Episode Details

What is the destiny of the unrighteous?  Christians over the centuries have put forward three major options: eternal conscious torment (traditionalism), temporary torment followed by salvation (universalism), temporary torment followed by destruction (annihilationism).  In this lecture we'll cover the main texts supporting the annihilation of the wicked as well as three logical problems with the traditional view.

—— Notes ——

Understanding Immortality

Gen 2.17

• what was the original consequence for sin that God promised? death!
• Gen 3.19, 22-23 expelled from tree of life
• Gen 5.5 Adam died
• from the beginning the punishment for sin was death

 proof

• 1 only God is immortal by nature (1 Tim 1.17;15-16)
• 2 humans are by nature mortal (will not by default live forever)
• 3 God gives the saved immortality
  • through the gospel (2 Tim 1.9-10)
  • through resurrection (1 Cor 15.52-53)
• therefore damned will not be immortal (John 3.16; Rom 6.23[1]; 1 John 5.11-12)

Biblical Language of Destruction

Psalm 37 uses terms to describe the fate of the wicked

v2

wither quickly like the grass

v9

cut off

v10

be no more

v20

perish

v20

vanish like smoke

v22

cut off

v27

reward for good is to live forever

v28

cut off

v34

cut off

v36

passed away

Mal 4.1-3 day is coming that will set them ablaze, they’ll be ashes under your feet

Mat 3.12 burn up chaff [wicked] w/ unquenchable fire

• unquenchable = cannot be put out until it consumes the fuel
• Jer 7.20: God’s wrath is unquenchable, so he tells Jer to stop praying…but after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carried the people into exile, his wrath ended

Mat 7.13-14  narrow gate leads to life; broad way leads to destruction

Mat 10.28  destroy body and soul in hell

• Hades = greek for Sheol = realm of dead (the grave)
• Gehenna = valley of Hinnom = burning garbage dump where they used to sacrifice children to Moloch that Jesus used as an analogy for the final judgment

Mat 13.40-42 all law-breakers thrown into fiery furnace

• “weeping and gnashing of teeth” indicates anger not suffering
• see Luke 13.28: weeping & gnashing b/c you see Abr. Is. Jac. in kingdom but yourselves cast out

Mat 18.8-9 better to enter life crippled than to be thrown into eternal fire (hell of fire)

• life contrasted with fire

Mat 25.46 eternal punishment vs. eternal life

• punishment that lasts forever not that is experienced forever (death penalty is irreversible)
• Heb 5.9 eternal salvation: process of saving was finite but outcome lasts forever
• Heb 9.12 eternal redemption: process of redeeming was finite but outcome lasts forever

Gal 6.8

• sow to the flesh -> reap corruption
• sow to the spirit -> reap eternal life

Heb 10.26-27 those who go on sinning will get a fury of fire that will consume

2 Peter 2.6 Sodom&Gomorrah condemned to extinction as example of what happens to ungodly

2 Peter 3.6-7 future destruction is like Noah's flood

Jud 1.6-7  Sodom & Gomorrah are an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire

• inhabitants of S&G were violently slain by fire

Atonement

Romans 5.6 “Christ died for the ungodly”