How Annihilation Is Analogous To Capital Punishment

I have never met a single evangelical who would likely pretend for even a moment that a government execution is not a punishment.  In fact, evangelicals would probably respond to anyone who suggested this lunacy with laughter or confusion.  A punishment is a consequence for an offense, real or perceived, and the infliction of death can clearly be used as a punishment.  Anyone who denies either of these facts can only either be joking or stupid.

Nevertheless, ask evangelicals if annihilation in hell is a genuine punishment, and they might very quickly dismiss the idea that something short of everlasting torment could possibly be such a thing.  This is an obvious example of cognitive dissonance.  Not all evangelicals make such an inept mistake, but enough of them do for the point to need emphasis.  The hostility and ridicule directed towards annihilationism in conservative Christian circles are often enough to deter many from challenging the contradictions and errors of the traditional stance on hell.  When a large number of Christians refuse to consider annihilationism, straw men accusations like the idea that annihilation is not a punishment can easily arise.

Permanent death of the soul is itself a weighty punishment.  But annihilation entails more than the mere cessation of existence: it also necessitates an exclusion from every joy and benefit that comes with eternal life.  If a person is annihilated, there is no longer any hope for restoration to God.  How is this, too, not a weighty punishment?  Any of these two aspects of annihilation is grave on its own, but the combination of both is a tremendous penalty for the unsaved.  Annihilation itself is nothing but cosmic capital punishment that precludes eternal life.

Upon realizing that annihilation is a penalty, evangelicals might begin denying that it is a just penalty.  To do so, they must contradict the consistent doctrine of proportionate punishments found all throughout Mosaic Law, but they must also regard their subjective feelings (or those of another person) as authoritative.  Since the Bible does not teach eternal conscious torment for all unsaved beings (Satan, the beast, and the false prophet are described as exceptions in Revelation 20:10), they cannot possibly have actual Biblical teachings support them.  They can only look to the arbitrary pitfalls of conscience, consensus, or tradition.

Though it might be mischaracterized as if it edits the gospel, annihilationism leaves the gospel intact.  That the Bible teaches annihilationism does not mean that it does not teach that there is a great punishment that awaits the wicked.  If execution is a punishment, then so is the destruction of the soul--in fact, the two are completely analogous!  Evangelicals readily admit the former.  The only reason they might reject the latter is a bias against the clear teachings of the Bible regarding hell, as they contradict the traditions that have held sway over the majority of Christians.