I believe every word the Bible says about the lake of fire; I don't believe what Rome says about it, nor what the apostate Churches say about it, nor what tradition says about it; but I certainly believe what the Bible says about it.
The teaching concerning the lake of fire does not appear anywhere in Scripture except in the book of Revelation where it is spoken of in the following passages: Rev. 14:10-11; 19:20; 20:10; 20:13-15 and 21:8.  There should be no question remaining as to the certainty of this lake of fire; neither should there be any doubt as to the awful consequence of having to be cast into it.  These Scriptures with their dreadful foreboding should be a fearful warning to all unthinking and foolish people who, because of their love for the world, the flesh, and the devil, have dared to ask why we should serve God now if all are going to be saved eventually.

Because of the gross misunderstanding of almost all people concerning the lake of fire, I would like to draw your attention to three words found in the passage quoted above. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which BURNS with FIRE and BRIMSTONE: which is the second death."  The word BURN means combustion, or to consume.  To consume does not mean to annihilate, for there is no such thing as annihilation in the absolute sense.  When fire consumes a log in your fireplace it does not destroy any of the elements within the log, it merely changes their form.  Combustion is the process by which chemicals combine to form new chemicals.  For example: a tree might be cut down, sawed into firewood, and burned.  When the wood is burning the heat causes the chemicals of which the wood is composed to vaporize, mixing with the oxygen in the air to form new chemicals, including water and the gas carbon dioxide.  So what was formerly a tree is no longer identified as the form of a tree, but the substance thereof is now simply CHANGED into a DIFFERENT FORM and exists in its new form within the atmosphere as water, carbon dioxide, etc.  Thus, to burn means to CHANGE.  FIRE is the heat and light that you feel and see when something burns.  It takes heat to start a fire, but once the fire is started it produces heat that keeps the process going.  Thus, fire is really HEAT and LIGHT.

In my study of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone I was very much helped and impressed by the understanding given by Charles Pridgeon and I would like to quote from his scholarly work on the subject of BRIMSTONE.

He says: "The Lake of Fire and Brimstone signifies a fire burning with brimstone; the word 'brimstone' or sulphur defines the character of the fire.  The Greek word THEION translated 'brimstone' is exactly the same word THEION which means 'divine.' Sulphur was sacred to the deity among the ancient Greeks; and was used to fumigate, to purify, and to cleanse and consecrate to the deity; for this purpose they burned it in their incense.

The verb derived from THEION is THEIOO, which means to hallow, to make divine, or to dedicate to a god (See Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon, 1897 Edition).  To any Greek, or any trained in the Greek language, a 'lake of fire and brimstone' would mean a 'lake of divine purification.'  The idea of judgment need not be excluded.  Divine purification and divine consecration are the plain meaning in ancient Greek.

Are the judgments of God permanent?  Isaiah says, "When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9).  And Mat. 12:20 says, "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory."  Judgment, therefore, is not an eternal condition, but it is given to produce that victory.  Judgments of themselves do not save anyone, but they are used by God to bring one to an end of himself, to effect a change of attitude and will, to consume away the stubbornness and rebellion of men.  Punishment by fire is a beneficent one.  "Our GOD is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).  The basic purpose of this divine fire of God is to cleanse, purify, purge, temper and change.  It is to rid of impurities, of filth, of undesirable elements.  There is no better way to deal with filth than to deal with it by fire.

We all know that a horse must be broken, that is, its will must be broken before it is of any practical use to man.  God put that will in the horse, but it must be broken and made to conform to the will of man.  Just as surely did God put the will in man, BUT IT MUST BE BROKEN and we will benefit by the very process of breaking.  Man may do a lot of crying and wailing, but when he is broken to HIS will, what a wonderful condition it is.  God may take man over some rough places, even through the lake of fire and brimstone, but the love of God will break every man to His will.

Children in school learn what we call definitions.  A definition is an explanatory statement that tells us exactly what a certain thing is.  God also gives us definitions in His Word.  He tells us exactly what certain things are.  And in Rev. 20:14, God tells us exactly what the SECOND DEATH is.  "And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire.  THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH.”

Now let us turn this around for clarity. "The second death IS death and hades cast into the lake of fire."  Therefore we have exactly the same meaning either way it is stated.  What is the second death?  It is the first death and hades cast into the lake of fire!  This fact is very IMPORTANT.  The second death is not merely the lake of fire.  The second death is not men being tortured for ever in the lake of fire.  The Holy Spirit has made it very simple and plain.  The second death is the first death and hades CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE.

Can we now open the eyes of our understanding to see that everything cast into the lake of fire pertains to DEATH?  Death itself is cast into the lake of fire.  Hades, the realm of the dead, is cast into the lake of fire.  And those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, those who are dead, in trespasses and in sins, who inhabit Hades, are cast into the lake of fire.  That is the end of death and Hades and sin, for God shall destroy death in the lake of fire, He shall burn up Hades in the lake of fire, and He shall consume sin and rebellion in the lake of fire.  How I long to see the end of sin and death and Hades!  The time is coming, praise His name! when God's Kingdom shall be all in all, and there shall be neither sin, nor sinners, nor death, nor Hades.

It is clear that God does not destroy men in the lake of fire. Nowhere does it say that, for that would be a contradiction of terms.  How can you destroy death by creating death?

How can you abolish death by bringing men under the power of eternal death from which there is no escape?  Oh, no, it is not men who are destroyed in the lake of fire - it is SIN and DEATH and HADES that are destroyed.  "And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:26).  Thus, the lake of fire is THE DEATH OF DEATH!
"The first Adam died to God and righteousness, and became alive unto sin.  The last Adam died unto sin (Rom. 6:10), and lives unto God, and so fulfills all righteousness.  The first made all men sinners, the last makes all men righteous.  The lives and the deaths of the two Adams are thus greatly contrasting the one to the other.  The FIRST DEATH was a transition from life to death, the SECOND DEATH is a transition from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality.  Transformed from the carnal mind to the spiritual mind, which is life and peace, which transformation is wrought by a dying out to the one realm, to come alive to the higher realm.  Because - the second death is prepared to purge out and burn away sin and its results, and so doing cleanse all of God's universe.

It is true that some men are cast into the processing of the lake of fire.  These are men saturated with the power of the first death - dead in trespasses and in sins, sold under sin, slaves to every devilish passion, possessed of corrupt and perverse natures, obsessed with every evil device, unrelentingly driven by the spirit of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  And nothing God has done has yet broken these stubborn wills or brought these men to repentance.  The wages of sin has not broken them.  The tender mercies of the Lord have not broken them.  The Spirit has faithfully told us of a second death into which unbelieving and incorrigibly wicked men shall surely go.  They go there with death and with hades.  The second death will be an experience and a period of time similar to this first death we are now experiencing, but much more terrible and severe than anything we now know.

The penalty of sin is very great.  The processes of God to break the resistance of willfully wicked men are extremely severe.  Not only in this present age do they smite us, but in that second death which is to come.  It can only be described as the "lake of fire."  This terrible death is reserved for those who have not profited from the previous judgments and still need further correction to subdue them to the will of God.

When the process is complete, and the last sinner has emerged from the discipline with a broken and contrite spirit, having learned the lessons of the awful fruit of man's "own way," fully yielding to the Lordship of our Savior, then at last shall be fulfilled the beautiful promise: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be NO MORE DEATH, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make ALL THINGS new.  And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful" (Rev. 21:3-5).