Definitions
Annihilationism (also known as extinctionism or destructionism) is the belief that after the Last Judgment some human beings (the vast majority) and all fallen malakim (angels) or demons - in other words, all of the wicked and unsaved (the damned) - will be totally exterminated or destroyed. They will cease to exist as conscious or existential beings, never to be brought back to life again.
Annihilationism vs. Eternal Torment
This doctrinal position is in competition with the predominantly held orthodox Christian (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant) teaching of eternal/everlasting torment/torture in hell, and is synonymised with the Lake of Fire (Rev.20:14-15).
The Third, Messianic Evangelical Way
A third position, another minority position, maintains that the wicked will either escape hell altogether (because it doesn't literally exist or for some other reason) or enter it as a purely remedial or corrective punishment for a fixed length of time - for a specified 'æon' or 'age'. This doctrine, adhered to by Messianic Evangelicals, maintains that traditional notions of time have been deliberately or unintentionally misunderstood and are not scriptural: words traditionally rendered 'eternal' (Heb. olam and Gk. aionios) in fact refer to fixed-length chunks of time known as 'æons' and the word for 'punishment' (Gk. kolasis) is actually a term used to describe the pruning back of trees in order to allow fuller and healthier growth. Another word (Gk. timoria) means 'corrective punishment' which is inflicted in the interests of him who afflicts it that he may obtain satisfaction. Either way, the 'punishment' is within a fixed span of time.
This position maintains that everyone will be 'saved' (Universal Salvation) in some form or another in the end, though there are different interpretations of what this means amongst universalists. Messianic Evangelicals believe the Scriptures teach that 'salvation' or 'deliverance' is graded or differentiated into the three types described by Paul that correspond to different 'glories' or resurrections which we call Universal Graded (or Differentiated) Salvation.
These, then, are the three main models in the Body of Messiah concerning the fate of the unsaved and wicked:
What is Conditional Mortality?
Annihilationism is directly related to the doctrine of conditional mortality, the idea that a human spirit (or 'soul' in orthodox terminology) is not immortal unless it is given eternal chayim (life). That means that mortal human beings are not only mortal in their physical bodies but in their 'spirits' too, although most annihilationists do not believe humans have a separate 'spirit' that can be identified as 'themselves' or their 'personalities', believing the spiritual component to be an impersonal life-force which some, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, compare to an impersonal force like 'electricity'. They not uncommonly view the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the same way, though annihilationist churches seem to chop and change on this matter (e.g. the Seventh-Day Adventists who held this view until 1931 when they officially became Trinitarian). This doctrine, which denies the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is a Person, is known traditionally as the Pneumatomachian Heresy (literally, 'spirit-fighters').
The Annihilationist Locus of Personhood
To the vast majority of annihilationists, all that is personal and 'human' resides exclusively in the flesh or physical body. Therefore at physical death, annihilationists believe that human beings completely cease to exist - they don't 'have' a 'spirit' separate from the body, only a 'life force' (which is not themselves) that returns to Elohim (God). They theorise, for the most part, that their essential 'self' resides in the brain which ceases functioning at physical death.
The Messianic Evangelical Response
This doctrine Messianic Evangelicals have always repudiated as false and heretical. However, this does not mean that we necessarily reject the doctrine of 'conditional mortality', the notion that humans have no chayim (life) - spiritual or physical - apart from the Creator. Where we differ with annihilationists is in our belief that the ahavah or love of Yahweh would never extinguish a soul in eternity but that His heart is to one day restore all human beings, albeit to different glories and resurrections, so that - as Scripture testifies - He may be satisfied as well as be seen to be just. We do not believe, along with the adherents of the eternal torture doctrine, that Yahweh cannot extinguish a spiritual life if He wanted to, but that He does not want to, and that He has said as much in the receptor languages of the Bible, however obscured this divine intent has been made by English translations.
What Does Matthew 10:28 Mean?
The face-value sense that He is able to destroy a soul completely without necessarily ever doing so, or wanting to, is no better conveyed than in Matthew's Gospel:
"Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Heb. nefesh, Gk. psuche); rather fear him who can (lit. 'is able to' destroy both soul (nefesh, inner being, life)) and body in hell (lit. Gehenna)" (Mt.10:28, NRSV).
What does Yah'shua (Jesus) mean by these words? Do they mean, as the Annihilationist would claim, that He is not only able to 'destroy (annihilate) the nefesh/psuche in Hell, but that He actually would, and will?
The Problem with Body, Soul and Spirit
First of all, you need to remember that the fine distinctions between 'body' and 'spirit' that we have in our own language, English, did not exist in biblical Hebrew. There was little revelation available in those days about the next life or the invisible world. The ancients just knew there would be one in a distant æon (age). Thus in classical Hebrew the word nefesh had a wide variety of meanings in 1st century Palestine: physical appetite, emotion, will and moral action, the whole individual or person, the self, and even a dead body! The corresponding Greek psuche meant life, desire, emotions and indeed anything that is personal. (See The Bible Teaching on 'Soul' for a detailed study).
Higher and Lower Spiritual Functions
Critically, for this discussion, we must further understand that by the 1st century Paul uses, in the Greek translation, the word pneuma for the higher 'spiritual' functions in man (Heb. ruach) and psuche for the lower (Heb. nefesh). So even if we did conceed that this passage literally means the annihilation of the nefesh/psuche (from which we get our English word 'psyche'), that part of the 'self' we call our 'spirit' is not necessarily included if we are going to be strict with our etymological usage. There is, actually, no way we can know definitely.
Hebrew and Greek Not Exactly Equivalent
Indeed, the words nefesh and psuche are not exactly equivalent, illustrating the problem of translating from one language to another. Thus in Psalm 16:10, "you will not leave my nefesh in Sheol", the Hebrew nefesh designates the 'whole life' or 'soul'; but in the Greek translation of the Tanakh (Old Testament), the Septuagint (LXX), nefesh is translated to psuche which in the post-Platonic hellenistic culture of the time would influence the reader in the direction of body/soul dualism. This is one of the reasons Messianic Evangelicals are Hebrew primacists, to avoid this kind of confusion, because it isn't possible to perfectly translate Hebrew or Aramaic into Greek. And when Greek is translated into English, a whole new layer of obfuscation and potential error is often unintentionally introduced.
These things must be pointed out to illustrate the complexities of making modern translations. This is especially important when it comes to important, life-and-death doctrines. It's one of the reasons we have so many denominations and cults.
Luke Resolves the Implied Matthean Annihilationism
Fortunately, this saying of Yah'shua (Jesus) is duplicated in Luke's Gospel which forces us to ask another question: is this annhilationist-sounding statement by the Saviour a figure of speech meaning something other than the possibility of the divine extinction of the nefesh/psuche? Did Yah'shua (Jesus) say the same thing on another occasion by putting it another way? Or are these the same event being recalled differently? We are given a wholly different view of in the parallel quotation recorded by Dr.Luke, author also of the Acts of the Apostles, the meticulously accurate physician and Ruach-appointed historian of the early Messianic Community (Church):
"I tell you, My friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell" (Lk.12:4, NRSV).
Without going into the ongoing theological dispute as to who is doing the actual "casting" into Hades (Yahweh, Yah'shua/Jesus or Satan), here the sense of the Matthean message is explained in a different and less ambiguous way by Dr.Luke: here we are told that to "destroy...the soul (nefesh, spirit) in hell" is actually a figure of speech or metaphor meaning to possess the "authority to cast into hell". The Bible thus interprets itself. Matthew 10:28 has nothing to do with any possible (let alone actual) 'annihilation' in hell.
The Thing to Be Really Scared Of
The thing to be scared of - and hopefully this will persuade sinners to repent and receive the Messiah - is actually being sent to that dreadful place, irrespective of the reality of what happens there and how it concludes, if at all. So actually these two passages are a severe warning to the unsaved, unrepentant soul not to treat hell casually or lightly - Yah'shua (Jesus) is telling him that hell is the one place that one does not want to go to under any circumstances! There is no 'extinction' escapist route (many atheists, like the late Christopher Hitchens, were reconciled to that eventuality when alive, as one of his last interviews attests, so the doctrine of annihilation doesn't necessarily persuade such as he to repent or accept Christ) and there is no 'eternal terror' whipping-boy either to scare people into the Kingdom (were that even possible). What draws people to Messiah - what authentically converts them - still has to be, is, and always will be, the power of Divine Ahavah (Love).
Moreover, Sheol (Hades, Gehenna, Hell) is an implied residency of fixed duration (like a correction centre) as opposed to a place of final execution or a retributive, eternal torture-chamber that could only ever satisfy a sadomasochist or psychopath. This is born out by other passages that will be presented later in this discussion. One thing is for sure: the residents of this dreadful place will wish to be extinguished and the duration of the punishment there will seem like eternity. And that's the whole point - the mental proposition that the torment will end will not factor in the existential experience or conscience of hell's inmates while they are there - they will not be philosophising or theologising about it any more than someone with an agonising tooth abscess would. Indeed, they would likely not even remember the teaching, assuming they ever received it on earth, which the vast majority won't thanks to the successful propagation of the Catholic doctrine of eternal hell.
The Historical Reality of First Century Palestine
How can we know this is the correct explanation about the afterlife? By examining what and who Yah'shua (Jesus) was addressing in the 1st century world of Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Remember, He never forced on anyone what they could not understand, but met them where they were in their thinking and understanding, correcting many of the false assumptions they made by using the language of those false assumptions. As ministers, we do exactly the same today. That is why the substance of a truth is more important than the limited capacity of the words used to describe it.
Varieties of First Century Judaism
Here is the problem. There were many varieties of Judaism at the time (just as there are tens of thousands of denominations of Christianity and Messianism today), yet all of these, to a greater or lesser extent, were by then rooted in Hellenism, the Greek interpretation of reality, much as our Western Christianity, today, is rooted in the dominant left-brain 'concrete' rationalism of the so-called 'Enlightenment'.
Enlightenment Left-Brain Literalism
This creates a major problem which Western Christians/Messianics are largely blinded to, namely, the failure to understand that Yahweh not only created a right-brain music-and-art-type imagery (which dominates the Book of Revelation, for example) but that this abstract imagery is supposed to give us the larger 'framework' within which the details (acquired through left-brain rationalism) make proper sense. The false annihilationist/eternal torment dichotomy of interpretation exists precisely because of an absence of the 'larger framework'. Thus a left-brain literalist maintains that 'Elohim (God) has literal feathers' (Ps.91:4), the 'earth is flat', 'Daniel 7's four monsters' coming out of the sea are concrete or literal biological entities, and that there are 'literal worms in hell' (Mk.9:44). Over-literal interpretations of passages like 1 Thessalonians 4 have led to so many avoidable errors in the Body of Messiah such as the very popular but wholly erronesous 'rapture' doctrine.
Two First Century Views of the Afterlife
We have to understand the mindsets and belief systems which prevailed when Yah'shua (Jesus) was speaking to people in His day. We have to be especially sensitive to the fact that first century Judea was highly hellenised and that the religious leaders of the day were tainted by both Babylonian and Greek paganism in their theology. And there were, at that time, two basic views about the afterlife:
- 1. The Sadducean one (which denied there was an afterlife at all); and
- 2. The Hellenised Jewish one (which acknowledged there was an afterlife but which nonetheless was corrupted by pagan Greek ideas).
Pharisee vs. Sadducee Plus Some Essenes
The two 'options' (Sadduceeism vs. Phariseeism) were a false dichotomy which ordinary people had to 'choose between' (because that's all that was available in the market place of ideas), the rôle and influence of the minor sects, like Essenism, being negligible to the common folk and which were, in any case, corrupted in other ways (they aren't even mentioned in the New Testament). Indeed the ancient Essenes (as opposed to the modern ones), are known to have originally been a Persian sun-worshipping anchorite (harsh monastic) cult and were highly predeterministic like today's more radical Puritan-Calvinists.
The False Dichotomy
It is the Messianic Evangelical view that even 2,000 years on, people are still basically being offered a false dichotomy - we are being offered a choice between Secularism (materialist, rationalist and atheistic) and a Romanised version of Christianity/Messianism (orthodox Christianity and Messianic Judaism). In the same way, we are being offered a choice between Annihilationism (which, from a modern atheist's persepective, applies to both the good and the bad when they die) and Eternal Torment (the orthodox Christian belief about the fate of the wicked).
The Pharisee Belief in the State of the Dead
It needs to be remembered that the apostle Paul never disavowed being a Pharisee (Ac.23:36), at least as far as the resurrection and the afterlife were concerned. (The Sadducees, who did not believe in an afterlife, naturally denied the resurrection too). Both schools of the Pharisees (Hillel and Shammai) held that the dead existed possessing conscious identities in an intermediate state of existence (Tos.Sanh.13.3; bRosh ha-Sh.16b-17a). In other words, both the Pharisee parties denied annihilationism. Both insisted, as do the Scriptures, that the resurrection involves two stages:
- 1. An Intermediate Stage, in which the dead are in some way still alive; and
- 2. A Final Stage, in which they become re-embodied.
The theological debates of the 1st century AD were between the two-stage view of the Pharisees and the no-state view of the Sadducees.
The Uninspired Writings of Yah'shua's Day
Back in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, all kinds of uninspired writings were in circulation which, though rightly never canonised, were held in high esteem and treated almost as if they were scripture by the majority of religious leaders of the day, principally the Pharisee sect. Their popularity caused the ideas within them to pass into the general culture and into the religious discourse of the time. It's what ordinary folks talked about just as they do today about reincarnation and other non-Christian ideas. Into this milieu Yah'shua (Jesus) appeared, endorsing what was right and correcting what was wrong.
Pseudo-Phocylides
One such apocryphal work, Pseudo-Phocylides (a Jewish text clearly dependent on the Greek Septuagint/LXX) allegedly written by the 6th century BC Greek philosopher of the same name but almost certainly from the 1st century (many such pseudepigraphical works were in circulation in those days), promotes the false so-called 'Noahide Laws', and summarised the common (non-Sadducean) Jewish belief system of the day. Here is an extract:
"For the souls remain unharmed among the deceased.
For the spirit is a loan of God to mortals, and his image.
For we have a body out of earth,
and when afterwards we are resolved again into earth and are but dust;
and then the air has received our spirit...
All alike are corpses, but God rules over the souls.
Hades is our common eternal home and fatherland,
a commonm placer for all, poor and kings.
We human live not for a long time but for a season.
But our soul is immortal and lives ageless forever"
(Ps-Phoc.105-115).
What we see here, mixed together, is a primitive and confused form of both Annihilationism (up to the last two lines) and what became the later orthodox Christian belief in the immortality of the soul. In the absence of revelation and prophecy in this the inter-testamental period, we see a mishmash of speculation. This document might well have been the 1st century AD equivalent of a tract issued jointly by the Jehovah's Witness Watchtower magazine, the Adventist Review & Herald, the Vatican Publishing House, and the Evangelical Zondervan publishers! The confusion (and ignorance) of the author(s) is evident a couple of lines earlier where we read:
"It is not good to dissolve the human frame;
for we hope that the remains of the departed
will soon come to the light again out of the earth;
and afterward they will become gods"
(Ps-Phoc.102-104).
Ethiopic Book of Enoch
By the time we come to the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (another mishmash which has enamoured a large number of Messianics and Evangelicals in our own day) we find a definite movement in the direction the Hellenistic thinking as far as the afterlife is concerned:
"All good things, and joy and honour, are prepared for and written down for the souls of those who died in righteousness...The spirits of those who died in righteousness shall live and rejoice; their spirits shall not perish, nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One unto all the generations of the world...Woe unto you sinners who are dead!...You yourselves know that they will bring your souls down to Sheol; and they shall experience evil and great tribulation...Your souls shall enter into the great judgment; it shall be a great judgment in all the generations of the world" (1 Enoch 103:3-8).
Later verses, reflecting the then Pharisee doctrinal position, indicate that the fate of the righteous and wicked is understood to be permanent, i.e. an eternal Heaven and an eternal Hell. By the time of Hillel (1st centuey AD) these are known, respectively, as the 'Garden of Eden' and 'Gehenna' (bBer 28b).
4 Ezra
Likewise, by the time we come to the apocryphal 4 Ezra, available only to us in Latin, we find an early pre-Dante version of the later Catholic doctrine of hell, where "wicked souls will wander in torments, always grieving and sad" (4 Ezra 7:80, NRSV). 4 Ezra then goes on to explain in some detail the seven ways, some of them quite imaginative and fanciful, in which this grieving will take place:
"The first way, because they scorned the Torah (Law) of the Most High. The second way, because they cannot now make a good repentance so that they may live. The third way, they shall see the reward laid up for those who have trusted the covenants of the Most High. The fourth way, they shall consider the torment laid up for themselves in the last days. The fifth way, they shall see how the habitations of the others are guarded by angels in profound quiet. The sixth way, they shall see how some of them will cross over into torments. The seventh way, which is worse than all the ways that have been mentioned, because they shall utterly waste away in confusion and be consumed with shame, and shall wither with fear at seeing the glory of the Most High in whose presence they sinned while they were alive, and in whose presence they are to be judged in the last times" (4 Ezra 7:81-87, NRSV).
Someone has done a lot of meditation on hell but their conclusions are not necessarily any more reliable than all the contradictory tales about hell and the afterlife told by those who have had near death experiences, dreams or visions.
Philo
The most Hellenised of 1st century Jews was undoubtedly the philosopher Philo of Alexandria who taught the unconditional immortality of the soul but not the resurrection of the dead. It is clear from his writings that he drew not only on Plato and Aristotle but also the Stoics and Neopythagoreans. Such speculative theological cocktails were not unusual for those days in which the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) were written.
Has any authentic Bible navi (prophet) from the Old Covenant, ever laid claim to being a witness, like a John of Patmos, of what hell is like? None, because none was ever shown what Sheol was like. Yahweh deliberately hid it from them.
A Question of the Character of Yahweh
Returing to Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4 - even granted that Yahweh is able to annihilate the spirit of a man, which a literal reading of the Matthean account seems, as we say, to convey, the real issue between Messianic Evangelicals and annihilationists (as well as with those who believe in eternal torment) is ultimately, then, over the character of Yahweh and what "Elohim (God) is ahavah (love)" (1 Jn.4:8,16) ultimately means for the most reprobate of the human species. The discussion therefore centres on the age-old question of the relationship between Justice (deserved punishment) and Grace (undeserved loving-kindness, forgiveness, mercy). How does this work out? Which of the two ultimately prevails? Or (in the case of eternal torment) is there no resolution? And how are humans in the eternities to understand this? And how, indeed, are we to know?
The Philosophical Question That Must Be Answered
This ultimate philosophical question will not go away and the human heart cannot know shalom (peace) until it is resolved. The answer, of course, has already been given in how we are commanded to treat both friends and foes, the deserving and undeserving of our love, alike. And the answer to this question must finally be received in the heart, for the mind alone will not be able to resolve it. It is here that we must learn to "judge righteous judgment" (Jn.7:24, KJV). How we approach this question - the answers that we give - will determine how well we have understood what divine ahavah or agapé (love) is. Since Elohim (God) is ahavah (love) (1 Jn.4:8,16), and since ahavah (love)/chesed (mercy) is the greatest of all (1 Cor.13:13), our answer will reveal whether we have understood what love actually is. And, sadly, so many of the responses given by Christians and Messianics over the ages reveal just how harsh and defective in ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) they really are. It also determines the kind of evangelism they do and the responses they get.
Where Does Personhood Reside?
Messianic Evangelicals agree with the bulk of Christians in claiming that the essense of a person exists not in the fleshy, physical body (and specifically the brain), even though it may find expression there, but in that person's invisible spirit or life essence (ruach, pneuma) which is both separate from the physical body and from the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God) though, as already said, we believe that both are dependent on the latter. We do not believe that a saved person ceases to be conscious after physical death but enters the 'Paradise' part of Sheol ('Heaven', as opposed to the 'Prison' portion - 'Hell') to be with Yah'shua (Jesus), which is better by far than being down here on earth (Phil.1:23) and where, like the disembodied Moses and translated Elijah on the Mount of Tranfiguration together with the physically incarnated Yah'shua (Jesus) at Sukkot, they are fully awake and in living communion with Elohim (God) and with each other. (Also see Near Death Experiences). They are not, as annihilationists maintain, simply 'memories' in the 'mind' of Elohim (God) without independent action. Thus it would be true to say that a person 'has' or 'possesses' a 'spirit', 'energy' or 'essence' which is his or her essential 'self' (enabling one to perceive one's own physical body as a separate entity) which is preserved alive and conscious after physical death by the grace of Elohim (God), the righteous (saved, justified) being in Paradise (Heaven) and the unsaved wicked in Prison (Hell), the two divisions of the Hebrew Sheol or Realm of the (Physically) Dead.
Messianic Evangelical vs. Orthodox Preservationism
This we call the doctrine of Preservationism. Messianic Evangelicals, like orthodox Christians, are therefore preservationists even if we believe humans are 'preserved' to different ends.
How Many Heavens Will There Finally Be?
In stark contrast, annihilationism asserts that Yahweh will eventually destroy the wicked, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality. Then, in their system, there can only ultimately be one heaven, not several, whether three (2 Cor.12:2; 1 Cor.15:41-42), seven (Book of Enoch) or some unknown number. We have much yet to learn about these things, just as in the natural world we have learned that ours is not the only solar system in this universe, scientific observation having now detected potentially millions. The Bible does not record everything there is to be known, even discounting the natural creation. The light and emet (truth) of Heaven will yet guide us to the "qadosh (holy, set-apart) mountain" where Yahweh dwells and where knowledge in its fullness is to be had (Ps.43:3).
Adventist Ideas About Ultimate Glory and the Lake of Fire
Some annihilationists (e.g. Seventh-day Adventists) believe Elohim's (God's) ahavah (love) to be an all-consuming fire and that sinful creatures cannot exist in Yahweh's presence. This, of course, is absolutely true, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of Elohim (God). However, they also teach that those who elect to reject salvation through their free will are eternally destroyed because of the inherent incompatibility of sin with Elohim's (God's) holy character.
What this means is that Adventists do not believe that there is a place devoid of full glory outside of, or beyond, Yahweh's Presence where others might be placed to live. Preservationists reject this assumption on the grounds that will be explained in a moment. Seventh-day Adventists posit that living in eternal hell is a false doctrine of pagan origin, as the Wicked will perish in the Lake of Fire. Though this is a half-truth - pagan religions did, and still do, teach eternal punishment - it does not necessarily follow (for the reasons already given, and given in great detail in other places on this website) that they will face what amounts to a 'heavenly firing squad' and be exterminated also.
Annihilationist Connundrums - Destroying Immortal Bodies
Indeed annihilationism faces all sorts of connundrums as to what is being annihilated. Since they do not believe that humans have an independent existence as 'spirits' they are forced to make Elohim (God) throw resurrected people - that to say, immortal people - into the Lake of Fire, begging the insoluble question: How can an immortal person be annihilated? To maintain their doctrine, they are forced to reinvent the doctrine of resurrection and turn it into something else, just as the Hellenists like Plato did by skipping the resurrection altogether since such was not 'needed' by immortal spirits in the neo-pagan Greek system. They are forced to twist the scripture to mean that they are 'resurrected' as mortals again (itself hardly in the divine economy), for only a 100 per cent mortal person could ever be permanently exterminated. But that is not biblical 'resurrection'.
The Soul-Sleepers
Both the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists, along with many Messianics and others, believe in the doctrine of soul-sleeping. In this view, as already mentioned, men and women cease to exist after death and become mere 'memories' in the mind of Yahweh. The Adventists believe the wicked are recreated from this 'memory blueprint' which, they hypothesise, contains every detail about them as they were in mortality up to the point when they died. (But remember all of this is pure speculation). They are thus 'recreated' for the Judgment and then cast into the Lake of Fire for annihilation.
Jehovah's Witness Theological Damage Control
In the Jehovah's Witness version, the wicked unsaved dead aren't recreated at all and simply remain extinct - permanently. The 'throwing into the Lake of Fire' is 'explained' away as purely symbolic, in the same way they claim the Mount of Transfiguration experience wasn't 'real' but merely a 'dream', and with the same kind of thinking they (though not the Adventists) teach that Yah'shua (Jesus) wasn't physically resurrected and just 'put on a show' of solidity for the benefit of the talmidim (disciples) who would otherwise, they claim, have been freaked out by an intangible spirit (since on the Sea of Galilee they had been terrified that the Master was a ghost). (The Witnesses believe that though human beings will receive their physical bodies in the 'New World' that follows Armageddon, Messiah is merely 'spiritually' resurrected, the same as the '144,000' élite Jehovah's Witnesses in Heaven).
All of which is an exercise in theological damage control to preserve a false doctrinal position. To maintain an annihilationist doctrine requires therefore the twisiting of a number of key Bible passages in order to supposedly appeal to the whole counsel of Scripture and, at some point, results in an abandonment of reason.
The Early Gnostic Annihilationists
If we are looking historically for the earliest known annihilationists in the Christian period then we have to go no further back than the Gnostics. Indeed, the evidence presently is that believers first acquired the idea from Gnosticim. Thus in the Pistis Sophia (P.S.), Book IV, we read that not all departed souls are purified - some are simply tormented and then annihilated - "destroyed and dissolved". In this gnostic system, fire is an instrument of retribution (as is snow and hail) and it is rather water which becomes a boiling-like fire that purifies. The water of forgetfulness ('lethe') is not a gift given according to worth but is rather a draught given to souls that are about to be reincarnated (normally so as to undergo further punishment in the circumstances of their reincarnation). Further:
"The murderer who has never committed another sin will be punished by tormenting demons in the places of frost and snow will be judged and then be lead to the ''outer darkness'' to await the time when the 'it will be destroyed and dissolved'" (P.S., Book IV, c.146, p. 378).
"The continual blasphemer will be dragged around by the tongue, punished with fire and then taken to the outer darkness to await being ''destroyed and dissolved'" (c. 14 pp. 379-380).
"The pederast is tormented by demons then taken to the outer darkness to be 'destroyed and dissolved'" (P.S., c.147, pp.380-381).
"Those that make a dish of lentils mixed with sperms and menstrual blood and then eat it declaring: 'we believe in Esau and Jacob' - are judged by the Saviour to have committed the sin surpassing all others. These will be taken directly to the outer darkness to be consumed and perish in 'the place where there is no pity'" (P.S., c. 147, p. 381).
A Stark Contrast
Thus Annihilationism both seems to originate with Gnosticism and stands in contrast to both the orthodox belief in eternal torture in the lake of fire that came to prominence because of Augustine, the 4th century Catholic Bishop of Hippo, and the much earlier and original belief of the first Christians/Messianics, which prevailed for the first 500 years of Christian/Messianic history, that everyone will be 'saved' or 'delivered' (universal reconciliation or simply 'universalism') in some form or another.
The 19th and 20th Century Emergence of Annihilationism
Annihilationism experienced a resurgence in the 19th century thanks to the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, as already discussed, and in the 20th century through Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God (today much more orthodox in its Christianity thanks to his successors) and its offshoots like the United Church of God (which is more true to Armstrong's teachings). It only started gaining a small foothold amongst a few evangelicals in the 1980s when several prominent theologians, including the well-known and highly respected Anglican minister and scholar, John Stott, were prepared to argue that annihilationism could be held sincerely as a legitimate interpretation of biblical texts, though Stott was actually 'agnostic' toward the doctrine, not committing himself either way. The famous Bible scholar F.F.Bruce was of the same undecided mindset.
The Cambridge Annihilationists
Earlier in the 20th century, some theologians at the University of Cambridge, including Basil Atkinson, supported the belief. 20th-century English theologians who favoured annihilation included Bishop Charles Gore (1916), William Temple, the 98th Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury (1924), Oliver Chase Quick, Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury (1933) and Ulrich Ernst Simon (1964) - all Anglicans - and Congregationalist scholar G.B.Caird (1966).
Other Annihilationists
Some Christian denominations which are annihilationist were influenced by the Millerite/Adventist movement of the mid-19th century. These include not only the Seventh-Day Adventists but also the Free and Dawn Bible Students (precursors to the Jehovah's Witnesses), the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement (a 1918 schism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, prominent among which was Paul S.L.Johnson, author of Ephiphany Studies in the Scriptures), the Lord's Witnesses (schism of the Jehovah's Witnesses led by mathematician Gordon Ritchie, author of The True Bible Code), Christadelphians (with dozens of schisms - they deny that Satan and demons are real entities), and the various Advent Christian churches (based on the teachings of William Miller).
The Anglican Church Rejects Eternal Torment
Additionally, the Church of England's Doctrine Commission reported in 1995 that "[h]ell is not eternal torment", but "non-being", whatever that means (though presumably hinting at annihilationism). Interestingly contemporary Pauline scholar and former Anglican Bishop of Durham, N.T.Wright, rejects eternal torment, universalism, and apparently also annihilationism, but believes those who reject Elohim (God) will become 'dehumanised', and no longer be in the image of Elohim (God). That is certainly a position that Messianic Evangelicals could entertain and which would fit in with our view about those former unbelievers being finally delivered out of hell to inherit that resurrection glory described by Paul as being akin to the brightness of the distant stars (1 Cor.15:41). The question that raises is whether Yahweh would finally be 'satisfied' with that, plus it raises other difficult questions as to whether a new kind of resurrected 'species' might arise out of such a category of human being.
Modern Opponents of Annhilationism
Not surprisingly, the staunchest and most vocal opponents of annihilationism in our own day tend to be those of the eternal torment-believing Reformed and Calvinist tradition. These include John Gerstner (Presbyterian), J.I.Packer (Anglican/Puritan), James R. White (Reformed Baptist/Calvinist), David Pawson (Methodist>Baptist/Mild Calvinist), Wayne Grudem (Calvinist, who interestingly also believes, like Messianic Evangelicals, that the Son is eternally subordinate to the Father), R.C.Sproul (Reformed Calvinist), Albert Mohler (Baptist/Calvinist), Tim Keller (Reformed/New Calvinist), William Lane Craig (Baptist), Millard Erickson (Baptist/Moderate Calvinist), Francis Chan (Cornerstone Church), Franklin Graham (Evangelist), Rick Warren (Saddleback Church), John F. MacArthur (Baptist/Calvinist), Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church/Calvinist), C.J.Mahaney (Covenant Life Church/Calvinist), Heidi Baker (Pentecostal) and Reinhard Bonnke (Pentecostal).
Common Scriptures Used by Annihilationists & Eternal-Tormenters
We shall not here present all the arguments marshalled by the annihilationists against the advocates of eternal torture, and vice versa, as a great deal of circular reasoning is used in these debates and their own arguments may be found across the Internet and in printed literature. This would also take ap a small website though we may, as time permits, include articles that deal with specific questions not addressed here. Rather, we shall cut to the chase and shall assemble which Scriptures they principally use, divide them into categories, and then explain why they cannot use these passages in defence of their particular doctrine because of linguistic and exegetical errors commonly in circulation.
| ANNIHILATIONIST SCRIPTURES & INTERPRETATIONS |
ETERNAL TORMENT SCRIPTURES & INTERPRETATIONS |
False annihilationist and eterernal-tormenter arguments/explanations appear in (bracketed italics)
Categories of scriptures are coloured differently (e.g. grey, yellow, pink, brown, blue, white) to avoid needless repetition of arguments.
There is no functional equivalence between texts opposite each other in the columns.
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[SS] = texts based on false soul-sleeping arguments confusing the literal with the poetic, symbolic, allegorical or metaphorical [AE] = texts based on wrong translations of Heb. olam and Gk. aionios meaning 'age-long' (fixed period of time), not 'eternal' (forever, everlasting) [DPCD] = texts used to imply that usage of the words Destroy(ed), Perish(ed), Consume(d), Devour(ed) equals eternal destruction/ annihilation (see main article) |
| A1. Hebrews 10:26-27 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of Elohim (God)." [DPCD] (see main article) |
B1. Psalm 52:5 "Surely Elohim (God) will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living." [AE] (Pertains to the current aeon of mortality only) |
| A2. 2 Peter 3:7 "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (see main article) |
B2. Psalm 78:66 "He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame." [AE] (Pertains to the current aeon of mortality only) |
| A3. Romans 2:7 "To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life" (i.e. Elohim/God will make only the righteous immortal). This passage concerns the reception of divine chayim or life in the aion or age to which it pertains. [AE] |
B3. Isaiah 33:14 "The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: 'Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?'" [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long burning) |
| A4. Genesis 3:19 "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (This refers only to the physical component of men's souls). [SS] |
B4. Isaiah 66:24 "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (There will be no interruption to the cleansing until it is accomplished) |
| A5. Psalm 146:4 "When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing." (Their plans on earth come to nothing). [SS]
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B5. Jeremiah 23:40 "I will bring on you everlasting disgrace - everlasting shame that will not be forgotten." [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long disgrace) |
| A6. Ecclesiastes 9:5 "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten." (They know nothing more about earth life and those who remain soon forget them). [SS] |
B6. Jeremiah 25:9 "I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin." [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long ruin) |
| A7. Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul who sins is the one who will die." (This is speaking only of life on earth). [SS] |
B7. Daniel 12:2 "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long life and contempt, respectively) |
| A8. 2 Chronicles 28:3; Jeremiah 19:5 (Burning one's offspring in the Valley of Ben Hinnom - which is where the concept of Gehenna or Hell comes from - is NOT a commandment of Elohim/God nor did it even enter His Mind) This claim is contradicted by the fact that Yahweh DOES use such metaphors based on physical situations to describe spiritual reality - see website and introductory article on HELL. |
B8. Matthew 8:12 "... where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (for the duration of the aeon or age) |
| A9. Malachi 4:1-3 Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,' says Yahweh (the LORD) Almighty. 'Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,' says Yahweh (the LORD) Almighty." (They will no longer be found on the earth - says nothing of heaven or Sheol). |
B9. Matthew 10:15 "... it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment.." (The Sodomites had neither the Torah of Moses by which to compare their conduct nor the anointed preaching of the apostles to warn them. They were therefore, in some measure, more ignorant than the Judeans to whom the disciples were sent to warn). |
| A10. Matthew 10:28 "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (See earlier discussion in article). |
B10. Matthew 11:24 "... it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you" (The Sodomites did not have the benefit of witnessing miraclesas did the citizens of Capernaum, and like Tyre and Sidon, who would have received the Word, would likely have done the same with a comparible witness). |
| A11. John 3:16 "For Elohim (God) so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (People who don't believe in Yah'shua/Jesus shall perish and not receive eternal life). [AE] (Those who receive Messiah shall enjoy aeonian or age-long life in mortality whereas those who do not, will not). |
B11. Matthew 18:8 "It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire." [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long fire) |
| A12. John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." (Yah'shua's/Jesus' offer... to "live forever" would make no sense apart from the fact that not all will live or exist forever. No, this ). [AE] (Applies only to the extant aeon or age - they will enjoy a Ruach-filled life while they are alive). |
B12. Matthew 22:13 "... where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Same as Matt.8:12; 10:15; 11:24). This response of the wicked would be the same whether hell was eternal or age-long - there will be weeping and grinding of teeth no matter what the reality of the duration. |
| A13. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Master (Lord) and from the majesty of his power." (Everlasting destruction is having been destroyed and having no way to undo that). [AE, DPCD] (No, see parallel passages on aeonian or age-long life and the Hebrew use of the words for destruction). |
B13. Matthew 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." [AE] (Refers to aeonian or age-long fire) |
| A14. Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of Elohim (God) is eternal life in Messiah Yah'shua our Master (Christ Jesus our Lord)." [AE] (Aeonian or age-long life in the here-and-now - implied within this is a pointer to future aeons or ages too). |
B14. Mark 9:46-48 "And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where 'the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched." The fire is not quenched, nor the conscience cease to be tormented, for the entire duration of incarceration, whether eternal or aeonian (age-long). |
| A15. 1 Corinthians 15:12-49 (Only those who belong to Christ will be raised with imperishable, immortal bodies, all others perish as a man of dust.) This argument rests on the false assumption that Heaven and Hell are equivalent categories or mirror opposites, which they are not. |
B15. Revelation 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name." |
| A16. 2 Peter 2:6 "He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly." (In the same way the Sodomites were removed from the earth as physical beings, so they will be condemned as spirits to pass through a forced and painful, tortuous dying to self in the fire prepared for them - 1 Corinthians 3:15 "He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames") |
B16. Revelation 20:10 "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." |
| A17. Revelation 20:14-15 "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (The wicked will suffer a second death, the same fate that death itself suffers - and death will be abolished - 1 Corinthians 15:26. This passage has nothing to do with the permanent extinction of the wicked. The second death is like the first one only it is a forced and painful, tortuous dying to self in fire over a very long period of time - see 'The Fire of Yahweh' series). |
These Christians point to biblical references to eternal punishment, as well as eternal elements of this punishment, such as the unquenchable fire, the everlasting shame, the "worm" that never dies, and the smoke that rises forever, as consistent with the traditional doctrine of eternal, conscious torment of the non-believers or sinners in hell. However, these passages have to be viewed within the context of Hebrew concepts of TIME ('eternal', 'everlasting' = aeonian, age-long) and with a proper understanding of Hebrew metaphors. |
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B17. Psalm 52:5 "Surely Elohim (God) will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living." [AE] (see main article) |
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B18. Psalm 78:66 "He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame." [AE] (see main article) |
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B19. Isaiah 33:14 "The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: 'Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" [AE] (see main article) |
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B20. Isaiah 66:24 "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." The fire is not quenched, nor the conscience cease to be tormented, for the entire duration of incarceration, whether eternal or aeonian (age-long). |
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B21. Jeremiah 25:9 "I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin." [AE] (see main article) |
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B22. Daniel 12:2 "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." [AE] (see main article) |
Usage of 'Destroy', 'Perish', 'Consume' and 'Devour'
Annihilationists assemble a multitude of texts which in reality are either taken out of context or based on the false assumption that such words as 'destroy', 'perish', 'consume' and 'devour' automatically and necessarily always mean 'annihilation'. Similarly, eternal-tormenters assume that 'wailing' and 'gnashing of teeth' automatically implies that the tormented will be doing this forever, i.e. 'wailing' and 'gnashing'.
Annihilationists sometimes forget that the writers of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) were Israelites who spoke in Aramaic and Hebrew. Therefore we must understand their word usage by letting the Bible interpret itself:
- 1. Destroy. For example, in the Tanakh (Old Testament), the word ahvad is the word which is usually translated as "destroy.".
- a. In Numbers 21:29, the people of Chemosh were "undone" ("destroyed" in NIV). In the context, the meaning of ahvad is that the people were conquered and sold into slavery. They were not annihilated but enslaved;
- b. In 1 Samuel 9:3,20, Saul's asses were ahvad, i.e., lost. These asses were not annihilated, but lost;
- c. In Psalms 31:12, an ahvad vessel is merely broken, not annihilated;
- d. In Habbakuk 1:15, the word Gah rar means to catch something in a net, not to annihilate it;
- e. Dah chah in Isaiah 53:10 is translated, "It pleased Yahweh to bruise him." Here it refers to Christ's sufferings, not to non-existence;
- f. In Hosea 4:6, Elohim's (God's) people are "destroyed" for lack of knowledge. In the context, this cannot mean that they were non-existent;
- g. The same can be pointed out in the case of the words hoom (Ps.55:2) and ghah ram (Josh.6:8; Mic.4:13);
- h. In the Greek, apollumi is used to describe ruined ('destroyed') wineskins, lost ('destroyed') sheep, and spoiled ('destroyed') food (Matt 9:17; 15:24; John 6:27);
- i. Apolia in Mark 14:4 refers to wasted ('destroyed') perfume;
- j. Diapthero refers to moth-eaten ('destroyed') cloth in Luke 12:33;
- k. Katheiresis to the pulling down ('destruction') of a fortress (2 Cor.10:4);
- l. Kataluo refers to lodging for the night (Luke 9:12);
- m. Kataryco to a fig tree which was "cut down" (Luke 13:7, NIV), i.e. was 'destroyed';
- n. Luo refers to putting off one's shoes (Acts 7:33);
- o. Portheo refers to persecuting ('destroying') the Messianic Community (Church) in Galatians 1:13; and
- p. Phthiro refers to defiling ('destroying') the temple of Elohim (God) in 1 Corinthians 3:17.
The assumption that the words 'destroy' and 'destruction' automatically mean 'annihilation' or 'non-existence' is not good English, much less good Hebrew or Greek. We can think of someone being 'destroyed' or 'wiped out' in an emotional sense without implying that the person has ceased to exist. If you take a look at the catch-titles of YouTube videos, you will often find their opponents' described as 'annihilated' or 'destroyed'. Obviously the opponents have not ceased to exist; these words are but metaphors for having lost an argument or debate (whether true or not).
- 2. Perish(ed). In various forms the word "perish" appears 152 times in the KJV, 120 times in the NIV. In the Tanakh (Old Testament), there are 11 Hebrew words which are translated as "perish.":
- a. The main word ahvad is the same word which is frequently translated as "destroy." We have already seen that it is erroneous to assume that ahvad means 'annihilation';
- b. Sha mad is found in Jeremiah 48:42 where Moab is said to be 'destroyed' in the sense of the people being enslaved, not annihilated;
- c. Shah rhath is used of ruined ('destroyed', 'perished') girdles and vessels in Jeremiah 13:7 & 18:4;
- d. Kah rath is used of cutting a covenant or cutting timber to build the temple in Gen. 15:18; 1 Kings 5:6;
- e. Eah vag, nah phal, and gah var are used to describe a miserable ('destroyed', 'perished') emotional state (Ps.42:7; 55:4, 88:15,16);
In the New Testament, there are ten different Greek words which are translated "perish" :
- f. Some of these words such as apollumi were also translated as "destroy" and do not mean annihilation;
- g. Apothneesko is used in John 12:24 to describe the grain of wheat which when planted "dies" (is 'destroyed', 'perishes') and then sprouts. Obviously, it cannot mean annihilation;
- h. Aphanrzo refers to things which moths and rust can "corrupt" ('destroy', cause to 'perish') (Matt.6:19,20); and
- i. Kataphthiro is used to describe "corrupt" ('destroyed', 'perished') minds in 2 Timothy 3:8 (KJV).
Even in English we speak of fruit as 'perishable' in the sense that it can spoil. Burned out light bulbs have 'perished.' In neither case is annihilation intended. The fruit and bulbs have not been atomised or reduced to nothingness. They are simply no longer functioning in the way they were intended to. They are redundant but still exist in time and space.
- 3. Consume(ed): Forms of these words appear in the KJV 162 times, 120 times in the NKJV, and 80 times in the NIV. In the Tanakh (Old Testament), 20 different Hebrew words are translated as "consume."
- a. The usual word, ah chal is also used in Psalm 78:45 where the psalmist says that the flies "devoured" or "consumed" the Egyptians. The psalmist surely means that the flies tormented them, not annihilated them;
- b. Jeremiah used another word, bah lah, in Lamentations 3:4, saying that his flesh and skin were "made old" or "consumed", i.e. he was consumed with grief, not annihilated;
- c. Kah lah is used in Ezekiel 13:13 where hailstones "consumed" a wall, i.e. knocked it down, not annihilated it;
- d. Dah gach is the normal word for putting out a fire. When we 'put out a candle', we do not annihilate the candle.
Even in English we speak of people being 'consumed with grief, greed or lust', yet we do not mean that the person has ceased to exist or been annihilated.
We have demonstrated that the annihilationists are in error when they arbitrarily assume and then assert that such words as "perish", "destroyed", "consumed", "devoured" and "death" necessarily mean annihilation, because clearly they do not. Once more we are well advised to be very careful not to render right-brain poetic language into left-brain literal, scientific language. It is one thing to utterly "wipe [people] off the face of the earth" (Ex.32:12, NIV) - from the physical domain - but that obviously does not mean they have ceased to exist as disembodied spirits (Dt.9:3; 2 Sam.21:2; 2 Chr.20:23; Esth.8:11; Ezek.20:13; Dan.11:44) nor does it deny they will be resurrected for judgment, even from a state of supposed temporary 'non-existence' - whatever that means, since the implication is a second de novo creation for judgment and, for some, even a period of torture before final annhihilation (as the early gnostics taught)...but what on earth for?! And what does this say about the presumed or claimed character of Elohim (God)?
From Head to Heart
The tripping wires for both annihilationists and eternal-tormenters are words like 'eternal' and 'saved'. A lot of theological baggage have accumulated in words such as these over the centuries which do not necessarily correspond to the original biblical sense nor are they always as precise as we would perhaps like them to be. Once the brain has exhausted itself in a deep examination of these topics, the heart must render its final judgment, since the rational mind alone cannot finally resolve many of these doctrinal questions because some matters are simply beyond its purview. If it could, devout believers would not still be arguing over the three main positions and all their variants regarding the final fate of the wicked. Life is not as scientifically neat as perhaps we might like it to be.
Doctrines That Affect Behaviour and Relationships
Do these doctrines affect our behaviour and inter-personal relationships? Most defifinitely. Look how the Jehovah's Witnesses, the leading annihilationists, treat those outside their group, and especially those who leave it. Look how the more radical Calvinists, who believe in eternal torment, regard those who do not accept Calvinism (and eternal torment) - they believe them to have been predestined to this fate. The annihilationists and eternal-tormenters have to turn off some part of their heart in order to deal with those - and especially loved ones - whom they believe are going to be either spiritually exterminated or tortured forever. Theirs is a limited hope and therefore a limited love. It is not enough for them that there are those who are trusting in Yah'shua (Jesus) and those who are not, and responding in obedience in the best way they know how. They are the prisoners of terrible doctrines that undermine the testimony that Yahweh's designs are far grander and more wonderful than the constricting views imposed by annihilationism and eternal-tormentism.
Universal Reconciliation
Messianic Evangelicals believe in universal reconciliation and exercise their hope in such passages as:
"For as in Adam all die, so in Messiah (Christ) all will be made alive...so that Elohim (God) may be all in all" (1 Cor.15:22,28, NIV).
"For no one is cast off by Yahweh forever. Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love" (Lam.3:31-33, NIV).
"We have put our hope in the living Elohim (God), who is the Saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe" (1 Tim.4:10, NIV).
The disciples of eternal destruction and torture have no answer to these testimonies. They make no sense to them. They would much rather "all" be "some" or (if Calvinist) "the predestined". Annihilation can make no allowances for "all" either.
The Annihilationist Explanation of Matthew 25:46
Annihilationism is, as its proponents would themselves claim, simply a different kind of 'eternal punishment' per pro Matthew:
"And then they will go away to eternal (everlasting) punishment, but the righteous to eternal (everlasting) life" (Mt.25:46, NIV).
The annihilationist would say a definition of the word "punishment" would not necessarily include some form of suffering - remember, some annihilationists believe the damned are first tortured and are then annihilated. Others believe they are exterminated right after Judgment. Either way, they would tend to view punishment as "an authorized imposition of deprivations - of freedom or privacy or other goods to which the person otherwise has a right, or the imposition of special burdens - because the person has been found guilty of some criminal violation, typically (though not invariably) involving harm to the innocent" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). By this definition, annihilationism can then be viewed a form of 'punishment' in which deprivation of existence occurs, and the punishment is eternal or 'final' in its most absolute sense.
This is not, however, what the Greek word aionios (or its Hebrew analogue, olam) - wrongly rendered 'everlasting' or 'eternal' - means (see the Time website). The "punishment" for the wicked is age-long, or for the duration of a fixed period of time, an æon. Likewise, the blessing or reward of the righteous is age-long or aenonian chayim (life). For both, the æon or age is of fixed duration. What happens at the end of that æon? The righteous move into the next æon or age and continue to enjoy chayim (life) whereas the wicked will be released from their incarceration in Sheol and go to their own place, to a third-rate place of 'glory' or 'splendour' after the "glory ('splendour' - JBP) of the stars" (1 Cor.15:41). What happens thereafter in the 'æon of the æons' (eternity) no one knows but for a further discission of this, see the Universal Salvation website.
Conclusion
One thing is certain, though, and it is this: that the wicked, after their long, painful and hellish punishment and cleansing in Sheol, which will seem like eternity to them, will neither remain there for eternity nor will they be annihilated though they may wish, because of their suffering, to be annihilated before their term has been completed. They are not let-off scott-free by some liberal deity (as some kinds of universalist believe) but neither are they subject to torture for its own sake by some psychopathic entity (as most Evangelical Christians believe, and especially the Calvinists) nor are they wiped out by some genocidal one either (as Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists and many Messianics believe). Our Elohim (God) is an Elohim (God) of both Justice (Ruling based on Righteousness) and Grace (Undeserved Loving-Kindness) because He is "the Saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe" (1 Tim.4:10). Does it ultimately make a difference whether you believe or not? Absolutely. It is the difference between the glory or splendour of a warm blazing sun and that of a distant cold twinkling star. How that translates practically, we do not know, but we assuredly know enough to make the right choice to trust in Yah'shua (Jesus) and follow Him, or not.
(2 December 2018)
Comments from Readers
[1] "Wow!! What a thorough article!...There is so much info there to digest...Thank you for writing it, brother!" (JS, USA, 13 April 2020)
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