First, welcome @Alisa_Smith. Glad you are here. I will admit, growing up, I was taught Hell was a real place of eternal torment. Artists and Hollywood did their part in painting that picture. Some teach that this is a fact. Then I heard the teaching of total annihilation. Annihilationism argues that the ultimate fate of the wicked is destruction. A literal end to existence, rather than eternal preservation in a state of torture. Proponents argue this view is actually more aligned with the literal meaning of primary biblical terms.
The Meaning of “Destruction” and “Perishing”: Annihilationists point out that the New Testament consistently uses verbs like apollumi (to destroy, ruin, or lose completely) and nouns like olethros (destruction). For instance, Matthew 10:28 warns to fear God who can “destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).” They argue that “destroy” means to bring to an end, not to preserve eternally in pain. John 3:16 contrasts eternal life not with eternal torment, but with “perishing.”
In the ancient world, the primary function of fire was to consume and obliterate, not to keep something alive forever. Annihilationists argue that “unquenchable fire” means a fire that cannot be put out until it has completely consumed its fuel. They point to Jude 7, which says Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the punishment of “eternal fire.” Yet those cities are not still burning; their destruction was permanent and final.
From this perspective, phrases like “eternal punishment” or “eternal judgment” in Hebrews 6:2 mean a punishment that is permanent in its result (extinction of being), not a process that goes on forever. After all, how could a loving God condemn someone to everlasting torture?
I will admit I liked this. It is easier to hear than eternal suffering with no end. When I picture people I know, deceased family members, friends, whoever I know passed and did not have Jesus, The last thing I want toi imagine is them sufferening. Then some suggest that just because the lake burns forever, it does not mean what goes in it does. Like a furnace, it is burning and ready to consume what is thrown into it. But does scripture really allow this?
The strongest semantic argument comes from verses like Matthew 25:46: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Some argue that the same Greek word, aionios, modifies both “punishment” and “life.” If “eternal life” means unending existence, then “eternal punishment” must logically mean unending conscious experience.
Passages like Mark 9:43–48 describe hell (Gehenna) as a place where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Additionally, Revelation 14:11 states that “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.” This view suggests that sin against an infinite God incurs an infinite penalty, requiring an unending duration of justice.
If forced to look at which is more likely from a purely historical-critical standpoint, understanding how 1st-century Jews standardly viewed the afterlife, total annihilation (Conditional Immortality) has gained an immense amount of ground among modern scholars.
In the ancient Jewish worldview, immortality was not something inherent to the human soul; it was a gift given only to the righteous (hence, “conditional” immortality). The idea of an inherently immortal soul that must exist somewhere forever is actually a Greek philosophical concept (largely from Plato) that bled into early church theology centuries later.
Without the assumption that the soul is naturally immortal, the standard biblical descriptions of “burning up like chaff,” “perishing,” and experiencing the “second death” naturally lean toward a final, absolute end of existence. I said all this to say, I do not know. What I do know is we do not have to find out firsthand. Jesus already paid that price.
Peter