A Defense of the Eternal Nature of Hell

The past half century has seen a resurgence among evangelicals of an ancient, yet aberrant heterodoxy named by the modern scholar ‘conditional immortality’ (hereafter referred to as CI).[1] Many advocates of CI believe that the fate of those who ultimately reject God results in a complete annihilation or cessation of existence, following a temporal period of conscious torment.[2] This article will primarily interact with Edward W. Fudge, author of The Fire that Consumes and one of the leading proponents of CI.[3] We will seek to demonstrate that Scripture teaches there is an eternal, conscious torment reserved for the wicked in hell. We will give two arguments and one objection to the CI position. First, eternal life and eternal death are parallels. Second, the descriptions of hell point to an eternal, conscious suffering for the wicked. Lastly, against the CI advocate, we will argue that Scripture does not view non-existence as an ongoing punishment.

The Parallel between Eternal Life and Eternal Punishment

A large portion of the debate for the CI proponent hinges on the meaning of the Greek word αἰώνιος (eternal), and whether it means a quantity of time or a quality of time, or both.[4] It is acknowledged by everyone that the word carries different senses in various contexts. Here are a few examples: it speaks of the eternality of God (Rom 16:26), the ages of mystery before the gospel was revealed (Rom 16:25), and the length of this lifetime (Phlm 15). Yet, in the vast majority of cases, it speaks of the afterlife, or next age, concerning both eternal life (Mt 19:16; Jn 4:36; Acts 13:48) and eternal judgement (Mt 25:46; 2 Thes 1:9; Jude 7). Debating the meaning of a word based on semantic range or etymology alone, however, is not a good practice, as context is the key indicator of what a word means in any particular passage.[5] Therefore, we will look at the clearest passage that parallels the eternal nature of the afterlife, believers and unbelievers alike.

Matthew 25:46 gives two parallel, but contrasting phrases: εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον (into eternal punishment) is contrasted with εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον (into eternal life). The same preposition (εἰς), and the same adjective (αἰώνιον) is used, but different destinies are indicated—one of life, and one of punishment. The teaching of this passage seems plain: there is an eternal afterlife with two potential results, one experiencing life forever, and the other experiencing punishment forever. Fudge comments on the passage, “The life and the punishment of this passage are never to end. They are ‘eternal’ in the sense of everlasting. But … ‘punishment’ is an act or process.”[6] Fudge then references back to other passages that he believes are similar in construction (Heb 5:9; 6:2; 9:12; Mk 3:29; 2 Thes 1:9) and concludes, “We suggest that the ‘punishment’ here includes whatever penal suffering God justly issues to each person but consists primarily of the total abolition and extinction of the person forever.”[7] Thus, for Fudge, the eternal aspect of the punishment is the everlasting result of annihilation, as opposed to the everlasting, conscious punishment of the traditional perspective. Therefore, he can say that both destinies are eternal outcomes, though his definition of eternal punishment is the temporary process that results in an eternal, irreversible outcome.

Though his conclusion is disputed, Fudge’s description of punishment as a process may be helpful. The punishment is a process, and the duration of the process is αἰώνιον. Instead of assuming that the process should end, thus limiting αἰώνιον to an eternal result, the time involved in the process of this punishment is as eternal as the life for the righteous is eternal.[8] Speaking of the punishment as a process, therefore, does not result in the outcome that he desires, but rather upholds the traditional view if the time in the process of punishment remains tethered to the time of the eternal life granted to the righteous.

Eternal life cannot be reduced to a simple result of resurrection because, by definition, life is more than an ongoing result; it must be experienced. Likewise, punishment is more than a result, it is also experienced, as Jeffrey M. Spencer observes, “A car, a book, or a computer cannot be tormented. By its very nature, punishment requires awareness.”[9] Although Fudge does believe that the punishment is conscious for “whatever degree and duration of pain God may justly inflict,”[10] the eternal aspect of the punishment consists solely in the result and not the experience.[11] This seems to divorce the parallel use of αἰώνιον life, which must be experienced into eternity, and αἰώνιον punishment, which must also be experienced into eternity. For this reason, Fudge’s view of a temporary, indefinite time of experiential punishment—the duration of time determined by God’s justice—followed by eternal annihilation is not derived from textual exegesis. The αἰώνιον experience of punishment must be the same duration as the αἰώνιον experience of life. Annihilation is punishment, but its punishment ceases once it has brought forth its outcome of non-existence and cannot be meaningfully interpreted as an eternal punishment when contrasted with eternal life.[12] A conscious experience of punishment enduring αἰώνιον is therefore awaiting those who reject God, and this experience will last as long as the righteous are given αἰώνιον life.

The Undying Worm and Unquenchable Fire

It has been argued that the afterlife is eternal, both for the believer into life, and for the unbeliever into punishment. Now, we will examine a picture of how that punishment is described in Scripture. Ralph Powell gives a succinct, but thorough overview of the many biblical descriptions of hell:

Hell is the final destiny of unbelievers and is variously described by the figures of a furnace of fire, eternal fire, eternal punishment (Mt 13:42, 50; 25:41, 46); outer darkness, the place of weeping and torment (8:12); eternal sin (Mk 3:29); the wrath of God (Rom 2:5); everlasting separation from the Lord, never to see the glory of his power (2 Thes 1:9); the bottomless pit (Rv 9:1, 11); continuous torment (14:10, 11); the lake of fire, the second death (21:8); a place for the devil and his demons (Mt 25:41). The foregoing designations clearly show that the state of those in hell is one of eternal duration.[13]

For the sake of space, we will consider just one of the many pictures given in Scripture. In Mark 9:47–48, Jesus describes hell as the place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Here is a dual description that points to an eternal reality. The undying worm and unquenchable fire are a symbol from Isaiah 66:24 describing the worms that eat the decaying bodies of God’s enemies.

Fudge comments on Isaiah 66:24 with two main points: 1) traditionalists wrongly impose their frameworks on the text, and 2) the text itself contains nothing about “conscious suffering, much less forever.”[14] On the first point we agree, exegesis must be done rather than eisegesis. However, even if the doctrine of hell is not in Isaiah’s mind as he writes, the New Testament writers often show that the prophets wrote of things they did not know or fully understand, and the greater revelation comes after Christ through the New Testament.[15] Isaiah is very likely talking about God’s enemies who were already dead, probably from the slain Assyrian army (Is 37:36). This conclusion does not, however, preclude an eschatological and spiritual sense applied by Jesus to all God’s enemies. The bodies were physical and dead, and it is obvious there is not still today a worm eating the bodies of the Assyrian army. Thus, either we assume that Isaiah was using hyperbole, and an undying worm was just an expression, or the undying worm and the unquenchable fire were temporal types for the greater reality of what God’s enemies were yet to experience in the afterlife.

In the Mark passage, Jesus takes these physical symbols and applies them as pointing to eternal, spiritual realities. Thus, in a spiritual sense, the question is raised by the text: Why does the worm never die? Presumably because the body is never fully consumed—always decaying, but never completely decayed. The unquenchable fire likewise is always burning because it continues to have fuel to burn, namely, those within hell. If those in hell were annihilated, their bodies would thus have been consumed by the fire and the worm, resulting in the worm dying for lack of food and the fire being quenched for lack of fuel.[16]

Annihilation is Not Eternal Punishment

It is agreed that eternal punishment—whatever it means—is the fate of the wicked (Mt 25:46; 2 Thes 1:9; Jude 7). But does eventual extinction satisfy that phrase? The CI advocate argues that annihilation is actually the greatest punishment, reasoning that a 20 or 30 year life sentence in prison is still preferable to execution.[17] Though true, it is only because the one who is executed is brought immediately to be judged before God. In contrast, Mark Twain famously said, “Annihilation has no terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born—a hundred million years—and I have suffered more in an hour, in this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred million years put together.”[18] Although non-existence is frightening to think of as a living person, once in that state, it cannot be argued that anything will be felt at all.

Jesus says that it would have been better for Judas to have not been born at all than to betray the Son of Man (Mt 26:24). However, according to the perspective of CI, can Judas’s fate be worse than being born if he is eventually going to return to the same state of non-existence? Will he remember for eternity that he was punished and remembered as the man who betrayed the Lord? Fudge comments on the verse: “Jesus does not say, however, that this is a fate worse than death, but a fate worse than non-birth.”[19] Fudge is distinguishing between someone before they were born, and someone who has life taken from them. Nonetheless, he fails to demonstrate any meaningful difference from after death non-existence to pre-birth non-existence. Once annihilation is complete and the life is extinct, what regrets, sadness, or anguish can remain?—none. Compared to the imagery in Revelation 14:11 where those who worship the beast have no rest day and night, forever, non-existence is a final rest, where no pain or sorrow continues indefinitely. How can that state be reconciled with the repeated biblical imagery of eternal torment, fire, and punishment? For this reason, annihilation does not sufficiently make sense of the biblical teaching of eternal punishment.

Conclusion

Although a difficult and disturbing subject, hell must be reckoned with as a real place of torment, an eternal fire that awaits those who reject our Lord Jesus. Therefore, those who are united to Christ by faith must always think on his grace that has saved them from hell. The CI advocates should consider the result of rejecting the traditional position, for it affects numerous doctrines to be further examined in another paper, including the minimization of the nature and heinousness of sin, the devaluing of the holiness of God, and the lessening of Christ’s atonement.[20] The parallel between heaven and hell and the various depictions of the suffering in hell should cause everyone to take heed, and motivate Christians to share the gospel with those who do not know the Lord Jesus.

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[1]Jeffrey M. Spencer, “The Destruction of Hell: Annihilationism Examined,” Christian Apologetics Journal 1 (1998): 12; Larry D. Pettegrew, “A Kinder, Gentler Theology of Hell?,” Master’s Seminary Journal 9, no. 2 (1998): 201; Christopher W. Morgan, “Annihilationism: Will the Unsaved Be Punished Forever?,” in Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 197–200. Although a few early Patristic Fathers suggested similar views to modern proponents of CI, it was largely rejected by the church until the late twentieth century.

[2] Though there is divergence among advocates of CI whether there is any temporary period of conscious suffering, or if annihilation is immediate, we will assume and interact with solely the former as the strongest CI position.

[3] Edward W. Fudge, The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment (New York, NY: Verdict Publications, 1982).

[4] Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, 37–50. Fudge rightly adds to the complexity of the meaning of αἰώνιος by asking whether quantity means unending, or temporal based on the type or quality of the object it is directed toward.

[5] William E. Arp, “Tormented or Terminated?,” Journal of Ministry and Theology 5 (2001): 81–82.

[6] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 48, emphasis original.

[7] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 48.

[8] Arp, “Tormented or Terminated?” 81–82; Spencer, “Destruction of Hell,” 16; Pettegrew, “A Kinder Hell?” 213–214.

[9] Spencer, “Destruction of Hell,” 16.

[10] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 425.

[11] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 436.

[12] It could be argued that death is the greatest punishment possible. This is a valid point for this life, but in the life to come, when compared to an eternal, unending torment, we see death more akin to an escape than a punishment. See final point of this paper.

[13] Ralph E. Powell, “Hell,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 952.

[14] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 113. See also Glenn Peoples, “Fallacies In The Annihilationism Debate: A Critique Of Robert Peterson And Other Traditionalist Scholarship,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50, no. 2 (2007): 342–343.

[15] For example, Jesus said that Moses wrote of him (Jn 5:46), and Peter said that David wrote of Jesus’s resurrection in psalm 16 (Acts 2:27-31). Many more examples could be cited.

[16] Arp, “Tormented or Terminated?” 86–87. See also the discussion on Is 66:24 in the context of Daniel 12:2 by Daniel I. Block, “The Old Testament on Hell,” in Hell Under Fire, 63–64. Contrary to this understanding, Peoples maintains that an unquenchable fire is merely that which cannot be put out (from an external source), but it may go out on its own after it has finished its work. See Peoples, “Fallacies in Annihilationism,” 343.

[17] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 198–199. He quotes Christian and non-Christian authors that say if they could choose a destiny to endure, would prefer the traditionalist version of hell over the annihilationist version.

[18] Gary L. Bloomfield and Michael Richards, Mark Twain: His Words, Wit, and Wisdom (Simon and Schuster, 2017), 249. Modern atheist author Richard Dawkins also applies this sentiment to his own views on life after death. See Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Penguin Group, 2024), 354.

[19] Fudge, Fire That Consumes, 202, emphasis original.

[20] Pettegrew, “A Kinder Hell?” 214–216.