If you are like me, you have spent 20 years as a Christian being told, believing, and not being entirely happy about the fact that our God burns the lost forever in hell. My soul was never in peace knowing that for eternity whilst I lived in happiness, for every second, one after the other, anyone who didn’t accept Christ would be burning in molten lava, in endless pain and suffering.

This doctrine, and the realisation that the bible does not say the lost burn forever, turned me into a ruthless literalist. The truly breathtaking fact is, that most pastors and leaders peddle this forever burning nonsense purely because their denomination teaches it, they are steeped in religion, or they don’t want to go against the masses and appear to be a fundamentalist. It has nothing to do with correct biblical doctrine. In their hands are verses and scripture that absolutely teaches the lost do not burn forever.

Our enemy has, for hundreds of years been very hard at work turning our God into a sadist, and he has done a very good job of it. He has manipulated, lied too, and taught almost all Christians to blindly believe that God would actually burn the lost forever, and it breaks my heart. How many of the lost have heard this rubbish and thought to themselves, why would I believe in a God who does such a thing. I experienced this phenomenon firsthand when witnessing to a young man. He had built up a level of Anger towards God that made him question salvation and God’s love, in his mind how could a loving God do such a thing to old ladies who’s only crimes in their whole life were minor infractions against God’s word.

Let us state what the bible teaches on this topic,

• Only the saved receive eternal life, the lost do not live eternally.
• The saved and lost, each when they die wait in sleep till they are raised to heaven or to judgement and hell. (There will be a separate article on this topic)
• The lost, are destroyed in hell. They burn to their destruction each for a period relative to their punishment from their judgement.

Eternal Life

I think it is amazing that the most common bible verse settles this instantly, we are starring at it probably dozens of times a year.

John 3:16 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.

This verse confirms two things, only the saved are eternal, and the lost “Perish”

Let’s look at the Greek word used for perish “g622”, and its uses in the bible in other verses,

• destroy
• to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to ruin
• render useless
• to kill
• to declare that one must be put to death
• to perish, to be lost, ruined, destroyed
• to destroy
• to lose

Sorry reader, no room here for living eternally in hell, there are many verses that declare that the lost are not eternal, here are a few examples,

• 1 John 5:15 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
• 1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
• John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
• John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
• John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
• Romans 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
• 1 Corinthians 15:53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Let us ask ourselves a question, If God wants to tell us the lost are not eternal, what words other then these does he need to use to send us this message. Seriously, anyone who reads these verses and understands them, and attempts to hold the position that the lost are eternal are being disingenuous.

Destruction in Hell

The bible is clear, not only are the lost not eternal, they are completely destroyed in Hell. Here is a list of verses that demonstrate the lost are truly destroyed and do not live forever,

• Psalms 37:10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
• Psalms 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
• Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
• Malachi 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
• Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

One after the other, verse after verse, the bible is clear. The lost are destroyed with unquenchable fire. I mention this word specifically as many have attempted to use this word to mean the fire never burns out. This leads us to a few verses that require explanation for this doctrine. Note that when we have so many verses that tell us the lost are not eternal and are destroyed, we must open our eyes a little to see what the bible is teaching us in these following verses, to build a doctrine around these verses against dozens that completely contradict them would be….. silly.

• Luke 3:17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
• Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
• Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

On first glance here one reads that this unquenchable fire never stops burning, however one simple verse clears this up for us,

• Jude 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Clearly, Sodom and Gomorrah is not currently burning. There are other verses that also state eternal fire is not fire that burns forever, this is not a complicated concept to understand when these verses are used together to build a strong doctrine. The bible is simply saying two things,

1. Unquenchable fire is fire that will destroy, it cannot be put out till it burns and destroys what it is burning.
2. Eternal fire is fire that has eternal consequences.

There is one verse that requires us to goto the Greek to not misinterpret the bible,

• 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.

In this case we have a verse where the writers used the English word “ever”. I am not one to place one of the most important doctrines of the bible on one word, so lets challenge the writers here and see what the Greek word “g165” can mean in the bible,

• For ever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity
• The worlds, universe
• Period of time, age

So, all that is needed here is to select the interpretation above that fits with every other verse in the bible, no contradiction. This process when thought through becomes so simple I must ask, why would anyone given all the verses above, want to ignore this available interpretation of Revelation 20:10?

Philosophical Contradictions

We must from time to time, factor in philosophical or logical contradictions when building a solid biblical doctrine. Forever burning contradicts more than you would think! This topic deserves an entire page in its own right, for now take the time to watch the following video showing a number of problems with the concept of the lost burning forever.

Conclusion

This is an absolute, the lost do not burn forever. they are all destroyed in hell. Yes they all burn for different periods relative to their punishment from judgement. I am of the opinion the devil and his angels burn for a longer time than lost humans, but this is just an opinion. Lastly, and on top of all the above verses, the bible settles the matter conclusively,

• Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away

Reader, if the lost are burning forever, that verse would be a lie.