Copyright © 2026 Michael A. Brown
1. Of
unbelievers: in the lake of fire
In the
Old Testament, the realm of the wicked dead was often called ‘the pit’ (cf. Job
17:16; 33:18,24,28,30; Ps. 28:1, 30:3,9; 55:23, 69:15, 88:4; Prov. 1:12; Isa.
14:15,19; 38:17-18; Ezek. 26:20, 28:8, 31:14,16; 32:24,29-30). This
pit was seen as the place of the eternal punishment of wicked and impenitent
Jews together with the unclean Gentiles. It came to be known as
‘Gehenna.’ The expectation of eternal rest was only for righteous
Jews and believing Gentiles.
Gehenna originally took its name from the
Valley of Hinnom (or of Ben Hinnom, cf. Josh. 15:8, 18:16; Neh.
11:30). This valley lay to the south and south-west of Jerusalem,
and the Valley Gate led out to it. It was the place where idolatrous
and human sacrifices through fire were made to the false god Molech in
pre-exilic times (2 Ki. 16:3, 23:10). Because of this association,
it was considered to be an impure place, and so it was also called the ‘valley
of topheth.’ ‘Topheth’ means ‘fireplace,’ but it also seems to be
associated with the concepts of spittle and shame, so suggesting that this
place was utterly despised. It was the garbage dump of Jerusalem,
and so fires constantly burned there. The bodies of those deemed to
have died in sin without any hope of salvation (such as criminals) were thrown
there to be destroyed.
This valley therefore came to represent
the eternal pit of unquenchable fire and everlasting punishment for impenitent
sinners. So Gehenna is the parallel in eternity of this valley
outside Jerusalem. It is an actual location outside heaven which
effectively serves as eternity’s garbage dump, and in which there is an utter
absence of the presence and favour of God:
‘Outside
[the heavenly city] are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practises
falsehood.’ (Rev.
22:15)
‘…their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched…’ (Isa. 66:24)
‘I kept
looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the
blazing fire.’ (Dan.
7:11)
The Jewish literature of the
intertestamental period developed this teaching regarding eternal fire, for
both the intermediate and eternal states. In summary, the angels
which sinned in Genesis 6:1-4 were condemned to the fires of Tartarus (the
deepest part of Hades) to await their final judgement. The pit was a
fiery furnace which would be the eternal abode of the devil and his angels,
together with impenitent, wicked and ungodly human beings. It was
seen as a place of eternal punishment in which people would be conscious and in
pain, tormented and tortured, lamenting and weeping. The apostle Peter
added that evil people would be paid back with harm for the harm they
themselves had done in this life (2 Peter 2:13). The pit was
described in various ways: as a furnace of fire, a burning flame, a place of
darkness and gloom, blazing flames worse than fire, an abyss of fire, a pit of
torture and torment, and as a prison with dungeons (see 1 Enoch 10:6,13; 27:2,
90:24-26; 91:9; 98:3; 100:9; 102:1; 103:8; 108:3-6; 2 Enoch ch.10; 4 Ezra
7:36,38,66-67; Test. Gad 7:5; Test. Zeb. 10:3).
In the New Testament, both Jesus and the
apostles affirmed this truth of the fiery furnace as being the final and
eternal abode of the wicked and impenitent. In Revelation ch.20, it is
called the lake of fire. However, the Pharisees must have got the
shock of their life when Jesus told them that they themselves would probably
end up there. They were closing heaven’s door upon themselves
through their religious hypocrisy (Matt. 23:33-34). There could be
no self-righteous expectation of eternal rest simply on the basis of Jewish
ethnicity or belief. Jesus extended this warning to everyone: live a
righteous life in the fear of God, so that you do not run the risk of ending up
in Gehenna (Matt. 10:28, Mark 7:42-49).
Gehenna was initially prepared as the
ultimate eternal destiny of Satan and the fallen angels that rebelled with him
against God (and also of the watcher angels who sinned in Genesis 6:1-4 and
were chained up in Tartarus). It is ‘the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.’ (Matt. 25:41). Demons
are well aware of this future torment that awaits them and they fear it.
There is one recorded instance of them begging Jesus not to send them to their
fate in the Abyss before the appointed time (Matt. 8:29, Luke 8:28-31).
However, it will also be the eternal
destiny of everyone who does not know Jesus as their Redeemer, simply because
they live their life under the dominion of Satan and they love darkness rather
than light (John 3:19-20, Col. 1:13). So those who do not know
Jesus will go to the same location in eternity that sin and Satan their master
go to: the fiery furnace. Everyone outside Christ,
everyone who does not possess God’s salvation that comes through Jesus, will
end up in Gehenna and will suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude
tells us that the inhabitants of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah serve as examples
of this:
‘As the
weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the
age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out
of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They
will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt.
13:40-42)
‘This is
how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and
separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt. 13:49-50)
‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” Then they will go away to eternal punishment…’ (Matt. 25:41,46)
‘Sodom
and Gomorrah… serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal
fire.’ (Jude v.7)
‘…but
only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume
the enemies of God.’ (Heb.
10:27)
‘Outside
[the heavenly city] are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practises
falsehood.’ (Rev.
22:15)
When God warned the couple in the garden
of Eden, he told them that on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit they
would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Their separation from the life of God
after they ate of it and were thrown out of Eden, was their entrance into a
state of spiritual death. In consequence, this led ultimately to
their physical death many years later. This is ‘the first death,’
and all human beings born into this world are subject to it.
The word of God calls the eternal judgment
of an unbeliever in the lake of fire ‘the second death’:
‘The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.' (Rev. 20:14-15)
‘But the
cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those
who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in
the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.’ (Rev. 21:8)
This judgement of eternal separation from
God in the lake of fire, ‘the second death,’ is therefore the ultimate
consequence of disobeying God and partaking of the forbidden
fruit. This second death consists of the destruction of both body
and soul in the lake of fire:
‘Rather
be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.' (Matt. 10:28)
The word of God teaches that those
who end up in Gehenna will be conscious there. They will not
be destroyed completely or annihilated, as some commentators
think. They will be consciously aware of why they are in Gehenna,
but they will blame everyone except themselves; they will know that they
deserve to be there, and they will be unable to repent from the sins that
caused them to be condemned at the final judgement. They will be
aware of the finality of God’s verdict upon them, and they will know that they
are unable to ever leave or escape from that place. There is
no indication in the word of God that those who are thrown into the lake of
fire will ever come out of it. They will therefore suffer
the torment and despair of this finality, with no rest day or night, and they
will weep and gnash their teeth with pangs of regret:
‘He will
be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the
Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and
ever. There is no rest day or night…’ (Rev. 14:10-11)
‘They
will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt.
13:42)
‘…and
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’ (Matt. 13:50)
‘Let him
who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile…’ (Rev. 22:11)
Those who are thrown into Gehenna will
perish and be destroyed (Matt. 10:28: 2 Peter 3:7,9), and some commentators
believe that this means that they will therefore be annihilated and simply
cease to exist. However, W.E. Vine advises us that the Greek
words apollumi and apoleia which are used in
these verses and which mean ‘to destroy utterly’ and ‘utter destruction,’ refer
not to extinction, but to ruin and loss, not of being but of
well-being. So the idea is that of the utter ruination of a person’s
body and soul, and it implies that people who are in this state of utter
ruination will still be conscious. Because the essence of our being
is spirit (and this being the breath of God), we cannot be annihilated, because
spirit is eternal in its very nature.
Belief in the extinction of the sinful
human soul in eternity, a false doctrine known as annihilationism, inevitably
leads to the softening up of other areas of belief. Not only do we start
to go easy on sin, we in fact embolden it. We weaken the urgency for
evangelism. We empty the judgement and wrath of God of any real meaning
and significance, and in consequence we therefore lose the fear of God, and we
disempower the redemptive need for the cross of Christ. We end up with a
wishy-washy subjective concept of the love of God which tolerates all kinds of
things which are contrary to the will of God, because the ultimate sanction and
consequence for sin have been removed. Why should people repent from sin,
if there is no ultimate sanction for it and, instead, they are simply
annihilated in eternity and cease to exist?! If they are to be
annihilated in eternity, then there really is no need to fear Gehenna at all,
there would be no need for it to be an eternal fire, and any element of
punishment in being thrown there is effectively removed (cf. Matt. 10:28,
25:41; Jude v.7).
The use of the participle form ὑπέχουσαι
(literally meaning 'are undergoing') in Jude v.7 to describe the eternal state
is striking. Alford clarifies its meaning by noting that 'the sense is,
undergoing the punishment, as may even now be seen, of eternal fire which shall
never be quenched.' To be undergoing punishment clearly implies
consciousness:
‘…are set
forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.’ (Jude v.7 ASV)
The fact that those who are in Gehenna
will be conscious is confirmed also by the following words of Isaiah:
‘And they
will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me;
their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be
loathsome to all mankind.’ (Isa.
66:24)
The context of these words is clearly the
new creation, and they are therefore referring to the eternal state of
unbelievers. This was confirmed by Jesus when he linked them to
those who would be thrown into Gehenna:
‘It is
better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes
and be thrown into hell [gehenna], where “their worm does not die, and the fire
is not quenched.” Everyone will be salted with fire.’ (Mark 9:47-49)
The judgement of God and eternal
separation from him, together with the ongoing consciousness of the human soul
in this eternal state, are taught consistently through the Scriptures, not the
extinction of annihilation.
The fact of sinful human souls remaining
conscious in eternal punishment in the lake of fire is not meant to horrify us,
although it certainly does do that, but to instil the fear of God in us and
bring us to him in repentance, seeking his mercy and deliverance from sin
(Matt. 10:28). The punishment of eternal fire is an expression and
consequence of the wrath of God towards the impenitent.
However, God demonstrated his love for us
in that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for our sins,
thus enabling us to come to him and find mercy, forgiveness and freedom from
sin. So there is no need at all for anyone to end up in Gehenna in
eternity. If they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they will
be saved eternally; they will not be subject to the second death:
‘He who
overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.’ (Rev. 2:11)
2. Of
believers: in the new heaven and new earth
Those who have repented from sin and
embraced Jesus as their Redeemer, and who overcome as they persevere in their
faith through life, will not suffer the judgement of the second death. Instead, they will be welcomed into the
kingdom of God the Father, where they will dwell with him eternally:
‘He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.’ (Rev. 2:11)
‘Blessed
and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them…’ (Rev. 20:6)
2.a. The new heaven and new earth
The prophet Isaiah foretold that there
will be a new heaven and a new earth, which will replace the present heaven and
earth. Regardless of our desire to
steward this creation and its resources in the best way we can, this present
earth will not be saved through net-zero climate change ideology. No, its ultimate destiny is to pass away once
and for all:
‘Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.’ (Isa. 65:17)
‘“As
the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares
the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure.”’ (Isa. 66:22)
After the final judgement, when the
ungodly have been cast into the lake of fire, the present heaven and earth will
themselves be destroyed by fire:
‘By
the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept
for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.’ (2 Peter 3:7)
‘That
day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements
will melt in the heat. But in keeping
with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the
home of righteousness.’
(2 Peter 3:13)
This therefore marks the ‘end of the
world,’ the end of the present order of things, after the final judgement. God will then bring into being the new
creation, the promised new heaven and earth, the new eternal order, and the
home of righteousness in which sin will have no part:
‘Then
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away…’
(Rev. 21:1)
‘“…the
old order of things has passed away.” He
who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”’ (Rev. 21:4-5)
2.b. The eternal home of believers
It is this new heaven and new earth which
will be the eternal home and dwelling place of all those who have received
Jesus and are washed in his blood (Rev. 7:14, 22:14). Much of the narrative of Revelation chs.21-22
is given over to a description of the New Jerusalem in which believers will
dwell in eternity:
‘I
saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully adorned for her husband.’ (Rev. 21:2)
‘And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with
them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…’
(Rev. 21:3-4)
‘Therefore, “They are before the
throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the
throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any
scorching heat. For the Lamb at the
centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of
living water. And he will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.”’ (Rev. 7:15-17)
‘Then the angel showed me the river
of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and
of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of
life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the
healing of the nations.’ (Rev. 22:1-2)
‘To him who is thirsty I will give
to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.’
(Rev. 21:6)
‘The Spirit and the bride say,
“Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!”
Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the gift
of the water of life.’ (Rev. 22:17)
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