Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 18:55 (Winter 2014)
Article: The Fire Is Not Quenched: A Refutation Of Evangelical Universalism
Author: Joel Stanley Davis

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JODT 18:55 (Winter 2014) p. 271

The Fire Is Not Quenched:
A Refutation Of Evangelical Universalism

Joel Stanley Davis

* Joel Stanley Davis, Bible instructor, Houston Christian High School, Houston, Texas

What happens when death occurs? If one were to derive the answer to this question from a survey of American funeral attendants, the answer would almost unanimously be that everyone goes to heaven when they die. One would hope that those closest to the issue of death would have the clearest understanding of the afterlife, yet one would scarcely ever hear the admission that a friend or loved one may have been consigned to eternal punishment, fire and brimstone, weeping and gnashing of teeth, etc. Without question, it would be unfair to expect to hear such sobering thoughts expressed at any graveside memorial.

Nevertheless, anyone studying the doctrine of hell must (at some point) come face-to-face with recognition that some, or perhaps many, loved ones may be destined to such a place of total damnation. Consequently, study of the doctrine is nearly impossible to undertake without some degree of presuppositional bias. However, this does nothing to the actual existence of hell; it only gives great burden to the discussion of the eternal nature of God’s wrath against the unsaved. As the saying goes, “One should never preach on hell as if he were glad people were going there. If you don't preach hell with a tear in your eye, at least preach with a tear in your heart.”1 Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that one must assert that Scripture supports the existence of a literal, eternal hell through a variety of different word usages and concepts; this biblical truth most accurately affirms the glory of God through his hatred of sin.

Modern-Day Oppositions To Hell

A Word On Secularism

Not surprisingly, it is the goal of virtually all secular scholars to debunk the very existence of hell. Under this argument, hell is seen as an invention of

JODT 18:55 (Winter 2014) p. 272

the religious community from Scriptural inference in order to frighten nonbelievers into conversion. Lauran Paine argued:

Whatever the origin, Hell came into the Christian theology, not in an original form, but already fashioned and sustained by thousands of years of ceaseless forming, and, like much else in Christian theology, was pagan in its origin yet suitable in both theory in practice.2

Paine’s type of argument betrays a secular view of history as originally polytheistic and Christianity as an evolution of those beliefs. While this sort of denial of original monothei...

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