In Part 1, we studied the different meanings of the word hell and learned that it isn’t defined as a place of eternal torture. We also studied the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, which gave us a glimpse of what happens immediately after the flesh body dies.
The Final Judgment and the Fate of the Wicked
Today, we’ll learn what God says about the Final Judgment and see even more proof that nobody is sent to an eternal fire to burn forever. Let’s begin in the book of Matthew.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Only God can destroy both your body and soul. Destroy is (G622) in the Strong’s, and it’s the same word translated as perish in John 3:16. It means to cause your soul to perish, to no longer exist, and that only happens at the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ (the Millennium).
Let’s look at some scripture from the great book of Revelation. For context, the Millennium has just ended. For a full thousand years, Satan has been bound and locked up. Jesus has been ruling, and His elect have been teaching those who did not participate in the first resurrection when Christ returned. At the very end of that thousand years, Satan is released for a short season to gather as many souls as are willing to choose him over God. Even after that long of perfect teaching, a shocking number of them still choose to follow Satan and rebel against God one last time. This time, their choice is made with full understanding (Revelation 20:7–8).
These wicked people, led by Satan, now march across the earth and surround “the camp of the saints” and “the beloved city,” Jerusalem, the headquarters of Christ’s kingdom.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
That’s it. The rebellion is over in an instant. The moment Satan’s evil army surrounds God’s saints, fire comes down from heaven and instantly consumes them. Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). His judgment is swift, complete, and final.
Notice there is nothing said about remaining alive to endure eternal torture. Satan and his followers are destroyed completely, and the last enemy of God is gone forever.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Many people stop here and think this proves hell means being tortured forever. But that is not what this verse is teaching.
Remember what the beast and the false prophet actually are. The beast is Satan’s one-world political and religious system (the New World Order).
The false prophet is Satan himself in his role as Antichrist (the “instead-of-Christ”), who deceives the world into worshipping him.
Both the one-world system and Satan’s role as the Antichrist were already completely destroyed and cast into the lake of fire the moment Christ returned at the seventh trump (Revelation 19:20). Satan himself was not. He was locked away for the Millennium, where he would have no influence during that entire time (Revelation 20:1–3).
So here in Revelation 20:10, a thousand years later, Satan is now cast into that same lake of fire “where the beast and the false prophet are,” meaning he is gone, destroyed, and done away with forever.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Revelation 20:12
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
The dead are those who did not take part in the first resurrection when Christ returned, and it refers to the state of one’s soul being spiritually dead. How do we know this? Because remember, there are no flesh bodies at this time.
I want you to notice something important. Today, we are judged by our faith in Christ. His blood shed on the cross is our redemption. To be saved, we must believe in Christ, whom we do not physically see. We believe without seeing and are very blessed for doing so (John 20:29).
However, in this verse, the spiritually dead are being judged by their works. They can no longer be saved by faith. Why? Because the age of grace ended the moment Jesus stepped foot on earth. As Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
But here, the spiritually dead went through a thousand years of seeing Jesus and being taught by His saints throughout the Millennium, so they have full understanding and knowledge. There is no faith involved at this point, so they are judged by what they did during the Millennium. Did they follow Satan at the end?
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.
The sea simply refers to people (Revelation 17:15). This verse emphasizes the prior one. It is all encompassing, meaning everyone who is spiritually dead is about to be judged according to their works during the Millennium.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
This is when 1 Corinthians 15:55 comes to pass: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” We’re about to go into eternity with our Heavenly Father, and those things are destroyed forever.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
The book of life is your record, and if your name is not there, you’re going to the lake of fire. Once He pronounces the judgment of death to your soul, it is done and over with for eternity. It’s permanent.
If you accept and love the Lord Jesus Christ and follow God, you have nothing to fear. You can look forward to that day and the beautiful eternity that our Father has in store for all of His children who love Him.
Only the ungodly, those who refuse to accept God even after knowing the truth, will experience the second death, the death of the soul.
In Revelation 21, the Final Judgment at the Great White Throne is finished, so this is taking place in the eternal age. Have you ever wondered where Heaven is going to be? You’re reading about it right now. God has rejuvenated this earth back to the way He created it in the beginning. It is beautiful and perfect. Best of all, our Heavenly Father is with us forever.
But let’s read verse 8 to see who will not be there:
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.
Just as we read earlier, being cast into the lake of fire is the second death, not torture, and it is the final destruction of the soul.
Did you notice there was someone else absent on judgment day?
Satan Judged and Destroyed First
When was Satan cast into the lake of fire? It was back in Revelation 20:10, right before the Great White Throne Judgment. There was no need for him to be there. One of his names is the son of perdition, because God pronounced judgment on him long ago, before we even existed in flesh bodies. Satan was told exactly what was going to happen to him. Let’s read about it.
The following verses are talking about Satan after he decided he would no longer worship God. Because of his pride and arrogance, he wanted to be worshiped himself. He wanted to be God, and he still does.
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.
Did God say, “I’m going to keep your soul alive and torture you in flames for all eternity?” No. He said, “I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes…”
This shows that Satan will be turned to ashes from within, or from the inside out. Devour (H398) means to burn up, consume. All that will remain of Satan is ashes upon the earth.
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.
The word never (H369) means to be nothing or not exist. Satan is done away with, but even he will not be tortured in flames for eternity. So why would God do it to one of us?
Have you read what He has in store for us? Eternal life filled with peace, joy, and love. No more aging bodies that decay. No more pain. No more sorrow, not even a single tear. And no more wicked people doing evil things.
God doesn’t want to destroy any of His children, but He absolutely will do it because He has to. Why? Because in order to fulfill His promises to those who love Him, eternity must be free from evil. If those who hate God and love wickedness were allowed into eternity, there wouldn’t be eternal peace and joy.
And that’s why ungodly people are not going to make it into eternity, but it is by their own choice. The Father is long suffering and patient so that every person has a full and fair chance to know the truth and be saved. God is so precious and so good to us because He loves us with an everlasting love. But that same love is also why He has to eliminate the wicked, those who willingly choose Satan over Him.
But even then, God carries out justice with mercy. He doesn’t take pleasure in hurting any of His children. He’s certainly not going to toss them into a lake of hot lava, screaming and writhing in pain for eternity. That’s man’s version of hell, not God’s.
If you read Jeremiah 7:31 or Jeremiah 19:5, God makes it clear that burning His children was never His idea. In context, these verses deal with Israel sacrificing their children to Molech, but they still show God’s character. He says burning His children alive was something He never commanded, never wanted, and it never even entered His mind. He was against it then, and He’s against it now.
Understanding the Language God Uses to Describe Final Judgment
I want to show you something that helps settle this false teaching of God torturing souls forever. In Isaiah 34, God pronounces judgment on Edom. He talks about burning pitch, fire that won’t be quenched, and smoke rising forever. Obadiah describes the exact same judgment and tells us what actually happened to Edom.
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall rise up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
What actually happened to Edom?
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken.
Isaiah says the smoke rises “for ever.” Obadiah, describing the exact same judgment, says Edom is burned up like stubble and nothing at all remains.
If you visit ancient Edom today, you’ll find a desolate place. There is no smoke because the fire is long gone. Why? Because there was nothing left to burn. Forever refers to the finality of the destruction, not the burning process itself.
Once God’s judgment happens, it’s over. Nothing comes back from it because it’s a complete end.
Let’s look at another example in Jeremiah.
But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
“Shall not be quenched” is the exact same phrase people take to mean eternal torment.
Well, they didn’t listen, and God did exactly what He said He would do. Jerusalem was burned with fire that “shall not be quenched,” and yet today, if you walk through the gates of Jerusalem, they are not still burning. The fire went out, but only after it had devoured everything it was sent to devour. The judgment was final and irreversible. The flames themselves were not eternal.
You see this same pattern with Sodom and Gomorrah. The book of Jude says they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. Peter describes what actually happened to those cities.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
2 Peter 2:6
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.
Jude calls it eternal fire. Peter says they were reduced to ashes. Both are right. Those cities are not burning today. There are no flames and no smoke anymore. The fire did its job completely, and only the destruction remained. God’s final judgment with permanent results. That’s what eternal means in this context.
The Father uses figures of speech and the strongest possible language to show us that the destruction of the wicked is complete, irreversible, and final. The lake of fire is the second death. Consumed, turned to ashes, blotted out, remembered no more. Just like Edom, Jerusalem’s gates, and Sodom.
Those condemned to the lake of fire will be instantly and fully destroyed, blotted out of existence, just like Satan. We won’t even remember them anymore. How can we be sure of that? Because if someone you loved didn’t make it, that would cause sadness, grief, and tears. But there are no more tears in Heaven, only complete joy and peace for all eternity. That’s a promise from our loving Father, and oh, how He loves His children.
That’s why there will be no tears in eternity. The memory of evil will be gone forever (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4).
Eternal Life vs. Eternal Death: Only the Saved Live Forever
Let’s look at other places in God’s Word that prove the wicked are destroyed, not tortured. We’ll start with the most well-known verse in the Bible.
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.
If you believe in Him, you will not perish. You will have everlasting life. So what if the opposite is true? What if a person does not believe in Christ? Then they do not have eternal life, and they will perish. Remember, perish means to destroy fully, to cease to exist. This is the exact opposite of eternal conscious torment.
As a side study, check out the word believeth (G4100) in the Strong’s. There’s more to it than simply knowing something is true, and it makes a great study. Let’s continue.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
This flesh age will instantly end when Jesus returns. He is coming to destroy the evil and wicked things of the world and to set up His Millennial Kingdom right here on earth. At the end of the thousand years, the ungodly will face that day of judgment and perdition at the Great White Throne Judgment.
The word perdition (G684) means ruin, loss, destruction, and die. It comes from the same word as perish, meaning to be fully destroyed.
Again, there is nothing in this verse that says those who reject God will live in flames forever. Instead, it says they will perish.
Still not convinced? Let’s keep going.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
James 1:15
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
These verses are talking about the second death, the death of the soul. Not one verse says “eternal torture of the soul.” The second death is permanent and final.
To wrap this up, let’s look at two more verses in the book of Psalms.
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
The wicked are the enemies of God, and as we’ve seen throughout Scripture, they will be completely destroyed.
In this verse, God uses the imagery of a lamb roasting over a fire. But be careful how you read this. He likens the wicked to the fat of the lamb, not the lamb itself.
Picture a lamb on a spit, turning over a flame. What happens to the fat that drips off into the fire? It’s consumed into smoke, and then it’s gone.
Consume (H3615) means to end, to finish, to perish, to be consumed. It can be used intransitively, meaning to come to an end or vanish, or transitively, meaning to bring something to an end or destroy it.
In this verse, it’s used intransitively: “they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” This describes the wicked themselves wasting away and disappearing like smoke. They’re not consuming anything else but are being consumed themselves.
Smoke (H6227) means vapor or rising fumes, what’s left when something is burned up and gone.
Just like the fat that hits the fire, the wicked don’t burn forever. They vanish, leaving nothing behind.
Choose Life Today
We serve a God of love, and as His Word makes clear, He is also a God of discipline and perfectly fair judgment. The beautiful promises He has made about eternity are something we can count on because our Heavenly Father always keeps His Word.
Friends, God’s Word is crystal clear. There is no eternal torture chamber. The lake of fire is the second death, and it means total consumption, turned to ashes, blotted out, and remembered no more. That’s the end of Satan, the wicked, and all evil.
Our Heavenly Father doesn’t burn His children alive forever. That sick idea never even entered His mind. He destroys evil completely so that the eternity He promised us will be nothing but peace, joy, and love. No more pain. No more tears. No memory of the wicked.
So right now, while grace is still offered, make sure your name is in the Book of Life. How? Love the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on Him, and follow Him. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. You can take part in the first resurrection and never have to fear the second death. The Father loves you more than you can imagine, and He’s waiting with open arms. Not for perfection (that’s what repentance is for), but for you to come willingly, exactly as you are, and allow His Holy Spirit to fill your life and change your heart.
As Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
You can too. Stay in God’s Word and keep fighting the good fight.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
