There’s another round of heresy-hunting going on among American evangelicals. It’s playing out on Youtube. Many conservative evangelical influencers (and would-be influencers) are condemning annihilationism as heresy. This round of that old controversy began with Christian celebrity Kirk Cameron allegedly affirming annihilationism.
What is annihilationism? It’s the belief that the wicked will not spend eternity in any traditional hell (torment) but will be extinguished, annihilated. According to annihilationists, the souls of those who reject God’s grace will simply cease to exist, one way or another. According to them, this will be an act of God’s mercy toward them.
A man who defended and promoted annihilationism was Edward Fudge, author of The Fire That Consumes. He was generally considered an evangelical Christian in other respects, but his membership in the Church of Christ and his promotion of annihilationism caused many evangelical leaders to keep him at a distance. I not only read the book; I had lunch with Fudge and discussed his belief about hell and his struggle to gain acceptance for annihilationism among American evangelicals.
Over the years I have personally known some evangelical annihilationists. One was my good friend theologian Clark Pinnock. Another one was a now deceased professor of theology at Bethel Seminary. He had to keep his view secret or at least not public because the seminary had a statement of faith that affirmed the “eternal suffering of the wicked.”
I have concluded that one reason annihilationism is controversial beyond what is reasonable is its passionate embrace by Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not only Seventh-Day Adventist but also other Adventists such as the Advent Christian Church, a full member denomination of the National Association of Evangelicals!
My thought after watching some of the videos accusing Cameron of heresy is “So what; why is this such a big deal?” Most of those accusing him of heresy are Calvinists. Evangelical American Calvinists tend to be heresy-hunters. I think of them as fundamentalists.
When they accuse you of heresy, that tends to put a target on your back that says to evangelical leaders “Don’t have anything to do with this person.” It ostracizes them.
Is annihilationism heresy? No. I do not affirm it myself. I prefer C. S. Lewis’s vision of hell in The Great Divorce. However, I cannot regard annihilationism as heresy. Fudge made a very strong biblical case for it as have others. Not strong enough, in my opinion. But clearly one can affirm the truth of the Bible and misinterpret it. Whether hell is eternal or temporal (as in annihilationism) is a secondary matter, a “non-essential.”
To Cameron’s critics I say “Back off, please.” Leave the poor man alone! He has paid his evangelical dues. This is not worth criticizing him.
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