Recently, there has been some public debate about eternal punishment in hell over and against the idea of annihilationism. This has stemmed from a recent podcast in which Kirk Cameron affirms that eternal conscious torment seems to him to not fit with God’s gracious and loving character. The selection below is from my book, Is There Anything Good About Hell?, which I recently learned will be carried soon by Reformation Heritage Books–praise God. It is titled “How Much Does Your God Love?” and argues that the God of annihilationism is not loving enough. 

“God abhors all evil but some sins He hates more than others as they are further from His perfect character and will. Hell’s pains will be exceedingly great, but not to the same degree for all. There is an aspect of hell that is limited (the intensity of pain), and an aspect that is limitless (the infinite length).

If, as we have established, God’s punishment flows out of His hatred for sin and hate, and His love for good and love, and that the degree of punishment communicates the level of His love for love, it follows that a god who does not punish sin infinitely is less loving than the God who does. It is here that the annihilationist faces perhaps one of his biggest problems: his God is not loving enough—a problem as ironic as it is insurmountable. He weighs an eternal torment in the fires of hell against a time-limited punishment (followed by complete extinction), and he rightly sees an infinite difference between them. Moved to compassion by that infinite difference, he assumes that a God who is loving must share his sentiments, and he favors annihilation over eternal punishment.

Ironically, however, his view is defeated by his own sense of the infinite. The infinite difference between an eternal punishment and a time-limited one also means an infinite difference in the degree of God’s hatred of hate and His love of love. The god of the annihilationist is like the judge who punishes a man for murder with a two-year sentence instead of sending him away for life or calling for the executioner. The annihilationist believes he is defending the notion of God’s love, yet it is his own lack in loving love the way the Divine Judge does that keeps him from seeing that God’s love necessarily requires the eternal punishment of hatred.”

When we give up on the doctrine of hell, we give up, ultimately on the perfect love and holiness that hates hatred and sin, and must therefore punish it. The traditional doctrine of hell doesn’t undermine, but rather secures God’s gracious and loving character.