For The Annihilationist: If "hell" is nothing more than the passing out of existence of the wicked, then why is it at all significant to point out the duration (which is identified as unending) of fires and worms (Mark 9:43, 48)? What difference would it make to someone who is hellbound whether fires and worms lasted forever or only for the instant it took for them to pass into non-existence?
For The Christian Materialist: Precisely what part of you can be destroyed by God in hell that cannot be destroyed by those whom we shouldn't fear (Matthew 10:28)?
2 comments:
This completely confuses the heck out of me. :(
Annihiliationists are those that think "hell" is nothing more than the wicked going out of existence--that there's notreallya place where the wicked will continue to exist and be punished. Jesus gives some comments about hell in Mark 9, and if the annihilationists are right, his comments don't make much sense to me, because He makes references that focus on certain things *enduring* in hell such as the worm and the fire. if hell is just going out of existence, then how *long* fires and worms last really doesn't matter at all, does it? And yet, Jesus says those things as though those were scary details.
Christian materialists are those who believe you really are nothing more than a body--you don't have a "soul" in the sense of some ghost that lives inside you. There are religious people who think that the Bible teaches that you are entirely physical and there's nothing non-physical about you (Peter van Inwagen is one). There's a verse in Matthew though where Jesus seems to treat the body and soul as separable. And i don't see how a person could make sense of what He said if we are nothing more than an organism--a physical body that's alive.
Did that help at all?
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