Hell's Clock
Is hell's clock working or doesn't it move at all?
Hell is a word used in the Bible that can refer to several different places. In the sense of the “lake of fire”, it is a place that was specially prepared for the devil and those that follow him (Matt 25:41), both spirit beings and humans. Since it was prepared, it was or will be created at some point. The infinite God, Who exists outside of time, created or started the existence of every being.
How can God punish beings unendingly who are temporal being created in the timeline? Some of the beings that inhabit the spiritual realm are many thousands of years old but they still had a beginning point. How can God punish them endlessly? God does not punish them eternally because that would imply that the punishment never had a beginning as well as no end. When Jesus promised that He would give His people eternal life that means it won't end, of course, but that it also has no beginning. That really messes with our minds if we try to understand it.
In Revelation 20 we see that the final fate of the devil (a particular, individual person) is unquestionably unending. Well, he is a really, really bad person so maybe he deserves it. When the devil is finally thrown into the lake of fire, the beast and the false prophet (Rev 20:10) are still there after 1,000 years. Well, they are pretty bad guys, too...so maybe they deserve it also.
In Revelation 14 we read of the fate of the worshipers of the beast. The language used is redundant overkill to describe the duration of the torment of these people. They have been warned by the Church, by the Scriptures, by the Holy Spirit, by the Two Witnesses, by worldwide events, and by the third angel (Rev 14:9-11).
Jude warns about false teachers who despise the grace of God and who, in effect, deny Jesus as Master and Lord. They are described as undergoing eternal or “age-during” (Jude 7 YLT) fire.
What about the average lost person? I don't think we are clearly told about a special subset of people who might be unique in their situation. When Adam rebelled against God at the first, God was very concerned that Adam might eat of the tree of Life and live forever in that ruined state. He would be unable to cease (die) from his fallen condition and therefore unable to receive what God had planned since before the foundation of the world. That is, to be reconciled to God through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. What a strange blessing – to be able to die once so that we would not have to die eternally (Rev 20:14).
When the Infinite God creates a being that sins against Him, the result is not eternal but, maybe more correctly, everlasting.
God + sin = endless payment
But when the infinite God grants repentance and life, the result is Eternal life.
God + Grace = Eternal Life (Endless but without a beginning, either)
I hope that hell only lasts 100 trillion years and not unendlingly. Maybe God is not really as all powerful and absolutely holy as we may have thought...but in our core we know better. Maybe our minds cannot fathom these things but our reborn spirit has all knowledge.
The idea that one should wait until it is too late and then find out...is a really bad idea. Now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2).
Apr 18, 2026