There are two principle views among even orthodox Christians about hell. Now of course, the Bible is very clear that the wicked are punished, that there is a lake of fire.
On one side you can stack quite a few Scriptures that talk about the wicked being mortal, not immortal, that they perish, they die, they’re consumed, they are no more. Then there are some Scriptures that we feel are more nebulous, where it talks about Satan being tormented day and night forever and ever in the lake of fire.
And that of course is Revelation 20. When you put all these Scriptures side by side, it seems like the bulk of evidence is on the side that the wicked are not immortalized in hell, so that 50 billion years from now they’re still burning, and they’ve just begun.
The history of that doctrine can be traced to the Dark Ages; and the church during the Dark Ages found it was very lucrative to scare people. And they were told that they could pray even after someone died and get them out of purgatory, or they could make offerings and the priest could pray that they would not go to hell.
And the doctrine really grew out of Greek Mythology where the Jewish belief was people are going to be punished according to what they deserved and then they would perish.
There are two choices for the Christian: life and death. Satan said to Eve, ‘you will not really die.’ God said, ‘you will die.’ How many Christians, even Preachers, have taken the devil’s side? They say you don’t really die – you live forever in heaven or you live forever in hell. Eternal life does not go to those who are thrown in the lake of fire.
