The Case for Conditional Immortality
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Key Passages

18 passages carry most of the weight in this dispute, whichever side of it you are on. Each has its own page giving the text in full, the setting it stands in, the reading defenders of eternal conscious torment give it, the conditionalist reading, what both sides agree on, and the single point where they part company.

A passage gets a page only where the case works through it at length. The other references each part is built on, and there are many, are listed in the Scripture index with the parts that use them.

Old Testament2 passages

  • Isaiah 66:15-24

    The scene of corpses, undying worms and unquenched fire that Jesus quotes when he speaks of Gehenna.

    • Background context
    • Primary support for conditional immortality

    Used in 3 parts of the case

  • Daniel 12:2

    The clearest Old Testament statement of a two-outcome resurrection: everlasting life or everlasting contempt.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed

    Used in 2 parts of the case

New Testament16 passages

  • Matthew 7:13-14

    The two ways, one leading to destruction and the other to life, with few finding the narrow one.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Pastoral implication

    Used in 7 parts of the case

  • Matthew 10:28

    Jesus tells his disciples to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 2 parts of the case

  • Matthew 13:24-43

    The parable of the weeds and its explanation, ending in a fiery furnace with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed
    • Primary support for conditional immortality

    Used in 4 parts of the case

  • Matthew 25:31-46

    The sheep and the goats, closing with eternal punishment set against eternal life.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 7 parts of the case

  • Mark 9:42-48

    Jesus' warning about Gehenna, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed

    Used in 2 parts of the case

  • Luke 12:4-5

    Luke's form of the warning to fear the one who has authority to cast into Gehenna after killing.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Parallel or example

    Used in 1 part of the case

  • Luke 16:19-31

    The rich man and Lazarus, the passage most often cited as a picture of conscious suffering after death.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed
    • Background context

    Used in 4 parts of the case

  • John 3:16

    Perishing set against eternal life, and not seeing life set against wrath that remains.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 2 parts of the caseAlso covers John 3:36

  • Romans 6:23

    The wages of sin is death, set against eternal life as the free gift of God.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 3 parts of the case

  • 1 Corinthians 15:42-44

    The resurrection chapter, where imperishability and immortality are given rather than assumed.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 5 parts of the caseAlso covers 1 Corinthians 15:50-57, 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

  • 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

    Paul names the penalty imposed at the appearing of Christ as eternal destruction.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed
    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Definition or word study

    Used in 2 parts of the case

  • 2 Peter 2:6

    Sodom and Gomorrah turned to ashes and set out as an example of what is coming to the ungodly.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Parallel or example

    Used in 2 parts of the case

  • 2 Peter 3:7-13

    The present order kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Background context

    Used in 4 parts of the case

  • Revelation 14:9-11

    The worshippers of the beast tormented with fire and sulfur, with the smoke rising for ever.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed

    Used in 2 parts of the case

  • Revelation 20:10-15

    The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.

    • Eternal conscious torment proof text being addressed

    Used in 7 parts of the case

  • Revelation 21:1-8

    The new heaven and new earth, the second death, and the tree of life inside the city.

    • Primary support for conditional immortality
    • Objection

    Used in 4 parts of the caseAlso covers Revelation 22:1-5, Revelation 22:14-15, Revelation 21:4