Destruction

Destruction of the Wicked

Part of a Series on the Nature of Hell

The predominant viewpoint within Christianity is that hell is a place of everlasting torment. This series on hell argues otherwise, on the basis that the Bible teaches annihilation rather than torment. The destruction of the wicked is a biblical theme that has been largely overlooked and/or swept under the rug.

Let us consider the word, “destruction”. There are many Bible verses that use this word in connection with the punishment of the wicked. You would think people would take more notice. But there are two commonly applied mechanisms that aid people as they dodge the evident meaning of the word. 

The first mechanism is to read destruction passages as if they only apply to earthly judgments. When there is a verse about the destruction of the wicked, the reader says to himself, “This puts this evil person or this evil nation in the grave, but the real punishment that takes place on Judgment Day is yet to come.”

The second mechanism is to read the word as an action verb. In other words, destruction is an ongoing process that never ends. But this second mechanism fails to reconcile with the meaning of the word. Destruction is an activity that can be quick (guillotine) or lengthy (death by aging). Once we get past the age of twenty-five, all of us experience the slow destruction of our bodies. But destruction is never an action that continues forever. Eventually our bodies are so destroyed that they can no longer sustain life. Something in the process of destruction will eventually arrive at its destruction. The Oxford dictionary defines it: The action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired. It’s possible for things or people to be partially destroyed, of course, but if that is the case, the word “partial” is needed. If a city is destroyed, think: Dresden. If a body is destroyed, think: dead. If a soul is destroyed, think: nothing.

As for the first mechanism, there is some truth to the observation, at least in some cases, but there are many verses that make such interpretations far-fetched. The following are verses that leave open the possibility that they are only about earthly destruction. 

Earthly Destruction

If you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. – Deuteronomy 8.19,20.

The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. – Psalm 145.20.

Many…walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, their glory is in their shame, and they set their minds on earthly things. – Philippians 3.19

While it is possible that these references are strictly about earthly punishment, it is important to see the nature of the punishment God assigns. He does not torture the wicked on earth. He does not torment them. His objective is to rid the world of them. If they had repented of their ways, as the people of Nineveh did when Jonah prophesied to them, they would have been spared. In fact, this is what Christians are: wicked people who have been spared. But those who are committed to exploitation, those committed to cruelty, those who live as parasites in a universe created by God, will not be spared. 

Historical References that Use the Language of Judgment 

The following verses are similar to those above, in that they leave room for interpretation of earthly destruction only. But note the language used. Many, especially New Testament, references use the same sort of language as these next verses, and they are interpreted as evidence for eternal torment. These historical references make clear that the language is about annihilation rather than ongoing torment. We see that the fire consumes and that the undying worm is a reference to dead bodies serving as food for them until the bodies are nothing but skeletons.

You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken. – Ezekiel 21.32

Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God. – Ezekiel 22.31

And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. – Isaiah 66.24

Metaphoric Verses That Suggest the Finality of Judgment

The wicked will perish;the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. – Psalm 37.20.

As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!– Psalm 68.2.

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. – Proverbs 12.19.

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. – John 15.6.

Notice that in each of these verses the judgment of the wicked comes to completion. First, they vanish like smoke; second, they melt like wax before fire; third, lying tongues no longer can speak; and, fourth they are burned up like branches that have been pruned or have broken off from the plant to which they had belonged. 

Destruction of the Wicked with Clear Eternal Reference 

When the wicked sprouted up like grass and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore. – Ps.92.7.

Transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off. – Psalm 37.38

Correct me, O Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. – Jeremiah 10.24.

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? – Romans 9.22.

By His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. – 2 Peter 3.7.

If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. -Hebrews 10,26,27.

…to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…                          – 2 Thessalonians 1.7-9.

Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. – Philippians 1.27-28.

Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. – Philippians 3.19-21.

Destruction of Body and Soul

The next two verses are startling because of their specific reference to souls. A common belief among Christians is that the bodies of the wicked are destroyed but that their souls are everlasting. Therefore it is their souls that will experience the everlasting torment. These verses contradict the concept that souls must be eternal. The Bible teaches that body and soul are contingent on the sustaining power of God, whether on the earth or after the resurrection. It also teaches that God will not sustain any sort of life in any who do not turn to him for their salvation.

We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. – Hebrews 10.39

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. – Matthew 10.28

Finality of the Final Judgment

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. – Revelation 11.18

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. – Revelation 15.1

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more. – Revelation 18.21

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. – Revelation 21.8.

I find Revelation 15.1 particularly compelling in that it proclaims the wrath of God to be finished. If it is finished, as John indicates, then he is not continuing to pour it out on the wicked through a process of torment. Revelation 21.8 puts an exclamation point on this by referring to the final judgment as “the second death”. What happens at the first death? Our bodies are destroyed. What happens at the second death? Life is absolutely withdrawn from the wicked. 

The Bible does not teach the everlasting torment of the wicked. God destroys the wicked because it is necessary that people commit to being holy in his Kingdom. If they will not make this commitment they must be left out. God has patiently endured the rebellion of this world. He has put up with foolishness and evil only because the world is the garden in which the saints grow. Apparently God has a certain number of saints he wants to occupy his kingdom. We don’t know what that number is but when “the banquet hall is full,” Jesus will return and this earth’s time will end. 

The Word is clear that God has no interest in tormenting the wicked, but it is also clear that wickedness is unacceptable. We all cry out for justice, though there are many different ideas about what that means. God does explain to us now what justice is. He will have it absolutely when all the people in his kingdom are both committed to justice as he presents it, and they are glorified in such a way that they are capable of always acting justly. Life in his kingdom is an amazing improvement over the life we currently experience. Life removed is a horrible subtraction. Turn to him and live.