Denying eternal punishment
J. N. Andrews denied eternal punishment and taught that the wicked will be consumed until they disappear. Christ, however, uses the same word for punishment and for life: eternal (Mt 25:46).
By Rodrigo Custódio ·
The moment
In the March 4, 1880, edition of the Adventist weekly — volume 6, number 9 — a long doctrinal article occupies page 105 under a challenging title: the question (translated into Portuguese) would be "Will Sinners Live Forever?" The answer the paper delivers, in no uncertain terms, is no: the wicked will not live forever — they will be consumed until they disappear.
The text is signed with the initials "J. N. A." and carries the place-and-date line "Basel, February 1": this is J. N. Andrews, the Adventist missionary who was then serving in Switzerland. It is not an anonymous editorial piece — it is the official theology of the movement, signed by one of its greatest scholars, published in the denominational paper.
The context helps explain the article's aggressiveness. Andrews was responding to a critic writing in an allied French periodical — in the October edition, that author had published an article entitled (in translation) "Does Man Possess an Immortal Nature?", in which he defended the natural immortality of man on the basis of Genesis 2:7: God breathed into the man's nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. For Andrews, this doctrine was one of the "most dangerous errors" — and the entire article is a point-by-point refutation of it.
The article's method is revealing: instead of confronting the passages about eternal punishment in terms of what they say, Andrews tries to dissolve the very vocabulary of eternity. He argues that the word "eternal" does not necessarily mean "without end": the same Hebrew word that describes the duration of God's existence, he says, was applied to the ceremonial ordinances — which the New Testament declares abolished. Therefore, he concludes, the "eternal fire" of Jude 7 could burn until everything is consumed and then go out; the "smoke that goes up forever and ever" would be merely the longest measure that mortal nature can endure. It is theological engineering to make eternity fit inside extinction.
A field of wreckage under a stormy sky: in the paper's thesis, the lake of fire would extinguish the wicked like embers that turn to cold ash — without punishment, without eternity.
The absurdity
The sentence that sums up the article's thesis is a declaration of war against the immortality of the soul — and, by extension, against eternal punishment:
"It is therefore evident that God did not give Adam immortality, but gave him a life that he could perpetuate or lose according to the course he took."
Source: Signs of the Times, March 4, 1880 — Vol. 6, No. 9, p. 105.
The reasoning is a chain: if Adam did not receive immortality, no descendant inherits it; if no one is immortal by nature, the wicked cannot suffer torment forever; therefore, the lake of fire exists "for them to be consumed" — and, once consumed, they cease to exist. The article itself admits that there will be "greater or lesser degrees of torment, according to each one's guilt," but insists that the fire "will finally destroy them completely," in an "eternal destruction from which there will be no resurrection."
The original English passage, highlighted in yellow on page 105 of the edition: the paper decrees that God did not give Adam immortality — only a conditional life that he could lose.
Why this is serious
First, the thesis destroys Christ's own warning. The article even admits, between the lines, that Matthew 25:46 speaks of "eternal punishment" — and then tries to neutralize the word "eternal" with the trick of the ceremonial ordinances. But the verse uses the same Greek word for both destinies, in the same breath: "these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." If "eternal" is relative in the punishment, it is relative in the life. To erase hell, the paper erases heaven as well.
Second, the doctrine empties the fear of judgment. The article teaches that the anguish of the wicked in the lake of fire "will not be of short duration" — but guarantees that it will result in the "second death," that is, in extinction. With this, the final judgment becomes a punishment with an expiration date: one suffers a little, then is extinguished. Scripture, however, presents judgment as something "terrifying" precisely because it does not end — "it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hb 10:31).
Third, the denial of the natural immortality of the soul contradicts Christ's direct teaching about conscious existence after death. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, both are conscious after dying: one comforted, the other "in agony in this flame" (Lk 16:24) — and a "great chasm" separates them, not an extinction. To the thief on the cross, Jesus promised: "today you will be with me in paradise" (Lk 23:43) — not "today you will cease to exist." Andrews's article must pretend that these passages do not exist.
An abandoned tomb in a period engraving: in the paper's thesis, the death of the wicked would be total extinction — the tomb would mark the end of the story, with no eternal judgment.
The verdict of the Scriptures
Christ contrasts the two destinies with the same word: "these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt 25:46). The eternity of the punishment and the eternity of the life are born from the same verse and the same adjective. To deny one is to deny the other — and the paper chose to deny both halves of the promise.
Revelation describes the final destiny as conscious and continuous torment: the devil, the beast, and the false prophet "will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rev 20:10). The annihilated are not tormented — and "forever and ever" is not the language of extinction. The smoke of the torment of the beast's worshipers "goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night" (Rev 14:11).
Christ further warned about the place "where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mk 9:48). Fire that is not quenched over matter already consumed is a contradiction: the worm that does not die presupposes something to feed on forever. Daniel confirms the two eternal destinies side by side: "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2).
Annihilationism tries to soften God's justice — and ends up denying His Word. The hell Christ described does not go out: that is exactly why the cross was necessary.