John Owen on the final state of the lost
Eternal conscious punishment
Q. What shall become of them for whom Christ died not? A. Everlasting torments for their sins; their portion in their own place.
THE POSITION
Eternal conscious punishment, stated flatly and without softening. The curse of God on the fallen includes "eternal damnation hereafter" of body and soul in hell, and when the catechism asks directly what becomes of those for whom Christ did not die the answer is everlasting torment. The doctrine sits alongside definite atonement in the same catechism rather than in tension with it.
41 Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
20 OTHERS HOLD THIS
See all 23 figures on the final state of the lost →ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The most formidable English Puritan theologian: Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford under Cromwell, later a nonconformist pastor in London. This entry rests on The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677), Pneumatologia and the Discourse of Spiritual Gifts (1674), and the Two Short Catechisms (1645), read in the Goold edition of the Works.
Cite this page
"John Owen on the final state of the lost", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/owen/final-state (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/owen/final-state).