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A Consuming Passion: Essays on Hell and Immortality in Honor of Edward Fudge
This diverse collection of essays in honor of Edward William Fudge explores the topics of hell and immortality, for which Fudge has been widely known through his magnum opus, The Fire That Consumes. Most Christians believe people will live and suffer in hell forever, but Fudge defends a view known historically as ""conditional immortality."" He and a growing minority of Christians believe God will grant immortality only to those who meet the condition of being united with Christ on the Last Day, while those who do not will perish forever. Although Christians sharing Fudge's view have defended it both before and after him, conditionalists today still point to The Fire That Consumes as the seminal treatment of the topic. In July 2014, Christians from around the world gathered at the inaugural Rethinking Hell conference, to celebrate Fudge's life and work and to discuss the nature of hell in an open and respectful forum. This volume contains most of the essays presented at that conference, and several others volunteered by conditionalists since then, as a gift to Fudge for the tremendous impact he has had on them, and for the continued work he does for God's kingdom. ""This new set of essays on the topic of hell's duration is a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion on this important topic . . . What we have here is not a bunch of hobbyhorse theologians sitting around agreeing with each other, but a group of astute pastors and scholars wrestling with what God's inspired word says about hell. I commend this book to anyone who is wrestling with the topic of God's future judgment."" --Preston Sprinkle, Vice President for Eternity Bible College's Boise extension, coauthor of Erasing Hell and People to Be Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue ""This excellent collection of compelling essays is not only a fitting tribute to the lifelong passion and work of a great scholar; it's a superb opportunity for readers to be relieved of the onerous weight of believing our loving Creator vengefully consigns people to an unending nightmare from which they will never awake. If you share this traditional view of hell, please do yourself a favor and devour this work!"" --Gregory A. Boyd, President of Reknew.org and author of Benefit of the Breaking the Idol of Certainty ""This is a dangerous book. These eminently readable essays--by turns personal, exegetical, theological, and historical--have the potential to change the minds and hearts of the contemporary church on the question of final judgment. Read at your own risk!"" --J. Richard Middleton, Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College and author of A New Heaven and a New Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology Christopher M. Date is the editor of Rethinking Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism (2014), and blogs and podcasts for the Rethinking Hell project. He works as a software engineer in the Pacific Northwest. Ron Highfield is Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He is the author of The Faithful Affirming Creation and Providence in an Age of Anxiety (2015).
- GenresTheology
454 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2015
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December 24, 2015
(Full disclosure: I am affiliated with Rethinking Hell, the organization that spearheaded this project. But it's not like I contributed an essay to it or get any royalties, so you should listen to me anyway lol)
Now, A Consuming Passion is overall a useful and interesting volume on the theological topic of conditional immortality/annihilationism. Because this volume (as discussed below) attempts to serve multiple purposes, the way it is useful will vary from person to person. Nevertheless, one way or another, it is a useful resource for any biblical Christian.
The volume sets out to fulfill a number of purposes, and does them all pretty well. It attempts to pay Edward Fudge due honor, and accomplishes this both with kind words and admiration, as well as occasional (but charitable) critiques of certain arguments of his in a handful of appropriate places. The volume serves also as something of a memorabilia collection from the inaugural Rethinking Hell conference in 2014 (the theme of which was also honoring Edward Fudge). Although a number of the essays are original, the volume also includes 11 of the 14 papers that were presented at the conference (the 3 not included, I believe, were criticisms of annihilationism and would therefore not be appropriate to this particular collection, though that isn't to deny that they have literary value in their own right). Lastly, it makes the case for conditional immortality with a number of methods and from a number of viewpoints, with the help of a number of very knowledgeable and reputable theologians and scholars, and thus helps to push evangelical theology in that correct direction.
The books is thematically split up into five main sections. The first part focuses specifically on Edward Fudge and his contributions to conditionalism, Christian theology, and the kingdom of God overall. For those who have had the pleasure of knowing Edward Fudge to any extent, this section is especially fulfilling to read.
The second section focuses on theological and philosophical arguments for annihilationism, including contributions from professional theologians and philosophers like Gordon Isaac and James Spiegel. Combined with sections 3 and 4, this section puts together the core of the book as a persuasive volume.
The third section picks up where the second volume left off, focusing on exegesis of specific biblical texts.
The fourth section looked at history and polemics, including a historical examination of Jewish views on hell around the time of Jesus, contributed by Dr. David Instone-Brewer, senior research fellow at Tyndale House, Cambridge. On the more polemical side was possibly my personal favorite essay in the collection, "Sic et Non" by Ronnie Demler. In it, Demler calls attention not only to how the language of final punishment in the Bible is the exact opposite of what we would expect if eternal torment were true, but also to how traditionalist theologians, across the centuries and across denominations, openly and unabashedly describe hell in ways that are the exact opposite of what the Bible says. In almost excruciating detail, he cites literally dozens of respected and well-known theologians preaching and writing that in hell, the unsaved never die, they live forever, they are never destroyed, they have immortality and even "eternal life,' despite the Bible saying that the unsaved are destroyed, they will die, they will not have "eternal life" etc. Demler then looks at attempts made to reconcile this dilemma, and shows that they are wanting.
The core sections (2-4) are probably what a traditionalist or uncommitted reader would be most interested in. As a conditionalist, however, I found the fifth section to be especially worth the read. In this final section, the authors discuss the road ahead and where conditionalists should go from here. From Chris Date's point by point recommendations for avoiding the mistakes that killed the resurgence of conditional immortality among evangelicals in the 19th century, to Ralph Bowle's insights on effective evangelism towards the unsaved, a conditionalist with an active interest in the subject of final judgment can glean lot of valuable lessons from this final section.
Overall, this is a very good volume. Some contributions are definitely much stronger than others, and one should know going in that it is not going to make as strong a persuasive a case for conditionalism as a dedicated volume to that goal would do (Edward Fudge's The Fire that Consumes comes to mind). Still, overall this volume is worth the (admittedly considerable) time it takes to read it. A Consuming Passion both encourages fans of Edward Fudge on a personal level, and on a broader level, contributes in moving evangelical, biblical Christianity in the right direction.
Now, A Consuming Passion is overall a useful and interesting volume on the theological topic of conditional immortality/annihilationism. Because this volume (as discussed below) attempts to serve multiple purposes, the way it is useful will vary from person to person. Nevertheless, one way or another, it is a useful resource for any biblical Christian.
The volume sets out to fulfill a number of purposes, and does them all pretty well. It attempts to pay Edward Fudge due honor, and accomplishes this both with kind words and admiration, as well as occasional (but charitable) critiques of certain arguments of his in a handful of appropriate places. The volume serves also as something of a memorabilia collection from the inaugural Rethinking Hell conference in 2014 (the theme of which was also honoring Edward Fudge). Although a number of the essays are original, the volume also includes 11 of the 14 papers that were presented at the conference (the 3 not included, I believe, were criticisms of annihilationism and would therefore not be appropriate to this particular collection, though that isn't to deny that they have literary value in their own right). Lastly, it makes the case for conditional immortality with a number of methods and from a number of viewpoints, with the help of a number of very knowledgeable and reputable theologians and scholars, and thus helps to push evangelical theology in that correct direction.
The books is thematically split up into five main sections. The first part focuses specifically on Edward Fudge and his contributions to conditionalism, Christian theology, and the kingdom of God overall. For those who have had the pleasure of knowing Edward Fudge to any extent, this section is especially fulfilling to read.
The second section focuses on theological and philosophical arguments for annihilationism, including contributions from professional theologians and philosophers like Gordon Isaac and James Spiegel. Combined with sections 3 and 4, this section puts together the core of the book as a persuasive volume.
The third section picks up where the second volume left off, focusing on exegesis of specific biblical texts.
The fourth section looked at history and polemics, including a historical examination of Jewish views on hell around the time of Jesus, contributed by Dr. David Instone-Brewer, senior research fellow at Tyndale House, Cambridge. On the more polemical side was possibly my personal favorite essay in the collection, "Sic et Non" by Ronnie Demler. In it, Demler calls attention not only to how the language of final punishment in the Bible is the exact opposite of what we would expect if eternal torment were true, but also to how traditionalist theologians, across the centuries and across denominations, openly and unabashedly describe hell in ways that are the exact opposite of what the Bible says. In almost excruciating detail, he cites literally dozens of respected and well-known theologians preaching and writing that in hell, the unsaved never die, they live forever, they are never destroyed, they have immortality and even "eternal life,' despite the Bible saying that the unsaved are destroyed, they will die, they will not have "eternal life" etc. Demler then looks at attempts made to reconcile this dilemma, and shows that they are wanting.
The core sections (2-4) are probably what a traditionalist or uncommitted reader would be most interested in. As a conditionalist, however, I found the fifth section to be especially worth the read. In this final section, the authors discuss the road ahead and where conditionalists should go from here. From Chris Date's point by point recommendations for avoiding the mistakes that killed the resurgence of conditional immortality among evangelicals in the 19th century, to Ralph Bowle's insights on effective evangelism towards the unsaved, a conditionalist with an active interest in the subject of final judgment can glean lot of valuable lessons from this final section.
Overall, this is a very good volume. Some contributions are definitely much stronger than others, and one should know going in that it is not going to make as strong a persuasive a case for conditionalism as a dedicated volume to that goal would do (Edward Fudge's The Fire that Consumes comes to mind). Still, overall this volume is worth the (admittedly considerable) time it takes to read it. A Consuming Passion both encourages fans of Edward Fudge on a personal level, and on a broader level, contributes in moving evangelical, biblical Christianity in the right direction.
July 5, 2024
A TRIBUTE TO EDWARD FUDGE, AND A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY
Coeditor Ron Highfield wrote in the Preface to this 2015 book, “This book of essays addresses a significant issue within the general topic of eschatology, that is, the nature of divine judgment on the unrepentant and the gift of eternal life to the saved… The writers in this book argue that God’s victory over sin and evil is total and definitive and that the salvation of the righteous is equally total and definitive… These essays also honor Edward Fudge, whose 1982 book, 'The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Final Punishment,' sparked a revival of interest in the biblical doctrine of hell.”
John Stackhouse notes in his essay, “one of the key strengths of [Fudge’s] book is its insistence that the Old Testament must constitute the primary, indeed, the governing background against which the New Testament is interpreted, rather than something else: inter-testamental literature, for example, or the reigning philosophy of this or that century of Christian thought.” (Pg. 5) He also proposes the term “terminal punishment” for this doctrine, rather than “Conditional Immortality” or “Annihilationism.” (Pg. 15)
Terrance Tiessen suggests that “Annihilationism is not a step down a slippery slope. I see no other dominoes that might fall as a result of one’s affirmation of either traditionalism of annihilationism, but I now find the latter to be the most plausible reading of the biblical text, and it is least likely to present a stumbling block in evangelism and apologetics. Clearly, John Stott felt this to be true as well, since he revealed his own annihilationist convictions only when he felt the need to present to David Edwards [in Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal Evangelical Dialogue] an evangelicalism that was not subject to Edwards’ Liberal critique of the traditional view of hell.” (Pg. 27)
He adds that Fudge’s book “opened the door to the possibility that the eternality of punishment might lie, not in its temporal endlessness, but in its effective irreversibility, particularly when we consider the metaphors of fire and consumption by worms which are regularly used in Scripture to denote total destruction… Eternal punishment need not connote eternal conscious punishing, indeed it cannot do so, if God grants eternal … life exclusively to those whom he saves in Christ, which can be denied only through contorted readings of the clear statements of the New Testament.” (Pg. 30)
Jon Zens points out, “If people’s spirits leave their bodies when they die and go straight to heaven or hell, then what is to be made of a passage like Matthew 25:31-46? These verses describe the future appearance of resurrected humans before Christ on the last day. At this time their final destiny, one of bliss or of judgment, is proclaimed by the Lord. If their spirits had already been in the bad or good place for periods of time, then what sense would the Lord’s words make? They could rightly point out, ‘You’re just telling us what we already [knew] for some time’… It is not at death, but in the final resurrection of the just and unjust that their ends are announced by Jesus Christ.” (Pg. 33-34)
Rob McRay observes, “Some say that without the fear of eternal torment in hell, people will not be motivated to be saved. But in my experience the opposite is true. Would not people naturally fear total annihilation? Would people really choose to cease to exist? That is contrary to human nature. We are driven at the most basic level by the instinct to survive. Our task is to present people with the choice between eternal life with a loving Heavenly Father or the ultimate and final death penalty.” (Pg. 51)
Gordon Isaac notes, “we are informed by proponents of the traditional view that it is quite likely that the unregenerate who will purportedly be incarcerated in hell will continue to heap up sin and its consequent guilt, and it is perhaps for this reason that the punishment is ongoing. Given this situation, it would seem that even after judgment, the Triune God will not rule his universe without opposition… This brings us to the intolerable situation where it is hard to imagine that God has ‘become all in all’ (1 Cor 15:50) Rather, there is much left undone… and creation itself is not relieved of its frustration and bondage to decay (Rom 8:21)… the larger vision of Scripture … holds out to us a time when evil in all its forms will be extinguished and earth shall become the unsullied home of righteousness.” (Pg. 67)
He adds, “any view that does not allow the words of Scripture to mean what they say is suspect and in need of revision. When the term ‘death’ is read to mean a punishment that never ends, the lexical meaning of the term is stretched beyond credulity. It is a strange dying that does not eventuate in death itself, the cessation of life. When the word ‘destroy,’ even when in parallel with the term ‘kill,’ is defined as an event of ongoing duration, clearly a presupposition is exerting an unnecessary influence.” (Pg. 73)
He argues that the Conditionalist view “enables us to take seriously the cleansing of the cosmos from sin and evil. It solves the problem of evil, insofar as it can be solved in this lifetime, by showing that it is not an integral and perpetual part of the Divine economy, but is only incidental and transitory. It will pass away forever… the plausible objection that many have been accustomed to level against the Bible and its Author is removed.” (Pg. 78)
James Spiegel comments on the principle that “in assessing the justice of a punishment one must take into account… the moral and metaphysical status of the person offended”: “But what is also crucial to consider when weighing the severity of the two offenses is exactly what the offenses were. If I tortured [a] dog for days, while my offense against [a] human being was that I made a rude gesture, then the former is surely a worse offense then the latter. Despite the fact that a human being is far greater in terms of dignity and moral worth, my offense against the dog deserves more severe censure than does my offense against the human… the status of the offended party is not the sole relevant matter to consider when assessing the relative severity of moral offenses.” (Pg. 82-83)
Claude Mariottini asserts, “Isaiah 66:24 describes the result of God’s judgment upon the wicked… The subjects of the divine punishment are not the nations, but the people in Israel who were in rebellion against Yahweh… The words of the prophet should not be understood to refer to God’s judgment upon the wicked at the end of history, the time after Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.” (Pg. 165-166)
Roger Harper argues, “The most striking element of the description in Revelation 14:10 is the phrase ‘in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.’ … There is no hint that Jesus is watching from afar. Those in torment are in the presence of Jesus. He is simply with them. We know from Revelation 20 and the following chapters that after the final judgment, in Gehenna, the unrighteous will be excluded from the presence of Jesus. Therefore, the place of torment in Revelation 14 cannot be after the final judgment. This place must be Hades.” (Pg. 202)
Christopher Date acknowledges, “I think we need to emphasize that our view is not that the risen lost will be punished AND THEN DIE, but rather that their death WILL BE their ultimate punishment. I understand the feeling that many of us have that at least some unsaved people (Adolf Hitler, for example) ought to suffer in hell… The solution, however, is to see pain as being part of the process by which the lost will be punished with death, rather than as the punishment itself which will then be followed by death. Just as a death row criminal will suffer psychological torment while being strapped into the chair… so, too, might the risen lost suffer emotional, spiritual, and physiological agony in hell as part of their execution. In either case the punishment is ultimately death.” (Pg. 362)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Conditional Immortality, and/or wanting to know more about Edward Fudge’s role in the modern development of the doctrine.
Coeditor Ron Highfield wrote in the Preface to this 2015 book, “This book of essays addresses a significant issue within the general topic of eschatology, that is, the nature of divine judgment on the unrepentant and the gift of eternal life to the saved… The writers in this book argue that God’s victory over sin and evil is total and definitive and that the salvation of the righteous is equally total and definitive… These essays also honor Edward Fudge, whose 1982 book, 'The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Final Punishment,' sparked a revival of interest in the biblical doctrine of hell.”
John Stackhouse notes in his essay, “one of the key strengths of [Fudge’s] book is its insistence that the Old Testament must constitute the primary, indeed, the governing background against which the New Testament is interpreted, rather than something else: inter-testamental literature, for example, or the reigning philosophy of this or that century of Christian thought.” (Pg. 5) He also proposes the term “terminal punishment” for this doctrine, rather than “Conditional Immortality” or “Annihilationism.” (Pg. 15)
Terrance Tiessen suggests that “Annihilationism is not a step down a slippery slope. I see no other dominoes that might fall as a result of one’s affirmation of either traditionalism of annihilationism, but I now find the latter to be the most plausible reading of the biblical text, and it is least likely to present a stumbling block in evangelism and apologetics. Clearly, John Stott felt this to be true as well, since he revealed his own annihilationist convictions only when he felt the need to present to David Edwards [in Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal Evangelical Dialogue] an evangelicalism that was not subject to Edwards’ Liberal critique of the traditional view of hell.” (Pg. 27)
He adds that Fudge’s book “opened the door to the possibility that the eternality of punishment might lie, not in its temporal endlessness, but in its effective irreversibility, particularly when we consider the metaphors of fire and consumption by worms which are regularly used in Scripture to denote total destruction… Eternal punishment need not connote eternal conscious punishing, indeed it cannot do so, if God grants eternal … life exclusively to those whom he saves in Christ, which can be denied only through contorted readings of the clear statements of the New Testament.” (Pg. 30)
Jon Zens points out, “If people’s spirits leave their bodies when they die and go straight to heaven or hell, then what is to be made of a passage like Matthew 25:31-46? These verses describe the future appearance of resurrected humans before Christ on the last day. At this time their final destiny, one of bliss or of judgment, is proclaimed by the Lord. If their spirits had already been in the bad or good place for periods of time, then what sense would the Lord’s words make? They could rightly point out, ‘You’re just telling us what we already [knew] for some time’… It is not at death, but in the final resurrection of the just and unjust that their ends are announced by Jesus Christ.” (Pg. 33-34)
Rob McRay observes, “Some say that without the fear of eternal torment in hell, people will not be motivated to be saved. But in my experience the opposite is true. Would not people naturally fear total annihilation? Would people really choose to cease to exist? That is contrary to human nature. We are driven at the most basic level by the instinct to survive. Our task is to present people with the choice between eternal life with a loving Heavenly Father or the ultimate and final death penalty.” (Pg. 51)
Gordon Isaac notes, “we are informed by proponents of the traditional view that it is quite likely that the unregenerate who will purportedly be incarcerated in hell will continue to heap up sin and its consequent guilt, and it is perhaps for this reason that the punishment is ongoing. Given this situation, it would seem that even after judgment, the Triune God will not rule his universe without opposition… This brings us to the intolerable situation where it is hard to imagine that God has ‘become all in all’ (1 Cor 15:50) Rather, there is much left undone… and creation itself is not relieved of its frustration and bondage to decay (Rom 8:21)… the larger vision of Scripture … holds out to us a time when evil in all its forms will be extinguished and earth shall become the unsullied home of righteousness.” (Pg. 67)
He adds, “any view that does not allow the words of Scripture to mean what they say is suspect and in need of revision. When the term ‘death’ is read to mean a punishment that never ends, the lexical meaning of the term is stretched beyond credulity. It is a strange dying that does not eventuate in death itself, the cessation of life. When the word ‘destroy,’ even when in parallel with the term ‘kill,’ is defined as an event of ongoing duration, clearly a presupposition is exerting an unnecessary influence.” (Pg. 73)
He argues that the Conditionalist view “enables us to take seriously the cleansing of the cosmos from sin and evil. It solves the problem of evil, insofar as it can be solved in this lifetime, by showing that it is not an integral and perpetual part of the Divine economy, but is only incidental and transitory. It will pass away forever… the plausible objection that many have been accustomed to level against the Bible and its Author is removed.” (Pg. 78)
James Spiegel comments on the principle that “in assessing the justice of a punishment one must take into account… the moral and metaphysical status of the person offended”: “But what is also crucial to consider when weighing the severity of the two offenses is exactly what the offenses were. If I tortured [a] dog for days, while my offense against [a] human being was that I made a rude gesture, then the former is surely a worse offense then the latter. Despite the fact that a human being is far greater in terms of dignity and moral worth, my offense against the dog deserves more severe censure than does my offense against the human… the status of the offended party is not the sole relevant matter to consider when assessing the relative severity of moral offenses.” (Pg. 82-83)
Claude Mariottini asserts, “Isaiah 66:24 describes the result of God’s judgment upon the wicked… The subjects of the divine punishment are not the nations, but the people in Israel who were in rebellion against Yahweh… The words of the prophet should not be understood to refer to God’s judgment upon the wicked at the end of history, the time after Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.” (Pg. 165-166)
Roger Harper argues, “The most striking element of the description in Revelation 14:10 is the phrase ‘in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.’ … There is no hint that Jesus is watching from afar. Those in torment are in the presence of Jesus. He is simply with them. We know from Revelation 20 and the following chapters that after the final judgment, in Gehenna, the unrighteous will be excluded from the presence of Jesus. Therefore, the place of torment in Revelation 14 cannot be after the final judgment. This place must be Hades.” (Pg. 202)
Christopher Date acknowledges, “I think we need to emphasize that our view is not that the risen lost will be punished AND THEN DIE, but rather that their death WILL BE their ultimate punishment. I understand the feeling that many of us have that at least some unsaved people (Adolf Hitler, for example) ought to suffer in hell… The solution, however, is to see pain as being part of the process by which the lost will be punished with death, rather than as the punishment itself which will then be followed by death. Just as a death row criminal will suffer psychological torment while being strapped into the chair… so, too, might the risen lost suffer emotional, spiritual, and physiological agony in hell as part of their execution. In either case the punishment is ultimately death.” (Pg. 362)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying Conditional Immortality, and/or wanting to know more about Edward Fudge’s role in the modern development of the doctrine.
November 6, 2015
As a contributor to this fine volume, I admit my bias. However this work is both deserved (by Edward Fudge, as the man who inspired us to reexamine our views about eternal punishment), and needed (since we are evangelicals and hold Scripture as the final authority in faith and practice). A fresh, insightful, and diverse anthology that demands your attention.
Yes, I am biased. Yes, I am also right.
NQ
Yes, I am biased. Yes, I am also right.
NQ
May 27, 2018
Excellent resource
This was an intriguing and interesting discussion on the various aspects of conditionalism and the issues surrounding it. Will recommend
This was an intriguing and interesting discussion on the various aspects of conditionalism and the issues surrounding it. Will recommend
October 3, 2019
I don't feel like writing up a full review right now, so I'll just say that it was alright.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews