The Truth About Hell—Why This Doctrine Matters More Than You May Think

Wretched Radio with Todd Friel

Fortis Institute

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Segment 1: • Let’s talk about hell. • The church has been debating and systematizing beliefs on hell as long as Christianity has been around. • Certain beliefs about hell, like annihilationism and universalism, have been outside the bounds of orthodoxy for thousands of years. Segment 2 • Many church fathers were crystal clear—hell is eternal punishment. • Annihilationism is in the grey: not heresy, and certainly not orthodoxy. • If hell isn’t eternal, we truly have no urgency to see people saved. Segment 3 • Some claim Luther doubted hell—he didn’t. He affirmed eternal, conscious torment. • Jonathan Edwards’ view? The terrible sinfulness of sin deserves equally momentous justice. • Minimizing hell minimizes sin, and ultimately minimizes God’s justice against sin. Segment 4 • William G.T. Shedd: early Christians didn’t even entertain annihilationism. • The clearest voice on hell? Jesus Himself - and he makes the eternality of hell clear. • If universalism is true, then the cross becomes unnecessary. ___ Thanks for listening! Wretched Radio would not be possible without the financial support of our Gospel Partners. If you would like to support Wretched Radio we would be extremely grateful. VISIT https://fortisinstitute.org/donate/ If you are already a Gospel Partner we couldn’t be more thankful for you if we tried!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Richard Radio begins in three, two, one.
0:05.0	It's time for the church to acknowledge that we have brothers and sisters who are gay.
0:10.0	LGBT have to find a household of worship that reflects what your views are and what you believe.
0:16.0	A gay person who still wants to attend church after the way the church has treated the gay community,
0:21.7	I'm telling you, they have more faith than I do.
0:23.8	They have more faith than a lot of you.
0:25.4	What's not loving is to look someone in the eye when God says they are in jeopardy of an eternity in hell
0:32.1	and merely wink and nod at their sin because you're afraid of being called names.
0:37.2	It's time for Wretched Radio with Talk Freel.
0:40.4	Can we talk certainly?
0:42.9	But the question is, should we be talking?
0:47.3	This is Wretched Radio.
0:49.5	Recently, we have been encouraged to have a conversation about the doctrine of hell.
0:56.8	Is it, as has been historically understood, eternal conscious torment?
1:01.5	Or could it be that God annihilates unbelievers where they no longer experienced consciousness?
1:10.7	At some point, in their existence in hell, they cease to
1:14.5	exist. That would be annihilationism, regularly called conditionalism these days. And there are those
1:22.0	who would say, let's chat about it. Let's talk about this doctrine. We can sit down as brothers and simply kind of
1:32.1	just hash it out. The question is, can we do that? Certainly. Should we do that? To answer that
1:43.1	question, we need to look at a lot of issues, not the least of which would be church history.
1:51.3	And this is relevant in this latest push to have a conversation about the eternality of hell
1:57.4	because there are those who would say historically this has just been an intra-Orthodox
	...

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