The entire essay is available here.
Conditional Immortality
Conditional Immortality agrees with the majority of what I’ve laid out so far. Those who hold to conditional immortality maintain that all these things are true: hell is real, it is the destiny of sinners, and it is terrible. The point of departure is not the reality of hell. Rather, it is the eternality of hell, or more specifically, the eternality of the human soul. Let’s break that down.
Perhaps the first essential piece of the Conditional Immortality framework is that they do not believe that man is immortal by nature. Edward Fudge, a leader in the Conditional Immortality movement, says, “The Bible portrays the human creature as wholly mortal.”[1] Humans are not created with an immortal soul. Rather, they are given immortality upon the condition of believing. Those who do not believe, simply cease to exist. This solves the riddle of God terminating a soul, putting the weight toward God granting eternal life to an otherwise mortal person.[2]
This shapes the offer of the gospel. Since we are not immortal by nature, rather than the gospel being a choice between everlasting life in heaven and everlasting judgment in hell, the gospel is simply an offer of eternal life. John 3:16 is used as a prime proof text. In it, Jesus says that those who believe will not “perish,” but will be given “everlasting life.” “Perishing” is understood as ceasing to exist; “everlasting life” is the gift of eternal life, life beyond natural mortality. Yes, those who perish may suffer punishment for a time, but they will ultimately “be no more.”
Second in the Conditional Immortality framework is a separation between the eternality of hell and the eternality of the human soul. One of the strongest arguments for hell as eternal conscious torment is the numerous instances where the Bible uses language such as “everlasting fire,” “everlasting destruction,” and “eternal condemnation.” These are traditionally understood to point to eternal suffering. But those who believe in Conditional Immortality interpret these as meaning that hell itself is eternal, but the sinner who is thrown into hell is not. Since “everlasting” and “eternal” are used with “fire” and “destruction,” and not used of the sinner himself, these phrases are understood to teach only that hell itself is eternal. The sinner is not.
Third (and related), they interpret the verses that speak more pointedly of the judgment of the sinner himself as meaning that “eternal” means that the judgment is irreversible. Against the traditional view, which says that the judgment itself is experienced eternally, Conditional Immortality says that this “everlasting punishment”[3] is the punishment of ceasing to exist for all eternity. That is, the judgment is “eternal” in the sense that it cannot and will not be undone. The damned forevermore cease to exist. “Eternal condemnation,” in Conditional Immortality, does not mean endless condemnation, but merely the permanent condemnation of annihilation. The soul who is sent to hell is consumed, eternally ceasing to exist.
Conditional Immortality does allow that sinners may suffer for a time in hell. Sinners in hell (such as is depicted in the story of the rich man and Lazarus) may suffer for a time for their sins. But once their sin is appeased, they are annihilated. This accounts for the various descriptions of the sufferings of hell, even allowing for a more traditional understanding of conscious torment, but without the eternal dynamic. Once a sinner has suffered sufficiently, he is blotted out.
Arguments for Conditional Immortality often rely heavily on the Old Testament language relative to the judgment of the wicked. Passages like Psalm 37:10 (“Yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.”) are used to justify the idea that sinners will ultimately cease to exist. After all, they shall “be no more.” Isaiah uses similar language (1:27-31 – “…those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.”). These are used to argue that God’s judgment of the wicked is a total destruction, an annihilation of their existence. It is common for those who hold to Conditional Immortality[4] to use the Old Testament over and against the New Testament to nullify the clearer meaning of the latter.
Are we to best understand these and other related texts as teaching that the wicked and sinful will be annihilated in the judgment? It’s important for us to remember that the Old Testament was given to the physical nation of Israel. It deals primarily with physical tangible things. Thus we need to be careful how much we let those descriptions dictate our interpretations of clear New Testament passages. Yes, there are spiritual dynamics, yes, it is for our instruction, yes, we ought to learn from it. But the focus is still primarily on God’s work in the physical realm. God’s promised land was physical (Canaan); God’s blessings were physical (milk, honey, prosperity and riches, etc.); God’s judgments, too, were physical (conquered by enemies, exiled into a foreign land). This shapes our interpretation of these Old Testament passages about God’s judgment of the wicked. These are focused on God’s judgment of the wicked and of Israel’s enemies by removing them from their place on the earth. To use these to describe the eternal destination of the wicked is an abuse of Scripture.
Is Conditional Immortality Biblical?
I think we can admit that there’s a certain appeal to the Conditional Immortality understanding of hell. Hell is uncomfortable to talk about and horrifying to think about. Conditional Immortality creatively weaves Scriptures together to soften the severity of hell without erasing it entirely. There’s a good deal of emotional appeal to the idea that God will eventually release sinners from suffering. It portrays a kinder God and eases the terrors of hell.
But is it what the Bible teaches?
By this I do not mean “Is it compatible with Scripture?” but rather “Is it what Scripture asserts?” Many things can be fit into Scripture that do not arise from it. Truly biblical Christianity is not built upon that which is compatible with Scripture, but instead on that which Scripture asserts—that which is most plainly taught within the pages of Scripture itself. The first fundamental flaw of Conditional Immortality is that it injects its doctrine into Scripture rather than deducing it from Scripture. Yes, many passages are cited, but not in context, and not in a way that harmonizes the whole of Scripture.
We’ll get into the Scriptures and the language more here in a bit. First, I want to deal with some of the arguments straight on. The first aspect of Conditional Immortality that we discussed is their belief that humans are not immortal by nature. This is based somewhat on 1 Timothy 6:16: “God…alone has immortality.” It is said that God alone exists eternally; all humans are mortal. But interpreting it this way is problematic, largely because it precludes everyone from having eternal life. If 1 Timothy 6 indicates that God alone is eternal, then no believer can expect eternal life for himself. That is certainly not biblical. If then this passage doesn’t exclude eternal life for the believer, it must not be used to say that the unbeliever will not exist eternally. Nothing in this text leads us to think that the believer will experience eternal life while the unbeliever will cease to exist.
It is more likely that 1 Timothy 6 refers to God’s existence from eternity past. God is immortal in the sense that there was never a time that He didn’t exist. If so, this is not focused on God’s eternal future existence, but His pre-existence, by which it is proper to say that He alone is immortal. Taken this way, we conclude that this is not speaking of eternal judgment or eternal life, and thus does nothing to inform our understanding of human immortality. In short, 1 Timothy 6 does not indicate that we are “wholly mortal.” Rather, when Genesis speaks of us being made “in God’s image” and becoming “living beings,” it has in view that we are each given a soul that will never perish. God created us with eternal souls.
This is further reinforced by John 5:28-29: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” This speaks of a future resurrection of all mankind, whether good or evil, righteous or wicked. All men will be resurrected and face the judgment. All will “hear His voice and come forth,” some to the blessings of heaven, some to the torments of hell. If it is true, as Conditional Immortality advocates purport, that the human soul is “wholly mortal,” how do we explain this resurrection? Resurrection of the righteous makes sense, but what about the resurrection of the wicked? They are resurrected to a judgment, a judgment in which they are annihilated. This in contrast to the righteous, who are resurrected to eternal life. The asymmetry in the Conditional Immortality interpretation is awkward at best.
Similar to this, Acts 24:15 speaks of the “resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” I suppose we could interpret this (and John) as speaking of a temporary resurrection wherein the wicked are judged and again sentenced to death. But again, this is a strange interpretation, forcing the text into a view of hell that is novel to the Scriptures.
What about the separation between the eternality of hell and the eternal suffering of the human soul? Should we understand “everlasting fire” to indicate that only the fire itself is eternal, or does that also imply that those thrown into it will endure it for eternity? The latter understanding follows the simpler reading of the text and is the clear implication.
That hell itself is eternal is undisputed. The gospel of Matthew speaks of “everlasting fire” (18:8-9, 25:41) and “everlasting punishment” (25:46). Mark speaks of “eternal condemnation” (3:29), “the fire that shall never be quenched” (9:43, 45), and the place where the “worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (9:48). Paul talks of “everlasting destruction” in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Hebrews says those who abandon the gospel will experience “eternal judgment,” and Jude talks about “eternal fire” and “blackness of darkness forever.” Revelation says that the torment of the lake of fire will continue “forever and ever” (14:11, 20:10). Conditional Immortality doesn’t deny that hell is eternal; they simply deny that anyone will be in it eternally.
Those who believe Conditional Immortality point out that all these texts describe the place as eternal, but don’t necessarily state that the persons in hell are eternal. Does the Bible permit this understanding? If we isolate these texts, perhaps. It is an unnatural understanding, however, to think that these passages, which are intended to warn the sinner of the consequences of his sin, are speaking of an eternal fire that the sinner will never endure. Eternal fire is not necessary if the judgment is not also eternal. Yes, you can squeeze the aforementioned verses into the annihilationism mold, but it’s a forced and uncomfortable fit.
Beyond that, other Scriptures teach that sinners will inhabit hell eternally.[5] Four passages in Matthew say that hell is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (8:12, 13:49-50, 22:13, 25:30). These describe two responses to the judgment that’s being endured: sorrow and anger. These are described as continual, ongoing actions by those who are inhabiting hell. These are not momentary actions, but are perpetual as those who are in hell mourn the consequences of their sins.
Another potent text is Revelation 14:9-11. “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image.” The phrases I’ve underlined here are significant for our discussion. First, the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. Forever and ever is indisputable. This is definitely speaking of eternity future.
But what does “the smoke of their torment” mean? Annihilationists say that smoke ascending doesn’t necessarily mean anyone is actually suffering in hell, much like the smoke rose from Sodom even after it and all those in it are destroyed. But the language in this case is not “smoke of their destruction” but “smoke of their torment.” This is not the residual smoke of a past judgment, but is the ongoing smoke of their ongoing suffering. Add to this that the smoke will eventually go out if there is nothing to burn. The ongoing smoke points to unending judgment. Also notice that it says, “they have no rest day or night.” Annihilationist ideas run right contrary to this text. They have no rest day and night, forever and ever. The sufferings of hell are inescapable and eternal.
Similar language is found in Revelation 20:10, speaking of the judgment of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. They will be “tormented day and night forever and ever.” The judgment of the devil and his minions is certainly an eternal judgment. Will mankind experience the same judgment? Jesus, in the very familiar parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, speaks of the final judgment wherein He will divide between the righteous and the sinner. The righteous will inherit the kingdom, but the sinner is cast “into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The everlasting fire endured by the sinner is the same as the fire endured by the devil and his angels. So it seems that Revelation 20:10 describes what will be experienced by Satan and by all who follow him—torment day and night forever and ever.
When Scripture speaks of “everlasting judgment” or “eternal fire” suffered by the sinner, the natural understanding is that the judgment/fire will be experienced eternally. We contort the text to make it say, “everlasting judgment, which is eternally ceasing to exist” or “everlasting fire experienced by no-one.” The natural sense of Scripture is that the eternal fire will be suffered eternally by sinners, sinners in a resurrected body who consciously experience the judgment consequent for their own sin.
[1] “Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes 09/24/2011.” YouTube. Accessed December 31, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAm5ji95bBM.
[2] This is precisely why moderns prefer “Conditional Immortality” over “Annihilationism.” The latter indicates the annihilation of an otherwise eternal soul. The former indicates that a soul is only immortal if granted that life by God.
[3] Matthew 15:46
[4] As typified in “Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes” and “The Annihilation View of Hell” by Preston Sprinkle (YouTube, Accessed December 31, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemKBJoCoKI)
[5] All of these are dealt with in Conditional Immortality arguments, but I don’t find their explanations compelling.