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Annihilationism, Basic Christianity, Charles Spurgeon, Christendom, Christianity, Christianity Today, death, Editor's Note, heterodoxy, honor, John Stott, Life, London, obituary
Update: While we certainly acknowledge and remember the contributions of John Stott to Christendom, his (tentative) annihilationist views has always been a concern of mine, and moreso that many were unaware of them. Many of you insist that “he no longer believed in annihilationism” – I hope that’s true. If anyone has evidence to that fact, I would be interested in reading it. One thing is for certain, it is a serious error, and not one we take pleasure in pointing out (as some of you have wrongly assumed). For anyone who held annihilationst views in his day, Charles Haddon Spurgeon had this to say:
“No honest man can be a member of the church meeting at the Tabernacle, and hold annihilationist views, for now and in all time past we have borne testimony to the generally-received doctrine” (Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Vol 4, p.129)
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
As late as 1988, John Stott wrote the following:
I find the concept [of eternal conscious punishment in hell] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterising their feelings or cracking under the strain. But our emotions are a fluctuating, unreliable guide to truth and must not be exalted to the place of supreme authority in determining it. As a committed Evangelical, my question must be — and is — not what does my heart tell me, but what does God’s word say?
–John Stott, from the book Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue (Hodder & Stoughton, 1988). USA title Evangelical Essentials (IVP, 1989), pp. 314-15
To my knowledge, Stott never subsequently wrote anything supporting or denying annihilationism again.
Here’s the announcement from Christianity Today:
Editor’s Note: John Stott died today at 3:15 London time (about 9:15 a.m. CST), according to John Stott Ministries President Benjamin Homan. Homan said that Stott’s death came after complications related to old age and that he has been in discomfort for the last several weeks. Family and close friends gathered with Stott today as they listened to Handel’s Messiah. Homan said that John Stott Ministries has been preparing for his death for the past 15 years. “I think he set an impeccable example for leaders of ministries of handing things over to other leaders,” Homan said. “He imparted to many a love for the global church and imparted a passion for biblical fidelity and a love for the Savior.” This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Based on your comment policy, which all but promises to delete any expressions of dissenting viewpoints, I expect this will be removed. But, at the risk of wasting my time…
This post seems par for the hyper-Calvinist course. An observation of hyper-Calvinists: they seem to be obsessed with pointing out where others differ from them instead of embracing areas of agreement. Forgive the generalization, but if you agree with 99% of what a hyper-Calvinist believes, he will be more interested in fighting you on the 1% than in celebrating (or partnering together for the sake of) the 99%. (In fact, this seems to be one of the ways in which New Calvinists try to distance themselves from Old Calvinists–by not being fearful and suspicious of other Christians who may have different views. Why would they feel the need to make this distinction?)
So seems to be the case with John Stott–one of the greatest theologians of our time. Despite all of his work, his love for the church universal and a lifetime a service to the bridge of Christ, he will only be remembered by hyper-Calvinists for being somewhat of an annihilationist. So sad that instead of celebrating his ministry (and his arrival in the kingdom of heaven!), you are taking this opportunity to point out where he was different from you.
Josh,
That was a sad, and patently false accusation brother. I am far, far from ‘hyper-calvinist’. Feel free to dissent, I will more than likely post it. The only thing I don’t appreciate is when folks think this is their blog, and use it to plug their millennialism. That’s a real no no. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank God for John Stott. His materials were so useful for reaching many of my friends for the glory of God.
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Regardless of where Stott is now…he’s no longer in the “conditional immortality” camp, we can be sure.
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Joel, the question I want to ask you is does Stott’s view about hell matter?
I think his process is more important than his conclusion. The man was an evangelical of evangelicals used accepted evangelical hermeneutics to arrive at his beliefs. We are told to study the Bible, but there’s something very wrong if our studies are only allowed to confirm the accepted wisdom.
After all, if Martin Luther hadn’t written his 95 theses, we’d all be catholics…