We look at “eternal fire” as used in three verses of the Messianic Writings, as well as the concept of eternal punishment, which Christianity has long embraced. But has this concept been properly interpreted?
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A LOOK AT ETERNAL FIRE
Christianity has done a number on many of us as concerns our collective view of certain prophetic elements. One of the great misconceptions stemming from Christian interpretation is the view of supposed eternal punishment, specifically by way of what has been translated “eternal fire.” We’ll dive right into one oft-used example. Yeshua, only recently having left the temple, foretold of its impending destruction. After this, he sat on the mount of Olives, but that kind of talk prompted the disciples to approach him privately to inquire about the timing of such destruction, as well as broader last-day events. Yeshua thereafter spends two chapters of Matthew presenting a series of prophecies and prophetic parables that illustrated the things they (and people after their time) were to look for.
When we reach down toward the end of Matthew 25, Yeshua, in verse 41, mentions “the eternal fire” that, as he put it, is specially prepared for the adversary, HaShatan, and his fallen messengers. But those who fail to do the Kingdom work required of the redeemed will also face this fire. Of them, Yeshua says:
46“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
—Matthew 25:46
Sounds conclusive on the face of it. I know. But there are other verses, such as the one in Revelation that refers to worshippers of the beast:
11And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever….
—Revelation 14:11
Jude verse 7 says that Sodom, Gomorrah, and surrounding cities were punished with “eternal fire.” Likewise, twin verses in Matthew 18:8 and Mark 9:43 sees Yeshua instructing believers to figuratively cut off offensive limbs to avoid “eternal” or, as Mark terms it, “unquenchable fire.” These and other like verses bear close examination, because they are to act as a window into how Yah operates. Any misinterpretation will paint a false image of the Most High and his Son. To get at the correct meaning behind these verses, we have to look at associated Scripture passages. The term “eternal fire,” in the Greek written pyr aiōnion—word G4442 and G166, respectively—appears in only three verses of the Messianic Writings: Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41, and Jude 7, all of which we already cited. From the first two verses, the most we can gather is that the wicked, as well as the adversary, HaShatan, and his messengers, will be thrown into “the eternal fire.” This correlates to the lake of fire, given the language in Revelation 20:10.
10and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur….
—Revelation 20:10
One verse earlier, Revelation 20:9, we are told where this fire comes from: down from heaven. And it isn’t a burning hell, as some believe, since that is also thrown into the lake of fire in verse 14. Hell is merely the grave, as we pointed out in Churchianity Part 32. The third of the “eternal fire” verses, Jude 7, tells us a bit more: it mentions famous cities from Abraham and Lot’s time, which were destroyed by the same fire. Yet we don’t see those cities burning today. In fact, those cities are nowhere to be found. This gives us a clue as to how “eternal fire” works. Unlike normal fires we witness today, even the most devasting ones which leave car frames and building shells burned out, “eternal fire” completely consumes till nothing remains.
New research from a few years ago shows that a Middle Bronze Age civilization along the north side of the Dead Sea was wiped out by what scientists claim is a meteor event, in their attempt to diminish the power of Yah. In any case, the findings of these researchers reveal something interesting about an area now known as Tall el-Hammam they believe once held Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities mentioned in Jude 7:
“Samples from the site show that an extremely hot, explosive event leveled an area of almost 200 square miles including the Middle Ghor—a circular plain to the north of the Dead Sea. ‘... not only wiping out 100 percent of the Middle Bronze Age cities and towns, but also stripping agricultural soils from once-fertile fields,’ reads the abstract from the conference presentation.”
The fact that Sodom and Gomorrah are not burning today—and all that remains of those cities is a barren plain—speaks to the immense destructive power of “eternal fire.” A good illustration of this is found in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 34, Yah promises a series of judgments on the nations, but of one nation in particular he says:
9And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch. 10Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.
—Isaiah 34:9 – 10
“From generation to generation”—or age to age—Yah promises, the land of Edom “shall lie waste.” The term for “shall lie waste” is here written ta·cha·rāḇ in Hebrew, having its root in word H2717, charab. The word carries the senses be laid waste, be in ruins, depopulated, and desert. This is exactly what the area known as Tall el-Hammam looks like. As to the “forever” aspect of this verse, two words are used to represent forever: olam, word H5769, and natsach, word H5331. Depending on its intended context, olam can mean an ancient time, a long period of unknown duration, a person’s lifetime, or, according to sense 2, it can also expand to actual eternity. Natsach, on the other hand, is primarily used to denote eternity. Both words are employed in Isaiah 34:10, olam with reference to smoke going up forever, and natsach with respect to no one being able to pass through Edom forever and ever.
The laying “waste” factor of Edom, referring to the ultimate state to which it was to be reduced, tells us that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not meant to burn forever and ever. Rather, the condition of smoke rising eternally and fire not being quenched speaks to the irreversible judgment and condition of the nation. The fate of Edom, like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, will never be reversed. There will be no rebuilding or reestablishment of said nations, ever. They simply cease to exist. This is what “eternal fire” produces: complete annihilation.
To perfectly illustrate what I’m saying here, the prophet Obadiah confirms the series of judgments pronounced against the nations and Edom recorded in Isaiah 34. But Obadiah speaks it plainly, stating:
15For the day of Yah is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 16For as you have drunk on my pure mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been.
—Obadiah 1:15 – 16
This is the very blotting out that Psalm 9 prophetically refers to, where King David writes:
5You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. 6The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.
—Psalm 9:5 – 6
Despite this and many other related verses, however, some will use passages like one found in Isaiah 66, which describes the fate of the rebellious. There we read:
24“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
—Isaiah 66:24
A careful reading of Scripture places this particular verse during the millennium, which comes on the heels of a final war that sees the nations fighting against Yeshua at his Second Coming and being destroyed as seen in Zechariah 14. This, in other words, is not an eternal circumstance. The redeemed will not look on the dead bodies of the rebellious for all eternity, for Yah has promised that the former things will pass away. And while the wicked will cease to exist entirely, disproving eternal punishment in a perpetual place of burning and torment, sin too will cease to exist. This might be unclear to some when reading certain translations of Mark 3. Yeshua, in touching on the consequence of blasphemy, says:
29“but whoever blasphemes against the Set Apart Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”
—Mark 3:29
This is a proper translation of the Greek manuscript, as the word used in Greek refers to sin, or an evil deed. But let’s be clear: no one will be sinning for eternity. In essence, “eternal sin” can be seen as someone choosing to live a life of sin with no repentance and refusing the indwelling of the Ruach even unto death. And, following the second resurrection, those who still choose to cling to sin after the white throne judgment will forever suffer the consequence of sin, that being eternal death, which, according to Revelation 20:14, is the lake of fire. To put it plainly, being thrown into the lake of fire will cause these rebellious souls to be as though they had never been, and they will be counted among the former things that pass away, as mentioned in Revelation 21:4, and the former things that will not be remembered, nor come to mind, as mentioned in Isaiah 65:17.
That said, we have to be careful with Greek translations of certain concepts found in the Messianic Writings, because Greek thought reframes Hebraic thought dramatically in some instances. As we stated in the same Churchianity podcast, part 32, the concept of hell, dubbed hades in Greek, has been completely mythologized. In Hebrew culture, the wicked are not punished eternally. Rather, their ultimate fate is irreversible, hence the eternally rising smoke and unquenchable fire language employed in prophetic passages at times. In fact, Yah uses the unquenchable fire language when discussing his own beloved people, as demonstrated in this metaphor found in the book of Amos.
6Seek Yah and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel.
—Amos 5:6
A similar verse is found in the book of Jeremiah, which employs the same metaphor:
12O house of David! Thus says Yah: “Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.”
—Jeremiah 21:12
Here we learn the purpose of the unquenchable fire: it is a means of Yah’s wrath, which is doled out on those committed to evil deeds. We saw in Revelation 20 that the fire that forms the lake of fire comes down from heaven, but specifically, it comes from the Elohim, which is a fiery family, as explained in the book of Deuteronomy:
24For Yah your Elohim is a consuming fire, a jealous Elohim.
—Deuteronomy 4:24
The word “consuming” here denotes a devouring nature, like eating something till it is gone, or a fire reducing something to ashes. And that concept leads us directly into Malachi 4, where the prophet states:
1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says Yah of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch…. 3And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says Yah of hosts.
—Malachi 4:1, 3
Yah himself being a consuming fire is illustrated in the book of Micah:
2Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let Yah Elohim be a witness against you, Yah from his pure temple. 3For behold, Yah is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire….
—Micah 1:2 – 4
That the wicked are destroyed by the fire of Yah is unmistakable. There are many passages in the Hebrew text that indicate complete annihilation, not least another verse in Psalms, where David writes:
10In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
—Psalm 37:10
Consequently, the very fire that will issue from Yah and consume the wicked—HaShatan among them—is the very same fire that will engulf the world. The emissary Peter gives us a view into this future event:
10But the day of Yah will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavens will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of set apartness and reverence to Elohim, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of Elohim, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavens will melt as they burn!
—2 Peter 3:10 – 12
This means that even the righteous will stand in this consuming fire, just as gold and silver are refined in the fires of the furnace. This is the way of Yah. His intent is to use fire, be it of affliction or judgment—and even “eternal fire”—to burn off dross and reveal purified silver and gold. In the case of “eternal fire,” it will consume the wicked like dross, for that is what they are. They will be treated like the rebellious among Yah’s own people.
27“I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways. 28They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly. 29The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. 30Rejected silver they are called, for Yah has rejected them.”
—Jeremiah 6:27 – 30
So, the lake of fire can be seen as the very fire spoken of by Peter, which he says will burn up and dissolve the heavens, including earth and everything in it. This is part of the renewing of the heavens and earth spoken of in Revelation 21:1 and Isaiah 65:17. In other words, the redeemed too will be engulfed in these flames and not consumed, not unlike the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace of Babylon. The prophet Isaiah explains how this is possible:
13Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 14The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the unrighteous: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” 15He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.
—Isaiah 33:13 – 15
All who come through this fiery immersion will be eternal precious metals and gems in Yah’s unending and renewed Creation, while those who do not survive it will be blotted from existence, never to be thought of again.
Keywords: scripture-study, eternal fire, the eternal fire, eternal punishment, pyr aionion, lake of fire, final judgment, smoke of torment, eternal death, mark 9 43, matthew 18 8, matthew 25 41, revelation 20 10
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