COLLEEN TINKER
For many of us former Adventists, the doctrine of hell is the last one to fall into place as we sort out our Adventist worldview. Because this subject is common to us all, I am sharing a letter we received this week along with our answer to the writer.
While Scripture does not give us details about this reality, it does tell us enough so that we can see truth is very different from our Adventist belief in soul sleep. Here is the letter followed by our answer.
What’s left to burn?
I listened to a Former Adventist Fellowship Q&A session from the conference held about 6 years ago [on the Former Adventist YouTube channel], and one of the discussions was about eternal hell fire and eternal burning. The general consensus among the panelists was that hell is eternal, the lost will burn eternally, and God is over all.
The Bible says we are Body, Soul, and Spirit. The body goes to dust, and the spirit returns to God. What is the soul, and what happens to it?
Jesus said that man can kill the body, but only God can destroy both body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28). So where in Scripture is eternal life for the lost? Jesus said God can “destroy” both body and soul in hell.
The discussion at FAF didn’t mention Hebrews 4:12 where the separation of Spirit and Soul is mentioned:
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
This verse seems to explain that as the spirit was breathed into man at creation, and as the spirit leaves the body at time of mortal death, so the soul, when separated from the spirit, dies. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
What am I missing when I conclude that these texts mean there can’t be an eternally burning punishment for the lost?
I realize there will be burning because Jesus spoke of it often. But what is left to burn once both body and soul are destroyed in hell?
“Destroy” does not equal “cease to exist”
As Adventists we learned that “destroy” means to “cease to exist”. We also learned that death means to “cease to exist”. We had a completely material view of creation; we had no idea that we were body plus spirit.
Scripture doesn’t tell us the difference between spirit and soul, but as Hebrews 4:12 suggests, whatever they are, they are intimately connected. I find it easier to think of mankind as a union of material and immaterial. 2 Peter 2:9 says that God knows how to “keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment”. Scripture does not tell us what that “punishment” looks like, but it does say that upon death, the unrighteous are kept by God under punishment for judgment. Being under punishment suggests consciousness.
We also know that whatever hell is, the Lord Jesus said that it is “eternal punishment”. We also know that the righteous and the unrighteous are resurrected for their final reward. “Resurrection” is a physical word; the Lord Jesus’s resurrection shows us that it is a physical reality in which the spirit of a man is united with his resurrection body. He/she is once again body plus spirit.
John 5:28-29 has Jesus saying that the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth, “those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” In other words, all people go into that final state as resurrected humans. This passage does not suggest, however, that destruction equals ceasing to exist. Rather, the destruction the wicked experience is the tearing apart of God’s intended state for mankind.
Death is not ceasing to exist; it is the separation of body and spirit. At the same time, Ephesians 2:1-3 tells us that we are all BORN DEAD. We have living bodies, but our spirits are dead, disconnected from God’s life. Spiritual death is our legacy in Adam. We are “condemned already” before we believe in the Lord Jesus (Jn. 3:18). If people never believe, they live out their lives on earth and die as dead people. They do not cease to exist; clearly, they exist during their earthly lives. Death is the disintegration of the body, but the dead spirit with which they were born exists “under punishment” until the judgment. In other words, “destruction” means the human is no longer able to function as what it was originally intended to function.
For example, if a car is destroyed in a wreck, it becomes a tangled mass of metal and plastic that is incapable of functioning as a car ever again. It is destroyed—yet it does not cease to exist. Its components are still there. Similarly, a spiritually dead person does not cease to exist; he is DEAD, unable to relate to the Lord or to others with the life that was God’s intention. He or she is eternally separated from God, a destructive state from which there is no escape if one has not believed. He is not able to function as a human as God intended, alive both physically and spiritually.
Jesus is the One who said hell is eternal. He is the One who said both the wicked and the righteous are resurrected for their final state, and He is the one who said hell is eternal. The wicked ARE destroyed—kept from ever being able to function as living humans again. They are eternally dead, cut off from the life of God, unable to access relationship or blessing from God. We think of “destroyed” from our Adventist framework; we were taught the word meant to go out of existence. But to be destroyed does require ceasing to exist. It means to be unable ever to function again as we were first intended to function. We are destroyed and sentenced to unending darkness and evil.
But God is just and merciful; He does not mete out punishment that is not just. He doesn’t tell us how it works, but we know that even the wrath of God is just and personal, and eternal destruction is meted out with justice.
I don’t have all the answers, but I am so grateful that the Lord Jesus has brought us to life and gives us eternity with Him along with the assurance that it is ours! †
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May I further add that the ‘righteous’ and the ‘unrighteous’ have 2 different judgments after resurrection though some believer’s will not die when Jesus calls us home (1 Thess. 4:14-18). The unrighteous dead whom never accepted Jesus as their personal Savior will be resurrected for the Great White Throne judgment. They will be judged by their works, and you can think of it as some whom think they are saved by their works which will not save them, and others whom hated the Lord will also be judged by their works. This judgment is after the Great Tribulation or better called the time of ‘Jacob’s Trouble’. This is the second death for the unborn again. They will be resurrected, judged, and then cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), Revelation 20:11-15. The people who became born again by believing the gospel alone without works (John chapter 3, 1 Cor. 15:10, Eph. 2:8&9) do not go to the Great White Throne judgment for that is for the lost. The born again go to the Bema seat where they are judged according to their works for Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:9-15. Today many churches are teaching believers will appear before the Great White Throne judgment but that is incorrect.
Correction. The gospel 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Hello!
I am so glad you are addressing this issue. My husband is still a practising Adventist. He was just witnessing to my very young nephew. When my nephew asked about hell, of course my husband told him, well you just cease to exist away from God.
One of the things that brought me to the Lord is fear of hell. If your not a believer, so what if I’m going to just cease to exist, what incentive is there for me to give my life and heart to Jesus? Why should I give up my wordly ways? I don’t care about his love, so what if I don’t have it when I die, and cease to exist. I just don’t get him to understand, hell is real, it’s for eternal suffering.