I keep thinking back to the question of why. “Why am I so obsessed with this issue of final punishment?” If you became convinced without even a shadow of doubt (at least in your mind) that the traditional view of hell was false and that the mainstream evangelical world was presenting a false Jesus with a different administration of justice, wouldn’t you think that it needed telling? Think about forever! It is a really long time. And Christians tell people that God is going to perpetuate the existence of evil forever by keeping His enemies alive. And God's Justice is never complete. It rightfully seems mythical. I’m sorry, but something is amiss.
I am a physcialist in regards to anthropology. I believe that our inquiry into the future punishment of the unredeemed is “not concerning the body of man, nor the soul of man, nor spirit of man, nor of any one of his actual or supposable component parts, but concerning the whole man- the man whom God created; the man who sinned; the man to whom God said ‘Thou shalt die;’ the man who actually does die according to this sentence; the man whom Christ redeemed by His own death; the man who will be raised at the second coming of our Lord, and judged- what is his destiny [if he obeys not the Gospel of Christ]?” (The Life Everlasting by J H Pettingell)
So, the soul is the entire person. “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 (KJV) (“being”, KJV).” (Gen 2:7)- Heb. "nephesh chey." Its primary meaning is "that which breathes." We do not have a soul; we are souls or beings with life in the blood. The same words are also used for animals (Gen 1:20, 21, 24; 2:19; 9:4), but interpreted "living creature" in the same KJV. “The soul signifies that which is vital to humans in the broadest sense. The Hebrew and Greek words for soul often can be translated as ‘life’; occasionally, they can be used for the life of creatures (Gn 1:20; Lv 11:10). ‘Soul for soul’ means ‘life for life’ (Ex 21:23). In legal writings, a soul refers to a person in relation to a particular law (e.g., ‘If a soul shall sin…,’ Lv 4:2, KJV). When people were counted, they were counted as souls, that is, persons (Ex 1:5; Dt 10:22). In a narrower sense, the soul denotes human emotions and inner powers. People are called to love God with all their heart and soul (Dt 13:3). Knowledge and understanding (Ps 139:14), thought (1 Sm 20:3), love (1 Sm 18:1), and memory (Lam 3:20) all originate in the soul. Here the soul comes close to what today would be called the self, one's person, personality, or ego.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
And I believe that the antithesis of a living human being is a dead corpse. Thus, final punishment is a reverse of Creation for the obstinately wicked. The faithful prophets, like Ezekiel, say that the soul that sins must die. (Eze 18:20) When God takes back his life giving source— called "the breathe of life" (Gen 2:7)— a living soul becomes a dead corpse destined to decompose. (Eccl 3:20) Therefore, at the post-Judgment scene in Isaiah 66:24 worshippers will come across the slain bodies of the wicked, who have just experienced the second death, which is the wage of sins. And worms and fire are symbolic of their ultimate decay. The people are dead.
Some teach "that mortality affects his body only, but that his soul cannot but live for ever. This dogma, adopted in the supposed interest of the Christian faith, is, as I believe, and for more than twenty years have believed, nowhere taught in Holy Scripture, but is rather opposed to the teaching of Scripture, and is a root-error from which springs a whole crop of theological difficulties, obscuring the fair proportions and glorious prospects of the Gospel of Christ." (Conditional Immortality- A Help to Sceptics C C Stokes to James Marchant, May 31,1892.) So, this is foreign doctrine to the Hebrew faith and is no part of the faith once delivered to the saints.
Thus, rather than an innate immortality as commonly preached in pupits today, the prophets rightly proclaim: The soul who sins shall die and shall return to dust. In metaphor the prophets and apostles referred to dead as sleep [in Sheol] in the Old and New Testaments, including after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as in the case of Stephen, Acts 7:60.
And they also proclaimed that abundant and eternal life is found only in relationship with the Creator- a promised resurrection of the just unto immortality. And the epistles of the apostles of Jesus plainly stated it: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (Joh 3:16) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:23)
Jefferson Vann gives the intended, biblical imagery of dust as one ingredient in the makeup up man: "I am but dust—When Abraham dared to address the angel of the LORD, appealing for him to save the righteous in Sodom, he understood what he was made of. He said ‘Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.’ [Genesis :18:27 ESV] The LORD was the one with the immortal Spirit, not Abraham. Humans may devise all kinds of philosophical speculations about being imperishable and immortal, but the LORD ‘knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.’ [Psalm 103:14] Dust on the head— From ancient times, putting dust on one’s head was a sign of great shame, humility and mourning [Joshua 7:6, Job 2:12; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30; Revelation 18:19]. It was a reminder that we are mortal, made of the dust of the earth, and not like our creator. Leaders were reminded that God had exalted them ‘out of the dust’ [1 Kings 16:2; Psalm 113:7] and if they became unfaithful, he could humble them. Apart from his grace they are nothing. Jesus standing on the dust— The good news of the resurrection is described in the Bible using the same term that details what we are made of. Job proclaims ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.’ [Job 19:25 ESV] But that word ‘earth’ is not the word used in Genesis 1:1.18 It is the same word translated dust in Genesis 2:7.19 The dust that the Messiah will stand on at the last day will be the dust of Job’s body. But then something amazing happens. Job continues ‘Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes shall see and not another.’ [2Job 19:26-27] The Messiah stands over the dust of Job’s dead body and brings it back to life! This is the hope that the Bible gives humanity. It is not survival after death but rescue from death. It is not being ‘found naked’ (without a body) in the intermediate state but being ‘further clothed’ with a resurrection body. [2 Corinthians 5:1-4] The Bible says that when Jesus Christ returns ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.’ [1 Corinthian 15:52] The nature of that change is made clear as well: ‘Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.’ [1 Corinthians 15:49] We are dust: that is what we are made of, but our destiny is to be more.” ("formed from the dust | Snips and snails" by Jefferson Vann)
But then comes Apocalyptic literature describing events concerning the destruction of this world. Daniel and Revelation are these types of writings from a biblical perspective. And the prophets used such language, as did Jesus when He explained things about the end-times to His disciples / apostles. This genre in the Bible is oft hyperbolic and symbolic... and strange to western ears. It has beasts with multiple heads and horns that represent different things in this world.
It is also chock- full of Old Testament allusions: "Names.. such as Jezebel, Moses, David, Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem, and the Euphrates River—as well as motifs expressed in terms of the lamb, trumpets, locusts from the abyss, Mount Zion, the song of Moses, the drying up of the river Euphrates, the temple and its articles, and hundreds of others are all taken from the OT. In portraying the events to take place in the future, inspiration employs the language of the past. The prophecies of Revelation are especially built on key OT events such as creation, the flood, the exodus, God’s covenant with King David, and the Exile. The allusions to these events were intended to impress on the minds of God’s people the truth that God’s acts of salvation in the future will be very much like his acts of salvation in the past.” (Ranko Stefanovic)
It should not be taken literally, which is out of context of the Pentateuch and the prophets. Doctrine should not be formed from it, but rather learned elsewhere and applied thereto.
In fact, based on a literal interpretation of this genre, many theologians have concluded that Jesus taught that His enemies would be punished forever. And therefore, they must possess some form of immortality. A natural conclusion of the matter is that the body dies but the immortal soul undergoes the punishment described. Some adherents to this view do make a place in their theology for the resurrection of the body. But the gist is that no person ever really dies.
A softening of hell. Based on 1 Thessalonians 2:9 alone, some preach that hell is eternal separation from God. However, let everything be established by at least two or three witnesses (Deut 19:15; 1 Cor 13:1). Let us slay this dragon. It is called “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” —"The common mistake in the interpretation of this passage is in taking the preposition ‘from’ to denote separation, and not the origin or source of the destruction named. The parallel expression in Acts iii. 19, ‘The times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord’…. and others describing the destruction of God's enemies (Lev. x. 2; N um. xvi. 35; 2 Kings i. 10, 12, 14; Rev. xx. 9), suggest the true sense; which is thus given by MacKnight: ‘These wicked men, being raised from the dead, shall suffer punishment, even everlasting destruction, by fire issuing from the presence of the Lord.’ And by Coneyson: ‘Then shall go forth against them, from the presence of the Lord, and from the brightness of his glorious majesty, their righteous doom, even an everlasting destruction.' This view is supported by Grotius, Coccus, Pelicans, Castillo, Le Clerk, Poole, Hammond, Benson, Henry, Ben gel, Pelt, De Wetter.” ” (Debt and Grace, as Related to the Doctrine of a Future Life by Charles Frederic Hudson)
The big question of this post is, “how do those who derive the false “eternal punishing” from the apocalyptic texts handle the various forms of words such as “die” and “perish” and all of the other synonyms, signifying the complete destruction of the wicked, found in the Pentateuch and the prophets, as well as the epistles of the apostles? 1) They oft redefined the words when they speak of final punishment. 2) Or they are assigned the context to the temporal Judgments only.
Beware brethern: "There is no linguistic argument. Neither the English nor the underlying Greek offer an expression elastic enough to bend and stretch and twist into contradicting itself. Some ongoing-agony apologists oddly grasp at the straws of burst wineskin bottles (Matthew 9:17) or lost life (Mark 8:35) in an absurd notion that these secondary usages (as ‘ruin’) would depict torment over death.' Both picture final destruction, not ceaseless suffering. [3- see Strong's Concordance] To perish is to have the life lost and burst wineskin bottles disintegrate to dust." (Wholly Smoke!: The Myth of Endless Torment, pp. 11-12 by Brother Bird) [3- Strong's Concordance: ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) - Definition: to destroy, destroy utterly; Usage: (a) I kill, destroy, (b) I lose, mid: I am perishing (the resultant death being viewed as certain). HELPS Word-studies: 622 /apóllymi ("violently/completely perish") implies permanent (absolute) destruction, i.e. to cancel out (remove); cause to be lost (utterly perish) by experiencing a miserable end.]
Martin Luther— the greater reformer— rejected the idea of the immortality of the human soul as part of “all these endless monstrosities in the Roman dunghill of decretals.” But the amens still abound from the Evangelical circles on words like these: “The Bible teaches that you are an immortal soul. Your soul is eternal and will live forever. In other words, the real you— the part of you that thinks, feels, dreams, aspires; the ego, the personality— will never die. The Bible teaches that your soul will live forever in one of two places— heaven or hell.” (Billy Graham)
If man were immortal by nature, it would have been taught by the prophets and apostles. But the lesson is absent from these writings. And Paul talked about final punishment without using the word hell [Gehenna]. He spoke in terms of life and death." (Paul, James, and Jesus on Hell [Gehenna] by Marg Mowczko) In fact, there is a plethora of biblical language speaking of destruction of the wicked. But the root texts that seem to speak of eternal misery are few.
One of Five— Revelation 14:10b-11
The third messenger of the apocalypse speaks of the futuristic fall of all false religions referred to in the book of Revelation by the name “Babylon the great.” It is declared therein, that God wrath will be poured out on then in "full strength into the cup of His indignation.”
But the question is what is the content of God's unmitigated wrath? The angel explains:
Revelation 14b “He shall be tormented (* basanisthēsetai- Devine test, thus "tested") with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
First a word lesson: "The word translated ‘tormented’ ...is derived from basanos, a black rock formerly used as a ‘touchstone.’ Ancient peoples were able to determine the purity of gold and silver by observing the peculiar streak left on the stone when rubbed by these metals…. The use of basanidzo in this passage suggests a trial or examination by the Son to Whom all judgment is committed.” (Asleep in Christ by Helaine Burch) The idea of torture (to test the faith of supposed heretics) was created by man. It is heathen and contrary to His character. He would never participate in it. Not for a little while, much less forever.
Isaiah spoke of Edom's fall: “Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever.” (Isaiah 34:9-10) “Here is a graphic picture of a land becoming like burning pitch that will go on blazing day and night, never being quenched, and the smoke from which shall go on rising forever. That this description of a ceaseless burning that endures forever is simply poetic hyperbole is self evident, however, since the land is also described as lying waste. It cannot burn and lie waste at the same time. Furthermore, the land is not to be such a desolate waste that nothing can live or grow there since certain creatures are said to possess the land, birds will nest and rear their young, and thorns, nettles, and brambles will shoot up in the midst of the ruined buildings (Isaiah 34:11-15).” (Punishment Hell and Judgment in Revelation by Colin Sweet)
The phrase “tested with fire and brimstone" is an allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah who were “condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:6) After Yahweh God judges them, He will be poured out His wrath on their mortal bodies. Satan had said, “You shall not surely die”— But his false thesis will be tested "in the presence of the holy angels, and of the Lamb”—“these being the instruments employed in their destruction; the Lamb - the Lord Jesus Christ, acting as Judge.” (Clarke) "And he shall be punnysshed in fyre and brymstone before the holy angels and before the lambe." (Tyndale Bible)
“And the smoke of their [Divine] test ascends forever and ever”— After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham looked toward the cities "and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace." (Genesis 19:28) It established as a memorial in his mind. “The language of the Apocalypse being symbolical, it is necessary to seek the metaphorical meaning of the smoke spoken of in our text. Smoke is a formless relic of an object that has been decomposed by the action of fire. It can only be an emblem of the remembrance left by the object destroyed. A perpetual smoke would therefore symbolize the ineffaceable remembrance of an irreparable ruin.” (E. Petavel)
“And they have no rest day or night”— “This is in contrast to the statement of Revelation 14:13 in which the followers of Christ are promised rest from their labor (cf. 6:11). The worshipers of the beast and his image, however; will never taste that rest. The threat echoes the declaration made to rebellious Israel regarding its rest in the promised land: ‘Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest ’(Ps. 85:22). The idea of the promised rest continues in the New Testament as rest in the grace of God: ‘There therefore remains a rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience’ (Heb. 4:9–11). The rest into which God’s people enter is eternal; so the unrest of the impending judgment for the unbelievers is eternal.” (Revelation of Jesus Christ by Ranko Stefanovic) So, "for those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name"— There will be a post-Judgment, second death with no subsequent resurrection or recovery— an "eternal punishment" (Matthew 25:46).
Two of Five— Revelation 19:19-21
Here is a second depiction of the Final Judgment. After the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:6-9), “the Lamb, under another designation, comes riding out of heaven on a white horse, with his garments dipped' in blood.” (J. H. Pettingell) "And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and LORD of lords.— Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Rev 19:14-18)
When King Jesus goes out to subdue His enemies, the scavenger birds prepare for a feast of their own. “The eagles and vultures are gathered together as though the carcases had already fallen (Matt. 24:28; cp. Eze. 39:17-20)." (C. J. Ellicott) “This cry to the vultures and scavenger birds is a vivid way of describing the awfulness of the judgment and its universal application.” (Peter Pett) "The imagery is taken from Ezekiel 39:17-20, where God invites all the feathered fowl and wild beasts to come to the table which he has provided for them." (Justin Edwards) "And as for you, son of man, thus says Yahweh God, ‘Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: 'Assemble yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, that may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams and lambs, of goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You shall eat fat till you are full, and drink blood till you are drunk, at My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you. You shall be filled at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men and with all the men of war,' says Yahweh God. And I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.” (Eze 39:17-20)
Rams, lambs, goats, and bulls make me think of symbols of the different nations in the book of Daniel, which were to control God's people from the time of the release Babylonian until KingJesus. His wrath shall be unleashed against them, as a king against rebels!
Revelation 19:19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.
As the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army, then the beast and the false prophet are captured and "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev 19:20b) This is symbolic of their ultimate demise of antiChrist “ideas and systems.” (Peter Pett)
"And the rest (of the people) were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. (Revelation 19:20) And all the birds were filled with their flesh," completing their destruction, as the maggots were in Isaiah 66:24 (cp. Mark 9:48). It is as Jesus says: “Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass (a dead body) is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (Matt 24:26-28) That is where He will have been!
Jesus said, "But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two (killing him by the sword of His Word) and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites (the dust of the earth). There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt 24:48-51)- regret and anger prior to the execution of Judgment. “We find the weeping in Zeph 1:14 and the gnashing of teeth in Ps 112:10. The psalmist confirms that the judgment upon the wicked is extinction: ‘The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish.’” (Immortality or Resurrection by Samuel Bacchiocchi)
Three of Five— Revelation 20:7-14
The narrative of the destruction of the wicked is explained in a third image. The saints are prophesies to rise from dead or be translated without dying... and reign with Christ for a thousand years. This is defined as the first resurrection. "Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Revelation 20:7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented (tested) day and night forever and ever.
"Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison" of the bottomlees pit, that is, the earth with none to deceive [for all of the unredeemed of every age are dead] "and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth" again.
"Gog and Magog— The Gog and Magog concept is drawn from Ezekiel 38–39 where Gog from the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal (38:2), is the enemy of God invading Israel from the north, and was to be utterly defeated by God. In Jewish tradition, Gog and Magog became equated with the rebellious nations of Psalm 2 who revolted against God and his Messiah. In Revelation, both words represent the eschatological enemy nations that would wage war against God and his people at the end of the millennium." (Ranko Stefanovic)
They will think that they have a place in the the New Jerusalem and will seek to take the city. "They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them."
And next, “having judged the beast and the false prophet- false ideas and systems. Jesus Christ should next deal with Satan.” (Thomas B. Constable)—> “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.” (Rev. 20:10; KJV) “It is sometimes argued that Revelation 20:10 shows that the beast and the false prophet are still being tormented in the lake of fire one thousand years after being thrown in, thus demonstrating unending conscious torment. However, there is nothing in the Greek text to correspond with the word ‘are’ which we find in the KJV (hence its insertion in italics). The object of the clause, ‘where the beast and the false prophet’ is to show that the devil was cast into the same lake as were these two. Consequently, a verb in the past tense, such as the NIV’s ‘had been thrown’ would be quite appropriate.” (Punishment Hell and Judgment in the Book of Revelation by Colin Sweet) Moreover, think about it: “That this is not a literal lake of fire is clear from the fact that Satan has no bodily form, and could thus not be cast into fire.” (Peter Pett)
"‘And they (all three) will be tested day and night for ever and ever.’ The scene concludes with the total defeat of Satan and those who followed him. Fire, hurled from heaven, consumes them. Satan and the fallen angels meet their end in the lake of fire, thus sharing the fate of the two other triumvirate members (Rev. 20:10). The text states that they will be 'tormented [tested] day and night forever and ever' (20:10; cf. 14:10–11). As shown earlier, the phrase 'forever and ever' denotes a continuation of an action until it completes God’s purpose. Satan’s punishment is irreversible. All who have followed him must share his fate (while God’s people are safe in the city under God’s protection). This is described in detail in verses 11–15." (Plain Revelation by Ranko Stefanovic) See "Explanation from the Apocalypse" below/
For ever (and ever)- Jonah said of his experience in the belly of the whale, "The earth with its bars closed behind me for ever" (Jonah 2:6), but that it was three full days is attested to by the fact that it was sign of Jesus' resurrection. Likewise, Hannah pledged Samuel to the LORD for ever (1 Samuel 1:22), which was interpreted as for long as he lived (1 Samuel 1:28). " "Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever." (Exod 21:6) How long is 'for ever' in this case, when we are talking about human beings? A human being cannot serve another human being any longer than he lives. A definition begins to arise for how the Bible uses the term. Biblically, forever means 'as long as the factors which set the conditions exist.' In Exodus 12:14, 17, and in the Festival chapter, Leviticus 23:14, 21, 31, and 41, forever, in reference to the holy days, is for as long as 'your generations.'" (John W. Ritenbaugh )
"The extent of time is relative to context, but when it concerns God, who is eternal, it may be absolute (Ps. 90:2)." (Dale Leschert) "For ever and ever" is different for the redeemed (with new spiritual bodies received at the resurrection of the just as a gift of God) and the unredeemed.
Explanation from the Apocalypse— In the Judgement: “All who have followed him (Satan) must share his fate...” (Ranko Stefanovic) Now we see mankind- "small and great" standing before the great white throne of Judgment with none to whom to assign blame: The picture is all inclusive. None have died in such a way that they cannot be reached." (Peter Pett) Indeed, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father! (Phil 2:11) Jesus said: "Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt 25:41)
Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH.
“‘Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire,’ demonstrating "that we must not literalise the scene. Death and Hades are not existing entities, they are ideas (cp. Rev. 6:8), as is much of what lies behind the beast (false empire) and the false prophet (false religion)." (Peter Pett) “‘The beast (with ten horns) was slain, and his body destroyed, and he was given to the burning of fire.’ (Daniel 7:11) Will it be said that the Bible teaches the immortality of the soul of these beasts? Neither in Daniel nor in the Apocalypse are they human beings, nor fallen angels, nor even animals. They are usually understood, like the great harlot who sits upon one of them, to symbolize empires, systems of government, or else false religions; in any case they are nothing but creations of the imagination. Eternal torments predicated of these symbolic beasts could therefore hardly mean anything else than the convulsions, divisions, dismemberments of institutions, the decline of which is prolonged through the ages until their complete disappearance. As for Satan who shares their fate, the Scripture teaches expressly that in the end he too, shall be ‘crushed’ and ‘brought to nought.’ [Gen. iii. 15; Rom. xvi. 20.]" (E. Petavel)
The lake of fire is “represented in the Divine Revelation amidst ‘blackness, and darkness, and tempest,’ like that which covered Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law…” (Edward White)
But John is given the vision that breaks through. “‘This is the second death.‘ John begins by naming the symbol to be defined—‘the Lake of Fire.’ He then defines that symbol by equating it with a different reality easy to be understood—‘the second death.’ What is the Lake of Fire? It is the symbol of something, but what does it symbolize?… The first death is the death we experience now in the present age. It is temporary—the redeemed will be raised from it to immortality and resurrection glory. The second death is the death of the age to come, the death from which God rescues those who believe in Jesus. The second death is the death that is the wages of sin. It is the destruction and perishing promised to the unfaithful. It is the death from which there is no resurrection or return. It is the death of the whole person forever... Because John defined the Lake of Fire as the second death, we are not free to reason the other direction. We do not have John’s permission to explain the second death as the Lake of Fire, which would be moving from the simpler to the more difficult. We follow John, however, each time we define the symbol ‘Lake of Fire’ as ‘the second death.’” (“Hell A Final Word” by Edward William Fudge)
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (15) "The first reference to humans being tossed into the Lake of Fire identifies the lake as one of two final destinies. The other destiny is life in the City of God (the beloved city of Rev. 20:9), symbolized as registration in the Book of Life. Every human being finally goes to one destiny or the other. Either one’s name is written in the Book of Life or one is thrown into the Lake of Fire which is the second death (Rev. 20:14). The comparison is strong: life or death.” (Edward Fudge) And death is not a friend! "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death." (1 Cor 15:26)
Four of Five— Mark 9:42-48
Mark 9:42-48 Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
“Where their worm does not die."— "This solemn declaration of Christ is not an original saying of His, but is quoted word for word from Isaiah 66:24. We will give it with its context. Speaking of the redeemed of the earth, Isaiah says, 'They shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.' A moment’s glance shows us that both the worm and the fire are alike external to and distinct from the subject on which they prey; and also that what both prey upon are not the living but the dead. 'The allusion,' says Bengel, 'is to dead bodies which are the food of the worm and the funeral pile.' Isaiah frequently uses the image of 'the worm;' but it is always in connection with death. What he means in 51:8, 'The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool,' is what he means when he speaks in Isaiah 66:24, of the fire and the worm consuming the carcasses. This fearful image conveys the idea, not of life, but of its opposite—death, and of hell, as the cleanser of God’s world by the utter and eternal destruction of the wicked. These most solemn words of the prophet, so solemnly endorsed by Christ, assert a state of eternal death and destruction, not one of eternal life in hell, as the destiny of transgressors in the world to come." (The Duration and Nature of Future Punishment by Henry Constable)
"And the fire is not quenched."— “Jesus is employing Old Testament symbolism and, consequently, it is best to view it in the light of its meaning in the Old Testament. The worm feeds on a dead, lifeless body which can feel nothing and, as already noted, is a picture of corruption as the carcass rots in the dust. 'If the figure be taken in its natural meaning, as representing the certain, the inevitable destruction of the wicked, it will be seen as both appropriate and most forcible. As certainly as the carcase is devoured by worms, so certainly, and entirely, shall the sinner be devoured and come to an end; and as certainly as dead bodies were burnt to ashes in the valley of Gehenna, so surely shall the wicked be burned up in the Gehenna, or lake of fire.' [Henry Smith Warleigh, Twelve Discussions Proving the Extinction of Evil Persons and Things] The fact that a body cannot be devoured by worms while at the same time it is being consumed by fire shows that the whole description is purely figurative. The one image simply reinforces the other, and so emphasizes all the more the utter destruction of the wicked.
The figure of unquenchable fire is frequently employed in the Old Testament. Several times it is used metaphorically of God's wrath burning like fire that cannot be quenched (2 Kings 22:17; Jeremiah 4:4;7:20; 21:12;), but it is also used of literal fire. For instance, Jeremiah warns the Jews that because of their sins, the Lord will ‘kindle a fire in the gates thereof (i.e. of Jerusalem), and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched’ (Jeremiah 17:27). This threatened punishment was indeed inflicted when the Babylonians overran Jerusalem. The commander of the troops ‘burned the house of the Lord and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire, [destroying them]’ (Jeremiah 52:13).” ” (Punishment Hell and Judgment in the Book of Revelation Colin Sweet)
Five of Five - Daniel 12:1-2
Daniel 12:1 At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
There are two possible fates for each person: 1) everlasting life or 2) everlasting shame and contempt (in the eyes of the redeemed). (Dan 12:2) "The Hebrew term deraon translated 'contempt' also appears in Isaiah 66:24 in which it is translated 'loathsome' and describes the unburied corpses. In his commentary on The Book of Daniel, André Lacocque notes that the meaning of deraon both 'here [Dan 12:2] and in Isaiah 66:24 is the decomposition of the wicked.' This means that the 'contempt' is caused by the disgust over the decomposition of their bodies, and not by the never-ending suffering of the wicked. As Emmanuel Petavel puts it: 'The sentiment of the survivors is disgust, not pity.' [The Problem of Immortality] To sum up, the alleged OT witness for the everlasting punishment of the wicked is negligible, if not non-existent. On the contrary, the evidence for utter destruction of the wicked at the eschatological Day of the Lord is resoundingly clear. The wicked will 'perish' like the chaff (Ps 1:4, 6), will be 'dashed to pieces' like pottery (Ps 2:9, 12), will be 'slain by the Lord’s breath' (Is 11:4), will be burnt in the fire 'like thorns cut down' (Is 33:12), and 'will die like gnats' (Is 51:6). Perhaps the clearest description of the total destruction of the wicked is found on the last page of the OT in the English (not Hebrew) Bible: 'For behold, the day comes burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch' (Mal 4:1). Here the imagery of the all-consuming fire which leaves 'neither root nor branch' suggests utter consumption and destruction, not perpetual torment. The same truth is expressed by God’s next prophet, John the Baptist, who cried in the wilderness summoning people to repentance in view of the approaching fire of God’s judgment (Matt 3:7-12)." (Immortality or Resurrection by Samuel Bacchiocchi)
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