Eternal Torment? or Ultimate Reconciliation?

I firmly believe that the Holy Scripture is the inerrant Word of Almighty God, word by word inspired and perfect in its original languages. However, raised as I was in traditional (orthodox Presbyterian, Baptist, Free Methodist, and Calvinist) theology, I could see conflicts in Scripture, as if God were contradicting Himself.

One of these conflicts involves the doctrine of eternal death and damnation, which is the eternal torment of the wicked in hell. Some Scriptures do seem to give that picture. But others claim that ultimately “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord…,” Jesus “won the keys to death and hell,” “the last enemy to be destroyed is death,” “for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own order,” “that God may be all and in all.” Do a word search on “all” in the Scripture sometime. It will amaze you how many times it is unqualified, such as where the church is called “…His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all,” “all Israel will be saved,” “Christ is all and in all,” “Father of all who is over all and through all and in all,” “ascended far above the heavens that He might fill all things,” and “through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.”

One solution to this conflict is to qualify all the “alls.” Maybe the writer forgot to add “…who believe in Jesus before they die.” Or perhaps the writer assumed you would know that he was only talking about Christians. Another solution is to claim that of course every knee will bow – the wicked will be forced to bow before being hauled off to hell. And of course Christ will be all in all, for all the wicked will be “destroyed” in hell (an unending destruction, a “living death,” if such is possible). Scripture affirms in many places that the wicked will be destroyed.

In this book I propose a third solution. The Bible simply means what it says, and God doesn’t need us to “correct” it for Him. Yes, only those who believe in Christ will be “saved from the wrath to come.” Yes, everyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. And yes, ultimately, everyone will be reconciled back to Him, and every knee will bow and accept Him. Those statements are only in conflict if you accept the traditional doctrine that your eternal destiny is sealed at death.

 But is that doctrine Scriptural? No. Salvation is only by faith in Christ, the Savior. He Himself insists that, “No one comes to the Father [is saved] but by Me.” (Jn 14:6) and “…unless you believe that I am [Messiah] you shall die in your sins.” (Jn 8:24) You cannot be saved just by believing in some generic future messiah as the Jews in Jesus’ day did when they did the lamb sacrifice. You have to actually believe in Jesus as the Messiah. “There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which you must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) No one who died before Jesus could be saved, if your eternal destiny were sealed at death. Jesus refuted that when He talked about “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 8:11) and “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” (Matt 22:32) Scripture makes it clear that even the great heroes of faith who came before Jesus “died in faith, without receiving the promises… because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” (Heb 11:13 & 40) Clearly, salvation is an ongoing process which begins with whatever little bit of faith is available at the time, and then continues on, even after death, until one’s faith can be perfected.

Please note that I have just eliminated the need for the old Roman Catholic “age of accountability” theory. Children who die before they’re old enough to understand the gospel don’t get a “free pass” into heaven. They go to the “nursery” in Hades to learn of Christ, and don’t get into heaven until they believe and receive Him. I hate it when theologians’ own wrong doctrines force them to invent some other way of salvation in violation of the clear words of Scripture!

The Scripture maintains that although Salvation is only by faith in Christ, yet judgment is always according to our deeds. It seems quite reasonable to me that though Jesus only paid the price for the sins of those who will believe in Him, and those who will not believe must be cast into hell to pay the price for their own sins, yet eventually, when that price is paid, they may well become believers too.

I know this is a controversial interpretation. But there have been many since the days of the early church who believed in the ultimate reconciliation of all things (though most of them were tortured and killed by the Inquisition in the Dark Ages). One purpose of my book is to complete the Reformation that was only started by John Wycliffe and Martin Luther. The God of Wrath of the Old Testament is the God of Love of the New Testament, but you can only understand this when you realize that His terrible judgments are always corrective and redemptive. Always. It is a vile slander against His good name to claim that His wrath on the wicked abides forever, when Scripture makes it clear that His anger is but for a moment, while it is His mercy and lovingkindness that abide forever. (Ps 30:5; Ps 106:1; and many others.)

 Theologians feel the doctrine of eternal torment is important to put “the fear of God” into people, and impart an urgency to spread the gospel message to the lost. True. But look at the other side of that coin. How many hear that gospel message and reject it because this “God of love” who wants them in heaven with Him is such a sadistic monster as to eternally torment the vast majority of His creatures? Could you really love a god who condones an infinite amount of pain in punishment just for the sin of failing to believe in Jesus, even for someone born in sin, with blind eyes and a hard heart, who never heard the gospel?

Yet that is exactly what religionists expect us to do. They quote Romans 1:20 to say that even those who never heard the gospel, those who are “dead in their transgressions and sins...” (Eph 2:1) are “without excuse” because they should have seen Christ in His creation. So God is perfectly just in casting them all into hell. Well, yeah. Seeing God’s glorious works ought to cause everyone to seek to know and worship the Creator.  But face it, most don’t. They “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” in their own self-focussed pride. For that, the passage is clear, they must be punished. But eternal torment? “…how can they believe in Him whom they’ve not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14) You and I instinctively know that it would not be just to torment someone for not receiving a gospel that he’s never even heard. Jesus knew it too, for He said to the Pharisees to whom He had just revealed Himself, “If you were blind (talking about those who had never seen or known Him) you would have no sin…” and later, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” (Jn 9:41 and 15:42)

There are other seeming conflicts in Scripture, but that is the worst. The good news is that there is a way to resolve this conflict without violating the clear Word of God. So give me some time to make my case, and may the good Lord confirm to your heart by His Spirit whatever is from Him, and whatever is mere speculation on my part. At the very least it makes for some good debate and a great story.

I’ve gone into this in great length in my book, but allow me to summarize the key points here to whet your appetite. First, time comes in moments, days, years, millennia, ages, eons, or whatever, ticking off inexorably from beginning to end. The one flavor that time does NOT come in is eternity. This is a crucial distinction. Time can never touch eternity, though eternity does encompass every moment of time from beginning to end. That is because time involves change, from day to day growing up, growing older, maturing, getting disciplined, learning wisdom and knowledge – time always has a past and a future. But eternity has none of that.

 Eternity is timelessness, where Father God dwells in unchangeable perfection with no possibility of growth or learning or maturing. All the ages of time can never reach eternity where the Father dwells, but within time, eternity is always right here, right now, if only we will pause and take a whiff of it.

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” (Eccl 3:11)

 So talking about “eternal torment” or “eternal punishment” in the sense of “unending, forever and ever” is nonsense right off the bat. Jesus’ famous parable of the sheep and the goats ending, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt 25:46) is not talking about a length of time at all. It is talking about a quality of life or death - a new life form, if you will. “This is eternal Life, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” (Jn 17:3) It has nothing to do with a length of time.

And similarly for the goats, “And 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 in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” (Rev 20:14-15) This ‘Second Death’ is not eternal torment, it is a new kind of death, far worse than the form of death which the wicked experience every day of their lives.

Everyone who does not know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent” is dead in trespasses and sins. (Eph 2:1) He remains dead until the Holy Spirit quickens him, for no one can receive the Gospel without the quickening of the Holy Spirit. But any torment he may receive in this sad condition is only by his own choice. Anyone, good or evil, can choose to do what is right and receive the blessings, or choose to do what is evil and reap the consequences. He can even choose to dedicate his life to Satan, spend all his life-energy serving Satan, and wind up in torment in hell, for Satan loves to torment his own. But none of that is the Second Death, nor is it “eternal punishment.”

Any torment he got was by his own choice. He lived by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, making his own choices according to his own knowledge. That is iniquity, but it was all he had, for his spirit was dead – blind and deaf to the things of God. One can only live according to one’s nature. All of that will be forgiven, according to Jesus. “Any sin and blasphemy [even against Jesus Himself] shall be forgiven men, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven… either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matt 12:31-32)

 Did you catch the distinction? All sins in ignorance will be forgiven. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is willful blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – deliberate rejection of the Spirit’s awakening call to salvation. “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin [no possibility of atonement for sin], but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment…” (Heb 10:26) “In the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the power of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance…” (Heb 6:4-6)

 This is the “unforgivable sin.” Those convicted of it at the Great White Throne judgment cannot be pardoned, but must be cast into hell to be punished for their evil deeds. This is a whole new kind of death - no longer Satan’s pointless torment, but the “Second Death” - a specific punishment for each and every evil deed, as assigned by the righteous Judge of all the earth. (Rev 19:11-15)

So both the “eternal life” and the “eternal punishment” of Matthew 25:46 are talking about a quality of life rather than a length of time. The eternal life is a living relationship with the author of life. The eternal punishment is knowingly rejecting that relationship by a deliberate rejection of the gospel and reaping the fruit of that rejection. God must allow the full consequences of every evil deed to return in full measure upon the rebel, until his evil nature is destroyed in hell. “Fear not those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28)

At the true rapture, “… the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy bondservants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Rev 11:18) That is the “Second Death.” It is the destruction of the wicked in the fires of hell. But is it an endless torment? or a total annihilation?

I don’t believe it is either. Many do, for there are Scripture passages which seem to support both positions. But when I step back and look at the entire Bible either position forces some major contradictions in God’s Word, and I believe in a big enough God that He never makes mistakes or contradicts Himself. Instead, I have developed a unifying hypothesis which removes all the contradictions. I call it Ultimate Reconciliation.

 First, how do I deal with the ‘total annihilation’ verses? Easy. Consider, what is being destroyed? Yes, we inherited an evil nature from Adam. That nature must be destroyed, for no one can come before a holy God with an evil heart. I see no problem at all with God using the fires of hell to totally destroy the evil nature out of a person, thus setting that person free to ‘start over’ with a clean slate, like Adam was when God first breathed in him the breath of life.

 This is consistent with the nature of God, who never fails in all He starts. God will complete all of His eternal plans and purposes in Jesus Christ, for He swears, “I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” (Isa 46:10) “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him [Jesus], and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself…” (Col 1:19 ff) “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6) That’s a promise.

“The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 Jn 3:8) Hell fire was not actually created for mankind; it was prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt 25:41) It will destroy him, his angels, his servants, and all his works. But when those evil natures “fathered” by Satan are destroyed, what will remain? “There is… one Spirit …one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all… He ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things.” (Eph 4:4, 6, 10, excerpts) That is all that will remain.

OK. So now how do I deal with the ‘endless torment’ verses? “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever…” (Rev 14:11) ‘Forever’ verses are also easy, for the words used are always time words, and can just as easily be translated ‘age,’ ‘ages,’ ‘eon’ or any indefinite length of time. Indeed there are some places in Scripture where these words cannot mean ‘forever,’ such as God’s judgment pronounced on Edom: “It shall not be quenched night or day; its smoke shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall be desolate; none shall pass through it forever and ever.” (Isa 34:10) That terrible prophecy was fulfilled. Now tourists pass through it all the time and its smoke is quenched. A New Testament example: “The slave does not remain in the house forever; but the son does remain forever.” (Jn 8:35) Another famous example is, “…they [the bondservants of God] shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev 22:5) which directly contradicts, “Then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.” (1 Cor 15:24) Clearly “forever” in Scripture only means an age, ages, or an indefinite period of time, as these words are usually translated.

 Hell is also described as a place where “the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” (Mk 9:48, quoted by Jesus from Isa 66:24) Those both refer to God Himself, who cannot die. His chastisement is like an unquenchable, consuming fire, and the pangs of conscience He sends gnaw like a worm deep within. “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:29)

 So, the words themselves do not require “eternal” torment. Now step back a bit and consider the nature and character of God as revealed in Scripture. Is this “eternal torment” consistent with His awesome holiness and His terrible hatred and wrath against sin? I don’t think so, for Scripture always reveals a God who, though hating the sin, loves the sinner and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9) Unconditional love, grace, mercy, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and compassion are all aspects of God’s eternal character, just as much as His hatred of sin. “His anger [wrath] is but for a moment, but His favor [mercy, lovingkindness] is for a lifetime.” (Ps 30:5) For “He does not retain His anger forever.” (Mica 7:18) No, I think my “Ultimate Reconciliation” is far more consistent with God’s true nature.

But surely such an important doctrine would be clearly stated in God’s holy Word?! Well, yes, it is, though the truth is often veiled for those who don’t want to believe. Jesus often spoke in parables to hide the truth. “To you it is granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, in parables, in order that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.” (Lk 8:10)

So, if you really want to know the truth, pray now that the Holy Spirit will open your mind and heart to these passages.

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” (Rom 10:9)

“…no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:3b)

“Therefore also God highly exalted Him [Jesus], and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, or under the earth [in hell], and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)

 “…as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” (Rom 14:11)

 “I am the Lord, and there is no other; the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these… Israel has been saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you [Israel] will not be put to shame or humiliated to all eternity… there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, and all who were angry with Him shall be ashamed. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be justified, and will glory.” (Isa 45:7, 17, 21b-25)

“And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all the peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time. And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people [the anti-Semitism] from all the earth.” (Isa 25:7-8)

“In Him [Jesus] all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for [unto] Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together [endure]… for it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross…” (Col 1:16-20)

“For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:36)

“… an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things upon the earth.” (Eph 1:10)

Yeah. It’s there all right. One day God will be “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28) I know, hell has its place, too. But ultimately every knee will bow to the risen Christ and confess that He is indeed Lord, to the glory of the Father. We have His promise.