Revelations 14:9-11
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 sulfur 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."
How do you interpret these verses then?
NP.
One, this is one of very few passages that use any kind of language that so much as hints at eternal torment, and is in Revelation of all books. I would be very wary of taking everything literally in apocalyptic literature, of all things.
Two, this doesn't even seem to be taking place in the lake of fire, anyway, but is still happening to those who willingly chose against Christ in taking "the mark" while still living on planet Earth. If for no other reason than the fact that it says in the passage that this torment takes place in the PRESENCE of the Lamb. How is God or Jesus or the Spirit present in hell at all if the traditional view is that the torment in hell comes primarily if not solely from the absence of God, complete separation from Him, or "spiritual death" as traditionalists like to call it. On top of that, the "smoke of their torment rises up forever" part could easily be a reference back to Edom in, I believe it was, Isaiah 34, a land that is not still burning yet preserved somehow at the same time in present day but was in fact made a desolate smoking heap, a picture of utter destruction. And believe me, fire will torture you with pain before it finally kills you.
So basically, what I think of that passage is that it is a punishment still occurring to the wicked who willingly rejected the one and only Christ on Earth, either a metaphorical torment in that they literally cannot stand the brightness of the Lamb's presence because of how they instead chose worship of the one who directly opposes Christ, or perhaps a destruction by fire much like Edom or Sodom or Gomorrah. I won't claim correctness on my theories or explanation here on Revelation 14, as I can admit I am quite daunted by the task of studying Revelation and its meanings as a book clearly rife with symbolism and apocalyptic imagery; I just don't see why or how it alone should be counted as any kind of definitive proof for the traditional view of living forever in eternal torment in hell. Even when it says "tormented forever and ever" the one time later on in Revelation 20, it STILL doesn't mention humans as the subject, only Satan and whoever the Beast and False Prophet are (or will be).
I'm just not going to pit two verses in Revelation, a single parable in Luke, and not much else against numerous verses that make clear in plain words that the unsaved and the wicked will be destroyed / burned up / perish / come to an end / killed / consumed / etc., and believe that somehow I should take the former literally while attributing hidden or special meaning to the latter in order to make it fit the traditional view gleaned from the former. Really doesn't seem honest or sensible when trying to teach a view from Scripture.
(And please, in case you are one of "those guys", spare me the transparent condemnation - in order to just shut down the argument on my end - by claiming I am calling the Messiah a liar or "arguing with God" Himself just because I disagree with traditionalists on the meaning or intent of the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.)
