Travis Allen, director of Internet Ministry for Grace to You, recently posted an article entitled “Is Hell Really Endless?” Allen’s article defends the concept that final punishment by God is a process that will never end. Allen rejects the view he callsAnnihilationism, which is “a denial of the endlessness of hell.”1
Allen asserts that annihilationism “seems to be making a strong resurgence today among evangelicals.” That may be an overstatement, but it is a helpful correction to the assumption many have that the view only exists among the cults and theological liberals. Most of us who are labeled annihilationist2 argue from the same belief in an inerrant, infallible, authoritative scripture as Allen and John MacArthur do. We are solidly in the evangelical camp, and reject the concept of an endless hell on scriptural grounds. We appreciate it when that is admitted. [Read more...]
- All quotes not otherwise referenced are from Allen’s post. [↩]
- This is not a term we often use or appreciate. The term most of us use is conditionalist, because we argue that human immortality is conditional. Since the unsaved will not be made immortal, they cannot exist forever in a burning hell. [↩]
Long before Plato ever said anything about the human soul, the Old Testament writers presented a consistent biblical anthropology. Augustine was biased toward platonic philosophy, even going so far as to claim that Plato brought him to God.
Dr. Oscar Cullman was a famous 20th Century New Testament scholar who held a conditionalist view of the nature of man.
immortality. These draw support from Matthew 10:28a, where Jesus compares the body, which can be killed by other men, to the soul, which cannot. This side of the debate believes that “in death, the body only dies; but the soul lives on uninterruptedly, and is immortal.”
The world has adopted Christmas as a time of celebration. If Christians are not careful, we might find ourselves swallowing some Christmas myths — affirming some non-Christian ideas about Christmas.
Law enforcement officers in this age of expanding technology have a number of new tools. Among the most intriguing are age advancement photography programs. Using these programs, one can alter a photograph of someone, and produce a photo of what that someone would look like years later. For example, photos of children who were abducted years ago can now be altered so that the public can see what they would look like today. Many lost children have been found due to this important tool.
We find God described in Rom. 4:17 as “God, who quickeneth the dead” or as the N.I.V. translates it, “the God who gives life to the dead”. The New Bible Commentary says, “God’s life-giving power is seen in the miracle of Abraham’s procreation of Isaac (19; cf. Heb. xi. 12, ‘and him as good as dead’), by the deliverance of Isaac upon the sacrificial altar (cf. Heb. xi. 19, ‘God was able to raise him up, even from the dead’), and by the resurrection of Christ (24).” As Paul, later in his epistle, speaks of the resurrection of believers, we can assume that he also had in mind the power of God to raise from the dead all those who have faith in Him.
David Burge has been Editor of From Death to Life for around 6 years, but he has been President of the Conditional Immortality Association of NZ for much longer still, since at least 1997. This in itself tells us a lot about David. He was a genuine leader, a gifted, enterprising, focused and humble person who could be relied upon to make the most of his own gifts and to take others with him. David was not afraid of responsibility, but rose to every opportunity granted him to serve His Lord and Saviour. He was inspirational, a man of courage and vision, who earned the complete confidence of all who knew him. Patient and tenacious, David was a man of wholehearted faith, who carried heavy burdens lightly, and displayed unfailing, cheerful good will towards all.
Matthew’s account of the death of Jesus is peculiar in that it alone records the opening of the graves at Christ’s death and the raising of many sleeping saints along with the Lord at his resurrection ( Matthew 27:50-54).