Gary Scott’s Reviews > Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment > Status Update

Gary, there is a Rethinking Hell podcast that gives the Evangelical Case for Conditional Immortality that goes through this book. You should also consider reading Edward Fudge's book "The Fire that Consumes." Its a great read and convincing. Here's the podcast link: http://rethinkinghell.com/podcast

Austin,
I have not personally read Fudge’s book but am familiar with his position and argument. The critiques of his exegesis make me question if it is worth the time to invest time in considering a position that to me is untenable and Biblically unsupportable. I am right now reading Beale’s section on Revelation; he interacts with Fudge extensively. What about Fudge’s work has been persuasive to you.

I think that the underlying principle for me is that I don’t think the soul is immortal, something Fudge and others at the Rethinking Hell page have discussed in depth. There are other arguments that independent of one another. I find the exegesis from ECT advocates weak and inconsistent (not saying as it pertains to this particular works as I haven’t read it). But the imagery of the OT and the usage of that imagery in the new, along with texts like 2 Peter and Jude, as well as the angel telling John that the fire is the second death, have led me to Conditional immortality. Additionally, Paul says that God alone has immortality — we as humans are not inherently immortal. Immortality and life has been brought to light through the gospel of Jesus (1 Timothy). So it is then God’s prerogative to grant eternal life to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and death, according to Romans 6, to those who don’t. Fudge goes over it much more in depth, especially in the Greek and Hebrew, as do the others. I think it’s worth the time to invest in the books, podcasts, ect. of evangelical proponents of Conditional immortality.

http://www.rethinkinghell.com/2012/09...

http://www.rethinkinghell.com/2012/10...

Both of these are great podcasts to listen to on the issue as presented by evangelicals.

Thanks, Austin for your thoughtful response. Are you open to dialogue about this further? If so, let’s talk about how we can have a productive dialogue. The final Authority is Scripture as you well know and support but how we understand that Scripture is open to further dialogue.

Absolutely! It’s one of the issues I’ve been thinking about most over the past 6 months!