Kirk Cameron’s Announcement
Kirk Cameron, the familiar face from Growing Pains and the Left Behind films, recently surprised many by announcing his belief in annihilationism. For decades he’s been known not only as a TV star but also as a bold evangelist. His School of Biblical Evangelism and the “Way of the Master” program he co‑founded with Ray Comfort have trained thousands in street evangelism, myself included. I owe much of my own confidence in sharing the gospel to their method of walking people through the Ten Commandments and the cross. That’s why his shift on the doctrine of hell caught my attention.
What Is Annihilationism?
Annihilationism teaches that the wicked will ultimately be destroyed rather than endure eternal conscious punishment. It’s a view held by Seventh‑day Adventists and entertained by some Protestant scholars, including John Stott. While not a denial of the gospel itself, it does represent a factional break from the church’s dominant tradition. The Greek word hairesis (heresy) literally means “faction,” and in this sense annihilationism is heretical—not damnable, but a deviation from the earliest collective witness of the church.
The Early Church Fathers
From the beginning, Christian teachers spoke with one voice about eternal punishment:
- The Didache (late 1st/early 2nd century): “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.” The way of death is described as leading to eternal punishment.
- Justin Martyr (c. 100–165): “The souls of the wicked, being endowed with sensation even after death, are punished.” (First Apology 8).
- Irenaeus (c. 130–202): “The ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men shall go into everlasting fire.” (Against Heresies 4.28.2).
- Tertullian (c. 155–240): “The fire which is eternal is reserved for the punishment of the wicked.” (Apology 48).
- Augustine of Hippo (354–430): “The same word ‘eternal’ is used both for the punishment of the damned and the life of the blessed. It would be absurd to say eternal life will be without end, but eternal punishment will come to an end.” (City of God 21.23).
This consistency wasn’t arbitrary—it flowed from Scripture itself.
Scripture’s Witness
Annihilationists often emphasize Old Testament language of destruction. But the OT speaks little about the afterlife, focusing instead on temporal judgments: Sodom consumed by fire (Gen 19:24-25), Babylon destroyed by God’s “burning anger” (Isa 13:13), A fire consuming the foundations of Zion (Lam 4:11). Getting our afterlife theology from the OT alone is like getting a surgeon’s protocol from a high school health science book—a foundation, but not complete information. The OT was a tutor, or school master, pointing to greater realities in Christ (Gal 3:24). Accordingly, the fiery judgments of the OT foreshadow eternal realities revealed more fully in the New Testament.
Jesus Himself spoke of Hell more than Heaven. In Matthew 25:46, He says: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The parallel use of aionios (“eternal”) makes the destinies symmetrical—life for the righteous, punishment for the wicked. Revelation 20:10 describes the devil, beast, and false prophet “tormented day and night forever and ever,” and verse 15 places the wicked in the same lake of fire. Revelation 14:11 adds: “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.” These passages point unmistakably to conscious, unending punishment.
Wrestling With Hell
The real question many ask is: Is hell unfair? But human fairness isn’t the standard—holiness is. God is not a man (Num 23:19) and His ways are not our ways (Isa 55:8-9). He is “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isa 6:3)—the only attribute of God that is expressed with an emphatic triad. His infinite holiness demands justice, and the withholding of such justice-—or mercy—is technically the “unfair” thing because it doesn’t give us our earned wages—“death” (Rom 6:23). We as sinful humans have zero right to talk about “fairness” with a God who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16). That’s like foolishly grabbing a 10,000 Volt cable assuming we won’t be instantly flash-fried. Instances in Scripture where God’s holy justice unloads on seemingly small infractions—Nadab and Abihu consumed by fire (Leviticus 10), Uzzah struck down for touching the ark (2 Samuel 6), Annanias and Sapphira dropping dead for a lie (Acts 5)—remind us that His holiness is not negotiable.
But eternal hell? Really? One thing that needs to be clarified is that hell is not the cartoonish image of a red‑suited, horned man with a pitchfork chasing screaming humans. Scripture portrays hell using paradoxical symbols. Most commonly, it is depicted as a place of fire (Mt 13:42; 25:41; Mk 9:48; Rev 20:10; 21:8; Jude 7). The story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31—likely a parable, given its introductory wording (compare Lk 16:1)—speaks of the rich man “in Hades…in torment…in anguish in this flame” (vv 23–24). Yet elsewhere, hell is described as “outer darkness” (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Fire and darkness are two realities that do not naturally coincide in our world. Furthermore, much of hell’s description comes from the most symbolic book of the Bible: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which was “signified [literally, sign‑ified] … by His angel to His servant John” (Rev 1:1, NKJV). Given these facts, we don’t know exactly what Hell looks like (Nor do I ever want to).
Nevertheless, we know that Hell is a real place; a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Lk 13:28). It is a place of regret, loneliness, and the removal of God’s grace. Even now, unbelievers enjoy God’s common graces—sunshine and rain (Mt 5:45), health, relationships, pleasures. Hell is the conscious experience of those graces withdrawn. In a sense, it is God giving people exactly what they want: existence apart from Him. And that, stripped of all His goodness, is torment indeed.
But What About “Good” People Who Didn’t Believe in Jesus?
It’s natural to wonder about those who seemed “pretty good” but never trusted Christ. Yet Scripture is clear: there is no one truly good (Rom 3:10–12). Even our best efforts, apart from Christ, are described as “filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). Why? Because the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37). To neglect that is the greatest violation, ultimately rooting our “good deeds” in wrong motivations.
It is therefore not a surprise that Jesus identified rejection of the Gospel as the most heinous sin: “The Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me” (Jn 16:9). Paul echoes this in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, warning of flaming fire against those who “do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” Those who reject the Gospel trust that their improperly motivated “good deeds” are better than God’s provision—His perfectly sinless Son. That’s the most blasphemous notion one could ever conceive!
At the same time, Scripture suggests varying degrees of guilt and punishment. Jesus said it would be “more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you [Capernaum]]” (Mt 11:24). Likewise, He warned in a parable that the servant who knew his master’s will and failed to act “will receive a severe beating,” while the one who did not know “will receive a light beating” (Lk 12:47–48). These passages imply that while all unbelief leads to condemnation, the measure of punishment corresponds to the measure of light the guilty party had.
What About Conditional Immortality?
Some claim that, because God alone has immortality (1 Tim 6:16), and He gives it only to the elect (1 Cor 15:53-54), the wicked must cease to exist. However, this is a categorical fallacy.
In the Old Testament, death is not presented as the cessation of existence for the wicked but as a state of continued, conscious existence in Sheol, where the ungodly are depicted with awareness and humiliation (e.g., Isa. 14:9–11; Ezek. 32:21; Ps. 88:3–7). Jesus reflects this same conceptual framework in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31).
In the New Testament, life and death are consistently presented as qualitative and relational realities, not merely the presence or absence of existence. Believers are said to possess life already—“whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24; cf. John 3:36; 1 John 5:12)—while unbelievers are described as currently dead, even though they are biologically alive (Eph. 2:1–5; Col. 2:13). Death, therefore, is fundamentally a state of separation from God, not non-being.
This same pattern appears eschatologically. In Revelation 20:12–13, it is explicitly “the dead” who stand before God for judgment, demonstrating continued conscious existence even in death.
Therefore, there is no reason to redefine the “second death” (Rev. 20:14; 21:8) as annihilation when death is never used in a cessational sense. The second death is a more final and profound separation, corresponding to the New Testament’s repeated teaching that punishment itself is eternal, not terminating existence.
Given this progressive revelation about death, the Biblical concept of immortality (lit. “without death”) found in 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 needs modified to mean “without separation from God“. Berkhof, a notable reformed scholar, rightfully taught that immortality in the NT is ethical and redemptive, not ontological. Earlier reformed scholar, Charles Hodge, taught that it includes blessed permanence and everlasting freedom from sinful corruption. Irenaeus, sometimes quoted for his conditional immortality language, could easily be taken in this sense as well, as he never expressly mentions the cessation of the wicked (see note).
So while Kirk Cameron’s announcement may resonate with those uncomfortable with eternal punishment, the testimony of Scripture and the early church remains clear: hell is real, eternal, and conscious. This sobering truth magnifies the mercy of Christ, who saves us from it.
Note: In fact it would be surprising if Irenaeus held the annihilation view, as his teacher was Polycarp who clearly taught eternal punishment. Polycarp was a direct disciple of John. It’s hard to believe Polycarp would misconstrue something so basic from the author of the book of Revelation.
The Middle Ground 