note: this post was updated February 23, 2021.
I grew up believing that the final fate of the
unrighteous is eternal conscious torment. I believed it and I taught it to
others. But after the Lord led me in a prolonged period of studying this topic
(mainly from the Bible, but also by reading the best arguments I could find
from evangelicals with each view) I became thoroughly convinced that the Bible
teaches something else. I now believe that the unrighteous will perish (John
3:16), have both their bodies and souls destroyed (Matthew 10:28), and be
burned to ashes (2 Peter 2:6). This view I now hold is called either
conditional immortality or annihilationism.
God’s Word has always been my most important resource in
studying this topic. But I have also been helped by other Christians who have
written and spoken on it. They have helped me see things I would have missed on my own.
They have helped me understand God’s truth more clearly and precisely. Much of
the material that has helped me may be found on the Rethinking Hell website, where there are
links to podcasts, books, debates, and articles on this topic.
I see God working to correct the widespread and long held
traditional view of eternal conscious torment and replace it with the biblical
truth of conditional immortality. Having been helped by others, I thank God for
the opportunity to contribute to this movement in a small way. I’ve written
over twenty blog posts related to this topic and have also preached on it and produced videos on it. By
God’s grace, these materials have been helpful to some people seeking to
understand what the Bible teaches about the nature of hell. So, I’ve decided to
produce this document to provide one location where anyone interested can find
links to all my online material related to the nature of final punishment. I
also provide a short description for each resource.
Blog Posts
Supporting Conditional Immortality against Eternal Conscious Torment
This short post is perhaps my personal favorite. I use
simple color-coded graphics of Bible verses to show that the doctrine of
conditional immortality is taught in many verses. This doctrine is so clearly
supported and easily understood that it would almost certainly be
uncontroversial among evangelicals except that it entails the annihilation of
the unrighteous.
*******
Words of Annihilation, Plato and Plutarch, Peter and Paul
Plato and Plutarch were Greek philosophers who discussed the possibility of that human souls would completely and permanently cease to exist. The same words they used to describe the annihilation of human souls, Paul, Peter and other biblical authors used to describe the final fate of the unrighteous.
*******
Athenagoras of Athens, A Hostile Witness for Annihilationism
Athenagoras was one of the first (some would argue the first) Christian church father to argue clearly that the unrighteous are immortal, implying that they will experience eternal torment. Ironically, he provides evidence for annihilationism. He does this because the words he uses to refer to annihilationism are the same words biblical authors use to refer to the final fate of the unrighteous.
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Words of Annihilation, Plato and Plutarch, Peter and Paul
Plato and Plutarch were Greek philosophers who discussed the possibility of that human souls would completely and permanently cease to exist. The same words they used to describe the annihilation of human souls, Paul, Peter and other biblical authors used to describe the final fate of the unrighteous.
*******
Athenagoras of Athens, A Hostile Witness for Annihilationism
Athenagoras was one of the first (some would argue the first) Christian church father to argue clearly that the unrighteous are immortal, implying that they will experience eternal torment. Ironically, he provides evidence for annihilationism. He does this because the words he uses to refer to annihilationism are the same words biblical authors use to refer to the final fate of the unrighteous.
*******
This post examines Greek words that show the unrighteous
will be completely burned up. The fire of hell is used to incinerate the lost,
not torture them forever.
*******
Here, I respond to a message on Hell by John Piper where
he argued for eternal conscious torment.
*******
While most of my posts on hell are about why conditional immortality
is true, this post uses something Al Mohler said to explain why conditional immortality
is important. Specifically, I discuss the role of eternal conscious torment in
pushing people towards theological liberalism and other errors.
*******
This post contains my response to some arguments which
William Lane Craig gave in favor of eternal conscious torment.
*******
This short post examines biblical passages which indicate
that God’s wrath in final judgment will last for a limited time. This is not
consistent with eternal conscious torment! It is consistent with
annihilationism.
*******
Many times I’ve heard those who believe in eternal
conscious torment argue that annihilationism cannot be true because it is not a
significant punishment. In this post I explain why the annihilationist view of
hell is very serious punishment.
*******
What does the Bible Mean by Death?
Those supporting the view of eternal torment often argue that in the Bible death does not mean what we usually mean by literal, physical death. Instead they say it refers to "spiritual death." I examine this claim and give 24 reasons that death does, in fact, refer to normal, literal death.
*******
Fair Warning
The Bible teaches that fair warning should be given if people are facing impending doom. This is a big problem for the eternal torment view, and I explain why in this post.
*******
Literal Hell: the problems with depending on a plain, literal interpretation of two passages in Revelation to defend eternal torment
Traditionalist arguments for eternal torment often lean heavily on interpreting two passages in Revelation literally. This is problematic for several reasons.
*******
Eternal Fire, the Sun, and Solar Flares (why eternal fire does not mean eternal torment)
Three times the Bible refers to "eternal fire." Traditionalists assume this implies eternal torment. In this post I explain why the assumption is wrong.
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25 Problems 25 Minutes: A response to Dr. Pat Zukeran's typical argument against annihilationism
*******
What does the Bible Mean by Death?
Those supporting the view of eternal torment often argue that in the Bible death does not mean what we usually mean by literal, physical death. Instead they say it refers to "spiritual death." I examine this claim and give 24 reasons that death does, in fact, refer to normal, literal death.
*******
Fair Warning
The Bible teaches that fair warning should be given if people are facing impending doom. This is a big problem for the eternal torment view, and I explain why in this post.
*******
Literal Hell: the problems with depending on a plain, literal interpretation of two passages in Revelation to defend eternal torment
Traditionalist arguments for eternal torment often lean heavily on interpreting two passages in Revelation literally. This is problematic for several reasons.
*******
Eternal Fire, the Sun, and Solar Flares (why eternal fire does not mean eternal torment)
Three times the Bible refers to "eternal fire." Traditionalists assume this implies eternal torment. In this post I explain why the assumption is wrong.
*******
25 Problems 25 Minutes: A response to Dr. Pat Zukeran's typical argument against annihilationism
In his podcast on Evidence and Answers, Dr. Zukeran gave a 25 minute talk arguing against annihilationism. His arguments are very similar to arguments I have heard many times, and so I responded to his talk as a way of providing answers to common traditionalist arguments.
*******
How Two Terrible Tragedies Help us to Think about Conditional Immortality and what is at Stake
A hurricane and a tragic boat fire remind us of how much we value life and the heroic efforts to save lives which we rightly admire. This helps us think about what's at stake with conditional immortality and to see how empty the traditionalist claims are that say if annihilationism is true there is little motive for people to seek salvation or work at winning others to Christ.
*******
Why did God say, "on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die," yet Adam and Eve did not die the same day they ate the fruit?
I examine five proposed solutions to this problem. This is relevant to the nature of hell because traditionalists often wrongly claim that God must have been referring to spiritual death in Genesis 2:17 and then they argue that this means the unrighteous will experience eternal torment, not annihilation.
*******
How Remembering Final Destinies Keeps us from Stumbling (wisdom from Asaph found in Psalm 73)
In this post I discuss how Psalm 73 helps us deal with the painful reality of injustice in this world (sometimes evil people prosper while the righteous suffer). I also discuss how Psalm 73 is based on the doctrine of Conditional Immortality.
*******
Jesus, Light, and Immortality
Even the Christmas story supports conditional immortality. This blog post looks at some words spoken prophetically by the father of John the Baptist a few months before Jesus was born.
*******
How Two Terrible Tragedies Help us to Think about Conditional Immortality and what is at Stake
A hurricane and a tragic boat fire remind us of how much we value life and the heroic efforts to save lives which we rightly admire. This helps us think about what's at stake with conditional immortality and to see how empty the traditionalist claims are that say if annihilationism is true there is little motive for people to seek salvation or work at winning others to Christ.
*******
Why did God say, "on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die," yet Adam and Eve did not die the same day they ate the fruit?
I examine five proposed solutions to this problem. This is relevant to the nature of hell because traditionalists often wrongly claim that God must have been referring to spiritual death in Genesis 2:17 and then they argue that this means the unrighteous will experience eternal torment, not annihilation.
*******
How Remembering Final Destinies Keeps us from Stumbling (wisdom from Asaph found in Psalm 73)
In this post I discuss how Psalm 73 helps us deal with the painful reality of injustice in this world (sometimes evil people prosper while the righteous suffer). I also discuss how Psalm 73 is based on the doctrine of Conditional Immortality.
*******
Jesus, Light, and Immortality
Even the Christmas story supports conditional immortality. This blog post looks at some words spoken prophetically by the father of John the Baptist a few months before Jesus was born.
Clay Jones wrote an article claiming that annihilationism gives unbelievers "exactly what they most desire." I explain why this is not true.
*******
Rebecca's book, Confronting Christianity, is excellent overall. She provides good responses to most of the 12 hard questions she tackles. But, she says the most difficult question is on hell. Because she does not embrace conditional immortality, she is unable to give a good reply to this question. I explore this issue.
*******
I thank God for Alisa's ministry. In one podcast she addresses several misconceptions about hell. But she herself still has one misconception.
In this blog post I explain how much damage it does to the Body of Christ when those who hold to conditional immortality are called heretics and treated like false teachers.
This blog post is not about why conditional immortality is true (there are many others that cover that), but rather why it is important.
Here I respond to an argument that attempts to support the doctrine of eternal conscious torment.
Series on the
Second Death
The two most difficult passages for conditionalists to
explain are both found in the book of Revelation. The problem is not that these
passages support eternal torment when correctly interpreted. The problem is
that the book of Revelation, based mostly on apocalyptic visions full of
bizarre and shocking symbols, is notoriously difficult to interpret. I spent a
great deal of time studying the book of Revelation in general and what it
teaches about the fate of the unrighteous in particular. The result was this seven-part
series on the meaning of the 2nd death:
The introduction to the series points out the error that
traditionalists make in treating the lake of fire and torment seen in John’s
vision as literal and then using it to define the meaning of second death. I
explain that traditionalists have it exactly backwards. I give evidence for
this.
Part 2 looks at both literal and metaphoric meanings of
death in the Bible. The meaning of death which best fits the use of death in
the phrase “second death” is then discussed.
Part 3 explains the rather obvious fact that throwing
people into a lake of fire is an apt symbol for annihilation. This common-sense
view is backed up by looking at how fire is used in judgment throughout the
Bible.
Part 4 examines two specific phrases which appear at
first glance to support eternal torment, namely “the smoke of their torment
will rise forever and ever” (Revelation 14:11) and “they will be tormented day
and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). I give evidence to show that
these phrases are best understood as hyperbolic metaphor.
Part 5 discusses evidence throughout the Bible, including
the book of Revelation, that teaches us to expect God’s judgment to be
proportional to our sins.
Part 6 is a summary of evidence from the whole Bible
supporting conditional immortality. If
you only have time to read one post, you might want to read this one.
Part 7 does not present more evidence for conditional
immortality. Rather, it explains one of the reasons that this topic is
important. Specifically, I discuss how the Rethinking Hell movement is one
small, but not insignificant, answer to the first request in the Lord’s Prayer:
“hallowed be Thy Name.”
Blog Posts
Supporting Conditional Immortality against Universalism
The evidence supporting conditional immortality and
annihilationism presented in the posts above also argues against universalism.
Nevertheless, because universalists have developed unique arguments, I have
written a number of posts addressing these.
*******
Below is a three-part series on the meaning of aionios, the Greek word frequently
translated “eternal.” The biblical phrases “eternal punishment” and “eternal
destruction” are fatal to universalism. Universalists have responded by making
long arguments basically saying that all widely used English Bible translations
are wrong to translate aionios as
“eternal.” I explain in detail why our Bible translations are not wrong, but
rather it is universalism that is wrong.
******
In this post I discuss the fact that universalists tend
to base their arguments on “metanarrative” rather than on careful exegesis of
individual Bible passages. I then go on to explain one major flaw in the
universalist metanarrative: it has the wrong goal.
*****
Many universalists believe that everyone will accept God
and love Him if they are given the right evidence and enough time. In this
post, I explain from the Bible why this universalist expectation is not realistic.
(I think this has been my most popular post on universalism.)
*****
Some universalists believe that the unrighteous will
indeed be sent to a type of hell. They believe that while the unsaved are in
hell they will be able to reconsider and repent and accept Christ, and that all
of them will eventually do this. This post points out (using Scripture, of
course) that the unrighteous will be burned to ashes to hell. That’s a big problem
for the universalist view, since ashes can’t repent.
*****
In this post I interact with Robin Parry’s book, The Evangelical Universalist. I identify
a logical error which Perry makes early
in the book that ends up leading him to wrong conclusions.
*****
Twelve passages in Matthew which do not fit with universalists
beliefs are discussed in this post.
*****
Problems with Universalist Extrapolation
In this post I discuss problems with some common universalist arguments.
*****
Problems with Universalist Extrapolation
In this post I discuss problems with some common universalist arguments.
*****
Some universalist claim that a loving God would never destroy or annihilate people. I explain what is wrong with that argument.
Blog Posts
Supporting Conditional Immortality against both Eternal Conscious Torment and Universalism
The Bible consistently teaches that God will pay back
people for their sins in the final judgment. In this post I discuss how this
teaching is inconsistent with both universalism and eternal torment. However,
it is an excellent fit with conditional immortality.
*****
Traditionalists are correct to use Matthew 25:46 to
refute universalism. What they fail to see is that this verse also refutes
eternal conscious torment. The view which best fits Matthew 25:46 is
annihilationism!
*******
Their End is Destruction (four words that support annihilationism)
In Philippians 3:19, Paul gives support for annihilationism. His words simply do not fit either the doctrine of eternal torment, not the doctrine of universalism.
*******
Their End is Destruction (four words that support annihilationism)
In Philippians 3:19, Paul gives support for annihilationism. His words simply do not fit either the doctrine of eternal torment, not the doctrine of universalism.
My Articles on the
Rethinking Hell Website
This article uses the case of a gorilla who had to be
shot to save a young boy to discuss principles of God’s justice. Those
principles include the fact that who you sin against matters and also the fact
that the level of knowledge and/or ignorance a sinner has matters. Our ability
to weigh out these factors is very limited, so in the end we must look to God’s
Word to discover the nature of final punishment.
This post discusses how the language of Psalm 37 points
to the annihilation of the wicked. Counterarguments are considered and
addressed.
This article contains pastoral advice and encouragement
for all those who have seen the truth of conditional immortality in the Bible
and feel called to help correct the error of eternal conscious torment.
Videos on Conditional Immortality and Annihilationism
Before I wrote any blog posts about hell, I preached a
two-part sermon at the church I serve on the topic of annihilationism. Many
members had probably never considered annihilationism before, so I introduced
the topic slowly, carefully, and prayerfully. That sermon is online in the form
of two YouTube videos:
All the videos on my YouTube channel related to hell may be found on my "About Hell" playlist. The link for the whole play list is here:
Here are short descriptions and links to each video:
I've posted a ten minute "explainer video" which gives a very brief, but information-filled, explanation of why I believe in annihilationism (aka conditional immortality):
Why I Believe in Annihilationism Rather than Eternal Conscious Torment
Here's another ten minute video. This one focuses on the Bible's teaching that the unsaved will be burned up, consumed by fire, and turned to ashes:
Ashes in Hell (eternal torment vs. conditional immortality vs. universalism)
Ashes in Hell (eternal torment vs. conditional immortality vs. universalism)
The Greek words apollumi and apoleia are used in over 30 verses in the New Testament to describe what will happen to the unrighteous in the end. I did a detailed word study on these words. I then turned that word study into this 105 minute video:
Apollumi: the word that tells us what happens to people in hell
Apollumi: the word that tells us what happens to people in hell
One of the most common Bible passages that traditionalists point to as proof of eternal torment for the unrighteous is the lake of fire vision in Revelation 20. I discuss why this passage does NOT teach eternal torment in this 20 minute video:
This 7 minute video explains where the term "conditional immortality" comes from and where this doctrine can be seen in the Bible:
A common universalist argument goes something like this: Since God is all powerful and since He wants everyone to be saved, everyone will be saved. In this 40 minute video I carefully explain why this seemingly logical argument is wrong:
In this video, I discuss the problem of a lack of any fair warning of eternal torment in the Old Testament and beyond:
Here I address one of the most common proof texts used to support eternal torment:
In this video I show how the opening chapters of Genesis point to Conditional Immortality:
Here, I explain how the events and meaning of Easter support Conditional Immortality:
Some people think that if annihilationism is true then that will reduce the importance and urgency of evangelism. I explain why that is not true in this video:
I did a 5-part video series explaining how the Book of Romans teaches conditional immortality. Here are those videos:
A video of my talk at the 2022 Rethinking Hell Conference
Here, I give my testimony explaining how I changed my view of hell and I also give an overview of the biblical evidence:
Other Topics from
an Evangelical Conditionalist
I’m an evangelical conditionalist and I’m a member of a
ministry which promotes evangelical conditionalism. For me, the word
“evangelical” is more important and more fundamental than the world
“conditionalist.” I’m glad to minister and worship together with other
evangelicals who disagree with me on the nature of final punishment. My ability
to minister together with those who are not evangelical is much more limited.
It’s true that God has led me to focus time and energy on
the topic of hell. However, the posts on my blog related to the conditional
immortality vs. eternal conscious torment vs. universalism debate make up only a small portion of all my blog posts. Most of the posts are on topics
which are not controversial among evangelicals. What we agree about as
evangelicals is far more important than our differences. I’d like to mention
some examples:
Many of my posts are devotional in nature. They are intended
to encourage fellow believers to press on in following Christ and to keep
growing in Him. One of my favorites in this category is: Sunflowers and Sonpeople. Another favorite devotional post
was partly inspired by our family dog, Sadie.
I’ve written several posts on why I believe Christianity
is true. One of these includes a
poem I wrote. Another apologetics
post compares the Bible to the Quran and the book of Mormon. I also
have written posts discussing evidence from nature for God’s existence. See
posts here,
here,
and here.
One of my favorite topics is prayer. One post is titled: Awesome,
Wonderful, Powerful Prayer. Another post offers practical
advice and encouragement for praying for people.
I was blessed with the opportunity to live and share in a
Muslim majority nation for fourteen years. I’m passionate about seeing the
gospel spread to all nations. One post answers the question: What’s
so great about the Great Commission? I have one
article on the TGC site where I share a simple, practical way to
help Muslims understand the gospel.
While all my posts are based on biblical truth, some of
them are specifically about Bible reading. I’ve written posts comparing Bible
reading to watching
the sun rise and to snorkeling
at a coral reef.
Many posts are about specific Bible passages or books of
the Bible. Here are two examples:
Sometimes I address tough questions people ask, like:
I’ve done my best to give Practical
Advice for Battles with Sin and Temptation
One post is about a type of theology which Calvinists,
Arminians, and others can all agree on: Foot
Theology!
I've also got a lot of videos on my YouTube channel that are not about hell. If you go and look you will find sermon series where I preach through Philippians, Revelations, and the Minor Prophets. You will also find a series of videos on why I believe God exists and Christianity is true.
May God bless you!
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
