Kirk Cameron has respectfully asked that “we have a conversation” regarding the subject of “Annihilationism” AKA “Conditional Immortality” as espoused by Edward William Fudge (1944-2017). Fudge was a Christian theologian, who advocated conditional immortality: immortality is God’s gift only to the saved; the unsaved face final destruction (annihilation) after judgment, not eternal torment. Key work: The Fire That Consumes (1982).
Because of his notoriety and position in the Christian community, Cameron has raised a firestorm in the media. We thought rather than take on this “tar baby” of an issue we would suggest that our readers consider the works of Augustine of Hippo. Augustine dealt with this topic between between 413 and 426 A.D. so the topic is not a new idea by any stretch. Here is what Augustine wrote…
“Reply to Error” Eternal Punishment is Eternal But, if this is so, how can we say that all people, or even that some people, will be released from the eternity of this punishment—no matter how long they suffer before being released—without immediately undercutting the faith by which we believe that the demons’ punishment is going to be eternal? If all or some of those to whom it will be said, Depart from me, you accursed, into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels, are not going to be in that fire forever, do we have any reason to believe that the devil and his angels are going to be there forever? Or is the sentence that God pronounces on the evil, both humans and angels alike, going to turn out to be true for the angels but false for human beings? Only if human conjecture outweighs God’s own words could that be true. But that cannot be right, and so those who desire to avoid eternal punishment should obey the divine command while there is still time, rather than arguing against God. Again, would it not be odd to hold that “eternal punishment” means “fire lasting for a long time” but at the same time to believe that “eternal life” means “life without end”—especially in view of the fact that in this same passage Christ included both phrases in one and the same sentence: These shall go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Mt 25: 46)? If both are eternal, we should obviously take the term in the same sense in both cases. Either both last a long time but have an end, or both have no end. For the two expressions—eternal punishment and eternal life—stand in parallel. And to use eternal in one and the same sense to mean that eternal life will have no end, but that eternal punishment will have an end, is utterly absurd. Consequently, because it is certain that the eternal life of the saints will have no end, there can be no doubt that the eternal punishment of the condemned will also have no end. “ (emphasis added).
The City of God: Books 11-22 (I/7) (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century) by Saint Augustine https://a.co/fFlOJ4L