I believe misunderstanding how the Bible uses the words death and destroy, is the foundation of sand on which the doctrine of annihilationism (aka., conditional immortality) is built. So I just wanted to share some brief thoughts on how the Bible actually uses these terms.
Death
Death in Scripture is not a simple synonym for nonexistence. It is a covenantal and creational category before it is a metaphysical one. The Bible uses death to describe ruin and the loss of life as God intended it; biblical ruin itself is separation, not non-existence. Death is described as the creature cut off from the life for which he was made, not the cancellation of awareness or being.
It begins with judicial death; sin brings a sentence. “The wages of sin is death.” Man stands condemned, liable to judgment. That verdict then unfolds into spiritual death; a man can be alive in body and yet “dead in trespasses and sins,” alienated from the life of God, walking in darkness, cut off from fellowship. Death is already present, not as extinction, but as separation and ruin. Man was created for fellowship with Him, not alienation. This alienation is death, the ruin of human beings as they were created to be.
Continue reading “Annihilationism: Destroying Death & Destruction”
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