Perhaps the most popular proof text for the traditionalist view of hell is Rev. 20:10: "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." This verse, taken alone, certainly seems to teach eternal torment. There are, however, several reasons to believe that the ultimate fate for Satan is extinction. Three reasons stand out:
1) Other verses seem to contradict Rev. 20:10. The verse in Revelation must be compared with other verses that imply extinction. Let's look at those verses.
"How thou art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cast down to the ground...Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12-14)
"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." (Ezekiel 28:19)
"And that Wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. 2:8)
2) Context of the word torment: In revelation 18 the word torment is used synonomously with destruction to describe the annihilation of Babylon (a representation, not a person).
3) The Bible intertwines the language of death and torment with a view toward death, as evidenced by Psalm 59:13 and 83:17: "Consume them in thy wrath, consume them, that they may not be." "Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame and perish." Even as Satan is consumed in God's wrath, it is possible that his end is extinction.
But what if Satan is tormented forever? Does that mean man faces the same fate? Possibly. Certain facts, however, argue against it. Seven are offered here.
1) Man is mortal; angels are not (Luke 20:35-36).
2) Man's end in Revelation indicates extinction. Rev. 20:12-15 states "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." There's no mention of torment as there is in the verse about Satan being cast into the lake of fire.
3) John defines the lake of fire as the second death with regard to man. It is not called by this term with regard to Satan. In Rev. 20:14 John gives us the definition of the lake of fire: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." John doesn't say that the second death is the lake of fire, but rather that the lake of fire is the second death. Here's the crucial difference: If John defined the second death as the lake of fire, we would have to take all of the language of the lake of fire--the smoke and burning and fire and brimstone--and apply that language to the second death; in other words we would have to conclude that the second death is not death as we know it, namely, the cessation of life, but rather something entirely different--the preservation of life under different circumstances.
But that's not what the verse says: it defines the lake of fire as the second death. Now we have a very different situation, one that compels us to conform the language of the lake of fire to death. In other words, if there's an apparant conflict, we are given an actual definition by which it may be resolved, namely that what's in view is death. To say death doesn't necessarily mean death is simply to leap back into the circle John endeavors to break by giving us the definition in the first place. Why define an ambiguous term with another ambiguous term? If the lake of fire is not literal death, then why introduce the term second death? If the term lake of fire is actually closer to what's really in view than the term second death, then why not leave it alone? If the lake of fire is...well...a lake of fire, then John has confused the matter by defining the clear by the unclear.
4) Torment is indicated in one of the mere handful of verses pertaining to the afterlife of Satan; volumes of verses pertain to the afterlife of man with no mention of eternal torment.
5) Jude 1:7 compares eternal fire as it applies to humans to the "eternal fire" which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. This stresses annihilation.
6) The fact that the lake of fire extinguishes death and hell indicates it terminates that which is mortal.
7) Numerous verses throughout the Bible refer to man's ultimate incineration (Matt. 3:12) and everlasting death (John 3:16). It would seem that both of these events are brought to pass in the lake of fire (the second death).
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