Annihilationism (from Latin annihilō) is a Christian belief that apart from salvation the death of human beings results in their total destruction (annihilation) rather than their everlasting torment. It is directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life. Annihilationism asserts that God will eventually destroy or annihilate the wicked, leaving only the righteous to live on in immortality. Some annihilationists believe the wicked will be punished for their sins in the Lake of Fire before being annihilated (e.g. Seventh-day Adventists), others that hell is a false doctrine of pagan origin (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses). It stands in contrast to the traditional and long standing view of eternal torment, and the view that everyone will be saved (universal reconciliation or simply "universalism").

The belief is a minority view, although it has appeared throughout Christian history. Since 1800 the alternative interpretation of hell as annihilation seems to have prevailed even among many of the more conservative theologians.

William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American analytic philosopher, philosophical theologian, and Christian apologist. He is known for his work in the philosophy of religion, philosophy of time, and the defense of Christian theism. One of his most notable contributions to the philosophy of religion is his defense of the Kalām cosmological argument, which is the most widely discussed argument for the existence of God in contemporary Western philosophy. In theology, he has also defended Molinism and the belief that God is, since Creation, subject to time.

Craig has authored or edited over 30 books, including The Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979), The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (1980), Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (with Quentin Smith, 1993), Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (with J.P. Moreland, 2003) and Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (3d edition, 2008).

Craig received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1971 and two summa cum laude master's degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, in 1975, in philosophy of religion and ecclesiastical history. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy under John Hick at the University of Birmingham, England in 1977 and a Th.D. under Wolfhart Pannenberg at the University of Munich in 1984.

William Lane (6 September 1861 – 26 August 1917) was a journalist, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian.

Lane was born in Bristol, England, eldest son of James Lane, from Ireland a Protestant Master Gardener, and his English wife Caroline, née Hall. When Lane was born his father was earning a miserable wage, but later his circumstances improved and he became an employer. The boy was educated at Bristol Grammar School and showed ability, but he was sent early to work as an office boy. Lane's mother died when he was 14 years of age, and at age 16 he migrated to Canada, then to the United States, where he worked first as a printer, then as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press (1881), there meeting his future wife Ann MacGuire. In 1885 they migrated to Brisbane, Australia, where Lane immediately got work as a feature writer for the weekly newspaper Queensland Figaro, then as a columnist for the newspapers Brisbane Courier and Evening Telegraph, using a number of pseudonyms ("Lucinda Sharpe", which some consider to be the work of Annie Lane, William Wilcher and "Sketcher").

John McKinley (May 1, 1780 – July 19, 1852) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama and an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Born in Culpeper County, Virginia, his family moved to Kentucky when he was an infant. In that state he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1800, practicing in Frankfort and Louisville from 1800 to 1819 before moving to Huntsville, Alabama.

After serving in the Alabama House of Representatives, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, serving his first term from November 27, 1826 to March 3, 1831, being elected to fill out the rest of the term of Henry H. Chambers. Israel Pickens served as interim senator until McKinley was elected. He was reelected to the Senate, but served only from March 4, 1837 until his abrupt resignation on April 22 of that same year. McKinley received a recess appointment from President Martin Van Buren on April 22, 1837, to a newly created seat (one of two which had been created by Congress - 5 Stat. 176) on the Supreme Court. Formally nominated on September 18, 1837, McKinley was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 1837, and received his commission the same day. There was no interim senator this time, and Clement C. Clay was elected to the post. McKinley served on the Supreme Court for fourteen years. He died in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 19, 1852, at the age of seventy-two.