The Old Testament View of Eternal Punishment

While the Old Testament does not go into very much depth about what life after death will be like, there are a few passages which clearly teach eternal life for the righteous and eternal punishment for the wicked. We will briefly examine the passages concerning God's punishment of sin.

Primary Judgement Passages
God primarily oriented Israel to this life and obedience and its blessings in the here and now, rather than directing them toward the afterlife. A Hebrew ideal was to walk with God for one's whole life and then die a peaceful death. Duet. 5:16 reflects this earthly orientation. Recognizing this will provide an essential framework for understanding much of the Old Testament.

The flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the plagues on Egypt and at the Red Sea crossing show us that God severely punishes sin. "As a result the Bible smashes modern idolatrous images of God even as it did idols of old. If our view of God differs from that given in holy Scripture, we must repent and bring our thoughts into conformity with God's" (Robert A. Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment [Philipsburg, New Jersey: PR Press, 1995], p. 26). When annihilationists try to use these judgement passages to support their view (saying that since these judgements were temporal and came to an end, hell must also come to an end), they error. If these passages did support anything of the sort, it would be that God annihilates unbelievers immediately at death, not after the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, as annihilationism teaches.

The Term Sheol
There are two main views on the meaning of this word. One is that it always refers to the grave--the place of the body at death--and makes no reference to the abode of a person's spirit after death.. The predominant view is that it sometimes refers to the place where the body is, and sometimes refers to a "netherworld to which all go at death" (Peterson, p. 36). Still, it speaks in vague terms of the after-life.

Passages Suggesting Eternal Punishment
Isaiah 66:22-24 is a major passage on this. It says that once God makes the new heavens and the new earth, believers "will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against [God]; their worm will not die, now will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Clearly this must be eternal punishment, otherwise the fire would be quenched and the worms would die. How could the fire "not be quenched" if its purpose is only to annihilate the wicked? Further, maggots die when what they have finished their work (cf. Isa. 14:11), so if the wicked are annihilated (and thus the maggots work is "complete"), how could it be said that "the worm will not die"?

Of course, the images of worms and fire are not t o be taken literally. They are figurative expressions used to convey a literal truth (i.e., eternal punishment, as we just saw). Furthermore, when a victorious army wanted to show contempt, they would leave the bodies of its opponents on the battlefield, which was considered a disgrace. Therefore, with these references to the worms and fire, "the prophet used imagery from the present world to describe the future order. For exposed corpses to be eaten by worms or burned was a disgrace. Here was the ultimate disgrace" (Peterson, p. 32).

Daniel 12:2 is also very clear on final destinies: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt." There are two separate destinies for believers and unbelievers--everlasting shame and everlasting blessing.

Some object that in the OT everlasting does not always mean everlasting (i.e., forever), so this passage does not support eternal punishment. "When used of God, however, as in Psalm 90:2 (from everlasting to everlasting you are God), olam [the Hebrew word used in Daniel 12:2] means eternal. In this case the limits of the long duration indicated by olam are set by the eternal life of God himself." Since God's life is forever, olam must also mean forever in this context. Peterson continues, "As we will see when we study the New Testament, the state of affairs after the resurrection of the dead is characterized by the life of God himself; the age to come lasts as long as he does--forever. So we see that even though olam does not always mean `eternal,' the context here indicates that it must" (Peterson, p. 35).

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All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.

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