The Hard Questions: Is God Going to Torture People Forever?

This post will probably anger traditional Christians, as most things do when it comes to theological bubbles bursting.

You hear it all the time, especially in the Catholic faith.

“Repent, or you’re going to hell when you die.”

“The wicked burn in hell forever.”

“If you don’t accept Jesus with this simple prayer, you’re going to hell when you die.”

“Are you sure you know where you’re going when you die?”

The problem is, there is no such thing as eternal torment for the wicked after death.

It’s not a biblical concept.

Shocker, right?

That thinking goes against traditional Christian thinking going back to the ancient church.

But it’s true.

The word translated hell in our Bibles should be translated either as Gehenna, or even the grave, or sometimes, the abode of the dead.

“But I—I say to you, that everyone who is angry at his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever may say to his brother, ‘Empty fellow!’ shall be in danger of the Sanhedrin, and whoever may say, ‘Rebel!’ shall be in danger of the Gehenna of the fire” (Matthew 5:22 [YLT]).

The question is, is the Gehenna flame still burning today?

The answer is no. That refuse dump where trash was burned, as well as the site of ancient child sacrifice due to rebellious Israelite kings, is not burning today.

Jesus used the Valley of Gehenna as a comparison to the eternal judgment at the End of Time.

But just because the result of the judgment is eternal, does not mean the wicked burn forever.

“Cords of Sheol have surrounded me; before me have been snares of death” (Psalm 18:5 [YLT]).

Many translations state, “Hell surrounds me.”

This is another verse where hell is described, but the literal translation is Sheol, which is the realm of the dead. The realm of the dead is for both the righteous and unrighteous, as their souls are held here on the “other side” of existence until the resurrection.

The church never believed in eternal torment after death until far later in the progression of the Christian message, and the Catholic Church often used this fearful idea for controlling the population.

The Bible teaches an age-enduring fire will destroy the wicked, but the flames don’t burn for all eternity.

In fact, if that were true, the New Heavens and New Earth would be plagued with unclean things such as the corpses of the wicked.

The Greek word aionios is used in ages-to-ages descriptions or of a long time, but not necessarily forever.

In Isaiah, we find this passage:

“‘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 [ESV]).

This is in the context of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, because it follows a description of all people keeping New Moons and Sabbaths in that kingdom. Yes, in Christ’s 1,000-year kingdom, we will keep the Sabbath and worship Him according to His Torah calendar.

If the Torah doesn’t matter today, why are we going to do these things for a thousand years?

That aside, notice the bodies are dead in the fire of judgment. They are not living eternally and being tormented. In fact, Jesus quotes this verse in Mark 9 referring to hell.

Something weird is going on with the way we translate these verses—to the detriment of the gospel of Christ, because if more atheists realized Yahweh is not a supernatural sadist who wants to burn people forever, they might want to follow Him.

There are a couple of instances where you can make the argument that some people will be tortured for all eternity (but even then, the word aionios is used twice, meaning it is age-enduring).

This is regarding the Antichrist, False Prophet, and Satan.

“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10 [ESV]).

This is descriptive of the Antichrist, False Prophet, and Satan himself, not all of humanity. Which leads me to speculate (and it is mere speculation, not fact) that these two End Times figures are more than just mere men and must be supernatural in origin.

When it comes to humanity, the Lake of Fire is called the “Second Death.” Meaning, when a human is thrown into this Lake of Fire, they cease to exist after burning away, matching Isaiah’s description and Jesus’s correctly translated terms in the New Testament.

Remember, the New Testament must agree with the Old Testament, and there can’t be a change in these things—otherwise, how could we trust what the Bible has to say in the first place?

When it comes to humans, we don’t go to hell when we die if we’re wicked, and we don’t go to the highest heaven either if we’re righteous. We are held on the other side of existence in the abode of the righteous dead for those found in the God of All Creation, and in a holding place for the wicked for others, but all souls go to this abode called Sheol.

These conditions seem to show our rest has a form of consciousness to it after death. And even Jesus admitted ghosts exist when the disciples think He is one when He walked on the water.

There is a form of afterlife, but we’re not given enough information to truly know.

But the clincher is this from Revelation:

“Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 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. 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. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15 [ESV]).

If hell is a place where you go to be tormented forever, why is it thrown into the Lake of Fire, which is the actual term for what people consider hell? And why are these people from the Second Resurrection killed once more, forever, only after the last kingdom of Christ?

They die twice because they were not found worthy to enter the final, eternal state.

So, if the Lake of Fire is after that kingdom, how can we say anyone is tormented after they die in our current age? This event is at least 1,000 years in our future!

To close, let us consider what the wages of sin are according to the Bible.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 [ESV]).

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 [ESV]).

The contrast of eternal life with death should ring some bells. Death is the opposite of eternal life.

If people were to remain consciously alive for eternity in hell, they would have eternal life in a twisted way.

Let’s stick to what the Bible says on these matters, not fanciful accounts from fear-based preaching from a time when a church would throw you into an iron maiden for being opposed to them.

May God grant you eternal life in the world to come, and may your memory always be blessed.

Shalom!