“While it certainly seemed from some of the things Kirk said on his podcast that he was indicating that this is now his official view, when I spoke with him personally on the phone,” said Comfort, “he told me that while he believes the Bible appears to point in the direction of this view, he’s not settled on the matter and has asked for further discussion.”
Comfort said that Living Waters holds to the “biblical and historic, orthodox doctrine of conscious eternal torment” and that Cameron had not officially worked at Living Waters for over 10 years.
In his X post about Cameron, Huff said, “If you actually want to interact with someone who knows the topic reach out to my friends @datechris and/or @DanPaterson7. Both are solid, fair minded, well educated and articulate holders of conditionalism.”
Paterson replied by thanking Huff “for encouraging a healthy theological conversation on what the Bible teaches about the final fate of the lost in Hell, and brotherly unity across non-essentials.”
“My own journey towards conditionalism after academically defending the traditional view for my master’s thesis was no knee-jerk or emotional reaction to ECT,” Paterson said, “but was driven by my theological conscience being captive to Scripture.” He linked to a YouTube video on why he changed his mind about his beliefs on hell.
Paterson and Chris Date, the other friend Huff mentioned, are going live on YouTube Tuesday, Dec. 9, “to discuss the recent revelation that @KirkCameron leans toward conditional immortality, a.k.a. Annihilationism,” Date posted on X.
Date’s bio says he is the public face of the nonprofit Rethinking Hell, which “represents a global network of Christian scholars, pastors, and laypeople who have been rethinking the idea of Hell as eternal torment, in favor of a biblical alternative known as Conditional Immortality.”
Date also reposted additional comments from Huff, who said, “More than a few in the comment section are making my point for me: so many are assuming they know what Conditionalists believe, but by their arguments against it prove they don’t.”
“Once again, I don’t hold to Conditional Immortality, but I’ve attempted to understand it from people who do,” Huff said, encouraging those “interested in representing the position properly” to watch the livestream.
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Dr. Preston Sprinkle, who leads The Center for Faith, Sexuality, & Gender, weighed in on the debate as well and posted a video explaining his “defense of annihilation as the most biblically defensible position.” Sprinkle said he had invited Cameron on his podcast to talk about this topic and that he would also love to have Huff on.
