Hell

Almost all Christians believe that the unsaved will stand before the judgment throne on the last day, be declared guilty, and be thrown into a place called hell where they will be consciously tormented forever. One might even say that this belief is a staple of Christianity.

As part of God’s revealing of hidden truth in these end times (see Study on God Is Revealing The End) we are now learning that our beliefs about eternal damnation were altogether wrong. We can now know that the unsaved will not be tormented forever. Instead, they will completely cease to exist.

Admittedly, this is hard to grasp because it is such a foreign concept to us. However, we have to stay faithful to the Bible and sometimes that means correcting what we believe to be true:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Why Was This Hidden?

Before we work through the Scriptures on this topic, we might ask ourselves, “Why would God have hidden this information?” Sure, there are a couple denominations that believe in what they call “annihilation,” but we will see that even that doctrine isn’t entirely accurate.

As far as I’m aware, the Bible doesn’t explain to us why God hid this from us for so long. Perhaps if we were aware of this fact, it would have negatively impacted the spreading of the Gospel. God certainly placed sufficient statements in the Bible that seem to imply there will be a literal place of eternal torment. God crafted every word of the Bible so He did that intentionally, with the intent to reveal the truth in the end. We can only wonder why?

Perhaps it was to establish a testing program. We know that God does test those who claim to be His followers to determine if their hearts are in the right place:
"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would keepest my commandments, or no." (Deuteronomy 8:2)

God tested Abraham when He asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. He even tested Christ through Satan (Matthew 4:1-11).

False doctrines are also testing programs God has established. The point of these tests is to determine if we are going to listen to the Bible alone or are we going to listen to our pastor or our family or our logic or our feelings and experiences? The tongues doctrine is one example. God could have clearly said in the Bible that He would no longer distribute the gift of tongues after the Bible was completed, but He did not do that in order to accommodate those who wanted to build for themselves a doctrine that satisfies their own desires. (see Study on Tongues)

In a way, the ultimate false doctrine is the free-will salvation doctrine (see Study on Salvation). It has been around longer than any other popular false doctrine that we find in the churches of our day. Long before Satan began ruling in the church God allowed this false doctrine to spread in the churches. Isn’t it interesting that a crucial part of the free-will doctrine is the idea that if we don’t get ourselves saved we will spend eternity being tormented in a place called hell? Ultimately, those who hold this doctrine place some stock in their own ability to impact whether or not another person becomes saved as they witness to them. To that end, as they witness they need to have a threat they can use to scare people into listening. I, too, remember using hell as a reason to pray for salvation. If they were to just say, “You will cease to exist after death unless you become saved,” the majority of people would respond with, “So? That’s not so bad.” The free-will doctrine needs the threat of hell and God has accommodated it by not granting understanding of what happens to the unsaved after they die.

Now that we are close to the end of the world God’s testing period is also coming to an end. In our day God is removing the seal from the mysteries of His Word so that new things can be learned, things that were once hidden:
“Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.” (Isaiah 48:6)

Physically, We Are Like Animals

In order to really understand what happens to an unsaved person when he dies we need to go back to the beginning because that’s really where all of this is rooted.

We read that the animals were formed out of the ground:
“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air…” (Genesis 2:19a)

Likewise, man was formed out of the ground:
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…” (Genesis 2:7a)

So physically we are very similar to animals. Our physical bodies are kept alive through breathing and the pumping of blood through our veins just like animals. We get our physical nourishment from the ground just like animals. The fruit and vegetables we eat came from the ground. The meat that we eat came from an animal that got its nourishment from the ground. The water we drink came from the ground. Juices come from fruit that come from the ground.

It is this physical body of ours that makes us vulnerable to sin:
“Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38)

Man Was A Life With Life

Man is physically like an animal, but there is a difference between man and animals:
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
God did not breathe into the nostrils of the animals. The Hebrew word for “breathed” here is naphach and the word for “breath” is neshamah, neither of which is ever used in the Bible in connection with the life of animals.

The phrase “breath of life” should have been translated “breath of lives” because the Hebrew word translated there as “life” is chayyim, which is the plural of chay or chayyah. It’s the same word we find in Psalm 36:9:
“For with thee is the fountain of life [chayyim]: in thy light shall we see light.”
The fountain of life is obviously a reference to God. This helps us to understand why God used a plural form of the word. God Himself is plural:
“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
(1 John 5:7)
This is why God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)

When God breathed the breath of lives into man’s nostrils it wasn’t oxygen that He breathed. It was His Spirit that we associate with the bringing of spiritual life when we become saved:
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22)
This is why we read in Genesis 2:7 that man became a living soul as a result of God breathing in his nostrils. This gave man a spirit essence so that he was no longer just a physical body like an animal.

In fact, the phrase “and man became a living soul” in Genesis 2:7 is more literally translated “and man became a life with life.” This is not necessarily an error in translation because either way the teaching remains the same: man has a living soul unlike animals. However, when we read the phrase in its literal translation it really hits the point home that man was created as a physical life form like animals that had an additional life essence inside him.

It is this spiritual life that made man identify with God. God is entirely incapable of sinning:
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13)
Since man was created with God’s Spirit in Him, in man’s spiritual essence he was created to be incapable of sin:
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9)
Obviously, this verse can’t be understood to be teaching that true believers no longer sin once they become saved because the simple fact is that they do. It’s reminding us that when God indwells us our spirit essence is incapable of sin.

However, even after we’ve become saved our physical body continues to lust after sin:
“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” (Romans 7:5)

This is why a saved person has a war going on inside him between his resurrected soul which cannot sin and his body which lusts after sin:
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:23)

The Bible refers to Christ as the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). This reminds us of how man was created. In a sense, he was just like Christ. When Christ took on a human nature, He was the Spirit of God in a human body. Likewise, Adam was a human body with the Spirit of God in him. God tested Christ through Satan just as Adam was tested by God through Satan. We read that Christ was tested in all points just as man:
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
We often think of Adam’s sin and don’t really pay attention to what mankind was before sin.

Man was created to live forever with God.

The Entrance of Sin

The angels were created to be ministering spirits:
“But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:13-14)
They were not created to be rulers of any kind.

However, unlike the angels, man was given the authority of a ruler. He was given the right to rule over this world:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26)

Satan wanted to be like God:
“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14)
God is the King and so to be like God Satan needed a kingdom to rule over.

Satan decided that if he could cause man to obey him, then he would become the ruler over man and therefore he would also rule over Earth. We normally think of this act of rebellion as an act of stupidity on Satan’s part, but really he had it figured out correctly. This is why we read that the serpent was subtle:
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field…” (Genesis 3:1)
The Hebrew translated as “subtil” is aruwm and can also be translated as “clever” or “crafty.”

Adam and Eve became sinners and this rebellious nature has been passed on to every human being:
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5)

Man Became Spiritually Dead

God told man that if he disobeyed Him, then that same day he would die:
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
But Adam and Eve did not die that day because God wasn’t talking about physical death. He was talking about spiritual death.

Remember that man was a life with life. Man continued to be a physical life just like the animals, but he ceased to be spiritually alive. That day when Adam and Eve sinned they died spiritually. The spiritual life force that was given to them by God and energized them spiritually was removed. They continued to have a spirit essence, but that spirit essence was dead.

God did not need to hold a formal trial. When children are disobedient, their parents don’t need to hold a trial before administering punishment. God warned Adam and Eve, they disobeyed, and God judged them immediately with spiritual death.

Because we were in the loins of Adam, this spiritual death is passed to every human:
“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Romans 7:9)
This verse speaks of a time when man was alive without the law, speaking of the spiritual life that died when sin entered the world. This verse is not teaching that we are spiritually alive at some point early in our lives before salvation. There was only one period in time when there was no law and that was in the very beginning. As soon as God told Adam to not eat of the tree He had laid down the law. Adam was still spiritually alive at this point because he had not sinned. The “I” in the above verse is every human being. We are all spoken of as having been present back there in the Garden of Eden because we were in the loins of Adam and when Adam sinned we all died spiritually:
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12)

Remember, the focus here is on spiritual death:
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1)
This verse is saying that every human being is dead before they are saved. People cannot become saved once they have physically died so the only death that can be in view here is spiritual death.

Incidentally, physical death was never a direct punishment for sin. We read that because of sin God cursed the ground:
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:17-18)

Remember, the ground is where man comes from. The ground brings his physical nourishment. It is the energy source that sustains his physical life. Once the ground was cursed it opened up the possibility for disease, poison, pollution, etc. Eventually all of that had an impact on man’s physical life. At first, man was still able to live for nearly a thousand years in spite of all that but as time went on his body became more damaged, frail, and susceptible to failing. Disease multiplied and grew in strength. Pollution and contamination grew. Man’s life expectancy decreased drastically.

In our day, we are seeing a relatively minor increase in life expectancy because of modern medicine. However, think about the amazing advancements that have been made in modern medicine. As a whole, we are considerably more careful about protecting our bodies. We wash our hands more frequently. Our greater nutritional knowledge has helped us to be more conscious about what we eat. Technology has enabled us to fight off disease better than ever. Even with all of this, the average life expectancy in the United States has only gone from 65 years in 1950 to 76 years today.

Another proof that physical death is not the punishment for sin can be seen with Christ’s work on the cross. Jesus was still alive when He announced that He had completed paying the penalty for the sins of those He came to save:
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30)
If physical death was part of the direct punishment for sin, then Christ would have needed to die physically before He could claim that the penalty had been fully paid. All of Christ’s physical suffering had absolutely nothing to do with the payment for sin. Paul was beaten with 39 lacerations on five different occasions and stoned (2 Corinthians 11:24-25), but none of that did him any good in relation to payment for sin.

So, yes, it is true that because of sin physical death does exist but it is not the direct punishment for sin. When God says the wages of sin is death, He is referring to spiritual death. As a result, all that is left alive is man’s physical body and it is in that part of man that he is vulnerable to sin. Because the sin-prone part of man is all that remains we find that the Bible has ugly things to say about man…

Man's mind is darkened by sin:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:17-18)

His heart is corrupt and evil:
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)

He is a slave of sin:
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34)

His greatest efforts are at best tainted with sin:
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags..." (Isaiah 64:6)

Man Has Lost His Birthright

Another consequence of sin is that man has lost his birthright.

In Genesis chapter 25 we read about Jacob and Esau. Jacob represents the saved and Esau represents the unsaved:
“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” (Romans 9:13-16)

Satan correctly calculated that he could become the ruler of this world if he could get man to obey him, but this came with a large price. Satan lost the ability to live with God forever. This event is a perfect illustration of man’s thinking: “I’ll give up eternity to have what I want right now.” Esau gave up his birthright so that he could briefly enjoy the pleasures and comforts that this life can provide:
“Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” (Genesis 25:34)

This is a picture of mankind’s situation. He has chosen to act on the lusts of the flesh and, just like Satan, has given up his eternal inheritance:
“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5)

As a result of sin, mankind does not live forever as he was originally designed to do. Instead, he dies:
“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
Remember, the punishment for sin is spiritual death, not physical death. The focus of man’s punishment is on the loss of eternal life:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)

Man Has Been Cut Off

We very frequently read that God has “cut off” man because of sin. The phrase “cut off” in all of the following verses is the Hebrew word karath. It is important to recognize that all of these occurrences are in fact the same word in the original text because this helps us to tie them all together.

To be cut off identifies with death, which ties in with what we learned in the Garden of Eden:
“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.” (Zechariah 13:8)

To be cut off affects our spiritual existence, not just our physical:
“Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” (Numbers 15:31)

Being cut off identifies with an eternal consequence:
“For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.” (Obadiah 1:10)
“Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 56:5)

To be cut off identifies with being removed from the Lord’s presence:
“Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 22:3)
This is further illustrated by the removal of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24).

To be cut off identifies with losing our inheritance, which ties in with what we learned with Jacob and Esau:
“For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” (Psalm 37:9)

To be cut off identifies with destruction:
“And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:11)
“I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.”
(Psalm 101:8)
“But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.” (Psalm 37:38)
“There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.” (Nahum 3:15)
“I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.” (Zephaniah 3:6)

Christ had to be cut off in order to pay for the sins of His people:
“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)
This teaches us that being cut off is the punishment for sin. We know that “the wages of sin is death” so to be cut off identifies with spiritual death. We also find this stated in Isaiah chapter 53 where we also read about Christ being cut off:
“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)

Man Will Be Destroyed

The Bible teaches that man will eventually be devoured by fire:
“Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.” (Psalm 21:8-9)

We read that man will be melted:
“As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.” (Ezekiel 22:20-22)

Man will be burned to ashes:
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1)

Man will not survive the fire any more than thorns can survive a fire:
“And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.” (Isaiah 33:12)

This destruction of man is permanent and once again we find that the focus of the punishment is on our loss of eternal life with God:
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power”
(2 Thessalonians 2:19)

The Bible indicates that both the body and soul will be destroyed by fire:
“Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.” (Isaiah 10:16-18)
We find reiterated that the soul will be destroyed along with the body:
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Soon we will examine what hell is. The Greek word for “destroy” in this verse is the same that is translated as “perish” in Luke 13:3:
“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
If we don’t become saved, then we are completely destroyed, both body and soul.

This notion that man simply ceases to exist after physical death is hard for us to accept. This is because God has written eternity on our hearts:
“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
The Hebrew word for “world” here is olam which means “infinite time” and is translated elsewhere in the Bible as “everlasting,” “evermore,” “eternal,” “for ever,” and “perpetual.”

Mankind senses that somehow he continues to exist beyond this life. What that means can vary greatly from one religion or culture to another, but mankind as a whole believes he will continue on somehow after this life. This is because we were created in the image of God and designed to live forever with Him. When mankind sinned it brought spiritual death, but eternity is still written on our hearts as a result of how we were created.

Man Will Be Shamed

For those of us who grew up in a church, learning that unsaved man will be destroyed and cease to exist may cause us to ask, “But doesn’t the Bible speak of the dead being resurrected?” In fact, it does:
“And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:29)

So we have to ask, “What does the resurrection of damnation mean?” We get a little help when we look in the book of Daniel:
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)
This language tells us that the resurrection of damnation is also a resurrection to be shamed. We also read in Jeremiah about the shame that will be brought on the unsaved:
“And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.” (Jeremiah 23:40)

There is no indication in John 5:29 above that the unsaved will be resurrected to any kind of life or conscious existence. We just read that they will be resurrected to damnation, which we have already seen connects with a resurrection to be shamed. In fact, Psalm 31:17 tells us that the shame is identified with death, not any kind of conscious life:
“Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.”

We find a passage in Jeremiah that helps us understand the nature of this resurrection of the unsaved:
“At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Jeremiah 8:1-3)
The resurrection of the unsaved has to do with their remains being spewed out of the graves. As this passage states, their remains will be like manure across the face of the earth.

In Nahum we find a passage that foreshadows this event and it describes the face of the earth being covered with corpses:
“The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses” (Nahum 3:3)

As we study the end-times events in the Bible we discover that this event of bringing the unsaved’s corpses out of the graves is done in preparation for the final destruction that will come when this entire universe is destroyed by fire. Unsaved man was already spiritually dead when he was born. Then when he died physically he was entirely dead, both in body and soul. For all practical purposes, an unsaved individual’s physical death marks the end of his existence. However, God’s destruction of the unsaved will be a total destruction. Once their corpses have been spit out of the graves and destroyed on the last day with this world, then all of the unsaved from the history of the world will have been entirely destroyed and truly cease to exist.

A human analogy of this would be like if a father were to say to his son, “You are an utter shame to me. I can never call you my son and I cannot look at you anymore.”

Remember that Adam and Eve were naked but not ashamed before they sinned:
“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25)
But then after they sinned they were ashamed in their nakedness:
“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Genesis 3:7)

This shame was an illustration of the fact that they were completely exposed to God in their spiritual nakedness. They tried to hide from God because they were ashamed:
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)

We find in the Bible that shame has to do with being exposed to God:
“Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.” (Isaiah 47:3)
“Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.” (Nahum 3:5)
“Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.” (Jeremiah 13:26)

Christ was stripped of His clothing when He hung on the cross. This pointed to the fact that He was laden with all of the sins of the believers and stood before God fully exposed in those sins.

Just as Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, so too mankind will be trying to hide from God in the end because he will realize he’s a guilty sinner:
“And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16)
But no one will be hidden from God. Even the dead will be exposed.

When God brings all of the unsaved’s corpses out of the graves (or what’s left of them) so they can be openly destroyed, that will be a shameful destruction.

Man Is Like The Beast That Perishes

Our reaction to this might be, “Well, then man is no different than an animal.” In a sense, that is true. We learned earlier that man was created as a life with life; that is, a physical life like an animal with a spirit essence. Sin brought spiritual death to all of mankind so once unsaved man dies physically he is both physically and spiritually dead. No part of him remains alive to continue on. This is why God teaches that man’s death is like an animal’s:
“I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” (Ecclesiasts 3:18-20)

“Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:12)

“Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20)

As a result of mankind’s rebellion, man became cut off just like an animal:
“Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it”
(Ezekiel 14:13)
We find this teaching reiterated in Ezekiel 14:17-21 and Ezekiel 25:13. Notice we once again find the phrase “cut off.”

The destruction of unsaved man is like the destruction of any other creature on this planet:
“I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.” (Zephaniah 1:3)
Yet again we find the phrase “cut off.”

An animal lives for a few years and then it dies and that’s it. It does not continue to exist in any way. This is also the case for a person if he or she dies unsaved.

The Bible teaches that we are spiritually dead. We’ve always known that, but we’d say that somehow an unsaved individual’s dead soul would be alive to experience eternal torment in a place called hell. Now we can see why that doesn’t make sense. To be spiritually dead means man’s soul does not live on beyond this life.

Hell Is Spiritual Death

So then we ask ourselves, “Well then what exactly is hell?” We know that at least in one sense it is something that already exists because the demons are already in hell:
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4)
But we know they are still working on Earth.

We find the word “hell” 31 times in the Old Testament. It is the Hebrew word sheol and is always translated as “hell,” “grave,” or “pit.”

As we study we learn that this “hell” or “grave” is not always a permanent dwelling place for someone:
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16:10)
If a soul can be removed from this hell, then that means it’s at a time when salvation is still possible. Salvation is no longer possible after physical death, which means that this must be referring to a hell we can be in while we are still physically alive. We see this reiterated in the New Testament:
“Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27)

We find that this hell can be escaped:
“For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” (Psalm 86:13)
“He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.” (Acts 2:31)
And not just escaped in the sense of avoiding it, but escaped in the sense of being there and then getting out:
“The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” (Proverbs 15:24)
Remember, we could substitute “grave” for hell here because in the Old Testament they are the same word. What is the only grave that we can escape from? Can we return from physical death? No. It is spiritual death that we can be saved from. We are born spiritually dead, but God brings to life the souls of those who become saved.

The “hell” we read about in the Old Testament identifies with spiritual death. It is a condition of being under the wrath of God. When we become saved we are no longer under God’s wrath. He has raised our soul from spiritual death:
“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (Ephesians 2:5)
This is the hell or grave from which we have been rescued.

Hell Is Also The Final Destruction

We just learned that hell has everything to do with death. This is confirmed in many verses. For example:

“The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.”
(Psalm 116:3)

“The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me” (2 Samuel 22:6)

“Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.” (Proverbs 5:5)

“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves” (Isaiah 28:15)

“I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:18)

We understand this as spiritual death. But defining what hell is doesn’t stop there…

Earlier we looked at Matthew 10:28 and it’s worth reading again here:
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Elsewhere in the New Testament we find a similar statement where Jesus substitutes the phrase “destroy both body and soul” with “cast into hell”:
“And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” (Luke 12:4-5)

Here God is identifying hell with a time when both the body and soul will be destroyed. This is a reference to the destruction that comes upon this world at the end of time. It is the destruction by fire that we were reading about earlier. God calls it the second death:
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the 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)

From what we currently know, it appears that right before this time of final destruction the graves will open up and the remains of the unsaved who have died physically will be exposed for the final destruction. This is what God refers to as the second death.

Hell Itself Will Also Be Destroyed

After this universe is destroyed, God will create a new heaven and a new earth. We read that God’s wrath (symbolized by the sea) will be no more:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” (Revelation 21:1)
The sea signifies God’s wrath or hell (see Word Study on “Water”).

Death and hell are destroyed at the time of the second death which is the final destruction of this world:
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14)

With the exception of the believers, everything that remains of this creation will be destroyed. Even God’s anger and wrath on sin will come to an end:
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” (Micah 7:18)

Once this world is destroyed everything associated with it will not even be a memory. We might even say it will be as if it never existed:
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)

This does not leave any room to interpret a pouring out of God’s wrath on the unsaved forever in a place of eternal torment.

What About The Everlasting Fire?

There are only two verses in the Bible that speak of hell as an everlasting fire:
“Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” (Matthew 18:8)
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41)

God gives us an example of how we should understand the phrase “everlasting fire”:
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:7)
(The Greek word for “eternal” in this verse is the same as in Matthew 18:8 and Matthew 25:41 where it is translated as “everlasting.”)

The fire in Sodom and Gomorrah is not still burning, but God tells us that this is an example of everlasting fire. “Everlasting fire” does not imply that the fire itself will burn forever but rather that the destruction it causes will be permanent. In other words, there will never again be a chance for existence.

We read in more than one place that Sodom and Gomorrah were an example of the final destruction on unsaved man:
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6)

We also find a connection between the character of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction of the world:
“And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” (Genesis 19:28)
“And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” (Revelation 9:2)

Just as was the case with Sodom and Gomorrah, everything and everyone will be destroyed except for a remnant, which are the believers:
“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9)
God is using the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the complete destruction of the unsaved.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah did not allow for any sort of existence thereafter:
“As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.” (Isaiah 49:18)
God is teaching that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadows the destruction of the unsaved at the end of the world. The fire completely destroyed those cities so that nothing was left. As we continue to look at the destruction of man all we keep finding is that he is completely destroyed.

What About The Unquenchable Fire?

There are only three passages in the Bible that refer to hell as a fire that won’t be quenched:
“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43-48)
“Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12, also restated in Luke 3:17)

God again gives us some help in understanding the phrase “unquenchable fire”:
“But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” (Jeremiah 17:27)
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." (Jeremiah 7:20)
A fire that never stops burning is not what is in view here. The focus is on the absoluteness of the destruction. The unsaved will never again exist. They are eternally destroyed:
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power”
(2 Thessalonians 1:9)

Conclusion

Man was created as a life with life; that is, he had a physical body like an animal but God also breathed His Spirit into Him. God warned man then if he sinned this spirit essence would die and he would fail to live forever. Man sinned so the whole human race became spiritually dead and all that was left was his physical body like an animal. Therefore, when man physically dies that marks the end of his conscious existence. The Bible says that man has lost his birthright, that he has been cut off, and that he has lost his inheritance. This is all language to illustrate that no part of man continues on beyond this world, unless he becomes saved.

The Bible teaches that man will be shamed and destroyed by fire. In the end, the graves will be opened and the remains of the dead will be exposed in their spiritual nakedness along with those who are still alive. This whole creation will be destroyed by fire and God’s wrath will come to an end. This is spoken of as the lake of fire and is not a permanent fire, but rather it is language to illustrate that the destruction itself is permanent. None of it, including any part of unsaved man, will ever exist again.

All of this sheds new light on the most quoted verse in the Bible:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

We might ask, “Isn’t this what the doctrine of annihilation teaches?” No, not entirely. To better understand the differences, please read the Study on Judgment On The World and that question is answered at the end of that study.