Don’t Give Me That “Burn Up” Stuff!

“Don’t give me that burn up stuff!” 

That’s what a seasoned pastor told a fledgling minister who had been entertaining the "horrible heresy" that the wicked burn up, not on and on.  His choice of words was odd in that it matched God’s- what he didn’t want is exactly what God says will happen at the final judgment. He resisted the very words God employed.

J. I. Packer, celebrated theologian, wrote of admired English evangelicals John Stott and John Wenham’s defection to Conditional Immortality:   “Both men adopted annihilationism, in which they may be wrong, but they embraced it for the right reason - not because it fitted into their comfort zone, though it did, but because they thought they found it in the Bible. Whatever our view on the question, we too must be guided by Scripture, and nothing else.”

“They embraced it for the right reason because they thought they found it in the Bible.”  This is a gracious admission from the orthodox stalwart, albeit a bit condescending in saying “thought they found it.”  And like most traditionalists, he is compelled to label the contending view “annihilationism.”  Granted, it would be difficult to oppose “Destructionism” or “Perishism” or “Eternal Life Only in Christ”.  

But proponents of Destructionism do not just think it is found in the Bible.  It is!  Our belief is not only the teaching of Scripture, it is the wording.  The fact that our opposition have to constantly explain their redefining of death, perish, and destruction is an open admission that it’s in the Bible.  If those words really mean what they say they do, why would they have to explain?  Why couldn’t they just let them stand in their plain and primary sense?  They can’t because those words understood as they’re (obviously) understood utterly contradicts their view.

Back to the impervious parson.  Creed trumped read.  After thousands of sermons preached (and hopefully prepared) he either remarkably hadn’t stumbled across “burn up” or he unconsciously dismissed it.  True, Malachi (4:1) doesn’t rank high as a source for sermon texts, and most miss that people, as well as elements, will be burned up according to Peter (2 Peter 3:7, 10).  But how did he miss John the Baptist’s blazing blast of the Pharisees and Sadducees?  The wilderness wild man laid his ax to the root of the trees, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  Trees devoid of good fruit will be “cast into the fire” and John prophesied a final “purge” when Christ “will gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:5-12).  

Burn up?  “Don’t give me that burn up stuff!”  I have surefire proof that our fireproof cleric, and myriad preachers like him, are indeed familiar with this passage and meld it to their understanding of hell.  How do I know?  Invariably they nimbly bypass burn up as they just as vigorously embrace unquenchable fire.   It’s quite the dexterous dodge.  Unquenchable fire is one of their favorite resources. They celebrate fire that can’t be put out as evidence of people who won’t burn up.   

But it’s unquenchable fire, not unquenchable chaff.  Had the Baptist only pictured chaff in fire, his audience should have easily imagined the outcome.  But it’s not just any fire- it’s fire that's inextinguishable.  Now his listeners should have had no doubt that material as fragile and flammable as wheat waste would surely burn up in a fire that can’t be doused.  But John didn’t leave it to their imagination or trust their interpretation.  He unmistakably spelled it out: he… will… burn… up… the chaff in unquenchable fire.

I can respect the veteran reverend combatting the erosion of established doctrine in an attempt to rescue a vulnerable protege.  But he accomplished neither.  His case was undermined by excluding a clearly biblical phrase, and his exposed pupil succumbed to the infectious "error."   It didn’t help that he gave this ridiculous object lesson: “See that table there.  If it burns up, it doesn’t cease to exist.  It just exists in a different form- ashes.  So annihilation is obviously false.”  The only thing obvious is that “annihilation” is a straw man, and biblical terms such as “burn up” and “ashes” confirm final destruction, not ongoing agony.

This mentor also appealed to the underlying Greek, and his mentee dutifully explored, only to become more convinced that his currently held belief in endless torment was of questionable scriptural support.  Ah, the danger of questioning and searching to see whether these things are so!  Perish the thought!  Oh, but wait- would that mean the thought would never cease to be?  I mock and jest, but only to make the point of the mockery and joke made of plain language.

“Don’t give me that burn up stuff!”  It’s one thing to say that to contenders for Conditional Immortality; it’s quite another to demand it of the biblical speakers. As we reviewed the incendiary words of the “voice of one crying in the wilderness” (i.e., John the Baptist said “burn up”) we mentioned the missed contributions of Malachi and Peter. We will overlook them no more.  

Malachi, in the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament, speaks of “that day” in similar fashion to many of the inspired writers: “in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (3:17).  He paints a striking picture of what that day means for the wicked: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (4:1).  

“The great and dreadful day of the LORD” (4:5) is consistent with many New Testament passages referring to the final judgment at the coming of Christ (Acts 2:20; 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10).  The contrast between the reward for the righteous and the punishment of the wicked is dramatically clear (Cf. Mal. 3:18; 4:2,3).  The element of fire is prominent as in many other passages of final judgment.  Does Malachi give any indication of conscious, eternal torment?  To the contrary, he states in lucid language that “the day that cometh shall burn them up.”  Verse 3 says “the wicked shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this.”  The duration of the result is everlasting, but the nature and extent of the punishment itself is a final consumption that is equal to utter destruction, not endless torment.  If Malachi’s prophecy has already been fulfilled in past history, it nevertheless has eschatological intimations that illustrate a final judgment.

No one questions if Peter is speaking of a future and final judgment.  In the third chapter of his second epistle the subject is also “the day of the Lord.”  To the inspired apostle, that day is synonymous with “the day of God” and “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Perdition is from the same Greek root word (Strong’s 622, apollumi) as “perish” in John 3:16, and means “utter destruction.”

What happens on that day?  Utter destruction!  And it’s destruction by fire.  “Reserved unto fire… the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up… all these things shall be dissolved… the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.”  With great mercy in the middle is the promise that our longsuffering Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”   To not come to repentance will mean to perish.

“Don’t give me that burn up stuff!” Sorry, but John the Baptist, Malachi, and Peter agree that the coming day of the Lord is when unbelievers will be consumed by fire.  John: He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.  Malachi: The day that cometh shall burn them up.  Peter: The earth and the works therein shall be burned up on the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.  That’s the words within the Word.  That's a lot of burn up!

Smoke ascending up is the carbon dust evidence of something being burned up.  And burn up is consistent with other passages: “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:24).  Stubble devoured by fire and chaff consumed by flame is compared to rottenness and dust.  This does not picture perpetual torture.  “Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you” (Isaiah 33:11) gives the same illustration of fire that consumes.

Christ’s harvest parable echoes John the Baptist:  “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:30).  His disciples desired some clarification: “Declare unto us the parable of the tares” (13:36).  His response is a description that any Galilean farmer would readily understand: “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world” (13:40).  Tares, like dry saw dust, are quickly consumed in fire.  

Yes, a burned table is reduced to ashes, and so will it be with the ungodly at that great and terrible day of the Lord.  Tares, chaff, and stubble burn up in fire, especially one that can’t be put out.  And so shall it be in the end of this world.  The day that cometh shall burn them up.  Ashes is the result. And it’s burn up, not on and on.  We find it in the Bible, and as Packer insists, “we too must be guided by scripture, and nothing else.”  In spite of the determined pastor’s protests, the Bible is full of that “burn up” stuff!