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  • The “Lake of Fire” and Its Purpose
    The Watchtower—1974 | June 15
    • NO CONSCIOUS TORMENT

      Those in the “lake of fire” do not have life. Their names are not written in any “book of life.” And life is life, whether spent in pleasure or in suffering pain. Accordingly, there is no consciousness or feeling of pain or suffering in the “lake of fire,” because there is no life there at all. Why, then, does the Bible speak of the Devil, the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” as being “tormented day and night forever and ever” in this “lake”?​—Rev. 20:10.

      It is because they are under the torment of restraint. When Jesus was on earth, the demons entreated him not to order them to go away into the “abyss.” (Luke 8:31) In a parallel account of the same incident, the demons asked Jesus: “Did you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” (Matt. 8:29) This being put into the “abyss” will be a “torment” because it will be a restraint.

      Satan and his demons are, therefore, to suffer the “torment” of restraint by being hurled into the “abyss” just prior to the thousand-year reign of Christ. They will be restrained from all activity during that thousand years. Then they will be loosed after the thousand years end. (Rev. 20:7; compare Revelation 11:7; 17:8.) After the final attack on God’s sovereignty, the Devil and his demons are hurled into the “lake of fire,” where they suffer the “torment” of everlasting restraint, without letup, in the “second death.” They are completely annihilated, never to appear again. Moreover, all that they accomplished, all their works, will be erased from the universe.​—1 John 3:8.

      The truth that this being put into the “lake of fire” does not mean conscious pain of torment is shown in that the “wild beast” and the “false prophet,” both symbolic of systems or organizations, are spoken of as being “tormented day and night.” But systems or organizations cannot suffer pain. The “lake of fire” annihilates, destroys them. They are restrained from operating, forever. Never will such wicked organizations rise up to dominate or disturb mankind.

      Also, death and Hades, mankind’s common grave, are done away with in the “lake of fire,” in that Adamic death will have been completely wiped out and Hades will have been emptied and will receive no more such dead. (Rev. 20:14) Certainly these two inanimate things can feel or experience no conscious suffering, but they can be restrained, put out of the way, forever.

  • The “Lake of Fire” and Its Purpose
    The Watchtower—1974 | June 15
    • Thus the “lake of fire” is an important factor in God’s purposes. It is not something contrary to the personality of Jehovah God, who never conceived nor would ever countenance the eternal conscious torment of anyone. (Jer. 19:5; 32:35)

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