ANNIHILATIONISM: Could LOVE do that?

We are a cat family. Throughout the years of our marriage we have welcomed cats as part of our family. When the time came, when their little bodies had worn out or they had contracted a disease they could no longer tolerate, it was my job to take them to the vet and send them on ahead to the mansion prepared for us in Heaven. ( I have seen visions of them there – sleeping on footstools, playing in windows.)

I did not destroy them. I went to the vet to end their suffering and stop the actions of the world upon them. The price that I was willing to pay was to be separated from them in the natural world – so that, after a time, we could be re-united. (Cats have not fallen from grace so I have no concerns about their salvation.)

But … could I annihilate them? Could I erase all there is about them and negate even the possibility of a continual relationship? That would have been a much more difficult dilemma than simply – putting them to sleep.

Is God, who is Love, willing to erase from creation those creatures who do not accept His will and way? Could Love do that? Would that be love at all? I say no!

Love Suffers. Love allows.

Love allows. Love suffers – even suffering the potential for rejection. And if that love is rejected, then true love allows/suffers the beloved to continue on without them. Could God’s love be anything less than that?

Souls are eternal. They cannot be dealt with by means of an eraser, by deleting them from the hard-drive of creation. We are made in God’s image and after His likeness. For God to destroy an entity like Himself would be the equivalent of Murder! There is no simple solution to the human problem. We can only be addressed by Love.

In the Research Articles section of this website I have included my more thorough discussion of this topic from my book Waging War with Hell. RESPONSE TO ANNIHILATIONISM I have also included an article by J.I. Packer ANNIHILATIONISM.