Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
What is this, seems like a contradiction? The Bible clearly says here that Satan is tormented day and night forever and ever. The term forever and ever does not mean absolutely ‘forever and ever’. Let’s break it down.
Exodus 21:6, “Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.”
What does it mean to serve a person’s Master forever? Throughout all eternity or does that mean as long as the person shall live? As long as the person shall live. When you tell a loved one that you will love them forever, what does that mean? I will love you as long as I live.
Exodus 30:21 talking about the priests, “So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his see throughout their generations.”
Hold on, if the temple was destroyed and the priesthood brought to an end, how in the world does this ‘forever and ever’ not just mean as long as a system stood in place? For ever and ever means until death.
Psalm 145:2, “Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.”
Psalm 115:17, “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.”
Here is why the same psalmist writes in Psalm 115, that ‘the dead praise not the Lord neither any that go down in silence’. This simply mean, we will praise the Lord as long as we live.
So, when the Bible says that Satan will be tormented forever and ever, it means that he is going to be tormented for as long as it takes for him to burn up, but it will come to an end. How do we know this?
Speaking of Lucifer the bible says in Ezekiel 28:18-19, “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”
Satan is going to cease to exist. There is not going to be some place off in the corner of the universe where the wicked are being tormented throughout all eternity. No, if that was the case sin will be eternalized and God is not going to eternalize sin…he is out to destroy sin and the unrepentant sinners forever. So, when the Bible talks about the consequences of sin, in eternal terms as in Daniel 12 ‘some shall rise to everlasting contempt’, it is not that they will be in contempt forever and ever. It is the result of that contempt. In other words, you are going to die, you are never going to come back to life; and this is going to be final.
In the first death, everybody comes back to life…everybody has a resurrection. In the second death, there is no return from it. You are dead forever…you are not living forever…you are dead forever. How do we know this, the Bible says:
John 3:15, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”
If I have eternal life right now, and someone tried to kill me by stabbing me, what would happen? Would I die? No, eternal life equals the inability to die. Eternal life means I am no longer subject to death.
The Bible says that ‘no murderer has eternal life abiding in him’, then that means he is subject to death. Death is not an eternal state of living miserably…that is not death. Death is the opposite of life. Now, one can live miserably, but that is not death. Death is the cessation of life. So, when the Bible talks about the ‘second death’ when the wicked are cast into the lake of fire…the fire is going to be final in its work; meaning, you will be brought to death and never rise again.
The Bible tells us that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
This tells us the devil does not have eternal life and if the devil doesn’t have eternal life; the fires must bring him to death. He must die, hence, this is not a contradiction between Revelation 20 ‘he will be tormented day and night forever and ever’ and ‘he will cease to exist’. What we need to understand is that he will be tormented non-stop in the fire until he is brought to nothingness…absolutely consumed and he will cease to be forever and ever.
John 3:14-17 the bible says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
For more on “How long is Forever?” go the appendix.
Perish vs Everlasting
There is a huge difference between perish and everlasting life. If you have everlasting life, you cannot perish. If you don’t have everlasting life, you are going to perish.
The wages of sin is death. Since the wages of sin is death, it is either 1) the wages of sin is death or 2) it is eternal torment…it cannot be both. Because death and eternal torment are two different things.
Now, if the wages of sin is death, then Jesus paid that because he died, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day; and whoever will can be saved…all they got to do is accept Jesus death on their behalf.
But, if the wages of sin is eternal torment then Jesus didn’t pay that…He was not eternally tormented, and if he wasn’t eternally tormented then he didn’t pay the penalty for sin…then everybody is lost.
Therefore, the very fact of Jesus’ death, and he was only dead for three days, shows that he did not suffer eternally…He was not tormented eternally; meaning the wages of sin cannot be eternal torment. His suffering was infinite, but it was not eternal.
It was Jesus’ death on the cross that saves us from hell (the grave). But, there is something else Jesus did to save us from fire.
In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”
Understand, that in order to escape the fire of God’s presence at the end of time, we must first be baptized with the fire of his presence now. His death on the cross redeems us from the grave and his baptism at the Jordan saves us from the second death…if that is not beautiful, if that does not demonstrate the love of God nothing else will.
When the wicked are destroyed by the fire of God it is because of the love of God. God knows that if the wicked were to go into heaven it would be eternal torment for them. God loves them too much to torment them forever. So, what does He do? God with his great big arms of fire is going to embrace the wicked one last time. In that embrace, the wicked will feel what it would be like to live in the presence of a holy God, and in that moment the wicked will understand that heaven would be torment for them. God does the merciful thing after they have paid for all of their sins under the flesh; God will allow them to become ashes…to cease to exist forever and ever. This is a just and merciful sentence for the wicked.
Responding to God’s amazing plan and allow him to ransom us from the grave, and to save us from the second death means, we have to accept what he did for us at the cross and that opens the gates of hell (grave); and being baptized by His spirit and by his presence which prepares us to stand in his presence without being consumed. We just say, LORD help us to accept your sacrifice on our behalf and help us to be baptized with the fire of your presence so we can stand in your presence and not be consumed.
Important Points About These Events to Remember:
The reason why there is peace for a thousand years upon the Earth is not because there is peace among the nations. There is silence on the Earth for 1,000 years because the nations of the righteous are in heaven with Jesus; the nations of the wicked are dead on the Earth – they are in hell, no knowledge, no reasoning, no understanding. The only ones alive on the earth is Satan and his angels; they are ‘bound’ in a ‘bottomless pit’ situation as the bible says. For a thousand years Satan can’t tempt the wicked because they are dead, in hell (grave). Again, the dead have no knowledge nor do they have understanding.
The saints review of God’s judgment upon the wicked are completed during the thousand-year reign in heaven. The saints praise God for he is just, the angels have witnessed the true motives of the one who at one time lived among them…Satan (Lucifer). God’s character has been vindicated before all of His created beings. Peace in heaven and earth about to be re-established. There will be an entire study on this.
At this time, the entire host of heaven returns to earth with Jesus, and he brings the City of God (the New Jerusalem) with him. Jesus will execute the judgment upon the wicked. Once the fire has done its work, He will make a new heaven and new earth, place the City of God upon the earth, and paradise has been restored. Once again there is peace.
It is only at the end of the 1,000 years when Jesus returns as stated above, that the wicked are resurrected to receive their judgment. It is at this time that Satan gathers the resurrected wicked to fight against God. To think that God can be overtaken and conquered is absolute absurd, sin has reached its pinnacle. Hellfire becomes a reality at this time; and those who were not found in the book of life, along with Satan and his angels were cast into the lake of fire and consumed.
Hellfire is Future
We know that hell is NOT burning now for it happens 1,000 years AFTER the resurrection/translation of the righteous. Also, it makes no sense to cast a burning place into the lake of fire. The ‘second death’ (resurrection of damnation) is the final act of the purging or annihilation of sin, death, and the grave (hell) forever. Hell will be on fire…the earth and all that is therein will be on fire and will pass away. Jesus will create a new heaven and new earth for the former has passed away. The New Jerusalem will be settled in the newly created earth and we will forever be with our Lord.
To clarify, the first death comes upon both the righteous and the wicked and there all kinds of ways to die…car accident, cancer, murder, there are so many ways. But, in the second death there is only one way that the wicked will die and it is through fire.
Again, hell is not burning now according to Revelation 20, and it will not be set on fire until the end of the 1,000 years. It is called hellfire for a reason and it is ‘good news”. When we say house fire what does that mean? It means the fire is burning down the house, just like a forest fire would burn down the forest.
So, what is hellfire? Hellfire is God. God is destroying death. The only reason that there is a hell is because Adam sinned in the beginning. God does not want a universe with hell. God does not want a universe of people dying. So, He is ultimately going to destroy death and hell, AND He doesn’t want you to be in it. God is love and he tries to find a way to redeem everybody, and desires that no one suffer hellfire. HOWEVER, there are some who don’t want Jesus; and as a result of that decision they will be destroyed at the same time God destroys the grave and the earth. There is no place in the New World for death and hell. God is seeking to destroy that entire system because sin will never rise again. And because sin will never rise again, there is no need for death and hell (grave).
The whole purpose of the Gospel is to try to redeem as many people from hell. God is telling us that everyone has to die the first death, with the exception of those who are alive at his second coming for they are changed ‘in a twinkling of an eye’. He is also telling us that He has a plan and can redeem us from that hell (grave), IF we simply accept what He did for us at the cross.