Peace to you all.
There are a few different things that are being mistaken as one thing, and though we have had this conversation before, perhaps I can help by sharing some of the understanding I have received from my Lord?
Hell (translated from Sheol/Hades): is the world of the dead (wherein the dead know nothing; the dead therein
are sleeping, just as Christ described them). Everyone (except those who are in Christ) goes there; and before Christ came, both 'good' and 'bad' people went there (both Israel and non-Israel).
The Outer Darkness: is simply outside the Kingdom (yet still on the earth), where the "goats" are told to go (this occurs when Christ returns).
The Lake of Fire: is a fire that consumes (completely) anything and anyone cast within it; the lake of fire means the second death (eternal death). This occurs at the Judgment (at the end of "the thousand years", after the resurrection of the dead: when Hades gives up the dead in it).
Hell, the lake of fire, and the outer darkness are not the same thing.
**
So (after the great tribulation - which is cut short when Christ returns - and the Adversary has been locked in the abyss to keep him from deceiving the nations during the thousand years, Rev 20:2, 3):
1 -
The first resurrection (and wedding of the Lamb). Christ comes and gathers His Bride up to Him (those who have died and those who are still alive) to be married. This occurs in a twinkling (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Christ then returns with His Bride, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven to reign upon the earth (Rev 21:2; Rev 5:10).
At this time, all the rest of the people who are yet alive on the earth are gathered before the King (Christ), and so begins the separation of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are invited into the Kingdom;
the goats are cast outside (outside the Kingdom is the outer darkness). The goats are still alive but have been sent out of the Kingdom instead of being invited into the Kingdom, hence, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I expect especially on the part of those who thought they would be invited in, those being referred to at Matthew 7:21-23.
See explanation for sheep and goats here (which I learned from my Lord):
viewtopic.php?p=731804#p731804
2 -At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released from the abyss and sets out to deceive those people outside the Kingdom into riding across the breadth of the earth and coming against the people God loves. But fire comes down from heaven and devours the attackers instead.
When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to assemble them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the seashore. And they marched across the broad expanse of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. Rev 20:7-9
Note: "Gog and magog" are indeed on the earth at this time (but outside the Kingdom: the outer darkness). Note also that God did not pursue and destroy them; God protected His people from their attack.
3 -
The second resurrection (the resurrection of the dead) occurs now at the end of the thousand years (see Rev 20:5, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended). At this time all the dead (in Hades, the world of the dead) are resurrected. Some are resurrected to LIFE (and so are invited into the Kingdom) and some are resurrected to judgment and the second death (the lake of fire)... based upon their deeds as recorded in their individual scrolls. That is the Judgment (for they are before the Judgment seat of God), which occurs at the end of the thousand years.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire
4 - Then God will be all in all.
Peace again to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy
See what I did there? <chuckles>
