Does the description of hell in Revelation 20 threaten or refute annihilationism, the position that unsaved humans will not be tortured endlessly in hell but will eventually be vaporized? Recent thoughts on annihilationism have led me to think about this chapter of Revelation and the argument based on it that believers in eternal conscious torment use to support their conclusions.
The first verse from Revelation 20 to be mentioned here is below:
Revelation 20:10--"And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Four verses later the following is written:
Revelation 20:14-15--"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. 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."
Believers in eternal conscious torment sometimes reference Revelation 20 as if it refuted the whole of annihilationism. But even though the beast and false prophet are clearly said to suffer eternal conscious torment in Revelation 20:10, nowhere does the text say that OTHER unsaved humans (I say other humans although some believe that the beast and false prophet are not even human figures) will receive the same fate. It does not say that they will be tormented forever. As described frequently elsewhere in the Bible (Matthew 10:28, Romans 6:23, Ezekiel 18:4, John 3:16, Psalm 37:20, etc), they are ultimately destined for destruction, a total cessation of existence in any form. The fallacy of composition is committed by those who assume that because the beast and the false prophet will be tormented "day and night forever and ever", all unsaved humans will be tormented endlessly also; what is true of the part is not necessarily true of the whole.
If the beast and false prophet are indeed evil humans and not malevolent spiritual entities, as premillennialists believe, then why are they tormented forever while other humans are not? To answer, first let me compare their destiny to that of Satan and his demonic cohorts. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus twice states that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, with Jesus mentioning in Matthew 18:8 that hell is "eternal fire" (though it does not in any way follow that humans--at least other than the beast and false prophet--will suffer consciously forever [1]). Hell was not even intended for humans to begin with! It seems that Satan and his demons will indeed suffer eternally, yet the Bible teaches the opposite about unsaved humans (with the possible exception of the two besides Satan mentioned in Revelation 20:10). See the link at the bottom of this post if you need to see proof that the Bible teaches that ultimately destruction, not eternal conscious torment, awaits wicked men and women. The reason that Satan and demons will/might be tormented endlessly could involve one of two factors or both: 1) they are ontologically different beings than humans are and are not said to be made in God's image as humans are (Genesis 1:26-27), and 2) their rebellion against God was entirely due to their own pride whereas humans sinned after being tempted by Satan. Now, if Satan and his demons will be tormented forever because of one or either of these two facts, then perhaps the beast and false prophet can be placed in a category like theirs, or, if the two are spiritual and not human beings as some suggest, they could be in the same categories as Satan and his demons anyway.
If this seems too complex or complicated an answer to explain the two (possibly human) exceptions to the annihilation of wicked humans, remember that other passages in the Bible undeniably say that the wicked will be vaporized. For instance, 2 Peter 2:6 says that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and burned them into ashes, adding that God will do the same to the wicked. Are Sodom and Gomorrah still on fire? Hell no (couldn't resist)! Verses like this prove that unsaved humans will indeed be annihilated and not tormented perpetually, so I am not assuming annihilationism and then manipulating Revelation 20 to conform to that position; I can prove that the Bible says the wicked will be annihilated (again, if the beast and false prophet are humans they are the only two human exceptions mentioned) and thus I am not twisting Revelation 20:10-15 in a way that contradicts that truth.
So, does Revelation 20 teach that unsaved humans will be tormented day and night endlessly? At most, this chapter says this about Satan and his two assistants called the beast and the false prophet, who may not even be fully human entities. Nothing is said about how the people judged before God's throne and the book of life in verses 11-15 will suffer eternal conscious torment--this is because the Bible elsewhere says that their fate is destruction, permanent death of the soul (Ezekiel 18:4, Matthew 10:28), and to become ashes (2 Peter 2:6). They will perish (John 3:16), not be tortured forever. Revelation 20 does not contradict or threaten this doctrine that is explicitly taught elsewhere in the Bible.
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