Key passage
Revelation 20:10-15
The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.
The text
10The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them. 12I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works. 14Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
The immediate context
The close of the millennium vision. The devil is thrown into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are, the dead are judged before the great white throne according to their works, and Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, which John calls the second death.
Where it sits in the canon
Matthew 25:41 says the eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Revelation 21:4 announces that death shall be no more, which the case reads together with the throwing of Death and Hades into the lake here.
Why it matters
This is the passage the traditional view most often treats as decisive, and it is also where the case makes its most contested structural argument about which verse the torment clause governs.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment argue from location and from parallel. Those whose names are not written in the book of life are thrown into the same lake as the devil, the beast and the false prophet, whose torment is stated to be day and night for ever and ever. The natural inference is that the lake does to all who enter it what verse 10 says it does, and calling it the second death names the state rather than denies consciousness within it.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists note where the clause sits. The words about torment day and night for ever and ever stand in verse 10, when only the devil, the beast and the false prophet are in the lake, and they are not repeated at verse 15. When Death and Hades are thrown in, John gives a different description: this is the second death. The source document argues that the lake destroys Death itself, so it is not a place that preserves whatever is thrown into it.
Where the readings agree
- The lake of fire is the final destiny of the unrighteous.
- The devil, the beast and the false prophet are tormented day and night for ever and ever.
- Every person is judged by works before the great white throne.
- John names the lake of fire the second death.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether the torment stated of the devil, the beast and the false prophet in verse 10 extends to the human beings thrown in at verse 15.
Notes on the wording
- The lake of fire is a distinct image from Hades, which is thrown into it, and from Gehenna in the Gospels.
Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.
Editorial notes
- The source document argues that the devil and his angels may be treated differently because they are spiritual beings who saw God clearly and rejected him.
- The source document notes that some conditionalists read the lake of fire in Revelation 20:10 as part of a symbolic vision and expect Satan to be destroyed as well, a reading the author does not hold.
- The author labels his argument from the placement of the torment clause as an inference from the structure of the passage.
Where this passage appears in the case
- S03 Revelation 20: The Lake of Fire and the Second DeathWhere the clause about unending torment sits in the passage, what the lake of fire does to Death and Hades, and how much weight the placement can carry.
- S05 The Rich Man and LazarusWhy this passage describes the intermediate state rather than final punishment, and why it therefore supports neither view directly.
- S07 The Wages of Sin Is DeathThe consistent biblical wage of sin, and why death here cannot mean only the death every human being already dies.
- S10 Can God Destroy Both Body and Soul?Matthew 10:28 in its own terms, the use of the verb elsewhere in the Synoptics, and a technical appendix on two-part and three-part anthropology.
- S12 Where Is Endless Human Torment Stated Plainly?An argument from absence, stated with the limits an argument from absence carries.
- S18 Physical Death as a Picture of Final DeathThe parallel between the first and second deaths, and why the separation definition leads to the same place.
- S32 Why Might Satan and His Angels Have a Different Fate?The author’s reasons, the alternative conditionalist position stated fairly, and why the human case does not depend on this.
Related passages
- Matthew 25:31-46The sheep and the goats, closing with eternal punishment set against eternal life.
- Revelation 14:9-11The worshippers of the beast tormented with fire and sulfur, with the smoke rising for ever.
- Revelation 21:1-8The new heaven and new earth, the second death, and the tree of life inside the city.
- Luke 16:19-31The rich man and Lazarus, the passage most often cited as a picture of conscious suffering after death.
- Romans 6:23The wages of sin is death, set against eternal life as the free gift of God.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- 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
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