What is the Lake of Fire?

John sees a vision where “beings” are thrown into the lake of fire. But the vision symbolizes the destruction of the things the “images” or “beings” represent in real life. “Death”, “Hades” and the “Beast” are not persons – they represent something. The beast represents Rome, and at times maybe Rome’s emperor. So how literally are we to take this vision?

Earlier John saw a woman dressed with the sun and chased by a dragon (12:1-4), a monster with seven heads (13:1-4), a resurrected lamb with seven eyes (5:6), and many more symbolic images. Is the lake of fire symbolic? Could a literal lake of burning sulfur affect a spiritual being? How literal can this lake be when the abstract entity of death is thrown in, or when the clearly symbolic beast is thrown in?

If the lake of fire is symbolic, what is it symbolic of? Is it symbolic of God himself, who is the “consuming fire”, or the “refiner’s fire” that will purify and “purge them as gold and silver” (Mal. 3:2-3)? The fire’s purpose in Malachi was so that the people refined by it “may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness,” (Mal. 3:3)

The imagery of the “lake of fire” is borrowed from Isaiah 34:

“Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.”

But does the smoke still ascend from Edom? No. So we learn that this passage is a poetic use of exaggerated language. The smoke in fact does not “ascend forever.”

Therefore Isaiah 35 promises a restoration:

“Waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water”

So what is the lake of fire? What happens to death when it is thrown into this lake? Is death tormented? Or is death destroyed? Why would not the rest who are thrown in simply be destroyed? Or does it mean that when death is destroyed, only life is left, and thus God will “make all things new”?

If the beast represents a kingdom, how can it be tormented? How can Death and Hades be tormented? The imagery in Revelation is taken from Daniel 7, and it plays a big role in interpreting who/what the beast of Revelation is. Daniel’s vision doesn’t mention any “torment”.

Babylon was tormented, yet it was destroyed. (Rev 18:7-16). Should the vision in Revelation 20:10 really define the angel’s earlier declaration in Revelation 17:11, that what the beast represents is headed for “destruction,” or should we take the opposite approach – that destruction is not destruction at all, but it is a continual existence in torment?

And why do we assume that those who are thrown therein will suffer the same consequences as the devil? The devil, the beast, and the false prophet “shall be tormented day and night – to the ages of the ages”, according to Revelation 20:10. But John doesn’t mention any torment when those who were not written in the book of life were cast in. We only assume that they will be tormented forever, which Revelation doesn’t say. Rather, they will be “judged, each one according to his works,” (Rev. 20:13). And this is “the second death” (20:15).

And how will we interpret Revelation 20 in light of chapters 21 & 22? There we see God making all things new, and there will be “no more death, nor sorrow”. And the gates of the New Jerusalem will never be shut. Why? The sinners are outside the city, yet the gates are always open, and the Spirit and the bride urge the outsiders to enter and drink of the water of life, and eat of the tree of life which were for “the healing of the nations”. And “the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it”. Throughout Revelation, the “nations” and the “kings of the earth” represent those who are in war against the Lamb. But now they will enter the city?