In upcoming posts we’ll be exploring the three major Christian doctrines concerning the theology of hell.
- Annihilationism (often called “conditional immortality”)
- Infernalism (eternal conscious torment)
- Universalism (everyone winds up in “heaven” eventually)
We start with annihilationism and some quotes from three prominent theologians/scholars who hold the conditional immortality view.
John Stott (Anglican theologian, pastor)
“Emotionally, I find the concept of hell intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain. … My question must be—and is—not what does my heart tell me, but what does God’s word say? And it seems to me that the annihilation of the wicked is more consistent with the biblical emphasis on the finality of judgment and the gift of immortality to the redeemed alone.”
John Stott & David Edwards, Evangelical Essentials (InterVarsity Press, 1988)
Edward Fudge (biblical scholar, author of The Fire That Consumes)
“The wicked will finally perish. They will be no more. This conclusion rests on the consistent testimony of Scripture that immortality is a gift God gives only to the redeemed, and that the lost suffer punishment ending in death, not everlasting life in misery.”
Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes (3rd ed., Cascade Books, 2011)
Clark H. Pinnock (theologian, professor)
“Hell is not torture forever but the final destruction of the wicked. God does not sustain the wicked in endless conscious agony; rather, they are finally and completely destroyed, which better reflects both biblical language and the justice of God.”
Clark H. Pinnock, “The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent,” in Criswell Theological Review (1990)