Contemporary Thoughts: Challenging the Tradition

Evangelicalism grew tremendously in the United States in the last century and now, according to a 1996 survey, an estimated third of Americans identify with Bebbington’s four principals of evangelicalism (conversionism, Biblicism, activism, and crucicentrism), and over half identify with at least three [7]. Needless to say, evangelicals have become a major part of American culture over the course of the last century, and their beliefs have been influential.

Hogan says “even the church is drawing back from the hell myth, realizing that it has no Biblical basis and is simply incompatible with a loving God,” [6]. Gomes argues that like many fringe groups before them (e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists), many mainstream Christians are now rejecting eternal damnation in favor of annihilationism [5]. He says “the rejection of eternal punishment is but one incident in the larger campaign to construct a kinder, gentler theology,” [5]. More generally, I think this movement for a gentler theology and kinder God is reflective of our (perceived) refined society. A violent, angry God who punishes his enemies with eternal physical torment was acceptable in a culture where public hangings were a regular spectacle, but is disconcerting to the politically corrected modern eye. On the flip side, a God of forgiveness and providence may have seemed unrealistic to the impoverished masses of earlier societies, while it might seem perfectly necessary to a first world resident.

Annihilationism retains the justice of the Heaven and Hell system by reserving Heaven for believers, but replaces the vengefulness of eternal torment with the simple gift of death. The threat of punishment is replaced with the promise of reward. Sinners can’t go to heaven and live eternally in the presence of the divine, but they don’t have to suffer eternally either – death (or the Second Coming, in some theologies) is simply the end. Gomes quotes Clark Pinnock who expresses the preference of death over damnation: "Everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die," [5].

An inverse theory to annihilationism is conditional immortality, which also includes the cessation of existence for sinners, but rather than treating it as annihilation of the soul, teaches that the soul is not inherently eternal, but that eternal life is granted by God to his followers through salvation [5]. This theory is even more salvation based than annihilationism, but from Gomes argument, I gather that it’s less popular. Some more radical evangelicals may go so far as to accept universalism (everyone is saved), but evangelical churches have officially rejected it [5].

Gomes ultimately argues that while censure of the glee “with which some evangelicals speak about Hell” is legitimate, there is sufficient Biblical evidence of eternal damnation to prove its existence, and I think many fundamentalists are still dealing with this issue of Biblical authority and interpretation.