This is a guest post from Franklin Russell Beals

Several years ago, a book was released by a family claiming that their young son had a near death experience which gave him a glimpse of the afterlife. Later it was discovered that the details were embellished by the parents to fill in some of the gaps. While stories like this should be received with great skepticism, the word of God can be trusted in every way to give us accurate descriptions of what happens to people after they die. The Bible is filled with prophesy that was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. While there is much prophesy dealing with other events that took place as predicted, there are at minimum 300 prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Some scholars claim as many as 400 plus! This fact alone should point us to the supernatural nature of the Bible.

More recently it has been revealed that there are many people who have departed from scripture on the doctrine of hell. Again, instead of trusting the scriptures, some are relying on emotional arguments that seek to try and rescue God from bad publicity. Nothing is more dangerous than building your theology from your own experience and feelings about a particular doctrine in the Bible. This is the very thing that has happened concerning the Genesis account. During the time of the reformation people actually believed that God created the world in a much shorter span than the 6 days scripture teaches. Today there are those that teach evolution as the process by which God created the world over the span of millions of years. Both of these views depart from the only historical account God has provided in the book of Genesis.

As Martin Luther once said:

When Moses writes that God created heaven and earth… in six days, then let this period continue to have been six days, and do not venture to devise any comment… But, if you cannot understand how this could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are.

His ways are not our ways!

This should be the attitude we take when it comes to every doctrine found in the scriptures, including hell. When we read the word of God it should become quite plain to us that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Take the crucifixion for example. Our first parents plunged themselves into sin and that very sin nature is passed on to every human (born of ordinary generation) since. In order to make sinners righteous and acceptable to Him, God the Father sent His only Son Jesus Christ to live a perfect, sinless life that would be credited to all who would trust in Him. That same Son then died on a cross taking the punishment that the sinner deserved—the just for the unjust. This is what the Bible says about Jesus. “For He (God the Father) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This was the only way. How do I know that? Let’s go to Matthew 26:39—the Son is praying to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane. “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” A few verses later He prays the same thing. Matthew 26:42 “Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

What was in the cup? The wrath of Almighty God that would be poured out on Jesus for the sins of His people. Jesus asked if there was any other way that the cup would pass from Him. But there wasn’t. We know this because the Son of God suffered like no other man has ever suffered. The whole time He was completely innocent. The Just for the unjust. The law-keeper in place of the law-breaker. The righteous one dying for the unrighteous. This does not seem fair.

Often people pose a question like this. “Why doesn’t God save everyone?” That’s the wrong question. What you should be asking is “Why does God save anyone at all?” The God of the universe, the One who formed the planets and set them in motion, the One who gave life to Roman soldiers who would eventually kill Him, the One who created the tree that was fashioned into a cross and ultimately used as an instrument to torture Him. This God set aside His divine privilege and became a man to suffer and die for His enemies.

God’s ways are most certainly not our ways. This is the reason when you come to difficult doctrines, like the doctrine of hell, you should submit yourself to the scriptures and refrain from smashing your thoughts and emotions into the Bible. The opposite should happen. You should bow your knee to the Teacher and submit to Him and His word.

The idea of inserting our own thoughts and emotions into the Bible is no new idea. As a matter of fact, I have in my own ancestry a unitarian universalist minister. He would have taught that everyone will eventually be won over and all of humanity will be in heaven one day. I still don’t understand the purpose of a universalist minister when ultimately everyone will be saved, but I digress.

These beliefs are the product of the sinful human nature that cannot and will not submit to the word of God. They have made a god in their own image, and they love what they have made. In their eyes the God of the Bible has been misrepresented, and He needs a publicity team to make Him kinder and gentler so that people will like Him. No wrath, no judgment, no need for a Savior.

Annihilationism

However, universalism is not the subject I hope to address here. What I want to talk about is annihilationism. Annihilationism is the teaching that hell is a temporary state for all those who die without Christ. I will admit I didn’t realize how pervasive this belief was in modern day -evangelicalism. Only when a well-known Christian speaker came out in support of this idea on his podcast was I made aware of its popularity. While reading the comments attached to his video, I was shocked at the amount of support there was for this position. I knew there were fringe groups that embraced this teaching, but what I was seeing hit a lot closer to home.

With that introduction, I’d like to start with few passages of scripture. The first is Matthew 25:31-46. I believe this to be probably one of the most compelling sections concerning hell and its eternal nature.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Notice in these passages that the idea of eternal life is attributed to both the just and the unjust. Everyone is going to live on for eternity. The only question is “where” will you spend it. Either you will be welcomed into the joy of the eternal kingdom of Christ which was prepared for you before the foundation of the world, or you will go into everlasting punishment in hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels. This discourse by Jesus is so clear, that any unclear passages about hell should be read and understood in light of it.

So, what are some of these less clear passages? To be clear, these passages aren’t unclear about the fact that hell is a real place, but if they are read in isolation, one could certainly come up with a differing view of hell from the biblical one portrayed above. Here are some of the passages which annihilationists will use to defend their position:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Those who teach that hell is a temporary state would say that the word “perish” and the phrase “everlasting life” are in opposition to one another. They would define perish here as a going out of existence. But if we look at Luke 13:33 Jesus uses this word concerning Himself: “Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.” With this verse in mind would you be willing to define perish as going out of existence concerning Jesus? I wouldn’t, and neither should you.

Another passage that is often used by those who reject eternal conscious torment is Matthew 10:28. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

To my understanding this passage is used because it makes a distinction between those who can “kill the body but cannot kill the soul” and “Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The annihilationist would say that the last part of this verse that uses the phrase “destroy both body and soul in hell” means that the punishment is temporary and the word destroy carries along with it the idea of a final destruction which sends the sinner into a state of non-existence (like before they were born). One of the problems with this is that Jesus, in Mark 14:21 says this when referring to Judas who would betray Him. “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”

If it is true that hell will end with a sort of pre-existent nothingness, why would Jesus say that it would have been good for that man if he had never been born? Again, we read the unclear passages through the lens of the clear passages. If we read this verse along with Matthew 25:31-46 Where Jesus made it quite plain that the punishment of the wicked is everlasting, you could interpret Matthew 10:28 this way. Do not fear men who are able to kill you which would result in your body going into the grave and your soul being translated into the presence of the Lord. Fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul for all eternity in hell. The word destroy doesn’t mean a destruction out of existence. I’ll remind you: we look to the clear passages in the Bible to understand ones that are less pronounced.

Revelation 14:9-11:Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Unless you believe that there is a completely separate eternal hell for the devil and his angels, and all those who worship the beast and his image, you have to surmise that this is the very same hell described in all the other passages. We already looked at Matthew 25:41 where Jesus says that those on His left are to be cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. This is the crux of the matter. The Bible does not support different futures for the unbeliever and the devil. It’s the same hell. While the Bible does describe different levels of eternal torment, they are all neverending.

In part 2 I will address the question of why hell is eternal.

Franklin is a Reformed Baptist from Ohio who regularly preaches the gospel and evangelizes the lost.