Kirk Cameron Takes Heat for His Annihilationist View on Hell

[Michie]

After arguing that hell doesn’t involve “conscious eternal torment,” actor and evangelist Kirk Cameron is receiving pushback for supporting annihilationism. In the Dec. 3 episode of “The Kirk Cameron Show,” the conservative author spoke with son James Cameron about views on divine wrath. The pair focused on God’s merciful nature and a supposed lack of evidence

Annihilationism, which dates to early church fathers, holds that unbelievers are destroyed and that the human soul is immortal only if a person receives eternal life and goes to heaven. Kirk Cameron said:

Eternal judgment or eternal punishment doesn’t necessarily mean that we are being tormented and punished forever and every moment for eternity. It means that the punishment we deserve is irreversible. It’s permanent. It’s eternal. You’re dead. You’ve been destroyed. You have perished. You’re gone. And…you’re never coming back.


Continued below.

Kirk Cameron Takes Heat for His Annihilationist View on Hell

After arguing that hell doesn’t involve “conscious eternal torment,” actor Kirk Cameron is receiving pushback for supporting annihilationism.

churchleaders.com

 

[timothyu]

That's ok. He is also taking heat for no longer believing in the Left Behind series also. He is not a traitor to God but people see him as a traitor to them, and that is where they fail.

 

[Yeshua HaDerekh]

After arguing that hell doesn’t involve “conscious eternal torment,” actor and evangelist Kirk Cameron is receiving pushback for supporting annihilationism. In the Dec. 3 episode of “The Kirk Cameron Show,” the conservative author spoke with son James Cameron about views on divine wrath. The pair focused on God’s merciful nature and a supposed lack of evidence

Annihilationism, which dates to early church fathers, holds that unbelievers are destroyed and that the human soul is immortal only if a person receives eternal life and goes to heaven. Kirk Cameron said:

Eternal judgment or eternal punishment doesn’t necessarily mean that we are being tormented and punished forever and every moment for eternity. It means that the punishment we deserve is irreversible. It’s permanent. It’s eternal. You’re dead. You’ve been destroyed. You have perished. You’re gone. And…you’re never coming back.


Continued below.

Kirk Cameron Takes Heat for His Annihilationist View on Hell

After arguing that hell doesn’t involve “conscious eternal torment,” actor Kirk Cameron is receiving pushback for supporting annihilationism.

churchleaders.com

Matthew 3:12. In the valley of Hinnom (Gehinnom) there were fires constantly burning where trash and refuse would be incinerated.

 

[Servus]

Taking heat for views on hell. tee hee

 

[SarahsKnight]

That's ok. He is also taking heat for no longer believing in the Left Behind series also. He is not a traitor to God but people see him as a traitor to them, and that is where they fail.

Wow, really? That's a huge unexpected 180 from the Kirk Cameron I had always known. .... In any event, good for him. The Left Behind series is utterly sociopathic (I wasted a year-and-a-half reading those awful books and allowed them to get into my head), and whether eternal torment proponents like it or not, a plain reading of Scripture far more frequently - and directly - points to a literal view of life and death/destruction, than it does the traditional damnationist view.

But of course if Kirk has changed his tune about not one but two of the biggest hot topics in Christian theology, there's no doubt in my mind that he's now got a flood of fundamentalists breathing down his neck about how he's gone apostate or some garbage.

 

[Servus]

That's a switch. I don't know a whole lot about his ministry, but I know he was strongly aligned with Ray Comfort and John MacArtur. Both of whom emphatically teach hell is a place of eternal torment. But then again probably most evangelical annihilationists and universalists started out as damnationist.

 

[JulieB67]

He is also taking heat for no longer believing in the Left Behind series also

I had read sometime ago that he no longer believed in a pretrib rapture as those stories portray. Good for him. No offense to those who believe otherwise but I personally do not find it biblical as well. And now he's turning on the ECT doctrine. That's amazing. Maybe he decided to search out these truths on his own instead of always letting others lead the way.

, and that is where they fail.

Yes

 

[Tom8907]

He does not appear to comprehend the seriousness of sin.

 

[1Tonne]

I had read sometime ago that he no longer believed in a pretrib rapture as those stories portray. Good for him. No offense to those who believe otherwise but I personally do not find it biblical as well.

Jesus did not believe in a pretrib rapture either. People simply made it up.

And now he's turning on the ECT doctrine. That's amazing. Maybe he decided to search out these truths on his own instead of always letting others lead the way.

It is sad because so many people look up to him and expect him to have all the answers. But he doesn't and neither do we. Some verses we may struggle with for years until we get a firm understanding. But he is still a brother in Christ.
Now one verse that shows an eternal consciousness while in hell is Daniel 12:2. It gives a contrast of two different people groups. The first being those who are brought to life and go to heaven, and then those who do not go to heaven. It says that these people who do not go to heaven have everlasting shame and contempt. Shame and contempt cannot be possible if a person is not conscious. Those in Hell will have everlasting shame and contempt and consciousness.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2

 

[Jipsah]

He does not appear to comprehend the seriousness of sin.

How big a sin does it require to make God turn into a merciless, implacable monster?

 

[1Tonne]

How big a sin does it require to make God turn into a merciless, implacable monster?

Why would you imply that God's justice makes God a monster?

 

[Michie]

God is the perfect Judge.

 

[Jipsah]

Why would you imply that God's justice makes God a monster?

Eternal torture, without mercy and without hope? Infinite punishment for finite crimes? That's isn't justice, that's simply cruelty for its own sake. The doctrine paints God as a monster, pitiless and infinitely cruel, condemning the majority of those He created to literally endless torture. No "Father, forgive them" anymore. it's "burn baby burn!" That's what y'all teach.

 

[timothyu]

That's what y'all teach.

Off course. Make God over in our own image

 

[lismore]

I always got the impression that if Kirk Cameron were chocolate he would eat himself. He was vociferously in support of certain intense views now is vociferously in support of their intense opposite. The common theme is being intensely vociferous. Perhaps he should sit quietly somewhere until he is sure he his ducks in a row. The book of James says that not many should teach, not many. God Bless

 

[timothyu]

Perhaps he should sit quietly somewhere until he has his ducks in a row.

Well... as God says, keep seeking Him

 

[lismore]

Well... as God says, keep seeking Him

Indeed so. However you can seek God but not teach contradictory doctrines to the whole world. God Bless

 

[timothyu]

However you can seek God but not teach contradictory doctrines.

Which is the result of seeing past the teachings of man

 

[1Tonne]

Eternal torture, without mercy and without hope? Infinite punishment for finite crimes? That's isn't justice, that's simply cruelty for its own sake. The doctrine paints God as a monster, pitiless and infinitely cruel, condemning the majority of those He created to literally endless torture. No "Father, forgive them" anymore. it's "burn baby burn!" That's what y'all teach.

Your argument is built on emotion, not Scripture. You speak as though God is required to share your definition of justice. But if a human court can sentence someone to life imprisonment for a single crime, why is it “monstrous” for the holy Judge of all the earth to execute eternal judgment for a lifetime of willful rebellion against infinite holiness?

You say eternal punishment is “cruelty for its own sake.” That simply reveals how lightly you treat sin and how small you think God is. The cross itself disproves your accusation. Christ bore wrath so severe that He sweat blood. That is how serious sin is. That is how great the sacrifice was. Your view doesn’t magnify God’s mercy, it trivializes it.
And no, hell is not “burn baby burn.” It is the solemn, righteous judgment of a God who has given every warning, every chance, and even His own Son. People step over the blood of Christ to get there.

If someone raped and murdered a member of your family, you would not call a life sentence “monstrous”. You would call it light and you would want more. Yet when the infinitely holy God judges the unrepentant who trample His grace for a lifetime, suddenly justice becomes “cruelty.”

The problem isn’t God’s justice. The problem is your standard.

 

[JulieB67]

Your argument is built on emotion, not Scripture.

So throw out all of the scripture that points to life or death? There's nothing that suggests that everlasting shame and contempt could not point to death. That would have been the last thing placed on that person. And that would be final and everlasting.

I used to believe as you did -having been taught this doctrine. But it was scripture itself that directed me to the truth. Especially when taking the bible as a whole.

It gives a contrast of two different people groups.

As does one of the most well known verses-

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Only one person gets everlasting life in that verse, the other perishes. It does not state they have everlasting "life" in hell. The wages of sin is death period.​

And Christ states that the Lake of Fire is the second "death". He still states fear the one that can destroy both body and soul in hell. Which is a second witness to the verses in Malachi on what will happen to the wicked. They will burn up, so much so that there will be neither root or branch left. They will be consumed to ashes. That's what a fire does. But I take it you're another person that doesn't believe death is really death. If one wants to believe that, one could believe anything.

, not Scripture

Most of the Bible points to life or death. There are many scriptures pointing to the fact that the fate of the wicked is death. Anyone can pick out a few verses and produce a doctrine but we have to take the bible as a whole.

If someone raped and murdered a member of your family,

Most want the death sentence. And that's the punishment portrayed in the bible as well.

Yet when the infinitely holy God judges the unrepentant who trample His grace for a lifetime

Our Father has a brand of justice, his eternal consuming fire has wiped out cities, etc. But those fires are not still burning at this moment. They are unquenchable by our standards but it does not mean they will not burn out. They served their purpose as will the Lake of Fire. Afterwards the former things will pass away and he will make all things new.

What are your views on unbelievers from another religion? Will they burn for an eternity?