Christian Cyclopedia

Belief that the unrighteous pass out of existence after death. Some adherents hold that such annihilation results from gradual disintegration occasioned by sin. Others hold that the wicked will suffer after death in expiation of their sins but that such suffering is followed by complete cessation of being. The origin of such teachings is to be found in the natural horror that men feel when confronted with the idea of eternal punishment. For the Scriptural doctrine opposing annihilationism see Hereafter; Last Things. See also Adventist Bodies, 3, 4; Conditional Immortality.

D. M. Gilbert, “The Annihilation Theory Briefly Examined,” LQ, IX (1879), 613–648; J. H. C. Fritz, “Eine Gnadenzeit nach dem Tode, die Vernichtung aller Gottlosen und andere Irrlehren,” CTM, VII (1936), 436–445.