Copyright © 2026 Michael A. Brown
In the Old Testament, the realm of
the dead was often called ‘the pit’ (cf. Job 17:16; 33:18,24,28,30; Ps. 28:1,
30:3,9; 55:23, 69:15, 88:4; Prov. 1:12; Isa. 14:15,19; 38:17-18; Ezek. 26:20,
28:8, 31:14,16; 32:24,29-30). This pit was
seen as the place of the eternal punishment of wicked and unrepentant Jews and
the unclean Gentiles. It came to be known
as ‘Gehenna.’ The expectation of eternal
rest was only for righteous Jews and believing Gentiles.
Gehenna originally took its name from the
Valley of Hinnom (or of Ben Hinnom, cf. Josh. 15:8, 18:16; Neh. 11:30). This valley lay to the south and south-west
of Jerusalem, and the Valley Gate led out to it. It was the place where idolatrous and human
sacrifices through fire were made to the false god Molech in pre-exilic times
(2 Ki. 16:3, 23:10). Because of this
association, it was considered to be an impure place, and so it was also called
the ‘valley of topheth.’ ‘Topheth’ means
‘fireplace,’ but it also seems to be associated with the concepts of spittle
and shame, so suggesting that this place was utterly despised. It was the garbage dump of Jerusalem, and so
fires constantly burned there. The
bodies of those deemed to have died in sin without any hope of salvation (such
as criminals) were thrown there to be destroyed.
This valley therefore came to represent
the eternal pit of unquenchable fire and everlasting punishment for unrepentant
sinners. So Gehenna is the parallel in
eternity of this valley outside Jerusalem.
It is an actual location outside heaven which effectively serves as
eternity’s garbage dump, and in which there is an utter absence of the presence
and favour of God:
‘Outside
[the heavenly city] are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practises
falsehood.’ (Rev.
22:15)
‘…their
worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched…’ (Isa. 66:24)
‘I
kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into
the blazing fire.’
(Dan. 7:11)
The Jewish literature of the
intertestamental period developed this teaching regarding eternal fire, for both
the intermediate and eternal states. In
summary, the angels which sinned in Genesis 6:1-4 were condemned to the fires
of Tartarus (the deepest part of Hades) to await their final judgement. The pit was a fiery furnace which would be
the eternal abode of the devil and his angels, together with impenitent, wicked
and ungodly human beings. It was seen as
a place of eternal punishment in which people would be conscious and in pain,
tormented and tortured, lamenting and weeping.
It was described in various ways: as a furnace of fire, a burning flame,
a place of darkness and gloom; blazing flames worse than fire, an abyss of
fire, a pit of torture and torment, and as a prison with dungeons (see 1 Enoch
10:6,13; 27:2, 90:24-26; 91:9; 98:3; 100:9; 102:1; 103:8; 108:3-6; 2 Enoch
ch.10; 4 Ezra 7:36,38,66-67; Test. Gad 7:5; Test. Zeb. 10:3).
In the New Testament, both Jesus and the
apostles affirmed this truth of the fiery furnace / lake of fire as being the
final and eternal abode of the wicked and impenitent. However, the Pharisees must have got the
shock of their life when Jesus told them that they themselves would probably
end up there. They were closing heaven’s
door upon themselves through their religious hypocrisy (Matt. 23:33-34). There could be no self-righteous expectation
of eternal rest simply on the basis of Jewish ethnicity or belief. Jesus extended this warning to everyone: live
a righteous life in the fear of God, so that you do not run the risk of ending
up in Gehenna (Matt. 10:28, Mark 7:42-49).
Gehenna was initially prepared as the ultimate eternal destiny of Satan and the fallen angels that rebelled with him against God (and also of the watcher angels who sinned in Genesis 6:1-4 and were chained up in Tartarus). It is ‘the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ (Matt. 25:41). Demons are well aware of this future torment that awaits them and they fear it. There is one recorded instance of them begging Jesus not to send them to their fate in the Abyss before the appointed time (Matt. 8:29, Luke 8:28-31).
However, it will also be the eternal destiny
of everyone who does not know Jesus as their Redeemer, simply because they live
their life under the dominion of Satan and they love darkness rather than light
(John 3:19-20, Col. 1:13). So those
who do not know Jesus will go to the same location in eternity that sin and
Satan their master go to: the fiery furnace. Everyone outside Christ, everyone who does
not possess God’s salvation that comes through Jesus, will end up in Gehenna
and will suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude tells us that the inhabitants of ancient
Sodom and Gomorrah serve as examples of this:
‘As
the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the
age. The Son of Man will send out his
angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and
all who do evil. They will throw them
into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt. 13:40-42)
‘This
is how it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’ (Matt.
13:49-50)
‘Then
he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” Then they will go away to eternal
punishment…’
(Matt. 25:41,46)
‘Sodom
and Gomorrah… serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal
fire.’ (Jude v.7)
‘…but
only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume
the enemies of God.’
(Heb. 10:27)
‘Outside
[the heavenly city] are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practises
falsehood.’ (Rev.
22:15)
When God warned the couple in the garden
of Eden, he told them that on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit they
would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Their
separation from the life of God after they ate of it and were thrown out of
Eden, was their entrance into a state of spiritual death. In consequence, this led ultimately to their
physical death many years later. This is
‘the first death,’ and all human beings born into this world are subject to it.
The word of God calls the eternal judgment
of an unbeliever in the lake of fire ‘the second death’:
‘The
lake of fire is the second death. If
anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the
lake of fire.’
(Rev. 20:14-15)
‘But
the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral,
those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will
be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur.
This is the second death.’
(Rev. 21:8)
This judgement of eternal separation from
God in the lake of fire, ‘the second death,’ is therefore the ultimate
consequence of disobeying God and partaking of the forbidden fruit. This second death consists of the destruction
of both body and soul in the lake of fire:
‘Rather
be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.’ (Matt. 10:28)
The word of God teaches that those
who end up in Gehenna will be conscious there. They will not be destroyed completely or
annihilated, as some commentators think.
They will be consciously aware of why they are in Gehenna; they will
know that they deserve to be there, and they will be unable to repent from the
sins that caused them to be condemned at the final judgement. They will be aware of the finality of God’s
verdict upon them, and they will know that they are unable to ever leave or
escape from that place. There is
no indication in the word of God that those who are thrown into the lake of
fire will ever come out of it. They
will therefore suffer the torment and despair of this finality, with no rest
day or night, and they will weep and gnash their teeth with pangs of regret:
‘He
will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and
of the Lamb. And the smoke of their
torment rises for ever and ever. There
is no rest day or night…’
(Rev. 14:10-11)
‘They
will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.’
(Matt. 13:42)
‘…and
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’ (Matt.
13:50)
‘Let
him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be
vile…’ (Rev.
22:11)
Those who are thrown into Gehenna will
perish and be destroyed (Matt. 10:28: 2 Peter 3:7,9), and some commentators
believe that this means that they will therefore be annihilated and simply cease
to exist. However, W.E. Vine advises us
that the Greek words apollumi and apoleia which are used in these
verses and which mean ‘to destroy utterly’ and ‘utter destruction,’ refer not
to extinction, but to ruin and loss, not of being but of well-being. So the idea is that of the utter ruination of
a person’s body and soul, and it implies that people who are in this state of
utter ruination will still be conscious.
Because the essence of our being is spirit (and this being the breath of
God), we cannot be annihilated, because spirit is eternal in its very nature.
Belief in
the extinction of the sinful human soul in eternity, a false doctrine known as
annihilationism, inevitably leads to the softening up of other areas of
belief. Not only do we start to go easy on sin, we in fact embolden
it. We weaken the urgency for evangelism. We empty the judgement
and wrath of God of any real meaning and significance, and in consequence we therefore
lose the fear of God, and we disempower the redemptive need for the cross of
Christ. We end up with a wishy-washy subjective concept of the love of
God which tolerates all kinds of things which are contrary to the will of God,
because the ultimate sanction and consequence for sin have been removed.
Why should people repent from sin, if there is no ultimate sanction for it and,
instead, they are simply annihilated in eternity and cease to exist?!
If they are to be annihilated in eternity, then there really is no need
to fear Gehenna at all, there would be no need for it to be an eternal fire,
and any element of punishment in being thrown there is effectively removed (cf.
Matt. 10:28, 25:41; Jude v.7).
The use
of the participle form ὑπέχουσαι (literally meaning 'are undergoing') in Jude
v.7 to describe the eternal state of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, is
striking. It implies that they are still even now – and therefore
consciously – suffering the penalty and punishment of eternal fire:
‘…are set forth as an example, suffering the
punishment of eternal fire.’ (Jude v.7
ASV)
The
fact that those who are in Gehenna will be conscious is confirmed also by the
following words of Isaiah:
‘And
they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against
me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be
loathsome to all mankind.’
(Isa. 66:24)
The context of these words is clearly the
new creation, and they are therefore referring to the eternal state of
unbelievers. This was confirmed by Jesus
when he linked them to those who would be thrown into Gehenna:
‘It
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two
eyes and be thrown into hell [gehenna], where “their worm does not die, and the
fire is not quenched.” Everyone will be
salted with fire.’
(Mark 9:47-49)
The judgement of God and eternal separation from him, together with the
ongoing consciousness of the human soul in this eternal state, are taught
consistently through the Scriptures, not the extinction of annihilation.
The fact
of sinful human souls remaining conscious in eternal punishment in the lake of
fire is not meant to horrify us, although it certainly does do that, but to
instil the fear of God in us and bring us to him in repentance, seeking his
mercy and deliverance from sin (Matt. 10:28). The punishment of eternal
fire is an expression and consequence of the wrath of God towards unrepentant
sin. However, God demonstrated his love for us in that he sent his Son,
Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for our sins, thus enabling us to come to
him and find mercy, forgiveness and freedom from sin. So there is no need at all for anyone to end
up in Gehenna in eternity. If they
believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they will be saved eternally; they
will not be subject to the second death:
‘He
who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.’ (Rev. 2:11)
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