God Does Not Torment
Chapter 29
Despite the doctrinal variances within mainstream Christianity, there is one point of consensus: they all believe that those who, through their ungodly actions, reject God will be consigned to eternal torment in hell. This shared belief rests on two mutually accepted factors.
The belief that human beings have an immortal soul and therefore never really die after physical death.
That they are sent to a place of fiery torment that never ends.
Ever since this belief has become widely accept within the Catholic Church and after the Protestant Reformation, the tactic of motivating people to God was the use of fear. I had a friend whom I asked, “Why did you become a Christian?” Her answer? “Because I do not want to go to hell.” I was rather stunned by her answer. Fear should not be the motivation for believing the gospel, but because of the “good news,” which is what “gospel” means. The good news is not to instill fear in people, but to show us a way to have a life of immortality through the gospel by being reconciled to God through Christ since he has taught and shown us how it is possible.
In order to escape purgatory and hell, the Catholic Church was able to convince people that they were able to buy indulgences to release a dead loved one out of purgatory. In 1517 there was a Dominican monk named Johann Tetzel, who had grace and power from the Pope to offer forgiveness as long as a contribution would be put into the coffer. His cry around town was, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."
Growing up in the Catholic faith, I remember when we could pay the church to offer special prayers for our dead loved ones so that one day they could get out of purgatory. I often wondered how much money and how many prayers it would take to upgrade a person out of purgatory. The Catholic Church never seemed to answer that question.
However, through the centuries the Catholic Church was able to control the masses by claiming to have control of the gates of heaven and hell. The Protestant Church fairs no better by using fear tactics. For instance, on July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon at Enfield, Connecticut that was titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He described God as one who holds:
you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire.
… It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.
Of course, much of this rhetoric has been softened a bit with the exception of some street preachers by condemning those walking by that they are sinners with a one-way ticket to hell and must “turn or burn.”
In order to promote the teaching of endless torment, many will cite Matthew 10:28 where Jesus says:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
First, notice what it does not say. It does not say, “Fear Him who is able to torment both body and soul in hell forever.” It says “destroy,” not “torment.” Do you see how easy it is to read something into a passage that it not there?
Jesus destroys this doctrine of eternal torment in blazing flames of fire that never ends. Again, many discard the context in order to get the proper meaning. Beginning in verse 16, Jesus is preparing the disciples that they will experience persecution and possibly be killed (martyrdom) for spreading his message to others. He was not instilling fear in them, rather, Jesus was encouraging them not to fear what the people can do to them. The basic message to his disciples was: “You do not need to be afraid of people or the temporary harm they can do to you. Instead, fear God because He has the power to destroy or save you for all eternity.” So the disciples were to understand that though someone can physically take their life, which results in a temporary sleep (Mark 5:35, 39; John 11:11-14) but when God destroys one in hell, the result is eternal death, never to live again.
The word “hell” that Jesus refers to in the verse is “Gehenna,” which was the garbage heap of fire burning in the valley outside of Jerusalem. This is symbolic of what scripture calls “the lake of fire,” the second death. The second death is an irreversible death where there is no hope of life ever. (Rev. 2:11, 20:6, 14, 21:8). It is complete destruction - annihilation of the whole person who ceases to exist. “…they shall be as though they had not been” (Obadiah 1:16).
This concept of dualism is not from scripture. Its roots are founded in Greek philosophy, from Greek philosophers, whose teachings have plagued the church by separating mankind into two components: the body (the physical) and the soul (an immaterial part of a person that can never die).
Would it surprise you that those who support soul immortality will say that the word “perish” does not really mean perish? The word “perish” in the Greek is "apollumi." It is also sometimes translated as “destroyed” and “lost” throughout the New Testament.
There are two things we must remember when it comes to the word “destroy,” because in the bible there is a primary meaning and a secondary meaning.
Primary: The primary meaning has to do with death, to lose life, to come to an end, or to suffer complete ruin or destruction, destroyed.
Secondary: The secondary meaning of the Greek word that is translated as perish is also translated as “lost.”
Thus, in the secondary meaning, we have the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 10). There is the lost son in the parable (Luke 15). We have fragments that were left over after feeding the five thousand that were gathered so nothing should be lost (John 6:12). There is the lost coin in the parable that a woman found (Luke 15:9). We can understand that “lost” in the secondary meaning does not have the primary meaning in the strong sense as to literally kill or wipe out. To use the word “destroy” in the primary meaning in all cases would be ludicrous. We are not so naive to think that the “lost sheep” really means “destroyed sheep,” or the “lost coin” a “destroyed coin.” In cases like this, we must ignore the primary meaning. Context will determine the meaning.
We must also remember that “perish” does not mean everlasting torment where the wicked live in a state of conscious miserable existence in flaming fires, but rather to suffer death, to suffer complete ruin and destruction. Notice the contrast between perish (death) and life (everlasting life) in the following verse:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish (Gk: apollumi; be destroyed), but have everlasting life (i.e., the life of immortality in the coming kingdom for those who know God).
John also testifies in the same sense. Notice that in the Son we have eternal life and the consequence of not having the Son is to not have life:
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life. (1 John 5:11-12)
If one does not have life, how can those who do not have life still be living, much less, in fiery torment?
The following verses will show the primary meaning of destroy or destruction. It is not a comprehensive list, but enough to show it means what it says:
Psalm 1:6 “But the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Nothing about life forever in fiery torment.)
Psalm 37:20 “But the wicked shall perish… they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” (Nothing about the wicked who will be consciously tormented and never be “consumed.”)
Ps. 34:16, 21 “evil brings death to the wicked.” (Nothing about life continuing in hell where they still live.)
Psalm 92:7 “… shall be destroyed forever.” (Primary meaning, nothing about “living forever.”)
Prov. 24:20 “the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.” (Meaning to die, but the traditional view of hell says they will not be snuffed out or die.)
Isa. 1:28, 30–31 “rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” (Still self-explanatory.)
Obadiah 1:16 It will be as if the evil “had never been.“ (How can the wicked “still be” if they are still alive and and consciously tormented in hell for all eternity if they are as if they “had never been?”)
Mal 4:1 “All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.” (Right here it says the wicked will be destroyed by fire and there will be nothing left. This means they no longer exist. This is annihilation. Is the LORD Almighty mistaken? The traditional teaching of hell goes against the words of God Himself!)
Matthew 10:28 “Rather, fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Traditional view says God will not destroy, but rather that the dead continue to live in eternal conscious hell.)
John 3:16 “…whosoever believes in him should not perish…” (Jesus must be mistaken because people do not really perish, they just continue to live forever in hell.)
Philippians 3:19 “whose end is destruction…“ (Not eternal torment.)
2 Thessalonians 1:9 “who shall be punished with everlasting destruction …” (Not eternal torment.)
1 Cor 3:17: “God will destroy that person” (Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
2 Cor 2:15-16: “those that perish” (Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death.” (Opposite of eternal life in hell.)
Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” (Same meaning: utter disaster, ruin, or destruction.)
2 Peter 2:3: “Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Revelation 20:14 “This is the second death…”
All has to do with destruction, to be destroyed. Nothing about still living in eternal torment in flames that never go out. It is destruction, the second death.
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