Revelation’s
Hell
In the
Old Testament of the King James Version of the Bible,
the Hebrew word sheol is the only word translated
as "hell." There is no mention of either eternal fire or
ever-lasting torture of human souls connected with any
of those passages. (For an overview of the use of
Sheol, see the article "Old
Testament View of Hell" elsewhere on this website.)
How, then, did these two notions arise in Christian
thought?
There
are two primary words translated numerous times as hell
in the New Testament KJV, Gehenna and Hades.
For an overview of the references regarding Gehenna,
see the Gehenna
section of the article "New Testament View of Hell."
The word Hades is the counterpart in Greek to the
Hebrew Sheol. For an overview of its usage, see
the Hades section
of the article "King James Version of Hell." For a more
detailed overview of the usage of the term Hades
specifically in the Book of Revelation, see the article
"Revelation's Hell."
Since the
notions of an ever-burning Hell and of ever-lasting
torturing of human souls are not evident in the Old
Testament, we must look to the New Testament for any
biblical basis for these doctrines. In the New Testament,
there are three sources in the text that are primarily used
to establish these doctrines. The first is the collection of
references by Jesus to Gehenna. (See the Gehenna
link above for information on this topic.) Another is Jesus'
parable regarding "Lazarus and the Rich Man." (See the
article Lazarus and the Rich
Man for a discussion of the implications of that
parable.)
The third
source of the speculation regarding the nature of Hell and the
state of souls in the Afterlife is a single passage in the Book
of Revelation. The content of that passage is the focus of this
article.
Then I saw another angel flying in
midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who
live on the earth‑‑ to every nation, tribe, language and
people. He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory,
because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made
the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water."
A second angel followed and said,
"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations
drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.
A third angel
followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the
beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on
the hand he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which
has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will
be tormented with burning sulfur 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 for those
who worship the beast and his image, or
for anyone who receives the mark of his name." This calls for
patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's
commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven
say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now
on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor,
for their deeds will follow them."
Revelation 14:6‑13
Before
considering this passage in detail, the comments by Peter in the
following passage are useful to bring into the process.
Bear in mind that our Lord's
patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also
wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same
way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other
scriptures, to their own destruction.
II Peter 3:15‑16
The implication
of Peter's words is that it is not necessarily best to start
one's reasoning with biblical passages that are "hard to
understand." If you wanted
to explain any particular biblical doctrine to someone, it
would seem sensible that you would want to start with as many
clear, plain scriptures as possible to establish a solid base of
understanding for your listener. Then you could add those
"hard to understand" passages.
The scripture
passage under consideration in this article is from the book of Revelation, a book full of
symbolism, shadows from the Old Testament, and poetic language.
And it is all presented as a "vision," not a literal description
of physical reality. It is fair to propose that this may well be
one of those "hard to understand" passages.
Yet this is one
of the very few passages that are used in attempts to
scripturally establish the common conception of Hell . It seems odd that this
one passage should
be looked at as being so clear that all other passages
must be
interpreted in its light! It would seem more logical that one
would look at this passage in the light of all of the
other
passages related to the topic.
What happens if
that approach is taken?
At first
glance, it seems that this passage says that a certain group of
people will be tormented forever and ever, having no rest
forever and ever, and that this torment will be caused by fire,
and will continually produce smoke throughout eternity.
Is there any
other way that this passage can be understood? Consider: it does
not state that the torment will be forever, only that the
"smoke" of it will "ascend" forever. This exact same language is
used later in Revelation to describe the fate of the city called
"Babylon the Great":
Therefore in one day her plagues
will overtake her; death, mourning and famine. She will be
consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord who judges her... Thus
with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and
shall be found no more at all... Hallelujah! The smoke of her
goes up forever and ever. (Revelation 18:8,21; 19:3)
Do proponents
of the ever-burning Hell doctrine actually propose that the
physical city of Babylon will continue burning throughout
eternity, to produce smoke? Of course not, for this same passage
says that it will be "found no more at all". How can something
"found no more at all" give off smoke eternally?
Astronomers in
our day have come to realize that there are celestial bodies we
can look at in the night sky that actually no longer exist. What
we are seeing is the light emitted from them millions and
millions of years ago when they exploded. The distances across
space are so vast that even at the incredible speed of light, it
has taken all this time for the light to reach our eyes. We are
seeing the evidence of an event that happened long ago.
In like manner, the "torment" spoken of in Revelation 14
can be very
real, but limited in time. The "smoke" which is said
to ascend is a
symbolic memorial of that event, not evidence that the event
itself is never-ending, in the same way that light from
an exploded star continues across space indefinitely.
Consider also:
The torment is said to be "in the presence of the Lamb and the
angels." If it was never‑ending, that would imply that
Jesus
and the angels would be doing nothing else for all eternity but
gazing on the torments of the damned!
But what about
the comment that they have no rest day nor night? If
you read the whole context of Revelation 14 through
Revelation 16 you will see that the passage under consideration in Revelation 14 is a prelude to the events about to
transpire in the rest of John's vision. For the next event
described is the "harvesting" of the earth, followed immediately
by
I saw in heaven another great and
marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues‑ last
because with them God's wrath is completed. (Revelation 15:1)
And then comes
a description of the seven plagues, poured out on those who have
the "Mark of the Beast." There are no details on exactly how
long the effects of each plague lasts, before the next one
starts. But the descriptions are vivid of the torment. During
the earlier event described as the "Sixth Trumpet," the torments
of the "locusts" from the Abyss are said to be so great that
In those days shall men seek death,
and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall
flee from them. (Revelation 9:6)
The final seven
plagues are equally tormenting. There is no logical reason to
assume that the description in Revelation 14 is something that
will continue for eternity, nor that it is about "immortal
souls" somewhere in an ever-burning Hell. It is about physical
people enduring a period of many horrific plagues, including
fire. Revelation 16:
Then I
heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven
angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the
earth." 2The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the
land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who
had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
The second
angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into
blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the
sea died.
4The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and
springs of water, and they became blood. 5Then I heard the
angel in charge of the waters say:
"You are just in these judgments,
you who are and who were, the Holy One,
because you have so judged;
6for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve."
7And I heard the altar respond:
"Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your judgments."
[Note that
the "judgments" are being meted out, physically, right at
this point, not said to be something that will be meted out
to disembodied souls for eternity.]
8The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the
sun was given power to scorch people with fire. 9They were
seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God,
who had control over these plagues, but they refused to
repent and glorify him.
10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the
beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed
their tongues in agony 11and cursed the God of heaven
because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to
repent of what they had done.
12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river
Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for
the kings from the East. 13Then I saw three evil[a] spirits
that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the
dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth
of the false prophet. 14They are spirits of demons
performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of
the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great
day of God Almighty. ...
17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and
out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying,
"It is done!" 18Then there came flashes of lightning,
rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No
earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on
earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split
into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed.
God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled
with the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20Every island fled
away and the mountains could not be found. 21From the sky
huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon
men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail,
because the plague was so terrible.
Is it any
wonder that it would be said that during this time those who
have the Mark of the Beast will have "no rest day nor night"?
The whole concept of "day" and "night" is related to the
rotation of the Earth in relation to the sun. Even those who
teach a doctrine of an ever-burning Hell do not propose that the
surface of the Earth is the location of Hell! So the notion of
day and night would be totally inapplicable. Those people
who have accepted the Mark of the Beast will be tormented while
there still is a day and night. That is when they "drink the
wine of God's fury" from the "cup of His wrath"--while the
physical Earth is in the final throes of these "last plagues" of
God.
This passage in
Revelation is the only place in all of scripture where the
notion of something related to "torment" is said to be "for ever
and ever." As is clear from the explanation above, there is
absolutely no necessity to assume that this passage is speaking
of eternal torture of souls in the fires of an ever-burning
Hell. The rest of the Bible contains many passages which
describe the ultimate fate of the wicked as "destruction." It
would seem wise to seek to harmonize this passage with all of
those, rather than attempt to discount all of those in favor of
a misinterpretation of this passage.
This site contains a collection
of articles, on the topic of Hell and the Afterlife, that may
each be used independently for research purposes. But it also is
designed as a systematic, sequential overview of the whole
topic, which can be read like a book.
For those who would like to take
advantage of this perspective of the content, the articles are
arranged in the
Reading Guide as they would appear as chapters in a book, along
with a few reference chapters at the end such as would appear in
a book Appendix.
Use the
links below to go to the next article, previous article, or
first article
in the Reading Guide sequence.
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PLEASE
NOTE:
No single short article can comprehensively cover
any aspect of the topic of Hell. If you have
questions or concerns regarding the material in this
article, be sure to first read through the site
FAQ before writing to the
author. It may already specifically address the very
points you are wondering about.
Unless otherwise
noted, all biblical references in this and other articles on the
Is It True What They Say About Hell? website are from the
New International Version (NIV).
All of the articles on this
Is it true what they say about Hell? website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit her Oasis
website.
All website content
© 2007, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
All rights reserved. Material may
be copied for personal use of the site visitor. For permission
to copy for any other purposes, please contact the author at
oasis7@gmail.com
