Final Judgement and ‘Eternal Torment’

It is believed that at the end of the present age there will be a Judgement. This judgement will determine the overall fate of our afterlife. In general, the righteous people will be greatly rewarded and the wicked people will be greatly punished. Some believe that the great punishment of the wicked will be the eternal death whereby there is completely no hope for further resurrection. Some believe that the punishment will be an eternal torment. Here we will find out what the Bible teaches about the final Judgement, rewards and punishment. We will find particularly whether the doctrine of eternal torment is a sound one or not. The notion of eternal torment is found more directly only in the book of Revelation and slightly hinted in the Gospel books. We will examine closely for the meaning of several verses containing the notion which is normally interpreted to mean Eternal Torment.

“And the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 20:10

This is not easy to decipher as the beast, false prophet and the dragon are heavy symbols of dominions, empires, human establishments and angelic establishments ‘in abstract’. We should not read the book of Revelation without considering that almost every theme is expressed heavily symbolically. We should not fixate too much on visualizing the visual images painted. This will for sure drift us away. Rather, we should look behind the image for interpretation; the rest of the bible certainly will help us. Unlike other books which we get direct massage, Revelation has, and must be interpreted to get its true meanings. If for example you say the burning sulfur described above is literal fire, then for it to be a torment, it must torment leaving creatures. This will mean that you are actually saying the beast and the dragon described are literal creatures; a tragic flaw in interpretation. Ask yourself, how can a kingdom in abstract be tormented in a literal fire? It is clear that John is painting abstract thing (things that have mental reality like joy, sadness etc, but not physical reality like volume, mass etc) in picture as though they are physical manifestations. However, use your good judgement to know when to opt to interpret even when reading the rest of the Bible; it is quite easy to notice parables and direct massages. For example, look at the this verses;

“..…Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” Revelation 14:8

Do you visualize here literal adultery, literal wine and literal madness? If you do, then you must be visualizing Babylon to be a literal woman, another tragic flaw of interpretation! Look at this help;

“You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup large and deep. It will bring scorn and derision for it holds so much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of ruin and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria.” Ezekiel 23:32-33

Drinking, sorrow and sisters are known to be phenomenon association to persons but what does it mean to say Israel in abstract is drinking, suffering and has a sister? But we are told that the cup she is drinking is not a cup of wine .it is “the cup of desolation” desolation is not a physical manifestation it is an abstract term. It is however described as though it was a physical cup. Revelation is not the only book to use symbols. Ancient prophecies also used symbols. This style seem strange in New Testament .when you read the book of revelation carefully, you will find out that it does not speak of the eternal torment as the final punishment to any person but rather, it speak of a symbolically for final fate of wicked abstract systems. Bear in mind also that the book of revelation is revelation and not a book of seals so we should be able to understand its message as clearly as crystal.

Apart from carefully determining whether a message is literal or symbolic, we should also be careful to get exactly the message from the verse. We should also be careful in determining what we cannot conclude with certainty from a verse or a chapter. Consider the following verse;

“He too will drink of the wine of God’s furry which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath .he will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holly angles and the smock of their torment rises forever and ever.”Revelation 14:10

When we are careful, we can’t conclude from the above verse that the torment is to last forever. Indeed there is a torment but we cannot conclude with certainty that it will go on forever. We can however conclude with certainty that the smock of the torment will rise forever. We ask the question, does the statement ‘the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever’ symbolizes that the ones described to be tormented will be tormented forever or does it symbolizes something else? When trying to unlock the symbolic message as we have seen, we should seek help from the rest of the bible and here we seek help from ancient prophecy which also used symbols and particularly the symbol of smoke and sulfur. The following verses will help us to understand what ‘smoke’ may symbolize;

“Edom streams will be turned into pitch her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever and ever.” Isaiah 34:9-10

Notice this verse also;

“The desert and screech owl will possess it, the great owl and raven will nest there.” Isaiah 35:11.

So the burning sulfur described in Isaiah 35:9-10 are not literal as the desert creatures in Isaiah 34:11 will not leave in burning sulfur, nor is the smoke raising forever a literal smock.

Look at how another prophet say about the punishment of Edom;

“I swear by myself, declares the lord that the Bozrah will become a ruin and an object of horror, of reproach and of cursing and all its towns will be in ruins forever.” Jeremiah 49:13

“Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. Obadiah 10

Read the whole book of Obadiah and compare with Jeremiah 49:&-22 to see how they are similar, remember that Edom is the land of Esau. Obadiah tells us that Edom will have an everlasting ruin and thus everlasting shame, it is this shame which Isaiah; speaking about Edom is describing as the smock rising forever. (Isaiah 35:9-10)

Apply the same interpretation to Revelation to Revelation 14:10

“Multitude of those who sleep on the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” Daniel 12:2

Others will not have everlasting life but will have an everlasting shame figuratively their smock will rise forever, shame and contempt symbolized by the smock.

You may attempt to argue logically that since Jesus will say,

“….depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Mathew 25:4-5

And the place where the Devil will go is as described in Revelation 19:10

When you do so, bear in mind that they will go to where the Devil and his angles will go but it is not written that they will leave there as long as the Devil.

When you also read verses like these;

“They will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Mathew 25:46

And;

“….they serves as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.” Jude 7.

Remember that a death which one will not raise again can also be termed as eternal punishment. Eternal punishment is not synonymous to eternal torment, or Eternal fire synonymous to it. It is the fire that lives for ever since somewhere we are told God is a consuming fire and he will be a wall of fire protecting Zion, God is the internal fire.

Jude 7 is from a passage which is very similar to this passage which says;

“If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.” 2 Peter 2:6

Jude says Sodom and Gomorrah are example to those who will suffer the punishment of eternal fire and peter says burning to ashes, as done to Sodom and Gomorrah is example to what will happen to the ungodly. Hence, eternal fire is the fire that destroys completely while itself cannot be quenched or be put off even for eternity. The character of God as consuming fire is His everlasting character towards anyone who rebels against him.

Reading Luke 16:19—31 tell us about the suffering of rich man after his death. Bear in mind that it was a parable, that its significance is more on the thought it is forcing you to think than the account. But we can know that there can be torment after death as part of punishment but we are for sure not told these are endless torments.

Some people say the soul of a man is immortal hence it will be tormented forever and ever in hell, but Jesus said;

“….rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.” Mathew 10:28

Hell is not a place for eternal torment but a place where souls and bodies are destroyed. Simply it is a place where ending of existence takes place if one is thrown there.

“…the lake of fire is the second death.” Revelation 20: 14 (it symbolizes the second death.)

Some say this death is a ‘spiritual death’ and not ending of consciousness. If so then eternal life which is its opposite is ‘spiritual life’ and not consciousness. This is actually saying the evil will leave forever (because they will suffer only ‘spiritual death’)! What a fallacy in interpretation

Apostle Paul said;

“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” Romans 2:7

Immortality is not what is inherent in man but what is sought. These words will not make sense if man has an immortal soul.

Revelation 20:11-14 tells us that there will be a book and books at the time of judgement. The contents in the book were written at the beginning before any man did good or bad (Revelation 17:8). The appearance in this book is pure grace and this will determine whether you suffer second death or not, in consistence with doctrines of New Testament passed especially by Paul. Reading carefully, we see that the death were Judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books, not the book hence the contents in the books are determined by actions, a term contrasted with grace by several letters of Paul. The sentence coming from judgement as per the books is not written so no one knows but that from the book is clearly shown, the second death. However for persons to suffer this penalty is hypothetical as the word ‘if’ is used but as for the ‘death’ and ‘hades’ it is what will actually happen as it is written clearly. The ‘death’ and ‘Hades’ were not written in the book of life before the world begun.

-This is an extract from the book ‘Destiny’ by Lawrence Kirui, coming soon.