Eternal Fire and Punishment

Jude 7 says, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” If we correlate this text back to 2 Peter 2:6 we will see that the example they provide for us is complete destruction. They were burned to ashes. Their judgement was momentary (Lam. 4:6). If you were to go to the present-day Sodom and Gomorrah, you would find them still destroyed and the sulfur still there with no people inhabiting the cities. No one has rebuilt these cities and no one ever will. But they are not still burning to this day. Therefore, I interpret the eternal fire as illustrating the totality and finality of God’s judgement. This is in keeping with the illustrations in both Mark 9 and Isaiah 66.

Matthew 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;”
Verse 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Is the punishment eternally lasting? Yes, there is a lasting consequence of dying without Christ which is being separated from Him for eternity and ceasing to exist. The word “punishment” could also be rendered as “penalty.” The penalty of sin is eternal (cf. 2 Thess. 1:9). The penalty of sin is death. Death is the eternal or permanent condition. Whereas those in Christ will go to their permanent destination which is life. In verse 41 the fire being referred to as “eternal” may be indicating that this fire is unquenchable, it will not be put out and will therefore completely consume and burn up that which goes into it. It is the punish-ment that is eternal—not the punish-ing.

It isn’t a necessary interpretation to see eternal in the sense that people will be there eternally. It is certainly possible that the fire might be eternal in time yet those who enter in are not subject to that same eternality of existence. This is logically permissible. But someone might say, wouldn’t believers be subject to this same interpretation that entering into eternal life doesn’t necessarily mean that they will live on eternally if unbelievers going into eternal punishment doesn’t necessarily mean that they will live on for eternity? Yes. But understand all the things I’ve said before about the soul not being inherently immortal. The reason we will be immortal in heaven is because of God granting immortality to us and because we draw our immortality from the tree and water of life who is the source of all good things—Jesus Christ. Hell doesn’t have Jesus and so all who go there will perish. They will not receive immortal resurrection bodies. However, how I interpret the text here is that the end of the righteous will be permanent in heaven and the end of the wicked will be permanent in their destruction in hell. To say it another way, the everlasting result of the wicked is their punishment of hell while the everlasting result of the righteous is their entrance into life.

Here's another way to look at Matthew 25:46. There is eternal punishment and eternal life. These two things are contrasted. But this contrast isn’t of necessity meant to be opposites in reality. That is, just because the righteous will live forever, that doesn’t mean that the unrighteous will also live forever. Think about Luke 14:26 where Jesus says that you must hate your brother to be His disciple. Now did He literally mean that you must hate your brother in accordance with how we see this word in our modern day? No, of course not. Sometimes the Bible draws contrast between two opposing ideas like love and hate but this doesn’t mean that we are to interpret hate in its most literal form. In the same way, the Bible draws contrast between eternal life and eternal punishment, but this doesn’t mean that we are supposed to view eternal punishment as literally opposite in every way of what eternal life is. Wisdom is to know the difference between contrast and opposites. To say it can only be this or only be that is a false dichotomy.