[sitetest]

Only a brain dead ignoramus with no sense of Christian history wouldn’t know what you said. It bears repeating. Although annihilationism is definitely a minority opinion TODAY, it is a belief with a long pedigree in Christianity.

[af_vet_1981]

Although annihilationism is definitely a minority opinion TODAY, it is a belief with a long pedigree in Christianity.

That seems to me to be overstated.

majority of Christian writers, from Tertullian to Luther, have held to traditional notions of hell, especially Latin writers. However, the annihilationist position is not without some historical warrant. Early forms of conditional immortality can be found in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch[13] (d. 108), Justin Martyr[14] (d. 165), and Irenaeus[15] (d. 202). However, the teachings of Arnobius (d. 330) are often interpreted as the first to defend annihilationism explicitly. One quote in particular stands out in Arnobius' second book of Against the Heathen:

Your interests are in jeopardy,-the salvation, I mean, of your souls; and unless you give yourselves to seek to know the Supreme God, a cruel death awaits you when freed from the bonds of body, not bringing sudden annihilation, but destroying by the bitterness of its grievous and long-protracted punishment.[16]

Recently the doctrine has been most often associated with groups descended from or with influences from the Millerite movement of the mid-19th century. These include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church of God (7th day) - Salem Conference, the Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christadelphians, the followers of Herbert Armstrong, and the various Advent Christian churches. (The Millerite movement consisted of 50,000 to 100,000 people in the United States who eagerly expected the soon return of Jesus, and originated around William Miller).

The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed from a small group of Millerite Adventists who kept the Saturday Sabbath, and today forms the most prominent "Adventist" group.

Ellen G. White rejected the immortal soul concept in 1843. Her husband James White, along with Joseph Bates, formerly belonged to the conditionalist Christian Connection, and hinted at this belief in early publications. Together, the three constitute the primary founders of the church.