Thoughtful Reflections on Faith and Life
The first time I encountered what is often called annihilationism was in a talk about the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The idea that God would just cause the wicked to cease to exist was another blatant example of how heretical the Jehovah’s Witnesses really were. But then I heard about well respected evangelical scholars such … Read More “My Move Toward Conditional Immortality” »
If you were to ask the average person on the street what they think Christianity says about where people go when they die, they would probably respond with: “Either heaven or hell.” Is the Christian position as simple as heaven or hell? For some people, it would be that simple. But within the Christian Church, … Read More “What is the Eternal Fate of Non-Christians?” »
Many people equate religion with belief in the afterlife and some might even expect that to be the driving force behind most religions. When it comes to the Bible, most people understand the afterlife in fairly clear categories of heaven and hell. The truth is that what most people think the Bible says about the … Read More “5 Things You Might Not Know About the Bible and the Afterlife” »
Christians focus on the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday: the death and resurrection of Jesus. But where was Jesus between those two events? The easy answer is the grave. However, when people ask this question, they are thinking more of his spirit/soul than his physical body. His body was in the tomb, but … Read More “Where Was Jesus Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?” »
I’m teaching a course on Contemporary Religious Movements at Tyndale University College. One of the common beliefs shared by a number of these groups is belief in annihilationism of conditional immortality. The question to be asked is, is belief in annihilation another sign of their heretical belief or is in the category of interest in … Read More “Orthodox Christians and Conditional Immortality” »
The following blog post is a guest post by Graham Ware. This is not Graham’s first guest post for me. As a fellow autism dad, Graham wrote this post for my autism blog. I know that this is a controversial topic. I’m agnostic myself when it comes to the topic, although I do see good … Read More “The Case for Conditional Immortality: A Brief(ish) Summary” »
The purpose of this post is not to argue for a particular theory about hell. I simply want to make some clarifications to help people have a more biblical understanding. Here are six things that you should take into consideration when talking about hell. 1. Sheol The Hebrew word that is translated as hell in … Read More “6 Things You Need to Know About Hell” »
One of the most well known verses in the Gospels is this: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18 ESV) Protestants often spend their time arguing about the meaning of the rock and why it … Read More “What are the Gates of Hell?” »
I heard on a podcast this morning a question about why God didn’t create a world where more or even all people went to heaven. No one is comfortable with the idea of people going to hell. But the question I am interested in is: Does this contradict the idea of God as being loving? … Read More “A Loving God and Hell” »
I was recently listening to a podcast about annihilationism, that is the belief that the wicked do not suffer for eternity in hell but are simply destroyed. I am not planning on discussing the merits of this view at the present time. But it did make me think about another talk I heard about the … Read More “Annihilationism and Evangelism” »
Very often I encounter people who reject God with one reason being the Christian belief of hell. Most often this is based on a misunderstanding of hell. I think N.T. Wright does a great job of explaining the meaning of hell. It is worth watching. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vggzqXzEvZ0&feature=player_embedded]
A fellow blogger recently posted his reasons for walking away from Christianity. The last I checked, there were almost a thousand responses to his post. He obviously struck a nerve with both believers and unbelievers. You see his post here. I do not presume to tell him or anyone else what to believe. However, I … Read More “Losing His Religion” »
