This is response to a friend I will name Steve for the purpose of this article. Steve was very unsettled after reading the following quote from Clark Pinnock: "How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon His creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God, at least by any ordinary moral standards, and by the gospel itself."
Eternal Punishment
Dear Steve, I have been studying this topic in my theology class and have come to a firm conviction about this. As this is really troubling to you, I would recommend that you pray right now as you read this for the Holy Spirit to teach you about this topic.
There are three major views on the topic of the afterlife. These are eternal heaven/punishment, annihilationism, and universalism. Eternal heaven/punishment is the view of the majority(all?) of evangelical Christian groups. They say that those who have accepted Jesus will go to eternal heaven, and those who have not will go to eternal judgment. Annihilationism is the belief that either everyone will cease to exist at death (materialist) or only the wicked will cease to exist and the righteous will go to heaven. This is called conditional immortality.1 Clark Pinnock, that you mentioned, is an annihilationist. The final view is called universalism. In this view everyone will go to a good place after death. When we all get there we will meet Stalin and Hitler as well as Abraham making one big happy family.
Some, like Clark Pinnock, have argued for conditional immortality in Scripture. They argue that the positive statements about eternal life imply that those who don't have eternal life can't have immortality.2 This is true in a sense, but those in favor of the view of eternal punishment say that what they go through is not “life” in any stretch of the imagination, though it is eternal. What they have is eternal judgment or mortality. In other words, it is death with no possible chance of resurrection for all eternity. They also argue that the same word used to describe eternal life is used for the eternal punishment (Matt. 25:46).3
The main reason people cannot handle the traditional view of hell is because they think it is not fair. Should people be punished for breaking laws such as robbery or murder? Should you and I be punished for our moral sins? I most would answer, “Yes.” Put another way; does someone who is perfect deserve punishment? Of course not, but who is perfectly good? Jesus said, “No one is good but God.” (Mk 10:18). Is it right that the good judge of the universe should judge justly? Contrary to what many think, each person will receive the judgment they deserve, not more, as Clark Pinnock implies.4 Let me be clear: God will judge each person according to what they have done. He will not give punishments greater than the crime deserves.5 In Luke 12:48 Jesus describes degrees of punishment for lawbreakers. Broadus states of this verse, “The degrees of punishment must be as remote as the east is from the west... It is the Divine Judge that will apportion punishment, with perfect knowledge and perfect justice and perfect goodness.”(as quoted in Towns)6 In other words, it will be evident – considering all the facts – that what is said by the perfect judge is fair, just, and deserved.
The objections that are leveled against Christians are due in part to our not explaining clearly what it is we really believe. The quote from Clark Pinnock states that the idea that eternal punishment is not in line with the teaching of the Gospel.7 However, the Gospel is the good news that there is a way to eternal life. In other words, the default setting for humans is death, because death is the wages of sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:23 NLT) Death is the reason God sent his Son Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ”(John 3:16 NIV) What Pinnock does not understand is that perishing is the necessary bad news for the good news of eternal life to be the good news. If everyone were to automatically go to eternal life, then there would be no good news of an escape from eternal death.
Maybe many of us Christians do not really believe what we preach. If we do believe the good news, we are obligated to tell people that death does not have to be the final word! We have good news of life eternal! Again, if we really believe this, it should motivate us – no, that is too weak! – it should light hell fire on our comfortable chairs so that we will go and evangelize and reach all people with the good news of eternal life. Lord God, help us to truly grasp and understand the implications of the good news and live our lives based on this.
Footnotes:
1Walter Ellwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology:Second Edition, (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House:2001) 64
2 Ibid 64
3Ibid 395
4 Clark Pinnock, Criswell Theological Review, (April 2, 1990)
5 Psalm 62:12 and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. Proverbs 24:12 If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Ecclesiastes 3:17 I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed." 2 Corinthians 11:15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
6Elmer Towns, Theology for Today, (Mason, Nelson Education, Ltd:2008) 828
