This section contains articles on Heaven and Hell. Almost everyone (including a large percentage of non-Christians) believes in heaven and most ‘believe’ they deserve to go there. While the Bible has a lot to say about Heaven, it also has a lot to say about Hell. Christians throughout history have held three primary views regarding the final destiny of those who reject God:

The Traditional View (Eternal Conscious Torment): The vast majority of Christians have historically believed that there is a literal Hell where those who reject and are opposed to God will spend an eternity in conscious suffering, separated from God’s presence. This view holds that human beings possess inherently immortal souls, and that the unsaved will experience eternal punishment as conscious beings who retain their personal identity forever.

Conditional Immortality (Annihilationism): A growing number of Christians believe that immortality is not inherent to human nature but is rather a gift from God given only to the redeemed. In this view, those who reject God will ultimately be destroyed and cease to exist after final judgment. Proponents argue that “eternal punishment” refers to the permanence of the destruction rather than ongoing conscious torment. They maintain that only God is inherently immortal (1 Timothy 6:16) and that the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment. This view sees the final fate of the wicked as complete annihilation – a second death from which there is no resurrection.

Biblical Universalism (Ultimate Reconciliation): Some Christians, such as Rob Bell and others, believe that God’s love and redemptive purposes will ultimately triumph over all resistance, and that everyone will eventually be saved and reconciled to God. This view typically holds that hell may be real but is remedial and temporary rather than retributive and eternal. Universalists often emphasize biblical passages about God desiring all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) and Christ drawing all people to himself (John 12:32), interpreting judgment as ultimately restorative rather than purely punitive.

The following articles on Hell examine these perspectives through careful biblical analysis, showing how different interpretative approaches and theological frameworks lead to these distinct conclusions about human destiny. Each view grapples with questions about the nature of God’s justice and mercy, the meaning of eternal life and death, and what it means for humans to be created in God’s image. In the future we will be having some book reviews and discussions of various scholars representing each position, including Rob Bell’s perspective on ultimate reconciliation.

Conservative Biblical Universalism

Conditional Immortality (Annihilationism)

Hell as God’s Divine Presence

Postmortem Opportunity (Salvation Offered After Death)

Heaven and Hell

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