How many of you are familiar with the Kirk Cameron controversy over Hell? Kirk and his son James did a podcast on The Kirk Cameron Show (Ep 86) entitled, "Are We Wrong About Hell?" To which I would respond: "Yes, you are."
In this episode, they question the Eternal Conscience Torment view (ECT). They look at various Scriptures and they question whether the Bible supports such a view. They seem to lean toward a strange view of Annihilationism or Conditionalism. As you can imagine, this podcast stirred up a lot of controversy. In episode 90 of his show, entitled "Did I Change My Mind," Kirk responded (at the 4:29 point): "Let me be very clear, I believe in Hell." And by that he means that unbelievers will be tortured at death but only for a time.
What comes to mind when you hear the word, Hell? All kinds of ideas probably come to mind. We may think of the abode of condemned souls and the devil, or a place of eternal fiery punishment for the wicked after death, presided over by Satan. We may think of a place of fire and brimstone where the damned undergo physical torment eternally. The dictionary says that hell is "a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death."
The belief that God's final judgment of the unsaved will lead to a state of eternal, conscious, tormenting punishment is firmly entrenched in the doctrinal traditions of the Christian church and is regarded widely as one of the defining pillars of conservative evangelical orthodoxy. But is it biblical?
In the episode "Did I Change My Mind" (at the 5:45 point), Kirk says: "We are mortals, we are subject to death. According to Scripture, human beings are not naturally immortal after the fall…eternal life is a gift given to believers."
He is right here, and this is his reason for questioning ECT. If men are mortal, then at death they perish, no suffering, just gone. Kirk runs into trouble when he states that man is mortal because the majority of Churchianity believes that all men have an immortal soul. I don't see the Bible teaching this immortal soul idea.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states: "The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical and theological speculation rather than of simple truth, and is accordingly nowhere taught in Holy Scripture…" [Jewish Encyclopedia, Immortality of the Soul, 1925.]
"We are influenced always more or less by the Greek, Platonic idea that the body dies, yet soul is immortal. Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness and is nowhere found in the Old Testament." [International Bible Encyclopedia, Page 812, 1960.]
Does the Bible teach that man has an immortal soul? Is man created immortal? In the Hebrew Scriptures, the term rendered as "soul" is "nephesh." Which, according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, means "A breathing thing; by extension, a living creature, any animal of vitality."
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words defines nephesh as "the essence of life, the act of breathing, taking breath … The problem with the English term 'soul' is that no actual equivalent of the term or the idea behind it is represented in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew system of thought does not include the combination or opposition of the 'body' and 'soul' which are really Greek and Latin in origin" (1985, p. 237-238).
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible makes this comment on nephesh: "The word 'soul' in English, though it has to some extent naturalized the Hebrew idiom, frequently carries with it overtones, ultimately coming from philosophical Greek (Platonism) and from Orphism and Gnosticism which are absent in 'nephesh.' In the OT it never means the immortal soul, but it is essentially the life principle, or the living being, or the self as the subject of appetite, and emotion, occasionally of volition" (Vol. 4, 1962, "Soul,").
In the writings of Moses, the Hebrew term "nephesh" is used in reference to the life that was given to both man and animal, without implying any distinction between the two.
While most believe Adam to have been created as an eternal being, the Bible does not teach this. If he were eternal, what was the purpose of the "tree of life"? Absolute proof that Adam was created mortal is found in Genesis 3.
Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. Genesis 3:22-23 ESV
Adam was created mortal and was always subject to death; however, in establishing the "tree of life," God had given him the means to procure everlasting life. Adam sinned in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree and for this was subject to condemnation, which is spiritual death.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 ESV
At the Second Coming, the perishable put on the imperishable and immortality was given to believers and only to believers. The mortal put on immortality. All non-believers perish.
which he will display at the proper time-he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 ESV
Only God is immortal, and he gives immorality to those who trust in Him.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown write, "Nowhere is the immortality of the soul, distinct from the body, taught: A notion which many erroneously have derived from the heathen philosophers." [Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, 1 Corinthians 15:53.]
Canon Martin Gouge writes, "When the Greek and Roman mind instead of the Hebrew mind came to dominate the Church, there occurred a disaster in doctrine and practice from which we have never recovered."
So, Kirk says he believes in Hell, but what he believes is not the majority view of Eternal Conscience Torment. In the original episode, "Are We Wrong About Hell?" (33:09), Cameron says: "Within the Annihilationist view there is room for judgment. It doesn't mean that Hitler and sweet little grandma who sinned a couple of times are just snuffed out. There is room for judgment in that view where Hitler gets his appropriate punishment and then after the full punishment is executed, then he is removed from the land of the living forever."
Where does the Bible teach this? It doesn't! Let me show you what the Bible does teach. What would you say is the most familiar verse in the Bible?
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 ESV
There are three important clauses in verse 16, one of them is a compound clause. In this verse we have an Act—God loved, The Result—God gave, and then The Purpose—negatively, that men should not perish, but positively, that believers should have eternal life. These two aspects that are stressed are put in two different tenses in the Greek text. "That he should not perish, (an event,) but have, (present tense,) an enduring having of eternal life."
Let's look at the negative first: "whoever believes in Him shall not perish"—what does it say will not happen to those who believe? They "shall not perish." It doesn't say that they won't go to hell or that they won't suffer throughout eternity. It says they will not perish. It is the opposite of eternal life. It is the opposite of life which is death. "'Perish' is the Greek word apollumi, which according to Thayer means "to destroy, to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin." Strong's says, "to destroy fully." This word is used in Matthew 22:7.
The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Matthew 22:7 ESV
So, to perish is to be destroyed. If the believer doesn't perish, what happens to the unbeliever? He perishes!
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
Here, those perishing are the non-elect.
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:24 ESV
So, the contrast is between those who are "perishing" and those "being saved."
Kirk said, "Within the Annihilationist view there is room for judgment … where Hitler gets his appropriate punishment and then after the full punishment is executed then he is removed from the land of the living forever."
So, where do we find in the Bible that unbelievers don't perish for a time so they can be tortured? Does perish mean some part of them remains alive for a while so it can be tortured? The Greek word apollumi gives no hint of this.
The Greek scholar and New Testament translator, R. F. Weymouth, wrote, "My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying 'destroy,' or 'destruction,' are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this."
The view Kirk holds is very similar to the view Ed Stevens holds. On a Facebook post, Ed Stevens writes: "I would encourage all of us to consider Revelation 22:14-15 which seems to teach eternal conscious separation of the unsaved after their appropriate judgment has been meted out—not torture or torment or roasting in unquenchable fire forever, but rather consciously outside the gates of the heavenly city forever cast out into the outer darkness forever. Eternal conscious separation that preserves the justice of God without reflecting adversely on his holy and just character."
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Revelation 22:14-15 ESV
Ed says, "This seems to teach eternal conscious separation of the unsaved after their appropriate judgment has been meted out." Do you see anything in this verse about judgment? What is the city? It's the heavenly Jerusalem which is the New Covenant. Outside the New Covenant are the unbelievers who are dogs, sorcerers etc. Believers are in the New Covenant and the unbelievers are outside of the covenant.
So, it seems that in Ed's opinion, the unsaved have eternal life, but they spend it separated from God. Suffering for a while, but separated forever. They don't perish, but they're stuck outside the city.
In the episode, "Did I Change My Mind?" (at 5:45), Kirk says, "Conditionalism clearly affirms real punishment including real conscience suffering. After full and just punishment the unrepentant perish." But earlier Kirk said, "We are mortals, we are subject to death." So, if unbelievers are mortal, then when they physically die, they perish. But in Kirk's view, they don't perish at physical death; they are kept around alive for a while so that they can be punished. They don't have eternal life, but they must have some kind of life so that they can experience punishment. Is this some kind of extended life? Is this Temporary Conscience Torment?
At this point some might say: "But doesn't the Bible teach the doctrine of Hell? That unbelievers will burn forever? Well, Bible translations use the word Hell but they shouldn't because there is no such place as Hell.
Before we look at what the Bible says about Hell, let me share with you a profound quote from J. I. Packer. This quote is worth our understanding and meditation. To understand this quote is to gain a huge advantage in your study of the Bible.
We do not start our Christian lives by working out our faith for ourselves; it is mediated to us by Christian tradition, in the form of sermons, books and established patterns of church life and fellowship. We read our Bibles in the light of what we have learned from these sources; we approach Scripture with minds already formed by the mass of accepted opinions and viewpoints with which we have come into contact, in both the Church and the world… It is easy to be unaware that it has happened; it is hard even to begin to realize how profoundly tradition in this sense has molded us. But we are forbidden to become enslaved to human tradition, either secular or Christian, whether it be "catholic" tradition, or "critical" tradition, or "ecumenical" tradition. We may never assume the complete rightness of our own established ways of thought and practice and excuse ourselves the duty of testing and reforming them by Scriptures. (J. I. Packer, Fundamentalism and the Word of God, [Grand Rapids, MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1958], pp. 69-70.)
Believer, we must test everything we believe by the text. The beliefs you hold must come from the text, the Hebrew and Greek text. And we must be open to allowing the text to shatter our false ideas.
In an article entitled, "What Is Hell?" Published on June 20, 2014, R.C. Sproul writes: "There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself."
I'd like to challenge this and say that Christ never taught on Hell because there is NO biblical concept of Hell. He says that the teaching of Hell comes from Christ Himself. Others have said that Christ taught more on Hell than on any other subject. We're going to look at Christ's teaching and see if this is in fact true. But before we look at the teaching of Christ, let's start in the Tanakh and see what we can learn about Hell.
The word "Hell" is found 31 times in the KJV Old Testament where it is translated from the Hebrew word "Sheol." Very few other translations have the word "hell" in the Old Testament. Sheol is the Hebrew word for the place of the dead. But nowhere in the Scripture do we see Sheol as a fiery place of torment. You will never get the traditional view of hell from the Tanakh. It just isn't there. So why did the KJV translators translate it as Hell? It is because the wording of the KJV is more "interpretation" than "translation."
Let's look at the Tanakh and see what it has to say about the destiny of the wicked, and then we'll look at the intertestamental literature and then the New Testament.
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Psalm 9:17 KJV
Here the word "hell" is mistranslated from the Hebrew, "Sheol." The ESV has:
The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. Psalm 9:17 ESV
Do you get a different picture from these two translations? As I said earlier, nowhere do we see Sheol as a fiery place of torment.
Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Psalm 37:1-2 ESV
For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. Psalm 37:9-10 ESV
But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. Psalm 37:20 ESV
The word "perish" here is the Hebrew word "abad." Brown-Driver-Brigg's Definition is: "perish, vanish, go astray, be destroyed, die, be exterminated." And the word "vanish" is from kalah, which, according to Brown-Driver-Brigg's Definition, means: "to accomplish, cease, consume, determine, end, fail, finish." Do you see any hint of eternal conscious torment in these verses?
I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found. Psalm 37:35-36 ESV
Notice that the wicked "passed away" and was "no more." The words "no more" are from the Hebrew word ayin, which is from a primitive root meaning "to be nothing or not exist." The psalmist doesn't say they pass away and are tormented, but, rather, that they "are no more."
Speaking of the wicked, Job says:
he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?' Job 20:7 ESV
The word "dung" here is from the Hebrew gelel, which means "dung, a ball of dung." He perishes forever like his dung.
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun. Psalm 58:8 ESV
As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! Psalm 68:2 ESV
There are at least 70 metaphors or similes of what the end of the wicked will be like in the Tanakh. What do these pictures tell us? Will reality resemble the picture? If the wicked are to be eternally tortured in flames, shouldn't the pictures somehow reflect that? Shouldn't some of the pictures demonstrate that the wicked will be like meat on a skewer roasting over the fire, or like those boiling in a cauldron of oil? Do you see eternal conscious torment even hinted at in any of these pictures?
The idea of eternal conscience torment is not found in the Tanakh. So, let me ask you, what New Covenant truth is not found in the Tanakh? The only one that I know of is the mystery of Jew and Gentile being one body in Christ. Paul writes,
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Ephesians 3:4-5 ESV
Paul tells us that he was a steward of the mystery and that no revelation of this mystery was given in the Tanakh, but that it was revealed for the first time in the New Testament.
So, if the doctrine of eternal conscience torment is true, why do we never see it in the Tanakh?
Let's look at how they viewed the end of the wicked in Second Temple Judaism or Intertestamental Literature. Apocrypha—is synonymous with the fourteen or fifteen books in the Catholic Bible. These writings are not found in the Hebrew Tanakh, but they are contained in some manuscripts of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh, which was completed around 250 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt. Most of these books were declared to be Scripture by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent (1545-1563), though the Protestant Church rejects any divine authority attached to them.
All references in the Apocrypha to the end of the wicked is that of perishing except for one in Judith 16:17 which talks about eternal torment. This is our first picture of eternal torment in literature associated with the Bible.
Pseudepigrapha—the word "Pseudepigrapha" literally means "falsely ascribed writings," and it refers to a work that falsely claims to be written by a specific author. This literature is equally split between the teaching of the wicked perishing and being eternally tormented.
Dead Sea Scrolls—in 1947, a Bedouin shepherd tossed a stone into a cave close to the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in Qumran. Rather than the sound of rock or earth, he heard the sound of breaking pottery. They found a collection of some 981 different texts in eleven caves from the immediate vicinity of the ancient settlement at Qumran in the West Bank. The Dead Sea Scrolls include three types of documents: the earliest existing copies of books from the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, copies of other early works that are not part of Tanakh, and works related to a specific sect that existed at Qumran among the Jews at the time of the Second Temple.
The Dead Sea Scrolls give a consistent picture of the total destruction of the wicked—they perish. No idea of eternal conscious torment is found in these documents.
The Rabbinical Literature—Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud and Mishna. This literature seems to support both views: the wicked perish or they endure eternal torment. So, there was not a single Jewish view.
So, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures we have no hint that the end of the wicked involves eternal conscious torment. When we come to the intertestamental period, however, we start to see some indication of it. Why? We'll talk about this is a few minutes.
What does the New Testament say about the end of the wicked? Where did the New Testament writers get their information? The teaching of the apostles was based on Moses and the Prophets, therefore, their writings reflect the truths found in the Tanakh.
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:11-12 ESV
What is John talking about here? Is this a reference to Hell? No, he is talking about the fiery destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. John is warning the religious leaders of Israel. The fact that the axe was already laid at the root of the tree (God's covenant people) indicates the nearness of the judgment.
John the Baptist comes on the scene as a Prophet of Yahweh after 400 years of silence. The Tanakh closes with the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi is one long and terrible impeachment of the nation Israel. Malachi is the Prophet of doom. Coming judgment is the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi:
"Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:5 ESV
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1 ESV
This verse sounds like Hell, doesn't it? No, he says the evildoer will be stubble. The reference to "burning like an oven" is speaking of the national judgment on Jerusalem. This verse points to an approaching crisis in the history of the nation when Yahweh would inflict judgment upon His rebellious people. "The day" was coming—the day that shall "burn like an oven." This period is more precisely defined as "the great and terrible day of the Lord" in Malachi.
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. Malachi 4:5 ESV
That this "day" refers to a certain period and a specific event is clear. Yeshua tells us that the predicted Elijah that was to come before "the great and terrible day of the Lord" was, in fact, John the Baptist.
and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Matthew 11:14 ESV
This enables us to determine the time of the event referred to as "the great and terrible day of the Lord." It must be in the time period of John the Baptist. It seems clear that the allusion is to the judgment of the Jewish nation in AD 70 when their city and Temple were destroyed and the entire fabric of Judaism was dissolved.
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Mark 9:43 ESV
What is "unquenchable fire" that Yeshua talks about? The key to understanding the phrase unquenchable fire is found in Jeremiah 17.
But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'" Jeremiah 17:27 ESV
Israel did not heed the warning, and as a result, Jerusalem and the Temple of God were burned to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar (See II Kings 25:8, 9). Is Jerusalem burning today? Obviously not. An unquenchable fire clearly does not burn forever. So, what does the phrase mean? A fire that cannot be quenched burns until its divine purpose has been accomplished and then it goes out. Man cannot extinguish or quench the fire, but it does indeed go out when there is nothing left to burn.
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Mark 9:43 ESV
Here the word for "hell" is Gehenna. It is used 12 times in the New Testament, 11 in the Gospels and once in James. This is the word that most translations render as "hell." When Yeshua used "Gehenna," what did they think of? What did it represent to Yeshua's audience? That is what is important. Gehenna began to be used as a place of human sacrifice in the days of King Ahaz. Gehenna is referred to in Jeremiah 7 as the Valley of Hinnom. In this passage, people are burning their own sons and daughters as human sacrifices. That is how dedicated and committed they are to the worship of the fire god, Molech.
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. Jeremiah 7:31-32 ESV
Isaiah had already spoken of Topheth as the fiery destiny of an enemy of God.
For Topheth has long been ready, indeed, it has been prepared for the king. He has made it deep and large, A pyre of fire with plenty of wood; The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire. Isaiah 30:33 NASB
So, in the Tanakh, the Valley of Hinnom was associated with the destiny of the wicked. It was a place of fiery judgment. Isaiah closes his book with these words:
"And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." Isaiah 66:24 ESV
This verse is talking about God's destruction of Jerusalem in the generation when Yeshua was crucified. When Yeshua quoted these words in Mark 9:48-49, "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched," the disciples would have been familiar with these words as referring to a national judgment.
So, the Valley of Hinnom was the scene of human sacrifices, burned in the worship of Moloch and Baal (2 Kings 16:3 and 21:6), which accounts for the prophecy of Jeremiah that it would be called the Valley of Slaughter under judgment of God (Jer. 7:32-33). This combination of abominable fires and divine judgment led to the association of the valley with a place of perpetual fiery judgment.
Gehenna was a reference to the Valley of Hinnom and the fiery judgment of God. Gehenna was a place that had become identified in people's minds as the symbol of national judgment. Gehenna is a proper noun just like Jerusalem. The term "Hell" is not a translation of Gehenna; it's a theologically loaded substitution. Gehenna is not a reference to eternal conscience torment. It is a reference to national judgment, a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The only people ever threatened with Gehenna were the Judean Jews of Yeshua's generation.
None of the KJV's uses of "Hell" has anything to do with a fiery place of eternal torment. As I said earlier, the word "Hell" should not be in your Bible. The NASB has the word "Hell" 13 times and the ESV has it 14 times. Young's Literal Translation and The Scripture 2009 do not have the word "Hell" in them, not once. To answer my original question, then, " What does the Bible say about Hell?" The answer is nothing! The word "Hell" is not in the original translations of the Bible.
The Bible teaches that the reward of believers is everlasting life, while the punishment of the wicked is just as the Scriptures state—death, which is the opposite of life. As the wicked will have no escape from death, it is indeed an eternal punishment.
I had a person ask me, "If you don't believe in Hell, how do you evangelize?" Can we scare people into heaven? "Turn or burn" is not good evangelism. If we go to the book of Acts, which records the evangelistic efforts of the early Church, what do we find? Do they warn of the fires of Hell? No, there is only one passage in the book of Acts that talks about the punishment of the wicked. The apostles talking about Yeshua said:
And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' Acts 3:23 ESV
"Destroyed" here is from exolothreúō, which according to Thayer means "to destroy out of its place, destroy utterly, to extirpate." Those who reject Christ are destroyed, not tortured. The apostles never talked about a place like the traditional view of Hell.
Hopefully, this study has shown that the Scriptures do not support the teaching of the traditional view of non-believers suffering in flames of fire for eternity. Man was not created immortal. Man is mortal until he trusts in Christ, at which point he puts on immortality. So, if the Bible doesn't teach a doctrine of eternal conscious torment, why do so many believe it? I think that S.W. Foss gives us the answer in his poem the "Calf Path":
For men are prone to go it blind, Along the calf-paths of the mind;
And work away from sun to sun, To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track, And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue, To keep the path that others do.
(This is an excerpt from The Calf Path by S.W. Foss)
Some men who have broken away from this "Calf Path" of eternal conscious torment are F.F. Bruce, John Stott, Clark H. Pinnock, N.T. Wright, and Edward Fudge to name just a few.