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). Some 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 His sentencing of unbelievers to eternal, conscious suffering in the lake of fire for their sins. Hence, Annihilationism views Bible passages depicting the destruction of the wicked as their literal and utter destruction—body, soul, and spirit. It also asserts that references to unbelievers’ eternal punishment signify the irreversible and everlasting state of their annihilation as opposed to a continuous state of conscious suffering after death.
However, the Bible does not teach annihilation. It clearly and consistently depicts unbelievers’ punishment as eternal, conscious torment and anguish in outer darkness and unquenchable fire, which is their everlasting destruction for rejecting the only means of forgiveness and salvation available: Jesus Christ.
This fact about unbelievers suffering conscious torment after death is conveyed in numerous Bible passages, including those below:
Revelation 19:20 identifies two unbelievers whom God casts 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.”
The Bible does not say that the false prophet and antichrist “used to be” or “once were” in the lake of fire (where Satan is cast), but describes them as alive and present 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 suffering, not just Satan.
Additionally, everyone whose names are not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will join the false prophet, antichrist, and Satan in the lake of fire to suffer the same everlasting fate. 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.”
Revelation 14:9-11 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 of torment 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 everlasting suffering in the lake of fire
Jesus revealed in Matthew 13:40-42 that unbelievers would suffer agonizing torment in the lake of fireafter Judgment, as evidenced by them weeping and gnashing their teeth. He said, “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.” (See also Matthew 8:12, 22:13, and 25:30.)
The acts of wailing and gnashing one’s teeth cannot be expressed or enacted by those who no longer exist. Instead, they are behaviors that require conscious existence to execute, and denote the extreme anguish and utter despair unbelievers will endure in the fiery furnace (i.e., lake of fire).
Furthermore, Jesus’ depiction of the fiery furnace did not portray it as a place of momentary or short-lived “weeping and gnashing of teeth” or an extermination chamber, but as one characterized by the ongoing sounds and responses of those confined and subjected to its eternal fury.
The book of Jude says 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, and that their present torment is a sampling of what will continue in the lake of fire after Judgment.
Jude 1:6-7 states, “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.”
Matthew 25:46 used the same Greek word for “eternal” (“aionios”) to describe the duration of unbelievers’ punishment (in the lake of fire) and the duration of believers’ life in Heaven—conveying the everlasting and continuous state of each. Jesus said in this passage, “These will go away into eternal [“aionios”] punishment, but the righteous into eternal [“aionios”] life.”
It is problematic to claim that the “eternal punishment” for unbelievers is instant extermination, causing them to cease from existence, when the “eternal life” for the righteous is everlasting and unending, especially when Jesus clearly conveyed both durations as equally endless.
The Bible consistently describes 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). As such, unbelievers cannot undergo or experience eternal disgrace, shame, and contempt if they no longer exist. Plus, the eternality of the lake of fire and its unquenchable flames and everlasting smoke serve no purpose if those cast into it are annihilated.
I hope you found this information helpful and informative, and that it equips you to share the truth with those who teach or believe Annihilationism is biblical.
