HELL-ANNIHILATIONISM
Annihilationism
simply will not wash. Christ says that the lost will go into “eternal fire,”
which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. And then He adds, “And
these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life” (Matthew 25:46). Since the same word eternal
describes both the destiny of the righteous and the wicked, it seems clear that
Christ taught that both groups will exist forever, albeit in different places.
The same eternal fire that Satan and his hosts experience will be the lot of
unbelievers... The wicked will experience shame and contempt for as long as the
righteous experience bliss.
Erwin Lutzer
Taken from One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer,
Moody Publishers, 1997, p. 103.
The Bible
used five main pictures to speak of hell: darkness and separation, fire,
“weeping and gnashing of teeth,” punishment, and death and destruction. Only
the last fits with annihilationism, and not even every
passage in that category fits.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 164. Used by permission.
Historically,
the key passage on hell in the Gospels is Jesus’ teaching about the sheep and
the goats. Jesus, the Son of Man, banishes the accursed to “the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Does this “eternal fire”
denote pain or extinction? John answers this question: “The devil…was thrown
into the lake of burning sulfur…[and] will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). Here fire denotes torment.
And this torment, not obliteration, lies ahead for the Devil, evil angels, and
all unrepentant human beings.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 168. Used by Permission.
Annihilationism
is a most serious error because it leads unrepentant sinners to underestimate
their fate. Would not the ungodly be more inclined to live selfishly their
whole lives, without thought of God, if they expected after death to face
ultimate extinction rather than eternal punishment? The unsaved would probably like annihilationism to be true, but it
is not. Because we believers love the lost, we must tell them the truth: all
who live ungodly lives face eternal conscious torment at the hands of the living
God.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 178-179. Used by permission.
I fear that
if annihilationism is widely accepted by Christians, that
will hinder the missionary enterprise. Many people have devoted their lives to
bringing the gospel to the unsaved around the globe. Would they continue to do
so if they really thought that the worst fate awaiting those who reject Jesus
is final extinction? I seriously doubt it. Annihilationists
can argue that the obliteration of the wicked is a terrible fate if measured
against the bliss of the righteous. But when compared to suffering in hell
forever, it is simply not that bad to cease to exist.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment,
P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 170. Used by permission.
If,
therefore, any one shall violently suppose that the destruction of the soul and
the flesh in hell amounts to a final annihilation of the two substances, and
not to their penal treatment (as if they were to be consumed, not punished),
let him recollect that the fire of hell is eternal – expressly announced as an
everlasting penalty; and let him admit that it is from this circumstance that
this never-ending “killing” is more formidable than a merely human murder, which
is only temporal.
Tertullian
On
the Resurrection of the Flesh, Ch. 35.
It would be most absurd if the flesh should be raised up and
destined to “the killing in hell,” in order to be put an end
to, when it might suffer such an annihilation (more directly) if not raised
again at all. A pretty paradox, to be sure, that an essence must be refitted
with life, in order that it may receive that annihilation which has already in
fact accrued to it!
Tertullian
On
the Resurrection of the Flesh, Ch. 35.
We are persuaded that when we are removed from the present life we
shall live another life, better than the present one...or, falling with the
rest, a worse one and in fire; for God has not made us as sheep or beasts of
burden, a mere by-work, and that we should perish and be annihilated.
Athenagoras
A Plea for the
Christians, Ch. 31.