Conditional Immortality Summary

CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. The most familiar verse in the Bible teaches the conditional immortality of believers and final destruction of unbelievers: 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not PERISH, but have EVERLASTING LIFE" (John 3:16). 

Conditional Immortality is the belief that immortality (not being subject to death) is conditional upon being in Christ: 

"And this is the record, that GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, and THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:11, 12).

ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST. Conditional Immortality maintains that eternal life is not the intrinsic possession of the soul, but the gracious gift of God, "Who ONLY hath immortality" (1 Tim. 6:16). 

We do not receive it by our first birth in Adam, but by our second birth in the second Adam, Christ! "For as IN ADAM ALL DIE, even so IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE" (1 Cor. 15:22). 

One must have a second birth to escape the second death. Through our first birth in Adam we inherit sin and death; through a second birth in Christ we receive the gift of righteousness and life (Rom. 5:21). The wages of sin is death, an end of life; the gift of God is endless life (Rom. 6:23). 

The truth of Scripture is DEATH IN ADAM - LIFE IN CHRIST!

PLAIN WORDS, CLEAR PICTURES. Scripture denies any immortality of the soul, and only promises believers immortality through salvation and resurrection, thus unbelievers will be resurrected to damnation, not life (John 5:29), and will truly perish, burn up, and be consumed by fire, which is everlasting destruction, and the second death. 

"The SOUL that sinneth, it shall DIE" (Ezek. 18:4), and God "is able to DESTROY both body and SOUL in hell" (Matt. 10:28). ETERNAL FIRE turned Sodom to ASHES (2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7), an "example" of future judgment when UNQUENCHABLE FIRE will "BURN UP the chaff" (Matt. 3:12). God is a consuming fire, and the fire of God consumes. 

A fire so powerful as to be called eternal, everlasting, and unquenchable will certainly burn up, destroy, and consume such highly combustible items as chaff, stubble, tares, cut thorns, and dried branches. 

These plain words in the Word and clear pictures in the Scriptures show that the Creator of Language has used His creation to clearly communicate, not confuse. 

The Comprehensive Coherency of Scripture teaches Conditional Immortality—it is the preponderance (weight of majority consensus) of the relative texts, and perspicuity (weight of clear expression) of the consistent and persistent Divine Vocabulary.

LIFE OR DEATH. Though Conditionalism (and its corollary—Destructionism) is not the majority view of Protestant or Catholic (or Muslim for that matter) "orthodoxy," it was the standard view of the first several centuries of Christian writers, the recurring contention of many noble searchers throughout church history, and the sincere interpretation of an ever-increasing number of conservative Bible believers today. 

Conditional Immortality is not justly represented by the negative label annihilationalism, which is a "straw-man" term employed by defenders of endless torment to avoid the daunting awkwardness of arguing against destruction (they won't say unbelievers will not be destroyed, but then redefine destruction).

THE DIFFERENCE. Our debate with the traditional view of endless torment is not concerning the resurrection or judgment. Conditionalism maintains the reality of both. 

Our debate is not concerning the intermediate state (as of the rich man and Lazarus), though it is relevant to it. 

It is not even if the punishment is everlasting (it certainly is), but whether Scripture consistently defines that punishment as endless torment (burning on and on), or everlasting destruction (burning up). 

Conditional Immortality contends that the revelation of Scripture on the character of God and nature of man, the penalty of sin and atonement of Christ, coherently teaches two destinies—LIFE or DEATH, endless life or an end of life, immortality or perdition, everlasting life or everlasting destruction, eternal life or perish.