Study: Kirk Cameron and Remodeling Hell (12/16/25)
Bible Study for our Ministry Staff December 16, 2025
Who is Kirk Cameron?
Rose to fame as a teenager starring as Mike Seaver on the hit ABC sitcom Growing Pains (1985–1992).
Evangelical influencer...
Fireproof movie...
Very popular podcaster...
With his son, James.
Two weeks ago, Kirk released episode 86: Are We Wrong About Hell?
Essentially, he said, YES, WE ARE.
He espouses annihilationism (and sort of conditionalism), though he confuses the two.
The most egregious arguments James and Kirk attempted to make...
Because Mao and Hitler sinned so much worse than a "sweet old grandma," it would be unjust for the holy God to send the grandma to hell.
If we believe in an eternal hell, we give ammunition to the enemies of God who criticize the Bible.
Humans are finite creatures who are guilty of finite sin, so it would be unjust for God to punish them with eternal punishment.
The Bible never talks about the eternality of the wicked.
The concept of the eternal soul came from Plato not the Bible.
A punishment that appears morally repugnant to human conscience cannot reflect God’s true justice.
Zechariah 13.2 proves annihilationism.
Zechariah 13.2 | On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—“I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will banish the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land. (CSB)
Matthew 25.46 refers to eternal life for the saved and annihilation for the lost.
Matthew 25.46 | “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (CSB)
"This verse is a really good argument for annihilationism."
Augustine supported annihilationism.
Truth is Augustine was one of the strongest and most influential defenders of eternal conscious punishment, not conditional immortality or annihilation. He specifically addressed and refuted annihilationism.
Human societies reject cruel and unusual punishment. Hell is cruel and unusual punishment, so it cannot be real.
Because we are born into sin, it would be unfair for God to sentence someone to eternal conscious punishment.
"I don't find a description of conscious eternal torment in Scripture."
For God to punish us for sin when we can't help it would be the same as the US government making a law that says thou shalt not breath and them punishing us for breathing.
Of Revelation 14.9–11, they said...
Well, Scripture is hard to understand, and if you see eternal punishment in those verses then that is just speculation. So, we should just ignore hell and focus on heaven.
Revelation 14.9 | And another, a third angel, followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,(CSB)
Revelation 14.10 | he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is poured full strength into the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb, (CSB)
Revelation 14.11 | and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or anyone who receives the mark of its name. (CSB)
"God is not hung up on justice."
Everything I believe about the character of God leads me to reject eternal punishment.
What a great relief it would be if we could jettison eternal punishment.
Verses they ignored...
2 Thessalonians 1.8 | when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (CSB)
2 Thessalonians 1.9 | They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength (CSB)
Hebrews 10.26 | For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (CSB)
Hebrews 10.27 | but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. (CSB)
Daniel 12.2 | Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt. (CSB)
Why is this important?
The doctrine of hell is important because it...
Highlights the holiness of God...
Without hell, God’s holiness is reduced to mere tolerance...
His justice becomes optional.
Habakkuk 1.13 | Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself? (CSB)
Highlights the gravity of sin and the lostness of man without Christ...
Honors the veracity of Scripture...
The doctrine of hell is not a later theological invention but a clear and repeated teaching of Scripture, spoken most plainly by Jesus himself.
To deny or soften hell is ultimately to place human sentiment above God’s revealed Word.
Values the Cross of Christ...
When hell is minimized, the cross is inevitably diminished.
Where there is no sense of impending judgment, grace is trivialized. D. A. Carson
Gives urgency to the gospel message...
Highlights heavenly reward...
What is the basic doctrine of hell?
God is holy.
Habakkuk 1.13 | Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself? (CSB)
We are sinners both by nature and by choice.
Romans 3.10 | as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. (CSB)
Romans 3.11 | There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. (CSB)
Romans 3.12 | All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. (CSB)
Our sin is bad and it separates us from the holy God.
Colossians 1.21 | Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. (CSB)
Colossians 1.22 | But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— (CSB)
Out of God's holiness flows his justice which does not allow any sin to go unpunished.
Nahum 1.3 | The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.(CSB)
Romans 2.5 | Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. (CSB)
Romans 2.6 | He will repay each one according to his works: (CSB)
According to God's justice, the consequence for sin (any sin) is eternal punishment.
Romans 6.23
Matthew 25.46 | “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (CSB)
2 Thessalonians 1.8 | when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (CSB)
2 Thessalonians 1.9 | They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength (CSB)
Hell refers to the eternal conscious punishment of unsaved sinners.
Mark 9.47 | And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, (CSB)
Mark 9.48 | where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. (CSB)
Revelation 20.10 | The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.(CSB)
Revelation 20.15 | And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (CSB)
Matthew 3.12 | His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.” (CSB)
Matthew 8.12 | But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (CSB)
Correct Answers to Questions about Hell
Is it true that "many Bible scholars reject the idea of an eternal hell?"
The word scholar is like the word expert...
You are one if you say you are one.
If you control for the variable of a high view of Scripture...
Almost all Bible scholars from the church Fathers, to the Reformers, to the Puritans, to the founders of the Baptist and Methodist movements, to the leaders of the first and second Great Awakenings, through the conservative resurgence...
Well, what about Justin Martyr, William Tyndale, John Stott?
All dead now, so views have changed...
I say, what about Jesus's views!
And...
Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Martin Luther
John Calvin
All Puritans (Owen, Brooks, Boston, Baxter)
Jonathan Edwards
Charles Hodge
JI Packer
DA Carson
RC Sproul
Is hell really torment or is it just an absence of joy?
The only way you can come up with a "Great Divorce" view is to deny the words of Christ.
Does God send people to hell? How can that be fair?
Hell is a consequence not an assignment.
If I offer a dying man food and he refuses and as a result dies, then I did not starve him to death.
He died as a consequence of his refusal.
2 Peter 3.9 | The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. (CSB)
John 3.16 | For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (CSB)
Does the concept of hell conflict with God's mercy?
Romans 5.8 | But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (CSB)
I heard there are many Greek words for hell in the Bible. Does that mean the Bible is unclear about what it says about hell?
Don’t get confused by the words…
People point to some of the Greek words in the Bible for hell having other meanings.
Truth is: It is common to use words to mean different things and to refer to different things with the same words.
But this doesn’t confuse anyone.
Examples…
We have several vernacular words for ‘death’…
Died
Passed away
Kicked the bucket
Bought the farm
Went home
Expired
Perished
Croaked
Deceased
And we also use the word ‘death’ to mean different things…
I was scared to death.
The football team got the death penalty.
I feel like death warmed over.
But we never get any of that mixed up because of context.
Same is true with the different words for hell in the Greek New Testament.
If a person looks at the whole message about the subject in the New Testament, there is no way to deny or be confused by hell.
Do people receive eternal punishment for temporal sin? How can an eternal punishment fit the crime for a finite sin?
Even murders can often get out of prison on good behavior after a number of years!
So why is hell an eternal punishment for a temporal sin?
It is not!
Now, here the asterisk…
Hell is eternal punishment.
But it is eternal punishment for eternal sin.
Let me show you the nature of sin…
Matthew 25:30 | And throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (CSB)
Weeping and gnashing of teeth…
There is no repentance.
The sin goes on…
People sin for eternity.
Hell goes on.
Is God fair?
Romans 5.8 | But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (CSB)
Should hell embarrass us?
No.
God does not need me to be his PR guy.
Hell is a horrible thing but it is a motivator that the Lord says should be a part of our gospel presentation.
If it is not a part of our message, then we have used our own wisdom and judgment to alter or "improve" the gospel.
Matthew 10.28 | Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (CSB)
Matthew 18.8 | If your hand or your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. (CSB)
The history of cultural/nominal pseudo Christianity...
Slide of...
PC USA
UMC
United CofC
Episcopal
Omission is foundation of
Moral Therapeutic Deism (MTD)
The history of real revival...
Great Awakening...
1741, Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Mid 1700s, George Whitefield... Outdoor revivals...
Second Great Awakening
Charles Finney, mid 1800s
Spurgeon, mid to late 1800s
Billy Sunday, early 1900s
Billy Graham...