The Smoke of Torment with No One in Torment
Loughborough reinterprets the smoke of Revelation 14:11 as the total consumption of the wicked into ashes, with no resurrection, exchanging eternal torment for definitive extinction.
Por Rodrigo Custódio ·
The moment
On Thursday, June 16, 1881, the weekly Signs of the Times, founded by James White and published in Oakland, California, carried on page 266 the fifth chapter of the series "Is Sin Eternal?" — volume 7, number 23. J. N. Loughborough, writing from Southampton, England, now turned to the two most difficult texts for his thesis: Revelation 14:11 and Revelation 20:10. The smoke that rises forever and ever had to be explained — without leaving anyone suffering in it.
The solution is an ingenious inversion: the smoke rises "forever and ever," but the tormented do not remain. "Not that they should be tormented eternally, but a complete and final work is accomplished upon them" — consumed into smoke, dissolved into elements, with no resurrection to reunite them and bring them back to life. The smoke is eternal as a memorial; the sufferers are temporary as fuel. Psalm 37:20 is summoned as proof: "they shall consume away into smoke."
The article even admits, in passing, what the thesis cannot digest: the torment occurs "in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." The biblical picture shows conscious sufferers before Christ — but the article's conclusion dissolves them into smoke before the reader notices the contradiction. The presence of the Lamb becomes scenery; the torment, a special effect.
And Revelation 20:10 — "tormented day and night forever and ever" — receives the treatment of a "casual reading": whoever reads quickly sees eternal torment; whoever reads "carefully," according to the article, sees the second death in the lake of fire, illustrated by Sodom and Gomorrah reduced to ashes. The most explicit verse in the Bible on eternal torment is demoted to the misunderstanding of a hasty reader.
Sepia photograph of a nineteenth-century industrial city, with a tall chimney emitting dark smoke — atmospheric illustration.
The absurdity
The smoke of torment rises forever — but no one is tormented forever: the wicked are consumed into smoke, dissolved into elements, and there is no resurrection to bring them back to life. The "forever and ever" qualifies the smoke, never the sufferer; eternal torment becomes definitive extinction with a smoking memorial. Read the exact words of the printed page:
"The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, not that they should be tormented eternally, but a complete and final work is accomplished upon them. After they are thus consumed into smoke, there is no resurrection to reunite those dissolved elements and bring them to life."
Source: Signs of the Times, vol. 7, no. 23, June 16, 1881 — p. 266.
Highlighted clipping of page 266 with the quoted passage, June 16, 1881 edition — marker over the original.
Why this is serious
The first trick lies in the smoke without fire and without a sufferer. The article separates what the verse joins together: "the smoke of THEIR TORMENT rises forever and ever" — the smoke is of the torment, and the torment is theirs. Smoke presupposes ongoing combustion; a memorial presupposes combustion ended. The article wants the eternal smoke of an extinguished fire — an effect without a cause, a sign without a referent. In physics and in exegesis, smoke that rises indicates fire that burns; and fire that burns forever indicates sufferers forever.
The second trick lies in "not that they should be tormented eternally" — a negation the text never makes. John does not write "not that they are tormented eternally"; he writes that "they have no rest day or night." The article inserts the negation where the apostle placed the affirmation, and then interprets its own insertion. It is the same method as always: first rewrite the verse, then explain it — and the explanation always confirms the rewriting.
There is also the trick of Psalm 37:20. "They shall consume away into smoke" describes the temporal judgment of the wicked in this life — the entire psalm contrasts the earthly destiny of the righteous and the wicked, not the final state after the resurrection. Transporting the image to the eternal judgment is to change the verse's address without notifying the reader. And Sodom and Gomorrah, cited as an illustration of the "second death," prove the opposite of what is intended: the cities were reduced to ashes — but their inhabitants will be raised for judgment (Mt 10:15; 11:24). Temporal ashes, certain resurrection: the example refutes the thesis.
And the "casual reading" of Revelation 20:10 is the article's involuntary confession. If the natural reading of the verse — "tormented day and night forever and ever" — must be corrected by a "careful" reading that arrives at the opposite conclusion, the problem is not the hasty reader; it is the thesis that does not survive the simple reading. When "careful" exegesis always produces the inverse of the text, carefulness is merely another name for resistance.
Bluish illustration of an industrial city, with a tall chimney and smoke rising into the dark sky — atmospheric illustration.
The verdict of the Scriptures
The very verse that is twisted refutes the thesis. John wrote: "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image" (Rev 14:11). They have no rest — neither day nor night. Those who have no rest are conscious; those who have been annihilated have no need of rest. The second half of the verse destroys the interpretation of the first: the smoke rises because the torment continues — and the torment continues because the tormented continue.
And the final destiny is described without ambiguity: "they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rev 20:10). Tormented — a verb of conscious experience, in the continuous future. Day and night — without interval. Forever and ever — without end. There is no "complete and final work" in that verse; there is continuous and endless work. The "casual reading" the article despises is simply the honest reading.
Jesus confirms with the parallelism that annihilationism cannot undo: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt 25:46). The same adjective, the same sentence, the two destinies. If the life of the righteous is conscious and endless, the torment of the wicked is conscious and endless — the symmetry is grammatical, not optional. To dissolve the wicked into smoke is to dissolve, along with them, the eternal life of the saved.
And Daniel seals the consciousness of the final destiny: many will rise "to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2). Everlasting shame and contempt require someone to feel them — dissolved elements do not feel shame. The smoke that rises forever denounces conscious sufferers forever — not cold ashes. The article erased the sufferers and kept the smoke; the Bible keeps both — and keeps the warning: outside of Christ, the torment does not end. In Him, however, "there is therefore now no condemnation" (Rom 8:1).