What Is the Lake of Fire? Is It the Same as Hell or Gehenna? - How "Tormented Day and Night Forever and Ever"?

If the lake of fire is a symbol of destruction, why does the Bible say that in it the Devil, the wild beast, and the false prophet "will be tormented day and night forever and ever"?  (Revelation 20:10) Consider four reasons why this torment does not refer to literal torture:

1. For the Devil to be tortured eternally, he would have to be kept alive forever.  However, the Bible says that he will be brought to nothing, or put out of existence. - HEBREWS 2:14.

2. Everlasting life is a gift from God, not a punishment. - ROMANS 6:23.

3. The wild beast and the false prophet are symbols and cannot experience literal torture. 

4. The context of the Bible indicates that the torment of the Devil is everlasting restraint or destruction.

The word used for "torment' in the Bible can also mean "a condition of restraint."  For example, the Greek word for "tormentors" used at Matthew 18:34) is rendered as "jailers" in many translations, showing the connection between the words "torment" and "restraint."  Likewise, the parallel accounts at Matthew 8:29 and Luke 8:30, 31 equate "torment" with "the abyss,: a figurative place of complete inactivity or death. (Romans 10:7; Revelation 20:1, 3) In fact, several times the book of Revelation uses the word "torment" in a symbolic sense. - REVELATION 9:5; 11:10; 18:7, 10.

Next time: What Is the Sign of "the Last Days," or "End Times"? -The Bible's Answer

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