"Thinking Eternally, Acting Locally." - Neal August
A few weeks ago I posted a brief commentary on the 2000 Southern Baptist Faith and Message. In my commentary on the subject of “Last Things”, this is what was posted:
“God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly [and physically] …the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell [“Hell” refers to the place of punishment both temporal and eternal. Temporal punishment is the physical and spiritual conscious punishment for sins against God and Man. Eternal punishment is described in the Scriptures as “destruction” and “the second death.” The unbeliever will be annihilated and punished with non-existence for all eternity.] and …The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven [not just heaven, but also Earth] with the Lord.”
In response to this, a friend requested that I provide Scriptural basis for my belief of “annihilationism”. Therefore, I thought this was a good opportunity to explore this issue in some greater depth.
I offer three arguments for the Scriptural teaching of annihilation.
Before discussing the first argument, allow me to give my definition of “annihilationism”. As you may know, there are various views on the subject of annihilationsim. Just like views of inerrancy, atonement, and church polity, various people have various views on annihilationism.
B.B. Warfield’s analysis of the three views of annihilationism is the most well-known treatment.
The view of what can be described as classical “annihilationism” teaches that man is created immortal and fulfills his destiny in salvation, while the wicked cease to exist either by direct act of God or by the corrosive effect of evil.
This is not the view that I hold. I do not believe that man was created to be naturally immortal and I certainly to not believe that Scripture teaches this. The view that I hold would be closer to the view of “conditional immortality.”
Conditional immortality teaches that humans are naturally mortal and God imparts to the redeemed the gift of immortality, allowing the rest of humanity to cease to exist. The difference then between classical annihilationism and conditional immortality is that the first believes that all are created eternal and the unsaved will cease to exist and the latter believes that all are created temporal and the only the saved will be given eternal life.
At death, both the believer and the unbeliever will pass into non-existence, only to be resurrected (or more precisely re-created) at the Final Judgment. The believer will be resurrected into a glorified body (like Jesus’ glorified body at His resurrection) and the unbeliever will be resurrected into an un-glorified body (like Lazarus and his resurrected body). God, who alone is immortal, will pass on the gift of immortality (eternal life) to the believer, who will live forever in glory, while the unbeliever will ultimately face a second death of non-existence.
Having given the definition of annihilation to which I hold, I will now proceed to my first argument.
Scriptural Evidence:
When I have read through all the passages of the Bible that speak of the death of the wicked and those passages that have been traditionally viewed as giving evidence for hell as a place of eternal conscious torment, I begin to understand why it is that we evangelicals have traditionally held to this particular view of eternal punishment.
I think it is important that when we read about the eternal punishment as revealed in Scripture that we take the Bible as “literal” when it needs to be taken as such and “figurative” or symbolic when this method of interpretation is warranted. In this, there appears to be two passages in the Bible that can arguably refer to “eternal torment of the wicked”, one which is found in a figurative parable, the other which is found in the symbolic apocalypse of John. However, even when taking these figurative passages literally, there are a number of problems in the passage itself that leads one away from this notion. It is always somewhat precarious to interpret apocalyptic passages literally.
Therefore, before dealing with these two figurative passages, I must first deal with the more literal passages that make up 99% of the Scriptural teachings. And I interpret the passages literally. When the Bible says that the unredeemed will be dead, then this is what I am taking as literal death and not a figure of speech. They will be destroyed and will not be given eternal life.
Let’s look at the term “eternal life.” This is the promise of hope that we have in Christ. The promise is that we will not remain dead when we die but will be raised up from death to live with God eternally. Therefore, the unredeemed (those who are not in Christ) will not inherit eternal life, they will inherit eternal death. What is “eternal death”? They will be dead eternally. They will cease to live forever. They will not be alive. They will be dead. What is the opposite of eternal life? It is eternal death. We take eternal life as literal life. We need to take eternal death as literal death. If someone is conscious then he is not dead; he is alive. He may not be in the most pleasant circumstances but he is not dead. The people who endured Auschwitz were not dead; they endured and were alive. Those who were killed in Auschwitz were no longer living but dead. As dead they were no longer living and no longer enduring; they were dead. Those who endured and did come out the other end were living and lived. They were not dead while they were enduring. Such a person may wish to be dead but he is not dead. Dead is dead and life is life. The hope we have in Christ is not hope of a soul-less body after death any more than Jesus Christ’s resurrection was of a soul-less body after death. We the redeemed, just as Christ, anticipate a body/spirits resurrection in a glorified body/spirits that will no longer suffer the perishing effects of death. Those who are not redeemed will not be resurrected in a glorified body/spirits that no longer suffer the perishing effects of death. There bodies/spirits do suffer the perishing effects of death and they do perish and receive death. If their body/spirits did not suffer the perishing effects of death and did not die then they would have some form of a glorified body that did not fully perish and did not die. The wages of sin is death but in Christ we have eternal life. This is all pretty clear.
The Scriptures are very clear that humans die and were always meant to be mortal. Despite what Greek and pagan philosophies state, the soul is not immortal.
In Genesis, we are told that man was created from dust and his body returns to dust.
Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.”
That man’s body returns to death by its own mortal condition is the direct teaching of Scripture.
Genesis 3:22: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.”
Man dies not because he was immortal and made mortal by the Fall. Rather, man was mortal and was kept from dying by access to the tree of life. The only tree that man was not to eat from was the tree of knowledge; he could eat from the tree of life and did. It was the tree of life that kept him from dying. When man did eat from the tree of knowledge, to prevent him from continuing to live without death, God blocked man’s access from the tree of life. We die because we are mortal and do not have to the tree of life. The punishment for eating from the tree of knowledge was death from not eating from the tree of life. This is what the Genesis account clearly states. Man is naturally mortal and naturally dies.
God’s intention is for us to find our life in Him and not in ourselves. God is the source of eternal life. When we do not go to God then get what is naturally coming to us: death and our natural return to dust. We were created out of the same ground as that of the animals. God chose to give us a spirit and created us out of his image. We are able to have a relationship with God. However, if we choose not to have a relationship with Him, then He gives us up to our own desires and we return to the dust of the ground just like the animals.
In Eccle. 3:19-21 says, "For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other; yet they all have one breath; so that man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth."
Eccle. 9:5 says, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward: for the memory of them is forgotten."
Oftentimes sinful man is referred to in terms of being an animal. God often notes that man who is created in His image prefers to act like animals not created in His image. If those men continue in doing so, then they will fact the same consequences. Death.
The dead are dead. They go down to Sheol in the Old Testament and Hell/Gehenna in the New. This is the place is the grave. It is in the earth because that is where the body rots into dust. The body perishes and is destroyed by worms.
The Greek word “apollumi” conveys total annihilation. The verb “apollumi” means "destroy," and the noun “apoleia” means "destruction." Matthew 2:13, 12:14, and 27:4, which refer to Herod's desire to destroy the baby Jesus, and the later Jewish plot to have Him executed. Matthew 10:28 (cf. James 4:12): "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy “apolesai” both soul and body in hell." This "destruction" is a reference to the soul's total annihilation in hell. Notice contrast between believers and unbelievers. If believers are “hoi sozomenoi” (those who are being saved), then unbelievers are “hoi apollumenoi” (those who are perishing). This phrase occurs in 1 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 2:15; 4:3, and in 2 Thessalonians 2:10. This language of destruction points to the total annihilation of the unredeemed.
What then am I saying? I am saying that the teaching of Scripture in its entirety and in its natural, literal meaning is of literal death for the unredeemed. A death of dust and of the grave. When we read in the Scriptures of the unredeemed facing eternal punishment, we need to realize that this punishment is, in fact, eternal: eternal unconscious, non-existent death in the ground as dust and nothing more. Total annihilation.
Responding to Arguments Against Annihilationism:
There are various Scriptural references that people cite when opposing the idea of annihilation.
One is Mark 9:43-48:
“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
First, the fire that Jesus is referring to is Gehenna, the garbage dump outside Jerusalem that continued to burn. The Greek word that Jesus is using here in “geenna” and not “hades”. As we shall see, hell(hades) refers to the grave where the dead reside until the resurrection and hell(geena) which is the place of final punishment for the unredeemed. Gehenna is referred to in the Old Testament as the valley of Hinnom where detestable acts of sin were committed. This is why the Jews eventually turned it into a dump to burn garbage.
2 Chronicles 28:3: “Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.”
2 Chronicles 33:6: “And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
No one doubts that this is the case. Even conservative scholars who do not believe in annihilationism believe that Jesus is using Gehenna as a metaphor for hell as “eternal conscious torment.” Annihilationists also see Gehenna as a metaphor, but not as “eternal conscious torment.”
The phrase that non-annihilationists use to prove their view is “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Because the fire does not cease and the worm does not die, it is assumed that the person will not cease being tormented and will not die … even though he is dead.
However, this phrase, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”, is a direct quotation of Isaiah 66:24 which reads: “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
The very Old Testament verse that Jesus is citing to describe the final state of the wicked is one that states the transgressors are dead carcasses being eaten by worm and being burnt up by fire.
Remember this is a metaphor based on a well-known place in Palestine. The fire burned continually and the worms ate the carcasses of animals like at any town dump. Even those who believe in a non-annihilationist hell do not really believe that it is a place of immortal worms. They see this as a metaphor describing the torment.
But what does a worm do to a dead body? Worms are known for eating a body in the grave. That is why we refer to dead bodies as “worm food.”
The imagery of fire does not refer to conscious torment. The main function of fire is not to cause pain but to secure destruction, as in the case of an incinerator. The Bible speaks of a "consuming fire" and of "burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12; cf. Luke 3:17). Hence it is the smoke (evidence that the fire has done its work) which is to completely consume the dead body.
Southwestern’s own E. Earle Ellis holds to conditional immortality. He sees the eternal punishment as having eternal effect. The fire and the worm are eternal because their effects are eternal, i.e., eternal consumption as eternal annihilation. The body of the unredeemed will always be destroyed and always be dust because it will always be burnt up, worm food never to be resurrected again into consciousness again.
The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man - Luke 16:19-31
This parable by Jesus appears to confirm that the afterlife for the unredeemed is one of torment.
“the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off … And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” (16:22,23, 24-25)
However, there are numerous problems with such an interpretation.
1) This story is a parable and they are not to be always taken as literally true, especially if it appears to contradict the rest of the teachings of Scripture.
2) Lazarus is the only character in all of Jesus’ parables that is ever named. Even the rich man in this parable is not named. Lazarus was a common character in 1st century parables and stories. Lazarus would be equivalent to Jack in the various fairy tales (i.e., Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and Jill, Jack Sprat, Little Jack Horner, etc.). That Jesus is adopting this well-known character for the purposes of illustration should be of no surprise. It should also be of no surprise that for the purposes of His parable, he uses parts of the story that are not factually correct as it accurately reflects reality. He is simply adopting the current understanding of his audience to make His point. For instance, Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed stating that the mustard seed is the smallest seed. Technically it isn’t. There are plenty of other seeds in the world that are smaller that were unknown to first century Jews. But to them, the mustard seed was the smallest. The inaccuracy of the statement made by Jesus does not mean that Jesus erred; that isn’t the purpose of the parable. In terms of the parable of Lazarus, we have a lot of 1st century Jewish fables in this story that Jesus adopts for His purpose. This is why Lazarus is named. This is why Lazarus goes to Abraham’s Bosom and not heaven. This is why Abraham’s Bosom is only mentioned here in Scripture and nowhere else. This is why Abraham is mentioned and given such a prominent place. This is why there is a gulf between Abraham’s bosom and “hell”. This why individuals in both places can communicate across the gulf. These are all prominent features in the typical Jewish fable. We should not invest too much theology into this particular afterlife configuration.
3) We are not dealing here with the final resting places of the redeemed and unredeemed. This is a symbolic and fictional story representing Sheol, the grave. The term “hell” here is from the Greek word, “hades”. This is the Greek translation of the Jewish afterlife of Sheol. Throughout the Old Testament, Sheol is the place where the dead lie asleep until the resurrection. It is not synonymous with Gehenna/the Lake of fire. Both the redeemed and unredeemed go to Sheol of which the Old Testament bears witness. It is the ground, the grave, the earth from which dust returns to dust. In Old Testament Hebrew poetry, Sheol/grave/hades/hell is a physical place sometimes at the bottom of the ocean (Jonah 2) but mostly under the ground. Sheol is death and not consciousness. Paul frequently refers to those believers who have died as being asleep (i.e., soul sleep) and that they will be resurrected again on the last day. When Saul went to the witch of Endor, Samuel was summoned out of his “quiet” in the earth (1 Samuel 28). Sheol is where all the unredeemed and redeemed currently reside from Adam to whoever until the second coming of Christ. It is death as dust and complete unconsciousness.
4) And this one goes with the above point. The intermediate state that is taught in the Old and New Testament by both prophets and apostles, from Moses to Paul, is one of unconsciousness. Torment is not a factor.
5) There appear to be two points to this story that Jesus had in mind. First, there will be a role reversal in the afterlife. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Luke 16:25: “But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
Second, there is a foreshadowing of the resurrection here. Jesus is saying through Abraham that if the Old Testament Scriptures do not persuade people of the gospel, then one who rose from the dead (i.e., Jesus) will not.
Luke 16:31: “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
For these reasons, it is quite difficult to suggest that this symbolic parable accurately reflects the final state of the unredeemed as “eternal conscious torment”.
Revelation
I believe that the Apocalypse of John offers the best argument for the existence of a hell that involves “eternal conscious torment”.
The book of Revelation is interesting in that it is the only in all of the New Testament almost wholly devoted to the apocalyptic genre. What is more, Revelation is also considered by many to be the most “Jewish” of the New Testament books. This consideration is not limited to its genre of prophecy and apocalypse but also to its use of various Old Testament prophetic and apocalyptic images and phrases.
What has amazed me most about my recent studies of the final placement of the unredeemed is how much of the Scripture’s teachings on this subject that we conservatives have not taken as literal. I have found that the overwhelming amount of Scripture evidence points directly to annihilation. The only Scriptural passages that really provide the non-annihilationist with the weight of his argument are prophetic and apocalyptic passages which are not supposed to be taken as literal. I’ve started to see this as a problem among conservatives: we take apocalyptic passages as literal but take the Sermon on the Mount as figurative. We take a woman popping out of a man’s rib as literal but take the commandment not to sue another believer as figurative. This is not good.
But let us focus on the destruction of the wicked in the Apocalypse of John.
In Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, the False prophet, the Beast (anti-Christ), and the Dragon (Satan) are cast into the “lake of fire” to be tormented forever and ever.
“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
Previously, in 14:9b-11, the worshippers are tormented for ever and ever.
“If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
These verses appear to be a foreshadowing of what is to come because after the Beast and the False Prophet are cast away in 19:20, and the Satan is cast away in 20:10, death and hell are cast away in 20:14 and, finally, those not found in the book of life (i.e., the unredeemed) are cast away into the lake of fire in 20:15.
20:14-15: “And Death and Hell (Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Therefore, 14:9-11 is a foreshadowing of 20:14-15. These passages are the basis for the view that the unredeemed will receive “eternal conscious torment”. However, there are numerous problems with this passage as evidence:
1) Again, the book of Revelation is an apocalyptic book. Apocalyptic literature has various distinguishing features, one of which is the presentation of spiritual and historical truths in s symbolic and exaggerated manner. Individuals are often portrayed as animals, groups of people are often portrayed as individuals, concepts are given anthropomorphic features, and various numerical values are given symbolic and imprecise features (wraths comes in 7s, the saints are 144 thousand, an army amounts to 200 million, and the kingdom of God is 1000 yrs). Some conservatives have always found this lack of exactness distasteful, expecting modern precision to be found in ancient religious documents. The problem is that such documents have no interest in such precision because that is not their point; rather, they want to convey a truth about an event or object and use numbers to convey that truth. Because of these factors, just as with parables, we must always approach apocalyptic literature with some caution.
2) How does one “torment” a concept like “Death” and “Hades”? John Stott on Revelation 20:10 declares, "The beast, the false prophet and the harlot, however, are not individual people but symbols of the world in its varied hostility to God.” While some people might object to the notion that the beast and the false prophet are symbols, the Harlot, Death and Hades are other matters entirely.
Babylon is referred to as the mother of all harlots and is the apocalyptic embodiment of false religion in the book of Revelation. In the Old Testament (most notably in Hosea), the Lord God frequently refers to idol-worshipping Israel as a harlot and adulteress. The exact identification of Babylon in this book is of no concern to the present argument.
While one may argue that the False Prophet and the Beast are actual individual persons, it is quite a different matter with the Harlot. She is referred to as a harlot and a city and embodies the notion false religion. But look at how she is pictured in Revelation.
18: 8, 9: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,”
18:15: “The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,”
18:18: “And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What [city is] like unto this great city!”
19:3: “And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
This is interesting. The woman is a harlot, a city, and a false religion. How does one “utterly burn with fire” a false religion? How are a city and a false religion tormented? How does a city and a false religion weep and well? How can the smoke of a destroyed city and a destroyed religion rise “up for ever and ever”?
Are we to take these images and metaphors literally or figuratively?
This question is even more pressing when we move to the destruction of Death and Hades in 20:14.
“And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
The term Hell that is used here is best translated as Hades. As previously mentioned, “Hades” refers to the “grave,” the place where the body and spirits of the dead both redeemed and unredeemed wait until the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. This term is synonymous with the Old Testament term, “Sheol”.
The various places where “hades” or “hell” is meant to refer to the grace are: Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31, 1 Cor 15:55, and, of course, Luke 16:23.
Again, hell/Hades/Sheol/grave needs to be distinguished from hell/Gehenna/lake of fire. These are not the same. How could one cast hell into hell?
Regardless, how can one cast Death and Hades/Grave into the “lake of fire”? Since Death and Hades are not individual persons … can they literally be cast into a “lake of fire”? … can they be tormented for ever and ever? If not, can we then say that this is not literal but a figurative assertion that God will be destroying the concepts of death and the grave forever?
3) Another problem with taking this passage literally is use of the “forever and ever.” It is true that this term “forever” can certainly mean eternity. There are numerous places in the Old and New Testament that speak of God as existing “forever” and that we shall be with Him “forever” and the logical interpretation is that this term should taken as literal eternity. However, this term does not always refer to a literal eternity. Often times, especially in prophetic and apocalyptic literature, the term “forever” can refer to a very long time but not literally “forever”. More importantly, in prophetic and apocalyptic literature the eternal effects of utter destruction can be spoken of in terms of eternity.
For example, Isaiah 34:9-10 refers to the nation of Edom’s destruction. “And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.”
Now Edom no longer exists. It hasn’t existed for over two thousand years. The very last traces of the Edomites were extinguished during the Jewish-Roman Wars. We can still pass through the region of the Edomites; it is still in Palestine. There is not smoke coming up out of the land and so it’s not going up forever. Is the Bible in error? No, of course not. This idea of the smoke going up forever and ever reflects the idea that the destruction of Edom is permanent and its destruction is forever. The “eternal” smoke reflects the eternity of their destruction and not the eternity of its “burning”.
And this metaphor does apply to the land and not the people. In 34:3, the dead people of Edom are referred to as inactive souls. “Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.”
Here are more prophetic instances of such exaggerating for effect:
Isaiah 13:19-20: “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.”
Jeremiah 15:18: “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, [which] refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, [and as] waters [that] fail?”
Jeremiah 50:39 (against Babylon): “Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell [there], and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.”
Lamentations 5:20: “Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time?”
Amos 1:11: “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:”
Job 4:19-20: “How much less [in] them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation [is] in the dust, [which] are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding [it].”
Job 20:7: “[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?”
Habakkuk 1:4: “Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.”
Isaiah 66:24: “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
Of course, this last verse was cited by Jesus in Mark 9:43-48:
“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Again, both these passages in Isaiah and Mark describe the final state of the wicked as one where transgressors are dead carcasses being eaten by worms and being burnt up by fire. Like the smoke that goes up forever, the unquenching fire and the undying worm reflect not eternal effects of the punishment of annihilation.
This is why Dr. Ellis sees the eternal punishment as having eternal effect. The fire and the worm are eternal because their effects are eternal, i.e., eternal consumption as eternal annihilation.
Again, in Revelation 19:3 we read of the destruction of the Harlot: “And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
4) Another problem with this passage as evidence for eternal punishment as “conscious torment” goes back to teachings of Scripture on annihilation that we described above in the Scriptural evidence section and how such teachings are reflected in the Apocalypse of John.
As previously stated, one of the primary doctrines of the Christian faith it that the believer will receive “eternal life” and the unbeliever will not receive eternal life, i.e. death. So if the unbeliever will exist forever in some state of conscious (however tormenting it may be) then the unbeliever will also receive “eternal life”, just not a “great” eternal life.
Again, I think to often that we take the term “death” in much of Scripture as merely symbolic and not literal. Here in Revelation, the literalness of death is figuratively exaggerated for effect. But even in these configurations, the basic meaning of eternal life versus death is apparent.
In 20:15, unbelievers are destroyed after being resurrected. The first death is the death that comes upon each and every person redeemed or unredeemed. This is death by old age, disease, accident, murder, war and even martyrdom. This first death happens to all. At some point in the future, all who have died will be resurrected and judged by God. Between this first death and the resurrection, the bodies of both redeemed and unredeemed are dust in the ground, resting in Sheol, Hades, the grave, et al. At the return of Christ, all will be resurrected, the unredeemed will be resurrected into their earthly bodies (like Lazarus’ resurrected earthly body, for example) and the redeemed will be resurrected to a glorified body (like Jesus’ resurrected body). Those who have faith in God through Christ are in Christ and identified by God through Christ. We are redeemed by God because we are in Christ. That Christ was resurrected to a glorified body means that we will be resurrected to a glorified body. That we were in Christ at His death and resurrection means that we were crucified with Him and were resurrected with Him. We took part in that resurrection.
20:6: “Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.”
Though the redeemed die just as the unredeemed do (from dust to dust, the first death), the hope of the redeemed is resurrection into glory. Because the redeemed have faith in Christ and are part of the first resurrection (i.e., the resurrection of Christ) the second death has no power over them, i.e., they are resurrected into a glorified and imperishable body that will not be wasted away or be subject to death. The second death is for the unredeemed who have died and are resurrected (ala Lazarus) and who, following judgment by their creator, will be annihilated by death, i.e., the second death. The second death has not power over the redeemed who take part in the first resurrection. Therefore, the redeemed are given eternal life and unredeemed are given eternal death. As 20:15 says, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Those whose names were not written in the book of life are not given life but death in the lake of fire. If the unredeemed are not annihilated then they are not dead but alive. If they are alive then their names must be written in the book of life because they are not dead. To argue that the Scriptures teach that the unredeemed will continue to exist and not be destroyed suggests universalism and a denial that the eternal punishment of the wicked is in fact complete separation from God.
However, in 21:4, John prophecies that at some point in the future there will be no more death:
“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.”
These are the reasons why we must not assume that “conscious torment ‘forever’” is the meaning of these prophetic and apocalyptic images of punishment in Revelation. If we are to search for the proper interpretation of these scriptures in the rest of Scripture it becomes quite obvious that “eternal conscious torment” is not the proper interpretation of the punishment in Revelation.
I do not see how anything other than annihilation is scripturally defensible. The entire Bible (First Testament and Second Testament) and all the prophets and apostles and even Jesus Himself advocate the annihilation of the unredeemed.
So how do I account for the existence of a traditional view of “everlasting conscious torment” that has been the predominant view of the church for the last two thousand years?
The simplest reason for this phenomenon is the Greek idea of the immortality of the soul that comes from Platonic philosophy. This theory is brought into Christian theology by way of 2 or 3 misinterpreted passages and is read into the rest of Scripture that refers to eternal punishment of the unbeliever.
Plato taught that the soul was immortal and could not be destroyed. The Church Fathers who were heavily influenced by the philosophy of their day (both for and against) adopted this idea that the human soul could not be destroyed. The Christian idea of eternal life for the redeemed seemed to confirm the legitimacy of Plato’s theory. But what about the unredeemed? The Church Fathers theorized that since a human soul could not be destroyed then the eternal punishment of the wicked must be conscious torment for eternity. And a few misunderstood verses confirmed their theory. Therefore, eternal punishment also meant eternal life. However, today we believe that if God can create a soul, He can certainly destroy it. We just choose to assume that while He can destroy a soul, He chooses not to.
But the endurance of our idea of hell has lasted 2000 years and is still the majority opinion. Doesn’t the ideas endurance lend to its truthfulness?
The endurance of an idea does play a tremendous factor in its believability but not its truthfulness. For example, here are some other enduring beliefs that we presently reject as false:
Non-perseverance of the saints: this view has last for 2000 years.
The papal authority of the Roman Bishop: this is a view that dominated Western Christendom from 300 to 1500.
Purgatory: this lasted for half a millennium.
Perpetual virginity: this is a view that began in the second century AD (100s) just after the death of the last apostle and continued well into the Protestant Reformation.
Ransom theory of atonement: the view dominated Christendom for 1200 years.
Hell as a place where demons punish humans and not a place where demons are all punished: this view about the nature of hell dominated Christian thought up until a few hundred years ago.
There are many other examples but these suffice.
Reasoning Arguments:
The reasoning of man is always subject to the authority of Scriptural revelation. Christian reasoning must remain within the bounds of revelation. However, reason does enable us to question the accuracy of our interpretation of Scriptural revelation.
The idea of annihilation in the form of conditional immortality can be found in the writing of Justin Martyr (d. 165) and Theophilus of Antioch (d. 185) and Amobius (d. 330). The Second Council of Constantinople (553) and later the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17) condemned the idea. Since the Reformation, Annihilationism has periodically surfaced, as in the 1660 confession of the General Baptists. However, it must be stated that annihilationsim has always been the minority view in orthodox Christianity. This in itself should give us pause.
With regards to Justin Martyr, his belief in annihilationism appears to have stemmed from his rejection of Platonic philosophy. Coming from a background steeped in Greek philosophy, following his conversion to Christianity, Justin Martyr abandoned much of his prior Neo-Platonism and frequently taught against syncretism in theology. Justin rejected the Platonic view that the soul was naturally immortal and could not be destroyed as being unsubstantiated by Scripture. He believed that the introduction of this view into the Church’s teachings was a result of the influence of Greek philosophy into the church and not from a non-Platonic reading of Scripture.
Therefore, Justin Martyr believed that the eternal punishment that came at the end of time was the annihilation of the soul (the soul being both the body and the spirit as a whole). Yet, though Justin Martyr held to annihilation as the final state of the separation of the unredeemed from God, he used the terms “eternal fire”, “eternal punishment” to designate this final state.
More recent proponents of annihilationism are John Stott, Clark Pinnock, Edward Fudge, Michael Green, Robert Brow, John Wenham, Nigel Wright, and Southwestern’s own E. Earle Ellis.
The most common reasoned argument that annihilationists suggest for their position is that it would be unjust for God to inflict everlasting torture on His creatures. Clark Pinnock regards the concept of endless punishment as "morally flawed" and a "moral enormity." Eternal punishment as endless torment represents a punishment far in excess of the offense committed. John Stott maintains that if this teaching were true, there would be "a serious disproportion between sins consciously committed in time and the torment consciously experienced throughout eternity." Likewise, Pinnock states, "it would amount to inflicting infinite suffering upon those who have committed finite sin. It would go far beyond an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. There would be a serious disproportion between sins committed in time and the suffering experienced forever." Such punishment is totally incompatible with the character of God. It would "serve no purpose" and be an act of "sheer vengeance and vindictiveness," which is "out of keeping with the love of God revealed [in the Scriptures]."
There are usually two counter arguments for this “justice argument”:
1) Whether or not this form of justice makes sense to humans is irrelevant to the reality that is expressed in the Scriptures. We have to take this revelation on faith and assume that God is just.
2) Those who argue against eternal torment for the unredeemed on moral and judicial grounds do not fully grasp the severity of sin and how serious God treats this form of rebellion.
Here is my counter-counter argument:
While it is true that whether or not this form of justice makes sense is ultimately irrelevant to the reality that is expressed in the Scriptures, it is also true that we do expect God to be just when dispensing punishment. And while it is possible that we do in fact fully grasp the severity of sin, we do fully grasp the supposed punishment.
We are not simply taking about a lifetime of the Spanish Inquisition. We are speaking about a form of conscious torment that will gone on for trillions and trillions of years which is only a drop of water in a sea of infinity. Is this who God is?
Allow me to give a relevant example:
We evangelical Baptists believe that a person must make a sincere profession of faith to God in order to be saved. This means that if an 70 year old man dying of cancer makes a sincere profession of faith on his deathbed that he will be saved. This also means that a person who ignores the call of God for most of his life and dies in a car wreck at the age of thirty without excepting God’s grace, he will be damned.
Now the problem that has always haunted believers-baptism is the issue of young children. If a four-year old child dies in a car wreck without making a profession of faith, does this child get sent to a tormenting punishment for all eternity?
Roman Catholics and other mainline denominations have never had this problem. They all believe in infant baptism. The mainline Protestant denominations articulate this practice as being a symbol of the covenant relationship of the family where the parents resolve to bring their child up in the ways of the faith. The infant baptism is more like a baby dedication. But, even those these infants and young children have not made a formal profession of faith, they are said to be elected by God and that if they did make it to a greater age of accountability they would give such a formal profession. A child brought up in a Christian home is said to be sanctified (1 Corinthians 7), and, therefore, will not be damned if it dies.
Since Baptists practice believer’s baptism we have a more difficult time solving the problem of the death of children prior to profession.
Most Christians hold to the Augustinian view of original sin which asserts that all humans biologically inherit a sinful nature and are, therefore, condemned by our very birth into the world. We are born with sinful natures prior to ever sinning and if it wasn’t for the grace of God, we would be damned by our very nature prior to ever sinning. I do not hold this particular view of original sin but it is the most common interpretation. This view states that an infant or toddler who dies prior to ever sinning or even dies prior to fully understanding that he is a sinner in need of a saviour, that infant or toddler will be damned if he dies. It was from this view of sin that infant baptism began; it saved children from hell.
But what about children who do not get a chance to be baptized by their Christian parents? What about fetuses which die in utero? What about the infants and toddlers of unbelieving parents?
Baptists have tended to hold to a view of the age of accountability. This is an unscriptural view that God will not damn for all eternity a child who is not given the chance to accept God’s grace. But why do we hold to this view? Why? Because we cannot believe that God would be so unjust as to have a two-day old baby die and immediately enter into eternal conscious torment without any understanding of why its there simply due to the fact that that its parents copulated. To think that God would be so cruel and unjust is beyond our comprehension. WE ARE NOT MORE JUST THAN GOD. Look at the history of the world both in and outside of the Bible. Believers are constantly beseeching God to punish various people and questioning why God is being so gracious to such wicked and unrighteous people. We do not believe that God would be so unjust to a child even though we admit that they have a sinful nature and are under the curse of Adam.
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Yet we will not question that God would punish with eternal conscious punishment a Native American youth who is killed by mountain lion in the year 600 B.C. We do not like it, we do not understand it, but we do not question it. Again, as we look through the Scriptures we see that believers are often questioning God’s justice. Not that God is overly penal but that He is overly gracious.
If we do take the Bible literally when it speaks of “death” as punishment for the wicked than we solve a lot of the questions about the justice of God.
These are the reasons why I believe the Scriptures (both Old and New) teach the annihilation of the unredeemed and do not advocate hell as “eternal conscious torment” as their punishment.
