Introduction:
What a
week! It’s been busy, stressful, and at times scary. Still I wouldn’t trade it
in. My dissertation is humming along, and I’m leaving for Tennessee in just a
few hours. First though, I have to finish this. This week was so hectic that I wasn’t
sure I would meet my self-imposed deadline. You see, I wanted to post each
essay in this cycle on Fridays starting with the first Friday in November. It
looks like I made it, if only just.
As I wrap
up this series of essays on hell, I am reminded not only of what the bible says
about it but what people say about it. Mark Twain once wrote, “it’s heaven for
atmosphere and hell for company.” A popular rock song from the 1980’s refers to
hell as “the promised land.” There’s a pervasive image out there in popular
culture that us “narrow-minded Christians” will go to heaven, but they,
seemingly all the really likable and interesting people, will be off in hell
recounting their exploits and sipping cocktails. This imagery of hell, in one
form or another, is everywhere, and it is in need of the same corrective
discussion as the thinking that would dismiss hell altogether. It’s also a
shame that we Christians have somehow developed this reputation as unloving and
unlikable in many circles, but that is a whole other discussion. Imagining hell
as a pleasant place and imagining it as a non-existent place are both so beyond
the realm of truth that I for my part see little to distinguish between them
from the perspective of truth. So as I write, I will be refuting both hell’s
non-existence in terms of God’s attributes which I covered in post 1 [http://brad-lifesnippets.blogspot.com/2012/11/god-humanity-and-hell-part-1-blind.html]
and our sinful nature in post 2 [http://brad-lifesnippets.blogspot.com/2012/11/god-humanity-and-hell-part-2-blind.html],
but I will also attempt to correct, however insignificant my contribution may
be, misconceptions about the actual nature and purpose of the place in hope
that we may stop being so cavalier about it. As always, my scriptural
quotations will be from the NIV and will be as thorough as I have tried to make
them all along.
All Roads Lead to Heaven?
In his massive book Heaven,
Randy Alcorn writes of a certain Indiana tombstone with this inscription:
Pause, stranger, when you pass me
by:
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you will be.
So prepare for death and follow me.
It seems that someone else came along and added this:
To follow you I'm not content,
Until I know which way you went.
I would
love to be able to say, “all will be saved.” The truth is that I can’t say
that. I can’t say it because the Lord himself does not say that. I have met
many folks who think that hell is just something the Christians invented, maybe
something those medieval churchmen came out with to scare supposedly ignorant
and illiterate peasants into giving them money. I’ve met folks who dismiss hell
as something Paul invented, because Paul is the favored whipping boy for many.
Such thinkers will charge Paul and people after him with hell’s invention,
while in the next breath they go on to depict Jesus as the great sage, the wise
and gentle teacher, the one whose example we should follow instead of those
“greedy churchmen.” Lastly, I’ve met Christian universalists who simply do not
believe that Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross will fail to reconcile anyone’s
sin. So, they argue, you will go to heaven in the end one way or the other
because with what Jesus did on the cross, you can’t help but end up there. Yes,
I have met all of these and more.
The problem is that Jesus, gentle Jesus, says more about hell than anyone else in the bible. The Jesus Seminar would no doubt step in at this point and try to tell me that all of Jesus’s utterances about hell are inauthentic, thereby taking those words out of his mouth. I don’t buy it. If we take the biblical record as being accurate, and I do, then he talked about hell, and he had a great deal to say. Jesus tells us in very plain language that not only are some people not going to make it into heaven, most won’t get there: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Later in that same chapter Jesus goes on to say this: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). So not only will most people not make it to heaven, some folks who think they are headed there because of all the great works they have done will be terribly surprised on that final day. There are other passages like these, but the important point is this: heaven is not a one-size fits all place. Not everyone is going there. In fact, most people won’t be going there, and that is one of the hardest truths. “Why wouldn’t he just let me in,” you might be asking? The answer is this: it’s not that Jesus doesn’t let people go through the doorway to heaven. The truth is simply that many won’t let him open the door for them.
If you are imprisoned for a crime, it may be that
the governor or the president will pardon you. A pardon wipes away any and all
punishment. There is just one catch. You have to accept a pardon for it to be
valid. You can legally refuse to be pardoned, though why anyone would refuse a
pardon is a whole other question. Jesus is not out to make things hard. But he
does make it clear that many will not accept his pardon. The terms of that
pardon are that we seek reconciliation and salvation through Christ alone. The
pardon is indiscriminately available to you no matter your list of offenses.
You need only accept it. How to do that is its own discussion, and I recommend
seeking out local Christians or even me if you want to know more. The point I’m
driving home right here is this: Jesus’s own words make it crystal clear that,
whatever means of making it to heaven he sets up, many will choose to go their
own way. That way lies hell. It is very tempting to get sidetracked into such
questions as, “what about other religions,” or, “what about children who die,” but
that way lies a whole set of other discussions, and I am only presenting the
Christian arguments for hell with responsible readers in mind, that is, readers
old enough to know right from wrong and to make principled choices. Jesus also
said of himself: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
father except through me” (John 14:6). If he really did say those words i.e. if
the bible is an accurate account of what he said, then they either are or they
are not true. That’s the funny thing about truth. So-called fuzzy logic systems
aside, it admits exactly two
possibilities, true and not true. Since we Christians hold the bible to be an
accurate record of Jesus’s words, it follows for us that those words are true.
And being true, he excludes all other “ways” as leading to heaven. So if any
method of getting to heaven fails to recognize Jesus as the doorway into
heaven, it is false, a one-way street, a dead end. Not all roads lead to the
same place. Even when it’s said that all roads used to lead to Rome, it must be
added that while that was true, you still had to travel in the proper direction
to get there. All roads do not lead to heaven.
The Ultimate Sentence:
When not
making fun of hell or disavowing its existence altogether, most people who take
issue with God and Christianity on the basis of hell have in their minds a
picture of some poor trembling soul, begging and pleading, who is cast
shrieking into hell by an unforgiving deity. This is an understandable picture
of judgment even if it, thankfully, isn’t quite accurate. I used to imagine
that going to hell happened in just that way myself. Such a picture of hell
overlooks God’s mercy, however, and the price he paid to be able to extend that
mercy. By ‘price’ I mean His death once for all on the cross. In any case, that
conception of judgment as a sentence handed down from on high may embody
holiness or righteousness, but it is hard to find God’s mercy in such a picture.
So let us
consider what the son of God says about those who go to hell. In the twelfth
chapter of John, Jesus says this: “If anyone hears my words but does not keep
them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to
save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept
my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day” (John
12:47-48). This passage takes some careful teasing to pick it apart accurately.
Jesus almost sounds as though he says he doesn’t judge anyone, and yet he says
that he does? It can be confusing. The key to understanding this passage lies
in the second half of verse 48: “the very words I have spoken will condemn them
at the last day.” When Jesus speaks of ‘my word’ or my words,’ we understand
him to mean his teachings. When he speaks of ‘accepting’ those words, He doesn’t
just mean that there is an expectation that someone believes them, but that
they uphold and practice those teachings as well. So then, our eternal reward
or punishment, he says here, isn’t based on how he personally feels towards us.
That is already certain. He loves us with an everlasting love. The measuring
stick that will be used is the extent to which we accepted, i.e. upheld, his
teachings, or else the extent to which we did not do so. Now then, I realize,
and Jesus certainly realizes too, that we are imperfect and will, even on our
best days, be but imperfect followers of Him who are in need of his grace and
mercy. Let us assume that Omniscience knows this and has taken it into account.
If you know an examination is coming and you do not prepare for it by study and
careful application of the principles and concepts involved, you will not pass,
and it doesn’t matter how much the teacher likes you. You would still fail. So,
we know that those who fail to gain heaven have failed, not because God is
arbitrary and whimsical, but because they failed to accept and follow the
teachings of Christ, the standard of measure by which we will all be judged. He
says in verse 47 above that his purpose is to save. Not all will be saved. That
is abundantly clear. He claims he is the only way to heaven, and if so, it
follows that many will not believe him and will elect to find their own ways.
Nevertheless, His purpose is to save, and he will discern among us based on who
accepted His words and who rejected them. In the end, those who go to hell
choose it, because they choose their own paths. They choose paths apart from
Christ. Hell is heaven refused, not damnation imposed.
Hell as Mere Nothingness:
Why is it that many people I have met believe that
hell means an end to all existence? I don’t mean folks who believe there’s
nothing at all after death. I have met people who talk about heaven in vague
and nebulous ways, but in ways that tell the listener they believe they’ll be
conscious and have some sort of existence in heaven. Yet when they speak of
hell, they have this notion that hell simply means a cessation of everything.
No consciousness, no experience, no nothing. Annihilation. In one way this is a
comforting notion. If we think of death as a never-ending sleep, it sounds
rather restful. More to the point, if we think of hell as obliteration, a
reduction to nothingness, this may comfort some people. You can’t object to
being nothing, because you will feel no pain and non-existence won’t bother you
once you achieve it. The terrible truth is that the biblical picture of hell is
a bit different.
Jesus describes hell in graphic terms. Was he
trying to be frightening? I find hell frightening. It’s heartbreaking. As Randy
Alcorn once wrote in Heaven, “The reality of Hell should break our hearts and take us to our
knees and to the doors of those without Christ.” The story of Lazarus and the
rich man (Luke 16:19-31) is most revealing. It is not a parable, and Jesus
doesn’t start the story with “Hell is like,” or, “Hell is like unto.” He
narrates the story in a straightforward, “this is how it really is,” fashion.
Let me quote the story here and note a few things about it:
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine
linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar
named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from
the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came
when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man
also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and
saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father
Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. But Abraham replied,
‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while
Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in
place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone
cross over from there to us.“ He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send
Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they
will not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses
and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but
if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If
they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.’’
Keep in
mind that Jesus was telling this story before his own death and resurrection,
before there was Christianity. So he very obviously believed in a hell and that
people went there. In this story, “Moses and the Prophets” is understood by
Jesus’s hearers to refer to the scriptures. At that time the bible would have
been the Torah or what Christians call the Old Testament. So what the figure of
Abraham is saying is that if Lazarus’s brothers won’t heed the words of the
bible, sending Lazarus back from the dead won’t do any good either.
There
are several things to note about hell and about the rich man. First, he is conscious
and in possession of his powers of reason. He is not a mindless zombie. He is a
reasoning being with a will and desires that he wants fulfilled. He is going to
keep on wanting, I’m afraid, for the hell of hell, so to speak, is desire that
can never be fulfilled. Miserable as that picture is, it remains a far cry from
nothingness. Secondly, hell is a physical place. The rich man speaks of
Abraham’s sending Lazarus across the chasm between heaven and hell to comfort
him. Abraham also mentions the chasm, telling the rich man that it cannot be crossed in either
direction. So then, however other worldly hell is, it is depicted as having a
physical dimension.
To take
it a step further, perhaps you also noticed that Lazarus is still called
Lazarus, but the rich man isn’t given a name. This suggests to me that whatever
we retain of self-awareness and of mind in hell, we lose our essential
identities. Jesus didn’t forget the rich man’s name; he left it out to make a
point. The significance of that soul had dwindled to such a vanishingly small
proportion that even his name was no longer relevant. In The Problem of Pain,
C. S. Lewis envisioned it this way, “To enter heaven is to become more human
than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from
humanity.” Finally, a point so obvious it hardly needs to be stated, the rich
man is suffering. Hell is not a party, not a place where people will go and
knock back drinks and reminisce about life on earth. Jesus talks about hell
being a place of endless torment (Matthew 25:46). Finally, the rich man in our
story is alone. This lonely rich man is juxtaposed with Lazarus who is shown as
being with Abraham. What do we make of this? In heaven there is company, the
best company and forever more. Hell is solitary confinement. Some will say, “at
least we’ll be together there.” Maybe so, but the man in hell is forever alone,
isolated in suffering. There is no upside to hell. There is no hope and no
reprieve. There is no good in hell, no nobility in suffering. Sometimes people express
the wish that God would just leave them alone. Hell is, alas, the place where
he does that. But there is no good there without the creator of good. As a
character in Randy Alcorn’s novel Deadline once understood it, “No God.
No good. Forever.”
Sentenced to Eternity:
The
final objection to hell that I am choosing to confront is the notion of an
eternal punishment. How, the objection runs, can we posit a deity who would
leave you to suffer in hell forever and ever, no matter what sins you may have
committed in your brief lifetime? From a human standpoint, it is a good
question. The underlying accusation against God seems to be that if we wouldn’t
countenance such a thing, surely God, if he has any morals at all, wouldn’t do
such a thing either and if he would, well, he must not be God.
This is
perhaps the hardest question about hell I have confronted. The first thing to
remember is that we cannot stack our sense of morality and justice up against
God’s and expect ours to look better. It just doesn’t work that way. If he
indeed is absolutely holy and absolutely just, and we are not, presumably he
has some inside information about morality and justice that we don’t happen to
have. Yet, we reason because God reasons, and we have a rudimentary notion of
justice because God is just. So I think we may come a bit nearer to the answer
than to stop at, “God knows best. Leave it alone.” Though often times that is
the answer we’re stuck with.
If we
think of hell as the continuation of the human story, as heaven continues our
story in God’s presence, then the injustice of hell becomes an unsolvable
problem. I don’t think that it is any sort of continuation, however. Hell is
spoken of as a place of finality. We often speak of heaven and hell as though
we might one day sit in heaven and say, “people are suffering in hell right
now.” But I am not convinced that the sufferings of hell run in parallel to the
joys of heaven. Hell is the final and tragic end of a story, not a bad sequel
to that story. Finally, hell endures forever because in it, our sin endures
forever. If you never cure the cancer, the cancer never goes away. If our sin
is never forgiven, because we don’t accept the forgiveness i.e. the pardon I
mentioned earlier, than our sin continues to separate us from God in hell. The
difference is that in hell there is no more opportunity to receive the pardon.
This life is the life of second chances, the era of choice. Heaven and hell
represent the era of consequence that stems from the choices we made here. I’ll
close this discussion with a final question that stems from this notion of an
unjust eternal punishment. Why are there no second chances? The truth is that
there are. Every day you live on earth is yet another day filled with endless
opportunity to seek the truth, to knock on the door as it were. Death stops the
game clock. There are no more shots allowed after the final buzzer. Lastly, to
take a metaphor from C. S. Lewis, often times a teacher knows it is no good
letting someone retake an exam for the third or fourth or fifth time even if
the student or their parents think otherwise. If second chances after death
would do us good, I believe they would be given. But finality has to come
sometime, and it is not too great a stretch to suppose that the omniscient God
knows when that should be. We must all face death and receive our reward, good
or bad, for what we have done and how we have lived in life, “for death is the
destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
A related passage is found in Hebrews 9:27 which tells us that people are
destined to die once (no second chances) and to face their judgment. Be ready
for that day, because its coming is inevitable.
Conclusion:
I have
not been trying to prove the doctrine of hell as tolerable or enjoyable. It is
neither. It is terrible, and if I myself could remove it from Christian
doctrine, I would probably do so. Then again, I am not holy and not just in the
ways that God is holy and just. So, it’s probably a good thing I don’t make
cosmic decisions. To those who would disavow hell because it seems unpleasant,
I would remind them that truth, contrary to what relativists like to believe,
is as it is, and was always as it was, regardless of how we feel about it. You
can argue with it, reject it, put your own spin on it, or you can accept it, but
you cannot change it. It is what it is and will be what it will be long after
you and I are gone.
While
hell remains a terrible and frightening consequence, I think I have
demonstrated that on the Christian view it is moral and has the support of
reason. When we properly understand God’s holiness and his justice in
combination with his love and mercy, what is startling is not that some go to
hell. Where else would sinners go? Rather, it becomes amazing that anyone gets
to heaven. So I would encourage you to seek out a bible and read what it says
about how to take care of your sin problem. That book contains the cure, and
seek out a local church that teaches the bible as truth. I was originally going
to close this post with the plan of salvation as it is presented in the bible,
but that discussion deserves its own separate forum. I don’t expect to tackle
it any time soon. My blog is not a religious blog, and I have come to the end
of what I set out to do, explain why Christians believe in hell. That much, at
least, I have done. Strictly speaking, I haven’t been attempting to persuade
anyone of anything. You are as free to argue with what I have said as with any
other information presented to you, but my job here has been to answer, as
completely as I was able, the question of why there has to be a hell in a
universe created and sustained by a loving and merciful God. For further
discussion on the issue of hell, I recommend the eighth chapter of C. S.
Lewis’s The Problem of Pain. In addition, I recommend chapter 3 of Randy
Alcorn’s book Heaven as well as chapter 29 of his book If God is
Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, which discusses the subject
as well. Those references should get you started, and from there I hope you go
on to try and understand heaven, the home of humanity. Next time I will return
to much lighter fare.
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