Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: Fudge

  • T-Minus 3 Days and Counting

    I’m a real stickler for deadlines, schedules, and knowing when something is *supposed* to happen. While I can be disastrously disorganized in a plethora of ways, that is not one of them. That being said, I find it very interesting what I find myself up to in the days just prior to a debate. It’s not that I’m “burnt out” on Annihilationism right now or anything – this post is proof that I’m not, as you will see – it’s that I seem to be drawn to subjects that branch out from the subjects I’ve been repeatedly dealing with during …

  • Undying Worms and Unquenchable Fire

    It is often asserted that there is a problem (for so-called “traditionalists”) with the use of Mark 9:48 due to it’s relation with Isaiah 66:24. This problem, according to Fudge, is that 1) Jesus quotes it “without amendment” 2) That the body is “already dead” and 3) That the fire “is a consuming, irresistible fire”. He relates “salted with fire” to mean the salting of a field, or of a place in order to make it uninhabitable. He cites Fields for his source, but we aren’t told, by Fudge, why this is supposed to have any connection with the passage …

  • Matthew 25:41, Kolasis, and The Mediator

    (26:19) This phrase eternal fire is used again in Matthew 25:41, where Jesus says he will send those on his left into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So they will be destroyed, just like Sodom and Gomorrah. He calls this eternal punishment a few verses later, but before you assume that this supports torment forever and ever, consider this. The word rendered punishment refers to a penalty of death in the Septuagint translation of Ezekiel 18:30-32, and in 2Maccabees 4:38. The verb form of the word likewise refers to being killed in at least a

  • Exploratory Questions For Chris Date #2

    I asked some other exploratory questions here, previously.

    1) Do unbelievers suffer in the Lake of Fire?
    2) If so, are they then annihilated by or after this experience?
    3) Why are they thus annihilated?
    4) What is the significance of salt in Old Testament sacrifices, and what is the relevance to being “salted with fire” in Mark 9:49?
    5) Do you believe that the Reformed doctrine of the immortality of man is of Greek origin?
    6) What is death, per your position?
    7) What sense does “eternal punishment” have when without respect to an object of that punishment?…

  • Exploratory Questions for Chris Date

    1) Do you believe that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were annihilated by God in Genesis 19?
    2) Do you believe that those who die the first death are annihilated?
    3) Do you continue to believe that there is no explanation/expansion of Old Testament texts by those who quote them in the New Testament?

    “I’m completely open to the possibility that New Testament authors, and the Lord himself, expanded upon Old Testament imagery; show me where they do that? They don’t, they just quote it. In Mark 9:48, Jesus simply quotes Isaiah’s language. What indication is there that the

  • The Second Paragraph of The Fire That Consumes

    “In the public square, fire and brimstone are definitely out of vogue. Hell shows up in conversation often enough, but generally as an expletive rather than as a serious subject. Hell is not unique in this regard – the same can be said of Jesus Christ. More troubling than hell’s absence from secular society is its general disappearance from many Christian pulpits. Interestingly, although nearly all evangelical pastors and teachers firmly believe that Jesus will ‘come to judge the living and the dead,’ a considerable number of them cannot remember when they last preached or taught on the subject. Might

  • What Few Essentials

    Fudge: “It’s like any other subject that Christians differ about, among the realm of those who are confessing Jesus Christ as Lord; we have to make room for people to understand things differently, even if we think they’re mistaken.”

    Date: “As long as they don’t violate what few essentials there are to the Christian faith, right?”

    Fudge: “That’s right.”

  • Fudge and Date: On how to view challenges to orthodoxy

    Date: “When you originally published your book, how was it received? Did you find that traditionalists were giving maybe some serious consideration to your work, and maybe reconsidering their own view, or did they consider you a threat and try to stamp out any influence you might have?”

    Fudge: “Interestingly, I’ve learned over the past 67 years, Chris, that the reactions I get to this subject, and to this book, are not really so much reactions to this book, as much as they are reactions out of the heart of the person who makes the reaction. And the same reaction

  • Fudge on “The Traditional View”

    Date to Fudge: “What is it that the traditional view of hell holds?”

    Fudge’s Reply: “At the end of the age, Christ will return in person and power, there will be a general resurrection of the saved and the lost, and there will be a great Judgment Day, as it is pictured and described in Scripture, to use human language, so we can understand it, it is pictured as all people being brought before the bar of justice, and have God’s final verdict pronounced on their lives; those who are saved because of the atonement of Jesus will be ushered

  • The central verses for the doctrine of Hell.

    Under the systematic heading of eschatology, there are topics more controversial, but none more hated than the doctrine of Hell. The doctrine of Hell is more repulsive to the natural man than any other doctrine save that of the holiness and sovereignty of God. In fact, the two are tied together with unbreakable bonds. All of Theology proper is bound up with the doctrines of Eschatology, as are all of the doctrines of Christology, Soteriology, Anthropology, and even Ecclesiology similarly bound. What affects one, affects the others unalterably. Christianity is a cohesive, coherent unit, therefore the modification of one doctrine …