The Case for Conditional Immortality
Search

Key passage

Revelation 14:9-11

The worshippers of the beast tormented with fire and sulfur, with the smoke rising for ever.

The text

Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Revelation 14:9-11WEB, World English Bible, which is in the public domain

The immediate context

The third of three angelic announcements in the middle of Revelation. The angel warns that anyone who worships the beast and receives its mark will drink the wine of the wrath of God and be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.

Where it sits in the canon

Isaiah 34:9-10 uses the image of smoke rising for ever for the desolation of Edom, and Revelation 19:3 uses it of Babylon, whose fall in Revelation 18 is complete before the smoke goes up. Revelation 4:8 supplies the closest verbal parallel to the clause about having no rest day or night.

Why it matters

It is the only passage in the New Testament that puts torment, fire and the words for ever and ever in one breath about human beings, which is why it carries so much of the traditional case.

How the passage is interpreted

The eternal conscious torment reading

Defenders of eternal conscious torment read the elements together. There is torment, it is in the presence of the Lamb, the smoke of it rises for ever and ever, and those who bear the mark have no rest day or night. Smoke rising without end most naturally implies a fire still burning, and the added clause about rest is hard to apply to people who no longer exist, since the dead have no need of rest.

The conditionalist reading

Conditionalists observe that what rises for ever is the smoke of the torment rather than the torment itself, and that Scripture uses rising smoke elsewhere as a monument to a destruction already completed. Edom in Isaiah 34 lies desolate rather than perpetually burning, and Babylon in Revelation 18 and 19 has already fallen when her smoke goes up. The source document also notes that the warning addresses those who bear the mark of the beast rather than all the unrighteous.

Where the readings agree

  • The torment described here is real, conscious and terrible.
  • The smoke of the torment is said to rise for ever and ever.
  • The warning is addressed to those who worship the beast and take its mark.
  • The scene takes place in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.

Where the disagreement lies

Whether the everlasting smoke marks a fire that never stops burning its victims, or a completed judgment whose memorial stands for ever.

Notes on the wording

  • The Greek of the clause about having no rest day or night closely resembles the clause used of the living creatures in Revelation 4:8.

Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.

Editorial notes

  • The source document offers three readings of the clause about having no rest and holds that each of them is compatible with conditional immortality.
  • The source document points out that sentence punctuation in this passage is an editorial decision, since the earliest Greek manuscripts did not use it.
  • The author states his reading of the everlasting smoke as a permanent monument to judgment as his own view rather than as a settled conclusion.

Where this passage appears in the case

Related passages

  • Revelation 20:10-15The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10Paul names the penalty imposed at the appearing of Christ as eternal destruction.
  • Matthew 25:31-46The sheep and the goats, closing with eternal punishment set against eternal life.

Sources consulted for this passage

  1. Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
  2. Denominational Doctrine on Damnation: The Developing Story of the Bible Fellowship Church. Rethinking Hell. 2024-04-21 View original of Denominational Doctrine on Damnation: The Developing Story of the Bible Fellowship Church (opens in a new tab) Details
  3. Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details

Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. This page was last reviewed .