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Welcome to Rethinking Hell!

Our position in the Evangelical debate on Hell is that of Conditional Immortality, which holds that believers will receive the reward of immortality, while others will finally be destroyed (annihilated).

Rethinking Hell Conference 2019

Don't miss our sixth international conference on Hell, this August 16-17, 2019 in Enid, Oklahoma.
Our conference website has all the details: www.rethinkinghellconference.com

Chris Date upcoming debate

On May 31, Chris Date will debate prominent non-trinitarian Dale Tuggy on the deity of Jesus Christ. Although not on the topic of Hell, this event may interest those who follow Chris’ work. Details here.

Having held our annual conferences in Houston (2014), Pasadena (2015), London (2016), Auckland (2017), and Dallas–Fort Worth (2018), this year’s sixth annual Rethinking Hell Conference will be held in Enid, Oklahoma at Emmanuel Enid Church on Friday and Saturday, August 16–17, 2019. Gathering under the theme of “Hell and the Gospel”, this will be an occasion for Christians to consider and discuss the nature, duration, and purpose of hell in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians generally agree that the gospel or “good news” is the message of Jesus’ life, substitutionary death, and resurrection, by which he saves sinners and secures eternal life for them. Speakers will explore how this should inform Christians’ understanding of what they have been saved from, and what final punishment or consequences await the unsaved in hell, discussing such questions as:

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Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date interviews Ármann Pálsson, a pastor at Anchor Point Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, about what convinced him of conditional immortality and about his experience with his fellow elders leading up to his co-pastor’s recent two-part sermon series introducing the congregation to conditional immortality.

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Recent Podcasts

Episode 121: Endgame, Part 1: Not the End of Church Unity

Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date interviews Donavan Friesen, a pastor at Anchor Point Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, about his recent two-part sermon series in which he revealed to his congregation that he had become convinced of conditional immortality.

Episode 120: Reasonable Annihilationism: Hell, Apologetics, and Evangelism

Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date delivers a presentation on hell and apologetics to the Belfast chapter of Reasonable Faith.

Episode 119: “Why I am Not (Yet) a Conditionalist”–Part 2, With Chris Woznicki

Chris Woznicki joins Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date at the Rethinking Hell 2019 Far West Chapter Symposium to discuss the theological reservations he has about conditional immortality and which prevent him from yet embracing it, despite what he acknowledges is its exegetical strength. This is part 2 of the recording; listen to part 1 with Zachary Seals in episode 118.

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Recent Articles

Charles Fox Parham: “Father of Modern Pentecostalism”–and Annihilationist!

At Rethinking Hell we’re not exactly Pentecostal. Then again, we’re not exactly not Pentecostal! Evangelical is exactly what we are, and that covers both bases. But among Pentecostals in particular, the name Charles Fox Parham commands a degree of respect. He is known as “The father of modern Pentecostalism,” having been the main initiator of the movement and its first real influencer. It was his student, William Seymour, who established the famous Azusa Street Mission. Parham would soon become critical of what he saw as emotional excesses at Azusa Street, which led to a growing rift between the two. Seymour’s influence kept rising, while Parham’s dwindled.

Perish the Thought: How John 6 and 11 Challenge the Traditionalist Reading of John 3:16

John 3:16 is one of the clearest texts supporting the conditional immortality view. This is because Jesus contrasts the eternal life received by believers with the death they would otherwise receive if they reject him. After all, to die is just what “perish” normally means whenever we use that word of humans. As John Stott noted, when the Greek verb apollymi is used in the middle voice and without a direct object it means to be destroyed in a way that causes someone to perish or die (Stott points to Luke 15:17; 1 Cor 10:9 for physical perishing, and John 10:28; 17:12; Rom 2:12; 1 Cor 15:18; 2 Pet 3:9 for perishing in hell). Traditionalists often respond by arguing that this term in John 3:16 need not refer to the death or annihilation of unbelievers.2 But beyond a generalized word study of apollymi, most traditionalists do not give a rationale for their interpretation of the phrase “shall not perish.” A few have offered reasons to read it as referring to an unending “perishing” in hell.

A Place for Torment: Reading The Rich Man and Lazarus Literally

The literal reading of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (the RML parable) in Luke 16:19-31 takes literally the settings of this life and Hades. In this reading, when Jesus spoke of the Rich Man in Hades, he spoke of a literal place beyond death, a place in which the man was in conscious torment, able to feel and think and speak. The parable is seen therefore to give us information, albeit limited, about this place, which Jesus called Hades.