[citation needed] Thus, there is no single "official" teaching of the Church apart from apostolic doctrine received and, when necessary, defined by Ecumenical Councils. The key phrase is, “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.” Icons based on The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by Saint John Climacus, show monks ascending a thirty-rung ladder to Heaven represented by Christ, or succumbing to the arrows of demons and falling from the ladder into Hell, sometimes represented by an open-jawed dragon. [100] After the 1000 years known as the Millennium, the individuals in spirit prison who chose not to accept the gospel and repent[101] will also be resurrected and receive an immortal physical body, which is referred to as the "second resurrection". Tartaro:Definition 1. the Book of Enoch),[6] and by the time of Jesus, some Jews had come to believe that those in Sheol awaited the resurrection of the dead either in comfort (in the bosom of Abraham) or in torment. What they mean by this, of course, is that, consciously or subconsciously, ... not the language of eternal conscious torment, not the language of “eternal separation from God,” not the language of “ruin, loss, not of being, but of well-being,” but the language of destruction. Maybe this is true, or maybe it’s not. [78], The Catholic Church, and the Catechism, repudiates the view commonly known as "double predestination" which claims that God not only chooses who will be saved, but that he also creates some people who will be doomed to damnation. [83], In most Protestant traditions, hell is the place created by God for the punishment of the devil and fallen angels (cf. These verses, it is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber. [6] Only one passage describes hades as a place of torment, the parable of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16:19-31). God simply reveals Himself in the risen Lord Jesus in such a glorious way that no man can fail to behold His glory. But this is just that: an assumption read back into Luke 16. 32:21, Ezk. But I think this is a bit of a stretch, or at least it’s not that clear once you consider these passages more closely. In its review, Publishers Weekly called the book "persuasively argued. Hell is a place of torments. Advocates for terminal punishment take “condemned to extinction” to mean “condemned to extinction,” while ECT advocates take “condemned to extinction” to mean “never ending torment” and not “extinction.” And therefore, advocates for terminal punishment are outside the bounds of orthodoxy according to many evangelicals. In any case, ECT advocates point out that “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or not.” The last line is, to my mind, the only part of this passage that may suggest ECT—“no rest, day or not.” The first part about the smoke going up forever comes from Isa 34:10 where it clearly emphasizes the finality of the destruction (of Edom) and not the never ending torment of the city of Edom. Think of it like a mortgage—at some point, you pay it off and satisfy the debt. Notice that there are five necessary elements to the traditional view of hell: a place in the afterlife, Jesus here depicts a wicked man suffering fiery torment in hades, which is contrasted with the bosom of Abraham, and explains that it is impossible to cross over from one to the other. Annihilationism or Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT)? Hades is an intermediate state for the wicked between death and resurrection—a resurrection that will lead to judgment (Dan 12:2) and then the punishment of hell. [10]. Though a theological minority in historical and contemporary Christianity, some holding mostly Protestant views (such as George MacDonald, Karl Barth, William Barclay, Keith DeRose and Thomas Talbott) believe that after serving their sentence in Gehenna, all souls are reconciled to God and admitted to heaven, or ways are found at the time of death of drawing all souls to repentance so that no "hellish" suffering is experienced. In this view, the unredeemed dead suffer for all eternity in flames of fire. He was, of course, doing nothing of the sort. In his recent book arguing for universalism, David Bentley Hart explains why he abhors the doctrine of hell as eternal conscious torment. . The words “they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” plainly admit of only one meaning—everlasting conscious torment. Does that mean that He created Hitler and knew what an evil monster he would turn out to be? Reasoning by Christian Universalists includes that an eternal Hell is against the nature, character and attributes of a loving God, human nature, sin's nature of destruction rather than perpetual misery, the nature of holiness and happiness and the nature and object of punishment. Columba of Iona is alleged to have on several occasions even been able to name particular individuals who he said were going to end life in hellfire for their sins and accurately predicted the way they would die before the event had even happened. Think of it like a mortgage—at some point, you pay it off and satisfy the debt. Featured Is the doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment, biblical or not? The position which I will defend in this essay is what is sometimes referred to as the traditional, or eternal conscious torment, position (hereafter, ECT). Get updates from Theology in the Raw delivered straight to your inbox. The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Eternal Conscious Torment cannot explain degrees of suffering.... No matter how much any given member of the damned has suffered in that view, there is always an infinite amount of suffering to be continuously endured. And they are different. In my previous post, I summarized some of the strongest biblical arguments in favor of terminal punishmen t. In this post, I want to summarize the best arguments for eternal conscious torment (ECT)—the traditional view of hell where the wicked will experience never-ending punishment. At all events the doctrine of conscious, eternal torment for impenitent men is clearly revealed in the Word of God. [49], The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth, with imprimatur of 2007, also says that "more accurately" heaven and hell are not places but states. In my previous post, I summarized some of the strongest biblical arguments in favor of terminal punishment. "[39], The Eastern Orthodox Church rejects what is presented as the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory as a place where believers suffer as their "venial sins" are purged before gaining admittance to heaven.[40]. Saint John Chrysostom pictured Hell as associated with "unquenchable" fire and "various kinds of torments and torrents of punishment".[41]. The image—and I do believe it’s an image and not a literal picture, unless worms too get resurrected worm bodies that will live forever and ever—does not refer to worms feasting on bodies that are alive and being tormented forever, but on the wicked who are destroyed by God (see Isa 66:16). It’s not derived from Luke 16, since Luke 16 isn’t talking about the final state of the wicked in hell. People will be consigned to hell after the last judgment.[84]. Fox wrote: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God because such souls have rejected God's saving grace. By Dr. David R. Reagan[read in Lamplighter (pdf)]The Bible presents Hell, like Heaven, as a real place. One of the disagreements between the two views is over the meaning of death. From FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/Diagnosis and Therapy Father John S. Romanides Diagnosis and Therapy, Regarding specific conditions of after-life existence and eschatology, Orthodox thinkers are generally reticent; yet two basic shared teachings can be singled out. Here we go one more time: “And these will go away into eternal (aionios) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionios) life.” ECT advocates say that the parallel between “eternal” life and “eternal” punishment must mean that the act of punishing will last forever since the life given to the righteous lasts forever. 1:12, Prov. Ludwig Ott's work "The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" said: "Hell is a place or state of eternal punishment inhabited by those rejected by God". 116:3, Psalm 139:8, Prov. Romans 2:7-9; 2  Thessalonians), while the general epistles use a range of terms and images including "raging fire" (Hebrews 10:27), "destruction" (2  Peter 3:7), "eternal fire" (Jude 7) and "blackest darkness" (Jude 13). 31:15, Hosea 13:14, Hosea 13:14, Psalm 141:7, Mat. [18][91] A phenomenalist view of immortality[92] holds that there would be no experiential difference between eternal hell and limited conscious punishment. 14:9, Isa. During various Marian apparitions, such as those at Fatima or at Kibeho, the visionaries claimed that the Virgin Mary during the course of the visions showed them a view of hell where sinners were suffering. First, they widely hold that immediately following a human being's physical death, his or her surviving spiritual dimension experiences a foretaste of either heaven or hell. Some Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Heaven and Hell are relations to or experiences of God's just and loving presence. Day and night is a figure of speech meaning continually (Luke Luke 18:7; Acts Acts 9:27; Rev. In this post, I want to summarize the best arguments for eternal conscious torment (ECT)—the traditional view of hell where the wicked will experience never-ending punishment. J. 57:9, Ezek. If John of Revelation 14 wants to use the Isa 34 image differently, he can certainly do so. 23:33, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:45, Mark 9:47, Luke 12:5, Matt. Second, Revelation 14:9-11 also seems to suggest never ending torment: And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. They are not in agreement on all points, and no council universally recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Churches has formulated doctrine on hell,[citation needed] so there is no official doctrine to which all the faithful are bound. For example, John Calvin, who believed in conscious existence after death,[82] had a very different concept of hell (Hades and Gehenna) to Martin Luther who held that death was sleep. Deut. How to use torment in a sentence. For those who understand that they have sinned against love, undergo no greater suffering than those produced by the most fearful tortures. Those who believe in terminal punishment very much agree that there will be suffering and punishment in hell. Yes, I believe that He creates each individual and "knows them from the womb," as the Bible says. Unconscious definition, not conscious; without awareness, sensation, or cognition. "Eternal judgment" does not mean that the judging will last forever, but that its outcome will. Three different New Testament words appear in most English translations as "Hell": The most common New Testament term translated as "Hell" is γέεννα (gehenna), a direct loan of Hebrew גהנום/גהנם (ge-hinnom). [85] Some recent writers such as Anglican layman C. S. Lewis[86] and J.P. Moreland[87] have cast hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. A moral objection to eternal conscious torment (ECT) is that if sinners are tormented in hell for all eternity (or, to be more precise, the l ake of f ire), then God’s justice is never satisfied. 5:22, Matt. [96] Jehovah's Witnesses believe that others who have died before Armageddon will be resurrected bodily on earth and then judged during the 1,000-year rule of Christ; the judgement will be based on their obedience to God's laws after their resurrection.[97]. Modern-day revelation clarifies that while there, Christ began the work of salvation for the dead by commissioning spirits of the righteous to teach the gospel to those who didn't have the opportunity to receive it while on earth.[99]. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Eternal conscious torment) In Christian theology, Hell is the place or state into which, by God's definitive judgment, unrepentant sinners pass in the general judgment, or, as some Christians believe, immediately after death (particular judgment). "[103] Mormons also believe in a more permanent concept of hell, commonly referred to as outer darkness. 27:20, Isa. 'Arguments in Favour of Universalism'. 14:15, Isa. "[34] Several Orthodox theologians do describe hell as separation from God, in the sense of being out of fellowship or loving communion. For those whose "all" is themselves and this world, the "all" of God will be their torture, their punishment and their death. [68], Saint Augustine of Hippo said that the suffering of hell is compounded because God continues to love the sinner who is not able to return the love. Second, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-30 clearly shows that the rich man is “in torment” (16:23) and “in anguish in this flame” (16:24). [29][30][31] Aristotle Papanikolaou[32] and Elizabeth H. Prodromou[33] write in their book Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives from Orthodox Christian Scholars that for the Orthodox: "Those theological symbols, heaven and hell, are not crudely understood as spatial destinations but rather refer to the experience of God's presence according to two different modes. He cited the view of Saint Augustine of Hippo that Hell is under the earth and that of Saint Gregory the Great that hell is either on the earth or under it. The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that the concept of eternal suffering is incompatible with God's character and that He cannot torture His children. I grew up believing that the final fate of the unrighteous is eternal conscious torment. "The recent Catechism is ambiguous, neither denying nor confirming the existence of physical torments" - Charles Steven Seymour, "A Theodicy of Hell', p. 82 (2000). I don’t know. The Church explains biblical descriptions of hell being "eternal" or "endless" punishment as being descriptive of their infliction by God rather than an unending temporal period. Annihilationists attempt to deny this by claiming that the beast and false prophet represent institutions and not persons and thus could not be tormented forever, but this is not convincing. Eternal Conscious Torment is too horrible and monstrous to be true Eternal Conscious Torment would mean that God is not just to punish finite sin infinitely God is holy and will not allow evil to exist forever. ECT advocates say that “a punishment of eternal fire” refers to the eternal conscious torment of unbelievers. This passage, of course, is shrouded with interpretive questions. In the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos writes about seeing a lake of fire where the 'beast' and all those marked with his number were placed. This separation is stark, with no explicit provision made for fine gradations of merit or guilt:[24]. [104] Other mortals who during their lifetime become sons of perdition, those who commit the unpardonable sin, will be consigned to outer darkness. As to "eternal conscious torment", there are a lot of differing views on it. This is what hell is" (, Adomnan of Iona, Life of St Columba. [110] [111] They instead believe that Hell is not a place of eternal suffering, but of eternal death and that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. A major reason why this passage is believed to prove eternal torment is because it says “punishment,” and punishment, it is argued, must mean pain or some sort of conscious suffering, and therefore must mean that the person is alive and conscious to suffer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church which, when published in 1992, Pope John Paul II declared to be "a sure norm for teaching the faith",[43] defines hell as a freely chosen consequence of refusing to love God: The Baltimore Catechism defined Hell by using the word "state" alone: "Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments." A moral objection to eternal conscious torment (ECT) is that if sinners are tormented in hell for all eternity (or, to be more precise, the lake of fire), then God’s justice is never satisfied. My thesis is both positive and negative. "[72] An article on the same subject by Sweeney that was published on the Huffington Post's religion page was liked by more than 19,000 people, including Anne Rice.[73]. No verse in the Bible gives an expository description of what hell is or what it's about. 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