Revelation 20: Death, Hell and The Lake of Fire

Today we’re going to dive into one of the most debated and misunderstood passages in the entire Bible — Revelation chapter 20, verses 10, 14, and 15. 

These verses speak about the devil, death, and hell being thrown into something called the lake of fire. For centuries, these verses have been used as proof that God created a place of never-ending torment where billions of souls are consciously tortured forever. But is that really what John was describing? Or is there a deeper, covenantal meaning rooted in history, prophecy, and the events of AD 70?

Let’s take a close look.

Revelation 20:10 says:

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Verses 14–15 continue:

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So here’s the picture: the devil, the beast, the false prophet, death, and hell — all swallowed up by this fiery lake. But what exactly is it?

The Lake of Fire and Gehenna

When we hear “lake of fire,” most of us immediately imagine a pagan-style underworld — a cavern of flames beneath the earth where demons poke sinners with pitchforks. 

But John wasn’t pulling imagery from Greek mythology. He was drawing from something his audience in the first century would instantly recognise: Gehenna.

Gehenna was the Valley of Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem. In Israel’s history, this valley was infamous for two reasons:

1. Idolatry and child sacrifice. Kings like Ahaz and Manasseh sacrificed children to Molech in this valley, making them “pass through the fire” (2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 7:31).
2. A place of burning refuse. By the time of Jesus, Gehenna had become a symbol of shame and destruction — a garbage dump where fires constantly smouldered.

So when Jesus warned in the Gospels about people being in danger of Gehenna fire, He wasn’t talking about an invisible underworld. He was talking about a very real judgment that would fall on Jerusalem if the people rejected their Messiah.

And that’s exactly what happened in AD 70. The city of Jerusalem was set ablaze by the Roman armies. Josephus, the Jewish historian who witnessed it, described the city as engulfed in flames — streets flowing with blood, bodies piled high, and the temple itself burning to the ground. The entire city became, quite literally, a lake of fire.

This is the imagery John is tapping into. The “lake of fire” in Revelation is not a cosmic torture chamber. It is the fiery judgment that consumed old covenant Jerusalem, the centre of rebellion, idolatry, and persecution of the saints.

Death and Hell Cast Into the Fire

But what about this line: “Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire”?

The word “hell” here is actually Hades in Greek — the place of the dead. It’s the same as Sheol in Hebrew thought. It wasn’t a fiery pit of torture. It was simply the grave, the realm of the departed.

So what is John saying? He’s showing that through the judgment on Jerusalem and the coming of Christ’s kingdom, death and the grave would no longer have dominion. They would be swallowed up in victory.

This matches Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The destruction of Jerusalem wasn’t just a political event — it was a covenantal transformation. The old order of sin, death, and condemnation under the law was cast into the fire and abolished.

So when John says “death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire,” he isn’t describing people being tortured forever. He’s describing the end of death and Hades as ruling powers.

Hell Is Not Eternal Conscious Torment

This leads us to a major question: if hell in Scripture means Sheol or Hades, and if Gehenna referred to Jerusalem’s fiery destruction, then where did the idea come from that hell is a place of eternal conscious torment?

The short answer is: it didn’t come from the Bible.

That concept actually comes from a blending of Greek philosophy and medieval tradition. In Greek thought, particularly from Plato, the soul is immortal by nature. The body may die, but the soul can’t. Over time, when Christianity spread into the Greek world, many theologians merged Plato’s philosophy with biblical language. They assumed that if the soul can’t die, then the “punishment” of the wicked must go on forever.

Later, during the Middle Ages, writers like Dante in The Divine Comedy painted graphic pictures of souls being tortured endlessly in different circles of hell. These works of imagination influenced Christian imagination more than Scripture itself.

Even the King James Bible contributed to the confusion by translating several different words — Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and even Tartarus — all with the single English word hell. That created the illusion that the Bible consistently describes a single fiery underworld, when in reality it was speaking about different concepts entirely.

What the Lake of Fire Really Means

So let’s bring this back to Revelation 20. When John speaks about the lake of fire, here’s what we see:

• It represents the judgment of God falling on the enemies of His kingdom.
• For first-century Israel, it was fulfilled in the burning of Jerusalem.
• It symbolises the complete removal of sin, death, and the grave as covenantal powers.
• And it is the assurance that those in Christ — those whose names are in the book of life — are safe from that judgment.

The “second death” is not endless torture. It is the final removal of everything opposed to God’s kingdom. Just as the first death is physical, the second death is covenantal — the destruction of the old order.

The Hope Beyond Fire

Here’s the good news: the story doesn’t end with fire. The very next chapters of Revelation describe a new heaven and a new earth, where God dwells with His people, wipes away every tear, and declares, “Behold, I make all things new.”

The lake of fire is not the final word. It’s the transition point between the old covenant world of death and the new covenant world of life.

So when we read Revelation 20:10, 14, and 15, we don’t have to picture God delighting in endless torture. Instead, we see Him bringing history to its climax — destroying the enemies of His people, ending the dominion of death, and opening the way for the eternal kingdom of Christ.

So, the next time someone tells you the Bible teaches eternal conscious torment, remember this: the Scriptures actually teach the end of death, the end of the grave, and the victory of life through Jesus Christ. The lake of fire wasn’t about a pagan underworld — it was about the fiery judgment on Jerusalem and the final removal of everything that stood against God’s new creation.

In my next post we'll delve into the new heaven and earth described in Revelation 21. Until then, God bless as you study to show yourself approved.