Table of Contents

Hell is Made Holy

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

Over 75 Free Online Bible Commentaries
Pulpit
Expositors
Keil & Delitzsch
Matthew Henry

By David Aaron Beaty

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

Chapter 7

Additional Hard Stops for the Duration of Punishment

So far we have left satan and the antichrist out of this discussion, even though Revelation 20:10 obviously pertains to them. There are additional biblical hard stops to the duration to their torment also. For these we must go outside of Revelation. These hard stops for the duration of the punishment of antichrist and satan urge us to also view Revelation 20:10 as containing nonliteral sacrifice symbolism or some other conditionalist interpretation. Bear in mind that these hard stops for the duration of the punishment of antichrist and satan, in some way may also provide additional hard stops for the duration of the punishment of wicked people. As previously mentioned, this is due to the fact that the scripture tells us that in some way the punishment for satan, antichrist, and satan's evil angel followers is a similar punishment for wicked people. As I showed previously, it's Matthew 25:41 here below that I'm thinking of:

[Matthew 25:41 WNT] "Then will He say to those at His left, "'Begone from me, with the curse resting upon you, into the Fire of the Ages, which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels.

And here below are the passages providing the hard stops for the duration of the punishment of satan, his wicked angel followers, and the antichrist:

[Genesis 3:14-15 TLV] 14 Adonai Elohim said to the serpent, "Because you did this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and above every animal of the field. On your belly will you go, and dust will you eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put animosity between you and the woman— between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

Notice here in Matthew 4 below how satan may be displaying his knowledge of both Genesis 3 above and Psalm 91 below.

[Matthew 4:5-6 WEB] 5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t. ’"

[Psalm 91:11-13 WEB] 11 For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

[Romans 16:19-20 WEB] 19 For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil. 20 And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet.

[Habakkuk 3:12-13 NASB20] 12 In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations. 13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed. You smashed the head of the house of evil To uncover him from foot to neck. Selah

[Ezekiel 28:11-19 WEB] 11 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 12 "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: "You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. They were prepared in the day that you were created. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers. Then I set you up on the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your commerce, your insides were filled with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I have cast you as profane out of God’s mountain. I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I have cast you to the ground. I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your commerce, you have profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought out a fire from the middle of you. It has devoured you. I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you. 19 All those who know you among the peoples will be astonished at you. You have become a terror, and you will exist no more. "’"

[Isaiah 27:1 WEB] In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

[Job 26:12-13 NASB20] 12 "With His power He quieted the sea, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab. 13 "By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.

[Hebrews 2:14 ESV] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

The antichrist is destroyed also:

[2 Thessalonians 2:8 WEB] Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

[Daniel 7:11 MLV] I beheld at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke. I beheld even till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and it was given to be burned with fire.

Destruction and killing of evil angels start below here:

[Jeremiah 10:11 WEB] "You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’"

[2 Peter 2:11-12 ESV] 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,

[Psalm 82:6-7 ESV] 6 I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince."

We are still not done though talking about hard biblical stops for the duration of punishment. If we peruse around the Bible a little bit more, we continue seeing the frequent pattern:

[Hebrews 10:26-27, 39 ESV] 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ... 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

In Hebrews 10 above, I have underlined some non-bold words where the author of Hebrews is quoting from the Old Testament. The quoted Old Testament passage is here below from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Great Isaiah Scroll:

[Isaiah 26:11 DSSB] Oh Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. And let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; yes, let the fire reserved for your adversaries consume them.

Recall that Isaiah 26 above, which the author of Hebrews is quoting from far above in Hebrews 10:27, is the same Isaiah 26 chapter in which the departed spirits of the wicked are punished and destroyed, never to be resurrected again. See here again below:

[Isaiah 26:14, 19 NASB20] 14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have eliminated all remembrance of them. ... 19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

With these connections in mind, what is the author of Hebrews talking about in Hebrews 10:39 far above when he says "preserve their souls"? In Hebrews 10:27, the author of Hebrews is quoting from Isaiah 26 where the spirits of the wicked are punished and destroyed, so what is he referring to when he mentions destruction and souls in Hebrews 10:39 far above? With all that taken into consideration, if Paul was the author of Hebrews as some in the early church believed, what does Paul mean here in 1 Thessalonians 5 below when he expresses his desire that the spirits, souls, and bodies of the Thessalonians be preserved complete when Jesus returns?

[1 Thessalonians 5:23 LSB] 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I've already shown the antichrist getting killed and destroyed. Here below is his army getting a dose of it on both their bodies and souls:

[Isaiah 10:16-21 ESV] 16 Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. 17

The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. 18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. 19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down. 20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

And in Matthew 10 and Mark 9, which follow, we have Jesus stating just the opposite of what most of his Aramaic speaking Israelite audience may have been hearing read aloud in the synagogues from the Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 66 in regard to Gehenna, hell:

[Matthew 10:28 WEB] Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

And here below is the Targum Jonathan version of Isaiah 66:23-24 below, which Jesus may have been correcting for his audience:

[Isaiah 66:23-24 Targum Jonathan] 23 From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all the sons of flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD. 24 And they shall go forth and look on the bodies of the sinful men who have rebelled against my Memra; for their breaths will not die and their fire shall not be quenched, and the wicked shall be judged in Gehenna until the righteous will say concerning them, We have seen enough." (Chilton, 1990, Vol. 11, pg. 128)

And here in Mark 9 below we can see Jesus confirming that Isaiah 66 above is talking about Gehenna by His identifying Gehenna as, "where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched".

[Mark 9:47-48 WEB] 47 If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, 48 ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’

As you can see in Targum Jonathan of Isaiah 66 far above, the translator from antiquity has changed the worms to "breaths", which is another way to express the concept of souls or spirits. Jesus says just the opposite in Matthew 10:28 far above, that the souls will die and not be kept alive. Could Jesus have been intentionally correcting the dishonest alteration done by the Targum translator? Was this Jesus opposing false doctrine? Jesus may have known this content of the Targum and that his audience was hearing it in the synagogues read aloud. Could this be Jesus' answer to the church today and its embracing of a long and protracted punishment for sin? You are more than halfway done reading this book! Congratulations! Thank you for reading. You have received this book at minimal cost or free, because I believe that God's word and any teaching pertaining to it should be accessible to anyone regardless of the limitations of their finances. If you believe that God has used this book to minister to you, I want to invite you to join me in this ministry with your prayers, a small bit of your labor, or a financial contribution. Please consider any of the following options to help with this ministry:

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