On another occasion, Jesus spoke of a judgment period when he would say to the wicked: “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” He also said that these ones will “go off to eternal punishment.”​—MATTHEW 25:41, 46, The New American Bible.

Is “the eternal fire” Jesus warned of literal or symbolic? Note that “the eternal fire” mentioned by Jesus and recorded at Matthew 25:41 was prepared “for the devil and his angels.” Do you think that literal fire can burn spirit creatures? Or was Jesus using the term “fire” symbolically? Certainly “the sheep” and “the goats” mentioned in the same discourse are not literal; they are word pictures that represent two types of people. (Matthew 25:32, 33) The eternal fire that Jesus spoke of completely burns up the wicked in a figurative sense.