INFINITE PUNISHMENT

Perhaps the most nagging question arising out of the debate about eternal torment is this: Why the need for it? Why would God have to punish people forever? No remotely logical answer has ever been given. The closest anyone comes is to say that sin against an infinite God requires infinite punishment. One argument for hell is the belief that the Bible teaches degrees of punishment in the after-life. Everlasting death cannot accomplish this purpose; therefore hell must be eternal torment. Do you see the contradiction here? Hell must be infinite to satisfy an infinite God, yet it will vary in intensity from person to person according to their deeds. These two ideas stand in stark contradiction to each other. If God must send people to hell because He's an infinite God, and therefore infinitely offended by all sin, then every sin must by definition require infinite punishment. A child's white lie must offend Him infinitely, thereby demanding the exact same punishment as a mass murder. There's no getting around this by noting that hell is indeed infinite in duration for all who go there even though the intensity may vary. This is no answer to the problem; if God is offended infinitely, then He must punish each sin to the utmost degree possible, which would mean infinite duration and intensity. That means nothing less than to insist that every soul in hell--yes, chidren, too--must endure the most intense agony conceivable for all eternity; they must be cast into the hottest flame, where they will remain, screaming at the top of their lungs, without pause, forever and ever.


No sane person would propose to measure sin without considering the nature of the sinner as well as the one sinned against. Nor does the Bible insist we do so. The Bible indicates that God is mindful of "our frame, that we are but dust," (Psalm 103:14, and that he "remembereth that they were but flesh..." (Psalm 78:39). Moreover, God equates sin against man with sin against Himself. In the book Two Views of Hell, Edward Fudge observes "God demanded that the Jews provide the same justice for every person, regardless of the person's rank or standing in society (Ex 23:3; Lev. 19:15; Deut 1:17). This principle of a single standard applicable to all classes of people found clear expression in the law known as lex talionis--an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Lev. 24:19-22)...Furthermore, Israel's laws were meant to elicit praise for the justice of God himself (Deut 4:5-8)."


By proposing degrees of punishment in hell, traditionalists implicitly, if not explicitly, concede that God does in fact consider our frame in accessing the penalty for sin, thereby undercutting their own argument that sin requires infinite punishment based on the fact that it's committed against an infinite God. The fact that an infinite God sets a perfect, inflexible standard does not dictate infinite offense at the failure of finite beings to meet that standard. A father's standard is the same for all his children; his offense at the transgression of that standard varies according to the age and capacities of the child.


God demonstrates His mindfulness of our frame--that we "are but dust"--in decreeing death as the punishment for sin. Man comes from the dust and to dust he returns. The only just punishment for the continued misuse of something--inclusing life--is the revocation of the thing being misused. If a child is misusing a toy, we take it from her; we don't torture her. Other punishments may be necessary, but only to the extent that we don't wish to revoke the toy.

The implications of the infinite-God-requires-infinite-punishment argument are twofold: 1) there cannot be degrees of punishment in hell, and 2) hell must be complete immersion in the hottest flame for all time for all who go there, including children (please, no age of accountability nonsense; that's a bigger crock than purgatory). If the traditionalist can accept this, fine: we may proceed with the debate on other grounds. If not, they must either rethink their rationale for the need for hell, or perhaps consider giving it up entirely.

JUDAS

Traditionalists often cite Matthew 26:24 as a proof text: "...woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man if he had not been born." Surely this verse is suggesting eternal torment, right? Well...maybe yes and maybe no. What if this verse could be interpreted in a way that's more consistent with extinction? Matthew 27:5-8 reads:

"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The Field of Blood, unto this day."

Now, let's look at Ecclesiastes 6:3: "If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years...and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he." Judas had a burial, but a disgraceful one. The disgrace is emphasized in Acts 1:18-20:

"Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity...And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take."

Let his habitation be desolate! No fate could be worse for a Jew of that day! Genesis 49:29-33 underscores how important it was for the Jews of that time to have a decent burial with their own people:

"And he (Jacob) charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite...There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah...And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."

As if that weren't enough, there's another reason why it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born--a bad name! Proverbs 22:1 states: "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." Ecc. 7:1 declares "A good name is better than precious ointment."

Judas has quite possibly the worse name in all of history.

But even having said all that, there's another way to look at the issue, and that way also squares better with extinction. If Judas's fate was eternal torment, then it didn't differ from the vast majority of mankind. It would be better for any unsaved person to never be born than to go to hell. Why single Judas out?

But suppose that there is no burning hell of conscious torment, just the grave. In that case it makes sense to single Judas out. What if all that unsaved man had was this life? Whose life would be a greater tragedy--that of ordinary John Q. Sinner, who by all appearances seemed like a pretty good fellow, who lived and died in the usual way, and was properly eulogized and fondly remembered by friends and family, or Judas Iscariot, who lived torn between good and evil, vacillating, double-minded, then finally was swayed by Satan into betraying his master, then felt so crushed by guilt that he changed his mind--again--returned the money, and hanged himself. And then is forever remembered as a traitor whose very name is a slur? How many of us leave behind a legacy like that? When we look at the story of Judas Iscariot, his fate, as described by Christ, seems to stand out as a prime example for the extinction of the wicked.

CHRIST'S DEATH

If the wages of sin are hell rather than death, we should expect to find the most vivid demonstration of this in the person who came to pay that wage. It is at the cross, however, that we find the least evidence for hell. Here--where "hell" is encountered head-on--is precisely where all of the language of hell falls silent. That silence is pierced by a thunderous cacophony consisting solely of the language of death. In his book The Fire That Consumes, Edward Fudge observes:



"The Bible exhausts the vocabulary of dying in speaking of what happened to Jesus. He "died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3). He laid down his "life" (John 10:15). He was destroyed (Matthew 27:20) or killed (Acts 3:15). Jesus compared his own death to the dissolution of a kernel of wheat in the same passage that means losing one's life rather than loving it in order to find life eternal (John 12:23-26). Jesus "poured out His life unto death..."



This blog is called ETERNAL FIRE: The Beginning or the End? By every indication if Christ didn't rise from the dead, it would have been the end of Him and of those who died in Him. 1 Cor. 15:13 states "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished."



Of course it is impossible to completely disentangle the language of death from the language of torment, precisely because death is a torturous thing. We see this reflected in a messianic verse like Jonah 2:1-6:



"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God."



In Jonah, the language of extinction and torment collide. Which one is correct? And what about Acts 2:27, which talks about Christ in "hell"? What does that mean? This is why we compare scriipture with scripture. By doing so here we can discover four things that help put the matter in perspective: 1) Hell is the grave; that was its common usage. 2) Death and the grave (hell) is depicted as a violent force whose end is extinction. 3) The sea is a metaphor for hell (the grave). 4) The sea will be no more.



1)Hell is the grave "Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell." (Psalm 55:15) Effectively, this verse is saying "Let them die and go to the grave." Words like hell, the deep, the pit, and the grave were used interchangeably in the Old Testament. Christ did not go to a hell of eternal torment. He went into the grave (Acts 2:27).

2) The language of torment and death are interwoven; death is a violent force whose end is extinction. "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them...and their beauty shall consume in the grave..." (Psalm 49:14) "Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish." (Psalm 83:17)
"Consume them in thy wrath, consume them, that they may not be." (Psalm 59:13)

3) The sea is a metaphor for hell (the grave), and it hungrily swallows up its victims:
"All thy waves and billows are gone over me" (Psalm 42:7)
"Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered...out of the deep waters. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me." (Psalm 69:14-16)
"I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hast no strength: Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou remembers no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with thy waves." (Psalm 88:4-7)

The description of Jonah (Christ) swallowed by the sea does not imply eternal torment. The Bible is simply employing for Christ the same language it employs elsewhere. The last verse makes clear what's really in view is not torment, but death: "thou brought up my life from corruption..." The language of torment precedes what's really in view--death, as in Psalm 83:17: "Let them be troubled forever, yea, let them perish." Perish. It is what the Bible says would have happened to those fallen asleep in Christ had he not been raised (1 Cor. 15:13).

4) The sea (hell) will be no more. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Rev. 20:14) "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Rev. 21:1)

If Christ endured an eternity in hell, then His experience could never be shared by another, much less by a believer. But Matt. 20:23 indicates just the opposite: "Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptised with..." This cup refers to the cross: "...the cup which the father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11).

In closing, it is worthwile noting that Old Testament sacrifices were not tormented; they were killed. By every indication this is what happened to Christ on the cross. He became a curse for us (Gal. 13:13), and then shed His blood for us (Heb. 9:14). In Christ--the revelation of God's wrath--we find the language of death (Romans 6:23), resurrection (1 Cor. 15:42), reconciliation (Romans 5:10), washing, sanctification, and justification (1 Cor. 6:11), intercession (Heb. 9:15), blood (1 Cor. 11:25), redemption (Heb. 9:12), purification (Heb. 9:23), and ultimate union with God (1 Thess. 4:17), but nothing whatsoever of weeping and gnashing of teeth, fire and brimstone, or worms and maggots. In God's clearest, dearest, most intimate revelation of Himself and His wrath, we find only the language of the two polar opposites that God set before us from the beginning--life and death. The pronouncement in Romans 6:23--"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord"--seems to be God's final word on the subject of His wrath as revealed in Jesus Christ.

WHAT ABOUT SATAN?

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).

DEGREES OF PUNISHMENT

One of the arguments for the need for hell is the that certain verses seem to teach degrees of punishment for the wicked. This would not be possible if the punishment were death. This position, however, does not follow from the language of the Bible as it pertains to judgment. Look at Psalm 69:27-28: "Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." Here we see that although the punishment is clearly extinction, we still store up wrath for ourselves as we sin. We're not adding to the severity of the punishment--just the certainty of it. We're sealing our doom. Romans 2:5 presents the same principle: "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasureth up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of thee righteous judgment of God." This principle also applies to the righteous: "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Heaven is no better for Mother Teresa than for the thief on the cross, even though she spent her whole life laying up treasure in heaven, whereas the thief snagged it at the last possible moment. Likewise, hell is no worse for Hitler than for Ananias: hell is hell and heaven is heaven. We're told, however, to "strive to enter through the narrow gate" and to "make sure your election" (2 Peter 1:10), and to "lay up treasures in heaven" (Matt. 6:12), even as we are warned about "storing up wrath" and becoming "twice the child of hell" (Matt. 23:15) and receiving "the greater damnation" (Luke 20:47). Language like "the greater damnation" is paralleled by a statement like "whoesoever will be great among you, will be your minister" (Mark 10:43). It goes to the matter of certainty, not degrees.

DOUBLE DESTRUCTION

Jeremiah 16:18 states: "And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double..." This verse appears to be teaching retributive justice. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Jeremiah 17:18 states: "Let them be confounded that persecute me...let them be dismayed...bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction." The destruction in view here is death (Jer. 25:33). God also uses the phrase double destruction in Rev. 18:6: "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double her according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled to her double." The verse refers to Babylon (a representation, not a person), whose end is unquestionably extinction (Rev. 18:21). And yet the Bible says of her: "How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her" (Rev. 18:7). A precise, perfectly proportionate measure of retributive justice is being dispensed here, and the end is extinction. One cannot argue here, as traditionalists do regarding these types of verses, that this verse refers only to earthly punishment, whereas additional punishment remains to be dispensed; Babylon is not a person to be resurrected: her end is final. Thess. 2:16 also mentions the cup of God's wrath: "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." Here again we encounter the principle of storing up wrath. What is that wrath? Psalm 75:8-10 states "For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red...but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them...All the horns of the wicked will I cut off." Drinking the wrath of the Lord's cup, which brings double destruction and wrath to the uttermost--language which suggests degrees of punishment--ultimately results in being cut off. The phrase cut off means killed, as we see in Psalm 88:5: "Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand."

The theme of the doubling of punishment is also found in Isaiah 40:2: "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." On this pattern, a person receives double for their sins, and then is released from any further payment. The wages of sin is death; God doubles that payment with a second death. After that death, the payment is finished.

As already noted, the Bible intertwines the language of death and torment with a view toward death (Psalm 59:13, 83:17). In the Bible retributive justice works for extinction, not against it. In our imagination, retributive justice requires hell; in the Bible the ultimate expression of retributive justice is extinction.

REJECTING CHRIST

But isn't rejecting Christ a sin that calls for greater punishment? What about Hebrews 10:29: "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be worthy, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God...?" The problem with this view is that it ignores the fact that all sin--past, present, and future--is against Christ. There's no other kind of sin! The following verses make that evident: 1 Peter 1:10-11: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently...searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ..." 1 Cor. 10:1-4: "I would that ye be not ignorant, how that all our fathers...drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ." There's only one payment for sin. Christ is the "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). He is the only way to the father (John 14:6). We know the salvation of a select few Old Testament figures came through Christ. What about the vast majority who were not saved? Who were they rejecting? If not Christ, then who?

But what about Hebrews 12:25: "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn from him that speaketh from heaven." Doesn't this verse teach that rejecting Christ demands a greater penalty? Not when we compare it to a similiar verse from the Old Testament. Psalm 95 states: "Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work." Look at the similarities between the two statements: both warn the listener to take heed, both offer examples of punishment for past disobedience, and both point to the extra personal nature of God's care and revelation as reasons to obey. Psalm 95 notes that they "tempted me, proved me, and saw my work" (9). In other words, how much more could God have done? He lived with them, going "before them by day in a pillar of a cloud...and by night in a pillar of fire..." (Exodus 13:21). Just as Christ became Immanuel (God with us), so God dwelled with ancient Israel. Again, the question must be asked: what's the difference between rejecting Christ now and rejecting Him then? Is it in the act of resisting the Holy Spirit? That's hardly something unique to the New Testament, as evidenced by Acts 7:51-53: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; just as your fathers did, so do ye." The same Spirit worked through the same God (Christ), to bring the same warnings (1 Peter 1:10-11). There's no justification for using the idea of "rejecting Christ" as evidence that there must be a place called hell where people suffer varying degrees of punishment.

DIFFERING REWARDS

Another aspect of God's judgment that's easy to misunderstand is how He rewards the just. Certain verses seem to teach differing rewards in heaven. 1 Cor. 3:13-15 states "Every man's work shall...be revealed with fire...If any man's work abide...he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." 2 John 1:8: "Look to yourselves, that we lose not the things that we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." Matt. 5:19: "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments...shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven..." These verses certainly do seem to teach differing rewards. This idea, however, directly contradicts everything the Bible tells us about salvation in Christ. Salvation in Christ consists of two things: a sin debt that is completely erased (Jude 1:24, Hebrews 12:23, Isaiah 1:18) and the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to the believer (1 Cor. 1:30, Heb. 10:14, 2 Cor. 5:21). If this is the case, where can there exist any room for difference? Does the efficacy of Christ's payment for sin, by which God forgives, differ from one person to the next?

"Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor. 1:13). Then how could the rewards differ? They can't. But sometimes God, when talking about judgment, employs language that proves deceptive if not carefully scrutinized.

THE FURNACE OF FIRE

All Bible verses that record responses of conscious torment have close parallels in other parts of the Bible describing earhly torment. Let's look at some examples.
Luke 13:25 has a shutting of a door. This has been interpreted as Christ shutting the door of heaven, thereby consigning those outside to hell. In Genesis 7:16, however, we also have a closing of a door. It's God shutting Noah in the ark, thereby shutting everyone else out. It's a reference to earthly torment of the tribulation.

Weeping and torment is found in Matt. 22:13, 24:50-51, 13:38-42, 8:11-12, 25:30, 18:34, and Luke 12:59. It's been interpreted to refer to the weeping of those in hell. Weeping, however, is also found in Old Testament prophecies pertaining to the Day of the Lord, which is a time of earthly torment. Amos 8:10 is one example.

Matthew 22:13, 8:11-12, and 25:30 depict outer darkness. This same darkness appears in Joel 2:2, Amos 5:20, Isaiah 13:10, and Zephaniah 1:5.
Matthew 13:38-42 mentions a furnace of fire. The same image is used in Rev. 9:2.

Rev. 14:11 describes smoke going up forever and ever; the same phrase appears in Isaiah 34:10.

What exactly does this tell us? It is the contention here that the Bible gives us two types of verses about judgment: one pertains to final judgment and records no response of conscious torment; the other pertains to earthly torment, and does record responses of conscious torment. When Matthew 22:13 describes the wicked cast into outer darkness to weep and gnash their teeth, we can do one of two things: we can automatically assume it's a reference to hell, or we can actually look at the images being presented and evaluate them in light of other scripture verses that offer identical images. For those who prefer the latter method, we offer Joel 2:2 and Amos 5:20.

Let's look at some of the other images. The shutting of a door appears in both the Old and the New Testament. God told Noah that judgment was about to come. Noah collected his family and went into the ark. The Lord shut the door of the ark (Gen. 7:16). In shutting Noah in, He also shut everyone else out. God also shuts a door in Luke 13:25: "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence you are..." Is this a picture of God shutting the door on the wicked? In a very real way, yes. The wicked are shut out of any chance for salvation as God pours His wrath out upon the earth. They are damned--not to eternal torment, but to a finite period of earthly torment that ends in extinction.

Matthew 13:38-42 has the wicked cast into a furnace of fire where there's weeping and gnashing of the teeth. This verse is used to teach eternal torment; the furnace of fire is identified as the lake of fire. The problem with that is that Rev. 9 actually describes man being tormented on earth by "fire and brimstone" (18), which is as "the smoke of a great furnace" (2). Moreover, the "sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (2). Here we have two images--darkness (Joel 2:2, Amos 5:20), and a furnace of fire--that correspond to verses describing earthly torment.

DEATH OR TORMENT?

It's a curious fact that some bible passages pertaining to final judgment mention weeping and gnashing of the teeth, and others do not. An intent study of these verses will begin to reveal an interesting pattern. The verses break down into two categories: one set of verses seem to be discussing a period of indeterminate duration; the other set seem to be discussing a period of infinite duration. It appears that some verses refer to hell and some do not. The verses that speak of hell never record a conscious response on the part of those cast into punishment, whereas many of the other passages record a response of weeping and torment.

How do we know which verses refer to hell, and which ones don't? A good place to start is at Rev. 20:11-14:

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it...And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire."

This is the definitive verse pertaining to final judgment. It's the very end of the world, Christ is on His throne, and the wicked are cast into the lake of fire. It parallels Matt. 25:31-46, where we also see Christ on the throne casting the wicked into the lake of fire. Before doing so He issues the decree "Depart from me!" These verses give us the the images that constitute the Final judgment: Christ on the throne, the decree to depart, and the lake of fire. Does this mean every reference to judgment missing these images is not referring to Final judgment? In and of itself, no. But we will find substantial evidence that this does seem to be the case. Let's take a look at the Bible references to hell with regard to the images each one contains. We will will selest from the following imagas and/or words: Christ on the throne, Decree of banishment, Lake of fire, Hell, Furnace of fire, Outer darkness, Weeping, Torment, Slaying, being beaten, and Imprisonment. References to incineration fall into the Lake of fire category. At the end we will notice some interesting facts.

Matt. 3:12 Lake of fire
Matt. 5:29 Hell
Matt. 7:22 Decree of banishment
Matt. 8:11-12 Outer darkness, Weeping
Matt. 10:28 Hell
Matt. 13:30 Lake of fire
Matt. 13:38-42 Furnace of fire, Weeping
Matt. 18:8 Hell
Matt. 18-34 Weeping/Torment
Matt. 22:13 Outer darkness, Weeping/Torment
Matt.24:50-51 Weeping
Matt. 25:30 Outer darkness, Weeping/Torment
Matt. 25:31-46 Throne, Decree of banishment, Lake of fire
Luke 12:47-48 Being beaten
Luke 12:59 Imprisonment
Luke 13:25-28 Decree of banishment/Weeping
Luke 19: 27 Slaying
Mark 9:43 Hell
2 Peter 3:10 Lake of fire
Rev. 14:10 Torment
Rev. 20:14 Lake of fire
Rev. 22:15 None of images are in this verse

It should be noted that Luke 13:25 contains a decree of banishment and weeping. Verse 27 records the decree; verse 28 records the weeping. Notice, however, that the verse does not say "then there shall be weeping." It just says there's weeping. The weeping of verse 28 probably preceded the decree of verse 27, just as in Matthew 25, where the dialogue with Christ occurs before the decree to depart.

The final tally is as follows: 12 passages that make reference to hell, the lake of fire, incineration, Christ on the throne, or a decree of banishment. None of those passages contain responses of conscious torment. Eight passages record torment (nine if you count imprisonment as torment). None of them mention any of the images noted, except Luke 13, which we've covered. In other words, certain images never intersect with certain other images. Images that indicate hell as recorded in Rev 20:12-14 never intersect with images that suggest a conscious response. Despite a total of 22 references to hell and weeping and/or torment, the two never intersect.

This is even more striking when you consider the fact that every time Matthew mentions outer darkness or the furnace of fire, he follows it up with the phrase "weeping and gnashing of the teeth" (Matt. 8:12, 13:42, 22:13, 25:30). This is the standard epilogue to verses containing these images. And yet when he mentions hell or the lake of fire (Matthew 5:29, 10:28, 18:8, 25:31-46), he does not add the standard epilogue. And this despite the fact that the passages themselves cry out for the epilogue to be added. Just look and judge for yourself.

Passages mentioning Outer darkness and Furnace of fire

Matt. 8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt. 22:13 Therefore said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt. 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt. 13:42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Passages mentioning Hell and the Lake of fire

Matt. 5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Matt. 10:28 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 body and soul in hell.

Matt. 25:41 Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matt. 18:19 Wherefore if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Notice how the second set of verses end with hell and fire, just begging for the same epilogue as the first set. And yet no epilogue is given. Mark does give an epilogue after a verse that's similiar to Matt. 18:9, but it's a very different epilogue. Mark 9:43 reads:

"And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter life maimed, then having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched."

A series of like verses follow, one about the foot, one about the eye. Each verse is followed by the phrase "Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." There is no mention of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Notice what replaces it: "Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." It is not man that dies not in the lake of fire; it's the fire (God's wrath) and the worm. The attention shifts from man, who no longer exists, to the fire, which is all that's left. It's a picture not of torment, but of silent, unending desolation.

The Interim Period

It would seem, if we are reading this correctly, that there is a judgment which results in torment for a finite duration, and then a final judgment which results in extinction. This leaves an interim period between the beginning of God's judgment and its end. Only by identifying a clear biblical basis for the reality of this interim period can a serious case for extinction be made. That's due to the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that there will come a time of judgment for the wicked. It will clearly result in torment. There's no getting around this. If we're going to make a case for the extinction of the wicked, we must explain the passages that have them enduring torment upon the Lord's return. We must explain where they are--and for how long--in a verse like Luke 13:28:

"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."

Most scholars who argue for extinction assert that the interim period is the time the wicked actually spends in the lake of fire prior to being snuffed out. There is, however, a problem with this position. The centerpiece of any argument for extinction is that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). If, however, the wicked must suffer a period of torment after death, then what we're really saying is that the wages of sin is death plus. In other words, death alone isn't severe enough. Which is precisely what the traditionalist contends. This position gives too much ground, and it is not the one being taken here.

It is the contention here that the interim period consists of a time of earthly torment called the tribulation. It's this period that's in view in the gospel verses that warn of the wicked suffering torment in the form of being cast into a furnace of fire, or outer darkness, or having the door shut on them. These images correspond to images of the Day of the Lord, which is a period of earthly torment, and to images of earthly torment presented in Revelations 9. The exact same language is used.

The Rapture

The usual case for extinction does not rely on the certainty of a rapture or a tribulation. This one does. There must be a time of earthly torment of the wicked (the tribulation) from which the just are exempt (the rapture). The time of torment, in effect, consists of a separation of the wicked from the just; extinction is the separation of the wicked from God. The gospel passages indicate that the torment of the wicked will concur in time with the taking of the just into heaven. Therefore, we will attempt to establish from the Bible that the sequence of end-time events will proceed as follows: 1) The rapture, 2) The tribulation, and 3) A final judgment resulting in the extinction of the wicked. We will use as proof texts Rev. 3:10, 7:3, 9:2-18, 14:9-11, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, Mark 13:19-20, and other assorted verses from the Old Testament prophets that refer to the Day of the Lord. These verses, when taken together, seem to point to a separation of the just and the wicked (the rapture), which occurs just before a period of earthly torment (the tribulation).

Mark 13:19: "For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation...And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake...he hath shortened the days."

The verses that lead up to these verses give every indication that what's in view is earthly torment. It does not, however, indicate a rapture.

Revelation 4:10: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

This verse suggests a time of enormous trial upon the earth--one from which the just will be exempt. Taken alone, however, it is poor evidence of a rapture; the temptation could refer to something spiritual, such as false gospels or apostasy.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."

The Old Testament prophets, particularly Zephaniah, discuss the day of the Lord. It is a time of earthly tribulation. The reference to labor pains is found in Isaiah 13:8. This verse, like the previous two, gives only a hint that the just will be shielded from this day, suggesting the day will not overtake them like a thief (4), and that they have not been appointed to wrath (9).

Revelation 7:2-3: "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads."

Revelation 9:4-5: "And to them it was given that they should not hurt the grass of the earth...but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months..."

Now we see a separation taking place. The just are inoculated against God's wrath, which is to fall upon the earth, by virtue of the seal that's given them. It is this wrath that's being described in the next verse we will look at, which is often cited as a proof text for hell.

Revelation 14:9-11: "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God...and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

The torment with fire and brimstone parallels Revelation 9:18, which states: "By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone..." This was done in the "presence of the Lamb and his angels," whereas hell is a place outside of God's presence (Rev. 22:15). The torment falls only upon those with the mark of the beast; evidently those with the seal of God have been spared. Now the evidence for a rapture is beginning to pile up. The language of the smoke going up forever parallels the language in Isaiah 34:8-10, which is referring to the day of the Lord:

"For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion. 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 go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever."

We know from 1 Thessalonians 5:2 that the day of the Lord refers not only to judgments on ancient Israel, but to the end times as well. Of course the idea of a rapture, followed by a tribulation, followed by judgment day, is nothing new. Many churches teach tis scenario. Where we part company with them is in the assertion that all of the language of judgment in the Bible that refers to conscious torment is referring to the torment endured by the wicked during the tribulation. There is no allowance made that some verses allude to earthly torment and some to hell. The position here is that none of the passages alluding to hell record responses of conscious torment, and none of the passages alluding to conscious torment have hell in view. All references to conscious torment have identical parallels in other parts of the Bible which describe the day of the Lord. Not every verse describing earthly torment uses the term the day of the Lord, but that is the day in view when we are discussing the period of unparalled trial that will fall upon the entire world just before the very end of time.

Let's use an illustration from the gospel of Matthew. Matthew 22:13 reads

"Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

This verse seems to be teaching eternal torment. How do we know what's really in view? Let's go back to the definitive verse on hell, Rev. 20:11-15, where Christ is on his throne and casts the wicked into the lake of fire. Just as in Matt. 25:31-46, there's no response recorded on the part of those cast into the lake. Does the language of Matt. 22:13 match the language of these two verses? Christ is not on his throne, there's no decree to depart, and there's no lake of fire. Does this automatically mean the verse can't be referring to hell? In and of itself, no: it's God's perogative to use different language to describe the same event. That's why we compare scripture with scripture. Is there another place in the Bible that uses similiar language? We find that darkness is emphasized in verses pertaining to the day of the Lord.

"...the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness..." (Joel 2:2) Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:8)

The outer darkness of Matt. 22:13 seems to be a better match with these verses than with the lake of fire. Verses that record conscious torment always have corresponding language and images in other parts of the Bible that depict earthly torment. Let's look at some examples.

Luke 13:25 has a door being shut. It appears to teach eternal torment. Genesis 7:16 also features a door being shut in regard to earthly torment.

Matthew 22:13, 24:50-51, 13:38-42, 8:11-12, 25:30, 18:34, and Luke 12:59 all feature weeping and/or torment in apparant references to eternal torment. Amos 8:10 features weeping in regard to earthly torment.

Matthew 22:13, 8:11-12, and 25:30 feature torment associated with outer darkness. Outer darkness is emphasized in Joel 2:2, Amos 5:20, Isaiah 13:10, and Zephaniah 1:5--all verses pertaining to earthly torment.

Matthew 13:38-42 features a furnace of fire in which the wicked apparently must endure eternal torment. Revelations 9:2 uses the term furnace of fire to describe earthly torment.

Revelations 14:11 has the "smoke of their torment" going up forever and ever in an apparent reference to eternal torment. Isaiah 34:10 describes smoke going up forever in regards to earthly torment.

What exactly does this tell us? It is our contention that the Bible gives us two types of verses about judgment: one pertains to final judgment and records no response of conscious torment; the other pertains to earthly torment and does record a response of conscious torment. When Matt. 22:13 tells us that the wicked will be cast into outer darkness to weep and gnash their teeth, we can do one of two things: we can automatically assume it's a reference to hell, or we can actually look at the images being presented and evaluate them in light of other scripture references that offer identical images in regard to judgment. For those who see the sense of the latter method, we offer the examples cited above. One of those examples tells us that Joel 2:2 and Amos 5:20 present images of outer darkness in regard to judgment.

Let's look at the image of a shutting of a door. These images appear in both Old and New Testament passages that pertain to judgment. God told Noah that judgment was about to come. He collected his family and went into the ark. The Lord shut the door of the ark (Gen. 7:16). In shutting Noah in, he also shut everyone else out. God also shuts a door in Luke 13:25:

"When once the master of the house is risen up, and had shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence you are..."

Is God shutting the door of heaven on the wicked? In a very real way, yes. The wicked are shut out of any chance for salvation as God pours out His wrath upon the earth. They are damned--not to eternal torment in the lake of fire, but to a finite period of earthly judgment that ends in extinction in the lake of fire.

Matthew 13:38-42 has the wicked cast into a furnace of fire where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. This verse is used to teach eternal torment; the furnace of fire is identified with the lake of fire. The only problem with that is that Rev. 9 actually describes man being tormented on earth by "fire and brimstone" (18), which is as "the smoke of a great furnace" (2). Moreover, the "sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (2). Here we have two images--darkness (Joel 2:2, Amos 5:20), and a furnace of fire--that correspond to passages describing earthly torment.