This is part 2 of my Actual Good News series of articles on the topic of biblical soteriology (the study of salvation).
Please note that I’m including many of my scriptural references in the links (which are are the underlined words throughout the article), and they also link to studies with extended details that I couldn’t fit into the article, so please be sure to click all the supporting links in order to get the full picture, as well as all the Scripture references.
As most people are aware, Jesus spoke about a place called hell (at least He’s recorded as having done so in the King James Bible, which is the translation of Scripture we’re using in this Actual Good News series for the reasons explained on the introductory page), but just as it is when it comes to the topic of the various different Gospels we learned about in part 1 of this series (and be sure to read that article if you aren’t aware of the fact that there are multiple sets of Gospels in the Bible), most Christians are unaware of many scriptural facts regarding the various “hells” as well (yes, there are multiple different “hells” referred to in the KJV), not to mention about death and heaven too, which you’ll discover as you read the rest of this series. Most Christians assume that anyone who doesn’t “get saved” before they die or before Jesus returns will be punished for their sins by ending up being tormented without end in an inescapable torture chamber called hell (which most believe is also a reference to a place called the lake of fire), and perhaps the most commonly quoted verses in the Bible used in order to prove the popular doctrine of never-ending torment in hell are these two parallel passages:
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. — Matthew 18:8–9
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. — Mark 9:43–48
There are a couple factors here that almost nobody ever considers when reading these two passages, however. First of all, there’s nothing in the text which tells us anyone will actually remain in the hell fire Jesus warned about in those passages. Yes, they say that the fire is “everlasting” in less literal Bible translations such as the KJV, but they don’t say that the time spent in said hell fire will be never-ending, and insisting that these two passages mean any humans will be trapped in said fire without the possibility of ever leaving it requires one to read their doctrinal presuppositions about never-ending punishment into the text (it’s also important to keep in mind that the words “everlasting” and “eternal” are generally — if not always — figurative terms in these less literal Bible translations which use the words, and that they rarely, if ever, actually mean “never-ending,” as I’ll demonstrate in Part 3 of this series, although as I already hinted at in part 1, anyone who has read the whole Bible and was paying careful attention while doing so should already be well aware of this fact, since it’s actually made extremely obvious in many passages throughout the Bible versions that commonly use these words).
That’s not all, though. Jesus also didn’t say that anyone would even be conscious or suffering while in this hell fire. Of course, the fact that He didn’t say anyone would be conscious or suffering doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be. It simply means we can’t determine these things based on these two passages alone, since they just don’t say one way or the other, but we can look to other passages in Scripture to find out. And this is where the passage in Mark comes in handy, because it gives us the key to finding the answer to this question (the mention of the “undying” worm and unquenchable fire gives it away). You see, these warnings by Jesus were actually referencing a prophecy in Isaiah 66:23-24, which said: “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
Few people who read this prophecy ever seem to notice it, but there’s a word in there which tells us that Jesus wasn’t talking about ghosts (for lack of a better term) who are suffering consciously in an ethereal afterlife realm, that word being “carcases” — meaning corpses, or physical dead bodies — which are being looked upon with abhorrence (meaning contempt or aversion) by all flesh (meaning any living human, since ghosts wouldn’t have flesh, so this can’t take place in some sort of afterlife realm) that sees them either being consumed by worms or by fire on a physical planet in the future.
I should probably also quickly point out that verse 22 of Isaiah 66 tells us this prophecy actually takes place on the New Earth after the Great White Throne Judgement rather than on our current planet, but Jesus’ references to this passage in connection with people still living on this earth at the time the judgement He was referring to takes place also tells us this prophecy has a double fulfillment of sorts, or really that it needs to be interpreted with the “Mountain Peaks” of prophecy in mind, which refers to a method of interpreting certain prophecies where there can be prophetic “valleys,” meaning events taking place “within” a specific prophecy, but which were not explicitly mentioned within said prophecy and which the prophet himself is not necessarily even aware of, yet which are later revealed to us in other prophecies, with these prophetic “valleys” being situated between the prophetic “mountain peaks,” meaning the events that the prophet actually did foresee and foretell within said prophecy.
For example, while Jesus’ earthly ministry and reign as King of Israel was foreseen and foretold in various prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, the church called the body of Christ and the current dispensation of the grace of God were entirely unknown to the prophets recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (meaning the books of the Bible that are generally referred to as “the Old Testament”). From their perspective, all they could see was one unbroken ministry of a Messiah coming to save and lead Israel during one unbroken period of time on earth, because they couldn’t see the “valley of the church” hidden between the “mountain peaks” of Jesus’ first and second time on earth, with those “mountain peaks” even seeming like one “mountain” to them from their “vantage point.” And this can even happen within a single sentence in a prophecy, as demonstrated in Luke 4:14–21 where Jesus stopped reading Isaiah 61:1–2 before the end of the sentence in verse 2 of Isaiah’s prophecy, because the part of that prophecy about “the day of vengeance of our God” hadn’t begun at that time yet, since that part won’t begin until the Tribulation, shortly before His Second Coming. So with all that in mind, it’s important to always consider whether a prophecy might have multiple fulfillments, or even a prophetic “valley” between portions of it, when trying to interpret any prophecy in the Bible.
Now, I have heard it claimed that, while the majority of the passage in Isaiah 66 actually is referring to what happens on earth, the passage all of a sudden begins talking about an afterlife state of souls when we get to the part about the worm and the fire (or, perhaps, that the worm and fire part of the prophecy have a double-fulfillment, both on a physical planet and in an afterlife realm), and that this means whoever ends up in this particular “hell” will be dead, but will then continue on as a conscious soul in an afterlife realm to be tormented by “fire” of some sort (however that’s supposed to work without matter to combust), and by a “worm” (whether referring literally to an actual spiritual being that will somehow gnaw on their soul, or perhaps referring figuratively to simply being tormented by guilty memories of past sins, as I’ve heard it asserted by some who want to pick and choose for themselves which parts of this prophecy are literal and which parts are figurative rather than interpret the whole passage consistently) in another “hell” one enters in the afterlife. But since there’s absolutely nothing in the text that could have possibly led anyone reading it at the time it was written to interpret it as meaning it isn’t simply physical carcases being consumed by actual fire and worms (especially since there hadn’t been anything written in the Hebrew Scriptures that outright spoke of a conscious afterlife punishment), this is clearly an assumption they’ve read into the passage based on a pre-existing doctrinal bias, and so to insist that this is what the passage definitely has to mean without first considering everything else I’ll be covering in this series would be pure eisegesis.
But what was Jesus warning us about, then? Well, He wasn’t warning us about anything, because He wasn’t talking to us to begin with (unless, again, you happen to be Jewish). As we already learned from Part 1 of this series, His death for our sins, burial, and resurrection on the third day aside, Jesus’ earthly ministry and messages were technically to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not to Gentiles (and please go read it if you haven’t already, because understanding the contents of that article is a requirement for understanding pretty much any of the Bible). But even if we’re keeping that truth in mind, we still have to ask what Jesus was warning about in those passages, and the answer is that He was warning His Jewish audience about the possibility of missing out on enjoying something figuratively referred to in the less-literal Bible translations as “everlasting life” for a thousand years in Israel, pointing out that they might instead end up as a corpse in a valley outside Jerusalem, known as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (often referred to today as “Gehenna,” based on the Greek translation — γέεννα/“gheh’-en-nah” — of this location in Israel), to be burned up and/or devoured by worms in rather than being buried under the ground as all Israelites would prefer to be the way they’re interred (although, because Israel largely didn’t accept Jesus as their Messiah and as the Son of God, the kingdom coming fully into effect at that time has been delayed, so His warnings are now more applicable to the generation of Israelites who will be alive at the time of the Tribulation, with it turning out that Jesus’ audience was more at risk of ending up in “hell” after the Great White Throne Judgement instead — presuming this “hell” and the lake of fire are the same thing, of course — but nobody Jesus spoke to could have known their type of salvation would be put on hold prior to Paul revealing it was being removed from them, at least until the final Gentile enters the body of Christ, at which point the prophecies about Israel’s salvation will begin coming into effect again, and, in fact, will finally be completely fulfilled).
I should also say, I’ve heard it suggested that “unquenchable fire” is actually always used figuratively in the Hebrew Scriptures as a symbol of destruction referring to a form of national judgement (but even if it isn’t always used that way, it’s definitely sometimes used that way, such as in 2 Kings 22:17; 2 Chronicles 34:25; and Isaiah 1:31, to name just three of many such examples — and just as a quick but relevant aside, it’s also important to know that something being said to “not be quenched” in Scripture doesn’t mean it never stops “burning,” whether it’s a literal or a figurative “burning,” but just means that it won’t stop “burning” until the appointed time, as those passages I just referenced in the supporting links should make obvious). This interpretation would seem to include the 587 BC fall of Jerusalem, if it is indeed the case that the fire which is not quenched is referring to a national judgement (you will have to look that one up for yourself, if you aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to there and are curious, since I don’t have the time to go into detail on it here), but it likely then would have also found a second fulfillment in AD 70, at least as far as Jesus’ warnings using the term go, considering the fact that the whole city of Jerusalem was burned, and the corpses in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom outside the city apparently ended up incinerated in that fire or consumed by worms in the valley at that time as well, or so I’ve been told by certain people at least. And if that is the case, it could theoretically mean that Jesus’ warnings about “hell” might not even be relevant to anyone alive today. That said, the lake of fire after the Great White Throne Judgement would still be something to be concerned about in that case, of course, even if this is what Jesus meant in His warnings, and also presuming there isn’t yet another fulfillment for certain people after the Tribulation ends as far as that warning goes (which is what would have to be the case if any of this was fulfilled in AD 70, as some people claim it was, because anyone who has studied history can see that the prophecies related to the Day of the Lord were not all fulfilled around AD 70, the way some Christians claim they were, considering the fact that the nation of Israel is not currently ruling the world from the land of Israel as Scripture says they will after the Tribulation ends, especially since we now know from what we learned in Part 1 that the body of Christ is not “spiritual Israel”).
Either way, though, it’s important to remember that Jesus wasn’t speaking English, so when He gave these warnings, His listeners didn’t hear the English word “hell” come out of His mouth when He spoke the words recorded in those verses we began with. Instead, they literally just heard Him say “the Valley of Hinnom” in their own language, specifically the Greek word γέεννα, as already mentioned (which itself is a translation of the Hebrew phrase גֵיא בֶן־הִנֹּם/“gah’-ee bane hin-nome’” — literally meaning “the Valley of the Son of Hinnom” in English — or, more precisely, a transliteration of גֵיא־הִנֹּם/“gah’-ee hin-nome’” — literally meaning “the Valley of Hinnom” in English — which is what the name of that location in Israel seems to have been shortened to by the time Jesus walked the earth; and even if Jesus was speaking Aramaic rather than Hebrew or Greek, they still would have simply heard Him say “the Valley of Hinnom” in that language, based on how the Greek Scriptures, meaning the books of the Bible that are generally referred to today as “the New Testament,” rendered it, at least in the original Koine Greek), and they would have — or at least should have — known this is referring to an actual location on earth that Jeremiah said would be a place of future judgement, and those who understood Scripture would have realized that Jesus was connecting the warning of judgement in the book of Jeremiah to the warning about corpses in the book of Isaiah, letting them know where Isaiah’s prophecy would take place (at least prior to the creation of the New Earth).
This is why the English word “hell” is one of those False Friends I mentioned in Part 1 (which, as I explained there, is a term that is sometimes used to refer to English words we still use today, but which can now mean something very different — in ways that the average reader is unlikely to be aware of — from what they could mean when our English Bibles were first translated), because the word originally had no inherent meaning of “inescapable torture chamber” whatsoever, even though that’s how it’s come to be used by most people today. Instead, the noun basically just meant “hole” or “pit” when used literally, or “a place where something is hidden, covered, or unseen” when used figuratively, with the verb form of the word referring to covering or hiding something (for example, to “hell a body” would mean to bury a body underground, and “helling a house” would refer to covering, or thatching, a house).
That’s not to say the English word “hell” is a bad translation in the KJV and other less literal Bible versions which use it. In fact, it’s actually a perfectly fine translation, so long as someone studying the Bible realizes that it’s strictly a figurative translation when it’s used in these particular Bible versions. For example, the Greek word γέεννα (again, literally just meaning “the Valley of Hinnom”) is translated figuratively as “hell” in these Bible versions at least partly because a valley is a long depression, meaning an elongated “hole” in the ground, so “hell” is being used in these verses as a form of synecdoche (which is a figure of speech where a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole), since this “hell” only refers to the first half of the Greek word (the “hole,” or “valley,” half of γέεννα), with the second half (the “of Hinnom” half of γέεννα) simply being implied by the term (this is similar to the way someone might just say “the Leafs” as synecdoche for “the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club,” because it’s often much faster to use just one or two words in place of something’s full name). So technically, when someone says “hell” in reference to this particular biblical location, they’re really just referring to “the hell/hole/valley of Hinnom” in Israel in a shortened, synecdochical manner, even if they themselves might not actually realize that’s what they’re doing, since they might not be aware of the facts we just covered.
Now, some people will try to disagree with what I just wrote, claiming that some Jews refer to the Valley of Hinnom (or “Gehenna”) in a figurative manner to speak of a realm in which people will be tormented consciously after they die, so as to support their argument that Jesus was using the word γέεννα as a warning about what those who don’t get saved before they die will experience while dead, but there are a couple problems with Christians using this argument, especially to support the doctrine of never-ending torment (problems which exist on top of the fact that most Jews who do use the term “Gehenna” this way don’t believe anyone will remain in said “location” or “state” permanently, which means that for a Christian to argue for a very specific Jewish usage of the term — while ignoring the actual usage of the term when it’s used this way by the people who do use it this way — is really to redefine the term to fit their own preconceived ideas, which means they have no actual basis for using it to defend their position to begin with). First, whether or not the Valley of Hinnom really was sometimes used figuratively to refer to a negative afterlife realm back during Jesus’ time on earth (and I’m not familiar with any proof that it actually was used in this manner at that particular time — and I did look for proof prior to writing this), there’s nothing in the Hebrew Scriptures to indicate it should be used that way, so to claim Jesus meant it that way wouldn’t be an argument based on what Scripture actually says so much as it would be an argument based on extrabiblical Jewish mythology, which isn’t something anyone should be basing their theology on, nor does it seem like something that the One who corrected people for teaching unbiblical theological concepts as truth by saying things like “have ye not read…?” and “it is written…” would do. And secondly, we already know that the only humans who end up spending time in this particular “hell” will be carcases, which means it has to be referring to that actual valley in Israel, so it really wouldn’t matter if some Jews in Jesus’ time were ignoring the Hebrew Scriptures and referring to the valley figuratively in that manner anyway, because this fact tells us that Jesus wouldn’t have meant it that way at all.
Everyone Jesus spoke to desperately wanted to enjoy living in Israel when the kingdom of heaven finally begins there, and the idea that Jesus’ audience members might be dead during that thousand-year time period, or that they might even have ended up weeping and gnashing their (quite physical) teeth because they’d been forced to live in figuratively “darker” parts of the world instead, if the kingdom had fully begun on earth while they were still alive, would have been a grave threat for them indeed (in addition to everything we learned in Part 1, the fact that Jesus said many will be coming from the east and the west to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven also confirms that the kingdom of heaven will be on earth, after those patriarchs have been resurrected from the dead, rather than in an afterlife realm called “heaven,” as does the fact that one could “enter into the kingdom of God with one eye,” as Jesus stated, so the “outer darkness” will obviously have to be on earth too). And the “outer darkness” can’t be referring to hell, at least not the hell we’re discussing now, because that particular hell will be within the borders of the kingdom of heaven since it will be in a valley inside Israel (at least, based on everything we’ve covered, we have no scriptural basis for assuming otherwise at this point, especially since that’s what the Greek word that the English word “hell” in these passages is translated from literally means), so it makes sense that being cast into the outer darkness would simply refer to being exiled from Israel, if one happens to be alive at that time, and missing out on getting to live in the kingdom of heaven during those thousand years. However, for those who are somehow still skeptical, if Jesus was trying to get all of the above across, I’d like you to tell me what He would have needed to have said differently in order to convince you of this.
Before moving on, though, I also need to ask, if we’re to believe that encountering a fiery judgement means being tortured, or even just punished, without end, why did Jesus then wrap up this warning by saying that “every one shall be salted with fire,” and why do so many of the references to fiery judgements throughout the Hebrew Scriptures refer to fire purifying Israel and making things right, and never to any Israelites being tortured without end in said fire, as well? (And the odd passage that could theoretically be interpreted as referencing individuals being burned up don’t say they’ll be suffering, but rather that there won’t be any part of them left after the fiery judgement is complete, also contradicting the most popular doctrine of salvation.)
But still, if this “hell” is a reference to the lake of fire, as most Christians believe it to be, wouldn’t that mean the people who end up in it will have to be suffering in it without end, contrary to what Isaiah wrote? I mean, the Bible says that unrighteous sinners will be tortured consciously in the lake of fire, and that none of them can ever leave that location, doesn’t it? Well, let’s take a look at what the Bible says about the lake of fire to determine whether that’s actually the case or not:
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 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. — Revelation 20:7–10
This is the one-and-only passage in the Bible which suggests that anyone will suffer without end in a location specifically referred to by name as the lake of fire (I know, there are other passages you’re assuming are referring to suffering in the lake of fire without end, but none of those passages actually use that name in them, and as you’ll learn from further articles in this series, are actually referring to something else entirely), and I trust you noticed that it’s only the devil, the beast, and the false prophet who are said to be tormented there “for ever and ever.” No other humans (in fact, no humans at all) are said to be suffering that fate in this passage. Yes, Revelation 20:15 does say “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” too, but you’ll notice that it doesn’t say how long any of these people will remain in it for, or even that they’ll be alive while they’re in it (much less that they’ll be suffering), and to insist that the humans who are said to be cast into it in that verse will not surely die, as mortal humans normally would when set on fire, but that they’ll somehow remain alive, even though there’s nothing in the text which even implies this will happen, is the epitome of eisegesis (remember, this takes place after they’ve been resurrected from the dead for the Great White Throne Judgement, meaning they’ll be existing in the same kind of biological bodies they had before they died when they’re judged and cast into the lake of fire; they won’t be resurrected with immortal bodies at that time, because immortality for humans is always connected with salvation in Scripture, so they’ll die a second time when they’re cast into the lake of fire, just as any other mortal human would today when set on fire). This also means that “the beast” and “the false prophet” in this passage can’t be references to humans, since the beings who will go by those titles will be cast alive into the lake of fire, which means the lake of fire is going to exist here on earth, not in another dimension that ghosts exist in, and there’s nothing anywhere in the Bible to indicate that any humans who might go by these titles will be immortal (which they couldn’t be anyway since, again, immortality for humans is always connected with salvation in Scripture), so the reference to “the beast” and “the false prophet” who are being tormented in the lake of fire pretty much have to be talking about spirits who possessed certain humans rather than talking about the actual humans who will also go by those titles (presuming “the beast” and “the false prophet” who deceive the world during the Tribulation aren’t simply spiritual beings the whole time, and that no humans will actually go by those titles at all). Simply put, presuming there are humans who will go by those titles, they’ll be cast alive into the lake of fire, at which point they’ll die and burn up, leaving behind only the evil spirits who empowered them during the Tribulation, to be bound to the lake of fire for a very long time (similar to the way other spirits are currently bound in another version of “hell” translated from the Greek ταρταρόω/“tar-tar-o’-o” rather than from γέεννα, and which is sometimes instead transliterated as Tartarus, depending on your Bible version — and we know this is indeed another version of “hell” because Jude said they’re chained up “under darkness” rather than in the valley under the sun in Israel which the “hell” sometimes known as Gehenna currently is). And if they’re simply spiritual beings the whole time, with no possessed humans involved, then they themselves will be cast alive into the lake of fire and remain bound to that location for a very long time (presumably along with the other spiritual beings who are currently bound in the “hell” known as Tartarus, who will likely also be judged at the Great White Throne as well, if not at the same time the beast and false prophet are cast into that location).
This also means that if the warnings by Jesus about the “hell” sometimes known as Gehenna were a reference to the future location of the lake of fire (which I actually agree that those passages were indeed referring to), since Isaiah told us that only dead bodies would be spending time in there (at least as far as its human inhabitants go), we can say with quite some certainty that no humans in the lake of fire will be alive or suffering in there, at least not for any longer than it takes for someone to die after being set on fire (and this would fit perfectly with what we know anyway; the lake of fire is called the second death for a reason — if the “second death” could somehow be interpreted as being a reference to some form of never-ending torture, with one’s supposed “spiritual death,” whatever that means, actually being a prior “death” to this one, it should actually be called the “third death,” because everybody who ends up there will have also died physically at some point prior to experiencing this fate, and if one’s “first death” is actually a reference to their biological death prior to being physically resurrected for the Great White Throne Judgement, the second death would just be more of the same as the first death, which is biological death — which tells us there’s no good reason at all to interpret the “second death” as referring to being tortured in fire, but rather that it should simply be interpreted as meaning to literally die a second time in said fire).
As for why I personally believe that the lake of fire will be located in the Valley of Hinnom in Israel (at least during the thousand-year period of time that the kingdom of heaven exists in Israel), there are a couple reasons. The first is because I’ve noticed that the passage almost immediately prior to the reference in Isaiah to the “undying” worms and unquenchable fire is a statement that implies this will take place at least partly on the New Earth, as I already mentioned (although we do have to keep the “Mountain Peaks” of prophecy in mind here as well, as I also already mentioned, since we know that Jesus’ warnings were about the period of time when the kingdom of heaven will exist in Israel on our current planet, even if Isaiah himself may not have been aware of that fact), and it seems unlikely that there would be two places for burning corpses on the New Earth (a place called the Valley of Hinnom and a place called the lake of fire) after the Great White Throne Judgement takes place. And similarly, we know that “the beast” and “the false prophet” will be cast into the lake of fire at the end of the Tribulation, 1,000 years before the New Earth is created, and the similar point that it seems unlikely there would be two places for burning corpses in the kingdom of heaven when it’s located in Israel on our current planet would apply here too, and so it does make sense that the valley in Israel referred to as “hell” in the KJV will indeed be the future location of the lake of fire, at least prior to this planet’s destruction and the creation of the New Earth.
Before moving on, though, I should also point out, in addition to the fact that we have no basis for believing any humans will be conscious or suffering in the “hell” (again, simply meaning “hole,” or valley, in this case) that the lake of fire will be located in, or even for believing they’ll never be resurrected from their second death to go live on the New Earth at some point (which is also not a reference to an afterlife state, since nobody going to live on the New Earth will die a second time the way those cast into the lake of fire will, but is just a reference to a whole new planet to replace ours after our current planet is destroyed), there’s good reason to believe that not every human judged at the Great White Throne will even end up in the lake of fire to begin with. This idea might sound odd to some Christians, but John’s statement about those whose names aren’t written in the book of life ending up in the lake of fire would seem to be entirely unnecessary if there weren’t going to also be some people judged at that time whose names are written in the book of life, especially if the judgement itself were going to prove that they deserved to end up in the lake of fire, as most Christians assume will happen. And remember, this judgement isn’t about whether one has “gotten saved” or not. Instead, John tells us that the judgement people will face at the Great White Throne is going to be solely about their works (this also means that they’ll be judged based on whether their evil acts “outweighed” their good deeds rather than whether their actions were sinful or not, since not only are “evil” and “sin” two entirely different things — unless you believe that animals can sin — but also because all sin was taken care of some 2,000 years ago by Christ), saying in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Of course, most Christians will claim that “the unbelieving” being the second category of people who are said to end up there proves that anyone who doesn’t “get saved” before they die will end up in the lake of fire, but since John said this judgement is based on works, if “the unbelieving” referred to those who didn’t “get saved,” it would also mean that believing is a work, which I doubt most Christians agree is the case. The fact that “the unbelieving” is the second category rather than the first — in a list of different categories of people who end up there — also tells us just how unlikely it is that John was simply referring to those who didn’t choose to “get saved” before they die, since if everyone who fails to “get saved” is guaranteed to end up in the lake of fire, the rest of the list would seem to be entirely unnecessary to begin with (although it’s true that, while those in the body of Christ can’t lose their salvation — since Paul told us that anyone God calls for this type of salvation will be glorified — those Israelites who are given the sort of salvation that Jesus and His disciples preached about while He walked the earth do seem to be able to lose their type of salvation, so perhaps the rest of the list technically applies strictly to them, but either way, “the unbelieving” can’t simply refer to those who didn’t get saved prior to their death, because otherwise it wouldn’t even need to be included on the list to begin with, since it would go without saying based on the fact that they were being judged at the Great White Throne in the first place).
The fact that he also says “all liars” will end up in the lake of fire, when every single human who has made it to the age where they can communicate has lied at some point in their life, also makes the rest of the list entirely superfluous, I should add, if it means that everyone who has ever told a lie will end up in the lake of fire, as most Christians claim (it stands to reason that this simply refers to those who make a lifestyle out of habitual lying, such as politicians and religious teachers, for example, since otherwise the rest of the list just wouldn’t have been necessary at all). Anyway, at least as far as Gentiles go, Jesus Himself seemed to imply that certain non-Israelites will be resurrected for this judgement yet not end up condemned themselves, but rather will condemn certain Israelites who missed out on the resurrection of the just (and they won’t have been saved the way the body of Christ or the Israel of God are, or else they would have been resurrected much earlier and missed this particular judgement altogether). And so, I would suggest that it’s probably only the worst of the worst who will end up in the lake of fire, with everyone else, likely including most of your loved ones, continuing on to live on the New Earth, even if not in immortal bodies (at least to begin with).
But don’t worry, this interpretation isn’t teaching salvation by works for those who might get to avoid the lake of fire after being judged at the Great White Throne, because those who would avoid the lake of fire at this judgement wouldn’t actually get saved at that time, since A) they missed out on the type of salvation which involved enjoying “eternal life” in Israel during the thousand years that the kingdom of heaven existed on our planet prior to this judgement, and B) they aren’t going to be quickened (meaning made immortal) when they go live on the New Earth — at least not right away — so this isn’t the sort of salvation which Paul taught isn’t by works either, because that particular salvation is all about being made immortal. All that being said, even if everyone who gets judged at the Great White Throne does end up in the lake of fire, we already know that it’s only the spiritual beings known as the devil, the beast, and the false prophet who are said to remain in the lake of fire “for ever and ever,” or who are said to be tormented in it, so there’s no reason to believe that any human whose name isn’t written in the book of life will be alive or suffering in the lake of fire, or even that they can’t ever eventually be resurrected from their second death the way they were from their first death, and then go on to live on the New Earth (whether in an immortal body or otherwise).
Please click here for Part 3 of this series.