Month: November 2018

Uncategorized

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Do Not Indicate Eternal Torment

“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!”

If you already had in mind the idea that hell is a place of everlasting conscious punishment, then it is understandable that when you hear someone say hell involves “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” you would imagine that phrase referring to the terrible torments in this place of everlasting conscious punishment.1 Some translations say “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” but the difference is immaterial. These are 5 Flossing Mistakes You Didn’t Know About for your hygiene care.

But if we want to look at what the Bible actually teaches about hell, we must not simply assume that that it teaches what we already believe. And when we look at it more closely, it becomes clear that the refrain that “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” does not so clearly mean what many initially think it means.2 See Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Luke 13:28.3 Unless otherwise noted, all scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Continue reading “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Do Not Indicate Eternal Torment” →

 

References
￪1 Some translations say “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” but the difference is immaterial.
￪2 See Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Luke 13:28.
￪3  Unless otherwise noted, all scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Biblical Exegesis, Hermeneutics, Responses

Exegesis Interrupted: A Critique of Stand To Reason’s Article “Hell Interrupted, Part 2”

I consider myself an exegete. For seven or so years last decade during my dual degrees at Malyon College–a Baptist seminary in Brisbane, Australia–I developed a passion for biblical hermeneutics and exegesis that remains with me today.1 In this article the term hermeneutics refers to those principles one employs when interpreting and applying a text. Exegesis is the process of applying hermeneutical principles to properly read meaning out of a text. Eisegesis is the hermeneutical sin of reading meaning into a text. At the start of each semester, I would make sure I could fit every single exegetical subject into my schedule. I became capable enough in this area to be employed by the college as their first study skills tutor, a role in which I was responsible for teaching new students hermeneutical and exegetical principles. I point all this out simply to show that I am in a position to recognize when these principles may be incorrectly applied, or not even applied at all. Continue reading “Exegesis Interrupted: A Critique of Stand To Reason’s Article “Hell Interrupted, Part 2”” →

 

References
￪1  In this article the term hermeneutics refers to those principles one employs when interpreting and applying a text. Exegesis is the process of applying hermeneutical principles to properly read meaning out of a text. Eisegesis is the hermeneutical sin of reading meaning into a text.
Church History, Podcast

Episode 114: “An Unquenchable Doctrine”: Chris Date on the Recent History of Conditional Immortality

Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date recently presented a paper at Lloyd Strickland’s and Andrew Crome’s conference, “Imagining the Last Things: Eschatology and Apocalypticism, 1500-Present.” Chris’s paper, “An Unquenchable Doctrine: The Tenacity of Conditional Immortality in Recent History,” outlines the history of conditionalism since the Reformation and its increasing popularity despite attempts by traditionalists to stamp it out, and the evolution of the doctrine of eternal torment into something much more moderate than would be recognizable to Christians of the past.

Continue reading “Episode 114: “An Unquenchable Doctrine”: Chris Date on the Recent History of Conditional Immortality” →