The Doctrine of Endless Torment
By Pastor Matt Black
June 04, 2006
Lord's Day Evening
Isaiah 5:24-30
Introduction: Open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 5. The title of tonight’s message is “The Doctrine of Endless Torment.”[1]
[Read Isaiah 5:24-30]
Tonight we come to a difficult, but much neglected subject in our churches today. We are learning about the ultimate destiny of those who die without Christ. Before we get into our text, let me review the views about hell that are out there.
More and more well-known and respected Christian leaders are rejecting the historic Biblical understanding of hell. Many who call themselves Christians do not believe in the endless suffering of the wicked.
1. So the Bible’s view is “endless suffering.” Both words are Biblical and important:
· "endless"--hell is forever and never has an end--and
· "suffering"--in this endless condition people are in conscious torment.
Hell is a horrible reality. It is fearful beyond expression or imagination. Because of the awful fear of hell, there are many who are rejecting the Bible’s view.
One theologian (Clark Pinnock) who had been known for writing good, solid Biblically based books made a huge turn in what he believed. He wrote this about the change:
“I was led to question the traditional belief in everlasting conscious torment because of moral revulsion and broader theological considerations, not first of all on scriptural grounds. It just does not make any sense to say that a God of love will torture people forever for sins done in the context of a finite life . . . It's time for evangelicals to come out and say that the biblical and morally appropriate doctrine of hell is annihilation, not everlasting torment.”[2]
Another preacher in England (John Stott) who has been well respected has also rejected the Bible’s teaching on this doctrine of endless suffering. He says this:
“Emotionally, I find the concept [of eternal conscious torment] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain…”[3]
These two men, who are well known in Christian circles, are arguing that no one goes to a hell of "endless suffering." Instead, if people do not believe in Christ they are annihilated. That means they cease to exist in any sense at all. They have no consciousness and experience nothing. They are no more. They are following in a long line of false teachers who teach annihilationism: The Worldwide Church of God, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormans, and Seventh Day Adventists. Beware of these people.
Another well known figure, Billy Graham, in his book, Facing Death And The Life After says, “Many people are deceived by Satan into thinking that God is a vengeful taskmaster, ready to send to hell all those who offend Him. They can see no hope. True, God does hate sin, but He loves the sinner."[4] (p. 217, bold added)
This stands in complete opposition to all Biblical truth. And why do they reject this Biblical truth? As John Stott said, “Emotionally, I find the concept [of eternal conscious torment] intolerable.”[5]
Do you see what danger there is here? Because a doctrine is “emotionally…intolerable” it must according to these people be rejected. There are many doctrines in the Bible that are “emotionally intolerable” because my flesh and my wicked heart cannot handle the truth!
There is an enormous difference between those who teach the false doctrine of annihilation (simply ceasing to exist), and the Bible, which teaches endless suffering.
One preacher said it this way:
“The difference between suffering in hell for ever if you don't trust Christ and simply ceasing to exist is an infinite difference. Do you see that? This is no small adjustment in Biblical teaching. It is massive. The difference between not existing and existing in torment for ever is an infinite difference.
Imagine God meeting Adolf Hitler at the judgment day and saying: ‘For all your arrogance and unbelief and hatred and for all the torture and misery that you brought on millions of people my judgment of you is that from now on you will cease to exist. You will feel nothing.’ And if you think that would be a terrible thing for Adolf Hitler (or anyone else) ask yourself if you were miserable during any of the thousands of years that you did not exist before you were born. The pain you experienced for not being born would be the pain Hitler experiences if he ceased to exist, [which is no pain]… at all.”[6]
Dear friends, we can pretend that hell does not exist, but that does not change the reality, that what God says is true, and over and over again, He tells us that there is eternal, conscious torment.
The Bible is clear. Hell is a horror! It is a dreadful and profound reality. Its dreadfulness can never be overstated!
So hell is a horrid and horrible place, and it most certainly does exist. Jesus himself described hell as a literal place throughout his ministry.
Hell ought to make us shake and shudder! The whole point of this doctrine is to make us feel the dread and awesome power of God’s wrath. We are meant to recoil from this wicked world and run into the arms of Jesus Christ who died to save us from hell!!
With this in mind, let’s get into our text in Isaiah chapter 5.
The whole fifth chapter of Isaiah is dedicated to showing the ungodly fruit of apostates. An apostate is someone who says they are a believer, but ends up denying the faith! There are many who will be revealed to be apostates in the last day—they will say “Lord, Lord,” and Christ will say to them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23).
God’s going to shake the foundations of all apostates. In Israel, we are going to find out that God does this on an earthly level, by sending the legendary might of the Assyrian army to destroy them. Listen to verse 24, “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, Just as fire “licks up” the stubble and the fire falls on the chaff, so God will fall on these people. They are like a helpless piece of grass in the dry hot summer of a California forest fire! There is no hope at all for those who will go up against God. You can ignore God all your life, but there is coming a day of reckoning when you will be as helpless as a piece of dry grass in the fire!
(24) so their root shall be as rottenness, Isaiah says, this root that was hidden under the ground for so long, is going to be exposed, and God is going to expose all the unrighteousness!
Do you understand that there is coming a day when all your rottenness will be exposed?
Do you realize that what you are underneath everything is who you really are? In the root lies the strength of the tree, it is what makes stand or fall. If your roots are rotten, you will fall eternally!
(24) and their blossom shall go up as dust: That which is most beautiful in that day will be turned to dust! That which we brag about and are so prideful and arrogant about will turn to ashes on the great and mighty Day of the Lord.
(24) because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. The Law of God is what judges us. If you go your own way, you will be judged by the Law of the Lord of hosts which we all have cast away. Do you understand that in your own works you are nothing more than that which God’s Law condemns you to be: You who take God’s name in vain are blasphemers! You listen to it on the television and you do not turn away. You are blasphemers if that is the case. Turn away from that had do not despise the Law of the Lord, or the Word of the Holy One of Israel! Will you continue to tell lies to yourself and others? When will tear down your idols? You say, I have no idols! You are lying to yourself. What is it that takes all of your time? Do you know when you say YES to one thing you are saying NO to something else? What are you saying YES to? Are you saying NO to God by saying YES to other things? What about the Word and Prayer? Are you saying YES so easily things that will pass away, and wondering later where all the time went?
25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. Isaiah sees bodies lying in heaps on the streets from the Assyrian army. These people rejected the Living God, and now they have no protection. Do you realize what you do when you give into sin in your life? Do you know what you are doing when you reject God’s way for your life? You are given over to the world for it to do with you as it pleases! You don’t want that. Like the Assyrians, the world will have no mercy and leave heaps of carcasses in the streets. They will tear you to shreds and wait for more.
(25) For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. This portion of verse 25 is full of dread and fear. What God says here is even after the world has torn you up and had its way with you, you STILL have to deal with GOD! God’s hand is still stretched out, and He will grab you on that Day of Judgment. If you think the world has torn you to shreds, think of what God says in Psalm 50:22 “Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” Consider hell and it’s consequences now, before God tears you in pieces, and then there will be NO ONE who can deliver you from that place of torment.
(26) And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, If you continue to reject God, He will put a bulls eye right on you! He will lift up the flag pole of his wrath, and say to all the enemies of God, “this person is yours!” Israel was once protected by God from all the nations round about, but now God is saying, “Come and get ‘em!” Its open season—destroy Israel! Perhaps you say, I would never reject God! I just am not as religious as other people. Do you realize that by choice and “by nature” you and all people in this world are “the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). You are already flagged for God’s judgment! As Christ said in Luke 13:3, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
(26) and will hiss [WHISTLE AS IF CALLING TO BEES] unto them from the end of the earth The idea here is that God is going to whistle, that is what the word “hiss” means. God is going to call for judgment, and like a swarm of bees, you are going to be covered in an inescapable position. God promises that once He calls you for judgment “they shall come with speed swiftly.” He says “Behold!” Everyone look at this! Take note! You are going to die swiftly! You will be taken in a way unexpected to you! That is the way of the wicked. The godly are always watching, but the wicked are always caught off guard, caught red-handed in their sins!
27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Now Isaiah starts describing the Assyrian army. A weary army is an army that is easily defeated. These Assyrians are rested and ready to slaughter! Though they come from a long way, they are filled with adrenalin—they do not slumber nor sleep. They have been thinking about this. They are dressed in their uniforms tightly and with everything in order. The point is that God has raised up the Assyrians to punish these pretenders, these apostates who say they know the Lord, but will be ultimately damned.
Listen to the fearful words of the author of Hebrews in chapter 10, beginning with verse 25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
The Bible says that those who seem to receive the truth, and then turn their back on God and go back into the world, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries”—there is nothing for that person except Judgment Day! That person is eternally damned! These are people that have never been saved and cannot be saved.
Back in Isaiah 5:28, we read further about the Assyrian army that is coming… It says this is a group “Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: The horses hoof in days of old were not shod, and so these horses were like flint, which is an unusually hard substance. These horses could travel long distances. The Assyrian chariots had two wheels, and they stirred up dust like a whirlwind. The point is that Judgment Day is looming, it is apparent and obvious! It’s as plain as a cloud of dust hovering over the horizon. We see the army, we see them with their bows bent and ready, but we want a little more of our carnal ease. We need to repent and ask God, who is the only one that can stop this army, for MERCY!
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. The lion roars and scars its victim. It takes it away, and the prey thinks it is safe, but instead of safety, the lion eats his prey alive! That is what the world has done! It has roared at us, and those who fear it will be put into its mouth, and taken to a place that seems safe and pleasing. It is at that time that the world will have its way with you, and then “there will be none to deliver!” Beware of wanting the world. If the Lord gives you over to it and refuses to deliver you, you have no hope at all.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Conclusion: If you are saved today, the doctrine of eternal torment should spur you on to evangelism! If you are lost, the fact that this judgment of eternal sorrow is coming, should move you to consider the claims of Jesus Christ. Run to Christ! He is the only one who can deliver you!!
Closing Hymn: 252 Nothing But the Blood
[1] Some of the introductory material for this message is gleaned from John Piper’s The Echo and Insufficiency of Hell, preached June 14 and 21, 1992. Accessed 04 June 2006 at http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/92/061492.html.
[2] Clark Pinnock and Delwin Brown, Theological Crossfire: An Evangelical/Liberal Dialogue, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 226-7.
[3] David Edwards, Evangelical essentials, with a Response from John Stott, (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1988), 314-320.
[4] Billy Graham, Facing Death And The Life After, 1987, 217.
[5] Edwards, Evangelical essentials, 314-320.
[6] Piper, Echo., emphasis mine.