Is Annihilationism Biblical?
Throughout their conversation, Kirk Cameron and James Cameron mentioned various Bible verses, including Psalm 37:20 (“the wicked will perish”) and Matthew 3:12 (about the wheat and the chaff).
About Matthew 10:26-28, which warns people to “be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” James said, “I have not found that the soul is necessarily always eternal. The Bible does not talk about the eternality of the wicked. All I found [in Scripture] is the eternality of the righteous, through salvation in Christ and living forever.”
Kirk Cameron pointed to the teachings of Edward Fudge, who said the idea of immortality of the soul comes from ancient philosophers such as Plato. “The Old Testament describes the fate of the wicked with three words: death, perish, and destroy,” said Kirk. “The soul that sins, it shall die. It will perish. It will be destroyed, which is like the ending of life, not the ongoing life forever in punishment.”
Matthew 25:31-46, about the sheep and the goats, “always freaked me out,” said Kirk, adding that it’s “a really good argument for annihilationism.”
“What you’re saying is not that the wicked are granted an eternity of punishment,” he explained. “You’re saying that the punishment of the wicked is final. It is irreversible. There is no relief from that punishment in terms of ever going back. It’s done. It’s over.”
Pushback on Kirk Cameron’s View of Hell
The Dec. 3 episode of “The Kirk Cameron Show,” which has been viewed more than 127,000 times, sparked backlash in Christian circles. Florida Pastor Tom Ascol posted, “Hell is horrific. And it is eternal, otherwise it would not be an adequate punishment for sin against the infinite, holy God.”
Ascol linked to his 2008 article titled “The Horror of Hell.” In it, he wrote, “Those who protest the biblical doctrine of hell as being excessive betray their inadequate comprehension of the sinfulness of sin. For sinners to be consigned to anything less than the horrors of eternal punishment would be a miscarriage of justice.”
Theologian Owen Strachan posted, “Grieved to see this from Kirk Cameron. Scripture is abundantly clear: hell is the place ‘where the fire is not quenched’ (Mark 9:48).” Strachan recommended that people read the book “Hell Under Fire” for biblical insights.
“Kirk Cameron is dangerously wrong,” wrote Christian influencer Samuel Sey. “The Bible is very clear that hell is eternal punishment. His belief in annihilationism is terrible. But what is even more concerning is that he suggests that the biblical view of hell makes God merciless.”
