The Irrelevance Of Mercy To Annihilationism

An unfortunate habit of some annihilationists the making of a set of appeals to the mercy of God, as if annihilation can be both just and merciful at once.  A thing is just if it is deserved, and a thing is merciful if one does not receive what one deserves.  The two cannot coexist in the same place at the same time--with one "exception," though this "exception" does not involve a contradiction [1].  Annihilationism, at its heart, is about God's justice, the totality of Scripture affirming this.  Mercy has nothing to do with it.

Eternal conscious torment for all unsaved beings violates Biblical descriptions of justice, which always involve proportionality to particular offenses (Deuteronomy 25:1-3, Exodus 21:23-25).  A finite sin--indeed, even a legion of finite sins--cannot deserve infinite punishment, for this would violate the very foundation of justice.  God will not torment all humans eternally because he is just, not because he fails to give people what they deserve!

The second death has nothing to do with mercy.  To call annihilation merciful is to indirectly call God unjust, for mercy only exists when there is an absence of justice [1] because someone is not given what they deserve.  Yet God, who is just, cannot fail to enact perfect justice.  Only one thing can follow from the fact that God will annihilate the wicked: the deaths of their minds and bodies are events of justice, not of mercy.  If eternal conscious torture was just, then God would inflict exactly that upon all unsaved humans in hell; the fact that the Bible teaches otherwise can only mean that such a thing is inherently unjust by Biblical standards.

There is no need for annihilationists to appeal to God's mercy because mercy is entirely irrelevant to whether or not annihilationism is true or just.  Thus, the word mercy does not even need to be mentioned by annihilationists, since it has nothing to do with basic theological facts about the nature of hell.  One may legitimately speak of the mercy involved in allowing fallen humans salvation, but there is no mercy in destroying them rather than perpetually tormenting them.


[1].  The salvation of Christians is the one thing that in some way serves as an actual exception, depending on how one approaches the gospel.  In a sense, there is justice in human salvation, for, in dying, Jesus was able to pay the wages of sin on behalf of others who would follow him (Romans 6:23).  There is also mercy, since redeemed humans are no longer bound for hell and the annihilation of consciousness and body (Matthew 10:28).  There is no contradiction here when all components are rightly understood.