Is Annihilationism Biblical? What the Bible Says About Hell

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related either to our recent sermons, to questions you have about the Bible, or Christianity. This last week, we’re continuing our series in John, looking at Jesus’ many miracles. The miracle from this last week in John 5 was not something that happened in the text, but something Jesus said would happen in the future, all the way at the end of time.

He says there will be a resurrection of everyone. Everyone who has ever lived will come out of their graves when they hear his voice. Some will rise to have a resurrection unto life, and some will have a resurrection unto judgment. And so, of course, this brings up lots of questions about what eternity looks like, what life in eternity looks like, what judgment in eternity looks like.

And there are a number of Christian voices that are subscribing to a type of view of eternal judgment called annihilationism. And so the question today is, could annihilationism be true? So first we’ll say what annihilationism is, a little bit about where it comes from, and then really why we don’t hold to that view.

So the view of annihilationism is, yes, there is a resurrection unto judgment when people are judged. They may even be thrown into the lake of fire, Revelation 20, and then they cease to exist. They are annihilated. They are not in some kind of state of eternal torment. They experience the complete cessation of their being. They are gone.

They’re annihilated. Outside of this, Revelation 20, where people are thrown into the lake of fire, we kind of would understand, okay, we throw someone into fire, they will burn up and they will be gone. So that’s one reason why people might believe in this view. I think there’s a deeper thing going on in people’s hearts, that for them, they see it as more merciful that people cease to exist rather than people being in torment forever.

Can’t say for sure, but that seems to be some of the motivation behind it. And to their credit, there are many, many, many verses that speak of the eternity of judgment, and many verses are vague about what that’s like. It’s a fire, or weeping and gnashing of teeth. To their credit, many verses don’t explicitly say that there is an ongoing torment in judgment. So we can be sympathetic to people who want to hold that view.

However, there are a few verses that are really hard to get around, that really do explicitly say there is ongoing torment. So first, you may be familiar with Matthew 25, the judgment of the sheep and the goats, and specifically verse 46: some will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. We say eternal punishment versus eternal life.

When we say eternal life, we know that means an ongoing state forever and ever. When we say eternal punishment, if it’s paralleling eternal life, it would mean that the punishment goes on forever and ever and ever. Now, annihilationists would say that doesn’t mean the punishment goes on forever.

They would say the result of the punishment goes on forever. So you are annihilated, and then you no longer exist. Well, for how long? Forever. That’s what an annihilationist would say about those verses. But this is not the only verse that we have. We have Revelation 14:9–11, speaking of any number of people who worship the beast, or are not following God, or are not righteous, who haven’t been washed in Jesus’ own righteousness, right?

It is: the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night. That very clearly seems to indicate, if the smoke of their torment goes up forever, it means their torment goes on forever, and they have no rest day or night. It very clearly implies, at least, that there is an ongoing state of suffering.

And then finally, going back to the lake of fire, Revelation 20, Jesus says everybody whose name is not written in the book of life goes into the lake of fire. Okay, so we say, okay, so they’re just annihilated. They go into a fire and they’re no more. That might be the case.

However, just a few verses earlier, it says that the devil who had deceived us, and the false prophet, and the beast were thrown into the same lake, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So it doesn’t specify for the people whose names are not written in the book of life who are thrown into this lake.

And so we say, oh, well, maybe that was just it for them. Okay, but into the same lake, the lake of fire, go the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, and their experience there is being tormented day and night. They are not annihilated. Their existence continues, and it’s an existence of torment. And so if we are thrown into the same lake, it seems like that would be our experience as well, especially considering the other verses that we just looked at, Revelation 14 and Matthew 25.

And so we as a church here at Bridges do not hold to annihilationism. We hold that hell is an ongoing conscious existence that is one of suffering. And as we said in the sermon, that is really what we choose. If we don’t choose the freedom that Jesus gives us, his worth, we’re always going to be trying to measure up somehow.

And even right now, we experience that as a type of torment. But if we continue that plotline on forever, it will just get worse and worse and worse. We won’t go back and rehearse all of that right now, but if you didn’t listen to it, I would encourage you to. What Jesus offers us really does feel like grace and freedom.

The pressure is off of us now, and the pressure is off of us in eternity. We hope that’s helpful. We’ll see you next time.