Definition
The lake of fire (Greek: λίμνη τοῦ πυρός, limnē tou pyros) is the eschatological destination described in Rev. 20:10,14-15 and 21:8. In the traditional reading it is the final place of eternal conscious punishment for the devil, his angels, the beast, the false prophet, and all whose names are not written in the book of life. It is also called the “second death” (Rev. 20:14). In this corpus Jones interprets the lake of fire as a purifying rather than punitive realm, consistent with his apokatastasis doctrine.
Usage in the Corpus
Stephen Jones
Jones reads the lake of fire as a sanctifying-corrective judgment, not as eternal punishment. This is consistent with his conviction that God’s fire is always corrective and purifying (see aionian). In his eschatology the most hardened sinners pass through a lengthy but finite purification process in the lake of fire before the ultimate reconciliation. Death and Hades themselves are cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14) — which for Jones means Hades is a temporary intermediate state and the lake of fire is the final remedial stage of the apokatastasis, not its negation. “He is the Unifier of all peoples, the Repairer of the Breach, and the Restorer of all Creation. The day comes when He will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28).” [Jones, Secrets of Time, Ch. 15]
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger treats the lake of fire as a literal eschatological reality associated with the Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. His numerological analysis of the seven occurrences of the 3.5-year period (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2,3; 12:6,14; 13:5) frames the final judgment as divinely designed and timed. The nature of the ultimate condition — eternal punishment, purgation, or annihilation — is not explicitly resolved in his surviving text. [Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Part I, Ch. II]