Throughout this series I
have been arguing that the term “second death” should be taken in a literal way
meaning “to die a second time in such a way that the body and soul are both
completely destroyed” (see Matthew 10:28).
Conversely, I argue that we should take the phrase “They will be
tormented day and night forever and ever” to be a case of hyperbolic
symbolism.
One of the reasons that I
believe the reference to eternal torment is a hyperbolic metaphor for
terrifying judgment is that eternal torment taken literally would be
absurd. This is a normal way we identify
metaphors and hyperbole. It would be
absurd to think Jesus wants us to literally pluck out our eye (Matthew 5:29) or
that Jesus wants all Christians to literally hate their mom and dad (Luke
14:26). We easily identify such
statements as metaphors which use hyperbole.
We should also easily see that
the idea of our good, holy, just, loving, gracious God keeping people alive
forever for the purpose of continually torturing them without rest is absurd
and a case of metaphoric hyperbole.
Before I became convinced
of annihilationism, I believed in the traditional view of eternal conscious
torment. I would have replied to the
above argument by saying that even though eternal torment may feel wrong and
may even feel absurd, that as humans our feelings on such subjects are not
reliable. I would have argued that instead of using our feelings, we should
base our view on God’s Word. And I still believe that we should base our
view on God’s Word, and not on our feelings! But, what I have come to see is that in this
case God’s Word actually supports our feeling that eternal torment is absurd
and should be interpreted as hyperbole.
The Principle of Proportional Punishment Was Given to
Men by God
We have a deep feeling
that punishment should always be proportional to the crime. We may argue over exactly how to apply this
principle, but the basic principle is one we all agree on. In this case, our feeling lines up with a
principle which God gave to Israel:
But
if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life,
eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burn
for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
(Exod. 21:23-25 NIV)
This principle is repeated in other passages (see
Leviticus 24:19-20, Deuteronomy 19:21).
Jesus later taught that when we ourselves are injured we
should not seek “eye for eye” revenge, but should turn the other cheek (Matthew
5:38-39). Notice that there are many
cases where grace may allow for LESS than “an eye for an eye”, but there is
never a call for MORE than “an eye for an eye”.
God
Uses the Same Principle When Judging Us
Throughout the Bible, we see God using the principle of
proportional punishment to judge people.
When people sincerely repent, God graciously gives us less than
proportional punishment, but He never gives more.
This truth is expressed in many ways and with different
phrases such as “according to your conduct”, “repay”, and “avenge”. Here are some of the many passages where this
principle may be seen (hold your cursor over a verse to see it):
Deuteronomy 7:10, 32:35, 32:41
2 Samuel 3:39
1 Kings 2:44
Psalm 28:4, 94:23
Proverbs 24:12
Isaiah 59:18
Jeremiah 25:14, 50:29, 51:6, 51:24, 51:56
Ezekiel 7:3, 7:4, 7:8, 7:9, 7:27, 18:30, 24:14, 33:20,
36:19, 39:24
Hosea 4:9, 12:2, 12:14
Matthew 16:27
Romans 2:6, 12:19
2 Thessalonians 1:6-7
2 Timothy 4:14
Hebrews 10:30
All these verses teach that God’s punishment is
proportional to our sins. The purpose of providing a long list of verses is to
show that God shapes our minds through Scripture to think in terms of
proportional punishment. This concept
can also be seen by considering some of the phrases used throughout the Bible
(taken from the verses in the list above):
And it’s not just phrases and verses which teach this
concept. God’s just and proportional
punishment is seen in the story of Esther.
Remember how Haman sets up a large pole on which he plans to impale the
innocent Mordecai? By God’s providence the king has Haman himself impaled on
the very same pole (see Esther 7:10)!
Notice that the punishment, while severe, is also just and proportional
to the sin. Once the punishment is completed the king’s anger subsides. Should we believe the King of Kings will be
less just or that His anger will NEVER subside for all eternity (see Psalm
30:5)?
Proportional punishment is taught throughout
Scripture. In addition, God has given
even unbelievers a basic knowledge that our sins deserve
death.
In
Romans Paul Explains that All People (Should) Know Our Sins Deserve Death
Paul’s teaching on general revelation in Romans 1 is well
known. He explains that through
creation, all people should see God’s
greatness and this should lead them to worship Him. Paul also explains that all of us have a God
given conscience. Our conscious, while it
may be hardened, twisted, and confused, is not completely erased. This is why Paul writes:
Romans 1:32 Although they know God's
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but
also approve of those who practice them.
Paul is writing about all people, especially focusing on
unbelievers here. Unbelievers have a
basic, correct, God given knowledge of what their sins deserve. Their God given conscience does NOT tell them
they deserve to be tortured forever. It
tells them they deserve death. This is
not detailed, just as their understanding of God through creation is not
detailed. They may not (and probably do
not) realize that they will be resurrected, judged, and likely suffer
consciously preceding or during the process of dying a second time. But the fact that they do not know all the
details does not change the accuracy of their basic feeling that they deserve
death.
Just six verses later, Paul goes on to write:
Romans 2:5 But because
of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath
against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will
be revealed.
6 God "will
repay each person according to what they have done."
7 To those who by persistence in doing good
seek glory, honor and immortality, he
will give eternal life.
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who
reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
Notice that only
some people live forever. The others get what they deserve, which is
death. This same truth is emphasized
later in Romans (see Romans 6:23). ONLY
those who receive Jesus Christ receive the gift of eternal life. The others receive the wages of sin, which is
death.
The Theme of Proportional Punishment is Clearly Seen in
Revelation
This theme of
proportional punishment which is seen throughout the Bible is also prominent in
the book of Revelation itself. Below I
share four passages in Revelation which affirm and demonstrate the principle of
proportional punishment. After each
passage I have included one or more quotes from two widely used, evangelical,
theologically conservative commentaries on Revelation. The authors of these commentaries hold to
eternal conscious torment, so they have no ulterior motive to emphasize the
principle of proportional punishment.
#1: Revelation
11:18
Revelation 11:18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The
time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the
prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small-- and for
destroying those who destroy the earth."
Two of the most widely used evangelical commentaries on
Revelation both see this passage as affirming the principle of proportional
punishment:
God will destroy the oppressors because they are
those who destroy the earth (i.e.,
His people). The use of the same verb in describing both God’s judgment and the
oppression of the godless is to emphasize once again the OT principle of the
punishment fitting the crime. (Beale,
Revelation, a Shorter Commentary, 237, bold type emphasis is from Beale)
There is an appropriateness in God’s tailoring
the punishment to fit the crime. (Mounce, The
Book of Revelation, Revised, 227, commenting on Revelation 11:18)
#2 Revelation 16:4-7
(ESV)
Revelation 16:4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the
springs of water, and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel in charge of the
waters say, "Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought
these judgments.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and
prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they
deserve!"
7
And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just
are your judgments!"
In this passage, an angel turns waters into blood. The justice of this punishment is explained
in terms of proportional punishment.
Commenting on this passage, Beale writes:
Those who have oppressed
Israel will be dealt with in the manner that Israel has been treated, which
includes various forms of suffering up to and including death. This eye-for-eye punishment is indicated by
Isa 49:25, “I will contend with the one who contends with you.” Drinking blood is thus not a limited
reference to death, but to all kinds of suffering, including death. The precise reason people suffer under the
judgment of this bowl is that they have caused God’s people to suffer. (Beale,
334)
Mounce also sees this principle, and writes concerning
Revelation 16:6, “The punishment is tailored to fit the crime” (Mounce, 295).
#3 Revelation 18:6-7
ESV Revelation 18:6 Pay her back as she
herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double
portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7 As
she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of
torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, 'I sit as a queen, I am no
widow, and mourning I shall never see.'
Concerning Revelation 18:6-7 Mounce writes:
“With yet another triplet,
the judgment is expressed in terms of repayment in kind.” (Mounce, 328)
“John follows the
prophetic traditions – ‘Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she had done’
(Jer 50:29)” (Mounce,328).
“Rome is to receive misery
in exact proportion to the self-glorification and luxurious lifestyle she has
chosen” (Mounce, 328).
#4 Revelation 20:13-14
ESV Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead,
great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by
what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
13
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead
who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what
they had done.
14
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second
death, the lake of fire.
Here is an extended quote from Mounce on the above
passage:
The great white throne judgment is not
arbitrary but based on the evidence written by the life of every person. Books are opened, and the dead are judged on
the basis of what they have done as recorded therein. The teaching of judgment by works runs
throughout both the OT and the NT. Ps
62:12 gives expression to the commonly accepted principle that God requites a
person according to his work. In Jer
17:10 God says, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a
man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” The same
principle is taught in the NT. Paul writes that God “will give to each person
according to what he has done” ((Rom 2:6), and Peter reminds his readers that
God “judges each man’s work impartially” (1 Pet 1:17). (Mounce, 376)
The Traditional Counterarguments
I’m well aware of
the counterarguments some traditionalists will likely use to reply to the
massive evidence throughout the Bible that God’s punishment of sinners is
directly proportional to their sins.
They will claim that eternal torment actually is a just, proportional
punishment. This is so extremely
counterintuitive that additional explanations are needed. I am familiar with two such explanations
often given by traditionalists.
1. Traditionalist
sometimes claim that the unsaved will continue to sin in Hell, and since they
continue to sin for all of eternity they deserve punishment for all of
eternity.
On the surface,
this argument seems plausible. After
all, since the unsaved are never born again and never receive the Holy Spirit,
there is no reason to think they would stop sinning. However, there are several strong objections
to this argument.
First, the Bible doesn’t say anywhere that God
will judge people for sins they commit in Hell.
It is an idea people came up with to try to prop up a doctrine which
isn’t even true.
Second, there is no reason for God to allow the
unrighteous to continue to sin forever.
The reason God allows people to continue to sin temporarily in this age
is that God is being patient and giving people a chance to repent and be saved
(see 2 Peter 3:9). Since there will be
no opportunities to repent in Hell, why allow people to continue to sin there?
Third, the Bible very specifically says that we
will be judged “for things done while in the body”
(2 Corinthians 5:10). The whole
description of books being opened on judgment day and of a final judgment day
all support the truth that what people are judged for is what people do during their
lives on earth, not what they might do in
Hell.
2. Some traditionalists say that sins committed
against an infinite God deserve infinite punishment
Another attempt to justify the doctrine of
eternal conscious torment is to say that because God has infinite value, worth,
honor, and glory, any sin committed against Him deserves infinite
punishment. Of course, sinning against
God is VERY serious. And annihilation is
a VERY serious punishment. Missing out
on an eternity of pure joy, deep pleasure, amazing love, and rewards beyond our
ability to imagine is indeed a very heavy punishment. But nowhere does the Bible say that because
God is infinite those who sin against Him deserve infinite conscious
punishment. In fact, far from providing
reasons that the conscious portion of punishment might be greatly extended, the
Bible gives reasons why in some cases it will be significantly reduced . . .
Luke
12:48a But the one who does not know and does
things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.
Far from providing a rationale for tormenting people for
endless billions of years, our Lord actually provides a rationale for a
relatively light conscious punishment for those who were ignorant of God’s will
and sinned. I absolutely cannot fathom how this teaching of our Lord can be
reconciled with the concept of eternal conscious punishment. Are the “few blows” spread out over billions
of years? Even one blow every billion years would add up to a million blows
after the first quadrillion years, and there would still be many more to
come! And do we really think that a
fifteen year old who grew up at a time and place where there was no gospel
witness and no teaching of God’s true Word and was surrounded by the worst
examples of fallen human nature and was herself the victim of many cruelties
and injustices and who died young deserves to be punished with eternal
conscious punishment? Aren’t a “few blows” for those sins which even her young
and darkened conscience warned against followed by irreversible, eternal,
extinction enough? The words of our
Lord are just!
Here’s
something else to consider before we reach our conclusion:
“I will repay”: Eternal Torment Results in a Mathematical
Absurdity
Praise God, for those of us who are saved He
does not “treat us as our sins deserve or repay us
according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). But repayment according to iniquities is
precisely what awaits the unbeliever:
ESV Hebrews 10:30a For
we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay."
A careful study of the
Greek word translated “repay” above shows that it means “repay”.
This is important because
God promises that He will repay. Now, if
a bank loaned you $100,000 to improve your home and after twenty years you had paid
them back $1, would they be satisfied?
Yet, if the doctrine of
eternal conscious torment is correct, then after 100 billion years of being
tormented in Hell, the unrighteous will have paid far less than 1/1000th
of 1% of the penalty they apparently owe.
In fact, if this doctrine of eternal tormenting is true, God will NEVER
complete the repayment He promised to give to the wicked.
Conclusion
The phrases “second death” and “tormented day and night
forever and ever”, if they apply to the same people, cannot both be literally
(non-figuratively, non-metaphorically) true at the same time. Parts 1 through 4 of this series have given
various types of evidence which indicates we should interpret “second death”
literally and interpret “tormented day and night forever and ever”
metaphorically. This 5th part
has sought to add to that evidence by showing that the whole Bible teaches that
God’s punishment is proportional to our sins, that our God given conscience
knows that we deserve death, and that therefore literal eternal torment is
absurd. Just as we easily recognize the
command of Jesus to hate our mother and father as hyperbolic metaphor, we
should recognize that eternal torment, which is ONLY explicitly mentioned in
the highly symbolic visions of John recorded in Revelation, is also hyperbolic
metaphor.
While I find the type of evidence shared so far in the
first five parts of this series to be important and weighty, I have saved what
is, for me, the strongest evidence for the next post.
