Annihilationism

Annihilationism is the Christian doctrine that the wicked are ultimately destroyed or cease to exist, rather than enduring eternal conscious punishment.

Eternal conscious torment: The doctrine that the condemned remain conscious and suffer punishment eternally. This is the principal Christian alternative to annihilationism’s account of the wicked’s final fate.
Immortality of the soul: The belief that the human soul continues to exist after bodily death. Annihilationism commonly denies that every human soul is inherently indestructible.
Early Christianity: The Christian movement and its communities during the first several centuries CE. Early Christian writers expressed differing views about punishment, immortality, and the fate of the wicked.
Biblical hermeneutics: The principles and methods used to interpret the Bible. Annihilationism depends on how interpreters weigh biblical images of death, fire, and punishment.
Aionios: A Greek adjective meaning eternal, age-long, or pertaining to an age, depending on context. Its use for punishment and life raises questions about whether punishment’s duration or result is eternal.
Universalism: The Christian belief that all people will ultimately be reconciled to God. It rejects both annihilationism and eternal torment by affirming universal salvation.
Final judgment: The judgment by God of humanity at the end of history. The doctrine concerns the fate assigned to the wicked at this judgment.
Arnobius of Sicca: A Christian apologist of the late third and early fourth centuries who taught that souls receive immortality from God. His account of conditional immortality is an early precedent for annihilationist reasoning.
Gehenna: A Greek New Testament term for a place or condition of divine judgment, derived from the Valley of Hinnom. Annihilationists interpret Jesus’ warnings about Gehenna as punishment ending in destruction.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus: A parable in Luke 16 depicting a rich man in torment after death and Lazarus at rest with Abraham. Its portrayal of conscious postmortem suffering is debated in relation to annihilationist claims.

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