Position · 1846

Annihilationism

The view, also called conditional immortality, that the lost will not suffer forever but will finally be destroyed and cease to exist.

Holders argue that the soul is not naturally immortal, that eternal life is God’s gift to the saved, and that biblical words such as “destruction” and “perish” mean what they say. The punishment is eternal in its result, not in its duration. The view had earlier advocates and gained a modern following in nineteenth-century Britain, including Edward White’s Life in Christ (1846). It drew wide evangelical attention when John Stott tentatively endorsed it in Evangelical Essentials (1988), and Clark Pinnock defended it too. It is debated within most traditions rather than held officially. Critics answer that Scripture describes the punishment of the lost as lasting as long as the life of the saved.