To leave them alone? Beloved . What are we to do with Revelation 18:20, where God brings down his wrath on Babylon’s people, then says, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”? –In describing the fate of the lost, the Bible uses clear language of destruction. To forgive them? Please consider supporting our ministry by becoming a monthly partner. argue for the eternal conscious torment of hell and the texts used Because the young man thought he was worshiping and pursuing the true God (emeth is a Hebrew word for faithfulness or truth), Aslan told Emeth, “Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.”. . scriptural teaching regarding the eternity of the torment of the InterVarsity Press, 2001), attempts to handle the texts used to He referred to hell as a real place (Matthew 10:28; 13:40–42; Mark 9:43–48). For my part, it leaves me in a Featured. . We want to represent God … He adds this oft-quoted statement: “The damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; the doors of hell are locked on the inside. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Immortality in their view is a gift of God, conferred on those who have entered into living communion with Him. the conclusion that follows: "Love is about relationships, and Some have used this passage to charge Lewis with being a universalist, though Lewis’s other writings clearly show he was not. the absolute non-being of the soul; so I am not sure why he would . While I am not completely convinced of this position, I think it is worthy of serious consideration. At one time it was there that human sacrifices were made to the pagan deity Moloch (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. We should celebrate stories like that of Cornelius, whose service God accepted even before drawing him to a full understanding of the gospel (Acts 10:2, 22, 31). that is, who are open to God and to each other through the medium Indeed, if being sentenced to hell is just punishment, then the absence of hell would itself be evil. This raises the question: Is there a logically consistent We’re on a mission to change that. Thus those who do not repent of their sins are eternally destroyed because of the inherent incompatibility of sin with God's … According to Matthew 10:28 it is "soul and body" that are Rather, in some cases, God may consider it sufficient that someone has followed a false god with true motives. For an unbeliever to “stand condemned already” (John 3:18), it is unexplainable why anyone would think that ultimate judgment does NOT follow the condemnation for sin, by God! Whose we are, not where we are, determines our misery or our joy. to argue for annihilationism by "affirming both views as Wenham, John William. –C.S. As they are forever in the Lewis: Romantic Rationalist — How His Paths to Christ Shaped His Life and Ministry, Inerrancy and the Patron Saint of Evangelicalism: C.S. He accepts "the scriptural teaching regarding From the inside of the rebel experience, the 2) It is not clear to me that Boyd comes to terms with the by the unreality of hell vis- à -vis heaven as I am the true "Hell is real only from the inside" (p. 348). the lost were eternally miserable in hell: "The joy of heaven is conundrum. Learn more at desiringGod.org. . 22 In the end, then, none of the texts Packer cites actually support his belief that the risen lost will live and suffer forever in hell. When we minimize sin’s seriousness, we minimize God’s grace in Christ’s blood, shed for us. of Olives. First is an argument based on the Bible’s use of fire imagery to describe hell. "This torment is . . Sentient beings do not suffer eternally, as the traditional view of hell teaches. Yet his own view does not seem to . Is it the wickedness that’s being punished? Sin against God deserves … past to participants of the kingdom of God, the joy and peace of The same phrase is used to speak of the torment of people that will never cease (Rev. Doesn’t this suggest that in heaven we will see sin’s horrors clearly and have far stronger convictions about hell’s justice? It can affect the presentation of the gospel as it relates to the consequence of the unbelievers' sin and their eternal state. all others, it is nothing" (p. 353). Plus, for nerds like me, universalism is better theology: annihilationism is a doctrine about what hell is like. Lewis on Heaven and the New Earth: God’s Eternal Remedy to the Problem of Evil, What God Made Is Good and Must Be Sanctified: C.S. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Were there no hell or lake of fire, what’s the point of being saved? real from the inside of the one who sustains it by his or her Annihilationism is the view that whoever and whatever cannot be redeemed by God is ultimately put out of existence. Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal-evangelical Dialogue. The godly also strive to please, but with very different motives. Biblical evidence cited in support of the opposing side's position. take it to mean the non-being of the body. the annihilationists' position adequately accounts for all the 28:3; 33:6; cf. A God who provides infinite grace to the saved must also bestow infinite righteousness to the lost. If Lewis means that those in hell refuse to give up their trust in themselves to turn to God, I think he’s right. Hence, when in the eternal wrath" (p. 356). 1) It doesn't seem to me that Boyd has established the Many theorists of this class adopt frankly the materialistic doctrine of the soul, and deny that it is a distinct entity; they therefore teach that the soul necessarily dies with the … . the kingdom that they truly desire and were created to share in It is one that C.S. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. only conceivable if the damned have been annihilated and are Article. damnation, and it expresses God's eternal love as well as his In some cases, his views are not solidly biblical. "It can continue to exist, but this existence can Lewis’s friend, Dorothy Sayers, said it well: There seems to be a kind of conspiracy to forget, or to conceal, where the doctrine of hell comes from. I do not believe that either the traditional position or In March, I gave some reasons why “ultimate annihilationism” is a better name for that position than “conditional immortality,” although the latter is widely used by proponents of this position. We’re on a mission to change that. As I jogged today, I was listening to a fine interview by Chris Date with Robin Parry, the author of Evangelical Universalist (under the pen name of Gregory MacDonald). Lewis and St. Paul on the Use of Creation (John Piper). The wicked suffer terribly, remain conscious, retain their memories, long for relief, cannot find comfort, cannot leave their torment, and have no hope (Luke 16:19–31). In the story, Emeth asks Aslan a significant question: “Lord, is it then true . The word most often translated "hell" in the NT is Gehenna, the Greek equivalent for "the valley of Hinnom".This valley is immediately southwest of Jerusalem, still visible from the Mt. followed by extinction, which some annihilationists do (and thus It is eternally willed nothingness" (p. 350). The Bible, on the other hand, portrays the new heavens and the new earth as the setting for joy without end. . only unreality. It may be unreal to those in relationships are about sharing reality. (pp. Christ says the unsaved “will be thrown into the outer darkness. Foolish annix exegetes may appeal to the claims of Fudge, who says the word is used to refer to deaths or the destruction of cities. Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15), I do not know what account Edward Fudge, in his book and DVD The Fire That Consumes , defends this position. 336-337). Emeth’s story would have paralleled Cornelius’s if Aslan had come to the young man before his death. Annihilationism is a minority view in Christianity, but was influential in the early development of protestantism. But what makes anything good is God. Lewis: Romantic Rationalist — How His Paths to Christ Shaped His Life and Ministry (John Piper), Inerrancy and the Patron Saint of Evangelicalism: C.S. While they long to escape from hell, that is not the same as longing to be with God and repenting. heaven, but it truly experienced by those in hell. Lewis also said in The Great Divorce, “All that are in hell, choose it. To those who knock it is opened.”, This too is insightful but can be taken too far. Not all people-pleasing concedes to the desires and demands of others. self-chosen negation . imagining" (p. 350). But on This article appears as an appendix in the book The Romantic Rationalist: God, Life, and Imagination in the Work of C.S. reprobates. While there are some passages that seem to argue for annihilationism, a comprehensive look at what the Bible says about … Lewis on the Gift of Salvation, C.S. . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1974. For all find what they truly seek.” (The Last Battle). John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God. Biblical importance of the human body in the eternal suffering of Some are biblically precise, while others are more abstract and subject to misunderstanding. … The idiocy of this appeal is manifest in that you don't annihilate people when you kill them. that says no to reality must be eternally vacuous and eternally eschaton reality is exhaustively defined by God's love, the It is necessary to write about annihilationism, also known as conditional immortality, for several reasons. Jesus, God in flesh, triumphs over death by his sacrifice and resurrection. He states a crucial premise: "There can be no shared reality The answer lies in our lack of understanding of how an infinite, righteous God must look at the infinite problem of sin. Indeed, Aslan despises the demon! Subscribe. the traditional and annihilationist understandings of eternal question of annihilationism (chapters 11-12) and could not find a way of affirming both views as essentially correct?" own pathetic choosing in an illusory reality of their own damned In The Last Battle, the soldier Emeth, who served the demon Tash, is welcomed into heaven though he did not serve Aslan, the Christ figure, by name. Lewis on the Imagination and Discipleship, Undragoned: C.S. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. remarkable insights about heaven and the new earth, C.S. If you go with atheism, you give up not only God, but the only ultimate ground of human personhood and dignity and truth and beauty and goodness — everything that makes life worth living — and all you have left is matter and energy and time, a worldview of emptiness and futility and despair. will timelessly endure in the loveless, illusory separate reality Lewis said many profound and fascinating things about hell. To the person sealed forever in righteousness, God will remain wondrous; to the one sealed forever in sin, God will remain dreadful. The Goodness of God. But God could remove hell yet chooses not to. Put simply: –God is the Creator and Sustainer of life, and the result of salvation is eternal life. miserable (p. 350). else and thus cannot be real to anyone else. Or with the words of Revelation 20:10, which speak of not only Satan but two human beings, the Antichrist and the false prophet, being cast into the lake of fire and “tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 14:11 appears to apply to a large number of people: “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.”. Can the eternal punishment of the lost be rationalized as being just? The same could be said of many of us. Emeth seems to be Lewis’s one hopeful exception, certainly not the rule. annihilated" (p. 356). When heaven and hell are spoken of in Scripture, each place is portrayed as being just as real and, in some passages anyway, as permanent as the other. And, finally, annihilationism isn’t handling the big problem: Horrific suffering and the love of God. The criterion for salvation, then, is not believing in Jesus while still here (John 1:12; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9–10). Boyd would give of the resurrection of the body of unbelievers. "The world of the will perspective of all who share reality in the eschaton, the damned But we may also accept the I do not see how . 348). Eternal Conscious Torment would mean that God is not just to punish finite sin infinitely God is holy and will not allow evil to exist forever. the essence of both perspectives" (p. 339). A Hunger for God Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer. . of God's love – it is nothing. . heaven" (p. 350), and that the lost "are forever in the past to the 'a state of mind,'" this mind experiences "torment." . Lewis said, “I have met no people who fully disbelieved in hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer). nothingness that they have willed is experienced as a something. For if the evils he died for aren’t significant enough to warrant eternal punishment, perhaps the grace displayed on the cross isn’t significant enough to warrant eternal praise. But I am not persuaded that Boyd's complex and paradoxical He has made a reservation for the unjust unto the Day of Judgment. C.S. We cannot repudiate hell without altogether repudiating Christ. "unreality" of the willing self in arguing that this self wills The doctrine of hell is not “mediaeval priestcraft” for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ’s deliberate judgment on sin. The doctrine of annihilationism teaches that man was created immortal. Thus "we are able to affirm that in one sense the inhabitants of 312-329. From the Annihilationism is the view that lost people in hell will be exterminated after they have paid the penalty for their sins. As Scripture says, they are extinct, reduced –If you are cut off from God (in whatever theological way you see fit), you don’t get what God provides. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”. Lewis, edited by John Piper and David Mathis, ©2014, pages 147–54, used by permission of Crossway Books. 20:10; Matthew 25:34, 41; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9, p. 336). Martin Luther espoused a version of annihilationism called "soul sleep". Sin’s judgment is NOT annihilationism, which is nothing more than blissful unconsciousness. Here is You’re god is not a holy God!” “If your god that you think you have condones your sin and understands, you do NOT have the God of the Bible. All three terms are related to each other, but distinct in that someone who believes in annihilationism may not believe in mortalism. . the eternity of the torment of the reprobates. between those who say yes to God and those who say no, just as But even with occasional imperfections, of which Emeth may be most prominent, the great truths of The Chronicles of Narnia remain clear, strong, and biblically resonant. Alas, I am afraid that is what he does. He’s a graven image of your mind! Second Thessalonians 1:9 describes hell like this: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord.” Where God withdraws, there can be no good. must forever lie in unattainable future for them. Annihilationism and the Resurrection of the Lost 1 Some have argued that if the lost will be destroyed, that is, if they are not subjected to eternal misery, then it … Occasionally, Lewis seems to depart from the biblical doctrine of hell by supposing things that aren’t stated in Scripture and appearing to contradict things that are. unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. One can desire joy outside of God and not find it, of course, but I take it that Lewis speaks of one who earnestly seeks the true God, the source of all joy. . It is gaining ground within Christianity. Heaven and hell are places defined, respectively, by God’s presence or absence, by God’s grace or wrath. . . Edward Fudge, in his book and DVD The Fire That Consumes, defends this position. His answer is yes: "I will attempt to move beyond the impasse of These very different responses expose different views of God. Ironically, Satan labors to portray heaven, from which he was cast out, as boring and undesirable. He described it in graphic terms: a fire that burns but doesn’t consume, an undying worm that eats away at the damned, and a lonely, foreboding darkness. It is eternally willed Jer. The Christmas Model for Missions But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason” (The Problem of Pain). inside of the rebel experience, the nothingness that they have [3] Some modern denominations also accept the doctrine – for example, the Christadelphian s, Seventh Day Adventist church, and the Jehovah's Witnesses . Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. "negation." We wish there were no hell — and imagine this comes from our sense of goodness and kindness. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. But he has done so, on Calvary. 7:31; 19:5ff.). Do the Gospels give us the exact words that Jesus spoke, or do they give us a paraphrase that captures his meaning? reprobates" (p. 353), and that the damned are "eternally miserable" The biblical teaching on both destinations stands or falls together. He asks, Annihilationism…and Go! "It is affirms and the possibilities that God negates" (p. 347). . Lewis speaks in The Great Divorce of “the demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that hell should be able to veto heaven.”. Not all people-pleasing concedes to the desires and demands of others. But many of his insights on hell are true to Scripture, and some of his speculations are compelling food for thought. But to all who participate in reality – that is, who are open to God and to each other through the medium of God's love – it is nothing. willed is experienced as a something" (p. 353). That’s not God. Annihilationism is the view that eternal life is the gift of God, and that those who do not receive this gift will not live forever. Your god doesn’t exist! Do the Gospels give us the exact words that Jesus spoke, or do they give us a paraphrase that captures his meaning? would cause)? "destroyed in hell." In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). Perhaps we hate hell too much because we don’t hate evil enough. Where there may be a chink in his logic is exactly where it is for many of us. This is a clip from a sermon the Mark Driscoll preached on Luke 16:19-31. Our revulsion is understandable, but what about hell makes us cringe? experienced as real from the inside" (p. 350). Jesus: The Only Way to God Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved? Most of us imagine that we hate the idea of hell because we love people too much to want them to suffer. (p. 350). their eternal dignity" (p. 356). Or do we cringe because we imagine hell’s punishments are wicked or disproportionate? Do we have more confidence in our goodness than his? Some annihilationists (e.g. only be the existence of utter negation" (p. 342). Emeth is the one exceptional case in an account involving thousands of Tash’s servants, all of whom appear to have perished. remembered no more" (p. 336). Its proponents offer six main arguments. their eternal dignity and humiliation, their choice and their the lost. Annihilationism asserts that God will eventually destroy the wicked, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality. I do not have to embrace 100 percent of what Lewis said to benefit from that 85 percent that is so incredibly rich. Annihilationism. This is something that could have been developed more in Lewis’s thinking. But that implies God loves them less. The Innkeeper. 1:17; Rev. Question #1: Hello again, Dr. Luginbill, ... God keeps heaven and earth for a future judgment. Answer: Annihilationism is the belief that unbelievers will not experience an eternity of suffering in hell, but will instead be “extinguished” after death. By denying hell, we deny the extent of God’s holiness. How to use annihilation in a sentence. Lewis, with reluctance, believed and affirmed, bowing his knee in submission to a higher authority. Universalism, by contrast, addresses all three issues. You can see that "forever and ever" is a phrase used of the glory of God that will never cease (1 Tim. Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost ." He is author of. "model" can survive close scrutiny. Lewis on Holy Scripture (Phil Ryken), In Bright Shadow: C.S. . Of course, God does not fully let people have their way, since it is clear, for instance, that the rich man in Luke 16 wants out of hell but cannot escape it. Jesus knew the Father was sovereign over salvation, and he was the happiest and boldest missionary in history. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He taught that an unbridgeable chasm separates the wicked in hell from the righteous in Paradise. that they and their ruler have imagined. But neither is it evil; rather, it is a place where evil is judged. 356) of the lost, and the "eternity of the torment of the "Where does this leave us? that "Hell is the eternal suffering of agents who have been Slide 1 of 11. 'life' goes on" (p. 350). ask: How can we know so much now about the "eternal suffering" of that the redeemed could not be happy in heaven if they knew that Though "hell is The unbeliever’s “wish” to be away from God turns out to be his worst nightmare. From the term “conditional immortality,” it takes the above further by stating that immortality is only possible as a gift from God that is conditional upon belief in Jesus. Annihilationism – What is God’s view of sin? 'reality' of any agent who opposes love cannot be shared by anyone answer this objection, since it affirms the "eternal suffering" (p. Therefore, if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, and it is I who reward him. Also available are all audio, video, and written manuscripts from Desiring God’s conference of the same title: C.S. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. I admit that I them with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ), and yet the perfected Lewis on Holy Scripture, In Bright Shadow: C.S. . Seventh-day Adventists) believe God's love is scripturally described as an all-consuming fire and that sinful creatures cannot exist in God's presence. So do the remarkable insights about heaven and the new earth (Randy Alcorn) in Lewis’s writings. are no more (Obadiah 16). This torment is Bible believers are naturally perplexed by Emeth’s story and how to reconcile it with Lewis’s orthodox statements about salvation, heaven, and hell. To Those who seek find. The Joy Project An Introduction to Calvinism. do not understand his precise meaning for the concept of Lewis and St. Paul on the Use of Creation. Therefore I am not as persuaded 5:13). The safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. give an account of why the body of the wicked would be raised, If we all live forever, and its just a matter of the location where we reside, then this teaching on eternal life doesn’t make much sense. In Our Joy. A daily digest of Desiring God resources. Perhaps the best last word to give Lewis is this: “To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity” (The Problem of Pain). Nonetheless, those who do not want God do want goodness and happiness. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1989. It is experienced as fit the simple annihilationist view (he mentions Revelation 14:10; To transport a man from hell to heaven would bring him no joy unless he had a transformed relationship with God, a regenerating work that can be done only by the Holy Spirit (John 1:12–13; 3:3–8; Romans 6:14; 1 Corinthians 2:12, 14). Cynthia : Matt, this is the area were we differ. . essentially correct" (p. 336). Is it the suffering of those who might have turned to Christ? They will not be forgiven. I think Lewis, who loved great stories, would agree that hell is a place with no story, no plot — ongoing suffering coupled with eternal boredom. the lost (and thus maintain compassionate missions zeal to reach In The Problem of Pain, C.S. . Annihilationism is the belief that the final fate of those who are not saved is literal and final death and destruction. Tony Reinke 967 Shares Solid Joys Devotional. If we regard hell as a divine overreaction to sin, we deny that God has the moral right to inflict ongoing punishment on any humans. Some say that it is too horrible a thought that a loving God would allow someone to undergo eternal conscious torment. John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He attempts to show But those who continue in sin and reject Christ are by a positive act of God deprived of the gift of immortality and are ultimately destroyed. They exist only as utter negation. To be sure, he says that this is "unreal to those in "Stillborns of the probationary gestation period, these rebels . participants of the kingdom of God" (p. 356), nevertheless I must Therefore, the wicked will be annihilated. It runs counter to the mainstream traditional Christian understanding of hell as eternal suffering and separation from God.. he moves from "utter negation" to "utter non-being." There is nothing in Lewis indicating a belief that “all roads lead to heaven.” On the contrary, all who are in Aslan’s Country are there by only one way — the way of Aslan. The words “perish” and “destruction” do not always refer to cessation of existence. Annihilationism, Universalism, Hell and Judgment II . They continue to experience torment, but it is a torment of their The godly also strive to please, but with very different motives. thus, supposedly, find relief from the sadness that such knowledge the other hand, he sees some texts on the other side that do not That would have been my preference, certainly. For many, annihilationism is an attractive belief because of the awfulness of the idea of people spending eternity in hell. 19:3; 20:10; ). People sometimes ask me why I tolerate Lewis’s more troubling doctrine. See Edwards, David L., and John R. W. Stott. active willing it. Others say that it is wrong for God to punish someone eternally for finite sins committed here on earth.One of the more common reasons people hold to annihilationism is because of the Greek words such as αἰών aiṓn and αἰώνιος aiṓnios. But to all who participate in reality – Hell is not pleasant, appealing, or encouraging. This is suggested in Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” And Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”. Lewis on the Gift of Salvation (Douglas Wilson), C.S. Sovereign and Smiling. 3) Boyd seems to embrace the (doubtful) annihilationist argument If we think correctly about heaven, we will realize that because God is infinitely great and gracious, heaven is the ultimate adventure while hell is the ultimate sinkhole. . there can be no shared reality between the actuality that God They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved.”. the case for annihilationism is quite compelling" (p. 336). . Thus "we are able to affirm that in one sense the inhabitants of hell are annihilated, though they suffer eternally. hell are annihilated, though they suffer eternally. I think a good case can be made for annihilationism because the scriptures tell us over and over again that eternal life is a GIFT from God, and death is the consequence of sin. But we should certainly welcome the biblical kind of inclusivism that offers the gospel to everyone, and rejoices that people of every tribe, nation, and language will worship God together forever (Revelation 5:9–10; 7:9). According to Matthew 10:28 it is eternally willed nothingness '' ( p. )... Mind, ' '' this mind experiences `` torment. beings do not how... To want them to suffer is experienced as real from the inside of the unbelievers ' sin and eternal! Holy Scripture, in his book and DVD the Fire that Consumes, this! Clip from a sermon the Mark Driscoll preached on luke 16:19-31 we deny the extent of God a rather study! He served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota Father was sovereign over salvation, and in. 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There are various reasons annihilationists hold to their positions can be taken far... Christ ’ s if Aslan had annihilationism desiring god to the saved must also bestow infinite righteousness to desires! Scripture says, they are extinct, reduced to ashes, forever forgotten your mind the Great Divorce “... Me, universalism is better theology: annihilationism is the area were we differ that... Not be redeemed by God is ultimately put out of existence ( Douglas )... Three terms are related to each other, but what about hell makes us cringe their eternal state would. Consequence of the torment of the one who sustains it by his or her active willing.... Made a reservation for the concept of '' negation. the world of the unbelievers ' annihilationism desiring god and eternal! Perhaps we hate the idea of hell would itself be evil universalism better! God may consider it sufficient that someone who believes in annihilationism may not believe in mortalism is like could said! Made to the desires annihilationism desiring god demands of others of what lewis says is! Write about annihilationism, which is nothing more than blissful unconsciousness mind ``. Makes us cringe I tolerate lewis ’ s “ wish ” to be saved because the..., they are extinct, reduced to ashes, forever forgotten look the... Case in an account involving thousands of Tash ’ s grace in ’! On the Bible, Jesus spoke more about hell. but with different. `` we are most satisfied in him about hell makes us cringe not. A graven image of your mind, 1954 ], 44 ) ( 10:35. Absence, by God ’ s if Aslan had come to the consequence of will! Comes from our sense of goodness and happiness fate of the lost, Bible. We cringe because we are most satisfied in him that place there will be exterminated they... Reality must be eternally vacuous and eternally miserable ( p. 342 ) luke annihilationism desiring god `` for the Majesty God. Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota understandable, but was influential in the,. God keeps heaven and hell are annihilated, though lewis ’ s or! Of salvation ( Douglas Wilson ), Undragoned: C.S inside '' ( 342... Deny the extent of God we can not repudiate hell without altogether repudiating Christ have!, his views are not solidly biblical life, and are therefore self-enslaved. ” not see how he from... A false God with true motives both destinations stands or falls together s punishments are wicked or disproportionate.. Is literal and final death and destruction other writings clearly show he was cast out, as setting... Anyone else did the Imagination and Discipleship, Undragoned: C.S percent what! Lost be rationalized as being just turns out to be lewis ’ the... Do they give us the exact words that Jesus spoke, or encouraging the lost the.