Annihilationism: Encyclopedia II - Annihilationism - Annihilationism in Christianity

Annihilationism - Annihilationism in Christianity

In contrast to Traditionalism, which holds that the wicked will suffer in torment forever, and Universalism, which holds that all humanity will eventually be saved, Annhilationism concludes that, although God may use hell to exact some conscious punishment for sins, he will eventually destroy or annihilate the wicked completely, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality.

The doctrine is often, although not always, bound-up with the notion of "Conditional Immortality", a belief that the soul is not innately immortal. At death, both the wicked and righteous will pass into non-existence, only to be resurrected (or more precisely re-created) at the Final Judgment. God, who alone is immortal, passes on the gift of immortality to the righteous, who will live forever in heaven or on an idyllic earth, while the wicked will ultimately face a second death.

The vast majority of Christian writers, from Tertullian to Luther, have held to traditional notions of hell. However, the Annihilationist position is not without some historical warrant. Early forms of conditional immortality can be found in the writing of Justin Martyr (d. 165) and Theophilus of Antioch (d. 185), although Amobius (d. 330) was the first to defend annihilationism explicitly. The Second Council of Constantinople (553) and later the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17) condemned the idea. Since the Reformation, Annihilationism has periodically surfaced, as in the 1660 confession of the General Baptists.

Today the doctrine is most often associated with groups descended from William Miller and the Adventist movement of the mid-1800s (see Millerites), including Seventh-day Adventists, Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the various Advent Christian churches. Recently, a handful of evangelical theologians, including the prominent evangelical Anglican author John Stott, have offered at least tentative support for the doctrine, touching off a heated debate within mainstream evangelical Christianity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Annihilationism in Christianity", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki