The Lake of Fire and the Eternal State in Revelation 21--22
Question: In the running text of Revelation 21 and 22, when New Jerusalem is on the earth, 21:8, 21:27, and 22:15 make it seem like there will always be the occasional person sent to the lake of fire.
By the time we reach Revelation 21, the great white throne judgment has already taken place (Revelation 20), and the new heaven and new earth are introduced; the first heaven and earth have passed away. The standard understanding is that all the wicked have been judged and consigned to the lake of fire, and the eternal state has begun.
Your question arises from verses such as Revelation 21:8, which reads:
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.’’
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A surface reading might suggest an ongoing process in the eternal state: as if, with New Jerusalem present, there will still be fearful, unbelieving, abominable persons periodically being assigned to the lake of fire. Similar language appears in Revelation 21:27 and Revelation 22:15.
However, the flow of the text suggests another way to understand these verses. In Revelation 21:1–5 John is shown the new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem, and he hears "Behold, I make all things new.’’ Then in Revelation 21:6–8 he hears words of promise and warning that echo earlier biblical themes: the water of life offered freely, the overcomer inheriting all things, and the destiny of the wicked in the lake of fire.
These statements can reasonably be read as summary and exhortation addressed back toward the readers of John’s day (and by extension to all in the present age before the consummation), rather than as a chronological description of events within the new heaven and new earth. In other words, having shown John the end, the Lord adds: "Write this down for the people now: those who thirst and overcome will inherit; those who are fearful and unbelieving will face the lake of fire.’’ The scene is future; the warning is applied to the present.
If one insisted instead that Revelation 21:8 describes what will happen inside the new creation, then one must also accept that such people are present there—fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, and so on—only later to be sent to the lake of fire. That conflicts with the repeated emphasis that, by the time the new creation is revealed, all such things have passed away and that nothing that defiles enters the city (Revelation 21:27). It would also risk implying a perpetual possibility of new rebellion and judgment, undercutting the sense of finality conveyed by "It is done’’ and by the destruction of the old order.
Thus the better reading is that Revelation 21:8, Revelation 21:27, and Revelation 22:15 function as didactic and warning statements set alongside the vision of the consummation. They tell the reader, in the present age, who will and will not be part of that eternal order and what the ultimate portion of the wicked is, not that new cases of judgment will be arising endlessly within the eternal state itself.
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