
Rethinking Hell
Rethinking Hell is a central resource for a view on Hell called Conditional Immortality (a.k.a. conditionalism or annihilationism). Focusing on this biblical view as held by many Evangelical Christians, we interview notable proponents, respond to the challenges of critics, present the stories of people who once held to the traditional view but are now rethinking hell, and much more.
Latest episodes

Jan 1, 2024 • 1h 8min
Episode 157: The Bad Place, with J. Webb Mealy (Part 2)
Rethinking Hell contributors William Tanksley and Darren Clark interview J. Webb Mealy about his book, The Bad Place. In this part 2 of their discussion, they discuss the application of Mealy's five principles for interpreting the Book of Revelation. Links: J. Webb Mealy's book The Bad Place: Or, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Hell, but Were Afraid to Ask, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Place-Everything-always-wanted-ebook/dp/B09NKJ2XNB/ Mealy's Amazon author's page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-Webb-Mealy/author/B00J8VOI4G Mealy's presentation, "In Christ All Will Be Made Alive: Jesus Ransom Every Human Being from Death," given at the sixth annual Rethinking Hell Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1dWx4tLSs Mealy's presentation, "Five Principles for Determining Literalness in the Book of Revelation," given at the eighth annual Rethinking Hell Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kcNYx7aESs

Dec 31, 2023 • 1h 7min
Episode 156: The Bad Place, with J. Webb Mealy (Part 1)
The podcast discusses rethinking traditional views on hell through Webb Mealy's book, The Bad Place, and his five principles of interpreting the Book of Revelation. They cover academic research on eschatology, Mealy's ministry, challenging eternal torment interpretations, reinterpreting biblical texts on punishment, and principles for understanding Revelation imagery.

Jun 7, 2021 • 1h 5min
Episode 155: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 6)–The Straw Men of "Soul Sleep" and Intermediate State (Continued)
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to continue a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this sixth episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris continue discussing how Slick insists upon conflating physicalism and "soul sleep" with conditional immortality and annihilationism to erect a straw man easily burned down, as they began to do in the previous episode. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

May 15, 2021 • 60min
Episode 154: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 5)–The Straw Men of "Soul Sleep" and Intermediate State
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to continue a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this fifth episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris begin discussing how Slick insists upon conflating physicalism and "soul sleep" with conditional immortality and annihilationism to erect a straw man easily burned down. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

Apr 7, 2021 • 1h 9min
Episode 153: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 4)–Redefining Our Basic Terms and Beliefs (Continued)
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to continue a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this fourth episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris continue discussing how Slick misrepresents conditionalism and annihilationism in the definitions he offers of various terms and of our beliefs. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

Mar 11, 2021 • 1h 26min
Episode 152: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 3)–Redefining Our Basic Terms and Beliefs
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to continue a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this third episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris discuss how Slick misrepresents conditionalism and annihilationism in the definitions he offers of various terms and of our beliefs. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

Feb 23, 2021 • 1h 14min
Episode 151: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 2)–Mishandling Conditionalist Literature
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to continue a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this second episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris discuss some of the ways Slick misreads and misrepresents conditionalist literature in his critiques of annihilationism. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

Feb 15, 2021 • 55min
Episode 150: Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 1)–Toward Better Interactions with Conditionalists
Rethinking Hell contributors Peter Grice and Chris Date join Darren Clark to begin a series of podcast episodes responding to Matt Slick of CARM.org. In this first episode of the series, Darren, Peter, and Chris appeal to Slick for better interactions with conditionalists. Links: Matt Slick's annihilationism landing page at CARM.org: https://carm.org/annihilationism

Dec 30, 2020 • 1h 17min
Episode 149: Teaching with Integrity: Presenting All Sides in the Debate on Hell, with Michael Zwaagstra
Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date interviews conditionalist Michael Zwaagstra on a course he recently taught at Steinbach Bible College on the three Christian views of hell. Links: The website for Michael's recent book, The Naked Man Flees: Timeless Truths from Obscure Parts of the Bible: http://thenakedmanflees.com/ Michael's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Man-Flees-Timeless-Obscure/dp/B08DBVZYZP/ The website for Steinbach Bible College, at which Michael recently taught his course: https://sbcollege.ca/

Dec 25, 2020 • 2h 19min
Episode 148: Hell and Abductive Reasoning: An Interview with Atheist Ed Atkinson
Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date interviews atheist Ed Atkinson on how abductive reasoning can inform the intramural Christian debate over hell. Links: Ed Atkinson's "Doubts Aloud" Podcast (iTunes): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/doubts-aloud-podcast/id1344538182 The Unbelievable? Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group London (Meetup): https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London/
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