Issue
Though there have been a number of erring positions on the Doctrine of Everlasting Hell throughout Church history, the dominant position, which is called the traditional position, exegetes Hell as the place of everlasting fiery torment to those who have rejected the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in the last several hundred years, two compromising positions have arisen with greater strength and veracity; they are universalism and annihilationism. They have been developed in an effort to turn the human heart away from the thought of anyone enduring everlasting punishment. However, such positions do injustice to the text and present serious theological problems on the nature of God’s justice, holiness, and love. A general overview of the predominant positions will be presented here while adamantly defending the traditional view as properly exegeted from Scripture. Hell is the dwelling place where the wicked impenitent will reside forever because of their rebellion against God and rejection of the gospel; they will have no relief and no opportunity for escape.
Positions
In the early church, one of the only voices rejecting everlasting Hell was Origen. He promoted a type of universalism stating that all will be saved in the end but that many will have to endure Hell for some period of time until they have been purged. Kelley writes on Origen:
…all such punishment, even the pains of hell, must have an end. Origen appreciates the deterrent value of the Scriptural description of the penalties of sin as eternal. He is satisfied, however, that in fact they must one day come to an end, when all things are restored to their primeval order… Even the Devil, it appears, will participate in the final restoration.1
However, the rest of the early Church Fathers clearly articulated Hell as everlasting torment, though some were doubters influenced by Origen and others.2 A thousand years later, during the Reformation, confessions like the Second London Baptist Confession, which took much from the Westminster Confession, still held to Hell as everlasting torment for the rebellious.3
During the Reformation, universalism and annihilationism started to creep onto the scene and became alluring because it appealed to the strings of the heart. The elevation of reason crept into theology and many began to rethink the nature of Hell. How could a loving God send people to Hell for all eternity due to finite sins? John declares that God is love (1 John 4:8), which must mean that the Church has been misinterpreting the text, according to some. They then attempted to re-interpret the text so as to remain orthodox in some way yet solve this enigma of God’s love and Hell.
Universalism, during the Reformation and even more so today, is best defined as the theory that all will be saved without ever enduring some kind of torment, and, if in Hell for a time (as some would still hold to), it will only be a separation from God without physical punishment. The most popular text used is Romans 5:18, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” Without taking into account other texts, ‘all men’ appear to be a parallel, thus establishing universalism. Roman Catholicism has embraced this at points, and Al Mohler writes on how even the late Pope John Paul II rejected a spatial Hell:
…[Pope John Paul II] denied heaven and hell were physical places and seemed to reverse nearly 2,000 years of Christian teaching…The same issue arises in his rejection of the spatial dimension of hell. "More than a physical place," the pope declared, "hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God."… The temptation to "air-condition hell," as one Roman Catholic magazine put it, is constant in a secular world that rejects hell as outdated and promises some kind of vague harmonic convergence in the afterlife.4
There is an incessant desire to reach some type of “vague harmonic convergence in the afterlife” today, and modern universalism provides this, yet it allows peoples to use the Scriptures to describe ‘hellish-like’ realities on earth and call for an end to them.
Modern universalism is a very radical view of Hell, so many otherwise orthodox evangelicals turn to annihilationism. In an effort to satisfy the justice of God and exalt His love, annihilationism judges the impenitent by ceasing their existence. This appeals to evangelicals because justice still exists. John Stott has rejected the traditional Hell; Mohler explains why:
Stott responded to the challenge [on the nature of hell as posed by liberal Anglican David Edwards saying that hell makes God an ‘Eternal Torturer’] by affirming that the traditional doctrine has been held throughout the history of the church, right down to the Reformers and their heirs. “Do I hold it however? Well emotionally, I find the concept intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain.”5
To defend this view exegetically, Stott has attempted to use texts highlighting ‘destruction’, ‘destroyed’, etc. to not only deny Hell as everlasting but to insist that annihilation is a greater judgment, for it threatens a loss of all conscious reality.
Support For Everlasting Hell
Hell is a very grueling subject to speak of because each human being has a friend or a dear relative who has rejected the gospel, and the thought of that person in everlasting Hell can become torturing to the mind and heart. Nevertheless, Charles Spurgeon reminds the church:
I could preach with great delight to myself from the first part [of heaven]; but here is a dreary task to my soul, because there are gloomy words here. But, as I have told you, what is written in the Bible must be preached, whether it be gloomy or cheerful.6
Hell is in the Bible and is clearly articulated in the New Testament as the mystery of the gospel and the plan of future judgment became revealed and more understood, and it was Jesus who spoke on Hell the most. Al Mohler writes:
We should note that Jesus had more to say about hell than about heaven, and he spoke of hell as a place of punishment where the wicked are "cast," and where the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44, 47)…Evidently, hell is indeed a punishment imposed by God, and the dire warnings in Scripture to respond to Christ in faith -- while there is time -- make sense only if hell is a very real place of very real torment.7
If Jesus did not stray away from declaring Hell, then ministers surely should not, and it is Christ Himself who will administer this judgment. Piper adds, “If hearing about God's judgment makes it harder for us to love God, then probably the God we love is a figment of our imagination and not the real and true God … There is something wrong with our faith if we cannot sing praises to God not only as our loving Father but also as the righteous Judge of all the earth.”8
Before describing the nature of Hell it is critical to outline the purpose of Hell's existence and why it is so necessary, even though we, as fallen sinful people, may not always agree with the reality of future judgment. One must first understand that Hell is not meant as a place for eternal torture by a God who is out of control and throws temper-tantrums against His works of creation when they refuse to cooperate. Hell is rather a place of judgment created by a holy righteous God who hates sin, injustice, and unrighteousness; His full wrath and fury will be poured out in Hell upon the godless impenitent. J.I. Packer comments on the nature of the wrath of God:
God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger is called for.9
God is always patient and in complete control and will inflict His due wrath on those who love what He hates, and Hell is where He has decided to do that.
If one assumes that Hell is for eternity, why is that necessary? If a man commits only one sin, how does that possibly justify God sending that man to everlasting torment where the 'worm dieth not'? Though a certain sin may only take a moment to commit, Hell will last for eternity because sin itself is infinitely opposed to God’s holy nature. His holiness is infinite, and He cannot allow Himself to be in the presence of sin. It is for this reason that God the Son had to die a sacrificial death and become a substitutionary atonement to first appease His own wrath in the process of reconciling sinners to Himself. Man will either take the infinite wrath of God by himself in Hell for eternity or through the blood of Christ at Golgotha. “When all is said and done, those who are utterly lacking in holiness will be sent away from God’s presence into everlasting destruction (cf. Matt. 25:41).”10
As one reflects upon the very nature of everlasting Hell according to the Scriptures, one cannot help but be completely horrified and terrified. John Piper writes:
Hell is the most appalling reality we can imagine. No horror of suffering in history can be compared to what John calls the "lake of fire" and where Jesus said "their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). To go through life distrusting and disobeying the infinite God, is an infinite sin and will be punished with eternal torment.11
John Calvin uses penetrating language to describe this eternal place prepared for the reprobate for all eternity, and the fact that it lasts forever only magnifies the torment:
Moreover, as language cannot describe the severity of the divine vengeance on the reprobate, their pains and torments are figured to us by corporeal things, such as darkness, wailing and gnashing of teeth, unextinquishable fire, the ever-gnawing worm (Math. viii. 12; xxii. 13; Mark ix. 43; Isa. lxvi. 24)… Hence unhappy consciences find no rest, but are vexed and driven about by a dire whirlwind, feeling as if torn by an angry God, pierced through with deadly darts, terrified by his thunderbolt, and crushed by the weight of his hand; so that it were easier to plunge into abysses and whirlpools than endure these terrors for a moment. How fearful, then must it be to be thus beset throughout eternity!12
In reflecting upon the anger of God and his hatred of sin, such a place as Hell magnifies the glory of His justice and His resolve to never turn a blind eye towards it. A vivid personal account is described by Jesus Himself concerning the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man surely wanted to warn his brothers who were not yet in Hell, but warnings do not come from the grave; they come from the prophets and saints who have been brutally murdered throughout human history. Oh how the rich man must still be in agony to this day over his rebellion against God! Chrysostom rightly declared, "Let us think often of hell, lest we soon fall into it."13
The great theologian Jonathan Edwards has probably developed the most excruciating picture of Hell within a Biblical framework. One cannot help but shudder when it is read and contemplated upon; He peers into the psyche of one in Hell with ‘two infinites to amaze’:
You may by considering make yourselves more sensible than you ordinarily are; but it is a little you can conceive of what it is to have no hope in such torments. How sinking would it be to you, to endure such pain as you have felt in this world, without any hopes, and to know that you never should be delivered from it, nor have one minute’s rest! … The more the damned in hell think of the eternity of their torments, the more amazing will it appear to them; and alas! they will not be able to keep it out of their minds. Their tortures will not divert them from it, but will fix their attention to it. O how dreadful will eternity appear to them after they shall have been thinking on it for ages together, and shall have so long an experience of their torments! The damned in hell will have two infinites perpetually to amaze them, and swallow them up: one is an infinite God, whose wrath they will bear, and in whom they will behold their perfect and irreconcilable enemy. The other is infinite duration of their torment.14
To fixate one’s mind upon the wrath of God while in Hell for all eternity and the infinite duration of it would lead to complete despair and infinite misery!
Objections Answered
Universalism continues to contend that Romans 5 validates their position, but such passages of Scripture have been completely taken out of context. John MacArthur responds:
As with the many in verse 15, Paul apparently uses all in verse 18 for the sake of parallelism, although the two occurrences of the term carry different meanings. Just as “the many died” in verse 15 refers inclusively to all men, so life to all men here refers exclusively to those who trust in Christ. This verse does not teach universalism, as some have contended throughout the centuries. It is abundantly clear from other parts of this epistle, including the first two verses of this chapter, that salvation comes only to those who have faith in Jesus Christ (see also 1:16-17; 3:22, 28; 4:5, 13).15
One has to completely reject other Scriptures to accept universalism; there is absolutely no point in picking up one’s cross daily if everyone is going to be saved in the end, no matter one’s status of repentance. In an attempt to elevate the love of God, such a view turns love into nothing more than a cheap version of Santa Claus by embracing the wicked and refusing to vindicate the righteous.
On the other hand, annihilationists object to the traditional view of what ‘eternity’ means and would contend that Hell is in reference to ‘unending in conscious experience’; Yarbrough refutes that:
Moses Stuart, who already in 1830 carefully examined the biblical data in the ancient languages and arrived at this conclusion: [“] The result seems to be plain, and philologically and exegetically certain. It is this; either the declarations of the Scriptures do not establish the facts, that God and his glory and praise and happiness are endless; nor that the happiness of the righteous in a future world, is endless; or else they establish the fact, that the punishment of the wicked is endless. The whole stand or fall together. There can, in the very nature of antithesis, be no room for rational doubt here, in what manner we should interpret the declarations of the sacred writers. WE MUST EITHER ADMIT THE ENDLESS MISERY OF HELL, OR GIVE UP THE ENDLESS HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN.”16
Lest one think those before Stuart were not aware of this exegetical refutation, Jonathan Edwards dogmatically rejected this annihilationist underpinning by appealing to the original languages.17 On top of that, Peterson summarizes three fundamental errors in annihilationism (otherwise called conditionalism) that break down into three fundamental problems—exegesis, doctrinal ripples, and the pains of hell:
First, despite good intentions, the conditionalist exegesis of the key texts falls short. Second, conditionalism frequently leads to systemic error, adversely affecting other doctrines. Third, I fear that conditionalism might have a negative effect on evangelism and missions. If traditionalism is correct, then conditionalism seriously underestimates the pains of hell.18
Even if one concedes the grammatical and exegetical defense of everlasting torment against the annihilationist’s position, Edwards can refute it theologically and philosophically:
Scripture everywhere represents the punishment of the wicked, as implying very extreme pains and sufferings; but a state of annihilation is no state of suffering at all. Persons annihilated have no sense or feeling of pain or pleasure, and much less do they feel that punishment which carries in it an extreme pain or suffering. They no more suffer to eternity than they did from eternity.19
Would not someone like Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin delight in such a reality? After all, Stalin was an atheist and rejected the very notion of Hell to begin with. To defend such a view does nothing but encourage the wicked, for there is no suffering in annihilation, and to propose that annihilation is actually a worse judgment is completely absurd. Above all, the blood of the martyrs is polluted and the wicked dance on their graves.
Conclusion
Everlasting Hell is a difficult topic to accept for believers and non-believers alike, but the minister of the gospel does the reprobate no favors by air-conditioning Hell. To those who by grace have been chosen for everlasting life, we cherish the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ knowing all the more what we have been saved from. Piper eloquently writes:
Probably the most important thing I would say, and the most firmly rooted in Romans 1:18, is that knowing the true condition of your heart and the nature of sin and the magnitude and justice of the wrath of God will cause you to understand the mighty gospel, and love it, and cherish it, and feast on it, and share it as never before.20
We cannot cherish the love of Christ without first accepting the consequences of His justice, a justice due to everyone but only inflicted on the impenitent. Oh, how the righteous shall sing His praises unto all eternity, for those from all tribes, nations, and tongues will declare that He who sits on the Throne forever is Holy, Holy, Holy! Amen!
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Endnotes
1 Kelley, JND. Early Christian Doctrines. (New York, New York: HarperSanFrancisco 1978), 473-474.
2 Kelly’s summary is compelling: “As regards the fate of the wicked … the general view was that their punishment would be eternal, without any possibility of remission. As Basil put it, in hell the sinful soul is completely cut off from the Holy Spirit, and is therefore incapable of repentance; while Chrysostom pointed out that neither the bodies of the damned, which will become immortal, nor their souls will know any end of their sufferings … Yet Basil has to confess that most ordinary Christians have been beguiled by the Devil into believing, against the manifest evidence of Scripture, that there will be a time-limit. Among these must be included Gregory of Nazianzus, who on occasion seems to wonder whether eternal punishment is altogether worthy of God, and Gregory of Nyssa, who sometimes indeed mentions eternal pains, but whose real teaching envisages the eventual purification of the wicked, the conquest and disappearance of evil, and the final restoration of all things, the Devil himself included. The influence of Origen is clearly visible here, but by the fifth century the stern doctrine that sinners will have no second chance after this life and that the fire which will devour them will never be extinguished was everywhere paramount.”
JND Kelly, 483-484.
3 “The end of Gods appointing this Day, is for the manifestation of the glory of his Mercy, in the Eternal Salvation of the Elect; and of his Justice in the Eternal damnation of the Reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient; for then shall the Righteous go into Everlasting Life, and receive that fullness of Joy, and Glory, with everlasting reward, in the presence of the Lord: but the wicked who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into Eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”
Lumpkin, William L. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Chapter XXXII.2 Second London Confession, 1677, (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1969), 294-295.
4 Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Should we lose the fear of Hell? The Pope redefines the doctrine. Dr. Mohler's Fidelitas Comment on News and Issues by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. http://www.sbts.edu/mohler/FidelitasRead.php?article=fidel022
5 Morgan, Christopher, W. and Robert A. Peterson, General Editors. Hell Under Fire (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2004). 30.
6 Spurgeon, Charles. Heaven and Hell Delivered on Tuesday Evening, September 4, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon In a field, King Edward's Road, Hackney. The New Park Street Pulpit. The Spurgeon Archive, #39-40 p301-310 Vol 1, 1855. http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0039.htm
7 Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Should we lose the fear of Hell? The Pope redefines the doctrine. Dr. Mohler's Fidelitas Comment on News and Issues by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. http://www.sbts.edu/mohler/FidelitasRead.php?article=fidel022
8 Piper, John. Final Judgment Eternal Life Vs Wrath and Fury. August 31, 1980. Desiring God Ministries. http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/80/083180.html
9 Packer, J. I. Knowing God. (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 151.
10 MarArthur, John F, Jr. The Gospel According to Jesus. (Grand Rapids, Michigan Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 254.
11 Piper, John. Final Judgment Eternal Life Vs Wrath and Fury. August 31, 1980. Desiring God Ministries. http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/80/083180.html
12 Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Ch XXV, Sec 12, 1559. Trans by Henry Beveridge, WM. B. (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company), 1989.
13 Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Should we lose the fear of Hell? The Pope redefines the doctrine. Dr. Mohler's Fidelitas Comment on News and Issues by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. http://www.sbts.edu/mohler/FidelitasRead.php?article=fidel022
14 Edwards, Jonathan. III. Fifteen Sermons On Various Subjects: Sermon XI The Eternity of Hell Torments. In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. 1754. Vol 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 3rd Printing, Jan 2003), 88.
15 MarArthur, John F., Jr. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 1-8. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1991), 307.
16 Christopher, W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson. 75-76.
17 Edwards writes: “Eternal punishment is not eternal annihilation. Surely they will not be raised to life at the last day only to be annihilated. ‘The words used to signify the duration of the punishment of the wicked, do, in their etymology, truly signify a proper eternity; and if they are sometimes used in a less strict sense, when the nature of the thing requires it, yet they can never pass as any reason why they are not to be understood absolutely, when the subject is capable of it. They are terms the most expressive of an endless duration, of any that can be used or imagined. And they always signify so far positively endless, as to be express against any other period or conclusion, than what arises from the nature of the thing. They are never used in Scripture in any other limited sense, than to exclude all positive abolition, annihilation, or conclusion, other than what the natural intent or constitution of the subject spoken of must necessarily admit. The word aiwnio", which is the word generally used by the sacred writers, is, we know, derived from the adverb aei, which signifies forever, and cannot without force be used in any lower sense. And, particularly, this is the word by which the eternal and immutable attributes of Deity are several times expressed.’ Dodwell’s Sermon in answer to Whiston, p 15, 16.”
Edwards, Jonathan. X. Remarks On Important Theological Controversies: Chap II. Concerning The Endless Punishment Of Those Who Die Impenitent. In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. 1754. Vol 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 3rd Printing, Jan 2003), 515-525.
18 Peterson, Robert A. Undying Worm, Unquenchable Fire What is hell—eternal torment or annihilation? A look at the Evangelical Alliance's The Nature of Hell. Christianity Today, October 23, 2000. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/012/1.30.html
19 Edwards, Jonathan. Fifteen Sermons On Various Subjects: Sermon XI The Eternity of Hell Torments. In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. 1754. Vol 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 3rd Printing, Jan 2003), 84.
20 Piper, John. The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness. August 30, 1998. Desiring God Ministries. http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/98/083098.html
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Ch XXV, Sec 12, 1559. Trans by Henry Beveridge, WM. B. Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989.
Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, revised ed., 1978.
Lumpkin, William L. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Chapter XXXII.2 Second London Confession, 1677, Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1969.
MarArthur, John F., Jr. The Gospel According to Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.
MarArthur, John F., Jr. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.
Morgan, Christopher, W. and Robert A. Peterson, General Editors. Hell Under Fire Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2004.
Packer, J. I. Knowing God. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Sermons/Articles
Edwards, Jonathan. III. Fifteen Sermons On Various Subjects: Sermon XI The Eternity of Hell Torments. In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. 1754. Vol 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 3rd Printing, Jan 2003), 83-89.
Edwards, Jonathan. X. Remarks On Important Theological Controversies: Chap II. Concerning The Endless Punishment Of Those Who Die Impenitent. In The Works of Jonathan Edwards. 1754. Vol 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 3rd Printing, Jan 2003), 515-525.
Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. Should we lose the fear of Hell? The Pope redefines the doctrine. Dr. Mohler's Fidelitas Comment on News and Issues by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. http://www.sbts.edu/mohler/FidelitasRead.php?article=fidel022
Peterson, Robert A. Undying Worm, Unquenchable Fire What is hell—eternal torment or annihilation? A look at the Evangelical Alliance's The Nature of Hell. Christianity Today, October 23, 2000. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/012/1.30.html
Piper, John. Final Judgment Eternal Life Vs Wrath and Fury. August 31, 1980. Desiring God Ministries. http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/80/083180.html
Piper, John. The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness. August 30, 1998. Desiring God Ministries. http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/98/083098.html
Spurgeon, Charles. Heaven and Hell Delivered on Tuesday Evening, September 4, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon In a field, King Edward's Road, Hackney. The New Park Street Pulpit. The Spurgeon Archive, #39-40 p301-310 Vol 1, 1855. http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0039.htm
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