Annihilationism, also called conditional immortality, is the error that the finally impenitent are not punished with everlasting conscious torment but are ultimately destroyed—extinguished, reduced to non-being—so that their punishment, however severe, comes to an end in annihilation. Its defenders argue that immortality is a gift granted only to the redeemed, that the language of “death,” “destruction,” and “perishing” implies cessation of existence, and that everlasting torment is incompatible with the justice and love of God. Scripture and the historic church answer otherwise. The same word that measures the life of the blessed measures the punishment of the cursed: “these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal”—the one as enduring as the other. Christ warns of the fire that is not quenched and the worm that dieth not, of outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth, and Revelation speaks of the smoke of torment ascending up for ever and ever, with no rest day nor night. “Destruction” in such contexts denotes ruin and the loss of all well-being, not the loss of existence. The doctrine of eternal conscious punishment, however dreadful, is the consistent testimony of Christ Himself, who spoke of hell more than any other, and it magnifies both the holiness of God and the gravity of sin against an infinite Majesty. Annihilationism, by softening the sentence, diminishes both.