Conditionalism | Old Testament | Gospels and Acts | Epistles | Revelation | Responses | Miscellaneous
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." (Mat 10:28).
"Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (Jam 5:19-20).
"This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:14-15).
The first death refers to physical death. Man can physically kill you, but your spirit lives on. The second death refers to spiritual death, death of body and soul. Only God can finally put someone to death in that ultimate way.
"What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory"
Mark Corbett, YouTube:
Conditional Immortality is Part of General Revelation (Hell in Romans, part 1).
Wrath and Immortality (Hell in Romans, part 2).
Jesus Died for Us (Hell in Romans, part 3).
Romans 6:21-23 Teaches Conditional Immortality.
Apolumi and Apoleia in Romans Refer to Annihilation (Hell in Romans, part 5).
"But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming. Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death."
The argument has been made that because death is "swallowed up in victory" when the dead are raised, everyone must raised be immortal. This flies in the face of Revelation 20:14 in which God's enemies suffer the second death on judgment day. If all death is destroyed, then there can be no eternal punishment and all must be saved.
However, this misses the distinction between the first and second death. The traditionalist interprets the first death as separation of soul from body and the second death as separation of soul and body from God. The conditionalist interprets the first death as death of body and the second death as death of soul and body. It follows that 1 Corinthians 15:26 is only about the abolishment of the first death so the unrighteous will still face the second death or else one must deny the second death and therefore deny eternal punishment.
It is also not necessary to see the chronology this way. It is reasonable to assume that God could destroy the last enemy at the second coming when the dead are raised, the saints are made immortal, and God's enemies are judged. When the last enemy is defeated, God's enemies are gone and no more death will take place. Then death will have been defeated. After all, these events are all happening on judgment day.
It should also be noted that God's enemies and death suffer the same fate of the second death in the lake of fire. We know that death is abolished, destroyed, and annihilated, so God's enemies will be abolished, destroyed, and annihilated.
"whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things."
"who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might"
Verses 7-8 provide important context: "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God." This is a clear reference to Isaiah 66:15: "For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire." It goes on to say, "For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many." (Isa 66:16).
Eternal indicates that this destruction will never be reversed. The unrighteous will be eternally destroyed. Whether this destruction arises directly from an act of the Lord as this verse seems to indicate, or whether it stems from a definitive and complete separation from God, the fountain of life, the outcome is the same; the result is that "Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many... They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isa 66:16, 24).
"A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this: though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. But you, Yahweh, are on high forever more. For behold, your enemies, Yahweh, for behold, your enemies shall perish." (Ps 92:6-9).
Peter Grice, Annihilation in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 - Part 1, 2016: "So what does 'eternal destruction' mean, in context? It means just what it means in everyday English (i.e. destruction with an eternal outcome), just as 'destruction' in English refers to something that is brought to an end (cf. 'bring to nothing' in 2 Thess 2:8)."
Ronnie Demler and William Tanksley Jr., Annihilation in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 - Part 2, 2016: "While the Greek most literally reads, 'everlasting destruction from [apo] the presence of the Lord,' the translators of many modern English versions take the apo to mean separation. They therefore insert the word 'away' to guide the reader to this alternate meaning."
"However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life."
"but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News."
"that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries."
"Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy."
"Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
Albert Barnes (1798-1870), Barnes' Notes on the Bible, James 5:20: "The word death here must refer to eternal death, or to future punishment. There is no other death which the soul is in danger of dying... This passage proves, then, that there is a death which the soul may die; that there is a condition which may properly be called death as a consequence of sin; and that the soul will suffer that unless it is converted."
Douglas Moo, The Letter of James, NICNT (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids: 2021), 319. Commenting on James 5:19-20: "It is by sharing with James the conviction that there is indeed an eternal death, to which the way of sin leads, that we shall be motivated to deal with sin in our lives and in the lives of others."
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1882), James 5:20: "The soul is obviously that of the sinner who is converted. Death, bodily and spiritual, would be the outcome of the error if he were left alone, and in being rescued from the error he is therefore saved also from death."
"and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,"
The flood which destroyed the whole world and killed everyone in it except Noah and his family is given as an example of the final judgment. God destroys sinners and annihilates their way of life. In the traditional view, God makes sinners immortal and allows them to sin for eternity. In the conditionalist view, sinners and all of their works of wickness will be destroyed and perish. God puts a full end to sin and evil.
"and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way,"
Mark Corbett, Downburned and Ashified, The Annihilation of the Unrighteous, 2017: "The Greek word tefroo is a verb derived from the noun that means 'ashes'. tefroo means to 'ashify', or to put it into more normal English, 'to turn something into ashes'... The use of the words katakaio, tefroo, and similar words is not at all consistent with believing in eternal conscious torment. Are the ashes being tormented?... They will be completely consumed by the fire and burned to ashes. Ashes, smoke, and dust may remain, but not people."
"But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;"
"Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them. You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men." (Ps 21:8-10).
They will be destroyed in their destruction; they will perish in their perishing; they will die in their death; they will be burned up in their burning; they will be consumed in their consumption; they will be slain in their slaying; they will receive the wages of sin by losing their life in the judgment.
"Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."
In the parallel passage, Peter uses the word Tartarus, the equivalent of the Greek Hades or Hebrew sheol. Angels are currently being held in Tartarus for the judgment day. This verse says nothing about the final judgment itself, and it isn't even about humans.
John Gill, Commentary on Jude: "He hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness; by these 'everlasting chains' may be meant the power and providence of God over them, which always abide upon them; or their sins, and the guilt of them upon their consciences, under which they are continually held; or the decrees and purposes of God concerning their final punishment and destruction, which are immutable and irreversible, and from which there is no freeing themselves."
The Pulpit Commentary: "The word by which the idea of the everlasting is expressed is a peculiarly strong one, occurring only once again in the New Testament, viz. in Romans 1:20, where it is applied to God's 'eternal power.' It designates these bonds as bonds from which there never can be escape."
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire."
Darren J. Clark, Hey Jude, Don't be so Tense: A Note on the Grammar of Jude 7, 2022: "Imagine I said to you that Jesus serves as an example of suffering and therefore loving your enemies... What if someone argued that the use of the present tense 'loving' must mean that Jesus really is loving the enemies with him in heaven right now?... If traditionalists are responding to conditionalist exegesis of Jude 7 and all they have is an argument from the present tense, then the appropriate response is to ask them what else they have got to offer."
Joseph Dear, What the Bible Actually Say about "Eternal Fire" - Part 1, 2018: "Jude seems to be describing eternal fire as something that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced... The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was described as being eternal fire, yet those cities are not still burning... it is a fire that does not burn things for ever and ever, but rather burns them up completely."
— What the Bible Actually Say about "Eternal Fire" - Part 2, 2018: "the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah were already in 'eternal fire' goes against what most of us (of all sorts of eschatological beliefs) would take as a fairly clear and straightforward part of eschatology: no one is in their final state yet... Everyone knew what was in view whenever someone mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah – especially when vengeance and fire are mentioned as well."
Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 453: "This fire functions as an example because it is a type or anticipation of what is to come for all those who reject God. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is not merely a historical curiosity; it functions typologically as a prophecy of what is in store for the rebellious. The narrative stresses the devastation of the Lord raining fire and brimstone upon the cities (Gen 19:24–28)."
"[These are] wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever."
They are shooting stars who are here one moment, gone the next. They are destined to perish and fade to nothing.
"The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever."
"The testimony is this: that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."