https://baptistnews.com/article/heads-spin-as-kirk-cameron-gives-up-eternal-conscience-torment/
“It’s one of the doctrines of the Bible that atheists love to point out as one of the reasons why they could never believe in the God of the Bible,” Kirk Cameron said on his podcast last week. “It’s the God who creates the eternal barbecue for sinners.”
In a rather shocking revelation, Cameron and his son James admitted to the world that they don’t find the eternal conscious torment view of hell to be convincing. Instead, they said the more biblical and logical end for nonevangelicals would seem to be what is often referred to as annihilationism or conditionalism, which is the belief that eternal life is conditional based on one’s relationship to God through Jesus, and that all who aren’t truly Christian will one day be punished through the death of an irreversible annihilation rather than being kept alive to burn forever.
This teaching is indeed a huge turnoff for many, many people. It was definitely one of the things that drove me away from my Baptist upbringing decades ago (although I did not become an atheist as a result).
I think that Evangelicals and others who have embraced the eternal torment concept must realize on some level that it's one of the most powerful tools in their toolbox. It's certainly one that they continually wield in order to get people to convert. Evangelical and fundamentalist Christian preachers are highly skilled in convincing people that the stakes of rejecting their version of Christianity are incredibly, terrifyingly high: make the wrong decision and you will suffer indescribable punishment forever! It's not hard to understand why the idea of relinquising this belief is anathema to them, especially as (imo) most of them truly believe in it themselves. In a way, it's the keystone of their faith.
I commend Kirk Cameron for rejecting this perverse teaching in such a public manner. I don't think it necessarily means that he is suddenly no longer a conservative Evangelical in every other way, but it's still an interesting development.
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