This desire is clearly evidenced by the readiness of so many to embrace differing perspectives of hell. Catholics proposed a way out for those guilty of non-mortal sins.4 Jehovah's Witnesses declare an extinction of life for the reprobate or unredeemable.5 Universalists decide that the nature of God's love will overrule the requirement for justice. Atheists deny that life will continue for any.6 Even many holding more orthodox views back away from an acceptance of an eternity of punishment.7.
Berkhof speaks to this very issue of eternality when he states that the "eternity of the future punishment deserves more special consideration, however, because it is frequently denied. It is said that the words used in Scripture for "everlasting" and "eternal" may simply denote an "age" or a "dispensation," or any other long period of time. but this does not prove that they always have that limited meaning. It is not the literal meaning of these terms. Whenever they are so used, they are used figuratively, and in such cases their figurative use is generally quite evident from the connection. Moreover, there are positive reasons for thinking that these words do not have that limited meaning in the passages to which we referred. (a) In Matt. 25:46 the same word describes the duration of both, the bliss of the saints and the penalty of the wicked. If the latter is not, properly speaking, unending, neither is the former; and yet many of those who doubt eternal punishment, do not doubt everlasting bliss."8 Indeed, if hell is not forever, then heaven cannot be either. Let us discuss these various views.
Annihilationism.
Annihilationism is a very broad subset of beliefs with four main views. The first is the view that human beings will be annihilated at death. This belief is driven within our culture by Atheism, Materialism, Existentialism and even secular humanism and holds that there is no after-life.