The Highway Forums Announcements What's New on The Highway website? Evangelical Annihilationism in Review - Packer

Annihilationist ideas have been canvassed among evangelicals for more than a century, but they never became part of the mainstream of evangelical faith, nor have they been widely discussed in the evangelical camp until recently. In 1987 Clark Pinnock authored a punchy two-page article titled “Fire, Then Nothing,” but this, though widely read, did not spark debate, any more than the 500-page exposition of the same view, The Fire That Consumes (1982) by the gifted Churches of Christ layman Edward William Fudge, had done. In 1988, however, two brief pieces of advocacy came from Anglican evangelical veterans: eight pages by John Stott in Essentials, and ten by the late Philip Edgecumbe Hughes in The True Image. These put the cat among the pigeons.

Well-known author, J.I. Packer, examines and critiques several views of some men which have gained popularity concerning their rejection of the historic doctrine of Hell and eternal punishment, i.e.: "Annihilationism". Although this article does not go into great depth examining the subject, Packer does tackle most of the salient points and the passages most used by Annihilationists to support their view, showing where they err and why.

Read it now here: Evangelical Annihilationism in Review.

For later reading you can find it in the Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things section of Calvinism and the Reformed Faith.

In His service and grace,