Hey
@Justified_By_Christ_Alone. So the problem passages are
(1) the wicked will perish,
(2) everlasting destruction and
(3) the second death
(from the verse in Revelation?) Though more types may be added if the conversation continues.
Trying to get the topic back on track, for problem passages listed
(2,) Christian universalists have made a great deal of effort to interpret
“everlasting destruction” to mean an age enduring punishment.
The argument is that a number of these New Testament words
(e.g. endless, eternal, forever) are actually the Greek word Aionius/aionios, and Aionius doesn’t
necessarily mean forever, but can mean
enduring for an age or long period of time. There are arguments from the Hebrew and the Septuagint in support of this.
Francis Chan
(as an argument from authority,) in his Erasing hell book, concedes that’s a viable alternative
(or at least that there’s ambiguity regarding hells duration.)
The debate about hell’s duration is much more complex than I first assumed. While I lean heavily on the side that says it is everlasting, I am not ready to claim that with complete certainty.
A similar effort is made to show
destruction in the phrase
“everlasting destruction” isn’t in reference to an absolute state of nonexistent
(if it were the case that wouldn’t satisfy the believer in eternal conscious torment either.)
Listening to Edward Fudge teach on the annihilation of the wicked may help answer many of the verses used in regards to problem verses
(1,) since many of those verses in Fudges presentation were taken from the book of Psalms, which in most cases doesn’t appear to have been describing either eternal destruction or eternal torment, but rather the temporal ruin of wicked earthly rulers.
The ultimate fate of those wicked rulers
(or any wicked person) wouldn’t be included in those Old Testament verses on temporal judgement, there’s normally a consensus that the OT has very little to say explicitly about a fiery place of eternal judgement.