Torment Before Annihilation

Annihilationism, although it affirms that eternal conscious torment is not the default punishment for the unsaved, does not exclude the possibility of a period of torment before annihilation.  The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:14-15), but this does not mean that the only aspects of final punishment are death and the resulting forfeiture of eternal life.  Indeed, annihilation might not arrive until the unsaved have endured harsh torment as their deeds merit.

The length of potential torment before annihilation could differ wildly from person to person.  An unsaved person who only committed minor sins during his or her life may only be tormented in hell for minutes before receiving the eternal punishment of cosmic death, while someone who committed a host of sins the Bible classifies as capital crimes might suffer for centuries or millennia before having his or her consciousness terminated.  Perhaps some may even suffer for billions of years until they are finally removed from existence.

Regardless of how a person's respective sins will factor into their punishment, mere annihilation is itself an enormous penalty that removes its recipients from any possibility of redemption, pleasure, or any desired experience at all.  Even if it is not preceded by torment, the second death is hardly something to scoff at for those who prefer existence to nonexistence.  In either case, the Biblical God is said to deliver nothing short of undiluted justice to every being that rejects him.

The Bible simply does not provide exact details about how the different severities of sins will factor into whatever torment individuals may face before their permanent death in the lake of fire.  However, it does specify that sins are not equal in their depravity, as is confirmed by the different intensities of the punishments assigned to certain sins in Mosaic Law.  It would therefore be contradictory for a God whose moral character is revealed in Mosaic Law to treat all sins as equally trivial or equally severe in hell.

That the Biblical realm of hell is eternal (Matthew 18:8) does not establish that all things that enter the hellfire will exist eternally.  Similarly, that death is the ultimate penalty unsaved humans will face (with a handful of potential exceptions [1]) does not mean that instant annihilation is the punishment.  Annihilation might be instant in some cases, but it might also be preceded by a period of torment that far exceeds any human lifetime on earth.  At the very least, within the framework of Christian theology, every being's punishment in hell will be a just fate that is proportionate to whatever sinful deeds or intents it is guilty of.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2020/03/revelation-149-11.html