Posted on 06/04/2014 6:52:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In certain schools of Christian thought, hell is not everlasting, but a more painful form of purgatory.
M any Christians presume that hell is a place where brutally painful punishments are inflicted on evildoers for an indefinite, and perhaps infinite, amount of time in the afterlife. Think of a medieval torture chamber with no exit — or fire extinguishers.
But this, as I argued in a recent column, makes no theological sense. If morality is good, then doing the right thing must be its own reward and doing the wrong thing must be its own punishment. To think that a sinner deserves extra, externally imposed suffering presumes that morality isn't good and that those who commit evil deeds benefit from their actions — which is another way of saying that those who do the right thing are fools.
The more theologically sound position is to hold that hell is a state of being, whether in this life or the next, in which we confront our own self-imposed alienation from what is truly good — from God, in other words. This educative punishment can be extremely painful, but the pain flows intrinsically from knowledge of our own immoral acts. It isn't inflicted on us by some external tormenter.
That, at any rate, was my argument.
Let's just say that my readers weren't universally appreciative of it. A fair number of them apparently want very much to believe that a fairly large number of people are going to be made to suffer egregiously in hell for their bad behavior in life.
I suspect that these same readers, and perhaps many more, will be equally adamant that I'm wrong to follow the implications of my argument a few steps further — to assert that Christians have reason to believe that the punishments of hell, whatever they may be, are temporary for all.
That's right: I think it's likely that if there is an afterlife, everyone — even Judas, even Hitler — eventually ends up in heaven.
Now, I'm perfectly willing to concede that several Gospel passages seem to describe an eternity of damnation for at least some people in the afterlife (Matthew 7:13-14, 25:31-46; Mark 9:45-48; Luke 16:23; John 3:36). Though I'd also like to point out that only in one verse (Matthew 25:46) does Jesus speak of something that could plausibly be translated as "eternal punishment," and in words (aeonios kolasis) that could perhaps more accurately be rendered as "eternal correction."
Then there are those contrary passages that seem to imply that God wants everyone — and perhaps even all of creation — to enjoy salvation (Romans 5:18, 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 28; Philippians 2:10-11; Colossians 1:19-20; 2 Peter 3:9; Revelation 21:4).
This tension — not to say contradiction — has led some thinkers to dismiss or argue away the implications of the latter passages. Of all the church fathers, Tertullian may have gone furthest in this direction, writing at length and in gory detail about the endless sufferings inflicted on sinners in hell, and even suggesting that observing these torments is an important source of the bliss that accompanies salvation in heaven.
The problem with this position is that it seems to be a form of what Friedrich Nietzsche called "Christian malice": A psychological malady in which the stringent self-denial that Christianity demands of its adherents leads them to feel intense resentment for those who are insufficiently ascetic. Nietzsche delighted in showing how this dynamic can turn Christians from preachers of love into hateful fanatics out to inflict suffering on anyone who dares to enjoy life.
Not all Christians have confirmed Nietzsche's critique as perfectly as Tertullian. Others have been driven by theological reflection to move in the opposite direction — to speculate that all people might eventually enjoy salvation in heaven, no matter how awful their worldly sins may have been.
Origen in the 3rd century and Hans Urs von Balthasar in the 20th both affirmed versions of universal salvation. Yet I find the most compelling variation in the writings of the 4th-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa — a major figure in the history of Christianity, though one more widely revered today by the Eastern Orthodox than by the Western churches.
Gregory maintained that hell resembles something like what Catholics have traditionally called purgatory: A place of sometimes excruciatingly painful purgation of sins in preparation for heaven. The pain is not externally inflicted as punishment, but follows directly from the process of purification as the soul progresses toward a perhaps never fully realized union with divine perfection. Gregory describes this process as a "constant progression" or "stretching forth" (epektasis) of oneself toward an ever greater embrace of and merger with God in the fullness of eternity — a transmutation of what is sinful, fallen, and finite into the transcendent beauty of the infinite.
Hell, in this view, would be the state of agonizing struggle to break free from sin, to renounce our moral mistakes, to habituate ourselves to the good, to become ever more like God. Eastern Orthodox theologians (and, interestingly, Mormons, who hold similar views) call it a process of divination or sanctification (theosis) that follows directly from the doctrine of God's incarnation in Jesus Christ. It is a formula found in the writings of Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, and other ancient theologians: God became a human being so that human beings might become like God.
All human beings.
One imagines that this would be a long, painful process — rendered longer and more painful for those who have fallen furthest from God during their lives. They are the ones for whom the afterlife is truly hellish — like a climb up a peak far, far higher than Mount Everest with little prior preparation or training, no expensive gear, and no Sherpas to help carry the load. But there would eventually be progress toward God, even for the climber who starts out in the worst possible shape, and from the lowest possible point in the valley below.
And at least there would be no dungeon pointlessly presided over by satanic, whip-wielding sadists.
Whoops! Replied to the wrong person... sorry!
OK, :)
Yep. Hell is a choice and we all have to make that choice. This tripe is from someone that says, “God is love and no loving God would ever do something so cruel as to send someone to hell forever.” That God is love is certainly true. But that is not all that God is. God is absolute justice as well and that is the basis for the possibility of eternal hell. He explicitly gave grounds for someone to be consigned to hell. Among them is the one sin that God will not forgive, ever. That is a final, irrevocable rejection of what God offers us - His Son as our saviour, lord and master.
Demon Linker is a leftist thinker. If you wonder how progressive thought has deformed and redefined Christianity, you can read Linker to see how it has come about.
Linker sees Christianity through the liberal prism: everything is false and distorted. The lens through which he looks is colored by liberal notions of racism, homosexuality, identity politics and progressive “social justice”. “Christian” liberals ignore what does not conform to their groupthink.
In this article, for example, Linker completely ignores what Jesus Christ and Christian scripture says repeatedly about life after death and who may enter Heaven and who may not. There will be a separation of wheat from chaff, of goats from sheep, and the weeds will burn for eternity.
God makes the rules. And from what the Holy Bible says, universalism is not what God has ordained for us.
As with all liberals (including this liberal in sheep’s clothing) his “truth” is based on false premise.
Don’t look for Hitler or Judas in Heaven.
I would substitute ‘monotheistic malice’ for Christian malice’.
While I can fully understand the purpose/need for the concept of hell, I don’t see how it can actually serve any purpose, unless we come back in another body, with the previous memories.
Myself, I don’t believe anything man can do for his 70-80 yrs on this planet would deserve any afterlife punishment, especially an eternity of it.
I completely agree with this… Salvation requires a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and Christianity provides many ways to achieve this..
At its root this argument is not a new one and is simply a denial of the existence of Satan and his minions (his oldest and most successful lie) If there is no Hell, then the father of lies that has dominion over the lost is a figment of medieval artists ( his article even hints at this) It is a classic pseudo enlightened argument that there is no fallen angel who wills the destruction of man. We are only subject to our own foibles that we can can talk ourselves out of if given a sufficient time of reflection.
The author of this piece appears to be greatly deceived by the oldest lie in the book and even worse is trying to lead any souls who will believe him down the road to perdition.
Someone taught you something that only God knows? Did you ask them how they knew?
Luke 16:19-31
This is all anybody needs to know about Hell and how permanent it really is. The Rich Man (notice Christ doesn’t even mention his name) was doomed for eternity—he knew it. Which is why he was so desperate that somebody tell his then living relatives what to do in order to avoid his situation.
I can’t think of a more horrible place than a hell where God is totally devoid and brutality reigns supreme. For those, who deny it’s existence (But more importantly Christ’s Redeeming Saving Power), just know that you are a car wreck or heart attack away from experiencing exactly what this “rich man” and countless billions of others are experiencing.
In certain schools of Christian thought, hell is not everlasting, but a more painful form of purgatory.
Um, hell is thrown into the lake of fire. And the fate of the damned is eternal. The question is, are they alive and feeling pain during that eternity. Some of us argue that the fate of the saved is everlasting life and its opposite would be everlasting death. That is, you die and stay dead, forever. Which is why the fate of the lost is called eternal, and called death, destruction, perish, etc.
Just pointing out that one thing...
.....Or begin by believing in God, you are on your way to salvation.
This parable happened before the Crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection. Heaven’s Gates were opened upon Jesus’ finished work on the cross to those who were in Paradise (Or Abraham’s bosom).
Therefore, those confined in Hades cannot see nor converse any longer with those who were in Paradise.
Why would a man who rejected God in life begin to love Him in death while experiencing His pent-up wrath? Natural men alive on Earth have no ability to stop sinning, what evidence is there dead men in Hell have such an ability?
I believe the Bible clearly teaches Hell is forever. All those not in Christ will experience God’s wrath for their sin forever. What that really looks like I can only imagine. All I know is that the cup of His wrath will be perfectly measured and just in proportion with their sin and that all rebels will be made to drink the wine of His fury to the dregs.
“For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”
—Psalm 75:8
I am good with it.
If the worst can repent and be forgiven, maybe I can, too.
Interesting.
Revelation 20:10
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
I don’t believe churches are literal lamstands.
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