Four Views on Hell (Counterpoints Series)

192 Pages·1996·8.91 MB·English

by  William Crockett

MostcontemporaryChristians acknowledge thedoctrineofhell, butthey'd
rathernotthinkabouthow God punishesthewicked.TheauthorsofFour
Views on Hell meetthissubjecthead-onwith differentviews onwhatthe
Scripturessay.
Ishell tobeunderstood literallyasaplace ofeternal smoke and flames?
Orare such imagessimply metaphorsforareal butdifferentform ofpun
ishment? Isthere such athingas"conditional immortality;'inwhichGod
annihilatesthesouls ofthewicked ratherthanpunishingthem endlessly?
Isthere aPurgatory, and ifso, how does itfit intothepicture?
The interactive Counterpointsforum allowsthereadertoseethefourviews
onhell-literal,metaphorical,conditional, and purgatorial-ininteraction with
each other. Each view inturnispresented, critiqued,and defended.This
evenhanded approach isidealforcomparingand contrastingviews inorder
toform apersonal conclusion aboutone ofChristianity's key doctrines.
TheCounterpointsseriesprovidesaforumforcomparisonandcritiqueofdifferentviewsonissues
importanttoChristians.Counterpointsbooksaddresstwocategories:ChurchLifeandExploringTheol
ogy.CompleteyourlibrarywithotherbooksintheCounterpointsseries.
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FOUR VIEWS ON HELL
Books in the Counterpoints Series
Church Life
Exploring the Worship Spectrum
Evaluating the Church Growth Movement
Two Views on Women in Ministry
Who Runs the Church?
Exploring Theology
Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?
Five Views on Apologetics
Five Views on Law and Gospel
Five Views on Sanctification
Four Views on Eternal Security
Four Views on Hell
Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World
Four Views on the Book of Revelation
How Jewish Is Christianity?
Show Them No Mercy
Three Views on Creation and Evolution
Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism
Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond
Three Views on the Rapture
Stanley N. Gundry (S.T.D., Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago) is senior vice president and editor-in-chief of the Book
Group at Zondervan. He graduated summa cum laude from
both the Los Angeles Baptist College and Talbot Theological
Seminary before receiving his Masters of Sacred Theology from
Union College, University of British Columbia. With more than
thirty-five years of teaching, pastoring, and publishing experi­
ence, he is the author or coauthor of numerous books and a con­
tributor to numerous periodicals.
FOUR VIEWS ON HELL
• Zachary J. Hayes
• Clark H. Pinnock
• John F. Walvoord
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COUNTERPOINTS
• Stanley N. Gundry series editor
-EXPLORING THEOLOGY-
• William Crockett general editor
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GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 49530 USA
To Karen
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Four Views on Hell
Copyright © 1996 by John Walvoord, Willian Crockett, Zachary Hayes, Clark
Pinnock
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan,' Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData ^
Four views on hell / edited by William Crockett,
p. cm.
Originally published: Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-310-21268-5 (pbk.)
1. Hell—Christianity. I. Crocket, William V.
[BT836.2.F68 1996]
236'.25—dc20 96-27859
CIP
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible:
New International Version". NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
"NIV" and "New International Version" are registered in the United States Patent and
Trademark Office by the International Bible Society.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photo­
copy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, with­
out the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /• DCI/ 16 15 14 13 12 11
CONTENTS
Foreword 7
1. THE LITERAL VIEW 11
JOHN F. WALVOORD
Responses 29
2. THE METAPHORICAL VIEW 43
WILLIAM V. CROCKETT
Responses 77
3. THE PURGATORIAL VIEW 91
ZACHARY J. HAYES
Responses 119
4. THE CONDITIONAL VIEW 135
CLARK H. PINNOCK
Responses 167
General Index 179
Index of Scripture and Other Writings 187

FOREWORD
Probably the most disturbing concept in Christian tradition
is the prospect that one day vast numbers of people will be
consigned to hell. Almost everyone has friends or family
members—people we dearly love—who are outside the faith
and who, if they die in this condition, will be cast away from
the presence of God. So disturbing is the idea of hell that most
pastors and church members simply ignore the doctrine of final
retribution, preferring to talk in vague terms about a separation
of the wicked from the righteous.
But what is hell? A literal place of flame and smoke? A
banishment from God? Annihilation? Is there such a place as
purgatory where people are readied for the presence of God? In
this book four professors describe in nontechnical language
what they think the final judgment will be like, and then at the
end of each chapter, they evaluate the opinions of their
colleagues.
Those who have always wondered about the nature of hell
will find the differing perspectives interesting and informative.
Although the authors differ sharply on some points, they do so
in a congenial spirit, with hope that the arguments in this book
will help readers to form their own opinions. Above all, the
authors agree that God is not pleased with disobedience and
has appointed a day to judge the peoples of the world.
Revelation 20:12 reminds us of that grave and solemn occasion
with these words: "And I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne, and books were opened."
The Publisher
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