I haven’t seen many share this view in my social circles, but I thought this might be a helpful biblical take to share for those who have been wondering about this but have not made the effort to look into it yet. At best I want to give you something to think about. I will try make this as short as possible.

The most popular view is called eternal conscious torment – physically suffering for eternity.. I do not agree with this view because it actually doesn’t have as much backing from the bible as we think. My view is typically called Conditional Immortality.

So let’s go through it biblically.

First we ought to mention that man was made from dust according to Gen 2:7. This would indicate that man was mortal. After God blew the breath of life into man he became a living soul (Hebrew word “nefesh”).

Something important to note, being a nefesh is not what makes man different from the animals since the fish in the sea also gets called nefesh Gen 1:21. Fish were not made to live forever and neither was man, this doesn’t mean it was not God’s plan for man though. Why talk about this? Because we assume the soul is this invisible part of us that lives forever, this is not the case biblically. Christians got the idea that a soul is naturally immortal from the Greek philosophy of Plato.

But let’s go on with scripture.

God then plants a garden within Eden and then puts the man He made there(Gen 2:8). The tree of life was in the garden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In Gen 2:17 God warns man that if he eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil he will surely die.

We know they ate from the tree and then from Gen 3:22-24 God says man knowing good and evil may not eat from the tree of life because they will then live forever. They are driven from Eden and cherubs stand guard around the tree of life.

Since man sinned He was not allowed to eat from the tree of life to live forever.

I thought it is good to start at the beginning. But when we speak of hell, what does it say in the Old Testament?

Psalm 37:

1.Fret not yourself because of evildoers be not envious of wrongdoers!  2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

20 But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree.36 But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found.

Notice what happens to the wicked – Fade like grass, wither, cut off, will be no more, will not be, perish, vanish away, pass away, cannot be found.

New Testament verse that we know so well for example ;

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Notice the contrast to eternal life is not eternal hell, but instead to perish.

Let us hit the three main verses usually used to prove eternal conscious torment.

Matthew 25:45-46 ESV

[45] Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ [46] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Here it seems to say what we are used to hearing. But let us just consider what and how this language works before we assume our familiar theological filters.The word punishment is a noun, not a verb. We typically treat it as if it is a verb, as if it is using the word “punishing”. But as it is punishment, it is more like a death sentence, a punishment with an eternal consequence.

Let us compare Mat 25 with Heb 9:12  He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Again here he says eternal redemption, not eternal redeeming. If it said redeeming, it would mean we are never truly redeemed. So the same language is being used with eternal punishment. 

Note I am not saying no one will be punished for a time, I am simply saying it will not be eternally an ongoing process.

The 2nd proof text for eternal conscious torment comes from the book of Revelation;

⁹ And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

If we are at all serious about the text we have to compare texts from Revelation to other parts of the bible that use the same language, because this is what John did. He threw all the symbolic type language of the old testament together and wrote Revelation. 

The language comes from Isa 34: 

And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.^z0 Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹ But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

Here Isaiah speaks about Edom, a physical place in our history. He mentions burning, sulfur, day and night, smoke going up forever and ever. If this was a literal forever and ever then the hawk, porcupine, owl and raven would not be able to occupy a place that keeps burning. 

Note that it says “it cannot be quenched” means it cannot be put out, this doesn’t mean it won’t go out. The forever and ever speaks of the finality of the judgment or destruction.

Another example of this is in Jude:

⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Compared with 2 Pet 2:

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

Eternal fire is compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 Pet 2 says the result is extinction and that it is an example of what will happen to the ungodly.

3rd Proof text is Rev 20:

⁹ And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰ and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Note here that in verse 9 they are consumed, this is speaking of the nations coming against the saints. But then speaking of the devil, beast and false prophet, they will be tormented(verb used) day and night forever and ever.

The short explanation of how this view works is the following.

You get the intermediate state, the place people go after they die physically. This would be either the grave, sheol, the pit, Hades for the condemned and heaven, Abraham’s bosom, the cloud for those that are saved.

Then there is the eternal state where the judgment is made on the condemned where they are punished for a time if appropriate and then are destroyed. The saved ones experience the kingdom fully manifested as new heavens and earth is actualised.

This is the shortest I could write this. Questions are welcome as I might write a more in depth study on this if need be.