The Morality of Everlasting Punishment -- By: Mark R. Talbot

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 05:4 (Fall 1996)
Article: The Morality of Everlasting Punishment
Author: Mark R. Talbot


The Morality of Everlasting Punishment

Mark R. Talbot

At the Last Judgment will those whose sins remain uncovered by the blood of Christ depart from His presence to suffer unending conscious torment? Recently, this doctrine of everlasting punishment has been questioned even by so thoroughly Reformed a theologian as Philip Edgcumbe Hughes and so staunchly evangelical a churchman as John R.W. Stott. In its place they propose putting the doctrine that the wicked will ultimately be annihilated—that Scripture’s remarks about the “second death” are properly interpreted as meaning that those not saved through Christ will ultimately cease to exist. They, along with a growing number of others, hold that this alternative to the traditional doctrine is scripturally defensible. As Stott puts it, while he holds his position tentatively, he believes that “the ultimate annihilation of the wicked should at least be accepted as a legitimate, biblically founded alternative to [the traditional evangelical belief in] eternal conscious torment.”1

Virtually everyone concedes that the doctrine of unending torment has been the orthodox consensus of the church.2 That consensus arose from what seems to be the plain meaning of the Scriptures. For instance, our Lord declared that after He returns in His glory to judge the living and the dead the righteous will go to “eternal life” and the unrighteous to “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46), where the latter’s “worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48); and in Revelation it is said that the Beast and his worshipers “will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb,” with “the smoke of their torment” arising “forever and ever,” and where they will have “no rest day or night” (Rev. 14:10–12).

In the face of Scriptures like these, attempts to argue against the traditional doctrine can seem like—and, indeed, are—a kind of special pleading; they are based on considerations that go beyond the scriptural texts. For Stott, the

thought that the final destiny of the impenitent will be eternal conscious torment is emotionally unbearable. Recognizing, however, that “our emotions are a fluctuating, unreliable guide to truth and must not be exalted to the place of supreme authority in determining it,” he surveys the biblical material afresh to see if it can be taken as pointing toward annihilationism.You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe

visitor : : uid: ()