In this message we continue our Biblical exploration of the Doctrine of Hell.  We examine the arguments for the Doctrine of Annihilationism, as well as how those arguments might be answered from Scripture.  We’ll also ask such questions as “Is the fire in hell a literal fire?”; “What is God accomplishing in hell?”; and “What should the doctrine of hell motivate us to do?”

Teaching Notes:

The Doctrine Of Hell – Pt. 2

9.  Will The Lost Be Annihilated In Hell?

• The doctrine of eternal punishment was the universal and orthodox teaching of all Christians for the first 1,800 years of church history. However, in the last 200 years a few cultic and quasi-cultic groups have rejected it including the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Worldwide Church of God, Christian Science, Mormonism, the New Age Movement, and the 7^th Day Adventist Church.  In recent years, the doctrine of Annihilationism has been gaining popularity, even with Evangelicals.  Recently, Philip Hughes, John Stott and Clark Pinnock have gone on record as espousing the doctrine of Annihilationism. This doctrine teaches that the lost are annihilated either after suffering punishment in Hades in the intermediate state, or after a temporary period of punishment after the final Judgment commensurate with their guilt.  Thus, those that hold to this doctrine do not believe in eternal conscious punishment. Rather, at most, they believe in temporal conscious punishment, and some do not believe that lost people will suffer any conscious punishment at all.

• The Annihilationist Position:

1)      The Scriptures use terms like “perish”, lost”, “destroy”, and “die” to describe the fate of the lost, which are more agreeable to annihilation than eternal conscious punishment.

Answer:

• Heb.2:14 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”  Did Jesus cause the devil to cease to exist by His death?  No, rather He “ruined” him in the sense that Satan is incapable of destroying God’s people.

• Luke 15:6,9,24  In these verses Jesus describes the “lost” sheep, coin, and son.  The Greek word He uses for “lost” is also translated as “perish.”  However, did the lost sheep cease to exist? Was the lost coin annihilated? Did the lost son in the far country stop existing? Of course not. This proves that the word “apollumi” does not have the meaning of “to annihilate”, but rather “unfit to serve the purpose for which it was designed.” For example, if I total my car, I can say that I have destroyed it, or ruined it. I don’t mean that the pieces of the car have dissolved into nothingness. I mean that it is no longer operable. It is ruined.  The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were “destroyed” (Luke 17:29), yet they will appear on Judgment Day.  Thus the term “destroy” does not mean that a person or thing ceases to be in existence.

• This same Greek word is rendered “to die” as well. Death does not carry the meaning of cessation of being, but of separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul and the body.  Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. But in neither case does it mean that the soul ceases to exist. Therefore, this argument doesn’t hold water.

2)   God’s punishment of the wicked is not eternal; only the consequences of His punishment.  In other words, when Paul writes of “eternal destruction”, he is writing of the destruction (annihilation) which has eternal results (this person will never enjoy the blessing of fellowship with God).

Answer:

You be the judge of what the natural and plain meaning of the following texts. Are these texts speaking of a punishment which has eternal consequences, or a punishment that lasts forever?

• Mt.25:41 “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
• Mt.25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (In this passage the 2 destinies of the wicked and the righteous are stated. The same greek word  is used to describe the life as well as the punishment. If we are to say, as the annihilationist does, that it is only the consequences of the punishment that are eternal, we would also have to say that it is only the consequences of the life that are eternal. However, that is not the case.  The life itself is eternal. Therefore, the punishment itself is eternal as well.
• Mt.18:8 “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.”
• Mk.9:47-48 “…to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
• Mk.3:29 “…but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”
• John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
• 2Thess.1:9 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.”  (It’s a little difficult to understand how a person can be “away from the presence of the Lord” if he does not exist.)
• Rev.14:11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever, and ever, and they have no rest, day or night”  (Smoke is the result of the fire consuming something. Once the fire has consumed that thing, the smoke goes out and the fire goes out. However, here the smoke of their torment goes up forever. This is extremely difficult to harmonize with the idea of the wicked being annihilated. Further, if they have no rest, day or night, how can it be true that they no longer exist?)
• Rev.20:10 “…and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

3)   It would be unjust for God to punish a finite number of sins committed in a finite period of time with infinite, unending punishment.

Answer:

• The greater the person against whom you sin, the greater the punishment. If I slap my dog, I won’t be punished the same as if I were to slap the President of the United States.  Since God is an infinitely holy person, our crimes against Him deserve an infinite punishment.
• The wicked in hell will continue to sin for eternity. They will continue to have a sinful nature in hell; therefore, they will continue to sin by hating God and rebelling against Him. Thus, their punishment must go on forever, because they go on sinning forever.

Further Arguments Against Annihilationism:

1)   Jesus said of Judas that it would have been better if he had not been born (Mt.26:24). This makes perfect sense if hell is eternal punishment, but loses any meaning if this person will be annihilated. The annihilated person is the same as one who has not been born, for neither one has any existence.

2)   The Scripture teaches that there are degrees of punishment in hell. However, if all men are annihilated, then they all receive the same punishment. The only way for the doctrine of annihilationism to square with Scripture, is for there to at least be some duration of punishment in hell before being annihilated.

3)   Hell involves punishment (Mt.25:46), but annihilation is not punishment, but rather the cessation of punishment.  Punishment demands the existence of the one being punished.  Dr. John Gerstner has written,  “One can exist and not be punished; but one can not be punished and not exist. Annihiliation means the obliteration of existence and anything that pertains to existence, such as punishment. Annihilation avoids punishment, rather than encountering it.”

4)   Hell is said to be the place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.  “Where the worm does not die” implies that there will always be food for the worm to feed upon.  “Where the fire is not quenched” implies that there will also be fuel for the fire to consume.

10. Will Hell Consist of Literal Fire?

• I don’t think so.  The rich man in Hades was in agony in flames (Luke 16:24). However, being in Hades in the intermediate state, he had no material body for a literal fire to act upon.

• The devil and demons will be cast into hell, but they have no material bodies for a literal fire to burn.

• Further, “the worm that never dies” obviously can not refer to a literal worm, for all worms die.  Rather these figures are symbolic. However, the symbol should never be thought to be more intense than the reality which it represents! In other words, although the fire in hell is probably not literal, those that go there will wish it were.

11. What Is God Accomplishing With Hell?

There are certain perfections of God’s righteous character that will be demonstrated in Hell.

1)   He is Demonstrating His Vengeance: Vengeance is the infliction of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person. Heb.10:30 “For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”  2Thess.1:8 “…when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

2)   He is Demonstrating His Wrath: Rom.9:22 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”

3)   He is Demonstrating His Power: Rom.9:22

4)   He is Demonstrating His Justice: 2Pet.2:9 “then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.”  Justice has to do with the righteous execution of punishment upon wrongdoers.

12. What Should the Doctrine of Hell Motivate Us To Do?

1) Fear God: Mt.10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

2) Flee From Hell: Mt.3:7 “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

3) Make Sure You Are Truly Saved: Mt.7:21-23  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”  Here we are told that many will be cast into hell who thought they were going to heaven. They were self-deceived. Oh, how important it is to find out the truth about our spiritual state before God now, before it is too late!

4) Lose Your Life For Jesus and the Gospel’s Sake: Mk.8:35 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  This verse describes the kind of person who will be saved – he loses his life for Jesus’ sake and the gospel. Does that describe you?  Are you all about living for Jesus and the advancement of the gospel? Or are you all about living for yourself?

5) Deal Ruthlessly With Your Sin: Mt.18:8-9 “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.”  In this passage Jesus teaches us that there is no sacrifice too great in this life, as long as we escape hell in the next!

6) Warn Others To Be Saved From It: Luke 16:27-28 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”  Jude 23 “…save others by snatching them out of the fire.”

We need to be about urging sinners to flee from the wrath to come. The one thing you will never be able to do in heaven is bring sinners to Jesus.  Make the most of every opportunity now!

7) Love and Worship Jesus: 1Thess.1:10 “Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come.”  When you really understand what the Bible teaches about hell, it ought to cause love, thanksgiving, and worship to pour out of your heart for Jesus Christ, who has delivered you!

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