Recently Kirk Cameron publicly stated that he no longer believes in eternal conscious torment, calling it “cruel and unusual punishment.” His comments have stirred fresh discussion among Christians about the nature of hell and whether the historic doctrine stands on biblical ground.
Growing up as a missionary and going to a Bible college that emphasized missions, I have some vivid memories of missions speakers guilt-tripping audiences into missions. The idea was that if we didn’t go, people would go to hell, and it would be all our fault. While we can avoid the guilt-tripping, missions must have a robust and biblical doctrine of hell as eternal conscious punishment.
Biblical Arguments
The biblical portrait of hell is not only that the fires of hell last forever, but the torment of those condemned to hell does not cease. Consider one of the first references to eternal torment in the Scriptures:
And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. (Isaiah 66:24)
First, notice that it is not merely souls that are condemned to hell but souls that have been brought back to life in a body (see Revelation 20:5; Daniel 12:2). The condemned are punished eternally in both body and soul. Second, notice that the “worm shall not die,” and the “fire shall not be quenched” (cf. Jesus’s use in Mark 9:48). Both worms and fire consume. Fires end when their fuel runs out; so also maggots or worms eventually run out of the root they thrive on. The way that the Bible teaches us that punishment of hell is a perpetual experience is that the condemned dead do not cease to exist but are continually suffering from worms and fire without the cycle of consummation coming to a natural end as it would if it were a fire or worm on this earth.
In Revelation 14, those who suffer under the cup of God’s wrath that is poured out are tormented without end:
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night…” (Revelation 14:9-11)
That hell is eternal conscious torment is clear with the idea that they “have no rest.” And “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever…” Again, this is an image of fire that does not consume but continues to burn the damned in their torment. The book of Revelation tells us that Death, Hades, the Devil, the false prophet, the beast, and all those not written in the book of life are thrown in the lake of fire. In this lake of fire, we read that “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10, 14-15).
There are other places in the Bible where we are told the fire of hell is eternal and that the condemnation there is punishment (Matthew 18:8; 25:41, 46; Jude 7). While some might be tempted to argue that only the place of hell is eternal, not the experience of the condemned, this would not be using the biblical principle of letting Scripture interpret Scripture. Those in hell will be tormented forever and because they are never consumed up by the fire, the imagery is that they suffer eternally and are consciously aware of it.
Objections to Hell and Eternal Conscious Punishment
No doubt, the doctrine of hell is a difficult doctrine. Reflections on it should be sober and serious. We must always remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are always higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). We must believe what God has said. Nevertheless, we should be aware of some common objections to the biblical doctrine of eternal conscious punishment.
How can a loving God condemn people to hell?
God is not only loving, God is holy. As a holy God, he cannot tolerate sin. God’s judgment of sin is righteous and just. Those who go to hell are there because they have rebelled against the living God. Indeed, even in this life, God often hands people over to what they want (Romans 1:24, 26, 28) and the result is they sink further into their sin and zealous rebellion. In our sin, we make war and rage against God. It is like spitting into the wind; the judgment will come back upon us. We reap what we sow.
The real question we should be asking is: with such open and zealous rebellion against God, why should God love us at all and send his Son to die for us? Mercy from God is undeserved.
How can God be just to punish us with eternal suffering for a finite number of sins?
I think this is a good question. The root of the argument is this: I am a finite person and I committed a finite number of sins. How, then, can I be punished forever? If there is a limit to the number of sins, is there not a limit to the punishment? On one level, this is a fair question. Biblical justice always teaches that the punishment must fit the crime.
Two responses: first, when God created us, he created us with an eternal destiny in view. We aren’t infinite, but God did create us to live forever. Second, and more to the point, who have I sinned against? My punishment is not merely based on the number of sins I committed, but who I sinned against. I sinned against the infinite God. My sin was not just a set number of actions against him, but from the core of my being, I hated and rebelled against the one who is infinite. He created me for everlasting fellowship and I went to war against him declaring myself to be god. I tried to take his place. The punishment is justly eternal because I tried to become god and I rebelled against the infinite. How do you measure such a crime? It was not a set number of sins, like a human court might read off a finite list of charges. A finite being did something infinitely evil.
“A god who tortures people eternally is morally wicked.”
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23, 32). God is not a sadist. However, to accuse God of moral wickedness is itself a part of our rebellion. In fact, we must ask the question: by what standard can you accuse God of wickedness? We have no basis outside of God himself to make any definitive delineation of what is right and wrong. “It seems wrong” or “feels unjust” only kicks the moral can down the road. How can a finite being tell the infinite what is and is not?
Just punishment is not the same as torture. Suffering for the crimes committed is not torture.
Reaching the Lost in Light of Eternal Conscious Punishment
The doctrine of hell is a hard truth. It is not beautiful to think of hell, but it is right and necessary, and in that sense it is for our good that we contemplate it. The truth of sinners going to hell should drive us to missions. We should take the gospel to the nations precisely because we were sinners condemned to hell and by nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3) by default — but God in his rich mercy, because of the love with which he loved us, has made us alive in Christ and saved us from the just penalty due our sins.
We come to the doctrine of hell not with smugness but with a deep sobering reflection that this was my fate. This was what I deserved, and God has saved me in the gospel. If I am no different from anyone else and no good resided in me, do I not want others to hear this saving message so that God might work?
