http://magazine.biola.edu/article/11-summer/is-hell-a-vital-doctrine/
“Annihilationism” seems to be increasingly accepted as a view of hell within evangelicalism. Is this a biblical position?
There have been individuals within the broad evangelical community who have subscribed to this view of annihilationism, which basically is the idea that the unbeliever will be tormented for a particular amount of time in hell but will eventually be terminated or annihilated. It’s the idea that fire destroys and brings things to an end — to ashes. It’s the idea of conscious, but not eternal torment. I’m not quite sure if there’s any biblical basis for this. From what I’ve seen and what I’ve read, the problem seems to be more existential, more emotional than scriptural and textual. Annihiliationism is held by some theologians in the church — Clark Pinnock, Edward Fudge — but to be honest, textually speaking I’m not quite sure how they can affirm this.
I totally agree with Ashish Naidu that "Love warns" ( I liked the pun on Bell's book) and hell is an important doctrine. The author wonders if there is any biblical basis for annihiationism, but fails to really investigate it. "It seems more emotional than scriptural." (emphasis mine). We are whole persons and we have emotions, and so I freely admit that there is emotion tied up in many of my theological positions. But I think for many annihilationists the idea that we might be embracing what many consider heresy means that our emotions pulls us away from annihilationism rather than towards it, ie the reverse direction than the author suggests. We come to this position protesting, but are convinced of it because it is what the Bible teaches. Can I challenge you to look again and you will find much scriptural and textual evidence for the position. Discuss: http://www.afterlife.co.nz/forums/threads/8-Emotions
