The fate of the wicked and those who reject God's offer of salvation in Christ. The expression comes from Matt 25:46 where Jesus pronounced that those who are 'cursed' shall "go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Traditionally, this has been understood to mean that the wicked will spend eternity in "unending conscious torture of body and/or soul." While the Old Testament is silent on the subject, this picture of 'hell' was clearly developed in Judaism during the intertestamental period, and it appears to be the picture Jesus used when he spoke of the fate of those who do not repent (see, e.g., Matt 18:8; 25:41, 46; see also the "darkness . . . weeping . . .and gnashing of teeth" at Matt 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk 13:38). A more recent position has emerged in which the basis for this traditional understanding of eternal punishment has been re-examined and found to be wanting, and the proposal made that the wicked will rather see "eternal annihilation" instead of "endless torment." For more on this subject see the resources below.
Further Reading & Resources:
☰ Edward Fudge, "The Final End of the Wicked," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 27/3 (1984): 325-334. This article provides a useful starting place for understanding the discussion.
☰ Vernon C. Grounds, "The final state of the wicked," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 24.3 (Sept. 1981): 211-220
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