Category Archives: Annihilationalism

How can heaven and hell co-exist eternally?

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How can heaven and hell possibly co-exist everlastingly (asks Philip Edgecumbe Hughes)?  Would this not be incompatible with the redemption achieved by Christ?  For,

  • Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26; 1 John 3:5);
  • through his appearing death has been abolished (2 Tim 1:10);
  • in the new heaven and the new earth, that is, in the whole realm of the renewed order of creation, there will be no more weeping or suffering, “and death shall be no more” (Rev 21:4).
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Packer on eternal punishment

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In 1990, aware that respected evangelicals such as John Stott, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes and John Wenham had recently lent their support to annihilationism/conditionalism, J.I. Packer gave a lecture on ‘The Problem of Eternal Punishment.’

Packer began by affirming what all evangelicals should affirm, namely that our views about ultimate destiny should be shaped not by what what we might like to be so, but by what Scripture actually says is so.  Packer also observed what many before and after him have observed: that the Scriptural voice which speaks most frequently and firmly about hell is that of Jesus himself.…

Aiōnios: duration, quality, or both?

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In his book The Fire That Consumes Fudge devotes an entire chapter (chapter 4) to the meaning of the Greek word aiōnios (usually translated ‘eternal’).

The key question is this: does the word mean (a) lasting for ever, (b) characteristic of the age to come, or (c) either or both of these (depending on context)?

A key text is Matthew 25:46, which speaks both of ‘eternal life’ and ‘eternal punishment’.  Many argue that aiōnios must mean the same in both parts of the verse. …

Grudem on annihilationalism

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Wayne Grudem (Systematic Theology, p1150) notes the following arguments that are advanced in favour of annihilationalism:-

  1. the biblical references to the destruction of the wicked, which, some say, implies that they will no longer exist after they are destroyed (Phil. 3:19; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Thess. 1:9; 2 Peter 3:7; et al.);
  2. the apparent inconsistency of eternal conscious punishment with the love of God;
  3. the apparent injustice involved in the disproportion between sins committed in time and punishment that is eternal;
  4. the fact that the continuing presence of evil creatures in God’s universe will eternally mar the perfection of a universe that God created to reflect his glory.
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Is hell for ever?

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I present here arguments for and against this difficult and disputed question.

Yes?

Traditionalists argue that the Gk words for ‘eternal’ (‘aion‘ and ‘ainios‘) often carry a clear idea of duration, Heb 13:8; Rev 4:10; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11; 20:10.  Cp Mk 3:29 w Mt 12:32.  They frequently note the parallelism between ‘eternal life’ and ‘eternal punishment’ in Mt 25:46.

The word ‘eternal’ is used over 60 times to refer to the blessings of the future state. …

The case for conditional immortality

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A number of evangelical scholars, including John Stott, Phillip Edgecumbe Hughes, and Stephen Travis, have favoured a doctrine of ‘conditional immortality’ over that of ‘eternal punishment’.

According to Travis, the doctrine of eternal punishment depends on a belief in the immortaility of the soul, as well as the ‘apparently explicit’ teaching of texts such as Mt 25:34,41,46; Mk 9:42f; 2 Thess 1:9; and Rev 14:11; 19:3; 20:10.

The case for conditional immortality, on the other hand, can be summarised as follows:-

1. …