Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
All right, so Derek is asking how did the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in Hell become the majority held view in Christianity? How can I show a biblical explanation of conditional immortality immorality?
Speaker 2
This is an easy question, right, Tina?
Speaker 3
Definitely. This is interesting. Yeah, this is a great question. And honestly, the answer there’s a lot to it. And if I was going to tell you all of the historical information, obviously the first website I would tell you to go to, to ask this question is Bible ask or we have a lot of answers about questions like this, but I’ll give you this summary. But there’s also a really great website called The Truth about Hell and they actually have a really good explanation on this as well. The historical view as far as where the idea of eternal Hellfire came from, it’s actually from Plato, it’s from Greek mythology. And so basically there was this idea of that Plato had, he was a philosopher, he wasn’t a religious person per se, he was a philosopher and he believed that while those he believed in the immortality of the soul, he came up with this idea. And so later on there were theologians who took this concept and merged it into Christianity in the idea that while those who were good, who are God’s people and would enjoy the bliss of eternal life, he then decided to say, well, those that are lost, they must have eternal suffering.
Speaker 3
And that’s where this idea of eternal Hellfire came from. It’s not an old theology, this is a newer theology. It came around, I think around 300 Ad. One hundreds of years after Jesus. So this is not anything that Jesus taught. Eternal Hell is not a biblical truth. It’s not. And if you look at the Bible and you start to see, just looking at basic Bible verses like John 316, it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So it’s either perish, which is eternal loss, you’re dead forever, you’re gone, or eternal life. There’s so many other verses that are out there that go into that the day of the Lord will burn as an oven, those that don’t believe they will consume away. We see that in the Book of Psalms, the Lord’s day is an oven. That’s in Malachi, there’s all these verses that show us that, hey, when people are when they’re lost and their result is Hell, that’s their punishment. It’s not an eternal place of torment. Now, some people say, oh, that’s not true, because I read in the Book of Revelation that it says that the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.
Speaker 3
However, it says that those who are lost on castle like a fire and yeah, the smoke might go up, but they are consumed away. Smoke will just keep going until it hits a ceiling and in space. There is no ceiling. The universe is not really a ceiling because God is eternal. His universe is beyond measure. And so that’s the only verse that I think people have any grounds to kind of think that maybe hell is an eternal place of torment. However, it is not. The Bible is very clear throughout the Bible, from Old Testament to New Testament, that the wicked are consumed and they consume away. They burn up, they consume up. That’s what happens. And I’m very thankful because there’s no way any of us could be in heaven. Happy knowing that forever, for 50 years of sin that somebody may have done, that they are burning forever. That goes completely contrary to God’s character of justice and love. So there’s that as far as where that came from. And how can you show a biblical explanation of conditional immortality? Well, my friend, that is a great question. Part two of this I might actually ask Jay or Wendy real quick.
Speaker 3
Any thoughts on the first half of this question?
Speaker 2
No, I could go on forever too, so it’s a good summary.
Speaker 3
Okay, very cool. I’m sorry, I’m trying to get my Bible first up. I apologize. Today has been an interesting day. I think every time we do our show, we always have a bit of a spiritual battle in our life that God is showing us his power, but the devil is definitely trying to distract and keep us from going. But I’m just so grateful God is bigger than all of our problems.
Speaker 2
Sorry, I guess I could add, like you definitely want to stay for we have a question about and walk us through all of Revelations. I’m going to have a chart where I’m going to show us basically what Revelation shows and how we have this whole descent of Christianity into a policy. And this is where we get all of these doctrines really becoming the majority view.
Speaker 3
Sure. I’ll quickly summarize my answer then for part two. As far as understanding the conditional immortality, I would say the best verse to go to is Romans, chapter six, verse 23. And it says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so what you see here is the wages of sin is not eternal life, burning, suffering forever, but rather it’s death. And the Book of Revelation calls it the second death. So everybody dies one time and then the judgment, as the Bible says, and after this judgment has taken place, if you’re lost, you get the second death, which is where you’re consumed up and you die. And that’s it. No more. You will never be resurrected. So that is the wages of sin, eternal death, never to be resurrected. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we see here that that’s very important as far as understanding that our gift of eternal life is only to those who receive it by the merits of Jesus Christ. And we know that this conditional immortality is important to understand because only one person has immortality, which is God.
Speaker 3
And you see that in one Timothy, chapter six, verses 15 and 16. And verse 15 basically says he who is blessed and only potent, king of Kings, Lord of Lords. And verse 16 says who alone has immortality, dwelling in an unapproachable light, who no man has seen or can’t see, to whom be honored and everlasting power. Amen. So only God has immortality, and we are only able to have immortality if we accept again the merits of Jesus for eternal life. And it’s very clear also from one Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 53 and 54, it says, for this corruptible, so our flesh, our corruptible, must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And then it repeats it. So when this corruptible has put on encryption and the mortal has put on immortality, then she’ll be brought to pass. The thing which is death is swallowed up in victory. So basically that eternal death that we should have, that the wages of sin is death, we should die. But the gift of God is eternal life, which is immortality, as we see here in these verses. So I hope that that’s pretty clear and concise.
Speaker 3
But I’ll definitely let my friend Jay talk all about revelation and all the good wonderful things going on there that also ties into this question. Jeremy, again, any thoughts before we move on?
Speaker 2
No? Well done.
For full episode:
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For more on this topic check out The Fate of the Transgressor.
In His Service
BibleAsk Team
