Hell: An Exhaustive Look at a Burning Issue

Why and how do theologians strive to modify the results of his judgment? How are we to evaluate views of hell that either soften or deny it?

The doctrine of punishment of the unredeemed after death originates in the Old Testament, is developed in the intertestamental Jewish literature, and culminates in the divinely authoritative New Testament doctrine of hell. How can people avoid that dreadful fate? If they should escape from it, what should they then do? What is involved in their saving others "by snatching them out of the fire" Jude 23 How does the deliverance from eternal punishment enhance our appreciation of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross?

What effect should it have on our Christian witness? Read more Read less. WestBowPress July 9, Language: Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 4 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews.

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Woodcock is to be commended for tackling a subject that is evaded and resisted in our day.

If you want a sound scriptural and thorough, as well as readable book on the topic of "hell," this is it. Appreciation for the gospel or "good news" can only be fully understood and valued in contrast to the bad news of hell. Some might question the eternality of punishment in hell. For them God is too "loving" to put anyone in hell for eternity; for them it would be overkill. Woodcock does a very thorough job of distinguishing between the unscriptural annihilationists versus the scripture truth of eternal punishment.

He explains the scriptural basis of God's justice toward sin and sinners. If you've read Randy Alcorn's book on Heaven, this would make a good companion volume to read on Hell. Thanks for your attention to detail and presenting the realities of Hell in a serious yet readable volume. Great job my brother. This book should be required reading for all ministers! Woodcock is professor of Bible emeritus at Nyack College. He interacts with modifications of this view, as well as annihilationism, or conditional immortality, and universalism.

The book is divided into five sections. In the first, the author examines the language used in the Old Testament for the destiny of the wicked as well as the testimonies of ancient Jewish literature. Section two studies the words used in the New Testament for the place of punishment. Then the third section treats the New Testament rationale for judgment. In section four, Woodcook surveys the Christian tradition, arguing that the traditional view is the dominant, majority view in history.

A concluding section examines major arguments against the traditional view of hell and deals with several key practical, ministerial implications.

1. Obituary for Eldon "Woody" Woodcock!
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4. Traditionalism and the (Not So) Second Death.

An entire chapter responds to Brian McLaren. The author rejects universalism, postmortem salvation, religious pluralism, and purgatory based upon the teachings of Scripture and the Christian tradition. So long as such a traditionalist is willing to affirm a brief respite from torment upon resurrection from Hades, it would seem at first glance that a second everlasting period of torment in hell could properly be called a second death.

Putting aside the rather awkward definition of death as torment, this line of reasoning suffers from still another problem. Those over whom John says the second death will have no power are those who come to life and reign with Christ Those who are not thrown into the lake of fire—the second death—are first raised out of death and Hades The first death, then, is something experienced by both believers and unbelievers alike; both are raised from it, and only the unsaved experience the second.

Therefore, if what qualifies the second death as the second death is the torment in which it consists, and in which the first death likewise consists, then it follows that believers, too, experience torment in Hades prior to the resurrection. But even given a literalistic reading of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, believers are at rest being comforted in the bosom of Abraham.

And the dualistic interpretation of passages like Luke What makes the second death a second death, then, cannot be any torment in which it is believed to consist. The traditional understanding of the second death is thus fraught with problems. It is not a second anything at all, either because it is an unbroken, albeit amplified, continuation of the state of spiritual death and separation from God experienced by all people prior to salvation, or because it is a first of its kind unlike anything preceding it.

Alternatively, it is a second period of torment, from which it logically follows that those who die in Christ experience torment in Hades alongside the unsaved. How traditionalists might try to overcome this challenge awaits to be seen, but it will likely render John's interpretation of the imagery as discombobulating as the imagery itself, and thus no interpretation at all.

Conditionalism, on the other hand, makes perfect sense of the interpretation offered by the One on the throne. Our understanding of the text is simple and elegant.

An Exhaustive Look at a Burning Issue

Those who die a first time apart from Christ will be raised, judged and sentenced to permanent execution: And this, of course, coincides with the repeated and consistent testimony of Scripture that the wages of sin is death. For one of several reasons to interpret the imagery otherwise, see Date, C. Annihilation and Revelation Retrieved 26 August, Two Views of Hell: Intervarsity Press — A. Bible and Theology Zondervan, Whatever Happened to Hell? The Doctrince of Endless Punishment: The Doctrine of Endless Punishment. Contending for the Faith Christian Focus, Chosen by God Tyndale House, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism Crossway, The Scofield Reference Bible.

The Doctrince of Endless Punishment. Over 75 Free Online Bible Commentaries.

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