Part 3: What Jesus and the New Testament writers teach:
What we find in the New Testament is a simple dichotomy: eternal life or eternal destruction. Those in Christ are raised incorruptible and immortal to face judgment that is without condemnation. Those not in Christ stand already condemned and without any recompense for sin are raised to face judgment that will result in their destruction.
There are mainly two Greek words used for the destruction described in the New Testament. One is "
phthoran," which means "decay," "rot," or "
decomposing." It is translated in our Bibles as "
corruption" or "
destruction," but it is not a term that means annihilation or the cessation of existence.
Galatians 6:8 is an example of this term. The other main Greek term used is "
apolesai." This is the term Jesus used in
Matthew 10:28. This term does carry with it the connotation of utter destruction, the cessation of existence, or annihilation.
Most of the analogies Jesus and the NT writers used logically result in the latter. As I mentioned previously, chaff thrown into a fire is literally destroyed. It turns to ash and ceases to exist as chaff. The same holds true of weeds thrown into a fiery furnace when the analogy is taken literally. Some resist this because of the mentions of the worm that is never satisfied and the endless gnashing of teeth, but these can just as readily be read to mean the sheer magnitude of destruction is near endless and Jesus is using hyperbole.
Ultimately, this boils down to a single, simple question: Does death continue to exist in the new creation? 1 Corinthians 15:26 tells us the last enemy destroyed is death. The NAS does a better job translating this verse because the Greek term is "
katargetai," which means abolished, abolished, or discharged (G2673). Death gets cancelled. This does not mean it ceases to exist. In the book of Revelation, we are told death is thrown into the fiery lake. Death is not all that is thrown in this fiery lake; along with anyone whose name is not found in the book of life, death AND HADES are also thrown into the fiery lake. The fiery lake is the second death, the death of the dead...... and the underworld in which they'd live.
Now if this fiery lake does not destroy death to the point where it ceases to exist then death continues to exist in creation. It is cancelled but it persists. If this is the case then the same holds true for satan. He is torturously bound, but still continues to exist. He lives a torturous existence, but 1) it's not under the rule of a lesser god, and 2) his presence still exists, which means the new heavens and earth is not a restoration of the pristine creation, nor an improvement on it, that God first created as described in scripture. It is not new and neither is it wholly restored and wholly reconciled. Not only are there a bunch of endlessly tortured dead people AND the persistent existence of humanity's adversary, there is also the persistent existence of death. Death suffers the second death but doesn't die. It lives.
The way to reconcile this is to view the mentions of the unsatisfied worm and the endless teeth gnashing as hyperbole and the normal consequence of things thrown into fire literally...... and then reconcile the two. The conclusion to which this leads is there is a lengthy period of suffering, one that may be occurring in a realm where time is much different than that which we experience here on earth, but is nonetheless lengthy, and it culminates in the utter destruction of those who deny Christ (antichrists) and death - the eventual cessation of their existence such that there no longer exists God-deniers, the adversary or his other minions, the underworld people mythologically imagined to exist, and death itself is no more.
Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.
No more death. The Greek here is "
thanatos ouk estai eri," which transliterally means "
no existence in time."
I know some will disagree because this post is a modified form of annihilation and annihilationism is generally associated with Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Open Theism. I am NOT SDA, JW, or an Open Theist, and I am not espousing their theology. Those cults have appropriated a view that has been held throughout Christian history by some, even though it has not been the mainstream position. J. I. Packer was annihilationist. Can't get much more theologically orthodox than Packer. Affirmative consideration of annihilation go back as far as Ignatius in the first century and include the ECFs Martyr and Irenaeus. The first formal defense of what I have posted is generally recognized to have occurred in the third century AD, by the Christian apologist Arnobius. Many other prominent Christian figures have considered the cessation of existence as described above, including John Wesley, C. S. Lewis, F. F. Bruce, John Stott, and John Stackhouse, jr.
In summary, the classic orthodox Sadducean Jewish position of no life after death is not what Jesus taught. The position of the Pharisees is more compatible with what Jesus taught. The pagan iterations of an underworld ruled by a lesser god,
and the works-based view of Elysium or Valhalla are also not what Jesus taught. Neither did Jesus teach universalism. What Jesus taught was a simple dichotomy between eternal life and eternal destruction such that hades and death die. There is one God, and only one God and He and He alone rules over everything, including death and life.
