OceanSide church of Christ

 Previous Return to Articles Next 

THE DOCTRINE OF ANNIHILATION (1)

Victor M. Eskew

 

            Everyone goes to hell, but no one is punished eternally in hell-fire.  This is one of the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  It is known as the doctrine of annihilation.  It is also referred to as extinctionism, destructionism, and materialism.  Annihilationism affirms that the wicked dead will not be punished eternally in the fires of a devils’ hell.  Instead, the ungodly will be completely, utterly destroyed from existence.

            In an article on the Jehovah’s Witnesses website (www.jw.org) entitled, “What Is Hell?  Is It A Place of Eternal Torment?”, the Jehovah’s Witnesses state:  “Death, not torment in a fiery hell, is the penalty for sin.”  In that same article, they write:  “God does not even contemplate eternal torment.  The idea that he would punish people in hell-fire is contrary to the Bible’s teaching that ‘God is love.’- 1 John 4:8; Jeremiah 7:31).”  They believe that eternal condemnation is nothing more than simply passing out of existence.  In the book, Is This Life All There Is?, published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, we read this statement:  “”Biblical evidence thus makes it plain that those whom God judges as undeserving of life will experience, not eternal torment in a literal fire, but ‘everlasting destruction.’  They will not be preserved alive anywhere.  The fire of Gehenna is therefore but a symbol of the totality and thoroughness of that destruction” (pp. 115-16).  On page 123, this statement is found:  “That total destruction, not conscious torment for all eternity, is the punishment meted out to those persisting in rebellion also agrees with what God reveals about himself in his Word the Bible.”

            In order to grasp this doctrine, one must understand several points taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  First, they do not believe that man is created with an immortal soul.  They believe that immortality is a blessing God bestows on those who believe in Jesus Christ and obey His gospel.  Second, hell in the mind of the Jehovah’s Witness is nothing more than the grave.  This is why they believe that everyone goes to hell.  Third, they believe that the righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected from the grave.  However, there is one group of individuals that are so wicked that upon their death they immediately go to Gehenna which they believe is a state of annihilation or non-existence.  These individuals will not be resurrected.  Fourth, death and hell will be destroyed after the resurrection.  Fifth, the wicked dead will be sent to Gehenna.  They will suffer for a just period of time for their sins.  Then, they will pass into non-existence.  Sixth, the righteous will be with God.  One hundred forty-four thousand will be in heaven.  The rest will live in a new heaven and a new earth.

            Let us begin by looking at the teaching which asserts that man is not immortal.  They make several arguments to “prove” their doctrine.  First, they tell us that only God is immortal.  Their proof-text is I Timothy 6:16.  “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see:  to whom be honour and power everlasting.  Amen.”  Second, they say that man’s mortality is plainly depicted in the sentence laid upon Adam in the Garden of Eden.  God told the sinful man:  “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:  for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19).  Third, they do not believe that man possess a soul that lives on after death.  They say man is a living soul.  When he dies, the totality of man is placed into the grave.  In the grave, he is completely unconscious, according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  They use passages such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 to prove their point.  Solomon writes:  “For the living know that they shall die:  but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”  Fourth, they point to Paul’s words in I Corinthians 15:53 that say immortality will be given to the faithful at the resurrection:  “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”  Their purpose in all of these teachings is to affirm that man is just a material being.  If he is not redeemed by the blood of Christ, and, if he does not have immortality conferred upon him, then he will simply return to the dust and pass out of existence.

            Is man just a mortal being?  When Paul tells us that God alone is immortal, what he means is that God alone has immortality as part of His nature.  He has always been immortal.  It was not bestowed upon Him.  He, and He alone, is the source of immortality.  When God created man, God said that He would create man in His likeness and in His image.  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:126-27).  This involved God forming the spirit of man that is in him (Zech. 12:1).  This spirit was created immortal.  Solomon tell us that God has set the world (eternity) into the hearts of men (Eccl. 3:11).  Man is composed of an outer man and an inner man (II Cor. 4:16).  The outer man is temporal, but the inner man is eternal (I Cor. 4:16-18).  When we die, the spirit separates from the body (James 2:26).  “Then shall the dust return unto the earth as it was:  and the spirit unto God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).  Yes, in the grave there is no knowledge.  The real question is:  “Why?”  The reason is because the thinking and rational part of man has left the body.  The only thing in the grave is a cold lump of clay.  As to what is made immortal in the resurrection, Paul is discussing the body in I Corinthians 15:33.  It will be raised and reunited with our spirits.  However, it will not be our old, physical body.  It will be a changed body.  This new body will be able to live in the heavenly realms forever and ever because it was given immortality.

            In our next article, we will discuss the concepts of hell as taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Remember, they believe that hell is only the grave.