Liberty University

Hell Debate: The Classical view and The Annihilationist view of Hell

RLGN 335 B08
Professor: Wesley Handy

By
Tami L Moore

October 16, 2015

Jesus, suggest that hell is “outer darkness “beyond heaven because heaven is light “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” He teaches that many will seek to enter heaven but be shut out (Luke 13:22-30), suggesting that there is no way to escape from hell once there. Throughout life, we have heard plenty of talk about Heaven and Hell. Heaven was for the people that believe in doing well unto God as Christian and lived their lives accordingly to God's Commandments. . And Hell was always known as the place where the devil reside and the place that sinners and evil people that resisted God and refuse to accept God into their hearts and lived in sin, and last judgement is served. Heaven and Hell was spoken of in church, but most Pastor spoke on hell lesser than they did heaven. Sinclair Ferguson expresses how the doctrine of hell should influence one’s preaching. “He says preachers should stress God’s righteousness, the sinfulness of sin, and God’s justice in condemning sin. He adds that expositors should affirm that hell is real, that hell is vividly described in the New Testament, and that hell, though prepared for the devil and his angels, is shared by human beings” (Morgan and Peterson). Many Pastors thought it was easier to reach the people if they talk more on Heaven and God's blessing than Hell and the sin and evil of the devil. But the irony of it all was that God could control who went to heaven and who went to hell, but Satan could only control who went to hell. If God is the creation of all and everything He made was good and very good, why was hell even created? Why would a loving, compassionate, and peaceful God allow a place like this to exist? So the debated questioned still exist today why did God make a hell? Many believe that hell is a place that God prepare for Satan and his fallen angels. Hopefully by the end of my research paper we all will have a greater understanding of the nature of hell. Charlie Tinsley stated, “The nature of hell is one that both terrifies and challenges a believer’s concept of God".(Tinsley)

Two evangelical theologians state this about hell. "Robert Peterson beliefs are those of a traditional view being those who do not have faith in Christ will suffer eternally in hell. Author Edward Fudge belief is of a conditionals’ perspective, believing that after a period of suffering, the unfaithful will experience a complete extinguishing, or annihilation, of existence"(Fudge and Patterson). Annihilationism is a Christian belief that apart from salvation the final punishment of human beings results in their total destruction rather than their everlasting torment, they normally assume that once God annihilates a person, they will never again come into existence; annihilation is a permanent state. This view is directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life. Annihilationism asserts that God will eventually destroy the wicked, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality, this directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality: "Meaning that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life and eternal security. They also assert the God will in the end destroy the evil ones, leaving only the righteous to live forever. Is God to merciful to punish sinners eternally? Is an endless hell unjust or unloving of God? Annihilationism believe scriptures describe God's love as a consuming fire, but sinful beings cannot exist in God's presence, good and evil won't dwell in the same space. So when one free willingly rejects salvation have become eternally destroyed because sin kept them from obtaining what was rightfully theirs. Annihilationist view believe hell is real but not eternal and the wicked are not destroy in this place, but cease to exist at death, or "that those if sent to hell will eventually cease to exist also"(Morgan and Peterson). Robert Peterson in his book "The Darkside of Eternity" stated, "Evangelical Annihilationist’s teach the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgment with conscious punishment according to sins committed. The last stroke for the wicked is the extinction of their being. This extinction is irreversible; thus annihilationists define eternal punishment as extermination without remedy"(Peterson). Within the annihilationist view there are two modified views: The first is conditional immortality – The wicked are resurrected, but they forfeit eternal life and are simply allowed to pass out of existence. Second view annihilationist proper – God will punish sin, but in time that punishment results in the cessation of life"(Branam Brian). "Annihilationist views are ultimately that life ends after death, so there is no need for hell. To the annihilationist, the existence of a soul that rejects God prohibits His victory over sin as the souls would still continue existing in an eternal hell meaning God cannot save all people and victory over sin means annihilation of the lost’s soul.(Boyd and Eddy)

Eternal conscious punishment is the view that the wicked will suffer the pains of hell forever. It is also called traditionalism because it is the church’s traditional view. Annihilationism, by contrast, is the view that God will exterminate the wicked in hell. Conditional immortality—conditionalism for short—is the view that God does not give immortality to all human beings, but only to believers, and that He will resurrect unbelievers, who lack the gift of immortality, to face ultimate annihilation”( Peterson)
The authors of "Across the Spectrum" Eddy and Boyd states" the Classical view believes the lost souls are going to cast into hell where they will encounter constant and eternal suffering and torment from Satan, this is the traditional view of the church. The classical view is that hell is an eternal of unending turmoil for the wicked, also they believe that if a sinner rejects salvation free willingly and chose not to turn from their evil and wickedness then hell will be there final stop after the die, and their should will forever be tormented they will never rest again. Every lasting life goes the Christians and everlasting shame goes to the lost souls in hell. The eternal nature of God’s glory is at odds with the eternal nature of sin and He will punish it eternally. Second, God does not send people to hell, people choose their eternal destination by their actions and rejection of God (John 3:19). Free will is a double edged sword and the choices one makes in this life directly impact the judgment they incur upon death. Third, the charges of cruelty here are misguided if one recognizes the images used to describe hell in scripture are not literal These images do portray the eternal life without God, but are figurative in nature when we look at passages such as Matthew 22:13 when it describes hell as a place of darkness and Matthew 18:8 when it describes hell as a place of perpetual fire. Hell is the absence of God for all eternity, there is no greater torment on the human soul than the removal of God’s mercy and grace as sin consumes them entirely"(Eddy and Boyd). The best argument for annihilationism” derives from the traditional theistic doctrine of divine conservation: all things depend on God to conserve their existence from moment to moment, and so exist only so long as they are connected to God in some way. But if hell is complete and utter separation or disconnection from God, then hell would be a state of non-existence. Against annihilationism, some would object that it is contrary to God’s creative nature to annihilate anything” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
"For behold, the day comes burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch" (Mal 4:1)(NKJV)
"Hell is the absence of God for all eternity, there is no greater torment on the human soul than the removal of God’s mercy and grace as sin consumes them entirely"(Boyd and Eddy). Hell was created by God, it plainly states in the Bible, "For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. God from the beginning did not have hell in mind to be made. When Satan was cast out of heaven, God had to create a place for him and his fallen angels. God created the heavens and earth in the beginning and there was no mentioned of hell then, but He made hell for Satan, because of his betrayal, and he didn't want Satan to dwell on earth. Hell had no purpose in the beginning, God meant for us to have life and have it more abundantly. Before sin Adam and eve lived in the land of milk and honey in the Garden of Eden. After Satan had fallen God already knew that many will fall to his evil and sinful ways of deception, just as Eve did in the Garden that day. The nature of hell is to house Satan so that heaven and earth didn't have to be tainted by him and his fallen angels. David Hilborn the author of " The Nature of Hell states, “Mankind is created immortal, it fulfills its destiny in salvation while the lost fall into nonexistence by a direct action of God or the destructive effect of evil"( Hilborn). Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), a British philosopher and social reformer, “faulted Christ for allegedly teaching the doctrine of hellfire and for the untold cruelty such a doctrine has caused in Christian history. Russell wrote: "There is one serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching–an attitude which is common with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. . . . I really do not think that a person with a proper degree of kindliness in his nature would have put fears and terrors of that sort into the world. . . . I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hellfire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you take Him as His chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible for that"( Bacchiocchi)

Russell’s protest is “Christ is partly the blame for the doctrine of everlasting punishment which brought about the world having generation of cruel torture, and this he explains cannot be let lightly as the fruit of a holy mindset. He states if Christ really describe that the save will enjoy eternal festivities while the unsaved will go to hell and suffer eternal torment in hell’s fire, we would then have to questioned the His character, because these actions don’t reflect Godliness. It is hard to imagine that the God whom Jesus Christ revealed as the merciful "Abba–Father" would bring forth vengeance on His disobedient children by torturing them for all eternity” (Bacchiocchi) . Christopher Morgan said it best in Hell Under Fire, ”Of all the teachings of Christianity, the doctrine of hell is easily the most troubling, so much so that in recent years the church has been quietly tucking it away. Rarely mentioned anymore in the pulpit, it has faded through disuse among evangelicals and been attacked by liberal theologians. Hell is no longer only the target of those outside the church. Today, a disturbing number of professing Christians question it as well”(Morgan) Word count: 2,144

Sources:
Morgan Christopher W., “Hell under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvent Eternal Punishment."
Fudge Edward William and Patterson Robert A. , "Two Views of Hell"
Thomas Pamela, "Hell is "
McCraw Benjamin, "The Concept of Hell"
Baxter Mary, "A Divine Revelation of Hell"
Peterson Robert A., "The Darkside of Eternity: Hell as Eternal Conscious Punishment" Article ID JAF1304
Bacchiocchi,Samuel, "Immortality of Resurection. Chp VI " Hell : Eternal Torment or Annihilation
David Hilborn, "The Nature of Hell" Reported by the Evangelical Alliance Commission on unity and truth among Evangelicals" April 2000
Peterson Robert A., "Hell on Trial: The case for Eternal Punishment
Fudge Edward William, "The Fire That Consumes"