the last Judgement. Then "if" any man's name is not found written in the Book of Life he will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20,15) R.V.

The great difference between the wrong side of Hades and Hell itself is that, although both are places of torment, yet everyone comes out of Hades, which is itself destroyed, but out of Hell no one ever comes. Hades is the temporary prison in which the wicked are kept waiting the judgement of the Great White Throne; Hell is the eternal prison from which no one will ever escape when once judgement has finally been passed. Even Satan is not cast into Hell till after the Millennium.5 The phrase, much in use, about all those who die unsaved going immediately into "a Christless eternity" is therefore wrong. All the dead will be raised at the Second Resurrection, and there will come face to face with Christ their Judge.6

It is clear then, that it is not till after the unsaved have come out of Hades that final judgement will be executed. There is an "if" in the Bible about the results of this judgement, because the great company of the dead will include widely different groups of men.7 On the one hand there will be those who, in the words of our Lord, have no excuse to offer but are determined sinners against full light; "If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause" (John 15,22-25). On the other hand there will be those whose blindness will be an excuse which He will accept: not that they would not have been sinners but that they would not have had the great sin of which He was speaking, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9,41). Another A.V. mistranslation of the Greek word for "judgement" by "condemnation" in John 5,24, and "damnation" in John 5,29,