Paul Derengowski, PhD
Edward Fudge and the exponents of the Conditional Immortality/Annihilation point-of-view are absolutely certain that the wicked or unrepentant evil are mortal beings, and that sometime during their mortal existence they will simply cease to exist.
God will passed judgment upon them, and then after a relatively short duration of punishment, poof! Gone! “Hasta la vista, baby!” The wicked have left the building!
Edward Fudge wrote, “…but Scripture never hints that the wicked will be raised either immortal or incorruptible. Instead, the Bible indicates that the wicked will be banished from God’s presence and expelled into the lake of fire, to experience the second death”1
Of course, it will not be until later that Fudge finally gets around to explaining the result of the expulsion and second death are all about.
Suffice it to say that while it is true that the wicked will remain corrupted, it does not necessarily mean they are purely mortal (i.e. lifeless), without the possibility of consciously knowing what is going on around them.
Not only are the wicked lively, come the time of the final Great White Throne Judgment found in Revelation 20, they are fully aware and conscious of what is going on, and the place where God sends them once all the records (“books”) are examined will be fully realized in all its wrathful fury.
Please note what John has to say about the somber day that awaits both those who have already physically died, but those who are spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” (see Eph 2:1, 5), as the final verdict is handed down.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of the, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
First, this is a judgment of the living dead; not only those who had previously died, physically, and have been residing in Death and Hades, but those who are spiritually dead in the sense of not spiritual unregeneration, are “standing before” God’s throne silently awaiting His pronouncement.
Second, Death, as in Death and Hades, is an Old Testament designation for She’ol or the place where the dead resided (cf. 2 Sam 22:6; Ps 18:5; 55:15; 116:3; Prov 5:5; Isa 28:15, 18), and in this particular setting, the wicked dead.
Third, in Revelation 20:10, the devil, the beast, and the false prophet have already been cast into the lake of fire, where “they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.”
While the devil is inhuman, both the beast and false prophet, while representing satanic systems during the great tribulation, are human beings (cf. 2 Thess 2:3-4; Rev 13:5-6, 12-ff.).
Fourth, the wicked have been resurrected from Death and Hades and found wanting; their final judgment is to be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is deemed “the second death.”
Fifth, since the human “beast” and false prophet are tormented “forever and ever,” so will those humans whose names are not found written in the book of life.
Such a revelation completely destroys (not annihilates or conditionally renders) Fudge’s contention that Scripture does not even “hint” that wicked will be raised immortal.
Scripture not only “hints” at the dead’s immortality, it is impossible to reconcile the final judgment of the wicked and their demise in the Lake of Fire without them being immortal.
It is a tragic reality, and no attempt to mitigate the tragedy by arguing for the wicked’s eventual loss of conscious existence will overturn the tragedy.
Only by comprehending the context of what God has revealed in the final chapters of His book and then refusing to manipulate that revelation to suit a pretext does anyone do justice to His word when proclaiming it to others, and especially to those who need to be warned, should they remain unrepentant toward God.
- The Fire That Consumes, 3rd ed., (Eugene: OR, 2011), p. 3). [↩]
