This biblical study will analyze the importance of the moral and metaphorical punishment of classical hell in contrast to the Annihilationist Hell in the Christian tradition. The Classical version of Hell is defined in the unending punishment and torment of individual that suffer for an eternity for their sins. In contrast to this view, the Annihilationist Hell is a temporal place in which sinners are destroyed. The permanence of Annihilationist views tends to veer to a place of unforgiving destruction for the individual, which defers the eternal nature of the soul in the Bible. This Old Testament …show more content…
This Old Testament tradition provides an example of the absolutist version of sin and punishment, which offers no redemption or the possibility of an eternal soul for those that sin: “That no one exists in hell.” In the Old testament, the terms for those that sin are undeniable in the permanence of destruction that they will endure in the Annihilationist version of hell: For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die. (Ezekiel 18:4). This example from the Bible defines a metaphorical reference to the total destruction of those that sin, which set a standard for hell as a place of annihilation of the soul. However, this view provides no moral premise for forgiveness or resurrection of the soul: “As god is morally justified in destroying the wicked because he respects their human choices.” In this manner, there is very little moral grounds for hell, especially within the context of the eternal soul of human beings being non-existent if they chose to sin against God in the Old Testament. Ironically, Christ was said to have believed in Annihilist Hell in the destruction of the body and the soul in Matthew 10:28, but these views tend to be metaphorical inn the way hell was transformed into a more classical view of the soul and the …show more content…
Certainly , Jesus was said to have believed in the destruction of the body and soul in hell, but Christ, ironically, denounced this Annihilationist view in the resurrection of Lazarus. More so, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man exposes the poverty of the mind and the soul in the metaphor of hell: “The rich man lived continuously in hunger, poverty, loneliness, and illness.” This view pertains to a moral vision of hell, which to the illogical conclusion that Christ meant for sinners to suffer in hell and be destroyed. This is the metaphorical and moral vision of Classical Hell that serves to broaden the scope of punishment and suffering through the mind and the soul, rather than in a physical place. More so, Classical hell is not place to be destroyed, but to be revealed as a sinner for eternity: “In the means by which Abraham was able to communicate with the rich man in Hades and then report stories of eternal punishment.” In this instance, the moral and metaphorical view of Classical hell is certainly a more forgiving and less absolutist view, which is promoted in the total destruction of the soul in the Annihilationist version of Hell. This is why the Classical version of hell is a more morally acceptable and convincing vision of hell through the eternal punishment of the sinner before the