It is fully to be expected that non-Christians will vehemently reject what is clearly taught in the Word of God. Happens all the time. Sadly however there are a growing number of people who claim to be Christian who also are taking pot shots at Scripture, picking and choosing those parts they like, and simply rejecting those they do not.
This happens with many biblical truths, but perhaps none more so than the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment. I continue to be amazed at fellow believers flatly refusing to accept this biblical teaching. Incredibly, they seem to think they are more wise, more loving, and more just than Almighty God is.
The other main way of attacking the biblical position is to push annihilationism. While there are various versions of this idea, they all state that when unregenerate sinners die (or more accurately, after the final judgment), they are simply annihilated. They just cease to exist.
Others say that the lost will suffer punishment after death, but only for a while – certainly not throughout all of eternity. But either way, they claim that there is no endless punishment. Cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christadelphians believe in this position for example.
One variation on this theme is what is known as conditionalism. This is the belief in conditional immortality. That is, some argue that God created us mortal. Only those who are saved will live forever. To them God gives the gift of eternal life (immortality). The lost just die and that is it. They were not created to live forever.
Theologian Louis Berkhof long ago dealt with this claim of conditional immortality: “Eternal life is indeed the gift of God in Jesus Christ, a gift which the wicked do not receive, but this does not mean that they will not continue to exist.”
So what are we to make of this theological revisionism? Simply taking a host of biblical texts at face value should forever settle the matter. See for example just a few of these verses:
Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Isaiah 66:24 And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.
Matthew 18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
Matthew 25:41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
Mark 9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
Mark 9:48 …where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
2 Thessalonians 1:9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
These verses are pretty clear about the duration of hell for the unregenerate. It is everlasting. But the critics and revisionists make various claims in order to get out of this. They will say for example that some verses speak of the destruction of the wicked, and that is how we should understand all such passages:
Philippians 3:19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
But these passages do not necessarily imply cessation of existence or extinction. The terms about destruction usually have to do with corruption, a loss of function, or ruination. For example, in Scripture these same words can often refer to a land that has lost its fruitfulness. The ointment that was poured out is spoken of as being wasted as well. The same goes for the story of the wineskin, and so on. None of these uses of the words imply extinction or cessation of existence.
Related to this, the critics will say that the word death means the extinguishing of life. So they will claim that passages speaking about eternal death actually mean annihilation. But various descriptions about hell also speak of eternal fire, punishment, darkness, torment as well, as noted above. Conscious everlasting punishment is hardly what we think of when we contemplate death.
Also, they will appeal to terms like the “second death,” found four times in Revelation, to make their case. But as Norman Geisler responds:
For one thing, the second death is no more annihilation than is the first death. The first death is the separation of the soul from the body for a short time (until the resurrection), not the soul’s annihilation; the second death is the separation of the body and soul from God forever. For another … biblical “death” denotes conscious separation. Adam and Eve died spiritually the moment they sinned, yet they still existed and could hear God’s voice.
Another ploy is to question how the adjective eternal (aionios) is used. Of the 65 times the word is used, in most cases it seems to clearly denote time without end. The noun aion can be used in various ways, and can refer to periods of limited duration. Looking at each occurrence of the term in context is of course the way to proceed here.
As Millard Erickson comments, “To be sure, the adjective aionios may on a few occasions have reference to an age, that is, a very long period of time, rather than to eternity. Usually, however, in the absence of a contrary indication in the context, the most common meaning of a word is the one in view.”
The strongest argument against the annihilationists is of course when the very same word is used in the very same passage which speaks about the fate of both classes of people. For example, Matthew 25:46 says, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Here Jesus clearly teaches that both heaven and hell are of eternal duration. Or are we to actually believe that those in heaven are there only for a little while, if at all?
Robert Peterson, in a debate with annihilationist Edward Fudge, says that the parallelism between “eternal punishment” and “eternal life” in this passage “speaks volumes. The two destinies of human beings – punishment and life – are both modified by the same adjective eternal in the same sentence. Fudge would do well to heed his own words, ‘Whatever aionios [eternal] means, one should have good cause for not translating it the same way when it appears twice in one verse!’ I heartily agree.”
Yet the critics have other tactics. They will claim that hell cannot be real, since fire cannot burn forever, or it cannot coexist with utter darkness, and so on. So they claim it is just a figurative place. The short answer here is that yes, figurative language is certainly often being used here – but it is used for a very real reality.
And if the figures of speech used are so very gruesome, then the realities behind them must be pretty horrific indeed. As R. C. Sproul explains:
When Jesus uses an image, do you suppose that the reality is less intense or more intense than the image? The reason for using images and symbols is that we are not able to bear a more precise picture of reality. That Jesus would choose these terrifying symbols in describing hell indicates to me that the reality will be far worse. The sinner in hell will wish he could be in a lake of fire, rather than the reality to which it points.
Consider just one term (and image) for hell: the word gehenna used so often by Jesus. The Hebrew word ge-hinnom referred to the valley of Hinnom southwest of Jerusalem. In Old Testament times it became a site for the burning of children in child sacrifice. It later became a rubbish heap where trash burned day and night. Says William Crockett:
Eventually, the Hebrew name ge-hinnom (canyon of Hinnom) evolved into geenna (gehenna), the familiar Greek word for hell (Matt. 5:22, 29; 10:28; 18:9; 23:33; Mark 9:43, 45; Luke 12:5). Thus when the Jews talked about punishment in the next life, what better image could they use than the smoldering valley they called gehenna? In the intertestamental period, gehenna was widely used as a metaphor for hell, the place of eternal damnation.
This is indeed a good image of what hell is like. As Jesus said in Mark 9:43, hell is “where the fire never goes out” and in v. 48, hell is “where the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.” If a symbol or metaphor, it describes an awful – and an eternal – reality.
Let me wrap up this all-too brief look at the biblical evidence by raising four questions which David Pawson asks of the annihilationists:
First, why should the wicked be ‘raised’ (i.e. given new bodies) for the Day of Judgment, only to have them destroyed again immediately afterwards? This would be a totally unnecessary act of creation and seems somewhat bizarre, to say the least.
Two, why ‘prepare’ a place called ‘hell’ at all? The God who created the whole universe by his word can surely obliterate it with the same instrument.
Third, what is to be made of the clear statements that the fire, smoke and even worms of hell are permanent? This implies their continued existence long after their function has been fulfilled.
Fourth, why should the thought of oblivion inspire fear? Jesus spoke with utter horror of Gehenna. And sacrifice (of organ or limb) was preferable to finding one’s ‘whole body’ in that dreadful place. It is a fate worse than death.
Part Two of this article is found here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/12/04/against-annihilationism-part-two/
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