My Story: From Eternal Torment to Conditional Immortality

How I came to believe that only Christians live (happily) ever after.

It all began with a question. I was on holiday, relaxing with outstretched feet with not a worry in the world. My sister had been given a book on persecuted Christians who were tortured for their faith. During her reading, she approached me and asked; "In Hell, are people tortured forever?". I had been a born again Christian for nearly 6 years at the time and knew how most Christians would have answered, but personally, I was aware that I had only believed what others had told me was true on the matter. I took the traditional position and assumed that immortal souls without saving faith will eternally survive the flames of Hell. Several Bible verses seemed to back up this position. I questioned the salvation of anyone who believed otherwise and would avoid any of their videos or articles. But this was not a conclusion I had come to by Scripture alone. Rather it was a conclusion I had been taught from the start, alongside its apparent Scriptural support. By this point, I had not yet undertaken the task of examining what God's Word had to say on the subject (verse-by-verse) and with this context, I answered with the three words many of us so greatly fear; "I don't know".

With this response, I was not concluding (as if content to be agnostic), rather my answer scared me into a longing to hear God's Word and find the truth. I almost instantly shot up and opened my laptop to search for every Bible verse I could possibly find on the theme of Hell and the final Judgment. With all the exhaustive concordances I could find (including articles providing extensive Scriptural support for the traditional view of Hell), I compiled a list of the Scriptural references.

These were: Numbers 16:33, 2 Samuel 22:5-6, Psalm 9:17, 16:10, 21:8-9, 37:20, 86:13, 139:8, 145:20, 146:4, Proverbs 9:18, 15:11,24, 23:14, Ecclesiastes 9:5,10, Isaiah 5:14, 14:11, 38:18, 47:14, 48:22, 66:24, Ezekiel 18:4, 20, 31:14, 33:10-11, Daniel 12:1-2,4, Obadiah 1:16, Malachi 4:1,3, Matthew 3:10,12, 5:22,29-30, 7:13-14,21-23, 8:12, 10:28, 11:23, 13:40,49-50, 18:8-9, 24:51, 25:41,46, Mark 9:43-48, Luke 12:5, 13:24-28, 16:22-26,28, John 3:16,36, 5:28-29, Acts 2:27, 24:15, Romans 2:12, 6:23, Philippians 3:18-19, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Hebrews 9:27, 10:26-31, James 4:12, 2 Peter 2:4,17, 3:9, Jude 7,12-13, Revelation 2:7,11, 11:18, 14:9-11, 18:4-10, 19:20-21, 20:1-15, 21:8.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

I began reading them throughout the holiday, and the more I read, the more I was surprised how silent the Bible seemed to be on the sinner's perpetual suffering. 'Death' and 'destruction' again and again characterised the nature of the final judgment. The 'everlasting' nature of the judgment was expressed but once throughout the Old Testament, in Daniel 12:2. While Isaiah 66:24 is also believed to suggest the eternality of consciousness, this verse is referring to 'dead bodies' or 'corpses', stressing the finality and inescapable nature of God's judgment, the 'second death' (Revelation 20:14). There is no mention of any continuing consciousness throughout the Old Testament. You would imagine that, in a book written for mankind, the nature of the final judgment would be made as explicit as possible to deter mankind from sin. Surely there would be mention of mankind's immortal soul and unending torment, if this was the nature of God's judgment (as opposed to suffering followed by death – as biblically God's judgment always is).

THE NEW TESTAMENT

I then came to the New Testament, expecting more clarity on the matter, though this would bring much confusion as to why God had been so silent on the issue for 4,000 years prior. To my surprise, I noticed far more mentions of the judgment as 'death' and 'destruction' than any mentions of eternality. Where the eternality of the judgment is highlighted, never once is this in a way that contradicts the judgment being, ultimately, 'death'. For instance, we read of the 'eternal destruction' (2 Thess 1:19) or 'eternal punishment' (Matthew 25:46) or 'eternal judgment' (Hebrews 6:2). If the 'punishment' spoken of by Jesus in Matthew is the 'destruction' spoken of by the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians, and by Jesus (in Matthew 10:28), there is no contradiction whatsoever. We know that death is eternal (without resurrection), and if 'death' really is 'the wages of sin' (Romans 6:23), is it not the eternal finality of such a judgment that God's Word should highlight?

PUTTING PEN TO PAPER

I was overwhelmed by the thought that we (I and my church or even denomination) could be wrong on such an important issue ­– and needed conclusive clarity by God's Word. I decided to take a big A2 sheet of paper, and together with my sister, write out each verse on the subject of 'Hell' with one of two pens. The blue pen represented that the verse highlighted the finality of the judgment, and the purple, that the verse pointed toward its eternality. We committed our time to God in prayer and asked for His direction toward the truth. Several hours later, we had a complete poster and were overwhelmed with a resounding answer. The judgment of God is suffering, followed by death. Suddenly, the Gospel and the entire Bible made sense. Jesus suffered and died in our place so that we wouldn't have to suffer and die. Though the first judgment by water was to die by water, the final judgment will be to die by fire.

THE FINAL REALISATION

As we returned home that day, I made it clear not to share a word with my Dad. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough, as my sister joyfully ran home and flapped that poster before my Dad, loudly exclaiming what we had just come to see. He was not happy. Having clarified the seriousness of our error in his sight, he went on to explain the impossibility of our belief on the basis that all of mankind possess an immortal soul, and cannot 'die' in the literal sense. To this, we responded with a question, 'what verse'? His answer was shocking. He couldn't come up with one verse. He thought and thought, but, nothing. Meanwhile, there came that final realisation as if he had provided the missing piece to this puzzle; the immortal soul was merely an idea of man, keeping us from the truth. This truth is that only the believer has eternal life (immortality) and the unbeliever shall perish, never to be clothed in immortality. The beloved John 3:16 never made so much sense until this point. From this moment on, through the years following, God's Word has only led to more and more clarification. I can say with more confidence than ever before, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” (Rev 16:7).