Conditional immortality and annihilation of the wicked

Adventists believe in the intrinsic unity of human life and that all essential aspects that characterize human life (e.g., knowledge, emotions, will) have always existed within a material bodily existence; human life does not include inherent immortality. Immortality is only conferred by God on the day of the resurrection. Hence, the intermediary state between death and the resurrection is compared to a deep sleep, one that is deprived of all the cognitive attributes of bodily life. This view also embraces the annihilation of the wicked at the end of time and does not support the concept of an eternal hell.UEGW 112.2

This doctrine also has a long history, with supporters going all the way back to early Christianity. George Storrs, a Methodist minister who became a Millerite preacher in 1842, is believed to have been the first in the Millerite Second Advent movement to advocate the unconscious state of human beings in death. Storrs’s ideas influenced Ellen White’s mother, Eunice Harmon, who shared them with her daughter, Ellen, who was about fifteen years old then. Ellen’s initial reaction was one of strong disapproval; but after a careful study of the biblical evidence, she accepted it. ^{12Ibid., 1:39, 40.} Later, she became a strong advocate of Storrs’s “soul-sleep” doctrine of conditional immortality, and she considered it to be one of the half dozen “pillar” doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ^{13EGW, Manuscript 13, 1889, in Counsels to Writers and Editors, 30, 31. In this manuscript, Ellen White highlighted that the core “landmark” doctrines of Adventism are the heavenly ministry of Christ, the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, the immutability of the commandments of God, with special emphasis on the Sabbath, and the nonimmortality of the soul.} Her role in promoting it, however, was largely in the nature of endorsing Storrs’s views; she did not bring any major new ideas. ^{14Ellen White’s views on conditional immortality and annihilationism are best described in The Great Controversy (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press®, 1911), 531-562.}UEGW 113.1