Top Scholar on Hell: Rob Bell Is Right, Punishment Not Forever
One of the world’s foremost scholars on hell says he agrees with Rob Bell, that a loving God cannot allow people to burn and writhe in pain forever after they die.
Edward William Fudge, the author of The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, is an advocate of the annihilationist view of hell. He believes that hell is real and people are tortured in hell. But unlike the traditional view, he holds that the pain is temporary and those in hell eventually cease to exist.
“This has to do with the character of God and the way people view God’s character,” explained Fudge to The Christian Post on Wednesday. “The God who loves the world so much that He gave his only son so believers would not perish but have eternal life is then going to turn around and throw billions of them into something resembling a lake of volcanic lava and make it so they cannot...