Fire Insurance or Life Assurance?

I’m always curious to see what people leave us when they go around slipping things in our paper box or hanging them on the mailbox.  We get ads for painters, lawn maintenance people, power washing companies, and on and on it goes.  The one I received the other day was a bit different.

At the top of the first section was “Who Are You & Where Are You Going.”

Words About Hell

Recently I found myself reading a short historical survey of Hell. It wasn’t a topic that particularly interested me, but when it comes to throne room reading, if something is there on the shelf I’ll find myself invariably picking it up and reading it.  Like most of my other throne room reading I have no particular process, I just pick a page, a story, or a chapter and begin reading.  When it came to this particular piece of adequate literature, I started at the back. For some reason, when it comes to periodical type pieces, starting at the back seems to hold the most interest for me. As I found myself making my way toward the front I realized that the people I had been reading about – Thomas Erskine, Charles Wesley, Johnathan Edwards, Calvin, Locke and some early church fathers, held a smattering of different opinions when it came to the idea of hell – a.k.a. eternal punishment.

Like camp kids sitting around the fire listening to the guest speaker talk about his favorite topic, there was always a hint that whatever the topic was, it’s credibility came from the many proof texts cited and the conviction in the speaker’s voice.  Of course, the next year at the same camp and perhaps even a comparable fire, another speaker could espouse a similar, yet dissimilar view of the same topic and have his own arsenal of proof text and self-assured tone in his voice. So was one right and the other wrong. Perhaps not.

After having read the “The history of Hell, a brief survey and resource guide”, I stumbled across several blog postings that were sharing the same subject – hell. As I read the various posts and followed the comments it was clear – there’s another camp fire going on here. Whether it was the original poster or those commenting, each had their arsenal of proof texts and confidence of voice.

It seems the not so vast topic of hell, settles on three particular concerns: 1) Eternal Conscious Torment  – God (some will say man himself) chooses to subject unbelievers to an everlasting life of torment and anguish.  2) Annihilationism – whether at death or sometime at the “Judgement” the unbeliever’s soul is destroyed, that is, annihilated, no more, poof gone forever.  And 3) Universalism – because it’s God’s will that all men come to repentance, that will indeed be the case.   One has to admit, the third choice is the most inviting and seems most fitting with those who say “God is love.”  But, and it’s a big but, it seems there is less evidence for this particular view in the corpus of scripture then the other two. Having said that, the thought of the first option, eternal conscious torment, just seems reprehensible to me. Therefore, as you may have already suspected, I’m standing with at least one foot solidly planted in the annihilation camp.

Yes, I’ve read the texts for those who fan the flame of whatever position they hold. But there just seems to me to be one overriding text that gives me pause. It’s most likely everyone’s first learned verse and one we still hear regular sermons on – John 3:16.  In my red-letter Bible, the words are attributed to Jesus so we’ll assume that to be the case.  In that verse we read “….whoever believes in him shall not perish…”  He does not say whoever believes in him shall not undergo eternal conscious torment. He says we shall not perish.  I could give you the lexical definition of “perish” and go through the hoops of the original language (that’s not disparaging its value) but it seems the translators did a pretty decent job when they used the word “perish.”   In a couple other verses, Matt. 10:28 and Luke’s 12:5 version, Jesus admonishes his listeners to “…fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  For me, these biased selection of verses are fairly clear. They involve no parable, no apocalyptic language, just simple words in a pretty basic context.

Does that settle the issue? Probably not for many folks, but it comes very close to settling it for me.  Then again, I may find myself around a campfire with some guest speaker armed with proof text to the gills that may give me pause, but until then I’m going to keep one foot planted here for now.

Hell: Eternal, Conscious, Torment —- Really?

This past couple of Sundays our Pastor’s sermons have been on Hell. Actually eternal, conscious, torment in Hell.  The sermons so far have been set up with much care. First establishing his  belief that the Bible, as God’s word, is inerrant and infallible. Then he moved to the premise that Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven. That lead to the simple connective ideas – if the Bible is true and if Jesus spoke about Hell then Hell is real and people who do not accept Jesus will spend eternity in eternal conscious torment.

I struggle a good deal with this idea of Hell. I don’t argue that Jesus spoke about it and therefore makes it tenable, I simply struggle with the idea of eternal, conscious, torment.  It seems to me that it’s rather self-serving in one sense. Basically it’s like God saying “believe in my Son or else.” That leads to a rather sobering understanding of the nature of God and the rather human tendency of people “believing” simply to avoid it. The old “fire insurance” kind of belief. I wonder if there is real value in that type of belief or if God sees any real value in that kind of beleif.  But that’s another subject for another time.

I don’t begrudge God setting things up so that people who choose not to (or He elects not to) believe in Him are punished consciously for all eternity. After all, He is God – a kind of might makes right thing. But it does seem rather difficult to swallow when one considers “for God so love the world.”   Now that verse was used as part of the sermon and the emphasis was not on the love part as much as it was those who believe in God’s only begotten son will receive eternal life and never perish.  Which I suppose begs the question – why did John use the word “perish” and not “live in conscious torment for all eternity.”  Perhaps he thought perish was bad enough!  And I contend that perish, the Greek word apollumi, which means perish, destroy, or fully destroy may indeed be the correct understanding of Hell and not eternal, conscious, torment.

Now I’ll admit, thinking about this topic, listening to the sermons and doing some additional reading on the topic has made me sick – literally sick.  It seems so unfathomable for me to think that God – all powerful and all knowing – a “good” God and a God of love would willing sacrifice His only begotten son simply to complete a plan that would put people in a position to make such a choice that results in eternal, conscious torment.   Does it not seem more reasonable (bad choice of words I know) that God would have the choice be eternal life or perish not eternal life or eternal, conscious torment?    Wasn’t the consequence of original sin “death?”  Aren’t the wages of sin “death?”  Isn’t that punishment severe enough for those who knowingly and continually reject belief in God’s son?  What value is there or what delight does God take in the eternal, conscious torment of his creation?

I reckon I’ll have more concerns to look at after the last of the series on Hell next week.  For right now, I’ll simply struggle with the correct meaning of what the Bible says on this topic – both OT and NT – can’t take on without the other.

 

PS… spell check wasn’t working so I apologize for any errors – other than my thinking. 🙂