In this video, Kirk and his son James take on one of the most sobering questions in all of theology: what is the final fate of the wicked? Is hell eternal conscious torment, or does Scripture point toward annihilation and complete destruction? James and Kirk explore the Bible’s most difficult passages, unpack ancient terms like Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, and examine whether God’s justice is compatible with endless suffering. They conclude that the wicked are destroyed while the righteous live forever.
It was God Himself who established the principle of an eye for an eye, so that the punishment could not exceed the crime. You could not burn down your neighbor’s house because they picked and ate an apple from your tree. You could not kill a man because he broke your fingernail. And you could not torture a person forever (and not let them die) because they live a selfish life for thirty-three years.
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18).
Immortality is the intrinsic attribute of the Godhead, and Jesus gives it as a gift to His faithful believers. The unrighteous don’t receive this gift; they are destroyed by hellfire as a final act of mercy. They would be miserable in heaven (Matthew 8:29; Rev. 6:16; Luke 23:30; Proverbs 28:1).
Evil had a beginning. It was not always here in our cosmos. And according to the Bible, it will have a full and complete end. After the annihilation of the wicked, “One pulse of harmony will beat throughout the vast creation” again.
“Fear not little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
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“Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7).