One In Jesus

[This is a continuation and expansion of N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope. Wright says very little on hell, and what he says, I disagree with. So we’ll talk about it and move into Ed Fudge’s The Fire that Consumes. We’ll be talking about conditionalism, also known as annihilationism.

Now, I read Fudge’s book a while back and wasn’t quite convinced. But since then, I’ve seen where Patrick Mead and Al Maxey have supported this interpretation. Well … that’s about as impressive a list of Church of Christ intellectuals as you can come up with! (Fudge is a lawyer and an elder!) Therefore, I figure I should take a fresh look.

And, by the way, the following is a re-run, but I have to repost it to get things in order.]

Wright notes that the idea of a new heaven and new earth argues against the traditional understanding of hell. After all, no longer do we imagine going to heaven when we die. Rather, heaven comes down to earth and we stay here — but “here” is transformed, as are we, into something glorious beyond description.

We receive new bodies. The old world is burned with consuming fire.

(2 Pet 3:7) By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

And this same fire that purges the old heavens and earth destroys ungodly men. Where then is hell? Continue reading →