It was perhaps the most famous sermon in U.S. history, a sermon God used to bring many sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached in 1741 by the great pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards.
The sermon spawned the First Great Awakening within the colonies in America. Unpacking the pithy warning in Deuteronomy 32:35 (“Their foot shall slide in due time”). In that sermon, Edwards painted a vivid picture of hell as eternal conscious torment, a picture that led dozens of hearers to moan, groan, even faint under conviction of sin.
Edwards’ depiction of God’s wrath is unforgettable:
“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours.
“You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God provoking his pure eye by your sinful, wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of Divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder.”
Small wonder thousands fell under the Spirit’s conviction and fled to the only ark of safety from God’s burning wrath, Jesus Christ. Now, imagine Edwards’ sermon preached from the perspective of annihilationism (sometimes called “conditional mortality”), which argues that those damned to hell will cease to exist — they will be annihilated. Edwards could not have preached that sermon from the annihilationist position.
Kirk Cameron and Hell
A few weeks ago, actor/Christian apologist Kirk Cameron told his podcast listeners that he has come to find annihilationism attractive and expressed doubts about the historic Christian position that asserts hell as a place of eternal conscious torment (sometimes called ECT). In essence, Cameron seems to have been rejecting Scripture’s depiction of hell as ECT in favor of annihilationism.
As could be expected, his sentiments sparked a discussion among evangelicals about the doctrine of God’s eternal wrath. His musings have concerned and bewildered many. I’ve always had great respect for Kirk Cameron and his sister, Candace. They have long been faithful lights for Jesus within the spiritual darkness of Hollywood. Kirk starred in one of my favorite shows during high school, “Growing Pains.” His vacillating on this doctrine strikes me as odd. Let’s pray God changes Kirk’s mind on this issue.
What are we to make of it? Is annihilation an option?
Jesus and Hell
The figure who addresses hell most often in Scripture is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Except for James 3:6, Jesus is the only person in the Bible to employ the word “hell.” Here’s a sampling of Jesus’s teaching on hell — all of which portray the punishment as conscious and eternal. There’s no way to extrapolate annihilationism from the words of Jesus. A sampling:
- “Whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22).
- “It is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29, 30).
- “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).
- “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?” (Matt. 23:33).
- “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43).
The only other place where the term “hell” appears in the Bible is James 3:6: “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.”
The Rich Man and Lazarus
Perhaps the clearest expression of hell as ECT from the lips of our Lord is found in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). There, Jesus tells of a conversation between a rich man, who has died and gone to hell, and Lazarus, a poor beggar who is in heaven.
During the dialogue, the rich man calls out to Father Abraham, who is in heaven beside Lazarus: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”
Jesus describes the rich man as “in Hades, being in torment.” It is clear the rich man is conscious and is experiencing ongoing torment from “this flame.” There’s no hint of annihilation there.
Revelation 20
In Revelation 20:7–10, John describes the final defeat of Satan at the final judgment. In his vision, John saw the devil “was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever.” It’s hard to image that Satan and his minions will be tortured day and night forever while the devil’s followers simply cease to exist. They get off the hook with comparative ease for rejecting God. Scripture never says the wicked will cease to exist after this life; everywhere it depicts hell as everlasting conscious torment. Theologically, annihilationism is deeply problematic.
Historic Christian Doctrine
The overwhelming majority of Christians in church history have believed in hell as endless conscious torment. Annihilationism is a minority view but has been held by a few prominent evangelical theologians such as John Stott. Here’s why the historic doctrine of hell is so important theologically:
- Hell demonstrates the sinfulness of sin. One of two things will be true of every person who has ever lived: Either Jesus paid for their sins at Calvary, and they will be His forever — or they have spurned reconciliation to God through Christ and will spend eternity paying for their own sins under God’s unmediated wrath.
- Annihilation gives pagans what they want. What do those who reject Christ want? They want to be as far away from God as possible. Annihilationism gives them what they want — it puts them away from God eternally.
- Hell demonstrates the holiness and justice of God. One sin is an infinite offense against a holy God and, as such, is worthy of eternal punishment. As R.C. Sproul well put it, “The problem of hell is not the badness of God; the problem is the goodness of God. Because of the goodness of God, He punishes evildoers in hell.”
- Hell as ECT is asymmetrical to eternal life in paradise. Hell is forever. So is life eternal in paradise with Jesus. God’s wrath will be poured out forever on those in hell. God’s love will be the possession of all those who have eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Annihilationism? Just Say No
Just before he was burned at the stake as a martyr, church father Polycarp (A.D. 69–155) addressed his persecutors: “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little while is extinguished, but you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly.”
Polycarp, along with the majority of Christians in history, has upheld hell as ECT. Annihilationism is a false teaching, found nowhere in Scripture. We must reject it as deception from the one who works night and day to deceived God’s people. Edwards and the thousands saved through his most famous sermon would agree.
Note: For an excellent summary article by my friend Denny Burk on the historic doctrine of hell and its challengers, see: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/hell-as-endless-punishment/.