Matthew 25:46 Refutes Eternal Conscious Torment and Universalism and Supports Annihilationism

There are three main views of Hell among Christians:

1. Eternal Conscious Torment (also known as traditionalism)

2. Universalism

3. Annihilationism (also known as conditionalism)

These views are illustrated in the “Hell Triangle” (from the excellent Rethinking Hell website):

In deciding which view is correct, we should of course prayerfully seek to understand all that the Bible teaches on the final fate of the unrighteous. However, sometimes a single verse has particular importance for a given issue and is worthy of special focus. There are a number of verses like this with respect to the nature of final punishment. In this post I will to focus on one of these: Matthew 25:46.

This verse comes at the end of a teaching on the final judgment. We see all humanity standing before the judgment seat of King Jesus. Humanity has been divided into two groups: the righteous (symbolized by sheep) and the unrighteous (symbolized by goats). In this verse Jesus declares a different fate for each group. An examination of the two phrases He uses, “eternal punishment” and “eternal life,” reveals that this verse rules out both eternal conscious torment and universalism while supporting annihilationism.

How Universalism is Ruled Out by Matthew 25:46

Any type of punishment which is eternal obviously rules out universalism. Since some people suffer a punishment which lasts forever, these people are never saved. The universalist response has been to claim that the Greek word translated “eternal”, aionios, really means something else. Various options are offered. However, all major English Bible translations have translated aionios as either “eternal” or “everlasting” in this verse for very good reasons. One rather obvious reason is that the same word aionios is used to describe both the life of the righteous and punishment of the unrighteous. There is a lot more evidence that our Bible translations are correct. I wrote a three part blog series on the meaning of aionios. You may begin by reading part 1 here if you want more details.

Universalists also often claim that the Greek word translated “punishment”, kolasis, refers to a punishment that is intended for the good of the one being punished. However, this is not always the case because kolasis was used to refer to capital punishment:

LXA 2 Maccabees 4:38 And being kindled with anger, forthwith he took away Andronicus his purple, and rent off his clothes, and leading him through the whole city unto that very place, where he had committed impiety against Onias, there slew he the cursed murderer. Thus the Lord rewarded him his punishment (kolasis), as he had deserved.

LXA Wisdom 19:4 For the destiny, whereof they were worthy, drew them unto this end, and made them forget the things that had already happened, that they might fulfil the punishment (kolasis) which was wanting to their torments:

note: the above quote from Wisdom 19:4 refers to the Egyptians who perished in the Red Sea, which was hardly a punishment intended to reform them!

Other examples of kolasis referring to the death penalty may be seen in 3 Maccabees 1:2-3,  3 Maccabees 7:10-12, and 4 Maccabees 8:8.

It appears that kolasis, like the English word “punishment”, can apply to a wide range of types of punishments. Of course, any type of punishment which is eternal will rule out universalism.

How Eternal Conscious Torment is Ruled Out by Matthew 25:46

Many traditionalists wrongly point to Matthew 25:46 as a verse which supports eternal conscious torment. On closer analysis, not only does this verse not support eternal conscious torment, it actually rules it out.

One reason traditionalists often think Matthew 25:46 supports their view is that they only consider one type of “punishment”. The only type of punishment they consider is torment. Without question, torturing people forever would be a type of “eternal punishment”. However, there are other types of punishment.

In our justice system today, the most severe punishment is considered to be the death penalty. The methods used to kill prisoners do not involve torment. The death penalty is not considered the most severe penalty in our system because of any pain it inflicts, but because it permanently (from a human prospective) deprives the prisoner of life. The punishment is serious because of what the prisoner misses out on, not because of the pain experienced. In a similar way, an eternal death penalty is an extremely severe penalty, not because of the pain experienced (although there may be some pain in the  process of being destroyed), but primarily because the person who perishes misses out on an eternity full of the glorious joy of being with God in His perfect new world.

Some traditionalists object to viewing eternal death as a type of eternal punishment because while the result of such a punishment is eternal, the process of punishing is not. However, the word “eternal” is used in the Bible to describe other situations where the process is not eternal but the result is eternal.

So far, we have seen that “eternal punishment” could refer to eternal death as opposed to eternal torment. But we can go further than this by examining the entire verse. Before we look at the rest of Matthew 25:46, consider this sentence in English:

The soldiers who courageously held back the enemy were given medals, but those who fled were required to do extra work.

Question: Did the soldiers who flee get medals?

Now, let’s look at Matthew 25:46 again:

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matt. 25:46 ESV)

Question: Do “these” (the unrighteous) receive eternal life?

It’s so obvious once you see it. ONLY the righteous will live forever. The unrighteous do NOT receive eternal life. You can’t torture a dead person. The only punishment which is eternal and which does not require eternal life is eternal death. Thus, eternal conscious torment is ruled out by a proper understanding of Matthew 25:46.

We can sum up what we’ve learned so far with this graphic:

Confirmed by the Rest of the Bible

Correctly understood, Matthew 25:46 rules out both eternal conscious torment (traditionalism) and universalism. That leaves conditionalism (annihilationism) as the only remaining viable view.  This conclusion is confirmed by the rest of the Bible. Whole books have been written on this, but here I’ll just quickly point to three ways the rest of the Bible confirms what we have seen in Matthew 25:46.

1.  The Bible very consistently teaches that ONLY the righteous will live forever, by God’s grace in Christ Jesus. There is not a single verse from Genesis to Revelation which teaches that all people will live forever or that the souls of the unsaved are immortal. Immortality is a gift freely given by God to those who have faith in Christ. This is why annihilationism is also called conditional immortality!

2.  Contra the claims of universalists, the Bible does not teach that the purpose of final punishment is corrective or redemptive. The Bible specifically and repeatedly teaches that final punishment consists of God paying back and expressing vengeance on the unrighteous. This payback is proportional to the sins committed, and thus cannot consist of eternal torment. But it does terminate in the unrighteous being burned to ashes and perishing.

3.  The language the Bible uses to describe the fate of the unrighteous is a far better fit for annihilationism than it is for either universalism or eternal conscious torment. The Bible tells us that the unrighteous will suffer “death” (Romans 6:23), “perish” (John 3:16), be destroyed in both body and soul (Matthew 10:28), suffer “eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), be burned to ashes (2 Peter 2:6), and “will be no more” (Psalm 37:10). The verses listed here are only a small sample of similar language used consistently to describe the final fate of the unrighteous.

Conclusion and Acknowledgements

Like the rest of the Bible, Matthew 25:46 teaches that the final fate of the unrighteous is annihilation, not salvation as the universalists say nor eternal torment as the traditionalists say.

Although these thoughts may be new to some who read them, they are not original with me. I’ve benefited from the insights of many conditionalists before me and from articles on Matthew 25:46 like this one and this one at Rethinking Hell.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .