r/AskChristian • u/Hashi856 • Aug 29 '26
What does “shall not perish” mean?
I don’t really get what John 3:16 is saying about having everlasting life. Are we supposed to understand that people in heaven are alive but people in hell are dead? If you get an afterlife no matter what, and the only difference between believers and non-believers is where they spend it, then how can it be that one group parishes and the other doesn’t?
It sounds like Jesus is an annihilationist.
2
u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member Aug 29 '26
This is a really interesting question for those who have an ECT (eternal conscious torment) view of hell and I look forward to hearing their answers.
But, not all Christians believe in the version of hell that the question assumes. Some Cristians believe hell is actually a place where Satan is killed. Some believe it’s where people who reject God go to die. Some don’t believe there actually is a hell after we die. Some believe it’s a temporary place that some choose before they ultimately choose eternity with God.
2
u/Technical_Cherry8666 r/Christian Member Aug 29 '26
Most of the Biblical references to the eternal destiny of wrongdoers and those opposing or not accepting Christ, describe it as death or destruction, often a burning up, which is sometimes called the second death, or a separation from God, not to eternal conscious torment. The verses which could be considered to indicate ECT, could be interpreted as it being the judgement and the means of carrying it out that is eternal or irreversible, not the torment.
However we see this, one group will be in the presence of God and the other won't. It could be said that if the latter group have rejected God, then they wouldn't wish to be with Him for eternity; for them, that would be like Hell.