How long is eternal punishment?
In Matt 25:46 Jesus warns that the wicked “will go away to eternal punishment.” The Greek word translated “eternal” means of or belonging to an age or period of time. And in the context of this verse Jesus says the wicked will be condemned, I.e., punished.
According to Jesus’ last words to John in Rev 20 this will take place in the Lake of Fire, at the end of the Millennium. John says “when the thousand years are ended (v.7) “the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books.” (v12c) “And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (v15) This is an allusion to Ps 69:28 where David prays that God may “erase from the book of life” the names of his enemies. The word translated “erase” or “blotted out” is from the Hebrew verb to obliterate or exterminate.
The late Edward Fudge, an American theologian who wrote extensively on this topic, rightly noted that “Paul amplifies what Jesus left ambiguous. When Christ returns, says the Apostle, he will “punish” the lost with “everlasting destruction” (2 Thes.1:9). This punishment is “eternal” in at least two senses.
It is “eternal” in quality because it belongs to the Age to Come.
It is also “eternal” in quantity, so to speak, because those who suffer it will remain dead forever. From this death there is no recovery, resurrection or escape.” This is verified by the OT prophets, like Malachi 4.1, who describe the day of the Lord, aka the day of judgment, “blazing like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble, And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch.”
We see a similar view in Isa 5:24:
As flames burn up straw and dry grass shrivels in flames, so their roots will rot, and their blossoms will blow away like dust. They have rejected the teachings of the LORD of Armies and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
That looks and sounds pretty permanent to me, as in eternal!
Lastly, it’s important to note that the Bible describes God’s means or tools of destruction as “eternal,” never the actual person, e.g., eternal soul. In Mark 9 Jesus warns:
47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.
In the parallel account Matt 18:8 uses “eternal fire,” i.e., the fire of the age to come, which the OT prophets describe as a fire that can never be “quenched” because “I, the Lord, have set the fire,” says Ezek 20.48b
Isa 66.24 CEB They will go out and see the corpses of the people who rebelled against me, where their worm never dies, where their fire is never extinguished. They will be a horror to everyone.
NOTE how the fire and worm are described as “eternal” but never the person, the soul who will eventually die. This is verified by Jesus’ warning in Mat 10.28 “fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body.”
Again, there’s an allusion to the OT prophets like Ezekiel where God warns “the soul who sins will die.” 18.4, cp. 18:20.
Edward Fudge
You will always be correct to remember that the Bible always ascribes immortality to the saved, never to the lost; always in the resurrection, never now; and always in a glorified body, never as a disembodied “soul” or “spirit.” 1Cor 15:54-57; 2Tim 1:10; 1 John 5:11-13
