I don't hold to any man made doctrine concerning eschatology such as futurists, preterists, historicists or idealists.
I am however confused what annihilationism means in terms of judgement (both first and second), the resurrection of the dead, the heavenly Kingdom of Christ, the identity of Christ and the
FINAL coming of Christ.
Can anyone shed some light to why Christians are defining themselves by these human terms?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnnihilationismAnnihilationism (from Latin annihilō) is a Christian belief that apart from salvation the final punishment of human beings results in their total destruction (annihilation) rather than their everlasting torment. It is directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life.
If Annihilation is the question of the state of the soul after the person dies, corresponding to the first death, that is the death of the earthly body, then scripture is clear about the soul as being an immaterial conscious state, where it is either clothed with the heavenly body like our Lord's or it is sent into a state of conscious outer darkness away from the light of The Lord.
However without looking at any scholastic definition we are told in scripture that there are two judgements. The first is when we are all destined to die once, then immediately following is the
FIRST JUDGEMENT. The other is the
SECOND and
FINAL JUDGEMENT at the end of the great harvest when Christ sounds the seventh trumpet and declares time no longer.
If we contextualise what scripture is teaching, we can understand that the first judgement pertains to when the earthly house is dissolved and we come face to face with Christ to be judged by him for the works done in the body, for that is what is being clearly conveyed by the gospel and epistle accounts that when we die, we are immediately to face the first judgement.
This first judgement becomes the white throne judgement of Christ who sits on the right hand of power as God almighty and judges the nations from when he ascended up on high into New Jerusalem to when he comes for the final time to declare the end of all Adam One life including the earthly realm (first heaven and fist earth have passed away). It is clear that the first judgement is in context to what the epistles teach as the Lord's appear-
ING. The word
APPEARING is the present tense participle of the verb
APPEAR to be.
2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Now having said that we look towards scripture to how God sees these two judgements:
As The Lord clearly conveyed that there are two judgements, one for the body which is the first death and one for the soul, which is the second death.
Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
So we know the term hell is used to imply two deaths for both the material Adam One body and the immaterial soul.
It becomes clear and succinct that first resurrection is tied to the
FIRST JUDGEMENT after our earthly bodies are dissolved. Notice the second death that is awaiting those who have no part in the resurrection of the dead after the first judgement. These disembodied immaterial conscious souls are said to be in a state of conscious darkness, a hell as a state of being.
Notice most importantly that the thousand years separate the first and the second deaths correlating to the first and second judgements. It is very easy to see. Once you discern scriptural facts then you can understand in context to the 1000 years that first judgement of the separating of the sheep and goats has been happening for the last almost 2000 years when people die to face the first judgement at the present tense participle verb to be in the LORD's
APPEARING. Both the good and the wicked will face the first judgement, in a day and hour unbeknown to them, to either be clothed with the heavenly spirit bodies like our Lord's (
first resurrection) or are sent into outer darkness of hell awaiting final execution in the lake of fire.
The versus in Matthew 24:26:51 are a prelude to the day and hour that no man knows when we are destined to die, when our earthly body is dissolved, then to face the first judgement at the Lord's
APPEARING.
Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Notice the verse below describe those wicked after the first judgement, after their earthly body was dissolved who were not chosen as sheep were sent of as goats who were waiting in hell (immaterial conscious state of being) until their day of execution where the context of the second death is to put a permanent end to the disembodied soul.
Notice also that death was also swallowed up by the lake of fire because after this second judgement, there is no more Adam One life remaining as all those who were chosen to be invited as guests to the wedding of the lamb of God at the end of the great harvest, are already present through the first resurrection (
resurrection of the dead) that encompassed the 1000 symbolic years from when the Christ opened the tombs of the Old Covenant Saints and took them into New Jerusalem as the heavenly inner measured court of the redeemed from the world. (Revelation 11:1-3)
The thousand years therefore becomes across the age of grace from when the Apostolic Church was commissioned to preach the gospel as the two symbolic witnesses of John's Revelation wearing the priestly
SACKCLOTH FROM TOP TO BOTTOM as written in Revelation 11:3.
Revelation 20:14-15
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.