What Christians Get Wrong About Hell

The Week ^ | 4/25/2014 | Damon Linker

[Belteshazzar]

I n a recent column, I explored some obstacles to the embrace of religious faith among young people today, paying special attention to the gulf between the often simplistic way that traditional churches talk about God and the pluralistic complexity of modern life.

Here's another obstacle: The overly literalistic character of so much of American piety.

My favorite example is the way that many American Christians think and talk about hell.

Jumping off from a handful of Gospel passages in which Jesus Christ speaks about "eternal punishment" for sinners in the afterlife, these believers conjure visions of a cosmic torture chamber in which those who reject God or commit grave sins without repentance are subjected to endless torment as punishment for their transgressions. It is a ghastly analogue to equally crude and comical visions of heaven as a place where the righteous are rewarded with angels' wings and an eternity of harp lessons.

This is very bad theology — because it takes off from a deeply confused, though very commonly held, view of punishment.

[DManA]

Those whom the little gods would destroy, they first make liberal.

[MuttTheHoople]

I think that Hell is the total, complete absence of God. Eternal separation. I think this is so horrifying, that the popular depiction that God-mockers have of what Christians think of Hell, of demons tormenting them non-stop would be a pleasant respite.

[cloudmountain]

Sometimes the concept of hell gets people worked up. The argument on “How can a good God cast people into hell when they have lived a pretty good life” is false logic.
Hell is a place where God is absent. This is exactly what the people who rejected God all their lives wanted. The “pit” of hell maybe a very comfortable place where everyone who rejected God their entire lives must now reside knowing they had lived their lives in a lie. That they had wasted it all. That actually may be worse than a guy with pitchfork.

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I have often heard that hell is eternal life without God. In that same theme, hell-fire (and the fires of hell) is usually mentioned. That means BURNING to me.

Another theory is that hell turns into nothingness, as God "de-creates" that eternal soul and s/he ceases to exist.

I think I'll just mind my P's and Q's, try to help the down and out and REALLY pray for God's mercy.

[Craftmore]

While I am convinced there is a hell,I pray that hell is empty.
John the baptist said,Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
Some believe that when Christ spent 3 days in hell,it was to preach the good news to those there.
The Bible states,That every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord.Through confession of that statemant we are saved.
I know there are those that will argue with me,and thats ok,I still pray that hell is empty.

[GunRunner]

There is no crime worthy of eternal punishment. Luckily, there's no evidence for hell, and the whole idea of it fails most tests of basic reason and rationality.

I'd spend your time worrying about something else.

[21twelve]

I read some Christian guy (not sure how theologically correct he was) talking about how in the end, God
WILL be everywhere, and nothing will be hidden from Him. But, for those that did not believe, or mocked God, or were against Him, there will be no place for them to hide from His light. And rather than it being viewed as a light of love, they will experience it like a light of fire. Exposing all of their sins, etc. Like back in the Old Testament where if you looked upon God you would die.

It doesn’t sound right to me, but I thought it was an interesting take on it.

[Psiman]

Damon Linker is a classic example of the way stupid people over estimate their own competence and project an undeserved aura of confidence.

[Jim from C-Town]

I always laugh about people who believe we live in more complex times than any other when in reality we live in the most relaxed times in all of human existence.

[cloudmountain]

Luke 10:13-15
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.

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Proverbs 7:27
they shall go down to Hell in the chambers of death

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Matthew 25:41
… depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels

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Deuteronomy 32:22-24
For a fire is kindled in My anger, And shall burn to the lowest Hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, And set on fire the foundations of the mountains. ‘I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the TEETH OF BEASTS, With the poison of serpents of the dust.

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Matt 13:42
…throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth

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Psalms 11:6
Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.

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Mark 9:48-49
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire.

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I am convinced.

[LovedSinner]

I hope it is empty too. I highly doubt it though, considering Jesus talked again and again of Hell. I can’t read the Gospels for more than a few minutes without Jesus talking about Hell, and how bad it will be for those there.

Thanks for your post.

[Hatteras]

I had to fly into Philadelphia for a connecting flight on a Friday afternoon in early August a few years back. With the flight delays due to east coast thunderstorms and dodging the rush of the maddening crowd, I found myself looking out over the tarmac through the thick brown haze and watching the flame shooting up from stack at the oil refinery across the Delaware River and thinking... so, this must be it. This is Hell.

On a serious note, I did have a revelation with that miserable experience. As I waited to finally board my flight back south, I watched a couple of families saying good bye to their respective loved ones who happened to be boarding the same flight. The families that were staying behind were very emotional and wishing the travelers a safe flight and crying as they hugged.

One family sat near me on the plane. A young couple with two cute little boys. They were smiling and very excited to be on an airplane, apparently their first time. The husband and wife were smiling and they looked pretty excited as well.

We taxied out to the runway, paused briefly, and the engines began winding up and we were rolling. I watched that flame from the refinery as we lifted off and in a few seconds, we were deep into that thick smog and the flame was gone. It was like we were flying through soup. A few seconds later, the brown began to lighten up and suddenly we were free of the smog. Looking down, I saw a sea of brown. Looking up, I saw the most beautiful blue sky with billowing white cumulus clouds in the distance.

It was then that I realized what death really is. I no longer fear death because, in my mind, I get it. Funerals are not for the departed. Funerals are for the families and friends of the departed. They are the loved ones left behind at the gate back under that blanket of smog. Our departed loved ones are on that plane, smiling and giddy with excitement of what lay ahead of them as they soar into the blue.

When my father passed a few years later, there were many tears. And though I shed quite a few tears of my own, I felt a sense of happiness and comfort knowing that Dad had "slipped the surely bonds of earth" and was now facing the possibilities and opportunities that awaited across that endless crisp, blue sky.

Just a thought. As you were...

[DManA]

God loves your father. God loves you. Don’t listen to these people who tell you he could be in eternal agony. They’re wrong.

[Carl from Marietta]

I know what you’re talking about, I’ve struggled with it a long time, and for a time I believed that the doctrine of Hell was an obliteration of one’s soul, because infinite torture was incompatible with the prince of peace. Especially when this is coupled with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination which is certainly taught throughout the new testament.

Frankly, I don’t know how to reconcile it in my mind, Jesus clearly taught hell, more than any other person in the Bible, on the other hand he came to earth as God/man to “save” us, but at the end there are those in hell.

God is graceful and omnipotent, he knows your heart and the Bible teaches that if you believe in Christ and that he was the sacrifice for your sins you are now a new creature, reborn in a congregation of the redeemed and have no fear of death or consequences of your actions in life.

Christ said that his Yolk was not heavy, it was easy, and it is easy, he is your sacrifice, you could not begin to pay the price for your sins, only He can....but yet he teaches us that there are those that are consigned to Hell, and frankly I’m at a loss as to how that happens.

[HangnJudge]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Divorce

he Great Divorce is a work of theological fantasy by C. S. Lewis, in which he reflects on the Christian conception of Heaven and Hell.

[stars & stripes forever]

“I am struggling a significant amount with “The Problem of Hell.”

Pastor Robert Morris recently gave a series about death and hell entitled “The End.” He explains hell very well explaned. Take it from him, you don’t want to go there.

The audio download is $5 for the whole series. Robert Morris is very easy to listen to and he addresses all of your concerns.

http://www.theblessedlife.com/series/products/end-audio-series-download-0

[pax_et_bonum]

Good book.

[sigzero]

“Christ died for the sins of the world, so there is no more punishment;”

That is only true for those that BELIEVE in Christ.

[HangnJudge]

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ”

― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

[pax_et_bonum]

Thank you for posting that quote.

It’s perfect.

[MinorityRepublican]

Where were we before we were born?