It has been well said that John 3:16 could be called, “The Gospel in a Nutshell,” “The Golden Text of the Bible,” “The ‘Good News’ in Brief” and other such descriptive phrases. These kinds of statements are true and can be taken at face value, deservedly so. Titles such as these are justified by the [...]
Author: acpublications
Swept Away
In this article, Rev. Jefferson Vann discusses a fourth Old Testament word for final punishment that implies literal destruction. We conditionalists are often accused of using words like “destruction” in a simplistic, non-biblical sense. But in the three previous articles, I have examined the Old Testament Hebrew concepts of חרם (charam),[1] אבד (abad)[2] and שחת [...]
Spoiling the Vineyard
In this article, Rev. Jefferson Vann explains a Hebrew term for hell that reflects the idea of a spoiled vineyard. In this series of studies on hell, so far we have examined two Old Testament terms that help explain the biblical warnings about hell and describe its nature. We looked at the term חרם in [...]
Perish the Thought
In this article, Rev. Jefferson Vann explores the Old Testament background behind the term “perish.” When I taught Bible College, I told my students to always try to get into the bubble. By the term “bubble,” I meant the historical and literary background that original readers and listeners shared with the biblical authors. Since we [...]
Set Apart for Destruction
In this article, Rev. Jefferson Vann explores an Old Testament term that helps us understand the biblical idea of hell. Conditionalists have often been accused of being too simplistic in their approach to biblical terminology. For example, when we claim that the Bible teaches that destruction of the wicked is the purpose of hell, we [...]