These days, Christians don’t seem to talk much about hell. This doctrine, more than any other, just seems too offensive to the modern pluralistic mindset.
Skeptics and non-believers treat this as an inconsistency: “How can a loving God send people to hell?” I have to admit: the standard Christian apologetic responses to this question don’t resonate with me. Yet followers of Jesus should not discount teachings about hell, because those teachings came from him.
The Christian website Out of Ur has begun a series on hell. Each week, they are posting a short video clip of a noteworthy Christian leader speaking about the subject. Thus far, they have posted a 3-minute clip by N.T. Wright and a 5-minute clip by John Piper. I respect both of these guys, but their perspectives seem very different.
At the Seed meeting next Monday, James Tuttle will lead a discussion about hell. We plan to meet on the Life Sciences bridge at 7 pm. Anyone is welcome to join. Out-of-town readers who want to contribute their own questions or comments can do so via this blog. Hope to see you there.
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Hi Dr. Joe,
Thanks for the post. I recently saw this short clip of Tim Keller talking about Hell, and I thought it might be relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2qeJMUnkik
One of the things I find most interesting in the question of Hell is that there seems to be some sort of “bottom line harsh reality” in every worldview. For Christianity, if unrepentant unbelievers, loved ones, gays, etc., go to hell, in the end it is what it is, and we must accept and change in light of that reality, and not presume to speak for God. (Would you say this is a fair representation?) And I guess that the visibility of this discussion is higher or lower according to historical context, audience consideration, or a pastor’s personal style.
From the secular perspective, one could equally talk about how it is simply the harsh reality of the cosmos that there is no life after death, no loved ones waiting for us (whether in Heaven or in Hell), no objective morality, and no objective meaning, and that we simply cannot presume that there is something beyond that reality just because we refuse to accept it.
I cannot say one way or another that I know: either there is a Hell where we, or our unbelieving loved ones, or unrepentant sinners, go for an eternity of torment, or, there is nothing after death, no objective meaning, and whether we like it or not, we must do our best to grapple with what simply is. Sometimes, when I think of the sheer vastness, emptiness, coldness, and darkness of space, and our smallness and frailty, I find myself leaning toward this view.
But I am also reminded of how CS Lewis so memorably weaved the question of God and suffering into his story The Great Divorce (where the narrator learns that for those who choose Heaven, the others who choose Hell cannot hold claims or ties to them any longer – this is his response to all of us who have shared life and some of our tenderest memories with both believers and unbelievers, to those of us who ask, “If our loved ones are in Hell, can Heaven really be Heaven?”)…
For Lewis,
“…both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say, “Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences”: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled with only dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,” and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”
There is something here, too, that speaks to me deeply.
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Hi Richard,
Thanks for the clip by Tim Keller. That’s pretty much what I thought he would say.
Your questions are, as always, insightful and difficult and I am not sure how to answer them. Peter Kreeft wrote, “No sane person wants hell to exist.” But before that he wrote, “No sane person wants evil to exist.” Yet evil does exist, and because it does there must be a hell. But that logic doesn’t make it any easier to accept. If people in God’s image have a hard time with this, then God probably has a hard time with it too.
I find it interesting how in regard to this subject, so many Christians defer to C.S. Lewis, who was not a theologian but a creative writer. It seems that to deal with this subject adequately (which may be impossible) we have to get outside the realm of propositional truths and see the universe as a story. Most great stories that resonate with people end with a combination of victory and judgment. As you pointed out, every major worldview seems to have this. Without it, something is just missing.
At this point, I’m trying to figure out what “the Christian worldview” actually says. As Wright points out, the prevalent concept of hell in Catholic/Protestant thought originated in the 2nd millenium and is different from the Eastern Orthodox view. In the latter, the Second Coming of Christ will see a new heaven and earth, united with Christ at the center. Christ will reign over everyone, whether or not they want to accept it. For those who are waiting for this, the experience will be thrilling; for those who are unwilling, it will be eternally painful. In my opinion, this view makes a lot of sense. This may be one area of Christian doctrine where East trumps the West. But what the hell do I know?
Anyway, I’m lloking forward to hearing what other people say. Thanks for writing.
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I haven’t really thought much about “hell” although, whenever I’m challenged by non-believers, they do always attack me with the question, so what makes Hell so much different than Heaven? What makes it the “better place”?
The only simply answer I can give is.. it’s because God dwells in heaven. But I don’t think it’s something I’ve ever really thought about unless I”m reading Revelations or something.
Would love to hear what’s comes out of the meeting. (I work so not sure I can make it )
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Hi Dr. Joe,
I think this is an important topic and it’s something I’ve been thinking about recently too. I thought I’d share a bit of a personal story. I first surrendered my life to God and to Christ in response to a message that strongly emphasized hell, in a pentacostal church service a friend had invited me to. The woman preaching said that although we like to think that everyone we know is going to a “better place” when they die, that in reality this is not true of many people, even people in that church who were sitting there at the time.
What stood out to me at that time was the thought that there really are consequences of what I do in this life. I felt that this was something I deeply and fundamentally believed. And since I could not deny that I had done wrong and deserved punishment, I felt I had to do something about it (namely surrender to God).
I think something important about thinking about hell is that hell makes life real and significant. If there are no ultimate consequences for what I do in this life – especially if I would never be judged or punished for doing evil – then it doesn’t really matter what I do, and I might as well just make it up as I go along for myself. But that seems to me like it is just denying or avoiding reality – which is something I was very much interested in doing before I became a Christian. But the problem is that reality is real. And I think it is actually much better and more beautiful this way. Who would want a world were everything is just fake, shallow, and unreal, where everything is whatever you want it to be because nothing really is anything in itself? Well I think that might be part of the reason why hell is necessary.
What I’m saying here isn’t very theological or even very carefully worked out, I realize, but it’s a thought that has had some fairly deep importance to me in my journey of faith.
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