Are the Wicked Tortured Forever in Hell?

"The wages of sin is death" (the apostle Paul, in Romans 6:23). Paul did not say something like 'the wages of sin is eternal life in torment.'

Twice in Revelation (21:8 and 20:14,15) we see the ultimate fate of the wicked, those whose names "are not written in the book of life." They are "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Here is Revelation 21:8:

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

We all understand the first death: Paul wrote "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

We will be raised from the grave for our judgment. Jesus clearly and plainly taught that all who are in the grave will be raised and judged; here it is in John 5:28,29:

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

So what is the second death? It is another death (for the wicked) after the judgment; it is death from which there is no further hope of life or resurrection. If you're in the second death, you perish, you are gone, you do not exist anymore... there is no more "you."

 Remember John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." We either receive eternal life, or we perish; we either live forever, or we're gone forever. "Perish" in this verse is from the Greek word "apollymi" meaning destroy, be lost, abolished.

Are there any scriptures that show the wicked will actually cease to exist? Yes! In Ezekiel 28:13-19 we read a description of Satan, and of Satan's fate. Note the final few words: "thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be anymore":

"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."

Satan's fate: "Never shalt thou be anymore."

Psalm 37:10 shows the wicked will no longer "be": "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be."

ALL the wicked: Satan, Satan's demonic angels and all wicked men suffer the same fate: "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Jesus, Matthew 25:41). All the wicked go into "everlasting fire" - the "lake of fire and brimstone: which is the second death" as we read earlier in Revelation 21:8. They are destroyed through the second death: they perish, they don't exist any more.

Well, you might think that Satan and the demons are spirit beings and therefore can't die, right? It makes sense - only mortals can die, after all.

But wait just a minute... what about Jesus? He was the Word that was with God "in the beginning" (John 1:1). He was a spirit being. Continuing in John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." A spirit being was made mortal - and then died! Jesus was dead three days and three nights. For Jesus, there was a resurrection to eternal life. Later Jesus said "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death" (Rev. 1:18).

For Satan there will be no resurrection, no hope of life of any kind. Is there any evidence Satan will be made mortal? We just read about Satan (in Ezekiel 28): God "will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee" and that God will "bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."

Consider Hebrews 2:14, regarding Jesus: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."

God will get rid of all evildoers permanently, through death. God will not keep "skeletons in the closet"; He has a better plan than that.

Do you take your trash out to your backyard and beat it with a stick day after day after day, to punish it? Of course not: you just get rid of it. God is neither pathetic nor sadistic. He is a God of both mercy and justice and will simply get rid of the wicked through death.

Revelation 20:13 sets the stage for the final judgment:

"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."

"Hell" in the above verse is from the Greek word "hades" meaning the grave, the "place" of those who have departed this life (and not yet been resurrected for judgment). Those who were lost at sea were not buried in graves, but at this time of judgment even the sea will "give up" those who died there.

In the future - after the judgment, after all the wicked have been destroyed through death - only those who have received eternal life will be left. They can never die... so death won't happen anymore! Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 15:26: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." The verse implies that other enemies would be destroyed - destroyed - beforehand. Death will be destroyed after all the wicked have been destroyed through death.

This is what Revelation 20:14 was talking about when it said:

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

Death will be destroyed: it won't happen anymore. Hell - the grave - will be destroyed, because all will have been resurrected from the grave; no one will be left in the grave, awaiting a resurrection and judgment. Being in "hell" - in the grave awaiting a resurrection and judgment - won't happen anymore.

Essentially, to be "cast into lake of fire" means to be destroyed. For the wicked, the destruction comes through the second death. For events and situations, such as death and hell (in the grave awaiting judgment), they won't ever happen again.

As you can see, the "lake of fire, which is the second death" is not the same as "hell," the grave. Mixing them up just creates confusion.

After the judgment, Revelation 21:4 describes life for those who remain, who have eternal life. Notice what it says about death:

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

"Everlasting"...  permanent vs. perpetual

To us today, the word "everlasting" has the connotation or suggestion of actively ongoing forever... like a "perpetual" motion machine. So when people read that the wicked suffer everlasting punishment, they assume that it means ongoing, active torture.

Perhaps the word permanent would help. "Permanent" is never used in the King James Version of the Bible, but I believe that is often what was intended when "everlasting" and "eternal" are used. For example, we consider capital punishment to be permanent punishment: it is final and irrevocable. It is "everlasting" in the sense that it is permanent: we can't undo it. It is not everlasting in the sense of being ongoing, perpetual torture.

Once the wicked get the second death, they don't know anything any more. They'll have no consciousness and cannot experience torment, or anything else. They will not even "be" any more. Existence, and any hope of existence, will have ended... no more "they."

The Immortal Soul

Think about this: those who believe we have an immortal soul have to presume we all live forever in some form or place... even if it might be in eternal torment. So they have to interpret all the scriptures about the second death and perishing as though they somehow mean living forever. Thus the tempting pagan doctrine of the immortal soul has become a stumbling block to their understanding of the truth.

Here's what the pagan philosopher Plato wrote, about 400 BC. See if this doesn't sound like what many Christians today have been misled to believe:

"Do we believe that there is such a thing as death?... is this anything but the separation of soul and body? And being dead is the attainment of this separation; when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body and the body is parted from the soul... the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintelligible, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable." (Plato, in Phaedo)

The Bible does not teach that we have immortal souls. We do not have eternal life unless it is given to us. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Would God need to give us eternal life if we already had it? We do not inherently have eternal life or immortal souls. If we do not receive God's gift of eternal life, we simply perish via the second death: "never shalt thou be any more."

 

 
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  other topics, in no particular order:
  Are you "saved"? Understanding redemption and salvation
  Are the unsaved tormented in hell forever?
  Jesus
  The Ten Commandments, attitude and obedience
  Did Elijah go to heaven?
  Did the apostle Paul expect to go to heaven when he died?
  An historian writes about the Kingdom of God
  Three days and three nights?
  Jesus, paradise and the thief
  Lazarus and the rich man
  The Garden of Eden