LAKE OF FIRE

This expression occurs only in the book of Revelation and is clearly symbolic. The Bible gives its own explanation and definition of the symbol by stating: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.”—Rev. 20:14; 21:8.

Since the lake of fire represents the “second death” and since Revelation 20:14 says that both “death and Hades” are to be cast into it, it is evident that the lake cannot represent the death man has inherited from Adam (Rom. 5:12) nor does it refer to Hades (or Sheol), since Hades, along with death, is to be destroyed in the lake of fire. It must, therefore, represent a destruction that is eternal and which will always be available to receive any who at any future time should merit destruction by God. It is, therefore, symbolic of a death without reversal, for the record nowhere speaks of the lake as giving up those in it, as do Adamic death and Hades (Sheol). (Rev. 20:13) Thus, those not found written in “the book of life” are hurled into the lake of fire or second death, as are Satan and the symbolic “wild beast” and “false prophet.”—Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 15.

While the foregoing texts and all the surrounding language in the book of Revelation make evident the symbolic quality of the lake of fire, it has been used by some to represent a literal place of fire, and Revelation 20:10 has been appealed to as substantiating evidence, in that it speaks of the Devil, the wild beast and the false prophet as being “tormented day and night forever and ever.” The word “tormented” here translates the Greek word ba·sa·niʹzo. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964, edited by G. Kittel, Vol. 1, pp. 561-563) states that its infinitive form “means strictly ‘to test by the proving stone’ (βάσαυος [baʹsa·nos]), i.e., ‘to rub against it,’ ‘to test the genuineness of,’ ‘to examine or try,’ then ‘to apply means of torture to find the truth,’ ‘to harry or torture’ in a hearing or before a tribunal. In the N[ew] T[estament] it is found only in the general sense of ‘to plague’ or ‘to torment.’” As evidence, texts such as Matthew 8:6, 29; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28; 2 Peter 2:8 and Revelation 12:2 are cited. Similar points are made regarding the related words ba·sa·nis·mosʹ (Rev. 9:5; 18:7) and ba·sa·ni·stesʹ. (Matt. 18:34) Of ba·sa·ni·stesʹ the above-mentioned work states that it “does not occur in the N[ew] T[estament] in the original sense of a ‘tester’ but it is found once in Mt. 18:34 in the sense of a ‘tormentor.’” Since a jail was often a place of torment, the jailer was at times called the “tormentor” (ba·sa·ni·stesʹ) as at Matthew 18:34. Those cast into the “lake of fire” go into “second death” from which there is no resurrection, hence are ‘jailed’ or restrained in death and as though in the custody of jailers, “tormentors,” as it were, throughout eternity. That a condition of restraint can be spoken of as torment is seen by the parallel accounts at Matthew 8:29 and Luke 8:31.—See GEHENNA.