We have already looked briefly at John 3:16. What about the second most famous verse in evangelical circles?
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
Things could not be much more straightforward, could they? The wages of sin is death, not eternal survival in torment. The gift of God is eternal life, something you don't already have. There is a simple choice: you can either live, or perish. If eternal torment is so important, how come it never gets mentioned?
What the people who believe in eternal torment would like is a passage in the Bible that describes such a fate. Of course, there isn't one, but what they would like to find is a passage that reads something like this: "anyone who has died is suffering unspeakable torment unless they believed in Jesus."
In fact, just a few verses earlier in Romans, Paul addresses precisely this topic. Unfortunately for those who cling to eternal torment, what he actually said was:
"anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:7)
Not quite the same, is it?
If we turn to the Sermon on the Mount, we find the same message from the mouth of Jesus. In another well-know passage, we read:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
The choice is very simple, and very clear: there are two ways. One leads to life, and the other leads to destruction. Not misery, not pain, not torment: destruction.
The theme is picked up a few verses later, in Matthew 7:24-27. The wise man built his house upon the rock... If you hear and obey the words of Jesus, what you build will remain; if you do not obey Jesus' words, what you build will be destroyed. It's a parable, but the message is exactly the same: the penalty for ignoring Jesus is not suffering, but destruction.
Jesus does not only talk about eternal life. He also talks about Hell. He seems to be quite clear about what happens in Hell...
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)
Of course, the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell is God. People who are familiar with images of Satan ruling a fiery kingdom need to understand this very clearly: Hell is not the kingdom where Satan reigns. Satan does not torment anyone in Hell, and he does not have the power to destroy your soul. The One with the power of destruction is God. And what does He do in Hell? What happens there? Jesus is quite clear: what happens in Hell is destruction, not endless torment.
So, if you refuse to follow Jesus, you face destruction. This simple message is consistently taught throughout the New Testament.
"We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." (Hebrews 10:39)
The parallel is simple and unavoidable. There are only two options presented to us: we can shrink back, or believe. If we believe, we shall be saved; if we shrink back, we shall be destroyed. The choice is salvation or destruction. You can either live, or perish.
Destruction is not just a vague, polite reference to a fate which everybody knew to be quite different. That sort of thing does happen in the Bible - for example, several references to 'feet' in the Old Testament are polite ways of talking about sexual organs. But there is not a shred of evidence that the word 'destruction' is used in this way. When Jesus says that Judas was "doomed to destruction" (John 17:12), that is exactly what He meant.
Ah! I can hear someone saying - what about all those passages in the New Testament which talk about Hell fire? Okay - let us look at that next.
In the Old Testament, the fate of the wicked is usually described as 'destruction'. In the New Testament, the picture is unchanged, but the language - the image used - is slightly different. When talking about the fate of the wicked, the central image in the New Testament is that of fire. As we have already seen (Exodus 15:7; Malachi 4:1), this image is also used in the Old Testament.
We have to be very careful here. People are so used to the idea of 'hellfire' that it becomes very difficult to read these passages for what they say. Please excuse me if I labour this point, but it really is essential, and experience suggests that it is usually required.
Imagine you have a letter or photograph you want to get rid of - perhaps a lover who cheated and left you. You could just throw it in the bin, but you would know it was still somewhere. No, the most satisfying option is to burn it. That way, you destroy the letter or photograph, it cannot come back and haunt you - and hopefully, neither will the person concerned.
You burn the photograph to get rid of it - to be free, not to inflict pain on the other person. Fire, in the Bible, has various functions: it cleanses, purifies, destroys. Of course, fire can hurt - but that is not its main function.
Go back to the quote from Malachi. The evildoers will be like stubble, and the day of the Lord will set the stubble on fire. You do not burn stubble in order to inflict pain on it, you don't burn it as a punishment - you burn it to get rid of it.
Fire destroys. In the absence of any other context (the "refiner's fire", for example), that is the basic meaning of all references to fire and burning. What do you burn? You burn rubbish - to get rid of it. Take, for example, the quote from John the Baptist:
"The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:9)
The fire is not a punishment, it does not teach the tree a lesson, it does not serve as a warning to the other trees. A tree that does not bear good fruit is rubbish - it has failed to fulfil its purpose - and so it is disposed of. The dreadful news is that the same fate awaits the ungodly.
The day of the Lord will come with fire - Malachi 4:1; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:7 - to give but three examples. And on that day:
"He will punish those who do not know God and will not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)
So, for these people, their punishment is destruction. That seems pretty clear. And, just to make it even clearer, the destruction is described as 'everlasting' - there is no hope of re-creation, no resurrection possible. Once destroyed, forever destroyed. The message is repeated later in the book (2 Thessalonians 2:8) just in case anyone failed to get the point first time round.
With the exception of two passages in Revelation (which we shall shortly be looking at), references in the New Testament to Hell fire are references to destruction, not to torment. So, in the New Testament, the vast majority of the passages that touch on this subject point to destruction rather than torment being the fate of the wicked.
The passsage in 1 Corinthians 3, mentioned above in passing, deserves to be looked at again.
The day of the Lord will come 'like fire' - but this fire will not judge us: it will test the quality of each man's (in context, each Christian's) work. If, in our lives, we have built nothing of any value, our work will be burned up. Whatever remains after the fire - whatever survives into eternity - will be our reward.
This passage clearly teaches that a Christian who does not live right will be saved, but will 'suffer loss' (1 Corinthians 3:15). In contrast, the local congregation (the plural 'you' of verse 16) is sacred: you are God's temple. And, we are told, "if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him" (1 Corinthians 3:17).
In this passage, the fire is something the Christian passes through, not the non-Christian. But the Christian's future is totally secure - he will be saved, no matter what. The Christian's reward will depend how how he or she lived - it will be what remains, whatever has been built of gold, silver and precious stones in his life. But the explicit fate of (at least one group of) the unsaved is that they will be destroyed.
Whatever the image or symbolism being used in any given passage, the teaching of the New Testament is simple and clear: the ungodly will perish.
The final substantial argument that the ungodly will perish also serves a secondary purpose: it solves a problem that many evangelicals struggle with - the apparent universalism of various passages. Take this well known passage for example.
"And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." (Ephesians 1:9-10)
If 'all things in heaven and on earth' will be brought together under Christ, does this not mean that everyone will eventually be saved? It violates the sense of the passage to argue that the ungodly are included here, but if that interpretation is not possible, what can the 'all things' possibly mean?
I'm sure you are ahead of me. If the ungodly will one day perish, then all those who remain can be brought together under the headship of Christ.
This interpretation is simple, straightforward and (dare I say it?) obvious. It preserves the obvious meaning of the passage, and avoids the danger of universalism. The same interpretation solves the same problem with 'all things' in Colossians:
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Colossians 1:19-20)
This also solves the problem in Revelation that so many who believe in eternal torment fail to address:
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
John here describes a new creation - 'a new heaven and a new earth' (Revelation 21:1) means that everything is new. How can it be that there is no more crying or pain? Because the ungoldly are not writhing in torment: they are, quite simply, no more. They didn't make it into the new creation. They perished with the old.
There is one further line of thought pointing us in the direction of destruction as the fate of the wicked. I can't claim it is it as a major theme, but there are various passages that suggest another way of reaching the same conclusion as the ones we have looked at so far.
God is consistently revealed to us as the Creator, the source of everything. Satan can twist and pervert, but he can't create. All he can do is to damage what has been created.
God is more than just a Creator who fashions a clockwork universe and sets it going: He not only created in the past, He continues to sustain His creation.
Any experience of creation is, in some sense, an experience of God. God is revealed in creation - He communicates Himself through what He has made. The air you breathe is a blessing from God, the food you eat is an expression of His grace. Your own body continues to exist because He loves you.
However, you cannot presume on God's grace. The blessings He continues to pour out on you will one day come to an end if you do not choose to return His love. He requires a response from us.
And what of those who choose not to respond to His love? If, in the end, you reject God, then surely you reject His blessings. Almost every passage of the Bible teaches this, one way or another. If you receive God, you receive His blessings; if you reject Him, you reject His blessings. The good God and the good things from God, in the end, go together.
But if those who reject God - whether they realise it or not! - also reject His blessings, in the end, what will they have left? Since all things come from Him, those who reject God, reject everything. Our continued existence is an act of God's love and grace. Those who reject Him are rejecting, in the end, their very selves. You cannot exist without enjoying God's blessing, so if you reject God and all His blessings, what can possibly be left? Only the prospect of eternal destruction.
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