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Does
the Bible Teach That Sinners
Will
Burn in Hell for Eternity?
Here
is a comment from a Bible student that has
enjoyed many of the Bible studies on our website:
You have cleared up some questions that I have
had for a long time, but some of your teachings
frustrate me because they are in obvious error. I
don’t understand how a Bible teacher like
you can know so much about the Bible and overlook
the plain truth. For example, the Bible clearly
teaches that sinners will burn in Hell for
eternity. This issue is so simple that it can be
summed up in one sentence. Everybody has an
eternal destiny – eternal life in Heaven
with Jesus or burning in eternal Hell with the
devil. Haven’t you read Mark 9:43 and other
verses that says the fires of Hell will never
quit burning? If you are going to teach the Bible,
why don’t you teach what it says?
____________________________________________________________
Dear friend,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Yes, the Bible teaches that everyone has an
eternal reward coming, but what are the rewards?
The Bible informs us that the saints will be
rewarded with eternal life (John 3:16; John 6:40),
and the Bible also states that the penalty for
sin is death. (Romans 6:23,
Revelation 20:14) I know why millions of
Christians believe in an eternally burning Hell
because many Bible texts seem to indicate
that Hell will burn forever. However, I would
like an opportunity to show you another point of
view. When you investigate all the Bible teaches
about God’s justice, the Second Death, and
Hell, eternal death is not the same thing as
living for eternity in Hell! Please consider this:
The Bible indicates that God has three
purposes for Hell. In a nutshell, the first
purpose is justice, the second purpose
is to execute the wicked, and the third
purpose is to purify Earth. Since my view on Hell
is quite different than yours, I hope you will
consider my responses and be sure to look up each
verse as we go along.
1. First, I
believe the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, each
verse in the Bible has to have the same authority.
The “same authority” rule creates a big
problem for every Bible student. We are not
honest in our search for “The Truth” if
we “cherry pick” those verses
that suit our personal bias and ignore those
verses that we do not like or do not understand.
Serious Bible students are forced by the
rule of “same authority” to gather up
every statement said in the Bible about a
particular topic so that they can harmoniously
align all that has been written. To my
knowledge, this is the only way the Bible
can reveal issues to us that we would rather not
believe. During the past 20 years, I have
experienced many occasions when one verse
unraveled my entire conceptual framework about a
particular topic! I have found that God is
neither simple nor simplistic. Therefore, I try
to remain cautious about my conclusions. Many
topics are presented in the Bible, so my first
concern is to be sure that I have not left
something out that should be put “on the
table.” When I study God’s Word, my
prayer is “Lord, I don’t care what
‘The Truth’ is, or where it leads
– I just want to know everything about You
that I can possibly know!”
I am discussing the rule
of “same authority” because there is a
phenomenon in God’s Word that some people
believe is called “apparent conflict.”
In short, one verse will appear to
contradict another verse. These collisions
interest me because (a) both verses have the same
authority, and (b) I believe that God’s Word
is in perfect harmony with itself; otherwise, the
truth about any topic could be undermined. I have
dealt with “apparent conflicts” long
enough to know that they can be resolved with the
help of the Holy Spirit and plenty of mental
“elbow grease.” God is infinite,
deliberate and thoughtful, and I believe that God
has allowed “apparent conflicts” in
Scripture to energize our search for truth. Nothing
churns the human mind like a worthwhile mystery.
I have
delighted the phenomenon of “apparent
conflicts” because many of them are embedded
in the topic of Hell. The truth about Hell is
only attained when everything written about the
topic is resolved into perfect harmony. A person
cannot do a simple word search through the Bible
by looking up the word “Hell” and
expect to resolve the topic. This is because
other Bible topics – like justice,
restitution and death - are directly involved
with the topic of Hell! So, digging “The
Truth” out of the Bible is not as easy or as
simple as some people would have you believe.
1.
The Bible declares that God is love. (1 John 4:16)
Love is the perfect balance of mercy and justice.
This means that God loves mercy, as well as
justice. (Psalm 89:14; Matthew 23:23) The Bible
states that God’s eyes constantly sweep over
the Earth. (1 Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 139:8) God
sees every act of kindness done in secret and He
rewards accordingly. (Matthew 6:4-6) God sees
every act of violence, watches every theft,
observes every adultery, and hears every lie. (2
Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 139:8) The reason that God’s
omniscient oversight is important in this study
on Hell is restitution. Contrary to what
many people think, God requires that every sin be
made right before He will forgive us of
that sin. * (Exodus 21; Matthew 5:23,24; 1
John 1:9) For example, God will not forgive a
thief until the thief has provided
restitution to his victim! Think about this. Can
a man steal his neighbor’s hubcaps and
expect God to forgive him while the hubcaps
remain in his possession? Of course not. God will
not forgive our sins unless we truly repent, and
the evidence of true repentance is restitution. (Matthew
5:23,24) We can carry God’s justice one step
further. If the victim who lost his hubcaps
refuses to forgive the thief when he attempts to
make restitution, God will not forgive the victim
of his sins, either! (Matthew 6:15) I hope you
can see that in God’s economy, atonement for
sin requires restitution and forgiveness.
* Note:
Sometimes the issue of restitution is not
simple to resolve. Restitution in kind is not
always possible. For example stolen hubcaps can
be replaced, but how does one make restitution
for adultery or abuse? I have found three guiding
principles when it comes to the subject of
restitution. First, when there is heartfelt
sorrow for a sin, there is a compelling desire
and effort to change behavior. This is the fruit
of repentance. Second, a determined effort to
restore the victim through some form of
compensation is appropriate. In these cases where
tangible restitution is not possible, the debt
owed the victim can be discussed and redirected
toward others in the form of service or
assistance. Last, because sin often harms
innocent people (like children) who may or may
not know about the event, discretion is important.
The essential point is that the victim knows
about the heartfelt sorrow and the endeavor to
make restitution. I hope the reader can see that
God’s demand for restitution and forgiveness
are important building blocks in character
development. (Luke 3: 10-14)
Yes, it
takes a lot of courage and humility to confess
our sins and make restitution to those we have
done wrong, but it has to be done. (Luke
19: 8,9) On the other hand, a wicked heart will
not make restitution because there is no
genuine sorrow or deep regret for doing wrong.
Courage and humility are displaced with rebellion
and pseudo-justification in the carnal heart. But,
like it or not, believe it or not, God will be
sure that every wrong will be made right –
we can either do so voluntarily or God will
extract restitution from us involuntarily. This
explains, in part, why God resurrects the wicked
dead at the end of the 1,000 years. He resurrects
the wicked to extract the restitution they
refused to pay. After justice has been served,
they will be executed – eternal death –
there will be no resurrection from this death. As
I wrote earlier, justice is the first purpose
for the fires of Hell. Remember, the second
purpose is to execute the wicked and the final is
to purify the Earth.
Big
Picture
Now that
these two issues have been considered, let us see
how God’s justice and restitution fit into
the big picture of apocalyptic prophecy.
Prior to
the Second Coming, Jesus judges mankind. (Daniel
7:10; John 5:22. Acts 17:31) Jesus Himself
decides who will receive eternal life and who
will not. (2 Corinthians 5:10) When he completes
His judgment process, Jesus will return to Earth.
(Revelation 22:12) notice how He administers His
judgment: At the Second Coming, dead
people previously judged to be saints will be
awakened from their sleep to meet the Lord
in the air. Also, those who are alive at
the Second Coming and are judged, as saints
during the Great Tribulation will also be caught
up in the air to meet Jesus because Jesus will
not touch Earth at the Second Coming. (1
Thessalonians 4:15-18, Luke 14: 13,14)
After the
saints from all ages have been gathered up to
Jesus, He will proceed to kill all of the wicked,
who are alive at the Second Coming, with a sword
(a verbal command) that comes out of His mouth. (Revelation
19:20,21; Revelation 6: 15-17) Then, Jesus and
the saints will return to His Father’s house
in Heaven, the place where Jesus has prepared for
them. (John 14: 1-3) During the ensuing 1,000
years, there will be no life on Earth except for
the devil and his angels. They cannot leave Earth
in its desolate condition because they are bound
in the abyss (the spirit realm). (Revelation 20:1-3)
During the 1,000 years, the saints will reign
with Jesus in Heaven during the sentencing
phase of judgment. This means the saints will
review the case of each wicked person and the
saints, along with Jesus, will determine the
amount of restitution that will be extracted from
the wicked at the end of the 1,000 years.
Restitution will be extracted through suffering
in Hell. (Exodus 21, Revelation 18:6, 2 Timothy 4:14,
Hebrews 10:30,31; Revelation 20:15)
Reigning
with Christ
Remember,
the saints will reign with Jesus for 1,000 years.
Jesus will give the saints authority to determine
the amount of punishment wicked people and wicked
angels must suffer. (Revelation 3:21; 20:6; 1
Corinthians 6:2,3) The saints will not determine
who is righteous or who is wicked because Jesus
determined the eternal destiny of each person before
the Second Coming. Those people who injured and
harmed others will be tortured in Hell according
to the amount of suffering they caused. (Romans
12:19, Matthew 10:28) Here is the interesting
part: Many of the saints will have been victims
of the people they judge! Who would be better
judges to determine the amount of suffering that
must be extracted from a wicked assailant than
those who were their victims? God’s system
of justice is perfect!
The
Golden Rule demands a life for a life, an eye for
an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a bruise for a
bruise and a burn for a burn. (Exodus 21, Luke 12:58,59,
Matthew 18:23-35) Some people will perish quickly.
These will be “salted with fire,” while
others, who caused great suffering, will suffer
for a long time. (Mark 9:47-49, Matthew 13:41,42)
The fires of Hell will extract restitution and
will not burn out until justice has been served
and restitution has been “paid in full.”
(Mark 9:43) The fires of Hell will not burn
eternally. After the wicked people’s torture
is over, the wicked will perish. “’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…
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 4:1,2)
God has
promised that at the end of the world, every
wrong will be atoned for He will even
resurrect dead people to achieve justice. (Hebrews
10; 30, 31; Matthew 25:46) Since the fires of
Hell will also extract restitution from the devil
and his angels, I suppose Hell could last for
several days – perhaps 40 days and 40 nights?
Regardless of how long it takes, everyone in Hell
will eventually die and when the wicked no longer
exist, Jesus will create a new Heaven and a new
Earth. John wrote, “Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth had passed away,
and there was o longer any sea [of fire].”
(Revelation 21:1, insertion mine)
I hope
you can see from this sequence of apocalyptic
events how God uses Hell to accomplish justice,
death, and purification of Earth. Now, I would
like to address the question of the eternally
burning Hell from several different perspectives
altogether. Please consider the following eight
points:
1.
Eternal Life: The reward that will be
bestowed upon the saints at the last day is eternal
life. “For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever
believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16) “For my Father’s
will is that everyone who looks to the Son and
believes in him shall have eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day [and
give him eternal life].” John 6:40,
insertion mine)
Here is
the problem: A person cannot writhe in Hell
throughout eternity without first receiving
eternal life. In other words, a wicked person has
to receive eternal life so that he can be
tortured for eternity. The Bible teaches that the
wicked will not receive eternal life. In
fact, the Bible teaches that the wicked will
perish – cease to exist. (See John 3:16
above.)
2.
The Penalty for Sin: Most Christians believe
that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty
for our sins. (2 Corinthians 5:21) This
problem is a simple one: If the penalty for sin
is burning in Hell throughout eternity then Jesus
did not pay the price for sin. Period. Even
if you say that Jesus was tortured in Hell for
three days and three nights, three days in Hell
is not the penalty for sin! Even after billions
and billions of years, eternity has just begun!
To pay
for our sins, the penalty for sin had to be
imposed upon Jesus and it was. The
penalty for sin is “death by execution
– without hope of resurrection.”
Consider the first recorded command given to Adam:
“And the Lord God commanded the man
saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it: for in the day [whether it be a Tuesday
or a Friday] that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die [be executed].’”
(KJV, Genesis 2:16,17, insertions mine)
Adam and Eve were to be put to death on the
very day they sinned, but Jesus, seeing that
they did not sin defiantly, chose to become man’s
intercessor instead of man’s executioner.
3.
Two Resurrections: Let us assume for a moment
that a wicked person does go to Hell at the time
of death. Then try to explain why the wicked are
resurrected at the end of the 1,000 years? What
is the point of resurrecting Cain 9the first
murderer) if he has been burning in Hell for the
past 6,000 years? Even more, what would be the
point of resurrecting Abel if he has been sitting
at Jesus’ side for the past 6,000 years? The
doctrine of two resurrections is in direct
conflict with the doctrine of an eternally
burning hell. The Bible teaches the first
resurrection occurs at the Second Coming for the
righteous dead (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18,
Revelation 20:6) and the second resurrection
occurs at the end of the 1,000 years. (Revelation
20:5) The second resurrection is for the wicked
of all ages. “Marvel not at this: for the
hour is coming, in which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth;
they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation.” (KJV, John 5:28,29)
4.
Immediate Judgment at Death: The Bible states
that everyone will stand before “the
Judgment Bar of Christ.” (2 Corinthians
5:10) If a person goes to Heaven or Hell at
the time of death, this presumes that ‘the
Judgment Bar of Christ” has been in session
ever since Abel was killed. The problem is that
‘the Judgment Bar of Christ” has a
beginning point in time and an ending point in
time. The apocalyptic books of Daniel and
Revelation tell closes and us the Judgment Bar of
Christ began in 1844 during the Great Tribulation,
at the end of the 1,260 days allotted to the Two
witnesses, just before the seventh trumpet sounds.
No one
can be judged by Christ until His Judgment Bar is
“set up.” For reasons beyond the scope
of this response, Jesus was found worthy to
ascend Heaven’s throne in 1798 and Jesus
began reviewing the books of record in 1844. (Ecclesiastes
12:13,14, Daniel 7:10) So, Bible prophecy
indicates that immediate judgment at death is
not possible. (Note: God the Father
has made a few “executive” exceptions
to the Judgment Bar of Christ. Enoch, Elijah and
the 24 elders were taken to Heaven prior to 1844.
These exceptions are justified on the basis that
the Father foreknew this was the best way of
resolving issues that are not part of this
discussion.)
5.
First heaven and Earth Passed Away: The Bible
teaches that God will create a New Heaven and New
Earth after the old Heaven and Earth are
destroyed. “Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away…”(Revelation
21:1) This verse means that Hell itself has to
pass away. Hell is the means through which
earth will be purified of sin! Sin and sinners
will have no place on Earth, in Earth or under
the Earth when everything is made new. God’s
universe will be clean of sin and sinners.
6.
Reigning with Christ: If there is an
eternally burning Hell, what judgment is left for
the saints to conduct during the 1,000 years? “Do
you not know that the saints will judge the world…?
Do you not know that we will judge angels…”
(1 Corinthians 6:2,3) Think about this: If all of
the wicked receive the same sentence
– burning in Hell for eternity, then there
is nothing left for the saints to judge during
the 1,000 years!
7.
Walking on the Ashes of the Wicked: The Bible
declares the wicked will be devoured –
destroyed – annihilated – turned into
ashes. “’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
4:3)
Christians
mess the doctrine of Hell up today largely
because people do not understand the doctrines of
restitution. God’s vengeance, soul sleep,
the Second Death or the Judgment Bar of Christ. I
understand how people conclude that the wicked
will burn in Hell forever. Language in the Bible
seems to support the idea of eternal suffering in
Hell until you put everything in the Bible
has to say about Hell on the table. Then, and
only then, can we understand the truth on this
topic. The Bible is like a giant crossword puzzle.
When all of its doctrines are properly defined
and understood, all of the pieces will
harmoniously form one beautiful mosaic.
8.
Golden Rule: The final reason why Hell cannot
burn for eternity is that God’s own law, the
Golden Rule, does not permit God to punish
wicked people beyond the point of achieving
restitution. Period. God abides by His own laws.
He has proven His submission to His own laws by
the death of Jesus! The Father would have not
allowed Jesus to die if there had been any
other way to redeem man. No sinner, not even the
devil, merits endless torture in Hell throughout
eternity! Restitution is a finite matter and once
justice is served, the wicked will die a death
from which there is no resurrection.
If God
tortured demons and “slightly wicked”
people throughout the endless ages of eternity
with the same punishment, He would be a tyrant.
Justice demands that punishment be
commensurate with the crime. Tyrants do not
punish fairly. With tyrants, justice is arbitrary
and self-serving. They abuse their victims to
suit their selfish or mean-spirited objectives.
The Golden Rule can be stated: “As you do
unto others, the same will be done unto you.”
This is perfect justice. According to the rule,
there are limits to torture in Hell.
Summary
- After
considering the “same authority”
rule…
- After
considering God’s demand for
restitution…
- After
considering the apocalyptic sequence that
includes the Judgment Bar of Christ, the
two resurrections and the purpose of the
saints reigning with Christ during the 1,000
years…
- After
considering the eight theological points
listed above…
I conclude that Hell will
burn for a period of time. I conclude that wicked
people will be tormented with fire according to
the injury and harm they inflicted on others. I
conclude that Lucifer and his demons will burn
the longest because they have caused the greatest
injuries. I also conclude that after restitution
has been extracted and justice has been served,
the wicked will be put to death. They will never
exist again. At that time, God will purify this
orb with fire so that the foundations of a New
Heaven and a New Earth will be free of the blight
caused by sin.
Because the topic of Hell
is so important, it seems to me that God has
deliberately made the matter of an eternally
burning Hell a topic of controversy to keep the
subject alive! By keeping this subject in a state
of controversy, it forces those who seek the
whole truth to resolve this highly important and
complex topic. For me, the conclusions stated
above align with everything else that I have
learned about the marvelous ways of God. There is
no doubt about it. God is righteous, fair and
just. He is truly a God of love. There is no
selfishness, meanness nor arrogance in God. If
you have lost a loved one through a violent crime
or if you have been hurt in a grievous way by a
thug, I hope you can appreciate the idea that God
will fully repay. Millions of soldiers who raped
and killed innocent people will pay for their
deeds, too. You can be sure that justice will be
served before death eliminates the devil and
every wicked person. “It is a dreadful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
(Hebrews 10:31)
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