Many people have questions about hell and the final destruction of those who do not go to heaven. Some of the things that have been taught on this subject by religious leaders down through history have given some very distorted concepts of God, making Him seem like an evil, sadistic tyrant who enjoys making people suffer, roasting them in a fire forever because of some things they did in their short lifetime on earth. Many people have rejected God completely, preferring to believe in no God at all, because they cannot bring themselves to believe in that kind of God. I agree wholeheartedly! That kind of God should not exist.
So what does God do with those He does not save? If they aren’t suffering eternal torture, what happens to them?
Consider the following verses that speak of final destinies, and keep in mind that God’s ultimate plan is to rid the universe of everything that is not good and righteous. Sin and evil are like a terrible, killer disease and He cannot afford to risk having this whole problem start again.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Revelation 2:11
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Revelation 20:6
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and 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. Revelation 21:8
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Revelation 19:20
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 forever and ever. Revelation 20:10
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14, 15
These verses speak of the second death and final destruction, and the implication is that it is a terrible thing. It must be more than merely dying. It somehow involves a realization of God’s vengeance and retribution on evil, of torment and punishment. It is the final, ultimate, eternal destruction in the lake of fire of everything and everybody that God cannot save, anything that is a threat to the righteousness of the universe. The verses in Revelation give us a list of who and what is destroyed: the beast, the false prophet, the devil, death, hell, and those who are not listed in the book of life.
What can we learn from the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament, there is a concept taught in the judgments that were meted out for certain sins. The death penalty was pronounced on sinners for various things such as breaking the Ten Commandments, and it is quite self-evident as to the reasons for this: to punish past and current sins and hopefully deter others from future sin.
There is another punishment that is specified for certain other sins and it may help us understand something about the second death. Many times in the Laws of Moses, a person was said to be “cut off” for certain sins. Most of these sins had to do with infractions involving ceremonial rituals or issues of purification, etc. But what was actually involved in being “cut off”? It seems to have been equivalent to what we would think of today as excommunication. When someone was “cut off from among his people,” it was as though he did not exist any more – he and all his family and descendants were cut off from all ties with the covenant people, his name was removed from the register of Jewish families. They lost all rights to the privileges of being in covenant with God, probably including property rights. There was no association, no forgiveness, no blessing; they were forsaken by God and all the people. They were “outlaws.” The ramifications of this are described to some extent in the following verses and give us a picture of what it meant to a Jew to be “cut off.”
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Psalm 34:16
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37:9
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Psalm 37:10
For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. Psalm 37:22
God shall likewise destroy thee forever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. Psalm 52:5
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off. Psalm 94:23
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Psalm 109:13
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. Proverbs 2:22
Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? . . . Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. Jeremiah 44:7, 8, 11
And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 14:8
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. Ezekiel 28:18, 19
It is important to notice that a person who was “cut off” was not subjected to continual torture or other forms of punishment for whatever their sin may have been. Instead, they were officially disconnected from the commonwealth of Israel. This has significant implications in our understanding of eternal rewards – hell, the second death, etc. Any death prior to the “second death” is only temporary and may have occurred in a way that the person “didn’t even know what hit them.” But this second death is final and it happens with a full realization of their sin and its consequences, involving mental as well as physical suffering, as the person thinks about the fact that their life of rebellion and sin will now result in eternal rejection and separation from the great, loving God who created them and would have pardoned and saved them if they had only accepted Him and what He offered. They are cut off and forsaken by God. Since they are disconnected from the only source of life in the universe, they cease to exist.
This is the kind of suffering that Jesus experienced when He died as a substitute to take away sin and guilt from those who believe in Him and want to be right with God.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Isaiah 53:8
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: . . . Daniel 9:26
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46
For an Israelite, to be “cut off” was a terrible, heart-wrenching, hopeless sentence of judgment. For the unsaved sinner, the experience of the second death will be similar but much worse.
Those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression – “the wages of sin.” They suffer punishment varying in duration and intensity, “according to their works,” but finally ending in the second death. Since it is impossible for God, consistently with His justice and mercy, to save the sinner in his sins, He deprives him of the existence which his transgressions have forfeited and of which he has proved himself unworthy. Says an inspired writer: “Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” And another declares: “They shall be as though they had not been.” Psalm 37:10; Obadiah 16. Covered with infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion. The Great Controversy, p. 544