Does Revelation 14:9-11 Speak of Eternal Conscious Torment?
“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.’’ (Rev. 14:9-11 NIVUK, bold emphases added throughout).
This is one of the key passages of the Bible which many people have used as a key proof text of their belief in eternal conscious torment in hellfire. But, unknown to them, this particular passage is not referring to the time when all unrepentant sinners will be thrown into the lake of fire to be burnt up in the second death. It is referring to the period of the plagues (Rev. 8:1-9:21; 15:5-16:21)when God will pour out His wrath on the world of the wicked. The torment will take place in a time period also known as “the day of the LORD.” God has, for ages, persistently given mankind warnings through His prophets and Christ’s apostles to fear God and turn from evil so as to escape the woes of the “the great day of His wrath” (Rev. 6:17). The period of this torment will be before the millennial reign of Christ. That it is called ‘the day” means the torment is going to be in a space of time, not an unending eternity.
We see the plagues turning out exactly the way the angels warned in Rev. 14:9-11. They mentioned ‘the wine of the wrath of God” (Rev. 14:10). This found fulfilment in the symbolic Babylon and the nations of the world: “Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. (Rev. 16:19 NKJV). The angels said those who worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark on either their foreheads or hands “will be tormented with fire and sulphur (or brimstone).” (Rev. 14;10). This happened during the plagues as seen in the following verses:
“The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their mouths. (Rev. 9:17b-18 NIVUK).
The angels also said, “the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:11). This also we see in the vision of the plagues:
“Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. (Rev. 9:1-6 NKJV).
The smoke from the bottomless pit was so thick that it darkened the sun and the sky. How long this situation lasted was not made known. But the period the locusts will torment the “children of wrath” is given as “five months,” the normal duration of a locust plague, but very likely used here symbolically to represent a space of time that is not unduly long.
When the pains inflicted by the demonic locusts become so excruciating that the tormented people begin to prefer death to being alive, one begins to understand that the angels used the right words when they said, “they have no rest day or night” (Rev. 14:11). With this type of torment, it is easy to imagine a day seeming longer than eternity to those who’ll go through the woes.
Death is said to flee from the wicked during this particular plague simply because God wanted them to bear the full measure of His wrath (Rev. 9:5-6). At this time, death has not been thrown into the lake of fire to extinguish it. It should be noted that, at the sounding of the next trumpet, a third of the population of the “children of wrath” will be killed (Rev. 9:15). We should also bear in mind that the plagues will be before the second resurrection. Therefore, it is only the sinners who’ll be alive at the coming of Jesus Christ that will go through the torment. Those who have died before this time will still be in their graves awaiting the second resurrection. And this will be before the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and the great white throne judgment.
Evidently, the torment mentioned in Rev. 14:9-11 will take place during “the great day of the wrath of the LORD,“ not after all sinners have been throw into the lake of fire. So, the passage does not support the teaching of eternal conscious torment. The words “forever and ever” used by the angels in Rev. 14:11 was a hyperbole which was not meant to be taken literally but to be regarded as strong emphasis on the woes that await the wicked when the great day of His wrath comes. The terror and fierceness of the wrath of God imposes on the believer the great need to persevere in keeping the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus Christ (Rev. 14:12). God is slow to anger but the sinner should not gamble with God’s mercy, love, patience, and compassion. No sinner can stand in the day of God’s wrath (Ezek. 22:14; Joel 2:11; Amos 5:18-20; Rev. 6:12-17). It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
