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Rebuttals to C. Jay Cox's Seven Arguments for Annihilationism
C. Jay Cox has seven arguments for annihilationism. In the following discussion, I respond to and rebut each of them, in advance of a debate he and I have planned. His points are listed as “CJ” and mine as “TF.” This is not an attempt to replace the debate, but rather, hopefully, to improve the…
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What about Olam (עוֹלָם), Ad (עַד), and Nesah (נֶצַח)?
If you are going to consider the subject of the eternal torments of hell, you cannot limit yourself to the New Testament. You also should not limit yourself to English, but should also consider the usual words translated as “eternal” or the like in the Old Testament text. Olam, Ad, and Nesah One fairly common…
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What about Apollymi?
Sometimes a person who is an annihilationist will argue as follows (Please note that I’m not endorsing any aspect of this representation except the spelling of the lexical form of the Greek word): 1) The most common description of the fate of the wicked is that are destroyed, using the verb, ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi or apollymi). 2)…
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The Lake of Fire and the Abyss
In any discussion on Hell, I would be remiss to omit discussion of the Abyss, sometimes translated the “deep” or the “bottomless pit.” In most places in the Scripture, the abyss seems to be watery place (for example, the Spirit of God moves over the watery abyss in Genesis 1). The main exceptions in the…
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Other Hell-Related Passages and Themes
In my previous post (link), we saw some of the passages and themes related to hell. This is a supplemental post that addresses some of the other themes related to hell that didn’t necessarily make it into the original post. Hell was Prepared for the Devil and His Angels and will be Eternal Matthew…
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Pressing Chris Date's Retreat
Over at “Rethinking Hell,” Mr. Chris Date has retreated a few steps in his discussion of the meaning of the term “punishment.” Recall that the argument that “punishment” in this case was a “result” noun was one of Mr. Date’s first supposedly “positive” arguments for his position. Now, Mr. Date tries to argue for ambiguity.…