who live in moral pride and earthly selfish prosperity. Lazarus represents true worshipers of God, who have forsaken this selfish world to follow Jesus. The fires of Hell represents the suffering which comes on those in the Church who trust in their good works and earthly prosperity. They have not yet forsaken this present world. They still love the selfish wares and ways of this present life. Oh yes, they desire a relationship with Jesus. But their refusal to give up the riches and pleasures of this life, requiring them to rely on their moral goodness and good works to save them.

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But the point to this devotional is that this whole business about eternal torment is borne on the poor Bible studies of early church authorities who did not have the necessary understanding of proper Bible interpretation. They merely saw this parable as a literal explanation of the nature of Hell.