Revelation 20:10 The Final Judgment

Revelation 19:20-21

And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

The harlot was Babylon, and she already died. Who’s left in chapter 19 are the beast, the false prophet, the devil, and the kings of the earth. They wage war against the rider on the white horse and His army, while the devil is nowhere to be seen. The beast and the false prophet are captured, bound up, and thrown into the lake of unquenchable fire. The rest of the armies were killed by the sword of the eternal Word, Jesus; and He made sliced bread for the birds to eat at the great supper of God (Rev 19:17).

The beast, which symbolically represents the world’s evil system, and the false prophet, which symbolically represents false religion, will be thrown into the lake of fire at the end of the age. The people who will wage war against the Lamb in verse 21 are not said to be thrown into the lake of fire at this time. Instead, it says that they were killed with the sword that comes from the mouth of Jesus, and the birds will eat their flesh. What Jesus spoke into existence and breathed life into, He will also take away with His mouth as He pronounces condemnation to take away their lives.

Revelation 20:10

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Notice first of all that Revelation 20:10 does not mention anything about people being tormented day and night forever and ever. It is rather the devil, the beast, and the false prophet who are described as going into this condition. In the previous chapter, the judgement of the beast and the false prophet are mentioned as being thrown alive into the lake of fire but the very next verse says, “and the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh” (v. 21).

Revelation 20 is a similar scenario to the battle in Revelation 19. All the nations gathered together to make war against the Lamb and it says that “fire came down from heaven and devoured them” (v. 9). After the fate of these people are mentioned, John describes the fate of the devil. The question we must ask here is whether the description of being tormented day and night forever and ever is in reference to the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, or, if this also includes the people who were devoured by fire. The natural reading from the immediate context indicates that it is the unholy trinity who will be the ones tormented. But the people who are thrown into the lake of fire at the final judgment, it says nothing about torment or forever and ever. At the very least, this could leave open to interpretation the fact that the devil may have a different punishment than the rest of mankind. But I don’t take that position, as I believe the lake of fire just means death.

As I mentioned before, these characters are symbolic entities. That is, at least the beast and false prophet are, representing the kingdoms of this world and false religion against God. So, you tell me, can kingdoms and false religions be tormented forever and ever? That obviously does not make a lot of sense if we interpret that literally, does it? This then leads us to take a more symbolic interpretation since elsewhere we are told that “death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14). How does one throw death into the lake of fire if it is only a concept? Or Hades, if it is a place? In this case, we would have to conclude that these two things are symbolic and not personal individuals, which also gives further support to view the unholy trinity as symbolic.

However, it does seem difficult to see the devil being symbolic here. Though, in current Christian lingo, we often say that the devil did this or Satan did that, when we just mean that him and his rebellious followers brought about those things, not that Satan himself was present doing that thing in person. I believe that the New Testament writers often spoke that way too when referring to the devil (e.g. 1 Thess 2:18; Eph 4:27; 6:11; 1 Pet 5:8; Jas 4:7; Acts 10:38). His name means “the adversary,” and the powers that are with him are part of his collective power. In that sense, we could say that the devil just means his collective power.

It is also possible for the words “devil” and “beast” to be symbolic but also literal in a sense. That is, the devil and the beast are figurative symbols, while Satan himself and the Antichrist are the literal representative heads of these symbols. So then would the torment language of forever and ever be describing these symbols or these individuals?

No matter how you slice it, I don’t have a problem with any of those interpretations, since that still does not change the fact that we are looking at prophetic idiomatic language that is hyperbolic, even as I described in the previous chapter of my book. That interpretation is backed by interpreting like prophetic judgement language with like prophetic judgment language. It is a sound hermeneutic to use. This is far from eisegesis.

2 Thessalonians 2:8 could give us a clue as to the beast’s fate. Is he literally tormented forever and ever? It says, “Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;”

This is in reference to the antichrist (‘the man of lawlessness’) which I believe is the man who represents the final beast empire. The man himself is said to be killed by God’s judgement and brought to an end. It seems to me that the antichrist will cease to be forevermore at the end of the age. Daniel also says this, “yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him” (Dan 11:45).

Therefore, I think we can say with confidence that if the beast is representative of the antichrist, then the beast will not suffer torment for eternity. Revelation 17:8 says that after he comes up out of the abyss, he will “go to destruction.” Daniel 7:11 says of the beast he saw in his vision that “the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.” The interpretation of that destruction is later interpreted to mean that “his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever” (Dan 7:26).

Daniel’s beast is the same beast as Revelation’s beast. If we accept that fact, then we should come to the sound interpretation that the fire means to burn up to be no more. It does not mean eternal conscious torment. Therefore, I conclude that because the beast does not suffer eternal conscious torment because he is brought to a final end, this means that the devil will also share the same fate as the beast, since they are both in the same group. And if they’re not tormented forever, why would we think that people are? In the next chapter of my book, I will cover what the rest of the Bible has to specifically say about the devil’s fate along with demons, and it all supports this same conclusion — they will cease to have life forever.

But by now, you are probably wondering, why is this sentence even here to say that “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” if they will simply come to an end?

Is this hyperbolic language? Is it saying that they will be tormented with no foreseeable end in sight? Or is it more literal saying that they will be tormented for an infinite number of days? For the sake of argument, let’s say that the unholy trinity are personal individuals or maybe those demons who inhabited those individuals. I would find it a semi-reasonable interpretation to say that the unholy trinity will be tormented for a long time without reference to when their end will be but that they will have a final end. We know that angelic beings have different types of bodies than humans and perhaps pain is different for them. Do they even feel physical pain? I don’t know. But the symbolic fire of God’s judgement will punish them in accordance to their deeds and the weight of their deeds according to all the evil they have done and how long they have done it while they have roamed this earth. Since the devil has been doing evil for a very long time, perhaps his sentence is just as long. Or maybe, the torment of God’s judgement is turned up a few notches so that the length of his time is shortened in punishment but the punishment itself is more severe. Either way, we know that the devil will get what is coming to him in the perfect administration of God’s justice.

Another pressing question you might have is that the text says that the devil is thrown into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet “are,” possibly indicating that they had been consciously suffering there the entire one thousand years of the millennium before the devil is cast into the lake of fire at the final judgement.

But are the beast and the false prophet still alive? Or were they burned up? Is it just their corpses that are left there? Their ashes? It says that “they” will be tormented day and night. “They” is plural. So it seems that the unholy trinity will all suffer for a long time. But I’m not a Greek scholar so I can’t dissect this passage to affirm whether some of these words and tenses are warranted from the original text. From my observation though, “they” isn’t a word included here in the Greek. It’s simply the word for torment. The word “are” isn’t in the original text either. This is getting quite suspicious, Sherlock.

However, let’s assume for a minute that “they” is true to the text and that they will all be tormented “day and night forever and ever.” Is this hyperbolic/idiomatic language? Yes. Could the “forever and ever” be interpreted as total destruction like in Isaiah 34:10? I believe so. Could it mean age to age? Or, age into age? That might be possible. How about, with no immediately foreseeable end in sight although there will be an end? That could be a possibility. Or what if it means unto finality? Or, unto completion? There are many other ways this could possibly be interpreted without making a logically fatal error of a literal interpretation.

We must keep in mind that the things described here are the things in which John saw in a vision and wrote down. Therefore, the more literal we go with our interpretation of the book of Revelation, the less likely it is to be true. Or, the more likely we are to err. I would not, therefore, take this passage as a proof-text for eternal conscious torment, especially considering all the clear texts we have everywhere else that clearly explain God’s judgment as being annihilation / being made unalive.

So what is the “are” about? “where the beast and the false prophet are also.”? As I said, the word is not in the original text, so what this verse really means is that the devil was thrown into the same lake of fire that the beast and the false prophet had also been thrown into. But it mentions nothing about them still being alive and nothing about how the devil may still be alive once he is cast into it. That’s just presumption.

The Second Death

Finally, my last point that the lake of fire is a symbol of God’s divine judgement and not an actual place, is in the fact that the lake of fire is called “the second death.” Meaning, it’s like the first death, but a second time. The first death was to be made unalive physically. The second death is to be made unalive spiritually and totally. One is a symbol and the other is literal. If we examine the various times that Revelation gives us interpretations of the symbol, it says something like, “which is,” “this is,” “are,” “which are,” etc.

Example: “the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (21:8).

Or, “This is the second death, the lake of fire” (20:14).

Examine these passages to compare: Rev 1:20; 4:5; 5:8; 11:4; 12:9; 20:2; 13:6; 17:9-10; 17:12; 17:15; 17:18; 19:7; 7:13-14; 20:15; 21:8. Below, the symbols and their interpretations are given.

In the book of Revelation, there is the symbol and the interpretation given to us of what is literal. In this case, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. The seven lampstands are the seven churches. The seven lamps of fire burning before the throne are the seven Spirits of God. The golden bowls of incense are the prayers of the saints. The two witnesses are the two olive trees and two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. The dragon is the devil and Satan. God’s tabernacle are those who dwell in heaven. The heads and mountains are kings. The horns are kings. The waters are various peoples, nations, and languages. The harlot woman and Babylon are the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then finally, the lake of fire is the second death.

What do you take away from all of this? Most of the interpretations here that John freely gives us are literal things, and if you’ve studied the book of Zechariah, you know that the seven Spirits of God are God’s presence throughout the whole earth. For these reasons, it may make the most sense to interpret the second death as a literal reality as well. What would make the least sense would be to interpret the first thing he mentions, “the lake of fire” as the literal, while interpreting the second thing he mentions, “the second death” as symbolic. However, this is exactly how many people who believe in eternal conscious torment decide to interpret it. They think many if not most people are literally going to be burning in hell in extreme agony forever and ever. Meanwhile, they see death and perishing as a continual state of always dying and rotting away but never actually being made unalive. That is a very symbolic interpretation of death, one in which I believe the stylistic writing of Revelation simply does not allow.

The lake of fire is just the symbol of divine judgement, as rivers flow into lakes; thus, this is the final destination—the final judgement, “if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:11-15). The river of fire that flowed from the throne of God in Daniel’s vision, is the same fire that we now see in Revelation as a lake. The beast was destroyed in the river of fire in Daniel’s vision and now in Revelation, everything else is destroyed in the lake of fire. But even as the destruction of the beast in Daniel’s vision meant annihilation, so also whatever is thrown into the lake of fire means annihilation as well.

In conclusion:

I take the interpretation that Revelation 20:10 is using idiomatic prophetic imagery language to convey the finality or completeness of their punishment similar to how Isaiah 34:10 uses this kind of language to describe smoke ascending “forever” in the destruction of Edom (cf. Rev. 14:10-11). Given the prophetic/symbolic type of literature this is, there is no warrant from the Biblical text that would make a literal interpretation to be a necessary interpretation. All indications point to the contrary. Because of these reasons, I do not believe Revelation 20:10 proves the doctrine of eternal conscious torment. And up to this point, any arguments that they have in support of their view is completely underwhelming.

Note: To understand the time and place that Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15 are referring to about the wicked people who are outside the kingdom of God, read my article on the Millennium.

Bonus Section from my Revelation Commentary

(Though, I have made a few edits and additions)

The devil will be thrown into the lake of unquenchable fire, the fire that the beast and false prophet had also been thrown into, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Rev 20:7-10)

This is hyperbole/prophetic idiom for irreversible judgement. It is symbolic imagery to convey that God will remove all the torments from the earth forever and ever. We cannot apply a literal hermeneutic here because if we were to be consistent with that method, then we might have to apply that to the blood and flesh of those that Jesus previously killed for supper, and would come to the strange conclusion that Jesus literally made bread and wine from people. But that would be ridiculous. Thus, this is not about what literally happens—it’s about tasting sweet justice. It’s a feeling—a sensation—an emotional release. The devil will get whatever is coming to him according to God’s perfect standard and measure of justice. This verse was not meant to be thought about analytically, it was meant to be felt, because all the suffering and injustices of the world have led up to this point, and this is the end of it all, and the start to a new beginning for those loyal to the Lamb.

Another way we can see this is to think of:

Babylon the great as representing that old Babylonian empire

King Nebuchadnezzar as an antichrist type and who is one of the kings of the earth

Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendego as the faithful saints who refuse to worship idols

The king with his soldiers representing the power and dominion of the beast empire

Revelation has so many allusions back to the book of Daniel. I truly think this is another one of them.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s rage for people refusing to worship the statue image he made, he threw those three saints into his fiery furnace, in which he stoked the flames up to be seven times hotter. But Revelation has an ironic twist to that story. Now, at the end of all things, God gets His justice for all the believers who were persecuted and martyred under the devil and all those who followed after him. Just as Jesus said, “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Mt 7:2). And so, what does the Lamb do? Well, just like how those three faithful men were bound up and thrown into the fiery furnace, the Lamb binds up the devil and all his followers, and throws them into the fiery furnace. That’s what you call poetic justice.

It is the end of the story that Daniel was never able to finish.

Except in this case, it’s not an actual furnace, it’s a lake of fire (symbolically), representing the power of God’s presence, which we saw in Daniel 7:9-10 of the fire that flows from God’s throne, and in which Deuteronomy 4:24 says that “God is a consuming fire.” Like a fragile plant that gets too close to the heat of the sun and becomes scorched by the intensity of its rays, so also God’s presence is to the flesh of mankind whose bodies have not been cleansed and purified by the blood of the Lamb. They are burned up and turned to ash and their life force is returned back to God as the source of all life, even as Solomon said, “the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7).

There is one more prophetic image of final judgement that John’s vision alludes to, and it’s about the final war of Gog and Magog. As I just mentioned, all the armies that came to gather themselves against God and against His holy city were destroyed without human agency. Fire came down from heaven and devoured them (20:9). Now, if you’re familiar with the book of Daniel, you will recall in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue dream that the feet of the statue were partly mixed with iron and partly mixed with clay. It is the iron and clay kingdom. But there was this stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, and it struck the feet and destroyed the entire statue, which represents all the kingdoms of this world that rise up against God (Dan 2). Once the statue was pulverized by the stone hitting it, that stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This piece of burning brimstone came directly from above, from the mountain of God, Mount Zion, and the throne of God. The kingdoms of this world will be destroyed without human agency, just like Daniel said, and the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth as Mount Zion comes down from heaven.

When that statue is destroyed, all the kingdoms of this world fall down with it. It says that they “were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found” (Dan 2:35).

This is what the final judgement in Revelation 20 is describing. The kings and kingdoms of this world gather together against God in the final battle of Gog and Magog, then they are all utterly destroyed by God’s fire so that they are consumed until nothing is left. This is what God’s final judgment brings about: the annihilation of all powers, authority, dominion, and every enemy of God. This is why death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire to be no more. Christ reigns until He puts everything under His feet. With the old heaven and earth passing away and the new heaven and earth coming, this is the summing up of all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).