(=More against Annhilationism=)
Mark: You can't eternally punish someone who doesn't exist. And if Hitler has been annihilated, he certainly suffered a lot less than his millions of victims.
Sorry, guys. Not buying it. Annihilation is not punishment. It is literally NOTHING. It isn't just, and God is just. Paul said, "Knowing the TERROR of the Lord, we persuade men." Nothing terrible about mere nonexistence. It was like that for me before I was born, anyway. From nothing, into nothing? No. Jesus was not annihilated on the cross for me. He was forsaken and separated from His Father for the first time ever. Either I let Jesus pay for my sins (and I have), or I pay for them myself. Annihilation is not payment. It is a get out of payment free card. Especially if guys like Hitler and my nice but unbelieving brother in law meet the same fate. If their fate is somehow different under annihilationism, I don't see how.
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Mark: P.S. Anybody reading this old enough to remember the old beer commercial from the 70s? "You only go around ONCE in life, so grab all the gusto you can!" If I know that I can live any old way I like and in the end the worst thing that will happen to me is annihilation, why SHOULDN'T I live it up? If we only live once, then why deny ourselves anything? Just do like Hitler did and kill yourself. You won't go to jail, and God won't punish you after death either. Self-denial is for suckers, and heaven sounds boring anyway, right? Live it up.
Ronnie: Are you saying that the only thing that's stopping you from living like Hitler is the threat of endless torment ? I really don't think that's a commendable model Mark.
Mark: No. What I am saying is it would be unjust for God to mete out the exact same punishment (annihilation) for all who die unbelievers, regardless of whether they were a Hitler or say, an Albert Schweitzer, who was a good man who rejected Christianity. Abraham said it best: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" And as for what the Bible says, Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven; more so than anyone in the entire Bible. So much so that He has been called "the preacher of Hell."
I'm also still waiting on a response to Matt. 25:46, where it describes the punishment of hell and our life in heaven with the same word: eternal (aionios). This is what the Bible says.