Conditionalism | Old Testament | Gospels and Acts | Epistles | Revelation | Responses | Miscellaneous
"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire."
"And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in flaming fire out of the bush, and he sees that the bush burns with fire, —but the bush was not consumed" (Ex 3:2). The LXX of Exodus 3:2 says that the bush burns (καίεται, kaiō), but was not consumed (κατεκαίετο, katakaió). However, unlike the bush, Matthew 3:12 indicates that the wicked will in fact be consumed (κατεκαίετο, katakaió, burned down utterly, incinerated, consumed wholly).
"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).
"You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire" (Isa 33:11-12).
"'For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,' says Yahweh, 'so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,' says Yahweh. '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 66:22-24).
"Tell the forest of the south, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. All flesh will see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.” ’" (Ezek 20:47-48).
"'For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,' says Yahweh of Armies" (Malachi 4:1-3).
"Seek Yahweh, and you will live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel" (Amos 5:6).
"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" (Heb 10:26-27).
"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" (2 Pet 2:6).
"Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." (Rev 20:14).
"But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." (Rev 21:8).
Darren J. Clark, When the Exception Proves the Rule: Yes, the Fire Does Not Consume... The Righteous!, 2022: "when we discuss Matthew 3:12 and 13:40, where the meaning of κατακαίω (katakaiō) is relevant, and given the fact that κατακαίω (katakaiō) really does mean 'to incinerate', then it is more than reasonable to think that Jesus meant to say that those who are thrown into the fire will burn up."
– Keep Carm and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and Carm.org (Part 2)–Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17, 2021: "the conditionalist argument is that the chaff is said to be burned up in the fire... While it is true that at times conditionalists do argue or state that the fire will eventually go out, that is not their main argument. The evidence in those Old Testament passages we offer shows what the fire will do to those thrown into it, without commenting on what happens to that fire after that."
Greg Boyd, The Case for Annihilationism: "Along the same lines, Scripture’s references to an 'unquenchable fire' and 'undying worm' refer to the finality of judgment, not its duration (Isa. 66:24, cf. 2 Kings 22:17; 1:31; 51:8; Jer. 4:4; 7:20; 21:12; Ezek. 20:47–48). If these passages are read in context, it becomes clear that the fire is unquenchable in the sense that it cannot be put out before it consumes those thrown into it."
Mark Corbett, Downburned and Ashified, The Annihilation of the Unrighteous, 2017: "Greek puts these words in the opposite order we would, and so katakaio could be over-literally translated as 'downburned'... The Bible teaches that the unrighteous will be burned up (katakaio-ed)."
"Enter in by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate and the way is restricted that leads to life!"
"But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection." (Lk 20:35-36).
"For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish" (Psalm 1:6). The LXX of Psalm 1:6 uses the corresponding verb for perish (ἀπώλειαν, apōleian) as the Greek word for destruction (απολείται, apōleia) in Matthew 7:13.
Throughout the synoptic Gospels, the verb used for the final fate of the wicked, apollumi, is used to describe killing: Herod wants to kill baby Jesus (Mat 2:13); the Pharisees hold counsel to kill Jesus (Mat 12:14; Mk 3:6); the vineyard owner kills the wicked tenants (Mat 21:41); elders and chief priests want Jesus killed (Mat 27:20); an evil spirit tries to kill a child (Mk 9:22); Jesus asks if it's it lawful to save life or to kill (Lk 6:9); the disciples thought they would be killed at sea (Lk 8:24), etc.
Edward White, Life in Christ: A Study of the Scriptural Doctrine On the Nature of Man, the Object of the Divine Incarnation, and the Conditions of Human Immortality, 1875, pg. 365: "Unquestionably such a Greek would reply to any one who proposed to put the 'figurative' sense of endless misery upon them, somewhat as the head master of an English public school replied to a recent proposal of the same sort: 'My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying ‘destroy,’ or ‘destruction,’ are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this.'"
Mark Corbett, Words of Annihilation: Plato and Plutarch, Peter and Paul, 2019: "I hope you will see that the example sentences from Plato and Plutarch make it equally clear that when discussing the final fate of people apollumi, phthora, and olethros mean that the people they describe are permanently annihilated in such a way that no person remains who is capable of feeling or thinking anything."
Glenn Peoples, The Meaning of "Apollumi" in the Synoptic Gospels, 2012: "the term apollumi ['destroy']... always refers to the literal killing of a person... Some claims in biblical interpretation are matters of opinion and open to question, but this is not one of them... However theologically inconvenient it may be for defenders of the traditional doctrine of the eternal torments of hell, this is an instance where the exegetical evidence is very heavily against them, and there is no apparent escape route via an appeal to semantics."
"Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city."
Notice that it is a day of judgment that is said to be worse. It does not say that they will experience an everlasting time of greater misery. Whatever way degrees of punishment are worked out for each person, God's justice demands that the ultimate end of the unsaved is death. Other than the duration, type, and amount suffering that takes place, part of the justice may be the way they are remembered. The wicked in general will be remembered with "everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2) and "disgust" (Isa 66:24), but mass murders will be remembered with greater disdain than liars.
Jay F. Guin, Degrees of Punishment: Interpreting the Parable of Faithful and Unfaithful Slaves (Luke 12:41-48), Part 1, 2016: "Hence, I reject the traditional teaching of perpetual conscious torment as simply not taught in scripture and plainly unjust as, under the tradition interpretation... [people] with very few sins, suffer the same fate as the greatest sinners in history. The NT routinely describes the fate of the damned as 'death' or 'destruction,' which words are the very opposite of 'don’t die' and 'aren’t destroyed' — which is the traditional teaching."
"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."
"I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him" (Lk 12:4-5).
Jesus teaches that it is better to enter life maimed than to permanently lose your life. The context in Matthew:
"But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna" (Mat 5:22).
"If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna" (Mat 5:29).
"Enter in by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate and the way is restricted that leads to life! There are few who find it" (Mat 7:13-14).
It is better to face bodily harm like losing a limb than to be cast into Gehenna, forfeiting your life completely.
Joseph Dear, Matthew 10:28 is About God, Not the Devil, 2022: "The context of Matthew 10:28 is one of the most key factors in interpreting it. This is not just generically speaking of destroying. Whereas John 10:10 just broadly says the enemy seeks to 'destroy,' Jesus’s words in Matthew get much more specific. Jesus is speaking of hell (Greek gehenna), the place of final punishment."
"If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire."
The very next verse says, "If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire" (Mat 18:9). The parallel of "eternal fire" with "Gehenna of fire" indicates that they are referring to the same fate. The Gehenna of fire is where God's enemies go to die. Gehenna is The Valley of Slaughter. It's a picture of God's enemies being slain, and the dead bodies are utterly consumed by scavengers and fire. Jeremiah 19:6-11 says:
Therefore, behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that this place will no more be called ‘Topheth’, nor ‘The Valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’... I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth... Even so I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that can’t be made whole again. They will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury.”
Jude tells us that Sodom and Gomorrah "are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7). The complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah functions typologically to show the outcome of the unrighteous. The eternal fire represents complete destruction:
"Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground" (Gen 19:24-25).
"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" (2 Pet 2:6).
"You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire... The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?" (Isa 33:11-12, 14).
Eternal fire reflects God's holiness and indicates total devestation from Lord, "for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12:29). Our God is an eternal fire with whom the wicked will face on judgment day.
Chris Date, 5 More Myths About Hell: A Response to Mark Jones and Crossway, 2020: "Throughout his gospel, he has warned that the wicked will be punished with death and destruction by the fires of Gehenna (e.g., 3:12; 7:13-14; 10:28; 13:24-30, 36-43; 18:8-9). Consistent with this message, Jesus here says only the righteous will be granted eternal life... language, then, of eternal punishment and eternal fire, is language warning the unrighteous of eschatological and everlasting death."
Joseph Dear, What the Bible Actually Says About "Eternal Fire" – Part 1 and 2, 2018. Quotes ordered respectively: "Interestingly, Jonathan Edwards, the famous fire-and-brimstone traditionalist, argued that Sodom and Gomorrah both suffered 'eternal fire' and 'eternal destruction' because they were destroyed and are to never be rebuilt... he grants all the points sufficient for the annihilationist here. Sodom and Gomorrah themselves suffered the vengeance of 'eternal fire' in the eternal destruction of those cities, i.e by being destroyed and never coming back, not by their inhabitants being in a state of burning for eternity." "The one time where it is clear what eternal fire actually does, it refers to a fire that destroys everything and does not burn anyone forever. It speaks volumes that a number of passages used to demonstrate the truth of the eternal torment doctrine actually go against that view once they are properly understood."
"His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds."
David Bishop, Eternity in Hell or Forever Dead? Part 2 (Traditionalism vs Conditionalism), 2015: "The third big problem with the traditional argument lies with the notion that the unjust man really can pay his debt to God. After all, the text says his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. This was Origen’s argument, in fact, that those who are condemned at the last day will indeed one day repay their debt and at that day be released from their prison of torture."
Knox Chamblin, Matthew: A Mentor Commentary, Vol 2, (Christian Focus: Ross-Shire, 2010). Chamblin summarizes the teachings of the parables in Matthew 18:23-35 as follows: "disciples do not obey the law to merit God's forgiveness; rather they obey the law-including its command to forgive one's debtors-in grateful acknowledgment of and in response to the amazing grace of God's forgiveness" (pg. 909).
"Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life."
"They told him, 'He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.'"
"Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’"
"The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away" (Ps 112:9).
"Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, 'First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn'... The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mat 13:30, 39-42).
Joseph Dear, Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Do Not Indicate Eternal Torment, 2018: "Weeping and gnashing of teeth need not indicate anything other than people’s emotional reactions to a situation.... The references to weeping and gnashing of teeth do not prove eternal torment because none of the references indicate that the weeping and gnashing of teeth will continue for eternity."
"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
The scope of the punishment is everlasting, eternal, and never-ending. Punishment (κόλασιν, kolasin: from kolazo meaning penal infliction cf. 1 Jn 4:18) can be translated as punishment or penalty, and it does not denote a specific type of punishment. The duration of the punishment is everlasting and the duration of the life is everlasting. There is a parallel in that they both last forever, but there is a contrast in that one is life and the other excludes life.
"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction that comes from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thes 1:9 ESV footnote rendering).
"What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (Rom 9:22).
"those who practice such things are worthy of death" (Rom 1:32).
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:23).
From the very beginning of the Bible, the punishment for sins has always been death while the reward for obedience is eternal life. Even though all still face bodily death, Jesus emphasizes that the second death is complete and eternal. The wicked will not receive atonement for their sins based on the obedience of Christ, but will instead face the wrath of God who will destroy soul and body and cast into Gehenna.
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2).
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says Yahweh. “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 66:22-24).
Matthew, Isaiah, and Daniel indicate that life everlasting is reserved for the righteous only. Daniel tells us that the unrighteous will feel shame when they rise, but he doesn't say they will feel shame forever. Daniel and Isaiah both indicate that the unrighteous will be held in contempt forever by the righteous, but this does not require the unrighteous to be alive. The only punishment with an eternal duration that is consistent with these facts is death. Isaiah says that in the new heavens and new earth, the unrighteous will be dead bodies that are eaten by worms and utterly consumed by fire. This confirms that death, the privation of life, is the punishment for the unrighteous.
"Yahweh preserves all those who love him, but he will destroy all the wicked." (Ps 145:20).
"They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them... Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead." (Isa 26:14, 19 ESV).
"'For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,' says Yahweh of Armies" (Malachi 4:1-3).
Mark Corbett, Does Matthew 25:46 teach eternal torment, universalism, or conditional immortality?, YouTube.
Augustine, City of God, translated by Marcus Dods: "Cicero tells us that the laws recognize eight kinds of penalty,—damages, imprisonment, scourging, reparation, disgrace, exile, death, slavery. Is there any one of these which may be compressed into a brevity proportioned to the rapid commission of the offence, so that no longer time may be spent in its punishment than in its perpetration, unless, perhaps, reparation?... What shall we say of imprisonment? Must the criminal be confined only for so long a time as he spent on the offence for which he is committed?... And as to damages, disgrace, exile, slavery, which are commonly inflicted so as to admit of no relaxation or pardon, do not these resemble eternal punishments in so far as this short life allows a resemblance? For they are not eternal only because the life in which they are endured is not eternal; and yet the crimes which are punished with these most protracted sufferings are perpetrated in a very brief space of time..."
"Then as to the award of death for any great crime, do the laws reckon the punishment to consist in the brief moment in which death is inflicted, or in this, that the offender is eternally banished from the society of the living? And just as the punishment of the first death cuts men off from this present mortal city, so does the punishment of the second death cut men off from that future immortal city. For as the laws of this present city do not provide for the executed criminal’s return to it, so neither is he who is condemned to the second death recalled again to life everlasting."
"But if temporal sin is visited with eternal punishment, how, then, they say, is that true which your Christ says, 'With the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again?' and they do not observe that 'the same measure' refers, not to an equal space of time, but to the retribution of evil or, in other words, to the law by which he who has done evil suffers evil. Besides, these words could be appropriately understood as referring to the matter of which our Lord was speaking when He used them, viz., judgments and condemnation. Thus, if he who unjustly judges and condemns is himself justly judged and condemned, he receives 'with the same measure' though not the same thing as he gave. For judgment he gave, and judgment he receives, though the judgment he gave was unjust, the judgment he receives just."
David Instone-Brewer (Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics at Cambridge), A Consuming Passion, (Eugene: Pickwick, 2015): After reviewing the primary literature in Eternal Punishment in First-Century Jewish Thought, he concludes, "This means the verse stating that 'punishment' is eternal should be understood to mean that torment plus destruction is eternal—without any means of escape—because this is what his contemporaries meant when they used the same language."
Chris Date, Fallin "Into" Error: Grasping at Straws in Matthew 25:46, 2020: "when Jesus speaks of two mutually exclusive final destinies, one of them is 'eternal life.' The alternative, 'eternal punishment,' must therefore be the everlasting punishment of death forever, not embodied immortality and eternal life in hell, as the doctrine of eternal torment teaches."
Joseph Dear, Matthew 25:46 Does Not Prove Eternal Torment – Part 1, 2014: "In a nutshell, when other nouns of action are qualified as eternal, it is often the results of the act, and not the act itself, that lasts for eternity... Few traditionalists, if any, argue that this verse [Hebrews 6:2, '...eternal judgment'] teaches that God is continually judging for eternity, banging his gavel and repeatedly declaring saved or unsaved the same finite number of existent people."
— Matthew 25:46 Does Not Prove Eternal Torment – Part 2, 2014: "In no instance in the Bible does a noun of action from a transitive verb, when qualified as 'eternal,' necessarily refer to the ongoing act. The verb 'live,' however, is an intransitive verb (you live; you can’t live somebody). If 'life' and 'punishment' are not grammatically the same, why would we assume that they must work out exactly the same?"
Mark Corbett, What Does Aionios Mean in Matthew 25:46 and 2 Thessalonians 1:9? (part 1), 2017: "The definition of aionios I have explained here leads to the conclusion that based on Matthew 25:46 and 2 Thessalonians 1:9 those found to be unrighteous on judgment day will experience eternal punishment and specifically eternal destruction. Therefore, they will never enter God’s kingdom and Universalism is false."
Steve Kopp, The Case for Conditional Immortality from Matthew, 2021: "That Jesus is the source of 'eternal salvation' (Heb 5:9) does not mean he goes on saving forever, but that the salvation he offers is eternal... The same is true for 'eternal redemption,' Christ does not go on forever redeeming, but the result of his once for all act of redemption is eternal (Heb 9:12). When it comes to 'eternal punishment' (Matt 25:46) and 'eternal destruction' (2 Thess 1:9), where 'eternal' modifies an action, it seems plausible to suggest that the punishing and destruction do not go on forever, but that there is an act of punishment/destruction which leads to an eternal result."
Patrick Frost, Bart Ehrman is Dead Wrong, 2021: "On page 164 [of Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife], Ehrman writes regarding the Judgement of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46 that Jesus “does not contrast ‘eternal torture’ with ‘eternal reward’ or ‘eternal misery’ with ‘eternal happiness.’ He contrasts the eternal punishment of the wicked with eternal life. What is the opposite of life? It is not torture or misery. It is death.”"
"...cast into the Gehenna of fire, 'where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.'"
Gehenna, shorthand for "The valley of Hinnom," is a place filled with unburied corpses that are eaten by scavengers and burned by fire:
“Therefore behold, the days come”, says Yahweh, “that it will no more be called ‘Topheth’ or ‘The valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away. Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a waste.” (Jer 7:32-42).
Jesus quotes Isaiah 66:24 where it clearly states that corpses are being consumed by fire and maggots, not living beings. The imagery of the unburied corpses, worm and fire in Isaiah is not about eternal conscious torment but emphasizes the shame and complete destruction of the wicked:
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says Yahweh. “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 66:22-24).
The original Hebrew phrase "does not die" doesn't mean "will never die" in other biblical contexts (e.g., Gen 42:20, Ex 30:20, Jer 38:24). It often means "will not die at a particular time or in a particular context." In Isaiah 66:24, it means that the worms will not die before completely devouring the corpses. That is especially clear when it is connected with Gehenna.
Similarly, a fire that "is not quenched" does not imply a fire that burns forever. "Quench" means "extinguish." The fire in Isaiah cannot be extinguished until it fully consumes its fuel. This imagery emphasizes the complete and irreversible nature of the consumption.
D. A. Carson and G. K. Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), pg. 193: Commenting on Mk. 9:48, they explain the context of Isa. 66:24: "By way of invitation, they lay out two eternal destinies: participation in the expansive vision of all flesh coming to worship Yahweh (66:23; cf. 2:1-5) over against, not unlike Mal. 4:4-6, a final, chilling picture of the corpses of the rebels, 'whose worm will not die, and whose fire will not be quenched.'"
Joseph Dear, Introduction to Evangelical Conditionalism – Mark 9:48, 2018. Dear provides two arguments against the traditional interpretation: "1. The Old Testament background of the passage paints a very different picture from the idea of conscious, resurrected people alive in a place of fire and biting worms (or their symbolic equivalent) forever. 2. The terms used about worms not dying and fire not being quenched don’t even mean eternal duration in the first place. That part is read into the passage by people who already believe that hell is a place of eternal torment."
"The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom."
This is about Hades, the intermediate state. This passage doesn't tell us about Gehenna, the final state.
Chris Loewen, Hypocrisy, Not Hell: The Polemic Parable of Lazaruz and the Rich Man, 2017: "the purpose of the parable clearly serves as a harsh polemic against the Pharisees for their hypocritical attitudes of their wealth and blatant ignorance of the poor in their midst... Complementary to the voices of the OT prophets, the parable reveals that the kingdom of God does not function as an exclusive club for the elite, but one that opens wide the doors to the outcasts, the poor, the orphaned and widowed. It shows us what a true child of Abraham looks like."
Joseph Dear, The Case for Luke 16:19-31 as a Parable (Even Though Annihilationism Doesn't Require it), 2023: "This story, whatever it is, depicts the intermediate state. Verse 23 tells us that the rich man was in hades, the place of the dead prior to resurrection and final judgment. It does not tell us what happens after judgment."
Roger Harper, A Place for Torment: Reading the Rich Man and Lazarus Literally, 2019: "when Jesus spoke of the Rich Man in Hades, he spoke of a literal place beyond death, a place in which the man was in conscious torment, able to feel and think and speak. The parable is seen therefore to give us information, albeit limited, about this place, which Jesus called Hades... conditionalist teaching about humans post-judgement is not affected by any teaching about humans prejudgement."
"Whoever seeks to save his life loses [apollumi] it, but whoever loses [apollumi] his life preserves it."
"They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came and destroyed [apollumi] them all" (Lk 17:27).
"but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed [apollumi] them all" (Lk 17:29).
Whoever seeks to save his life in this world will lose it for the next, but whoever loses his life in this world for Jesus' sake will preserve it for eternity.
"He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life" (Jn 12:25).
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Just as the Israelites looked up at the serpent to save their lives for a time, we look to Jesus to save our lives for eternity. Jesus was lifted up on the cross taking on our sin and bearing the curse of the law that was against us, so that we might have life through faith in Him instead of death.
Darren J. Clark, Perish the Thought: How John 6 and 11 Challenge the Traditionalist Reading of John 3:16, 2019: "There is no exegetical warrant for the traditionalist argument that eternal life in John 3:16 refers only to the qualitative or spiritual life of being in relationship with Jesus... In every instance, Jesus uses the same language for normal death and life in this world to describe the eschatological life of the next age... every aspect of the language used by Jesus communicates that those believing in him have access to the source of life itself."
— Perish the Thought, Part 2: More Challenges to the Traditionalist Reading of John 3:16, 2019: "In conclusion, the value of undertaking the initial word study on ἀποθνήσκω was that I was able to verify that this verb lacks any range of meaning that could be used by John to express the idea of death in terms of being alive yet not in relationship with God."
Peter Grice, "Fixing John 3:16"—500 Years After the Reformation, 2017: "Perish means perish. And everlasting life means everlasting life. Still not seeing it? Well, there’s nothing strange or confusing going on. Everlasting life means that your life will be everlasting. And if that’s true, then clearly 'perish' can’t involve everlasting life as well—they are presented as two alternatives! Jesus says a similar thing in John 10:28. He says 'I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.'"
"One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
"This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
"Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
"My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish forever, and no one will seize them out of my hand." [LEB]
"My sheep my voice do hear, and I know them, and they follow me, and life age-during I give to them, and they shall not perish -- to the age, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand;" [YLT]
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die forever.'" [LEB]
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the rising again, and the life; he who is believing in me, even if he may die, shall live; and every one who is living and believing in me shall not die -- to the age;'" [YLT]
"This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ."
"The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life" (Jn 6:63). That means that Jesus' words cause or produce life. "I know that his commandment is eternal life" (Jn 12:50). That means that the Father's commandment results in eternal life. Likewise, John 17:3 presents a cause rather than an algebra equation: Knowing God and Jesus causes eternal life. In other words, this is what causes eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), pg. 57: "Few words with broad semantic range cause more interpretative difficulties than the copula εἰμί (eimi, to be). Caird provides a useful list of what he calls the 'main types' of copula usage in Greek: a. Identity: 'Is the law sin?' (Rom. 7:7) b. Attribute: 'No one is good except God alone' (Mark 10:18) c. Cause: 'To be carnally minded is death' (Rom. 8:6) d. Resemblance: 'The tongue is a fire' (James 3:6)."
Joseph Dear, John 17:3 Does Not Change the Meaning of "Eternal Life", 2020: "At face value, the phrase 'eternal life' would mean life that lasts for eternity... It makes perfect sense to interpret what Jesus says in John 17:3 as a figure of speech to mean that knowing God is what causes eternal life... so much of this seems to be little more than a false narrative, built upon tradition, that tells us that life and death language just obviously is metaphorical and it would be downright outrageous to suggest that a straightforward, face value reading of such language actually could tell us what hell entails."
"there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."
Believers and non-believers will be resurrected on the day of the Lord, but there will be a resurrection of the saved and a resurrection of the unsaved. This dual nature of the resurrection reflects the dual nature of the outcomes. Evil-doers will face "the resurrection of judgment" while the righteous will come out "to the resurrection of life" (Jn 5:29). The unrighteous will awake to "shame" while the righteous will rise to "everlasting life" (Dan 12:2). The consistent contrast of judgment with life reflects the fact that it will not include life. "Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy" (Jam 4:12).
"They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them... Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead." (Isa 26:14, 19 ESV).
"Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, 'It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from yourselves, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.'"