The concept of eternal torment is vividly portrayed through the imagery of the Lake of Fire, a place of final punishment described in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, 14-15. This burning lake, where the Beast and the False Prophet are cast at Christ's return, is later the destination for the Devil, who is thrown into it after a thousand years to be tormented forever and ever. The flames of this lake will utterly consume mortal beings like the Beast and False Prophet, as the elements themselves will melt with fervent heat, burning up the earth and all its works. Regarding who is tormented, Revelation 20:10 indicates a plural subject with the phrase "they will be tormented." If this includes the Devil and the demons, they too will endure the torture and excruciating pain of the Lake of Fire's fervent heat. Being composed of spirit, their suffering might last for a longer, though still indeterminate, time before they expire. The duration of their torment, described as day and night forever and ever, suggests an unstinting thoroughness in the punishment God will administer, ensuring it is most painful and complete as they rightfully deserve.

Eternal torment is not what the Bible teaches. The popular picture of sinners roasting forever in an ever-burning hell, tended by a pitchfork-wielding devil, is a religion of fear that does not fit a loving God. The wages of sin is death, not life in torment (Romans 6:23). The dead know nothing, and all thought and feeling cease at death (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10), so no one goes to heaven or hell at death, and the wicked and righteous alike return to dust. Both groups are raised in the resurrection to receive judgment (John 5:28-29). Jesus' warning of hell, from the Greek Gehenna, points to the Valley of Hinnom, where Jerusalem's refuse burned until it was consumed. An unquenchable fire is therefore one that cannot be put out before it finishes its work, not one that burns forever; Jeremiah 17:27 foretold such a fire in Jerusalem, and the city is not still burning. The wicked are cast into the Lake of Fire and die the second death (Revelation 21:8). They are burned up completely, body, mind and spirit, and left as ashes (Malachi 4:1, 3). Their punishment is total, permanent annihilation, while only the righteous live on for eternity.