Question:  Dear Greg,

            As best as I am able to research, there are generally 3 views of “final judgment”:

1.      Eternal punishment, 2. Universalism  3. Annihilation.

As I understand them in brief layman’s terms:

1.      Eternal punishment is being cast out of the presence of God in torment forever.  What exactly this means is debated.

2.      Universalism means that all will be saved eventually.  Again the specifics are debated.

3.      Annihilation is the idea that death is final, without eternal suffering.

It seems that if one must choose, any of the three can be supported in scripture to some degree.

            Thanks again,

            Don

Answer:  Dear Don,

            You may be aware, from other questions and answers we have posted on this topic, that we recommend the book “Four Views on Hell”, published by Zondervan in their Counterpoints series.  This book breaks down defensible biblical teaching into four categories:

1.      Literal – probably the same as your Number 1 below.

2.      Conditional – also knows with the more spurious/negative term of Annihilationism.

3.      Metaphorical – the idea that hell is eternal punishment but not experienced physically – hell being eternal separation from God (one view of heaven being that heaven is eternity in God’s presence).

4.      Purgatorial – with at least one aspect being that reality need not necessarily, in very case, be hell OR heaven, but perhaps both – as purgatory might be purgation, purification, an interim period.  Of course this is more Catholic than Protestant.

PTM believes that there is a judgment, and that judgment for sin is inevitable.

PTM believes that god is holy and just, as well as loving.  All of this is biblically clear and defensible.  PTM believes that hell is a reality – but we do not see that the Bible is specifically clear about where it is, when it is, and how hot it is.  These things are human interpretations.

PTM does not believe that hell is a never-ending, eternal torment experienced in the physical body, with pain as we experience it in the flesh.  We believe that hell is eternal separation from God.  PTM believes that specific and exact teachings about hell are not, and never have been, a central plank of the historic and orthodox Christian faith.  We believe that hell is one of those issues over which and about which Christians may differ and disagree, without dividing and becoming disagreeable.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht