Annihilationism

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The Annihilationism is one of several views of the hell within the Christian . It says that the final state of the wicked (see the entry sinners ) is complete annihilation ( Latin: annihilatio ). He rejects the traditional view that hell is a place of never-ending torment or eternal separation from God .

Annihilationists include the Seventh-day Adventist Church , the Christadelphian Congregation, the Bible Students' Movement, and the Jehovah's Witnesses . Annihilationism has gained a number of other adherents within Protestant theology since the 1960s, but it is still a minority view.

Teaching

In contrast to the traditional view, which says that the wicked will be tormented forever, and in contrast to universal reconciliation , which says that all people will be saved, annihilationism takes the view that God completely (i.e. including the body) the wicked in hell , Soul and consciousness) ( Latin : annihilare ). To what extent and whether the wicked experience a certain degree of punishment that corresponds to their sins before their destruction is controversial. According to this view, only the righteous experience eternal life in immortality .

This view is often, but not always, linked to the view of "conditioned (conditional) immortality," the view that the soul is not inherently immortal. Here, death leads to a state of nonexistence (or sleep) for the righteous, as for the wicked, from which they are raised (or recreated) at the Last Judgment . God, who alone is immortal, then, after judgment, gives the righteous immortality to an eternal life in heaven or on a heavenly earth, while the wicked die a second death, which means their eternal extinction.

history

The vast majority of Christian theologians from Tertullian to Luther held the traditional view of hell. The annihilationist view was, however , represented again and again in the course of church history . Early forms of conditioned immortality can be found in the writings of Justin the Martyr († 165) and Theophilus of Antioch († 185). Amobius († 330) was the first to expressly defend annihilationism. The Second Council of Constantinople and later the Fifth Lateran Council condemned this teaching. Annihilationism has emerged from time to time since the Reformation ; B. in the Creed of the General Baptists of 1660.

Today this doctrine is mostly associated with groups that come from William Miller and the Advent movement , including the Seventh-day Adventists , the Bible Students Movement, and a few other, smaller groups. More recently, some evangelical theologians, including prominent Anglican author John Stott , have shown a measure of sympathy for this doctrine. This led to great discussions within evangelicals.

justification

Fundamental to the annihilationist view are the concepts of divine justice and divine love. Annihilationists argue that the concept of a place of eternal torment is repulsive and that this is also an unjust infinite punishment for the finite sins of a finite mortality. They also argue that it is hard to imagine that the righteous can live happily ever after knowing that their loved ones (insofar as they have been judged in court) are burning in eternal fire at the same time. Traditionalists respond that only God is authorized to determine what divine justice is, and suspect that this is where the annihilationists give in to the pressures of modernity.

Annihilationists also argue that traditional views of Hell are based on the concept of the immortal soul from Greek philosophy , which was mistakenly carried over into the Bible . Traditionalists think this is unimportant and refer to Bible verses with which they justify their view of the immortal soul from the Bible.

Annihilationists also defend their point of view by saying that the idea of ​​eternal torment is a misunderstanding of certain Bible verses. Some even believe that the concept of the immortal soul is nothing more than a paraphrase of the lie of the serpent in the Garden of Eden , who preached to people "You will not die".

Both traditionalists and annihilationists believe that their views correspond to the biblical statements about hell. Much of the discussion revolves around terminology and the symbolism of revelation . Annihilationists believe that those passages that speak of the annihilation of the wicked (e.g. John 3:16 or Matthew 10:28, in English translations mostly say "destroy", which expresses the idea of ​​annihilation more strongly than the German " Perdition ”) or of the sleep of the dead (e.g. John 11:11 or Ecclesiastes 9: 5 + 6 + 10) should be understood literally, while passages from the book of Revelation about eternal torment are to be understood figuratively. Traditionalists see it the other way round.

Annihilationist Concepts in Other Religions

In religions other than Christianity there are also annihilationist ideas with regard to the fate of the unjust after death. In ancient Egypt, for example, there was a belief in the Hetemite extermination site . In the 13 beliefs of Maimonides there is also the idea of ​​an annihilation of the souls of the unjust. The Mandaeans believe in the end of the days, the extinction of the demon Ur together with those souls which could not be purified inside.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maimonides' Introduction to Perek Helek, ed. u. trans. v. Maimonides Heritage Center, pp. 22-23.
  2. ↑ Ginza . The Treasure or the Great Book of the Mandaeans, ed. u. trans. v. Mark Lidzbarski , Quellen der Religionsgeschichte Vol. 13, Göttingen 1925, p. 203.

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