I know a family who once sent their child to time-out. The elementary-aged son dutifully retreated to his room. Normally, his time-outs last about 15 minutes or so. But the mom and dad got busy. They failed to release him after the normal 15 minutes. 15 minutes turned into 30. 30 turned into 45. 45 turned into 60. The parents actually forgot about the son altogether. Eventually, the son poked his head out of his room and asked, “Can I come out?” What was supposed to have been a time out of a few minutes became a one-hour prison sentence. And that event raises an important question: When does the punishment exceed the crime? Clearly, in this case, the punishment had done just that.
Our legal system is designed to prevent this from happening. Cruel and unusual punishments are not permitted. The punishment must fit the crime. In fact, we generally reject powers who inflict a punishment greater than the crime. Parents who inflict punishments greater than a child’s crime are arrested. Police officers who inflict punishments greater than a suspect’s crimes are relieved of duty. We won’t tolerate powers who inflict punishments greater than the crime.
And this is a reason some do not like Christianity. Some people reject Christianity because the punishment of eternal hell seems greater than the crime. Bertrand Russell once wrote a famous essay entitled “Why I am Not a Christian.” He made this critique of Christ: “There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in Hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.“[1] It’s not just that Jesus believed in hell. It’s that Jesus believed in an eternal hell. That’s what led Russell to reject Christ. How can a humane person believe in a God who punishes people eternally? It’s one thing for God to punish people severely, as we saw last Sunday. But punish them eternally? That’s a punishment that does not seem to fit the crime.
Clark Pinnock writes that if hell is eternal, then “God [is] like a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for his enemies whom he does not even allow to die.”[2] It’s one thing for God to provide a finite punishment for finite crime. But it’s another thing for God to punish finite sins with eternal torment. It makes him seem cruel and unusual. If he were truly humane, he would at least just let his enemies die and cease to exist. This is the complaint we take up this morning.
And in order to overcome this objection, some argue that hell is not the beginning of an eternity but the end of an existence. Some sincere people state that the Bible teaches that in hell God will not punish people for eternity. Instead, God will simply bring an end to their existence. Hell, they argue, is not the beginning of an eternity of punishment. It is the end of their existence. They believe that a person might spend some time in hell. But eventually, God will terminate them and they will just cease to exist. .
Some even suggest that this is what Jesus emphasized.[3] For example, Jesus warned of one who could destroy both body and soul in Hell (Matt. 10:28). Jesus further warned that the wicked would be like grass thrown into the fire and burned up (Matt. 13:30). The suggestion is that Jesus taught that hell is annihilation. Those within it simply cease to exist. They are utterly and completely destroyed. They are extinguished and terminated in hell.
In addition, Paul writes of destruction: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess. 1:9). And, Paul writes this: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Cor. 3:17 ESV) It is possible, some propose, that Paul is describing the total extermination of the ungodly. Some argue that hell is not unrelenting. Hell is not eternal. Hell is not the beginning of endless punishment. It is, instead, the end of existence. A person may spend some time in hell. But eventually, they simply cease to exist.
This is, in fact, the focus of the upcoming movie “Hell and Mr. Fudge.”[4] The movie is based on the true story of a preacher from Churches of Christ named Edward Fudge. He argues this very point. After the death of a childhood friend, Fudge finds it difficult to accept that the friend might be punished forever in hell. This leads him on a long and difficult journey to explore whether or not hell is eternal. In the end, Fudge argues that hell is not eternal.
I would suggest, that of the four concerns we’re exploring in this series, this is the least important. It’s not unimportant. But it’s not as central as the other three. I believe people like Edward Fudge are very sincere in their beliefs and very committed to striving to understand these matters in a biblical way. In addition, even if these folks were correct, one day or one year in hell will certainly be horrible and something to be avoided. And to be utterly destroyed and annihilated would be almost too much for most of us to even fathom.
Yet, I disagree with this viewpoint. Scripture seems to clearly portray hell as something that is eternal in nature. Taken by themselves, the Scriptures that I just mentioned might possibly lead a person to the conclusion that in hell God will utterly destroy and annihilate people. But our interpretation of these texts must be shaped by other texts which clearly indicate that hell is eternal.
For example, Jesus states: 47 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, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ (Mk. 9:47-48 ESV). Jesus affirms that there is something everlasting about Hell. It’s like a fire that never goes out.
Further, Jesus pronounces this: 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt. 25:45-46 ESV). Notice the comparison between the life of the righteous and the life of the ungodly. The righteous go into eternal life. And the ungodly go into eternal punishment. Jesus is saying that heaven and hell share the same eternal quality. If heaven is going to be eternal, then so is hell.
The belief in hell as a place of eternal punishment was the most common belief in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees were the largest and most popular Jewish sect in Jesus’ time. They taught that hell was eternal. Jesus could have contradicted that teaching if he believed otherwise. Instead, he affirmed it.[5] There was another Jewish sect who believed the ungodly would be punished for a short time in hell and then annihilated.[6] Jesus could have clearly affirmed that teaching if he agreed with it. But he did not. Jesus taught that hell has an eternal quality to it.
Other New Testament writers agreed with Jesus. For example, the writer of Hebrews states: 1Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Heb. 6:1-3 ESV). One of the most elementary doctrines of the Christian faith, according to this author, is the eternal nature of God’s judgment.
Finally, Revelation describes hell as an eternal state: 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.” (Rev. 14:9-11 ESV).
The plain teaching of Scripture is that hell is an eternal place. To use last Sunday’s images, the darkness of hell is everlasting. The fire of hell is everlasting. And the weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell is everlasting.
But why? I’ll share two reasons that help explain why hell has to be eternal. First, hell must be eternal because our sin is against an eternal being. Colin Smith explains it this way:[7] You may say, “Wait a minute. How can any sin deserve everlasting destruction?… The best answer I ever heard to that question was given by a friend of mine…He outlined the stages of the following scenario: Suppose a middle school student punches another student in class. What happens? The student is given a detention. Suppose during the detention, this boy punches the teacher. What happens? The student gets suspended from school. Suppose on the way home, the same boy punches a policeman on the nose. What happens? He finds himself in jail. Suppose some years later, the very same boy is in a crowd waiting to see the President of the United States. As the President passes by, the boy lunges forward to punch the President. What happens? He is shot dead by the secret service. In every case the crime is precisely the same, but the severity of the crime is measured by the one against whom it is committed. What comes from sinning against God? Answer: Everlasting destruction. A crime will be punished in different ways depending upon who the crime was committed against. The greater the status, importance, distinction, and nature of the victim, the greater the punishment for the crime.
And the Bible makes it very clear that our crimes are all ultimately against God. Even King David recognized this. He slept with another man’s wife. Then he murdered the husband so he could have the wife all to himself. But after much soul-searching, he came to realize that he hadn’t just committed a crime against the wife or against the husband. He hadn’t just sinned against the crown he wore or the people he ruled over. His crime was against God. He confessed this: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps. 51:4 ESV). When a husband hits a wife, or when a man looks at pornography, or when a teenager bullies or spreads gossips, or when a driver swears at another driver, or when an employee steals from work, they are not merely committing crimes against other people or against organizations. They are committing crimes against God. The Almighty. The Everlasting. And because the sin is against the highest One who exists, the punishment is the greatest that could be given. Hell must be eternal because our sin is against an eternal being.
But there is another reason hell has an eternal nature. Hell must be eternal because we are eternal beings. We will all live forever—the best of us and the worst of us. There is nothing in Scripture that truly suggests otherwise. This life is a very short part of the eternal existence we were all created to live. Scripture describes this life as a mist or a vapor. James puts it this way: “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (Jas. 4:14 ESV). Compared to our eternal existence, the life you and I know, from our birth to our death, lasts as long as the steam you see coming off of a hot cup of coffee. It’s that short. But we all have an eternal existence beyond that. We were all created to be eternal beings.
Five of us from Highland recently travelled from Memphis, TN to Bacolod City, Philippines. That’s a journey of about 19,000 miles (round trip). It was a very long journey. Imagine drawing a line that is 19,000 miles long. That’s one billion inches long. Now imagine that we are sitting in the airplane at the gate in Memphis about to begin that journey. Imagine that the pushback vehicle starts and moves the airplane one inch. Then it stops. Imagine comparing that one inch line to the line of over one billion inches. Imagine comparing that one inch line to a line of one billion inches. That’s a glimpse at what it’s like to compare your brief life right now with the eternal existence you were created to live. We are all eternal beings.
And the decisions we make in this life set the course for our eternal life. What we do during our one inch will set the course for the next one billion inches and more. Some object to this and say, “It’s not fair that a decision made during a very short and finite life would have consequences that last for eternity.” But we make decisions all that time that take a very brief second and yet have a great bearing on the rest of our short life.[8] The time it takes a couple to say “I do” is less than two seconds. Yet that decision impacts them for the rest of their life. A college student decides to say yes to a military recruiter and the decision changes the course of her life. An unemployed man makes a decision to drive home after drinking too much at the bar and the decision changes the lives of the person he runs down and the members of that person’s family. A teenager makes a split-second decision to text while driving and the decision has enormous consequences. In the very same way, the decisions we make during our one-inch life will set the course for our one billion and more inch life. Our eternity rests on what we do with that inch.
And that can be so overwhelming that we simply try to ignore it. Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress in 1846, and he faced a challenging opponent: Peter Cartwright.[9] Cartwright, a preacher, was known throughout Illinois. During his sixty-five years of ministry, he would baptize nearly ten thousand people. During the 1846 Congressional campaign, some of Cartwright’s followers accused Lincoln of being an “infidel.” In response, Lincoln decided to meet Cartwright and attend one of his evangelistic rallies. Carl Sandburg tells the story of what happened as Cartwright finished his sermon: In due time Cartwright said “All who desire to lead a new life, to give their hearts to God, and go to heaven, will stand,” and a sprinkling of men, women, and children stood up. Then the preacher exhorted, “All who do not wish to go to hell will stand.” All stood up–except Lincoln. Then said Cartwright in his gravest voice, “I observe that many responded to the first invitation to give their hearts to God and go to heaven. And I further observe that all of you save one indicated that you did not desire to go to hell. The sole exception is Mr. Lincoln, who did not respond to either invitation. May I inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where are you going?” And Lincoln slowly rose and slowly spoke. “I came here as a respectful listener. I did not know that I was to be singled out by Brother Cartwright. I believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity. I admit that the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great importance. I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did. Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I desire to reply with equal directness: I am going to Congress.” He went. The reality of heaven and hell can be so overwhelming that we’d rather focus on the job or task at hand. But the truth is this: the decisions we make or do not make in this life set the course for our eternal life. And they deserve our utmost attention.
As I’ve done previously, I want to close this lesson with three brief words of application: Hell stirs our mission, spurs our maturity, but does not summarize our message. The doctrine of hell is foundational. But our message is not ultimately “turn or burn.” Our message is ultimately “For God so loved the world that he gave.” Yet because hell is indeed eternal, it ought to stir our mission. In the very brief life we have now, we must strive to lead others to trust in Christ and rely solely upon what Christ has done for us on the cross. And because hell is indeed eternal, we should each give very serious thought and consideration to what we’re doing with this short life. If the decisions we are making right now affect us for all eternity, that means there is absolutely nothing more important that growing in our own spiritual maturity. It seems that school, sports, work, hobbies, and projects are the real important things. Those are the things that scream for our attention day after day. But the most important things are those things that have eternal and everlasting impact. If we are not attending to those things, school, sports, work, hobbies, and projects don’t matter at all. What are you doing to make the most of the one inch life you’ve been given?
[1] Douglas Groothius Christian Apologetics IVP, 2011 Kindle Location 7110.
[2]Pinnock, Four Views, 149.
[3]Clark Pinnock, 144-147.
[4] http://hellandmrfudge.com/
[5] Crocket, Four Views, 171.
[6] Walvoord, Four Views, 18.
[7] Colin S. Smith, from the sermon “God Will Bring Justice for You,” www.UnlockingtheBible.com
[8]Galli, Kindle Location 1920.
[9] “The Untold Story of Christianity & The Civil War,” Christian History, no. 33.
I appreciate your interest in this subject and your commitment to let Scripture be the final authority. Because I share that commitment, my 414 page book titlled “The Fire That Consumes” explores in detail every passage in the Bible on this subject before coming to the opinion (which I did not hold when I started the year-long research project that led to writing the book) that Romans 6:23 and John 3:16 really mean just what they sound like–the wages of sin is DEATH, the second death, eternal destruction, eternal (capital) punishment.
The movie “Hell and Mr. Fudge,” due for release in 2012, and which I have nothing to do with producing but only am cooperating with producers as the subject of the story, is “based on a true story.” That statement implies that certain license is taken for dramatic effect. As it happens, ut the emotional impact of my childhood friend’s death on my thinking is considerably overblown in the movie. My “case” for the final extinction of the wicked rests on scores if not hundreds of Scrriptures from Genesis through Revelation — most of which you and I never heard while growing up. It is not without good reason that such respected Church of Christ writers as Homer Hailey, Jim McGuiggan, F. LaGard Smith, Steven Clark Goad, Tom Robinson, Matt Soper, Jeff Christian, Rob McRay, Lynn Mitchell, and such highly-respected conservative Bible scholars not from Churches of Christ such as F.F.Bruce, John Stott, Clark Pinnock, N.T. Wright, Richard Bauckham, John Wenham, John Stackhouse, John Franke, I. Howard Marshall and many, many more reject the traditional view of unending conscious torment on BIBLICAL grounds.
I encourage you to read “The Fire That Consumes,” the third edition came out in 2011 from Wipf and Stock Publishers, and in it I answer 17 traditionalist authors of 12 books written in response to my firs edition 30 years ago. God bless you and yours. – Edward
Ed,
What a joy to hear from you! I am deeply grateful for the important contribution you’ve made to this part of theology/doctrine. What a task you undertook in “The Fire That Consumes”—such breadth and depth! I recognize that you stand in much good company in terms of your perspective. I hope you’ll continue teaching and encouraging others.
Peace,
Chris
Universal human immortality. The assumption that all persons without exception are immortal (or will be made so at some point in the future) is biblically unfounded. Human beings have inherited the consequences of Adam’s transgression; we are all subject to death. Prior to the resurrection at Christ’s second advent, no one is immortal. As Paul wrote the church of Corinth, believers will be clothed with immortality (athanasian, 1 Cor.15:54) when Christ comes again. We presently bear the image of the man of dust and will not bear the image of the man from heaven until the parousia (1 Cor.15:48,49).
Ai?nion fire and punishment in Matthew. When it comes to specific texts like Matt.25:41 and 46 where we read of the ai?nion fire and ai?nion punishment, it is not clear that the punishment those on the left will endure necessarily entails endless life in suffering. Ai?nion life is contrasted with ai?nion punishment in 25:46. Two groups are not said to inherit life, so parallel destinies need not be in view. The question is what the punishment entails. It is true that the punishment will be age-lasting (i.e., enduring for an age) and that the age to come is permanent. The verdict rendered against the “goats” will be irreversible . Is, however, kolasin (punishment) equivalent to pain, suffering or torment? The term is used only one other time in the New Testament (1 John 4:18).
As noted by David Powys (author of ‘Hell’: A Hard Look at a Hard Question), the bulk of Matt.25:31-46 deals with ethical concerns. Ten out of sixteen of the verses in this section concern the faithfulness and unfaithfulness of the respective groups (vv.35-40,42-45). Allusions to the fate of the unrighteous in Matthew are plentiful, and none point to everlasting life in suffering. The images employed consistently point toward destruction (3:10-12; 7:19; 13:30,40-42). (Much more could be said on this point.)
Jude 7 and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The closest parallel we have to “the eternal fire” in Matthew’s Gospel (to pur to ai?nion, 18:8; 25:41) is to be found in Jude 7 where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to “serve as an example [of divine judgement] by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire [puros ai?niou]” (ESV). 2 Peter 2:6 parallels Jude 7: “[B]y turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes [God] condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly”.
The complete irreversible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serves as a prototype of the future judgement not only for Peter and Jude, but Jesus as well: “[O]n the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed [ap?lesen] them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:29,30).
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