The eternal destinies of the righteous and wicked are described in sharp contrast to each other. The first group receives everlasting life, and the other group will experience God’s painful judgment of condemnation and be totally annihilated. The big lie of eternal punishment and of the perpetual suffering of the wicked in hell is built on the satanic deception expressed in the Garden of Eden: “ ‘You will not surely die’ ” (Gen. 3:4, NKJV).
This text contradicts the unbiblical teaching of the immortality of the soul. Based on the first lie that disobedience will not bring death is constructed another deception: when you die, it is only your body that is dead, not your spirit. Thus, if one has an immortal soul or spirit that cannot die, a sinner will be eternally punished by God in torturous hellfire. This horrendously negative view pictures God as a monster and a tyrant. Another fabricated, and very popular, construct misleads people by giving them the false hope of going through a process of purification and improvement after their death that culminates with being rescued and granted eternal life in Paradise. This lie removes accountability for personal action in this life.
Part II: Commentary
Various Views on Punishment in Hell
Three views regarding the eternal fire of hell compete in Christianity:
Traditionalist view: Hellfire that torments forever and without ceasing. Hell exists as a real place somewhere in the underworld where real fire torments immortal souls forever. According to this view, the conscious suffering of the wicked comes right after death and lasts throughout eternity.
Conditionalist or annihilationist view: The lake of fire irreversibly and totally consumes the wicked, evil angels, and the devil in the last judgment. Human beings are not inherently immortal, and they do not possess immortal souls. As sinners, they are doomed to eternal death unless they accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Immortality is conditioned on receiving God’s grace and exercising faith in Jesus (John 3:16, John 5:24, Rom. 3:21–31, Eph. 2:1–10). Hell is not a place where wicked souls or spirits go immediately after death but is understood as a “lake of fire” in which the wicked will be totally consumed at the end of human history (Mal. 4:1; Matt. 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:6–10; Rev. 20:9, 10, 14, 15). This fire, prepared for the devil and the fallen angels, will annihilate them, together with the wicked, at the last, or executive, judgment. The effects of the fire are final. No one can quench the flames while they do their work. The fire has eternal results, and it will accomplish its purpose: the destruction of evil, sin, death, the wicked, rebellious angels, and Satan himself. The result is described as “the second death,” from which there is no redemption or escape; the second death is the total eradication of evil.
Restorationist or universalist view: Hellfire ultimately purifies and saves everyone. Universalists claim that all people will ultimately be saved, including the wicked, evil angels, and Satan, because hellfire will purify them. This understanding is built on the recognition that after death, the immortal soul of the wicked cannot go immediately to heaven but will suffer in the fire of God’s judgment. This fire will gradually cleanse them, and then, at some future time (the precise moment will depend on the individual’s response to this purification process), everyone will finally be saved. For an evaluation of these three different views, see Jiří Moskala, “The Current Theological Debate Regarding Eternal Punishment in Hell and the Immortality of the Soul,” Andrews University Seminary Studies, vol. 53, no. 1 (2015): pp. 91–125.
Problematic Expressions
There are some difficult biblical expressions pertaining to the doctrine of hell that need to be explained because their meaning is often taken out of context:
Worms (maggots) will not die (Isa. 66:24). How are we to understand the biblical statement: “The worms [tola‘im in Hebrew] that eat them [the wicked dead] will not die” (NIV)? In the context of Isaiah 65 and 66, the wicked are those who do not serve the Lord and who rebelled against Him (Isa. 66:3), and who, finally, are “slain by the Lord” (Isa. 66:16, NIV). First, the description is physical. These wicked are seen, and they have physical bodies. The maggots do not prey on the souls, or immaterial spirits, of the deceased. Second, nowhere does the biblical text presuppose that these worms are endowed with immortality. The worms do not receive the gift of eternal life. No divine miracle is performed on them. Third, this picture of maggots that eat the dead bodies of the wicked is a metaphor of the same sort as the picture of the fire that will not be quenched.
“ Their fire shall not be quenched ” (Isa. 66:24, ESV). “ ‘And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh’ ” (ESV, emphasis supplied; see also Isa. 66:15, 17). To quench a fire is to put it out, to prevent it from burning up, or to stop it before it accomplishes its task. Thus, by extension, a fire that “shall not be quenched” means that the fire has not been extinguished because there is no power to stop it from achieving what fire naturally achieves: total destruction. The fire cannot be resisted or refused. Thus, the meaning of the imagery is transparent: these dead persons have no chance to be alive again. The judgment on these wicked is final, and it means that God’s judgment of destruction will not be stopped until a complete consummation has been accomplished. There is no escape from this ultimate death. No one can rescue the wicked from this horrible end. No reversal is possible. Judgment is ultimate, and destruction is complete. It will not be interrupted until the bodies perish; thus, the final destiny of the wicked is irrevocable and permanent. Barry Webb concludes on Isaiah 66:24: “As it stands, it seems to depict annihilation rather than eternal torment. The bodies are dead.”—The Message of Isaiah: On Eagles’ Wings (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996), p. 251.
The prophet Isaiah explains the final, and total, destruction of Edom, and describes it with the familiar terms of a fire that will consume Edom. The fire burns night and day; “will not be quenched;” “its smoke will rise forever;” and thus turns into “burning sulfur” (Isa. 34:9, 10, NIV). This imagery is later taken and applied plainly in Revelation 14:10, 11 and Revelation 20:10 in passages that are full of symbolism. The language is metaphorical, and it points to God’s sentence of irreversible and total destruction. Similarly, Ezekiel states: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched’ ” (Ezek. 20:47, 48, ESV [emphasis author’s]; see Jer. 7:20).
Ralph Bowles concludes his interpretation of Revelation 14:11: “The traditional reading of the elements of this verse misses the inverted parallelistic structure of the unit Revelation 14:9–11. When the chiasm is discerned, the meaning of the text is seen to give no confirmation to ‘eternal torment.’ Rather, this text fits well into the Conditional Immortality interpretation. This view holds that God will finally and fully bring his enemies to judgement, with absolute destruction and extinction as the result.”—“Does Revelation 14:11 Teach Eternal Torment? Examining a Proof-Text on Hell,” Evangelical Quarterly 73, no. 1 (January 2001): p. 36.
Fire understood as God’s judgment implies that the effect of such fire is everlasting, and for evil there is no point of return. The fate of evil will be under God’s control for all eternity, will never occur a second time, is eternally checkmated, and is no more. Its annihilation is total. God will not miraculously keep an eternal fire or in any way sustain, in a special eternal form, the wicked, the fallen angels, and the devil in order to punish them perpetually. This deception is a very speculative approach to the biblical teaching on the execution of divine judgment. As there was full harmony in heaven before the rebellion of Lucifer against God, so again will there be full harmony when evil in all its forms will be destroyed.
Eternal, forever. The word “forever,” or “eternal” (‘olam in Hebrew), is very relative in the Holy Scriptures. It has three different possible meanings; so it may refer to (1) eternity with a beginning and an end (for example, slaves in Exodus 21:6 [the NIV rightly translates the term ‘olam in this context: “for life”]; the priesthood in Exodus 40:15; Numbers 25:13); (2) eternity with a beginning but without an end (eternal life of all redeemed; see Mark 10:30; John 3:16, 36; John 5:24); and, finally, (3) eternity without a beginning and without an end (belonging only to God Himself; see 1 Tim. 6:16; compare with Deut. 33:27). Always the textual context defines the precise meaning of the term eternal. To the believers in God, immortality is given as a gift through Christ Jesus (John 11:26; Col. 3:3, 4).
The word “contempt” in Daniel 12:2. “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” (Dan. 12:2, ESV). The word contempt (in Hebrew dera’on, meaning abhorrence, aversion, loathsome) is used in the Hebrew Bible only in Daniel 12:2 and in Isaiah 66:24. The meaning of this term is secured by its context: the texts speak about condemnation in relation to judgment and resurrection. Daniel speaks about eternal condemnation and shame for the wicked, and Isaiah explains that the wicked will be destroyed because no one can stop the devouring fire from fulfilling its purpose of obliteration. The rebellious, unrepentant people are doomed to eternal nonexistence, but the righteous are given eternal life.
Part III: Life Application
What is the difference between a popular view of hell and the biblical picture of the lake of fire? Is the lake of fire something real, or only a poetic figure of speech? Discuss.
How can you explain to your class in simple language that people do not go to hell or heaven (or purgatory) right after their death? How can this information be good news?
Can we escape the fire of hell? Why, or why not? If yes, explain how God makes this possibility real in our lives.
Adjust My Preferences
Welcome! Please set your reading preferences below.
You can access this panel later by clicking the
preference icon
in the top right of the page.
Key Texts: Isaiah 66:23, 24; Daniel 12:2
Part I: Overview
The eternal destinies of the righteous and wicked are described in sharp contrast to each other. The first group receives everlasting life, and the other group will experience God’s painful judgment of condemnation and be totally annihilated. The big lie of eternal punishment and of the perpetual suffering of the wicked in hell is built on the satanic deception expressed in the Garden of Eden: “ ‘You will not surely die’ ” (Gen. 3:4, NKJV).
This text contradicts the unbiblical teaching of the immortality of the soul. Based on the first lie that disobedience will not bring death is constructed another deception: when you die, it is only your body that is dead, not your spirit. Thus, if one has an immortal soul or spirit that cannot die, a sinner will be eternally punished by God in torturous hellfire. This horrendously negative view pictures God as a monster and a tyrant. Another fabricated, and very popular, construct misleads people by giving them the false hope of going through a process of purification and improvement after their death that culminates with being rescued and granted eternal life in Paradise. This lie removes accountability for personal action in this life.
Part II: Commentary
Various Views on Punishment in Hell
Three views regarding the eternal fire of hell compete in Christianity:
Traditionalist view: Hellfire that torments forever and without ceasing. Hell exists as a real place somewhere in the underworld where real fire torments immortal souls forever. According to this view, the conscious suffering of the wicked comes right after death and lasts throughout eternity.
Conditionalist or annihilationist view: The lake of fire irreversibly and totally consumes the wicked, evil angels, and the devil in the last judgment. Human beings are not inherently immortal, and they do not possess immortal souls. As sinners, they are doomed to eternal death unless they accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Immortality is conditioned on receiving God’s grace and exercising faith in Jesus (John 3:16, John 5:24, Rom. 3:21–31, Eph. 2:1–10). Hell is not a place where wicked souls or spirits go immediately after death but is understood as a “lake of fire” in which the wicked will be totally consumed at the end of human history (Mal. 4:1; Matt. 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:6–10; Rev. 20:9, 10, 14, 15). This fire, prepared for the devil and the fallen angels, will annihilate them, together with the wicked, at the last, or executive, judgment. The effects of the fire are final. No one can quench the flames while they do their work. The fire has eternal results, and it will accomplish its purpose: the destruction of evil, sin, death, the wicked, rebellious angels, and Satan himself. The result is described as “the second death,” from which there is no redemption or escape; the second death is the total eradication of evil.
Restorationist or universalist view: Hellfire ultimately purifies and saves everyone. Universalists claim that all people will ultimately be saved, including the wicked, evil angels, and Satan, because hellfire will purify them. This understanding is built on the recognition that after death, the immortal soul of the wicked cannot go immediately to heaven but will suffer in the fire of God’s judgment. This fire will gradually cleanse them, and then, at some future time (the precise moment will depend on the individual’s response to this purification process), everyone will finally be saved. For an evaluation of these three different views, see Jiří Moskala, “The Current Theological Debate Regarding Eternal Punishment in Hell and the Immortality of the Soul,” Andrews University Seminary Studies, vol. 53, no. 1 (2015): pp. 91–125.
Problematic Expressions
There are some difficult biblical expressions pertaining to the doctrine of hell that need to be explained because their meaning is often taken out of context:
Worms (maggots) will not die (Isa. 66:24). How are we to understand the biblical statement: “The worms [tola‘im in Hebrew] that eat them [the wicked dead] will not die” (NIV)? In the context of Isaiah 65 and 66, the wicked are those who do not serve the Lord and who rebelled against Him (Isa. 66:3), and who, finally, are “slain by the Lord” (Isa. 66:16, NIV). First, the description is physical. These wicked are seen, and they have physical bodies. The maggots do not prey on the souls, or immaterial spirits, of the deceased. Second, nowhere does the biblical text presuppose that these worms are endowed with immortality. The worms do not receive the gift of eternal life. No divine miracle is performed on them. Third, this picture of maggots that eat the dead bodies of the wicked is a metaphor of the same sort as the picture of the fire that will not be quenched.
“ Their fire shall not be quenched ” (Isa. 66:24, ESV). “ ‘And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh’ ” (ESV, emphasis supplied; see also Isa. 66:15, 17). To quench a fire is to put it out, to prevent it from burning up, or to stop it before it accomplishes its task. Thus, by extension, a fire that “shall not be quenched” means that the fire has not been extinguished because there is no power to stop it from achieving what fire naturally achieves: total destruction. The fire cannot be resisted or refused. Thus, the meaning of the imagery is transparent: these dead persons have no chance to be alive again. The judgment on these wicked is final, and it means that God’s judgment of destruction will not be stopped until a complete consummation has been accomplished. There is no escape from this ultimate death. No one can rescue the wicked from this horrible end. No reversal is possible. Judgment is ultimate, and destruction is complete. It will not be interrupted until the bodies perish; thus, the final destiny of the wicked is irrevocable and permanent. Barry Webb concludes on Isaiah 66:24: “As it stands, it seems to depict annihilation rather than eternal torment. The bodies are dead.”—The Message of Isaiah: On Eagles’ Wings (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996), p. 251.
The prophet Isaiah explains the final, and total, destruction of Edom, and describes it with the familiar terms of a fire that will consume Edom. The fire burns night and day; “will not be quenched;” “its smoke will rise forever;” and thus turns into “burning sulfur” (Isa. 34:9, 10, NIV). This imagery is later taken and applied plainly in Revelation 14:10, 11 and Revelation 20:10 in passages that are full of symbolism. The language is metaphorical, and it points to God’s sentence of irreversible and total destruction. Similarly, Ezekiel states: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched’ ” (Ezek. 20:47, 48, ESV [emphasis author’s]; see Jer. 7:20).
Ralph Bowles concludes his interpretation of Revelation 14:11: “The traditional reading of the elements of this verse misses the inverted parallelistic structure of the unit Revelation 14:9–11. When the chiasm is discerned, the meaning of the text is seen to give no confirmation to ‘eternal torment.’ Rather, this text fits well into the Conditional Immortality interpretation. This view holds that God will finally and fully bring his enemies to judgement, with absolute destruction and extinction as the result.”—“Does Revelation 14:11 Teach Eternal Torment? Examining a Proof-Text on Hell,” Evangelical Quarterly 73, no. 1 (January 2001): p. 36.
Fire understood as God’s judgment implies that the effect of such fire is everlasting, and for evil there is no point of return. The fate of evil will be under God’s control for all eternity, will never occur a second time, is eternally checkmated, and is no more. Its annihilation is total. God will not miraculously keep an eternal fire or in any way sustain, in a special eternal form, the wicked, the fallen angels, and the devil in order to punish them perpetually. This deception is a very speculative approach to the biblical teaching on the execution of divine judgment. As there was full harmony in heaven before the rebellion of Lucifer against God, so again will there be full harmony when evil in all its forms will be destroyed.
Eternal, forever. The word “forever,” or “eternal” (‘olam in Hebrew), is very relative in the Holy Scriptures. It has three different possible meanings; so it may refer to (1) eternity with a beginning and an end (for example, slaves in Exodus 21:6 [the NIV rightly translates the term ‘olam in this context: “for life”]; the priesthood in Exodus 40:15; Numbers 25:13); (2) eternity with a beginning but without an end (eternal life of all redeemed; see Mark 10:30; John 3:16, 36; John 5:24); and, finally, (3) eternity without a beginning and without an end (belonging only to God Himself; see 1 Tim. 6:16; compare with Deut. 33:27). Always the textual context defines the precise meaning of the term eternal. To the believers in God, immortality is given as a gift through Christ Jesus (John 11:26; Col. 3:3, 4).
The word “contempt” in Daniel 12:2. “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” (Dan. 12:2, ESV). The word contempt (in Hebrew dera’on, meaning abhorrence, aversion, loathsome) is used in the Hebrew Bible only in Daniel 12:2 and in Isaiah 66:24. The meaning of this term is secured by its context: the texts speak about condemnation in relation to judgment and resurrection. Daniel speaks about eternal condemnation and shame for the wicked, and Isaiah explains that the wicked will be destroyed because no one can stop the devouring fire from fulfilling its purpose of obliteration. The rebellious, unrepentant people are doomed to eternal nonexistence, but the righteous are given eternal life.
Part III: Life Application
What is the difference between a popular view of hell and the biblical picture of the lake of fire? Is the lake of fire something real, or only a poetic figure of speech? Discuss.
How can you explain to your class in simple language that people do not go to hell or heaven (or purgatory) right after their death? How can this information be good news?
Can we escape the fire of hell? Why, or why not? If yes, explain how God makes this possibility real in our lives.