Christians used to tell me that I would burn in hell for eternity. What none of them told me was that I would be annihilated and cease to exist if I didn’t believe in God.

That was more than 50 years ago. Things have changed. If I was still an atheist with a daily radio talk show, I would probably hear from more people who identify as Christians tell me that God is a loving God who doesn’t send unbelievers to an eternal place of suffering. Many would now say that God will annihilate me and I would cease to exist.

Cease to Exist?

Cease to exist? Isn’t that what atheists think happens when people die? How would that be upsetting for an atheist to hear from a Christian? I don’t believe it would and here’s why.

I used to jokingly call death “taking a dirt nap.” I would cease to exist. If Christians also believe atheists will cease to exist, I don’t think most atheists would have a problem with that. We pretty much agree on what happens after death. Of course there would still have been the “God exists” thing to talk through, but at least the scare tactic of old-fashioned Christianity that atheists would burn in a lake of fire forever and ever would be off the table. It wouldn’t matter as an atheist whether I was right or wrong about God’s existence. If God didn’t exist, I would cease to exist after death. If God did exist, I would still cease to exist after He annihilated me.

Honestly, I don’t think the radio show would have been as interesting if Christians who called in didn’t believe in hell. It’s a little dull when host and caller agree. Heated conversations with hell-believing Christians were what made my radio show exciting. Christians told me God exists. I told them He didn’t. Their voices got louder as they told me I was going to burn in hell forever. Now we have an interesting talk show. The volume continued to increase until I finally cut them off the air and commented about how nice it was to hear from such a loving Christian who hoped I would suffer forever.

A Little Background

Ceasing to exist is not a big deal for an atheist, if it’s true. I was raised in a church that believed atheists and other unbelievers would spend eternity suffering in hell. I left church as soon as I was old enough to do that for many reasons, but the hell stuff was definitely too much to take. I began studying Hinduism at the age of 12 and Buddhism at the age of 14 as part of martial arts classes. I learned there were billions of people in the world who didn’t believe the same way my parents or their friends did. Atheism was a natural next step from Buddhism when I went to college at the age of 18.

Living life as an atheist is pretty easy. There’s just you and what’s around you – matter. You do what you want when you want to do it. What matters is your brief life on a planet that’s been around a long, long time. If you’re an honest atheist, you know that life really doesn’t matter because it has no purpose. You’re born, you live, you die, you cease to exist. That’s it. No purpose, no reason. Just years of breathing, eating, drinking, interacting, waiting to die, ceasing to exist. That’s life for an atheist.

And Now?

So, what do I believe now? I believe what’s in the Bible. What’s that have to do with eternal punishment? Well, eternal punishment is in the Bible. I’ve written about it in some depth here.

The problem with annihilationism is it’s not in the Bible. I know, I know. A large number of people who say they believe what’s in the Bible, believe the Bible teaches God will annihilate unbelievers so they cease to exist. No hell. No fire. No eternal damnation. No eternal punishment. Unbelievers just cease to exist. I get it. I’ve talked with them. They’ve talked with me. We disagree.

As I mentioned earlier, things are changing. This is from an article in the Christian Post from 2016:

Annihalitionism in particular is on the rise, and some thinkers and theologians believe it will replace the currently dominant traditionalist perspective. Preston Sprinkle, vice president of Eternity Bible College’s extension in Boise, Idaho, offered a prediction in said National Geographic article that ‘even within conservative evangelical circles, the annihilation view of hell will be the dominant view in 10 or 15 years.’

Sprinkle, who co-authored with Francis Chan a book called Erasing Hell (which debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list), bases his projection on the number of ‘well-known pastors who secretly hold that view’ who he knows personally, and believes that ‘we are at a time and place when there is a growing suspicion of adopting tradition for the sake of tradition.’ Christian Post

I’ve been around Christians for enough years to see that things are changing rapidly. The preaching and teaching in churches today are different than what I heard as a young Christian in the 1970s. I usually see trends developing years in advance because I read what pastors and Christian professors write. When you see them changing their positions on what’s in the Bible, know that many people in the pew will change their positions as well. There’s a reason God referred to His people as sheep and pastors and teachers as shepherds. Sheep follow their shepherd. Unfortunately, many church shepherds (pastors) are not following Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd.

You can see big changes in what pastors and teachers believe through their comments in the pulpit, words in their books, and notes in their lectures. The flags of false teaching wave early. Keep your eyes and ears open for the first wave and you’ll know that it usually gets worse from there. As the Apostle Paul wrote:

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Acts 20:27-31

The Apostle Peter wrote this:

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. 2 Peter 2:1-3

Annihilationists are also known as conditionalists. Jesus came to give eternal life to those who believe in Him. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that mortality will put on immortality. However, annihilatioinists believe that immortality is conditional on having faith in Christ. No faith, no immortality. No immortality, no existence after death.

The other view that is growing in popularity today is universalism. That’s the view that everyone will be saved in the end and go to Heaven, including atheists. If someone had called my radio show and said I would go to Heaven even if I died as an atheist, I would have been fine with that. I believed in non-existence after death, so waking up in Heaven would have been a nice surprise.

Annihilationism, conditionalism, universalism — I would have been fine with any of those ideas coming out of a Christian’s mouth. The Christians I didn’t like were the ones who said God would punish me forever in a lake of fire.

Why?

That does raise an important question. Why are so many Christian leaders and their followers jumping on the annihilationism/conditionalism/universalism bandwagons if that’s not what the Bible teaches? I think the answer is easy: “… your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan has one basic aim in his miserable life and that’s to make the lives of everyone else miserable. How does he do that? Satan knows every button to push with humans. We saw how he did it with Eve and Adam, and he’s still doing it today – and he’s not alone in accomplishing his mission of misery.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy 4:1-2

Satan and his demons deceive, teach, and lie. Jesus told us that Satan is “a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Paul told us that Satan and his evil empire are well organized and we need to gear up for the fight (Ephesians 6:10-18). Two of those lies are annihilationism and universalism. Atheists have no problems with either, but Christians should. The fact that a growing number of Christians around the world are becoming comfortable with false teaching is one more demonstration that the Bible is true.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

That time has come. Christians are not enduring sound doctrine. Their ears itch and they want false teachers who will scratch the itch. Christians are turning away from the truth.

If I was still an atheist, none of this would bother me in the least. However, as a Christian, it bothers me a lot. If you’re a Christian, I hope it bothers you.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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