One In Jesus

Now, many a theologian has argued that hell is separation from God, and I think that’s part of the punishment. Maybe all. Speaking of the damned, Paul writes,

(2Th 1:9-10 ESV)  9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

We were born and have lived our days in God’s presence, even if we haven’t always been believers. God is present within his Creation, and surely his presence is part of the joy of life. Continue reading →

Jesus and James refer to the fate of the damned as gehenna, usually translated “hell.”

The word is entirely absent from Paul and the other NT writers, who prefer to speak in terms of the damned being destroyed. There is no word for “hell” in the Pauline epistles.

(Interesting, no? How could Paul write half the NT and say nothing about hell, when Jesus said so much? Maybe because we’re misunderstanding Jesus.)

The name means “Valley of Hinnom” or its full form “Valley of the son of Hinnom” … .

The valley was the scene of the idolatrous worship of the Canaanite gods Molech and Baal. This worship consisted of sacrificing children by passing them through a fire on Topheth (a high place) and into the hands of the gods (Jer 7:31; 19:4–5; 32:35). These practices were observed during monarchy at least under the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh who themselves sacrificed their own children (2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; 2 Chr 28:3; 33:6). Continue reading →

Monty asked about the meaning of “everlasting fire” in the comments. My answer was pretty long and I thought worth posting as a post — because it’s a good question that deserves a thorough answer.

Monty,

Unquenchable fire

“Everlasting fire” in the NT is generally “unquenchable fire” which, in the NT, is always a reference to Isa 66 — Continue reading →

The Revelation speaks of the damned suffering a “second death.”

(Rev 2:11 ESV) 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

(Rev 20:6 ESV)  6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

(Rev 20:14-15 ESV)  14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. 

(Rev 21:7-8 ESV)  7 “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.  8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The “second death” is death suffered by the damned in the afterlife. They are burned in the lake of fire and sulfur, but nothing says they’ll live forever in torment. Rather, they die a horrible, painful death.

I mean, how does “death” (thanatos) come to mean “not die”? No, the damned die in eternity, but they suffer in their dying in proportion to their sinfulness — with God’s perfect justice. Continue reading →

Edward Fudge points out that the question of immortality was a favorite of Greek philosophers. The seminal work on the subject was Plato’s Phaedo, a dialogue on the question that was well-known among First Century Hellenistic people.

Plato presents a debate between Socrates, who argues for innate immortality of the soul, and Cebes, who argues that —

when the [soul] has departed from the body, [it] nowhere any longer exists, but on whatever day a man dies, on that day it is destroyed [diaphtheiretai] and perishes [apolluetai]; the moment it departs and goes forth from the body it is dispersed like breath or smoke, and flies abroad and is gone, and no longer exists anywhere.

Apolluetai is a form of apollumi, the word the New Testament so frequently uses for “destroy” or “kill,” used frequently of the fate of the damned, in nearly all the verses quoted above in which the damned are said to be destroyed. Continue reading →

Just came across this very thorough study of the writings of the Early Church Fathers relating to Conditionalism and Perpetual Conscious Torment: The Doctrine of Immortality in the Early Church, by Dr. John H. Roller (free download).

Roller goes through all the uninspired writings of the early church fathers to determine who was and wasn’t a Conditionalist or a believer that even the damned have immortal souls.

The Apostolic Fathers are the early church fathers early enough to have known the apostles (whether or not they actually met an apostle). Regarding their preserved writings, Roller concludes, Continue reading →

“Eternal” means not so much “forever” as “in the next age.” The Greek is aionios, from aion, meaning age.

Now, one characteristic of the next age is that it will last forever, and so being eternal can sometimes be a reference to how long something lasts — but that is based on context. The word is always a reference to the next age.

The NT (following Judaism) uses “eon” or “age” to divide time into “this present eon” and “the eon that is about to be” or “the coming eon.” The contrast is not simply between time and timelessness, for the “eon that is about to be” is future and shares a specific and identifiable character. The biblical picture of the start of the “coming age” is dramatically painted with broad sequential brush strokes. The new age is not simply a restoration to the primitive and naïve innocence of the earliest stage, but a consummation according to the purposes of “him who is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1:4). Thus it is designated as the new creation. Continue reading →