Does The Terminal Punishment View of Hell Hinder Evangelism?

The other night I was having a bible study with some teenagers. As we gathered our chairs together, one of the teens complained that the chair she was sitting on was very uncomfortable. I told her to pull up one of the comfy chairs, which was literally 20 feet away. “Ahhh,” she groaned, “That is way too far, I’ll just sit here on the floor.” There were plenty of comfy chairs, I actually don’t think her chair was even that uncomfortable, but she chose to sit on the cold hard ground rather than have to go and move one of the comfy chairs over. Saint Augustine would say that the student “chose the lesser good.”

While we can calk the student’s unwillingness to get a comfy chair up to momentary laziness, like many of us, Augustine was perplexed by humanity, including himself, actively choosing the lesser good. In Confessions, he analyzes why he would steal pears from his neighbor’s orchard, when he did not even like pears, and he had the means to purchase them if he had wanted them. This is the mystery of iniquity.

This leads us to the discourse at hand. There is a debate in Evangelicalism over the nature of hell, whether the torments of hell are terminal or unending. Both of these punishments are “eternal,” whether a person is kept alive and imprisoned forever, or their punishment is capital, the resulting punishment is final. Yet some Evangelicals, such as John Piper, argue that the end of the wicked must be eternal conscious torment, because terminal punishment, where the soul moves into nonexistence, is exactly what unbelievers want. They believe that removing eternal conscious torment from their evangelistic playbook, will result in people choosing hell and death, over life with God.

Despite the obvious problem of presenting the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ as some kind of fire insurance, the truth is that whether it be eternal conscious torment or annihilation, some people will choose death and destruction over life with God. And through the judgment of God, the wicked will receive their just due: separation from God forever. Yet, to claim that somehow because some people might prefer to be punished and annihilated then to live forever with God, makes annihilation not a valid conception of the nature of hell, is incorrect.

I would argue that some people would even prefer eternal conscious separation rather than being in God’s presence. You may rightfully ask, who would prefer torment (or separation) over life with God? Though it is hard to imagine, that is the mystery of iniquity. The writer Altamont exclaimed at his death, “My principles have poisoned my friends, my extravagance has beggared my boy, my unkindness has murdered my wife! And if there be another hell, Thou blasphemed yet indulgent God, it is but a refuge if it hides me from thy frown.” Some people choose separation, we can scare people with all the horrors of a never ending torture chamber, and still they would choose it over the presence of their Creator.

It is not only the last words of an atheistic writer that demonstrates that people are willing choose hell to heaven, death to life, and that God does give them what they want in the end. Scripture speaks that way as well. In Deuteronomy 30, Moses says,

“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Deu 30:15–20)

Moses lays out two paths, one is life, the other is death, one is blessing and the other cursing. Many people in Israel chose the path of death and curses. Its not that they didn’t believe Moses, they just chose another path, despite being told of the consequences.

Another, even more explicit example is found in 1 Samuel 8. The people of Israel ask Samuel to give them a king to rule over them. Samuel doesn’t want to do it, but God tells him to do what the people ask, but to tell them the destruction and personal suffering they will experience if he gives them a king. So Samuel lays out an extensive list of what the king will do to the people, and that God will not listen to their prayers if the chose to have a king. You know what the people’s response was, “No, we want a king over us.” (1 Sam 8:19)

Are we really worried that if we don’t portray hell as “bad enough,” people won’t turn to Christ? It is not the nature of the judgment that is to be proclaimed, but the righteousness of the God who renders judgment. Have we replaced the fear of the Lord with fear of hell? May it never be! It is the God, the holy, just, and merciful God of the Bible that we fear. His righteous judgment should make us all fear. “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31)

The idea that it is the torture of hell that leads people to repentance runs contrary to Scripture. Rather, it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. (Rom 2:4) It is the holiness of God that make people fear him. It wasn’t fire and brimstone that made Isaiah see that he was doomed and he needed repentance, but it was seeing the glory of the LORD. (Isaiah 6:5) Do our presentations of the gospel focus on the glory of God?

In conclusion, in accordance with the Apostles’ Creed and Scripture, no Christian, regardless of what view of hell they take, can deny the judgment of a holy and righteous God. His righteous decree that sin has no place in his Kingdom and he will put an end to all unrighteousness, should make us rejoice and shutter. And in the end we know what the judgment of God looks like, the giving of himself, in the person of Christ, on the cross, bleeding and dying, for your sin and for mine. God is the ultimate good, yet because of this mystery called iniquity, people turn from the ultimate good to lesser things even if the lesser things mean death and destruction. But, not so with Christians, rather than fleeing the presence of the Lord, we can say with confidence, “Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great.” (2 Sam 24:14)