Devil | Afterlife | Conditional Immortality, Soul Sleep and Annihilationism

Does God Lie? No!

{from Death to Life Issue 18 October 2000}
Does God lie? No!
Does the Bible lie? No!
Does Satan lie? Yes!
He was a liar from the beginning. Jesus told the Pharisees, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
What was his first lie?
God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:17).
Satan told Eve, “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4).
Did Adam and Eve die? Yes!
Genesis 5 is testimony to the truthfulness of God’s Word: “Adam lived 930 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:5). “Seth lived 912 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:8). “Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:11). “Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:14) and so on.
Yet many people teach that when you die you don’t really die. You just get “recycled”. Even many Christians believe you go on living in another place. Isn’t that what Satan told Eve, “You shall not surely die”?
Paul says, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1Thess. 4:14-17).

Whose word will you believe?

Book Review- Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue

{From “From Death To Life” Issue 18}

Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue

By Edward William Fudge and Robert A. Peterson.

Reviewed by Carl Josephson

This book was published by InterVarsity Press this year not long before Edward Fudge came to New Zealand. By giving equal space to the conditionalist and traditionalist understandings of hell IVP have granted ‘our’ interpretation long overdue recognition as at least a viable, biblical alternative. We congratulate the publishers and authors for this significant step.

As the subtitle suggests the book takes the format of a dialogue, with Edward Fudge presenting the conditionalist case first, followed by a response by Robert Peterson, then the traditionalist case is presented with the book concluding with a response by Fudge.

This book will serve the conditionalist cause well not only because of the strength of the biblical arguments but also because of the grace and humility with which Fudge writes. Sadly this cannot always be said for Peterson who begins his response to Fudge with an emotive description of his students reacting to The Fire That Consumes with “physical symptoms including headaches and churning stomachs.” On occasion he gets perilously close to a personal attack as much as discussing the doctrines involved. He does concede however that in many ‘other’ matters of biblical interpretation Fudge is competent and sound.

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