Battle for Hell: A Survey and Evaluation of Evangelicals' Growing Attraction to the Doctrine of Annihilationsim, The

The Battle for Hell: A Survey and Evaluation of Evangelicals' Growing Attraction to the Doctrine of Annihilationism. By David George Moore. Lanham: University Press of America, 1995, 103 pp., n.p. paper.

Moore has summarized (somewhat briefly) a number of important issues regarding a Biblical doctrine of the fate of the lost. He defines key terms and surveys those whom he refers to as "evangelicals who object to the doctrine of hell" (S. Travis, J. Wenham, J. Stott and C. Pinnock). Some might charge Moore with equivocating the term "hell" with the traditional view of eternal conscious punishment, for the evangelicals he surveys insist they have not rejected the doctrine of hell but rather the traditional view. Although I agree with Moore's understanding of hell as eternal conscious punishment, it would have been helpful if he had acknowledged that such evangelicals themselves believe they continue to hold to a doctrine of hell.

Much of this text evaluates Pinnock's theological journey and the conclusions to which he has come on the fate of the lost. Pinnock's belief that Greek philosophy played a formative role in the concept of the immortality of the soul is mentioned by Moore, but Moore fails to critique Pinnock's dangerous statement that the NT writers "surrendered entirely to Hellenism" (implying doctrinal contamination in the first century; see Theological Crossfire, p. 220).

Moore argues that the eternal conscious punishment view is the traditional one and that the burden of proof lies with those who challenge it. Moore discusses the annihilationist argument from the Greek term for "destroy" (although he fails to notify the reader that 1 Cor 3:17 uses a different term), concluding that "destroy" can mean lost or wasted rather than annihilated. Destruction, he points out, is only one image used to portray hell. Other images seemingly overlooked by writers like E. Fudge (such as punishment, privation, exclusion, or banishment) do not naturally lead one to conclude that the wicked shall cease to exist.

Moore discusses other common objections to the eternal conscious punishment view (such as the issue of eternal punishment for finite sins) as well as the problematic texts (for the annihilationist) of Matthew 25, Revelation 14, and Revelation 20. Moore might have done more to defend the traditional doctrine of man's immortal soul, in my opinion.

Emotional challenges to the eternal conscious punishment view are discussed, and Moore helpfully considers the issue of man being in the image of God, the corresponding "beastlikeness" of unregenerate man, and the doctrine of man's depravity.

Stylistic peculiarities, as well as grammatical infelicities (comma splices, wrong cases of nouns, etc.), detract a bit from Moore's presentation. Occasionally he overfootnotes-a temptation, it seems to me, to bolster one's argument by unnecessarily citing other scholars. There are also several occasions where he documents secondary rather than primary sources for his data.

His last two chapters briefly treat the challenge of modernity (Moore says nothing about the challenge of postmodernity), the failure of Christians to focus on the afterlife, the lack of preaching on judgment, discordant views of evangelical scholars, and misunderstandings about hell that he asserts all contribute to the attack on the traditional view. Moore calls the Church to a Biblically-informed compassion for the lost, challenges pastors to proclaim the whole counsel of God (including topics like sin and hell), and warns Christians of the dangers of alternative views on the fate of the lost. Moore's concluding bibliography provides much help for those who wish to study this difficult doctrine for themselves.

I recommend this text as an important overview of this critical issue of belief.

Larry E. Dixon

Providence College, Otterburne, Manitoba

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Dec 1998
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