The Smoke Of Their Torment

The philosophically and Biblically coherent, liberating doctrine of annihilationism is one of the most important in the entire Bible.  If endless torment was the near-inevitable outcome for the vast majority of people to ever live, it would have been better for almost everyone if they were never born.  Even very popular Bible verses like John 3:16 and Romans 6:23 very overtly teach two things: that fallen humans, with one possible set of exceptions to be addressed below, will not live forever apart from divine redemption, and that the alternate to Christ's eternal life is to die, to perish, as one deserves.  There is one human group that might be the only one to experience eternal conscious torment closer to what many Christians assume all the unsaved are to face.  Revelation 13:14-17 summarizes how a false prophet has an image of a ruler called the beast set up, imbued with the power to kill his enemies, and forces everyone from all social classes to receive a mark on the forehead or right hand, without which they are excluded from all economic transactions.  In reference to those who accept this mark, the text of Revelation 14:9-11 says the following:

"A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of Gods fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.  He will be tormented with burning sulfur 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 for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.'"

This is very similar to what Revelation 20:10 later says awaits the devil, the beast (the recipients of whose mark are in view in Revelation 14:9-11), and the false prophet who championed him.  Revelation 20 says of all three that "They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."  In addition to the numerous, blatant references to unsaved souls ending in pivotal verses like Ezekiel 18:4 and Matthew 10:28, though Revelation 20 specifically refrains from mentioning endless agony when it says the unrighteous/unsaved dead were thrown into the lake of fire only a few verses after addressing the devil's fate.  Speaking of the final judgment, Revelation 20:11-15 only says that the dead are judged in accordance with their deeds, that they are sent to hell (the lake of fire), and that the lake of fire is the second death.  The punishment of Satan and that of collective, fallen humanity are not described interchangeably in Revelation whatsoever.

Concerning the particular people who take the mark of the beast, nowhere does Revelation 14 actually say that the torment itself lasts forever.  It is "the smoke of their torment" that rises forever, according to the actual wording, similar to how the Old Testament describes smoke as being spewed forth from devastated cities even after the structures and their human inhabitants are gone.  As for the comment about there being no rest, those who take the mark of the beast might receive no rest and eventually cease to exist as conscious beings, something that is still totally consistent with the English wording of verse 11.  They would not rest because they would no longer exist in order to rest, and prior to this, they would not have relief.  However, as I have repeatedly affirmed before, even if this subcategory of people are kept in eternal conscious torment, the Bible has already clarified over and over before Revelation that general humanity will face ultimate death and an end to their existence, forgoing redemption, eternal life, and all contemplation and pleasure forever.

The mark of the beast is of course associated with the beast of Revelation 13, the same beast Revelation 20:10 says will suffer without end alongside the devil himself, although it is affirmed in Ezekiel 28 and 2 Thessalonians 2 that even demonic beings will ultimately be killed in hell.  In other words, those who took the mark would have declared their direct allegiance for a spiritual entity that is beyond ordinary people.  It is beings like Satan and other wicked angels that hell was created for according to Jesus in Matthew 25:41.  If Revelation 14:9-11 refers to this specific group of people being punished with everlasting existence in pain along with the demonic entities they pledged themselves to, then the rest of humanity does not receive the same fate, as the rest of the Bible makes clear.  If those with the mark of the beast also die the second death after perhaps limited torment, then the doctrine of annihilationism is still what the Bible plainly teaches.  Either way, most people are not to face eternal conscious torment one way or another according to the Bible.