Current Issues in Salvation, Part 2: Various Rejections of ECT

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Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT) is the teaching of Scripture (cf. John 3:14-18; Heb 9:27; Rev 14:11; 20:15). However, many schools and many pastors are now rejecting ECT in light of various other views. Those other views include universalism (everyone will eventually be saved), conditional immortality (= annihilationism), and unconscious torment (like an eternal coma). Back
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Immortality Is Not Eternal Life 

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Free Grace Theology impacts the issue of final punishment. The question is, what happens to unbelievers after the Great White Throne Judgment? One way that Free Grace makes a difference is relatively subtle. We emphasize that, according to Jesus’ promise, believers have eternal life as a present possession (John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47). Believers do
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Aaron Rodgers Rejects Eternal Conscious Torment

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Famed Super Bowl winning and future Hall of Fame quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, lit up the internet when he spoke about how he rejected the faith of his family, the faith he was raised in. In an article entitled, “NFL Quarterback Aaron Rodgers Questions How Anyone Could Believe in God” (which
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What Edward Fudge Can’t Believe about The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)

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Now that our revised The Grace New Testament Commentary is out, I can go back to finishing up two or three book projects, such as on the “atonement” and “hell.” My book on hell will, so far (I can still be convinced of a different view), defend eternal conscious torment (ECT)—though not the ECT of
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Given Eternal Conscious Torment, Is God’s Justice Ever Satisfied?

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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. Think of it like a mortgage—at some point, you pay it off and satisfy the debt. Or, with a prison sentence,
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The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Samuel

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One of the central texts in the debate over hell is Luke 16—the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Actually, whether or not this is a parable is part of the debate. People who deny eternal conscious torment deny that Jesus’ story depicts a real situation. For example, many annihilationists want to deny it
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Where Did Abraham Go When He Died (Gen 25:8-9; Luke 16:22-23)?

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I am about a third of the way into writing my book about hell, tentatively entitled, Final Punishment: A Biblical Case for Conscious Eternal Torment. I’m hoping to finish by the 2019 National Conference. There is so much interesting Biblical information about death and the afterlife in the Bible. The picture is far more complicated
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Eternal Existence vs Eternal Life

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In my discussions with annihilationists, one of the conceptual roadblocks I’ve encountered is an inability to distinguish between eternal existence and having eternal life. Some annihilationists reason this way: “To have eternal life means to exist forever. Only believers have eternal life, therefore only believers will exist forever. Since unbelievers lack eternal life, they will
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