Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Annihilationism (conditional immortality)

The view that immortality is a gift given only to the redeemed, so that the lost, after a just judgment, finally cease to exist rather than suffering forever.

From 'annihilate', to reduce to nothing; also 'conditionalism' (immortality is conditional on redemption).

Matthew 10:28 ('destroy both soul and body in hell'); John 3:16 ('should not perish'); Romans 6:23 ('the wages of sin is death'); Philippians 3:19; 2 Peter 3:7; Malachi 4:1–3; 1 Corinthians 15:53 and 1 Timothy 6:16 (immortality as gift). aiōnios read as denoting the permanence of the result (as 'eternal redemption', Heb 9:12).

Ancient minor advocates (Arnobius); revived in the 19th century (Edward White) and defended in the 20th (Basil Atkinson, Edward Fudge's The Fire That Consumes, John Wenham), with John Stott stating it 'tentatively' (1988). It has moved from 'heresy' to a recognised minority evangelical position in significant quarters.

The lost are really and consciously judged 'according to what they have done', then perish — 'the second death'. Advocates argue it fits the dominant 'perish/destroy' vocabulary and eases the proportionality problem.

Against eternal conscious punishment (esp. Matthew 25:46's parallelism and Revelation 14:11; 20:10); the traditionalist reads 'destruction' as ruin, not extinction, and cites the near-unanimous witness of church history.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.