"Just as the Apocalypse gives us a picture of the state of the glorified church in heaven in Revelation 21:1–22:5 that is sheer rapture, so it gives us an equally graphic representation of hell that is sheer horror. In Revelation 14:9–11 John declares that he who has the mark of the beast “will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath,†and that he “will be tormented in fire … and the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever.2 And those who worship the beast … have no rest day and night.†Here eternal conscious torment is said to be the punishment of those who have the mark of the beast. In 19:20 John speaks of “the lake of fire that burns with brimstone,†and in 20:15 he declares that “if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire†which is the “second death.†From such Johannine notices as these in the Apocalypse it is clear that the divine judgment awaiting evildoers is certain, just, and eternal.
These features of the eschatological judgment have led some modern evangelical theologians who consider the doctrine of unending conscious torment to be, if not intrinsically unethical, at the very least a reflection upon the gracious side of the divine character, to propound the theory of the impenitent’s final annihilation, body and soul.3 In fact, the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England issued a report in January 1996, entitled “The Mystery of Salvation,†that declares:
Hell is not eternal torment, but the final and irrevocable choosing of that which is opposed to God so completely and absolutely that the only end is total non-being.
Donald Guthrie is, of course, correct when he states that “the doctrine of eternal punishment is not an attractive doctrine and the desire to substitute for it the view that, at the judgment, the souls of the wicked will cease to exist, is understandable.â€Â4 But, and with this Guthrie would agree, the Bibleâ€â€which, after all, is our only rule of faith for the doctrine of hellâ€â€will not endorse such a substitution. Nor is such a substitution really any more acceptable to the modern mind than the traditional view, for there would still needs come that moment when God would annihilate the sinner by casting him into hellâ€â€a notion equally repugnant to the modern mind, which would have God to be a God only of love. Nevertheless, no less an esteemed evangelical than John Stott advances four argumentsâ€â€related in turn to scriptural language, scriptural imagery, scriptural divine justice, and scriptural universalismâ€â€to make the case for the impenitent’s annihilation. His first argument makes the basic point that since eternal perdition is often described in Scripture in terms of the sinner’s “destruction,†“it would seem strange … if people who are said to suffer destruction are in fact not destroyed.â€Â5 Second, he contends that the imagery of hell as “eternal fire†suggestsâ€â€since (he writes) “the main function of fire is not to cause pain, but to secure destruction, as all the world’s incinerators bear witnessâ€Ââ€â€that the sinner in hell is to be consumed, not tormented.6 Third is his contention that a serious disproportion incompatible with the biblical revelation of divine justice would seem to exist between “sins consciously committed in time and torment consciously experienced throughout eternity.â€Â7 Finally, he argues that “the eternal existence of the impenitent in hell would be hard to reconcile with the promises of God’s final victory over evil, or with the apparently universalistic texts which speak of Christ drawing all men to himself (John 12:32), and of God uniting all things under Christ’s headship (Ephesians 1:10), reconciling all things to himself through Christ (Colossians 1:20), and bringing every knee to bow to Christ and every tongue to confess his lordship (Philippians 2:10–11), so that in the end God will be ‘all in all’ or ‘everything to everybody’ (1 Corinthians 15:28).â€Â8 I will address these arguments in turn.
THE SCRIPTURAL LANGUAGE
The most fruitful way to address the meaning of the scriptural language pertaining to the eternal condition of the impenitent is to cite the relevant passages and to comment upon those whose meaning may not be obvious....
The New Testament Doctrine of Eternal Punishment
What is the evidence supporting what Motyer termed earlier the New Testament’s “maturer†doctrine of unending conscious torment for the unrepentant? In addition to John’s witness from the Apocalypse, consider the following New Testament data:
John the Baptist
To the multitudes who came to hear him, John the Baptist declared: “[the Messiah] will consume [καÄακαÃÂÃει, katakausei] the chaff with unquenchable [ἀÃβÎÂÃĀῳ, asbestÃ…Â] fire.†(Matt. 3:12)
Annihilationists argue that the action depicted by the verb here is not one of “tormenting†the chaff in unquenchable fire but one of “consuming†the chaff. But this argument ignores the fuller analogy of Scripture and leaves unexplained why John characterizes the fire as “unquenchable.†To maintain that the adjective “unquenchable†means that that which is instantly consumed by the fire is consumed forever13 does not really explain why the fire is described as unquenchable. If the chaff is consumed by the fire, as the annihilationist maintains, there would be no need for it to be unquenchable. Once it had “incinerated†the chaff, it could be put out. I do not mean that hell is necessarily a place of literal flame. Doubtless much of the language of Scripture describing the unseen world must be understood figuratively. But figurative language, if it has any meaning at all (and it does), intends something literal, and it is my contention that the figure of “unquenchable fire†here, in the light of many other Scripture references, intends at the very least unending conscious misery of immeasurable dimensions.
Jesus Christ
It may come as a surprise to some readers that the strongest support for the doctrine of unending conscious torment for the impenitent is to be found in the teaching of Jesus Christ. The Christian church and Christian pastors are not the authors of this doctrine. Rather, Jesus, the Redeemer of men, is more responsible than any other person for the doctrine of eternal perdition. It is he, therefore, more than any other, with whom the opponents of the doctrine are in conflict. Consider his witness:
Mark 9:43: “It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell [Äὴν γÎÂενναν, tÄ“n geennan], where the fire never goes out.â€Â
Jesus’ word translated “hell†here is Gehenna, the Aramaic form of “Valley of Hinnom,†and it is derived from the Hebrew placename in 2 Kings 23:10, “Topheth [place of spitting?] which was in the Valley of Benei Hinnom,†an idolatrous worship center from the time of Ahaz to Manasseh south of Jerusalem where children were burned in fire as an offering to the god Moloch (2 Chron. 28:3). It was destroyed by Josiah and from late Jewish tradition (David Qimchi, c. a.d. 1200) we learn that it was made a refuse dump for the city’s garbage. Since fire burned continually in this valley, Gehenna became a symbol of the “unquenchable fire†of hell, a place of perpetual fire and loathsomeness (see Isa. 30:33 for the meaning of Topheth, which became a synonym for the site as a whole: “Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready.… Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulphur, sets it ablaze.â€Â)
Mark 9:47–48: “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 ‘their worm [that is, their “maggotâ€Â] does not die, and the fire is not quenched’ â€Â(see Isa. 66:24; Matt. 18:9).
Because maggots, the larvae of flies, normally feed upon a corpse’s flesh and are finally done with it (Job 21:26; 24:20; Isa. 14:11) whereas here the unrepentant sinner’s “maggot†is said never to die, and because hell’s fire is said never to be quenched, Guthrie appears to be correct when he states that Jesus’ description here of the unrepentant sinner’s final state is that of “a state of continuous punishment.â€Â14
Matthew 5:22: “Anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell [Äὴν γÎÂενναν Äοῦ ÀÅÃÂÃŒÂ, tÄ“n geennan tou pyros]†(see vv. 29, 30).
Matthew 7:13: “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction [ἀÀÎλειαν, apÃ…Âleian, in this context means “[eternal] death,†the antithesis of the “life†mentioned in verse 14], and many enter through it.â€Â
Matthew 8:12 (see 22:13): “The subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.â€Â
Because this “weeping and gnashing of teeth,†suggesting as it does conscious anger, pain and woe, exists in hell’s “outer darkness,†this expression too seems to describe a state of continuous punishment.
Matthew 10:15: “I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.†(see also 11:22, 24; Luke 10:12, 14)
The New Testament teaches that there will be degrees of punishment meted out in the day of judgment to the impenitent, depending on such matters as the sinner’s amount of spiritual light and his opportunity to repent and believe. Matthew 10:15 (see Jesus’ “more bearableâ€Â) is one such expression of this teaching. It is difficult, to say the least, to comprehend how this teaching can be adjusted to the annihilationist position if the final outcome of the day of judgment for all the impenitent is the same, namely, annihilation of all, body and soul.
Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who can destroy [Äῶν ἀÀοκÄεννÌνÄÉν, tÃ…Ân apoktennontÃ…Ân] the body but cannot kill [ἀÀοκÄεῖναι, apokteinai] the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy [ἀÀολÎÂÃαι, apolesai] both soul and body in hell.†(The Lukan parallel in 12:5 reads: “Fear him who, after [μεÄά, meta, with the accusative] the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell [γÎÂενναν, geennan].â€Â)
Annihilationists argue that Jesus’ terms of destruction here suggest that annihilation is the impenitent’s end. But “destruction†does not have to connote annihilation, that is, the cessation of existence. It can also connote a state of existence, the precise nature of which to be determined by any and all language qualifying that existence. Accordingly, the impenitent can properly be said to be “destroyed†when he has been cast into hell. And the Lukan parallel (Luke 12:5) suggests precisely this connotation for the Matthean notion of destruction.
Matthew 13:42, 50: “They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.†(see Luke 13:28)
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 fireâ€Â; (18:9)“ … than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.â€Â
Matthew 23:33: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape from the judgment of hell?â€Â
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.’ †(see Rev. 20:10)
Matthew 25:46: “Then they [those on his left] will go away to eternal punishment [κÌλαÃιν αἰÎνιον, kolasin aiÃ…Ânion] but the righteous to eternal life.â€Â
I can find no occurrence of κÌλαÃιÂ, kolasis, where it connotes annihilation; rather, it seems in every instance to mean “punishment.†Ralph E. Powell correctly notes that in this last reference “the same word ‘eternal’ is applied to the duration of the punishment in hell as is used for the duration of the bliss in heaven.â€Â15
Matthew 26:24: “woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.†(See Matt. 18:6; Luke 17:2)
But if Judas’s final end was to be his soul’s annihilation and thus simply nonexistence, how is his final state worse than the nonexistent state which was his prior to his birth?
Luke 16:23, 24, 28: “In hell, where he was in torment [βαÃάνοιÂ, basanois] … ‘I am in agony in this fire.’ … ‘this place of torment [βαÃάνοÅ, basanou].’ †(See also 12:5; 13:27)
While one should not press every detail of our Lord’s parables, still Jesus surely must have been aware that his listeners would understand him here to teach that, following upon physical death, the impenitent sinner endures conscious torment in hell’s flames. That literal and intense suffering is the meaning intended by “torment†and “agony†cannot be denied by any reasonable method of exegesis. As annihilationists commonly have done before, Stott interprets this parable to mean that lost men in the intermediate state between their physical death and resurrection “will come to unimaginably painful realisation of their fate. But [he continues] this is not incompatible … with their final annihilation.â€Â16
I grant that the parable may be describing most immediately the intermediate state, but there is nothing in the parable which suggests that the intermediate state’s “torment†will cease for the lost after their resurrection and judgment. To the contrary, Jesus’ description of the “great gulf†between the blessed and the lost (which is doubtless metaphorical language) as “fixed†(á¼ÂÃĀήÃÂικÄαι, estÄ“riktai, the perfect passive of ÃĀηÃÂίζÉ, stÄ“rizÃ…Â, that is, “has been fixed and continues soâ€Â) implies the unchanging character of the impenitent’s estate in hell.
John 5:28–29: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come outâ€â€those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.â€Â
John 15:6: “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.â€Â
Demons
Matthew 8:29: “What have we to do with you, O Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us?†(See the references to conscious torment in Luke 16:23, 24, 28.)
It would appear that demons believe that conscious torment, not annihilation, awaits them someday.
Paul
Concerning Paul’s teaching regarding the judgment of unbelievers, Ridderbos writes:
Paul declares the certainty of [punitive judgment on unbelievers and the ungodly] in an unmistakable way, in many respects with words that have been derived from the Old Testament preaching of judgment. He speaks of it as ruin, death, payment with an eternal destruction … ; wrath, indignation, tribulation, anguish. But nowhere is the how, the where, or the how long “treated†as a separate “subject†of Christian doctrine in the epistles of Paul that have been preserved for us.17
Here are Paul’s statements:
Galatians 1:9: “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be condemned [ἀνάθεμα, anathema].†Meaning as it literally does, “offered up [to God],†“anathema†brings the Old Testament ḥerem principle into the New Testament (see 1 Cor. 16:22).
1 Thessalonians 1:10: “[Jesus] rescued us from the coming wrath.â€Â
1 Thessalonians 5:3: “Destruction [ὄλεθÃÂοÂ, olethros] will come upon them suddenly … and they will not escape.â€Â
Annihilationists press the word “destruction†here to mean the cessation of existence, but I would urge, on the basis of the analogy of Scripture, that this is playing with words (see my comments on the next verse). This “destruction,†coming as Paul says it will upon the ungodly suddenly, seems to connote more the general notion of the swift coming upon them of the divine judgment than a specific description of the nature of the end of that judgment.
2 Thessalonians 1:9: “They will be punished with everlasting destruction [ὄλεθÃÂον αἰÎνιον, olethron aiÃ…Ânion] and shut out from the [approving] presence of the Lord.â€Â
This is the only passage in the Pauline corpus where αἰÎνιοÂ, aiÃ…Ânios, is explicitly attached to ὄλεθÃÂοÂ, olethros. Vos makes some very telling comments on this expression:
This is the statement most frequently depended upon to tone down the principle of two-sided eternal retribution traditionally ascribed to the Apostle. It not being feasible to modify the eschatologically-constant value of “aionios,†the attack has centered upon the noun or nouns to which the adjective is attached. “Olethros†and “apoleia†have been given the sense of annihilation.… As concerns the statement in 2 Thess. no one can deny that it posits a strong contrast between the destiny of believers and the end of their persecutors. Only, the question arises, whether the thought of annihilation is fitted to serve as the evil opposite pole in a contrast so sharply stressed by Paul. It will have to be remembered at the outset that “annihilation†is an extremely abstract idea, too philosophical, in fact, to find a natural place within the limits of the realistic biblical eschatology, least of all, it would seem, in this outburst of vehement indignation against the enemies of the Gospel. Closely looked at it is not a stronger but a weaker concept than that of protracted retribution to threaten with, so that, instead of contributing to the sharpness of the opposition intended, it would to a certain extent obliterate the latter.…
The problem of the relation of “olethros†and “apoleia†to existence or non-existence could be solved without much difficulty, were writers willing to test the Pauline statements by reference to the words of Jesus, because the latter on the one hand uses “apoleia†of the state and Gehenna of the place of eternal destruction and on the other hand combines with these the strongest predicates of unceasing retribution; cp. Matt. v.29; vii.13; Mk. v.29, 30; ix. 43, 44, 46, 48; Lk. xii. 5.… Could Paul in a matter like this have shown less severity than Jesus?18
Vos answers his own question: “In none of [the passages where Paul employs ἀÀÎλεια, apÃ…Âleia] is there noticeable a lack of pathos, rather the opposite.â€Â19 Moreover, to describe the soul’s annihilation in terms of being “shut out from the [approving] presence of the Lord†is a strange phrase, to say the least.
Romans 2:8–9: “For those who … reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger; there will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil.â€Â
The last two descriptions here of the sinner’s end (trouble and distress) do not comport easily with the notion of cessation of existence.
Romans 2:12: “All who sin … will perish.â€Â
Romans 6:21, 23: “[The things you are now ashamed of] result in [physical and spiritual] death … the wages of sin is death.â€Â
Romans 9:22: “Vessels of his wrathâ€â€prepared for destruction.â€Â
Romans 14:10–12: “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.â€Â
1 Corinthians 3:17: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.â€Â
1 Corinthians 16:22: “If anyone does not love the Lordâ€â€a curse [ἀνάθεμα, anathema] be upon him.â€Â
2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.â€Â
Philippians 3:19: “Their [the enemies of the cross of Christ] destiny is destruction.â€Â
James
James declares: “[The tongue is] a fire [which] sets the entire course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell†(James 3:6). Note that James does not say that the tongue, “set on fire by hell,†is annihilated by that fire but rather that it becomes itself a “fire,†causing still further damage.
The Author of Hebrews
The author of Hebrews includes among the “elementary teachings†and “foundation†(or “fundamentalâ€Â) doctrines of the Christian faith (the English word, “foundation,†the translation of θεμÎÂλιον, themelion, here, is from the Latin root from which we also derive our word “fundamentalâ€Â) the doctrine of “eternal judgment†(κÃÂίμαÄο αἰÉνίοÅ, krimatos aiÃ…Âniou) (6:2). Of this judgment he writes:
Hebrews 9:27: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.â€Â
Note that this verse clearly states that men do survive the experience of physical death, after which they stand before God in judgment.
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 God.†(see vv. 28–31)
Annihilationists must place a construction on these words that is not in keeping with the analogy of Scripture.
Hebrews 10:39: “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed.â€Â
Hebrews 12:29: “Our God is a consuming fire.â€Â
Peter
2 Peter 2:4: “in chains of blackness, consigning [them] to Tar±Ã¡Â¿â€“ ζÃŒÆοÅ ÄαÃÂÄαÃÂÎÃαÂ, seirais zophou tartarÃ…Âsas].â€Â
Tartarus is a classical word for the place of eternal punishment.
Jude
Jude 7: “[The cities of the plain] serve as an example of those who suffer the justice of eternal fire.â€Â
John
In addition to the texts already cited in Revelation, note the following words and phrases in John’s Gospel: “perish†[ἀÀÌληÄαι, apolÄ“tai] (John 3:16), “stands condemned already†(3:18), and “God’s wrath remains [μÎÂνει, menei] on him†(3:36). Then John informs us in Revelation 19:20, regarding the destiny of the eschatological beast and the false prophet, that they “were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone.â€Â
Of Satan himself, John states:
Revelation 20:10: “The devil, who deceived [the nations], 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.â€Â
Stott argues here that, since the beast and the false prophet “are not individual people but symbols of the world in its varied hostility to God†(with which view I am in essential agreement), as symbols they “cannot experience pain.â€Â20 This seems to me to be a desperate attempt to explain away the plain import of the passage. Surely the devil is a person, and if the beast and false prophet are symbols, surely they represent in some sense people hostile to God, about whom John declares, “They will be tormented [βαÃανιÃθήÃονÄαι, basanisthÄ“sontai] day and night for ever and ever.â€Â
Finally, John describes the last judgment in the following words:
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 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. (Rev. 20:12–15)
The fact that at the final judgment each person will be judged according to what he has done implies that degrees of punishment will be meted out by the Judge of all the earth, who will do right by all (Gen. 18:25). This passage also implies that the same destiny awaits the impenitent that awaits the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, namely, torment day and night for ever and ever.
I must conclude from this survey of biblical passages dealing with hell that the only natural meaning of these several texts, interpreted both individually and collectively, is that the retributive infliction of which they speak is unending conscious torment for the impenitent. If these affirmations speak only of the soul’s annihilation, none of them intending to teach that the unrepentant sinner consciously suffers eternal torment after the final judgment, then we must conclude that a large majority of the church’s scholars for twenty centuries have known little about biblical hermeneutics and have failed to do proper exegesis.
cont
