Recently, I was reading the Belgic Confession (1561), which is one of The Three Forms of Unity within the Reformed Church. In Article 19 of the Confession, on “The Union and Distinction of the Two Natures in the Person of Christ,” I was intrigued by the implications I discerned for the understanding of the nature […]
Category: Eschatology
Pope Francis has a friend, Eugenio Scalfari, who is founder of the liberal newspaper Repubblica, and who professes to be an atheist. Periodically, the two of them meet for conversation and, later, Scalfari, without having taken notes at the meeting, publishes what he understood Francis to have said. Reading about the report on what Francis […]
The significance of death as God’s punishment of humans for sin We don’t read far in the Bible before we encounter the reality of human death. It comes in Genesis 2:16, when God commands Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because, if he does, he will die […]
Matthew 25 and the difference between traditionalism and annihilationism Traditionalists often cite Matthew 25:46 as irrefutable proof that Jesus taught that the wicked would be eternally consciously tormented. In that section of Matthew, Jesus tells us that “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will […]
While jogging this morning, I listened to an interesting Q & A with Tom Wright on “Unbelievable?” A question arose about Wright’s view of hell and he enunciated his usual view of the dehumanization of the wicked, who eventually cease to bear the image of God. I got to thinking of the splendid triangle developed […]
A podcast interview with me Chris Date has begun a series of podcasts in which he will interview authors of chapters in A Consuming Passion. I am the first person on deck, and Chris spent quite a long time talking with me about my journey to annihilationism. Whether or not you have read the series […]
Kudos to Peter Grice and the folks at Rethinking Hell, for a nice revision of the “Hell Triangle,” which expertly depicts the key alternative Christian views of final punishment. It is available at the link above, in many formats, along with brief descriptions of the major alternatives in current Christian discussion of this important subject. […]
This morning, I received a short letter which raised a question that comes up quite often, so I thought I’d post my response for a wider readership. The letter said: Hi Terry, I had someone say to me in regards to the Annihilationist view that, any view that undermines our desire to see the lost […]
On July 21, 2014, I published a blog post in which I recounted the long journey I had taken toward becoming an annihilationist. At that time, I declared myself agnostic concerning the nature of hell, although I believed that the Bible taught annihilation more clearly than any other of the alternatives. Later, I was […]
Last night, I had a lengthy Skype chat with Chris Date, who is in the process of interviewing some (or all) of the authors of essays in A Consuming Passion, of which Chris was an editor. My own piece was about my “long journey to annihilationism.” Chris talked with me about a couple of the […]