• Table of Contents
  • What you must know to read and understand this book
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: The Purpose of this Book
  • Chapter 2: The Dead Sea Scrolls Textual Variant
  • Chapter 3: The Dead Sea Scrolls Variant Points to the Old Testament Sacrifices
  • Chapter 4: The Second Coming Fulfills the Old Testament Sacrifices
  • Chapter 5: The Wicked are a Sacrifice
  • Chapter 6: The Meaning of the Sacrifice Symbolism in Isaiah 34
  • Chapter 7: Additional Hard Stops for the Duration of Punishment
  • Chapter 8: The End of the Wicked is Ashes Outside the City, Not Endless Torment
  • Chapter 9: The Wicked of the Sea are No More
  • Chapter 10: More "αἰῶνας αἰώνων" Pointers to Ashes, Dead Souls, and Second Coming Judgment
  • Chapter 11: Hell is Made Holy and Poetic Justice is Served
  • Chapter 12: The Language of Action with Endless Results and Finite Duration
  • Chapter 13: Final Interpretation and Checking the Answer in the Back of the Book
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography

Hell is Made Holy

How the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Revelation show that the wicked and hell cease to exist

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Over 75 Free Online Bible Commentaries

By David Aaron Beaty

Visit author’s web site at www.davidaaronbeaty.com

Chapter 1

The Purpose of this Book

The ongoing debate today between those holding to the conditionalist^G view of hell versus the traditional view of hell usually follows a fairly consistent pattern. Of course, the conditionalist^G or annihilationist^G view involves the wicked finally ceasing to exist altogether body and soul, and the traditional view is endless torment for eternity. In most debates, the conditionalist^G debater provides a large volume of scripture verses very clearly describing the death of the souls of the wicked, their ultimately being no more, and their finally being ashes at the final fulfillment of all biblical end times prophecy. The traditionalist's^G most effective responses usually consist of only just a few of the most stubborn verses in scripture. These verses, at face value, are a stark and seemingly undeniable contradiction to the pile of scripture verses just presented by the conditionalist^G. Many listeners of the debate leave with some degree of confidence in the conditional view because of the sheer number and clarity of the passages presented by the conditionalist^G debater. Some of the listeners remain unwilling to abandon the traditional view though. Even those who come away from the debate feeling some confidence in the conditional view are many times still left with some doubt. The passages which most often keep people holding on to the traditional view, or just keep them having some doubt about the conditional view, are Revelation 14:10-11 and Revelation 20:10:

[Revelation 14:11 WEB] The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

[Revelation 20:10 WEB] The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Many very effective and very convincing passages, which are external to the two passages above, can be given by the conditionalist debater which demonstrate that the two passages above cannot describe endless torment. For example, similar language is found in Revelation 19:3 about the destruction of Babylon, but then we see in Revelation 18:21, Babylon will be "no more". It won't be sitting there smoking and burning for all endless time:

[Revelation 19:3 WEB] A second said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever."

[Revelation 18:21 WEB] A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.

Arguments like this are effective, and there are many of them, but even these still leave the doorway open for some doubt about the judgment of the wicked. If Revelation 14:10-11 and Revelation 20:10 are not describing endless torment, then what is the direct explanation as to why they use language which so strongly seems to support it?: "the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever", "they will be tormented day and night forever and ever". It would seem that a direct explanation as to why this language is used would be very useful. One of the primary goals of this book will be to make a best effort attempt to provide a direct explanation for these two passages. Many attempts at this have been undertaken, but I believe God may have shown this author a few new things to add to this topic which are very revealing.

As promised in the book synopsis, I will also focus on discussing Old Testament passages which John has intentionally linked to Revelation to explain his narrative. He creates these connections by borrowing phrases and words which are also used by the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint^G, and the ancient Aramaic^G translations of Old Testament books called the Targums^G. The Septuagint^G was likely the primary written Bible of the literate people in John's audience, and many of John's audience would have also been listening to the readings of the Aramaic^G Targums^G in the Jewish synagogues. As such, John extensively used words and phrases which also appear in the Septuagint^G and the Targums^G in his text of Revelation to connect his ancient audience to the meaning of his narrative. These connected passages may provide new information for many modern readers on the topic of hell, even those who have devoted a significant amount of time studying the topic. This is primarily due to the fact that the modern church has discarded the Septuagint^G and the Targums^G because of their imperfections. The imperfections of the Septuagint^G and the Targums do not change the fact that they contain content which John re-used in Revelation. Their imperfections do not change the fact that they contain potentially very valuable explanations of the content which John has used from them. This means that they are well worth exploring and that is what we will do. I hope you will enjoy this journey, and with that let's dive in!