Annihilationism Cannot Be True

All the saints together

Let’s create a hypothetical scenario: In this scenario we have every Christian who has ever lived, thousands of years of us, sitting in a giant room talking about theology. We start asking a series of controversial theological questions: Should infants be baptized? Is Amillenialism true?  Do spiritual gifts continue throughout the life of the church? After each question we ask our brothers and sisters to vote by shouting “yay” or “nay”. Millions of voices sound out on each side of these debates, after all, these are the things that have challenged us throughout our history as the people of God. Now imagine that we asked a question, and a deafening flood of affirmations came in that echoed through the chamber in beautiful unison countless numbers of God’s people, over 99% of them through all time, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, clamored that this was the truth before God, and the denials came through in a barely audible whisper compared to the vast chamber in which we stood. What would or reaction be? Certainly we would think that the burden of proof on such a tiny minority would be tremendous, since they insist that they are enlightened on a doctrine that so many saints missed century after century.

The fact that something is believed by a majority is never proof that something is true, however, in theology, when it is the Holy Spirit of God who is guiding each and every Christian, we would certainly expect that for every truth we would have a very strong representation of voices in history who insisted on these truths, especially when this doctrine is something that Jesus Christ spent a great deal of time teaching on. To tell over 99% of Christians throughout all time that they are ignoring the actual meaning of the words of their beloved Savior is a very bold claim, and one that requires an absolutely foolproof case in support.

Annihilationism

Annihilationism is the belief that God would be unjust if He punished people eternally for their transgressions against his Holiness. Therefore, they contend, God punishes people for a short while and then obliterates them from existence entirely.

Who are the Annihilationists?

There are multiple false cults who hold to annihilationism, as well as fringe Christian groups whose orthodoxy is highly questionable.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses hold to a form of annihilationism, they also reject the deity of Jesus Christ and are not a Christian group in any way whatsoever.

The Church of God 7^th Day Salem Conference is another group that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity but very adamantly supports annihilationism. This is not a Christian group.

Christadelphians are another group that reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity but hold to annihilationism. They also teach that both good and evil come directly from God and that he’s responsible for the evil that is in the world. This is not a Christian group at all.

The Seventh Day Adventists, whose theology traces back to the false prophet Ellen G. White and who un-Biblically bind the conscience of believers to kosher laws, are very strongly annihilationist. They also teach that Michael the Archangel in the Old Testament is actually Jesus, something unsubstantiated by Scriptural testimony. If the Seventh Day Adventists are a Christian group, which is debatable, they are a fringe group at best.

These are the largest groups that hold this doctrine. The leading Bible scholars who hold this view, currently, are Clark Pinnock and Greg Boyd, both of whom deny that God has knowledge of the future.

Scholar N.T. Wright, who denies the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, is undecided on this issue.  

Other deeply questionable supporters of this view are Edward Fudge, of the Churches of Christ (known for their highly controversial views on the relationship between baptism and salvation) who wrote a very famous book defending annihilationism, called The Fire that Consumes, and Harold Camping, known for his false prophecies related to the end times.

Support for annihilationism that doesn’t come from deeply questionable sources is extremely limited.  John Stott, a deservedly respected Bible scholar, gave a tentative, albeit somewhat non-committal, endorsement of the doctrine in the space of about six pages in a book to which he contributed. John Wenham supported the view, but only did so in his published works after his death. Michael Green fits on this list similarly, as does Philip Edgcumbe Hughes All of these men were Anglicans.

The most notable Southern Baptist proponent was E. Earle Ellis, who did not write on it extensively.

What is wrong with Annihilationism?

The problems with this view are too numerous to cover extensively in this post, so we will simply introduce the basic points that make this view untenable.

Their exegesis is illogical

Many of the annihilationists listed above reject the doctrine of the Trinity. I do not think this is an accident at all. Now, let me be extremely clear, I do not think that all Annihilationists are heretical, in fact, as we saw above, there is a small contingent of conservative, Bible believing Christians of that persuasion, but I think they hold this particular view in a way that is utterly inconsistent with their own theology. Here is why.

In a post on this blog that I am certain everyone besides me has forgotten about, we quoted D.A. Carson’s text on exegetical fallacies. A fallacy is a method of reasoning that is not valid, and that, therefore, cannot be trusted. One of the fallacies we mentioned was called the “root fallacy”. The root fallacy, essentially, tells us that if we isolate a word and get its core dictionary definition, then we understand what that word means in any given situation. Annihilationists want to really focus on the Greek word apollumi, and will often make quite a show of listing out the lexicon or dictionary definition of this word, out of context of specific Biblical passages, and then will place that word back into the Biblical passages and ask you to accept this meaning. First of all, they’ve committed the root fallacy by doing this in this way. Second, they tend to ignore the many lexicons that offer definitions of apollumi that they do not like.

For instance, Strong’s exhaustive concordance points out that the destruction described in apollumi can be either literal or figurative (though the annihilationist wants to insist that it’s literal). Thayer’s Greek Lexicon points out that it can mean that something is permanently lost or “to devote or give over to eternal misery”. But these definitions are avoided most of the time by annihilationists.

This bad exegesis is why so many annihilationists are not Trinitarians. They tend to look at the fact that the Bible refers to Jesus as the “Son of God” and they say that every other time we ever see someone referred to as someone else’s “son” we are referring to two different beings, thus, Jesus and God must be two separate beings. It’s the same bad logic being repackaged on a much more important doctrine. The only difference is that the non-Trinitarians are using this logic consistently, while more orthodox annihilationists have carved our a special case for this pet doctrine.

Annihilationism devalues the Image of God

All human beings are made in God’s image. To assert that God takes a human being out of existence, entirely, is to say that God destroys his own image. Every time we sin, we degrade, insult and lessen the glory of the eternal image of God. That is why we are punished eternally for it, because the Glory that we have shamed is eternal. It is not a matter of how long we sinned, it is a matter of what we sinned against. In annihlationism, we are asked to believe that God obliterates an expression of the same image that he is punishing us for devaluing in the first place.

Annihilationism makes man the judge of God, minimizes the severity of man’s Sin, and devalues the work of Christ

An annihilationist will tell you that it would not be “fair” for man to be punished eternally for spitting in the face of the eternal glory of God. They want to call their view “Just Punishment” as if the view held by almost all Christians throughout time promotes unjust punishment. But by what definition is he determining fairness? First of all, Biblically, it’s impossible for an annihilationist to give you a time of how “long” God can punish people for sin on earth (assuming time works that way in eternity, which is a massive assumption). So they don’t actually have a Biblical case for why a person cannot be punished for trillions of years for something done in their life, they just claim it has to stop at some point for God to be just. But, the Bible does not say that God would be unjust to punish a being eternally, so where are they getting this idea? It is a human invention, and a man made assumption.

In Romans chapter 9, Paul responds to those who would like to deem an action of God unjust:

“19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”

Because God is essentially good, he defines what is good and what is not. Without Biblical warrant, it is absolutely and completely wrong for a human being to declare that “God would be unjust or unfair if he did this.” We are the clay, God is the potter, and our reason is not a valid starting point for questioning his actions.

Man sins against an eternally Holy and an eternally Glorious God. To downplay that and to suggest that God would not be just in pouring out an eternity of punishment for that sin is a terrible thing. Adam sinned one time. Once. And immediately God promised to send his son (Genesis 3:15). One sin by mankind required the death of God himself, and all the suffering and brutality that went along with it, to atone for. Nothing else would do. That’s just one sin, multiply that by the countless sins committed by every person who ever lived. Christ is so glorious that his payment covers all those sins, but what the annihilationist must propose is that sinning against God and then also rejecting this sacrifice by his son somehow only merits a very limited time of punishment. God is more glorious than that.

Annihilationism does not promote Eternal Punishment

Matthew 25 says:

“Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

A person can only be punished so long as a person exists. If a person ceases to exist, you can no longer do anything to that person. If annihilationism is true, the punishment for the unrighteous stops the very moment that the unrighteous cease to exist. Thus their punishment is only temporary.

This corresponds with how we react to punishment in this life. Constantly, we as Christians are reminded that our suffering here on earth is only temporary. We do not say that a corpse continues to suffer, we do not say that a corpse continues to be punished when we put people to death. The second that person is no longer here on earth, we consider their punishment done.

All of those claims must be wrong if annihilationism is correct. When groups like ISIS mutilate the bodies of their dead enemies, we would have to consider that to be further punishment to those people if we want to be consistent with annihilationism. Thankfully, we don’t view it that way, we believe that any punishment to that person ends when they transition to the afterlife.

Annihilationism takes an atheistic view of Death

Revelation 21: “5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The annihilationist insists that this second death is the finality of a person, they even try to say that this is somehow the way that people normally view death, but that’s not the case at all, is it? Throughout all human history, the vast, vast majority of people have believed in an afterlife. (100% of people who worshipped the one true God thought this as well). That means that death, in how it is normally understood, is seen as a transition from one sort of existence to another, and is never viewed as the final end of a person. Modern atheists are among the only people on earth who view death as the final end of a person. So, when we see this reference to a second death, we are being asked by annihilationists to view this death the way atheists view death.

The Bible teaches eternal conscious punishment

There are many Bible passages that affirm this, but one I want to draw attention to is in Revelation 14.

“9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

It is only “their” torment so long as “they” exist, and the Bible tells us that they have no rest, day or night, as their torment continues to produce smoke forever.

 Conclusion

The overwhelming majority of Christians have gotten this right throughout history. Eternal Conscious Punishment is the only logical and Biblical view of the doctrine of Hell, and Annihilationism as a belief is not supported by the Biblical text at all.

Additional Resources:

JI Packer on Why Annihilationism is Wrong

Is Hell Really Endless?

David Platt on the Doctrine of Hell

The Dark Side of Eternity

Is Annihilationism True?

What kind of God would condemn people to Eternal Punishment?