Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue

Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue. Edward William Fudge and Robert A. Peterson. Downers Grove: IVP, 2000, 228 pp., $12.99 paper.

As this new millennium emerges, the doctrine of hell has become an important and controversial topic in contemporary evangelicalism. The rising interest likely stems from the current debate among evangelicals over annihilationism (sometimes called "conditionalism"). Although belief in annihilationism has existed for centuries, the teaching of it through evangelical publications is fairly recent. In 1974, InterVarsity Press hesitantly published John Wenham's The Goodness of God, in which Wenham embraced annihilationism. That same year InterVarsity Press printed Stephen Travis's The Jesus Hope, in which he tentatively embraced conditionalism. Edward Fudge then wrote "Putting Hell in Its Place" for Christianity Today (6 August 1976), "The Final End of the Wicked" for JETS (September 1984), and his massive The Fire that Consumes (Houston: Providential Press, 1984), the most thorough defense of conditionalism written recently. In 1988, evangelical statesman John Stott admitted that he "tentatively" held to annihilationism (Evangelical Essentials, IVP). The issue quickly escalated. Philip Hughes resigned from Westminster Theological Seminary and advocated conditionalism in The True Image (Eerdmans, 1989). Well-known scholars such as Clark Pinnock, Michael Green, Earle Ellis, and Robert Brow have since followed suit.

Evangelicals holding to the conscious, endless punishment of unbelievers refused to sit by idly. They responded using philological, exegetical, philosophical, polemical, and theological methodologies. Robert Peterson's Hell on Trial (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1995) stands out as the best argument for endless punishment written recently.

The genius of Two Views of Hell is that it brings the leading defender of endless punishment, Robert Peterson, together with the leading proponent of conditionalism, Edward Fudge. Peterson is Professor of Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, edits the journal Presbyterion, and is the author of Calvin's Doctrine of the Atonement, Getting to Know John's Gospel, Hell on Trial, and numerous articles. Fudge, a lawyer in Houston, has written a commentary on Hebrews, The Fire that Consumes, several privately published books, and numerous articles.

Two Views on Hell opens with a brief introduction to the evangelical debate surrounding annihilationism. Fudge then contends for conditionalism, which Peterson critiques. Peterson subsequently offers his rationale for endless punishment, to which Fudge responds.

Fudge begins with a denial of the traditional doctrine of hell: "The fact is that the Bible does not teach the traditional view of final punishment. Scripture nowhere suggests that God is an eternal torturer. It never says the damned will writhe in ceaseless torment or that the glories of heaven will forever be blighted by the screams from hell. The idea of conscious everlasting torment was a grievous mistake, a horrible error, a gross slander against the heavenly Father, whose character we truly see in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Scripture instead teaches that those who go to hell will experience 'everlasting destruction' in `the second death,' for God is able to `destroy both the body and soul in hell"'" (pp. 20-21). He proceeds by rejecting the immortality of the soul as unbiblical and derivative of Greek thought and instead proposes conditional immortality, the idea that God bestows immortality only to believers by virtue of their union with Christ. Fudge then peruses various OT passages and suggests that divine judgment was linked with total destruction. He suggests that the devastation through the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serve as prototypes of divine judgment. He argues that "everlasting burning" is synonymous with "consuming fire" in Isa 33:14. Fudge also interprets Isaiah's phrase "their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched" (66:24) as signifying disgrace and indicative of complete destruction. He understands the reference to "everlasting contempt" in Dan 12:1-2 to mean irreversible disintegration.

Using his interpretations of the OT as his foundation, Fudge considers the teaching on hell in the NT. He concludes that the expression "weeping and gnashing of teeth" refers to the extreme misery and rage of those under judgment, that Jesus' parable in Luke 16:19-31 does not refer to the final state, and that Gehenna implies destruction. He argues that punishment will be eternal in that it occurs in the age to come or that its results are irreversible. Fudge later claims: "What the cross shows us is a picture of total destruction and death from which God alone can deliver" (p. 55). He then interprets 2 Thess 1:5-11 based on his conclusions on Isaiah 66 and understands Rev 14:9-11 and 20:7-15 according to his theses about the meaning of "destruction" and "eternal."

Fudge concludes by pointing out that one's view of hell flows from one's conclusions concerning the nature of human immortality, God's justice, and divine love. He asks: "But are we to believe that God, who `so loved' the world that he gave His only Son to die for our sins (Jn 3:16), will also keep millions of sinners alive so he can torment them endlessly throughout all eternity?" (p. 81). He concludes that conditionalism "frees us from pagan notions of indestructible souls which even God cannot destroy, of vindictive deities who delight in tormenting their victims, of men and women doomed to writhe in agonizing pain forever and ever without end" (p. 82).