Annihilationism is the belief that unredeemed individuals will not suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire after Judgment but will be extinguished or exterminated (upon entering it). Religious groups that hold this view include Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christadelphians.
Annihilationism stems from the belief that God’s loving character and nature are incompatible with Him sentencing unbelievers to eternal, conscious suffering in the Lake of Fire for their sins. Hence, Annihilationism views Bible passages that depict the destruction of the wicked as their literal and utter destruction—body, soul, and spirit—and those referring to eternal punishment depict the everlasting and irreversible state of their extinction (i.e., annihilation), not an unending punishment of cognizant suffering after death.
However, the Bible does not teach that the punishment for unbelievers after Judgment is annihilation. Instead, it consistently describes it as an eternal and conscious torment and anguish in outer darkness and unquenchable fire after Judgment for rejecting the only means for forgiveness and salvation—Jesus Christ.
Many Bible passages contradict the belief that unsaved individuals will be annihilated. For example, Revelation 19:20 identifies two unbelievers who are cast alive into the Lake of Fire before the 1,000-year reign of Christ begins: the false prophet and the antichrist. Revelation 20:10 says that these two individuals are still alive in the Lake of Fire after 1,000 years when Satan is “thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also.” It does not say that Satan was cast into the Lake of Fire, where the false prophet and antichrist “once were” or “used to be.” Rather, it describes these individuals as alive and existent when Satan joins their demise. Revelation 20:10 concludes by announcing, “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever,” which clearly portrays all three, not just Satan.
This verse (and others) does not depict the Lake of Fire as an incinerator that permanently eliminates from existence everything cast into it. Nor does it describe a place where only the false prophet, antichrist, and Satan will be tormented day and night forever, but the rest of the ungodly (cast into it) are annihilated. Instead, it describes a place of conscious and eternal torment for all who are subjected there, including everyone whose name was not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life during Judgment. Revelation 20:15 says, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Another portion of Scripture that contradicts annihilation is Revelation 14:9-11, which describes the eternal torment awaiting those who take the mark of the beast during the Tribulation. Verse 10 declares that they will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” Verse 11 details their punishment as eternal by stating, “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” These chilling statements do not describe extermination or extinction but conscious and unending suffering in the Lake of Fire.
A third Bible passage that contradicts annihilation is Matthew 13:40-42. In them, Jesus revealed that unbelievers would suffer agonizing torment in the Lake of Fire after Judgment. He stated, “At the end of the age, the Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Unbelievers would not be able to “weep and gnash their teeth” in the Lake of Fire if they no longer existed. Furthermore, Jesus’ terrifying declaration of their demise does not convey momentary or short-lived wailing and teeth-gnashing but an ongoing response to the perpetual agony and torment of that place.
A fourth section of Scripture that contradicts annihilation is Jude 1:6-7, “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
This text reveals that those who sinned in Sodom and Gomorrah and were destroyed physically by fire on Earth are currently and consciously suffering the wrath of eternal fire in Hell, along with certain demons. Jude also expressed how their present, conscious torment is a sampling of what will continue after Judgment in the Lake of Fire. Hence, their “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” is an unending and everlasting state of torment, not temporary.
Another biblical fact that contradicts the idea of annihilation is Scripture’s description of the Lake of Fire as a place of unquenchable and everlasting fire (Matthew 3:12, 25:41), where disgrace and everlasting contempt are experienced (Daniel 12:2). Unbelievers cannot undergo or experience eternal disgrace, shame, and contempt if they are extinguished. Furthermore, the Lake of Fire’s eternality, unquenchable flames, and everlasting smoke serve no purpose if those cast into it are annihilated.
Lastly, Jesus said in Matthew 25:46, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The same Greek word for “eternal” (aionios) was used to describe the duration of unbelievers’ punishment and the duration of life for believers. It is problematic to claim that the eternal duration of unbelievers’ punishment is temporary, ending in annihilation, when the eternal duration of life for believers is everlasting, given that the verse plainly conveys that both are equally endless.
(See the Scripture References link at the top of the page.)
