The Heresy of Annihilationism

There will be a lake of fire, that is a fact, but hell is not the lake of fire.
The lake of fire does not yet exist...it will at Judgment day,
but that is only after the millennial period.

Malachi 4:1 is a little misqotued
"For Behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall bestubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the lord of host, that is shall leave them neither root nor branch ".

so I gather you are in the annihilation camp? y/n?

the wages of sin is death

Actually the lake of fire will exist at the beginning of the millennium. That is where the beast and false prophet will be cast (Revelation 19:20).

Destroy = Complete loss of well being, eternal ruination

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I agree that ample scripture bears out that something changed after Jesus' resurrection and that it appears post resurrection that there is an awareness in death rather than sleep as before.

I do not, however, find evidence that this awareness will continue for humans after the second death.

only if your thinking had biblical support you have to contend with the word of God which says other wise and the Lord Himself.

Hello CS1! Great article, succinct and to the point. Therefore, instead of them going to the site, I'll post it here:

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Will Wicked People Be Annihilated in Hell?

by Wayne Jackson

Why do you believe that those who die lost will be consciously punished eternally, when the Bible says they will be “destroyed” (Matthew 10:28)?

The question clearly indicates that the author is a conditionalist. A conditionalist is one who believes that at some point following death, those who die estranged from God will be annihilated, i.e., cease to exist. This is the dogma of the Seventh-day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a few other misguided religionists.

In one of his discourses Jesus declared:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt. 10:28 NASB).

The Greek word for “destroy” is apolesai, which derives from the verb form apollumi. The verb occurs about ninety times, and a noun form is found some eighteen times. I do not know of a single reputable English translation that renders the term in any instance, “to go out of existence.” It is translated by such common English words as “perish,” “destroy,” “lose,” or “lost.”

The term is employed of physical items that lose their usefulness. A wineskin that cracks open and is no longer usable is said to “perish” (Lk. 5:37). A sheep that wanders away from the safety of the fold is described as “lost” (Lk. 15:4, 6), i.e., separated from the shepherd. The wayward prodigal son was “lost” to his father (Lk. 15:24), though certainly not annihilated. Food that spoils is said to have “perished” (Jn. 6:27).

When the disciples were fearful of drowning in a storm on the sea of Galilee, they awoke the sleeping Lord, and exclaimed, “[W]e are perishing,” employing a present tense form of apollumi (Mt. 8:25). Surely they were not saying, “Lord, we are in the process of going out of existence.”

Regarding apollumi, W. E. Vine comments: “The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of well-being” (1991, 211).

Renowned scholar J. H. Thayer defined apollumi, with reference to Matthew 10:28, in the following fashion: “metaphorically, to devote or give over to eternal misery” (1958, 64).

Professor Oepke argues that apollumi does not suggest a mere “extinction of physical existence”; rather it involves the hopeless desperation of eternal separation from God (1964, 396).

Of apollumi in Matthew 10:28, A. T. Robertson writes: “‘Destroy’ here is not annihilation, but eternal punishment” (1930, 83).

It is hardly necessary to pile up additional testimony from respected New Testament scholars.

Finally, the Scriptures themselves clearly give the true sense of apollumi.

In Revelation 17:8, 11, John describes the wicked beast who so opposed God as going into “perdition” (apoleian). However, in 20:10 the same writer, alluding to the same beast, describes his destiny as one of being “tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Clearly, that is not utter extinction.

The conditionalist dogma of eventual annihilation for the wicked is false, and those who advocate this view are doing a great disservice to the cause of truth.

try reading Rev 21

I disagree that it is deflection. Those who think they were born without Gods' eternal Spirit in them but only receive His eternal Spirit after their new birth, will automatically be able to do no other than believe the second death is actual and total death rather than an eternal life of misery.

So if you can see that this is really where the root of their objection is, the topic of receiving eternal life versus already having eternal life almost has to come up. And if it doesn't, it is always lurking there beneath the surface, making them look plain old stupid to you.

if you can't see Jesus is the authority on "hell" and when He speaks about the eternal state of hell and move the topic to something other then the one given without providing proof to refute Biblical context , that is classic deflection .

Actually, I would think Revelation 20 would be at least a little more supportive of what you say is true...at least it has the unholy trinity being said to be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Except that now, the wages of sin is being said to not be death but to rather be eternal life of torment.
So you would have to change it to say: For the wages of sin is an eternal life of torment but the gift of God is eternal life...

NO people we all were born with the breath of life but not eternal life of the flesh, that will die and rotten until the resurrection this is why the word of God tells us In REV how all the dead were standing before the the great white Throne Judgement . and this who were not found in the book of life that were dead already went to place for eternity it's what is says . Rev 21 . that place where they go is describe to be place that will be for ever . Annhilationsim is not only error those who hold to are unwieldy to keep the word of God in context and unwieldy to take The Words of Jesus as authority when HE said forever and ever. I'm sorry but again Jesus is the Authority on the topic. and if you remember the Book of REV is the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ which is consistent with the whole Bible and all four Gospels . You are in error your argument is with what Jesus said .

No, not so, CS1.
My argument is not with what Jesus said. My argument is with your interpretation of what He said.

This is what Strongs says about the word translated into English as perish:

Strong's Concordance
apollumi: to destroy, destroy utterly
Original Word: ἀπόλλυμι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: apollumi
Phonetic Spelling: (ap-ol'-loo-mee)
Short Definition: I destroy, lose, am perishing
Definition: (a) I kill, destroy, (b) I lose, mid: I am perishing (the resultant death being viewed as certain).
HELPS Word-studies
622 apóllymi (from 575 /apó, "away from," which intensifies ollymi, "to destroy") – properly, fully destroy, cutting off entirely (note the force of the prefix, 575 /apó).

622 /apóllymi ("violently/completely perish") implies permanent (absolute) destruction, i.e. to cancel out (remove); "to die, with the implication of ruin and destruction" (L & N, 1, 23.106); cause to be lost (utterly perish) by experiencing a miserable end.

[This is also the meaning of 622 /apóllymi dating back to Homer (900 bc.]