Reading the comments by others on this thread, I get the distinct impression that there is still some degree of confusion on the nature of the hereafter for the lost.
While I do not think that anyone has all the answers, I believe that there is much data in the New Testament to give us a good understanding on the “nature of hell”. I shall look at some of the points raised, as see where my own understanding is on these issues.
Firstly, I see there is some who suppose that the account in Luke’s Gospel on the Rich Man and Lazurus, is only a parable. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that it is. How does this change anything? A “Parable”, is from the Greek “parabole”, which means, “a placing of one thing beside another with a view to comparision”. Jesus Himself says why He used “parables”: “whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?...and with many such parables spake He the word unto them, as they were able to hear.” (Mark 4:30,33). Jesus used everyday illustrations to get His point over. However, none of what He ever said was an untruth, was it? So with the account, or story of the Rich Man and Lazurus, either He was referring to an actual event of persons who were known to His hearers; or, He was speaking using an illustration of certain future events. In either case, what Jesus spoke here could only have been the truth. I doubt if any would question this?
Secondly, those who hold to the third view, of “Conditional Immortality”, or, “Annhilationism”, are, in my opinion, reducing the nature of the Gospel, and undermining the entire process of Salvation. For, it must be asked. If Salvation in Jesus Christ is not the saving from hell and its consequences, where its consequences are seen as “eternal conscious suffering”, then from what exactly did Christ come to save us from? If the soul of man is not “immortal”, and only those who believe in Jesus Christ are said to be so, then what is the purpose of all the warnings in Scripture, about suffering, pain, torment, etc, all spoken in eternal future language? Further, the Bible speaks not only of the Resurrection of the Just in Christ, but also os those who are lost without Christ. Paul’s argument against those who doubt in a literal Resurrection of the body, in 1 Corinthians 15, says, if there is no Resurrection for those who are without Christ, then, “what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (15:32). In other words, the mentality of the sinner in this world has always been. Let us live live to the full, and enjoy every pleasure and sin there is, for once we die, this is the end, we will no longer exist. There is no “price to pay”, all the warnings in Scripture become a farce, as they were only metaphorical, and have no bearing on the lost. Jesus says, “Thou fool”! It is very evident from the words of Christ Himself, that the soul of man has to be “immortal”, for He speaks of “eternal life” and “eternal punishment” in the same verse in Matthew 25:46. If the “eternal” for “life” is to be taken in the literal sense, as “time without end”, there there is no reason why the same word in the next sentense, when used with “punishment”, is not also “time without end”? Only those who will wish to twist the plain meaning of Holy Scripture, will try to make a difference where there is none.
Thirdly, there are some who will accept the view, that the “punishment” referrerd to by Jesus in places like Matthew 25:46, are not how we nornally understand the word to mean. They would take the Greek, “kolasis” to mean, “correction”, whereby, the punishment spoken of is only for the purpose of betterment, and those undergoing this, will eventually join the others in heaven, after a time. This is commonly known as the “Purgatorial View”. This view, in my opinion, as is that of “Conditional Immortality”, is an insult to the Justice of God.
That the Greek word “kolasis” was used for “correction”, I will not deny. However, like many other words, its meaning and use changed, and it was also used to describe “suffering” without any notion of “betterment”. However, we simply cannot base our understanding on such an important doctrine on the meaning of one word, in one Scripture. Before we move on form here, we need ask one more question. If “kolasis” has the meaning “correction” in our text in Matthew, then there is no point in Jesus using with it the word “eternal”? Jesus is not here so much as speaking of the “effects” of the “punishment” of the wicked, but of the “duration” of this punishment, in that it is eternal. Jesus Himself did not see the future of “hell” as being a place of “betterment”, as He speaks of it as a place of “wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mat. 13:42). Where the Greek shows extreme pain caused by intense suffering. So used by Homer in his Illiad. Not once does Jesus speak of hell as being a place where the wicked shall one day come out of.
To continue from what I have said, I might add the following important factors. Jesus again speaks of “Gehenna”, as being a place, “where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished” (Mark 9:44,26,48). It has wrongly been though that Jesus is referring to literal “worms” that live forever and “torment” the wicked. However, the exact phrase is “their worm” (personal pronoun), that is, the “body” of the wicked as not being “consumed” by the fires of hell. The word “quenched” (KJV) is from the Greek, “asbestos”, that is, “not consumed”
Two more passages will shed more light on the nature of hell. In Jude 7, we read of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where we are told, “…are set forth for an example, suffering vengeance of eternal fire” Note, that the Greek for “suffering” is “huperchousai”, literally, “undergoing”, which is in the “present tense”, indictaing, that at the time of Jude writing, this example of “suffering” was still “present”, still “going on”. The language used cannot be said to support any notion of “Annhilationism”. We read in Revelation 19:20, where the beast and false prophet were both “cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone”. This is BEFORE the 1000 years (whether a literal 1000 years or not, is no problem. It is nonetheless a very long period of time). We then read in the next chapter, “and the devil that deceived them was cast into ther lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (verse 10). So in the Greek. Here we read of the devil also being cast into the lake of fire and brimstone AFTER the 1000 years was over, where the beast and false prophet were also cast, 1000 yaers before. And, they are still there, “they shall be tormented”, which can hardly be used for only one person? No “Annhilationism” in Scripture!
