Hello Hell
A few weeks ago, I talked about the rather unsettling experience that I had reading Brian McLaren’s newest book, The Last Word…and the Word After That. On the surface, Last Word seems to be a book about a pastor’s efforts to come to grips with the existence and nature of hell. However, McLaren makes it clear that he believes the more central question posed by the book relates to whether we really trust that, in the end, God is good.
The question that is posed by one of McLaren’s characters: about how she could never enjoy a party in the living room while people are being tortured in the basement – and about how everything she knows about Jesus tells her that he would try to help those people – keeps eating at me, because its just not an easy question to resolve.
In a sense, my reading of Last Word wasn’t disturbing so much because it presented new ideas about hell as it woke me up to the realization that I never really think about the subject.
So what has happened to hell, exactly?
I can remember hearing about hell in virtually every sermon that I listened to during the 1960s and 1970s. Generally, the point of the sermon was to make sure I understood that if I didn’t live a pure, moral life, I was going to end up in hell, even if I professed faith in Jesus. Then, seemingly abruptly, hell disappeared from the theological landscape of my faith tradition.
I don’t think that it is a coincidence that hell’s disappearance coincided with a re-discovery of the concept of grace and of the love of God, with an increasing emphasis on the need for confidence in salvation. The “old school” way of frightening the faithful into good works by telling them they were in jeopardy of hell, it seemed, had been generally rejected as unbiblical and a little dysfunctional.
I think that it is fair to say that a general consensus developed among a lot of folks in my faith tradition that the doctrine of hell had been abused in such a way as to make people insecure and worrisome about their salvation, when they should have felt the exact opposite. And I agreed with this general consensus.
But here is my problem. At some point, I should have come back around to figuring out what, exactly hell is supposed to be. And I never did that. Hell, it seems, had become such an embarrassment to my theological views that I never really liked to talk or even think about it.
But the subject is just impossible to ignore in scripture. A cursory reading of the parables in Matthew quickly reveals that there is an unpleasant fate in store for people who reject or refuse to go about the business of the Kingdom of God. Similarly, hell is well-represented in the Revelation as a place where those who are not found in the Lamb’s book of life are destined.
If Jesus thought people needed to know about the relationship between the Kingdom of God and hell, I’m guessing that I probably need to take it into account, rather than ignore it.
And I probably should be talking about it, too.
So what about the rest of you? Do you feel like hell has an appropriate place in your understanding of scripture? Or, like me, do you just feel better if you ignore the whole subject?
The question that is posed by one of McLaren’s characters: about how she could never enjoy a party in the living room while people are being tortured in the basement – and about how everything she knows about Jesus tells her that he would try to help those people – keeps eating at me, because its just not an easy question to resolve.
In a sense, my reading of Last Word wasn’t disturbing so much because it presented new ideas about hell as it woke me up to the realization that I never really think about the subject.
So what has happened to hell, exactly?
I can remember hearing about hell in virtually every sermon that I listened to during the 1960s and 1970s. Generally, the point of the sermon was to make sure I understood that if I didn’t live a pure, moral life, I was going to end up in hell, even if I professed faith in Jesus. Then, seemingly abruptly, hell disappeared from the theological landscape of my faith tradition.
I don’t think that it is a coincidence that hell’s disappearance coincided with a re-discovery of the concept of grace and of the love of God, with an increasing emphasis on the need for confidence in salvation. The “old school” way of frightening the faithful into good works by telling them they were in jeopardy of hell, it seemed, had been generally rejected as unbiblical and a little dysfunctional.
I think that it is fair to say that a general consensus developed among a lot of folks in my faith tradition that the doctrine of hell had been abused in such a way as to make people insecure and worrisome about their salvation, when they should have felt the exact opposite. And I agreed with this general consensus.
But here is my problem. At some point, I should have come back around to figuring out what, exactly hell is supposed to be. And I never did that. Hell, it seems, had become such an embarrassment to my theological views that I never really liked to talk or even think about it.
But the subject is just impossible to ignore in scripture. A cursory reading of the parables in Matthew quickly reveals that there is an unpleasant fate in store for people who reject or refuse to go about the business of the Kingdom of God. Similarly, hell is well-represented in the Revelation as a place where those who are not found in the Lamb’s book of life are destined.
If Jesus thought people needed to know about the relationship between the Kingdom of God and hell, I’m guessing that I probably need to take it into account, rather than ignore it.
And I probably should be talking about it, too.
So what about the rest of you? Do you feel like hell has an appropriate place in your understanding of scripture? Or, like me, do you just feel better if you ignore the whole subject?
posted by Matt at Thursday, July 07, 2005
2 Comments:
Personally, after a lot of careful thought, I did come to some closure. I also read Brian McLaren's book (in fact I've read many of them), and I think the fact that I also read A Generous Orthodoxy prior to the final book in the ANKOC trilogy helped by paving the way for some new interpretations. Essentially, I don't think there really is a hell in the terms that we have come to think of it. I believe there exists 2 forms of living - living with God, and living without God. Living with God means acknowledging his kingdom as it exists here on earth (in the church), living without God is an ignorance or rejection of His kingdom. Most of the language and illustration in the scriptures make use of vivid imagery to convey a heelish place to starkly contrast these two existences. Think about it - "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is kind of a fancy way of saying there will be suffering and hate, which our world have quite a penchant for (and ignores). As for an afterlife or end of days scenario - being that God is a loving God, and not sadistic, my general concept of what would happen is as follows. Those who lived like Christ, furthering God's kingdom and sharing His love, will experience eternal existence in the presence of God. Those who rejected Christ, or hindered the growth of God's kingdom, will be snuffed from existence - no eternal torment, just a conviction at the feet of the one true judge and then nothing.
At least that or some minor variation is what I am comfortable with at the current stage of my journey. Hope that helps.
I guess our experiences are similar. I've heard a few hellfire sermons but I've heard a lot more grace and faith sermons in my life.
I would offer the reminder that what's written in the Bible has been "dumbed down" by God for our consumption. We talk about God as a male, a Father with hands and feet and head because we need a way to understand Him. We are given a view of heaven as streets of gold. Will there actually be streets? Will they be made of gold? 24K gold? 10K gold? Will hell actually be burning sulfur? Will hell be a place where Satan and his minions (one of my favorite words) actually torture the lost with forks and tongs and hot coals? Will hell be a place where the torment is mental, knowing that for eternity we will never be able to be with or near our God?
I believe that this change of methodology has been an evolutionary step as we've learned that scaring someone away from hell (or anything, really) is an ineffective method over the long term. We've found that a positive motivation is much more effective so we began to focus on where we DO want to spend eternity versus where we don't want to spend eternity.
Finally, the streets of gold are eclipsed by the presence of God. Remember that we are sheep and as such, need very simple instructions to follow. We need a very attentive guide. We need quite a bit of coaching and coaxing. We need a shepherd who can lead us to the water and the green pastures. We needed a simple picture of hell and a simple picture of heaven and God gave us burning sulfur (BAD) and pearly gates (GOOD) and still we complicate the message to the point that some sheep don't get it.
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