3100.—"Unending Torment"
By Editor
Please explain Rev. 20:10. Does the text teach unending torment? Please answer for the satisfaction of a sincere person in doubt. The text contains one of the very strongest expressions in all the Word of God concerning the awful doom of the wicked. This we can not answer in full here, but refer our querist to Bible Students' Library, No. 111, entitled "Tormented Forever and Ever," the cost of which is one cent. It is very clearly shown in that little publication that the word "tormented" in the original Scriptures means "testing." It is God's great final test brought to bear upon the wicked, and that great final test is the world itself set on fire by the very presence of God. See Isa. 30:33. We read in 1 Cor. 3:13 that "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is," and in Isa. 30:33, that the last great fire will be kindled by the presence of God's glory. Those who are in harmony with God will be unharmed in that fire, even as were the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, and even as the prophet declares in Isa. 33:14, 15. That fire shall purify the earth, will burn up all traces which sin has left upon it; and then from the ashes shall spring a new heavens and a new earth. And thenceforth will be heard in God's universe no more crying, nor blasphemy, nor sin, nor wickedness of any sort; but that very spot in God's universe which has felt the curse of sin the heaviest will know God's glory in its abundant fulness. See the chapters in Revelation which follow.