A Bible student writes, “I am sympathetic to your position of total destruction instead of everlasting conscious torment. But how do you explain the verse which says: ‘where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched?’”

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The phrase you cite first comes from Isaiah 66:24, which portrays the righteous going out of the city of Jerusalem, following God’s final judgment on the wicked, and viewing their dead corpses in the city “dump” — where maggots (“the worm”) and smouldering garbage fire (“the fire”) race to consume them. It is a scene, Isaiah says, of disgust or abhorrence (v. 24). Note that the picture includes dead corpses, not living beings. It involves shame, not pain. These are the “corpses of those whom the Lord has slain.”

Throughout the Bible, the figure of “unquenchable” fire refers to fire which cannot be resisted, and which thus completely BURNS UP whatever is put into it (Matt. 3:12; Ezek. 20:47-48; Amos 5:5-6).

During intertestamental times, this language came to be associated with the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, also known as Gehenna, the word translated “hell” in the New Testament. Gehenna is an actual place outside Jerusalem, which I viewed with my own eyes in June 1999 during a pilgrimage to Israel. Gehenna was once the site of child sacrifice (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6) and later the city “dump” for garbage and dead carcasses (Jer. 7:31-33; 19:2-13). It was a repugnant and disgusting place in biblical times, crawling with maggots and filled with sickening sights and smells.

The Jewish literature from between the Testaments (the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls) uses the word “Gehenna” to speak of the place of final punishment, although with some diversity of meaning. Most of these writers reveal an expectation of total and eternal annihilation, although one passage in apocryphal Judith clearly says the wsicked will endure conscious torment forever and a few texts in the Pseudepigrapha might suggest that fate as well.

When Jesus borrows language from Isaiah 66:24 for his own teaching (Mk. 9:48), we must read the Scripture he quotes if we wish to understand his meaning. That biblical text clearly describes total destruction, not conscious torment. Since Jesus says nothing to change the original meaning, but rather confirms it in other places (see Matt. 10:28), we are safe to leave it just as it stands.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Jesus in Luke 17:26-28

for more see Fire and Flood page

The Bible affirms that God alone has immortality as a present possession (1Tim. 1:17 c.f. 6:16). The “glory of the immortal God” is contrasted with that of “mortal man” (Rom. 1:23). For humanity, immortality is still a prize to be sought after (Rom. 2:7). It will be granted only to “those who are considered worthy” (Luke 20:34-36), to the believer in Christ alone, and then only when Jesus returns (1Cor. 15:42-54).

2. A “SOUL” IS SOMETHING WE ARE, NOT SOMETHING WE HAVE.

Meanwhile, human beings are creatures of dust (Gen. 2:7 c.f. 3:19, 18:27; Ps. 103:14). We do not have souls, we are “living souls” (Gen. 2:7), as are the animals (Gen. 1:20, 21, 24, 30, 2:19).

3. SPIRIT IS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE GIVEN TO BOTH HUMANS AND ANIMALS BY GOD.

The spirit of God inbreathed is what gives life; the outgoing of the spirit returning to God who gave it, is death for human and animal alike (Gen. 1:30, 6:17, 7:15, 22; Job 34:14-15; Psa. 104:29-30; Eccl. 3:18-21, 12:7).

4. IN DEATH ALL OF US DIES, NOT JUST PART OF US.

People are buried, not bodies. Abraham was buried (Gen. 25:8,10), as were David (1Kgs. 2:10), Stephen (Acts 8:2), even Jesus (John 19:42). The risen Christ told Mary, “I have not yet returned to the Father” (John 20:17). The committal of his spirit (Luke 23:46) was not his return to the Father. The spirit apart from the body is not the “real” you! At death the real you returns to the

dust (Reread Gen. 3:19!).

5. IN DEATH THERE IS NO CONSCIOUSNESS.

In the state of death there is no remembering (Ps. 6:5); no praising (Ps. 6:5, 115:17, Is. 38:18); no thinking (Ps. 146:4, Eccl. 9:4); no hoping (Eccl. 9:4, Is. 38:18); only silence (Ps. 115:17). The dead, good and bad alike, are said to”asleep” (Dan. 12:1-2, 1Thess. 4:13-18). Wicked Jeroboam slept with his fathers (1Kgs 14:20), as did evil Ahab (1Kgs 22:40). Faithful Job expected to “sleep in the dust” (Job 7:21). Jesus’ friend Lazarus fell asleep (John 11:11) as did the martyr, Stephen (Acts 7:60).

6. THE ONLY HOPE OF THE DEAD IS PERSONAL RESURRECTION TO LIFE.

The Bible puts forward no hope other than that of resurrection. Isaiah says, “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust; wake up and shout for joy.” (Is. 26:19). Daniel too makes this point: “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (Dan. 12:2). Paul too, puts forth the resurrection to eternal life as the only hope for the believer (1Cor. 15; 1Th. 4:13-18).

7. THE RESURECTION OF THE UNSAVED WILL BE TO JUDGEMENT AND DESTRUCTION.

The wicked will be raised, judged and condemned (Dan. 12:2, John 5:29, Acts 24:15) to die a “second death” (Rev. 2:11, 20:14). They will “consume away”; they will “be cut off”; they will

“perish”; “be burned up” and “be no more”. They “will be ashes under the soles of your feet” (Mal. 4:1, 3). The “undying worm” and “unquenchable fire” consume their corpses (Is. 66:24 c.f. Mark 9:48).

8. THE NEW ORDER OF CREATION WILL CONTAIN NO REMNANT OF SIN OR WICKEDNESS.

Ultimately, heaven and earth will be made new (Isa. 65:17, 66:22, Rom. 8:19-21, 2Pet. 3:13, Rev. 21 &22). “The earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num. 14:21, Isa. 11:9, Hab. 2:14) and “God will be all in all.” (1Cor. 15:28). There will be no corner of this universe where sinners exist forever in rebellion against him!

CONCLUSION:

Conditional Immortality takes Scripture at face value: life means life; death means death. This affects how we understand the atonement, sin and its penalty, human nature, death, resurrection, and life in immortality. It puts the hope of the Second Coming and the Kingdom of God into proper perspective: at centre stage. It makes Judgment Day, the climax of history. It affirms the reality of “hell” without impugning God’s character. It affirms God’s final victory over sin and evil. “Life Only In Christ” gives full honour to Christ as “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Do not Paul’s words, “absent from the body present with the Lord” and “to depart and to be with Christ; which is far better” show that the believer goes immediately to heaven at death?

The only comfort Paul offered the Thessalonian Church was that the dead in Christ would be resurrected when Jesus comes again (1Thess. 4:13-18). Likewise, 1Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter, puts forward no hope other than the resurrection of the dead.

Looking at 2Cor. 5:8, in context, we note the following:

1. The hope expressed in the context is that of resurrection (2Cor. 4:14);
2. The “earthly tent” is our present mortal body (5:1a);
3. The “building from God”, the “eternal house in heaven” (5:1b) is our future resurrection body;
4. The clothing metaphor (2-4) elsewhere is used of the resurrection (1Cor. 15:53-54);
5. The “swallowing up” of the “mortal” by “life” (5) also occurs at the resurrection (1Cor. 15:54);
6. It is in anticipation of this hope that we “groan” (2,4 c.f. Rom. 8:22f);
7. Paul’s use of such terms as “naked” (c.f. 1Cor. 15:36-27 with 42 and following) and “unclothed” describe the intermediate state and it is clear from the passage under consideration that Paul does not desire to be in this state (3,4) despite how Paul’s Greek contemporaries may have felt.
8. Note lastly that the context concerns our appearance before the judgment seat of Christ (10), which occurs only after Christ returns.
Paul speaks only of future resurrection from beginning to end.

So Paul’s controversial words are best understood as teaching Paul’s preference to be away from this mortal body, having put on his immortal resurrection body as a consequence of Christ having returned.

In Phil. 1:23 the use of the term “depart” suggests a journey in which the beginning is death and the end is being with Christ. The “gain” which Paul has in mind throughout the context is that which comes of dying a martyr’s death.