Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #21 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are looking at Revelation14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

I will stop reading there.  Last time we were discussing the word “indignation” which can also be translated as “wrath.”  We saw that this is a verse indicating that Judgment Day is a day of wrath – terrible wrath and anger.  God is angry with the wicked and mankind has been abiding under the wrath of God throughout the course of history because God is angry with the sins of man.

But there is also a “day of wrath” the Bible speaks of as Judgment Day, which God appointed in which to pour out His anger and punish the unsaved people of the world.  This is what Revelation 14 discusses and it will continue to discuss it.  God’s anger is poured into the “cup of his wrath,” and the Bible uses the figure of a cup to typify God “meting out” His judgment and “measuring out” the punishment for the sins of mankind.

It goes on to say in Revelation 14:10:

… and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

“He” is a reference back to the man who worships the beast and his image and receives the mark in his forehead or in his hand – the unsaved person that is sold out to sin and Satan.  They are in the world or in the churches and now it is time to experience what the Bible has warned about, the day of God’s righteous judgment, which is a time of “torment.”  It says, “And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.”  The Greek word translated as “tormented” in this verse is the Greek word “basanizo,” and there is a series of related words in Strong’s concordance and this is #928.  There is also #929, #930 and #931 and they are all related words that have to do with “torment.”  We are just going to look at this particular word, #928, right now, so we do not get confused.  It is translated as several different English words and when we look at all of them, we come to see that it is not a word that describes “torture” or some kind of physical agony or misery.  It is not really a word that identifies with that when God says, “he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.”

Our previous understanding (before God corrected us during the days of the Great Tribulation), was there would be a place God would create called “Hell.”  On the Day of Judgment God would gather billions and billions of people – men, women and children – and cast them into this place called “Hell.”  They would be thrown into the fire and the fire is never quenched and they would burn for ever.  This is the idea the churches taught and it was believed, overwhelmingly, by just about everyone and many people still believe it today.  They think that Hell is a place of torment, where you are in a fire and it is as though you are being burned up.  We know that fire is extremely painful; even if you burn your finger, it really hurts, so to have your entire being, body and soul, cast into a fire, we just could not imagine that kind of pain.  When someone dies in a house fire, it is a very painful death.  We took that idea and we applied it to a verse like this, where it says, “and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 14:11:

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

God allowed this belief and we could say He even fostered this belief in the way He wrote the Bible in some places, but it is a completely wrong idea.  There will be no place called “Hell” and people will not be cast into that place and suffer for evermore, burning and burning and burning, in the most awful agony as they are being tormented in flames.  That is not the “righteous judgment of God” the Bible teaches.  We have been corrected.  Yes, God will burn up the creation and annihilate them; they will be utterly destroyed and they will cease to exist, but they will know nothing else, once they are destroyed and perish.  It is a complete destruction of the fallen creature man, along with this corrupt creation, which God brought corruption upon to match the spiritual condition of fallen man.  God will just annihilate every thing and it will be no more.

Then why does God language like, “And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone”?  During this study, we are going to take a closer look at the word “torment” and, if we have time, we will also look at “fire and brimstone.”

First of all, this Greek word translated as “tormented,” (basanizo) is used in Matthew, chapter 8, a couple of times.  It says in Matthew 8:6:

And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

This was a centurion who came to the Lord Jesus to request that his servant be healed because his servant was “grievously tormented.”  Now “palsy” is an ailment or illness and, certainly, there would be “torment” involved with that illness, but it is not nearly the torment that people thought of when they thought of a place called “Hell.”  It is far from that.

Also, it says in Matthew 8:28-29:

And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Now this usage of the word “torment” does not really help us.  It is indicating that the demons, or fallen angels, had some indication of the time of the judgment of God and that “torment” is associated with Judgment Day.  That is what they are saying here:  “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”  They are asking if He is coming to torment them before the time of Judgment Day.  But this does not help us to understand what the torment is or how to understand the word “torment.”

We read in Matthew 14:24:

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

The word “tossed” is the same Greek word, “basanizo,” which was translated as “tormented” in our verse.  Now we can picture this ship on the sea and the waves rise and begin to “toss about” the ship, as they go back and forth when the waves rise and fall.  This causes the ship to be “tossed.”  Again, it is an interesting use of the word.  It is a helpful bit of information.  When we search the Scriptures and see how God uses this word elsewhere, it helps us to see how God defines His own terms.  When we do this kind of search, these little bits of information are helpful in giving us an overall picture of the meaning of the word.

In Mark, chapter 6, we see the disciples are also on the sea and it says in Mark 6:37-38:

And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.

Here, the word “toiling” is our word translated as “tormented.”  So we get a little bit more information concerning the Greek word “basanizo.”  The disciples were on the sea in a ship and the wind was contrary.  This is actually the same historical situation we read about in Matthew, chapter 14, where the ship was tossed with the waves.  So the ship was being tossed about and the disciples had oars and they are trying to row and bring the ship to land to get away from the storm and windy sea.   But they are “toiling” and they are not able to make any progress.  They are putting forth a great deal of effort, but they are not able to escape the situation, and this is what our word would indicate here.

In 2 Peter, chapter 2, the same word is used to apply to Lot.  It says in 2Peter 2:7-8:

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

Here, the word “vexed” is this same Greek word we have seen translated as “toiling,” “tossed” and “tormented,” and now it is being translated as “vexed.”  Lot’s soul was “vexed” and I think the true believers can understand this; we have been given the Spirit of God and a new nature and we now desire to do things God’s way.  Yet, God has left His people in the world (after salvation) and we go out among the people of the world we were once a part of – we were “children of wrath even as others.”  We have done great evil; we have spoken wickedly; we have done those wicked things that others are still actively doing.  But God has changed us and now we go to work or we are with the neighbors and they are doing, as it says here, their “unlawful deeds,” as that is what men do “naturally.”  They speak unlawfully.  They can curse with their mouth or they can pick an individual and lambaste them and destroy that person with their tongue.  Again, we had probably done the same thing in the past or joined in with others who did it, but now it does not feel right, and that is because it is not right; it is not what God would have His people to do.  We should not speak evil of others, so we are now uncomfortable and we are a little distraught and troubled in mind.  This is just a small example, but it is an example of our righteous soul God has given us being “vexed.”  We just cannot fit in the way we used to fit in with the world.  Again, just like the ship, it can be calm in its passage, but when the wind comes it is “tossed.”  The disciples normally would have a steady rowing of the ship, but when the storm came, they were “toiling” in rowing; it was uneasy; there was discomfort involved.  There was trouble out of the ordinary and this is how this word is beginning to be defined.

God uses this word again in Revelation, chapter 9, in referring to Judgment Day, the time we have been living in since May 21, 2011.  In speaking of the “locusts” that represent the true believers, it says in Revelation 9:5:

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

In this verse we have a couple of different Greek words.  As I mentioned earlier, our word is Strong’s #928 in Revelation 14 and this one is #929, which is translated in this verse.  It describes the “five months” and the Bible uses the figure of “five months” to represent the complete duration of Judgment Day, however long Judgment Day maybe be.  There is an excellent possibility it will be 1,600 days in length, so that 1,600 days is typified by the “five months.”  If it were to go longer than 1,600 days, it would still represent the complete duration of Judgment Day, just as the “seven months” in the Book of 1Samuel represented the duration of the Great Tribulation period; the ark of God was taken by the Philistines and was in the land of the Philistines for seven months; that seven-month period represented the actual 23-year Great Tribulation period.  It is interesting that God gives these two figures (seven months to represent the Great Tribulation and five months to represent Judgment Day) and when we add them together, we get 12 months, which is the number of months in a year – so it is “one year” of judgment, spiritually speaking.  Again, the seven months in actual time was 23 years and the five months in actual time points to a period that is likely 1,600 days (4 years, 4 months and 16 days), but in the figures that God gives, it is a total of one year; and the Bible does speak of the “year of vengeance.”  It is the “year” of the wrath of God.  Just as 8,400 days goes very well with the 1,600 days to total 10,000 days (a number of completeness), seven months goes very well with five months to add up to one year of wrath, the vengeance of God upon the wicked of the world.  It is the complete judgment of God.

Also, we read the word translated as “torment” in regard to the two witnesses that are killed and their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, in Revelation 11:9-10:

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

This refers back to the period of ministry that the two witnesses had in verse 5-6:

And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

The two witnesses are a figure of Moses and Elijah; Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the prophets and, together, they picture the witness or testimony of the Word of God in the churches and congregations during the church age.  And this was a form of “torment” for the people of the earth and that is what it says in Revelation 11:10: “because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”  Now this statement is important for us to understand the meaning of the word “torment.”  How did the two witnesses torment the people of the earth?  They tormented them through the declaration of the Word of God and by teaching the Bible.  God’s people carried forth the Word of God via the churches and congregations and that Word spoke of sin and judgment and righteousness and the Gospel message of the Word of God.  Men were “tormented” when they heard about their sins and when they heard that God’s wrath abode upon them as a result of those sins.  They were tormented when they heard about the final judgment for their sins.  This was “torment” to men.  They were not being physically tortured or in physical agony – it was a spiritual thing that brought discomfort, unease and trouble of mind to the people of the world that heard the Word of God from the two witnesses.

That is a big help to us in understanding what God says in our verse in Revelation 14:10:

… and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

The “torment” relates to hearing about judgment and hearing the truth of the Word of God concerning the sinner and this is able to bring “torment” to the wicked.