Annihilationists respond with special pleading. Sometimes they urge that such references to continued distress as have been quoted refer only to the temporary experience of the lost before they are extinguished, but this is to beg the question by speculative eisegesis and to give up the original claim that the New Testament imagery of eternal loss naturally implies extinction.
It’s not special pleading or speculative to say that destruction will be agonizing. Many verses say precisely that. It’s noteworthy that the verses that speak of perpetual punishment are reserved for heavenly beings — Satan and his angels — and metaphorical creatures in apocalyptic literature — the beast and the false prophet. They just never refer to people.
Peterson quotes from John Stott’s pages, which he calls “the best case for annihilationism,” the following comment on the words “And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever” in Revelation 14:11:
The fire itself is termed “eternal” and “unquenchable”, but it would be very odd if what is thrown into it proves indestructible. Our expectation would be the opposite: it would be consumed forever, not tormented forever. Hence it is the smoke (evidence that the fire has done its work) which “rises for ever and ever.”
“On the contrary,” Peterson replies, “our expectation would be that the smoke would die out once the fire had finished its work. . . . The rest of the verse confirms our interpretation: ‘There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image.”‘32 There seems no answer to this.
(Rev 14:9-11) A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.”
Now, there are two arguments. First, as Packer notes, the fact that the smoke rises forever does not necessarily mean they are tormented forever.
Second, and most importantly, all apocalyptic literature has to be read in light of the Old Testament prophets. And this passage is a reference back to the concluding verses of Isaiah —
(Isa 66:23-24) From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. 24 “And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
Isaiah refers to those bow before God and those who rebel. The rebels will die but their dead bodies will never be fully consumed. Rather, their corpses will forever be visibly in decay (worm will not die), and if the bodies are burned, they will not stop burning. Their bodies will be repugnant. But — they’ll be dead.
Similar language is also found in Isa 34, dealing with the fall of Edom —
(Isa 34:9-10) Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! 10 It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.
In fact, Edom is no longer on fire. “It’s smoke will rise forever” does not literally mean it will burn forever. Rather, the thought is that the memory of this destruction will last forever — a very different thing.
The reference to there being no rest for those who worship the beast takes us all the way back to the Law of Moses —
(Deu 28:65-66) Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.
John is saying that those who leave the church and worship idols will suffer the same fate promised to Israel in the curses of Deuteronomy. But these curses, which speak in everlasting terms — “constant” suspense, dread “both day and night,” and “never” sure of your life — don’t mean everlasting. The curses pronounced on Israel were fulfilled in finite space-time, while the Jews were quite alive in this age, when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and again when Jerusalem fell to Titus. The language cannot be taken as necessarily referring to timeless torment.
Ultimately, Packer builds his case on Matthew 25:46 —
(Mat 25:46) “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Granted that, as is rightly urged, “eternal” (aionios) in the New Testament means “belonging to the age to come” rather than expressing any directly chronological notion, the New Testament writers are unanimous in expecting the age to come to be unending, so the annihilationist’s problem remains where it was. The assertion that in the age to come life is the sort of thing that goes on while punishment is the sort of thing that ends begs the question. Basil Atkinson, “an eccentric bachelor academic,” according to Wenham, but a professional philologist, and mentor of Wenham and Stott in this matter, wrote:
When the adjective aionios meaning “everlasting” is used in Greek with nouns of action, it has reference to the result of that action, but not the process. Thus the phrase “everlasting punishment” is comparable to “everlasting redemption” and “everlasting salvation,” both scriptural phrases . . . the lost will not be passing through a process of punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal results.
Though this assertion is constantly made by annihilationists, who otherwise could not get their position off the ground, it lacks support from grammarians and in any case begs the question by assuming that punishment is a momentary rather than a sustained event. While not, perhaps, absolutely impossible, the reasoning seems unnatural, evasive and, in the final assessment, forlorn.
We’ve considered this verse before, of course, and we’ve shown that “eternal” can refer to a completed action with everlasting consequences, as in —
(Mark 3:29) But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”
Now, Jesus plainly isn’t saying that this sin is an everlasting sin. Rather, the consequences of the sin will be everlasting. The sin will be with us even into the next age, where it will truly matter. Those who commit this sin don’t go on blaspheming forever!
Therefore, while I have great respect for Dr. Packer, I find his arguments unpersuasive. They don’t take into account the weight of the evidence to the contrary.
