Question #8
About Eternal Torment
An article titled "Thirty Questions for Teachers of Eternal Torment"
seemed to call for my response. So, I will take that list of questions and respond
to each one as time permits me to give it my attention.
When you quote Jesus’
words that ‘the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark
9) in reference to hell, do you also make clear that Jesus was quoting Isaiah
66:24, where in that passage the fire and worms feed on dead bodies and not
immortal souls for all eternity?
Answer: I do explain that it is a figure of speech in Isaiah 66:24, and perhaps
a picture that only vaguely captures the horror more fully revealed by Jesus
in Luke 16:19ff. The worm does die after a while of eating on literal dead corpses,
and the fire is quenched if we are dealing only with where dead bodies lie in
piles for burning. But the figure of speech means that their disgusting condition
will not stop, like a corpse with maggots, except the putrid and disgusting
nature of the defeated people will not cease. Like a pile of defeated bodies
of defeated warriors are piled and burned, but soon burn up and are forgotten,
except in this case the defeated are never able to cease burning. In other words
their defeat and shame and dishonor are never over. The smoke of their torment
ascends forever and ever (Rev.14:11).
Albert Barnes makes note:
Isaiah 66:24
The image in his mind is evidently that of a vast army slain, and left to putrefy
on the field unburied, and where fires would be kindled in part to consume the
heaps of the slain, and in part to save the air from pestilential influences,
All the enemies of God and his church would be like such a vast host strewed
on the plains, and the perpetuity of his kingdom would be finally established.
(from Barnes' Notes)
Isaiah 66:24
It is perfectly obvious, that the thing itself, as here described, must appear
monstrous and inconceivable, however we may suppose it to be realized. The prophet,
by the very mode of description adopted by him, precludes the possibility of
our conceiving of the thing here set forth as realized in any material form
in this present state. He is speaking of the future state, but in figures drawn
from the present world.
(from Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament)
Do I believe there will be literal worms or maggots? No! Do I believe there
will be literal corpses with maggots? No! But the visual picture is deplorable,
and that is the point. It will be a deplorable condition that eats at the very
soul and spirit of the lost. In a sense, the rich man, we see in Luke 16, was
being gnawed upon in conscience like never finished maggots gnawing on a dead
corpse. The fire was not quenched was a figure of speech, but yet there was
something literal that he called a tormenting "flame", something beyond
our experience in the flesh, but perceived from our experience into the description
provided by Jesus. So, the figure uses something familiar, fire, to help us
visualize the thing we don't fully understand, a realm where the putrid worm
is never finished and the fire is not quenched.
The use of Isaiah 66:24 may be a type-antitype usage. The ongoing shame of the
wicked was like a defeated army whose horrible corpses were maggot eaten and
being burned which typified the eternal ruin and ongoing disgusting condition
of those who labored on the side of God's enemies. The rich man may show us
the antitype of that defeated and disgusting ruin, a man in torment looking
at lost opportunity, gnawed by miserable regret and concern for the souls of
his brothers, not wanting others to share such torment in the flames of an eternal
fire.
Matthew 18:8,9
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.
The eternal fire is the fire into which the rich man was cast. He was not annihilated,
but tormented, and his torment was not the exception to the rule, but the rule
of all who neglect so great salvation (Heb.2:1-4). There is a "worse punishment"
than physically being executed.
Heb 10:28-31
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of
two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will
he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the
blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted
the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I
will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people."
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
NKJV
[Into hell fire] It is implied, in all this, that if their sins, however dear
to them, were not abandoned, the soul must go into everlasting fire. This is
conclusive proof that the sufferings of the wicked will be eternal. See the
notes at Mark 9:44 Mark 9:46 Mark 9:48.
(from Barnes' Notes)
In summary, we can see the type, the figurative in Isaiah 66:24, and the fuller
revelation of that picture of ongoing dishonor described by Jesus as worse than
drowning, worse than physical death, worse than plucking out an eye and living
without it, or cutting off a hand and living without it. It is a condition of
ultimate defeat for the soldiers of Satan's army, a picture of ongoing putrid
stench, dishonor, and disgust, or as Jesus showed in the story of the rich man,
a place where one suffers torment in flames and regret with never any relief
in sight.
But, since our questioner has already indicated that "Gehenna" is
only the garbage dump outside Jerusalem, it seems fair to ask a few questions
back to him.
1. Will there be a huge pile of bodies placed in that garbage dump for worms
and fire to consume? If not, what is your point in all this?
2. If Isaiah 66:24 is a figure of speech, will the real thing be as bad as the
figure, not as bad as the figure, or possibly worse than the figure?
3. Does the story of the torment of the rich man help us clarify the figure
of speech used in Isaiah 66:24? If not, why not?
Terry W. Benton
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