Introduction Christians generally believe in a place where the unredeemed go to after death: Christians generally believe in hell. Essentially all Christians believe that hell is a horrendous possibility. Christian assemblies tend to avoid discussing this concept. Grant Le Marquand wrote, “Even in very traditional ecclesiastical settings, the subject is not often broached.” Nevertheless, the doctrine of hell is a component of Christian theology. Although most Christians believe in hell, there are opposing views of the state of hell. The annihilation and the classical view of hell are the two predominant views of hell. Annihilation argues that there is no eternal suffering. Conversely, the classical view proclaims that hell is a place of eternal
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Scriptures that any debate concerning hell should use are, according to Shawn Bawulski, passages such as Matthew 7:21-23; 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Revelation 14:9-11; 20-9-15, and others. Generally, annihilationists interpret these passages as figurative and according to their precepts. For instance, they do not interpret the gnashing of teeth in Matthew 25:30 to mean suffering: “The picture of gnashing of teeth clearly cannot be construed as antithetical to literal death and destruction.” Namely, annihilation teaches that eternal torture, an argued connotation of gnashing of teeth, will not occur since souls will literally die, that is, cease to exist. A passage that annihilationists use to interpret gnashing of teeth otherwise is Psalm 112:10: “The wicked man will see it and be angry; he will gnash his teeth in despair. The desire of the wicked man will come to nothing.” However, this passage does not clearly imply annihilation or destruction, rather it is an expression of anguish. A biblical argument that annihilationists also use is the death of Jesus Christ. Since the picture of Jesus Christ represents what occurs after life, the idea that sins that Jesus Christ bore vanished instead of eternally existing in hell supports the idea of annihilation. That is, Jesus Christ did not have to remain eternally in hell to redeem humanity because humans will cease to exist in hell. “Annihilationists have argued that Jesus bore the consequences of our sin on the cross and was killed rather than eternally tormented, hence death is a more accurate picture of the fate that awaits the lost than eternal torment,” according to Peoples. However, Jesus Christ, although His death does depict what will occur in the afterlife to an extent (cf. 1 Corinthians 15), death does not exhaustive reveal what will occur in the afterlife since, for instance, only He will be sitting on the
Scriptures that any debate concerning hell should use are, according to Shawn Bawulski, passages such as Matthew 7:21-23; 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Revelation 14:9-11; 20-9-15, and others. Generally, annihilationists interpret these passages as figurative and according to their precepts. For instance, they do not interpret the gnashing of teeth in Matthew 25:30 to mean suffering: “The picture of gnashing of teeth clearly cannot be construed as antithetical to literal death and destruction.” Namely, annihilation teaches that eternal torture, an argued connotation of gnashing of teeth, will not occur since souls will literally die, that is, cease to exist. A passage that annihilationists use to interpret gnashing of teeth otherwise is Psalm 112:10: “The wicked man will see it and be angry; he will gnash his teeth in despair. The desire of the wicked man will come to nothing.” However, this passage does not clearly imply annihilation or destruction, rather it is an expression of anguish. A biblical argument that annihilationists also use is the death of Jesus Christ. Since the picture of Jesus Christ represents what occurs after life, the idea that sins that Jesus Christ bore vanished instead of eternally existing in hell supports the idea of annihilation. That is, Jesus Christ did not have to remain eternally in hell to redeem humanity because humans will cease to exist in hell. “Annihilationists have argued that Jesus bore the consequences of our sin on the cross and was killed rather than eternally tormented, hence death is a more accurate picture of the fate that awaits the lost than eternal torment,” according to Peoples. However, Jesus Christ, although His death does depict what will occur in the afterlife to an extent (cf. 1 Corinthians 15), death does not exhaustive reveal what will occur in the afterlife since, for instance, only He will be sitting on the