Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times
April 29, 2011 —Shortly before Easter, Time Magazine (April 14, 2011) featured a cover with the question “What If There’s No Hell?” Controversy rages on, even with Easter fading into the horizen for another year. Pivotal to Time’s feature story were some ideas by popular Evangelical pastor and author, Rob Bell, who is raising questions about the Biblical doctrine of Hell.
His best selling book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived suggests that Christ’s atonement may be big enough to cover even those who do not turn from sin in this life.
?“What the book tries to do,” Bell says to Time Magazine, “is park itself right in the midst of the tension with a Jesus who offers an urgent and immediate call — ‘Repent! Be transformed! Turn!’ At the same time, I’ve got other sheep. There’s a renewal of all things. There’s water from the rock. People will come from the East and from the West. The scandal of the gospel is Jesus’ radical, healing love for a world that’s broken.”
Of course, cover stories such as this fuel discussions all over our country, not only in Internet chat rooms, but coffee shops, water coolers, and churches. It is easy to sympathize with Bell’s questions, and even easier for people to go beyond Bell, completely writing off the doctrine of hell altogether.
Christians often find themselves intimidated in the midst of conversations which challenge teaching about post-grave accountability. This is certainly understandable. On a first glance, the idea of somebody spending eternity separated from God, or from anything good does sound like cruelty from a vindictive deity. At the same time, those who flat out reject punishment in the afterlife should be challenged to look beneath their own surface reactions.
People often respond to subjects without first drawing a deep breath and really thinking. For example, most individuals who deny hell, when asked if they at least believe in heaven, will say that they do.
Question: Who is going to be in heaven? Everybody? Are racists going to heaven? Are murderers going to heaven? How about rapists? Will Al Capone be in heaven? That sure wouldn’t be much of a heaven. Isn’t heaven supposed to be a paradise? Would not the most minimal requirement of paradise be a place free from people who seek to harm us?
On the other hand, if evil people are excluded from heaven, where do they spend eternity? Of course, the matter gets complicated when we remember that all of us in our hearts have harbored evil thoughts; thoughts of unprovoked anger, bitterness, and selfishness.
When all is said and done, for God to be just and merciful at the same time, He would find a way to forgive people for their sin, and banish forever from His presence, those uninterested in taking responsibility for the evil side of their natures.
But good dimensions of human nature must also be explored. If the conscience in our mind really is made in God’s image, then a quick snapshot of human institutions should demonstrate whether or not people do, in fact, embrace punishment similar to hell. One such institution is our court system. After all, if a human judge were to let a dangerous criminal go free, would we not view him as a reckless and irresponsible judge? Indeed, would he not also be an unloving judge, to put so many innocent people at risk with his careless decision? Likewise, what kind of judge would God be if He didn’t hold people accountable for the way they lived their lives?
Rather than getting sidetracked by images of fire (And cases can be made that the Bible doesn’t intend that image to be taken literally), we should think of hell as a prison which separates out wicked people, preventing them from doing harm to others. When viewed this way, hell paints the picture of a just, and therefore, loving God.
Imagine a man like Hitler, who after the extermination of millions of innocent beings, swallowed a few capsules and died a quick death so that allied armies on their way to Berlin could never bring him to justice. Isn’t there some measure of consolation in the belief that Hitler will actually have to stand accountable before God? Doesn’t it feel good to realize evil people will not really get away with anything and that good ultimately prevails?
How can a loving God send people to hell? Perhaps the wrong question is being asked. On the contrary, how could a loving God not send some people to hell?
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