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Objections:
1: Why would God have billions of people born, only to know in the end they are going to die forever. Why force life on a person, if he knows that in the end he is going to extinguish that life?
2: People will sin more, there are people out there that would sin more if they knew they would be dead forever. Why not live it up, if your not going to exist any more.
3: Death, perish, lost, do not mean the end in the Bible.
Every person who has died will be raised, people who teach Annihilation, also teach the Great White Throne Judgement, here all unbelievers will be raised, from where?, from death of course….
“Further, this theory wholly breaks down in practice. So far from "perishing" implying final ruin, Christ came specially to save that which has "perished," - to apololos, the "lost," "ruined," "destroyed ;" the original term is the same which is often translated "destroy," and on which the theory of annihilation is so largely built. The same word occurs in S. Luke xv., and there is applied to the Sheep, the Coin, the Prodigal Son - all of which are thus 'destroyed," "lost," and yet finally saved. In S. Matt.X 39, xvi. 25, to "lose" (destroy) one's life is stated as the condition of finding it. So Christ is sent to save the "lost" (destroyed) sheep of Israel . So Sodom and Gomorrha are destroyed, and yet have a special promise of restoration. - Ez. xv. 53:5 Take the Antediluvians. After they had "died" in their sins they were evangelized by Christ in person. - I S. Pet. iii. 19. Hence the unanswerable dilemma, either all these are annihilated, or you must give up that sense of "perishing" on which the theory is based. “ From “Christ Triumphant”, by Thomas Allin
4: “Annihilation is the triumph of death over life: it is the very antithesis to the Gospel, which asserts the triumph of Christ over every form of death.” From “Christ Triumphant”, by Thomas Allin
Christ is Triumphant over Death itself. Annihilation rules out Christ’s Triumph over death, in fact it does away with it all together.
2 Timothy 1:10 yet now is being manifested through the advent of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, Who, indeed, abolishes death, yet illuminates life and incorruption through the evangel {CLV}
1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For He {Christ} must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy is being abolished: death. {CLV}
It is death that is abolished, not unbelievers.
5: It rules out Judgement based on works. If every unbeliever has the same sentence, i.e. death, then there is no judgement based on works. Indeed if one person is sentence to live long as a punishment, before he dies, than another, this world seem strange. Yet the Bible is clearly you are judged on you works. If I sentence a person who stole a handbag to the same sentence as a murder i.e. Death, is that a judgement based on works?, NO.
6: This is in conflict with the promises to restore all things.
“This theory stands in hopeless conflict with the promises to restore all things, to reconcile all things through Christ, which abound in Scripture; nay, which form the very essence of its teaching when describing Christ's empire.” From “Christ Triumphant”, by Thomas Allin
The promises to restore all and reconcile all through Christ are covered later in the parts that cover “Christian Universalism.”
7: With dear friends and relatives annihilated for not believing, the believers in heaven will be happy? How can one enjoy heaven, knowing that they will never ever see their unbelieving friends and relatives.
8: Surely if God is All Powerful, then All can have Salvation, then why have vast hordes of people, indeed not just millions, but billions of people annihilated, it just does not make a lot of sense. There is the argument of Freewill, that it is man’s right to choice. Freewill which will be covered later.
9: There are different forms of fire, both physical fire and spiritual fire. Both are mentioned in the bible, one has to distinguish between the two. The spiritual fire burns up the spiritual impurities, but this does not destroy, or reduce the person to ashes, or indeed the spirit of the person to ashes. It does not annihilate the person or do away with them, in fact it purifies the spirit.
Indeed in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, covers a believers work being judged by fire. The Gold, silver and precious stones built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, remain, these are not destroyed by fire. These symbols representing the work of a believe also translate into the actual physical gold and silver that when burned by fire are not destroyed but melt when subjected to extreme heat, and when cooled are still gold and silver. The wood, hay, and stubble are destroyed.
10: A fire does not annihilate the thing which it is burning. For the fire combusts the thing, the wood, or whatever it is that is being burnt. The wood does not disappear indeed it takes time to burn to ashes, and produce carbon dioxide. The wood is transformed by the fire into ashes and gas, but it is not annihilated.
11: In Matthew 10:28, it informs us that the soul is destroyed in hell?
More correctly it is Gehenna, that is the Lake of Fire:
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who are killing the body, yet are not able to kill the soul. Yet be fearing Him, rather, Who is able to destroy the soul as well as the body in Gehenna." {CLV}
A lot of people use the words soul and spirit interchangeable, that is they use soul to refer to spirit. They think that soul and spirit have the same meaning and refer to the same thing. However in the Bible soul and spirit are different. Recall that it is the spirit that goes back to God when a person dies, not the soul which goes to the unseen.
Here you should be fearing Him who can destroy the soul in Gehenna, it says nothing about destroying the spirit in Gehenna. The soul of the unbeliever is destroyed because that is what is concern with the fleshy things of the world, and desires of the flesh.
Matthew 10:39 He who is finding his soul will be destroying it, and he who destroys his soul on My account will be finding it." {CLV}
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever may be wanting to save his soul shall be destroying it. Yet whoever should be destroying his soul on My account shall be finding it. {CLV}
If we are to understand that soul and spirit mean the same thing, then it would be the person who destroys his spirit on Jesus’ account that would be finding it. No one can actually destroy their spirit, if they did they would cease to exist, and would be no more. Jesus meant the person who sacrifices the desires of the flesh.
12: The members of the body of Christ, where once enemies of God and Christ {Romans 5:8-11 & Colossians 1:21-22}. He loved us even thou we were enemies. These enemies where reconciled to God through Christ. However the unbelieving enemies which we Christians once were are destroyed, not reconciled as we were. Why does God not reconcile them also?
Further we are to love our enemies as God does {Luke 6:35-36 & 5:43-48}. For we are to show gather love than others do, but how can we, why love them, they will not exist any more, under this belief.
If we are to love our enemies as God does, then why does he annihilate them, surely this is not love, how is this love? How is this better for them?
Some of these same objections can be used against Hell/Lake of Fire.
Annihilation is clear not the end for unbelievers.
I have never held the Annihilation view, mainly because I had a different view that I thought was correct. As you can see I still think Annihilation is not the answer.
Dismissing these three, we are left with two views….. Hell/Lake of Fire, or Christian Universalism.
In the next parts we will look at Hell/Fire......
Copyright © M J Farquharson 2006 & 2020
Part 5 Being tormented in the Lake of Fire/Gehenna Forever Part 1
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