Select Page

Various Quotes used in research on annihilationism

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

Following is a compilation of many of the quotes that I assembled in my research on annihilationism. What I normally do when I research a topic is to go through their writings, search for topics, words, phrases, etc., read the context, and if I think the quote is relevant or might be useful, I will categorize it as I’ve done below. This doesn’t mean that I will always use a quote.  It’s just one of the ways I research.  Nevertheless, I’m providing them here for your perusal.

  1. Annihilation
    1. “We believe that the punishment of annihilation as the permanent loss of life is a terrible fate, analogous to the most extreme form of human justice: capital punishment. The conditionalist view does not allow a Christian to escape from emotional anguish at the fate of the unsaved. Imagining a person under judgement coming to the realization that they are bereft of hope, devoid of the gift of eternal life, and facing the end of their existence should produce a profound sadness at the present plight of the lost. It should kindle in us a deep desire to share the gospel of God’s forgiveness and the offer of eternal life, found only through Christ’s work on our behalf.” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/Rethinking-Hell_Statement-on-Evangelical-Conditionalism.pdf, #4)
  2. Annihilationism
    1. “Annihilationism is the idea that the wicked will be annihilated after the final judgment.” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rethinkinghell/permalink/1320619664721911/?comment_id=1321071571343387&notif_t=group_comment&notif_id=1499857403080912)
    2. “Annihilationism does not strike at the heart of the gospel or even deny any major Christian belief; it is simply a reinterpretation of hell.(Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 7073-7074). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  3. Conditional Immortality
    1. “Conditional immortality is the believe that immortality is conditioned upon belief in Jesus. People who believe in ECT believe that all people are or will become immortal but that some people are immortal in hell and others are immortal in heaven. People who believe in Conditional Immortality believe that Immortality is granted only to the righteous through faith in Jesus.” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rethinkinghell/permalink/1320619664721911/?comment_id=1321071571343387&notif_t=group_comment&notif_id=1499857403080912)
    2. “…is the view that human beings are mortal, that we depend entirely on the grace of God for our existence, that eternal life is made possible only through the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and that immortality— endless life— is the gift of God that he will bestow upon those who are saved through Christ, at the resurrection of the dead.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 484-486). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  4. Conditionalism
    1. “Conditionalism is the view that life or existence is the Creator’s provisional gift to all, which will ultimately either be granted forever on the basis of righteousness (by grace, through faith), or revoked forever on the basis of unrighteousness. Evangelical conditionalists believe that the saved in Christ will receive glory, honor and immortality, being raised with an incorruptible body to inherit eternal life (Romans 2:7). The unsaved will be raised in shame and dishonor, to face God and receive the just condemnation for their sins. When the penalty is carried out, they will be permanently excluded from eternal life by means of a final death (loss of being; destruction of the whole person; Matthew 10:28).” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/Rethinking-Hell_Statement-on-Evangelical-Conditionalism.pdf)
  5. Conscious, Eternal Torment
    1. “The first appearance of conscious unending torment in anything resembling biblical literature comes in the apocryphal book of Judith (16: 17).” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 968-969). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. “…it [ECT] never appears in the OT even once.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Location 975). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      1. Comment:  But, the Trinity doesn’t appear as a doctrine there, either.  So?
  6. Cup of God’s wrath
    1. This symbol, in the scene at Rev 14: 9– 11, is a common figure for God’s punishment in both OT and NT (see Job 21: 20; Pss 60: 3; 75: 8; Isa 51: 17, 22; Jer 25: 27– 28; Obad 16; Matt 26: 39). Since God prepares the drink, he also determines its potency. For some, it might represent a stroke that sends them reeling but from which they recover (Ps 60: 3; Isa 51: 22). For others, it may mean total and irreversible extinction. The prophets use language like this: “They will drink and drink and be as if they had never been” (Obad 16); they “drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more” (Jer 25: 27). The figures combine in this passage for the strongest possible picture of punishment. The destruction is total (flaming sulfur), without respite until accomplished (no rest day or night), accomplished (smoke rising) with no hope of recovery (smoke rising forever). Not all commentators understand this passage to refer to the final end of sinners, of course, and we will not argue that point either way. Whatever the case, the symbols are clear in the light of previous biblical usage. None of them refers to unending conscious torment in regular usage, and there is no reason to think any refers to it here. They all, on the other hand, have regular prophetic significance in many passages of Scripture, and the meanings of them all converge on this description of a complete, irreversible destruction and extinction forever accomplished.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1074-1086). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, Edward Fudge)
  7. Death
    1. “Death is lack of relationship with God.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 48). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
      1. Even after Adam and Eve sinned, they had a relationship with God.
      2. If he means death is equal to nonexistence, then his statement would make sense – even though it is not true.
    2. Second Death
      1. “The “second death” is indeed punishment. It is the punishment of everlasting destruction, the punishment only God can mete out, for he alone is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 144). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      2. “The sinner who is destroyed both soul and body in hell, and so experiences the second death, is never forgiven, even though he dies, perishes, and is destroyed—or, in other words, he ceases to exist.”(Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 166). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      3. “The concept of second death is one of great finality; the fire consumes utterly, all that is left is smoke, a reminder of God’s complete and just triumph over evil.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 2041-2042). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
  8. Eternal fire
    1. Matthew 25:41, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;”
    2. “Trito-Isaiah was not referring to an eternal fire, because eventually that fire would stop burning after the corpses were completely consumed.”(A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge (Kindle Locations 4252-4253). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
    3. “phrases like “eternal life” and “eternal fire” [Matt 18: 8 and 25: 41; cf. Jude 7 and 2   Pet 2: 6]). When I revisited Edward Fudge’s work, I realized more keenly the importance of the fact that “when the [NT] word aiōnios modifies words which name acts or processes as distinct from persons or things, the adjective usually describes the issue or result of the action rather than the action itself.” 36 This is indisputably true in four of the six New Testament occurrences. There is eternal salvation [Heb 5: 9] but not an eternal act of saving. There is eternal redemption [Heb 9: 12] but not an eternal process of redeeming. The eternal sin [Mk 3: 29] was committed at a point in history, but its results continue into the coming age which lasts forever. Scripture pictures eternal judgment [Heb 6: 2] as taking place “on a day,” but its outcome will have no end. In the light of this usage, we suggest that Scripture expects the same understanding when it speaks of “eternal destruction” [2   Thess 1: 9] and “eternal punishment” [Mt 25: 46]. Both are acts. There will be an actual destroying and the punishing will issue in a result. That resultant punishment of destruction will never end.”(A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge (Kindle Locations 843-854). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  9. Eternal Life
    1. “What conditionalists point out, however, is that eternal life in all of its verbal expressions— and in particular when it is described in terms of “immortality”— is exclusively promised as a gift to those who are saved through Christ.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 593-595). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  10. Experience of suffering before extintion.
    1. Affirmed by Fudge
      1. “Again Jesus identifies Gehenna as the place of final punishment. Here he does not describe its destruction or duration, saying only that those who go there have been discarded and expelled by God. This is no gentle and passive death, but a fearful extinction wrought by potentially excruciating destruction in the fiery pit of the age to come.”  (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (pp. 122-123). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  11. Fire
    1. “When Jesus spoke, the imagery existed in OT forms, including and especially the river of fire flowing from God’s throne-presence at the final judgment (Daniel 7:9-10), from a scene Jesus explicitly references in Matthew 25:31. Also, in Daniel 7:11, the beast of the vision is killed and given over to be burned in the fire (no space here to draw out implications, suffice to say that parts of Revelation do draw from this same vision). Further basis is found in an understanding of the cosmological order in relation to heaven and earth rather than heaven and hell, and an inference from the various scriptures speaking of a final, redeemed, comprehensive state of the created order where only righteousness dwells (all evil having been eradicated).  Further basis is found in a nuanced interpretation of the three symbols in Revelation 20:10 (“Satan” being the interpretation of the dragon symbol, v2, which John likely still sees as a dragon in v10 for continuity, along with the beast and false prophet construed not as beings, but as false powers and systems, which cannot be literally tormented), together with a connection made with Revelation 17:11’s statement of the demise as the beast as “destruction,” and an in-context assessment of what that entails.   Finally, from a nuance interpretation of the varied and dynamic symbols, interpretations, and functions of the lake of fire, and an attempt to be consistent with them.” (Peter Grice, https://www.facebook.com/groups/rethinkinghell/permalink/1320619664721911/?comment_id=1321071571343387&notif_t=group_comment&notif_id=1499857403080912)
    2. John 15: 6: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” We notice that such branches are burned. The text does not say, “into the fire, where they are preserved forever in suffering.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 2629-2632). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
    3. John 15: 6: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” It is the destruction of what is worthless that the imagery suggests, not endless torment of living beings.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 4012-4014). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  12. Gehenna
    1. “Gehenna (the Valley of Hinnom) was in fact the valley to the south-west and south of Jerusalem which had become a byword for all that is abhorrent to God ever since it had been a place of child sacrifice in Jeremiah’s day (see Jer 7: 31f.)” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1201-1203). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. Our Lord said that the wicked will be burned up there just like weeds when thrown into the fire (Matthew 13: 30, 42, 49, 50). The impression is a very strong one that the impenitent wicked can expect to be destroyed.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1577-1579). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    3. “Traditionally it has been presumed that the Gehenna language of the Gospels had been inspired by a perpetual fire that was burning in the valley of Hinnom outside the walls of Jerusalem where the city’s rubbish was thrown to be consumed. This view, however, has fallen from favor in recent years primarily because there is no documentary evidence earlier than the thirteenth century testifying to the existence of such a dump.”( Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 6176-6179). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    4. “…Gehenna is nowhere in the Synoptics presented as a place of torment.”(Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Location 6211). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  13. Gnashing of Teeth
    1. “The phrase “grinding of teeth” appears many times in the OT (see Job 16: 9; Pss 35: 16; 37: 12; Lam 2: 16), and it always pictures someone so angry at another that he grinds his teeth in rage, like a mad animal straining at the leash. We see the same usage in the NT, where Stephen’s enemies “gnashed their teeth at him” (Acts 7: 54). Traditionalist interpretation has ignored the biblical usage of this phrase and has homiletized instead on souls grinding their teeth eternally in excruciating pain. In the Bible, however, the teeth grind in rage, not particularly in pain— though there may well be time for that along the way. Psalm 112: 10 is instructive concerning the wicked’s end in this regard.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1035-1041). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, Edward Fudge)
  14. Hades
    1. Hades is distinct from Gehenna. • Hades is before the final judgment. • Hades is a place of affliction for the callous and those who reject Jesus before the final judgment.  • Hades can therefore be understood as a remand prison for those awaiting judgment. • Hades is open to Jesus who has the keys of Hades, and uses these keys as God Saving. Jesus enters Hades firstly, with his angels, to be alongside those in Hades. Jesus is also able to release people from Hades. All people in Hades have the potential to be released, saved, by Jesus, but for this they need the specific intervention of the key-holder.(A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge (Kindle Locations 5159-5168). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  15. Hell
    1. “Hell is in ‘outer darkness’ (Matt 8: 12). It is everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, not torment in his presence (2 Thess 1: 9).”(Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 2652-2653). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  16. Immortal Souls
    1. “Today, as a growing host of evangelical (and other) scholars bear witness, the evidence for the wicked’s final total destruction (rather than the traditional view of unending conscious torture, which sprang from pagan Platonic theories of immortal, indestructible souls) is finally getting some of the attention it demands.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 899-902). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. “The traditional doctrine turns out, upon historical investigation, to be a pollution from paganism via the apologists and their followers and not at all the clear teaching of Scripture.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 921-923). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  17. Immortality
    1. “While “those who belong to Christ” at the resurrection of the dead will “put on immortality,” immortality is never promised to those who reject God.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 510-511). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. “What conditionalists point out, however, is that eternal life in all of its verbal expressions— and in particular when it is described in terms of “immortality”— is exclusively promised as a gift to those who are saved through Christ.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 593-595). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    3. Although immortality is seldom mentioned by name in the New Testament, whenever it is, it is either a reference to God’s immortality or a reference to immortality as a gift to those who will receive it through Christ.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 605-606). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
    4. There is nothing in the nature of the human soul that requires it to live forever. The Bible teaches conditionalism: God created humans mortal with a capacity for life everlasting, but it is not their inherent possession. Immortality is a gift God offers us in the gospel, not an inalienable possession.” (Pinnock, Clark H., Zondervan. Four Views on Hell (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) (Kindle Locations 2153-2155). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.)
    5. Immortality is a state gained by grace through faith when the believer receives eternal life and becomes a partaker of the divine nature, immortality being inherent in God alone.” (Morgan, Christopher W.; Peterson, Robert A.. Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Kindle Locations 475-476). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.)
    6. “If someone inquires why this does not fly into the face of Scripture’s statement that God alone possesses immortality (1 Tim 6:16), many traditionalists answer that man’s immortality concerns only his soul, which survives bodily death.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 22). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    7. “…the Bible always speaks of human immortality as God’s gift to the saved, never as an inherent quality or birthright of every person born into the world.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 24). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  18. Intermediate state
    1. “The truth is, however, that like many traditionalists Dr. Peterson believes in the immortality of the soul, body or not, for he maintains that the soul lives on when the body dies, entering what is frequently called the “intermediate state.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 524-525). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. “The natural interpretation would be that Jesus was referring to the so-called “intermediate (or interim) state” between death and resurrection.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1362-1363). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    3. “We have objected that the survival of the person, or the soul, in the intermediate state between death and resurrection does not necessarily imply its everlasting survival.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 4581-4582). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  19. Lake of fire
    1. The lake of fire is the Bible’s last description of final punishment, and it is mentioned four times (Rev 19: 20; 20: 10, 15; 21: 8). It is the fiery lake of burning sulfur, the lake of fire and brimstone. The exact expression “lake of fire (and brimstone/ burning sulfur)” does not appear anywhere else in Scripture.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1087). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, Edward Fudge)
  20. Man
    1. Ceases to exist upon death
      1. “The first man was created when the dust of the earth and the breath of God were brought together (Gen 2: 7), and just as surely as the man did not exist prior to creation, he does not exist when the spirit returns to God who gave it and the dust returns to the earth (Eccl 12:7).” (Peoples, Glen, A., Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 583-586). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  21. Mercy
    1. “Annihilationists— including all members of various Adventist denominations, churches, and organizations— believe that the everlastingness of hell is extinction. That is, persons who are consigned there are punished and shown mercy at the same time; God punishes them by burning them up completely and shows them mercy by allowing them to cease existing as rebellious persons under condemnation.”(Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 7061-7064). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  22. Monism
    1. “man is one indivisible entity, not a combination of two, body and soul.”(Ed., Date, Christopher M. and Highfiled, Ron. A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge, Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. (Kindle Locations 4500-4501).
    2. “The Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, represent individual personality as a complex and totally mortal monism, a unity that can be viewed from different perspectives, but that cannot be broken into separately existing parts.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism, Kindle Locations 2954-2956). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.)
    3. John [the apostle] has a distinctly monist view of human existence; in other words man is one indivisible entity, not a combination of two, body and soul.”((Ed., Date, Christopher M. and Highfiled, Ron. A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge, Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, Locations 4500-4501, underline added)
  23. No Rest Day or Night
    1. “Revelation 14: 1– 5 presents John with a glorious vision of the Lamb and 144,000 of his people, the earth’s redeemed firstfruits. Three angels announce judgment in increasingly stronger language. The third angel cries with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will . .  . be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. . .  . There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image” (14: 9– 11). We have already seen the biblical meaning of fire and brimstone (burning sulfur) as a cipher for total destruction at Sodom and Gomorrah and thereafter (Gen 19: 23, 28; Deut 29: 23; Job 18: 15– 17; Isa 30: 27– 33; 34: 9– 11; Ezek 38: 22ff.). Here the destruction occurs without respite or relief for its victims until it is finished. They have “no rest day or night” until it is over. The victims can anticipate no respite by day or by night. Their suffering is not exclusively a “daytime” activity, nor is it exclusively a “nighttime” activity. There is no intermission in the suffering while it continues. But the other three figures in this scene all suggest that it will finally cease, when the destruction is completed and nothing is left. Then only rising smoke will testify to the everlasting penalty that has been exacted.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1062-1073). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, Edward Fudge)
  24. Pagan Platonic Philosophy
    1. “Today, as a growing host of evangelical (and other) scholars bear witness, the evidence for the wicked’s final total destruction (rather than the traditional view of unending conscious torture, which sprang from pagan Platonic theories of immortal, indestructible souls) is finally getting some of the attention it demands.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 899-902). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. The traditional doctrine turns out, upon historical investigation, to be a pollution from paganism via the apologists and their followers and not at all the clear teaching of Scripture.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 921-923). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    3. “Does the teaching of Jesus and the NT writers require us to expect the conscious unending torment of the wicked? Not unless we ignore the entire OT background to the NT vocabulary involved, then proceed to give to the NT language later definitions imported from pagan Platonic philosophy during the centuries following.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 993-995). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    4. The immortality of the soul was a principal doctrine of the Greek philosopher, Plato…” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 19). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  25. Paganism
    1. “Apart from parts of 1 Enoch the Jewish apocalyptic pseudepigrapha are very probably post-first century. In any case they and early Christian pseudepigrapha contain views of body/ soul anthropology and of the after-death state of the wicked that are heavily influenced by pagan Greek philosophical and mythological conceptions.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 3362-3365). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, footnote 183.)
    2. After referring to paganism’s problem of a soul that is “immortal, everlasting, and without bodily substance,” yet being “punished” and made to “suffer pain,” Arnobius asks, “But what man does not see that that which is immortal, which is simple (note 17: “i.e., not compounded of soul and body”), cannot be subject to any pain; that that, on the contrary, cannot be immortal which does suffer pain?” He then speaks of those who, being cast into the flames, are “annihilated,” and “pass away” in “everlasting destruction.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 6606-6610). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  26. Punishment
    1. Degrees of Punishment
      1. “Traditionalist Larry Dixon expresses the opinion that the “Achilles heel” of conditional immortality “appears to be the issue of degrees of punishment.”2 To the contrary, if divine justice calls for varying degrees of sentient pain and suffering, as I also suppose it will, the destructive process easily encompasses it all, whether such pain be differentiated by intensity, duration, or by kind. The Bible does not reveal details on this point. Instead, the emphasis throughout Scripture is on the conclusion of the process, which is eternal destruction. In the end, the wicked are extinct, extinguished, terminated—totally and forever—with no hope of resurrection, restoration or recovery.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 374). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      2. “…these sayings [lesser and greater beatings] are intended to underscore divine impartiality; God will take into account the opportunity and circumstances of people in determining judgment. This is not the same as teaching “grades of punishment.” The reference in Luke 12:47– 48 is part of the scenery of the parable and teaches, if anything, the principle that responsibility is commensurate with endowment and opportunity. Moreover, can one meaningfully speak of degrees of unending pain? Does not the endless duration of the pain render any relative measures of severity both arbitrary and meaningless?” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 5583-5587). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      3. “…when God destroys both soul and body in hell, the destructive act or process will be based on perfect divine justice in each individual case, and will allow infinite latitude for degrees of conscious punishment, whether differentiated by its kind, its intensity, or its duration.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 208). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      4. Traditionalists and conditionalists affirm together that there will be degrees of punishment—the first group, by varying external circumstances or internal sensitivity to them; the second group, by duration, type, or sensitivity to conscious pain during the process of the second death.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 227). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      5. “But if so, what about possible degrees of punishment in hell that some texts suggest (Matt. 10:15; Luke 12:47-48)? How could extinction make room for that? I am not exactly sure how to answer that because it requires more detailed knowledge of the precise act of damnation than we have been given. I am sure that it is not beyond God’s wisdom to figure about how degrees of punishment might enter into this event. Maybe there will be a period of punishment before oblivion and nonbeing. What there cannot be is what the tradition insists on: excessive pnishment.” (Zondervan. Four Views on Hell (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) (Kindle Locations 2249-2254). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.)
    2. Eternal Punishment
      1. “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.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 567-568). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
      2. “This “punishment” can encompass a broad spectrum of degrees of conscious suffering based on varying degrees of guilt, but the essence of this “punishment” is the total and everlasting dissolution and extinction of the person punished.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 39). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      3. This punishment, more specifically identified as this destruction, will last forever. Those who are punished with everlasting destruction will cease to exist.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 42). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      4. The sinner who is destroyed both soul and body in hell, and so experiences the second death, is never forgiven, even though he dies, perishes, and is destroyed—or, in other words, he ceases to exist.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 166). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
    3. Punishment
      1. All conditionalists agree that there will at least be mental anguish experienced by the unsaved, in terms of abject shame, dread, anger and bitter regret…Those who instead locate final punishment primarily in death’s significance as the means of exclusion from eternal life, tend to emphasize that any suffering is part of the process of a person being destroyed. If they do hold to suffering (whether mental or physical) in addition to the generally accepted anguish prior to punishment, as many do, they tend to see it as relatively brief in duration, comparable to the experience of Christ on the cross. This may include varying degrees, with the caveat that these exhaust an aspect of God’s justice, while preserving death as the ultimate, universal penalty.” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/Rethinking-Hell_Statement-on-Evangelical-Conditionalism.pdf, #8.2)
  27. Resurrection
    1. Resurrection of life
      1. “…it is only the people of God who will take part in the “resurrection of life” (John 5: 29). In his great chapter on the resurrection (1   Cor 15), all of Paul’s talk of the mortal putting on immortality falls within the context of describing the resurrection of “those who belong to Christ” (v. 23).” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 601-603). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    2. “Evangelical conditionalists affirm the future, bodily resurrection of both the saved and the unsaved: those who are saved, to the resurrection of eternal life with God; those who are unsaved, to face final punishment, consisting ultimately in the destruction of body and soul, a permanent end to life and conscious existence.” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/Rethinking-Hell_Statement-on-Evangelical-Conditionalism.pdf, #5)
  28. Second Death
    1. “However, keep in mind that for the people thrown into it, the lake of fire is called the second “death”, yet for the devil and the beast it is referred to as torture.” (https://stumblingthroughtheology.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/hell-no-the-case-for-annihilationism/)
    2. Revelation 2:11, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’”
    3. Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”
    4. Revelation 20:14, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”
    5. Revelation 21:8, “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.””
  29. Sheol
    1. “The Israelites’ beliefs about a personal afterlife were similar to those of their neighbors. Israelites thought that at death, all people go to Sheol (שְׁאוֹל, she’ol; ᾅδης, hadēs). Sheol can be understood as a poetic description of the actual physical place of one’s corpse: a cold, dark, damp, quiet, isolated place where nothing happens. All the living will one day “go down” into Sheol (Num 16:30, 33; 1 Sam 2:6; Psa 89:48), which is contrasted with heaven (Psa 139:8). Job describes Sheol as “a land of gloom and deep darkness” (Job 10:21–22). Because it is known as a place of decay (Isa 14:11), Sheol (שְׁאוֹל, she’ol) is used interchangeably with terms like “pit” (בְּאֵר, be’er) and “destruction” (אֲבַדּוֹן, avaddon), and it is described as a place where the dead are rendered silent, unable to praise Yahweh (Psa 115:17).”  (Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.)
    2. These texts reflect a limited existence after death, not annihilation. In other words, just as deteriorated corpses are lesser forms of the body, persons in Sheol are fragments of their former selves; they are “shades” (רְפָאִים, repha’im), weak and humbled persons (Isa 14:9–11) who are quiet and cut off from God’s wonders (Psa 88:10). Saul’s summoning of the deceased Samuel reinforces this sense of limited life: The prophet, a shadow of his former self, simply repeats the message he had given the king in his lifetime (1 Sam 28). The law’s strict prohibitions against necromancy suggest that the practice continued to be problematic in Israel. Pinker suggests that Israel’s rather melancholy view of Sheol may have helped to sever the possibility of conjuration, “relinquish[ing] the attachment between the living and the dead” (Pinker, “Sheol,” 178).” (Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.)
    3. “Scripture’s overall usage of Sheol and Hades reveals that, upon death, it is a place where all men, righteous and unrighteous, go to.” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/2017/05/hypocrisy-not-hell-the-polemic-parable-of-lazarus-and-the-rich-man)
    4. “Sheol was the most common Old Testament word for the general abode of the dead.” (A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge (Kindle Locations 5015-5016). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
  30. Smoke that ascends
    1. “The “smoke” that “rises for ever and ever” (Rev 14: 11) also deserves defining by prior biblical usage. This picture comes from the destruction of Sodom. The Lord “rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Gen 19: 24) until not even vegetation survived. The next morning Abraham looked down on the site “and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace” (19: 28). It is much the same as our image of the mushroom-shaped cloud after an atomic blast. The visible smoke is a certification of accomplished destruction. There are no more cries in Sodom when Abraham views the ascending smoke. All is quiet. The sinners are all destroyed. The rising smoke testifies to their complete extinction. The same figure reappears in Isa 34: 10 of Edom’s destruction. God comes against the land with “burning sulfur” and “blazing pitch” (v.   9). The fire “will not be quenched night and day” (v.   10)— it is irresistible and therefore destroys completely (see the same figure in Rev 14: 11). Isaiah says “its smoke will rise forever,” telling us that Edom’s destruction is not only certain (not quenched) and complete (smoke rising) but also irreversible. The desolation will be unending. The verses following describe a land empty of people, the haunt of desert creatures. Conscious pain has ended there, but “its smoke will rise forever”— the extinction is perpetual. We find the same symbol in Revelation 18– 19 concerning the destruction of “Babylon.” The city is “fallen” (Rev 18: 2), “consumed by fire” (18: 8), and those observing “see the smoke” (18: 9). Like Sodom of old, “Babylon” is utterly destroyed. The rising smoke testifies to that destruction. Like Edom of old, her destruction will never be reversed or undone, for “the smoke from her goes up for ever and ever” (19: 3).” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1046-1061). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition)
  31. Soul
    1. “When death occurs, then it is the soul that is deprived of life. Death cannot strike the body or any other part of the soul without striking the entirety of the soul . . . It is deliberately said both that the soul dies (Judg 16:30; Num 23:10; et al.), that it is destroyed or consumed (Ezek 22:25, 27), and that it is extinguished (Job 11:20).” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 27). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  32. Soul Sleep
    1. “Evangelical conditionalists also differ in terms of what we believe the Bible says about the constitution of human beings, and also about whether people are conscious in the intermediate state between death and resurrection. Some are anthropological physicalists or materialists who believe human beings are physical creatures, the functioning of whose minds is dependent upon their living bodies. Others are substance dualists who believe human beings have immaterial souls, but that they lack consciousness between death and resurrection. Still others embrace a traditional body/soul dualism and contend that the immaterial souls of human beings live on consciously after death (although not immortal in any sense), until a resurrection of the body. The same diversity of perspectives exists within evangelicalism more broadly, and therefore is not a logical requirement or consequence of CI.” (http://www.rethinkinghell.com/Rethinking-Hell_Statement-on-Evangelical-Conditionalism.pdf, #8.4)
    2. Suffering eternal punishment (can’t be suffering if you don’t exist)
      1. Augustine:
        1. “BY TRANSGRESSING GOD’S PROHIBITION HUMANITY IS CONDEMNED TO A COMPLETE DEATH. AUGUSTINE: God, referring to the forbidden fruit, said to the first man whom he had established in paradise: “In the day that you shall eat of it, you shall die the death.” His threat included not only the first part of the first death, that is, the soul’s deprivation of God; not only the second part of the first death, that is, the body’s deprivation of the soul; not only the whole of the first death in which the soul, separated from both God and the body, is punished; but whatever of death is up to and including that absolutely final and so-called second death … in which the soul, deprived of God but united to the body, suffers eternal punishment. CITY OF GOD 13.12.” (Louth, Andrew, and Marco Conti, eds. Genesis 1–11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001)
    3. Soul Sleep
      1. “soul sleep,” the view that death is a state of total unconsciousness, rather than survival in heaven, hell, or purgatory.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 503-504). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      2. “soul sleep (Gr. psychopannychia) The view that there is a period between one’s death and the final resurrection in which one’s self (soul) is in an unconscious state.” (McKim, Donald K.. The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Second Edition: Revised and Expanded (Kindle Locations 13332-13333). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.)
      3. “When death occurs, then it is the soul that is deprived of life. Death cannot strike the body or any other part of the soul without striking the entirety of the soul.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 27). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      4. “The nature of the human creature does not determine the outcome in our debate. Dualists, who teach that the soul consciously survives the death of the body (dualism), acknowledge that God is able to destroy both soul and body in hell if he so desires. Monists, who deny that a disembodied soul consciously survives physical death, acknowledge that God is able to resurrect the wicked in immortality if he so desires.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 367). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      5. “The first man was created when the dust of the earth and the breath of God were brought together (Gen 2: 7), and just as surely as the man did not exist prior to creation, he does not exist when the spirit returns to God who gave it and the dust returns to the earth (Eccl 12:7).” (Peoples, Glen, A., Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 583-586). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  33. Undying Worms
    1. “What of “the worm that does not die” (Mark 9:48)? For centuries, traditionalist interpreters have ignored the biblical background of this phrase and have made it mean everything from a tormenting conscience to an everlasting parasite. The Bible itself, however, provides ample definition. Our Lord’s expression comes directly from Isa 66:24, which may be the most ignored biblical passage on final punishment, even though its language might be used most often. The language of Isaiah 66 is figurative, prophetic symbolism. God executes judgment “with fire and with his sword” (v. 16). When the visitation is ended, “many will be those slain by the Lord” (v. 16b). The wicked “will meet their end together” (v. 17). The righteous, on the other hand, “endure” (v. 22). “All mankind” comes to worship God— the wicked are no more (v. 23). This is the setting of the crucial v.   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.” Note that the righteous “go out and look” at the dead bodies of the wicked. This symbolic picture of the future may well reflect an actual incident Isaiah witnessed, when God defeated the army of Assyria in answer to Hezekiah’s prayer (2   Kgs 18: 17— 19: 36; Isa 36– 37). That night, Isaiah himself reports, “the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning— there were all the dead bodies!” (Isa 37: 36). Now Isaiah says the same scene will be reproduced on a vaster scale at the end of time. In the historical event of the prophet’s day (37: 36) and in the prophetic picture of the future (66: 24), the righteous view with satisfaction “dead bodies” or “corpses” of the wicked. These are dead bodies (Hebrew pĕgārîm), not living people or imperishable zombies. The righteous view their destruction, not their misery. The prototype to this viewing of enemies who have perished came at the Red Sea (Exod 14: 30), and similar scenes are pictured throughout the OT (Pss 58: 10; 91: 8; Ezek 39: 9– 22; Mal 4: 1– 3). Both the maggots (Greek skōkēx) and the fire speak of total extinction. Both terms make this picture repulsive or loathsome— they describe disgust, not pity. The picture is one of shame, not pain (the same Hebrew word for “loathsome” in Isa 66: 24 appears also in Dan 12: 2, where the NJV has “contempt”). Traditionalists have ignored Isaiah’s picture, then interpreted Jesus as though his language had no biblical precedent. Free from the Scriptural definitions, the “fire” and “worms” have (as with Judith in the Apocrypha) become something never found in the Bible. The scriptural picture of total destruction has been replaced in traditional explanation with the pagan notion of unending conscious torture. (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 1010-1035). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
  34. Unquenchable fire
    1. “Traditionalists assume that “unquenchable fire” means “unending conscious torment.” They do not acknowledge that this expression comes from the OT, where it has the frequent and regular sense of “destruction that cannot be resisted.” “Quench” means to “extinguish” or “put out” a fire. The psalmist, for instance, says he will quench his enemies’ fire (Ps 118: 12), and Heb 11:34 mentions heroes of faith who were able to “quench the violence of fire.” But God’s fire of punishment cannot be quenched or put out, and so he warns cities and nations in many places (Isa 1: 31; 34: 10– 11; Jer 4: 4; 7: 20; 17: 27; 21: 12; Ezek 20: 47– 48; Amos 5: 5– 6). Jesus warns the same in Mark 9: 43, 48 when he speaks of the horrible place of punishment where “the fire is not quenched.” And what does fire do to its victims if it is not extinguished? It burns them up— exactly as John the Baptist announced concerning sinners’ doom in his word about Jesus’ eschatological wrath: “He will clear his threshing floor . .  . burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3: 12). (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 999-1009). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
      1. How is it horrible for the person to not exist?  He isn’t experiencing anything.
    2. “There are three passages that speak of unquenchable fire, two in the teaching of the Baptist (Matt 3: 12 = Luke 3: 17) and one from our Lord who speaks of going away “into Gehenna into the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9: 43). The chaff of course is burnt up by the irresistible fire— there is nothing to suggest that the fire goes on burning after it has destroyed the rubbish.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 2016-2019). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    3. “The idea of unquenchable fire is taken like so much else in the New Testament from the Scriptures of the Old. In Jer 17: 27 we read that the Lord will kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will devour her palaces and shall not be quenched. The king of Babylon was the instrument through whom God fulfilled this threat and the palaces were devoured. But is the fire burning now? Of course not. No one in the world could quench it till it had fulfilled the purpose for which it was kindled, and then in the course of nature it went out. In Jer 7: 20 the Lord says the same thing about his wrath against Jerusalem. Unquenchable fire in Scripture is thus fire that cannot be put out until it has totally devoured what it was kindled to burn up. Such will be the fire that will burn up the wicked.” (Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (Kindle Locations 2598-2604). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    4. “Biblical usage of the adjective “unquenchable” inspires a different line of logic. “Unquenchable” fire is fire that cannot be resisted. Therefore it completely consumes whatever is put into it. Therefore those who go to hell will truly die, perish, and be destroyed—in their entirety and forever—without recourse or return.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 79). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
    5. “The figure of “unquenchable” fire appears frequently throughout Scripture and signifies a fire that cannot be resisted or put out until it has done what fire is intended to do. Because this fire is “not quenched” or extinguished, it completely consumes what is put into it. Yet an “unquenchable” fire eventually goes out, when it has consumed its fuel. “Unquenchable” does not mean ever-burning, but irresistible.” (Fudge, Edward William. The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, Third Edition (p. 77). Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition, underline added)

Return to the Annihilationism page

SUPPORT CARM

Thank you for your interest in supporting CARM. We greatly appreciate your consideration!

SCHOOLS USER LOGIN

If you have any issues, please call the office at 385-246-1048 or email us at [email protected].

MATT SLICK LIVE RADIO

Call in with your questions at:

877-207-2276

3-4 p.m. PST; 4-5 p.m. MST;
6-7 p.m. EST

You May Also Like…