1.01. Introduction

Eternal Death - Introduction When it comes to the final destination of the wicked, or unrighteous, Christians over the past two millenniums have divided themselves into three beliefs: 1. Eternal Torment, 2. Eternal Death (Annihilationism), and 3. Salvation of the whole world through Jesus Christ. Each of these views can be supported with Scriptures. Having been in all three groups, I know that there are sincere Bible centered believers in all of them. Obviously, all three cannot be true. Two of them have to be false. This writing is primarily for Christians who have embraced the Doctrine of Conditional Mortality, often referred to as "eternal death" and also "annihilationism." Many who hold this view, have come to this conclusion because the "doctrine of eternal torment" was repugnant to them. They felt they could bow down to such a God, but could not truly love Him. I know most Christians who hold this view are Bible students, that is, they spend time in the Bible, and enjoy deep study. This writing is designed for that kind of mind and attitude. Some of it is rather technical. It has to be. Having studied and been in all three camps regarding the outcome of the fate of the wicked (eternal torment, eternal death, and the ultimate salvation of all mankind), I feel what is contained in this writing will be helpful to those who cannot love an Eternal Tormentor. This work will also be useful to those holding a view other than eternal death, but the focus of the study is on passages used to support "eternal death." Therefore, I did not deal with many passages of scripture that the other two groups would perhaps want covered. I have other literature and audio tapes on the other viewpoints.

Several denominations, Bible study groups, and many millions of Christians believe and teach the doctrine of "Eternal Death." I know many Christians, even though they attend a main line Protestant or Catholic Church, do not believe God will really torture people forever. These often believe they will just go into unconsciousness never to wake. Millions of people who do not consider themselves Christians believe in "eternal death." Many atheists, agnostics, as well as other religions believe we will just return to dust. Is it Scriptural? It certainly is more merciful than "eternal torment," but can it stand on Scriptural ground? Let us see. This study deals with the leading scriptures which are used to justify the "Doctrine of Eternal Death." We will look into the Greek and Hebrew words as well as the English verses used to teach this doctrine to see if this doctrine can stand up to a thorough test. After all, I think most people would agree, it would be much easier to love a God who just ends a life as opposed to One Who viciously tortures His own creatures. When we see this in a human being, we call them sick, but somehow we don’t seem to have the nerve to call this kind of God "sick" also. The beginning of wisdom is to "fear" the Lord, so they say, but what kind of fear, terror or awe? The word "annihilation" is used in this study as meaning that the ungodly, the wicked, the "unsaved," will be ultimately completely destroyed. The English words used in the scriptures to prove this teaching are destroy, perish, abolish, destruction, loss, etc. And words such as everlasting, eternal, and forever. This teaching is not a new doctrine. It has been taught by some Christians throughout the history of the Christian Church. It is a fact that many scriptures in English translations do teach the destruction of some people. In this study, we will consider the original Greek words translated destroy, destruction, etc., and what these words meant at the time they were written. We will also look at the words translated everlasting, eternal, forever, world, age, damn, etc. This study will not deny that "destruction" is taught in the English scriptures. We do, however, want to be certain what "destruction" meant to the original writers of the scriptures. We often read words in Bibles through our sectarian definitions.

It is usage of words that determines the meaning of words. The meaning of words are often changed as the word travels through the history of a people. The word "carriage" referred to "that which is carried" in King James England. Today, it refers to a vehicle that carries. The English word "let" was often used to mean "restrain" in King James English. Today, it has taken on the opposite meaning of "allow." These are a couple examples of thousands of occurrences of dramatic changes in word usage. The word "villain" used to mean someone who lived in a villa, a rural person. Obviously, that meaning has been completely replaced. This is why it is important to study the words in their historical and cultural sense. There are places in the King James Bible where one would actually completely change the meaning of the passage if one used today’s definitions of certain words found in the King James Bible. This study will include a study of the original Greek words and the English words, destroy, destruction, etc., as used in our Bibles. In order to compare the Greek with the English, we must have certain tools to work with. In this study, we must first have a good reference Bible. There are several good reference Bibles. One of the best as far as King James Versions go, is Dr. Bullinger’s Companion Bible. The original texts of the Bible were inspired by the Creator, but no translation or version is inerrant. Now, I realize there will be readers who will differ with me on what I just said, but if you lay any of the ten leading English Bibles before you, it will be very easy to show differences in translation among them which involve key doctrinal issues. I will be more than happy to point out a few for those who do not believe me. Write me and I will send you examples.

We also do not have the original writings. When we translate, we translate from copies of copies of copies, often many generations away from the original. Since the copies were made by hand, there is not one copy today which agrees with another copy. This is a fact! If Christians were made aware of some of these things, perhaps they would spend more time in study and less time watching the Super Bowl, or the soaps. A reference Bible that shows some of the variants of different manuscripts is very helpful. Also, a good concordance to the translation you are using is essential. Notice I said a "good" concordance. Many Christians do not even realize that each translation requires it’s own concordance. The famous Strong’s Concordance is only useful for the King James Translation. Should you be using the KJV, I recommend using the Young’s Concordance over the Strong’s Concordance because it is much easier to see the original words in the context of the sentences in which they are located. Mr. Young was also brave enough to make notice of places where he believes the King James translators made some grave mistakes. He also wrote a literal Bible translation which is very useful. I highly encourage at this time, for the reader to get their concordance and use it as we go through the following word study. Although, I personally think the KJV is a terrible translation to use in the twentieth century, we will use it for this study because most people have one and a concordance that works with the King James Bible. The truth can be found even in archaic translations if one searches honestly.

Many of the passages below which deal with the Greek language have been taken almost word for word from audio tapes prepared by Louis Abbott from Stover, Missouri. Mr. Abbott has the largest library of New Testament Greek references of anyone I know. Many Bible colleges and seminaries do not have many of the books he possesses. Mr. Abbott spends most of his evenings and weekends reading and studying Greek. He has studied these particular words more than anyone I know. An objective reading of his findings would serve us all well.

We hear the words "eternal death" in Christian creeds. Although many Christians use these words, the words "eternal death" are not in the scriptures. Again, I repeat, the words "eternal death" are not in our Bibles. Therefore, to study the teaching of "annihilation" or "eternal death" we will have to look for other words to study, "eternal death" is nowhere to be found. The opposite of life is death and the opposite of death is life. According to the scriptures, there cannot be an eternal death. The scriptures declare an "end" to death. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26, KJV). Let us see that "death" cannot be "eternal."