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Outspoken Christian actor Kirk Cameron recently declared that he believes in annihilationism. This is the belief that unbelievers do not have unending torment in hell but simply cease to exist. The wicked in the end will simply perish and be gone forever.
On episode 86 of The Kirk Cameron Show, Cameron said, “An eternal conscious torment” is “cruel and unusual punishment.” He then asks, “Does God not have a merciful and compassionate way to mete out his justice?”
Cameron confirmed in a subsequent episode that he believes in hell and judgment for sin but does not believe that the torment of hell continues forever.
Cameron is not alone. John Stott and B.B. Warfield are leading theologians who held to annihilationism. Biblical scholars F.F. Bruce and R.T. France also lean in this direction.
Proponents of annihilationism focus on the permanence of God’s judgment instead of the duration. The punishments of sinners with the words “perish,” “death,” and “destruction” are said to mean the end of existence.
As attractively merciful as this belief might sound, it does not fit with the biblical testimony or the universal church or the basic doctrines of God. Annihilationism is not a damnable heresy. An annihilationist could still believe in the triune God and the gospel of Jesus Christ as salvation for our sins. Still, it is a significant theological error that has implications for other aspects of our views of God.
The Bible
Biblically, annihilationism does not fit. The eternal existence of the righteous and wicked are set parallel together in Matthew: “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (25:46). Or consider Revelation 14:10-11, about those who reject Jesus:
“They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
The Universal Church
Annihilationism does not fit the witness of the worldwide historical church.
The Belgic Confession puts it this way:
The evil ones will be convicted
by the witness of their own consciences,
and shall be made immortal—
but only to be tormented
in the everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.
Not only the reformers but also the earliest Christians believed in eternal conscious torment. The Apocalypse of Peter was a book—highly esteemed in the early church—about the apostle Peter getting a tour of hell and witnessing the various punishments afflicted on people for their sins.
Belief in eternal torment has been the standard for the universal church throughout history. Only a smattering of Christians have held to annihilationism. Aside from rogue individuals, many nontrinitarian groups embrace annihilationism: the Socinians, Christadelphians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Unitarians. The only trinitarian group holding to annihilationism is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If we are reading the Bible with the rest of the church, eternal torment is the verdict.
Inconsistency
Additionally, annihilationism is inconsistent with basic doctrines of God. God is infinite. We are finite. Since God is just and punishments are to fit the crime, what would be a just and fair punishment for injury against the infinite God? It takes an infinite amount of time for a finite person to bear the just consequences of sin against the infinite God. Any other kind of punishment would not be commensurate with the crime.
Annihilationism constructs sin as a small matter to be justly paid by temporal punishment. Sin is not stepping on God’s toes but a catastrophic reversal of shalom whereby the creatures crucified their Creator. Sin is so devastatingly awful that it took the infinite God to pay the ultimate price to compensate for it. “Only the death of God’s Son could pay for our sin” (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 40).
Annihilationism makes God small, conforming to mortal sensibilities. “Eternal torment of the wicked sounds cruel to me; therefore, it would make God cruel to believe in eternal torment.” This reasoning brings the unfathomable God down to the human level, assuming that he thinks as we do.
Assuming God thinks like us mortals appears to be Cameron’s mistake. “We give someone lethal injection, we do it humanely,” Cameron said. “Humanely. We can’t have cruel and unusual punishments for people, but an eternal conscious torment? That would by definition in human terms be considered ‘cruel and unusual punishment.’ Does God not have a merciful and compassionate way to mete out his justice?”
Applying our own standards and sympathies to guide our theology is inherently problematic. We by nature are quick-tempered, petty and vindictive, preferential and biased, proud and uncaring of others. Our reasons for giving someone eternal punishment would definitely be cruel and unusual. Heaven forbid we should project our reasons for punishment onto God and conclude that he is cruel. God’s ways are higher than our ways, and our thoughts are not his thoughts (Is. 55:8-9).
The one person in the Bible who talks most about eternal punishment is Jesus. (Maybe also because he is the one person who knows how awesome God truly is and what a horrific torment it is to be separated from him.) Jesus did not cushion his descriptions of hell at all. When Jesus described sin as a debt to be paid, he described it as 10,000 talents (Matt. 18:24). This was the largest number in the Greek vocabulary and the most valuable unit of money that existed. With a denarius being a day’s wage for the average person at that time, it would take 164,383 years’ worth of work (with no weekends or vacations) to pay back a debt that size. The sentence for the unforgiving servant was to be tortured until the debt would be repaid (Matt. 18:34).
Eternal Torment Sounds Cruel
"More Merciful than God?
If this sounds cruel or harsh, that response is nothing new. The early Christians considered this also, and the Apocalypse of Peter answers it well. Peter suggests to Jesus that the damned would be better off not having been created in the first place. To this Jesus replied, “Peter, why do you say that not to have been created were better for them? You resist God. You would not have more compassion than he for his image: for he has created them and brought them forth out of non-being.”
According to the early church, torment is more merciful than nonexistence. We are presumptuous if we think we would be more merciful than God. As much as we might care for our unsaved loved ones and unbelieving neighbors, God’s care for them is more perfect than ours. His knowledge of what is best is higher than ours. What we do understand is that the doctrine of eternal torment gives us a humble gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the good news of salvation from the consequences of sin.
We are not more merciful than God. The Lord is merciful and just, fully trustworthy in all his works.