Many people have tried to get around the Bible’s teaching of eternal punishment. I don’t know of anyone who likes the doctrine, but God in His infinite understanding and perfect justice has determined the proper punishment for the lost. In His word, He has revealed unending punishment as the destination of the wicked who choose not to avail themselves of His salvation. My personal dislike for a concept must give way to an honest reading of the Scriptures and deference to the all-knowing God.

One of the ways in which the Bible’s teaching about eternal hell is denied is by advocating annihilation. For years various religious groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses have argued that “destroy” in Matthew 10:28 means extinction: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Some teachers in the Lord’s church have even resorted to this softening of the Lord’s words, which changes the idea from conscious, unending punishment to a brief obliteration in which suffering ends rapidly. However, the Greek word apollumi rendered “destroy” in Matthew 10:28 does not neatly equal the concept of annihilate; rather, it often carries the idea of ruin, not annihilation. In Matthew 10:6, a form of the word is translated “lost” in Jesus’ instruction to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:11, it is translated “lost.” In the next verse, (verse 12), He equates it with going astray. Again, it is translated “lost” in Luke 15:24, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Lost in that passage gives the idea of separation. The woman who had ten pieces of silver, if she would “lose” (from apollumi) one coin, was separated from that piece of silver for a time (Luke 15:8). In Luke 15:9, she rejoiced when she found the piece that she had “lost” (from apollumi).

Eternal separation from God is the idea expressed in Jesus’ teaching on hell. To be finally lost is to be separated from God forever. The wicked will be punished with “everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:9), in the sense that they will be told “depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). This is the everlasting punishment of the wicked (Matthew 25:46), not a momentary pain that snuffs one out of existence. In Mark 9:41, Jesus speaks of him who shall not “lose” (from apollumi) his reward. Jesus then goes on to describe how unlike the worms and fire in the valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10), Gehenna hell is a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:43-48), a quotation from Isaiah 66:24. This final note in the book of Isaiah ends similarly to the book of Malachi in that two options, two eternal destinies, are placed before the audience.

One who is lost is brought to eternal ruin. Paul used the word apollumi in his instructions regarding the weaker brother, saying, “Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15). Obviously eating certain meats or foods would not put a weaker brother out of existence, but it could ruin his faith, sear his conscience, and cause him to be lost.

Hell lasts just as long as heaven: both are eternal (Matthew 25:46). Jesus warned us many times of the severity of hell. What makes the salvation He offers so great is that it saves us from such horrible suffering. Rather than trying to save man’s psyche from the fear of hell, let us teach man to fear God and be saved from hell: “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:5).

The wickedness of the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas (1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34), who were priests in Israel, is described in 1 Samuel 2:12-17. While the Lord had allocated certain portions of the sacrificed animals to the priests (Lev. 7:28-36; Deut. 18:3), these wicked men intimidated worshippers and took other portions of meat to which they were not entitled. They also committed fornication with the women at the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:22; cf. Ex. 38:8). While Phinehas’ earlier namesake, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was commended because he forcibly stopped fornication in Israel (Num. 25:6-18), this later Phinehas, son of Eli, descendant of Aaron, would be punished because he engaged in fornication. Eli questioned his sons and told them not to do these evils (1 Sam. 2:22-24). However, God asked Eli why do you, “honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?” (1 Sam. 2:29). God knows the difference between that which is mere talk and what is truly in one’s heart. Eli said “no” to his sons, but evidently was made fat from their stolen portions of meat.

The Levitical priests were chosen by God (Ex. 28:1). God asked this rhetorical question to Eli regarding the descendants of Aaron, “Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me?” (1 Sam. 2:28). But God’s election of them did not mean that God would not revoke their status and punish them if they fell away into wickedness. The text goes on to say: “Therefore the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.’” (1 Sam. 2:30, 31).

Today as Christians, we are a chosen generation and a royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9). We are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Pet. 1:2). Many in the religious world view election as guaranteed salvation, but the Bible does not teach such. This religious error comes from John Calvin who taught unconditional election. Regarding elect in 1 Peter 1:2, Calvin stated, “Hence, when Peter calls them elect according to the precognition of God, he intimates that the cause of it depends on nothing else but on God alone, for he of his own free will has chosen us.”^[1]  Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us before the foundation of the world. Calvin’s comments on being chosen are thus: “…all our holiness and purity of life flow from the election of God. How comes it then that some men are religious, and live in the fear of God, while others give themselves up without reserve to all manner of wickedness? If Paul may be believed, the only reason is, that the latter retain their natural disposition, and the former have been chosen to holiness.”^[2] Calvin’s false teaching is that men have nothing to do with their salvation, God’s choosing/election does everything; men really have no choice whether they are wicked or holy.

However, almost every page of the Bible has a lesson for us to choose to stay faithful and several passages in the Bible show that election cannot mean guaranteed salvation regardless of one’s behavior. Let us not silence passages like 1 Samuel 2:27-36 from informing us of the nature of God’s choosing/election. Since we, as Christians, are all priests to God today, then we must live holy lives (1 Pet. 1:15, 16; 2:9) to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10). We must continue in God’s goodness, otherwise we will be cut off (Rom. 11:22).

^[1] John Calvin and John Owen, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 24–25.

^[2] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 199.

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:19, 20). This command to be swift to hear is often neglected today. We are far too often concerned with telling someone else something rather than listening. Men are often bent on venting their opinions and frustrations to the neglect of truly hearing or receiving instruction. Like a cup that is overflowing, their minds and dispositions have no room to receive that which would benefit them. In the context of this passage, James speaks of how we receive God’s word. The very next verse tells one to lay aside all rampant, overflowing wickedness and receive with meekness God’s implanted word which is able to save our souls (James 1:21).

In Luke 8:18, Jesus told us to take heed how we hear. This was on the heels of His explanation of the parable of the sower and soils, which encourages us to be good ground that receives the seed, (God’s word) with an honest and good heart (Luke 8:11-15). Also, just before this command to take heed to how we hear, Jesus described the light that makes known God’s truths (Luke 8:16-17). Our eyes and ears must be open to receive God’s light and hear His instruction. Following this command to take heed how we hear, Jesus makes this statement, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). Not only must we take care in the manner in which we hear, but the content of what we hear must be heeded in the sense of obedience (Mark 4:24; Hebrews 2:1). This takes us back to our passage in James which continues with:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25).

The Bible’s instruction to “take heed” includes more than merely listening to the words. Heeding them means obeying them, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13). The Hebrew nation was blessed to have entrusted to them the written oracles of God—the law of Moses (Romans 3:1); however, merely reading the law and the prophets would not save them if they did the very things that were condemned in those writings (Romans 2:17-23). Paul made the point that those who read what the prophets wrote about God’s suffering Messiah that was to come actually fulfilled the wicked deeds described in the prophets because they did not know Jesus as the Christ even when He was right in front of them (Acts 13:26-28). Religious people who would not listen and were quick to wrath worked to put Jesus on the cross. These kinds of hearers are the ones described by Stephen as “uncircumcised in heart and ears” always resisting what God is revealing (Acts 7:51). When Stephen said this, they “stopped their ears” and went to kill him (Acts 7:57). Let us be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.