A Response to Annihilationism by Rebecca Miller

I hope you all enjoyed our guest series by Rebecca Miller from Trinity International University – well, ‘enjoyed’ as much as one can considering the topic… 😕

As I mentioned at the beginning, I recognize that this is a touchy subject – I debated with myself for several weeks before posting it… Recent events within Evangelicalism (i.e. Rob Bell’s new book and the controversy surrounding it) spurred me to go ahead with the series as it seems that this topic is still on the metaphorical table within Christianity.

One of the craziest thing about the “Rob Bell/Love Win’s Controversy” is the shear amount of reactionary media buzz created a month before the book is released. This tells me that people – Believers – need to slow down and think through why they believe the way they do. This is one of the reason I love Rebecca’s paper – she takes you on a journey through the “interpretive lens” of both sides (traditional and annihilationism), ending with the conclusion that both are “biblical” and can be held by Bible believing Christians.

Rebecca also warns us – as does Steve S. in the comments – to be careful how much beyond the Scripture we take an issue or a doctrine. A lot of the time, God is calling us to let Him decide those matters instead of trying to figure everything out in our own human wisdom.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

As we end this series, I wanted to look at the issue from an enacted inaugurated eschatology viewpoint – seeing how we are a people called to live between the Ages. Specifically, I want to look how the Gospels use the words “eternal life” and “eternal punishment” (touched on by Rebecca in Part 3).

“Eternal Life” and “Eternal Punishment”

The phrase “eternal life” is often used in the same context as the “Kingdom of God” or “Kingdom of Heaven” – which can be defined as God’s rule and reign.  In that context, the phrase to me means more then simply ‘living forever’ (whether in heaven or hell). Instead, it means that God is releasing the life of the Age to Come into this Age (i.e. life from eternity).

With that stated, let us look at Matthew 25:46 were the terms “eternal life” and “eternal punishment” in conjunction with each other.

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The thing to remember about this verse is that it is coming after a long discourse by Jesus about the ‘end times’ – starting with Matthew 24 and through the parable of the ten virgins, bags of gold and finally the sheep and goats at the end of chapter 25, where the verse in question is.

While I know that a lot of folks look at these verses in conjunction with Jesus’ second coming, I think it would do good to give thought to the idea that they might be speaking of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension coupled with Pentecost. I know that is a controversial statement…but follow with me a minute.

In those two chapters, Jesus talks about the “Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory” (24:30) followed by “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (24:34). Later on He says that “when the Son of Man comes in his glory…he will sit on his glorious throne” (25:31).

In the Epistles we hear about how Jesus has been glorified and how He has “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrew 8:1 and 12:2). Couple this with the ascension of Jesus (on clouds) and the power of the Spirit being poured out at Pentecost (an end time event prophesied by Joel and others). We also know that God marked those who follow Him with the seal of the Spirit (Romans 4:11, 2 Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13; 4:30) – i.e. effectively separating the sheep and the goats.

If this is correct – if we can indeed use an enacted inaugurated eschatology viewpoint look at Matthew 25:46 (which I’m not sold on…this is still a work in process, a brainstorming of ideas more then a fully thought out concept) – then it would seem to say that those who do not look after the “least of these” will be sent away from Christ to receive the punishment of the Age to Come now in this age, just like those who do receive the life of the Age to Come in this age.

Being this down to ‘real’ life, there is a biblical principle that those who give themselves to the serve of the poor, hungry, downtrodden, etc, find themselves and experience Jesus in a different way then those who do not…

Now this does not mean that those who do not follow Jesus might not also have to face some kind of ‘punishment’ after death – for, as Rebecca mentioned, there are other verses that hint at that. I am only dealing with this particular passage and the concept of immorality that we normally place upon the phrase eternal life/punishment.

This, of course, brings us right back to our beginning place – perhaps we just let God handle the eternal life/punishment side of things and just do what He says to do. 😕