Unquenchable Fire?
The Bible speaks a number of
times of "unquenchable fire." The passages which include this
term are some of the primary ones that are used to provide a
foundation for the doctrine of an ever-burning Hell in which the
souls of humans will be tormented and tortured for eternity. Two
examples:
Whose fan is in his hand, and
he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat
into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable [asbestos]
fire.
(Matthew 3:12)
And if
your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with
one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched." (Mark 9:47-48)
A
common misconception which seems to lead to much confusion
about the nature of the Afterlife is that an
"unquenchable fire," or, put another way, "a fire that goes
unquenched," must be a fire that lasts forever and ever.
But this is an erroneous conclusion regarding the term
"unquenchable."
Consider the
description in Matthew 3 quoted above: "Burn up [Greek:
katakaio) the chaff with unquenchable fire" ...
G2618
katakaiō
From G2596 and G2545; to burn down (to the ground), that
is, consume wholly: - burn (up, utterly). (Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance Greek Lexicon)
The "chaff"
(which in this parable metaphorically refers to wicked humans)
will be "wholly consumed," "utterly burned up." What will happen
to the "unquenchable fire" that is doing this burning--once that
chaff is "utterly burned up"?
Firefighters who deal with forest fires in California
have to deal all too often with "unquenchable fires" fanned
by winds. For you
see, to "quench" a fire means to stop it before it consumes
everything in its path. Sometimes forest fires, and even house
fires, may rage "out of control," in which case, firefighters
sometimes have to just stand by helplessly and watch them burn
themselves out by consuming everything.
A forest fire
may be deliberately set by an arsonist, or accidentally
set off by lightning. In either case, without intervention by humans or by rain
it will burn until there is nothing left to burn, and then it
will die out. No one "quenches" it--puts it out deliberately,
extinguishes it. It is in that sense an "unquenched" fire. If
someone in authority declares that a fire should not be put out
... perhaps it was started specifically to burn off underbrush
... that fire would be "unquenchable."
But none of these
unquenched fires are "eternal" fires.
God has said that when
He finally sets out to utterly consume and destroy the wicked,
no one will be able to stop that fire‑-it will be unquenchable.
And He, Himself will not stop it‑-it will go unquenched.
"Surely the day is coming; it will
burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be
stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,"
says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to
them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness
will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and
leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample
down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet
on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty.
Malachi 4:1‑3 NIV
"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 [from
Hebrew kabah, to extinguish],
and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isaiah 66:24)
(For commentary on the
statement that "their worm will not die," see the
article "Immortal Worms?")
Fires can be quenched before
they have consumed everything ...
And when the people
complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it;
and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt
among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost
parts of the camp.
And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto
the LORD, the fire was quenched [from Hebrew shaqa,
to cease, be quenched]. (Numbers 11:1-2
But if that
fire hadn't been quenched prematurely, it might have consumed
all in the camp. At that point, it would have gone out on its
own.
In other
words--there is no reason to assume that an unquenchable fire is
an "eternal" fire.
To use the term
unquenchable fire to attempt to
"prove" the doctrine of
an ever-burning Hell where human souls are tormented and
tortured for eternity is neither scriptural nor logical.
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
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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
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