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BOOK REVIEW: Four Views on Hell 2nd edition

...cribed as death and destruction elsewhere in Scripture Matt 10:28; John 3:16; Rom 6:23). After all, when Hebrews 9:12 refers to our ‘eternal redemption’, it most probably doesn’t refer to a never-ending act of redeeming, but to the never-ending redemption that results from God’s saving work.”16 It is also worth recalling that Jesus here spells out two contrary, not comparable, destinies in antithetical or asymmetrical contrast – life versus its opposite – as proven many times in CI literature. Burk uses Mk 9 to foreground “the devouring worm (that never finishes devouring) and the burning fire (that never finishes burning)” (32), twice i...

Was there death before the Fall?

...It is often said and believed by many that our souls are immortal - that God gave us a spirit/soul that cannot die when he created us, and that death was not even a concept or reality before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Despite this idea being a fairly "recent" concept (in terms of history and theology), and it stemming from Greek philosophy, it's also not supported by the Biblical text - especially in Genesis. Lets look at the creation account in Gen 2:7— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. The word "being" in that verse, or "sou...

Raised in the Heavenlies!

...perienced death (to self) and rebirth. Finally, baptism proclaimed the eschatological hope for restoration in the new creation.” With that in mind, let's take a look at how baptism and resurrection relate to one another: Colossians 2:12When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.   Colossians 3:1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.   Ephesians 2:5-6 …[God,] even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— an...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part One)

...ernative: death, perishing and/or destruction. Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 2 Timothy 1:10…but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. John 10:28; 17:2I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. […] since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 1 John 5:12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. See also the...

How was Jesus a sacrifice?

...mehow the death of Jesus in this way saves us from our sins. To better understand this, and to grasp why in various places Jesus is called our “ransom”, we need to go back to the reason for the original Passover, not the ritual. Passover was what God did when he delivered his people from the slavery of the Egyptians. The blood of the lamb was the symbol that they belonged to God, and so escaped death. Originally the paschal lamb was about Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and slavery, now Jesus is the greater lamb who rescues us from slavery and bondage to sin by his blood. The blood on the doorposts covered the Israelites from the angel of death, and now...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part Two)

...he second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. There’s a lot packed into these two passages, so let’s break them down and look at the imagery and phrases used one by one. First, “their smoke will go up forever”. This reference points back to the destruction of the land of Edom in Isaiah 34 which uses the same phrase, and can act as an archetype of God’s everlasting judgement on something. Let’s look at the passage: Isaiah 34:9–10And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulphur; her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it s...