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Conditionalism and conflating eternal punishment with non-existence

by | Oct 11, 2018 | Annihilationism, Minor Groups & Issues

Conditionalism and conflating eternal punishment with nonexistence

The Fallacy of Conflation occurs when two or more terms or ideas that share some common characteristics are used to refer to the same thing. When this happens, the individual identity of those terms and concepts is lost. Another way to look at it is to understand the Fallacy of Conflation as a confusion of terms or ideas and results in ambiguity. It is like comparing apples and oranges. Though both share the common characteristic of being a fruit, they are different in texture, color, and nature. So, to compare apples and oranges as though they are the same thing would be the Fallacy of Conflation.

Here are some more examples.

  • The conflation of Legality and Morality: Drug use in that state is legal. Therefore, it is morally acceptable.
    • This conflates (confuses) legality with moral acceptability.
  • The conflation of Love and Marriage:  Love is what makes a marriage work.  After all, true marriage is true love.
    • This conflates (confuses) love with marriage.  They are related but different.

This issue of conflation is very important, especially in the context of punishment and eternal nonexistence. When conditionalists say that eternal punishment is annihilation, they are equating the concepts. They are saying that the eternal punishment of God is a person’s eternal nonexistence.

“This is a punishment which is eternal, but not because the lost themselves will live forever. Instead, the punishment is eternal insofar as what the lost will miss out on is eternal.”1

So, the above quote is saying that eternal punishment is eternal nonexistence (eternally missing out on existence). More specifically, conditionalists say that God’s eternal punishment results in man’s eternal nonexistence. But, in so doing, they are confusing God’s action with the result of the action when they say that God’s punishment is eternal nonexistence. In other words, they are conflating one with the other by saying they are essentially equal.

Are Eternal Punishment and Eternal Non-existence equal?

To say that eternal punishment is eternal, nonexistence is to equate eternal punishment with eternal nonexistence. It is to make them equal.  But, this equality can’t work because they are not the same thing. Please consider the following table.

Table 1
Comparing Eternal Punishment and Nonexistence
Eternal Punishment Nonexistence
An action Not an action
Is the cause of non-existence Is the result of the punishment
Occurs in time Eternal non-existence does not occur in time
Completed in time Eternal non-existence is not completed in time
Momentary Eternal nothing has no ‘moment’

As you can see, eternal punishment and nonexistence are not the same things. Therefore, to say that God’s eternal punishment is a person’s nonexistence is to commit the Fallacy of Conflation.  It is bad reasoning.

But, it is the result of punishment that is the issue

Conditionalists respond by saying that God’s eternal punishment is not an ongoing action, but the result of a single action: annihilation. They say that one momentary action has an eternal effect. But, this makes no sense as Table 1 above shows.

Once a punishment is carried out, there is no more punishment to be administered – especially if the recipient does not exist anymore. It is finished. In the case of the conditionalists, the punishment is God’s action upon a person, which results in his nonexistence. But, the action of rendering someone nonexistent is not the same thing as the condition of nonexistence. The cause (punishment) is not the same thing as the result (nonexistence). Nonexistence is nothing. But punishment is something. Punishment is an action. Nonexistence is not. Punishment is momentary. Nonexistence is not. Therefore, they are not the same thing, and the conditionalists make a mistake when they equate God’s punishment with eternal nonexistence.

I’ve done a lot of research on the notion of punishment from a biblical perspective. See the articles, Usage of the English word ‘punish’ in the Bible and What is punishment?  Punishment is experienced. Therefore, for punishment to be eternal nonexistence is not consistent with biblical usage.

Capital Punishment as an analogy

“This destruction [of Matt. 25:46] is not accidental, nor is it self-inflicted. It is the penal outcome of God’s judgment. It is punishment, in this instance capital punishment. And, unlike even the capital punishment man may inflict, it is irreversible capital punishment. It is, truly, “everlasting” or “eternal” punishment, “everlasting destruction,” the second death from which there is no resurrection or return forever.”2

Because conditionalists often equate God’s judgment with capital punishment, I thought I would devote a little space to addressing that issue. They say that just as the effect of capital punishment is forever since it stops biological life, in the same way, the effect of eternal punishment is forever since it stops spiritual life. To be clear, when I say ‘spiritual life,’ I am referring to the totality of human existence that includes body and soul in the afterlife. But, in stating their position, they inadvertently admit that punishment is not the same thing as annihilation. (See Table 1 above for review of this.)

Biblically, punishment is experienced

nonexistence

In annihilationism, the punishment of nonexistence is not experienced.  This is because it occurs in a moment.  The person is existing and then poof, he is not existing.  The transition is not experienced by the individual.  Only existence is experienced and then the experience stops.  Therefore, punishment is not experienced – which is not consistent with biblical revelation that shows that punishment is experienced: Gen. 4:13; Exodus 21:20; 32:34-35; Lev. 5:17; 19:20; 22:16; 26:18; 26:28; 2 Chron. 6:23; Psalm 89:32; 149:7-8; Prov. 21:11; Isa. 29:6; 30:32; Jer. 27:8; 36:31; 44:13; 44:29; Lam. 4:22; Hosea 4:9-10; Zeph. 1:8-9; 1:12-13; Zech. 17:18-19; Luke 23:16; 23:22; Acts 22:5; 26:11; 2 Cor. 2:6; 6:9; 1 Pet. 2:14; 2 Pet. 2:9; Jude 7.

Their reasoning is not sound. A punishment that renders a person nonexistent is not everlasting because nonexistence isn’t anything. It is nothing. It is not experienced. It is not an effect, because you can’t have an “effect” on nothingness. Nothingness can not be not a state of punishment. Let me illustrate.

Table 2
Comparing Conceptual Conditions
Condition 1
Nothingness
Condition 2
Existence
Condition 3
Existence
Condition 4
Existence
Condition 5
Punishment
Non-existence Conscious Existence Soul Sleep Conscious Existence Non-existence
Before being born Conception to
physical death
Between physical death
and resurrection
Resurrection to
Annihilation
After judgment

 

You will notice that Condition 1 (nonexistence) is identical to Condition 5 (nonexistence). They are exactly identical because both of them have absolutely no characteristics, no attributes. If we have two things, X and Y, and all of the attributes of X are exactly identical to Y, then X is Y. They are the same thing. Likewise, if Condition 1 is identical to the Condition 5 (nonexistence, having no attributes at all), then Condition 1 is Condition 5. But, that makes no sense in the conditionalist worldview since Condition 5 is supposed to be punishment, and Condition 1 is not punishment. They have a problem since they place an attribute of punishment upon Condition 5, which is in actuality exactly equal to Condition 1, yet Condition 1 is not punishment.

Here is the above table expanded.

Table 3
Comparing Conditions of Existence
Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 3 Condition 4 Condition 5
Non-existence Conscious Existence Soul Sleep Conscious Existence Non-existence
Punishment as a characteristic isn’t possible since “nothing” has no characteristics
No characteristics and no attributes Attributes of self-awareness, reason, consciousness, etc. Attributes of self-awareness, reason, consciousness, etc. No characteristics and no attributes
Soul Sleep provides the continuity between Conditions 2 and 4, though conditionalists have a great deal of difficulty defining exactly what soul sleep is.
Before being born After being born After physical death After resurrection After judgment

 

To reiterate, if Condition 5 is punishment, then why is Condition 1 not also punishment since they are identical in all respects. Both are nonexistence. Now, I understand the conditionalists will say that Condition 5 is the result of something, namely, the judgment of God that occurs concomitantly with Condition 4. But again, if Condition 5 is judgment and Condition 5 is also nonexistence, then they are equating judgment with nonexistence, and this is, again, the Fallacy of Conflation (Table 1). In addition, the nature of nonexistence in Condition 1 is identical to the nature of nonexistence in Condition 5 since both are nonexistence – which is exactly equal to each other. If they are exactly equal to each other, then they are the same thing. But, that can’t be if one is not punishment and the is punishment. Therefore, their position makes no sense.

 

The Punishment is God’s action, not their non-existence

If the conditionalist response is that a wicked person’s punishment of nonexistence is the single action of God where he annihilates a person, then the punishment is not experienced by the person since nonexistence can’t be experienced. How then is it punishment? (See the paragraph Following the heading above “Biblically, punishment is experienced.”) This way, the punishment is not experienced by a person. That would be a problem.

Conclusion

The conditionalist view that God’s eternal punishment is the same thing as a person’s eternal nonexistence makes no sense.  It commits the fallacy of conflation. Eternal punishment and nonexistence are not the same thing and to state that they are is logically impossible.  It should be abandoned.

References

References
1 Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 567-568). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition
2 Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1148-1151). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. underline added

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