V. Stock Objections Invoked Collapse Under Scrutiny
In both Testaments there are certain stock-objection texts that are always invoked. Three such passages in the Old Testament—Isaiah 33:14; Isaiah 66:24; and Daniel 12:2—are pressed into service by those contending for the Eternal Torment of the wicked.CFF1 115.5
1. Isaiah 33:14—CONTENTION COLLAPSES UNDER SCRUTINY
The first of the three texts reads: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”CFF1 115.6
These words are often brought forth by Immortal-Soulists as describing the torments of the lost, and to impress one with the torrid glare of the pitiless prospect of eternal misery. But even a cursory glance at the context will show that the future state is not under discussion in this text. It is simply a portrayal of the insufferable temporal miseries being inflicted upon Israel by her enemies and by God’s threatened retribution. It is an exclamatory expression to the effect that no one can endure such burnings—a strong negative, to indicate that what is doomed to fire cannot continue to exist; that none can dwell with such devouring flames.CFF1 115.7
The passage has no relation to the fate of the lost, but rather to the desolation of Palestine by the Assyrians. Isaiah 33:10-12 describe Sennacherib’s invading army, even threatening Jerusalem itself but nevertheless awaiting sudden and utter destruction, as already foretold in Isaiah 27:4—when the Lord would “go through them” and “burn them together.” And the fulfillment is portrayed in Isaiah 37:36, when the angel of the Lord “smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they [the Israelites] arose early in the morning, behold, they [the Assyrians] were all dead corpses.” That is a simple statement of historical fact.CFF1 116.1
According to the ancient custom of the Eastern nations these bodies were to be burned. The effect of this display of divine power was to alarm those who had not trusted in God, and to lead them to exclaim, “Who among us shall dwell with this devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with these everlasting burnings?”CFF1 116.2
These words have not the remotest reference to future retribution in Gehenna, only to present punishments on earth. They echo the outcries of terrified sinners in Jerusalem who feared that the perpetual conflagrations of war and the devastations of fire and sword by the invader—and God’s wrath—would end in their own destruction, for “who can dwell in these perpetual burnings?” In Isaiah 33:10, 12 the Lord addresses them:CFF1 116.3
“Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted .... Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime [fuel for limekilns]: as thorns cut up [common Palestinian fuel for such] shall they be burned in the fire.”CFF1 116.4
Then the text in question (Isaiah 33:14) follows immediately. We would simply add that indifference to the sense of Scripture in an attempt to establish a predetermined point is unworthy of hermeneutics and is fatal to sound conclusions. The “fire” of verse 14 is manifestly the same as that of verse 12—the flame of war kindled in Palestine by the Assyrians, and God’s predicted retribution. So the first contention collapses.CFF1 117.1
2. Isaiah 66:24—CARCASSES, UNDYING WORM, UNQUENCHABLE FIRE
We next scrutinize Isaiah 66:24: “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”CFF1 117.2
The scene is set in Isaiah 66:22, 23: “For as the new heavens and new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” and “all flesh” shall come to worship before the Lord. Then follows the declaration of the verse quoted. The “worm” and the “fire” in this passage can only legitimately symbolize the utter destruction of dead and insensible “carcases,” or corpses, as expressly stated. The text does not therefore support the theory of an eternal, conscious suffering of sentient, disembodied souls of the living damned, which have been consigned to an ever-burning hell.CFF1 117.3
Any attempt to deduce the immortality of the lost from this text must first assume the indestructibility of “carcases.” But an unquenchable fire is not necessarily one that will not ultimately go out. Rather, it is one that must consume and destroy until nothing remains (cf. Jeremiah 7:20).CFF1 117.4
The clause, “their worm shall not die,” unquestionably signifies that the worms shall not cease to be until their sordid mission has been accomplished. The contention of eternal, conscious, human suffering could be sustained only by taking out the word “die,” in the sense of ceasing to live, because only as so taken, with a negation, could the passage be construed to speak of eternal suffering.CFF1 117.5
And it is of course obvious that such “worms” are not endowed with immortality, or with powers of continuous reproduction throughout eternity in a blazing fire. We repeat that a “fire” that never shall be “quenched” does not necessarily mean it must burn forever. Jude, in verse seven, declares that Sodom and Gomorrha are set forth as examples of eternal fire. But Peter tells us that they were turned into ashes, “condemned ... with an overthrow [Gr. katastrophe]” (2 Peter 2:6). Thus Jude’s “eternal fire” is equivalent to Peter’s “ashes.” It signifies ultimate extinction.CFF1 118.1
“Unquenchable fire” is therefore a fire that is destined ultimately to go out, but that cannot be put out until it has consumed all upon which it feeds. It thus denotes inevitable and utter destruction, and the eternal results of such awesome punishment. With this agrees Christ’s solemn New Testament declaration that He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43, 45).CFF1 118.2
The “abhorring” clearly refers to the nauseous spectacle of the putrefying “carcases.” The reference to the “worm” is not to the remorse of a tormented conscience as some contend, but to literal maggots (Hebrews tola’), bred in putrid substances (Exodus 16:20; Deuteronomy 28:39; Isaiah 14:11). And it is to be noted that the “worm” is distinct from that upon which it feeds. The allusion is unmistakably to the ghastly scenes of the ancient Valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, with its flames and its worms—where those permitted to walk over the fields of the slain could see the vast number of the dead and putrefying bodies of their former enemies. And the case in point, in Isaiah’s time, was the 185,000 slain of Sennacherib’s host.CFF1 118.3
So it is not the immortal soul but the multitude of the dead who perished that engages the unquenchable fire and the insatiable worm. That was the Old Testament type. And in the final, antitypical fulfillment, and the punitive destruction of the wicked, there is depicted the feast for these worms at the “supper of the great God,” to which the fowls of heaven are invited (Revelation 19:17, 18). CFF1 118.4
3. DEPRIVED OF LIFE, NOT CONSIGNED TO MISERY
It is further argued that in Mark 9:43-48 Christ quotes the last two clauses of Isaiah 66:24 in proof of the eternal sufferings of the wicked in Gehenna, and thus gives divine support to the contention. But both the premise and the conclusion must be denied. Christ was not uttering words in proof of eternal suffering. Not a syllable did He express to that effect. He was warning the disciples that it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna—for it is better that one of the members should perish than the whole body be cast into Gehenna (Mark 9:43).CFF1 119.1
In Mark 9, Christ contrasts the living and the perishing. But the perishing of one member, by its being cut off, is to deprive it of life, not to consign it to endless misery. It therefore follows that the perishing of the whole body likewise results in similar but total destruction. Consequently, the persons whose worm shall not die are those who have been reduced to peger (dead corpses). So the second citation, from Isaiah 66:24, obviously does not apply to Eternal Torment.CFF1 119.2
The ancient fire of Gehenna was not a fire into which living persons were cast, to be kept alive under torture, but one into which corpses were cast to be consumed. It was not fire designed to prey upon living beings, but upon the “carcases” of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors, hence the consistency of associating fire and worm together. What portion of the dead body the fire failed to consume, the worm would seize upon and devour. Even if one were cast alive into such a fiery place (as the wicked will be cast into the coming Gehenna), his life would soon become extinct, and his lifeless remains would soon be utterly consumed by these agents of destruction. So this contention likewise collapses.CFF1 119.3
4. DANIEL 12:2—RESURRECTIONS TO LIFE AND TO JUDGMENT
The third text, often cited, reads: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth [the inspired depiction of death] shall awake [in the resurrection], some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt [thrusting away].”CFF1 120.1
The awakening of “some” clearly applies to the resurrection of the righteous, destined to eternal life. As has been shown, those doomed to shame and “everlasting contempt” are excluded from eternal life. Their brief awakening is but for the execution of the judgment. The contempt is felt by the righteous survivors after the judgment and destruction of the contemptible have been meted out.CFF1 120.2
Thus the “everlasting” applies to the righteous, and the “contempt”—or more accurately “abhorrence”—is that of the righteous over the incorrigibly wicked, who perish. This text affords one of the clearer Old Testament foregleams of the twofold resurrection—one group to life, and the other to judgment—expressly stated in the New Testament (Luke 14:14; John 5:28, 29; 1 Corinthians 15:23; Revelation 20:4, 5).CFF1 120.3
Some assert that the everlasting contempt involves the continued conscious existence of those who are the recipients of the contempt referred to. But the epithet “everlasting” is not applied to the word “shame” (“abhorrence,” R.V., margin)—the same Hebrew dera’on used in Isaiah 66:24 in referring to the corpses of the slain that lie unburied. Dera’on means “an object of abhorrence.” Hence it is not the subjective consciousness of the guilty, but the objective abhorrence in which their memory is held by others, that is declared to be everlasting (cf. Jeremiah 20:11, R.V.; Jeremiah 23:40).CFF1 120.4
5. CONCLUSION: CONTENTIONS OF THREE CITATIONS COLLAPSE
These are the stock Old Testament passages frequently cited in support of the Platonic postulate of the Eternal Torment of the wicked. But such an interpretation is in direct conflict with the prophet’s own position and testimony elsewhere. Furthermore, these three texts are declared by many of the most competent Bible scholars to have no relevancy to a supposed unending torment.CFF1 121.1
Obviously, they are “theologizing hand-downs” from Neoplatonic Christian philosophers of the third and fourth centuries. They came from men steeped in the theory of the universal, Innate Immortality of the soul, and its corresponding corollary, the Eternal Torment of the wicked. They are unworthy of valid Christian exegesis. All three contentions collapse under scrutiny.CFF1 121.2