Atheist Memes

I tried to write something, but I couldn't get my thoughts and beliefs to fit into words properly, so I found something that soneone else wrote that does a good job of saying what I was trying to say

Hell is eternal

This is another belief born from tradition and influenced by Greek culture. It came from a prominent idea among Greek thought-leaders that the human soul is immortal.6

It wasn’t a belief held by the followers of Jesus or the early Christian church.

Let’s follow this idea to its logical end: If all souls are immortal, then there must be an afterlife destination opposite of heaven to house the souls of those who didn’t repent and accept Jesus. And if they rejected the Savior who would give them eternal peace and joy, then wherever they go must be filled with eternal suffering and sadness.

But looking at Scripture, immortality is only attributed to God (1 Timothy 6:15–16), and the only people that inherit eternal life are those who accept Jesus (John 3:16; 17:3; 1 John 5:11, 20).

While the effects of hell’s flames are eternal and cannot be reversed, the lives of those encountering the flames are not eternal. They will experience the “second death.” Their punishment isn’t continual, but it is “everlasting”—because it’s final (Matthew 25:46). They will forever cease to exist.

Also this (from the same webpage)

How long will hell burn?

Since hell is more of an event than an underworld, many people wonder—how long will hell burn? The Bible says that hell will only last as long as it takes to destroy the wicked completely (Malachi 4:1).

Everything must burn completely, because after the earth is destroyed by fire, He will re-create the earth just as it was originally supposed to be (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).

Annihilationism—forever gone, not forever burning

The belief in eternal hell typically cites verses about the wicked being eternally destroyed, such as in 2 Thessalonians and Matthew 25.

“They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from His glorious strength” (2 Thessalonians 1:9, CSB).



“Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!’” (Matthew 25:41, CSB).

But this is where it’s especially important to use more parts of the Bible to interpret a single passage. Let’s take a look at other verses that mention the word “eternal.”

Several Bible verses explain the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). God sent “punishment of eternal fire” to destroy these cities eternally (Jude 1:7, CSB).

So, if we’re taking “eternal” to mean that they are burning forever, then Sodom and Gomorrah should be continuing to burn today, right?

If you were to look up the present-day locations of these cities on Google maps, you’d see that they’re not.

Rather, these cities were destroyed “eternally” in the sense that they were completely destroyed, never to rise again. The same is true for the destruction of the wicked—they’re not burning forever, but they are forever burnt up.

This explains why Malachi 4:3 mentions that the ashes of the wicked will be on the earth after the lost are destroyed.

In fact, numerous Bible verses describe this destruction as something permanent (Psalm 37:20; 68:2). Even the word “destruction” suggests that at some point the wicked will cease to exist (Psalm 10:25; 12:7).

This concept is often called annihilationism. And while not every Christian faith group subscribes to this belief, it can certainly be backed up with Scripture—and it aligns with God’s character, as described throughout the whole Bible.

The results of hell’s destruction are eternal—not the process of destruction.

It’s not uncommon to find people who have rejected Christianity because they’ve been taught that “bad people” will burn in hell forever. They wonder how a loving God could be so cruel as to make people burn for all eternity for the sins they’ve committed in their brief lifetime.

Some even wonder if God takes pleasure in the suffering of the wicked.

What an awful picture of humanity’s Creator.

But we’re told in Scripture that God finds no joy in the destruction of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; Isaiah 28:21).

However, since the possibility is available for people to choose against what God offers us, He had to allow for an alternative fate. And the “second death” of eternal destruction is ultimately the most natural balance between justice and mercy.