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Sunday School

Lesson 24: Eternal Conscious Punishment, Overview

Speaker
Greg Ho

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The doctrine of eternal conscious punishment (hell) is examined from a comprehensive survey of Scripture spanning both Old and New Testaments. The Bible is unmistakably clear that the fate of those who reject Christ’s offering is not annihilation, not mere separation from God, but conscious, eternal torment. We are reminded that most of what we know about hell comes directly from the mouth of Jesus — the same compassionate Jesus who wept over Jerusalem.

Key Lessons:

  1. Hell is not mere separation from God but an active, conscious punishment involving fire, agony, darkness, weeping, and pain — as described repeatedly by Jesus himself.
  2. The word “eternal” in “eternal punishment” is the same word used for “eternal life” — if one lasts forever, so does the other, making annihilationism impossible to sustain from Scripture.
  3. The severity of hell reveals the magnitude of what Christ suffered on the cross for us — He bore the full weight of this punishment not for one person, but for all who would believe.
  4. Refusing to warn people about hell out of fear of offending them is not love but cruelty — like a doctor withholding a cancer diagnosis when a cure exists.

Application: We are called to be spurred on by the reality of hell to urgently warn others of the coming judgment, to renew our love for Christ who suffered this punishment in our place, and to approach communion with a deeper sense of awe at what was accomplished on the cross.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does understanding the full reality of eternal conscious punishment change the way we approach evangelism and conversations with unbelievers?
  2. Why do you think Jesus spoke more about hell than almost anyone else in Scripture, and what does that tell us about true compassion?
  3. How should the doctrine of hell deepen our gratitude for what Christ accomplished on the cross, especially as we take communion?

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 32:22 (fire of God’s anger), Isaiah 66:22-24 (unquenching fire and undying worm), Daniel 12:2 (everlasting contempt), Matthew 25:46 (eternal punishment paralleled with eternal life), Revelation 14:9-11 (smoke of torment forever and ever), Revelation 20:10-15 (lake of fire as final judgment).

Outline

Introduction

Let’s start with a word of prayer. Father, as we consider this weighty topic and these verses that you have for us, we pray that it would settle in us a sense of awe and wonder at what Christ did for us on that cross. That we would leave this morning with a renewed sense of love for you, that you would suffer such a penalty for us. Bless the rest of our time this morning in Christ’s name. We pray. Amen.

In Acts 4:12, the Apostle Peter was talking about Jesus and he said that there is no other name by which we must be saved. Right?

There is no other name by which we must be saved. If you look at that verse in Acts 4:12, which we won’t take the time to do right now, you realize that he never really specified in that particular passage what we are saved from.

What are we saved from? Is it just the trials of this life? The context of that verse is he had just made a lame man walk. Right? So is it just the physical ailments that we’re saved from?

Is it maybe the trials of this life? Or is it something more that we’re saved from?

The Bible tells us that we are saved from hell. We’re actually saved from God, right? Because it’s God who throws us into hell.

So our topic today is going to be eternal conscious punishment, which is hell. And it is a heavy topic.

We believe at Calvary, just as the historical church has believed for probably 2,000 years, in eternal conscious punishment—that hell is a place where you are relegated eternally to conscious punishment.

Why We Must Talk About Hell

This is a terrible thing to think about, and it’s really deeply disturbing. In fact, one of these things is you can’t really come to this topic without just being maybe heartbroken. Maybe terrified.

Maybe if you think too hard about it, it might even drive you insane. I mean, eternal conscious punishment is perhaps the worst possible thing that could ever befall any person. And it is something that I wish was not true. In fact, if I were God, I would not have designed it that way. But you can wake up every morning thanking the Lord that I am not God.

I don’t want to go there. I don’t want any of you to go there. I don’t want any of my friends or my relatives to go there.

But unfortunately, we don’t get to choose that. We don’t get to determine that. We only get to read what’s in the Bible.

And what we’ll see this morning is that the Bible is clear that the fate of those who have not accepted the offering of Christ on their behalf is eternal conscious punishment.

“The Bible is clear that the fate of those who have not accepted Christ is eternal conscious punishment.”

It’s a heartbreaking reality. Disturbing.

We’ll also see that there are two phases of eternal conscious punishment. The first phase is sort of a temporary holding period from now to when final judgment occurs.

When you die today, just like if you died in the Lord, you would be in heaven, but that’s not the final state. The final state is a new heavens and a new earth.

Well, if you had died without the Lord, then you would have a time period where you are sort of in a holding period, which is also conscious punishment. And then after the final judgment, you will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is also conscious punishment, but now eternal.

And again, this is one of these things where you think about it too long, you may go crazy. But it’s so disturbing that many churches would rather not even talk about it, or many people would rather not even talk about it or bring it up. They really shy away from this doctrine.

But I think this is precisely why we must talk about it, because it is so terrible and so horrible that if we don’t tell people about it, if we don’t warn people, then that’s not love—that’s hate, right? That’s cruelty to not warn people on their way to eternal conscious punishment that they are really at the precipice of eternal damnation.

The analogy is: if you’re a doctor and your patient has cancer, yet there’s a cure—there’s a known cure for this cancer—but you don’t want to break the news to them because you don’t want to offend them and you don’t want to hurt their feelings. So you don’t tell them that they have cancer. All along there’s a cure for it, and you don’t tell them, and then they die of cancer.

“If we don’t warn people, that’s not love — that’s cruelty.”

That’s not love. That’s cruelty.

Four Major Views of Hell

It is so disturbing though that it is understandable that there are some deviant views of this doctrine. There are some people who want to sweep hell under the rug or maybe redefine the doctrine of hell into something a little bit more palatable, a little bit more well, maybe just a little bit less disturbing. We’ll talk about those.

Here are the four major views of hell. First is eternal conscious punishment. That’s what we believe.

But there’s also universalism. Some people are so disturbed by this doctrine that they basically say there isn’t an eternal hell. Now, the interesting thing is that just because you don’t believe in eternal conscious punishment doesn’t mean you don’t believe in any punishment.

So there are many religions who believe in some sort of purgatory or some sort of place where you kind of work off your sin, but that’s a limited duration and then you will all go to heaven. Eventually, everybody gets to heaven, everybody gets to a paradise. Mormons are basically in this camp.

So universalism—I don’t think many of us today in this church at least believe in that.

“There are some who want to sweep hell under the rug or redefine it into something more palatable.”

Annihilationism

But annihilationism is a theory also known as conditionalism or conditional immortality, referring to the conditional immortality of the soul.

You’re immortal if you’re saved, but you’re mortal if you’re not saved. This doctrine has, every say 15 to 20 years, a new proponent and a new resurgence. When it comes up, people forget and have short-term memories—they forget that this came up 20 years ago and it just keeps coming up like clockwork.

In my day, because I’m older than I look, there was a man named Harold Camping who deviated from the faith mainly because of this particular doctrine of annihilationism—the idea that you cease to exist after you die.

A few months ago, unless you’ve been living under a rock on social media, there was a very famous personality named Kirk Cameron. Many of us thought he was friendly and hung out with Ray Comfort, and many people respect him. We still respect Kirk Cameron, but he came out and said that he was leaning towards this doctrine.

You guys have all seen that presumably on social media. This sparked a firestorm, and all these other annihilationists came on this program and tried to justify this doctrine. So it is top of mind for us today, and we’ll talk more about that.

The one thing we want to know about it right now is that there are many modern-day proponents of this. The most famous cult that promotes annihilationism is Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are some verses in the Bible where you look at them and they talk about words like death, destruction, and consumed. If you simply look at that verse in isolation, you might be tempted towards the annihilationist reading.

For example: “The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life.” You might be tempted towards interpreting that as annihilationism—your spirit, your soul dies.

The problem is that there are many other verses that are clear that there is a conscious eternal punishment. You can look at the verses that the annihilationists will come up with, and you can fit this into the eternal conscious punishment reading.

“You can’t interpret the verses about eternal conscious punishment with an annihilationist reading.”

But you can’t do the other way around. If you look at the verses where it talks about eternal conscious punishment, you simply can’t interpret those with an annihilationist reading. That’s what I’m going to try to show you today. But we’ll talk more specifically about annihilationism next time.

Spiritual Separation View

And the fourth main view, I would say in a soft way, is the spiritual separation view. This spiritual separation view is a way to soften the horribleness of hell. Recently Joel Osteen was interviewed by a bunch of social media influencers and he was asked what he believes about hell. He said, “Well, I don’t know much about it.” He doesn’t seem to know much about a lot of things, but he says that it’s a place where you’re separated from God. That must not be a good thing, right?

This is a very common and very popular answer, but it fails. It is true in some sense that hell is a separation from God, but that is not the full truth. It is an actual active punishment by God. Without understanding that it’s an active punishment, it’s not just that God is ignoring you because many unbelievers today basically feel that they’re living without God anyways.

“Hell is not just separation from God — it is an actual active punishment by God.”

So they feel like hell is not so bad, right? We’re already living separated from God. What difference does it make? But no, it’s an active punishment. We need to be clear about that.

These are the major views. This is 9:00 a.m. and we are in what we call Sunday school, right?

I just want to lay that out for you.

Approaching the Scriptural Evidence

This is not a sermon where the preacher gives you things in bite-sized chunks. I’m assuming that you guys are all very sophisticated individuals and theologians, and normally I wouldn’t do this, but this is the kind of doctrine I was really thinking about. How do I present this? How do we talk about this?

This is the kind of doctrine where we need to see this from Scripture because it’s just so horrible. I would not have invented this doctrine. I would not have done it this way. And part of me wants annihilationism to be true, right? Because when you consider this fate befalling those you love, it is a horrible thing.

“This is the kind of doctrine where we need to see it from Scripture because it’s just so horrible.”

But again, we have to go to Scripture. Let’s go through these. Now I didn’t want to put all of these on a slide. Some of these are kind of long, and I want you to actually see it from the pages of the Bible. So that’s what we’re going to do today. For the rest of the time, we’re going to look at some of these verses and talk about them.

If you can open up your Bible to Deuteronomy 32. Before we go on to it, what do you notice about these verses? What’s something that sticks out to you?

Anything?

Old and New Testament.

Old and New Testament. What else?

It’s like a lot of Matthew.

That the truth is that most of what we know about hell comes straight from the mouth of Jesus.

Deuteronomy 32:22 — Fire of God’s Anger

Okay. That’s something we’ll talk about later. Let’s go first to Deuteronomy 32:22.

This is perhaps the first verse in the Bible where we encounter the idea of a hell. Now, while we talk about this, I’m going to write some things on the whiteboard here.

Deuteronomy 32:22. Let me read it to you. It says, “For a fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the lowest part of Sheol.” Sheol is just a place of the dead. But what do you see about hell here? What characteristic do you see about hell here? It has what? Fire.

Deuteronomy 32:22: “A fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the lowest part of Sheol.”

So let’s write down some of the things we observe. Fire. What else? What is happening to you in that fire? Burns. Okay. A fire is kindled in the anger of God.

So this is the first verse that we see.

Isaiah 66:22–24 — Unquenching Fire and Undying Worm

We see something about fire, something that burns, something about anger. Let’s turn to Isaiah 66:22-24.

Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy.

Isaiah 66:22-24 is a critical verse that we’ll talk about in a little bit. I’m just going to read it now. It says, “For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your descendants and your name endure. And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath. All mankind will come to bow down before me, says the Lord.”

Before we go to the next verse, the context of this verse is not right now. It’s the end, when all mankind comes to bow. Everybody’s going to be worshiping the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth.

Next verse: “Then they will go and look at the corpses of the people who have rebelled against me. For their worm does not die and their fire will not be extinguished and there will be an abhorrence to mankind.”

The first thing we have to know about this verse is that it is in an eschatological context. An annihilationist would look at this and pick out the word corpse and say this is a dead person. So that must mean they’re dead, their soul is dead. But notice what it says: their worm does not die and their fire will not be extinguished.

Isaiah 66:24: “Their worm does not die and their fire will not be extinguished.”

Just think about it. If these corpses are finally dead and completely unresponsive, what does it matter if the worm dies or not? What does that even mean? Wouldn’t the worm die after it runs out of food?

And the fire will not be extinguished. Well, what good is the fire if the corpse is gone? What good is that?

As you’ll see later as we go, it’ll become clear with other verses. But the picture he’s painting here is a corpse that is still able to feel and sense everything around them, what’s happening to the corpse.

What are some of the things you notice about hell here? What is not dying? A worm, right. And what else is there? We see fire again. And what was it? Unquenching fire.

And then we also see abhorrence, right? You might ask yourself, what does it matter if you’re an abhorrence or not? If you’re dead, does it matter?

The abhorrence is only meaningful if I am there to understand that I am abhorred.

Daniel 12:2 — Everlasting Contempt

All right. Next one. Daniel 12:2. Trying to move through these pretty quickly.

Remember this is Sunday school. When I teach the kids Sunday school, we have fire drills. I give them a verse and then they go see who gets there first, right? Let’s see if we can do it. Daniel 12:2.

I got there first.

Okay.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, leads to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

First thing to notice about this verse is that it starts out talking about dead people, people who are dead in the body, right?

And what’s going to happen to them?

They’re going to wake up.

What does that mean?

Resurrection. Okay. So they will be resurrected and then the people who have a portion in it—these are going to everlasting life and the others are going to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Now a critical thing to realize here is that the word everlasting when it talks about everlasting life is the same word as everlasting contempt. Everlasting life, everlasting contempt. These are parallel ideas.

Daniel 12:2: “Some to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”

The word everlasting in the Hebrew basically means long duration, futuristicity. Most of the time it means everlasting as in forever.

The thing to know about this is that this is after the resurrection. So the annihilationist would say, well, you don’t have to be awake for the disgrace and the everlasting contempt part, right? You can be annihilated.

However, as we said before, what do I care if I’m disgraced if I’m not there to see it? This is an experience of disgrace.

An experience of contempt, right? So we’ll say disgrace.

Contempt.

Sorry. I’ll have you guys give me those words.

Jesus as the Primary Teacher on Hell

You will be awake. And the other thing is, what good is it to wake you up and then destroy your soul?

Now we come to the New Testament verses. By the way, I only picked out about 20 verses to go through, but there’s probably around 40 in the Bible about hell. We just couldn’t go through all of them because we’re going to run out of time. We may even run out of time for this, so we’ll see.

But again, what we said before was most of what we know about hell comes straight from the mouth of Jesus. And this is the same Jesus, remember, that wept over Jerusalem. He’s a compassionate man.

“Most of what we know about hell comes straight from the mouth of Jesus — the same Jesus who wept over Jerusalem.”

Yet this compassionate Jesus stresses eternity and he stresses hell whenever it comes up. Whenever he talks to anybody, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a place where he’s not talking about judgment in some sense. That really is his evangelistic strategy: to warn people about the coming judgment.

So let’s see that from the text. Don’t take my word for it. Matthew 3:12. All right. Bible drill. Matthew 3:12.

Matthew 3:12 — Unquenchable Fire

Now we have our smartphone, so that’s cheating, right? You got to use the real paper. Matthew 3:12. I’ll just read it because of the mic.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

By the way, whenever Jesus talks about hell, he never has to define it. You might ask this question: in the Old Testament, we saw a few verses. You can’t really develop necessarily a very full theology about hell from that, and that would be true.

I think that people, looking at some commentators, said this theology of hell was actually developed from those verses and a few others by the time Jesus came on the scene. This was going to be an eternal punishment for the wicked, and Jesus essentially just affirms that theological understanding at the time.

It was controversial, of course. The Sadducees would even say there is no resurrection, but this was obviously something that was in their minds. Okay, so what do you see from here? What is the characteristic of hell we see here?

Okay, burn up.

And unquenchable fire again.

Right now, annihilationists would take a look at this verse and say, well, it’s the fire that’s unquenchable. And so you could still be annihilated at this point. But what good is unquenchable fire if the fuel is consumed? Why is that something that’s scary or significant to mention if it’s unquenchable and there’s nothing to consume anymore?

Obviously it is talking about the experience of somebody inside that unquenchable fire in a conscious way, and it’s unquenchable for eternity.

“What good is unquenchable fire if the fuel is consumed? Obviously it’s talking about conscious experience.”

Matthew 5:22 — Fiery Hell

Matthew 5:22. All right, this is easy because it’s just the next page.

Matthew 5:22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, “You good for nothing,” shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, “You fool,” shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. All right, fiery hell. We already have fire here.

We’re going to talk about this later.

Here you can see Jesus’s approach to this. He is warning people that if you break God’s law, right? If you’re angry with your brother, not just murder, but if you’re angry with your brother, your fate is going to be in the fiery hell. He actually says the word hell, which we’ll talk about in a second.

“If you break God’s law — not just murder but anger — your fate is the fiery hell.”

Matthew 8:12 — Outer Darkness, Weeping, and Gnashing of Teeth

Matthew 8:12. Let’s just keep moving on.

But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 8:12: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

What characteristic do we see here?

Darkness. Some sort of outer darkness.

What else?

Weeping, gnashing of teeth.

#### The Meaning of Outer Darkness

Okay, let’s talk about these for a little bit. What does darkness mean?

Well, darkness is separation from God. The outer darkness, right? You’re being tossed out, you’re being thrown out from the kingdom. And now you are in darkness. Darkness here is separation from God and everything that is good from God—God’s goodness, his common grace, right?

If you go outside today on a beautiful day, you feel a breeze on your face, the sun on your skin, and no matter what else is going on in your life, that’s some common grace. Or the rain that comes down and refreshes you. None of that is going to be in hell, right? All of this common grace is gone because you’re separate from it.

Not only are you separated from that, but you’re separated from any mercy and you’re separated from any creativity. You’re separated from any learning. There’s no more innovation, no more entertainment, no more companionship, no happy family reunions.

The outer darkness is a place completely separate from all the good things that God gives you. Right? Every good and perfect thing comes from God. But those things will not be available for you in hell.

“Every good and perfect thing comes from God — but those things will not be available in hell.”

Jesus showed us a little bit of what this meant on the cross when he uttered those words. He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is when Jesus was undergoing the forsaking of God that we would have experienced in hell.

#### Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

But it’s not, as I said before, it’s not just separation from God. If you tell an unbeliever that they’re only being separated from God, they’ll say, “Well, I’m already separated from God. How bad could that be?” Right?

But you see, there is weeping. There was weeping. And by the way, what do you need to have to weep? You got to be conscious. Weeping means that you’re feeling something. You’re not just weeping as a mechanical act. You’re weeping because you are feeling deep sorrow, deep shame.

And this tells us that in hell you will retain your ability to feel emotion. In fact, it’ll be amplified, but you’ll only be able to feel the emotion of sorrow.

“In hell you will retain your ability to feel emotion — but you’ll only be able to feel sorrow.”

Some translations will say that instead of weeping, they’ll translate it as wailing, right? You’re not just weeping silently. You’re wailing. You’re screaming because you’re so emotional you just can’t take it. So deep that it bubbles up into your throat as a scream, right?

And why are you weeping? Well, you’re weeping because of a sense of deep loss. You’re also weeping out of a sense of deep shame. And maybe some of you have struggled with depression. That’s a little bit of what it feels like. It’s deep depression, dark depression, dark despair. And the worst part of it is that there is never going to be any end. There will never be any light at the end of the tunnel, right?

Weeping, but also gnashing of teeth. What is gnashing of teeth? What would make you gnash your teeth? Anger. What else? Pain. It’s really pain, maybe a little bit of anger, but it’s really pain.

This is really talking about back before there was anesthesia. You’ve seen some of the movies, right? Like what would they do? They’d have a big wound or whatever and they would just pour a bunch of whiskey on it and then they’d give you something to bite on. Because the pain is so bad that if they didn’t do that you would bite off your own tongue, right? You’d be gnashing your teeth. It’s such a deep pain that you’re basically biting down on your jaw. I can’t do this, right?

So that means you’ll be able to feel pain in hell. Some of you have felt the pain of childbirth, and I’ve been told that’s pretty bad. For me, I’ve had this experience of pain where I stubbed my toe. That was really bad a few days ago. And even that for me was like, “Oh, how could this be the worst?” But hell is much worse than that.

I used to have a phase where I was interested in exotic diseases because I was convinced I had some. There’s this one disease called man on fire syndrome which makes you feel like you’re burning up. People who experience it essentially say that it feels like they’ve just touched a hot stove, but it’s all over their hands, all over their eyes, all over their ears, all over their limbs. It’s one of these diseases that I hope you never have. But that’s a little bit what it’s like in hell.

So there’s going to be pain and weeping.

Matthew 10:28 — Destroy Both Soul and Body

Matthew 10:28.

See if we’re going to get through this.

Matthew 10:28.

Next page. I told you Jesus talks about hell a lot.

Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28: “Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Okay. He is talking about hell again and he says don’t be afraid of people who can kill just the body, right? But be afraid of God because he can throw not only your body but also your soul in hell. There are a few things that are interesting about this.

This is one of your favorite annihilationist verses where they say the word destroy.

However, this word destroy has a range of meaning. In English we say destroy and we might think annihilation, right? But in the Greek, that’s not how it is. It’s a range of meaning. This word can also be used to talk about ruined wine skins.

It can also be used to talk about loss of hair. Right? Your hair is destroyed. I’m not looking at anybody in particular here.

In Luke 5:38, that’s where you’re talking about wine skins. If you put new wine in old wine skins—sorry, the other way around—it’ll burst them. And notably in Luke 15, he talks about the lost sheep, and Luke 15 also talks about the lost coin, right? If you guys remember those things, the coin is lost, and well, that word lost is also destroyed. It’s the same word.

Obviously the coin is not annihilated, right? It’s not talking about that. And your hair is not—well, maybe your hair is annihilated, but you’re not annihilated. It’s also this sort of idea of just a lost or a perishing condition. And the sheep is found, the coin is found, right? So it’s not as if you’re annihilating these things. There’s a range of meaning to this word destroy.

It doesn’t have to necessarily mean annihilation.

Another thing to note about this is that Jesus could have said, “Rather fear him who is able to destroy your soul in hell.”

But he actually says body as well, right? So why does he say that? Why does he say body? Well, because in hell you’re going to have a body. That’s what’s going to feel pain. That’s what’s going to feel sorrow.

Without that, your soul doesn’t seem like it has a lot of nerve endings.

#### The Meaning of Gehenna

But the other thing that’s noticeable here, and he used it again—we already saw this when he used it before—is this word gehenna for hell, which is really the word gehenna. What gehenna really is, is a little controversial, but this was definitely a valley outside of Jerusalem. So when he says hell, he’s really referring to this valley, gehenna, the valley of Hinnom.

This is the place where we know for sure there was child sacrifice to Moloch. Moloch is this idol where you have to sacrifice children. Because of that, it got a hugely negative reputation. This is the place you go essentially to where people are committing unspeakable acts of atrocity. It’s also a place where they would dump the dead criminals, animals, dead animals. They would dump them there.

The thing that’s controversial is that many people also say that it’s like a trash heap, sort of the landfill. That part is a little bit debated, so I’m not too sure. But anyways, there is fire in this place because you’re burning these dead bodies—mostly dead bodies actually, so maybe trash.

This place outside of Jerusalem, everybody can see it. It’s not hard to find, and everybody knows about it because that’s where you dump these things. When I was growing up in New Brunswick, there was a landfill right next to our house—not maybe not right next to, but it’s called the Edgeborough Edge Landfill. If the wind was blowing in the right direction and you drove past it, you would be like, “What is that stench?” Right? Because they’re burning the trash.

That would be kind of like what it is. Sometimes the wind would be blowing in the right direction and people would be like, “Oh, okay, that’s the valley of Hinnom.” Right? So this is the imagery that Jesus uses for hell—a place where things are burned.

Now, if you talk to a Jehovah’s Witness, which I have before about this exact topic, he’ll say to you, “Well, that means that they’re dead, they’re annihilated. Right? The valley of Hinnom are full of dead people.” But that’s not how Jesus uses the analogy. He uses it as a place where you will experience the actual destruction. You will continually experience the destruction.

“Jesus uses Gehenna as a place where you will continually experience the destruction and the fire.”

Matthew 13:41–42 — The Furnace of Fire

You will continually experience the fire. All right, let’s look at Matthew 13. Let’s keep going. Matthew 13:41-42, just the next page or maybe two pages.

The son of man will send forth his angels. Verse 41. The son of man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and they will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

All right. Very similar to what he said before. Do we see anything new here?

Okay, I got this furnace. We’ll write that down.

But you’re—what’s being—who’s throwing you in? His angels. But on whose command?

Yeah, it’s Jesus.

Jesus is commanding that you get thrown in there, right? It’s not something that just simply happens to you. It’s God actively throwing you into this place. He’s discarding you, right? That’s what it is. Just like you would discard a dead criminal that you just executed.

“This is not something that just happens to you — it’s God actively throwing you into this place.”

Matthew 18:8 — Eternal Fire

All right. Matthew 18:8. If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

What do we see from here?

Eternal fire. Why is the fire eternal?

“What good is eternal fire if you’re not there to experience it? Why would He even say that?”

It’s never going to run out, right? And again, what good is it if it’s eternal if you’re not there to experience it? Like why would he even say that? It’s the eternal fire and also the fiery hell. So again, he’s talking about hell, but he’s specifically talking about the fiery fact that you will burn, the fact that you will feel the burning. That’s why it’s worth plucking out your eye.

We say we’re very careful whenever we preach this verse to say this is not literal. Don’t pluck out your eye. Don’t cut off your hand. But in a sense, he’s really saying if the comparison is getting your whole body thrown into hell, okay, like if you have to do that, you have to do what you have to do, right?

Matthew 25:41.

Matthew 25:41, 46 — Eternal Punishment

There’s a few pages through. I actually skipped a few because we don’t have time. There’s a few in the middle.

Matthew 25:41 says, “Then he will also say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’”

What do we see here? What additional information do we get about hell from this verse?

Devils and angels. Good. It’s not just humans here. It’s prepared for the devils and the angels. This is really important because later in exactly ten minutes we’ll see that the devils and the angels are destined for eternal, ongoing punishment, and it’s the same fire that you’re going to be thrown in. It’s the same fire for humans as well. Same fate as the devils and angels.

Now the annihilationists will have a problem with this first, and they will have to say that humans are treated differently, right? Because it’s the same fire. The devils and the angels are going to be thrown in and they’re going to suffer eternally because that’s what it’s going to say. But humans are not going to—that’s what they would say. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s just reading in your preference to this text. It’s the same fire. In fact, we’ll see that very clearly later on.

Matthew 25 again, but verse 46. This is possibly the most devastating verse for the annihilationist position. Now, as I said at the outset, I wish annihilationism was true. I’m not—it’s just these verses I can’t get around. And if it wasn’t for these verses, maybe I would be an annihilationist.

But look at Matthew 25:46. It says, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

What do we see here? What is that word that we haven’t seen yet? Eternal what?

Punishment.

And the righteous to eternal life.

So here again, just like in the Daniel verse we saw eternal and eternal parallel. You have eternal life and eternal punishment. Jesus is purposely drawing a parallel here. There’s eternal punishment, eternal life. You want eternal life, right? You’re hoping that that’s going to be eternal, forever and ever, with no end, right? It’s not. God’s not lying to you. He’s not going to cut it off at a thousand years. Well, that’s the same thing. Eternal punishment. Same word. It’s going to last the same amount of time.

“Eternal punishment — it’s going to last the same amount of time as eternal life. Same word. Purposeful parallel.”

What do I say if I’m an annihilationist? Well, I might have two outs. One is that the punishment is death. So it’s the death that’s eternal. Why would he use the word punishment then? Why wouldn’t he just say eternal death? That doesn’t hold water.

The other thing they would say is they would look at the word punishment. What does that word punishment actually mean? If you look at how it’s used in other places, it’s actually penal infliction. From a legal standpoint, it’s like going to jail. It’s the punishment you’re getting for your crime, even in a judicial setting, right? It’s torment. It’s a place that’s a Department of Corrections, right? That’s what it means. You can’t really say that’s just death, right?

And of course, you could have just used the word death if that’s what he meant.

Mark 9:47 — Their Worm Does Not Die

All right. Let’s move a little faster. Mark 9:47.

I’m not going to wait for you to turn there. I’ll just read it. If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes and be cast into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Is there anything new in this verse?

Isaiah. All right, good. This is a fact we saw this verse already. Right now in the Isaiah verse we saw that he was talking about maybe corpses and there was some—we said maybe an alist would look at that and say well these corpses are dead. What about in this verse?

There’s no such implication here. Jesus is using that same imagery here, but the words there are interesting.

It says where their worm does not die. It’s like the worm assigned to them almost. Maybe not assigned to them personally, but the worm assigned to torment them. The worm assigned to give them pain. It’s being eaten from the inside out.

“Their worm — the worm assigned to torment them — a worm of judgment that does not die.”

This worm is a worm of judgment. It’s their worm, right? Given to them for judgment.

Luke 16:19 — The Rich Man and Lazarus

And so this is a clarification of Isaiah 66:24. Luke 16:19.

Sorry, I haven’t been switching back. I should probably do this. Luke 16. We will get through this. Luke 16:19. Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen. This is a rich man and Lazarus.

This is too long. I’m not going to read the whole thing. I’m just going to tell you what it means. This is the rich man and Lazarus. We know the story.

There’s a rich man and the poor man, but then they both die.

Then in verse 24, you see this rich man in hell. And he says in verse 24, “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’” So this is one of the most vivid pictures Jesus is painting of somebody in hell.

We can see this very clearly. What is happening to the rich man in hell?

What is happening?

He’s being tormented by fire, by flame.

He’s in agony, right?

He’s in agony in this flame. And he’s also thirsty. He wants water. So this is interesting because later you’ll see that they said, “No, you can’t actually have any water. You can’t even have one drop of water. There is no mercy in hell.”

“He’s in agony in this flame. Not even one drop of water. There is no mercy in hell.”

None. It’s just one drop of water. No.

So this guy is in agony. He’s tormented and he is trapped and he is conscious, by the way.

And this is talking about this intermediate place of the dead, Hades. That’s why he uses this word Hades. But the important thing here to realize is that this man in hell is able to perceive. He’s able to feel. He’s able to be in agony.

And the annihilationist will have to look at this verse and say, “Well, this is just a story. It’s just some sort of parable. It’s not true, right? It’s not really how it is. Would Jesus tell a story that is really far off from the reality, right, just to make a point? That’s not how he does it, right? This is not how God does it.”

The Epistles on Eternal Punishment

Okay, let’s look at the epistles now.

I’ll just read a few of these. Maybe you can try to turn them. Second Thessalonians 1:8-9. “And those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, these people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and his glory forever.”

I just want to point out that this word “destruction” is actually yet another word. It’s not the same word as we saw before for destruction. And it also has a range of meaning.

In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul talks about a person who is committing sexual immorality in the church and he says, “I have decided to turn this person over to Satan for the destruction of his body.” Is he turning the person over to Satan for the annihilation of his body?

No. He’s just saying the sexual immorality is going to reap a consequence and that consequence is going to be corruption. He’s going to be corrupting his body. He’s not saying, “I’m turning this person over to Satan for the annihilation of his body.”

So this word “destruction” in 1 Thessalonians is not talking about annihilation. It’s talking about defilement. It’s talking about corruption.

Another verse is 1 Timothy 6:9. “Harmful desires plunge people into ruin and destruction.” Is he talking about harmful desires that you may experience plunging you into annihilation?

No. That’s not how this word is used. So the point is that the word “destruction” here has a range of meanings.

“The word ‘destruction’ has a range of meaning — it speaks of corruption and ruin, not annihilation.”

Hebrews 6:2 says, “A foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.”

Here we have the word “eternal judgment” and the annihilationist would have to say eternal judgment means that the death is eternal. Well, then why not just say judgment? Why not even just say death? What’s the eternal about? Why do you have to say eternal? You have to really struggle with this text to make it say what you want.

I’m just going to read to you 2 Peter 2:4-9.

“The angels cast into Tartarus kept for judgment. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness held for judgment.” That’s 2 Peter 2:4.

He’s talking about how he didn’t spare these angels, but he cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment. This is the first phase of hell, the holding period. He’s committed the angels there.

But then in verse 9 he says, “Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.” So this holding period is also for the unrighteous. There’s a holding place for the unrighteous just as there is a holding period for the angels. There’s a holding place for humans for the day of judgment and it is under punishment. So you are undergoing punishment as you wait.

How long will that last? At least the minimum amount of time that can last is a thousand years. So eschatology matters. This is coming together.

Jude 7 says, “And the angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, those he had kept in eternal restraint under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”

Again, we see the darkness for the judgment of the great day. Then he brings that analogy back to men. “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example of undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

You might have to read that a few times to understand it, but he’s making an analogy between the angels held under restraints under darkness for judgment and people undergoing the judgment of eternal fire.

The Killing Blow: Revelation 14:9–11

We’re going to get through this. The last three verses are essentially the killing blow for annihilationism, right?

This is where we cement our understanding of eternal conscious punishment. If you were drifting off because I’m using too many verses, come back for these verses. Turn to Revelation 14:9-11.

Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone.”

That’s the first time we saw brimstone, right? In the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Here we see the word brimstone. Brimstone is basically sulfur, and it was known back then to burn in a very pungent sense. It’s smelly. When it’s burning, it stinks, right?

So brimstone is in the presence of the holy angels. You’re being observed by the angels and Jesus.

Not only are you suffering, but Jesus is watching you do it, right? That’s something to think about.

And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. This is really hard because this is very clear. You can’t play some annihilationist games with this, right? How long is that smoke going to ascend? The smoke of their torment forever and ever. It’s not the smoke of their death. It’s not the smoke of their corpses. It’s the smoke of their torment, and it’s going to be forever and ever. This is the killing blow. You can’t get past this verse.

Revelation 14:11: “The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.”

You have no rest day and night. They have no rest day and night. No rest.

Those who worship the beast and his image and whoever drinks of the mark of his name. Now we see torment ascending forever and ever. There’s smoke. Why is there smoke? Because there is something to burn. You might say, doesn’t that body get consumed? No. God will give you a new body specifically for this. It’s a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction.

Revelation 20:10–15 — The Lake of Fire

But what’s important is that this is the key to interpreting the word “second death” that’s going to come up. All right? Revelation 20:10-15.

And the devil, this is talking about the devil, and the devil who received them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. That’s the demons, right?

Remember previously we saw a verse that said, “You will be thrown into that same lake.” Remember we saw that verse. Okay. Then I saw verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, whose presence the earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. The books were open. Another book was open, which is a book of life.

And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. Verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades, remember before we talked about Hades being the holding period. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So we knew from Revelation 14 that what happens in the lake of fire is that you are tormented forever and ever. That’s why you can’t interpret this word “second death” as actual final annihilation.

You have to interpret this in the same light as Revelation 14 which we just read. In that fire the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Okay. Last one. Revelation 21:5-8.

Revelation 20:15: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 21:5–8 — A Portion in the Lake of Fire

Okay, I’ll just read the last verse.

Verse eight: “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexual immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

This fire does not cause annihilation because it says here that you will have a part in that lake. How can you have a part in that lake if you are annihilated?

You have a part in that. What this means is that you have a portion of that lake of fire reserved just for you. That is your corner of the lake of fire.

“You have a portion of that lake of fire reserved just for you — your corner of the lake of fire.”

The Full Picture of Hell

Something really terrible to think about. And there’s also conscious signs of actual torment.

Okay. We’re out of time. Look at this chart here. This is all the things we talked about as we went through hell: fire, anger, abhorrence, pain, contempt, burning, outer darkness, no rest, unquenching fire, agony, weeping, thirsty, no mercy, disgrace.

We’re thrown into it by Jesus. You’re awake and there’s eternal punishment. I think we even—yeah, worm. All of these things is what hell looks like.

“Fire, agony, pain, contempt, darkness, no rest, no mercy, weeping — all of this is what hell looks like.”

Christ Suffered This for Us

And just to close with this one thought: Christ suffered this for us on the cross. Now he may not have suffered that in our concept of duration. Right, eternity is a long time, but Jesus is an infinite God. Whatever we have to say about that, sometimes we think about this like it’s just three days. I could probably suffer for three days too, like no, that’s not how it is.

Jesus suffered in a way that is almost impossible to comprehend. It’s not less than what you suffered in hell. It’s not less than hell. It’s not less than how you would have suffered in hell for eternity. In fact, it’s all of that crammed together, and in some way we don’t understand, he took all of that punishment.

And not just for one person, but for all who would believe. That’s like millions. And that’s what he did on the cross for us.

So hopefully as we take communion today, that will give us something to think about. Tomorrow, next time I’m going to be talking a little bit more about the consequences of these and maybe a little bit more directly addressing annihilationism.

If you have questions, please send them to me. The better your questions, the better I’ll be able to prepare for them for Sunday school next week. But if you don’t send me any questions, that’s great. We can just have a party or something, right?

All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you for this word. Even though it is a hard word, it is really just so sobering, and we just really needed to read it from your scripture because we had to be convinced of this because of the horribleness of it.

We don’t like to think about this. I don’t even like to think about this. We don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to contemplate it because if we do for too long, we go absolutely crazy.

“Christ suffered in a way almost impossible to comprehend — not less than how you would have suffered in hell for eternity.”

Closing Prayer

But we pray, Lord, that we would be spurred on to really warn people of this impending judgment. What could be worse than this?

We pray, Lord, that you would save many even here today. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

Thank you everyone.

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