Edward William Fudge is one of the best-known conditionalists. He wrote a book called The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment. It is an in-depth support of annihilationism. Following is a quote from Mr. Fudge that is, in my opinion, misleading.
“Most often apollumi refers to actual death. It appears ninety-two times in the New Testament, thirteen times in Paul’s letters.”1
I have done an extensive analysis of every occurrence of the Greek word apollumi found at Word study on apollumi, destroy. In that analysis here is the summation.
Destruction (apollumi) where it is in reference to people has a total of 60 occurrences in the New Testament: But, of those 60 occurrences, none necessitate, from context, that nonexistence is the proper interpretation. This is important since there are contexts where the nonexistence of objects are necessary: flower (James 1:11), gold (1 Pet. 1:7), luxurious things (Rev. 18:14), wine (Mark 2:22). Nevertheless, within those 60 occurrences where apollumi is in reference to people, the only verses where physical death is necessitated as an interpretation totals 23 (Matt. 8:25; 21:41; 22:7; 26:52; Mark 4:38; 9:22; 12:9; Luke 8:24; 11:51; 13:3, 5, 55; 15:17; 17:27; 29; 20:16; Acts 5:37; Rom. 2:12; 1 Cor. 10:9, 10; 2 Cor. 4:9; Jude 5, 11). But, those 23 occurrences do not necessitate the interpretation of nonexistence. Furthermore, this means that the occurrence of apollumi range in topics including the option of existence or nonexistence (Matt. 10:28; John 10:10), physical death or spiritual death (Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24, 25; 17:33; John 12:25; John 17:12; 1 Cor. 8:11), damnation (John 3:16; 6:39; 10:28; 18:9; 1 Cor. 1:18; 15:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; 2 Cor. 4:3; 2 Thess. 2:10; 2 Pet. 3:9; James 4:12), death of Jesus where he obviously would continue existence after physical death (Matt. 2:13; 12:14; 27:20; Mark 3:6; 11:18; Luke 19:47), and of a nation disappearing (John 11:50), losing body parts (Matt. 5:29-30), loss of accomplishment (2 John 8), destruction of demons (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34), wineskins (Mark 9:17; Luke 5:37), flooding of the world (2 Pet. 3:6), saving the lost (Matt. 10:6; 15:24; 18:11; Luke 15:24, 32; 19:10), hindering someone (Rom. 14:15), and unnaccounted for (Luke 15:4, 6, 8, 9; 21:18; John 6:12, 27; Acts 27:34).
According to Edward Fudge, the Greek word apollumi occurs 92 times in the New Testament. Alright, so let’s do the math. According to my research (Word study on apollumi, destroy), 59 occurrences deal with people.
Of those 59 occurrences, 31 verses are speaking of a person’s physical death. Additionally, of those same 59 verses, 10 speak of either physical death or spiritual death. In other words, the verses can be interpreted either way.
- The verses that directly deal with the death of those persons consist of (Matthew 2:13; 8:25; 10:28; 12:14; 16:25; 21:41; 22:7; 26:52; 27:20; Mark 3:6; 4:38; 9:22; 11:18; 12:9; Luke 8:24; 11:51; 13:3, 5, 33; 15:17; 17:27, 29; 19:47; 20:16; Acts 5:37; Romans 2:12; 1 Cor. 10:9, 10, 2 Cor. 4:9; Jude 5, 11
- The verses that deal with possible death would be (Matthew 10:39; 16:25; 18:14; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24, 25; 17:33; John 12:25; 17:12; 1 Cor. 8:11
Conclusion
So it is only 31 our Edward Fudge’s 92 verses that specifically deal with the physical death of people. That is 34%. Therefore, Fudge is mistaken when he says “Most often apollumi refers to actual death.”2
But, let’s add in the 10 verses that that can mean spiritual as well as physical death. That would be a total of 41 verses out of Fudge’s 92 which would be 45%. Again, Fudge is wrong.
I can’t help but wonder if he is seeing more in the texts of Scripture that is really there in order to support his annihilationism.
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