Judgment and Hell

The question of judgment has three possible answers.

• First, there are some Christians who are universalists. They don't think that anyone is judged, at least not permanently.
  
  
• Second, there are some who believe that there is judgment, but that this judgment consists of passing out of existence. Such people argue that existence depends on God's presence, and that hell is the absence of God; therefore, hell must be non-existence.
  
  
• Third, most Christians believe that there will be eternal judgment for those who refuse God.
  
  
  Note that there is a connection between this question of hell and the earlier question about human nature. If the soul is immortal by nature, then judgment must be eternal. If you understand it as immortal by grace, then it is possible (though not necessary) that at some point judgment ends and the damned simply pass out of existence.