Sodom and Gomorrah

Jehovahs Witnesses have flip flopped on this issue many times. Here is a CFM staff writers viewpoint. Disscussion on this subject can be made on our new discussion board here 

When someone asks if those killed in the flood of Noah’s day will be resurrected, or if those in Sodom and Gomorra will get a resurrection, we don’t know is the proper response. The Bible doesn’t directly address those issues, but there are some things that have a direct relationship to them. If we say, “we don’t know”, we are dealing with the subject honestly. Reasoning on the issue may lean our personal belief one way or another, but there is nothing definitive. There are some definite statements, but they tend to fall on both sides of both issues.

When Jehovah uttered the words recorded at Gen.3: 15, the process for restoring mankind to an approved condition was put in motion. This is generally recognized as the first “restoration” prophecy. Jehovah stated it before Adam had relations with Eve, so there can be no doubt that it is meant to cover all of imperfect mankind, just like all other prophecies relating to restoration of paradise by the Kingdom of God. At 2Peter chapter 2:5, Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. Reason tells us that it would have been impossible for Noah to preach to the entire inhabited earth in the forty or fifty years that it took him to build the ark. But even if that were so, his preaching would not have had the same significance as that regarding the good news of God’s Kingdom. Therefore the response to it wouldn’t have had to do with their everlasting life. True, Jehovah judged the world at that time worthy of destruction, but as regards everlasting life, Jesus says….

(John 5:21-22) 21 For just as the Father raises the dead up and makes them alive, so the Son also makes those alive whom he wants to. 22 For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son,

At Math 11:23,24 the comparison is based on two real cities, and the spiritual condition of the residents of each.

(Matthew 11:23-24) 23 And you, Ca·per´na·um, will you perhaps be exalted to heaven? Down to Ha´des you will come; because if the powerful works that took place in you had taken place in Sod´om, it would have remained until this very day. 24 Consequently I say to YOU people, It will be more endurable for the land of Sod´om on Judgment Day than for you.”

From Jesus’ comparison it is evident that Sodom had the preferable spiritual condition. Evidently the moral depravity and going after flesh for unnatural use wasn’t as deep seated as the apathy of Capernaum. Jesus said that if they had had the opportunity to take advantage of the messiah’s ministry, they would not have been destroyed, but would have remained till that very day.

(Matthew 12:31) 31 “On this account I say to YOU, Every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven.

Jesus says that there are two types of sin, one that will be forgiven, and one that will not. The fact that the residents in the area of Sodom could not have committed the unforgivable sin is shown in that Jesus said that they would have changed their lives enough to not be destroyed at all. In fact he said that had they had the benefit of his ministry, as Capernaum did, they would have remained to that very day.

There are many verses of scripture referring to Sodom and Gomorra, some comparing Israel to them, and some speaking of their destruction as an everlasting one.

(Isaiah 1:10-11) 10 Hear the word of Jehovah, YOU dictators of Sod´om. Give ear to the law of our God, YOU people of Go·mor´rah. 11 “Of what benefit to me is the multitude of YOUR sacrifices?” says Jehovah. “I have had enough of whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed animals; and in the blood of young bulls and male lambs and he-goats I have taken no delight.

(Jude 7) 7 So too Sod´om and Go·mor´rah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before [us] as a [warning] example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.

While an argument can be made for each side of the issue, no definitive statement is made in the Bible itself. Both sides are represented in some way, and while a person might favor one side over the other, the only statement that can be honestly made, is, “we don’t know”.

sidgi