Series on Conditionalism, Part 1

Picking up from my previous post on conditionalism, aka annihilationism, let's discuss this matter in greater detail.

Adherents to the idea of Conditionalism or Conditional Immortality do not necessarily all agree, it would seem, on the exact proceedings once an unrepentant person passes out of this earthly physical life. Some seem to claim the wicked are virtually immediately entirely destroyed, which is to say that their existence and consciousness come entirely to an end, forever. In my experience, more often, conditionalists suggest that the unrepentant dead will experience a time of experienced punishment or torment before their existence and consciousness are eliminated. Which leads to the question: is it all the same quality and quantity? Does my well-mannered and kindly (but unregenerate) grandma experience the same quality of punishment and the same quantity as Josef Mengele?

Most conditionalists in my experience will suggest that Mengele's punishment before his annihilation will incorporate greater suffering than a kindly grandma will, because his sin was greater. He was more brutal, for a very long time, and caused many thousands to suffer greatly. His sin debt is way worse than grandma's.

So Mengele will suffer greater torment for a longer time at God's hands, than kindly grandma will. Both will suffer because of sin. One will suffer more because his sin was worse, weightier. And then after that, their consciousness and existence are entirely eliminated. This elimination is also said by conditionalists to be a punishment. Such a suggestion is downright silly. Ask anyone who is being actively tortured or flogged or something - hey, would you like to continue to receive floggings or would you like to sleep? Which option do you think they'll pick? Then tell them OK cool you're going to sleep and that's punishment too! Laughable. It's a relief to no longer experience torment.

Now consider that this relief comes at the end of the sin debt being in some sense poured out on the sufferer. Grandma suffers a finite amount of time, and a finite amount of torment, before being put to sleep. Mengele suffers more before the same eventual fate. Why? Because his sin debt was worse. And then when they have suffered in accordance with the sin debt they accrued during life, they are released from suffering. Because they suffered enough. They worked off their debts. They end up in the same state.

This is nothing less than atonement - the sinner has atoned for his sin. Not a total or entire atonement. It is a partial atonement, or if you will, it is an atonement of a different quality. The suffering is released. Much like I, as a redeemed individual, suffer during this physical life, and Jesus atones for my sin, and at the end of life my suffering ceases. The unrepentant leaves this life, goes into a more intense suffering, and once he atones for his sin, he is released from it (unto a different eventual fate, of course).

In my next post I will discuss this issue from a different angle.