The Biblical Doctrine of Hell: A Response to Annihilationism

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, asking for suggestions about the scariest things ever. He said that he had been through so many near-death experiences that even the threat of death, or significant pain, no longer terrified him. Was there anything that could still make the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight in sheer horror?

I typed back, “Try some of Jesus’ words.”

It’s true. The words that Jesus uses to describe hell are so horrifying, so terrible to consider, that even I don’t know if I believe them. Sure, I believe them theoretically – but do I believe in hell so much that I warn sinners and avoid sin like I should? No – evidently my experiential belief in hell is limited.

Today, I’m concerned about a rising trend among professed followers of Christ: belief in annihilationism. This is the idea that humans will ‘burn up’ in hell, at which point they cease to exist. Annihilationists believe that hell is real and eternal, but they deny that it is a place of eternal conscious torment. While it may not be rosy, I must defend the ‘traditional’ view, since it is biblical truth and the constant belief of the church for two millennia.

When faced with an issue like this, the first and most important consideration is how we approach the words of the Bible. The Bible does speak to this issue, but are we prepared to submit fully to what it says? Hell is a particularly emotional topic, and it is easy to let our own emotions, or sense of right and wrong, inform the answer.

To accept the Biblical testimony requires humility and submission – it requires us to accept what God says, even when it goes against what we feel to be right. As one person said, the first lesson of theology which every Christian must begin with is this: “God is God, and I am not.”

With that said, let’s look at the Biblical texts that disprove annihilationism. Keep in mind: every text can be distorted, and you can always find a ‘solution’ to a text that disproves your theory, but the purpose of Bible study is to find the clear meaning of the text, without mental gymnastics.

The Biblical Texts

 Matthew 25:46 – “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

You might quibble with the exact meaning of ‘eternal,’ but the parallelism here is obvious: eternal life is contrasted with eternal punishment. This is significant, because if the punishment only lasts for a short time, then wouldn’t the ‘eternal life’ only last for a short time?

This passage is also significant, because it doesn’t refer to ‘eternal death.’ We would assume – and the parallelism makes us assume – that ‘eternal life’ is being contrasted with ‘eternal life.’ One of two things is going on. Either (1) eternal death and eternal punishment are not the same thing, or (2) they are.

Option (1) is unlikely – do some people experience one and some the other? Is this a ‘second tier’ of hell? Option (2) is natural and make sense – eternal death is eternal punishment. Eternal death must be defined, not so much by eternal non-existence, as by eternal punishment.

Mark 9:47-48 – “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”

This passage calls hell the place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” We can all agree that the fires of hell will never be quenched, but will individuals be burned up in that eternal fire? The clue is in the phrase “where their worm does not die.”

If you think that this text is referring to that…it is. Yes, it’s gross, but it is honest. Jesus is referring to the ‘worms’ that eat dead bodies. It is a gross and graphic description of death, but it is also powerful imagery. While ‘worms’ and bacteria eat a decaying corpse in a matter of a few months, Jesus pictures this destructive work as ongoing and eternal. Hell is not a place that incinerates people; rather, it is a place where the destruction and the horrors of death are never-ending.

Luke 12:4-5 – “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

Jesus does not tell us here directly how long hell lasts, but his logic makes little sense for the annihilationist. Jesus tells his disciples not to fear those who kill the body. Is Jesus unaware of the tricks that murderers can use to kill the body? I don’t mean to be gruesome, but truth requires it. Tormenters have perfected the art of killing, and it can be drawn out over days, weeks, or even months. The most feared tortures of the Middle Ages (which I will politely decline to describe) could result in the most unbearable agony which the victim suffered, consciously, for sometimes over a week. Socialists and communists learned to revive the sufferer so that he could re-experience the torments of death multiple times before finally succumbing.

Still, Jesus’ logic holds true. Murderers are not to be feared because hell is much more frightful. Now, annihilationists tell us that hell is terrible, but it only lasts for a limited time (many think that it might last a few days to a week). I understand that hell may be far more intense and agonizing than human torture, but you probably see the point. It still lasts just a short time, about the same time as human torments. If I really believed that about hell, it wouldn’t seem quite so nasty. It certainly wouldn’t seem that much worse than human torment.

Revelation 14:11 – “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.”

Even an annihilationist can admit that the smoke of hell goes up forever and ever, but it is difficult to see how that could be the smoke of their torment if the incinerated sinners are gone in a short time. This text also describes that ‘they have no rest, day or night.’ The obvious point seems to be, that this is not going to end.

Revelation 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.”

Here is another clear passage. Even if there is some doubt about the technical meaning of ‘forever and ever,’ the ‘day and night’ seems to make it clear. If I tell you that you will be in jail ‘24/7,’ you would be remiss if you assumed that it will end after just 24 hours or 7 days. The implication is clear: when the ‘24/7’ ends, the next ‘24/7’ begins. So it is with the ‘day and night;’ as soon as one ‘day and night’ end, the next begin.

Making Sense of Hell

Despite the Biblical texts, it may not make sense how a loving God could condemn someone to an eternity in hell. Let’s try to understand some of the reasoning behind hell. Please be aware that some of the following thoughts don’t necessarily have a specific verse reference behind them; they are my own ‘theologizing’ and ‘philosophizing’ as I try to wrestle with the concept of hell.

 Sin, Suffering, and Mathematics

Sin is bad, but sin seems to be punished in comparison with who it is leveled against. This is to say, that if you kill an ant, that is a different thing from killing your neighbor. Similarly – and whether this is just or not can be debated – you will find yourself in a great deal more trouble if you shoot the president than if you shoot your neighbor.

Extrapolating this idea, who is the greatest being that one could sin against? God, evidently. And, theoretically at least, a sin against an infinitely great and pure being could deserve an infinite punishment.

Now, this doesn’t mean that hell is experienced the same for everyone. The Scripture seems to teach that punishments, like rewards, will be tailored for those who experience them. There are, so to speak, ‘levels’ of hell. But how can this be? Well, imagine a pinprick. It is a sensation of pain, but it is also a single point.

Now, imagine the pain of that pinprick if it never goes away. Mapped across space-time, it is no longer a single point, but a line. And a line – if you remember from mathematics – is infinite. Here you can have, in the pain of a single pinprick an eternity of pain. But now imagine, that every sin is punished with a single pinprick. You now have multiple lines, existing into eternity. You certainly experience more pain, but that doesn’t mean that you experience as much pain as possible.

This is merely a thought exercise, but it allows us to understand hell as a place of eternal torment, but still capable of being ‘tailored’ to fit the crimes of its inmates. It also demonstrates how God can give just sentence to sinners.

Eternal Death

Another essential for understanding hell is to recognize what ‘eternal death’ refers to. It is common to assume that ‘death’ means ‘lack of consciousness’ or ‘lack of existence.’ While this may be the popular or medical definition, it is certainly not the Biblical definition. Death, rather, is separation. Physical death is the separation of the body and spirit. Spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from the goodness of God.

Similarly, ‘life’ is not simply ‘existence,’ but it is union. Physical life is the union of body and soul; spiritual life is union with God – or, as Jesus defines it, it is knowledge of the true God and His Son Jesus.

This is important, because otherwise, what is the difference between ‘death’ and ‘eternal death’? If death is ‘nonexistence’ then adding the modifier ‘eternal’ doesn’t do anything. Sure, it is eternal nonexistence, but what is so scary about that? Similarly, what makes ‘existence’ so wonderful if it is ‘eternal’? It isn’t the quantity of time that you live, but the quality that matters; thankfully, heaven will be a place where both the quantity and quality will be unending!

The death of the spirit, then, is primarily about its relationship with God. In heaven, we enjoy the goodness of God to its full. Earth is one of those strange places where one can enjoy the blessings of God without knowing Him – it is a place where God sends his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. Still, even that rain comes from God – He is the giver of every good gift. Remove the goodness of God and you have removed everything pleasant in life: from fresh-baked cinnamon rolls to starched curtains blowing in the breeze, to raises at work, to cute toddlers with glowing smiles. In a world without the goodness of God, these are all replaced with misery. And it is that which is hell: a place where God is experienced only in His character as a just judge who burns with wrath against evil sinners.

The Meaning of Fire

Finally, let me address the argument that fire functions to purify, or to consume. This is certainly true throughout the Bible, but we cannot assume that because it functions that way in some places that it must function so in all places.

Assume with me that the biblical writers, inspired by God’s Spirit, were searching for an image that would convey the horror of hell – something that would convey the dreadful pain and agony of God’s wrath. What is most natural? Fire, of course. (I don’t say this to argue that fire is simply an analogy – I’m just making a point about how the word is used). If hell really is eternal conscious torment, what other word would you use to describe it?

Similarly, if the purpose of fire is to consume or to purify, then it is odd that the text never describes hell that way. In fact, it never seems to purify or incinerate the beast or false prophet. They certainly never ‘reform,’ nor does the text say that their torment ever ends. Such an argument is just importing one sense of the word into a totally foreign context.

Conclusion

Why is the doctrine of hell important? Because the Bible teaches it.

I’m not afraid that annihilationists will make hell less terrifying. My understanding of human nature teaches me that hell, by itself, is a very unconvincing apologetic. You can’t ‘scare someone’ into God’s arms. While hell is a topic that should be brought up in evangelism (and Jesus certainly did so), the idea isn’t that by making hell sound scary enough, people will eventually get up and go to God. On the contrary, as Thomas Chalmers argued, the compelling argument for God shows that God himself is a worthy prize.

Instead, I’m arguing that we need to believe in the same hell that Jesus believed in. For all of his teaching on hell, Jesus didn’t say much to make us think it would be better than expected. If anything, his words constantly make us expect that it’s a whole lot worse than we can imagine. The terrifying clues that Jesus give us make us think of hell as a place of eternal conscious torment.