Fire imagery appears constantly in the biblical portrayals of judgment and the last days. The fire that God uses to purge the earth (2 Peter 3:10-12) at the close of the millennium also consumes the impenitent (Matt. 10:28; Rev. 20:9). The devil gets thrown into a lake of fire (v. 10), in which he faces torment “day and night forever and ever.” Verses 11-15 describe the judgment of the dead. Those whose names do not appear in the “Book of Life” also wind up in the lake of fire (v. 15) along with “Death and Hades” (v. 14). This is the symbolic destruction of the principle of death and the grave. Verses 14-15 do not say that the wicked receive their punishment in gehenna (hell), but simply in a lake of fire.
Scripture says that fire is God’s instrument of punishment, but is this fire a fire of eternal duration, something that will rage and torment forever? The key to understanding this lies in the Greek word aiōnios, translated “eternal.”
Most people assume that each word in a language has one clear meaning. A hermeneutical principle that many Bible students follow is to take a clear usage of a biblical word and then apply the definition revealed there to the same word when it is used in a more obscure passage. But while generally helpful, the approach is not foolproof. As all of us know, many—if not most—words have more than one shade of meaning. Sometimes those meanings can be quite disparate.
Greek lexicons clearly reveal that aiōnios involves time. But is that the only meaning the word has? Let us look at how the NT employs the word when it qualifies nouns involving action or process. The NT has six examples. Interestingly, all six touch upon the issue of final judgment. Three of the examples cluster in the book of Hebrews. We will look at them first.
Because Christ learned obedience through His suffering, according to Hebrews 5:9, He was made perfect and “became the author of eternal salvation.” Christ is not forever still in the process of saving His people, but what He did at the cross brought them “everlasting” salvation. Although God has accomplished our salvation once and for all time, what it does and means for us will last throughout eternity.
Hebrews 6:2 mentions “eternal judgment” as one of the basic Christian teachings. Is it eternal in duration or of outcome and consequence? Few would argue that God spends eternity in the act or process of judging the human race. So what does it mean?
According to Hebrews 9:12, Christ “entered once for all into the holy places” (ESV) to obtain for us “eternal redemption.” Will He continue to offer “his own blood” throughout eternity, even after He returns at the Second Coming to take the redeemed home with Him? Will there even be any need to do so? His redemption is eternal and everlasting in what He has done for the redeemed. That is, it has accomplished something that will not be reversed or cease to be.
In Mark 3:29, Jesus speaks of those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit as having committed “an eternal condemnation.” Some might argue that such sinners continue to do it as they spend the ceaseless ages of eternity in hell, but Jesus has in mind here a definite act conducted at a specific and limited time. It is something that has already happened, since He is responding to those who had declared that He had “an unclean spirit” (v. 30). Although His accusers may still repeat it, it was a sin committed at a specific time and place. Its results—what it has done to the person who did it—will, however, last for eternity.
We have seen a definite pattern in the first four “eternal” passages we have examined. “Eternal” (aiōnios) does not always have to mean something of unending time; in these passages the term makes better sense when understood as involving everlasting consequences.
Second Thessalonians 1:9 tells of those who will suffer the punishment of “everlasting destruction” because they did not want to “obey the gospel” (v. 8). This destruction happens on “that day” that He comes (v. 10). It will not then continue to keep on happening, but the results of that one day will have no end.
Finally, as we noticed previously, Jesus announces at the end of His parable of the judgment in Matthew 25 that the wicked “will go away into everlasting punishment” (v. 46). If nothing else, our examination of the other five uses of aiōnios to modify words of action or process shows that the punishment here does not have to be of endless duration, but can instead be of endless or permanent consequences. It is a punishment that, while conducted during a limited timespan, will have eternal results.
Jude 7 demonstrates the same line of reasoning. It declares that because of their immorality and unnatural lust the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah underwent a punishment of “eternal [aiōnios] fire.” The fire burned out long ago, but the cities are gone forever.