No question about it, the Bible clearly reveals that immortality is God’s gracious gift to His saints. But if immortality is a gift that is given only to the saints, why do millions believe that it is an inherent quality of the human soul? What does the Bible say about this subject?

       There is no single doctrine which commands such universal acceptance among religious adherents over so vast a span of time. Indeed, this doctrine has been almost synonymous with religion itself. Not one major religion disputes it and every religious tradition affirms it in one form or another.

       In the ancient Near East, it dominated religious thought. In African and Asian tribal religions it is prominent and religions of all civilizations have endorsed it. It is an important relic of Platonic thought. In the world of professing Christianity, only a few sects question it. Seventy-one percent of Americans believe it. It is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, the view that the human soul has a conscious existence immediately after death.

       Yet the Bible, reputedly the authoritative document of the Christian faith, nowhere teaches this doctrine. It is nothing less than astounding that the Old Testament, a document of the ancient Near East, roundly rejects the teaching that the soul consciously survives death when that teaching was commonplace then, and that the New Testament equally rejects this doctrine, believed by the vast majority in the first century.

       Amazingly, the Bible as a religious document is almost unique in its utter refutation of the view that the real person is the soul inside, which goes into another world upon the death of the body. This is no minor issue to be mistaken about. Granted there are some doctrines which are inconsequential, and no church has all truth and no error. We all know in part and prophesy (preach) in part. But the true church, the church divinely commissioned to take the gospel to the world, must know the fundamental doctrine of what man really is.

       Could God have started a church and continue to actively lead that church when it does not even know what man is and what happens to him after death? Is this a minor doctrine?

       The implications for any church which is wrong on this issue are profound. Immortality of the soul defender John W. Cooper, in his book Body, Soul and Life Everlasting, says that if the doctrine is not true then “a doctrine affirmed by most of the church since its beginning is false. A second consequence is more personal and existential--what millions of Christians believe will happen when they die is an illusion.” Would God have led so many believers into error, or would He not rescue them from that error, if He were, in fact, the Founder of those churches which believe in the immortality of the soul?

       We need to dispassionately and without bias examine this critical subject.

       One respected theologian came to what was a startling conclusion for him: that his church had misled him on this critical issue. Church of Christ elder Edward Fudge explains in the book which he finally wrote to show the results of his study, The Fire That Consumes: The Biblical Case for Conditional Immortality: “I was reared on traditionalist teaching. I accepted it because it was said to rest on Scripture. Closer investigation has shown this claim to be mistaken. Careful study has shown that both Old and New Testaments teach instead a resurrection of the wicked for the purpose of divine judgment... so my beliefs have changed--as a result of careful study.”

       So have the views of an even more well-known and renowned theologian and evangelical apologist, Clark Pinnock. In his chapter on “The Conditional View” in the well-researched book, Four Views on Hell, Pinnock, after showing a number of scriptures disproving the immortality of the soul, wonders aloud why so many churches should have adopted what would appear an obviously unbiblical view. An explanation for this, he offers, “exists in a Hellenistic belief about human nature that has dominated Christian thinking about eschatology from the beginning. There has been a virtual consensus that the soul survives death because it is by nature an incorporeal substance. This assumption goes back to Plato’s view of the soul as metaphysically indestructible, a view shared by Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin. The Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul has affected theology unduly on this point—a good example of the occasional Hellenization of Christian doctrine.”

       It is time we recapture and rescue Christianity from Hellenism!

       It is time we get back to the Bible, especially in light of the fact that the Protestant Reformation was ostensibly based on sola Scriptura--Scripture alone! If this claim is true, then why should non-biblical sources be more influential than Scripture in the formation of Christian doctrine? Yet defenders of the immortal soul doctrine will protest that Scripture itself is clear that the soul is immortal. There are some scriptures which do, indeed, seem to clearly teach an eternal conscious existence in hell. We can’t ignore these scriptures, if we accept all biblical texts as the Word of God--but we must seek to understand them without reading foreign ideas into them.

       Revelation 14:10 refers to people who “will be tormented with fire and brimstone.” Verse 11 says that the “smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image.” Now if they don’t have immortal souls, how will that be possible? Will God give them immortal souls to facilitate their everlasting punishment? In any event, those who believe in conditional immortality, like the Church of God International, reject the notion of everlasting conscious punishment. So what do we do with a text like Revelation 14:10,11, which was not smuggled into the Scriptures by Plato?

       These verses seem devastating to our view.

       In Matthew 25:41, Jesus refers to those who will depart into “eternal fire.” Verse 46 has been especially appealed to by defenders of the immortal soul view. It says the wicked will go away into “eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” If “eternal life” means unending life and conscious existence, then why in the same passage doesn't “eternal punishment” mean unending conscious existence as well?

       Matthew 18:8 says that “it is better for you to enter maimed or lame than...to be thrown into the eternal fire.” Why would the fire be eternal if it has nothing to burn and if the wicked are annihilated, as we teach?

       We need to answer all these texts.

Understanding Aionios, or How Long Is ‘Everlasting’?

       Surprising as it might seem, “eternal” and “everlasting” do not always mean never-ending, but can actually mean “age-lasting,” that is, lasting for a limited period. It is important to bear in mind that what we have are English translations of the Bible and that the Scriptures were originally inspired in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. To study to show ourselves approved, we have to acquire some rudimentary understanding of the biblical languages. If we are going to pronounce authoritatively on certain complex doctrinal matters, we must be equipped.

       There is an easy way to prove that aionios does not always mean never-ending and that it can mean eternal in its results and consequences.

In Jude 1:7 we read that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the “punishment of eternal fire.” Yet no one believes that Sodom and Gomorrah are burning now. The inhabitants suffered the punishment of eternal fire in the sense that they were completely destroyed; the fire was eternal in its results and effects; it left nothing to be consumed.        There can be no dispute about this for there are no cities named Sodom and Gomorrah burning today! Scripture does not say they suffered the punishment of Gehenna (hell) fire, so one cannot reason that perhaps they are suffering (unknown to us) in hell. They suffered the punishment of a literal fire which swept through the area. (One scholar points out that at least seventy times in the Bible the Greek word aionios qualifies objects of a temporary and limited nature.)

       The Hebrew equivalent of aionios in the Old Testament is olam, which can also mean eternal or everlasting, but is also used in reference to a limited span of time. To prove decisively that “forever” or “eternal” do not always mean never-ending, notice the following passages in which olam obviously means age-lasting or a limited time.

       In Exodus 12:24 we read that the sprinkling of the blood at the Passover was to be “an ordinance for ever.” The Aaronic priesthood was also said to have been a “perpetual statute” (Exodus 29:9; 40:15; Leviticus 3:17). Solomon’s temple was supposed to have been everlasting (1 Kings 8:13). The ritual of tending to the light in the tabernacle was to be “a statute for ever” (Exodus 27:21). All the sacrifices and circumcision were said to last “forever.” Now how many Christians, even among law-keepers, are still practicing these rituals which the Bible clearly says should be observed forever, as part of an “everlasting covenant”? Clearly, the Hebrew word olam, the equivalent of aionios in the passages quoted, means age-lasting, to be in force for the life of the Old Covenant.

       Romans 16:25 talks about the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret “for long ages.” What the reader of the English translations of the Bible would not know immediately is that the word translated “long ages” is aionios-the same word translated “forever” in the passages quoted about eternal fire and everlasting punishment. It is indisputable, therefore, that the word carries more than one meaning and cannot, under all circumstances, be interpreted as eternal in the sense of never-ending.

       But then there is Matthew 3:12, pulled out by immortal soul advocates to prove their point. It refers to the “unquenchable fire” which will be unleashed on the lost.

       Again, just as in the case of the “eternal” fire which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the fire threatened by Jesus here is one which will accomplish its purpose of utter destruction, one whose purpose and mission cannot be thwarted by anyone or anything. This is the sense of the phrase.

       To prove that this is not speculation, turn to Jeremiah 17:27 where a similar threat was made to a rebellious Israel. Hear the words of Yahweh: “But if you do not listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy...then I will kindle a fire in its [Jerusalem’s] gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.”

       Yahweh threatened an unquenchable fire that could not be put out by all the firemen in the world. It would achieve its purpose: the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its sinning inhabitants. The unquenchable fire, like the eternal fire, refers to the results and consequences of its action, not the duration of its time.

       Isaiah 34:9,10 is a clincher. Notice the imagery of the punishment proposed for Edom: “And the streams of Edom shall be turned into a pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever [notice this similarity with the Revelation texts quoted earlier], from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.”

       Yes, there it is! The fire would completely destroy Edom; its smoke would proverbially go up forever, “from generation to generation.” The land would be desolate no more; it would be completely destroyed. That the fire would be “eternal” and “unquenchable” means a fire which no one would be able to quench until it achieved its purpose. See also Isaiah 1:30,31: “For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.”

       There it is—“none to quench them”—clearly meaning both will burn until they become extinct, annihilated!

As Clark Pinnock has suggested in his essay in the book Four Views on Hell, “I believe that the real basis of the traditional view of the nature of hell is not in the Bible’s talk of the wicked perishing, but an unbiblical anthropology that is read into the text. If a biblical reader approached the text with the assumption that souls are immortal, would they not be compelled to interpret texts that speak of the wicked being destroyed to mean that they are tortured forever since according to that supposition they cannot go out of existence? ...[T]he belief in the immortality of the soul will necessarily skew the exegesis.”

       This is why we have dealt extensively with the discussion of hell, for at the root of the traditional view of an ever-burning hell is the false doctrine of the immortality of the human soul.

       The attempt to use Matthew 25:41,46 to prove this false doctrine fails miserably. The fact is, both the righteous and the damned will have their fates sealed eternally. The righteous will enjoy unending life as a reward and the unrighteous will suffer everlasting punishment—their punishment will be final, inexorable, irredeemable. The unrighteous will suffer everlasting punishment, not everlasting punishing!

       In his book, Life and Immortality, Basil Atkinson notes that “when the adjective aionios meaning ‘everlasting’ is used in Greek with nouns of action it has reference to the result of the action, not the process.” “Thus, the phrase ‘everlasting punishment’ is comparable to ‘everlasting redemption’ and ‘everlasting salvation,’ both scriptural phrases. No one supposes that we are being redeemed or being saved forever.

       “In the same way the lost will not be passing through a process of punishment for ever but will be punished once and for all, with eternal results. On the other hand, the noun ‘life’ is not a noun of action, but a noun expressing a state; that is, the life itself is eternal.”

       Finally, Samuele Bacchiocchi in his insightful book Immortality or Resurrection? says of aionios, translated “everlasting” or “forever”: “Ancient Greek papyri contain numerous examples of Roman emperors being described as aionios. What is meant is that they held their office for life. Unfortunately, the English words ‘eternal’ or ‘everlasting’ do not accurately render the meaning of aionios which literally means ‘age-lasting.’”

Explicit Texts on Destruction

       While some have tried to impose their own preconceived ideas on the biblical texts, a clear reading of the texts which refer to the fate of the wicked and the lost indicates that their end is destruction. Let's look at some plain texts.

       Malachi 4:1 says that on the Day of the Lord “all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” That text speaks most forcefully of destruction, and utter annihilation. How could we get any other concept from that text? When we are not imposing preconceived ideas on the biblical text, it is obvious that the fate of the unsaved is destruction.

       Psalm 37:38 says that “transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off.”

       In Matthew 13:30, Jesus also uses the imagery of total destruction to describe the fate of the wicked. The proverbial weeds are gathered to be burned. The metaphor is of total destruction. In Psalm 37:2, we read that the wicked will “fade like the grass”; they “shall be cut off” and “will be no more” (verses 9,10).

       Hebrews 10:27 refers the “fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.” Defenders of the immortal soul doctrine have often replied to the avalanche of texts showing that the wicked will be destroyed by saying that the word destruction is sometimes used to mean “put out of action.” The example is used of Christ who, as it were, destroyed Satan the devil through His action on the stake, yet the devil continues to exist.

       It is amazing the ingenious attempts which are made to preserve a cherished, inherited belief. While it is true that words do have several meanings, it takes no linguist with a doctorate to see that the contexts of words determine meaning. That destruction could possibly mean to put out of action and that it does take that meaning in one or a few texts does not mean that we should ignore the clear, ordinary meaning of the word as it is used in the many other texts of Scripture.

       It is hard to ignore texts like Isaiah 1:28, which says that “rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

       There is one text that cannot rationally or exegetically be opened to any other meaning than the one favored by those who deny ever-burning hell and the immortality of the soul. This text is crystal clear once one really focuses on it.

       We return to the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by eternal fire and are clearly not burning today. This fire was complete in its work of utter destruction. Peter says that God turned “the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes” (2 Peter 2:6). We don’t have to wonder whether Sodom and Gomorrah are burning today. Those cities have been already turned to ashes as a result of the eternal fire.

       So, clearly, their fire resulted in complete destruction in the ordinary sense of the word. Let’s go on, for it gets more interesting. What God did was condemn them to extinction—to annihilation!—not an unending burning. But it gets even more interesting, and now we’ll see why there can be no other explanation of this bombshell of a text against the ever-burning hell and immortal soul concepts. In the latter part of verse 6, we are told that God “condemned them [Sodom and Gomorrah] to extinction and made them an example of those who were to be ungodly,” meaning that the ungodly will suffer the same fate. What fate? Utter extinction! They will be turned to ashes (which is exactly what Malachi 4:1 says).

       It could not be clearer! What Sodom and Gomorrah suffered served as an example of the kind of destruction that awaits the wicked at the end. (Other important texts applying the word destruction to the fate of the wicked are Philippians 3:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:2,3; and 2 Thessalonians 1:9.)

To be continued next issue.