Rev 14:9 “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand, 14:10 that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. 14:11 And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

See also:

Rev 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.

Before presenting the two main options – traditionalist and annihilationist – it is worth noting that Michaels is not sure that the passage is actually about ‘hell’, as usually understood:

‘Although the language of these verses has contributed mightily to traditional Christian images of hell, it is difficult to say whether or not “hell,” as commonly understood, is in view here. Why, for example, is the torment going on in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, thus (apparently) in heaven itself? The announcement seems related to a celebration of Babylon’s doom five chapters later: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever” (19:3). That celebration too goes on in heaven (19:1). Probably both scenes are momentary previews of “hell” and hell’s finality in “the lake of fire” (19:20; 20:10, 14; 21:8), not the reality itself.’

1. Traditionalist interpretation

For many, this passage clinches the argument in favour of eternal conscious torment.  So Hoekema (The Bible and the Future), Carson (The Gagging of God), Blanchard (Whatever Happened to Hell?) and others.

John Wenham concedes that this text

‘is the most difficult passage that the conditionalist has to deal with.’

Beale offers two reasons why he thinks that the present passage evokes everlasting punishment:-

‘First, the parallel of Rev 20:10 refers to the devil, the beast, and the false prophet undergoing the judgment in “the lake of fire and brimstone” where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” This does not say that their existence will be abolished forever but that they will suffer torment forever. The ungodly suffer the same fate as their three satanic leaders, who represent them.’

‘Second, the word “torment” (basanismos) in Rev 14:10-11 is used nowhere in Revelation or biblical literature in the sense of annihilation of one’s existence (against Fudge, who defines it as “lifeless desolation”). Without exception, in Revelation it refers to conscious suffering on the part of people (Rev 9:5; 11:10; 12:2; 18:7, 10, 15; 20:10)….The various forms of the word “torment” (the basanismos word group) elsewhere in the New Testament and LXX, when applied to people, also refer to conscious suffering, not annihilation (see Matt. 4:24; 8:6, 29; 18:34; Mark 5:7; 6:48; Luke 8:28; 16:23, 28; 2 Peter 2:8).’

In Morgan, Christopher W. Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment.

According to Yarbrough:-

‘Scripture implies that the smoke from the judgment of God’s enemies will not mar heavenly praise but if anything enhance it (Rev. 14:11; 19:3). Furthermore, in heaven “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). So hell’s woes will ultimately be transcended by those blessed in the heavenly presence. This may appear callous at first glance, but it is what Scripture says.’

In Morgan, Christopher W. Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment.

D.A. Carson (The God Who is There) thinks that verse 11 teaches endless punishment:

‘This does not sound like a place where suffering comes to an end…It is an illusory comfort to suppose that those who end up here will eventually be annihilated.’

Carson and Blanchard stress the possessive pronoun – it is their torment: it belongs personally to them.  And it is ‘for ever and ever’.  Moreover, it persists ‘day and night’.  The inference drawn from this latter point, however, is disputed by Guillebaud and Fudge, who note that the expression suggests continuous suffering, but not necessarily endless suffering.

Beale (Shorter Commentary) focuses attention on the meaning of ‘torment’.  Nowhere in Scripture, he writes, is this term used in the sense of cessation of existence:

‘The nature of the torment is explained in the second part of v. 11 not as annihilation but as lack of rest. Therefore, the smoke is metaphorical of a continued reminder of the ongoing torment of restlessness, which endures for eternity.’

2. Annihilationalist interpretation

Bowles summarises:

‘Conditionalist writers have taken this comment (no rest, day or night) to refer to the uninterrupted suffering of the followers of the beast while it continues, without implying that it will continue forever.’

Bowles finds in vv9-11 an inverted parallelism:-

13. (A) If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, (9)

14. (B) he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, (10a)

15. (C) he shall be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (10b)

16. (Ci) And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever, (11a)

17. (Bi) and they have no rest, day or night, (11b)

18. (Ai) these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. (11c).

Bowles thinks that each of the elements of the text admit to a conditionalist interpretation:-

The judgment of God by fire and sulfur is “a cipher for total destruction at Sodom and Gomorrah and thereafter (Gen 19: 23, 28; Deut 29: 23; Job 18: 15– 17; Isa 30: 27– 33; 34: 9– 11; Ezek 38: 22ff.).” The biblical image of judgment by fire and sulfur is a picture of decisive destruction and obliteration— not a picture of enduring torment. (Quoting Fudge)

‘The smoke of their torment rising for ever and ever’ alludes to the destruction of Sodom (Gen 19:28) and that of Edom (Isa 34:10ff).  Fudge again: “Isaiah says ‘its smoke will rise forever,’ telling us that Edom’s destruction is not only certain (not quenched) and complete (smoke rising) but also irreversible. The desolation will be unending.”  What it does not tell us is that the suffering is everlasting.

The passage from Isa 34 is worth quoting in full:

34:9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
34:10 Night and day it will burn;
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.

It seems clear that the Revelation passage is based on this passage from Isaiah.  But it is also clear that the earlier passage has to do with the destruction of Edom, not its eternal torment.  The smoke rises ‘continually’, that is, without interruption, not without end.

But what about ‘no rest day or night’?

Chris Bolt, an advocate of the traditional doctrine, thinks that ‘no rest, day or night’

‘is not a picture of unfeeling, unsensing death. Rather, it speaks to a continued, conscious existence.’

But this is assertion without reason.  And, in any case, Bolt seems to assume that annihilationism teaches that the unsaved have no existence after death; but this is very much a minority position.  John Wenham said that the idea that ‘the first death is the end and that there is no Day of Judgment and that we are not judged according to our works’,

‘is plainly inscriptural and not the view of any conditionalist that I know. (Facing Hell, p255)

Broyles suggests:

‘“No rest day or night” is another way of saying that God’s wrath is poured out in full strength when the judgment is operating; it is quenchless, unremitting and overwhelming. In modern warfare terms, it is the equivalent of intense, day and night, bombing; there is no break until it obliterates the enemy. The meaning of Rev 14: 11 is in harmony with the passage in Isaiah 34 that lies behind it.’

In other words, says Broyles, the suffering is uninterrupted, while it continues.  And uninterrupted torment is not necessarily everlasting torment.

A conditionalist reading of this text, according to Broyles, is consistent with the immediate context, where Rev 14:14-20 depict the final judgement of the wicked as a scene of utter destruction, not of endless distress.  It is also consistent with the wider context of Revelation, where the parallel descriptions of God’s judgement on the unrighteous describe utter destruction and not endless torment (Rev 6: 12– 17; 11: 15– 18; 14: 6– 20; 16: 17– 21; 17: 1– 19: 5; 19: 6— 20: 21).  (in Christopher M. Date, Gregory G. Stump, Joshua W. Anderson. Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (p. 145ff).)

Ian Paul agrees:

‘Though the phrase smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever (AT) has been interpreted as indicating a continual experience of torment (which raises some particular theological problems), this is difficult to sustain in the light of the parallel at 19:3, where in an identical phrase the ‘smoke from [the city Babylon] rises for ever and ever’ (AT). It is impossible to imagine the city being perpetually destroyed; the image must signify the eternal effect of its destruction, rather than an eternal process of destruction (cf. the destruction of Edom in Isa 34:10).’

Peterson quotes Stott:

‘The fire itself is termed “eternal” and “unquenchable,” but it would be very odd if what is thrown into it proves indestructible. Our expectation would be the opposite: it would be consumed forever, not tormented forever. Hence it is the smoke (evidence that the fire has done its work) which “rises for ever and ever.”’

Peterson responds:

‘On the contrary, our expectation would be that the smoke would die out once the fire had finished its work. . . . The rest of the verse confirms our interpretation: “There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image.”‘

Elsewhere, Stott writes:

‘I do not myself think that the anxious question whether the nature of hell is an eternal conscious torment or an ultimate eternal annihilation can be settled by a simple appeal to these sentences. For one thing, we need to keep reminding ourselves that the content of Revelation is symbolic vision not literal reality. Further, the essence of hell is separation from God, whereas these sentences speak of torment ‘in the presence of the … Lamb’. What is clear is that hell is an eternal destruction, whatever the precise nature of this destruction may be, and that there will be no respite from it.’

(The Incomparable Christ, p205f)

According to Rev 20:10, the devil, the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where ‘they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever’.  Does not this last phrase (‘for ever and ever’) prove that the torment of the apostates in v11 is similarly everlasting?  Stott points out that the referents are different.  Moreover, ‘the devil, the beast and the false prophet’ are not people: they are best understood as symbols of various forms of hostility towards God.  Traditionalists such as Pawson, however, insist that these entitites are personal beings, given that they suffer the very personal experience of ‘torment’.

According to Boyd and Eddy,

‘These passages are not as problematic for the annihilationist view as they might initially seem. The phrase “forever and ever” can be translated “for ages upon ages,” which implies an indefinite but not necessarily unending period of time. Even more fundamentally, it is important to keep in mind that Revelation is a highly symbolic book. Its apocalyptic images should not be interpreted literally. This is particularly true of the phrase “forever and ever,” since phrases similar to this are used elsewhere in Scripture in contexts in which they clearly cannot literally mean unending (e.g., Gen. 49:26; Exod. 40:15; Num. 25:13; Ps. 24:7).’

(Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology)