Are those punished with “everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1: 9) exterminated in the “second death” of Rev. 20: 14?
There is
no thought anywhere in the Scriptures of annihilation, extermination or a
cessation of existence for man. Death, whether the first or the second, involves
change and in the latter case, finality. We read “This is the second death,
[even] the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 14; see also Rev. 21: 8). This is the final
place of torment, the “eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”
(Matt. 25: 41) but which will be the ultimate destination also of unbelieving
mankind. Significantly, the Lord Jesus Himself spoke about hell, the lake of
fire, more than any other. He described it as a place “where their worm dies
not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9: 48, see also Is. 66: 24). It is thus
for ever and ever—eternal.
English has a single noun eternity and
a single adjective eternal. NT Greek
had no such facility. To express such thoughts, Greek had to use variations of
the word age
(aiwn).
The phrase “for the ages of ages” (Rev. 20: 10) describing
the torment of the lake of fire, is word for word and letter for letter (ais touV aiwnaV twn aiwnwn)
identical to that in Rev. 4: 9 which speaks of “him that
sits upon the throne, who lives
to the ages of ages” (my
emphasis). As God is eternal, so is hell.
The
word destruction and the corresponding
verb destroy are the English
translations of the Greek words
apwleia (destruction) and
apollumi
(destroy). These words demand different English translations
depending on the context. Examples are
destruction (see Matt. 7:13; Acts 8: 20),
perdition (see 2 Thess. 2: 3; Heb. 10:
39), waste (see Mark 14: 4),
destroy (see Matt. 2: 13; Mark 2: 22),
perish (see Luke 13: 3; John 3: 16)
and lost (see Matt. 10: 39; Luke 15:
4, 6, 8, 24). In Luke 15 you could hardly say that the lost sheep, the lost coin
or the lost son was destroyed! What then is the sense of the Greek?
In
Rom 9: 22 we read of “vessels of wrath fitted for destruction (apwleia)”
where the word vessels is employed as a figure. When a
vessel is destroyed, the pieces that formed it are still all there but it ceases
to exist
as a vessel. It can no longer
serve the purpose for which the potter created it. Its condition has radically
changed and it is ruined as a vessel, no longer being able to hold any
substance. Thus in Luke 15 the sheep, the coin and the son all continued to
exist but there was a change in the state of each: the shepherd was deprived of
his sheep, the woman of her coin and the father of the company of his son. The
Greek
always involves a change of state or circumstance.
There is no thought whatsoever in the Greek of annihilation or extermination.
The word
apollumi
(destroy) is used for physical death in such Scriptures as Matt. 2:
13; 12: 14 etc. The person involved does not cease to exist but the spirit and
body are separated (see James 2: 26) and both continue in a new state. The same
verb
apollumi is often translated
perish as in “Work not [for] the food which perishes” (John 6: 27). What was
bread and food one day may be stale the next. It is lost as food to the eater
and is thus wasted. The constituent parts do not cease to exist but simply
change their form so that collectively they no longer provide food for man. The
disciples used the noun apoleia,
translated as waste
when the woman anointed the Lord with precious ointment (see Matt. 26: 8; Mark
14: 4). Their thought was that it might have been sold and the proceeds given to
the poor. They wrongly considered it wasted on the Lord. Bearing all this mind,
what then is the sense of the word
destruction in 2 Thess 1: 8?
All
that God ever does is for His own glory. The 24 elders in Revelation 4 say “Thou
art worthy, O our Lord and [our] God, to receive glory and honour and power; for
thou hast created all things, and for
thy will they were, and they have been created” (v 11). Man was created to
glorify God by doing His will. This was seen in perfection in “the days of his
flesh” (Heb. 5: 7) of the One who said “I am come down from heaven, not that I
should do my will, but the will of him
that has sent me” (John 6: 38) and who told the Father “I have glorified
thee on the earth” (John 17: 4). The
first man, however, is marred by sin and “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3: 4—the
refusal to be subject to the divine will—and thus “fitted for destruction” (Rom.
9: 22), that is,
ruined for the purpose for which he was
created. There is no thought that this destruction means cessation of
existence. However, God is “not willing that any should perish (apollumi)”
(2 Pet. 3: 9), for
the Lord said it “is the will of my Father” that through faith in Him man should
have “life eternal” (John 6: 40) and not be subject to the second death.