Monday 31 December 2018

Hell and Damnation

This seems like a suitable topic for the end of a year!

Atheists, most agnostics, various other stripes of non-Christians, and even some Christians balk at, or deny outright the Biblical concept of hell and damnation.  This ancient idea rubs against our 21st century sentiments of equality, fairness, proportionality, morality, and so on. Visions of lakes of fire (Revelation 20:14), and demons torturing unbelievers forever, with no chance of improving conditions, strike many people as absurd at best, and wrong, immoral, or even evil at worst.  How could a good God condemn any finite, mortal, human soul to eternal damnation under such conditions?

These concerns are not unreasonable, although they run the dangerous risk (to the people raising them) of placing God, or at least his word in the Bible, in the dock (as C.S. Lewis wrote) with man as his prosecutor, judge and jury.  One has to be careful judging the judge, especially when he is all knowing and all powerful!  If there is but one God, a better strategy for dealing with him would be to listen, seek to understand, and then obey.  Following Jesus in this life can actually be quite pleasant! And frankly, disliking what you read in the Bible, or have heard about him, is not a good argument against God's existence.  Nevertheless, I can understand these concerns and will address them, at least in part.

First of all, many of the images of Hell and damnation that we may have in mind are not entirely biblical, but were generated by people's imaginations in the middle ages to essentially frighten people into believing, or at least obeying what was taught.  See for example some of the medieval artistic depictions of hell.  The Bible is much less explicit about hell, and much of what is written there can be better interpreted allegorically or metaphorically, if one is willing to give up the literal reading, as needed in so many other places in scripture.  For instance, the entire book of Revelation is an apocalyptic vision and surely not intended to be taken literally.  Certainly many people, especially during the middle ages, believed in such eternal punishments in the fires of hell.  But many more, including most, non-literal Bible readers today, do not take such graphic imagery as a true description of hell, even if they accept hell as a literal destination for human souls.

Jesus does talk about hell and fire (Matthew 5:22) and uses the images of eternal fire in some of his parables (Mark 9:47, Luke 16:23). He also applies the Hebrew concept of Sheol, or the Greek Hades as the resting place of dead spirits.  But he is more focused on people's salvation and the Kingdom of God than on the details of damnation.  Jesus' parable of the sheep and goats, in which the damned are cast into the "eternal fire", gets close to the medieval images of hell (Matthew 25:41), but this too is a parable, intended to get people's attention and warn them against sin and disbelief.  Notwithstanding certain doctrines and the limited information in the Bible, human death and what happens after remain a huge mystery to us, and so both heaven and hell are impossible to describe with very many clear details, although some people try.

In The Great Divorce, the Christian writer C.S. Lewis provides a more humane, yet still allegorical vision of hell and damnation.  Basically, he says that if you have denied God all your life and wanted no part of Christian faith, then he will grant you your wish and place your soul apart from him when you die.  In this understanding, hell essentially becomes a place separate from God, where unbelievers go to be far away from that which they wanted to be apart from.  Damnation is in this sense, one's own choice, reinforced throughout a life of disbelief.  The actual conditions there remain largely unspecified.  The "burning fire" is sometimes envisioned as one's own shame and lost opportunity at not "being with God for eternity" (one definition of heaven).  The "physical conditions" (if one can speak of such in a spiritual realm) may be quite pleasant, as far as we know, and the damned soul will, moreover, be in the presence of other like-minded souls and spirits who chose the same fate.  That is not so bad now perhaps?

One way of looking at who is saved and who is condemned is to consider that, due to original sin, none of us is guiltless, and we all deserve eternal punishment, apart from God.  We are all spiritually dead (the definition of being separated from God).  Everyone has a natural tendency to do bad things, even if we think of ourselves a "good people".  Any honest person will recognize this in himself, even as we downplay or try to hide our sins, they are real and many.  The Bible goes beyond this to say none of us of our own accord seeks God or wants him to be part of our lives (Romans 3:10-12).  Only the action of the Holy Spirit in our hearts can make us want to seek God, believe His truths, and accept the salvation of Jesus.  Accordingly, divine justice and the perfection of heaven demand that ALL of us belong in hell, that is, away from God and his perfect, holy goodness.  In his mercy, however, God chooses some to respond to his offer, accept Jesus' sacrifice, be cleansed and saved from our sins, and be allowed into his presence, both in this life and the next.  That perspective puts another and very different spin on the subject. (John 3:16-18)

But some will complain, why does God only call some to salvation via his spirit?  At bottom, this is a mystery beyond human understanding, best left to God in his wisdom.  Fortunately, each person need only consider his or her own status, not judging who else will be saved or condemned.  The mystery of who will be saved is tied up with the mystery of free will, which is a different, deep and mysterious subject.  Suffice it to say that God respects our free will at some level and allows us to resist his Spirit and his offer, something many people actually do.  Thus, to some extent, you are still choosing to go to hell if you turn your back on the Gospel message, God's invitation, and the Spirit's nudges in your heart.

This raises the follow-up question; what of those who did not understand the call, did not feel those nudges, or simply were not exposed to the Gospel message, either by missing it around them, or living at a time or place where they could not be exposed to it?  There have been various views on this subject over the centuries.  Some say, too bad, God only saves those he has predetermined to choose, before time began.  That may be difficult to swallow, but we should not think we can understand the plans and purposes of an all powerful, all knowing, eternal, infinite being!  Others claim there is a third possible outcome between heaven and hell, a place where those who did not have the choice in life end up for further processing, or perhaps another chance at deciding. Some call that Limbo, an old theological concept, although scripture provides little support for it.  Perhaps God wants Bible readers to accept his offer, and so does not provide a clear "wait and see", or agnostic pathway for a second chance.

Although Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:8), the Bible does not say outright that if you do not explicitly accept Jesus Gospel offer then you are forever condemned to hell.  Rather, the Gospel offer is the normal way into God's presence; accept and believe, and you will be saved by Jesus' sacrifice in your place.  Another theoretical way is to be sinless yourself, like Jesus, but practically speaking, that is impossible.  Anyone who claims to be sinless, especially before God, is lying to himself and makes God out to be a liar since he states clearly that no one is without sin (1 John 1:10).

In principle, there might be a third way into God's kingdom.  One who has not rejected the Gospel offer because he has not been exposed to it, and so had no chance to accept, may be recruited by Jesus himself.  The Bible is clear that Jesus controls entrance into heaven, but it does not constrain him to accept only those who explicitly accept his offer.  Thus, sincere followers of other faiths who try to do what they know is right, even though they may not have heard his offer, may (conceivably) find Jesus merciful and willing to cleanse them from their sins without their explicit acceptance in life.  After they die, they may find Jesus inviting them to be with him despite their ignorance.  This is just speculation, but fits with some of Lewis' writings.

Finally, is hell eternal, or is it possible, at least in principle to get out of hell, once condemned to be there?  Most Christians believe that hell is forever, but some theologians hold that it may indeed be possible, albeit difficult, to seek God after death.  While many souls may be happy to remain apart from God, preferring the company in Hell, others may realize, too late that they did not listen to the offer, missed the boat, or merely would like another chance at being with God, even if they know little about him.  I note that in most scripture passages about hell, it is the fire that is eternal (e.g. Matthew 3:12, Mark 9:43, Jude 7), not necessarily the soul's punishment.  In this view, Jesus could seek lost souls after death as well as before.  He has, after all been to hell once already.  If he finds sincere souls looking for an alternative, he might, some hope, allow them into his presence or provide them with a pathway out of hell.  There are some cryptic Bible passages that suggest this possibility, but I wouldn't bet my soul on it by ignoring God's salvation offer today!

I hope the above discussion shifts your view of hell and damnation at least a bit.  God is not cruel and nasty, arbitrary, or capricious, but wants everyone to accept his offer (1 Timothy 2:4).  He is also merciful and slow to anger, so may, perhaps be flexible for his Son's sake, allowing some unbelievers into his kingdom - those he deems redeemable, as it were.  However, the step of faith to salvation in this life is not too high, nor a huge leap.  The Bible implies that someone with the smallest amount of faith may be granted God's grace (Isaiah 42:3, Luke 23:43).  Some theologians even hope that as eternity progresses, there will be fewer and fewer human occupants of hell, leaving only the devil and his demons to reside there forever.  Although that seems an extreme view, eternity is a long time, and who can limit what God will do?  Nevertheless, the best option today is clearly to accept God's offer and Jesus' salvation, adjusting your life accordingly, with his Spirit's guidance and help, and to begin looking forward to being with God for eternity.

If you haven't already done that, what are you waiting for?

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